EXPO ‘But if the Crime is Beautiful….’ – Sienna Gallery (US) – 8 Fevr.-23 Mars 2014
Lauren Kalman : But if the Crime is Beautiful…. – Sienna Gallery
But if the Crime is Beautiful…. consists of fabricated and found objects combined with the body to produce sculptural compositions. These sculptures are documented and exist as photographs. The objects used to make the compositions are installed among the sculpture/photographs as residue of the action. The title of the project, But if the Crime is Beautiful…, and the series in this exhibition, Composition with Ornament and Object, are derived from Adolf Loos’ 1910 lecture Ornament and Crime. With “but if the ornament is beautiful” he is quoting the naive (in his view) population’s defense of ornament as long as it is beautiful. His proposition is that ornament is regressive and primitive, that in (his) contemporary society only degenerates and criminals are decorated (this includes women). The “crime” in my work points not only to the decorated but also to deviant sexuality and female sexuality, especially 19th and early 20th century constructions, of which our current understanding of sexuality is built upon. Loos’ writings on architecture and functional art helped to define the principals of the Modern Architecture movement and eventually the Bauhaus. The influence of these movements permeates the contemporary built environment and therefore impacts our psychological and bodily relationship to space and objects.
Lauren Kalman - but if the crime is beautiful … 2013Lauren Kalman is a visual artist whose practice is invested in installation, video, photography and performance. Through her work she investigates perspectives of beauty, body image, value, and consumer culture. Raised in the Midwest, Kalman completed her MFA in Art from the Ohio State University and earned a BFA with a focus in metals from the Massachusetts College of Art. She has taught at institutions including Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI. Currently she is an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. She exhibits and lectures internationally. Her work had been featured in exhibitions at venues including the Centro Cultural Recoleta, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Contemporary Art Museum Houston, and the deCordova Museum. Her video work has also been screened in several international film festivals. Her photographs are part many private collections as well as the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
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