Sorry for the late posting, it just got to be too much of a pain - expect catchup stuff from Athens and Hydra for the next couple of days, then we will be right back on schedule...The land where Leonard Cohen and Lee Hazelwood are still played nightly in the bars and tavernas, Greece is different than many european countries and Hydra is the biggest throwback of all - an island of no cars, motorcycles or bikes of any kind and lets just say that the "infrastructure" of the island is a little bit weak and leave it at that. Oh and hope they don't lose your luggage - it will take 5 days to reach you here (trust me on this one). That said, it's a wonderful island to be on - rustic, warm and friendly, with long summer days and even longer summer nights.
If you remember or have ever heard the song "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen, you might be interested to know that "Suzanne" lived here on the island. If you are not familiar with the song, think of "Suzanne" as the european "Girl from Ipanema".
Enough of the back story of Hydra for now - if I get requests, I'll dive a little bit deeper.
Antigoni Kavvatha at the Verena Foundation"Tracking Erebus" is the tile of Kavvatha's show, If your following your mythology properly, you will recognize Erebus as the place between Earth and Hades - Erebus is often referred to as the world of shadows and this is the space that occupies the majority of the show at the Verena Foundation. These large scale drawings (as large or larger than many painters canvases) are work in shilouete - not unlike Kara Walker - however Walker's body, race, and sexual politic does not live in these images. Kavvatha focus's on the shadow (or shilouete) and approach to these images - usually scenarios (of people or animals in nature) where the implied message or action is only that. Much of the "action" in this show is up to the viewer. The viewers questions; are we witnessing a simple conversation or a heartbreaking moment? come to the forefront. The work carries some interesting approaches physically - it is in these approaches that I would love to seen further exploration.
I have said of late that the "how" of making the art is more important than the "what" of the art - in this case that could be the lynchpin from being very good to great work. Please don't get me wrong, I like this show very much, it's just that I could see these being even more interesting if the viewer were offered more in the way of the handling of the physical material against the backdrop of the immaterial world that the work is representing.
With Hydra being an island that is quite literally a cubist painting come to life, a little bit of shadow and intrigue can go a long way with much success.
Labels: Europe
