Firstindigo&Lifestyle

21-century art

Category: art review&curating

  • Anish Kapoor returns to Italy with Descension

    Anish Kapoor returns to Italy with Descension

    Anish Kapoor returns to Italy with a new exhibition Descension, a project produced specially for the former cinema and theatre space of Galleria Continua in San Gimignano. The exhibition takes its name from the installation Descension, which is a black whirlpool consisting of motor-powered water swirling towards its center. Interested in binary relations and opposite energies, Kapoor (born in Bombay in 1954, lives in London) poses alchemical questions with the large scale installation. It creates paradoxical ideas of matter, energy and the universe, which also touch our human core and perception. The exhibition opened on May 2 and will run until September 5, 2015.

    The exhibition features a series of new sculptures in alabaster, in which the artist has meticulously carved out a more refined section. We can expect that the concepts of infinite and time are buried within their form and substance as they appear in nature. The intense red (and kind of orange) embedded in the translucent qualities of the alabaster sculptures suggest organic qualities. But idea travels well through the entire exhibition, which among alabaster includes a variety of mixed media works in fiberglass, paint, stainless steel, pigment and acrylic.

    Anish Kapoor, exhibition view 'Descension', Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2015
    Anish Kapoor, exhibition view ‘Descension’, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2015

    Descension, the installation established by Kapoor in the stalls area of the cinema-theatre in San Gimignano, continues his earlier theme introduced as ‘Descent into limbo’ in 1992. The artist’s former work was presented respectively in Kassel, Germany as documenta IX; a Cubed building with a dark hole in the floor. In the middle of a cube, there was a kind of bottomless black hole opening up in the floor, which was “dragging” viewers with its powerful presence. The idea of Descension shows how Kapoor has an interest in non-objects and self-generated forms. In 2015, the installation destabilizes and undermines our perception of the earth as a solid element. The earth, perceived also as mother earth, is in constant flux and movement bringing forth a thrust downwards and towards an interior that is unknown and hidden from the visible world.

    Anish Kapoor, Untitled, 2015, stainless steel, Courtesy of Galleria Continua
    Anish Kapoor, Untitled, 2015, stainless steel, Courtesy of Galleria Continua

    Kapoor has inevitably shown how he is reinventing his artistic language both in monumental dimension, as in more intimate pieces. His philosophical inquiry begun early with his very first works and has continued through to recent and more large-scale installations in museums and public spaces. His themes are partially alchemical, dealing with mystery and universality of time and space. But the human beings with their self-awareness and experiences is at the heart of his artistry as well.

    ”… all my life I have reflected and worked on the concept that there is more space than can be seen, that there are void spaces, or, as it were, that there is a vaster horizon. The odd thing about removing content, in making space, is that we, as human beings, find it very hard to deal with the absence of content. It’s the horror vacui. This Platonic concept lies at the origin of the myth of the cave, the one from which humans look towards the outside world. But here there is also a kind of Freudian opposite image, that of the back of the cave, which is the dark and empty back of being. Your greatest poet, Dante, also ventured into a place like that. It is the place of the void, which paradoxically is full – of fear, of darkness. Whether you represent it with a mirror or with a dark form, it is always the “back”, the point that attracts my interest and triggers my creativity.”

     

    Anish Kapoor, Untitled, 2015, Alabaster, Courtesy of Galleria Continua
    Anish Kapoor, Untitled, 2015, Alabaster, Courtesy of Galleria Continua

     

     

    Galleria Continua, Via del Castello 11, San Gimignano (SI), Italia

    Tel. +390577943134 | info@galleriacontinua.com | http://www.galleriacontinua.com

    Descension opening: Saturday May 2, 2015, on view until September 5, 2015,

    Monday–Saturday, 10am–1pm, 2–7pm

  • Visitor experiences at Frieze 2015

    Visitor experiences at Frieze 2015

     

    Brazilian artist Martha Araújo’s piece Para um corpo nas suas impossibilidades, (For a body in its impossilibities) was created in 1985. Now at 2015 Frieze Art Fair, we celebrate the corporeal experience at the skateboard ramp dressed in suits that are patched with Velcro straps. The user-experience is less of a performance, and more of a subjective experience, which is very much according to the manifesto written by the artist. Martha Araújo (born in 1943) wrote the following:

