Kultivate Arts

Saoirse reviews the Dathuil Gallery of Art:

“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”
– Oscar Wilde

The dathuil Gallery of Art is located in world on Floris around the corner from the formal club Sabal.  Owned by Mr. and Mrs. Lovegasm, this warehouse gallery is currently showing a media pop installation until August 30 with images  by Laura, Mrs. S and selected by Mr. S.

If you have every been fortunate enough to visit the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. you have witnessed some very cutting edge pop art.  Many pieces have the influences of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg and James Rosenquist.  I see these influences in the manner the images are displayed as well as the composition of the individual portraits in this gallery.  This makes this installation a real treat to spend time in for an afternoon or two.

Benches below the installation have plenty of animations so you may position yourself to view the images.  Watch carefully as the images change subtly.  The images are displayed on monitors close to the ceiling of the warehouse.  View this installation from both first and mezzanine levels.  Recommended light : begin with Midnight for focus, then move to any daylight setting.

In the images is love, loneliness or feelings of being alone, and the deep intense feelings of the artist.  One images I really enjoy is a blue and white image of a man lying on his back with his partner bending over him.  Both are clothed, and you see no faces in the image.  Using the blue gives a feeling of warmth that I would not usually feel looking at a black and white image.  The artist uses interlocking  rectangular outline silhouettes emanating outward from the center of the couple.  This is an image I would enjoying looking at in my home, no words suit it specifically, it feels comfortable, warm and home.

There are some images a submissive woman in the role play of Bondage, Discipline, Submission, and Dominance BDSM.  Let me dispel any hype created by 50 Shades of Grey, the acronym BDSM is a conglomeration of terms for a very expansive and very diverse role play community.  I write as an outsider to it who believes in freedom of expression between any consenting adults.  My knowledge comes from interviews and an awful lot of reading.  Those who are seriously into this role play will tell you that there is indeed much reading and much research.  Practicers are as ‘normal’ as anyone else in world, it is not all whips and chains, and it doesn’t always involve sex.   Now that I have cleared that up let’s move along.

I view art, I read about art, then I review an installation.  It makes the experience very enriching for me and I recommend you try it when you  have the time to do so.  An image with a woman restrained in leather, black and white, eyes averted delivers a message of safety.  The model in the image is not distressed, rather the artist uses the shadows and angles to convey her message.  This model has trust in the artist and the image delivers the message.  She is also alone in this image.  In the images the models were a couple, a man alone and very frequently a woman alone.  The individual images show a vast range of emotions which at times relies on others which may or may not be in the same area as the model.   We cannot see what happens around the model, only surmise.  How the artist chooses to include models or to exclude them tells a story with each image.

One image of a woman sitting on a bed, with short hair, muted yellow, black and white colors looks as if she is lonely and isolated.  There is a window in the background to convey depth of the feeling.  This artist plays with light and color artfully in each image.  In many images Tattoo art and piecings are used as foreground for play of light, the artist does not use color to overpower her play of light.  On the days this artist sees the lighting in the world, she must see beauty all around her.  This artist can walk into a room, stand in the middle and see images of lighting around the room.

Husband holding restrained partner in the blue and the black.  Focus lighting is on them in the center of the picture highlighting them.  In image she is stilled in his embrace, and seemingly comforted by the contact.  He appears muscled, sure, and posed holding her firmly hand across mouth, other arm around waist.  If my writing sounds erotic it is because the installation is erotic when you spend time considering the images.  The dathuil gallery plays a sensual music track playing to compliment the art.

A study conducted by Neuroscientists from Caletech in collaboration with scientists from the University of Groningen [Netherlands] studied the connection between touch and emotion. “Intuitively, we all believe that when we are touched by someone, we first objectively perceive the physical properties of the touch – its speed, its gentleness, the roughness of the skin. Only thereafter, in a separable second step based on who touched us, do we believe we value this touch more or less.” [3]

Consider that each one of us have the best viewer for artistic experience right inside our brains.  Each of us experiences our world differently.  I was interviewing in world artist, Johannes1977, at his installation LEA4 – Seasons of Life .  As I looked at a portion of his installationI asked him ‘what does this part mean to you’ and he responded with the best artist response by saying ‘what does it mean to you’.

Visit, spend time, enjoy and tell me ‘what does this mean to you’?  Artistically Yours, Saoirse Heart