FORMAFANTASMA

Read More  |  2.03.21  |  Article by Dal Chodha  |  Art, culture, interview, Magazine  |  MM18

The designers Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin – who operate under the name Formafantasma – have seized every opportunity to confront the ecological and political responsibilities of their discipline. In the last decade, their research-based practice has often called on materials that remind us of our precarious place in the world: lava and volcanic ash, animal bladders. Charcoal. Wood. A fortnight before the UK lockdown was announced, the pair opened Cambio at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery – a tender show that laid their ongoing investigations into the governance of the timber industry bare. Behind bolted doors, an archive of rare hardwoods first exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851 sat gathering dust; the devices spewing an aroma of wet forest earth switched off for months. The show lives on as an orgy of pixels online. A post-pandemic world is a world full of questions. What do Formafantasma do now?

In conversation: Design has to have something to say.
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Kunst Talk: Rebecca Ackroyd in Conversation with Alexandra da Cunha

Read More  |  26.02.21  |  Article by Mazzy-Mae Green  |  Art, culture, interview, Issues, Magazine  |  MM18

The materials an artist chooses affect not only the look and feel of their work, but also the way in which they make it. Rebecca Ackroyd and Alexandre da Cunha both make selections that shape their processes. In Ackroyd’s work, she creates ghostly and unsettling atmospheres through a quick, urgent process of loosely applied materials, from chicken wire, fiberglass, and plaster bandages. For Da Cunha, his methods of displacing and re-contextualising everyday objects have a more conceptual understanding – naturally slower. Often, they involve repurposing mass-produced objects to fit a minimalist aesthetic, heavy with symbolism.

Over a conversation for Modern Matter, the two sculptors sit down together to discuss material processes, mediums and influences.
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Some People Are Like Comets

Read More  |  25.02.21  |  Article by Philippa Snow & Olu Odukoya  |  Art, culture, interview, Issues, Magazine  |  MM18

My performance consisted of three elements: myself, an institutional wall clock, and a 5’x8’ sheet of plate glass. The sheet of glass was placed horizontally and leaned against the wall at a 45 degree angle; the clock was placed to the left of the glass at eye level. When the performance began, the clock was running at the correct time. I entered the room and reset the clock to twelve midnight. I crawled into the space between the glass and the wall, and lay on my back. I was prepared to lie in this position indefinitely, until one of the three elements was disturbed or altered. The responsibility for ending the piece rested with the museum staff, but they were unaware of this crucial aspect. The piece ended when Dennis O’Shea placed a container of water inside the space between the wall and the glass, 45 hours and 10 minutes after the start of the piece. I immediately got up and smashed the face of the clock with a hammer, recording the exact amount of time which had elapsed from beginning to end.

Chris Burden in MM18
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Deadman by Chris Burden

Read More  |  25.02.21  |  Article by Chris Burden  |  Art, culture, interview, Magazine  |  MM18

Transcript of Chris Burden’s Words (Around September 2012) About Deadman
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(L.A.P.D. Uniform)

Read More  |  25.02.21  |  Article by Chris Burden  |  Art, culture, interview, Issues, Magazine  |  MM18

Transcript of Chris Burden’s Words (Around September 2012) About L.A.P.D. Uniform
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Permutations of Thoughts: In Conversation with Peter Phan

Read More  |  5.01.21  |  Article by Mazzy-Mae Green and Greta Voeller  |  Art, culture, interview  |  MM18

“The photographs become just a set of material paints.”

 

California-based artist Peter Phan’s current works sit at the perimeters of photography, painting, and the found object. Constructed from a deep dive of archival data – that once meant something to their author, but whose associations have faded with the passing of time – these stitched-together prints exude a kind of trippy chaos as they play out across their quadrilateral frames in vibrant, kaleidoscopic forms. Through his collages, Phan critically examines the processes associated with photography, from the selection of equipment to the idea of capturing external life, by generating imagery through a combined process of the mirrorless camera, and the digital layering of these abstract shots. 

An interview with Peter Phan on the occasion of “New Futures Digital” at Kovet.Art until 20th January  
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On TITAN: Cildo Meireles in Conversation with Damián Ortega

Read More  |  19.12.20  |  Article by Damián Ortega  |  Art, culture, interview  |  MM18

A couple of years ago, kurimanzutto, a gallery based in Mexico City, decided to open an office in Manhattan, New York. This new space did not aspire to be a proper exhibition space, like a gallery, but rather a place for meeting and discussing projects. In my conversations with Mónica Manzutto and José Kuri, the idea of ​​developing a project for the New York space arose. Thereafter, I met Bree Zucker several times, and together we conceived a project within the grid of the city, selected the artists, and invited them to participate. We decided to focus on the existing energy in the city’s communication channels and chose twelve phone booths, located on a circuit, running along the Avenue of the Americas, Sixth Avenue, between 51st and 56th Street. As a static, analogue system, these booths are now considered obsolete and on the verge of disappearing. 

 

The project includes work by Anne Collier, Glenn Ligon, Hal Fischer, Hans Haacke, Jimmie Durham, Minerva Cuevas, Patti Smith, Renée Green, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Yvonne Rainer, Zoe Leonard, and Cildo Meireles. Between Brazil and Mexico City, I sat down with Cildo – an old friend of mine – to have a conversation on his project, his life, and his love of soccer.

Damián Ortega interviews Cildo Meireles on the occasion of TITAN, New York City, October 12, 2020 – January 3, 2021
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“The ground is a pedestal for readymade works” – Eric N. Mack

Read More  |  24.11.20  |  Article by Olu Odukoya  |  Art, culture, interview  |  MM18

“The radicality of the shaped painting poses questions to a given architecture.”

 

Eric N. Mack is perhaps best known for his stretched, warped vision of painting that spans architecture, fine art and fashion; a perspective that he brings to “Pedestrian Profanities”, a show curated by the artist and presented at Simon Lee Gallery, New York, until 12th December. On the occasion of the exhibition, Olu Odukoya interviews Mack on his selection of works, and on the interplay between them.

An interview with Eric N. Mack on the occasion of “Pedestrian Profanities” at Simon Lee Gallery, New York
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