Showing posts with label Sculptures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sculptures. Show all posts

Tuesday 15 August 2023

Sculptures & Art About Books

I love reading and as a chld I had started reading very early. There was a time when I read everything. I used to say that I will even read toilet paper if it has something written on it! I no longer try to read toilet papers, but I still read a lot. I am a part of a Booking-Readers' Group in Schio in the north-east of Italy, where I live. Finally, earlier this year I completed writing my first fiction book in Hindi.

This photo-essay is about those works of art from across the world which celebrate books and their authors.
Art & Sculptures about books - Artist Pitero Magni - Image by S. Deepak

I am starting this post with a sculpture from the Brera Museum of Conteporary Art in Milan (Italy) - it has marble statue of a young woman reading a book by the Italian sculptor Pietro Magni. (Image above)

My Favourite Authors

Most of my favourite authors from my childhood were from my father's collection of Hindi books - Krishen Chander, Nanak Singh, Shivani, Chatur Sen, Rangey Raghav, Asha Purna Devi, Bimal Mitra, Shanker, Muktibodh, and many more. Those were not books meant for children, but that did not stop me from reading them!

Growing up, I discovered English books. Then, over the last decades while living in Italy, apart from Italian writers, I have also discovered many Latin American and European writers. Through the images of this photoessay, I hope to make you think about your own favourite authors and books.

The next image in this collection is from the Innocenti building in Florence that hosts the UNICEF office and shows a boy sitting on a paper boat. I think that it wonderfully illustrates the capacity of a good book to transport you to far away lands of imagination. I don't know the artist of this sculpture.
Art & Sculptures about books - From Innocenti Building, Florence - Image by S. Deepak

The next image is of an unusual tower made of one hundred white coloured books by the Italian sculptor Lorenzo Perroni, who specializes in sculptures of white coloured books. I had clicked this picture during the visit of a group of American astronauts to the Sala Borsa hall in Bologna in 2011. So you can see the astronauts in the lower right corner, with people sitting on the ground in front of them and the white columns of books towards the left.

The next part of this photo-essay is divided according to countries where the pictures were taken.

America (USA)

There are two images from the Central Park in New York. The first one has a statue of Robert Burns, also known as Robbie Burns. He is considered to be the national poet of Scotland. According to the Wikipaedia, "He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish Diaspora around the world. Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature".
Art & Sculptures about books - Robert Burns' statue in New York - Image by S. Deepak

The second image is of a sculpture showing two characters of one of the most famous and enduring love stories of the world - Romeo and Juliet - by the British playwright William Shakespeare.
Art & Sculptures about books - Romeo-Juliet sculpture from N. York - Image by S. Deepak

Austria

The next image is from Vienna and shows the writer and playwright Ferdinand Raimund (1790-1836) near the opera building. He is credited with a number of important books and plays in German. I find his story very tragic - bitten by a dog and afraid of a painful death due to rabies, because no treatment existed for this disease at that time, he had committed suicide at the age of 46 years. When I hear people complaining about vaccines and refusing to vaccinate their children, I would like to remind them of this story.
Art & Sculptures about books - Ferdinand Raimund in Vienna - Image by S. Deepak

Belgium

The next three images are from Brussels, the capital of Belgium. The first one shows two lovers at the lake - they are Thyl and Nele, the characters of a book by the Belgian writer Charles De Coster. De Coster is considered to be the father of Belgian writing. This monument is the opera of the sculptor Charles Samuel, a fan of De Coster. The monument also has many other characters from De Coster's books on its sides - a cat, a cooking pot, a spinning rod.
Art & Sculptures about books - Literary world of Charles de Coster, Belgium - Image by S. Deepak

The next image shows two of the principle characters (Captain Haddock and Tintin) from the iconic comic books about the adventures of a boy called Tintin. These comics were written and illustrated by the Belgian author and artist called Hergé (his real name was "Georges Remi"). Tintin is considered to be one of the most popular European comic books and these have been translated into different languages.
Art & Sculptures about books - Tintin and Hergé, Belgium - Image by S. Deepak

