Homo Bulla, polystyrene, rubber, synthetic fibres, fabric, various sizes, 2019. Exhibition view
Photo: L. Guadagnini - Lineematiche
06.09. —
27.10.2019
One of Erasmus of Rotterdam’s proverbs, in his celebrated Adages, states “Man is a bubble”. From the early 1500s, it alludes to the fleeting and fragile nature of human life, which vanishes in a moment like a bubble of water or soap.
The spheres of various sizes that make up Anna Rose’s installation are anything but evanescent. Covered in a thick layer of synthetic hair, black, like the netting that contains them and negates any effect of transparency or chromatic luminescence, they are a sculptural allegory of a contemporary vanitas, which becomes a scenic space of playful interaction and attraction.
contemporary vanitas
The spheres are mobile, they can be touched and moved: the play on the symbol of the soap bubbles is a simul-action, calling us to take part as actors in a living painting.
Homo Bulla presents, in the form of playful action, a reflection on time in relation to human life, shining a light on the ambiguity of gestures extrapolated from their original context, such as the macroscopic play of soap bubbles, enveloped by shapeless and fibrous hair, itself “out of place”.
Homo Bulla, polystyrene, rubber, synthetic fibres, fabric, various sizes, 2019
Photo: L. Guadagnini - Lineematiche
Rebound, digital video, sound, 1’11”, 2019
Rebound, Snap, Swing
Completing the installation is a new series of videos by the artist, in which the lens of the camera isolates a gestural score that uses the lexicon of the world of games (ball, rope and stick), here obsessively reiterated until the pleasure of play dissolves into a dangerous threat. The gestures are also decontextualized from the body, never completely visible and subjected to an anatomical fragmentation that accentuates the estrangement provoked by the actions described in the titles (Rebound, Snap, Swing).
Photos: L. Guadagnini - Lineematiche
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