Wenn es um Kunst geht, ist Wien unschlagbar

Im November startet die Ausstellung des amerikanischen Künstlers Andrew M. Mezvinsky im Jüdischen Museum. wina traf ihn zu einem Gespräch in seinem Studio in Wien.

Von Iris Lanchiano, Fotos: Daniel Shaked

Aus den Boxen ertönt Musik aus den 20er-Jahren, an der Wand hängen Skizzen, mit Bleistift gezeichnet, großflächige Installationen lehnen gegen die Wand. Mit einem breiten Lächeln empfängt uns der Künstler in seinem Studio in Mariahilf. Andrew M. Mezvinsky bereitet sich auf seine nächste Ausstellung mit den Titel A Good Day vor. Der in Philadelphia geborene Mezvinsky gehört zu den großen Hoffnungen der zeitgenössischen Kunstszene.

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US-Kunstler Andrew Mezvinsky in Wien

Als Teenager war er Praktikant von US-Vizepräsident Joe Biden, nun arbeitet der Künstler Andrew Mezvinsky in Wien an seiner neuen Ausstellung. Mezvinskys Arbeiten sind mehrheitlich mehrdimensional.

Die Kellnerin zum Beispiel, nennen wir sie Sally. Sie könnte synonym für die amerikanische Freundlichkeit stehen, wenn sie in einem x-beliebigen Restaurant in den USA den Gast mit einem fröhlichen „Hi, I’m Sally“ begrüßt. Das ist Andrew Mezvinskys Ding nicht. Sally und viele andere seiner Landsleute zeichne eine aufgesetzte, dick aufgetragene Freundlichkeit aus. Dann doch lieber den grantelnden Kellner im Wiener Kaffeehaus, den man minutenlang anfuchteln muss, damit er einen barmherzigerweise bemerkt. Hier, so Mezvinsky, fühle er sich nicht schuldig, wenn er im Café nicht ständig konsumiert.

Der 30-jährige Künstler lebt seit gut drei Jahren in Wien. Im Herbst bekommt er im Wiener Jüdischen Museum eine Einzelausstellung unter dem…..

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Juden in Wien heute

Shalom Wien:Juden in Wien heute

Kaum eine Stadt Europas verfügt ebenso wie Wien über eine solch enge Verknüpfung zwischen der Geschichte ihrer jüdischen Mitbürgerinnen und Mitbürger und dem Aufstieg zu einer Metropole des Geistes, der Wissenschaft und der Künste – bis zur Vertreibung im Zweiten Weltkrieg.
Die jüdische Gemeinde in Wien war einst die zweitgrößte Europas. Vor allem im zweiten Bezirk bekommt man eine Ahnung, wie es dort einmal ausgesehen hat – oder wieder aussehen kann? Jüdischer Lifestyle hat dort seinen Platz gefunden, als nostalgische Kopie einer verlorengegangenen Kultur oder als selbstverständlicher Mosaikstein in einem modernen, bunten Gesellschaftsbild.

Zwischen Lifestyle und Traditionspflege
“Ich fühle mich in Österreich als religiöser Jude ganz normal”, sagt Shmuel Barzilai, Oberkantor der Israelischen Kultusgemeinde. “Es gibt schon von Zeit zu Zeit Äußerungen von Leuten, die uns nicht hundertprozentig möchten, aber […] das ist so.” Kulturelle Vielfalt hat in Wien Tradition. Rund 7000 Mitglieder zählt die jüdische Gemeinde heute. “Wenn es um Kultur geht, interessiert es die Leute nicht mehr”, beobachtet der Künstler Andrew M. Mezvinsky. “Wenn du jüdisch bist, gut. Wenn du nicht jüdisch bist, auch okay.”

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Catching a bowl on your head

That afternoon, a onetime “dance, opera and art” performance, “Il Fazzoletto,” by artist-in-residence†Andrew Mezvinsky, was at the Performance Art Institute on Sutter Street. Mezvinsky, who lives in Vienna, went there from Rajasthan, India (where he learned dyeing techniques), and there from the Gobi Desert (where he was following nomadic sheepherders). His theatrical work utilized multilayered cut-out images, as in pop-up books.

