My exhibition with Chroma Collection in London.

I was selected to be part of the Black & White edition/exhibition of Chroma Collections.

http://www.chromacollections.org/monochroma

The exhibition took place in the Crypt near Euston station, an underground, exciting venue in central London, check link: http://cryptgallery.org
I have never been there before so it was good to discover a new place. Obviously the theme of the exhibition was to respond to Black and White, I thought this was interesting as lately I have been working in colour so I thought it would be good to stretch myself and do something different, so rather then a black and white painting which I could have done easily, instead I decided to push the boundaries between sculpture and painting with a new work that is a hybrid of the two. 

Artwork & Photograph by Mirta Imperatori

Since studying at Chelsea I have been working with found or natural materials for which I scavenge while walking around town or when I am at the beach as I have a keen interest in recycling. I was also thinking of Michael Thompson's writings in the 70's which discuss the status of art and rubbish and their relation to production and consumption. What do we keep and what do we destroy? Some of the pieces I found on the beach you could not distinguish if they were natural or not. I found this particularly interesting.

Everything is replaceable and this undermines the argument that if all parts were clearly labelled to know their origin it would be easier to recycle; clearly this is not always the case, some things are not easily identifiable, our material excesses, consumerist way of life have gone so far that we are not able to keep up with an efficient way of recycling - hence plastic items constantly ending up on our shores. Due to the work being shown indoors I was thinking more of an artist like Eva Hesse who created intimate works, rather than of Andy Goldsworthy's huge outdoor works that collaborate with nature.

Photograph by Mirta Imperatori

Photograph by Mirta Imperatori

For this particular exhibition I decided to put together two really small pieces that I had found on the beach and give them a new life. I thought it would be interesting the reaction of viewers, could they identify with what is was made of? Would they notice my work at all being so small? Would they think this is part of the Crypt and not an artwork in it's own right at all? Would they think it's a sculpture or a painting or both? The shape of the work and the way I positioned it makes the viewer want to touch it.

My artwork was positioned by the Curators of the exhibition without me instructing them, inside an alcove. It was a good choice because it made the work even more ambiguous but I still prefer it on a white background. Originally I had put my work on a white background on a wall as you can see from second photograph from the top, while in the crypt it was put in the alcove which wasn't white so the piece could look a bit lost at first. I moved it slightly so that people could actually notice it, and not walk past it without seeing it, due to the piece being so small. I had some strong reactions from the public, people can have strong reactions even with a really tiny work.. One young woman completely pulled apart my work with her hands to understand what it was, another artist/filmmaker came up to me and she said: My God they have broken, pulled apart your work?! 

I would be pulling my hair out if that happened to my work! She said look, look what they have done! I looked at her and calmly put my work back together in it's original position; it wasn't broken luckily, despite having been pulled apart by the viewer and left that way. I said to her don't worry I am playing a trick on the viewers, it's all right and I went off for drinks, after that the curator said she was going to keep a watchful eye on the piece from now on.. I had a couple of people asking me what the work was about which I didn't really answer..

Photograph by Mirta Imperatori

There were lots of people at the exhibition (see pic above) so I had a chat in the quiet moments to some of the other artists, they were friendly and it felt more like a party than an exhibition, which was great and rare because todays art world in the Uk it's a competitive stressful environment that reminds you more of the business world rather then the arts with lots of bureaucracy, health and safety involved a far cry from the England I knew in my childhood but there are also more opportunities and places to exhibit there are just four times more people applying so you might get old and still be considered an emerging artist, lost in a sea of other artists, of invisibility but this might be good because you might be a better artist for it as you are free to do what you want that is if you have not given up...