{"id":2518,"date":"2016-05-03T16:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/?p=2518"},"modified":"2016-05-03T17:36:15","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T16:36:15","slug":"artwork-of-the-month-may-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/?p=2518","title":{"rendered":"Artwork of the month \/ May 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u00a9<\/a>

Irene Kung: Melo in fiore \u00a9 Irene Kung<\/p><\/div>\n

Melo in fiore, EXPO 2015 (Flowering Apple Tree, EXPO 2015)<\/em>
\nIrene Kung<\/em><\/p>\n

2014
\n100 cm x 140 cm
\nD-print on rag paper<\/p>\n

To start the merry month of May, we\u2019ve chosen a flowery artwork of the month, the photo \u201cMelo in fiore\u201d (Flowering Apple Tree) by Irene Kung. After early bloomers like snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils and tulips, flowering fruit trees are standing for the awaking nature after winter. More than the early bloomers they are a promise that the season cycle with a future harvest restarts again. So they are symbols for life and fecundity, a sign of hope. For that, the time of the fruit blossom is a magical moment in spring.<\/p>\n

Irene has taken the apple tree in full bloom: white blossoms with little rose points between just unfolded tender leaves in light green. Looking like morning mist, the background is held in smooth grey-green tones, which lightly encloses as well the fine outer branches of the crown and the tree trunk. In consequence, the flowers in the centre are sharper depicted than the ones at the edges. Perhaps there are some shades of neighbouring plants to identify in the surroundings, but in general the apple tree seems to be isolated of its environment by the mist.<\/p>\n

This solitary image of the flowering tree, reminds human portraits with monochrome background, like they appear since the renaissance. Attributes, which refer to the posing person, are rare, if they exist. Often the only hint to the social status of the personality comes from the clothes. Important is only the physiognomy and the expression. Alike one might see the portrait of the apple tree: the size of crown and trunk, as well as the mossy bark indicate that it is not a young tree. Someone familiar with fruit trees can recognise that it is an apple tree. Obvious is the season: spring, because the tree is flowering. By the number of open blossoms and the tender colour of the leaves, it is clear that the bloom is in its highest state. The background colour underlines the season: it is warmer by the light green tones than in winter, but not so brilliant like in summer.<\/p>\n

This might be what Irene wanted to show: a portrait of an apple tree in full bloom. It is a very specific moment, since a day earlier or a day later this ideal instance was not to be seen. By its isolation, the tree became a model or a dream image of a flowering apple tree. With that the artist has captured the magical moment of spring.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Irene Kung<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born in 1958 in Switzerland, Irene grew up with a mother who was painter and so she started painting early. Nevertheless, another of her earliest passions was photography, like she stated in an interview in 2014<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0When she was aged 20, Irene was shooting portraits. Due to her interest for images, she studied graphic design in Rome and worked for years in the advertising business. During this time she continued to study painting. Her first subjects were realistic, so she was early recognized for her still-lifes. While starting to exhibit her works, her images became slowly more abstract. Stimulated by the Roman gallerist Valentina Bonomo, she concentrated on photography, using it as a new tool of expression after working with different techniques like painting, graphics, sculpting and incision.<\/p>\n

In one of the ongoing series Irene focuses on architecture. Here she isolates classical and contemporary buildings of their surroundings. They are mostly shown with a black background. The artist illuminates only the parts of her interest (Invisible Cities). Moreover she photographs landscapes (Clouds, New Mexico, Water, Mountains) and animals. Another series is dedicated to trees. Here again, the object stands alone; there is no environment in the image only a diffuse background, emphasising the atmosphere. These trees are often surrounded in black, reminding paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. Could this be a glimpse to her beginnings as painter and portrait photographer?<\/p>\n

Besides many solo and group exhibitions all around the world (inter alia Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, UK, USA, Argentina, China and Russia) Irene\u2019s works were featured by international magazines like The New York Times Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, Sette del Corriere della Sera and China Daily. Moreover she was selected at ParisPhoto 2010. For the EXPO 2015 the Contrasto Galleria invited her to a solo show at the Fruit and Legumes Cluster, where she presented 26 of her fruit trees. One of them is our artwork of the month of May 2016: \u201cMelo in fiore\u201d (Flowering Apple Tree). Actually her \u201cTrees\u201d are on show in Milan at the Contrasto Galleria (until 26th of July 2016). The exhibition is accompanied by the book \u201cTrees\u201d and a limited edition of 100 original signed prints.<\/p>\n

www.irenekung.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melo in fiore, EXPO 2015 (Flowering Apple Tree, EXPO 2015) Irene Kung 2014 100 cm x 140 cm D-print on rag paper To start the merry month of May, we\u2019ve chosen a flowery artwork of the month, the photo \u201cMelo in fiore\u201d (Flowering Apple Tree) by Irene Kung. After early bloomers like snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils… (read more<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[496,499,495,497,498],"class_list":["post-2518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artwork-of-the-month","tag-expo-2015","tag-flowering-apple-tree","tag-irene-kung","tag-melo-in-fiore","tag-melo-in-fiore-expo-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}