I’m looking through the catalogue
of the last Venice Biennial, The Encyclopedic Palace, which I picked up during
my visit there last year. Reading it I’m reminded of the thrill it was to see Sarah Sze's Triple Point installation at the American Pavilion; I’d have been satisfied had I
seen only that exhibition.
Having been to the biennial on a
number of occasions during the mad rush that is the opening week, I was
privileged this time to visit the Biennale near to closing week and had more
time (and space!) to see most of what was on show, or so I thought. Looking
through the catalogue entries for artists showing at both the Central Pavilion
and Arsenale however, I’m not sure I did!
To prompt my memory, I’m making
highlights in the catalogue. My art hit list will serve me as a kind of
manifesto, a set of reminders, guidelines, at a time of year that calls for a
new focus and fresh thinking.
The extracts below are all taken
from the official short guide. The images are of Sarah Sze’s exhibits, featured
at the American Pavilion, a show that was in itself an ‘Encyclopedic Palace’.
‘getting to know the world from scratch, object by object,
and body by body’ - Chris Wiley (CW) on Ellen Altfest
‘sculptures act(ing) as ‘places’ rather than objects’ - CW
on Carl Andre
‘insistent monumentalizing of the detritus of modern life,
of which (the artist) is a gleaner, a cataloguer, and an alchemist’ - CW on
Phyllida Barlow
‘delicate but inexplicable objects (…) appear as elements of
a secret language (…) furtive caricatures of secrets, which, however classified
or consecrated often serve to instigate and simulate knowledge’ - CW on John
Bock
‘Positioned at the intersection of the physical and the
imaginative, (the artist’s) paintings seem to affirm that vision itself is a
form of interrogation’ - Sam Korman (SK) on Varda Caivano
‘recursive relationship between (the artist’s) real and
imaginary worlds’ - Shira Backer (SB) on James Castle
‘The strange sonic forms also inspire a primeval atmosphere
(…) the entire environment becomes a mystically charged tableau, as (the
artist) modifies the scope of perception to include our sense of what is
immaterial’ – SK on Thrisha Donelly
‘represent(ing) the world through a seemingly arbitrary
selection of events, objects, phrases, and concepts both historical and
imaginary’ – CW on Peter Fischli and David Weiss
‘Buildings provide more than physical shelter and
protection: they also frame our perceptions and house our memories (…) offer a
blank screen onto which the viewer can project her own ghostly memories – SB on
Robert Gober
“limiting your choices (…) gives you power” – Channa Horwitz
‘kaleidoscopic patterning with rigorous symmetry in
configurations that call to mind fantastical architectures, or stratified cross
sections of earth’ – CW on Augustin Lesage
‘through meditative repetition, tradition remains in motion,
guided equally by the history of a craft and the hands through which it passes’
– SK on Prabhavathi Meppayil
‘prob(ing) the relationship between art and artifact (…) the allusion to the monumental, both industrial and antique,
belies the work’s apparent fragility’ - Rachel Wetzler (RW) on Matthew Monahan
‘pair(ing) serious content with apparently haphazard
execution (…) pizza box
design aesthetic (…) awkward layouts and anarchic juxtapositions (…) a panoply
of contemporary and outmoded image worlds, as if trying to grasp every fleeting
aspect of our culture at once’ – CW on Albert Oehlen
‘the eroticism
in everyday life’ – SB on Carol Rama
‘the work denies both narrative and the intimacy of a
self-portrait: (the artist) shows us instead how one can wrest some sense of
self from the stuff of one’s daily life’ – SK on Dieter Roth
‘half-remembered vignettes of dreams or memories’ – CW on
Viviane Sassen
‘a principled refusal to add objects or images to a world
already supersaturated with both’ – CW on Tino Sehgal
‘god’s ‘spiritual gifts’ – visions, glossolalia, and riotous
trancelike dances’ – CW on Shaker Gift Drawings
‘abjur(ing) metaphor, focusing on the relationship between
the active participant and sculpture as what generates meaning’ – John Arthur
Peetz on Richard Serra
‘offering the possibility to recreating the scenes depicted
and making viewers complicit in the act’ – RW on Kohei Yoshiyuki
‘In the end, what is made visible is not artistic genius,
but the beauty in the externalisation of inner worlds’ – CW on Artur Zmijewski
