East Wind

An insight into the art of east London Over a glass of red wine, the idea for East Wind was sparked. From the ancient Greek symposia to contemporary posh dinner parties, wine has alway been the common denominator for relaxation, conversation and the birth of great ideas. Just as wine brings together strangers and friends alike within and across cultures, the common interest for contemporary art joined us together. As an American and an Italian we have formed this international collaboration, of which east London is the core. It is both our home and an eclectic laboratory for experiencing contemporary art. East Wind blows west...

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οἴνοπα πόντον - Scott Lyall at Campoli Presti, London

To an attentive eye, they would just seem like monochrome surfaces, traditionally framed canvases nostalgic of obsolete representations in black and white. To a hasty viewer, nothing more than another attempt to recall Ad Reinhardt’s auto-referential paintings while conferring them a new life. However, Scott Lyall’s works are more than this. Once time is taken to visually engage with them, the seemingly monochromatic canvases immediately appear as shimmering surfaces, resulting from the superimposition of several layers of colour. On the occasion of his forth solo exhibition at Campoli Presti, Lyall’s most recent series - Black Glass (2014) - comprehends printed works on laminated glass and canvas, the creative process of which is similar, yet achieves different effects. Through an elaborated mechanism that finds its starting point in the setting up of a specific colour code, the artist gives life to two-dimensional, yet corporeal surfaces that engage with the neat space of the gallery while being modified by the intervention of the natural light coming in through the windows. These colour-field images are originated by the preliminary selection of a single pixel, which is in turn digitally replicated and therefore modified in a million of different abstractions. “…no two points are quantitatively equal, but (…) the magnitude of their relationships remains constantly equivalent.” Whether printed on stretched canvases or trapped in between glass panes, the colour goes through the same process, following a mechanic and endless chain of combinations that ultimately results in unpredictable outcomes. 

οἴνοπα πόντον, so the exhibition is called, takes its name from one of the most famous and fascinating verses in Homer’s epic poem Odyssey (Ὀδύσσεια; 1.183), discussed at length between scholars, “Πλέων επί οίνοπα πόντον επ' αλλοθρόους ανθρώπους” (While sailing over the wine-dark sea to men of strange speech). The curious choice adds a degree of poetry to the reception of the work, originated by a digital yet uncontrollable system. It alludes to mystery, chance, and to what at a first sight would seem to be indecipherable. The viewer is not only visually engaged, but stimulated to think further as well as prompted to physically interact as the coloured surfaces of the works are molded by both artificial and natural light. In his Theory of Colours (Zur Farbenlehre in Deutsch), Goethe analyzed the importance of colors and their inference on human sight. In fiercely opposing Newton’s theory, he asserted that colours where something lively, undoubtedly originated by natural phenomena but at the same time perfected by human sight, observation and the spectator’s spiritual reception. Possibly readable in the wake of this romantic interpretation, the exhibition comes to complete a long-term project started by Lyall in 2011, with the production of the series Nudes: “graphic assemblages combining ink and its erasure in multiple passes of canvas through a UV-based printer.” These experimentations respond to a reflection on the reception of images, especially those digitally produced. Recurring to colour only, Scott Lyall tries to further dig in a dimension, that of our contemporaneity, overloaded with signs while he reflects on the possibility of a formal contemplation that refuses the commodity. By reducing the creative act to its bare bones (even though an elaborated mechanism is implied), his works result in essential yet dense compositions that, while resisting any sort of precise definition, eventually come to be beautiful metaphors of personal interpretation. 

Though such depth and poetic soundness of Lyall’s artistic endeavor may not resonate immediately with the viewer, his exhibition at Campoli Presti is undoubtedly worth seeing. With time spent, as well as the consideration of the layers of inspiration and a commitment to process, a perhaps first impression of mediocrity is shattered and much more is revealed. 

οἴνοπα πόντον is on view at Campoli Presti until March 24, 2014.

