Windmills Of Your Mind: Elana Herzog

ΝΕΑ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΘΑΝΑΤΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΙΣΠΑΝΟΥ ΠΟΙΗΤΟΥ

ΦΕΝΤΕΡΙΚΟ ΓΚΑΡΘΙΑ ΛΟΡΚΑ ΣΤΙΣ 19 ΑΥΓΟΥΣΤΟΥ

ΤΟΥ 1936 ΜΕΣΑ ΣΤΟ ΧΑΝΤΑΚΙ ΤΟΥ ΚΑΜΙΝΟ ΝΤΕΛΑ

ΦΟΥΕΝΤΕ

una accion vil y disgraciado.

η τέχνη κι η ποίηση δεν μας βοηθούν να ζήσουμε:

η τέχνη και η ποίησις μας βοηθούνε

να πεθάνουμε

περιφρόνησις απόλυτη

αρμόζει

σ' όλους αυτούς τους θορύβους

τις έρευνες

τα σχόλια επί σχολίων

που κάθε τόσο ξεφουρνίζουν

αργόσχολοι και ματαιόδοξοι γραφιάδες

γύρω από τις μυστηριώδικες κι αισχρές συνθήκες

της εκτελέσεως του κακορρίζικου του Λόρκα

υπό των φασιστών

μα επί τέλους! πια ο καθείς γνωρίζει

πως

από καιρό τώρα

- και προ παντός στα χρόνια τα δικά μας τα σακάτικα -

είθισται

να δολοφονούν

τους ποιητάς .N .ΕΓΓΟΝΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ

Herzog admires artists, such as Frank Stella, whose work was largely influenced by the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock, Sol LeWitt (the late genius of contemporary conceptual art), and Mark Rothko. However Herzog is unique as her materials are often cheap, tacky, or discarded household items and fabric. Furthermore, her interest in the history, labor, industrialization, and technology as demonstrated by the change in the textile industry is evident within her work. She describes her work:

My work negotiates a thin line between attraction and repulsion, pain and pleasure, vulgar and sublime. I am fascinated by the way form is generated by growth and decay, construction and destruction. My work has a relationship to Modernism which is both reverent and irreverent…To the extent that I operate from a position of alienation, my relationship to both high and low culture remains vicarious..”

.... Her art is constructed by mounting found textiles and other household fabrics to the wall using thousands of metal staples. Herzog then proceeds to tare down some of her pieces, leaving holes and the evidence that fabric once hung in that spot.

Herzog’s fabric-based sculptures employ vintage chenille bedspreads which she wall mounts with closely applied industrial staples. Through ripping, shredding, and unraveling, Herzog balances notions of ruin with the conventional ideals of line, texture, color, and beauty.