category: art, features, publication - Comments Off on Dash Snow & Jonathan Meese 29 March 2011
JONATHAN MEESE – DASH SNOW Fanzine
Softcover, 1st edition. 2011
published by Walther König, Köln/Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin
Not yet published in the U.S. (publication date: 5/31/2011)
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Not only was the Yvon Lambert gallery a good experience, but their bookstore also is worth the trip especially if you like fanzines, contemporary art books and other delights. My shopping there included this fanzine created by German artist JONATHAN MEESE and published by Contemporary Fine Arts Gallery Berlin in memory of DASH SNOW (1981 -2009), a friend of MEESE.
In 2007, SNOWhad visited Berlin for his exhibition The End of Living, the Beginning of Survival, held at CFA. Photographers JAN BAUER, BRUNO BRUNNET, JOCHEN LITTKEMANN, FRANZISKA SINN, and LUTZ WEINMANN were on hand to record the visit. For this fanzine/artist’s book, JONATHAN MEESE has selected from their photographs, then he collages abstract geometrical paper shapes, scrawls comments, adds big globs and splashes of paint to the images, rendering the chaotic, prolific creative energies of both SNOW and himself in a defiant visual eulogy.
The exhibition It’s a Circus by JONATHAN MONK is actually on view at Yvon Lambert gallery until 8 April, 2011
Free Zone (excerpt) by AMOS GITAI. 2005, with NATHALIE PORTMAN
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In a Palais de Tokyo under reconstruction (the museum is undergoing in 2011 a partial remodeling of its exhibition spaces), I had the chance to discover two artists, KARSTEN FÖDINGER and AMOS GITAI, who get involved in this built environment.
German artist KARSTEN FÖDINGER has created a monumental in situ installation/construction called Cantilever which questions the entire structure of a building and disturbs our perceptions by creating a moment of instability to stability where the structure is at the limits of physical laws. He installs a concrete slab on a system of pillboxes, normally used for scaffolding. The concrete is suspended in the air defying gravity. Additionally he uses materials found on construction sites – concrete, plaster, raw wood, scaffolding – and offers to the viewer a space between construction and deconstruction. This work makes complete sense in context of center art restructuring.
In the basement of the museum, trainee architect turned soldier turned filmmaker AMOS GITAI has presented a vast installation, an immersive visual and sonar experience, by using images taken from a dozen of his films. If you are not familiar with GITAI‘s works, his films are dominated by questions of identity and exile as well as memory and history and encourage the public to consider the past and present, the necessity of the transmission of memory, and the role of art. His films are projected in an unfussy, unpolished manner straight onto uneven concrete and brickwork, giving them even more of a sense of urgency and essentialness. The “chantier,” as this space is called, is pretty fitting as a location for GITAI’s installation.
Excelsior Boxe Gym, Marcianise, Caserta. Italian boxing champion, Viviana, 18 y. old
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La Vela Rossa (The Red Sail), 7th floor, Scampia, Napoli
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Mergellina, Napoli. Girl from Secondigliano
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Secondigliano, Napoli. Woman under house arrest
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Marcianise, Caserta. 11 y. old fighter. She has been training since she was five years old. She can hardly wait until she is able to fight in official matches when she reaches the age of 18
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La Vela (The Red Sail), main corridor, Scampia, Napoli
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Liceo Elsa Morante, Scampia, Napoli. Marianna, 18 y. old
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“Gomorrah girl” is the title of a book by Italian photographer VALERIO SPADA that I discovered at Le Bal in Paris. It consists of a photographic documentary about adolescence, choices and chances in a land of Camorrah (the name of the Mafia in Naples).
On March 27th, 2004, Annalisa Durante, at the age of 14, was killed in Forcella, a Naples area under the Giuliano clan’s egemony. Annalisa and two of her friends were in front of her father’s small store, leaning on a car, talking with Salvatore Giuliano, a young Camorrah boss, then 22. Everything that happens next will take only seconds but will change many lives forever. Two killers on a motorcycle and uncovered faces pop out of a side street and open fire. Their aim is to kill Guiliano, who hides behind the car and starts to shoot back at them. The two friends of Annalisa find a getaway on the rigth side in a small street, while Annalisa runs in the opposite direction, where the killers are driving away. One of the three bullets fired by Giuliano hits Annalisa in the head, immediately she falls lifeless to the ground. Salvatore Giuliano was charged for homicide and is serving 24 years in prison.
