Venice Biennale (Miquel Barcelò)

After a week's rest and distance, it's time to write a bit about our trip to Venice last week.

To be surrounded by so much contemporary art at the Venice Biennale was an amazing experience, but it was also incredibly overwhelming and exhausting to look at so much (I'll return to this topic later after I talk about some specific works that really resonated for me).

The first thing I saw here were paintings and sculptures by Miquel Barceló. I liked his paintings a lot--very large, nearly abstract canvases that were depictions of ocean waves and tides, a few of gorillas, and then some of seashells. They all had a certain physicality of the material, and in some the canvas was actually hairy, like fur, which was painted in layers to resemble waves. Barceló is clearly interested in having a conversation with the abstract expressionists regarding abstraction, representation, and flatness, and is making paintings that are very provocative in that sense because he's seeming to be of that tradition, but in fact is denying it. Yet while it seemed like he was really denying abstract expressionist values in terms of actual abstraction and flatness of the picture plane, I felt his relationship with the physical work and towards the feminine was very much of that era. There were a few sculptures shaped like very large clay pots in the first room of women's curved bodies but lacking any suggestion of their heads, being cut off at the shoulders and they were essentially menstruating as he painted dark stains coming from their crotches. They were beautiful forms, and many people didn't realize that they were depictions of women's bodies because they were so abstract. There were also pots that were simply ovular, but then were painted on, depicting women and donkeys//mules//asses, both of which shared nearly the same form. This was not okay with me--an essential equation of the woman being the mule as well as the headless muse who's only delight is the shape of her body. The seashell paintings definately shared formal characteristics with the vagina, which is something that is valid--the forms are very similar--but given the context of the sculptures present, I was a little revolted at the use of a vagina-seashell as a way to delight in the feminine form without acknowledgement of women as people who are more than just their mere bodies. We have minds and hearts and come in more shapes and sizes and have different interests, Barceló. We are humans, thank you, and far more complex than the image that you have given in your work. What disturbed me most was the video that he showed of himself and another man making a clay wall work--essentially tearing at it with their hands, gouging out holes with big shovel-like instruments, throwing mud at it. It looked a lot like the videos of men carving up and disemboweling whales in the early 1900's. The act was so violent and disrespectful, I felt sorry that the clay had to put up with that, and knowing about the violence of this process made me feel wary of the other clay pots, etc. in the exhibition just due to the material being the same. Moreso, his pots depict women, and if this is what he feels towards women's flesh, I'd like to get as far away from it as possible. This is sort of sad because these aspects of the work in a way prevent me from enjoying the conversation he's having with abstract expressionism on a formal level.