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‘My Work Has Always Been Political, Comic—and Also Sad’: Watch Artist Eleanor Antin Bring Her Paper Dolls of Presidential Candidates to Life
In exactly two months, Americans will vote in the presidential election, determining the social, economic, and cultural trajectory of the country for the foreseeable future.
In a prescient artwork aptly titled Theatre of the Absurd, the multitalented artist Eleanor Antin crafted paper dolls to resemble the outrageous characters running as Republican candidates in the 2016 presidential race. In an exclusive interview with Art21, Antin laughed darkly, saying, “I thought that I was finished working with paper dolls and was on to other things until those idiotic Republican debates and that insane list of characters.”
The installation features a diminutive Donald Trump hamming for the camera, Marco Rubio “trying to be noticed,” and Ted Cruz, who Antin describes as vampiric.
In the video, which originally aired in 2016 as part of Art21’s Extended Play series, Antin describes the surreality of seeing her work reinvented and re-performed as life unfolds it through a contemporary lens at this moment in time “with the similarities and the ambiguities—I realize, oh my god, this is like I was prophesying!”Production still from the Art21 “Extended Play” film, “Eleanor Antin: Politics & Paper Dolls.” © Art21, Inc. 2016.
Antin’s opulent photographic series “The Last Days of Pompeii,” shot in La Jolla, California, draws parallels between the picturesque ancient city that was unknowingly on the brink of ruin and that of a wealthy 21st-century enclave, blissfully ignorant to the impending climate crisis, economic collapse, and societal inequities.
Antin’s work with paper dolls has also included creating likenesses of other artists she admires, including feminist icon Judy Chicago, the poet Jackson Mac Low, and the late painter Elizabeth Murray. Working with the figures allows Antin to keep their presence in her life, she says. “My work has always been political, has always been comic—and also sad”
Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of Art21’s series “Extended Play,” below.
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This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration between Artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of newsmaking artists. A new series of the nonprofit Art21’s flagship series Art in the Twenty-First Century is available now on PBS. Catch all episodes of other series like New York Close Up and Extended Play and learn about the organization’s educational programs at Art21.org.Follow artnet News on Facebook:Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More
- in Street Art
“Two Figures Behind Glass” by Fintan Magee in Ipswich, Australia
Australian artist Fintan Magee has recently finished another mural in Ipswich, Australia. This work depicts two rail-workers behind beveled glass. The Arctic glass pattern in the painting was common in middle-class Queensland homes in the 1960s and was used in French doors and windows.
“Some of my earliest memories of Queensland architecture was my father’s silhouette through the glass doors when he got home. The work explores the role of de-industrialization in urban communities and on the suburban fringes of Australia. The figures in the mural appear distant, disconnected, isolated, and breaking up.”
“As middle-class homes become increasingly out of reach for working-class Australians and lower-pay and job insecurity continues to shape how we work, this painting explores how nostalgia shapes political views and how workers view their communities and the outside world. The work specifically looks at two rail workers from the city of Ipswich” the artist said.
Additionally, Fintan Magee says the inspiration behind the painting was honouring those continued to work essential jobs – keeping the economy functioning and food supply moving during the coronavirus lockdown.
Fintan Magee is a Sydney based social realist painter, specializing in large-scale murals. Magee has solidified his position as one of Australia’s leading public artists and has traveled extensively, completing projects in countries across the world, including Belarus, India, Jordan, Spain, Tahiti, USA, among many others.
Scroll down below for more images of the stunning mural.Related Posts More
Celebrated Filmmaker Ava DuVernay Is Organizing Shows by Black Artists to Raise Money for Her Law Enforcement Accountability Project
The award-winning activist filmmaker Ava DuVernay is collaborating with the London-based Signature African Art gallery to present two exhibitions honoring influential figures and moments in Black history.
The exhibitions, both titled “Say My Name,” will open in London in October and Los Angeles in February to coincide with Black History Month in the UK and US.
