ART-PRESENTATION: Rivane Neuenschwander -Secondary Stories

Rivane Neuenschwander has developed a unique practice within the vein of Brazilian conceptualism to investigate the role of chance, control and collaboration. Incorporating influences from Brazil’s rich history of art movements over the past 50 years, the artist has become widely regarded for her ephemeral, engaging work that explores narratives about language, nature, geography, the passing of time and social interactions.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Linda Pace Foundation Archive

The solo exhibition of Rivane Neuenschwandea presents at Linda Pace Foundation in Texas, the room-sized installation “Secondary Stories” and three video installation works, at the public gallery of the Linda Pace Foundation. The central installation, “Secondary Stories” is a constellation of brightly colored circles is visible through a translucent ceiling. Hidden fans move the confetti-like shapes. Occasionally, the colored forms slip through perforations in the ceiling and flutter to the ground. The fallen dots mirror the pattern above and are further shifted by the incidental movements of the visitors to the gallery. The circular, overlapping forms evoke mathematics and op-painting, even as they recall the look of cconfetti, a material the Brazilian artist has used in other works. In the video “Love Lettering”, produced in collaboration with her brother Sergio Neuenschwander, goldfish swim back and forth in bright blue water. Attached to their tails are tiny banners bearing isolated words that express love, loss and longing. The words begin to form syntactic elements and reveal possible fragments of a love letter, exploring the complex intersections of language and emotion. The other two videos made in collaboration with Cao Guimarães, “Quarta-Feira de Cinzas/Epilogue” made presents armies of black ants carrying colorful pieces of confetti, implementing their own narrative of creation, composition and production, as the artist said “After the Brazilian carnival, in the melancholy aftermath of Ash Wednesday, the ants begin their own profane, multicolored feast to the rhythm of matchbox samba”. The video “In Inventory of Small Deaths (Blow)”, tracks the slow progress of a large, single bubble, as it drifts across a tropical landscape. Set on a loop, the film shows the bubble billowing in the wind, shifting shape, but never popping. The climax of the bubble’s death is eternally postponed, so that something fleeting is granted permanence.

Info: Linda Pace Foundation, 111 Camp Street, San Antonio, Duration 30/4-29/7/16, Wed–Sat 12:00-17:00, http://lindapacefoundation.org