Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Paula Rego
Born in Portugal, Paula Rego’s work always has a sense of magical realism; quirky contemporary mythologies pointing to an underlying psychology and sexuality, through a feminine view point. Paula Rego uses loaded imagery and symbolism to create a surreal mystery for the unravelling.The narrative clues are ambiguous, and the story could have several endings.Using an essentially graphic style reminiscent of comic strips, she continues to produce figurative pictures that were spontaneous narratives rather than illustrations to literary texts. Her characters often took the form of animals for satirical effect.
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Farhad Hussain
A moment stolen from a happy neighbour, a scene from the satisfied family from across the road, Farhad’s canvases give the viewers an opportunity to be a voyeur.
The hidden questions about culture and its influence on the pretentious happy family, confront the onlooker, forcing him to question the ever smiling couples , depicted on the canvas.
As the protagonists take centre stage, the surreal surroundings, the actions and dynamics between the characters start narrating parallel stories. The un-seen, the un-observed, the covered aspects of human nature in the cultural context are added through an unreal perfection in the action of the actors.
Finally it goes on to evocation of a thought about the dark inaccessible part of human personality creating a dream-like state where the acceptance of the voyeur in all of us is not negative but only normal.
Sunday,23 March, 2014
Chanced upon the porcelain and silk thread works of Vietnamese artist Diem Chau.She creates delicate vignettes of fleeting memory, gesture and form,resulting in works that combine egalitarian sensibility and minimalist restraint. Her work touches on the value of storytelling,myths and its ability to connect us to each other through cultural and humanistic similarities. Chau's work drifts into new territory by exploring the periphery of the narrative, moments forgotten and faded, or too brief to retain.
I loved the use of a delicate medium like silk thread, embroidered on the cold,hard surface of glazed ceramic.
Michaelene Walsh has a intuitive style of working with figurative components.She says about her work-"working with component parts has a added benefit;it keeps the creative process mysterious and fresh from start to finish.I never make a maquette.The entire figure isn't actually put together until all its parts are finished and fired.This method of working leaves room for spontaneity.Before gluing or even glazing and firing,I often change heads or limbs on a figure in response to something I see lying on the table in front of me.It is as if I am drawing shapes,cutting them out and collaging them before I commit to the existence of the figure.I am not really in control....."
Monday, 3 March, 2014
Sakti Burman.is an Indian artist who can be likened to a magician. He waves his magic wand and invites you into a world which is both absurd and beautiful . If at one place, Shiva and Parvati are seated only few inches away from Noah’s arc,.Hanuman is found in the august company of Centaurs. His works resemble weathered frescos, Burman's technique reminds us of the exquisite Ajanta- Ellora caves. Stories abound and creatures populate his canvases painted in a unique techniques of marbelising and pointillism.
Kezban Arca Batibeki (Turkish) is known for her paintings that probe themes of female empowerment and conflict in pop culture imagery, through depictions of women as faceless or overtly sexualized beings. In Dark Red (2010), a group of women brandishing knives wrestle each other to unsettling effect; in Woman in Red (2010) a glamorous woman in a sequined cocktail dress, knife in hand, chases another woman in heels down a flight of stairs. Both works comprise darkly comic scenes that reference narratives drawn from pulp films and detective stories.
www.kezbanarcabatibeki.com/
Friday, 27 February, 2014
Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer who draws on various genres like Hollywood films to tell unsettling fictional tales about the modern middle class.In his staged photographs,ordinary people are swept by extraordinary forces.People behave mysteriously. We cannot tell if these are dreams, fantasies but they are so detailed that they become convincing photographic details of impossible events.They seem to be an outward expression of an inner sense of disquiet and suggest a social breakdown.
William Kentridge said "for me it is always very important for me to find a strategy of working in which I don't completely have control.Its about constructively losing control.Not knowing what I am doing.It is always in that gap that something new will emerge rather than -I think I know what I should be doing....."
I like his automatic process.His hands that do the thinking.....
And my favourite William Kentridge animation film "Felix in Exile".
