I maintain an are.na channel of "readings I think about frequently"—just a list of articles that seem to come up a lot in my thought and conversations. There's a member that just barely doesn't make it on there, but that has come up a few times recently: this Interview Magazine piece with Gedi Sibony.
I learned about Sibony when he came and spoke at Brown, my (and his) alma mater. I don't think his work is starkly novel—it fits within the contemporary sculpture trend of things next to other things (thanks Danielle—here's an example.)—but I loved how he articulated his practice.
The work resonates with the well-trod "i like what you've done with your trash" and the "zoomed-in image by artsy person on instagram" territory. Despite how easy it is to mock, I enjoy work like this because I think it encourages a practice of seeing art and beauty in the ephemeral arrangements of the everyday—a mission I believe in.
Sibony's work picks up parts of sculptural narratives from previous decades: if re-use in the formal art world starts with readymades, and industrial materials in sculpture pushed further by the modernists, Sibony is just weaving these threads together in the 21st century. What I appreciated most about Sibony's practice is that he emphasizes a practice of moving around the materials in space, seeking novel arrangements, working somewhere between object and architecture. While he does have shows in prototypical white-cube fashion, I get the sense that at any point the studio setup could be interpreted as a piece—a focus on the practice, rather than the product.
Sofie Ramos' practice is similarly about arrangement and rearrangement in space and time (also a Brown grad, go bears?). She has a form and color palette much different than Sibony's, however—seemingly more grounded in postmodernism's exuberant disorientation. Despite this, I think their bodies of work have a similarly dark tones. In sharing a practice, there's less excitement for a grand gesture of completeness, a monument to celebrate; rather, the subtler joy of a good and fleeting moment in time. Both of their practices address the detritus of industrial production, too, and thereby draw attention to its starkness and grotesqueness, for Sibony and Ramos, respectively.
Support your local studio practice, and keep an eye out for sculpture.
Rearranging,
Lukas
I learned about Sibony when he came and spoke at Brown, my (and his) alma mater. I don't think his work is starkly novel—it fits within the contemporary sculpture trend of things next to other things (thanks Danielle—here's an example.)—but I loved how he articulated his practice.
The work resonates with the well-trod "i like what you've done with your trash" and the "zoomed-in image by artsy person on instagram" territory. Despite how easy it is to mock, I enjoy work like this because I think it encourages a practice of seeing art and beauty in the ephemeral arrangements of the everyday—a mission I believe in.
Sibony's work picks up parts of sculptural narratives from previous decades: if re-use in the formal art world starts with readymades, and industrial materials in sculpture pushed further by the modernists, Sibony is just weaving these threads together in the 21st century. What I appreciated most about Sibony's practice is that he emphasizes a practice of moving around the materials in space, seeking novel arrangements, working somewhere between object and architecture. While he does have shows in prototypical white-cube fashion, I get the sense that at any point the studio setup could be interpreted as a piece—a focus on the practice, rather than the product.
Sofie Ramos' practice is similarly about arrangement and rearrangement in space and time (also a Brown grad, go bears?). She has a form and color palette much different than Sibony's, however—seemingly more grounded in postmodernism's exuberant disorientation. Despite this, I think their bodies of work have a similarly dark tones. In sharing a practice, there's less excitement for a grand gesture of completeness, a monument to celebrate; rather, the subtler joy of a good and fleeting moment in time. Both of their practices address the detritus of industrial production, too, and thereby draw attention to its starkness and grotesqueness, for Sibony and Ramos, respectively.
Support your local studio practice, and keep an eye out for sculpture.
Rearranging,
Lukas