The third image from Brussels shows a statue of Charles Buls (also known as Karel Buls) placed in the Agoraplein square, close to the Grand Place square. According to Wikipaedia, "He was a Belgian politician and mayor of the City of Brussels. Buls was an accomplished and prolific author, not merely on educational and artistic issues but also publishing accounts of his travels abroad. Buls became Mayor of Brussels in 1881. However, along with these reforms, his most lasting achievement was the result of his opposition to the grandiose architectural schemes of King Leopold II, and the resulting preservation of old parts of Brussels. "
Art & Sculptures about books - Charles Buls, Belgium - Image by S. Deepak

Brazil

The next five images are from Brazil. The first one has the bust of famous Lebanese writer Khalil Gibran in the city of Goiania. He was 12 years old when his family emigrated from Lebanon to USA. He died at 48 years and wrote in both Arabic and English. His most well known book is "The Prophet".

Many of the words of Khalil Gibran have been quoted infinite number of times and will be familiar to readers across the world. For example, you must have heard these - "If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were." Another of his quotes that I like, says - "I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers." You can check many other quotes from Gibran at Goodreads.
Art & Sculptures about books - Khalil Gibran, Goiania, Brazil - Image by S. Deepak

The next image is from Pelorihno, the old city on the hill in front of the port of Salvador do Bahia, where the well known Brazilian writer Jorge Amado lived. His house in Pelorinhno hosts a museum and shops around sell his souvenirs including his paintings showing him with a pipe in his mouth.
Art & Sculptures about books - Jorge Amado house, Bahia, Brazil - Image by S. Deepak

The next two images are from the medical college in Pelorihno, showing two ancient Greek philosophers, writers and scientists - Hippocrates and Galen.
Art & Sculptures about books - Hippocreates, Bahia, Brazil - Image by S. Deepak

Art & Sculptures about books - Galen, Bahia, Brazil - Image by S. Deepak

The last image from Brazil shows the house of Cora Coralina, an Afro-Brazilian slave during Portuguese occupation, in the historic city of Goias Velho. The house is located next to the river Rio Vermelho and there is a statue of Cora standing at the window, looking over the river. Cora was a poet, who wrote about the degradation of slavery and her poems inspired hundreds of other Afro-Brazilians to seek a life of dignity.
Art & Sculptures about books - Cora Coraline, Goias Velho, Brazil - Image by S. Deepak

Czech Republic

The next image of this photo-essay is from Prague and shows the statue of a women writer - Bozena Nemcova (real name "Barbora Panklova"). Writer of fairy tales and legends, she is best known for her novel Babicka (Grandmother), an autobiographical book about her childhood with her grandmother.
Art & Sculptures about books - Bozena Nemcova, Prague - Image by S. Deepak

India

The next four images are from India. The first image has the iconic figure of poet-saint Basvanna from Basavkalyan in Karnataka, who is known for his Vachana-sahitya. According to Wikipaedia, "He spread social awareness through his poetry, popularly known as Vachanaas. Basavanna used Ishtalinga, an image of the Śiva Liṅga, to eradicate untouchability, to establish equality among all human beings and as a means to attain spiritual enlightenment. These were rational and progressive social thoughts in the twelfth century."
Art & Sculptures about books - Basvanna, Karnataka, India - Image by S. Deepak

The next two images are from the Hindi Bhawan in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and present two important personalities from the world of Hindi literature - national poet of India, Maithili Sharan Gupt and the iconic writer Munshi Prem Chand. My aunt, Dr Savitri Sinha, was close to Maithili Sharan Gupta, affectionately called him Dadda and had written about him.
Art & Sculptures about books - Maithili Sharan Gupt, Lucknow, India - Image by S. Deepak

Munshi Prem Chand was the writer of many stories that I loved as a child. He was the founder-editor of Hans, a literary magazine in Hindi, that continues to be active even today.
Art & Sculptures about books - Munshi Prem Chand, Lucknow, India - Image by S. Deepak

The fourth image from India shows Nobel laureate poet, writer, playwright and freedom fighter, Rabindra Nath Tagore.
Art & Sculptures about books - Rabindra Nath Tagore, India - Image by S. Deepak

Italy

The images of writers from Italy are more numerous than all the other countries in this photo-essay. This may be because I have travelled widely in Italy. Perhaps, this has also to do with greater willingness in Italy to honour artists and writers in the public spaces.

