Baltic Trip with Gary Power
- Lucy Archer
- Dec 17, 2016
- 2 min read
Monica Bonvicini
Her work responds to the impact of architecture, be it urban, institutional or private, and the role it plays in shaping identity in its many forms, including sexual. She works with a variety of materials and forms including sculpture, installation, drawing, painting and video. Bonvicini’s work is imbued with historical, art historical, political and social references and responds to the sites in which it is exhibited. It provokes awareness of the physical and psychological effects of different buildings, especially museums. The giant text sculpture ‘Satisfy Me’ 2010, hanging from Baltic’s external façade, poses a demand on the potential of such institutions. She favours industrial materials that often recall Modernist architecture, subverting them to create new meaning. The small wall constructs, created by bricklaying students in their final exams at Newcastle College, resemble Minimalist sculpture. At the far end of the gallery, the metal scaffolding poles of ‘Scale of Things’ 2010 form a staircase reminiscent of ornate Rococo architecture. At the centre of the gallery is the piece ‘Legs Cut Out’ 2016. Although implied throughout the exhibition and its many references to architecture, this is the only piece of work to incorporate the human figure – which entity is so crucial to but so often overlooked within the impact of the built environment. It is the representation of bodies that become the architectural façade, a mass of fragmented idealised forms taken from glossy European magazines.
Bonvicini’s work on the next floor examines the relationship between the production of the art and the production of meaning. Re-assembling materials that typically belong to the realm of construction or building, her works bring together familiar objects to shift their original associations. She is also highly conscious of how objects are presented, re-orchestrating works in different situations to bring about new meaning. Viewed in this environment the works evoke a kind of unconventional dwelling or off-kilter domesticity. The staged architecture Bonvicini has designed also elaborates upon her enquiry into the act of construction.
I found Bonvicini a very interesting artist; I particularly liked her piece with the industrial light tubes. As soon as you walk into the space, even slightly before you can see them glowing, and it’s almost blinding when you’re standing in front of them. With having a wall put up behind it also, when you stand on the other side of it, you can see the bright lights glowing behind it, casting the rest of the exhibition in shadow. However, I do not think she has any connections to the work that I’m currently doing.