Wednesday, 25 February , 2014
Another inspiring artist ....a papercut artist .Beatrice Coron on TED Talks.I loved her papercut installations, her public works , her talk and her stamina.She also runs ultra marathons and says running long distances helps her be a long distance paper cutter.Phew!!
Monday,24th February,2014
Very recently,I came across the works of another surrealist painter based in USA , Julie Heffernan.In an interview (Living and Sustaining a Creative Life edited by Sharon Louden,2013) ,she said "speed and efficiency are my sports:if I can cook a square meal in half hour instead of an hour, or drive to State College Fund, in four hours instead of six,then I have an extra two and a half hours to spend dreaming on my couch in the studio.I might have been an efficiency expert in another life" Sigh!! and "early on in life I learnt something deeper about myself and about making art that is being true to oneself and about the importance of not running after deadening goals like coolness or the latest fad"point noted. More pearls of wisdom "I have learned over time that when a work doesn't do anything-get reviewed,get curated into shows or get showed-it is most likely the fault of the work not the dealer.This is not always true but is a good mantra to have because we really only have control over our work not the art world"
Her paintings are a hybrid of genres and styles, mixing allegory, portraiture, history painting, and still life, while in title they are all presented as self portraits.
Her paintings are a hybrid of genres and styles, mixing allegory, portraiture, history painting, and still life, while in title they are all presented as self portraits.
Her paintings are a hybrid of genres and styles, mixing allegory, portraiture, history painting, and still life, while in title they are all presented as self portraits.
Saturday, 15th February 2014
November 12th 2013
valeriejolly.com
Studied the porcelain sculpture series DISFIGURINE by ceramic artist Justin Novak.His pieces have adopted the lyrical and fluid movement of the Rococo and Baroque times.The figurine historically has a long tradition of portraying a perfect world, a dreamlike,sentimental and a nostalgic world.Figures from the DISFIGURINE series defy those expectations,presenting instead a realm where all is not picture perfect.Wounds.cuts,lacerations in the figures serve as a metaphor for psychological wounds inflicted by society.I love this kind of work which is frightening yet dainty and beautiful.
I find the works of German artist Jacob Roepke’s absurd miniature paintings very interesting. Painted on squares of hand-width wood, Roepke depicts a surreal world where his lead character, a dour looking figure that we can only assume is Roepke himself, is harangued by nature.Parakeets peer on as he feasts on doughnuts, ducks harass him in his house and horses insist on galloping through the window at any given opportunity. While some verge on the humorous,
these surreal images are also rather isolating in seemingly lonely domestic spaces, he throws his characters into ever changing and unexpected situations as if each work were a piece of iconographic research. The quotidian is turned on its head as the figures ward off monstrous animals, wild geometric figures and strange alien forms. Drawing upon art history, popular culture and the surrealist tradition, each piece is left open to several contextual interpretations.
Read Interviews-Artists Volume Two Recordings 2010.The two artists works I found very interesting were Rachel Good Year and Valerie Jolly.
Rachel Goodyear's
art practice is to do with drawings on paper. They contain a notion of tenderness and violence, the mundane and the macabre which go hand in hand in her work.She likes to explore this precarious path which it could tip either way.I found her explanation on why she choose drawing as her main art practice very interesting.She says "But as long as I can remember,whether I've been painting or making sculpture,I ve always been drawing.That's where I felt most honest and felt the most freedom with what I was creating.It flowed so much more naturally,but it took me quite a while to realize that's where my art lay,that the drawings I was creating privately was actually my practice."
More recently Rachel Goodyear has been exploring stop motion animations and laser cut mediums to take her drawings forward.
Valerie Jolly makes paper cast sculptures with layers of tissue paper and PVA glue. "I am fascinated with different issues.I can explore with such a simple medium: issues elated memory,to absence/presence,to our perception of things,to the idea of the trace,issues about impermanence,inside/outside/void/weight."I liked her work because she renders everyday mundane neglected objects like doors, drawers, water pipes, chairs into interesting weightless objects.
November 8th 2013
justinnovak.com
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