The first three images are from the gardens of Villa Borghese park in Rome. The first image shows the Ukrainian born Russian writer and playwright Nikolai Gogol. In her book "The Namesake", Jhumpa Lahiri had paid homage to Gogol by giving his name to her hero.
Art & Sculptures about books - Nikolai Gogol, Rome - Image by S. Deepak

The next image has the Peruvian writer Garcilaso de la Vega known as The Inca, from Villa Borghese gardens of Rome. He wrote about the Spanish colonizers of Peru. The son of a Spanish conquistador and an Inca noblewoman, he is recognized primarily for his contributions to Inca history, culture, and society.

The third image from Villa Borghese gardens of Rome has a writer from a tiny eastern European country called Montenegro - Petar Petrovic Njegos, who was a nobleman and a poet. As the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro, he is credited with modernization of his country.
Art & Sculptures about books - Petar Petrovic of Montenegro - Image by S. Deepak

The fourth image is also from Rome, from the ruins of Traiano's baths near the Colosseum, and shows the statue of Italian journalist and writer Alfredo Oriani.
Art & Sculptures about books - Alfredo Oriani, Rome - Image by S. Deepak

The next image is from Santa Croce square in Florence and shows the most well known Italian poet Dante Alighieri, famous for his epic poem "Divine Comedy".
Art & Sculptures about books - Dante Allighieri, Florence - Image by S. Deepak

The next four images are from a garden near Cavour square, close to the Brera museum of art in Milan. This garden has many statues of writers, journalists, philosophers and scientists.

The first of these images shows the well known Italian journalist and newspaper editor Indro Montanelli, writing on his old typewriter. He is shown as a young man, his severe face is focused on his writing. It is a remarkable piece of art.
Art & Sculptures about books - Indro Montanelli, Milan - Image by S. Deepak

The next images have 3 Italian writers - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Gaetano Negri and the playwrite Giuseppe Giacosa from the Cavour square park in Milan.

Art & Sculptures about books - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta - Image by S. Deepak

Art & Sculptures about books - Gaetano Negri, Milan - Image by S. Deepak

Art & Sculptures about books - Giuseppe Giacosa, Milan - Image by S. Deepak

The next image is from the city of Vicenza and it shows the writer, editor and publisher Neri Pozza. The sculpture is close to the bridge on the river Bacchiglione, just behind the famous Basilica built by Andrea Palladio. Neri Pozza is one of the reputed contemporary publishing houses in Italy, who have published the Italian translations of different Indian authors including Alka Saraogi and Anita Nair.
Art & Sculptures about books - Neri Pozza, Vicenza - Image by S. Deepak

The last image of this photo-essay shows the statue of Irish writer James Joyce and is from the city of Trieste in the north-east of Italy. Joyce is shown walking, crossing a bridge in the centre of the city. Joyce had lived in Trieste for many years. He is famous for his books like Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake.
Art & Sculptures about books - James Joyce, Trieste - Image by S. Deepak

In the End

I have loved putting together this photo-essay, even though identifying the pictures for this post took me hours of going through my vast picture archives. It was frustrating that from many countries, I could not find any image related to a book or a writer or a journalist. For example, I could not find any such image from my image archives of UK or Switzerland. No country of Africa is represented in this photo-essay for the same reason.

Many countries do not put statues of writers in prominent public spaces, probably because often writers speak against their governments! Also because compared to national leaders, military persons and freedom fighters, for many countries writers and artists are not considered important enough to be remembered through art and sculpture. Finding images of art related to women writers is even more difficult - for this essay I could find only two of them.

I hope that you will enjoy going through these images and perhaps share with me your experiences of finding the statues of your favourite authors during your travels! I would love to hear about any art works related to writers and/or their books, especially from countries not represented in this post.

***
#artaboutbooks #artaboutwriters #artistsandwriters #authors #booksculptures

Thursday 21 October 2021

Epochal Mutations - Contemporary Art Exhibition

Finally the Covid-19 lockdowns are easing and cultural events are being organised. Recently, our city organised a contemporary art exhibition called "Epochal Mutations" (MutAzioni Epocali). When I read the name of the exhibition, I thought that it would be totally influenced by the Covid-19 lockdown and would have a lot of works expressing anguish and fear. So I was not so sure if I wanted to look at it. Fortunately, I changed my mind and visited it - it had a lot of works which I liked. It also introduced me to the works of many new local artists and a few outside artists.

