καιρός remembered

Art with a wink

One girl is looking intently at the other, and vice versa. They are both completely fascinated by the sight of the other.
I remember having, a long time ago, a booklet intended to be humorous, entitled ‘Art with a wink’, with a winking Mona Lisa on the cover.
Here, it is not the girls who are winking at each other; they are far too absorbed by what they are seeing for that. It is Gander who is winking at Degas – and at art history.

At the 2011 Venice Biennale, Gander had exhibited yet another work: a miniature self-portrait in which he is shown lying full-length on the floor, having fallen out of his wheelchair. He clearly does not take his disability all that seriously. But that does not mean he does not take art seriously!
His tiny figure on the raised white board is just 15 cm long. He would have preferred to place his miniature body and wheelchair directly on the floor, just like Degas’s two girls. But then he certainly wouldn’t have lasted long. He would have been crushed and ended up under one of Song Dong’s cupboards.

Photo of the week: Ryan Gander (UK), Out of sight (All on my own) – Degas ballerina copied in bronze with mirror image -Venice Biennale 2011, Italy 2011