The theme of the 2010 Liverpool Biennial was Touched. This concept depicted the way art can touch a person, evoking emotions affecting its cross-cultural audiences.
“Touched presented art with emotional impact. Art that not only gained our attention but that moved us, motivated us, allowed us to find a way to change ourselves. Art without emotional force is without intellectual power.” (Lewis Biggs, www.biennial.com)
My experience of the Biennial has been greeted with mixed reactions. I have often thought while experiencing some of the works of the international artists, that there seems to be no relevance to the theme of Touched at all. For example Rosa Barba’s Free Post Mersey Tunnels, though visually striking and conceptually appealing, didn’t seem to evoke any emotional response from me at all. It didn’t make me red with anger, nor did it capture my heart by making me realise the error of my ways.
However, there were certain pieces that did reveal connotations of the given brief. Ryan Trecartin’s Trill-ogy Comp (2009), featured in the basement of 52 Renshaw Street, displayed a series of fast paced, energetic videos, which contained themes of consumerism, youth culture, gender, and belonging. Watching this piece evoked emotions of empathy, distress, and a little disgust, leaving a lasting impression in my head surely making me find it hard to forget for a long time.
Although I have found it difficult to connect a lot of the artwork with the theme Touched, I feel the biggest relation lies within how the Biennial has reacted with the city. Walking round Liverpool has seemed like one big art gallery due to the festival. Hidden artworks around the city create a springboard for how Liverpool has been ‘touched’. I have seen people stop in their tracks, for example, when they walk past Do Hu Suh’s Bridging Home (picture in previous post). This brings artwork into the public realm causing awareness among people who wouldn’t necessarily be interested in art culture.
The buildings themselves have also been ‘touched’, creating site specific works which turn old abandoned factories into galleries, causing people to question the traditional methods of viewing art and resulting them to consider the historical and cultural references to the location.
“Touched presented art with emotional impact. Art that not only gained our attention but that moved us, motivated us, allowed us to find a way to change ourselves. Art without emotional force is without intellectual power.” (Lewis Biggs, www.biennial.com)
My experience of the Biennial has been greeted with mixed reactions. I have often thought while experiencing some of the works of the international artists, that there seems to be no relevance to the theme of Touched at all. For example Rosa Barba’s Free Post Mersey Tunnels, though visually striking and conceptually appealing, didn’t seem to evoke any emotional response from me at all. It didn’t make me red with anger, nor did it capture my heart by making me realise the error of my ways.
However, there were certain pieces that did reveal connotations of the given brief. Ryan Trecartin’s Trill-ogy Comp (2009), featured in the basement of 52 Renshaw Street, displayed a series of fast paced, energetic videos, which contained themes of consumerism, youth culture, gender, and belonging. Watching this piece evoked emotions of empathy, distress, and a little disgust, leaving a lasting impression in my head surely making me find it hard to forget for a long time.
Although I have found it difficult to connect a lot of the artwork with the theme Touched, I feel the biggest relation lies within how the Biennial has reacted with the city. Walking round Liverpool has seemed like one big art gallery due to the festival. Hidden artworks around the city create a springboard for how Liverpool has been ‘touched’. I have seen people stop in their tracks, for example, when they walk past Do Hu Suh’s Bridging Home (picture in previous post). This brings artwork into the public realm causing awareness among people who wouldn’t necessarily be interested in art culture.
The buildings themselves have also been ‘touched’, creating site specific works which turn old abandoned factories into galleries, causing people to question the traditional methods of viewing art and resulting them to consider the historical and cultural references to the location.
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