Tuesday, June 1, 2011

Outside Florians

Hurrying to meet Cape Town artist Andrew Putter outside Florians on the Piazza San Marco, I pass the pair without whom any Venice Biennale would be incomplete – the fairies, dressed as always in matching delicately pink outfits.

Andrew is on the prestigious ‘Personal Structures’ at the Palazzo Bembo, and has been checking his remarkable singing portrait installation – we will end up at the Palazzo Bembo party at the end of the night - but now it is time to see some ART.

Yesterday was the day before the previews begin, the best possible time to have a look at work before the art mob descends. We wander through the beautiful long spaces of the Arsenale with their crumbling brick columns and are stopped short by what is clearly Nicholas Hlobo’s work.

Nicholas Hlobo’s Iimpundulu Zonke Ziyandilandela in the Arsenale at Venice

A fantastical creature is suspended from the ceiling of the Arsenale, Iimpundulu Zonke Ziyandiilandela, the rainbird that occurs in myths around the world. Nicholas’ trademark materials, black rubber, ribbons, printed cloth, found objects have here been fabricated into a menacingly powerful, hovering, sexually ambiguous presence with extraordinary detail, For me, It’s his strongest work yet.

Nicholas Hlobo in Venice