VALERIO SPADA has taken this tragic event as an occasion and combined two different levels in Gomorrah Girl: On the one hand the official, factual police report with evidence for the crime, on the other hand a personal story that is captured in his own pictures. He shows how Annalisa’s father deals with his daughter’s death and portrays the world in which she lived and in which many other young girls and women still live. SPADA provides an open and honest report about the conditions in Naples. A place, where the people look to their future partly hopeful, partly resigned.
Gomorrah Girl is published by Cross Editions in 500 copies and is available via his website http://www.valeriospada.com/
Last week I spent a few days in Paris, just the time to discover exciting creative delights that I will share with you all along this week. Let’s begin with the work of American photographer ALESSANDRA SANGUINETTI presented at Le Bal (a space dedicated to photography) during the group show “Five Strange Family Albums”.
In 1999, ALESSANDRA began working on a series of photographs which captures the story of two young cousins named GUILLE and BELINDA, then nine and ten years old and living in a rural province of Buenos Aires. She followed the cousins for more than ten years constructing images fueled by their dreams, fantasies, and fears that belong to the psychological and physical transition from childhood to adulthood.
This work is far more than straight documentary. To witness the evolving relationship between Guille and Belinda is to be privy to a touching, entertaining and utterly captivating interaction. At the same time there is the subtle awareness of a second relationship, that of this delightful pair and their photographer.
This series will be shown from May 13rd to June 11th 2011 at Flux Laboratory in Geneva. And good news, the book “The adventures of Guille and Belinda and the enigmatic meaning of their dreams” is now available in the WFW Store.
MARIE QUÉAU‘s photographs reveal something precarious and raw about everyday routine. This young French photographer has spent two years photographing damaged, fiddled, tired objects or livings which vehicle a feeling of frailty and uneasiness. Entitled “Paillasse” (the artist plays with the polysemy of the word in French, meaning “straw mattress”, “lab bench” or “draining board”), the series includes 24 different-sized color photographs. Additionally she also compiled this work into a book that she self-publishes.
And good news: she will exhibit her work at Hyères 26th international festival of fashion & photography from April 29th to May 2nd, 2011.
category: art, photography - Comments Off on Rineke Dijkstra 23 March 2011
from the Liverpool series Nicky, Liverpool, England, January 19, 2009 archival inkjet-print. 96,4 x 75 cm
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In her recent series of photographs and videos „Liverpool“, Dutch artist RINEKE DIJKSTRA, who made her name in the early ’90s with still photographs of adolescents posed on beaches from Hilton Head. S.C., to Odessa, set up a white box studio on the dance floor of the Krazy House Club and invited teenagers to come to the studio to film them dancing to their favorite tracks during the weekdays when the club was closed.
Because of the sobriety of the background and the austere composition all attention is drawn to the teenager who appears equally vulnerable and tense (portraits of DIJKSTRA are never staged therefore the figures are almost entirely free of any embellishment).
Through her visual language RINEKE DIJKSTRA tries to read the hidden or invisible. As a result the subjects of her portraits gradually lose control over their image. Showing themselves in a different light they reveal more than they wish to, either their physical and character traits mutations or what seems to be their aspirations.
“I took a still portrait of Nicki but the video is much more her,” Dijkstra says. “She looks tougher in the photograph. With these portraits, it’s vulnerable, but at the same time it’s also about power, isn’t it? When people are totally themselves, it’s also very powerful.” – RINEKE DIJKSTRA for New York Times Magazine
category: art, exhibition - Comments Off on Bridget Riley 23 March 2011
Circles Colour Structure: Studies 1970/71
Encircling Discs with Black on Grey
1970. Gouache on paper. 16,3 x 60 cm
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Circles Colour Structure: Studies 1970/71
Encircling Discs with Grey in Grey to Black Sequence. 1970
Gouache on paper. 42,5 x 89,5 cm
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Circles Colour Structure: Studies 1970/71
Oval Axis: Cerise, Turquoise, Ochre. 1970
Gouache and pencil on paper. 30,5 x 66 cm
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Circles Colour Structure: Studies 1970/71
Position Study: Red and Blue Open Discs. 1970
Gouache and pencil on paper. 69,2 x 101,6 cm
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Circles Colour Structure: Studies 1970/71
Red and Blue Open Discs. 1970
Gouache and pencil on paper. 62,2 x 94,6 cm
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Circles Colour Structure: Studies 1970/71
Fine Line Open Discs. 1975
Gouache and pencil on paper. 22,2 x 69,2 cm
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Circles Colour Structure: Studies 1970/71
Untitled, 1970
Gouache on paper. 30,5 x 59,4 cm
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Circles Colour Structure: Studies 1970/71
Encircling Discs with Black. 1970
Gouache on paper. 24,8 x 36,2 cm
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BRIDGET RILEY is a British artist best-known for her optically vibrant paintings which actively engage the viewer’s sensations and perception. She first received acclaim for her work in the early 1960s with black and white paintings that explored the dynamic effects of optical phenomena. In 1967 she began experimenting with colour, and since then her practice has examined the perception of nature by means of colour and forms.
