Thursday, June 2, 2011

Day 7

Today was a full-blown art day. I don't think I have ever seen so much contemporary art in one day.

We started out at the San Rocco Church. On our way walking to the church we found the Portugal national pavilion. Francisco Tropa was the artists of the show entitled, "Scenario." I bought the book they had for sale there and will have to read more about this artist, but at this show there were a series of projections on white panels.




In San Rocco, we sat and drew for a couple hours. I was really connected to the Tintoretto works for some reason. I felt that way in Accedemia also. I did a few sketches and for the first time since being here, worked with figures from the paintings as if I was "allowed" to manipulate them. I didn't want to just have practice sketches here and there, but really wanted to make them my own. There was one figure in particular that I was drawn to for a really long time. She was in a leaning position like she was catching herself as she fell, and I wanted to capture that in my book. The Tintoretto painting she was in (I forgot the name of it), was full of bloodshed and battle. She was in an awkward position but not quite being attacked or brutally murdered like 90% of the other figures. Even still, I felt like I needed her, had to have her, and I needed to tell her story. I felt so much pity for her. Drawing from his work also made me realize how integrated the figures are. When I started sketching one, it would overlap into the next and so on throughout the whole work. I enjoyed taking them out of their own context and putting them in the white spaces of my paper. Dropping them in and giving them their own story, not lost inside of Tintoretto's. His work is so modern for the time period he painted them in. In their own way they are abstracted and he paints so organically and with certainty. Oh, if only I could make a painting in 3 marks...figuratively speaking.

We took a lunch break after San Rocco, and we were going to go back to the church and draw some more, but then we realized we were in an area where a lot of Biennale pavilions were. Besides Portugal (the very first one we looked at today), we went to the pavilions of the Republic of Cyprus, Estonia, Iran, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and to the Central Asia pavilion. We looked at New Zealand yesterday. The best was the Republic of Cyprus. Their show was called "Temporal Taxonomy." I have never heard of this country, but whatever these two artists put in their Cheerios for breakfast I want it. The work there was so powerful and thoughtprovoking. I could have stayed there all day long. Since I have been here I have seen a lot of Kinetic sculpture. Cyprus, in particular had furniture rigged closely to the ground and connected to these pully systems that would shake, vibrate, and swing. Attached to the bottom of the suspended furniture was graphite, or some other kind of pencil. As the mechanism moved the furniture would "draw" on sheets of sheer (vinyl?) paper. Not only was it visually appealing, but even the sounds each piece made as the machines turned on and off was mezmerizing.



"In her (Elizabeth Hoak-Doering's) kinetic installations, objects are obliquely triggered by the visitors' presence, gradually producing drawings or traces on paper, over a period of time. The work raises questions of agency and the scope of human memory, exposing new manners of reckoning of spatio-temporality."




After all that looking, the night was pretty chill. Lilly, Kenzie and I made pasta and salad for dinner. We have Fri-Sun off this weekend so we are going to go to the beach again and probably go find shows or biennale pavilions to check out. I'm excited for the weekend! This week went by fast since Monday.


No comments: