Thursday, June 13, 2013

Kevin Hijacks Blog

I know what you're all thinking, readers: "How does Kevin feel about all this art?"  Well wonder no more. After having a day off so I could rediscover my appreciation for art I am now at a point where I can reflect on what I've seen at the Biennale.

First, nobody doesn't like Sarah Sze.  I begged Karen to use that line in her post.  She thought it was less than hilarious.  She is wrong.  Sarah Sze made my head spin, and all I can say is that it will take two years from the closing of this Biennale for someone to clean up all the (expletive) that Ms. Sze used in creating her pieces.  I guess she has something going, though; her piece at Art Basel sold within minutes of the fair opening for an undisclosed five-figure amount.

Ai Weiwei had an impressive use of stuff as well.  His piece entitled "Bang" consisted of 886 three-legged wooden stools.  We did not count the stools, so I will take the artist's word for it.


Mr. Weiwei (Mr. Ai?) is probably alluding to his time in exile away from China.  He has a lot of time to sit and think.

I also enjoyed a piece called "Venetians" by Pawel Althamer.  Pawel tricked a bunch of locals to be dipped in hot plastic and then he used their likenesses to create this:



Pawel is a known user of LSD, peyote and other hallucinogens.  I do not necessarily think this has any relevance to this piece, but you never know.

Walter De Maria also makes my list of highlights.  Walter and I go way back to an art trip from 2009.  To refresh your memory of Walt, click here.



While this piece did not possess the danger of electrocution of some of his past work, I did think it was impressive and fit the space nicely.

Lastly, I thoroughly enjoyed the work of Peter Fishli and David Weiss.  They had a room at Il Palazzo Enciclopedico.  Their work consisted of approximately 180 sculptures of unfired clay.  The subject matter ranged from depictions of "opposites" to famous people (Pythagorus discovering his theory) to landscape scenes.



One of those scenes called "Tourist Attraction" spoke to me in volumes:


I know what that guy is thinking: "This is A LOT of art, but SO MUCH FUN that I will happily pose for another picture."

That's all for now as Karen is due back from the art fair at any moment.
-Kevin

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