One considers how although a file room is something that most people keep hidden,  these pictures expose it.  Unlike the previous photographic series, these images , although connected and building upon the viewer’s knowledge of the physical space and concepts communicated, can also stand alone.  When one walks along each image provides a different space of the room and the images succesively build on one’s knowledge of the place and ideas depicted.  The artist found interesting forms and play of light and shadow in the clutter of the filing room.  The concept of a cluttered filing room has the potential of being referential to the viewer.  Do I have an internal cluttered filing room in my memory?  The inclusion of the window in several of these black and white images both provides a light source and speaks to me of a world that exists outside of this file room.

Ryan Gander from London, England produced the piece pictured above entitled Out of Sight (All on my own).  This piece is located in the Arsenale at Venice Biennial Art 2011.  The figures are reproductions of a Degas ballerina and are juxtaposed (along with the blue cubes and white plinths) to appear as mirror images.

The instillation and title begin reflections concerning isolation and the effect that has on the way we percieve the world around us.   The artist did not create his own figurative  sculptural design, but refers to Degas ballerinas.   It was a particular choice.  Are the two blocks juxtaposed to keep the figure company, or do they trap the her?  Maybe they hide the figure?  Also the figure is kneeling on the ground.  Do we look down upon this compilation or join it on the ground in order to empathize with what is going on?  When one is on their own, are they really alone?   Are their multiple parts to a person?  Does looking into oneself keep someone from percieving the rest of the world that is around one?  Interesting questions arise from ones contemplation of this piece.

One artist whose work caught my eye in the Arsenal at ILLUMInations, the Venice Biennale 2011, was German artist Annette Kelm.

Kelm showed several series of photographs.  The particular one that interested me was entitled Driftwood Lamp, a series of six images of a drift wood lamp on a white background.

If the photographs are read in a western manner from left to right, then we see the ‘lamp’ which becomes a piece of drift wood in our mind, move back, and forth, then down , and up.  These minute changes cause the wood to hover almost as if it was drifting, not falling.  It seems suspended in space as if it was floating.  The lack of shadows in the images take the subject out of our understanding of space and time.  The images become about rhythm and motion.  Although the lamp moves dramatically back and forth, there is a constant among the pictures: the electrical cord that barely shifts from image to image.  This cord gives one a point of reference and the stability heightens one’s awareness of the movement of the object.

About the show

ILLUMInations is the title of the 54th Venice Biennale.  The Biennale is a large conempoarary art exhibit composed of exhibits from artists from all over the world.  The title is poetic in itself expressing both concrete (illuminating poetry and exhibits, structure of exibit separated into nations) and figurative interpretations (wish to inspire different ways of thinking and looking at the world.) The exhibition runs from June 4 through November 27, 2011.  It is open 10am until 6pm on Tuesday through Sunday.  The admission fee was 20 euro (roughly $30).

I have three works in the show, Cyclist in Maastricht, Connemara Cottage, and Black Forest Foliage. All were taken during travel to Europe. I hope you are able to make it to the opening.

The Dean Johnson Gallery is located at 646 Massachusetts Avenue Indianapolis, IN 46204 on the first floor of the Dean Johnson Design building.