On a Thurday afternoon me and my classmates Sabrina and Petra decided to visit the new exhibitions in Talbot Rice Gallery, which are Tremble Tremble and At the Gates.

Tremble Tremble

At first I was a little confused by this  installation , I found it fascinating , engaging and spooky at points. But I  was completely impressed by the quality of the sound, the photography and the special effects. However I wanted to understand deeply the meaning of this work that was extremely mysterious and cryptic. As I made a research online and read about the context behind it I was incredible bewitched. Because in this case bewitched is the right world… Jesse Jones, the artist, is evoking the themes of feminism, history and law, through the figure of witches. For the title she is inspired by the 1970s Italian ‘Wages for Housework’ campaign, during which women chanted Tremate, tremate, le streghe sono tornate! (Tremble, tremble, the witches have returned!). In Tremble Tremble, Jones introduces the witch as a feminist archetype who has the potential to transform reality.

At the centre of the installation is a film that features Irish actress Olwen Fouéré performing a script written by Jesse Jones. The script draws on Jones’s research into the relationship between women and the law, and the witchcraft trials that took place across Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I loved her idea to use both photography, video, sounds, theatre, props and a real actress in her installation. It makes it like  a “total artwork” .

AT THE GATES

After visiting Banksy exhibition I was in the mood for seeking every single drawing or tag in the city. I have always known that Florence is full of tiny graffitis all over the places. Probably it’s because it is more difficoult to make big murales, since it is full of old historical buildings,and painting them would be a damage to historic/artistic heritage, however just placing a small sticker, or a little drawing below them, or in a hidden corner doesn’t affect them at all, for me, it actually makes them even more interesting.

So I walked around with my camera and tried to capture everything that I found inspiring , interesting or funny!

Green is Life!

Artist selling her watercolours paintings on the Ponte Vecchio.

This is a street artist in Florence that made his works all over the city, he signs himself with the anonymous tag : EXIT, but it is immediately possible to recognize his style, as he always draws black simple figures with just a small red detail, such a heart or an air balloon…I love his style so much, and on this wall there used to be more graffiti, but it was recently painted with white, however they wanted to leave this drawing out, because he is like an icon of the city. I really appreciate that.

This is probably what remains of old frescos, on the walls of a private villa outside the city centre, It probably used to be colourful and decorative; now  we can only see the  mark of it , that in my opinion makes this wall incredibly interesting, especially with the red leaves of the vines.

Other works by EXIT

 

my friend in front of a sad little boy painted on the wall.

 

behind a cage

War and Peace, I found these to elements on the wall  that were so interesting to me, the first one apparently look like a little cute rabbit, while it’s holding a hand grenade. The second one visually looks more aggressive, as there are guns and the tag dripping down red colour, but it is instead a message of love , as the guns twists in a hug and are shooting two hearts.

 

 

 

I went back home to Italy for a weekend and I decided to visit the Ba ksy exhibition that was held in Palazzo Medici Riccardi at the moment, in Florence.

It was an extremely intense visit, since all the works had really political/critical aims-topics, which always were meant to provoke .

I totally loved a lot of them while I disagreed with few of them,but still appreciated the style and creativity of the artists. And as I always think, even when you don’t share a specific ideal it’s still always interesting to see other means of expression.

Street art is definitelt one of the strongest means. It is controversial and people have different opinions about it, but I personally love the Art in tbe streets better than the one in tbe galleries. I find it more surprising, unexpected, informal, curious and intriguing, for it’s semplicity and direct communication.

In the Banksy exhibition we looked at lots of prints of his famous drawings, however I am sure that to see them on a wall while walking in the street would have made them look more powerful, but I was satisfied anyway.

Here some of the most impressive ones for me.

I like this image of a rat with a painting brush, which is a sort of metaphor of a street artist. He sees street artist as rats, since the do everything in a hidden way and they are often illegal. As marginalized creatures.

This is a critique to nowadays society, he used the figures of a religious painting, replacing Jesus with a commercial advertisement announcing the ending of sales. It makes you laugh at first, but then you realize it is actually very accurate and true. I am not a religious person but it is actually true that western modern society replaced the spiritual with materialistic culture and massive commercialisation.

This one was probably the darkest and saddest piece. It represent an old man sitting alone on a bench while a sinister chainsaw is arriving towards him. This represent the imminent figure of death, which no one can escape. This work is a sort of MEMENTO MORI , which reminds us of our vulnerability and instability.

the most famous work by Banksy: the girl with the red baloon. I find it so beautiful and simple, but what’s funny is the entire fuss made from it, after the episode of the famous auction, where, after the piece was purchased for a really big amount of money, someone activated a system that chopped into paper slices the print, in front of the astonished public. However the print got stuck half way so that half of the sheet was safe while the rest was minced. This made the “value” of the work even higher. I find it so funny and provocative, and it reminds me of the ideas/provocation of previous artists such as the Dada movement.

Two apparently gentle and average old ladies that commemorate their troubled youth .

 

 

 

 

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Computer Class, Wendy McMurdo , review.