    Believing in the impossible is also a way of making art, for it is to doubt the impossibilities that make our dreams and follies feasible. Our proposal consists of experiencing situations in which the body crawls (on the ground floor) and tries to climb vertically. It is a search to achieve utopia; an exercise in transcendence. For this we will wear two pairs of overalls with several strips of Velcro attached to them vertically and horizontally. We will also use  a runner rug measuring 6.00 x 2.00 m, stuck to a skate track-type wooden framework. The Velcro strips on the overalls are the elements that fix the bodies to the rug.

     

    The project was curated in the Frame section of the art fair by Galeria Jaqueline Martins from São Paulo. The gallery won the prize for most innovative Stand Prize this year. The stand is comprised of the ramp and few suits, which the public can wear and then try the structure. The booth also has black and white photographs from 1985, which document artist Araújo and her crew experimenting with the concept. At Frieze, these photographs are on sale, and so are the suits. The ramp belonging to the artwork can be reproduced with the suits.

    Another visitor intervention at the Frieze was Japanese artist Aki Sasamoto’s Coffee/Tea project. Being one of the Frieze 2015 Projects, the artist created a three-dimensional personal test experience that included multiple-choice questionnaire. The maze-like structure was among the gallery booths, having several rooms, in which visitors/viewers make a choice between two objects or situations. Different choices lead through rooms and doors and then to the exit, where participants discover which personality suits the course of actions they chose. Here is my test in photographic documentation.

    In the beginning, the structure encourages you to think that you are boarding a spaceship, artist has written a dark statement on the wall:

    The world is ending. You are selected to board a spaceship with one animal. Which will you bring? A. Peacock, B. Horse, C. Tiger, D. Sheep

    As we don’t actually make this choice between four animals; we can choose to enter between two doors, one on the right and one on the left. Behind the left door there is a table with teacups and tea poured on them. Today I’m happy they would offer tea. Through my next choice, I’m encountering two kinds of blue on the floor; the other one looks like tiled, so will follow that one. Not quite getting the sitdown-point, where would have to ponder between the choices, rather stay moving and opening doors. Then, not quite sure how, suddenly entering the door with ‘intodetails’ exit floor mat in black-and-white. Feels like a fast experience. There was another blue, this time gymnastic mat on the floor with wooden board in the middle. A chance to balance a little bit, and the exit was right there.

    Is there anything in common with these two art projects? Martha Araújo’s art dates back to the mid- 1980s, and Aki Sasamoto’s project is very recent. The getting-involvedness, and the intellectual mind vs. trust yourself and let your body lead the way -issue; has both of these projects. Sasamoto’s making choices project encounters also our bodily input, as this is about experience. The color blue seems to be a fascinating factor in both projects.  Araújo’s and Sasamoto’s projects will be living in the form of re-enactments. Being convinced that there will be more photography and live-documentations happening.

  • Around Armory 2015: the moments

    Around Armory 2015: the moments

    What are the most celebrated features in the international art scene at the moment? The big art fairs, such as The Armory Show display candy art, and communicate the global tends. What strikes through from the art fair’s mass volume is the moment factor. The art takes place in the now, and is grasped as intensely global. Sometimes the moment appears as too loud and cacophonic, and as hard to perceive. However, it is always interesting to see how new ideas are shaping the content of the art world. Currently, we certainly live in an era of an object, we believe in the objects, and are looking for new center pieces that reflect more dynamic, perhaps organic, maybe even transformative ideas. With the object comes the abject, the ideas, the observations in the chaotic, the necessary artistic vision and paradox. The abject visualizes our need to give shape to turmoil in the world and in our personal lives. In the midst of it, there is a sense of calm, a need to seek out to other realms, or to give the paradoxes a more usual everyday reference. Art has hardly ever been so metaphorical as it is now.  Here pulsates both the object and (its) abject. Berta Fischer’s sculptures attracted with their transparency and with their neon-candy volume of lightness, they are popular and easy to access. Some of her works have a different texture in them, like the oval-shape, red-yellow wall sculpture below. It comes closer to definition of an abject reminiscing of the interior, and the morphological.  Nicole Eisenman’s reclining head-sculpture titled Big Head Sleeping, spoke about the materiality and shape, asking how a single body part connects to a dominance of a head, but with a cut-out presence. Her sculpture stood as an abject with introspection, critically studying our contemporary culture.

