Anri Sala
Artist: Anri Sala
Title: Untitled (Cactus 2)
Size: 50 x 50 cm
Edition of 150
Price: £300 excl. VAT
"Anri Sala's work offers a unique way of looking at the world that combines reflection on history, memories, and consciousness of the instant, with an absolute awareness of presence and disappearance." Jury citation on announcement of Anri Sala as winner of Absolut Art Award 2011
On the occasion of Anri Sala's exhibition, the Serpentine Gallery is delighted to present a new limited edition work by the artist.
Anri Sala (born 1974, Tirana) is a leading contemporary artist whose early videos and films mined his personal experience to reflect on the social and political change taking place in his native Albania. Winner of the Young Artist Prize at the 2001 Venice Biennale, Sala has attached a growing importance to sound in his work, creating remarkable pieces in which he recasts sound's relationship to the image.
On the occasion of his exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, Anri Sala has especially created this Limited Edition Print. Untitled (Cactus 2), 2011, shows the Blue Agave, the plant from which the spirit tequila is made, shimmering as if photographed under conditions of extreme heat. The distortions visible in the image are the result of a sheet of antique glass that the artist placed in between his camera and the native Mexican plant. Made using pre-modern techniques, the glass bears the hallmarks of handcraftsmanship; the ripples and imperfections on its surface standing in contrast to the uniformity of standard, industrially produced glass.
Sala's work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Musée d'art contemporain, Montreal, Canada (2011), Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (2008) and ARC Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris (2004), as well as in numerous group exhibitions internationally, including the Venice Biennale (2003 and 2001), Yokohama Triennial (2001) and Manifesta 3, Ljubljana (2000).
www.serpentinegallery.org/2011/10/anri_sala_limited_edition.html