"Mutation" Art Exhibitions have been held in Schio since 2017, but its focus changes every year. For example, in 2019, it was "MutAzioni Spaziali" (Space Mutations). Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, it was not held in 2020.

This year the exhibition was held at Palazzo Fogazzaro, a historical building in the city centre from 1810. In the courtyard there was a work of our Schio sculptor Mario Converio, who works with iron and metals. He is famous for his voluptuous female forms and I had written a post about him. His work for this exhibition is a globe with a storm of birds rising up from it. After this exhibition, this sculpture will be placed in the Schio railway station and will become a public art installation.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Mario Converio


In this post I am presenting some of the artists from MotAzioni Epocali exhibition whose works I liked - they are not in any particular order.

During the exhibition, I met one of the artists - her name is Maria Grazia Martina - I will start with her. Her background is in history of art and she teaches in a school. She creates art with mixed materials. I asked her if her background in the history of art influences her as an artist? She said that it was more of a hindrance because she tends to compare of her works with those of well-known artists that she had studied and this makes her feel very self-critical. I could empathise with her feelings because self-criticism is a big challenge for a lot of artists and it is great that in spite of it, she can express her creativity. You can see her with some of her works in the image below.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Maria Grazia Martina


The next image again shows the details of one of the works of Maria Grazia Martina, which I liked because of the vibrant colours of the fibres which express for me the confusion, interconnections and vitality of life.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Maria Grazia Martina


The artist Claudio Brunello from Bassano had two works in the exhibition, one on the women of Afghanistan and another on languages and technology - I liked both of them. In the second work, he had used a lot of 3-D printed miniature human figures to express ideas about native languages while computer motherboards expressed use of the increasing use of English coupled with technology - I thought that that it was ironic that he expressed traditions part of this work through 3D printed figures. You can see details from this work in the image below.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Claudio Brunello


Marco Zanrosso's installation "Ecological Equilibrium" had six semi-transparent circles, one in front of the other, moving up and down, creating ever-changing dynamic forms was very beautiful even if the ideas it expressed were too abstract. A large part of its beauty came from the constant movement of the circles and their translucent materials - both these aspects are difficult to appreciate in the image below.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Marco Zanrosso


There were many digital works in the exhibition. I understand that artistic expression can not be limited by the materials used by the artists and thus digital art is one such legitimate expression of creativity. However, I feel that having the skills of computer graphics is a different kind of artistic skill and needs to have its own separate art-world, it can't be mixed with art created by persons, using their hands in the the old- fashioned way. Like the works of Claudio Brunello above, I can also see that setting the boundaries between digital and non-digital would anyway be a difficult exercise. Among the artists presenting digital prints, I liked the work of Valeria Cassol, which was titled "When you look up and see the Universe", shown in the image below.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Valeria Cassol


I also liked the digital prints of Slovenian artist Bogdan Soban - with their delicate colours and complex abstract forms, they invited you to look at them and get lost in their details. In fact, I spent a long time looking at his work presented in the image below.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Bogdan Soban


Simone Ricciardello from Vicenza had 2 installations about climate change. One was called "Alone no one will be saved", which was more explicit about its theme. It had an old table fan which started moving when someone came or passed in front of it and then automatically stopped. Another of his installation, "The time of non-return" had a baby angel setup against green tiles and it expressed the time running out to save the planet.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Simone Ricciardello


The installations of the Schio artist Elisa Pedron expressed ideas of reincarnation, mutation and evolving through the mythical fire-bird Phoenix and a cosmic egg. You can see her cosmic egg in the banner of this post above while the image below shows the metal circles and the phoenix.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Elisa Pedron


I especially loved the works of Luca Vallortigara, who had used abstract figures in wood to express its different natural colours and textures, which had the power to draw me into introspection and wondering about the meanings of life and nature.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Luca Valortigara


I also liked the multi-material works of Paolo Guglielmo Giorio like the one in the image below that was supposed to express the virus of Covid-19 together with the sea-life suffocated by petrol-spill from a big ship. I think that this was the only work in the whole exhibition which directly mentioned the Covid-19 pandemic. I liked the way the fish-net and the red virus came together against the grey background and the rotting skull (in the image below).

