Caitlin Erskine-Smith, Writing Down the Gauntlet @ Luminato & Tug of Warp @ Scotiabank Nuit Blanche

I first fell in love with Caitlin Erskine-Smith's work at the Luminato Box in Sam Pollack Square during Luminato, the Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity last June. As I visited the Luminato Box each day of the ten day festival, I became intrigued and fascinated with the way each artist chose to utilize the space. While some artists used the space much as they would any other gallery space, others such as Erskine-Smith integrated their work within the space.

Caitlin Erskine- Smith, Writing down the Gauntlet 2009
Luminato Box, June 12, 2009
Sam Pollack Square, Toronto

As Erskine-Smith's textile work is about communication and information generation, her sensitive use of space is not surprising. Writing Down the Gauntlet investigates the complexities of viewing. For this work, Erskine-Smith created a series of large woven textiles that combine two different versions of the same story each woven on reverse sides of the cloth.

Caitlin Erskine- Smith, Writing down the Gauntlet 2009
installation detail
Luminato Box, June 12, 2009
Sam Pollack Square, Toronto

The woven textiles were hung and draped through the space, engaging the viewer as they move through the curtain-like structure. At first it appears as shapes, symbols and designs are woven on the cloth, but on closer inspection words appear. The competing duality of the words and text that appear in mirror image of one another play with both the viewers visual and cognitive senses. I found myself trying to decipher the words on the cloth as I looked for meaning and understanding, while at the same time my eyes danced and skipped across the cloth panels admiring the patterning of the individual letters and words and how seamlessly they integrated with the texture and fluidity of the cloth.

Caitlin Erskine- Smith, Writing down the Gauntlet 2009
installation detail
Luminato Box, June 12, 2009
Sam Pollack Square, Toronto

Erskine- Smith's artist statement reads: "Fabric and clothes play important roles in the construction of identity, marking our different experiences and communicating the struggle of cultural preservation or evolution in a dynamic and changing world. Fabrics serve to reinforce, reclaim or reject identities, which in turn serve as filters for communication, obscuring meaning as we strive to comprehend it." Utilizing traditional weaving techniques Caitlin Erskine-Smith forces the viewer to consider the contemporary world, where we are constantly barraged with visual and verbal messages that can overwhelm our senses causing us to question or search for meaning in this heightened communicative context.

Caitlin Erskine- Smith, Writing down the Gauntlet 2009
installation detail
Luminato Box, June 12, 2009
Sam Pollack Square, Toronto

Writing down the Gauntlet is one of those works that has remained rooted in my memory. I often find myself re-visiting the photographs I took of the installation when searching through iPhoto. There is something comforting but also disquieting about these distorted words woven into fabric in black and white.

Caitlin Erskine- Smith, Writing down the Gauntlet 2009
installation detail
Luminato Box, June 12, 2009
Sam Pollack Square, Toronto

Caitlin Erskine-Smith artistic practice focuses on the use of textiles to consider modern conflicts of identity, language and change. For Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, Erskine-Smith created Tug of Warp, on-site in Clarence Square, just south-east of the King Street West and Spadina Avenue intersection. This new work involved two separate looms placed 20 meters apart, at opposite ends of the park, attached to one another with threads of neon warp.

Caitlin Erskine-Smith, Tug of Warp 2009
Clarence Square. Toronto
Zone B, Independent Project
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 3, 2009

As the two artists simultaneously wove their weft threads through the warp, the looms were pulled ever slowly closer to one another reaching until they would meet in the centre. I visited Caitlin and Tug of Warp around midnight, at which point the looms had progressed about three meters inwards from their original starting positions. Despite the torrential downpour earlier in the evening, both artists were fervently weaving away in the midst of this quiet dark sanctuary, lit only by battery operated neon lights placed in the centre of the work and the ambient glow of the street-lights on Spadina.

Caitlin Erskine-Smith, Tug of Warp 2009
Clarence Square. Toronto
Zone B, Independent Project
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 3, 2009

Tug of Warp provided a wonderful and much-needed respite from the crowds, noise and spectacle of Nuit Blanche. Watching the shuttle filled with yarn shooting through the warp threads is rhythmic and soothing, but also somewhat life affirming as each pass of the shuttle turns individual threads into a piece of cloth.

Caitlin Erskine-Smith, Tug of Warp 2009
Clarence Square. Toronto
Zone B, Independent Project
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 3, 2009

One of the problems with events like Nuit Blanche and works such as Tug of Warp is that you only get to experience moments in time. With so much to see and only twelve over-night hours to do this in, one feels like one must always press on. I would have loved to see the looms meet as dawn approached and Clarence Square began to fill with light. But by then I was home and fast asleep.

Caitlin Erskine-Smith, Tug of Warp 2009
Clarence Square. Toronto
Zone B, Independent Project
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 3, 2009

Tug of Warp deals with issues of collaboration and communication. Each artist focuses on their own individual work, knowing that their work is connected and that the actions of each artist will affect the other as the looms get closer and tug against one another. Ultimately, the single piece must become two as the warp is cut freeing it from the two looms. I did wonder, what will happen to these two pieces of cloth? How different will they be and what qualities will they share? One thing I do know is that once again, Caitlin Erskine-Smith has created a work that not only engages the senses, but which prompts ongoing dialogue with itself and between the work, the artist(s) and viewer.

A second installment of Tug of Warp will be created as part of Nocturne in Halifax, October 17, 2009 at Pier 21. Writing down the Gauntlet will be exhibited as part of Ontario Craft '09 at the Ontario Craft Council Gallery in Toronto, November 12 - December 31, 2009.

