Of Things In General

O

Oswaldo Costa

Oswaldo Costa
Between bottles and posting I somehow find time to put together exhibitions every three months. Last night I opened my third and most ambitious, called Of Things in General.

My fathers shelf had a book whose title promised to reveal everything about anything, but I never had the courage to open it, fearing the inevitable disappointment. When I discovered that it was a chapter of the Civil Code, the enchantment diminished, but did not disappear.

The exhibition Of Things in General deals with collecting in the abstract, without hierarchical distinctions. A recurring motif is the notion of doppelganger, or double, in its many guises: copy, mirror, echo, recurrence, seriality, theme & variation. Shimmering underneath is the conjecture that while manifestations may be multiple, essences are few.

The collector craves the object, and believes that acquisition will bring happiness.
With possession, the collector no longer craves, because he now owns. What about enchantment? Does it diminish, without disappearing? And, if the collecting impulse stems from childhood experience, can we appreciate the madeleines of others?

First installation view:
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On the left is a painting by concrete artist Geraldo de Barros and two coffee tables from the 1950s, pinned to the wall. Next to them are four Taekwondo breaking boards, three Murano vases designed by Carlos Scarpa for Venini, and four line drawings by Cassio Michalany.

Second installation view:
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Then comes a tapestry from a local weaver, four Murano vases designed by Ginette Venini for Venini, and a pen and ruler drawing by Iran do Espirito Santo.

Third installation view:
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To the left is a monotype by Iran do Espirito Santo, a photograph by Alberto Simon, and a pencil on wood drawing by Sherrie Levine. Next to that is a corten honeycomb wall shelf containing antiques I inherited from my parents which I particularly liked as a child. Next to the shelf is the black half of diptych by Cildo Meireles, one of my favorite artists, highlighted in the show.

The wall text about the antiques: Our taste is formed, to some extent, by our parent's belongings, things that surround us while growing up. But it remains a mystery why some objects, and not others, enchant a child, their appearance becoming part of what we internalize as taste. When, at our parents request, my sisters and I took turns choosing from what we would inherit, I was surprised at how little competition I faced for most of the things that had captured my imagination. My sisters must have been equally surprised to find themselves with most of what interested them.

Fourth installation view:
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This shows the complete diptych, made from carbon and chalk, a shelf with two Murano vases designed by Toni Zuccheri, next to three Coke bottles, with decals by Cildo Meireles, meant to be returned to circulation as a way of disseminating slogans. Below them is a study by Lucio Fontana for a Venini door.

Fifth installation view:
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Here we see more works by Cildo Meireles using money, a memorabilia section about my grandfather, who was a prominent Brazilian politician from the 1930s to the 1950s, and a section about the first three series of engraved stamps issued by Brazil in the mid 19th Century.

Sixth installation view:
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Showing the mezzanine.

Seventh installation view:
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In 1964, Sergio Correa da Costa, at the time Brazilian Ambassador to Canada, visited Vietnam as part of a UN observation team. He brought back these three paintings as souvenirs, as well as two North Vietnamese counter-intelligence panflets, one of which contains these two maps. South Vietnamese street art and North Vietnamese graphic design offer contrasting expressions of Vietnamese visuality from that time.

Eighth installation view:
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Showing, from right to left, a Warhol egg painting, a Sherrie Levine copy of it, a book by Pierre Bourdieu and Hans Haacke, and an edition of October featuring Hans Haacke on Bourdieu and a piece by Sherrie Levine.

Ninth installation view:
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Scribner requested permission to use Jeffrey Vallance's Rarotonga Surfboard on the cover of Gordon Lish's novel Peru and subsequently paid me a reproduction fee. Since copyright belongs to the artist, not the owner of the artwork, I sent Jeffrey Vallance a check for the same amount. Before depositing my check, Vallance made a sketch of Rarotonga Surfboard on the reverse, knowing that it would find its way back to me.

Tenth installation view:
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Over more than a decade as a musician, I had many guitars. These three, representing the most classic designs, were the only ones that had a magical sound, greater than the sum of the parts.

And there you have it.
 
Well done, Oswaldo. Given your witty and articulate posts on wines, this exhibit shouldn't surprise me, but it does...(nicely). Seems you've got a modernist streak in you, and I like the way your curation shows all this crossover/serendipity (or whatever it is). Wish it were down the street from here. Looks like it was a fun one to hang too.





PS - Who is this Venini? Sadly, I only know Bernini and panini.
 
originally posted by Joel Stewart:
PS - Who is this Venini? Sadly, I only know Bernini and panini.
Click to expand...

Paulo Venini was a Milanese lawyer who was part of Gio Ponti's circle and opened a glassworks on Murano in 1921. He came up with the novel idea of inviting cosmopolitan architects and designers from the mainland to design the vases instead of letting the highly skilled but kitschy glassblowers do it themselves. His designs were a hit and the others had to grudgingly follow, though he remained the object of resentment as an outsider.

The family sold the glassworks in the early 1970s, but many of the original designs are still produced. See here.

Thanks, all, for the Putnamesque accolades. Youse guys are a true family away from home.
 
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