{"id":4082,"date":"2017-05-03T17:46:56","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T15:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/?p=4082"},"modified":"2017-05-03T17:46:56","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T15:46:56","slug":"artwork-of-the-month-may-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/?p=4082","title":{"rendered":"Artwork of the month \/ May 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Coups de Mains (Helping Hands)<\/em>
\nMargaret Michel<\/em><\/p>\n

100 cm x 50 cm x 40 cm
\n2006
\nNon rip nylon, aluminium, wire, fish wire<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The \u201cCoups de Mains\u201d (Helping Hands) by Margaret Michel are a monumental sculpture with an ephemeral character, since they are conceived to be presented outside, but not as a long-term installation.<\/p>\n

There are ten white oversized gloves floating in the wind. Each is attached with wire to a mast. An aluminium hoop in the opening facilitate the airstream to enter into the gloves and swell them. Due to the friendly colour and the lightness of the material, the installation should be recognised positively, even though the wind might create some threatening gestures. Reminiscent of a flag, the white hands seem to greet the visitor. The title underlines this kind of aura. Who doesn\u2019t need some helping hands from time to time?<\/p>\n

Primarily Margaret Michel was inspired by scented leather gloves, which were the first important merchandise of the perfume trade. Only later, people began to use fragrances directly on the skin. However, Margaret\u2019s installation has \u2013 by its playful airiness – more in common with the volatile perfumes from nowadays than with the heavy scents from the origin of the European fragrance making. Moreover the carrier material, leather, stands in opposition to light nylon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Nevertheless, the inspiration source is not really surprising. Conceived for an open-air exhibition in Caussols, France in 2006, the helping hands refer to one of the traditionally most important manufacturing in the area. Caussols is situated in the hinterland of Grasse, where the French and European perfume production was founded in in the late 16th century. The peasants from the surrounding region delivered the vital base for the fragrances: flowers. Some of them are growing in the plains, but some only in high altitude, close to the village of Caussols. During the harvest, lots of helping hands were needed.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the first exhibition place favoured the artwork, since Caussols is in the mountains with in-between 895 and 1.458 meters high. In consequence, there is often is enough wind to play with the gloves. The second exhibition place was Cannes at the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur, during the film festival in 2008. As part of a show by the artist group No Made, the helping hands could float in the light breeze of the Mediterranean and welcome an international public.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Margaret Michel<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born in New York (1955), her childhood was dominated by extensive travels to Africa, Hawaii and Europe. Later, Margaret studied art history at the George Mason University, Virginia (USA) and at the \u00c9cole du Louvre, Paris, France. In parallel she was a student of drawing and sculpture at the American Centre in Paris under Gregory Masurovsky and Cyril Heck.<\/p>\n

Back in the USA Margaret was trained in metal casting at the School of Fine Arts in Metal foundry San Jose, California (USA), worked as assistant from David Middlebrook in Iowa (USA) and as assistant of James Turrel<\/a><\/span> in Arizona (USA). Moreover, she taught at the Ohlone College in the San Francisco Bay area.<\/p>\n

She had numerous personnel and group exhibitions in the USA and Europe, inter alia at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art<\/a><\/span>, Artists Gallery, and Rollo Contemporary Art<\/a>,<\/span> London as well as an extensive solo show at the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Art Moderne et d\u2019Art Contemporain<\/a><\/span> in Nice (France). Besides several awards, Margaret attended many residences. Since 1998 she lives and works in Vallauris (France) and is currently represented by RH Contemporary Art<\/a><\/span> in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur universe is in movement whether in microscopic transformation or in the constant expansion of the cosmos. I treat this entity, movement as a subject, observing it, creating it. With the objects available to me I mimic certain processes, thought associations, logical deduction, absurd and chaotic situations as well as the natural movements of the elements and the unrelenting rhythms of time.\u201d Margaret Michel<\/p>\n

http:\/\/margaret-michel.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coups de Mains (Helping Hands) Margaret Michel 100 cm x 50 cm x 40 cm 2006 Non rip nylon, aluminium, wire, fish wire   The \u201cCoups de Mains\u201d (Helping Hands) by Margaret Michel are a monumental sculpture with an ephemeral character, since they are conceived to be presented outside, but not as a long-term installation…. (read more<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[994,992,995,993,51],"class_list":["post-4082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artwork-of-the-month","tag-cannes","tag-coups-de-main","tag-france-caussols","tag-helping-hands","tag-margaret-michel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4082","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=4082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}