During the middle of June I went to the 56th Venice Biennale. It was great. Its so fantastic to see such a range of contemporary art in one massive space, and because there is so much, at least one thing touches you. I thought there had not been many thigns which grabbed my attention, but on reflection of leaflets and photographs I took, there seem to be more than I thought! I will bullet point them and try to be as precise and concise as I can:
Russian Pavilion. Here Irina Nakhova creates a rather futuristic head. It is the size (height) of a room. It’s a pilot’s head, so it had goggles, air mask and lead. Nakhova has projected a film of her own eyes inside the goggles and makes it seem as though the head is alive, as it blinks and looks around the room. This piece is quite stressful. There is the uncanny side that this head is not normal and that you should not be able to create something so lifelike, then there is the saddening fact, that it looks like the head/ face is trying to escape, but has become stuck in this room with people staring at it. This was by far my favourite (yes I used that word!) piece, and spent a long time revisiting this work. |
German Pavilion. This was made up by a few artists, but it was Hito Steyerl’s Factory of the Sun that grabbed my attention. As you walked into this room, almost set out like you were inside some sort of Internet layout, there were deckchairs to sit on – creating connotations of sunshine. The video plays, and it is set up like a video game that you are playing. It had slight political jabs at time and was quite satirical and ironic, but it was easy and fun to watch. And it helped make the point that in video games it doesn’t matter if you die, and that you can level up ever so easily. The constant montage, changing of clips, worked well as you moved at a good pace through the work. I could have spent a while watching this again and again… |
British Pavilion. Sarah Lucas, what can I say…three words to sum up: yellow, nudity and fags. All of the walls were painted out yellow because she found the colour called Deep Cream and she like the notion of this. Then she was worried that her main yellow sculpture, Maradona, would blend into this, but I think it just adds and illuminates it! The fags are there in a representation of sexual stimulation, to transform onto the bodies, like they do in peoples bodies that smoke. They are also place aimlessly amongst the bodies, as they don’t do much, just like in reality. In one room there was a recliner chair and puff, but where the cushion would have been, it was replaced with a concrete version – looking very real. |
Canadian Pavilion. This pavilion was created by three artists: BGL: Bilodeau, Giguère and Laverdière. The part, which appealed to me most, was a room that you walked into that was set up like a small typical American convenient store. When you walked in all seemed normal. However, all of the labels on all of the products had been slightly blurred. And so when you were walking round, youre eyes led you into a false pretence that your sight was becoming bad, as you were unable to read or see anything clearly. This was quite enjoyable to me, as I have perfect vision and so it was interesting to experience this. I was thinking about then maybe trying this out with my films that I create, just blurring them slightly so the viewer has to concentrate, really focus on what they are seeing. |
Korean Pavilion. This one has stayed in my memory as it was quite unusual, different. The whole room was white, the film features were white, and even the protagonist Korean girl has white hair and eyelashes. Artists Kyungwon and Joonho have created a short film about what art, history, films and texts perceive the world to be like in the future. They have then set up this alternate fictional place for viewers to watch, to become immersed and unnerved. I enjoyed the room fitting to the film. |
Azerbaijan Pavilion. A combination of artists Menlibayeva and Alakbarov, make up the The Union of Fire and Water. It was Alakbarov’s art that I was particularly interested with. He uses light and mirrors to cast shadows to create more dimensions and possibilities within his work. He looks at the idea of reality and perception. Ideally, I would love to set up a room of mirrors and have my film playing amongst them and see what happened. |
Isa Genzken's work was appealing to me as they had made small models, however, they were very bare and obviously models. They didn't appeal to me in a way of deception but in a way of materials. I hadn't thought about using plaster or concrete as a material in my work, but from seeing this, i could see how it could work. |