Real People After Dark

"Real People" Carmela Gross. Christchurch. Oct. 2008 Ajr

I went out last night to photograph some of the SCAPE 2008 biennial artworks - those that rely on illumination to 'complete the picture' that is. I took the opportunity to revisit Carmela Gross's 'Real People/Are Dangerous' - or, in this case just 'Real People' since, for reasons unknown to me, we're only party to half of the work. (You can read more about that in my original post by clicking on Scape Biennial in the label line below). Suffice to say, it does look much better at night and I'm sorry folks, but I couldn't resist tarting up my photograph a little more - on PhotoShop....just "a subtle intervention" as the Scape catalogue might say. www.scapebiennial.org.nz/

Real People

"Real People/Are Dangerous" Carmela Gross. Sept. 2008 Ajr

Brazilian artist, Carmela Gross likes to use fluorescent lights in her work. That pleases me because I'm a fan of the creative potential of any form of lighting. For SCAPE Biennial 2008, Gross has spelled out the words REAL PEOPLE in fluorescent tubes on the Colombo Street overbridge in central Christchurch. It's a shame that the second half of her work - the words ARE DANGEROUS - couldn't be installed on the Kilmore Street overbridge as planned....some silly council regulation intervened I suppose. Read individually the two phrases are tantalisingly vague and non-commital; read as one phrase they're loaded with sinister suggestion. For other Scape entries click on Scape Biennial in the label line below this post. www.scapebiennial.org.nz

Give Me SPACE!

Top: Elmgreen & Dragset, “Short Cut” Fondazione Trussardi, Milan, 2003. Photo: courtesy of the Artists. Bottom: Carmela Gross, “Aurora” (installation view at the Second Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art), Russia 2007. Photo: Carmela Gross The days are getting longer, the spring bulbs are flowering and that can mean only one thing – we’re closer still to the launch date of ‘Wandering Lines: Towards a New Culture of Space,” which opens in Christchurch on September 19. The SCAPE Christchurch Biennial of Art is New Zealand’s only international biennial dedicated to public art – and, as someone who has now photographed almost every piece of public art in the city, I’m looking forward to some new subject matter. And I’m thrilled to hear today that things are kicking off with the unveiling of Regan Gentry’s commission for a permanent sculpture for that ‘lost wilderness’ on the corner of Colombo and Hereford Streets that is now called Stewart Plaza. I featured one of Gentry’s works (now showing at Wanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery) here last week – put ‘Art & The Bridge to Nowhere’ into the above left search box to see it – and I’m looking forward to something dynamic and illuminated. In the meantime, here are works by two of the fifteen artists from 25 countries who will be participating in SCAPE 2008 - “Aurora” by leading Brazilian artist, Carmela Gross, whose text-based fluorescent signs will be sited in a high profile pedestrian traffic precinct in the middle of the city; and “Short Cut” by Berlin-based Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, who have been collaborating since 1995. In 2005 they created a Prada boutique in the middle of the Texas desert. Roll on September 19 – let’s get the arts party started!