Art Post-Apocolypse

Yesterday I went to see another huge chunk of the Biennale, this time at the Arsenale.  This place is an amazement in itself:  seemingly miles of exhibition space with very high ceilings and brick walls,  There are some gigantic bays built over the water for large ships, as well.  So much art is here that you would need to spend an entire day at a very brisk pace in order to see all of it. I could only see a portion of it in the three hours I was there before my brain went into overload.

If there was a unifying theme in all of this, I think it's many artists' views of a post-apocalyptic world.    Many of the materials used were up cycled, or repurposed.  Also, there seemed to be a move towards a simpler, more basic social structure.

I took a lot of pictures because there was so much to like about this show, but I won't flood you with all of them.  Here are just a few (double-click on these to really see them):


                             A collection of very compelling figures; most were made with cloth

                            A woven tent of something like jute, to enclose a "sacred space"

                             Sculpture perhaps 12 feet tall made of pieces of Korean pottery

                                                Sculptures with women as the subject

                                                        Sculpture lining a hallway

                               Here is a biographical note about the artist whose work follows:

This room contained a spectacular installation of weaving and fabric balls that look like huge balls of yarn:

The smaller sculptures were all made of yarn and fabric as well.  Men seemed to pass this part of the exhibition by, while women were generally drawn in like magnets.  I wonder if yarn, fabric, weaving, etc. isn't a part of the feminine genetic code at this point...from centuries of developing expertise with those things.

These you will have to click on in order to appreciate; they depict tiny human figures trying to deal with a chaotic situation many times larger than themselves.

                                                  A room of masks, each one different:

                                            A sign which struck me as very amusing:

                               A Venetian egret (?) hunting in an abandoned ship bay at the Arsenale

I may have ended up drowning you in art anyway.  If so, I apologize.  There was just so much that was both impressive and beautiful.