An interactive art exhibition called “Look Out” comes to the Flacon Design Factory this fortnight.
PHOTO COURTESY OF NATASHA VAN BUDMAN / TEXT KELLY LACOB feedback
While Russian oligarchs are spending their fortunes at Sotheby’s auctions, the country’s contemporary artists are making a splash.
“Look Out,” a special interactive art exhibition by Natasha van Budman, opens at the Flacon Design Factory. The circular composition of the 15-plus pieces invites the viewer to feel the atmosphere of the “crowd,” but by studying each piece individually the viewer is exposed to a variety of different psychological states and expressions in the molded castings. In this way, the exposition is a collective portrait of contemporary Russian society, simultaneously representing the fractious aspects of diversity and the unity of human nature.
The artist raises thorny issues of tolerance in modern society, using found and manufactured objects, unique casting cuts, and directing lights to encourage the viewer towards different ways of thinking and acceptance. Van Budman, a relatively new artist on the scene, studied at the British Higher School of Design and has worked at the Shanghai Museum of Calligraphy. Both of these experiences contributed to the development of her skill in assemblage casting, a rare and time-consuming technique that emerged in the twentieth century and has been used in the works of major artists from Rodchenko to Gormley.
Natasha van Budman’s first exhibition, a graphic series titled “Music of the World,” showed at the Brodsky housemuseum in St. Petersburg. While “Music of the World” also played with concepts of diversity and unity, “Look Out” is an entirely different and perhaps more starkly moving exhibition.
“Look Out” runs at Flacon from Nov. 22 to Dec. 4. Entrance to the show is free