Home Visual Arts Scoop at Scope- the highlights, Art Basel Miami 2010.

Scoop at Scope- the highlights, Art Basel Miami 2010.

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Olek- Knitting is for Pus****

First stop, and right around the corner from “break area” is one of the most visited and eccentric exhibits in the entire hall, an entire room is enveloped in yarn, including two live models. The Christopher Henry Gallery (located on Elizabeth Street in Nolita in New York City) completely transformed their exhibit space for Polish Born New York based artist Olek with “Knitting is for Pus****.” Walls, floors, chairs, posters, tables, beds, blankets, a phone, a door, and a bicycle are just some of the items covered in hundreds of miles of weaved recycled materials, to give birth Olek’s fantasy land. Viewers are encouraged to don slippers and join the figures in the room, but most are hesitant for the fear that the artist herself will start crocheting them into her installation. Often interpreted as a metaphor for humanity and it’s complexities or the binds of relationships being stronger than fabric but destructible with one snip, Olek uses the medium of crochet to challenge feminist critique with the scale of her projects and the frequent use of camouflage patterns. Olek states with feeling, “Loop after loop. Hour after hour, my madness becomes crochet. Life and art are inseparable” and Olek certainly brought art to life with a scavenger hunt of Marcel Duchamp like items covered in yarn in the single room provided at Art Basel.

Kwang Woo Won

Next a pleasant surprise at the Seoul, South Korean Gallery Sejul provided us with a glimpse of what is behind Kwang Woo Won’s mixed media, as the director of the gallery removed a portrait panel from the wall and turned it around to reveal a hidden and beautiful message on the back. The work “What are your thoughts on this, I need your love” has on the back of the portrait, “Your account is inconsistent with the facts. If you would be loved; love and be loveable. All life is an experient.” Immediately our tiny audience is awe stricken with such powerful words and more flock to the single wall to examine what has already made some breathless and a little wiser.

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