[Photos: Black Glass (οἴνοπα πόντον), 2014, UV-cured ink print on laminated glass, ink infused laminate, wood frame 172.7 x 121.9 x 5.1 cm / 68 x 48 x 2 inches; Untitled (Magnitude), 2014, grayscale, white, and colour ink dispersion, UV radiation on cotton, acrylic latex, mdf panel 228.6 x 167.6 cm / 90 x 66 inches; Black Glass (οἴνοπα πόντον), 2014; οἴνοπα πόντον, Installation views - Courtesy of Campoli Presti, London / Paris]

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Physics Happens in a Dark Place 

Amongst the undergrowth, in the tangle of chaos and noise, exists a pattern that emerges only when looked at again, and again, and again, and again... Charles Rickelton

The quantum computer is purring and clicking, its ominous juices flowing in the dark. Come closer to see observation collapse. Ruixian Ma

Bells ring out in the darkness, calling attention to unseen struggles, calling for us to understand. Oliver Smith

There's more to this image that meets the eye, as it is simultaneously constricted and dilated; yet when observed eye-to-eye it is nothing more than either or. William Fairbrother

Images from Physics Happens in a Dark Place - RCA exhibition at the Shoreditch Town Hall. On view until May 15.

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Celine Condorelli How to Work Together at Chisenhale Gallery

Chisenhale Gallery presents the first London solo exhibition of Celine Condorelli, entitled How to Work Together - a collaborative project between Chisenhale Gallery, The Showroom, and Studio Voltaire.  Created specifically for this project, Condorelli’s “new body of work explores how relationships are articulated by the things that surround us in both useful and purposeless ways, through furniture-like objects, devices for inhabitation or display, props and drawing.” Despite a less than impressive curation, Condorelli’s theme seems to tread above; each object has a curious relation to the overarching subject of friendship and how relational structures can prove to alter and construct situations. 

Upon entering the gallery, one is greeted with a partition consisting of a semi-opaque gold curtain preventing the viewers from seeing exactly what is beyond. As spectators of a theatrical mise-en-scene, visitors of the gallery are placed in a similar position of curiosity while waiting for the curtains to be drawn. However, far from being dramatic, the space is stripped down as the doors that normally separate the gallery from the reception area are removed and the curtain acts as the only barrier. The slight transparency of the gold fabric allows the visitor to anticipate what lies behind it and acts as an invitation to enter the rest of the space by walking around it. A variety of sculptural objects and two-dimensional black and white wall pieces spreading across one of the back corners constitute the design-like ensemble. A set of chairs are made into a singular round structure, where the seats are forced to face each other; next to it, a piece of grey felt is located on the ground as it seems to have followed its own gravity, while also echoing the curvature of the chair and curtain. A viewing platform consisting of a desk, step ladders, and a chair is located on the left side of the gallery while a pyramidal structure is home to an artificial habitat for flourishing plants. Black and white architectural images are superimposed onto the back corner, even overlapping the gallery infrastructure such as doors and electricity sockets. 

The seemingly utilitarian objects and images facilitate the notion of friendship and the politics of relationships as interacting together as a whole exhibition, but also the formal elements within the pieces themselves. Symmetry, hybridization, and references to growth, progress, and development are the main coordinates on which the exhibition is built upon. The objects transform the gallery, stripping it to its bones, and indeed, the space feels quite sparse. The logical idea that links the works proves to be more powerful than the curation itself. 

Celine Condorelli How to Work Together is on view at Chisenhale Gallery through June 22, 2014. 

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ART IN MIND - Valentina Piscopo

On the occasion of the 6th edition of ART IN MIND at Brick Lane Gallery, we had the opportunity to see some of the recent works by the London-based Italian artist Valentina Piscopo. 

As spending her childhood between Italy and Kenya, Valentina’s works mostly draws inspiration by African landscapes as well as textiles and wildlife. By experimenting with a surprising variety of media, she creates pieces that share a common aesthetic that reflects the exoticism of Kenya and Africa at large. Ultimately her oeuvre testifies a clear attempt to “raise awareness of the African  continent as [a] way to give back to a place that has been such an inspiration in [her] life”.