The studies I make have different purposes. At the beginning I try to be as unselective as possible – to allow things to happen, later gradually tightening up until all aspects have been drawn together. I proceed by trial and error – exploring and slowly establishing a particular situation. Obviously many studies will be discarded en route to a painting, though they may still be interesting as visual statements. The studies are flexible and malleable, whereas the paintings are decisive and finite. (…) I have always tried to avoid « colouring forms ». I want to create a colour-form, not coloured forms. It is very important that each form finally relinquishes its separateness in the whole. It must be fully absorbed. So while it is necessary in the early stages to analyse each unit, my aim is to enable it to release sufficient energy to precipitate its dissolution in totality. – from an interview with ROBERT KUDIELKA in 1972
And good news: you can view her work until April 16, 2011 at Max Hetzler galerie in Berlin
EKTAis a Swedish artist and illustrator who shares his time between his own projects, and ORO Gallery, an exhibition space in Göteborg founded by EKTA with seven other Swedish artists. His work covers everything from self-published zines to larger paintings and murals and is usually drawn and painted, but he has already made a few short animation films as well.
There’s a lot of lines involved in my drawings but I tend to stay away from lines completely when I paint and just use blocks and shapes of color, it’s a good way for me to not get bored the process. I prefer painting but when I’ve done that for a while it’s good to swap to lines and drawing for a bit. For painting I use acrylics and spray paint, I usually don’t mix the two (unless sometimes when painting outdoors) as for drawing its just pens. (…)
I’ve had a bunch of terrible jobs in the past and not having to panic about wasting time doing something I don’t like anymore is a luxury that I appreciate every day in the studio. Also I’ve met a lot of great people and friends that I would never have met if it weren’t for painting. My process is enjoyable most of the time and I don’t tend to stress very often. I have confidence in what I’m doing and I can’t really think of anything I don’t like about it except the lack of a regular income. I’m not driven by money and if I were I wouldn’t be an artist. I’m not good with much else and I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t paint. – EKTA for Juxtapoz Magazine
THOBIAS FÄLDT‘s pictures follow the path of a labyrinth, with no apparent logic, creating thus a narrative that has escaped the formalities of living. His work seems to come from a parallel universe, a mirror world with a wink — neither to be trusted nor to be dismissed and reveal a cross-section of people and experience, a mixture of the familiar and the foreign — unable to be explained as merely a dream.
THOBIAS FÄLDT was born in 1978 in Forsbacka, Sweden, and now lives and works in Stockholm. In 2006 Fäldt received the Scanpix Big Photo award for his Year One project. In 2009 he released the first volume in his series of ten books 581C and the second volume the following year. His work has been exhibited worldwide and is frequently published in art magazines and anthologies.
Block 2008. one year, 369 pages, 366 photographs, 12 photographs
18 x 24 cm. Design by IZET SHESIVARI
edition fink, Zürich 2007. ISBN 978-3-03746-110-5
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I’m totally late on posting about the calendar BLOCK 2008 and I wish that I’d found it before yesterday afternoon at the flea market. But even if the calendar is no more really useable, it contains definitely surprising and intriguing photos and stays a good source of inspiration.
BLOCK 2008 is a collection of 366 photographs: every day of the year 2008 brings a new picture of 12* photographers from Switzerland. The goal is to confront people in a regular basis to pictures that propose singular views on the world created by a young generation of photographer.
*contributed by STEFAN BURGER, VICTOR DE CASTRO, STÉPHANIE GYGAX, ANDREA HELLER, TOM HUBER, SOPHIE HUGUENOT, NICO KREBS and TAIYO ONORATO, LUKAS METTLER and CRIS FARIA, GUADALUPE RUIZ, NICOLAS VERMOT PETTIT-OUTHENIN and PETRA ELENA KÖHLE, CORA PIANTONI, CHRISTIAN VETTER
Untitled (shut up and eat pad-thai). 2005
110 framed c-prints, each 10 x 14 cm, 141 x 176 cm allover
Courtesy neugerriemschneider, Berlin
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Untitled (the party is over). 2005
acrylic on canvas. 90 x 125 cm
Private Collection
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For RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA, art is what you eat. The artist became famous in 1992 when he made Untitled 1992 (Free), a sculpture–performance–guerrilla action wherein he emptied out the office of the 303 Gallery in Soho and installed a makeshift kitchen, complete with fridge, hot plates, rice steamers, tables, and stools. He then cooked Thai curry; anyone could drop in, serve him- or herself, and eat. For free.
