PANAMARENKO at Gimple Fils
Despite his extraordinary retrospective exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in 2000, Panamarenko remains little known in Britain. His sculpture-machines point to utopian dreams of effortless flight, stimulating thoughts of epic imaginary voyages. Liberation through flight is an enduring source of stimulus, and yet despite his preoccupation with movement and travel, he continues to live and work in his hometown of Antwerp, and rarely leaves Belgium.
Panamarenko’s vehicles highlight the physical and mental effort needed for flight. His man powered aircraft using self-inflating wings and propelled by arm movement alone, is at once ridiculous and quaint, echoing the early days of aviation. Veering between humour and nostalgia, the work demonstrates the human will to succeed, despite almost certain failure. Panamarenko’s work is heroic; Making his machine-sculptures, he seeks to unleash technology from the confining limits of science. Harnessing the imagination, his work challenges the impossible, and brings it into the realm of the everyday. Taking inspiration from Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”, 1558, Panamarenko observes how the young boy’s failed attempt at flight takes place amidst normal everyday activities. Combining desire and the improbable, these objects apparently facilitate, whilst recognising the futility of, man’s attempt to fly. Many of his large-scale models/ sculptures/ prototypes are patched, mended, seemingly held together by the artist’s belief in his own project.
Panamarenko belongs to the generation of post-minimalist artists who were determined to raise the question of ‘form’ as a conceptual issue. Like his friend Joseph Beuys, Panamarenko believes that there is a greater function for art beyond the museum. Opening out approaches to the visual arts, since the 1960s he has developed his own unique vision. This will be his second exhibition at Gimpel Fils.
RELATED POSTS
None Found
Pages: 1 2
