KRISTIN MAN. A-MARE.

Venerdì 25 Ottobre alle ore 18:00, la Andrea Nuovo Home Gallery presenta A-mare, mostra personale di Kristin Man, a cura di Fernanda Garcia Marino e Serena Calò. Per la prima volta in mostra in Italia, A-mare è un ciclo di opere in continuo divenire che l’artista colloca nell’ambito di un più ampio percorso di ricerca circa “l’identità relazionale” tra le persone. Identificando se stessa come una migrante proveniente da Venere, Kristin Man intende indagare attraverso la metafora degli oceani – simbolo per eccellenza dell’inconscio – le dinamiche relazionali degli esseri umani attraverso il concetto della fluidità delle acque, che non hanno reali confini se non quelli geografici, immaginari, assegnati loro dagli uomini. Allo stesso modo le vite delle persone, venendo a contatto le une con le altre, creano un intrecciarsi e una condivisione continua dell’esistenza che ne perpetua il ritmo in un flusso instancabile, proprio come quello delle onde del mare.
La mostra sarà visitabile fino al 24 Gennaio 2020.

Biografia

Nata a Hong Kong, Kristin Man ha nazionalità britannica e canadese. Studia presso l’UWC Atlantic College in Galles, dove scopre e sviluppa la sua passione per la fotografia analogica e per la camera oscura. Recentemente ritrasferitasi a Vancouver per avvicinarsi alla propria famiglia, continua a lavorare al progetto A-mare in giro per il mondo. Consegue il BA in Relazioni Internazionali presso la Brown University e un master in Business Administration presso la Columbia University, dove segue anche corsi presso la Film School. Man scrive poesie in inglese, cinese e italiano e in tutti i suoi progetti più importanti sposa la personale poetica della scrittura unita all’arte visiva. Inoltre è insegnante di yoga certificata e crede che la propria vita e la sua arte si attraversino in modo profondo e inscindibile.

We are pleased to present a solo exhibition of Kristin Man’s photography based art pieces from her series A-mare, on view in Italy for the first time.

A-mare is an exploration of “relational identity”, a theme that Kristin Man has dedicated her work to since 2011. Her previous two projects (with publications) Fragments of Grey Matter and 9_9 (ed. Skira in Italy) were about building a good rapport with oneself and with one’s immediate environment / “the others”. This time, A-mare portrays relationships with a different visual vocabulary. In fact, A-mare is cross media and pushing the limits of how we could think not just about our existence but also about photography. They are works that are sculptural like the 3-D “torus” form or the 2-to-3-D pieces which employ a “tapestry” form as a bearer of meaning–by a similar token, this body of work contains stories that are personal and universal. The original images have been made around the world with a focus of oceans (which have particular bearings on her atlas) around Hong Kong, Naples and Vancouver but not limited to them. Then, they are being “related” in her mind (not by a computer or software analysis) then cut, layered and woven into new images by hand with a meditative attention inspired by her early dark room experience. Given that an exhibition of the first works of A-mare was held in Rota/Bay of Cadiz in October 2018 which is the most ancient European city and where, more or less, the Atlantic touches the Mediterranean, images from there are included. Since then, she has also experienced a sense of juncture/meeting in Panama where literally the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Caribbean all meet. The physicality is conveyed because intersecting is an act of meeting. Yet, the materiality in turn points towards a transcendental synthesis of what is variegated and what is shared. Concurring with Carl Jung: “The sea is the favourite symbol for the unconscious, the mother of all that lives”, the ocean, therefore, is an element of conveyance, a symbol rather than literally the theme. Likewise the locality of place serves as a backdrop which enhances the subject. In fact, one may get a sense that as soon as a characteristic of a particular place is identified, she crosses the line and renegotiates the confines.

Having spent four years in Italy working on her previous project 9_9, she has traveled in all regions of Italy and the Italian language is key to her thinking. In Italian “amare” is the verb to love. Al mare means to go to the sea. “Ma” universally alludes to “mother” and similarly, the Chinese ideogram of sea contains the ideogram of mother. She ponders, “if to go to the sea is to love, then there is really no specific location where we are to love. If to be closer to the sea means to be closer to the source of life, then there is no better reminder of our connectedness than the sea”. Regardless of her religious and philosophical affinities, Man observes that Mary (“Marie” in Italian) is the most exalted figure of “motherhood” in the Quran and the Bible, which resonates with the sound “mare”. Contrastingly, in Norwegian folklore, the sea beast is known as “Mare” and in colloquial English, “mare” is a horrible situation. When we have nightmares, it is interpreted that tensions are getting released from the seabeds of our psyche. Certainly to different people, the perception of the sea differs. Most Mediterranean countries may view the sea as a source of pleasure while the refugees across the channels may view the sea as a survival possibility. The Atlantic is embedded with the history of slave trade while currently, many including myself worry about the garbage patch in the Great Pacific. Despite differences, if, just to cite a couple of examples, the Indian Ocean garbage and the radiation from Fukushima in Japan have become a part of the Pacific coast of British Columbia, where Kristin Man is based, then how can we confine human conditions to singular nations? She urges us to remember the fact that submarine communications cables have been laid in the seabeds since the 1850s. Realities have our oceans embody not only some of the deepest pains and pleasures but practicalities that connect us.

Through A-mare, we would like to encourage the viewer to ask questions pertinent to their personal and their collective experience of what “to love” may mean—through Kristin Man’s artworks of love and sea shall we meet? (“Amare: incrociati, dove ci incontriamo”)

As the wind has brought her to us, at Andrea Nuovo Home Gallery, in Naples, one of her beloved places, she feels that this exhibition is an important dialogue with all of you.

The following poem written by her accompanies the visuals in the spirit of “A-mare”:

between

my favourite sonata and another

crescendo and decrescendo

the rest and the staccato

it plays like this

between

a flow and a back flow

clarity and shadow

the pause and the ebb

it undulates like this

between

the lightning and the thunder

a cloud envelops

like the peace that interrupts

the conflicts of the heart

between

the drops of rain

consonants and vowels

today and tomorrow

the crevices alongside our fingers

after

very little

a bit too much

when

these, simply are…

between

a cut and a weave

a weave and another

memories and testimonies

meditated and made

between

the yellow and the violet

the fabric of our humanity [the threads and the holes of our humanity]

light of dawn and dusk

blood has laced the blue

certain questions remain

not only of time and space

my world

breathing

its meaning, in-the-meantime

www.kristinman.com/amare.html

Instagram: @kristin.man

www.andreanuovo.com

Instagram: @andreanuovohomegallery