REMOLINOS
Laura Davis
Consorcio Del Arte
June 2-15, 2009
Remolinos are about Nature, and the wind inside; about transmutation, laughter, and changes.
Nature calls us again to the same place, now a totally different place - Remolinos are what swept away everything; and what from the very beginning put everything in motion. There are so many transmutations taking place that cannot be noticed, cannot be seen, because of the way they appear to us. Yet finally we feel the very strong wind that took everything, that took all that was not really desired.
From an artist who is constantly in motion come the Remolinos (Whirlwinds), a series of bracing and fascinating drawings about how the confluence of mind and environment-both moving at great speed-changes all, transforms all, and is transformed; for that which enacts the transformation is also that which is transformed, the whirlwind being just as certainly, us.
One might ask: what's left after the disappearance of the ephemeral? What is revealed in these drawings is not just the whirlwind, but the space beneath, stripped of illusion. A potent emptiness, a revealing of self that is beyond all doubt, the more dramatic for its look: charged, fuzzy, multiplicitous; a silence made visible.
We see action at the point of being, a seemingly quiet vista; pulled along a foreign circuit towards that which does not know definition, where beauty is definitely not on the surface; where the basic questions sink into one answer: the moment. There is raw joy here, the kind we do not "own," but can only be.
Nick Thabit
BsAs June 2009
Showing posts with label arte. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arte. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
MATINÉ Liliana Porter
MATINÉ
Liliana Porter
Ruth Benzacar Galeria De Arte
May 13 to June 19, 2009
Internationally known artist Liliana Porter's extraordinary new exhibition MATINÉ explores powerlessness in all its dimensions, discerning our lack of authorship of our own lives, destinies, beings, and identities. The centerpiece is MATINÉ, a 20 minute video in titled segments, most a minute long and employing toy props, which evokes emotions and sympathies we might rather ignore; at turns excruciatingly, yet disarmingly sentimental (Ver Rojo, Three Of Them), shockingly arbitrary, comic, elegiac, or dishearteningly fatalistic (Convoy, Souvenir De Cuba). Then there´s Choros - melancholy, sentimentally/cosmically nostalgic (it's hard to find words; but the feeling is aspowerful as it is undecipherable). This work obviously comes out of longstanding, deeply held philosophies, and I am amazed at the richness of her imagistic invention. The music by Sylvia Meyer works perfectly, never overstating; like the images, the simplicity only focuses the message.
The still photos, drawings, and assemblages are mostly quite strong. To Go Up is a finely wrought drawing/assemblage depicting a man with ladder problems; To Bring Back, a drawing, mirrors the arduous complexity of our modern world. The assemblages, seen from a distance, reveal their gestural intimations, and up close their narrative detail, mostly regarding a pioneer's bad luck. The photo diptych (from Three Of Them) of the porcelain Chinese woman being covered in poured black paint suggests gender, as well as cosmic, subjugation, in subtle, insistent ways. The pedestal assemblage seems uniquely plaintive: a toy man stands staring up at us, surrounded by a wildly flung splash of black paint. From a distance, his demeanor suggests a stoic acceptance of life´s disasters; close up, his dismay is revealed as universal. We may take comfort, I suppose, in knowing we’re not alone.
Of the DISGUISES, a series of photos displayed downstairs of busts and dolls wearing ambiguous vestements/masks/etc., “Conguro Mono” really stood out for me as a reflection of our desire to project a face to others that we are not. “Marinero/Sombrero” reminds us of the extra weight we carry when we are not “ourselves.” Put yourself into each one of these photos and notice how we aggrandize, distort, or diminish ourselves in so many ways; it’s worth the effort.
Liliana Porter is a master at what she does, which is upending the human claim on destiny and self. I think the veiled indignation of this show will resonate with your own, and the sigh of resignation may afford some relief to your mind. At the very least, the disguises will put a smile on your face.
Nick Thabit
BsAs June 2009
Liliana Porter
Ruth Benzacar Galeria De Arte
May 13 to June 19, 2009
Internationally known artist Liliana Porter's extraordinary new exhibition MATINÉ explores powerlessness in all its dimensions, discerning our lack of authorship of our own lives, destinies, beings, and identities. The centerpiece is MATINÉ, a 20 minute video in titled segments, most a minute long and employing toy props, which evokes emotions and sympathies we might rather ignore; at turns excruciatingly, yet disarmingly sentimental (Ver Rojo, Three Of Them), shockingly arbitrary, comic, elegiac, or dishearteningly fatalistic (Convoy, Souvenir De Cuba). Then there´s Choros - melancholy, sentimentally/cosmically nostalgic (it's hard to find words; but the feeling is aspowerful as it is undecipherable). This work obviously comes out of longstanding, deeply held philosophies, and I am amazed at the richness of her imagistic invention. The music by Sylvia Meyer works perfectly, never overstating; like the images, the simplicity only focuses the message.
