BOOKlet Meets: Barbara Nati

Italian visual artist Barbara Nati uses an extensive range of photographs, transforming them into symbols of social and environmental issues.

Nati has studied everywhere from Perugia to New York, taking inspiration from photo-realist painter Anthony Brunelli and using her advertising background as a driving influence for her work.

Following Mists of Avalon and Long Time No Sea, Nati’s upcoming exhibition, One Man Show, starts January 24 in Mezzanotte di Pergola.

When BOOKlet met Barbara Nati, we discovered her influences, experiences and her focus.

What inspired you to become an artist?
I have been drawing since I was five. I remember being the first kid in my class who understood that the side view of a dog has just two legs because the other two are hidden. When I was a teenager, I used to go dancing and afterwards I would visit monuments and churches to draw them. Then I got my first analogic camera and suddenly fell in love.

What makes your work unique?
I’m not that sure it is – that’s why I’m thinking of moving my art towards a third dimension. My pictures will be produced on layers at different depths. I will be collaborating with a very wise and skilled American artist.

What issues do your works focus on?
I don’t have a narrow focus, but I have realised that most of my recent series revolves around my concern about the environment we are living in.

From early 2009, I have been focusing on Long Time No Sea – a study on a possible world without the sea. This series was inspired by the earthquake that hit central Italy last April. I wanted the audience to witness an infinity of uniform and hyper-detailed mutations that quake their boredom.

My next subject will be the snow, which will take on a more silent approach. It will show the darker side of a soft blanket.

What do you want your photographs to tell people?
My artwork is more of a manipulation. I want my settings to invite the viewer to look again at the things he takes for granted and to pulverize the naïve trust in what we consider to be real.

What is your favourite creation?
I tend to support losers.  As a matter of fact, I started to support my football team when it was in dire straits. I’ve always been a fan of Donald Duck as well. I apply the same sympathy to those works I created that never met the appreciation other works did.

Who is your favourite artist?
Claes Oldenburg is my favourite sculptor. I travel to ugly towns in Europe just to see his works. Wayne Thiebaud is my favourite painter, as I have an insane attraction towards artists who paint food. Erwin Olaf is my favourite photographer.

What makes a good artist?
His power of shaping a thick message into a fresh and never-seen-before kind of expression.

What do you think of UK art?
I think Great Britain has got the perfect foundation for an artist to pursue his career. People like to invest in contemporary art.  Not to mention Charles Saatchi who is the kind of person every country would like to have. However, it can have a lack of audacity that leads many British galleries to act ‘safe’.

How has your advertising background influenced your works?

I don’t see a big gap between art and creative advertising.  The more a work is creative, the more it is commercial. Advertising campaigns must be communicative and innovative to reach their goal. The same goes for art.

What did you learn From Anthony Brunelli?

I learned not to rush in order to have the best result with art production.

Tell me more about your work that will be in your new show in January.

It will take place in an unusual space – a hut among a rural area in Italy. I was immediately enthusiastic about the idea of an uncommon show curated by the young and smart Daniele DeAngelis. There will be a dozen works, mostly from my last series of castles built with industrial elements. It’s a focus on the present age, which has been depicted as an upsetting transition period, that hasn’t succeeded in synthesizing the symbol of its civilization yet.  My only concern will be the chance of snow that might force us to postpone the private view. That’s the dark side of independent new realities!

