Two exhibitions. Luisa Rabbia uses a rare sensibility of touch, literally fusing diverse media with a 'sense' of drawing. In this show she presents a combination of drawings and sculptures which have a disturbing and ethereal presence. David Krippendorff, in his videos, paintings and photographs, has been analyzing the seductive power of Hollywood, and the way it has come to symbolize a world of forgetfulness and escape
Works by David Krippendorff
Works by Luisa Rabbia
Massimo Audiello is pleased to present, The Last Resort, an exhibition of new works by David Krippendorff and Luisa Rabbia. The show will open on May 7th and run through June 19th, 2004. The opening reception is on Friday, May 7th from 6 pm to 8 pm.
Luisa Rabbia uses a rare sensibility of touch, literally fusing diverse media with a 'sense' of drawing. In this show she presents a combination of drawings and sculptures which have a disturbing and ethereal presence. Rabbia is always concerned with showing the human body expressing the subject's frailty and psychic exposure, and for this show she delves further into realms of material and social exposure, creating figures of homeless, destitute bodies. They seem to be crushed by the gravity of their own anonymity, or the world's forgetfulness, and at the same time they are deeply specific and personal and transcendent.
David Krippendorff, in his videos, paintings and photographs, has been analyzing the seductive power of Hollywood, and the way it has come to symbolize a world of forgetfulness and escape. He takes tiny fragments from movies and puts them under an existential microscope, revealing things that are beautiful and frightening. In this show, Krippendorff looks at the 'phenomenon' of Rita Hayworth in the film that made her an immortal icon: Gilda. Among the voluptuous interiors of a Hollywood dream, Rita, Gilda and America, seem oblivious to much of the existence of outside. Hayworth and Hollywood are transfigured as a dance of seduction is frozen in hysterical shakes. The creeping contradiction seems to break through the cosmetic perfection, and what was luxurious begins to feel distinctly claustrophobic.
Each artist with two unsettling topics from two opposite points on the same continuum. The Last Resort examines the end of the line from two extreme perspectives revealing that the pinnacle of success and beauty are not so far from total destitution and repugnance.
Image: Luisa Rabbia, Being Staring At Something, 2004. Blue pencil on mixed materials \ 26 x 22 x 23 inches. Background: pencil wall drawing, dimension variable
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