The London edition, which will include 13 commissioned works by Africa-based artists, including Demola Ogunajo, Ejiro Owigho, and Anthony Nsofo, honors activists such as Angela Davis and Wangari Maathai, as well as victims of police brutality, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
The choice of 13 artists is a nod to DuVernay’s 2016 documentary, 13th, which examines race, justice, and mass incarceration in the US.
The film director organized the show with Signature African Art gallery director Khalil Akar. Forty percent of the sales proceeds will go to DuVernay’s Law Enforcement Accountability Project, a fund that commissions Black artists and activists to tell stories of police abuse through different art forms.
Demola Ogunajo, Twin Angels (2012). Courtesy Signature African Art.“Art is a disruptive and propulsive force,” DuVernay says. “Creative expression is one of the most powerful tools that we can employ to activate and ignite change.”
Among the artists in the show are the Nigerian painter Oluwole Omofemi, who has created a tribute to George Floyd through a series of nine paintings marking the nearly nine minutes a police officer kneeled on his neck. Each painting contains one of Floyd’s final words or phrases. Meanwhile, the Benin-based artist Moufouli Bellohas created a portrait of Breonna Taylor.
Akar says that having African artists connect to issues in the diaspora was a chance to show that police brutality, racism, and violence are being experienced by Black people all over the world.
“What happened to George Floyd happened in America, but it sparked protests in Europe and Africa, where similar issues are being faced,” Akar says.
Moufouli Bello, Sofia Doesn’t Need to Change (2019). Courtesy Signature African Art.Other works will engage with moments in Black British History, such as the contributions of the Windrush generation, whose members came to the UK from the Caribbean in the Postwar period to boost a depleted labor market.
In his work, the Ouagadougou-based and self-taught artist Adjaratou Ouedraogo explores the subsequent poor treatment of the Windrush generation and its descendants, when it was revealed in 2018 that the British government wrongly detained, deported, and denied benefits to many of its members.
But the exhibition is not just about painful moments in Black history.
“‘Say My Name’ is not just about remembering Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and the victims of police violence,” Akar says. “It is also about recognizing the many people who have had such a positive impact on the Black community.”
Giggs Kgole, Boshielo (2020). Courtesy Signature African Art.These include activists such as Angela Davis, who is captured in a portrait by artist Dennis Osakue, and the Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai, the first Black woman to win a Nobel Prize.
The 2021 Los Angeles edition of the show will include 13 new works centered on white supremacy and police brutality.
Signature African Art was founded in 1992 in Lagos, Nigeria, and opened an outpost in London’s Mayfair neighborhood last year.
“Say My Name” will be on view October 27 through November 28 at Signature African Art in London.
Follow artnet News on Facebook:Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. MoreSee a (Literally) Underground Art Show in a Brooklyn Subway Terminal That Two MTV Employees Staged to Celebrate the Video Music Awards
The New York subway system isn’t exactly city dwellers’ favorite place to spend time, but it does provide a vital means of getting around—and it also happens to play an integral role in the city’s creative history. From early graffiti artists to contemporary photographers, the art on display underground has often been just as exciting as what’s going on above.
Now, to celebrate the recent Video Music Awards (which aired on Sunday, with most celebrity appearances filmed beforehand) two MTV employees decided to put on a pop-up art show celebrating BIPOC and LGBTQ+ artists.
Invigorated by the uprising in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Antonia Baker and Rich Tu reached out to eight local artists to create work addressing themes of music, space, unity, and the future, as well as their personal experiences.
The artists include Eva Zar, Amika Cooper, Bronson Farr, Eugenia Mello, Kervin Brisseaux, MorcosKey, and Zipeng Zhu. The installation will continue through September 6 at the Atlantic Terminal Subway Station in Brooklyn.
See images of the pop-up exhibition and individual works, below:Courtesy of Eva Zar and MTV.
Installation view of the pop-up MTV VMA art exhibition at the Barclays Center.
Courtesy of MorcosKey and MTV.
Installation view of the pop-up MTV VMA art exhibition at the Barclays Center.
Courtesy of Zipeng Zhu and MTV.
Courtesy of Amika Cooper and MTV.
Courtesy of Bronson Farr and MTV.
Installation view of the pop-up MTV VMA art exhibition at the Barclays Center.
