Dear Shaded Viewers,
This afternoon I had an exchange with Ewa Wilczynski one of the artists for Bound 1 in A Liminal Possibility. “On reflection of our interaction with mine and Carlo’s art piece we feel it is almost predictive art..as it was about connection, isolation, brokenness, healing and fading touch (not to mention the aesthetic chinese element!). Prior to our meeting Ewa and Carlo had presented the work to Chris Dercon who described the work as seminal..it’s almost as though the performance was the first and last time to view art in this extremely intimate way. “The whole time we were making these works we felt a sense of urgency to put it out as quickly as we could, bringing forward the date by months..and shortly after we performed the world shut down. As Carlo mentioned ‘We live our futures first.’ “Below is the original post.
Last week I paid a visit to see Ewa Wilczynski & Carlo Brandelli and their Bound 1 in A Liminal Possibility exhibition. I was greeted by Carlo in the hallway of L’Hotel he said that they needed a minute to prepare and then I would be invited into the room where David Bowie stayed at L’Hotel. Side note, it is the hotel where Oscar Wilde stayed at the end of his life. When I walked in Ewa Wilczynski was standing there wearing a 19th Century Chinese costume in silk, origin unknown. There was to be no talking the only sound came from a mix of spoken score read by Ewa and a natural sound vibration.
On a round table were 3 pairs of worn lotus shoes from a time when small feet were a sign of beauty. Lotus shoes are the term given to the specific footwear, which was worn by Chinese women who have had their feet broken and bound in infancy. The bones in the feet were deliberately damaged, manipulated and folded underneath the sole of the foot, and ten bound for years to keep them in position to form the shape of a Lotus Flower, a symbol of a recognised type of ultimate beauty in China. This practice continued until 1912 when this practice was finally outlawed. The desired size was 3.5 inches for a fully-grown adult female foot. Ewa painted the soles of shoes in oil with her eyelash.
In silence Ewa moved objects around on a harmonisation plate, gold electroplating and placed some of the broken bits of the hand-sculpted porcelain dolls in my hand without saying a word. The handmade porcelain figures and parts are sculpted to represent a living form in ‘a time’. The figures are the last sanctuary: imagination. Layered in latex, draped and secured without fastenings, stitches or seams. These were the first designs made by the artists for a ‘body.’ Some limbs are symbolically broken and removed from the torso, emphasising not just the physical change, but also an emotive action. The containment box was lined with polyurethane prosthetic limb foam in flesh tones. It was all quite other worldly .The hand-sculpted porcelain dolls and parts were 1:12 scale so as to fit in one’s hand.
Bound 1 in A Liminal Possibility is about connection and energy and is a work without time. The concepts of containment, manipulation, beauties, scale, vibration and journey are all examined in the timeless work. The intention of this artwork is that the artist presents the work and objects directly to the viewers to hold in their hands and engage with their energy within the ceremony and to feel the latent intention within the pieces.
“We live our futures first. An idea of a perfect spiritual aesthetic perhaps flawed in its own theory, without a place and time.” Ewa Wilczynski i & Carlo Brandelli
Gallery enquiries: isabella@isabellabrancolini.com
