Dog Art Today

Tag: venice biennale

  • Venice Biennale: Steve McQueen’s Giardini Dogs

    Steve_mcQueen_venice_biennale

    The fantastical art experience known as the Venice Biennale opened to the public yesterday and dogs are already making a statement.  Specifically the greyhounds that appear in British artist Steve McQueen’s film Giardini, which is actually two films screened side by side showing images of Venice’s public gardens.  This is not the Venice of summer and the art world.  It is the haunted, quiet Venice of February. 

    There is not exactly a story, although there are two men who interact in a way that hints at a narrative.  But according to Charlotte Higgins of The Guardian:

    The most arresting characters are the dogs who appear like a leitmotif through the work. “They are racing greyhounds that would otherwise be shot but are looked after by a charity,” said McQueen. The point is that they ought to be dead – and are thus a kind of ghostly presence, he added.

    Steve_mcqueen_giardini_2

    Hear Steve McQueen discuss his work and see clips of the film:

    The Independent’s Charles Darwent glowingly reviews the film and concludes:

    Every now and then, I’m reminded of my good fortune in being a critic, and seeing Giardini in the Giardini is such a moment. I know Venice is far away and that there are other things to do there, but make the trip for McQueen, if you can.

    I would echo Darwent’s advice.  Attending the Venice Biennale was one of the most magical experiences of my life.  If you get a chance, go.  Click here for more information.  It runs until November 22, 2009.

  • Vincent Leow’s Andy’s Wonder Land at the 52 Venice Biennale

    Venicemasthead_2

    In 1995, I attended the Venice Biennale. It was the most transcendent art experience I’ve ever had. The atmospheric layers, from the sky, the lagoon, the city, the garden, and each individual country’s pavilion wrap you in a haze of beauty before you view one piece of art. It’s mind-blowing!

    This year, I attended vicariously by reading Randy Kennedy’s wonderful ArtsBeat Blog in the NYT. Then, I heard about Singapore’s exhibition Figments, Fictions and Fantasies and suddenly I was on a mission. One of their artists, Vincent Leow, created a five-room installation called Andy’s Wonder Land. And Andy is a dog. Actually, Andy is the artist’s dog.

    Andy2

    Hours searching the web turned up lots of descriptions. (Mostly raves – especially when the show opened with the smashing of a lotus chandelier that took eight months to construct – death/rebirth – get it?) But no pictures of Andy until this morning when I visited designbloom and found dozen’s of Venice Biennale snapshots including several of Leow’s work.

    Andycu

    I know we’ll only get a hint of the experience through words and photos but here goes… this is the description from Singapore’s National Arts Council Website:

    “For the Singapore Pavilion, Leow has invoked the language of the mise-en-scène for each of his 5 rooms. A suburban zinc hut, a padded asylum, a glass hot-house, a wrought-iron fence surrounding a mound of human hair, form the terrain of the Wonder Land of its title. Its protagonist Andy – with his inimitable grin – reigns in this domain, despite apparent containment and confinement. . Deftly juggling different genres and cross-breeding different aesthetic styles, Leow suggests how Andy the mongrel counteracts systems of ‘Dogmatism’ and does what writer Rushdie calls the rejoicing in ‘Mongrelisation’, and ‘our mongrel selves’ (through which ‘new-ness enters the world’ – Imaginary Homelands: Essays & Criticism 1981-1991, S. Rushdie, Penguin/Granta, UK 1991/92).”

    Andytag

    Ohhhh how I wish I was there!!!

    (Also realized how Euro-Centric my blog is. Not anymore.)