Each week a member of the Atwood team reports on compelling discoveries they have made in the past week. This week our Editor-in-Chief Liza discusses her art findings.
“What is art for?
To make us love life”
-Sue Tompkins, frieze magazine, May 2014
When archiving publications this past week, I came across a short interview at the very end of a frieze issue from last month with visual and performance artist Sue Tompkins. Her answer to the question was short and to the point, but the brevity of the response is what made it so powerful to me. I am always so fascinated about what art means on a personal level from individual to individual because I think its meaning is different for everyone, but in many instances they align with one another, which proves to me that art serves as an underlying vehicle for connection. I had never heard of Tompkins, so I did a little research. Below are a few images from one of her exhibitions called ‘Expressions’ that was shown at The Modern Institute in Glasgow in 2013, which, like much of her work, explored the meaning of words, and putting everyday language into a new perspective.
Another really stunning bit of art that I discovered this week are the photos of Robert Mosse from his “Infra” series. I actually was introduced to them in our interview with Veroniká Gilkova that accompanied her editorial. These photographs document the ongoing war in Congo using red Kodak film, creating for almost a dream-like quality to themes that are heart-breaking and honest. To me, this creates a really powerful juxtaposition–there is an undeniable beauty in the unique aesthetic that characterizes these photographs, but at the same time they are capturing landscapes and scenes that are ridden with violence. My favorite images from the series are pictured below:
