Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to EyeContact. You are invited to respond to reviews and contribute to discussion by registering to participate.

JH

The South American Imagination (2)

AA
View Discussion
Ernesto Neto, Just like drops in time, nothing, 2002, textile, spices, dimensions variable. Collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales -Purchased with the assistance of Clayton Utz. Ernesto Neto, Just like drops in time, nothing, 2002, textile, spices, dimensions variable. Collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales -Purchased with the assistance of Clayton Utz Ernesto Neto, Just like drops in time, nothing, 2002,detail, textile, spices, dimensions variable. Collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales -Purchased with the assistance of Clayton Utz Ernesto Neto, Just like drops in time, nothing, 2002, detail, textile, spices, dimensions variable. Collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales -Purchased with the assistance of Clayton Utz Lygia Clark, Mascaras sensorial (Sensorial Masks),1967, 2016, mixed media, on loan from the Cultural Association of the World of Lygia Clark Maria Nepomuceno, Grande Boca 9Big Mouth), 2013, ropes, beads, fibreglass, resin, plates, wooden paint mop handles, acrylic, ceramic, 6000 x 5000 x 7200 mm. Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro, London Maria Nepomuceno, Grande Boca 9Big Mouth), 2013, ropes, beads, fibreglass, resin, plates, wooden paint mop handles, acrylic, ceramic, 6000 x 5000 x 7200 mm. Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro, London Maria Nepomuceno, Grande Boca 9Big Mouth), 2013, ropes, beads, fibreglass, resin, plates, wooden paint mop handles, acrylic, ceramic, 6000 x 5000 x 7200 mm. Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro, London Maria Nepomuceno, Grande Boca 9Big Mouth), 2013, ropes, beads, fibreglass, resin, plates, wooden paint mop handles, acrylic, ceramic, 6000 x 5000 x 7200 mm. Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro, London Maria Nepomuceno, Grande Boca 9Big Mouth), 2013, ropes, beads, fibreglass, resin, plates, wooden paint mop handles, acrylic, ceramic, 6000 x 5000 x 7200 mm. Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro, London Martin Sastre, U from Uruguay, 2012, video, as installed at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki Martin Sastre, U from Uruguay, 2012, video, as installed at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki Martin Sastre, U from Uruguay, 2012, video, as installed at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki Martin Sastre, U from Uruguay, 2012, video still. Jonathas de Andrade, 40 nego bom e 1 real 940 black candies Is R$1), 2013, silk screen on wood, acrylic engraved board, riso print on paper, laser print on paper, courtesy of the artist and Galeria Vermelho, Sao Paulo. As installed at Auckland Art Gallery Jonathas de Andrade, 40 nego bom e 1 real 940 black candies Is R$1), 2013, silk screen on wood, acrylic engraved board, riso print on paper, laser print on paper, courtesy of the artist and Galeria Vermelho, Sao Paulo. As installed at Auckland Art Gallery Jonathas de Andrade, 40 nego bom e 1 real 940 black candies Is R$1), 2013, silk screen on wood, acrylic engraved board, riso print on paper, laser print on paper, courtesy of the artist and Galeria Vermelho, Sao Paulo. As installed at Auckland Art Gallery Jonathas de Andrade, 40 nego bom e 1 real 940 black candies Is R$1), 2013, silk screen on wood, acrylic engraved board, riso print on paper, laser print on paper, courtesy of the artist and Galeria Vermelho, Sao Paulo. As installed at Auckland Art Gallery Jonathas de Andrade, 40 nego bom e 1 real 940 black candies Is R$1), 2013, silk screen on wood, acrylic engraved board, riso print on paper, laser print on paper, courtesy of the artist and Galeria vermelho, Sao Paulo.As installed at Auckland Art Gallery Eduardo Navarro, Monuments, 2016, bronze, as installed at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. Eduardo Navarro, Monuments, 2016, bronze, as installed at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. Eduardo Navarro, Monuments, 2016, bronze, as installed at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.

The olfactory is a crucial component within the visitor experience. With Ernesto Neto's room-sized installation of a Lycra meshed grid with suspended testiclelike appendages containing spices such as turmeric, cumin, cloves and ginger, all of which on impact have left powdery yellow ‘splashes' on the floor, the haunting aroma from this elongated translucent ‘forest' stays with you throughout the rest of the show.