Courtesy of Kervin Brisseaux and MTV.
Courtesy of MorcosKey and MTV.
Courtesy of Eugenia Mello and MTV.
Courtesy of Eva Zar and MTV.
Courtesy of Zipeng Zhu and MTV.
Installation view of the pop-up MTV VMA art exhibition at the Barclays Center.
Courtesy of Kervin Brisseaux and MTV.
Courtesy of Bronson Farr and MTV.
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Defying the Odds, Marina Abramović Presents the World Premiere of Her First-Ever Opera in Munich—Here’s What It’s Like
Marina Abramović is certainly no stranger to being center stage.
The queen of performance art’s decades-long career has been marked by many boundary-dissolving moments, from encounters with Jay-Z to collaborations with Adidas and Microsoft. It is perhaps unsurprising then, that the shapeshifting artist has made a foray into opera.
Her first piece is opening tonight at the resplendent and historic Bavarian State Opera House in Munich, Germany. The Serbian artist is hosting the world premiere of her latest work, “7 Deaths of Maria Callas,” which has been delayed since April due to the coronavirus. The premiere will be available for streaming online on several platforms, including the opera houses website, beginning the following week, on September 5.
The initial plan for a packed, star-studded premiere at the 2,300-seat state opera house, is long-gone. The venue has now been converted to accommodate only 200 guests at a time. Even the first few rows have been removed to accommodate social distancing for the 40-piece orchestra, who normally sit cramped into a pit below.
But the show must go on, and the orchestra was warming up prior to the dress rehearsal last Saturday night as Abramović took to the stage to greet a small audience. She expressed regret at the challenges of working under such strict conditions. “We had so many difficulties and restrictions on everything,” she said, adding that after the premiere on September 2 she must quarantine in order to be able to perform for the next five nights.
7 Deaths of Maria Callas at the Bavarian State Opera. Photo: Wilfried Hösl. Courtesy the Bavarian State Opera.“I can’t kiss you, I can’t hold you, I can’t share my enthusiasm with you, and that really breaks my heart,” she added.
A tragedy, perhaps, but one that is uniquely suited for this opera piece. Inspired by heartbreak in particular, the work is an ode to the American-born Greek soprano Maria Callas and her climactic solo performances—called arias—but also to the pain and suffering that accompanied the larger-than-life 20th-century divas off the stage. It follows the mythical story of Callas, whose dramatic life and love affair with the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis often overshadowed her vocal prowess.
“If you look at the life of Maria Callas, her story is a lot like mine,” Abramović told Artnet News in a Zoom call ahead of the dress rehearsal. “It’s about dying from a broken heart, it’s about being killed by the one you love.”
She recounted the lonesome last few years of Callas’s life, which were spent as a recluse in her Paris flat after the death of Onassis in 1975, which left her bereft and inconsolable. Callas died of a heart attack in 1977 at just 53 years old. With a hint of remorse in her voice, Abramović alluded to her own relationship with artist Paolo Canevari that ended in heartbreak nearly a decade ago, while she spoke candidly about her life and work since the break up.
“I see a lot of myself in Callas,” Abramović said. “We’re both Sagittarius, we’re both intensely emotional, but fragile at the same time. I almost encountered a similar fate,” she added, saying that Callas died from a broken heart. “The difference [is that] my work saved me.”
Abramović says that the opera work is about female empowerment. “I wanted to show the strength and perseverance that a woman can have,” she said. “Not all heartbreak ends in tragedy. I believe in hope.”
7 Deaths of Maria Callas at the Bavarian State Opera. Photo: Wilfried Hösl. Courtesy the Bavarian State Opera.The Seven Deaths
Abramović includes several key themes and elements from her own practice, including knives, snakes, fire, and even clouds emanating from a smoke machine, successfully interweaving her own signature with the life of the protagonist to the point that the two become almost indistinguishable.
Each of the seven main arias is accompanied by a short film projected on stage. In each segment, Abramović is killed by the Hollywood actor Willem Dafoe. The films were filmed last November in LA under the direction of Nabil Elderkin, whose made videos for musicians including Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar.
