Miriam Sentler
Documentation of Graduation Show Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts Maastricht, 2016.
Rock Monody
This work was made in the Majella Mountains in Southern Italy (IT) and shown at Gallery Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (NL), Cacaofabriek Helmond (NL) and the Academy of Fine Arts Maastricht (NL) in the following group exhibitions: Gallery Ron Mandos - Best of Graduates 2016, Cacaofabriek Helmond - Fresh Cacao 2016, Graduation Show Academy of Fine Arts Maastricht 2016. Special thanks to Marco Jurien and Paul Devens
(2016) Audio Installation (07m51s), stone from the Majella mountains, moss-coloured walls, variable dimensions. In collaboration with operasinger Martin Reisbacher.
Rock Monody is a singing stone originating from the Italian Dolomites. During a walk through the mountains, a stone was taken, wrapped up in a container and send to the Netherlands. After its arrival, it started growing moss on its back, a response to the wet climate in the Netherlands. Standing in a room painted in a shade mimicking the colour of the moss growing on its back, the singing stone is weeping about his brutal abduction from the Abruzzian mountains, a place where he stood undisturbed for millions of years. The opera song which the stone is performing was composed by an unknown musician from the Abruzzian region in the 19th Century and is used in this region as a Lamento, a song about grief, played on funerals.
The art installation highlights the colonial act of taking natural objects from landscapes and transporting them in the name of art, formulating a subtle critique on the Romantic tradition of taking souvenirs and displaying them upon return as an exotic object. In a broader sense, the work formulates a subtile critique on the colonial gaze and the manner in which it still resonates today in the contemporary art world.
Collecting the stone. Majella Mountains, Abruzzo region, Southern Italy. Summer 2016.
Collecting the stone. Majella Mountains, Abruzzo region, Southern Italy. Summer 2016.
Documentation of Graduation Show Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts Maastricht, 2016.
Documentation of Ron Mandos: Best of Graduates 2016, Gallerie Ron Mandos Amsterdam (NL)
© Miriam Sentler 2024