Decoding da Vinci "Ideas into Objects: Reinterpreting the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci"
D. Dominick Lombardi
TODT, Ballista, 2005.
For their tenth anniversary, the Weston Art Gallery’s "Ideas into Objects," features just under 80 artists who were asked to create a new work based on one of Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches. The results are somewhat mixed, however, there are some stellar standouts.
The most significant is a piece by the collective TODT, best known for making the ordinary, extraordinary, otherworldly, or just plain absurd. For this exhibition, TODT chose to interpret Da Vinci’s Sheets of studies with multi-barreled guns (c. 1482). The resulting work is entitled Ballista (2005), an orange and yellow object that appears as a hybrid of a farming implement and a rapid fire cross bow. Boasting a razor-sharp, belted magazine of blood letting tips, this precisely wrought and finely balanced machine makes us question progress. With this construction, TODT links the wild new developments in agricultural science and the efficiency of modern killing machines.
Denise Burge’s interpretation of Design for a siege machine with covered bridge (c. 1480), which features the Renaissance master’s portable troop elevating structure for conquering walled fortresses, has yielded a curious result with Cool Machines (2005). This work consists of various quirky, painted, cutout figures on paper that appear both comical and ominous.
Sonya Hayes’ Launch (2002) is the only work in the show that was not specifically made for this exhibit. Hayes responds to Da Vinci’s Sketches and notes on flying machines and parachutes (c. 1485-1487) with a compelling video, albeit twice as long as need be, of the artist tying a plucked, dead quail onto the strings of several helium filled red balloons. The bird and balloon cluster is released from the top of an oceanside cliff, where it slowly ascend into the heavens.
Thy Kingdom Come (2005), by Kate Kern, is a wonderfully painted and composed rendition of Studies of the blood supply of a Foetal calf in utero (1506). Tony Luensman takes a more cerebral, conceptual look at the anatomy of raindrops hitting still water in his utility closet installation Floating Puddle #2 (2005).
Todd Pavlisko’s Untitled Christ: The Last Super (2005) makes good use of those retail fasteners for product price tags in his successful portrait of Christ from Da Vinci’s great work. Alan Rath also takes a humorous path in Rotary to Reciprocating Motion Conversion after Da Vinci (2005), turning Da Vinci’s Studies of working of cog wheels (ca. 1493-1497) into an oscillating French Tickler.
Two Women Scrubbing (2005) by Jill Rowinski and Karen Dunphy is a video of two washerwomen cleaning the steps of the Weston Gallery, where the exhibit is housed. The video is cleverly projected through a small monitor mounted into a table top which is flanked by two sets of flowing blue and white fabrics–one of the more resolved works in the show.
One painting by Jim Wainscott entitled Sidewalk (2005) sets a precisely duplicated painted version of Da Vinci’s (c. 1506-1508) "Bethlehem and Anemone" drawings within the context of a debris covered city sidewalk. This work, with all of its references to neglected property, and a lack of respect for the environment carries the strongest socio-political statement in the show.
Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
