Art Container [13]

Johanna Billing video installation (via artscouncil.org.uk)

Autumn is upon us, the wind is turning chilly and days become shorter and shorter. Summer exhibitions are closing down and London gets ready for the Turner Prize, Frieze, Zoo, etc. Some shows have been quite underwhelming, but it’s not the case of Johanna Billing’s exhibition at the Camden Arts Centre, which I stumbled upon and loved from start to end. The Swedish artist has the ability to elevate small events to poetic visions through her videos that feature light-hearted songs that will stick to your memory. Johanna Billing: ‘I’m Lost Without Your Rhythm’ closes on September 13, try not to miss it!

Art Container [12]

MoMA is currently showing Color Chart: reinventing color, 1950 to today (until 12 May), an anthology of colour-related artworks by famous artists. It’s a ’safe’ exhibition, nothing edgy, but very enjoyable and one gets the chance to see interesting works such as Baldessari’s video Six colorful inside jobs (1977), a few Sol LeWitt wall drawings, the omnipresent Buren stripes, François Morellet’s telephone directory painting, and Boetti’s solid-colour iron squares (most of which are in private collections, so a good chance to see them in the flesh). Seeing various works by Boetti (1940-1994) made me want to read a bit more about him hence an Art Container dedicated to him (yes, the second one in a row on an Arte Povera artist, but he did dissociate his work from that movement). In addition to the artistic interest there’s also one related to the subject of colour in art, culture and design. Seems something that comes out pretty frequently nowadays. A bit of words on Boetti from tate.org.uk:

Alighiero Boetti (b. 1940, Turin; d. 1994, Rome) worked with cement, cloth, electric light, wood and even the postal system. His array of techniques embraced embroidery, drawing, photocopying, printing, photography, construction and often involved collaboration with people both inside and outside the art world. With this diverse and democratic approach, he wanted to blur the boundaries between art and life, and to disseminate his art as widely as possible using the humblest of means. He rejected the strategies and materials of ‘high’ art in favour of ‘low’ forms such as craft and design. [...] Boetti was fascinated by the relationship between chance and order, systems of classification, and many aspects of culture, particularly non-Western traditions and practices. This global vision is reflected in his best-known works – the series of embroidered maps of the world, made in collaboration with crafts-workers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Here, the shape of each country is embroidered with the design of its national flag, vividly illustrating our world of fiercely demarcated individual nation states. As Boetti’s works demonstrate, these boundaries are nevertheless involved in a constant process of flux and negotiation due to political events such as the reunification of Germany, or the collapse of the Soviet Union. Boetti disassociated himself from Arte Povera in the early 1970s.

[img 1 via artnet.com; img 2 via moma.org]

Art Container [11]

Giuseppe Penone’s works are simple and very powerful. It’s all about concept and nature. To follow, a short bio via tate.org.uk:

‘The clarity of the well-marked path is sterile. To find the path, to follow it, to examine it, and to clear away the tangled undergrowth: that is sculpture.’

This statement, written in 1983 by Giuseppe Penone (b. 1947, Garessio, Cuneo), reflects his close relationship with nature. Perhaps because he grew up in an agricultural community, he was the only Arte Povera artist to work extensively in the natural landscape.

His earliest piece was a series of interventions called Maritime Alps, 1968, made in the woods near his home. Recorded in photographs, these actions included the weaving together of three trees, or grasping a young tree trunk and marking the position of his hand with nails, so that it would always retain the traces of this action. In all his works, Penone acts less as the ‘high’ artist elaborately toiling with rare materials and techniques, and more as a carpenter or artisan, using simplegestures and everyday materials.

[images via tate.org.uk, maarav.org.il, leggievai.it]

 

Art Container [10]

[Florencia Durante, 'Whip 13:12:04:II' (from the Whip Series), image via rca.ac.uk]

The Photographer’s Gallery is currently showing Seeing is Believing (ends 27 Jan 2008) a group exhibition that “explores photography’s strong relationship to the non-rational, the unknown and the ethereal. It brings together vintage photographs from the archive of the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature, with work by seven international artists who share a fascination for the unexplained.” Thanks to this exhibition I discovered the work of Spanish photographer Florencia Durante. I like the simplicity of settings and subjects, uplifted by unexpected threads, bundles of light, almost suggesting that there is something behind simple reality.

[Florencia Durante, Enveloped, image via rca.ac.uk]

Art Container [9]

[images via artofthestate.co.uk]

If you live in East London (Shoreditch) you might be familiar with Eine, graffiti artist with a penchant for letters, and if you don’t it’s worth a trip. Big colourful letters that make your walk to the office (or wherever) less boring. Being predictable I really like ’scary’, just outside Cargo.

[Now playing: Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O.]

Art Container [8]

[Paola Pivi, Untitled (zebras), 2003]

Have you ever felt out of place, almost like an alien? That’s what I think about when I see works by Paola Pivi, young Italian artist based in Milan, Anchorage (Alaska), and London. I sympathise with baffled zebras, fatalistic donkeys and the conscious leopard. Of course there’s much more of Pivi’s art than these images, but I guess these are my favourite. Interesting interview here (Italian only) and more here (English).

[Paola Pivi, Untitled (donkey)]

[Paola Pivi, One cup of cappuccino, then I go, 2007]