EUTOPIA

Janet Cardiff

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Janet Cardiff
Forty Part Motet (2001) [link]
Tate Modern, London, U.K.

Sitting in a dimly-lit room with tears streaming down my face, I stand and walk around the circle of 40 speakers, pausing before each to listen to the Salisbury Cathedral Choir sing in Latin– Spem in Alium, (16th century music by composer Thomas Tallis). The chorus creates a cacophony of need, slowly dialing into individual yearning as one moves throughout the space. The sound shifts, reverberating throughout the cavernous architecture. Unlike a musical performance, Cardiff allows the viewer to choose the level of experiential engagement—whether to be passive or active. Similar to Cardiff’s well-known audio walks, this meditative sculptural soundscape transports to an interior world full of primal longing.

~ Colette Copeland
images courtesy of the author

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Haris Epaminonda

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Installation view: Haris Epaminonda, Vol. XXII, Aspen Art Museum, 2017. Photo Credit: Tony Prikryl

Haris Epaminonda
Vol. XXII
Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado [link]
March 10 – May 28, 2017

Haris Epaminond’s Vol. XXII challenges classic Western logic, proffering a recontextualized, non-linear perspective towards overlapping histories of civilizations. Spanning centuries, the minimal elements become artifacts inextricably essential to a larger, contemporary ethos based in art and architecture. The physical objects manifest memories from expanses of various Mediterranean and Asian identities, simplified to dominant typologies like encyclopedic chapters. Truncated columns, fractured marble, frescoed walls, vases, and symbolism allude to specific cultures while remaining tacitly universal and innately human. These parallel spaces are strung together, reflecting onto each other by mirrors throughout the gallery in the construction of this newly discovered place.

~ Jake Weigel
Photos: courtesy of Aspen Art Museum, 2017. Photo Credit: Tony Prikryl

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Louise Lawler

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Louise Lawler
Why Pictures Now [link]  (through July 30th, 2017)
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Thirty years after her first show at MoMA, Louise Lawler continues to challenge the notions of authenticity, authorship and judgement by revealing the mechanics of art and its reception. The strategies of multiplication using mass culture, titling, cropping and reframing are still present, however in “Why Pictures Now” the show’s title not only serves as a supplemental mirror image of art in the age of digital production, in referencing an earlier work it acts as -or enacts- an inside out installation effectively producing a reversal where the viewer in her contingent role as co-author retraces and reframes the work.

~ Ali Soltani
images courtesy of MOMA and Soltani+LeClercq

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Royal Trash

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Flora Bradwell, Bella Lordwarf
Royal Trash [link]
Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, London
Saturday April 29th, 2017

London’s non-profit organization exploring feminist and queer art practices, CUNTemporary’s latest event Royal Trash featured drama queens, trans-coronations and the de-throning of the white male. A highlight was Bradwell’s outrageous video featuring her alter-ego Bella. Utilizing the trope of a Kenny G music video interspersed with a power girl rap video, the artist embraces absurdity and spectacle, as the character proudly sings about the power of the penis. Featuring animated flying peni, an enormous fabric strap-on that required a leash for corralling, hilariously acerbic lyrics, and exaggerated dance moves, Bradwell creates a biting satire about the noble male member. Ryan Trecartin seems tame by comparison.

~ Colette Copeland
credit photos to Flora Bradwell, Bella Lordwarf: I Have a Penis, video stills, 2016

Flora Bradwell, Bella Lordwarf: I Have A Penis, video, 2016

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Marisa Merz

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Living Sculpture, 1966, Aluminum

Marisa Merz
The Sky Is A Great Space
The Met Breuer, New York [link]

Does the exhibition title refer to the five decades of Merz’ work as the sole female artist in the Arte Povera movement? Or perhaps to the long-overdue recognition of her work’s significance? Or conceivably a reference to her organic aluminum1960’s Living Sculptures, which resemble polymorphic alien life forms? Merz transforms ordinary materials (both domestic and industrial) into extraordinary explorations of geometries and spacial relationships. Her sculptures defy easy categorization, fluidly moving between the personal/intimate to the monumental, between minimal and obsessively detailed. Despite the confines of gender and domestic obligations, not even the sky limited Merz’ prodigious and creative talents.

~ Colette Copeland
photographs courtesy of the author

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Lygia Pape

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Theia 1 C (misspelling of Portuguese word for web), 1976-2004_  golden thread, nails, wood, lighting

 

Lygia Pape
A Multitude of Forms [link]
The Met Breuer, New York
Through July 27th, 2017

Theia 1 C (misspelling of Portuguese word for web)
[1976-2004]
golden thread, nails, wood, lighting

Ethereal golden rays appear and disappear just out of reach, offering an illusory promise of riches. Exploring the relationship between linear form and the body’s movement within space, Pape’s use of golden thread deceives with the semblance of fragility. Because Pape’s work is grounded in geometric abstraction, critics sometimes mistakenly relate her work to European modernism. Pape’s resplendent web is one of resistance, a beautiful and subtle trap defying European colonization of her country, (note the misspelling of the title) as well as political unrest within Brazil’s history. The contingent object’s illumination perseveres, claiming criticality despite subjugating powers.

~ Colette Copeland
photographs by the author

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