magdalena abakanowicz, "coexistence: dream, gruby and koziol"nov.1 - dec. 22, 2007 taguchi fine art, ltd. |
|
|
Coexistence Animal heads are like carrying human bodies. And the human bodies are like armed with faces of animals. Partly human-like, partly animal-like, they demonstrate imagined coexistence of faces unknown to bodies and bodies unknown to faces. No understanding between these two. No common verbal language, no common gesture conveying. - But countless identical features: the spirit, sensitivity and intuition exist here and there, but based on different perception of reality. Animal carries the never formulated knowledge about existence. Human intellect is not able to penetrate the animal wisdom. When I was nine years old and war broke out, was I thinking that I would live surrounded by wars ? Tormented each day with information about how many people were killed and how they died. In my Warsaw home I saw on the television screen an airplane crushing against the wall of a skyscraper in New York. People running in despair. Where are areas of calm ? The sky - the refuge of Gods? In seventy-five during the opening of my exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London I met the famous astrophysics professor Stephen Hawking. Fascinated by his cosmic discoveries I could not stop asking questions. The dramatic image of the universe opened to me: inaccessible to my imagination, with its size, powers and laws, frightening me more than any human statement could. The Milky Way - violent, brutal stream of comets and meteors, deriving from the unknown reaching the unknown.. . I escaped. Am I more than the sum of my experiences ? There is time involved. It may crystallize into shapes or sounds. Dreams of fraternity were behind my first contacts with people. Now I am aware that people may have an inborn instinct for cruelty. I suddenly thought in my imaginary world, that my figures began to have heads, faces, not human faces and not animal faces, but faces like masks growing on the body, out of the body, dressing the body. Creatures not yet born came into being in 2003 - 2004. Magdalena Abakanowicz, 2007 Born in Falenty on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland in 1930, Magdalena Abakanowicz now resides in Warsaw. One of the most prominent sculptors in the world, receiving the lifetime achievement award from International Sculpture Center in 2005. In the 1960's she got a reputation as a truly creative artist with her woven works, the "Abakans". In the 1970's established her fame with the installation work of a group of standing figures symbolically representing human body, the "Crowds". Ever since, she has been making bold challenges to our conventional thoughts with her really experimental works. Abakanowicz has been holding many one person shows and invited to important group exhibitions in major museums and institutions around the world. Also very active to create outdoor permanent installations commissioned as "Agora" in Grant Park in Chicago in 2006, which consists of 106 iron cast human figures. She is very vigorously working all over the world. This installation would be her second one-person show at taguchi fine art, ltd., being the first occasion to exhibit works from her recent cycle "Coexistence" in Japan. Three important burlap sculptures from the cycle: "Dream", "Gruby" and "Koziol" will be installed. checklist of the installation 1. Dream, 2003-07 burlap, resin, 186 x 70 x 60 cm 2. Gruby, 2003-07 burlap, resin, iron stand, 175 x 80 x 85 cm 3. Koziol, 2003-07 burlap, resin, iron stand, 220 x 57 x 70 cm |