art review: ai weiwei

summer has come and gone and my hiatus has come to an end ... i have collected lots of inspirations and wonderful memories this summer and i can't wait to begin the creative process again ... firstly before i post some new works, i want to share my experience a few weeks ago at ai weiwei's "according to what?" exhibition at the art gallery of ontario

ai weiwei is a chinese contemporary artist who is extremely outspoken especially after the sichuan earthquake of 2008 where thousands died ... he is currently not allowed to travel outside china due to his political activism

what i found interesting and discovered through a video interview they were playing is that most of the art aren't actually made by himself ... ai weiwei explains that he comes up with the ideas and then his team helps him make the ideas into reality ... seeing as most of his works are massive labour intensive undertakings, i can understand why ... also, his art seems to be more about the political message itself than the execution (unlike most other art genres) ... 

the "moon chest"(below left) features 7 wooden chests with circular openings ... they are positioned such a way that as you walk through the installation, you experience the many different phases of the moon ... this is one of the more visually pleasing pieces of the exhibition

snake ceiling, 2009

moon chest, 2008

the "snake ceiling" (above right) is a ceiling installation made with backpacks ... this is an inspiration from the approximately 5,000 children who perished from the sichuan earthquake 

dropping a han dynasty urn, 1995/2009

han dynasty vases from 2,000 years ago are featured in the photographs above and the piece below ... ai weiwei tries to portray the idea of challenging traditional beliefs for the development of new ideas ... yet the coloured vases show that a new modern layer cannot remove the original past that still exists below 

coloured vases, 2007-2010

rebar from collapsed sichua schools in the aftermath of the earthquake were used for the installation below

straight, 2008-2012

when most of us travel the world and visit tourist attractions, we take tons of photos sometimes just of the symbol and sometimes posing in front of it ... below are 3 examples of a series of photographs that ai weiwei takes in the same situation ... what do you think he is trying to say?

inspiration: mary cassatt | artist

happy mother's day to all the wonderful mothers out there!  whenever one thinks of paintings of mother and their children, the wonderful mary cassatt comes to mind ...

mary cassatt (1844-1926) was an american impressionist painter who later made france her home.  she was influenced by her good friend edgar degas and often painted her sister lydia, women and their children and life in society.

 above: little ann sucking her finger, embraced by her mother, 1897

above:  breakfast in bed, 1897

above: mother combing her child's hair, 1901

above:  mother and child, 1901

    

above:mother and child (the oval mirror), 1889

above:  la toilette, 1891

above:  mother and child, 1900

above: mother and child, 1900

 above:  young mother sewing, 1900

above:  young thomas and his mother, 1893

   above:  mother wearing a sunflower on her dress

inspiration: hundertwasser | architecture

hundertwasser was an austrian artist and best known for his contemporary paintings and architectural designs ... when we got the opportunity to visit vienna a few years ago,  i dragged my husband around town to see some of his buildings ... here are some of the photos i took of his amazing work ....

above and below:  hundertwasserhaus

above: kunst haus wien (museum hundertwasser) 

above:  spittelau incinerator

i bought this amazing book (and yes my pattern of buying heavy art books and using up all my allowable luggage weight continued ... )

i'm hoping to see many more of his buildings in the near future ... here are just some on my wish list ....

above:  waldspirale in darmstadt, germany

(image courtesy of darmstadt.de)

above:  rogner bad blumau in styria, austria

(image courtesy of rogner bad blumau)

above:  die grune zitadelle von magdeburg, germany (the green citadel of magdeburg)

(image courtesy of www.gruene-zitadelle.de)

above:  hundertwasserhaus in rorschach, switzerland

(image courtesy of kickmeto on deviant)

 above: ronald mcdonald haus in essen, germany

(image courtesy of wikimedia)

art review: frida kahlo | painter

frida kahlo is one of my favourite artist and when i found out that the AGO (art gallery of ontario) was putting on an exhibition (frida & diego | passion, politics and painting) of her work alongside diego rivera, i just had to go ... i'm a little behind in posting this as we had gone last month ... but better late than never ...

i have to say that bringing two little munchkins under the age of 4 to the art gallery is not highly recommended ... since this was a special exhibit, they have hourly time slots to control the crowd and you have to book it ahead of time ... as most parents would know, taking 2 little ones anywhere is quite the feat but having to be somewhere at a certain time is nearly impossible ...

(here's a description of the exhibit on AGO's website)

we managed to get there "on time" and checked in the coats (and scarves and mittens and vests ... yes it's winter in toronto), the stroller, the food bag, NOT the diaper bag and maybe our minds ... and thought wow we can do this!  ... until we went to line up for the exhibit and saw a sign that said something like "no washrooms and no re-entry" ... ummm ... do we take turns going in? ... do we put a diaper on the older one in case?  ... do we chance it and hope no one will notice the smell if we have an accident?  ... luckily the people there were really nice and reassured us that if we needed to take one of them out they would let us back in ...

we finally got in and as expected there were a lot of people in those few rooms ... even though it felt like you were in a movie theatre where the annoying couple in front of you keep moving their heads while you try to catch a glimpse of the artwork and at the same time you were part of a slow-moving macarena train ... it was well worth it ... because of the biographical nature of her work, seeing frida kahlo's paintings in person almost feel like you're watching her life play out right in front of you ...

the AGO did a great job in curating so many pieces ... this was truly a wonderful exhibition

here were some of my favourites:

             upper left: self portrait with necklace of thorns, 1940

             upper right: the love embrace of the universe, the earth (mexico), myself, diego and senor xolotl, 1949

above:  my dress hangs there, 1933

there was also a section of photographs taken of her ... this one was one of my favourite:

above: frida kahlo with idol # 11, coyoacan, mexico, 1940, by nickolas muray

her paintings are both surreal and real at the same time ... you can feel her pain and suffering ... i also love the way she incorporates the style of mexican folk art and fashion ...  if you ever get a chance to see frida kahlo's work, i would highly encourage you to do so!