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Paolo Guglielmo Giorio


The work of Schio artist Elena Ester Accardo, "After the floods" was supposed to express a recurrent dream which has had. With delicate gold and greens, it had a very pleasing impact, the kind of art you can look at when you are feeling low and feel uplifted by it! While it had an immediate pleasing impact, it also had a complex mix of symbols, which kept me gazing at it and trying to discern their meanings.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Elena Ester Accardo


The installation of the Schio artist Rosa Paola Astrid represented the countdown clock on the climate change which was put up in Rome in June this year on the World Environment Day. It had paintings of the earth seen from space in changing colours, again giving an expression to the time running out.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Rosa Paola Astria


The next image shows one of the works of Martina Dalla Stella - it was called "No fear" and it expressed migrations, changing technology, role of police and big corporations and the courage of ordinary people to face them and to fight for rights.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Martina dalla Stella


I want to close with the work I liked most in this exhibition - I absolutely loved the mosaic like works of Eva Trentin from Marano Vicentino, with each piece of the mosaic expressing nature, places and moments of life. I felt that I could look at them for hours, find new points of reflection and at the same time, feel an emotional connection with them. Below I have an image from her work "289", made of 289 pieces of mosaic.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  - Art by Eva Trentin

Conclusions

As you can see, there were many interesting works in this exhibition. The most common theme chosen by the artists was about the climate change. My favourite works in this exhibition were by Eva Trentin and Elena Ester Accardo. Regarding the installations, I liked most the works of Marco Zanrosso and Claudio Brunello.

As I came out of the exhibition, I saw the sculptor Mario Converio at the gate. He had come to take measurements of his work in the courtyard as it has to be strengthened for its placement in the railway station. We went to a nearby bar to have a beer and to talk about his art and about life.

Epochal Mutations (Mutazioni Epocali) Art Exhibition Schio  -  Sunil with Mario Converio


May be one day I will also write about that conversation with Mario Converio. In the mean time, I hope that you have liked this virtual walk-through at the MutAzioni Epocali exhibition. Even if Schio is a tiny little town, I think that in terms of culture, it is full of wonderful opportunities.

***

Wednesday 6 November 2019

Ai Wei Wei - Later Works in Brazil

The first part of this post was about the earlier works of celebrated Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei presented in an exhibition called Raiz (Roots) held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2019. This second part of the post focuses on his works created between 2015 and 2018, and presented in this exhibition.

Forever Bicycles - Artworks of Ai Wei Wei - Brazil, Image by Sunil Deepak


The works of the artist from this period show a transformation - from his criticisms of the regime in China in his earlier works, he moved on to other themes afflicting humanity, from wars and refugee crisis to climate change. His latest works from his period in Brazil are even more personal, looking at sexuality and cultures.

Expressing Dissidence

The first works of Wei Wei after his release from the house-arrest in Beijing were understandably about the period of that arrest, though they continued to be ironic and symbolic, like the installation called Forever Bicycles presented in the image above. This installation was made from one thousand stainless steel bicycles. These represented personal freedom and its title, "Forever", referred to a brand of bicycles common in China when Wei Wei was growing up with his father in the exile.

His next work from 2015 was Blossom, a carpet made from hundreds of porcelain flowers made by joining 16 panels. This installation also referred to the period of his house arrest, when as a way of protest, he had decided to put every morning some flowers in the basket of a bicycle parked in front of his home. Thus, Blossom represents the flowers of his protest.

Blossoms - Artworks of Ai Wei Wei - Brazil, Image by Sunil Deepak


War and Refugees

After his release from house arrest in China, in 2015 Wei Wei had relocated to Berlin in Germany. That brought him in contact with the refugees who were pouring into Europe from the war-torn middle-east and whom the European countries were refusing to accept. Wei Wei felt the cries for help of the refugees, probably because he was also a refugee, though a fortunate one, since he had been accepted in Europe because of his celebrity status and because of being a known Chinese dissident.

In 2015 itself, Wei Wei visited the island of Lesbos in Greece and saw the shoreline littered with life-jackets and buoys of Syrian refugees trying to enter Europe. His 2016 marble sculpture Tyre is a "monument to the lost" remembering those who risked everything to seek a better life for themselves and their loved ones.

