Art Metropole

#13072

Midnight & Noon

Artist

Monica Moraru

Date

2017

Publisher

Monica Moraru

Format

Multiples

Genre

Postcard, Risograph

Description

A print multiple that is an accompaniment to the artist’s show by the same title (January 6-February 10, 2017 at Xpace). Highly influenced by Paul Chan’s essay, “On Light as Midnight and Noon”, the work considers the omnipresence of luminous screens as a site for desire, through musings on windows, light, and shadow.

The work traces the ideology of the window from Leon Battista Alberti’s “De Pictura (1435)” — which transformed the viewing of art into the process of looking through a window — to the present day, where the experience of looking at an illuminated screen still mimics this very same action. After all, the most dominant software used for accessing and viewing information is called “Windows.”

The risograph postcard is a tangent to the same ideas of the show it accompanied. Based on a found postcard from a butterfly conservatory in Florida, the print features a giant swallowtail butterfly perched on a cluster of tangerines. Like Chan’s text, this object had a significant influence on the work, as it represents a similar aesthetic purpose, acting as a portal, or a window, into an alternate space — one that is fictional, unattainable and desirable.

On the back of the postcard is a portion of Moraru’s exhibition text, modified from Chan’s essay. In his original passage, Chan uses his own apartment as a metaphor — he describes the transitioning light that changes throughout the day and how it travels through his apartment — as a way to synthesize his argument about the victories and failures of the luminous screen in contemporary art. The artist’s passage follows the same trajectory, tracing the same statement through the changing light in my own apartment.

Self published risograph

Printed at Colour Code (January 2017)

Edition of 50

1.