In the first half, Abramović spends much of it laying perfectly still, eyes closed, on a bed center-left of the stage. Cut to scores that reveal a wide emotional range referencing the various stages of grief, the combination of music and theater culminates into a sum that is much greater and more poignant than its individual parts. There are well-known pieces like “Addio del passato” from Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata and a climaxing “Casta Diva” from the 1831 Norma, alongside contemporary pieces made by Serbian composer Marko Nikodijevic.
The second half of the hour-and-thirty-minute piece is set in a reconstructed version of Callas’s Paris flat. There, Abramović gets up from the bed, slowly paces the room, unsure of the time of day, while the lyrics of the sopranos on-stage reveal Callas’s tortured inner dialog.
In the bedroom of Callas, Abramović’s slow choreography testifies to the challenges of performing even the most basic bodily functions while nursing a broken heart. Pacing the room in a state of bewildered melancholy, the passive intensity of each movement becomes excruciating and painful to watch.
As is often the case with strong, powerful female leads in the world of opera, the heroine is killed, but in this case, Abramović dies seven times. While some might say that the long-standing tradition of the dying diva is backgrounded by hedonistic misogyny, a subtext of emancipation soon emerges. Despite being killed in various ways by Dafoe, Abramović enters the stage standing and triumphant for her final death, clad in a shimmering gold gown, encountering her final fate with a sense of power.
“I wanted to take an old medium like the opera and deconstruct it, to make a new way of seeing it,” Abramović said.
7 Deaths of Maria Callas at the Bavarian State Opera. Photo: Wilfried Hösl. Courtesy the Bavarian State Opera.Navigating Safety
To balance reduced audience numbers, social distancing, and a strong demand to see the piece, “7 Death of Maria Callas” will be broadcast live for free on September 5 on Staatsoper.TV, BR-Klassik Concert, and Arte Concert.
Yet for a woman like Abramović, who has made a career from placing herself in unsafe and often dangerous situations, the biggest challenge now is adjusting her performance art to confront a post-Covid-19 future. With so much skepticism and uncertainty, questions still remained up until the very last moment about whether the show would go on.
Yet when asked whether she thinks performance must now adapt to social distancing and what many argue is a “new normal,” the artist remained defiant.
“I don’t think performance needs to adjust to coronavirus,” she concluded, “I think coronavirus needs to adjust to performance.”
That true outcome may present a tragedy of a different sort. Perhaps the real heartbreak is yet to come.
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“TAIÑ MAPU” by INTI in Aalborg, Denmark
Chilean visual artist INTI had recently worked intensely on a new mural in Aalborg, Denmark as part of the 6th edition of the mural project ‘Out in the Open’ by KIRK Gallery. The mural entitled “TAIÑ MAPU / Our Land” is about the relationship between Denmark and Chile and how both countries are very focused at environmental issues and how the preserve nature and original cultures.
“While beginning this mural in Denmark (a country known for its environmental policies), the Mapuche people in Chile continue their historic fight for their land. The mural in Aalborg explores the common ground existing between two distant cultures. Where there mainly seem to be differences, both countries maintain a relationship of respect and harmony with the land we inhabit living in us.
Today more than ever we have to learn from those who have managed to live in balance with our ecosystem. How to keep a close connection to nature and treat it with care like a mother holding it in her arms” INTI said.“I’ve been working with warm colors and spiritual symbols since this is a part of our story in Chile. In general, I like to challenge the spiritual – not religiously but as a reference to our culture and then mix it all together.”
Inti Castro, artistically known as INTI (meaning sun in Quechua), is one of Latin America’s foremost street artists and an artistic ambassador to the world. Coming from a family dedicated to the arts and music, he started tagging the streets of his hometown Valparaiso at the age of 13. Working on the street gave him a freedom to explore from the earliest days of his artistic practice. Yet whilst the wall was his natural medium, he also went through formal artistic studies at the Fine Arts School of Viña del Mar. There he acquired the rigor and training of a professional painter. Life experiences and his street practice rounded off his formation.
Check out below for more photos of “TAIÑ MAPU”.Related Posts More