In the context of ART IN MIND - Parallel Universe, Valentina was given the opportunity to show some of her works alongside other international artists, as participating in a mutual dialogue with each other and the space. 

Below is an interview with the artist and If you wish to know more about Valentina’s practice we really encourage you to follow her activity and upcoming exhibitions  on her personal website: www.valentinapiscopo.com/ 

How did you start making artworks? Were you still living in Africa?

Art has always been my favorite subject. I have memories of painting my bedroom’s wallpaper, as well as all the furniture and doors (my mum had to pay a lot of damage deposit when we moved home let’s put it that way!) because I couldn’t bear, and still can’t, white walls or empty spaces. Then I did my first oil on canvas painting when I was 9. From the age of 3 I would spend long periods of time in Kenya and only return to Rome during school semesters. I used to have my painting materials in Rome, yet even at that young age my inspiration was wildlife and nature that I had eye witnessed in Kenya as a kid. I still go to Africa regularly. It was only three yeas ago when I went to live in South Africa for 6 months. I don’t think I’ll ever stop going back. In Italian we call it: ‘Mal d’Africa’. 

Each of your works has a strong reference to Africa. How has the experience of living your childhood between Africa and Italy affected your artistic production?

Kenya has been a very important part of my artistic career. I met the artist Armando Tanzini in Kenya, an Italian expat who has lived in Kenya for over 40 years; involuntarily he is the person who pushed me to continue painting, validating me of my talent. I was exposed to his life as an artist since a very young age, eye witnessing the production of artworks in his studio. Besides my split childhood between Kenya and Italy, as a young teen I used to follow my brother’s car racing career around the world, so jumping on planes, jet lag, and living out of a luggage has always been second nature to me. I don’t know where home is; I don’t feel at home anywhere. I know my heart is in Africa and that is what I express in my work. 

Looking at your work it seems you have a particular interest in experimenting with different materials. However, do you have a specific one that always returns?

I like to try different things out because I like to see a development in materials and techniques, plus there is always that pressure for contemporary artists to find that “one thing” that no one has done before. Having said that, I always love to work with discarded items I find in Kenya. The Indian Ocean brings the most wonderful debris and most gorgeous driftwood right in front of my house. That’s the best way I can express my creativity from using materials that are not bought from art stores.

How would you define the experience of being a young artist in the contemporary art world (specifically in London)?

Difficult. I think anyone who pursues an artistic career path can agree. I feel like London is a city bursting with creative talent and the platforms for emerging artists, even though existent, will never be enough. I have had artist friends who have been luckier in cities like San Francisco and New York or countries where there is an emerging art market. I personally had a better experience as an artist in New York where not to fall into clichés, but the people were much more friendly. I got to meet Jerry Saltz and other art professionals who were all really down to earth.  That wouldn’t happen in London. 

Given your Italian nationality, what do you think about the preoccupying situation involving cultural heritages? Could you ever imagine yourself in Italy again (as an artist)?

I come from Rome. For me one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It pains to see a nation with so much history & culture to offer not being able to maximize their assets and agree on cultural heritage funding. Pompeii being the epitome of this. I couldn’t encourage enough for people interested in Roman architecture, Greek Art or Italian Old Master’s to spend a lot of time in Italy, but as for contemporary art, cities like Rome still have a lot to learn from art capitals such as London. I am not planning to go back.

Tell us more about how you got to know about the Brick Lane gallery competition? 

I was familiar with the gallery which is located in a very artsy area of London before I knew they had an exhibition program aimed at emerging artists. As an artist you are constantly looking for a ‘call for artists’ as an opportunity to show your work to a larger public. The Brick Lane Gallery offers that and I really appreciate the dedication and support they offered during the show which left me stress-free!

How did you find the experience of exhibiting in a group show? 

 The thing I love the most about exhibiting with other artists is the chance to meet like minded people. Most of us are quirky and I find comfort in that. In this show ‘Parallel Universe’ we were all women coming from different parts of the world from LA to Beirut, that is also what I enjoy about group shows; everyone brings their own experiences, background and cultures into one place. It’s very exciting.

