B.L. Malla (Ed.):The World of Rock Art: An Overview of the Five Continents
- Taschenbuch 2017, ISBN: 9788173054471
Milano: Fondazione Prada, 2016. Milano, Fondazione Prada, 15 September - 8 January 2017. Edited by Mario Mainetti and Chiara Costa, Elvira Dyangani Ose. Essays by Kellie Jones, Richard… Mehr…
Milano: Fondazione Prada, 2016. Milano, Fondazione Prada, 15 September - 8 January 2017. Edited by Mario Mainetti and Chiara Costa, Elvira Dyangani Ose. Essays by Kellie Jones, Richard J. Powell and Deborah Willis. English Edition with Italian translations of the essays. Milano, 2016; paperback, pp. 320, 600 ill., cm 17x22,5. Fondazione Prada presents the exhibition "Uneasy Dancer", a comprehensive survey of work by Betye Saar (Los Angeles, 1926). This exhibition, hosted at the Nord Gallery, opens to the public from 15 September 2016 through 8 January 2017. Curated by Elvira Dyangani Ose, "Betye Saar: Uneasy Dancer" is the first exhibition of the American artist in Italy, and brings together over 80 works including installations, assemblages, collages and sculptures produced between 1966 and 2016. "Uneasy Dancer" is an expression Betye Saar has used to define both herself and her artistic practice. In her own words, "my work moves in a creative spiral with the concepts of passage, crossroads, death and rebirth, along with the underlying elements of race and gender." This process implies "a stream of consciousness" that explores the ritualized mysticism present in recovering personal stories and iconographies from everyday objects and images. Several key elements lie at the center of her artistic practice: an interest in the metaphysical, the representation of feminine memory, and African-American identity which, in her work, takes on takes on evocative and unusual forms. As Saar has said about her work, "It was really about evolution rather than revolution, about evolving the consciousness in another way and seeing black people as human beings instead of the caricatures or the derogatory images." Through her confident usage of found objects, personal memorabilia and derogatory images that evoke denied or distorted narratives, Saar developed a powerful social critique that challenges racial and sexist stereotypes deeply rooted in American culture. In the 1970s, her assemblages began to grow in scale, ultimately becoming substantial installations and immersive environments that speak to an approach uniting spiritual beliefs and faiths of all kind - from the intimate and the mysterious to the universal - alongside politicized convictions. Curator Elvira Dyangani Ose notes, "Saar's works blur boundaries between art and life, between physical and metaphysical. Spirituality in her work, does not only resides in the works with which she addresses her concerns and her knowledge on a myriad of traditions. On the contrary, it is to be found in the artistic exercise of transforming common material in a sort of evocative new imagery, involving the viewer in reminiscent fabulations of the real." "Uneasy Dancer" expands holistically on fundamental tenants of Saar's practice including memory, mysticism and the construction of socio-political identifiers. This is none so much apparent than in the seminal work The Alpha and the Omega (2013-2016), a circular environment alluding to the initiatory journey and the experience of human life. This installation was specifically conceived for "Uneasy Dancer", and will include a number of newly created elements denoting the idea of representing the whole of anything, from beginning to end. Earlier assemblages involving objects inserted within boxes or suitcases, like Record for Hattie (1975) and Calling Card (1976), take on a performative dimension even when rendered in an intimate scale. Sculptural floor works utilizing cages, such as Domestic Life (2007) and Rhythm and Blues (2010), simultaneously represent the physical and metaphorical condition of segregation, and the increased need for resistance and survival. These works specifically reference African-American folklore, combining a political dimension with a spiritual vision that draws on a multiplicity of traditions stemming from Africa, Asia, America and Europe. The exhibition additionally highlights a series utilizing work tools and elements of domestic, Fondazione Prada, 2016, Sage Publications, 2013. Paperback. New., Sage Publications, 2013, Sage Publications, 2013. Softcover. New. InFlux: Contemporary Art in Asia brings together essays by leading critics and curators to examine modern and contemporary art practice and its discourses in Asia. Covering diverse regions spanning China, India, Thailand, Iran, West Asia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Tibet, and Cambodia, the book examines their multiple modernities and the arrival of many Asias upon the contemporary art scene. Some centers have become celebrated in the international exhibition circuit and the art market, but there is also an Asia beyond their ambit, and the book throws light upon major and minor, established and emergent geographies of art. Asia’s own internal minorities fracture any unified sense of place, and representing this diversity has become a major challenge for today’s curator. What is the impact on contemporary art of state power and burgeoning economies, or the persistent stereotypes of Asian craftsmanship, exoticism, and religiosity or the new ones of terrorism and tourist paradise? The book aims to challenge some of these perceptions by viewing modern and contemporary Asian art not as a given field but as a project in flux, constantly under revision via art practice and curatorial interventions. Printed Pages: 288., Sage Publications, 2013, Sage Publications, 2013. Softcover. New. InFlux: Contemporary Art in Asia brings together essays by leading critics and curators to examine modern and contemporary art practice and its discourses in Asia. Covering diverse regions spanning China, India, Thailand, Iran, West Asia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Tibet, and Cambodia, the book examines their multiple modernities and the arrival of many Asias upon the contemporary art scene. Some centers have become celebrated in the international exhibition circuit and the art market, but there is also an Asia beyond their ambit, and the book throws light upon major and minor, established and emergent geographies of art. Asia’s own internal minorities fracture any unified sense of place, and representing this diversity has become a major challenge for today’s curator. What is the impact on contemporary art of state power and burgeoning economies, or the persistent stereotypes of Asian craftsmanship, exoticism, and religiosity or the new ones of terrorism and tourist paradise? The book aims to challenge some of these perceptions by viewing modern and contemporary Asian art not as a given field but as a project in flux, constantly under revision via art practice and curatorial interventions. Printed Pages: 288., Sage Publications, 2013, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Art, 2013. Softcover. New. Rock art is one of the richest cultural resources in the world, which depicts the earliest expressions of humankind. The proximity of this art ant its affinity with the art of many living communities of the world today makes it all the more significant and valuable. Rock art images can be treated as a source of cultural communication between the past, present and the future. The present volume gives an overall status of rock art in the different continents of the world. It is based on special lecture series organised by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) as a part of the International Conference on Rock Art 2012. These special lectures are delivered by internationally renowned scholars in the field. It is clear from the vast spectrum covered by this volume that although there has been a history of research on rock art, it is still exploring various avenues of growth. This volume provides an in-depth information and analysis of subjects/themes of five continents i.e. Africa, America, Australia, Asia and Europe with rock art concentration, which are important while keeping in view the future development of the conceptual academic programmes designed to encapsulate primeval vision or Adi Drishya of human beings. In magnitude, vividness and richness, this is an outstanding volume. It aims to enhance and promote rock art research, especially in those countries where it is a young discipline. Printed Pages: 188., Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Art, 2013<
