Earlier this month, I went to my first big art world event - the Venice Biennale. Lots of walking, looking, and feeling overwhelmed. Below are my favorite works from the event. Take a look and share your thoughts.
For each piece, I’ve included a short reason why I think I enjoyed the work. Of course, I could mull it over for awhile and provide a more lengthy response. However, for the sake of time and returning to the studio, I kept it brief.
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay, 48 War Movies (still), 2019. Single-channel video installation, color and stereo sound, continuous loop, dimensions variable.
Artwork: 48 War Movies, 2019
“48 War Movies (2019) is a single-channel video that collapses conflicts from the Civil War to Iraq into a horrifying aggregate spectacle of war. Dramatizations are collaged into almost indistinguishable narratives and presented through concentric rectangles, like a flickering conveyor belt of popular cultural content. The forty-eight war films play simultaneously and continuously, and the accompanying soundtrack generates an indecipherable cacophony of wartime sounds.” Read more of the press release here.
Why I like it: It accurately/expressively/creatively described how I have come to see war narratives (fictional and real). Information is compounded and lost in the process. The sound is unrelenting yet intelligible.
See a video of the video installation here.
George Condo
© Photo: Haupt & Binder
Artwork: Double Elvis, 2019
In the video, Condo discusses Double Elvis at 1:55.
Why I like it: It’s humorous, dark, and reflective of our time. The image is large. The mark making is bold and grotesque rather than comical. All of this works well to convey Condo’s idea when combined with the title Double Elvis which references Any Warhol’s Double Elvis, 1963.
Czech and Slovak Republic Pavilion
CZECH & SLOVAK PAVILION
Artist: Stanislav Kolíbal
Exhibition: Former Uncertain Indicated
Curator: Dieter Bogner
“Former Uncertain Indicated depicts three stages of formal Gestalt—a phantom-like drawing outline of a rectangular form (former), its shadow-like double born within (uncertain), and a solid shape carved-in (indicated).” Read more of the press release here.
Photo by: Francesco Galli
Why I like it: The work was visually pleasing in its structure/orderliness balanced against instability. I also found the use of wall drawing combined with sculpture to be playful and an interesting means of describing space. While the ideas behind the exhibition were elaborate and difficult to grasp, I felt I understood them when I focused my attention on the work rather than the descriptions.
“I’m against perspective. Perspective is only one way of depicting space.” - Stanislav Kolíbal, 2019 Interview