I will be participating on a panel discussion scheduled for Tuesday, June 17th from 6:30-8:00 pm to discuss the work of Bay Area artist Evie Leder. Her current body (no pun intended, maybe) is currently on view at A Simple Collective (San Francisco, CA). Here’s an excerpt from the shows press release,
Evie Leder’s The Objects is a meditation on the male body consisting of approximately thirty videos, along with a series of detail photographs and video stills. Over a filming period of ten days, fourteen men—a diverse group of performers and artists in the San Francisco queer scene—visited the artist’s studio one by one. Creating an intimate space and relationship between artist and subject, Leder gave simple, but deliberate instruction: stand quietly, breathe, stretch, open and close eyes, turn…In Leder’s series, the men are objects, but specific, very human objects, with presence.
For more information, please visit the event link here
Art relies on the body as a means to produce. Painting and sculpting are overt examples of the solitary and traditional artist. As the world grows more interconnected through the internet and mobile devices, new media artists are finding ways to incorporate the body as a means of art production. The viewer becomes the participant in the art making. Scott Snibbe takes gesture to an incredible new meaning. From immersive environments to Björk’s latest all app album Biophillia, Snibbe redefines art, technology, interactivity, and connectivity.
At recent UpgradeSF! meeting, Snibbe gave an artist talk and presented well known works including, Björk’s all app album, Gravilux, and Oscilloscoop. Although the aforementioned are applications meant for mobile devices, Snibbe’s larger installations entail use of the entire body to create works that emphasize articulations of the body to construct unique experiences for each viewer. As Snibbe discussed his philosophy and practice, the presentation brought an interesting quandary. Is the new media artist able to divorce language from their work? With language playing an imperative role in creative coding, is this one of the hurdles new media arts present to the general public regarding the definition and evolution of art?
Originally published to zero1 blog. Please view post here
I’m tired and quite frankly I want to go to sleep.
Now that I’ve got that thought out of the way, let me write a little something before I lay my head down. Who needs sleep anyway? I mean, really!
I was painting as a young artist and mostly I was painting these clouds and one day, sitting and painting looking in the sky, I saw twelve military planes passing by and they made these incredible drawings in the sky. I look at them and I said, God, you know, it’s ridiculous. I’m painting these paintings that are so two dimensional…So after that, I stopped painting…I can use any material I want. Fire, water, and the body. The moment I started using the body, there was an enormous satisfaction that I had. That I could communicate with the public…I could never go back to the seclusion of the studio…the only way of expression is to perform.
~Marina Abramovic, Excerpt from her MOMA interview regarding her piece, The Artist is Present
I think one of the many reasons I’m looking at Abramovic’s work, lately, is due to the fact that I’m trying to draw correlations between her and the work of Guillermo Gomez Pena and his performance troupe, La Postra Nostra. Both artists have travelled the world performing art (different from conceptual art, which deals more with materiality). Performance art deals, predominantly, with the body. Deep down inside, I’m a two dimensional artist but, recently, I have paid close attention to performance art because it does something that many art forms are unable to do – engage the public, physically. It calls for immediate presence and attention. It also draws the viewer into a unique experience that becomes a part of a moment versus something that can be relived (everyday) on a much more ocular level (i.e., paintings, sculptures, etc.). Performance art is not something you can collect, per se, but it is something that finds its way through our subconscious and provokes the mind to re-interpret life. It also gives you the option to participate, which is something I’ll touch upon when I gather my final thoughts about the Corpo Ilicito show.
Speaking of participatory art, for your reading pleasure, an interesting read about participatory art by Christine Wong Yap, Bay Area Artist. Enjoy!
Dorothy R. Santos 