WHO'S AFRAID OF COLOR ?

At the beginning of February I saw an installation exhibition at Macval which left me very perplex. («Ephermeral installations leave me puzzled», 1st February). Yesterday, Gianni and I went to see another installation set up at La Maison Rouge «Neon. Who’s afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue». Many people are afraid of bright lights. I definitely was not.

«The French physicist and chemist Georges Claude developed the first neon tube in 1912, exactly one century ago. He unveiled his invention publicly at the Paris World Fair. A few years later, Claude filed a patent in the United States and, in 1923, sold his first two neon signs - reading ‘Packard’ – to a car dealership. The rest is history…» (David Roseburg: Curator)

Neon for me has always meant advertising. Flashing lights. Times Square, Boradway - not to mention long lighting tubes which are in our homes. They seem to make a buzzing sound when they are about to «die» or go on and off in a very irritating manner. Even today, I can’t say that I  like single flashing neon signs. Of course when you see the green light of a Pharmacy cross flashing in the street - it’s reassuring, especially if you are looking for a pharmacy. But in an art form, I have never been very interested in such flashing lights. I wasn’t yesterday either. On the other hand, light combinations and installations which echoed their shadows into a glass wall or a miror, were absolutley fascination. Texts which were powerful such as David Kramer’s (USA) «Rest for the Weary» - Things will look better in the morning - they always do. How true and seeing the text in a neon context made the reflexion even stronger
David Kramer
And in strong contrast, Stefan Brüggemann who asks a very pertinent question..."what happens to an artist's work when he is no longer with us?" I have no quite a few artists in my life and have often asked what happened to their work after they had gone.
Stefan Brüggemann


At first when you discover Jason Rhoades chaotic installation, it seems like hundresds of words hung up in no order at all. A «pretty collection» of neon lights. In actual fact, the artist organized rather erotic or excentric evenings in his studio in Los Angeles with guests coming from all over the place. They were asked to describe the feminine sex, poetically, in slang, scientifically or in vernacular....Some 1724 words were written in a book which was displayed on a table below the installation. They were then integrated into several installations between 2003 and 2006 when he died. It’s a chaotic set up and yet somehow it represents a very happy, exotic  atmosphere as I imagine such evenings were.

Jason Rhoades

Jason Rhoades





















There is sentimentality. «Just Love me» (Tracey Emin)  


Even a text representing a hidden code, (Jill Majid). 


Lines of text which were quite uninteresting as such and then when mirrored in a glass lit up in another way.

Numbers, texts, and then the most beautiful images by Fontana or Morellet. Suprise Jeff Koons is there too. 

Francois Morellet
Pot from Jeff Koons
Fontana
Look closely at Fontana and see the holes

Walking back through these lights we were lucky this time to see the installation of Carlos Cruz-Diez experimentation in colour. «Chomo-saturations» The space is to walk through and the colours change from one side to another. Glary, bright and not what you want in your own home environment and yet here they «shone around » you in psychedelic wonder. 

Carlos Druz-Diez - righ side of Installation
Rights side of Installation









Over 100 works with many known artists: those who started it all Gyula Kosice and Lucio Fontana between 1940 and 50.  François Morellet, Bruce Nauman, Stephen Antonakos, Joseph Kosuth or Mario Merz in the 60’s and others I scarcely knew like  Keith Sonner, Claude Lévêque, Ivan Navarro, Cerith Wyn Evans and more who I am certainly not doing justice to...

Laurent Pernot trying to catch the moon

Xavier Mary "Hexagonal Lover"
                  
Ivan Navarro - "Man Hole"
???
Jean Van Munster "Brain Wave "

Cerith Wyn Evans
Stephen Antanokos "Incomplete blue circle "
He Han - (I think and hope)
My dreams were be full of lights, all shapes and sizes, speeding around in my brain: texts, numbers, imitations of well known advertising signs...it was a somewhat bright and shiny night ....

Commentaires

Lo a dit…
We're not afraid of colour(s) and we're looking forward to seeing the exhibition, if we ever manage to get in, that is!!
1/3/12 17:47
Maggie a dit…
You will - or we could all try going first thing on a Sunday at opening time?
2/3/12 10:05
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