Elaine Cameron-Weir a day dream about the authority of a heavy desk, about other vocations spent behind one ordering certain men around, about domineering and maybe reclining slowly, exhaling, 2014 (part.) un sogno a occhi aperti sull’autorevolezza di una scrivania pesante, su altre vocazioni passate dietro uno che dà ordini a certi uomini, sullo spadroneggiare e forse sdraiarsi lentamente, esalando, 2014 candele, incenso, pinze da laboratorio, mica, mortaio e pestello, neon, scrivania in mosaico alla veneziana, bomboniera Tiffany in argento, acciaio inox Courtesy l’artista
(English text below)
Sam Korman è il vincitore del Premio Lorenzo Bonaldi per l’Arte-EnterPrize istituito dalla GAMeC di Bergamo.Il curatore ventiseienne sta realizzando il suo progetto di mostra, dal titolo Mississippi. Tre artisti americani – Jacob Kassay, Elaine Cameron-Weir e Josh Tonsfeldt – e il designer David Knowles si alterneranno nel project-space del museo, che per l’occasione si trasformerà in una sorta di spazio di residenza e lavoro: un open studio, aperto al flusso dell’azione creativa. Questa con Jacob Kassay è la prima di una serie di interviste agli artisti che saranno invitati a partecipare al progetto.
Short interview with Elaine Cameron-Weir
ATP: The show “Mississippi” by curator Sam Korman – winner of the Premio Bonaldi and hosted at the Gamec, in Bergamo – is characterized by its being ‘work in progress’, hence contemplating the stratification of more interventions from the artists. What’s your opinion about this experimental methodology?
Elaine Cameron-Weir: It removes the emphasis from the finished- both in terms of the works involved but also the show itself as a curated project. However I don’t think it necessarily focuses on the process of making individual things or the process of coming together as a cohesive exhibition, it has a more ephemeral mind-set than that. I think the value of the activity undergoes a diffusion, rather than merely shifting from one aspect to another.
ATP: Which project did you develop for this exhibition?
ECW: A desk that I designed, which has two neon light fixtures that also support candles. On one side, the candle flame heats frankincense and the fragrance is released. Across the room there is a pole hanging from the ceiling with two pairs of custom made eyeglasses, the lenses are non-functional moldovite (a type of tektite- glass formed from terrestrial impact of a meteorite) which has been carved into the shape of a female body. All of the support structures on both sculptures are lab equipment fixtures.
Before the show began I had a dream about a dominatrix sitting behind a heavy desk and I guess that is part of the impetus behind the desk, and the rest came from there, from thinking about the power dynamics of looking, of theatrical observation. Like setting up an experiment and waiting for the results, not that literal act, but something related to the anticipation of outcome or the tension necessary for desire to play itself out.
ATP: The show turns the museum’s space into an out-and-out ‘artist’s studio’. How did you live this experience?
ECW: I didn’t work very much in the space. Mostly I had the objects produced in collaboration with people in Bergamo, then assembled the show in the space quickly. I don’t think I could have treated the gallery as though it was my studio, because I don’t like to have people around when I’m working, but the parameters of the exhibition were flexible enough to accommodate that kind of private approach as well. It actually helped me make work in a different way, and that was valuable to me.
ATP: One of the main characteristic of this project is the ‘dialogue’. How did the spectators react to your work?
ECW: Since I chose not to work in the space every day, I had more of a dialogue with the craftspeople who were helping me make the work, which was interesting and really positive. There was an informal opening at the gallery at the end of my stay, where I saw people looking at the show. I’m not sure how to judge their reaction though, I don’t know.
Elaine Cameron-Weir a day dream about the authority of a heavy desk, about other vocations spent behind one ordering certain men around, about domineering and maybe reclining slowly, exhaling, 2014 (part.) un sogno a occhi aperti sull’autorevolezza di una scrivania pesante, su altre vocazioni passate dietro uno che dà ordini a certi uomini, sullo spadroneggiare e forse sdraiarsi lentamente, esalando, 2014 candele, incenso, pinze da laboratorio, mica, mortaio e pestello, neon, scrivania in mosaico alla veneziana, bomboniera Tiffany in argento, acciaio inox Courtesy l’artista (detail)
Elaine Cameron-Weir a terrestrial sediment melted by hypervelocity impacts from outerspace, most fell on Bohemia, molten, forming strange shapes and solidifying bottle green like the eyes of a gorgon, 2014 (part.) un sedimento terrestre sciolto dall’ipervelocità si schianta dallo spazio, cadendo per la maggior parte in Boemia, fuso, creando forme strane e solidificandosi in un verde bottiglia come gli occhi di un Gorgone, 2014 moldavite intagliata, pinze da laboratorio, argento, acciaio inox Courtesy l’artista
Elaine Cameron-Weir a day dream about the authority of a heavy desk, about other vocations spent behind one ordering certain men around, about domineering and maybe reclining slowly, exhaling, 2014 (part.) un sogno a occhi aperti sull’autorevolezza di una scrivania pesante, su altre vocazioni passate dietro uno che dà ordini a certi uomini, sullo spadroneggiare e forse sdraiarsi lentamente, esalando, 2014 candele, incenso, pinze da laboratorio, mica, mortaio e pestello, neon, scrivania in mosaico alla veneziana, bomboniera Tiffany in argento, acciaio inox Courtesy l’artista
