Ann Veronica Janssens: In Light of Technology

I thought I should focus in this post on a contemporary artist which is currently exhibiting in Toronto: Ann Veronica Janssens. She is a Belgian artist who, from what I’ve seen so far, works mainly in light — that is, projected onto a wall — and machined cut-outs, such as large metal discs or grates. After looking at the description of the exhibition — which includes other artists — on the Power Plant website, I realized that it doesn’t really offer any formal insight; but instead offers the usual generic, thematic description, such as that “while many artists seek to engage the viewer in the awe and enigma of concepts of the universe, they are also concerned with shifts in the geo-political order brought on by the digital revolution, coupled with unresolved tensions that exist between differing belief systems.” While this certainly isn’t a bad start, it’s not much to chew on for someone who cannot visit the gallery itself.

Personally if I was to make a formal critique of her work, I suppose I should say first and foremost that her light installations are composed for the most part dichromatically, that is that they each light seems to use a dichromatic filter, displaying primary and secondary colours. When there is more than one light used, each section combines to create a virtual canvas, with one colour typically being more prominent than the others. This forming of a canvas on walls or materials, seems to be the common structure of her light works, and always serves a very minimalist aesthetic — as evidenced by single solid lines and semblances of technical displays, in addition to the dichromatic colour splashes. As for her far less numerous metal installations, they seem to me to be evidence of not only an extreme minimalism, but also a non-conventionality in their placement — that is, through the creation of unusual shadows — and thus a breakage with minimalists such as Hesse.

Here are a few examples of her work:

(from top left) Tropical Moonlight and Hot Pink & Turquoise, (last three are untitled)

While this is certainly not all there is to say about the artist, I though this would be enough to wet the appetites of anyone who is particularily interested in light installations or minimalist works in general.

Click here for more examples of her work.

Angelika Hoerle: Lost Artist of Cologne Dada

Anyone who has studied the Dada period in European art has come to be aware of the biggest names of the movement: Max Ernst, Hans Arp, Kurt Schwitters, etc. An artist who had contributed to the style of those times, but who has had a far smaller part in the dialog of art history, is one of the few female artists to still be remembered — that is, after her works were rediscovered only recently — from the early-twentieth century German art scene: Angelika Hoerle.

She is the focus of a new exhibition which is being held at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, which is intended to explore her contribution to an art movement, that while being closely tied to social upheaval, was dominated largely by male artists. I’ve provided several examples of her work which will be part of the exhibition:

Horse and Rider (left), Still Life Aquarell (center) and Still Life Linocut (right)

Information about the exhibition can be found here.

Images source:

http://angielittlefield.com/AngelikaHoerle.html

The German Army and Fashion

I thought that I should elaborate with some images on what I said in the previous post, that the Nazi uniforms seem to have had more thought put into their stylishness than those of previous regimes:

WWII SS Uniform (left) and WWI German Army Uniform (right)

Granted the SS did not necessarily represent the average soldiers, but notice how the WWI uniform is designed far more for utility than the WWII uniform, which has various badges, insignia, a chest strap, a more detailed belt design, as well as an arm band. Considering that the average German soldier under Hitler would share many of these details, it shows that uniforms of the period were designed as much for style as practicality.

Overall I’m unsure of what the exact reason for this general trend was, although I thought I’d would be interesting to point out these details in light of the Hugo-Boss controversy.

Image sources:

(left) Wikipedia commons, (right) http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-uniforms/german.htm

Designer Fascism

Sometime last year it came to my attention that the company Hugo-Boss once produced uniforms for the Nazi SA and SS. This would definitely explain why those uniforms seemed — to me at least — to have far more thought put into their stylishness than the military uniforms of previous regimes. As for how the company should answer for this, one should consider first that many companies of the time were obligated, if not forced to take contracts from the army, navy, etc. — the film Schindler’s List comes to mind particularly as evidence of this. I suppose this all goes to say that if you’re going to repress an entire nation, you might as well be stylishly-dressed.

Click here for more information.

Up and running…

The blog is now up and running! I intend to write about various aspects of the art world; especially art culture, exhibitions, contemporary artists. Because of my interest in the German world, many of my posts will also have a German flavor — that is, I’ll be focusing more often on German art and artists. Feel free to leave any sort of comments you like.

First!