laredo is a reality!

 

 

 

 

 

A transitory space-time, laredo presents materiality through the simplicity of reductive art. The form it takes can be site-specific, ephemeral, conceptual, text or performance-based via individual and collaborative projects. laredo aspires to add a few glimmers to art’s visual language.

laredo is led by Amarie Bergman (Director of Logistics for laredo / DOLL) and Paul MacGillivary (Chief of Operations for laredo / COOL).
 

For details about the current site, click on the floorplan and specifications; to subscribe to our e-invitation list, propose a future project or get more info contact us via:

amarie.laredo@gmail.com 

 

Updated: 25 May 2020; laredo will soon be intervening in a different location – likely more than one! – including the south-west coast of Australia.

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Alexander Calder with Snow Flurry I 1950; sheet metal, wire and paint; collection of MoMA, New York; image published by Independent (UK), 15 November 2015, courtesy of Dominique Lévy, NY

Imagine the calming sight of white discs rotating, seemingly at random, yet all held by an (almost) invisible attraction in the spaciousness of space. Sounds like a minimalist version of the beginning of a snowstorm, doesn’t it? Although this may be the origin, the technicalities of Snow Flurry, a mid-20th century series of mobiles made with sheet metal, wire and paint, are most assuredly something that only Alexander Calder could have combined and constructed.


 

Scientific developments occurring around that time - not limited to: The Big Bang Theory, LP (long playing) Records, Field-Sequential Colour System, Tornado Forecasting and Jan Oort’s Postulation of The Existence of An Orbiting Cloud of Planets at The Outermost Edge of The Solar System – may have influenced Calder. Or maybe not.

What I do know is two in the series which I have experienced* are unforgettable. They both became part of a single neuron, connected to personal memories of snowflakes / ideas / companions gathered together in one fleeting flurry.

 

Alexander Calder: Radical Inventor National Gallery of Victoria 5 April – 4 August 2019

*Snow Flurry III 1948, at NGV’s recent survey exhibition in Melbourne, and, my favourite, Snow Flurry I 1950 at a MoMA/NY travelling show a few years ago in Perth

 

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Tightrope
1936, Alexander Calder; wire, wood, rod, lead, paint; collection of the Calder Foundation, New York (AB image)


“The tightrope in this work is stretched between two irregular wooden forms set on metal tripod bases and provides the crossing for a procession of four objects made out of thin, white-painted wire: a spiral (or helix); a sphere consisting of two intersecting circles; three circles stacked on top of each other; and a U-shape (or parabola). Each element balances and pivots by virtue of tiny lead weights. The biomorphic and geometric shapes evoke a circus act, walking a tightrope between reality and abstraction, as well as stillness and movement – all were integral to Calder’s inventive process.” (exhibition placard)

Alexander Calder: Radical Inventor National Gallery of Victoria 5 April – 4 August 2019

 

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I’ve always felt a sense of wonder can happen as a chance appearance, but when it is courted then the surprises of synchronicity and lightness of being are second to none. Wonderful memories last because they can be adored, like integral yet perpetually transformative constants, in a special jewel box of the mind.

Bobette Buster, at a recent seminar,* relayed proof that wonder can intentionally be transmitted in any field of creativity, on any occasion, causing a shift of higher consciousness. ‘This is wonder’s use,’ she emphasised. Although Bobette gave many examples in her own field of film making, her summary – believe me, storytelling at its finest – brought both tears as well as radiating after-effects of what it means to ‘carry the fire.’ Here’s a very short version:

During the two years spent in the Secret Annex’s stillness, Anne Frank treasured several iconic photos of glamour, hope and beauty. Among her favourites of these companions-on-paper, inspiring Anne to continue writing, was Sonja Henie, champion figure-skater and film starlet.

Sonja Henie in My Lucky Star, 20th Century Fox film, 1938

 

The photographers themselves, through their invisible presences, also became part of Anne’s world: conveying via artistry that transubstantiation becomes experientially realised through visual templates. The baton of courage is passed to you.
And with it, may I add, the wand of wonder.



*What’s the Story? The Uses of Wonder: Ask the Right Questions of Your Story 8 August 2019, State Library, Melbourne. It was one of 5 sessions Bobette gave as a guest of the Melbourne International Film Festival. LA-based, she is a story consultant, professor, producer, author, lecturer and screenwriter working with Disney, Pixar and Twentieth Century Fox. http://www.bobettebuster.com/

 

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White Light 8'3", Amarie Bergman: video still, 2012

How simply marvelous!

