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'WARM': A climate-specific exhibition by Ludwig
John BATTEN
at 5:23pm on 27th July 2009


The great English painter JMW Turner visited the Valley of Aosta in the Italian Alps on three occasions between 1802 and 1843. Awed by the constantly changing combination of light, mist and weather, he let loose in his later years and painted what he saw in these mountains: swirling abstracted impressions of the landscape and what many believe are pre-cursors to Impressionism and abstraction.

Recently, environmental art and site-specific installation by a range of artists including Richard Long whose long walks and subtle interventions on the landscape and the Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya and his fog ‘scapes installed in gardens, have extended the forms of what we understand to be sculpture.

At Blue Lotus Gallery, the French artist Ludwig has constructed a compelling microenvironment installation that draws inspiration from contemporary site-specific sculptural ideas to use the gallery’s specific location and climate in his work.

Ludwig has installed a set of water vapour machines to create mist in two exact locations and by using the architecture of the gallery and having open and closed windows to create draughts of warm and cold air the gallery is a foggy shrouded place.

The gallery has two separate banks of windows on either side of a large blank wall and the artist has constructed a third ‘window’ be placing a large mirror against this wall (see photograph); the imagery on the mirror is constantly changing as wafts of natural light and air pass over the glass and small rivulets of water run down and onto the floor as subtle shafts of laser hit the threads that drop from the ceiling to hint of passing fire-flies.

Visitors can feel the beautiful mountains surrounding Fotan and hear the dull outdoor noises of cicada’s humming, distant buses rumbling and unknown voices in the distance. It is a meditative and thoughtful installation about our fragile environment.


Exhibition: 《'WARM': A climate-specific exhibition by Ludwig》
Date: 19.4 – 7.6.2009
Venue: Blue Lotus Gallery
Enquiries: 852 2526 6716
Website: http://www.bluelotus-gallery.com/index.php?main=info&id=35



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