The music – ethereal and stately – was by†Shinji Eshima†of the San Francisco Ballet and Opera orchestras, the choreography by†Yuri Possokhov, former principal dancer with the San Francisco Ballet, the libretto by psychoanalyst/writer†Jerome Oremland. Three dancers (in Venetian masks) moved panels of Mezvinsky’s drawings to create a variety of spaces and images; in the end, the audience peered through viewers at a lineup of all the drawings, which the program said would solve a puzzle. Too dim to follow that, nonetheless I was charmed.

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San Francisco Classical Voice

A Great Dance Event Missed by Most by Janos Gereben

It was on Friday that I first heard of an event scheduled for Sunday afternoon, and in conflict with the premiere of Xerxes. Shinji Eshima, who tipped me off to it, said he himself ó though he is the composer for the concert ó just got the go-ahead.

The organization is the Performance Art Institute, and participants in the performance included current and recently retired stars of the San Francisco Ballet: Maria Kochetkova, Yuri Possokhov, and Peter Brandenhoff; also, soprano Christine Brandes.

Il fazzoletto (The handkerchief) was conceived and executed by artist in residence Andrew M. Mezvinsky, centering on his own mural-sized surreal drawings based on various 16th-century Venetian paintings.

Using a cut-out format and Plexiglas backing, the murals became three-dimensional renditions forming a metaphysical story. Shinji Eshima, double bassist in the San Francisco Ballet and Opera orchestras, composed and adapted 17th-century Baroque music to form a Baroque style opera. Enlisting Jerome Oremland, psychiatrist and psychoanalysis, writer, and winner of the 2011 New York Magazine On-the¨-Town Travel Short Story Contest, as librettist, Mezvinsky, Eshima, and Oremland ìevolved the romance of the lost handkerchief searching for its identity and an enduring place in history as metaphor for everyoneís desire not to be overlooked and forgotten.

Yuri Possokhov, retired principal dancer and choreographer in residence for the San Francisco Ballet, evolved a dramatic narrative ballet for each of the six arias. SFB principal dancer Maria Kochetkova became the metaphorical handkerchief, assisted by Possokhov and retired soloist ballet dancer Peter Brandenhoff in commedia dellíarte character roles. Christine Brandes sang, accompanied by David Latulippe, flute; Ken Iisaka, harpsichord; Victor Avdienko, vibraphone; and Olga Ortenberg-Rakitchenkov, harp.

With just a bit more advance notice next time, we wonít have to miss it.

Stitch in time

While the country was plagued with power crisis and millions of people spent long nights in the dark in Ghana, in a small town near Navrongo a non-descript school building was acting as the sole source of light for the people of the town. Artist Andrew Mez was the man who had designed the building exteriors last year. Covered with phosphorescent material, the artist reveals, ìThe structure emitted enough light for the teachers to hold evening classesî. He used the same material for a live installation at the Venice biennale in 2004. Assisting him in creating the artwork, besides fellow artists, were the visitors who were handed flashlights to imprint patterns over the material. ìIt is an amazing material and always attracts attention,î smiles Mez, who was recently in Delhi for a solo exhibition of his creations titled Mister Manic.

Currently on display at the newly opened Rafaael Gallery, for the series, Mez has abstained from phosphorescent materials and has instead picked on traditional textiles from India. So, thick cotton fabrics have replaced canvases and for the embellishments Mez has woven together lace and silk dipped in natural dye. ìEverything, from stitching the fabrics together to dyeing and painting on them has been done by me,î smiles the 26-year-old, who spent the last few months mastering the†traditional Indian techniques of dyeing in Rajasthan. ìItís sad that natural pigments arenít popular any more. Everyone wants to flaunt more chic options,î he states, pointing out to batik stamps imprinted on a fabric in a creation titled Big Hairy Winning Machine Skyscape. In this, Mez has painted the Singapore skyline over batik patterns. ìThe contrast is interesting,î he says.

Meanwhile, if the creations on fabric are essentially Indian, the drawings on paper featured in the exhibition have a more western appeal. Sketched on the official stationary of House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, Mez has men with bird beaks and women with jaw lines of a wolf because, as he puts it, he ìwanted to play around.î With the India sojourn coming to an end, Mez is already packing bags for an exhibition in Basel. ìIíll scout for some traditional fabrics there too,î he quips. So, is another trip to India on the cards? ìI may come back to learn more traditional techniques,î promises the artist.†
The exhibition at Rafaael Gallery, Chattarpur, is on till May 15.