Adrian Gollner's Safe as Houses - Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2009

I have always loved the behind-the-scenes aspect of the art world. I love the process of prepping an exhibition space and hanging a show, I love unpacking new work for a show, and I especially love witnessing the creative process of artists actually making work. While I love the art world I have also always had an interest in architecture, design and construction. So you can only imagine my delight when I was able to put on my hardhat and work boots and head to Panorama Tower at Concord City Place last Saturday morning, where Ottawa-based, Adrian Gollner was installing Safe as Houses a Zone B Independent Project for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche.

Adrian Gollner
Installation of Safe as Houses, Panorama Concord CityPlace
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 3, 2009

Gollner, an abstractionist at heart works with the notions of colour, form and texture. His site-specific works utilize these abstract qualities while playing with conceptual ideas that are both thought-provoking and accessible. Gollner wants his audience to think, but does not expect or demand them to read an intellectual essay in order to understand or appreciate his work.

Panorama Concord CityPlace

Toronto, ON

Toronto audiences are familiar with Gollner's work, even if they do not know Gollner himself. His recent projects include: Harbringer (2007) a LED light piece that signals the wind speed at the top of the 43-story Met Tower at Yonge and Carlton; View Screens (2006) which partially screen off the entrances and garage doors along Spadina Ave at Concord CityPlace; Warm by Night (2002 -) an on-going public art project at CityPlace illuminating the mechanical levels of the towers; and Cloud Bank (2006) a series of 24 sheer banners hung in the atrium of 1 King West which bring cloud imagery to the interior facing residential units which lack external views.

Light beacons
Spadina Ave. Toronto, ON

Safe as Houses was inspired by Adrian Gollner's childhood fascination with the light beacons he discovered on construction sites and roadways near his home. These pulsating light sources can provide a sense of comfort as they warn of possible danger ahead. The memory and images of these beacons has stayed with Gollner. While much of Gollner's public art and site-specific practice has utilized light, it is this installation for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche that presented the opportunity for him to finally fulfill a childhood dream.

Light beacons awaiting installation
Adrian Gollner, Safe as Houses
Panorama Concord CityPlace
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 3, 2009

In conceiving his project for Nuit Blanche, Gollner approached Concord Adex to find out if they would have any unoccupied buildings during the fall of 2009. They offered the 28 story elliptically shaped Panorama, which would be glazed, but still in the final stages of construction, and therefore unoccupied. Gollner wanted to explore the concept of "safe as houses," a British simile which refers to the concept of comfort, freedom from disturbances and the notion of being physically safe.

Adrian Gollner, Safe as Houses
installation view
Panorama Concord CityPlace
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 3, 2009

Panorama is clearly under-construction. The construction elevator scales the outside of the building, temporary fencing complete with danger signs enclose the unfinished balconies, and the individual suites are in varying stages of finish. All suggesting a feeling of impermanence and slight chaos, the antithesis of what is suggested by the term "safe as houses."

Jenna installing light beacons
Adrian Gollner, Safe as Houses
Panorama Concord CityPlace
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 3, 2009

I visited the site as Gollner and his crew were carefully attaching beacons on the temporary fences outside each suite of the tower. They had started on the twenty-eighth floor at 9 am, and I met up with them at 10:30 as they were just finishing floor twenty-four.

Jenna & Andrew installing light beacons
Adrian Gollner, Safe as Houses
Panorama Concord CityPlace
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 3, 2009

Each of the roughly 600 beacons had to be tested, turned on, put in place and then carefully tied to the fence with coated wire.

Adrian Gollner, Safe as Houses (detail of light beacon suspended above Gardiner Expressway)
Panorama Concord CityPlace
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 3, 2009

Gollner's vision was for these individual beacons to flood the individual suites with light as they strobe in asynchronous fashion. Viewed from a distance the building would sparkle as the individuals lights glow and dissolve, presenting a shifting pattern of light and shadow. Adrian Gollner hoped to challenge our notions of architectural permanence, the solidity of high-rise architecture as this building is transformed into a magical space of twinkling and pulsating light.

Adrian Gollner, Safe as Houses (installation detail)
Panorama Concord CityPlace
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 3, 2009e

My plans to view Safe as Houses as daylight turned to dusk were preempted by a fast-moving and intense rainstorm that threatened to dampen the spirit of Nuit Blanche. However, later that evening we veered off our Nuit Blanche route and headed to Front Street between Spadina and Bathurst for an unobstructed view of Safe as Houses.

Adrian Gollner, Safe as Houses
Panorama Concord CityPlace
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 4, 2009
Toronto, ON

Gollner's vision was a success. Panorama flickered, twinkled and pulsated softly. The building seemed at once alive, and at the same time as if it would disappear into the night.

Adrian Gollner, Safe as Houses
Panorama Concord CityPlace
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 4, 2009
Toronto, ON

It was interesting watching the beacons turn off and on. There was no logic, no set pattern and no consistency in colour. Some of the beacons seemed to burn brightly, while others softly and slowly pulsated. The result was beautiful, organic and magical.

Adrian Gollner, Safe as Houses
Panorama Concord CityPlace
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, October 4, 2009
Toronto, ON

New Exhibition at Brayham Contemporary Art -- Text-Based: Brown, Campbell, Juliusson, Koester, Will & ArtEXCHANGE

Text-Based

September 18 - November 1, 2009

Reception: Friday September 25th 7 - 9 PM

"Text-based" as a term is commonly associated with computer based applications where the primary input and outputs are text rather than graphics. Text-based applications are not void of graphics, but rather the graphics or images are typically secondary to the text.

For the artists featured in this exhibit, text is an important element in their work. Unlike text-based computer applications the imagery in these works is not secondary to the text, but rather the text plays an important role in the image creation process, making it not more important, but vitally integrated into the meaning, message and aesthetics of these works.

