Remember when Marielle and I visited the Alfred Manessier exhibition and my theory about titles? I don’t really approve of a title when it doesn’t seem to relate in any to an artist’s work. I may need to retract my words as coming into two very big exhibitions at the Tripostal, I really didn’t know what I was looking at. When I did find text and an explanation, most of the time it didn’t seem to relate to what I was looking at either….
The first exhibition was called :-
« Tu dois changer ta vie » (You must change your life-style).
Such a title is supposed to make you wake up and act in front of the different installations or art work we were seeing. They explore the progress of science, new technologies and as you go along a chosen route you are supposed to become part of the work or the actor inside the work….I followed my designated route looking around but even so, with the exception of some videos or installations, it was very unclear to me.
Coming into the first gallery I was behind a group listening to a lecturer - I tried to follow but was bewildered. This is what she was referring to:-
Bobble Head (2013) by Richard Jackson. He’s a major player in the Californian scene (along with Bruce Nauman, and Paul McCarthy) and was influenced initially but abstract expressionism and action painting, both schools which you know I follow. This is his self portrait with an oversize head which looks as if it could rock from right to left….but what does it have to do with changing my life?
Then I saw another description of the exhibition - « Take Care of Yourself »
Rushing in the frantic rhythm of our society, we no longer take the time for the tiniest break.
Breathing is the source of life and oxygen is that of our wellbeing. But do we take the time to listen to this vital Breath?
The presented works experiment on the links and relationships between body and mind, the spiritual questions and the physical exercises.
Adopting an active posture influences the development of dynamic thinking and vice versa.
(French and English texts on the wall)
So, yes, I agree with all that but I am not too sure how it relates to what I am seeing…
Pierre Soulages and his painting 30.3.84. He is as you know the painter of black and white and recognized as one of the major figures of abstract art and the greatest living painter of the current French scene. Black never did exist in the absolute as its intensity changes according to the dimensions of the support, it’s shape, its texture and the light….I’ve always liked his work but this one emerges from a day of disaster for him and finally he paints over all his successive failures. The painting is certainly saturated ….
Some work looked vaguely familiar and which I liked very much.
This for instance. I was alone in a cosmic space - something told me I had been there before ….but when? The artist’s name seems familiar. Julien Salaud. Nowhere to be found on my computer…
The work is called « Entomogrotte stellaire » (2015)
Normally, entomology is related to animals, and yes when I looked at this closely there were animals around. We are told that he is studying the place of mankind in the universe. He takes us into a blurred world where there is a mixture of reality and animal divinities. Apparently we are transported from the minuscule terrestrial world of insects to heaven, in the immensity of constellations. Well that is how I understood it. My description is probably close, but is it that?
Then there is Anna Citlli and Raoul Bretzel with their
Rebirth (2004).
I gather here that when you die, you become a tree. The archaic form of
the egg is buried into the ground and gives life to a tree. I quite
like that but can assure you that I would never have come up with such a
description.
Jennifer Steinkamp is a well known American artist for her videos and installations. Here her tree takes a video trip through the four seasons. Renaissance? And once again, the video doesn't work...
It’s a shock to come into this. Ghyslain Bertholon. She’s French. These two alarming back sides denounce the absurdity of human behavior in the face of nature. Here her memory buds are working as when she was a child she attended an animal massacre at a hunting party.
Apparently as humans we tend to ignore the urgency of the ecological problems, we are speeding headlong into a wall…..One is called
"Naturalized Lion and Lacquered Wood" ( 2015) and the other "Naturalized Cow and fly, plexiglas)(2008)
Now the following two installations which as they stand I find quite beautiful but who did them? What are they all about? No comments….
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| Part of the left hand structure |
This room was great fun. You were supposed to go into it and cross to the other side. Here you see the assistants throwing the balloons back. No I didn’t do it….
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| How many balloons bust during the day as you make your way accross to the other side? |
I would take my designated route to go further….
Up to the top floor to look at
« Seoul, vite, vite » - « Seoul, quick, quick »…
No doubt about it, here you are immersed into a dynamic energy, hyper-modern and the now very popular culture of South Korea. The artists are young, experimental and rushing to go somewhere fast…the expression « Seoul, quick, quick »in Korean « Seoul bbali, bbali » is, we are told, a pretty common statement in Korea but with a double meaning: first of all, dynamic and full of life but for many Koreans it also means that the country has moved too quickly and this brings up a lot of questions…
These are the names of the artists which I noted down. Jungki Beak, Lee Bul, Soyoung Chung , Choi Jeong Hwa , Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho, Jiyen Lee, Do Ho Suh, Choe U-Ram…some artists now live in Europe or New York….but when I looked at a text describing a work, what I saw just didn’t correspond for me to the text. You have the artsits’ names but not the corresponding work…
In 40 years, South Korea has accomplished so much with individual and collective effort to create an economic miracle . Once upon a time it was one of the poorest countries on the planet but today we can consider South Korea a powerful economic strength on a world-wide basis and one of the « dragons » in Asia. I have visited South Korea on a number of occasions for work and although so many of the traditional buildings were bombarded during the different wars, these are people who are very attached to their own traditions.
I really am sorry that I can’t sell you more about the artist’s work.
The « High School Uni-form », 1996 by DO HO SU who even I know that he is a major player in Korean contemporary art. He’s worked in New York and is now based in London and Seoul. Childhood memory once more. School groups. Children’s schooling in Korea is a major factor.
These four « creatures » were beautiful and moved in their cages. The gallery was pitch black and I was not sure of my feet as I moved around. They represent « Ultima Madfax » photographed by chance in a subway construction site, in 2002. They are currently under going intense study by many scientists. The creature’s ability to float freely in dense mud remains unexplained.
Now I am coming out of the gallery and this « Urbanus Female » bowed down to me. But unfortunately, I cant get the videos to work....
As I left the exhibition this installation, a little like Othoniel’s ,work but in my book all those symbols were somewhat confusing.
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| This was the final word..... |
Never the less, I enjoyed my couple of hours in the Tripostal and now I come to think of it, I’m not too sure if I did need explicative titles for each work - but I would like to have been able to tell you who the artists were...
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