The good news today is that more art is coming into the gallery. While Aimé waits for his plastic table to arrive, he is working on hanging his piece, “Ici on crève.” It is a composition of approximately 50 square panels of painted and carved wood. The artist has made more than 100 of these squares and they have been exhibited in other configurations at other venues internationally, but this is the first time he has made this assemblage. Crèver is a French verb which means simultaneously “to die,” “burst” and “wear out.” To get this idea across, Aimé uses his adze to carve the images, as well as paint them, and often breaks through the surface altogether.
For this installation, Aimé had initially suggested scattering the paintings across the back wall of the gallery, surrounding the door and creating the effect of them “bursting” across this large expanse. Now that he is here, he has decided to position them in the corner, radiating out in two directions. It is going to be quite powerful. We are also working to position a standing figure by Aimé, called simply “Nude.” We’ve had a problem with this piece because, in the past, Aimé has always installed it directly on the ground. We can’t do that here for safety reasons – if a wheelchair backed into it, it could potentially fall over and someone could be hurt (and the artwork could be hurt). And so, we need it to be on a base. How to conceal, or minimize, this base has been an issue. Originally, we proposed putting it on a small, low pedestal painted grey – the color of the floor—with a red edge. Aimé did not like this. And so, now, we are placing it on a metal plate painted a lovely golden bronze. It picks up the honey tones of the wonderfully striated wood. Aimé has proposed that we light the pedestal, instead of the figure.
António is not having such a good day. His foot has been troubling him a bit and so today we debated whether or not to take him to a doctor. He has insisted on working on, but we are all pushing him to take it easier. He has also insisted on carrying on with happy hour tonight. But, I have learned my lesson. We will not wander so far afield but meet at the National Gallery Sculpture Garden tonight and watch the ice-skaters.
For this installation, Aimé had initially suggested scattering the paintings across the back wall of the gallery, surrounding the door and creating the effect of them “bursting” across this large expanse. Now that he is here, he has decided to position them in the corner, radiating out in two directions. It is going to be quite powerful. We are also working to position a standing figure by Aimé, called simply “Nude.” We’ve had a problem with this piece because, in the past, Aimé has always installed it directly on the ground. We can’t do that here for safety reasons – if a wheelchair backed into it, it could potentially fall over and someone could be hurt (and the artwork could be hurt). And so, we need it to be on a base. How to conceal, or minimize, this base has been an issue. Originally, we proposed putting it on a small, low pedestal painted grey – the color of the floor—with a red edge. Aimé did not like this. And so, now, we are placing it on a metal plate painted a lovely golden bronze. It picks up the honey tones of the wonderfully striated wood. Aimé has proposed that we light the pedestal, instead of the figure.
António is not having such a good day. His foot has been troubling him a bit and so today we debated whether or not to take him to a doctor. He has insisted on working on, but we are all pushing him to take it easier. He has also insisted on carrying on with happy hour tonight. But, I have learned my lesson. We will not wander so far afield but meet at the National Gallery Sculpture Garden tonight and watch the ice-skaters.
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