We attended the private view at Cardi Gallery on Thursday, 16 February and went around gathering the reactions and interpretations of the crowd in the first edition of Hot Takes, a section dedicated to visceral reactions and first impressions.
We simply asked: what’s your hot take?
HOT TAKE 1: “I’m a biased observer, because I’m the director of the gallery. What I can say is that one, we’re honoured to have the show. Alberto Biasi is still alive, still working. He’s one of the most important artists of his generation, he was the founder of the Gruppo N group of artists that started in Milan, and kind of invented this genre of kinetic art. I think it’s very, let’s say topical, in the sense that you know we live in a fast-paced kind of kinetic world. I think it’s super accessible because there’s no narrative in these works. It’s purely an optical effect, which everybody can understand. This aesthetic has somehow kind of come back.”
HOT TAKE 2: Whilst I know he’s Italian, it makes me think of fashion. Like fashion items; shoes, etc.
HOT TAKE 3: Well I’ve seen the work before at Frieze Masters last year, so it’s my second time now. I’m very intrigued to know that he’s an older artist, because it seems quite contemporary to me. I can’t get enough of it – I saw it then, and I was interested to come tonight because the closer you go or move at different angles, you can kind of get lost in different worlds; different colours, different moods. I don’t want to sound like I’m bullshitting here.
Was there anything here tonight that surprised you, having seen the work before?
Maybe having seen it before removed the element of surprise. I think maybe I was hoping to find more shapes and colours than I have.
HOT TAKE 4: I haven’t seen it all yet, but I love this piece, the white piece. It’s super elegant. I love the craftsmanship and the detail, and most importantly how the light reflects through the components of the work because when you stand at the back or stand close by, it’s totally different; different textures, different light, perspective, so I would say it’s multi-dimensional.
HOT TAKE 5: I love the matte – less gloss – I think that is empowering. I am an artist so I was coming from an artistic perspective. From the point of view of everything glossy in here, everything in here is so incredibly symmetrical but the objects are asymmetrical and that is really the romance of the works. So when you move around the objects create an asymmetrical form. If it didn’t do that, I would be feeling flat. It makes me feel elated. He was such a strong part of Italian minimalism. They’re illusive and spiritual, I love them.
HOT TAKE 6: I really love the white monochrome pieces – either downstairs or upstairs, I think they are remarkable. I feel like I want to see more of those. With the aesthetics of the gallery and the whole installation it works perfectly. I would love to see the whole show only with white pieces.
HOT TAKE 7: I think the majority of these works are referencing to modernity, but they are trying to resemble something that isn’t contemporary art. Something that now is in the open, in the public – because now when you see these kinds of things they look like the descriptions about particles and I think that this geometric art is related to the phenomenon of light and light waves and particles: something that nowadays is becoming widespread. Before people didn’t think about those things as much.
Why didn’t they?
Because…maybe technology didn’t allow people to understand, or seemed more complicated. Now, the proliferation of data and images has changed that, I mean it’s quite philosophical. It’s very abstract, and it’s math. So that’s my impression, I don’t know if it’s related to this artist, but probably somehow it is.
HOT TAKE 8: My question is – in terms of having this in my house – would you want to look at an optical illusion everyday? For me it seems mentally exhausting.
HOT TAKE 9: In comparison to the last shows I would say it’s a slightly different mood. It’s more colourful, vibrant. There are two white pieces, but the colour bounces differently. I think a lot of the colours are sort of quite natural in a way, even if they’re sort of bright and intense, and even if they’re plastic. So you have this play of the artificial with the natural, which is something that I enjoyed. Personally I can’t look at them too long because I would be nauseous like from any optical works, but they are nice. It seems like an easier exhibition overall. The last few shows were sort of heavier sculptures, so just having a show comprising wall-based works is much easier logistically.
Dinamica Ecologica is on view at Cardi Gallery through 20 May at Cardi Gallery
22 Grafton Street
London, W1S 4EX
for more information, click here
