Lara Favaretto in Sharjah
Just Knocked Out. Modified version of her exhibition shown before at MoMA PS1, 15 December 2012 - 6 February 2013 at Bait Al Serkal, Sharjah.
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Compressed air tanks, pressure regulators, electrical boxes, party whistles, plastic tubing
Dimensions variable
Courtesy the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Turin
Set in tight ranks, the cylinders of compressed air that comprise Lara Favaretto’s Plotone (Platoon) suggest a military formation. Atop each tank is a red foil party whistle, which unfurls randomly when an electronic timing device allows air to escape the cylinder’s valve, as if sticking out its tongue or giving a halfhearted salute. Evoking human traits and behaviours through the dispassionate, automated action of machines, Favaretto works within a rich tradition of modern art that, for over a century, has modelled our anxious relationship with technology. Referring to the work as a ‘defeated army’, the artist undercuts the celebratory connotations of her materials. Despite its party favours, her platoon of metaphorical soldiers can hardly be said to be celebrating; controlled by computers, it gradually exhausts itself, depleting its air reserves.
(From the catalog)
© Photo: Haupt & Binder
Just Knocked Out. Modified version of her exhibition shown before at MoMA PS1, 15 December 2012 - 6 February 2013 at Bait Al Serkal, Sharjah.