Steven James Brown, Waterbaby, 2002
C Print, 3/15 11 x 14"
(inspired by The Water-babies by Charles Kingsley)

Steven James Brown is fascinated by language as well as the aesthetics of individual words and the way words appear on the page. Brown's photographic images are a result of a meticulous and laborious process involving shredding and sorting, or cutting words from texts which he then arranges, manipulates or covers objects with before shooting with a large-format camera.

J. Lynn Campbell, Involution/Evolution, 1997
from Imprint(s) Series
Mixed-media on Japanese paper
18.5 x 30"

J. Lynn Campbell investigates issues of experiential knowledge and the symbolism associated with memory and meaning. She uses language, words, or text together with visual images, body imprints, and other visceral forms as a means of layering messages and meanings.

Svava Thordis Juliusson, Must Haves 1997
Pencil on Hyrdocal Plaster (installation detail)
Size varies

Svava Juliusson created her Must Haves in 1997 as a means to use personal narrative and anecdotes translating them into objects. What started as a list of domestic and mundane tasks and needs, takes on a greater significance of memory and relevance when cast in plaster and displayed like a valued plate collection.

James Koester, Of, 2000
Found baking sheet and phosphorescent wire
8" x 8"

James Koester's work focuses on the narrative and the poetic. The juxtaposition of found elements, text and sculptural form creates dialogue, demanding the viewers attention and challenging our cognitive and visual senses.

John Will, Trouble's Commin', 2003
Acrylic on canvas
16 x 20"

John Will's practice has evolved as an experiential autobiography. While highly personal, his colourful attention grabbing paintings draw the viewer into the work through the use of text that touches nerves as he tackles often controversial issues that the viewer can relate to.

ArtEXCHANGE, Declaration of the Imagination, 2007
Mixed-media
15 x 15"

ArtEXCHANGE, a project initiated by Toronto based artist Mary McKenzie working collaboratively with J. Lynn Campbell, Nina Leo, Susan Lukachko, Anne O'Callaghan and Keijo Tapanainen investigating the loss of control in art making. Text played an important role in the collaborative nature of this work adding a layer of narrative, discussion, or debate to the experience.


I am often asked what I look for when I look for artists or for new work. Text-Based looks at a common theme underlying the practice of many of the gallery artists. Do I particularly look for work that is text based? I would have to say no. But at some level I am drawn to work that successfully combines text and imagery. I like the additional layering of narrative, of meaning, of the poetics of one or two carefully chosen words, and like Steven James Brown I love language, text and the sound and look of individual words.

J. Lynn Campbell, Treaty 1995
Detail (1 of 20 chairs)
linen, embroidery on metal chair

Text-Based is on view through November 1, 2009. Please join us for a reception on Friday, September 25th from 7 - 9 PM. And in the spirit of artist interventions, animating public space and audience engagement and interaction look for J. Lynn Campbell's temporary installation of Treaty October 3rd as part of Text-Based Off-site at a location to be announced during Nuit Blanche.

Brayham Contemporary Art is located at:
1318 Queen St East. Toronto, ON M4L 1C5 647.435.7367
Gallery Hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday 12 - 5 and Thursday by chance.
We are also open by appointment or arrangement.

We are converting our website to a blog format which will allow us to keep information and news on our artists, exhibitions and events more current and relevant. You can find us soon at: http://www.brayhamcontemporaryartgallery.blogspot.com.

Fujiwara Takahiro in Toronto & Kitchener

As I was still installing the next exhibition in the gallery, I decided to take advantage of the fact that I was not open last Saturday and headed to the University of Toronto Art Centre to catch Fujiwara Takahiro's artist talk. Fujiwara Takahiro attracted the attention and captured the imagination of thousands with his work Into the Blue exhibited in the Toronto Eaton Centre as one of the Scotia Bank Nuit Blanche Zone A exhibitions in 2008.

Fujiwara Takahiro, Into the Blue, 2008
Acrylic polymer, helium
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Zone A
Curated by Gordon Hatt

Following the amazing audience response to Takahiro's work last year at Nuit Blanche, and anticipating the installation of his new work Trance Veil for CAFKA which opens in Kitchener this Friday September 18th, I expected to find a packed house for the talk hosted jointly by the University of Toronto Art Centre, CAFKA (Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener & Area), and Gendai Gallery. I was therefore, surprised and shocked to find the Art Lounge at the U of T Art Centre virtually empty when I arrived only moments before the talk was scheduled to begin.

Fujiwara Takahiro, Into the Blue, 2008
Acrylic polymer, helium
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Zone A
Curated by Gordon Hatt

As I have mentioned previously, I am interested in issues of audience engagement and involvement with the arts. So, why in a city with a population of close to 3 million was a talk by an international artist attracting less than a dozen individuals? Yes, it was a beautiful day. Yes, there is an abundance of competing and conflicting activities and events happening in the city at any given time. Yes, we all lead busy lives. But still - I could not help thinking, why are there so few people willing to take an hour out of their Saturday afternoons to hear what this interesting and exciting young Tokyo-based artist has to say?

Fujiwara Takahiro, Into the Blue, 2008
Acrylic polymer, helium
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche Zone A
Curated by Gordon Hatt

Fujiwara Takahiro is no stranger to Southern Ontario art audiences. His BEANS - Balloons was exhibited as part of the exhibition Big in Japan at the Cambridge Galleries Queen's Square in 2001, and traveling to the Liane and Danny Taran Gallery at the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts in early 2002 and to the Gendai Gallery in the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto in the spring of 2002.

Fujiwara Takahiro, Beans, 1998
Mizuma Art Gallery
Original photo courtesy of Fujiwara Takahiro. Copy from slide presentation September 13 2009

Fujiwara graduated from the Tokyo University of Art & Music where he majored in painting but found himself drawn towards 3D art work. He began experimenting with vinyl and other materials creating work that he referred to as erotic, cute and kitsch. Creating work that encourages audience interaction and engagement has been a consistent prevailing theme in his practice.

