Body Pressure | Conceptual performance art by Bruce Nauman

Posted on 15/08/2011 by W&V

Body Pressure is an art piece by Bruce Nauman from 1974 which basically is a mix between conceptual text art and performance art. The work invites the spectator to become the performer. The physical form of the work is a simple poster which serves more as an igniter as it gives the performers a set of typed out instructions for merging their bodies with an architectural surface. Body Pressure is, aside from the physical experience, also a mental journey which challenges the performers to think about the physical aspects and limitations of their own bodies and travel beyond these limitations in their minds.

Below follows the text of the poster:

Body Pressure

Press as much of the front surface of
your body (palms in or out, left or right cheek)
against the wall as possible.

Press very hard and concentrate.

Form an image of yourself (suppose you
had just stepped forward) on the
opposite side of the wall pressing
back against the wall very hard.

Press very hard and concentrate on the image pressing very hard.

(the image of pressing very hard)
press your front surface and back surface
toward each other and begin to ignore or
block the thickness of the wall. (remove
the wall)

Think how various parts of your body
press against the wall; which parts
touch and which do not.

Consider the parts of your back which
press against the wall; press hard and
feel how the front and back of your
body press together.

Concentrate on the tension in the muscles,
pain where bones meet, fleshy deformations that occur under pressure; consider
body hair, perspiration, odors (smells).

This may become a very erotic exercise.

Work by Bruce Nauman | Photos by Bruce Nauman, top: Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, centre: Jacob Birken

Tony Orrico | Penwald | conceptual performance art

Posted on 13/04/2011 by W&V

Fascinating pieces of conceptual performance art by Tony Orrico. In his Penwald series he combines dance with visual art. The drawings are basically remains, memories and a historical archive from the live performances. Tony Orrico displays moves that express different characteristics of his varied line-making. His movements show a contradiction between the restrictions/ limitations of his body and at the same time they display the freedom within this confined space of his body movements but also in the emotion and intensity he uses to put the lines on the surface of his “canvas”. The contradiction can also be found back in the relation of virtual eternal lines and the depletion of his tools (graphite,crayon or felt-tipped pen).

Some of the Penwald works remind us of leonardo Da Vinci’s iconic, classically proportioned Vitruvian Man with his arms outstretched to each side. However Tony Orrico basically is the Vitruvian Man in action. In the below video Tony Orrico performs a graphite drawing of 8 circles. Each circle is drawn by four patterns consisting of 31.25 efforts each, 1,000 efforts total. The roll is measured by the torso and one arm. This event took place at PlacMark, a residency and performance space in Hudson, NY.

Video and photos by: Tony Orrico | Top and bottom detail photo by Peter Cox | Tony Orrico 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

Fourteen actors acting | A video gallery of classic screen types

Posted on 13/12/2010 by W&V

The New York Times published a video gallery in which 14 famous actors who defined cinema in 2010 capture classic screen types. The performers including Natalie Portman, Matt Damon, Robert Duvall, Noomi Rapace, Jennifer Lawrence and Anthony Mackie act out a number of fascinating, almost surreal and very interesting scenes. The videos where directed by Solve Sundsbo, set to a score by Canadian composer Owen Pallett of “Final Fantasy” and “The Arcade Fire”.

Solve Sundsbo’s clients as a fashion photographer have included Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Dolce & Gabbana. The videos accompany the black-and-white portrait series which Solve Sundsbo shot for “The Scene Makers: Actors Who Defined Cinema in 2010,” in the Hollywood Issue of The New York Times Magazine. These short clips portray not only the art, but also the joy and power of performance.

Please visit the New York Times magazine gallery to find all movies.

Photos and video Solve Sundsbo | Music by Owen Pallett | New York Times magazine

Diary 061210 | Vernissage Verbeke Foundation november 2010

Posted on 06/12/2010 by W&V

The above video gives a snapshot impression from the vernissage of various new exhibitions at the Verbeke Foundations of modern avantgarde art.

One of the fascinating exhibitions is Certified Copy.
In a world where numerous multinationals multiply data banks destined to the patented reproduction of genetic information, the Verbeke Foundation organised an exhibition on the notions of copying and cloning. The exhibition unites the works of over twenty international contemporary artists, like for example: L.A. Raeven, Jonas Vansteenkiste and Janieta Eyre, who are concerned in the question of the reproduction of living and lifeless materials.

From delftware from the museum of Leiden over the masterpieces of Hirst, Murakami or Cattelan, to fluorescent transgenic fishes, all presented works give us the possibility to draw a parallel between both contemporary artistic and scientific practices. The characters of the Coco Chanel logo on the exhibition poster also evoke daily counterfeited products, and the expressions of Certified Copy, Carbon Copy and Creative Commons. In fact, the exhibition adopts a critical viewpoint on the motivations for reproducing works and living organisms, and on the stipulations of this reproduction in our globalised society.

Further exhibitions which opened at the vernissage are a retrospective of the works created by Mark Verstockt, Trou de Ville and De Wolkenbreier(s).

Certified copy, Mark Verstockt and Trou de Ville will run until 10th of April 2011.
Wolkenbreier(s) will run untill the 30th of Januari 2011.