Traditional Kitsch

Damini Purkayastha tradition kitsch

He punctuates his speech with profanities and revels in haggling with shopkeepers because itsî contact through numbersî. Meet 26 year old Andrew Mez, a globe trotting artist whose canvas is fabric. Mez has been in India since December and everything he has learnt since is now on works of art. But before we tell you what to expect from his latest exhibition Mister Manic, here’s a little background

Born in the U.S. Mez learnt Fine Art from Glasgow School of Art in Scotland after which he decided to travel the world and experience new art. In 2006 the Art Council of Mongolia offered him a chance to travel with Mongolian nomads- an experience Mez recounts with glee. Last year he found himself in Ghana painting an elementary school with glow paint, ì I thought to myself, what is the weirdest , coolest thing I can do in a country that has almost no electricity and I thought, why not a building that glows in the dark.î And how did the people react? ìAT first I had to convince them that it was art and not ‘juju’ witchcraft or black magic,î he says.

His travels in India were courtesy a fellowship from global Arts to study traditional natural dyes. This led him to different parts of the country, where he learnt about dying techniques like leharias, indigo dying and block printing. ìI could go on and on about what I learnt. I felt like a kindergarten kid learning from 7th generation masters.î Mez found a deep affinity for Mughal art, says, ì I’ve grabbed from Mughal miniature art, architecture, but also from newspapers and stories of war and soldiers on the battlefield.î

His works are priced in Rs 1 lakh in India but he changes his prices depending on the venue. ìI cant sell anything for a lakh in Mongolia now can I? If I like someone I want them to be able to have my art, I rather it went to a good home.î

His exhibition Mister Manic is on 294/2 Dhanimill Road, Chattarpur Road tll May 15

Supriya Sharma

Journal Dryer
His website reads ‘LOSTARTIST.ORG’. Andrew Mez choses to imitate his nomadic life in textiles instead of paper, writes
Supriya Sharma

A chequered past and a large family that fell ‘apartÏ, landed Andew Mez in a ‘do or dye’ situation. So there he was flung straight from the Ghanian wilderness to Jaipur’s jamboree picking up Indian dyeing details. Apart from his nomadic delineations, Mez also holds the inimitability of using fabric for drawing and painting. It could be just anything, a scrap out his mothers cupboard, a leftover piece in the dyer’s den or even a ‘horse shit catcher’, the very first fabric he ever used for his artistic exfoliation…eeks! I wanted to mat the most obnozious looking and smelling piece beautiful,îlaughs the roving artist. How about painting a sari? ìNo, I think a Sari is something ver sacred and ingrained in the Indain ethos so I would want to touch it,î explains Mez.

A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, Mez is shortlist for the Walker Contemporary Art Show at the Liverpool National Gallery in Liverpool, England. Before arrivine in India he was in the Ghana where he created five ìGlow in the Dark Schoolî murals. While in India he has been studying traditional dyes and techniques in Rajasthan, in order to apply it to his painting, which are up for sale at the Rafaael art gallery in Chattarpur right now. Mez’s work is created on fabrics that become sculptural, as folds create dramatic lines of light and shadow. But why fabric? ìWhy not,î pat comes the reply. ì there are two things that are always in news these days:’ Who murderd who?’ and Who’s wearing what?’ So fabric is am important fact or our lives,î jokes Mez.

Not to ignore the tangible aspect of it all. Mez has observed the basic human nature to touch., hold and feel most things…even works of art instead of getting intimidated by their sanctity. ìWith my paintings there is no such thing, they don’t seem sureal to you,î promises Mez who apart from sourcing fabric from Indian villages also produces his own textiles. ìMy favourite combination for painting is the rough and tough denim and the royal and shiny silk, ì he tells you.

Mez’s painting depicts everything from kathakali dancers whom he calls ‘green floating men’ to monuments, deserts and common life. He has also finished a skethcbook on the same,ninth in a row. ì I am on the hunt for a publisher now!î signs off the nomad.

