Thiago Rocha Pitta
18 Sep - 31 Oct 2009
THIAGO ROCHA PITTA
"A Rocky Mist"
18.09.2009 - 31.10.2009, Karlsruhe
We are pleased to present the South American artist Thiago Rocha Pitta ́s first show in our gallery in Karlsruhe – A Rocky Mist. Thiago Rocha Pitta ́s work deals with the continual transformation, interpenetration and reversible mutability of nature and culture, it is defined by a transformative processuality drawn from the observation of natural development and decay, and the manipulability thereof. The four elements – fire, earth, water and air – are not only allegorical subjects of his work, but also become the actual formative material out of which his installations are made, and are used in photographic works and drawings. For example, the artist works with rain, using the flow of raindrops to disperse pigments that he has spread on a canvas outdoors, or on a shoulder of rock – just as the artist translates elementary biological or physical reactions into an atmospheric painting subject. In doing this Thiago Rocha Pitta unites Land Art strategies and with an impressionistic, modified portrayal of landscapes, which he often confronts with the non-representational aesthetics of Color Field painting, embedded within a narrative and dramaturgic concept.
For the installation A Rocky Mist Thiago Rocha Pitta filled a circa four by four meters large basin with saturated salt water. The brine was obtained in a process of boiling salt water, which then returned the salt to its original solid state through added heat. Within the basin there are four different sized vertically offset sheets of glass, on which the silhouette of a mountain ridge was applied in salt brine. Due to the natural course of time that determines the brine ́s crystallization, the layer that had been previously applied became thicker and grew beyond the predefined outline, becoming a multi-layered, condensed and jagged structure. The different levels, which visually overlap and merge into one another, form an overall picture like the structure of an alpine or polar landscape, while the surface that developed from the salt sediment recalls the heterogeneous appearance of rock. The translucent, opaque white layer settled over the surface of the glass like a veil of mist, creating a diffuse perspective depth in the architecture that Pitta constructed.
The fluctuation between unveiling and veiling, as well as - in parallel - constituting and dissolving spatiality form a constant stylistic principle in Thiago Rocha Pitta ́s work. Developing room for associations becomes manifest in a series of three subtly figurative drawings: these are watercolors on smooth paper with a surface that absorbs pigments and retains them in intense saturation, the precise composition of the image is formed especially by the accentuated brushwork and the reduced application of the blue-gray paint. Pitta depicts without calling things by their name: He lets the horizontally and vertically extending dimensions of the images circulate in the viewers perception, swaying between figurative depiction and imaginative formal language. Gauging a scene with perspective and color is heightened in the drawing The bird in the fog: The dynamics of the paint application and the pure color itself causes the picture ́s subject to grow out of the agglomeration and diffusion of pigments, while the finely dotted surface of the paper intensifies the depth of the pictorial space. It is not the color palette but rather the multifarious handling of the transparency and luminosity of the black watercolor paint, fading into delicate shades of gray, that is definitive for this. Light and darkness serve as a frame for the turbulent image, and allow it to grow into a poetic, abstracted landscape composition.
Text: Christina Irrgang
Translation: Zoe Miller
"A Rocky Mist"
18.09.2009 - 31.10.2009, Karlsruhe
We are pleased to present the South American artist Thiago Rocha Pitta ́s first show in our gallery in Karlsruhe – A Rocky Mist. Thiago Rocha Pitta ́s work deals with the continual transformation, interpenetration and reversible mutability of nature and culture, it is defined by a transformative processuality drawn from the observation of natural development and decay, and the manipulability thereof. The four elements – fire, earth, water and air – are not only allegorical subjects of his work, but also become the actual formative material out of which his installations are made, and are used in photographic works and drawings. For example, the artist works with rain, using the flow of raindrops to disperse pigments that he has spread on a canvas outdoors, or on a shoulder of rock – just as the artist translates elementary biological or physical reactions into an atmospheric painting subject. In doing this Thiago Rocha Pitta unites Land Art strategies and with an impressionistic, modified portrayal of landscapes, which he often confronts with the non-representational aesthetics of Color Field painting, embedded within a narrative and dramaturgic concept.
For the installation A Rocky Mist Thiago Rocha Pitta filled a circa four by four meters large basin with saturated salt water. The brine was obtained in a process of boiling salt water, which then returned the salt to its original solid state through added heat. Within the basin there are four different sized vertically offset sheets of glass, on which the silhouette of a mountain ridge was applied in salt brine. Due to the natural course of time that determines the brine ́s crystallization, the layer that had been previously applied became thicker and grew beyond the predefined outline, becoming a multi-layered, condensed and jagged structure. The different levels, which visually overlap and merge into one another, form an overall picture like the structure of an alpine or polar landscape, while the surface that developed from the salt sediment recalls the heterogeneous appearance of rock. The translucent, opaque white layer settled over the surface of the glass like a veil of mist, creating a diffuse perspective depth in the architecture that Pitta constructed.
The fluctuation between unveiling and veiling, as well as - in parallel - constituting and dissolving spatiality form a constant stylistic principle in Thiago Rocha Pitta ́s work. Developing room for associations becomes manifest in a series of three subtly figurative drawings: these are watercolors on smooth paper with a surface that absorbs pigments and retains them in intense saturation, the precise composition of the image is formed especially by the accentuated brushwork and the reduced application of the blue-gray paint. Pitta depicts without calling things by their name: He lets the horizontally and vertically extending dimensions of the images circulate in the viewers perception, swaying between figurative depiction and imaginative formal language. Gauging a scene with perspective and color is heightened in the drawing The bird in the fog: The dynamics of the paint application and the pure color itself causes the picture ́s subject to grow out of the agglomeration and diffusion of pigments, while the finely dotted surface of the paper intensifies the depth of the pictorial space. It is not the color palette but rather the multifarious handling of the transparency and luminosity of the black watercolor paint, fading into delicate shades of gray, that is definitive for this. Light and darkness serve as a frame for the turbulent image, and allow it to grow into a poetic, abstracted landscape composition.
Text: Christina Irrgang
Translation: Zoe Miller