Virgil Marti and Pae White
dal 8/3/2007 al 28/7/2007
Segnalato da
8/3/2007
Virgil Marti and Pae White
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington
Directions. An immersive environment of color, light, and texture in the Hirshhorn's lobby. Both artists draw inspiration from the experimentation of conceptual artists from the '60s and '70s who reconsidered meaning and materials in art. Curated by Milena Kalinovska.
Directions
Since they collaborated at the Skowhegan summer residency in Maine in 1990, Virgil Marti and Pae White have been looking for an opportunity to work together again. At the invitation of the Hirshhorn and exhibition curator Milena Kalinovska, Marti and White created the latest Directions project, an immersive environment of color, light, and texture in the Hirshhorn’s lobby.
Both artists draw inspiration from the experimentation of conceptual artists from the 1960s and 1970s who reconsidered meaning and materials in art. This shared focus, along with an interest in perception and in the interrelationship among art, architecture, and design, makes them natural partners to respond to the Hirshhorn’s late modernist architecture.
"I ended up realizing that arguing about whether something was art or not was kind of pointless,” says Marti. “A mediocre painting is categorized as art, but that doesn’t make it better than a really great lamp." Marti has incorporated such unconventional elements as Mylar and macramé into his over-the-top, “everyday” domestic objects, including his brilliantly hued chandeliers, which borrow from nature and make references to glamorous, luxurious interiors.
Pae White began her approach to the Hirshhorn project by thinking about how to impose a feeling of both intimacy and austerity. As she and Marti talked further, they developed ideas that would lend to a domestic feel to the space—sculptures in the shape of functional couches covered by rich tapestries paired with bright, fanciful chandeliers. "I like to use the arena of the applied arts as raw material,” comments White.“Then I can play with the established assumptions of that object or method." In the twenty-first century, anything can be considered suitable material for art. Working under this assumption, Marti and White create visually and intellectually enriching experiences that provoke unexpected questions and realizations.
Hear excerpts from a conversation with Pae White, Virgil Marti and the Hirshhorn’s Ryan Hil in a free Podcast available at www.hirshhorn.si.edu. Support for the Directions series is generously provided by the Trellis Fund. Additional funding has been provided by the Durfee Foundation, Carol and Arthur Goldberg, and Nancy and Stanley Singer.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Independence Ave. at Seventh St. (Smithsonian Institution) - Washington
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