Teeny Tiny Woman

Amanda Ross-Ho explores the disparate cultural connections through myriad media
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LA-based artist Amanda Ross-Ho creates works that feel a little bit like a good trip. The myriad ways in which she explores space and scale often seem to delude the eye, making it hard to distinguish where the work begins and where it ends. Cut-out textiles conflate the background with the foreground and over-sized objects distort perspective and put such a curious emphasis on form that it mesmerizes the brain, compelling the viewer to stare in a prolonged, almost hallucinatory state.

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The 17 wall panels included in Ross-Ho’s upcoming solo show at MOCA Pacific Design Center, entitled “Teeny Tiny Woman“, make it clear her signature haphazard compositions aren’t without purpose or a continuous train of thought. Together the fragmented objects create a harmonious view of our scattered culture, and how lifestyles and traditions can seamlessly interconnect.

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Ross-Ho has participated in numerous solo and group shows in her decade-strong professional career, and “Teeny Tiny Woman” marks an unofficial survey of her extensive portfolio. Each of the site-specific panels was built in the exhibition space, then transferred to her downtown LA studio where they remained for a fair amount of time, collecting residue from her daily work. They now serve as part of a distinct exploration of the artist herself, which begins with a direct translation of a diptych she made as a four-year-old.

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Teeny Tiny Woman” is on view at MOCA Pacific Design Center from 23 June 23 through 23 September 2012.

Images by Robert Wedemeyer, courtesy of MOCA Pacific Design Center


Climate-Based Art

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Two artists separated by a continent—Ap Verheggen and Nasser Azam—recently completed independent climate-based projects, each using weather to indicate the outcome.

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Verheggen, who calls Holland his home, installed the first in a series of four sculptures, which will all be placed in geographic areas undergoing severe climate changes (pictured above). Concerned that “climate change brings about cultural change,” the pure iron sculpture represents a dogsled driver from the local Inuit community. A feed allows for remote viewing of the initial sculpture, located on an iceberg in Greenland, online from cool(E)motiontm until it eventually disappears into the sea. Following that, the artwork will be left to biodegrade or saved by the team, depending on if it’s possible to recover without damaging the aquatic environment.

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Born in Pakistan, London-based artist Nasser Azam’s 13 large-scale paintings in Antarctica reflect the area’s harsh tundra conditions. Using brushes, a canvas and paints specifically-designed for the severe cold, Azam created the works outside over the course of nine days, leaving each out overnight for an added abstract weather effect.

This isn’t the first time the critically-acclaimed artist has ventured beyond the canvas. In 2008, Azam completed two triptychs while floating weightlessly aboard a parabolic aircraft in space.