en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:26:12 GMT 15 By Diana Wah-Lung
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) held a grand opening on September 7, 2007. The new exhibit went into the mind of Karen Kilimnik. “Her fascination with ballet, fantasy, and British culture all require a lot of imagination”, said Rutger Van Faassen, a visitor. In the early 1990s, Karen Kilimnik became popular in the genre of scatter art, which is art made by artists that gather all kinds of materials and make an installation look unfi nished. “Once you have a little clue, scatter art becomes a lot more interesting.” said Jean Connelly, a visitor at MoCA. I Don’t like Mondays, the Boomtown Rats, Shooting Spree, or Schoolyard Massacre, is an example of scatter art. It is an installation with gun shots in the wall, bloody fi ngerprints, and shooting targets with bullet holes. “It’s innocence has been twisted,” said Adrienne Von Lates, curator at MoCA. Along with this on the fl oor, sits a small section of dolls, teddy bears, and ballet slippers on the left hand of the installation. The installation was inspired by a shooting that happened at a school, before anyone knew about Columbine. What intrigued Karen Kilimnik the most about this shooting was that a teenage girl was the one held responsible. “I was surprised when I heard it was a girl. If it was a boy it would’ve been not so surprising,” said Esther St. Lot, a security guard at MoCA. Fairy Tales are the great story of ballet, the imagery of which suffuses Kilimnik’s art. Like fashion today, the ballet epitomizes the beauty of the Romantic era. One of Kilimnik’s current projects is on ballet--everything from costumes to choreography-- made entirely as an imitation of passages clipped from classical performances. Kilimnik, in her mid fi fties, still has love for fantasy as much as she did when she was a young girl; Blue Bird on the Folly shows that childlike love she has. In a small white gazebo there are two branches and a screen inside that takes up half of the wall. While playing classical music in the background, a branch appears on the screen. On the branch there are small ballerinas that walk around and dance, giving the illusion of seeing pixies. “It’s pretty wild” said Jorge Miret, a visitor at MoCA. Not only do her art pieces show fantasy and ballet that make the child come out of some of the visitors, but also some of her other art pieces that shows her anglophilia (strong admiration for the British). For example one of her early scatter art installations, called The Hellfi re Club Episode of the Avengers, comes from the British sitcom from the sixties called The Avengers. The installation had broken chandeliers on the fl oor, black drapes hanging from the walls and pictures of a young Paul McCarthy. “I don’t try to interpret what it means, I look at it as a fl ash back to my childhood,”says Van Faassen, Along with the visual there is background music consisting old sixties British bands mixed with modern British pop stars. Kilimnik also put a big poster with the main female character, Ms. Peel (Diana Rigg), posted on the black drape. The poster on the black drape shows Peel’s “queen of sin” provocative costume that she designed herself and got the episode banned in America. In Kilimnik’s eyes reality and illusion play equal parts. Her art pieces are fanciful, yet familiar to the eye, and are repetitively unsettling. Whether her art pieces are dealing with a shooting or dealing with a famous British sitcom, she still gives it a touch of femininity. “It’s super creative; you need a lot of imagination for this exhibition,” said Natalie, Secretary at MoCA. ]]> Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:54:00 GMT