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    A Sprawling Installation Explores the Power of Protest as It Floats Above a MASS MoCA Gallery

    
    Art

    #activism
    #boats
    #installation
    #protest
    #rocks

    April 15, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “In the Light of a Shadow” (2021), installation view. Photo by Tony Luong. All images courtesy of MASS MoCA, shared with permission
    Rocky debris, vintage photographs, and a wooden ship colliding with its own hull are suspended above a 100-yard gallery at MASS MoCA for “In the Light of a Shadow.” The work of Los Angeles-born artist Glenn Kaino (previously), the monumental installation generates a sprawling environment filled with thousands of floating elements that speak to the vast impact of protest and collective movements.
    Lined with an aisle of light and constantly moving shadows, the hovering artworks fuse memories of past injustices and a brighter, hopeful path forward in an immersive experience. Specifically, Kaino uses “In the Light of a Shadow” as a response to the horrific events of Bloody Sunday in both Selma, Alabama, and Derry, Northern Ireland. He models the wrecked ship after the Shadow V, a modest boat Lord Mountbatten often used for fishing, that the Irish Republican Army bombed in 1979 to assassinate the member of the royal family.
    The towering display is also paired with a metal sculpture comprised of tuned bars that emit the melody from U2’s protest anthem “Sunday Bloody Sunday” when pinged in succession. A collaborative video with singer and activist Deon Jones, who police nearly blinded after shooting with a rubber bullet for protesting George Floyd’s murder, plays nearby, drawing together the historic tragedies with those happening today.
    “In the Light of a Shadow” is on view through September 5. Find more of Kaino’s works, which span installation and sculpture to film, on his site.

    “In the Light of a Shadow” (2021), installation view. Photo by Will McLaughlin
    “In the Light of a Shadow” (2021), installation view. Photo by Tony Luong
    “In the Light of a Shadow” (2021), installation view. Photo by Tony Luong
    “In the Light of a Shadow” (2021), installation view. Photo by Tony Luong
    “In the Light of a Shadow” (2021), installation view. Photo by Tony Luong
    “In the Light of a Shadow” (2021), installation view. Photo by Tony Luong
    “In the Light of a Shadow” (2021), installation view. Photo by Tony Luong

    #activism
    #boats
    #installation
    #protest
    #rocks

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    Granite and Quartz Stones Carved to Appear Like Fabric and Clay by José Manuel Castro López

    
    Art

    #carving
    #rocks
    #stone carving
    #stone sculptures

    October 26, 2020
    Christopher Jobson

    All photos © José Manuel Castro López.
    Spanish artist José Manuel Castro López (previously) transforms nondescript chunks of granite and quartz into squished and dough-like objects, as if each object morphed from solid to liquid and back again in the sculptor’s capable hands. López seems to delight in convincing the viewer that he works with stone as if it were clay. Lately, he’s begun to introduce additional objects that seem to stitch, clamp, or stretch the stones in various ways. While the pieces are obviously not as complex as a Bernini or Michelangelo, they do function as unusual and often humorous studies of various stone carving techniques. You can explore a steady stream of work old and new on his Facebook timeline. (via My Modern Met)

    #carving
    #rocks
    #stone carving
    #stone sculptures

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