Fujiwara Takahiro, Beans, 1998
Mizuma Art Gallery
Original photo courtesy of Fujiwara Takahiro. Copy from slide presentation September 13 2009

Beans an exhibition of large brightly coloured vinyl jelly beans opened at the Mizuma Art Gallery in 1998. Fujiwara found that the key to attract and engage visitors was through work that was "cute" and playful. Visitors to the exhibit were encouraged to sit and lie down on the beans. The beans were also designed to light up when visitors pulled on the attached cords. By focusing on the visual experience, Fujiwara provided numerous points of entry into the work. Visitors to the gallery could either physically engage with the beans, or watch others engage by peering through slits cut out of the gallery walls.

Fujiwara Takahiro, Beans-BALLONS, 1999
Original photo courtesy of Fujiwara Takahiro. Copy from slide presentation September 13 2009

Expanding on the Beans concept, Takahiro created large transparent Beans-BALLOONS for the Big in Japan exhibition. These large scale transparent balloons invite the audience to fully engage with the work by entering inside the physical space. These large vinyl beans encouraged visitor interaction as they experienced the sense of being isolated and protected from the exterior world but at the same time connected. Takahiro explained that this work is highly personal and based on memories of his own childhood, when he liked to play inside seperating himself from others but still feeling connected as he watched what was going on around him. This colourful work which plays with elements of pop-culture, and childhood playfulness also delves deeper as it both amuses and forces the viewer to explore issues of private territory.

Throughout Takahiro's work there appears a connection between watching and being watched. His interest in audience interaction is thus translated into an exercise in understanding how we view the world around us by first examining and thinking about how we view ourselves. It is the perception of the gaze that appears to take on an increasingly more important role in his work.

Fujiwara Takahiro, Trance Veil artist sketch, 2009
Courtesy of the artist and CAFKA
http://www.cafka.info/

For Veracity, the 2009 incarnation of the CAFKA international biennale exhibition, Takahiro's Trance Veil will be installed in the Kitchener City Hall. Inspired by the image of falling water, Takahiro has created a mechanical substitute whose movement and colour will produce an impressionistic haze resembling a waterfall.

Personas and Metropath(ologies) at MIT: Google thinks it knows you!

I admit it, I subscribe to Google Alerts. Actually my Dad subscribed me as he thought I should be aware of what is being said out there about the gallery. So, pretty much each time I post something on the blog, or the gallery gets mentioned somewhere out there in cyber-space, I get a Google Alert message. It all seems a bit vain - but I do it anyway.

http://personas.media.mit.edu/personasWeb.html

So, naturally my curiosity was peaked when I heard about Personas, a web application that was created by Aaron Zinman as part of Metropath(ologies). Metropath(ologies) is a new installation created by MIT's Sociable Media Group as part of the exhibition Connections on view at the MIT Museum through September 9, 2009. The Sociable Media research group, part of the MIT Media Lab and directed by Judith Donath, investigates design-based issues concerning society and identity in our technologically mediated world. Connections one of the groups current projects looks at the social potential of new communications and technologies and the ramifications for the future.

Metropath(ologies) in an interactive installation integrating live and recorded data ranging from global news to personal data and private information. Visitors participate by entering their names in databases, allowing their image to be captured on surveillance cameras or recording their voices to be played back in the exhibition soundtrack. Personas a component of Metropath(ologies) uses sophisticated natural language processing and the Internet to create a data portrait of your online identity.

Once you enter your name, Personas scans the web for information attempting to characterize and fit you into a predetermined set of categories created through an algorithmic process. The computational process visualizes your profile at each stage of the analysis until you are presented with the final seemingly authoritative results.

http://personas.media.mit.edu/personasWeb.html

If you have ever Googled yourself, you are familiar with your particular, unique or typical hits. It is interesting observing just what Personas selects from the vast information repositories that exist.

http://personas.media.mit.edu/personasWeb.html

Each time I tried it the gallery profile looked different, even though it appeared to be searching the same sites.

http://personas.media.mit.edu/personasWeb.html

As the Personas website states: "It is meant for the viewer to reflect on our current and future world, where digital histories are as important if not more important than oral histories, and computational methods of condensing our digital traces are opaque and socially ignorant."

http://personas.media.mit.edu/personasWeb.html

I found the experience addictive, interesting but also a little unsettling. It made me think about how we segment bits of data and information; how easy it is to take words, thoughts, ideas and information out of context; about the vast amount of data that is out there for us to sort and shift through; and how we determine if the information that we find or can be found is accurate or even useful. So, I encourage you to log on and discover if the Internet really knows who you are.

Engaging Audiences at La Biennale di Venezia

I have been back in Toronto now for almost three weeks. This has given me time to think about and reflect on my experiences in and around Venice. It was an amazing nine days filled with art and architecture, but it was too short.

When first planning my trip, I contemplated whether I wanted to do a small pilot study for my research as I am interested in using blogs and other social media tools to capture audience experiences. The ethics officer at the university told me she had just returned from Italy and asked me how long I was going to spend in Venice. I replied that we were planning on 9 days. Her response was that this would be much too long as Venice is no more than a tourist trap and that we would be bored in 3 days.

I have decided that there are a number of different Venice experiences, just like there are a number of different Biennale experiences. Venice has a resident population of around 60,000 and caters to over 19 million tourists a year. That is 317 tourists for every resident. Piazza San Marco appears to be a tourist's ground zero.

Tourists & Cruise Ship, Basillica di San Marco and Palazzo Ducale
Venice, IT

The Piazza and the surrounding shopping streets are packed. At mid-day you can hardly move through the area. While there is no questioning the stunning beauty and historic significance of the Basillica di San Marco, the Palazzo Ducale and the Piazza itself, this is only a small part of Venice.

