"This is not a balancing act, and never will be"
Courbet's " The Painter Studio, A Real Allegory Determining a Phase of Seven Years in My Artistic and Moral Life " is at the center of this installation. In this iconic image we see Courbet in the act of painting, in his studio, surrounded by a gallery of figures: from a beggar to the writer Baudelaire.
In the installation the image of the painting is projected on a wall. Perpendicular to the projection, a cord is fixed by two nails. Parallel to the wall at aprox 30 cm from the projection, hangs a print of a still life showing the photo of a pair of eyes and a flowered branch.
The print is hanged in such a way as to provoke a shadow in the projection of Courbet's painting, covering with its shadow, the naked model, the painter and the landscape painting he is showing to the rest of the people in the studio. Now, all these figures look in awe at a square of shadow, a kind of magical trick and at the same time a kind of entrance into a different dimension, a door into infinity.
The installation is completed with a page of paper, where the sentence that gives name to the installation is written: " This is not a Balancing Act, and Never Will Be ".
The most important element of this installation is the crisscross of gazes between the viewer and the gazes of all the other figures appearing in the installation. The viewer is looking at a gallery of people who are looking in wonder at a square of shadow. We also look at this shadow, but at the same time we are looking at the printed image hanging from the cord, whose eyes seem to be fixed on ours.
The title of the installation " This is not a Balancing Act, and Never Will Be" makes reference to the actual hanging from the string of the print which creates the shadow, but also to the act of creation itself, the act of producing "art", and how unstable this process can be.
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