    Jumana Manna, ‘Menace of Origins’, 2014, installation view, presented by CRG Gallery.
    Jumana Manna, ‘Menace of Origins’, 2014, installation view, presented by CRG Gallery.

    This year, The Armory Show included a curated section highlighting the geographic region of the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. Jumana Manna was one of the artists featured in this section, presented by CRG Gallery, New York.  Manna’s  works stand for ruins, and act out the disappearing landscape of people and their cultural heritage. More general references are to the origins of the culture, since the artifact nature of the ruins is present. Yet, her works narrate of the idea of the home, and perhaps of the lost home. The artist uses film and sculpture to capture history, anthropological sensibility, and truly benefits from the performative ways to present realities of her projects. Another focus artist was Mona Hatoum’s art presented by Alexander and Bonin, New York.  Mona Hatoumi’s black circle on the floor, appears as if it is glued to the space, leaving lots of room for interpretation. Overall, the curated section in this year’s art fair comprised of fifteen gallery presentations from across the globe, including non-for-profit institutions. The Armory Focus 2015 was curated by Omar Kholeif, a curator based at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

    Mona Hatoum, Turbulence, black, 2014
    Mona Hatoum, ‘Turbulence (black)’, 2014, glass marbles, 3 x 250 cm diameter. Presented by Alexander and Bonin.

    What else was capturing the moment factor? The time of the selfies, and an act of self-reflection, when we are looking at ourselves and the others in the mirror, having object-devices as the backdrop of our doings: performing ourselves, and putting ourselves out there in the social media, which in someways acts as today’s mirror. This is a theme that young generation artists will return to with new and different ideas. One is the always relevant question of identity, how we look ourselves in the mirror, and what does the mirror show. This interplay is shown in Alicja Kwade’s mirror-sculpture titled, Figure. It stands on a leg, being humorous, historic, reflecting the person-in-charge, whoever looks into the depths.

    Alicja Kwade, Figure, 2014
    Alicja Kwade, Figure (2014), presented by Johann König. The Armory Show 2015.
    Yargo Alexopoulos, The Long Swell 2014, presented by Bryce Wolkowitz.
    Yargo Alexopoulos, The Long Swell, 2014, digital animation on custom cut LCD display, powder coated aluminum, polished stainless steel, glass, custom electronics, 10 x 31 x 6 inches, edition of 8 + 2 AP, duration: infinite loop, presented by Bryce Wolkowitz.

    Environment is one topic in the current art world. And it should be. Among the chaos, across the globe, where natural disasters and turmoil take place on a regular basis. Art necessarily reflects this. The references are not too obvious, but you can understand the point through the presentation. Such was the installation by Yargo Alexopoulos, presented by Bryce Wolkowitz from New York.  The infinite loop might as well be artificial, but it connects to the ocean, presenting a dynamics of the water surface, as monotonous and as moving with tension.
    Similar subliminal feel comes out of the visual imagery of Catherine Yass, presented by Galerie Lelong, New York. This work was a light-box installation, in which the artist used photographic exposures of the lighthouse and blue-colored filters. The result is eerie, and comes with a message, where the source of light has turned black.

    Catherine Yass, Lighthouse, 2011.
    Catherine Yass, Lighthouse (East), 2011, presented by Galerie Lelong.

    One of the personal favorites in this year’s Armory Show was a Los Angeles based gallery which brought along fresh ideas to the East Coast. The meditative palette by artist Luke Diiorio, presented by Anat Ebgi, was unique. The gallery showed his recent work-series titled ttylenol. These linen works praise craft, meditate, and encompass, and have some feel of the work-in-progress.

    Anat Ebgi
    Anat Ebgi booth with Luke Diiorio’s ttylenol-series
    Luke Diiorio’s ttylenol-series, 2015, presented by Anat Ebgi.

    (images: Firstindigo&Lifestyle)