The still photos, drawings, and assemblages are mostly quite strong. To Go Up is a finely wrought drawing/assemblage depicting a man with ladder problems; To Bring Back, a drawing, mirrors the arduous complexity of our modern world. The assemblages, seen from a distance, reveal their gestural intimations, and up close their narrative detail, mostly regarding a pioneer's bad luck. The photo diptych (from Three Of Them) of the porcelain Chinese woman being covered in poured black paint suggests gender, as well as cosmic, subjugation, in subtle, insistent ways. The pedestal assemblage seems uniquely plaintive: a toy man stands staring up at us, surrounded by a wildly flung splash of black paint. From a distance, his demeanor suggests a stoic acceptance of life´s disasters; close up, his dismay is revealed as universal. We may take comfort, I suppose, in knowing we’re not alone.
Of the DISGUISES, a series of photos displayed downstairs of busts and dolls wearing ambiguous vestements/masks/etc., “Conguro Mono” really stood out for me as a reflection of our desire to project a face to others that we are not. “Marinero/Sombrero” reminds us of the extra weight we carry when we are not “ourselves.” Put yourself into each one of these photos and notice how we aggrandize, distort, or diminish ourselves in so many ways; it’s worth the effort.
Liliana Porter is a master at what she does, which is upending the human claim on destiny and self. I think the veiled indignation of this show will resonate with your own, and the sigh of resignation may afford some relief to your mind. At the very least, the disguises will put a smile on your face.
Nick Thabit
BsAs June 2009
Friday, November 14, 2008
TEMPORAL
TEMPORAL
Andres Pasinovich
arte X arte
Prepare to have your mind blown apart, Andre has here prepared an experience of space interacting with material time, the experience of everyday life having been atomized, tragically, gloriously, but impermanently; because the pieces will come back together, though not in the same order. Houses become the concepts they are, unable to shelter our souls; the bees have no home at all. Flowers might well be suns, and leaves the sky; leopards are reduced to play toys, and a shipwreck the same.
The Amazon, here captured in pristine prints, is no place and any place; not the exotic jungle of our dreams nor an everyday tedium, as for the inhabitants; just here now.
Everything is equal here, a moment; a time more than a place or a thing. And there are shatterings, and leavings, and fragmentations, and all are seen as the inevitabilities and mutations of time. One feels that time is the author, not Pasinovich. This is a show well worth seeing if only to align your philosophy with an ephemeral truth; or you may just enjoy the high, clear light of the Amazon. Whatever your reason, this is an exhibition that will refresh, and reinspire thought processes. Unfortunately, there is no more time to see this exhibition in its original space, but the works and some installation views can
be seen at: http://www.andrespasinovich.com.ar and also at: http://www.davisgallery.com/pasinovich
Nick Thabit
BsAs Noviembre 2008
Andres Pasinovich
arte X arte
Prepare to have your mind blown apart, Andre has here prepared an experience of space interacting with material time, the experience of everyday life having been atomized, tragically, gloriously, but impermanently; because the pieces will come back together, though not in the same order. Houses become the concepts they are, unable to shelter our souls; the bees have no home at all. Flowers might well be suns, and leaves the sky; leopards are reduced to play toys, and a shipwreck the same.
The Amazon, here captured in pristine prints, is no place and any place; not the exotic jungle of our dreams nor an everyday tedium, as for the inhabitants; just here now.
Everything is equal here, a moment; a time more than a place or a thing. And there are shatterings, and leavings, and fragmentations, and all are seen as the inevitabilities and mutations of time. One feels that time is the author, not Pasinovich. This is a show well worth seeing if only to align your philosophy with an ephemeral truth; or you may just enjoy the high, clear light of the Amazon. Whatever your reason, this is an exhibition that will refresh, and reinspire thought processes. Unfortunately, there is no more time to see this exhibition in its original space, but the works and some installation views can
be seen at: http://www.andrespasinovich.com.ar and also at: http://www.davisgallery.com/pasinovich
Nick Thabit
BsAs Noviembre 2008
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