Tell us more about your upcoming projects. 

I have been discussing a potential show in an art gallery in Via Margutta (“The Cork Street” of Rome) with an established artist from Mozambique but we are still at the proposal stage….. I will have a one page spread on the book International Contemporary Artists (ICA publishing) which is coming out at the end of May. And I have been invited to participate at the Rotterdam International Art Fair in mid-September. And then there is.. well my interview in your fantastic blog! So lots of things to look forward to! I feel very blessed. 

[Photos: Safari I and II, mix media on bark, 30 X 30 cm, 2014; Metallic Serengeti, cotton thread on canvas, 20 X 30 cm, 2014; Zebra Splash, mix media on card, 40 X 60 cm, 2009]

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HOUSERULES

Marc Auge defines non-lieu (non-place) as a site to which there is no historical, cultural, or sentimental significance attributed, such as a highway, shopping malls, waiting rooms, and parking garages; places where people encounter one another without any true interaction, thus, demolishing what defines an anthropological dimension. Upon entering the largely unoccupied Anchorage House located in a business park near the East India Docks, we felt as if we were walking into a sleeping non-lieu. The experience was disorienting, especially considering the procedures to enter the space: signing in with a front desk security guard as if visiting the headquarters of a corporation, despite the fact we were coming to see an art exhibition titled Houserules.

Houserules is part of an ongoing project called Office Sessions, initiated by creative director and curator Caitlin Mavroleon. A group of artists embark on the creation of installations, paintings, drawings, videos, sound works, performances, and other participatory engagements for this 42-day project. The aim is to push the boundaries of art, infiltrating unconventional spaces imposing their own rules and creating a peculiar and unfamiliar environment.

As we took the shuttle-like elevator to the fifth floor of the building, we entered a massive, seemingly abandoned office space. “Is the exhibition still on?” we wondered. Folded paper planes scattered across the floor, a net made from a ball of string hung lethargically from the ceiling, and other office supplies were dispersed across the walls, floors, and windows. The discomfort we felt was probably initiated by the feeling of being the last, yet somehow the first visitors to the exhibition. Standing alone on the floor and hesitantly scanning the space for some form of instruction, we found it on a piece of paper stating: “Please list your top 10 women artists.” We suddenly felt engaged with this task and a certain ease welcomed us to further explore the exhibition. More and more visitors slowly appeared and we were no longer alone in what at first seemed like a post-indexical dimension. Suddenly, a distant sound of a bell, coming closer and closer, practically awakening the viewers from a hazy slumber, summoned us to a specific office for a performance. Gathered in a semi-circle along the walls of the office, we sat intimately on the floor, patiently waiting for what was to come next (a performance by Daniella Valz-Gen). In that specific moment, the dimension drastically shifted and there was a striking contrast between the coldness of the space and the intimacy of this coming together. 

Daniella’s performance consisted of a personal interpretation of Abbey Road, The Beatles’ landmark album intertwined with adaptations of Doris Lessing’s Golden Notebook and excerpts from Kierkegaard’s The Concept of Anxiety. She challenged the notion of a traditional lecture as the texts were read with a certain degree of theatricality. As the performance continued, the drama was heightened as she incorporated both delicate and seemingly forceful gestures led by  the melancholic tones of I Want You (She’s So Heavy), abruptly halted by the succession of Here Comes the Sun. Daniella concluded her performance by the tangible gesture of intensely rubbing Vaseline on the transparent office window, marking the pane that acted as the backdrop of her piece. While the majority of the performance was quite straightforward as she connected Abbey Road with the fluxes of Anxiety Disorder, this final component left us to question its purpose and its relation to the whole of Houserules. 

As it combined entertainment and bewilderment, Houserules raised the question of the relationship between art and the space in which it is enacted and displayed.  The sense of displacement enhanced the overall viewing experience, yet this estranged feeling was never completely relieved. In the end, it was not the house imposing rules on the artist, but a simultaneous occurrence of art imposing rules on the house in which the ways of spectatorship were dramatically altered. 