I really appreciated the exhibition named “Scottish photography”, which was held at the city Art Centre in Edinburgh. . I was particularly impressed by a Scottish photographer: Wendy McMurdo. So I decide to read more about here. I was impressed by two photos: Computer Class 1 and 2. In these images she explored the growing influence of technology and internet on childhood and education. The photos were taken at Brunstfield Primary school in Edinburgh. What makes these photos unusual is the artist’s idea of erasing digitally the computers from the scene ,leaving the suspended figure of the children in a timeless reality. She created a surreal atmosphere where every movement and emotion seem frozen. The perfect space composition places the children in the exact centre of the image; this way their expression becomes the focal point of the photo, capturing the viewer’s attention and increasing the image’s power. I think these images are able to make us reflect deeply… what are we without technology? how good or bad it can be? But especially: how deeply it can affect the children minds? by working frequently with children, I realized that the growing use of digital media since early age is creating a constantly increasing gap between these children and the memories I have of my childhood. The massive influence of technology on such early age ,when everything is evolving, can be really damaging is not controlled properly. As you can see from her images where children look in a state of somnambulism . I think she found such a brilliant and witty way of representing such a topic.

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FROM LABYRINTH – FARSHID TIGHEHSAZ , REVIEW( from lens culture)

The last article I chose is about an Iranian photographer: Farshid Tighehesaz. He’s project From Labyrinth analyse the fears and effects of the Islamic revolution (1979) in Iran on the new generations; as well as the eight years of war between Iran and Iraq. In his black and white photos he represent different dramatic aspects of the place country he grew up in. He shows us his fear and anxiety which are also the fears of an entire generation. He shows how being a young person in Iran is a limitation, in all aspects: love, culture, education, work, politics, personality and sexuality. In his photo there is a sense of oppression and pessimism which makes us feel nearly overwhelmed. He wants to represent a generation which feels lost, where fear and violence are ordinary things.

However he found, as many other young Iranians, a way to express his feelings through art and photography. through his photos he is able to identify with other young people going through the same struggles and  find himself in the others.

My favourite photo is definitely the one of the butterfly on the dirty window. through this photo he evokes the beauty of poetry that gives him a change to be alive. It’s impossible to avoid being involved by this images. they make us reflect deeply about our conditions, and they made me realize the importance of freedom, as it is something we often take for granted ; while it is neglected in a big part of the world. It is the most relevant element for humans’ health , self- development and self expression.

I admire this artist as he found a way to express himself notwithstanding prohibitions and bans.

 

 

Dundee trip- V&A

What I loved the most about this place was honestly the outside of the building, and this extraordinary architecture. First of all what I appreciated the most was the presence of water everywhere . I love water and I believe the presence of this element makes everyplace look more fascinating. The idea of placing the building on this water surface was brilliant, it widens the architecture and creates this double dimension effect that blows my mind. I actually loved the outside way better than the inside of the building. Furthermore the fact that the building was straight in front of the sea made me even more enthusiastic. Water below the building and more water in front of it, such a massive structure that seemed like floating in the water.

More photos of the outside of the V&A

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McManus Gallery- Dundee

This was my favourite gallery in Dundee. I was extremely fascinated by the variety of the exhibition. I find it very pleasing when the artwork exhibited are so different and various because our eyes are never bored and keep on being surprised and captured by what they see.
Furthermore, as a foreign student, I found it particularly interesting to discover so much about the artistic background of the local reality. The museum had such an interesting development and included all types of creativity, from traditional paintings to photography, sculpture, comics, illustration, design and graphic. That was great, also because I didn’t know most of the artist there, as a lot of them where locals. I am used to visit galleries because in Italy we have a lot to see and since childhood we visit them on school trip or with our family. That’s why I do not always enjoy visiting galleries as they can be sometimes repetitive and not really surprising. But this time in the McManus I was constantly interested and fascinated by what I saw. It was a different experience for me. First of all I really enjoyed the atmosphere there, it was quite informal and that’s something I found interesting. I honestly enjoyed the McManus Gallery more than the National Gallery of Edinburgh. The reason is simple, in the National Gallery I had the feeling of being inside an extremely fancy and elegant Art Gallery that at the end I found identical to thousands of other galleries in the world, and quite anonymous too. While in the McManus Gallery I had a completely different feeling: I found that this museum had its own personality , and here you didn’t have the feeling of admiring Art as something higher and unachievable for average humans, but instead you could perceive Art as something close to our everyday reality, something that every single one can enjoy and achieve.

Some of the works that inspired me the most inside the McManus Gallery

Honestly I didn’t like this piece particularly, as I found it a bit to extreme. However I like this photo because I find it quite curious and funny at the same time, with the real man in front of the huge face. This is one of those cases where you find a thing not visually pleasing at all, but definitely an interesting subject to take a picture of.

Beautiful street art in Dundee

I just loved to walk by this walls, next to the running track, that gave a lively touch of colours to the area. Street Art is my favourite type of Art as it can be so unexpected and surprising.

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The spots that I liked the most in Dundee. Sky and Sea.

Sculptures in Dundee
another interesting aspect of this city: the lovely statues all around the city centre.

I found this place so unusual and kind of unreal at some points too. It was wonderful and interesting to walk in the woods seeking the artworks, however I must confess I also had a strange sinister feeling about this place, that was also quite gloomy at some points, and all the artworks spread around the place gave a feeling of mystery to the place, since you didn’t know what to expect and what you were going to find.

I preferred this open space rather then the part inside the forest, because it was so geometrical and calming, with the ponds and all the wavy green hills. It felt so peaceful.

Into  the woods I actually had that feeling of restlessness and uneasiness that I previously mentioned. However there were extremely interesting photos hidden among the trees.

“The weeping girls”
This was the artwork that impressed me the most, It was so intense and I cannot surely describe how it made me feel, it was a mixture between something disturbing and spooky yet extremely fascinating. The atmosphere around the sculptures was definitely intense.

 

“ARTIST’S FUNGUS”

I loved this spot in Jupiter Artland, I don’t even know who wrote that on the mushroom, but I find it incredibly funny and cute