Felice Varini | Point of view

Posted on 05/05/2011 by W&V

Felice Varini was born in 1952 in Locarno, Switzerland. and currently lives in Paris. He creates fascinating optical art.
His field of action is architectural and urban space and everything that constitutes such spaces. These spaces are and remain the original media for his painting. He works “on site”, each time in a different space and his work develops itself in relation to the spaces he encounters. The paintings are characterized by geometric shapes and by a single vantage point from which the viewer can see the complete painting, while various ‘broken’ fragmented shapes are seen from various other view points.

Felice Varini about his work:

“I generally roam through the space noting its architecture, materials, history and function. From these spatial data and in reference to the last piece I produced, I designate a specific vantage point for viewing from which my intervention takes shape.

The vantage point is carefully chosen: it is generally situated at my eye level and located preferably along an inevitable route, for instance an aperture between one room and another, a landing… I do not, however, make a rule out of this, for all spaces do not systematically possess an evident line. It is often an arbitrary choice. The vantage point will function as a reading point, that is to say, as a potential starting point to approaching painting and space.

The painted form achieves its coherence when the viewer stands at the vantage point.When he* moves out of it, the work meets with space generating infinite vantage points on the form. It is not therefore through this original vantage point that I see the work achieved; it takes place in the set of vantage points the viewer can have on it.

If I establish a particular relation to architectural features that influence the installation shape, my work still preserves its independence whatever architectural spaces I encounter. I start from an actual situation to construct my painting. Reality is never altered, erased or modified, it interests and seduces me in all its complexity. I work “here and now”.”

Photos by: Felice Varini | Video by: Christophe Loizillon | Felice Varini website

Claudia Rogge | individualism, reproducibility and mass

Posted on 03/01/2011 by W&V

In the contemporary art scene, German artist Claudia Rogge is an exceptional person. She continually photographs crowds of practically identical people , all dressed in the same way and holding the same pose to create a unique mass identity. Arranged either in repetition, tessellation or in choreographed groups, her figures represent the unique little tiles that form an intricate mosaic. Man himself turns into a pattern, into an ornament. At the same time there is the question of whether the conceptual classification is justified. Are they really patterns or ornaments? Might they not simply be masses or forms? It seems, however, that we can cope best with the conceptual term of pattern.

Although Claudia Rogge shows us patterns, her works no longer shows an indistinct and homogeneous element but one made up of minuscule differences that need to be sought out carefully in each single photograph. The disposition of the persons depicted reminds spectators of their own movements and postures, which are no mere coincidences but basic dimensions of the sense of social direction. Postures and emotions correspond with each other. Analysing the body language is helpful for a better understanding of other people. Claudio Rogge plays with perception, which she carries on. She shows her wish to bring things closer together in terms of space and time. “If you pause motionless”, says photographer Robert Doisneau, “people will look at you.”

This is one of the elements which makes Claudia Rogge´s pictures so attractive. A motionlessness that repeats itself and thus appears to be movement within stillness.They can be approached in the same way one would approach a still life. With Vermeer, says philosopher Paul Virilio, the living world corresponds with a still life. With Claudia Rogge it seems the same yet with a slight difference: she has raised the living world of mere illusion to the status of an art icon. Our age, in which the mass media are left to themselves, has accomplished the step from the necessary to the superfluous. Claudia Rogge turns our gaze back to the aesthetic glossy print with its mass of people returning to us the individual within us.

Photos by Claudia Rogge | Claudia Rogge website | Sources: Marianne Hoffmann

Diary 280710

Posted on 28/07/2010 by W&V

Designer diary photo (snapshots) entry.

WARMENHOVEN & VENDERBOS | Diary 280710

Conceptual Art and Installations by Michael Johansson

Posted on 12/03/2010 by W&V

In his conceptual installations and sculptures Michael Johansson puts the qualities from daily life objects in opposition to their field of application. By repetition, displacement of scale, and new function, he questions the receivers interpretations of the unique. The objects are frozen in their new shape - while the function is displayed, the functionality is taken away.

Michael Johansson about his work: “I am fascinated by flea markets. Walking around to find doubles of seemingly unique, though often useless, objects I have already purchased at another flea market, is not only an inquisitive activity for me but part of my working process. Despite the fact that I did not have any use for most of these objects in the first place, the unlikeliness of discovering them twice in two different places makes the desire for their possession irresistible. The unique and the unknown origin of the object increases my wish to own its double. The rules compelling me in selecting things at flea markets are also central to my art practice. Engaging directly with these objects, manipulating them, juxtaposing them against each other or representing them in a new context is my method of work. Through out my different explorations of the potentials of my collection of found and acquired things, one has been to free objects from their function. By forcing these objects into contexts in which their functional qualities are put into opposition with their field of application, the objects are stripped of their meaning for existence. In a series of work I have assembled objects connected to a certain place, for example a kitchen or a living room, into a cubic geometrical unit. The collected items, originally gathered from hundreds of different homes, are precisely stacked into the empty spaces of other larger items, a process that repeats itself until all the objects are carefully packed into one single tight sculptural form. This transformation addresses questions about history, life and space. The sculptures hold stories of compressed worlds from a time gone by, and the function has been forced to give in for the notions of color and shape.”