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Hoxton Mini Press - "New independent publishing company making quirky art books about London's most exciting area".

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A lot of young kids do graffiti around Hoxton… It’s nice. It adds a bit of colour, don’t you think?

I’ve Lived in East London for 86 ½ Years, Joseph Markovitch

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25 Frames: Ori Gersht at the Hackney Picturehouse

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the independent moving image organization Film and Video Umbrella presents a series of screenings and talks aptly titled 25 Frames. The organization is known for sponsoring and curating a range of moving image works by international artists represented by galleries within the UK. The films chosen for 25 Frames are presented in different venues throughout the country. On Thursday we attended the screening of six video works by Israeli artist Ori Gersht at the Hackney Picturehouse. 

Ori Gersht is a contemporary artist working in film and photography, with a particular interest in revisiting the past and preserving memory in a powerfully meditative way. He uses repeated motifs of Landscape and the Still Life to reinterpret established categories from art history. In addition, often incorporating Old Masters’ references, such as Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Goya, he investigates historical and personal connections, struggles and consciousness. By means of post-production and digital manipulation, Gersht explores how technology can affect perception of past occurrences, contemporary settings and the state of being. Through such combinations, his style is a seamless juxtaposition of classical and contemporary practices. 

The artist combines images and film footage through a dynamic display of either single or multiple channels and screens, which heightens the engagement of the viewer. Liquid Assets (2012), The Forest (2005) and Big Bang (2006) all employ a single frame that captures a slow and investigative movement by constantly focusing on a subject; Evaders (2009) and Will You Dance For Me (2011) are two-channel videos contrasting the protagonist with his/her relationship to the relative landscape. Offering (2012) alternates between three frames resulting in a panoramic, frieze-like composition highlighting the concept of tradition. Gersht is   both contemplative and poetic as he uses imagery and structure to reveal much grander narratives: the fluidity of monetary exchange, the silent beauty and exploitation of nature, the strength of the naked eye, Walter Benjamin’s final journey through the Pyrenees mountains, a Holocaust survivor’s last dance and the intimate encounter between a matador and a bull representing the fragile border between life and mortality. 

Following the screening of these six video works, Gersht engaged in a conversation with writer and curator David Chandler. The two discussed very eloquently Gersht’s overarching theme of his connection with history and the past as a way to re-stage something new. He uses the camera’s full potentiality to recall memory and to evoke our tendency as human beings to hold onto the past while moving forward; the duality of something eternal yet ephemeral is consistently exemplified. The moving image captured by the camera is able to challenge the voyeuristic qualities of Old Master portraiture where the still figure is unavoidably subjected to the intruding gaze of the viewer. In his works, he declared that there is no fixed meaning, but a certain degree of unpredictability dealing with different phenomena. There is a constant dialogue between viewers’ expectations and what is actually presented through film. Gersht repeatedly referenced the contrast between poetry and prose, beauty and violence in regards to his personal perspective in conveying thematic narratives. The experience of the viewer is meant to be first sensorial and only then, subsequently intellectual. 

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Ori Gersht, Big Bang, 2006 

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Tracey Emin, I think I love you, 2010

Happy Valentine’s Day! Xx

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Hannah Höch at Whitechapel Gallery

Whitechapel Gallery is currently exhibiting the first UK retrospective of German Dada artist Hannah Höch. At the forefront of the Dada and photomontage, she developed her own voice and vision during a time when women were rarely seen in the art world. The exhibition is curated chronologically as the viewer is guided by the evolution of her art practice. Starting from embroidery patterns, sketches and early collages, to the Ethnographic Museum series, self portraits and the surrealist investigation of the grotesque, the ground floor shows artworks from 1918 to 1936. After walking up the stairs to the first floor, a liminal space awaits: a room dedicated to the Album, Höch’s extraordinary collection of images taken from newspapers and other media sources that joins together her visual and thematic inspirations. Acting simultaneously as the glue of the exhibition and an independent artwork, this scrapbook summarizes her restless acquisition  of real life images and her tendency to create a strange, yet seamless photographic narrative. The last room consists of works from the later part of her life, made during and after the Second World War.