Since then he is constantly questioning the social significance of art. He nurtures the art community with his installations, in which, as a rule, he actually prepares meals. Through the experiences of pleasure and conversation, the question of the meaning of art in society arises indirectly.
TIRAVANIJA was born to Thai parents in Buenos Aires in 1963. He was raised in Argentina, Bangkok, Ethiopia, and Canada. After studying art in New York and Chicago, he began traveling constantly, fulfilling the role of the “global artist.” The search for cultural identity has always been at the center of his art. He connects different cultures through his cooking. It is not just about the sense of community that arises when sharing a meal, but also about the recipes. Not only do they mix west and east, but they also make the two confront each other.
And good news: his cookbook “Just Smile and Don’t Talk” is now available in the WFW Store. The book contains 23 recipes, previously performed in museums and galleries throughout the world, interviews and essays.
category: art, installation - Comments Off on Nora Schulz & Manuel Raeder 17 March 2011
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all images: exhibition view at Isabella Bortolozzi. 2010
photos by NICK ASH
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Berlin-based artist NORA SCHULTZ with graphic designer MANUEL RAEDER have created an analog printing machine that they employed during the exhibition “Hebezeug” at Isabella Bortolozzi last year.
NORA SCHULTZ‘s practice aims to reconcile distinct and even random elements into visible systems of meaning and expression. Merging a sculptural approach with the possibilities of performance, printing and photography, the formats of presentation and reproduction attached to these media also form an increasingly central aspect of SCHULTZ‘s work.
The printing process will continue at other exhibition venues, exploring new printing techniques and new printing machines. Stay tuned!
Bet Your Sweet Life, Fuck. 2009
spray paint on paper. 76 x 87 cm
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Bet Your Sweet Life, Fear. 2008
spray paint on paper. 66 x 79 cm
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Bet Your Sweet Life, Fool. 2008
spray paint on paper. 63 x 70,5 cm
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Bet Your Sweet Life, Me. 2009
spray paint on paper. 59 x 76 cm
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The artist and graduate architect MONICA BONVICINI (born in Venice in 1965) lives and works in Berlin. She is best-known for large-scale installations and sculptural pieces that explore architecture, the built environment and their relationships to gender. Her work addresses a critical reading to the values inherent in Western tradition, revealing the ways that ideas about sexuality and gender infuse every building block of our constructions.
Her small spray paintings – exhibited at Max Hetzler galerie during her show “Bet Your Sweet Life” in 2010 – bear words in the form of chain marks and are linked to the psychological and spatial relationship between the sexes. Fragile, yet decked out in punk culture’s aesthetic, the words are less comforting than the promised effect they imply.
NICOLAZ GROLL was one of my first post in 2008. Since then, this German graphic designer has produced a seemingly endless array of truly beautiful black-on-cream patterns. There’s something rather radical, minimal and hypnotic in his work that I really dig.
Make sure to explore also his black and white videos experiment here
category: art, photography - Comments Off on Erica Baum 15 March 2011
Awful Silence. 1999
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Untitled (Tide Tiger). 2000
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Untitled (Reality). 1997
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Untitled (There This)
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Untitled (Daggers Cloaks). 1998
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Untitled (Urge) Untitled (Useful Gestures). 1999
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Ooze. 2000
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These photographs are close-ups of objects- library catalogue cards and book indexes by New York photographer ERICA BAUM. Realized in several university and public libraries in and around New York City, the project originate in a particular love of words.
When these fragments of texts, captured from blackboards, the Frick subject catalog, library card catalogs, and book indices, are xeroxed and enlarged, bits of visual information turn up haphazardly. The woven texture of a cloth bound book and its pages, dots on the flatbed, and other pictorial noise are reworked into the final image which is then scanned into a computer and processed to create these digitally exposed white and dark blue C-prints.
By the simple act of selection, BAUM’s photographs produce new linguistic and formal compositions and can be read as a form of found concrete poetry: “I look for typo’s and handwriting and smudges, things that suggest the trace of their creation and use. I’m looking for humor and absurdity, a certain rhythm. Cumulatively I’m trying to create a voice that suggests history and philosophy and popular culture. It’s all there in the drawers if I look long enough….These small interventions I employ when I photograph follow in the tracks of actual usage. In all of these projects I’m looking for something that in some sense already exists and has the potential to yield something else”.
