Venice Day 3

Hi,

Donna, Ralph and I start the day meeting our guide, Valentina at the Arsenale vaporetto stop

And off we go right into the huge old building called the Arsenale. The first large painting is by George Condo called Double Elvis. He worked for Andy Warhol briefly when his was making the Elvis silkscreens. I did not take images of his work yesterday so you can't compare but be on the look out for artists I showed you in the last blog and see if you recognize these new pieces.

You will remember the last images of the homeless people on the streets in a town in India by Soham Gupta. The last group was black and white and these have some color and are just as profound.

This is an artist doing self portraits and portraits of South African lesbians named Zanele Muholi. These were huge - probably 12 feet tall.

This was an artist born in the Bahamas living in the US who became interested in Robert Henry Lawrence Jr who was the first black astronaut. He died in a training accident in 1967. This a memorial to him.

Gabriel Rico from Mexico...

A room full of microphones that act as speakers reciting poems by prisoners by Shilpa Gupta from India.

Again Henry Taylor.

Again Nijdeka Akunyili Crosby from Nigeria...

From the Mexican artist Teresa Margolles who did the wall with the barbed wire we get posters for girls that have gone missing or who have disappeared.

This is from a South African artist named Kemang Wa Lehulere called Dead Eye.

This extremely large piece by the Chinese artist Yin Xiuzhen is called Trojan and to my mind plays with the idea that something is being smuggled in this large figure bent over in crash position. 

This is again Marine Gutierrez who was dressed as an exotic Aztec last time. He/she is now being a model in a series called Body En Thrall.

   (the bluish / white lights are reflections)

Again Jill Mulleady- these are from the series called the Fight was Fixed depicting a chaotic urban world of violent street crimes.

Remember the Nicole Eisenman paintings from yesterday? Here are some sculptural heads by her.

This is again the Chinese team of Sun Yuan and Peng Yu who did the large clean up arm the last time. This time they use air to activate the black tubing into a wildly frantic whipping motion. Coming from this throne-like chair there are connotations of rulers and their punishments.

These masks were taken from an Alpine folk tradition using tribal artifacts that refer to those that were popular with the Surrealists. This artist- Jamie Cameron is an American living in Paris.

Again Michael Armitage from Kenya. The one on the left is called the Chicken Thief.

Haris Epaminonda from Cyprus.

Lui Wei from Beijing made this large 3D installation called  Microworld. It is a blown up of version of the microscopic world we can not see.

Jimmie Durham from the US depicting animals in their actual size using clothing and furniture to make the connection between animals and humans.

Anicka Yi from South Korea. Inside these pods there is something that looks like insects fluttering around. Not sure what these biomorphic forms relate to but there are many suggestions.

'Musical' sounds coming from ceramics, and other cast offs create an environment of curiosity by Tarek Atoui.

Andra Ursuta is a Romanian artist who makes fancy glass liquor bottles out of women's bodies which she describes as 'tragicomic contemplation of life'.

Now we moved on to the pavilions that are near the Arsenale. The first one is Saudia Arabia and the show is titled After Illusion by artist Zahrah Al-Ghamdi. She had the help of 12 other makers to form these leather shapes which reminded her of her home.

This was the Peruvian pavilion called Indios Antropofagos -  Butterfly Garden in the (Urban) Jungle by Christian Bendayán

Philippines pavilion with islands of glass topped displays containing all kinds of objects with mirrors reflecting them so they look like they go into infinite space. Title Island Weather Iby Mark Justiniani

The Maltese pavilion evokes the primeval origins of the island. The work Maleth translates to Haven/Port so this installation is a simultaneously mythic and real environment.

Now we get to the Ghana pavilion about which a lot has been written. It is the first time this country has taken a space in the Biennale. There are 5 or was it 6 artists represented in a space designed by David Adjaye with beautiful earthen walls. The first 2 artists are Ibrahim Mahama, who worked with El Anatsui on the left and the painting on the right by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Ibrahim is using old fish drying racks and you can smell it when you enter the room.

The photographer Felicia Abban who took self - portraits in different outfits in the 1950s on the left and then portraits of others on the right and below.

And of course El Anatsui- all huge especially the yellow one.

This boat was salvaged by Barca Nostra and Christoph Büchel. It is the actual boat that sank off the coast of Libyan on its way to Italy filled with refugees. There were only 28 survivors out of between 700 and 1000 passengers. It was a terrible tragedy and there has been controversy over the inclusion of the actual boat in this show. It certainly is a grisly reminder of human needs and desperation but is it appropriate?

The Indian pavilion consists of several artists memories of Mahatma Gandi. These first cases contain objects related to him. I didn't manage to get this artists name.

These prints were commissioned by Gandi to show the work Indians do.

This wall of shoes is called Naavu (We Together) by Gr Iranna. Gandi wore these padukas or wooden shoes rather than leather (alluding to his non-violent nature) and to his practice of walking/ meditating every day.

We left the Arsenale and said good bye to Valentina and went in search of a gelato. I also wanted to see the James Lee Byars installation and we knew there were good gelato places in that part of the city so off we went. I didn't capture the gelato consumption but here is the Byars installation.

After that it was back to the hotel where I had a lovely dinner on the terrace of the hotel while Donna and Ralph went off to dinner with their Japanese friends. The traffic on the canal was constant at this time of day.

Thats all folks.

xox,

Susan