The List (Issue 589)

Alexander Kennedy talks to Andrew Margolies Mezvinsky about his new work at Glasgowís Fridge Gallery, Southside Studioside Studios

Alexander Kennedy: Can you tell us about the work youíll be showing at the Fridge Gallery, your themes and subject matter?

Andrew Margolies Mezvinsky: The show is called Traumatic Ice Cream Dreams and deals with how your mind works when it falls into a dairy-induced slumber. Being mildly lactose intolerant, these dairy catnaps taken in the middle of the day have skewed my perspective of the rest of the working day. So, the figures are grounded in their own specific ecosystem of traumatic dairy-ness brought about by run-ins with death and weather (the local news).

AK: You come at the canvas from two very distinct, almost opposite, directions, treating it as a place where figurative work creates readable scenarios and as a medium in itself. Can you discuss this tension?

AMM: The tension you refer to between the painting as an object and of its illusionary qualities have always fascinated me. The surface of a piece should have just as much interest as the narrative statement the work makes. The scenarios are like quick snapshots, but I donít like to tell the viewer exactly what the work is about. It takes too much away from the viewer.

AK: Can you tell us why you decided to use materials other than canvas?

AMM: Painting has always been an inventive artform; techniques should not be limited when you approach a painting. I call my pieces fabrications, to get away from the history of painting. Paintings are ëuntouchablesí. Look, donít touch. But my work takes more of an active role as an object. People are able to relate to the fabrics I use within a split second, (fashion, quilting ñ fabric is all over the place), making them want to go up and physically touch the pieces, not just standing back appreciating the illusion of space, but wanting to get into the space itself.

Mongol Messenger Arts and Culture

Growing up in a multi ethnic and very political family in New York and Philadelphia, combined with his time working and studying abroad, Andrew Margolies Mezvinsky infuses his work with an intriguingly diverse set of devices. Beginning from a very classical American visual vocabulary, scenes of suburban America, postcard photography, and motel visions of lighthouses, the lines of his images become blurred into images of twisted grotesque beasts and distorted humans.

These surrealisms succeed in making the viewer question the roles of illusion, perception, and expectation in art not through their forms, but through the various fabrics that Mesvinsky paints on. In ìI knew I was never going to be a professional bull fighter . . .,î images rendered in high contrast are painted on heavily textured fabric, which viewed separately reads as very flat. The viewer is reminded that the illusory depth given to the fabricís surface by the paint is just that: illusion. As viewers we are presented with both truths and have to make our own conscious decisions to flip between the two understandings of what our eyes are seeing. The issue of how our eyes are tricked into depth is taken to a new limit with ìOh, Just Please dont take that turn to negative town.î Here we stare at a landscape of red rocks and a stop sign painted on red velvet, forcing us to read a piece of printed fabric lain on top of the velvet as the distant sky. However, given that this fabric is patterned with pictures of the United States of America and is clearly physically in front of the landscape, our mindís innate desire to read it differently becomes blatantly ridiculous.

In other places the fabrics become sculpture as folds create dramatic lines of light and shadow that interact with and compliment the spectral painted forms. As swathes of cloth are draped over and breaking free of the canvas, it brings the rectangularity of the painting back to the forefront of our minds. It is a detail that the ubiquity of the shape has made us forget. In ìStep on my head while I am drowning, what a great friend,î a sea scene with only the slightest surreal touch on closer inspection reveals itself to be a play on surfaces and paint. Two human faced lighthouses with a sky filled with an ambient light are painted in wispy strokes, however the towers sit on pieces of camouflaged fabric which have in turn been camouflaged with more paint to pass as hills at first glance. The rolling sea below is a mass of twisted denim. Despite the bizarre medium, the depiction is spot on, teasing us to reconsider whether yellow and white pigments are so natural a choice to represent the luminous sky, the medium we immediately accept. The physicality of these sculptural elements makes it more difficult to dismiss the paintings as a window to some merely imagined space. They are real objects with three dimensions, which invade our space.

By deconstructing conventions of paintings that aim to be invisible, his works describe the difficulties in separating truth from perception. They push the vocabulary of surrealism to include not just the juxtaposition of reality and fantasy, but also the truth of how our visual senses and minds filter our information. Through these works we learn that there is nothing stranger than how we perceive our world.

-Xander CM Piper