This website places cookies on your computer to improve your experience. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. For more details, see our cookie policy.
Tiffany Zab's Artsy article can be found here, read on for a preview.
It was the first time I came across Martin Puryear at the USA Pavilion. There seemed to be a theme of caps and covers running throughout. Suggestive about the whole world, the strange abstract work touches upon different conflicts that have occurred all around the world. ‘Cloister-Redoubt or Cloistered Doubt’, 2019
Martin’s work is filled with references to his African American roots. Raised Roman Catholic, his parents took him to many museums as a child. After graduating he joined the Peace Corps where he was sent to Africa and taught languages in Sierra Leone. He went on to study with the local potters and wood carvers. This is Michael Xufu Huang and Tiff Zab in front of the ‘Swallowed Sun (Monstrance and Volute)’. Behind the sun is a strange black twisting vortex
At the Nordic Pavilion we were fascinated by the work of Ane Graff. She creates sculptures that draw from her research into biology, chemistry and alchemy experiments
We were captivated by the Finnish duo nabbteeri. Janne Nabb and Maria Teeri gather materials to create some strange interactions and fusions of biology. Their videos were surrounded by sand filled objects that were later going to be released into the garden. The work is called ‘Ethnographies of a homespun spinelessness cult and other neighborly relations’
One of my top pavilions at the Biennale was France’s Laure Prouvost. I was speechless by the whole presentation. I entered ‘Deep See Blue Surrounding You’ and felt I was on a journey. I arrived at the Mediterranean Sea and watched a real life dove as it was being hypnotized, laying on its back until it came to its senses. Here is a glass jellyfish floating around in a bath of silicone
There were many ways to interact and be voyeuristic. The queue went on forever, all the way around the pavilion. Lots of surprises and performances at every turn
Then we entered the equally wonderful and massive Arsenale, where we saw a presentation of Ed Atkin’s ‘Old Food’ which never rots nor molds - a world of melancholy
Tavares Strachan’s floating skeleton of Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. could not go without a mention
Robert was the first African-American astronaut who later died in a plane crash
Avery Singer's large scale painting created using the 3D modelling software, SketchUp
The highlight was Liu Wei’s recent large scale installation ‘Microworld’. The show stopping piece is encased in an oversized museum vitrine
I was thrilled to see Alex Da Corte’s incredibly vivid video installation which features our Richard Woods house in Sarvisalo
Here is the house in the Finnish snow
Anicka Yi’s ‘Biologizing the Machine (tentacular trouble)’ was quite something. The work actually had animatronic moths in them to give a sense of a biomorphic sculpture
Congrats to Tiff who nailed her Artsy article (link in intro)! Here is artist Hannah Perry with ASAI