Gondolas docked near Academia Bridge
Venice, IT

While for some San Marco, a gondola ride, and shopping in the immediate area are Venice, for the general cultural tourist Venice includes the major historic and art sites which may include the Peggy Guggenheim Collection; various cathedrals, churches and palazzo; Murano; the Rialto Bridge and market, and possibly the Biennale.

Porta Magna, 1460
Arsenale
Venice, IT

For those wanting to truly experience the art and architecture of Venice one needs to get off the main tourist thoroughfares, put aside the Venice in a Day, or Top Ten Venice guidebooks and walk around discovering gems such as the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Francois Pinault's Palazzo Grassi and Punta Della Dogna; San Pietro di Castello; and the life, architecture and art found in the surrounding neighbourhoods.

Family Shrine, House in Castello District
Venice, IT

We decided to leave the Biennale for a weekday and visit the Peggy Guggenheim Collection on Saturday morning. After seeing the incredible line-ups at the various cultural attractions in and around San Marco, we thought we should get to the Guggenheim early. Arriving at a quarter to ten, we were the first in line. By ten o'clock when the doors opened approximately twenty to thirty people had joined us.

Alexander Calder, Sabot 1963
Sheet Metal, bolts, paint
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Venice, IT

Peggy Guggenheim had a wonderful eye and built an outstanding collection. After wandering through the permanent collection galleries which included numerous pivotal works by the masters of modern art, we headed across the courtyard to see Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts. I love Rauschenberg's work, so was very excited to see this exhibition. There are a lot of artists who work with found and recycled objects and materials, however, no one quite touches Rauschenberg's aesthetic and mastery of the medium. His Gluts were fabulous. It is moments like these that I wish I had a trust fund, a corporate job or some means with which to seriously collect art. As I don't, I was content to just look at and admire the work.

Robert Rauschenberg : Gluts Banner
Peggy Guggenheim Collection Courtyard
Venice, IT

As we walked through the galleries looking at and discussing the work, we noticed that we were for the most part alone. Where were all the people we encountered in the permanent collection galleries or who were taking each others photos in front of the sculptures in the courtyard? The girl at the front desk made a point of telling us that our tickets also included the Rauschenberg show and there was a big banner in the courtyard, outside the building and numerous posters around town. So - where were all the people?

Edge of Arabia: Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia Courtyard
Palazzo Contarini Dal Zaffo Polignac
Venice, IT

Leaving the Guggenheim we headed towards the Accademia Bridge as we had noticed a banner and signage for the exhibit Edge of Arabia: Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia from both the Vaporetto and when walking around the area a few nights previously. The street that runs between the Peggy Guggenheim and the Gallerie dell' Accademia is typically busy with tourists and shoppers. We followed the alley leading off the street towards the Palazzo Contarini Dal Zaffo Polignac the venue for Edge of Arabia and once again found ourselves alone within a fabulous courtyard and 15th Century renaissance building looking at some interesting and amazing art.

Ceiling Detail, Palazzo Contarini Dal Zaffo Polignac
Edge of Arabia: Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia
Venice, IT

I found Edge of Arabia to be a compelling and thought-provoking exhibition. Organized to coincide with La Biennale di Venezia, this exhibition featuring the work of seventeen contemporary artists from Saudi Arabia, was not an official Biennale event. Having just seen Rauschenberg's Gluts, I was immediately drawn to Ayman Yossri Daydban's Flag. Constructed from a salvaged metal road-sign, Yossri has fashioned this work in the shape of the Palestinian flag.

Ayman Yossri Daydban, Flag, 2002
Mixed Media
Edge of Arabia: Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia
Venice, IT

This work is powerful, poetic and poignant. Symbolic but also striking in its simplicity. Discarded road signs, such as the one used here by Yossri often cover the roofs, walls and doors of the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria and Jordan.

Manal Al-Dowayan, Safety First from The Choice 2005-07
Black & White Photograph
Edge of Arabia: Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia
Venice, IT

The series The Choice by photographer Manal Al-Dowayan, portrays heavily veiled and made-up women, from the Eastern Province where she lives, holding or wearing paraphernalia or objects from various male professions.

Maha Malluh, Spare Time from Tradition & Modernity 2008
Photogram - Lambda Print, 75 x 95 cm
Edge of Arabia: Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia
Venice, IT

Using the photogram, one of the oldest forms of photography, Maha Malluh juxtaposes various personal objects from her home and studio in a study of contrasts inspired and drawn from the contrasting images and ideas of life in modern Saudi Arabia.

Edge of Arabia: Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia installation view
Maha Malluh, Spare Time 2008 (front gallery) Ayman Yossri Daydban, Maharem (Tissues) 2008 (back gallery)
Palazzo Contarini Dal Zaffo Polignac
Venice, IT

Edge of Arabia presented a study of contrasts. The contemporary work of these young Saudi artists set against the historic Venetian palace, and their contemporary ideas and practices bound in the history and tradition of their culture.

Edge of Arabia: Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia
detail from Palm Tree Guest Book
Palazzo Contarini Dal Zaffo Polignac
Venice, IT

As we visited various Collateral Events associated with La Biennale di Venezia our experience of being alone with the art repeated itself again and again. While this was good for us, I wondered with all the tourists, especially art and cultural tourists here in Venice, why are there apparently so few people venturing away from the recommended attractions and well-travelled streets to find the interesting and often wonderful little exhibitions hidden away in almost every corner of the city?

Alexander Ponomarev, Subtiziano 2009
Grand Canal
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

I first noticed Alexander Ponomarev's site-specific installation Subtiziano in the dark one night when we cruised past it on the Vaporetto. Was I the only one that noticed the brightly coloured submarine floating in the Grand Canal? But then no one seemed to be paying attention to what looked like an Oldenburg across the canal at the Palazzo Grassi either.

