I have come to dread
The things in my head
For they run thirsting for blood
Tag / children
Italian Artist Gehard Demetz, my modern day Geppetto.
Formally trained in religious sculpture, Italian artist Gehard Demetz has progressed to become one of the most talented artists of our century. He wields his art technique and experience to create works, many with children as subject, that explore the dichotomies and marriages of contradiction… between that which is evocative and whimsical – provocative and contemporary. His sculptures often carry an energy verging on the socio-political.
He relies on mediums like wood and bronze and certainly knows how to make dry wood come alive.
These are my favorite works of Demetz throughout his career as a sculptor:
Introjection. 2017, Wood
Life Without Christmas. 2017, Wood
Dirt on my Shoulders. 2016, Wood
Restoring My Blisses. 2015, Wood.
My Parents’ Stories Sound Different. 2015, Wood.
Personally, I would say his best works were made in 2013.
Stones In My Pocket. 2013, Wood.
Mom’s hands and daddy’s nose. 2013, wood.
Complement these visuals with a contemplative rendition of Bach’s Christus, Der Uns Selig Macht, BWV 245, arranged by one of my favorite composers and pianists, Chad Lawson.
Osamu Yokonami: Is it About the Journey or the Destination?
Osamu Yokonami is a Japanese artist and photographer based in Tokyo who devotes his lenses to the development of photographs contemplating homogeneity. His group portraitures are regarded for invoking notions about identity, the collective, naturality, and youth.
Could be wrong, but pretty sure this is the photo that first pulled me to Yokanami.
I first became acquainted with Yokonami’s works at De Soto Gallery’s exhibition at the 2015 PULSE Art Fair in New York. His “Assembly” series was on display that day, and it most piqued my interest out of the swarms of art set out for many an art viewer’s purveyance. I ended up finding myself walking back to that booth section multiple times that Saturday afternoon, and since then, I’ve been  following Yokonami’s activities for nearly two years now (that’s what good art does to you peeps).
I find pleasure  in the idyllic qualities and the strange calm surrounding the odd  symmetries of his photographs- unsettling, a little disconcerting, and also very beautiful.
I don’t really know what exactly I feel when I see his photographs, it doesn’t remove me and it doesn’t forcefully push me to a place where I’m aggressively thinking about an issue, a topic, or a stance.
Yokonami invites us to dwell on the journey for truth rather than the desination, I think. Or that’s what I feel.
The closest description I could put in regards to Yokonami’s effect on me is that his works put me in a deliberate state of an “in between” (As I see it, my mind occupies at this moment of seeing a super charged space with elements ie. high stimulation + calm + little sparkly little things firing everywhere in harmonious and  purposeful direction, but I can’t really determine the end of where they’re going (not sure there’s supposed to be one, or if that’s the even the point/goal)). I feel curiosity seeing his works and pondering on them is an experience beatific.
Scroll through his series of 100×2 photos of female children posed with fruits (apples and oranges) on their shoulders– and you’ll feel something too I bet.
D
Personalities and energies of the children I found myself gravitating towards –felt increasingly in this descending order.
Bises,
Soo