There has always been fantastic art. Particularly in times of internal and external upheaval. Fantastic art has always taken up a position between the world of ideas and the real world. It reflects the tension between the two, the degree and the nature of their non-congruence. 

Hanna Höch’s works shifted towards abstraction as she experimented with non-figural, abstruse forms, thought to be her response to the wartime turmoil. Relying solely on color, form and line, this body of work constitutes a clear chasm from her previous artistic style and technique. The retrospective concludes with a video showing the artist drawing in her studio at the age of 76, as a black and white photomontage entitled “Life Portrait” hangs on the opposite wall. As a revolutionary figure in the first half of the twentieth century, Hannah Höch’s exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery is both a thorough yet straightforward glimpse at her works on paper throughout her notable career. 

The exhibition is on view at the Whitechapel Gallery until March 23, 2014.

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Eisler Curator and Head of Curatorial Studies, Daniel F. Herrmann, talks about the Hannah Höch exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, her first retrospective within the UK. 

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I would like to blur the firm borders that we human beings, cocksure as we are, are inclined to erect around everything that is accessible to us. [...] I want to show that small can be large, and large small, it is just the standpoint from which we judge that changes, and every concept loses its validity, and all our human gestures lose their validity. I also want to show that there are millions and millions of other justifiable points of view besides yours and mine. Today I would portray the world from an ant's-eye view and tomorrow, as the moon sees it, perhaps, and then as many other creatures may see it. I am a human being, but on the strength of my imagination - tied as it is - I be a bridge.

Hannah Höch, 1929

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A Night Out: Images from First Thursday (February 6)

- Je Baak and Ahn Jinkyiun at Hada Contemporary | www.hadacontemporary.com

- Girls, Girls, Girls... a work in progress at The Arch Gallery | www.archgallery.co.uk

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Stephen Willats at Raven Row

The old artist, some working today, are still making an illusion, even Mondrian, and others whose ideas were in a three dimensional concept, worked on canvas constructively whose ideas were on kinetic basis. They also called for colour in three dimensions but their work was physically static and the colour of their materials were accepted to a point. The end products of their research was a man-made environment. Life does not exist on a two dimensional basis. When one walks down a street the sensation is not only a visual one, but a tactile and sound experience. The artist can no longer concern himself with illusions, he must work on a realistic basis.

-Stephen Willats, The Old Artists - Manifesto Text, 1961 

Control. Stephen Willats. Work 1962–69 at Raven Row is a colorful, geometrically kinetic experience. Ranging from sketches and notes of diagrams and ideas to interactive artworks involving building blocks and rotating lights, the exhibition demonstrates “social interaction, using models derived from cybernetics, the hybrid post-war science of communication.” 

Upon entering the building, the feeling of another decade is immediately projected: furniture, clothing and other functional objects, along with manifestos and brightly colored paintings evoke the atmosphere of the 1960s. The viewer is given the opportunity to participate by engaging sensorially with several pieces throughout the space. Instructions are posted on the walls as guidance for interacting with the works: “participants are encouraged to arrange [the blocks] as they wish, perhaps but not necessarily relating them to the drawn grid, and leaving them for the next visitor to continue the fluid construction,” as Organic Exercise No.1, Series 2 (1962/2013) suggests. Other works prompt visitors to feel into boxes and draw what comes to mind and to try on helmets which have green, red, blue and yellow filters to alter reality’s true colors.

The most striking aspect of the exhibition - especially for those who know Raven Row - is the rear gallery on the ground floor that was transformed in order to echo the architectural plan of the Willats’ 1968 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art Oxford resulting in a dark maze. The charcoal walls of the small labyrinth are sporadically lit up by flashing and intermitting sculptures “proposed as experimental stimuli for states of consciousness.” Control. Stephen Willats. Work 1962–69 captivates and involves the viewer inasmuch as revealing the long term research and exploration of cybernetic power, enabling a greater sense of control. 

