(Site Specific) First Lesson - 5.1.16

5.1.16

In today's lesson we looked at the art we had previously selected on our trip to The Tate Modern in London. We had to select 1 piece of art to take inspiration with. The one that I saw that inspired me and that I thought could link to the brain was 'Beirut Caoutchouc' by Marwan Rechmaoui. This is the photo I took:

The piece is a map of the city of Beirut, Lebanon, made out of rubber on a large mat. It has every single building and road embossed in precise detail onto the map. This map is actually a social statement about the city. The piece demarks any specific roads, towns, landmarks and any specific points of identification. Beirut is a very divided city, religiously and politically, and Rechmaoui wanted to strip the city of that, and focus on its complexity and beauty. The rubber material is used to stress the resilience of the place, despite the human and natural threat. It also provides a durable surface for the viewer to walk on, making this piece very interactive. Rechmaoui has stated: 

"For me architecture is a very clear expression of urban life … It’s a way to talk about demography, migration, borders and behaviours. The link through all of my work is the history of this place and how it moves … If I lived in London, I’d work on London, as a space. So it’s not Beirut itself but what’s happening in this place. It’s the exchanges and the inheritance of things."

Marwan Rechmaoui was born in Beirut in 1964. He left the city nine years later, moving first to Abu Dhabi, then to Boston and then to New York. He began his career as a painter, exploring social realism and then abstract expressionism. But after his return to Beirut in 1993 Rechmaoui developed an interest in architecturally-informed sculpture and wall-based work. 

The reason I picked this piece of art is because I think it perfectly depicts the brain. The seemingly endless tangle of streets, with buildings covering every inch represents synapses and nerve endings. The demarcation of any roads and landmarks depicts the unknowing vastness of the mind as we as humans do not fully understand the brain just yet. The rubber material that boasts resilience against human and natural threat is just like the brain. Our mind is constantly at risk of damage from humans, be it from physical damage, or emotional damage that could affect mental health. Natural threat such as alzheimer's and parkinson's disease are also a huge risk for our brain's health. 

As I'm working on a duet with Jimmy, we also used a second piece of art that he chose for inspiration.

 This piece was called Behold by Sheela Gowda and was made from steel car bumpers and knotted human hair. The piece was rooted from her work in Bengalaru (Bangalore) where she observed the coexistence of ritual and superstition alongside modern, urban and economic transformation. The hair comes from local temples where it's cut as a sacrificial offering when pilgrims fulfil sacred vows and the longer strands are sold to make wigs or supply keratin for hair products. The shorter strands are kept to make protective talismansm, sometimes used by motorists.

Even thought the piece is so perfectly organised in the way it is lay out, it will never look tidy because of the tangled, knotty mess of the hair, which I think is such a brilliant metaphor for the brain. The hair is used to suspend the car bumpers, which is used for protection on cars which I think is also a good metaphor for the brain. The fragile hair supports something large and heavy.