Anja Manfredi

A Gesture Is Exposed By Anja Manfredi

2013

Untitled By Mark Lancaster c. 1970 Oil on canvas 112 x 111.5 cm

I Understand The Difference Between Right & Wrong, I Prefer Wrong By The Connor Brother The Connor Brothers are a British artistic duo, originally known for presenting themselves a...

Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen By Elizabeth Peyton 2014 Signed Medium: Lithograph Paper Size: 27.5 x 20.25 inches ( 70 x 51 cm ) Image Size: 17 x 13 inches ( 43 x 33 cm ) Edition S...

Architektur II By Gunther Forg 1993 Signed Medium: Offset Lithograph Paper Size: 37.8 x 27 inches ( 96 x 69 cm ) Image Size: 37.8 x 27 inches ( 96 x 69 cm ) Edition Size: 60

Edition 1/13 Signed to lower right Ananda Kesler was born in Haifa, Israel. In 2002 she received her BA in Fine Art from the University of Iowa. She has continued her art education...

Edition 2/13 Signed to lower right Ananda Kesler was born in Haifa, Israel. In 2002 she received her BA in Fine Art from the University of Iowa. She has continued her art education ...

Happy Thoughts (Hand Talk), 2014 54.3 x 48.5 inches (138 x 123 cm) archival paper,archival ink, scratches, preserved moss, pcv, thread Stockholm based artist Joanne Grüne-Yano...

In Acts 2:3 of the Bible, flaming tongues lap at the disciples, conferring upon them the ability to speak languages not their own. These fiery tongues have signified the power of speech, persuasion, and the ability to preach to the masses. Ingrid Bachmann’s tongues in Pinocchio’s Dilemma are glossy as if sugarcoated and boiled into hard candies—a crystallization process. They are the only of her works that people have tried to lick. Alternately seductive and repulsive, they wag mechanically at eye-level, emitting a small wind-up machine language of their own. The tongue gives the impression an attempt to tell, a revealing of secrets. On the opposing side of the room, a rod extends slowly from a hole in the wall, inching out, then back in. Pinocchio’s nose is an instantly recognizable stand-in for lies, liars, fakes. Pinocchio originated as the protagonist of a 19th-century children’s book by the Italian writer Carlo Collodi, and was most famously adapted by The Walt Disney Company. The pre-Disney Pinocchio is unruly, violent and mischievous; his story was originally intended to be a tragedy in which the marionette is hung from an oak tree branch by his enemies. Angry Work contains a latent violence—that which is found in childhood games, stories, myths, novels, and in the tools of the everyday. Two 14-foot-long knitting needles—domestic weaponry—lean as dead as stones, cool and silent, against the wall. These weighted objects commune with three bronze tongues, pre-vocalizations, embalmed. Bronze is a silent material. Two drawings invoke Cassandra, who was promised the gift of prophecy by Apollo. When Apollo appeared to her, she refused his sexual advances. In some iterations of the story, Apollo appeared as a wolf surrounded by mice and spat on her tongue. She awoke with a taste on her tongue. Maybe metallic, maybe red. She had been granted the gift of prophecy, with one condition: no one would believe her. This burdened us with one of the earliest models of hysteria—speaking in tongues, speaking marred truths. Bachmann maintains that Angry Work is not limited to women’s anger, or to personal anger. It’s about generalized anger. “The red world And corresponding red breezes.” [1] A cloud of anger, hints of red. An amorphous unknown. “The Airborne Toxic Event” [2] that encapsulates truth, lies, histories repeated, struggle, strife, shock, grappling and anger, anger, anger. I am told that The Angry Machine weighs 400 pounds and emits a mechanized hum. It will be fenced in, for the protection of both viewers and itself. It will not perform on demand, but at scheduled intervals, only occasionally. It has a projectile that is red. Red is the memory of a children’s game, trying to avoid hitting yourself, to avoid the smack of something against your skin. Red is interiority: the tongue, cheeks, throat and kisses. One can “see red” in a fit of rage. Red is blood, and red is romance — “roses being burned alive.” [3] [1] Anne Carson...