amarie bergman

Installation of My New Theater I: Tap Dancing (1997), Pat Hearn Gallery, New York, 1997. Photo: Courtesy the Estate of Colin de Land © Joan Jonas: Artists Rights Society, New York: DACS, London

I’ve just enrolled in a new free online non-credit course at edX - this time via University of Cambridge - called: Reconceiving Space: Installation + Performance Art. Presented by Abigail Docherty, the course  features Maria Abramovich, Joseph Beuys, Joan Jonas and Ai Weiwei.

It promises to be an experiential experiment with “space, language, ‘liveness’ and sound.” Undoubtedly, some different views along an ever-spiralling path: maybe I can quicken my pace through emulation and, who knows, a bit of tap dancing!

Interior view of My New Theater I: Tap Dancing (1997), Pat Hearn Gallery, New York, 1997. Photo: Courtesy the Estate of Colin de Land © Joan Jonas: Artists Rights Society, New York: DACS, London

.

104 white quartz stones; each approximately 30cm x 25cm x 30cm; golden rectangle footprint +/- 300cm x 485cm; laredo 003, GWN7 ex-studio / back parking lot, Bunbury 2021; image by Paul MacGillivary

laredo 003 took place at a vacant TV studio’s back parking lot on 26 May 2021. I realised, only after I saw the photos, that this latest intervention was related to A Simple Box geometric floorwork [Une Valse Lente, Abstract Project, Paris 2018] which also used small white components spaced +/- precisely at intervals. In that case, for 2 weeks, the edges of one plane of a cube were defined by adhesive paper strips on smooth rubber. With laredo 003, the asymmetrical white quartz stones - patterned as squares in a rectangular format atop nubbly pavement - united for one hour to become a much more expansive intermediary between earth + sky, between concept + memory, between then + now.

Intervention images: laredo 003

Intervention statement: laredo 003

.

two white powder-coated steel rods; each 200cm in length x 1.5cm diameter; footprint: 200cm x 45cm; southwest view; laredo 002, Back Beach Salt Baths: Indian Ocean / Bunbury 2021; image by Paul MacGillivary

Since my enticing preview of laredo 002 last September, this intervention happened (!) on 15 March 2021. Its documentation has just been completed.

Images: laredo 002

Intervention statement: laredo 002

laredo 002 took place at the abandoned 1930s Back Beach Salt Baths. The location may be remembered as "a great folly" by long-term residents of the regional town of Bunbury / Geographe Bay on the Indian Ocean, but - as a relative newcomer to the area - I revel in its potential as a magical site for temporary art.

.

Perfect Lie, exhibition/intervention at Factory 49 Paris, Amarie Bergman, front view, black suspended fabrication 170cm wide and white laser-cut circle 90cm diameter 2021; image by Amarie Bergman and Jacek Przybyszewski

Perfect Lie at Factory 49 Paris has the idiosyncratic mix which I’ve been exploring for a number of years. In this instance, I set extreme limits with two separate objects: an opaque white 2D laser-cut circle, sited on the surface of the front window, and a 3D black oval, suspended within the gallery.

“... what do all the objects in the world have in common if not the fact of being - and of being nothing but - the provisional permanence of certain changes.”

For the catalogue, including the above quote by Jacques Rombaud, glide over to this link.

AND for the video (generously filmed by Cheng Feng Kevin Yu), click here.
 

Utmost appreciation to Jacek Przybyszewski for his ingenuity and for making this project possible. A special thank you to Jan Przybyszewski for his French translation of the catalogue text. And, much gratitude, as always, to Pamela Aitken, director of Factory 49 – Paris + Sydney.

Factory 49 Paris

10 bis rue de Chaligny, 75012 FR

31 December 2020 - 10 January 2021

.

Portuguese National Pavilion, Lisbon, architect: Alvaro Siza Vieira, image credit: Giovanni Nardi

I can barely wait to experience Architecture of Infinity, a new film by Christoph Schaub. Meanwhile and voila, the synopsis:

"Temporality and age are inherent in every object and creature and, depending on one’s outlook, may transcend to infinity. How can this be imagined? What goes beyond it? The filmmaker Christoph Schaub starts his personal journey through time and space in his childhood, when his fascination with sacred buildings began – and his wonder at beginnings and ends. Schaub explores, together with the architects Peter Zumthor, Peter Märkli and Álvaro Siza Vieira, the artists James Turrell and Cristina Iglesias and drummer virtuoso Jojo Mayer, the magic of sacred spaces..."

And a link to the trailer:
https://architekturderunendlichkeit.ch/en/

.

The Perfect Lie #4 / PL004, Amarie Bergman: graphic image; 2007

I came across two synchrolettes this week: an image of a 2020 reductive painting - Travel with Me - by Louise Blyton and a blog post - The Perfect Lie - from the archive of Fonil (a site initiated by Yuri Doric back in 2008 / Vancouver in which Michael Shandrick and I managed, between us, to publish something pretty much every day for several weeks about art, design and architecture.) Anyway, I will leave it to you to check the affinity between LB's painting and a transcription of the post by MS that featured the above design from The Perfect Lie series:

Amarie ... professes little interest in the game of golf, yet she has some profound insights about it. On our walks past a nearby course, she usually listens to me rave on about the game then goes off to work in her studio, producing a graphic design that expresses golf in its most minimal form.

One of the things we’ve talked about is the placement of a shot so near to the hole that it creates a sense of anticipation. Perhaps the golfer has chipped to the green and the ball rolls to the cup and stops just short. The golfer nudges the ball in for a birdie, par or bogey -- each level creating a different level of anxiety, frustration, excitement and euphoria. “I can see a golfer pausing for a second or two reflecting on their playing prowess,” says Amarie. “He visualizes the ball disappearing and probably the acclaim from his fellow players. Indeed, the sheer perfection of the ball’s poise is revelling Zen." She quotes a passage by Gaston Bachelard from The Poetics of Space: “… images of full roundness help us to collect ourselves.” This describes, she says, a moment in metaphor when a white sphere, like a golf ball, is associated with a brilliant idea anointed with a pristine quality.

Somehow the seeming inevitability about the ball’s placement and the hole is worthy of a moment of reflection. Why? “Because alongside the idea is the black, seemingly flat, pure void of unfilled potential. And, Amarie adds via Bachelard, “By changing space, by leaving the space of one’s usual sensibilities, one enters into communication with a space that is psychically innovating.” MS

http://fonilinfo.blogspot.com/search/label/golf%20art

.

My next space for laredo 002, an intervention, will be the abandoned 1930s Back Beach Salt Baths. The site may be remembered as "a great folly" by long-term residents of the regional town of Bunbury / Geographe Bay on the Indian Ocean, but - as a newcomer to the area - I revel in its possibilities as a magical archeological site.

.
 

Half Sun, Richard Long: red tezontle stone from Coatepec, Estado de México and sited at Luis Barragán’s iconic modernist landmark, Cuadra San Cristóbal; 9 x 4.5 x 0.3m 2020; image by Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Richard Long continues to surprise, translating concepts with Earth materials into tangible interventions. His art seems familiar, as if we’ve always known it at a liminal level, so when we experience his work – even via video or image –  a kind of re-cognition takes place, which is simultaneously calming and elating.

Richard Long at Luis Barragán’s Cuadra San Cristóbal in México City: 2020

Richard Long From a Rolling Stone to Now at Lisson Gallery NY: 6 March - 3 July 2020
 

ps Hervé Perdriolle, art critic and exhibition commissioner, has just released a book on Long’s land art in Maharastra from 2003: Richard Long - India: work in progress, photos by Hervé Perdriolle. 

.