Palazzo Grassi
Venice, IT

In fairness, Venice can present the visitor, even the serious art lover with an overwhelming feeling of sensory overload. There is so much to see with art and architecture everywhere. But as I wandered through the galleries, exhibitions and the Biennale I kept returning to the question of what does the general public and more specifically the art audience find interestinga, and how do we create experiences that fully engage the audience?

Visitors in Arsenale
La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

I also wondered, is there a typical Biennale visitor? The opening weekend is a flurry of artworld activity: International collectors, dealers, curators, artists and critics network, make deals and party. But who attends the Biennale during the remaining six months? As we walked through the exhibition halls, and pavillions I tried to be conscious of the audience and the visitor experience. While I noticed a few individuals taking detailed notes in their programs and notebooks; and others who intently studied, discussed and looked at the work; many individuals seemed to be disengaged, aimlessly walking through, glancing at but not really looking at the work.

Line-ups formed as the day progressed for the exhibitions that were deemed to be must-sees: Bruce Nauman's Topological Gardens for the United States Pavilion, Steve McQueen in the British Pavilion and the Russian Pavilion Victory over the Future all in the Giardini. However, there were numerous exhibitions that actively engaged the audience: some encouraged interactivity, others through their pure aesthetics, while others created environments that the audience could watch, move through and experience.

Aleksandra Mir, VENEZIA (all places contain all others) 2009
100 Originals x print run 10,000 each, Full Colour front, B/W back
Arsenale
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

Aleksandra Mir's practice takes the form of social processes that derive their meaning from those engaging with the work. For the Biennale Mir selected 100 images of waterscapes from places around the world and then worked with a graphic designer to incorporate the word VENEZIA in typical postcard typefaces across each image. 1,000,000 of these postcards were printed for free distribution to Biennale visitors at both the Giardini and the Arsenale. To encourage further worldwide distribution of these cards, Mir arranged for a real Poste Italian mailbox as well as the sale of stamps in the exhibition area.

Aleksandra Mir, VENEZIA (all places contain all others) 2009
100 Originals x print run 10,000 each, Full Colour front, B/W back
Arsenale
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

I watched as visitors carefully examined and selected postcards from the boxes placed on pallets in the Arsenale or from postcard racks adjacent to the Giardini cafe and bookshop. Mir's work actively engaged the audience as they carefully examined and selected the postcards that they would send on to friends and family or to hold onto as keepsakes for themselves.

William Forsythe, The Fact of Matter / Choreographic Object 2009

Arsenale

53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

Choreographer and dancer William Forsythe created a visually appealing installation in an outbuilding in the back garden area of the Arsenale. Forsythe suspended two hundred gymnastic rings at various heights throughout the space actively inviting the viewer to experience the space. A sign at the entrance reads: " The use of the rings to traverse the space is recommended but entirely at the user's own risk. Two persons maximum are allowed to hang onto the rings at any given time!"

William Forsythe, The Fact of Matter / Choreographic Object 2009

Arsenale

53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

Traversing the space using the rings required balance, patience, agility, and strength. It also demanded contemplation and planning - an act of choreography. I used wearing a dress and sandals as my excuse for not fully experiencing this work, however I found that simply weaving through the space you could appreciate the sensory experience of the play of light and the dancing movement of the rings.

Madelon Vriesendorp, MIND-GAMES, 2009
Visitor interacting with theiInstallation
Arsenale
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

For Madelon Vriesendorp audience engagement and interaction is integral to her work in the Biennale. For MIND-GAMES she created a human-scale dollhouse / stage set complete with oversized iconic objects to be moved around, composed and analysed by her audience / collaborators. Her work thus becomes a collaboration between the individual who enters her space to re-compose the objects, the watching audience, the casual passer-by and the artist herself. It was fascinating watching various individuals enter her space, carefully considering and contemplating the objects as they moved them around the space, making it their own. It was an experience that somehow blended the act of watching a young girl play with her dolls and dollhouse and a game of chess.

Paul Chan, Sade for Sade's Sake (still), 2009
Three channel digital animation, 5 hour 45' loop
Arsenale
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

Paul Chan's Sade for Sade's Sake appeared to captivate and engage the viewing audience as they watched the interaction between the larger than life human figures and abstract shapes in this digital animation. Chan's shadow projection animated the Arsenale wall with its rhythmic structure and content invoking the writings of the Marquis de Sade and creating dialogue between the animated figures and the audience.

Paul Chan, Sade for Sade's Sake (still), 2009
Three channel digital animation, 5 hour 45' loop
Arsenale

Watching the audience interact with or engage with various artworks seemed to be as much about how the work functioned in the space as it did with the actual work. Lygia Pape's Tteia,I, C is breathtaking. The gold threads glisten in the darkened space and are juxtaposed against and transform the brick columns and walls. This work reflects her extensive research into three-dimensionality and is an elegant and beautiful example of the effective use of light, architecture and space.

Lygia Pape, Tteia, I, C, 2002
Installation gold thread in square forms
Arsenale
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

Los Angeles based artist Pae White explores the relationship between art, design, architecture, the decorative, and applied arts in her site-specific installations.

Pae White, Installation ceiling detail, 2009
Arsenale
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

Using coloured string and light fixtures she created out of Terra cotta, birdseed, steel, epoxy and cable; White created a magical surreal world, a colourful bird cage like environment engaging her audience as they walked through and become one with the transformed space.

