Alisa Baremboym and Liz Magor are two artists, who on the surface, have only the fact that they both work primarily in sculpture in common.
They hail from different backgrounds and generations - Baremboyn is a 34 year old Russian living in New York; Magor is Canadian, and in her 60s - they deal with wildly varying preoccupations in their practices.
Baremboym, for example, often works with machine components and the techniques and materials of the 21st Century, like computer cables, plastics and digitally printed fabrics, in order to comment on the relationship between the human body and the modern world. Magor is more interested in everyday objects and the feelings they invoke in us. At first glance it’s difficult to put a finger on exactly what it is, if anything, that unites them at all.
However, this mystery is soon to be solved by a project run by Glasgow Sculpture Studios. Placing these two female artists in conversation with one another, it culminates in an exhibition due to run between 8th April and 4th June, made up entirely of new commissions from both artists.
We’re especially taken by the complex relationship between these two artists, and are fascinated by this exhibition’s concept of putting two creative women in dialogue to influence and challenge each other. There’s nothing more empowering for us than seeing women making amazing things together.
But what can we expect from this pairing of such seemingly disparate artists? Glasgow Sculpture Studios give us a bit of an insight: “There is an uncanny presence in both their work, which can be both simultaneously comforting and unsettling. There also is a similarity in their process where each artist develops their ideas through an exploration and acute understanding of their materials.”
We also think that though their ways of working are different, both artists make vitally interesting comments on human life and the relationship between our own selves and the physical world around us. For Baremboym this means interrogating the gap between technology and the body, whilst Magor takes a more emotional route, raising questions about the fragility of the human condition in its many different forms. With all of this compelling material at stake, we can’t wait to see what happens when both artists work in tandem.
Alisa Baremboym ~ Liz Magor runs at Glasgow Sculpture Studios from 8th April - 4th June as part of Glasgow International.
