GRACE GRAUPE PILLARD's NEW YORK CITY BLUES [198]

Grace Graupe Pillard opens a show of New York works exploring the city, along with seveal other NY based artists.  NEW YORK CITY BLUES taps into the city as atmosphere, motif and symbol of the spirit of our time – and it opens in two art spaces in Denmark –  KUNSTPAKHUSET and Augustiana.  Along with Grace Graupe Pillard, Robin Tewes and the Danish artists Jonna Pedersen and Bjørn Eriksen visit the ins and outs of the city and its population thorugh photography, painting, video and other media.

Grace was one of the New York City artists who participated in the ABAD show at the Emily Harvey Foundation, and also made a film of her visit, visible on the main ABAD site, here.

New York City Blues 28. april – 28. maj 2012
KUNSTPAKHUSET
Lille Torv 5 7430 Ikast Tlf. 2311 1019 info@kunstpakhuset.dk www.kunstpakhuset.dk
 
24. juni – 19. august 2012
Augustiana – skulptur og kunstcenter  ved Galleri Nørballe
Palævej 12 6440 Augustenborg Tlf. 2220 2591 info@gallerinoerballe.dk www.augustiana.dk

Visit Grace Graupe Pillard's website here.

From the catalog:  GRACE GRAUPE PILLARD / The Spirit of our Time

In several of her works Grace Graupe Pillard addresses events of national and political character, which seem to have altered America’s awareness of its own role in the world, and its internal political conscious- ness, and has created a new ”spirit of our time.”

The terrorist bombing on September 11, 2001 of the spectacular Twin Towers - the World Trade Center skyscrapers in NYC, changed the USA and its perception of personal safety. The event changed the world so dramatically that there is now talk of a before and after 9/11.The monstrous event shattered the American self-image and revealed a vulnerability of unknown dimensions. It was literally the heart of the American system that was hit.

Grace Graupe Pillard visualizes the consequences of war and the equally powerful manipulation of the electorate through the “politics of fear”, which were created by politicians in the period after 9/11 and the ensuing war in Iraq. “Interventions - It Can’t Happen Here” attempts to make visually evident the ongoing tragic repercussions of war in ”far off places” transported to United States’ own backyard.
By use of computer and digital filters she creates an implanted imagery - sometimes verging on the abstract. Using bright colors and kaleidoscopic patterns, she depicts a recognizable everyday reality that is distur- bingly altered in character and mood. She makes a digital / photographic jolt of reality. As a viewer we ask ourselves: What is paranoia? What is reality?