photo courtesy Philip Wiegard London, Feb 2010
28 feb 2010
Maurizio Anzeri for Alexander McQueen, 2000
Maurizio Anzeri for Alexander McQueen,
Lady Ugolino, 2000
26 feb 2010
Furini Arte Contemporanea takes part at Volta NY 4th - 7th March 2010
Andrea Bianconi
Is-Land
Furini Arte Contemporanea
E 7
(performance: every day 1pm and 5pm)
The IS-LAND project by Andrea Bianconi - developed for VOLTA NY - is made up both of an installation bearing the same title and of a performance (A Charmed Life). It points quite clearly to the research path followed by the artist.
His work has developed as an unrelenting analysis of the relationship between uniqueness of the ego and multiple identities. Starting from autobiography, this analysis has moved up to speculative reflections on the human being in its individual and social components. Man is shown as a bundle of conflicting tensions that are mirrored by the overlapping of multifarious elements, materials and symbols - which in Bianconi's works are closely related to fantasy and folklore as well as to literary, artistic and historical reminiscences (Borges, Calvino, up to Luigi Ontani).
The resulting scenario is seemingly lightweight; in fact, it is psychologically complex - a sort of dream-like journey, projecting a tangible uneasiness halfway between conscious and subconscious in which inner conflicts go hand in hand with public representation and the boundaries between space and time are blurred to the point of utter isolation. The human being is accordingly seen as an island (ISLAND), or maybe the human being IS - LAND.
This can be inferred from the drawings and sculptures making up the installation, but also from the performance - where the artist dips his hands into the flow of the various extensions of human identity, corresponding to the many ropes that fall, cascade-like, from the tap on the wall. Divinatory charms are fastened to the ropes, but each of them also marks a memory of personal experiences - halfway between spirituality and materiality, its dualism being a feature of all human beings. These charms, which are only fastened to their ropes, are grouped ultimately to give rise to an objectified representation made up of entities that are both isolated and mutually related. The resulting fabric is inevitably different at each performance, which emphasizes the feeling of an out-of-control interaction and, therefore, of loneliness.
Born 1974
Lives New York
Recent group shows: Cluster, Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, TX, USA 2009; Istant Book – Italian Artists New York, ISCP, Brooklyn, NY, USA 2009; Tina B – The Prague Contemporary Art Festival. Praga, Repubblica Ceca 2009; Arte Fiera (Furini Arte Contemporanea), Bologna, Italia 2008; L’immagine sottile – opere della collezione della Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea di Monfalcone a cura di Andrea Bruciati, GC.AC Monfalcone (GO), Italia 2008.
Recent solo shows: Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, TX 2010; Vernon Projekt, Praga, Repubblica Ceca 2010; sapere non sapere a cura di Oliver Orest Tschirky, Casa Gallo, Palazzo Brusarosco Zaccaria, Vicenza, Italia 2009; Bond, Kiton, New York, NY, USA 2009; Pony Express a cura di Oliver Orest Tschirky, Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, TX, USA 2007; Vanity, UBS, Lugano, Svizzera 2006; BODYGUARDS a cura di Marina Mojana, Furini Arte Contemporanea, Arezzo, Italia 2005.
Italian version
15 feb 2010
3 feb 2010
William Cobbing | Reversals | 6 February – 23 March 2010 | Vernissage 6 February 6.30 p.m.
On the occasion of his first solo show at Furini Arte Contemporanea, William Cobbing (born in 1974 in London, where he lives) presents his latest series of videos, photographs and sculpture. The artist recently undertook two artist residencies, one at Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Kabul, Afghanistan, and the other one in Berwick-upon-Tweed, on the Scottish borders. On both occasions Cobbing produced works of art reflecting this immersion in these contrasting situations. Whereas the war in Afghanistan is a daily media occurrence, Berwick-upon-Tweed bears the fading scars of centuries of conflict between England and Scotland. The social, cultural and territorial environment is part of the artist’s thoughts whilst in these places, with Cobbing combining elements of local history with his ongoing art practice in the photographs taken in Afghanistan and in the sculpture and videos shot in Berwick.
The idea of reversal links these works and provides the central focus on the project: entropy and dissipation are recurring themes within the examined environmental contexts. His photographic “Bamiyan Mirror” series reflects the visual impact of the iconoclastic destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in 2001, on the territorial context and on a wider and stratified social and individual perception, also critically reviewed through the mass media portrayal of the war torn region. Through the use of a mirror, this work leads the viewer to a dimension of disorientation induced by a perception of “absent presence”. With this sculptural intervention in the landscape, a reference is made to Land Art and in particular the works of Robert Smithson. One also finds a feeling of entropic dispersal and a reminiscence of certain works by Smithson in videos such as “Moon walker 1 & 2”, which were shot by the artist appearing to erase his footprints while walking along the beach in Berwick.
Cobbing also makes reference to the scene in Andrei Tarkovsky’s film “Andrei Rublev” in which a bronze bell is cast for a cathedral during the Tatar invasion of medieval Russia, making a subtle link to the disused bell tower in Berwick which once warned locals of enemy invasion. With the obscured images of Bamiyan, Cobbing comments on the present day distortion and embellishment of images of war in the media, which the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard referrerd to as “War Porn.”
Exhibition text by Rita Selvaggio.
William Cobbing studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London and then at De Ateliers in Amsterdam.
He has exhibited his work in different shows among which “A Secret History of Clay”, Tate Liverpool [2004], “Body-Con”, Arts Initiative Tokyo [2004], “A Room with a View”, Gemeente Museum, The Hague [2006], “William Cobbing”, Netwerk Centre for Contemporary Art, Belgium [2007], “Gradiva Project”, Freud Museum, Londra [2007-8], “Six of One, Camden Arts Centre”, London [2008], “Hasselt Triennial”, Belgium [2009]. He won a scholarship of the Arts Council England Helen Chadwick Fellowship in 2005/6 at Ruskin School and at the British School in Rome. In 2009 he obtained his residence at the Turquoise Mountain Foundation of Kabul.
William Cobbing
February 6th - March 23rd 2010
Furini Arte Contemporanea
Rome - Via Giulia 8
Opening times:
From Wednesday to Friday 1.00 p.m. – 7.00 p.m.
Saturday 3.00 p.m. – 7.00 p.m.
info: +39 06 68307443 (gallery); +39 0575 299678 (office)
info@furiniartecontemporanea.it
www.furiniartecontemporanea.it
with the support of The British School at Rome.
Iscriviti a:
Post (Atom)