It's Over
| May You Live in Interesting Times @ La Biennale de Venezia “It’s over”, “c’est fini”, was what my mother would tell me when she hugged me after I woke up in the middle of the nights shivering from horrific nightmares. Words hold transformative powers.” Hanging at the entrance of the Central Pavilion nine large panels covered in coloured silicone constitute the work It is Over (2019). As the air is slowly pumped out from each panel, embossed text is revealed, transmitting ambiguously reassuring messages: “Don’t worry”, “It’s over”, “Everything is ok”, “Tutto va bene”, “Hey, Relax”, or an image of two teddy bears kissing. The timing of the panels’ inflation and subsidence is carefully choreographed by the artist; the signs can materialise individually or collectively, creating multiple possible permutations of meaning. The panels are pastel-coloured, again conjuring a feeling of gentle positivity, until we remember that the legibility of the mottoes depends on the subtraction of air, their blandly comforting messages at odds with the process of suffocation required to reveal them. |
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