ART CITIES:Liverpool
The Tate Liverpool presents three exhibitions devoted in the work of Yves Klein, Edward Krasiński and Cécile B. Evans, the three artists take a performative approach to art’s relationship with the world. Their visions investigate how theatrical gesture and staging can activate people and spaces to generate artworks, scenarios and installations.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Tate Liverpool Archive
Over seven prolific years until his death, Yves Klein pursued an expansive approach to art encompassing painting, sculpture, performance, theatre, music, film, architecture, esoteric spirituality and even judo. Reacting against the dominant abstract Art Movements of the previous generation that emphasized improvisatory, highly gestural actions, Klein sought to revolutionise our perception and experience of art. The exhibition “Theatre of the Void” brings together major works fromhis “Anthropometry” paintings, “Fire Paintings”, created using a flame throwers as well as sculptures, planetary-reliefs, photographs and pure-colour monochrome paintings. Klein’s intent was to achieve absolute immateriality and infinite space, through dazzling pure colour. As a young man he proclaimed that “The blue sky is my first artwork”, later formulating his own pigment: International Klein Blue (IKB). For Klein, IKB connoted infinity and absolute freedom, an immaterial sensibility beyond that which can be seen or touched. While experimenting with single-colour monochromes in various colours, this vivid ultramarine pigment would come to dominate in many of his works. The second exhibition is a retrospective of the work of Edward Krasiński, one of the most significant Eastern European artists of the 20th Century. Born in Poland, Krasiński had an experimental approach to art and exhibition making. Using everyday objects in unconventional ways, Krasiński’s work challenged traditional art forms and blurred the distinction between art and everyday life. The retrospective spans over 50 years of Krasiński’s career while investigating his experimental approach to art and exhibition-making. Tracing his interest in the integration of sculpture with its surroundings, the exhibition examines the artist’s preoccupation with space. It showcases his gravity-defying linear sculptures, the signature use of blue adhesive tape, as well as the pioneering incorporation of photography in his works. Recreations of Krasiński’s landmark exhibitions from across his career help to track his progressive interest in staging spatially dynamic situations and installations. Charting these developments, the exhibition highlights Krasiński’s contribution to global tendencies such as minimalism and conceptual art of the 1960s and beyond. Cécile B. Evans is interested in the increasing influence that new technologies have on the way we feel and the way we relate to each other. In the new commission, “Sprung a Leak”, featuring two humanoid robots and a robot dog, who collaborate with a group of three “users” tethered to poles. In this near-future scenario, the characters respond to a series of information overflows, or leaks, from ruptures in the system in a performance on a loop in the gallery during opening hours. The Installation draws on research in the fields of science, technology, film and theatre. Visitors are invited into a narrative loop that unfolds across multiple screens, robots, a fountain and other sculptural elements. Through conversations between the robots and human performers appearing on the digital screens, a story will unfold exploring our emotions and vulnerabilities in an ever evolving, digital world.
Info: Curators: Darren Pih (Yves Klein: Theatre of the Void”, Kasia Redzisz, Stephanie Straine, & Tamar Hemmes (Edward Krasiński), Lauren Barnes (Cécile B. Evans), Tate Liverpool, Albert Dock, Liverpool Waterfront, Liverpool, Duration: 21/10/16-5/3/17 (Yves Klein & Edward Krasiński), 21/10/16-19/3/17 (Cécile B. Evans), Days & Hours: Mon-Sun 10:00-17:50, www.tate.org.uk
