The Disappearance of the Image

Finally, a not so gloomy Sunday and I had the time to visit those places I had wanted to for so long, the Strozzina and a nice little find of a gallery called the Aria.
I've always has a preference towards blurry photos, to me they had more emotions in those movements, an incomplete capture of the moments, showing the flawless flow of time. Almost as if this is the only means to evoke all your senses and not just your sight. For this, the new exhibition at the Strozzina suited my taste well. Titled Gerhard Richter and the Disappearance of the Image in Contemporary Art, it was all about focusing on the media than the object. Blurring an image or let sink into the background completely until there are no traces left whatsoever. The media used most was of course photography, translating photographs into painting and through the process dissolving the object or transforming into another. There were also many works of other showing, including a couple of sculptures that had me roll the eye, so I won't mention the names. But a few had my attention, C-prints by Wolfgang Tillman and Marc Breslin. They had a lighter feel, more like play, especially Tillman's which were experiments by exposing the light in the dark room without any preset images to project onto. The pieces came out with a fairy air to them, almost like the flow of hair in the wind, yet look up close in microscope distances. The backgrounds were in a dash of pink and a dash of peach, warm colors that aren't seen often.

It was a small exhibition, nothing compared to the grand shows next door at the Strozzi but it was interesting enough. After that I sat outside in the central roofless pavilion and finished the last chapter of Deluxe, before heading out to find the Aria Art Gallery.

It's on a small street Borgo Santi Apostoli, very few people pass by it and from what I saw, most people had no clue there was a small hidden jewel. It was a tiny place with 4 small rooms housing no more than 10 paintings for this exhibition. Contemporary art, now a coherent theme from what I've been looking at just now. They had a beautiful little front with pebbled passage, a small bronze waterfall decoration, a sitting bench and table, and some interesting growth that went taller than me in spikes and quite bare from ground up. When I entered, there was only a "Salve" from the inside and I was free to look around by myself. The man in charge was quite friendly and I could've asked a little more about the operations of this little gallery and about future exhibitions, but somehow I felt tired even to talk and wanted to head home fast.

While I was inside and while I was slowing sliding my way out, there were quite a number of people interested in this place I'm at, but none went further than the porch. It was funny to look at, people walking in and then out again without really knowing what this is all about.