Auckland

 

International group show
Space to Dream: Recent Art from South America
Curated by Beatriz Bustos Oyanedel and Zara Stanhope

 

7 May - 18 September 2016

The sensation of smell and the mental envisaging of taste are conspicuous elements in Space to Dream. Spices play a key olfactory role in the installation of Ernesto Neto, as do herbs sewn into perforated pockets inside the droopy eyeless hoods of Lygia Clark, while the giant unravelled tongue protruding from the gaping ‘taco’ mouth of Maria Nepomuceno’s colourful floor sculpture seems to consist of mounds of Jaffas, other assorted orange lollies - and bubbles.

The olfactory is a crucial component within the visitor experience. With Ernesto Neto’s room-sized installation of a Lycra meshed grid with suspended testiclelike appendages containing spices such as turmeric, cumin, cloves and ginger, all of which on impact have left powdery yellow ‘splashes’ on the floor, the haunting aroma from this elongated translucent ‘forest’ stays with you throughout the rest of the show. Lygia Clark‘s project on the other hand is to immerse the visitor in a controllable state where through carefully constructed clothing some sensations (like sight) are denied and others (like aroma, tactility and sound) are introduced, enhanced or discovered.

The status of smell adornment is a factor in the first video experienced in the show, Uruguayan artist Martin Sastre‘s satirical commercial being presented in the foyer next to the entrance desk, and promoting a luxury scent for men. U from Uruguay is set in a state owned bank in Uruguay where an opulent bottle is kept in a safe that is opened by the masked, dancing and stripping artist. This amusing advertisement also features the Uruguayan president José Mujica, a man admired for his altruism and donations to charity. Mujica is seen collecting flower heads to be used in the rare perfume and Sastre organised an auction of one of the purple glass bottles to raise money for a national fund for contemporary art.

Looking at the phenomenon of taste as suggested by the exuberant Maria Nepomuceno textile and bead work, the tangential metaphorical dimension that exists by being in an art gallery is pushed further and more specifically in Jonathas de Andrade‘s 40 nego bom é 1 real (40 Black Candies is R$1), a two part painting and text installation in a long corridor. The project examines the hierarchies and inequalities of the labour force that harvests bananas that end up in popular dark sweets sold on the street, and exudes irony, mocking the promoted appearance of industrial harmony and peaceful cooperation by methodically setting out specific details of exploitation.

In The Laughing Alligator, Juan Downey‘s late seventies anthropological video on the Brazilian/Venezuelan Yanomami Indians, we are introduced to another edible banana product , a form of ‘cannibalism’ where the natives mix into a banana soup the crushed burnt bones and ashes of their dead, to be consumed by family members as a means of perpetuating the dead person’s soul. It is as if the community is being materially recycled through successive lives.

Monuments, the small bronze sculptures of Argentinean Eduardo Navarro consist of twenty-nine cast walnut shells scattered on the floor. The two bronze halves of each are joined and securely sealed, serving as time capsules - the contents known only to the artist and their burial sites known only by those he has asked to bury them. The contents might be edible, but probably not. We have to speculate: there might be diminutive photos, texts or recordings inside - any items of historic or family reference at all; contained within the wrinkled bronze skin.

We will look at the notion of confined containment further in Part Three.

John Hurrell

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email

 

Recent Posts by John Hurrell

JH
Jae Hoon Lee, Mother and Child, 2024, inkjet on smooth pearl. 1500 x 1500 mm

Looking Through (or At) Jae Hoon Lee

IVAN ANTHONY GALLERY

Auckland

 

Jae Hoon Lee
Internal Landscape Part II


16 March 2024 -13 April 2024

JH
Outside installation of part of Shiraz Sadikeen's The Natural Rate, at Treadler. Photo: Alex North.

Sadikeen @ Treadler

TREADLER

Auckland


Shiraz Sadikeen
The Natural Rate


8 March 2024 - 23 March 2024

 

JH
Still from Marcus Coates, The Directors: Lucy (2022) Single channel HD video on loop, projection, 21 min, 24 sec--⁠presented at Yellow Brick Road, courtesy of Artangel.

Attempting to Describe the Experience of Psychosis

Te Tuhi /Auckland Arts Festival

5 inner city sites


Marcus Coates
The Directors


24 February - 24 March 2024

JH
Ava Seymour, Manhole, 2023, Maribu solvent screen-printing ink on aluminium, 1120 x 910 mm, unique.

Maternal Appurtenances

COASTAL SIGNS

Auckland

 

Ava Seymour
Heels of Mothers


14 March - 13 April 2024