< R E — V I E W >
<The Sculpture II> is one of the ‘The Sculpture’ series whereby Osang Gwon attempts to combine photography and sculpture. He made a model of the supercar ‘Lamborghini Murcielago’ with bronze and applied a thick layer of orange acrylic paint on the surface. The surface makes it difficult for the viewer to get a sense of the actual weight of the work and that bronze was used as the material.
ARARIO Museum
This museum was founded in 2014 and is owned by a private collector.
The ARARIO Museum is heavily influenced by the Young British Artists (YBAs). Works include Damien Hirst’s ‘Skull drawing’. It also features Marc Quinn’s ‘Self’, a self-portrait of the skull utilizing the artist’s own blood. Included in the museum is a neon / fluorescent coffin by Sarah Lucas.
The museum works like a maze of different intervals and passages.
It was very interesting to listen to Jeffrey Deitch speaking about the practice of Keith Haring, the pop artist / muralist who attempted to bridge cultural and political divides through his high art and low art concerns. This included a performative painting on sections of the Berlin Wall that was scrutinized by police operatives. Deitch, an American curator was very complimentary of Haring’s attempts to intersect and combat racism through his art. He also produced a large scale ‘Statue of Liberty’ with student in New York.
Kolei Nawa’s <PixCell_Double Deer #7> is a crystallized ‘deer’ that invites the viewer to intersect how we view the readymade sculpture and how we rearticulate our own body within the attribution. There is an ironic reference to crystal meth, a drug consumed rapidly by teenagers and youth in Cape Town. Figuratively speaking ‘How can a physical crystal deer’ reinvent and remake oneself?
Subodh Gupta, an Indian artist born in 1964 displays ‘Everything is Inside’ showing part of a taxi in cast bronze measuring 162 x 104 x 276cm.
The caption card reads, ‘Subodh Gupta has been pointing out the social issues arising in India’s changing environment, using images that symbolize India or ordinary daily objects. <Everything is Inside> consists of a bundle of baggage often used by Indians, placed on the cut-off ceiling of a taxi. In <Pure> Gupta who is taking a shower drenched in cow manure, shows how human beings become even dirtier as we attempt to wash off the filth’.
There was a fantastic video documentary about Keith Haring playing. Listening to the actual artist attributing his ideology and thought process makes a big difference. After watching this I got a more insightful understanding into how his artistic practice intersected high and low art even though this separation still seems to continue today. Even today Haring’s art doesn’t fetch the prices that a living artist such as Kentridge or Hirst receives. There was also some really incisive commentary by Jeffrey Deitch in the Haring documentary.[1]
It was very intriguing to view Osang Gwon’s <The Sculpture ll>, 2005, paint on bronze, 113 x 220 x 462cm. <The Sculpture ll> is one of the ‘The Sculpture’ series whereby Osang Gwon attempts to combine photography and sculpture. Gwon made a model of the super car ‘Lamborghini Murcielago’ with bronze and applied a thick layer of orange paint on the surface. The surface makes it difficult for the viewer to get a sense that of the actual weight of the work and that bronze was used as the material. This large scale sculpture makes inquiries into the readymade and the multiple/edition.
To learn more about the practice of Osang Gwon please watch this short documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAaq3eZLcoQ
From a curatorial and art historical lens the ARARIO Museum is exceptionally well curated with relevant and contemporary visual clues into notions of trade and artwork currency, especially from a Far East perspective.
It cost 15000 KRW to go to Arario Museum.
The exhibition and Arario Museum emphasized the importance of art history in facilitating an understanding of art within a set time period.
