Thoughts: I’m trying to see everything and make up my mind about any of the art feels impossible.
I was totally overwhelmed by the amount of galleries work some of it good some of the great and some of it very mediocre a few things that stuck in my head Morteza Pourhosseini “Pale Vision” triptych at Dusan Gallery was one of the first things I saw beautifully, detailed and ethereal the Adam and Eve skinned to grays with rocks and plant. The only thing connecting three people separated through the triptych.
Idris Khan “After the setting Sun” at Cristea Roberts gallery because it is printed on thick acrylic panels so the layers correspond to my Layers exhibition, as well as to my framing technique that combined 2 layers of plexiglass with aluminum from my Nago(Naked) Exhibit 2 years ago. The abstract print was also made of musical notes which I was drawn to as my husband is a violinist and Music has always been a big part of my life.
Xin Liu from Public London created abstract expressionist plant-like shapes on wooden panels with silk thread and layers of beeswax creating a sort of beautiful ethereal plant world which reminded me of Silk thread portraits by Rei Inaba, which I saw in Tokyo in January this year. Liu’s pieces made me think of my paper lamps sculpture, which I decided to hang up using ribbons and threads in rainbow colors. I’m thinking of wax pouring as well to keep the piece together but not sure how the vellum will hande this. I was also quite mesmerised by the water//oil sculpture which I found very calming and meditative.
Arianna Contino and Alex Hernandez at El Apartamento showed incredibly layered, handcut paper pieces, framed in deep white frames, which had so much detail, depth and intricacy one could stare at it for hours and get lost and relaxed at the same time. The fact they were these paper gardens I found quite incredible as well brought to mind Polish folklore cutouts from very colorful papers layered on top of one another of roosters, flowers and other nature inspired things.
IDEA: I had this idea about duality paper, cut out mirrored, but in a different color.
Another thing I really loved was Grayson Perry at Victoria Miro: the neon the mix of patterns, the intricate tapestry details, the size!
And last but not least DO HO SUH at Lehmann Maupin, whose Tate Modern exhibition I haven’t managed to check out yet. Again mesmerised by the technique, the magical use of colours, the wires threads, rainbow colors, detangling, falling apart and fragility vision of everyday objects. The mastery of the technique: how did he do it?!?
IDEA: On my new painting and stitching to the stripes leave loose ends hanging off.
I was mesmerized by the technique and by the colors as well as by the ombre effects of the colours seeping through one another, by the combination and something that looks like it was about to completely fall apart, somehow staying together. It was the juxtaposition of the delicacy of the threads and the lightness with heavy objects that we subconciously imagine being hard, cold, rough, durable. Radiator, Fire extinguisher, Doors with Handles and the sheer organza bathroom, including toilet, sink all the details that bathroom would have but in these very delicate see-through chiffon or organza materials and wires I really don’t know what it means. It’s the juxtaposition that was absolutely mesmerizing to me.
I keep thinking about the things I liked and about my own work and how it all kinda resonates, even with what my kids do. There is that need for playfulness, colour and exploring chaos and movement using a lot of entangles lines. That’s what I’ve been doing with my work, when I first contemplated drawing my kids while dancing their Chantraine technique dance and exhibiting that at the Chanytraine Dance festival. I used acrylic markers which are very different from crayons and charcoal I’m normally used to. I like how little control I have when I use them with my left hand and the dancing bodies become distorted an chaotic. At the same time the expression of movement feels more real. Like there is harmomy in chaos. I have tried photographing them and putting them alongside my son’s most recent piece as I feel there is a connection, between Do Ho Suh, my kids, and my work. I think what I am trying to get to is that feeling I had when I was a kid and I was drawing, that complete and utter joy and immersion in the act of creating, the feeling of time not existing, trying to get back to “The beginning of Time” as my son beautifully captured it with words when naming his piece. Another thought, while running today: it’s as if it’s all about to “unravel, fall apart, blow up in your face” is how I feel whe I look at DO HO SUH stuff, and some of my stuff countinues to circle around the idea of complete chaos and madness and yet the final result somehow brings out the feeling of harmony.
ILLUMINATED DRAWINGS, LIGHTS, MOVEMENT, ROBOTS, TECHNOLOGY
As I was exiting Frieze London, I was caught by the movement work of Korean artist Byungjun Kwon, who “develops robotic and audio hardware to channel collective experience through technology. Kwon’s Blossoming from the Center; The Golden Flower of Potentiality (2024) comprises purpose-built robots acting as avatars for otherness. Inspired by Korean shamanic dance traditions, through their seeemingly inexhaustible performance, the robots seek connectin with their human counterparts entering and exiting the fair.”
I thought this installation looked cheap and made in haste and chaotic, the cheap silver same as tinsel I use at my kids bday parties. But then another thing that came to my mind yesterday night, feeling like I might be going a bit mad, but I was thinking how amazing it would be to expand on my Fringe Warsaw ehxibition Layers, by making it into an interactive indoor or outdoor piece, including movement, sound and lighting. I imagined combining two pieces, which are already framed in aluminum, layers of vellum inserted between glass and plexi so they could be lit from the insinde. When combined I would place a double sided LED mat in the middle, and potentially hang the whole thing from the ceiling. I would place it on a stand/easel, single leg, which would be turning around using a mechanism placed on the floor. I wonder if it could be a wind up mechanism where viewers could wind it up themselves? I was thinking about Miro’s sculptures I saw at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, the “Niki de Saint Phalle & Jean Tinguely. Myths & Machines” with all these amazing moving objects and mechanical elements combined with roundness and curves and rainbow coloured female forms as well as roots and other nature elements. The roots reminded me of my great grandmother’s country house, which was filled with cande holders made from roots and polypore, a beautiful sustainable way of combining nature with functionality.