Pae White, Unicorno, 2009
Epoxy,bulbs, steel, cable
Arsenale
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

Bernar Venet's monumental installation The Arc Hypothesis commands a mammoth warehouse space in the Arsenale Novissimo. Using heated and cooled iron and steel Venet has created rigid arc's upon which the scientific measurements are stamped. The experience of walking amongst these massive metal forms was reminiscent of my first encounter with Richard Serra's Torqued Ellipses at the DIA Center for the Arts, New York. I will never forget the experience of walking through Serra's work as the light faded around us. Like Serra, Venet balances the strength and rigidity of the steel with his graceful and elegant arcs. As you walk amongst the forms you feel small, human and in awe. There is a tension between the organic shapes and the industrial materials, and between the massive weight of the material and the way the forms balance almost floating on the surface.

Bernar Venet, 215.5º arc x 28
The Arc Hypothesis
The Arsenale Novissimo
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

Simon Starling's work Wilhelm Noack oHG in the Giardini engaged the audience on numerous levels. The spiral kinetic structure on which the film was looped was elegant and sculptural, and provided an interesting and appropriate counterpoint to the film projection that documented the making of the sculpture and an intimate portrait of the workers in the metal fabrication plant in Berlin.

Simon Starling, Wilhelm Noack oHG, 2006

Purpose built loop machine, 35 mm film projector, 35 mm b/w film with sound
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia

Tomas Saraceno's practice focuses on his ongoing interest in utopian theories and astronomical constellations which is manifested in his innovative architectural based projects and structures. His Galaxies Forming along Filaments, like Droplets along the Strands of a Spider's Web commands the large exhibition space in the Giardini's Palazzo delle Esposizioni.

Tomas Saraceno, Galaxies Forming along Filaments, like Droplets along the Strands of a Spider's Web 2009
Elastic ropes
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

Like the spider webs found in nature, this black web is a beautiful complex feat of engineering and artistry. Just as an actual web is designed to attract and capture flies and other insects, Saraceno's web acted as an audience magnet. It was extremely difficult to capture an image of the work without someone weaving their way through the space, taking photos of the work, or just looking in wonder. The work appeared to capture the attention and engage the audience on a variety of levels.

Tomas Saraceno, Galaxies Forming along Filaments, like Droplets along the Strands of a Spider's Web 2009
Elastic ropes
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

I keep asking myself what makes a successful exhibition, installation or artwork? How important is audience interest and engagement? Who is the audience? Should artists, curators, and institutions be concerned with creating works or exhibitions that really engage our audiences? And if we are concerned with audience engagement, how do we facilitate and encourage this?

Tomas Saraceno, Galaxies Forming along Filaments, like Droplets along the Strands of a Spider's Web 2009
Elastic ropes
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Giardini
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

I can not speak as an artist, only as a curator, researcher and individual. I have to admit that there is something incredibly powerful about work that can capture and hold an audiences attention. Where the viewing audience can interact with and engage with the work and the experience. Works like Saraceno's, Venet's and Pape's do this. The viewer gets immersed in the space and with the work.

However, this is not the only way to engage an audience. Work that is smaller, more subtle, more intimate can be just as powerful and engaging, however, these works often need to placed in a context that facilitates this different type of interaction. One of the problems with experiences like La Biennale di Venezia is that there is so much art that it can become overwhelming and tiring.

I gave myself one day to view the Arsenale and one for the Giardini. I went through all the exhibitions, however, I don't feel that I really saw everything. As interested as I was, I found that after about three hours I was looking at but not fully engaging with the work I saw. I began holding the video presentations to a new set of criteria "...if you can't grab my attention in the first 10 seconds, I am moving on..." Is this fair? Is this the right way to look at art? No - but is it reality? Sadly, often yes!

I began to have little patience for exhibitions that were dirty; that had run out of collateral material; where sections were closed or out of order; for walls that had never been patched or painted; or for didactic material and labels that were printed in miniscule fonts, placed at a height that would only suit a toddler, or in the dark. And what exactly was the role of the gallery / exhibition attendants who would not look up from their laptops or remove the iPods from their ears to so much as greet or acknowledge anyone entering the space?

I am certainly not advocating that artists should start creating work with a specific or intended audience in mind, however, I do find it interesting to watch how audiences react to and interact with various forms, types and presentations of art. As a gallerist / curator I do feel that I have an obligation to the public or audience to make the art viewing experience accessible, interesting and even educational. The question remains what is the best means to do this? What does the public expect, need, and want and how does this connect to what is happening in the artworld today?

The POOL NYC: New Ideas at La Biennale di Venezia

I seemed to frequent the Academia Vaporetto stop more than any other. This was partially due to the conference I was attending, partly because this was a good central stop for visiting the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Palazzo Grassi and the new Punta Della Dogana, and also as it allowed us to access this part of Venice without fighting the crowds around the Piazza San Marco.

Academia Bridge
Venice, IT

Each time I got off the Vaporetto, I noticed these little red stickers on the ground that simply said POOL NYC. They appeared to be leading in the general direction of the Palazzo Grassi, but where and for what was unclear and a bit intriguing.

Kristina Norman, Gold Soldier from installation After-War, 2009
Estonian Pavilion
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

As we headed toward the Palazzo Grassi, we visited the Slovenia, Luxembourg, Estonia, Cyprus and Iranian Pavilions organized as part of the 53rd La Biennale di Venezia Collateral Events. While Kristina Norman's complex installation After-War in the Estonian Pavillion was particularly moving and compelling, we found both the Cyprus and Iranian Pavilions somewhat disappointing.

Installation view
Cyprus Pavillion
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

I have to admit that the large black and white photographs of snakes in the Cyprus Pavilion and the signs "Beware of snakes" probably had a lot to do with this. I was however, intrigued by the way they used their space. Rather than utilizing the existing architecture of the space, the exhibit designer constructed natural plywood walls that were actually quite simple and sculptural and although I had fallen in love with the traditional Venetian brick and stone interiors was a welcome change.

