Well, it's been a while since I gave this thread my attention but I think it's about time! I saw some great work by Annette Messager (French artist) in London and feel compelled to share.
This particular photo I took myself, on the sly (no pics were allowed). But I just couldn't resist, it was so amazing and intense. This work is entitled Casino. It was an installation using fabric, light and fans, which made the whole work come alive with flowing movement. The 'door' in the background led into another, inaccessible room, where there was also moving fabric and images...
this piece was made for the Venice Biennale and is one of several sections of Messager's re-interpretation of the Pinnocchio story.
I had trouble finding good photos of her work, sadly. Even so, here are some more in the show.
This piece was called inflate-deflate. It consisted of random body-like inflating-deflating fabric shapes, so there was movement too. To me, it made me think of disconnection, of fragility. I loved the work.
Here is Messager herself in the middle of one of her installations, called Dependence Independence. The work was sprinkled with photos of children pulling funny faces, interspersed with letters (forming words like jealousy, attention, promise, protection) made out of soft toy materials. All this was mixed in with long woolly threads falling from the ceiling.
This piece, called articulate, disarticulate, was made at the time of the foot-and-mouth disease crisis. It was heavy but very interesting. In it one could see soft-toy-like body and animal parts static or moving in varied ways, dragged, thrown, pulled.
This piece is called My Vows. I like how she's taken the tiny photos and made a large statement with it. In fact, this artist's use of simple, everyday materials and techniques for the most part, are part of her charm to me.
If you'd like to read a little about her work, here is Adrian Searle's take on the show I saw:
AdrianSearleinTheGuardian