1000, Paola Pivi
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Paola Pivi
Camion 1997 Photo: Paola Pivi, courtesy of the artist |
Artist Paola Pivi's work is playful, irreverent and sometimes perplexing. Working in a variety of mediums Pivi's work challenges the viewer's perception and experience, often leading them to question their sense of reality.
Her body of work spans a range of mediums, including sculpture, installation, photography, drawing and performance. Often the situation, location or context of each project is central to the concept, as Pivi creates provocative, absurd and fantastic juxtapositions of object, place, activity or subject - creating the extraordinary from the ordinary. Works such as Camion (1997), where an overturned lorry was placed on its side near the entrance to a students' exhibition, immediately evoke a misplaced sense of action as you imagine the truck toppling over, yet in reality it was calm and calculated, as it was also apparent that it had been carefully turned and placed on the ground.
Another example of the sense of estrangement created by Pivi is Interesting (2006), for which she placed a collection of white animals, including horses, cows, llamas, owls, doves, guinea pigs, goats, lambs, dogs and more, to roam freely in a gallery for the duration of the exhibition, as the viewers walked amongst them. Her most recent work I wish I am fish consisted of an eighty-four passenger airplane flying for three hours over New Zealand with eighty-four goldfish as passengers, each in there own bowl on individual seats.
Pivi's work touches upon many of the ideas explored by Arte Povera, and her exploration of material, process, and experience, was described by Germano Celant, curator and champion of arte povera thus: 'Her practice diverts and reorganises the pre-existing relationship between the world and the objects: their new unnatural state of co-existence finds its roots in an enigmatic and magical way of thinking.'
1000 is a new performance work by Paola Pivi created especially for UBS Openings: The Long Weekend at Tate Modern. 1000 people will scream once in unison. The performance will happen on the mezzanine bridge. If you would like to take part in this event please email paolapiviperformance@gmail.com
UBS Openings is an exciting programme of events and activities which form part of the partnership between Tate Modern and UBS, a global financial services firm, over three years.
Free
Paola Pivi (1971) was born in Italy and lives and works in Anchorage, Alaska. Recent solo exhibitions include It’s a Cocktail Party, Portikus, Frankfurt (2008) and It just keeps getting better, Kunsthalle, Basel (2007) and she created a new commission I wish I am Fish for the project One Day Sculpture in New Zealand (2009).