The POOL NYC
San Samuele , Ramo Malipiero
Venice, IT

After encountering more red Pool NYC stickers we came upon The Pool NYC banner. The banner was somewhat reminiscent of the ones that they used at outdoor pools when I was growing up to direct you towards the proper swim classes, but in this case was directing you towards more art.

The POOL NYC
Courtyard
San Samuele , Ramo Malipiero
Venice, IT

The POOL NYC was located in a delightful Italian courtyard adjacent to the magnificent formal gardens of the Palazzo Malipiero. The walls of the two story gallery space were whitewashed, and arranged with a delightful selection of tiny abstract and word collaged paintings. While there were no text panels or labels within the exhibition, ample printed material was available on the tables and desk in the courtyard.

Tania Pistone, Untitled
July 28 - August 8, 2009
The POOL NYC
San Samuele , Ramo Malipiero
Venice, IT

The POOL NYC was another of these unofficial Biennale exhibitions. As I read through their material we discovered that the work on exhibition belonged to Torinese artist Tania Pistone. For this exhibition, Pistone has created a body of work inspired by the writing of the 19th Century Swiss writer Robert Walser who was known for his playful texts that hid his existential fears.

Tania Pistone, Untitled
July 28 - August 8, 2009
The POOL NYC
San Samuele , Ramo Malipiero
Venice, IT

Tania Pistone has created these minature works as a means to challenge every millimeter of space producing a compact and essential pictorial plane.

Tania Pistone, Untitled
July 28 - August 8, 2009
The POOL NYC
San Samuele , Ramo Malipiero
Venice, IT

Using dense layers of colour, tints, glue, paper and varnish Pistone creates intricate abstract collages as a means to absorb life without being disturbed. In much the same way that Walser hid behind his words and his work throughout his lifetime.

Tania Pistone, Untitled
July 28 - August 8, 2009
The POOL NYC
San Samuele , Ramo Malipiero
Venice, IT

Tania Pistone's exhibition was the final of five exhibitions organized to coincide with the Biennale and presented by The POOL NYC in Venice, IT. Other artists' exhibited included: Eteri Chkadua, Fabio Viale, Daniel Glaser & Magdelena Kunz and Andrea Salvatori.

Tania Pistone, Untitled
July 28 - August 8, 2009
The POOL NYC
San Samuele , Ramo Malipiero
Venice, IT

I found these small works intriguing, beautiful and almost jewel like. They were colourful and playful, but at the same time quiet and precious. The intimate scale forced me to get close, to examine, to look and to think about the connection between her marks, the colours, and the words, as well as the relationship between the work and the exhibition space.

Tania Pistone, Untitled
July 28 - August 8, 2009
The POOL NYC
San Samuele , Ramo Malipiero
Venice, IT

The POOL NYC is a brand new itinerant gallery founded by four friends and colleagues (Luigi Franchin, Kristin Gary, Fabrizio Moretti and Viola Romoli) from different parts of the world, all of whom bring divergent backgrounds and experiences but share a love of contemporary art.

Tania Pistone, Untitled
July 28 - August 8, 2009
The POOL NYC
San Samuele , Ramo Malipiero
Venice, IT

I met Viola Romoli, who passionately explained the concept, inspirations, hopes and dreams surrounding their new gallery venture. Based in New York City, The POOL NYC does not have an official permanent gallery space, as the world is their space. Founded earlier this year, their goal is promote avant-garde artists through a network of international exhibitions. As they state in their Manifesto they are ..."everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The necessity to be in one place and then quickly in another is the dominating influence in this century, and The POOL NYC embraces that peripatetic nature."

Tania Pistone, Untitled
July 28 - August 8, 2009
The POOL NYC
San Samuele , Ramo Malipiero
Venice, IT

The idea of a nomadic gallery has engaged my imagination for years. After finishing my MBA, I should have been focusing on securing a nice corporate position with stock options and other benefits, instead I put my energies into creating newARTspace. My initial ambitions were more regional than international, however newARTspace was designed to bring contemporary art into the community. The plan was to find temporary unique, interesting and forgotten venues and have artists respond to the space by creating new or reworked installations. The idea was great - I had both start-up funding, initial venues and artists, but my timing was off as the community had just changed its structure for arts funding. So, I put this idea on the back-burner and headed off to another museum director / curator position.

Tania Pistone, Untitled
July 28 - August 8, 2009
The POOL NYC
San Samuele , Ramo Malipiero
Venice, IT

As I look at the changing ways in which we market, exhibit, sell and promote contemporary art, I often wonder if the traditional permanent bricks and mortar gallery space is really the best way to go? So, I was very intrigued and inspired by what Viola and her colleagues are doing and was glad that I was able to meet her and see this, their first incarnation of The POOL NYC before it moves on to its next venue.

Viola indicated that they were headed to India - which seemed very brave and adventurous - and I noticed that they will be back in Venice at the Lido di Venezia, September 2 - October 14, 2009 for OPEN 12: The International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations. I wish Viola Romoli, her colleagues and artists tremendous success and know I will be following their activities on their transnational art adventures.

PAK Sheung Cheun, Installation view, Making (Perfect) World, 2009
Arsenale, Campo della Tana
Collateral Exhibition
53rd La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, IT

As I wandered the streets and alleys of Venice discovering the multitude of official and unofficial exhibition venues in storefronts, churches, courtyards, second, third and even fourth floor walk-ups, in decrepit buildings, stunning palazzos, corporate offices, military outposts, hotels and floating in the canals it opened up creative possibilities in thinking about how we look at, experience and exhibit art. I have never been convinced that the permanent white box is the only and best way to go, now my mind wanders over the countless possibilities that exist if one is willing to take a chance and step away from the expected.