Tyre, Monument to the lost - Artworks of Ai Wei Wei - Brazil, Image by Sunil Deepak


During 2016-17, Wei Wei travelled to 23 countries and 40 refugee camps. Out of these visits came his film "The Human Flow". In the same period, he also produced different other art works on this theme.

His next work on the theme of refugees is titled Odyssey and is a wallpaper which traces the stories of human migrations from the time of the Old Testament, through the pictorial techniques of antique Greek and Egyptian carvings and panels. The image below presents a detail from it.

Odyssey - Artworks of Ai Wei Wei - Brazil, Image by Sunil Deepak


There was another work on the theme of refugees in this exhibition titled "Refugee motif pillar of vases". It has 6 Qinghua blue and white vases, crafted in Jiangxi province of China in the antique Ming style. Like the wallpaper, the vases touch on 6 themes - war, ruins, journey, crossing the sea, refugee camps and demonstrations.

Refugee motif, Pillar of vases - Artworks of Ai Wei Wei - Brazil, Image by Sunil Deepak


Brazilian Works

In 2017, Wei Wei visited South America many times to plan some of his exhibitions. In Brazil, he became interested in forests and specifically in a tree species called Pequi. He decided to make a mould of a 1200 years old, 31 metres high Pequi tree in a forest reserve in Bahia state. From his stay in Brazil and the enormous work related to the Pequi tree, a series of other art works have been produced, starting with the works called Raiz (Roots) which had given the title of this Brazilian exhibition and were presented in part one of this post.

The next image shows the roots part of another art work on Pequi tree, with a human figure, which gives an idea of the height of this tree.

Roots of Pequi tree - Artworks of Ai Wei Wei - Brazil, Image by Sunil Deepak


The next image shows traditional votive wood sculptures (2018) made by artisans of Juazeiro do Norte in Brazil inspired by Wei Wei's art work.

Brazilian wood carvings inspired by Wei Wei's art - Artworks of Ai Wei Wei - Brazil, Image by Sunil Deepak


The next image has Taifeng, a mythical creature from the old Chinese tales of Shanhaijing (the Classic of Mountains and Seas). It is made from Bamboo and silk and is inspired by the traditional Chinese kite-making traditions.

Taifeng - Artworks of Ai Wei Wei - Brazil, Image by Sunil Deepak


The next installation has Two Figures (2018) in white plaster - the male figure is moulded on Wei Wei himself, while the female figure is moulded on a model. Close to the head of male figure, there is a heap of Armosia seeds, which reminded Wei Wei of seeds he had seen in Gobi desert as a child. Through this sculpture, Wei Wei touched on the ostensible sexuality in Brazilian culture and to his own intense dreams during his stay in Brazil.

Two figures - Artworks of Ai Wei Wei - Brazil, Image by Sunil Deepak


Conclusions

The Raiz (Roots) exhibition in Rio de Janeiro was a great opportunity to see different art works of Ai Wei Wei and thus get a more holistic idea of his art-world and artistic journey. Reading about his provocative exploits (for example, about the breaking ancient urn or covering antique vases with paint), gives a certain idea about the person. His constant rebellion against the Chinese government, but at the same time, finding a gentle and ironic way of rebelling, shows a maturing of the person. His works on climate-change and refugees, shows a widening of views where his personal journey is placed in the context of similar journeys of millions of other human beings. Finally, over the past couple of years, his exploration of his sexuality adds a personal dimension to his artistic journey.

To conclude this post, I want to present another of his personal art - a poster called Mutuophagia or the reciprocal eating, which has strong elements of the sensory and sexual world through the blood red water melons, the strategically placed bananas and the female figure on the extreme left. He is also talking about the importance of inter-mixing of cultures and learning from different cultures, which is his criticism of the current politically correct mode of looking down at "cultural appropriations".

Muturophagia - Artworks of Ai Wei Wei - Brazil, Image by Sunil Deepak


For me, coming across the Wei Wei exhibition in Rio de Janeiro was a case of serendipity. I had no idea that it was there and I saw it just by chance. I would count it among my most wonderful art-experiences.

If you haven't already seen the first part of this post, you can check it now.

*****
#artinstallations #aiweiwei #brazilianexhibition #artofaiweiwei

Popular Posts