To See Works by Barbara Nati: http://www.b-n.it

BOOKlet’s Top 30 Albums of The Decade

After a significant era of music, BOOKlet counts down its favourite 30 albums from the past decade! Enjoy and Merry Christmas to all,

Natasha Devan

Editor

1. Kid A – Radiohead

2. Funeral – Arcade Fire

3. In Rainbows – Radiohead

4. A Rush of Blood to the Head – Coldplay

5. Final Straw – Snow Patrol

6. Absolution – Muse

7. The Blueprint – Jay-Z

8. Arular – M.I.A.

9. Stripped – Christina Aguilera

10. Is This It – The Strokes

11. Songs In A Minor – Alicia Keys

12. Hopes and Fears – Keane

13. More Than A Lot – Chase & Status

14. Vespertine – Björk

15. Oracular Spectacular – MGMT

16. The Eraser – Thom Yorke

17. Just Enough Education to Perform – Stereophonics

18. Neptune City – Nicole Atkins

19. Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea – PJ Harvey

20. Santogold – Santogold

21. Black Eyed Peas – Elephunk

22. Diary of Alicia Keys – Alicia Keys

23. The Black Album – Jay-Z

24. Rated R – Queens of the Stoneage

25. New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) – Erykah Badu

26. Jay-Z – The Blueprint III

27. I Am…Sasha Fierce – Beyoncé Knowles

28. Because of the Times – Kings of Leon

29. Veni Vidi Vicious – The Hives

30. Return of Saturn – No Doubt

Oreet Ashery: Staying: Dream, Bin, Soft Stud and Other Stories

From January 2010, London’s Artangel will be showing a new interaction project.  The exhibition titled, “Staying: Dream, Bin, Soft Stud and Other Stories” was created by Oreet Ashery and 12 lesbian asylum seekers who escaped countries such as Nigeria and Barbados due to discrimination against their sexual identities.

Within the project, a character takes her life stories and turns them into ideas such as rooms of a house, a dream and a gun that transforms into a camera. These forms of presentation were inspired by Ashery’s collection of discussions, doodles and interviews taken from emotional workshops with the other 12 women involved in Staying: Dream, Bin, Soft Stud and Other Stories.

Ashery’s contribution to Artangel was built upon complex work with the asylum seekers, focusing on the long procedures which requires gay asylum seekers to prove their sexual orientation and lifestyle.  As a result of studying these processes, Ashery created fictional characters that became symbols of the women involved. For example, the rooms of House represent diffferent aspects of a participant’s life effectively working as a theatrical self-portrait.  Bin also symbolises social structure and soft studs are used to play on the idea of a ‘butch’ woman.

The exhibition will be showing at Artangel from 20 January 2010 and you can learn more about the project itself at http://www.artangel.org.uk/projects/2010/staying

Whitney Museum of American Art: Roni Horn aka Roni Horn

Born in 1955, Roni Horn has been producing distinctive art for more than 30 years, exploring a range of issues such as gender, identity and the relationship between objects and their audience.

The exhibition consists of around 70 works ranging from small drawings to photographic installations to heavy sculptures.  Horn’s delicate drawings seem to relate to her time traveling and practicing in Ireland, representing the landscape.  Her focus on the doubling of self portrait photos appears to also reflect a similar landscape theme

Roni Horn aka Roni Horn is an exhibition established by the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Tate Modern and is the most thorough collection of Horn’s work so far.

Roni Horn aka Roni Horn is running until Jan. 24, 2010 and will then be shown at The Institute of Contemporary, Boston from Feb. 19 to Jun. 13, 2010

Tate Modern Live: Rob Pruitt’s Flea Market

At Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall Bridge this Saturday, there will be a repeat of Rob Priutt’s Christmas and Kwanzaa version of a ‘Flea Market’.

Originally, the event was held in 1999 at Gavin Brown’s Passerby gallery, including artists such as Elizabeth Peyton.  For the Tate Modern, Priutt will be working with a new group of London-based artists as well a selection of his original participants. 

The event, which coincides with the Pop Life: Art in a Material World (where Priutt also appears) will consist of market stalls with a range of festive products from holiday cards and stockings to old 12″s.

Rob Priutt’s Flea Market is running on Sat 12 Dec. 11.00-22.00 and Sun 13 Dec. 11.00-18.00

BOOKlet on Twitter

At BOOKlet, you are promised the best from arts and society, so get the best online links from my twitter page:

@bookletwebzine

Natasha Devan

Editor