Today we are continuing our discussions and making plans for the creation of new work.
Philip Courtenay writes:
We posted an image of the work commisioned by Liverpool Biennial International 08 from Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. It is called Web of Light, and is placed in the Liverpool city square known as Exchange Flags (I always get confused by this placename, as it sounds more like an order!). In daylight you can see the engineering. At night you see the work as an illumination hanging in space. It is one of the spectacular works for Biennial. Bryan was wondering if the am space group looked to artists like Ai Weiwei as a role model. They, in turn, wondered why they hadn't seen much of his work for a while.
The work is large scale, in a large scale urban setting, right by Liverpool Town Hall. Untangling the impact of scale from the first impression is difficult. Production values have a public meaning. Is the primary function to dazzle, despite the merits of the individual work involved? Is dazzle diversion? Looking at something big usually makes me feel small, which could be good in some ways, but I also feel left out of this game! I compare this feeling with the inspiration that came from seeing a small cardboard construction in the Picasso Museum in Paris, and realizing how fantastic it was to see how such ordinary (poor) materials could be a part of the making of an artwork rich in its making and in its transformative potential for me and anyone else who cares about such stuff.
There is a work here in the Bluecoat by Sarah Sze that provokes similar thoughts and feelings.
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