White Light 8’3” – my 2012 film of absolute white silence – premièred last Saturday in Alice Springs. It’s being screened @ The Pantry, an experimental project space at Watch This Space, until 30 March 2019.

 

[see https://www.amariebergman.com/pages/videos > 2nd video]

 

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A Slow Waltz, exhibition in Middle Gallery at Sawtooth ARI, Launceston, Amarie Bergman, partial installation view. (left to right) Box Step no.1: acrylic on linen 30 x 51cm 2018; Metallic Dot: (almost invisible) tin, plastic, fabricated laser-cut acrylic 1.9cm diameter 2018; Cosmic Bodies no.1: Tasmanian oak (1.9cm diameter rod), paper, wire, synthetic fabric, metal attachments, micro-wire; 48 x 120cm 2018 (work by Philippe Vranjes on the right in the next gallery space); image by Mel de Ruyter 2018

 

Everything about A Slow Waltz at Sawtooth was like a dance with a most engaging partner. From the prelim arrangements smoothly coordinated by the gallery’s new director, Liam James; the quick set-up with Mat Carey; the presence of co-installation artists, Francesca Heinz and Philippe Vranjes, and being introduced to their work; right down the line to the friendly, high-spirited crowd on opening night: gee, it was +/- perfect. For this exhibition - and its counterpart, La Valse Lente at Abstract Project in Paris - the imagined melded with the real.

 

The opening took place on Friday 7 December 2018; the exhibition continued until 28 December.

 

Sawtooth Artist Run Initiative (ARI)

Liam James, Director

Level 1, 160 Cimitiere Street, Launceston 7250

http://sawtooth.org.au/

https://www.facebook.com/pg/SawtoothARIGallery/about/?ref=page_internal

 

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Untitled (Corner Piece), Fred Sandback: gray elastic cord 45.7 x 172.4 x 45.7cm, originally constructed 1967, image via Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris

Last month, when I was in Paris for Une Valse Lente @ Abstract Project, a most memorable experience at Marian Goodman Gallery happened with Jacek Przybyszewski via the reinterpreted, unparalleled work of Fred Sandback. Elastic cord and acrylic yarn made “room-filling volumetric forms using the most minimal of means. By stretching single strands of yarn point-to-point to create geometric figures, Sandback’s near intangible objects nevertheless amounted to precise and subtle delineations of pictorial planes and architectural volumes.”1


Le Fil d’Occam, the exhibition’s title, comes from an idea by the 14th century logician, William of Ockham, who reckoned the best solution to almost any problem is usually the simplest. Well, these objects of simplicity brought tears to my eyes but apparently this unexpected reaction is not an isolated one. Andrea Fraser delves into understanding why constructions designed by Sandback and presented in gallery spaces have such an effect on the mind/ psyche in her article from 2005, Why Does Fred Sandback’s Work Make Me Cry.2 “It is a place of affective possibility created by work that doesn’t ask me to feel, and so, I think, allows me to feel, and to be alone, in the presence of this art that’s so quiet and still, and makes too little in the way of demands. It is an art of objects without shadows.”

 

The after-effects of exposure to contemplative purity seem to be long-lasting: not only as spontaneous recollections but, above all, as a constant catalyst for perceptual refinement.


Untitled, Fred Sandback: one 32”/81.28cm black elastic cord 279.4 x 335.3 x 96.5 cm, originally constructed in 1967, image by Jacek Przybyszewski

 

 

Fred Sandback: Le Fil d’Occam

8 September – 27 October 2018

Marian Goodman Gallery

79 rue du Temple

75003 Paris www.mariangoodman.com

 

 

1 https://www.lissongallery.com/artists/fred-sandback

2 grâce à Jacek

 

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Une Valse Lente (A Slow Waltz) with Kazimir Malevich: imagine it…!

Based on this very idea, my next solo exhibition takes place at Abstract Project, an associative gallery with Le Salon Realités Nouvelles, in Paris.

 

The floorplan (above) shows graphics of the five geometric components; mais oui, images and text to follow.

 

If you happen to be around, do come by for a glass of wine at the vernissage on the evening of 5 September 2018 between 18h-21h. The exhibition continues until 15 September with gallery hours from 14h-19h, Wednesday to Saturday.

 

Abstract Project

5 rue des Immeubles Industriels

75011 Paris

Métro: Nation

www.abstract-project.com

 

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