The exhibition will be on view until March 30, 2014 at Raven Row (56 Artillery Lane, E1 7LS) 

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Resistance to the cinema: the signifier is always, by nature, continuous here, whatever the rhetoric of frames and shots; without remission, a continuum of images; the film (our French word for it, pellicule, is highly appropriate: a skin without puncture or perforation) follows, like a garrulous ribbon: statutary impossibility of the fragment, of the haiku.

Roland Barthes, Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes, 1975 (in relation to Martin Herbert's essay on Marine Hugonnier's Ariana)

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25 Frames: Marine Hugonnier at the Hackney Picturehouse

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, the independent moving image organization Film and Video Umbrella presents a series of screenings and talks aptly titled 25 Frames. The organization is known for sponsoring and curating a range of moving image works by international artists represented by galleries within the UK. The films chosen for 25 Frames are presented in different venues throughout the country. Last night we attended the screening of Marine Hugonnier’s Ariana (2003) and Apicula Enigma (2013) at the Hackney Picturehouse in London, which was followed by a discussion between the artist and art critic Filipa Ramos. 

Ariana is an 18 minute film that was shot just outside of Kabul in the Pandshir Valley, a few months after the US forces entered Afghanistan in 2002. Hugonnier became fascinated with this valley and its surrounding mountain range because of its ancient mythical attribution to Persian poetry and its resistance to past national takeovers by Soviet forces and the Taliban. Her goal was to survey the landscape through the lens of her camera by capturing a complete 360 degree panoramic view from the highest point of the mountainous territory. Ariana lies somewhere between film and documentary as it compiles scenes from the natural landscape and the city, resulting in a raw and graphic quality due to the use of the analog camera. These seemingly sporadic images are given a cohesive thread as Hugonnier’s voice constitutes the French narrative which guides the viewer through the film. With the realization that landscape is a defining factor in a region during a time of war, the artist and her crew were denied access to the intended vantage point by military forces. The film abruptly concludes with a black screen as the artist proclaims “we gave up filming”, thus leaving the viewer to contemplate what might have been achieved. 

Only a few seconds separate Ariana from the screening of her most recent work, Apicula Enigma shot in the Koshuta mountains of Austria in 2013. Despite the film beginning with the whispering statement “nature doesn’t tell stories”, it ultimately extracts a silent narrative dictated by the actions of the bees. By persistently following their movements, the artist tries to unravel their mysterious social behavior and fascinating ability to produce honey. Throughout the film Hugonnier shows the viewer means of production as the filming and entomology equipment - mirrors, microphones, measuring tapes - frequently interrupt the frame. Manmade beehives are contrasted with their wild version found in nature as the camera is kept at constant distance of 120 cm from the bees: the artist brings into question the relationship between mankind and animals through this intimately mediated viewpoint. Everything is visual aside from the soundtrack constituted by nature’s movement and the buzzing of the bees. Unlike the style of Ariana, there is an overall precision in the images; however this clarity is contradicted by the ambiguous finale of Apicula Enigma where the artist reverses a mirror, obstructing its reflection and altering the last frame. 

Both Ariana and Apicula Enigma deal with geography, landscape and the tools to assess the distance of the gaze, by questioning forms of observation. In the discussion that followed the screenings, Hugonnier claimed that cinema is capable of representing the invisible and challenging the conventions related to our visual culture. In correlation to the contrasting subjects chosen for each film, viewers are presented with both a macro and micro perspective that highlight the power which is intrinsic to imagery. Whether it is a politically charged documentary or an investigation into the enigmatic nature of insects, Hugonnier pointed out that she intently focuses on the role of images and ways of seeing in order to sculpt her cinematic narratives. By challenging the conventions of representation, she wants to create a new subjectivity that would transcend what has previously been defined by Western society. There is a certain honesty and fragility found within the work of Hugonnier; the artist assumes the role of reporter, journalist, tourist and passive observer, ultimately determined by the essence of the visual content and the technical approach to varying circumstances. 

Marine Hugonnier is a French artist that works and lives in London. She is represented by Max Wigram Gallery - http://www.maxwigram.com/ 

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