Casagrande, Poetry Bombing

Video here article here

Pioggia di poesie took place over Milano on Saturday 26th September 2015 at 7.15pm. One hundred thousand poems printed on bookmarks by 80 contemporary poets from Chile and Italy fell from a helicopter over Piazza de Duomo as the sun sets.

Its has been supported by the Chilean Pavillion Expo-Milan, Imagen de Chile, the Embassy of Chile in Italy and the City of Milan.

Performance created by Casagrande, sees poems dropped over cities bombed during military confrontations in the past. The bookmarks are released at twilight and printed in two languages with texts written by both Chilean writers andpoets native to hosted city. It has been held in London, United Kingdom (2012), Berlin, Germany (2010), Warsaw, Poland (2009), Guernica, Spain (2004), Dubrovnik, Croatia (2002), and Santiago, Chile (2001). Milam is the seventh city to host Bombing of Poems.

This performance creates an alternative image of the past and is a gesture of remembrance as well as being a metaphor for the survival of cities and people.

More info: loscasagrande.org/
Music by Los Muebles: losmuebles.cl

Superstudio, Supersurface

Superstudio, Supersurface: An Alternative 
Model for Life on Earth here

Kara Walker: "A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby" | Art21 "Extended Play"

Kara Walker here

Superflex, Flooded McDonalds,2009

Superflex video here

Flooded McDonald's is a short film work in which a convincing life-size replica of a McDonald's burger bar gradually floods with water. Furniture is lifted up by the water, trays of food and drinks start to float around, electrics short circuit and eventually the space is completely submerged. The film is devoid of exaggerated disaster-film drama and intentionally resists categorisation as a documentary or as an art film. Flooded McDonald's hints at the consumer-driven power and influence and impotence of large multinational companies in the face of climate change, questioning with whom ultimate responsibility lies. Flooded McDonalds was first exhibited at South London Gallery in 2009.

Extract from The South London Gallery press release:

 The South London Gallery presents a new film work by Danish collective SUPERFLEX entitled Flooded McDonald's. Despite their international track record over the past 15 years, this will be their first solo show in London. From large-scale installations, through to long-term process-based projects and, more recently, films, SUPERFLEX's work is founded in economic and political awareness. They create works inspired by the points where definitions and possibilities of art become blurred. Flooded McDonald's is a new film work in which a convincing life-size replica of the interior of a McDonalds burger bar, without any customers or staff present, gradually floods with water. Furniture is lifted up by the water, trays of food and drinks start to float around, electrics short circuit and eventually the space becomes completely submerged.

Flooded McDonald's is SUPERFLEX's second film, the first, entitled Burning Car, 2008, made in the wake of the civil unrest in Paris and Copenhagen in 2007, shows a dead-pan observation of a car going up in flames. Both films avoid the high drama of disaster movies, but never quite echo a documentary style, making their position within established frameworks of cinematic genres or of artists' films intentionally ambiguous. Without being didactic, Flooded McDonald's hints at the consumer-driven power and influence, but also impotence, of large multinationals in the face of climate change. Without pointing the finger at anyone, the film questions with whom ultimate responsibility lies.

Flooded McDonald's is a film by SUPERFLEX.

Produced by Propeller Group (Ho Chi Minh City) in association with Matching Studio (Bangkok) and co-produced by South London Gallery (London), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, (Humlebæk, Denmark) and Oriel Mostyn Gallery (Llandudno, Wales) with support from the Danish Film Institute.

The exhibition is supported by the Danish Arts Council's Committee for International Visual Art.

Gelitin, Rabbit, 2005

Rabbit read about project here

#2

Explain how narrative (as discussed/defined in the reading) is apparent or identifiable in your actual work.

“The concept of ‘conversation’, telling jokes and joking, and constructing narratives of personal experience, ” such as Susan Stewart notes, is a significant part of my work. In large, I would not be able to have vulnerable conversations to create relationships in a community, without being able to relate to shared narratives. Ultimately, that is what I aim to highlight through photography, and video by capturing these delicate interviews of gender non-conforming individuals. To place importance towards these people’s narrative, I spend an hour before picking up a camera to talk and give mental/ emotional space to the struggles that surround being who you are versus who you are perceived in society. Asking questions to understand a person’s history is more important than the end result, it is the process of discovering narrative and how it relates to my own narrative. Which in turn helps me learn to be more vulnerable, and to make more meaningful art through that process.

Review the two videos discussing Powers of 10 listed on blog. Consider scale and Powers of 10 thinking as it relates to your own art production and methodology. What realms of Powers of 10 do you utilize most in your work? Offer upload images of actual works you have produced.

10 -1 to 10 -5 

I work with humans and myself, at a mostly surface level, but also internally to understand the external. Through the powers of ten everyone looks the same on the inside, the deeper you proceed under a scope, and I think that is relevant to some of the conceptual ideas I have, as well. As Susan Stewart mentions "the invention of a microscope, the mechanical eye can detect significant in a World the human eye is blind to, from exterior to interior."

India-Prompt1

Prompt 1

The Narrative of the piece that I am currently working on has a dichotomy like the cartoon characters, and paintings in The Darker Side of Playland.    The architectural form is at a miniature scale with images of animals incorporated. It looks child like, and inviting. However at a closer look, you realize that the animals on the clock form are all extinct.  The other animals are in a viewing cage, and are endangered in going extinct.  The narrative of this piece highlights a dark side of man, and his impact on animals. It make me think of a quote in The Darker Side of Playland, “The works in this exhibition present the complexities of a child’s experiences in the world created for them by adults.”