Ariel Schlesinger

Ariel’s works is so fascinating and mystical yet scientific it’s amazing, they trick the human eye and it is no surprise that they are so complicated and most of the lecture I was completely confused and literally had perhaps the smallest grasp of what Ariel’s practice is and how he does these artworks.  

Ariel described his practice by comparing it to magicians, explaining how magicians skip how they get to the trick, they skip the mechanisms. Whereas his work is the mechanisms, he of how getting there is just as important if not more important than the piece. Schlesinger’s practice involves very technical and complicated ways of making what may seem like a simple and minimalistic sculpture/installation.

I was amazed by so many of Ariel’s works I wouldn’t know where to begin when discussing his work, there’s ‘Two good reasons’ which can be seen in this video link below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK9osuIWXGE. When watching this piece, you can see two giant pieces of paper rotating and lifting, for ages I truly thought this was just an animation he had made I was like ye that looks nice and then Ariel goes on to say how it was actually two pieces of paper. I was so confused I was literally like how, anyway I’m still not entirely sure how he done this, but I think it had something to do with some kind of mechanical, technical thing.

Ariel spoke about how this installation is a dance of love and how he is fascinated by playing with paper and its flexibility, I find it interesting how Ariel takes something simple and uses it in completely new and complicated ways. 

I was literally mind blown most of this lecture, but I love Schlesinger’s work and how complicated it is, however Ariel mentioned how his work can be high maintenance which can result in his work not being on show unless he is there as galleries can’t maintain the work to the standard needed. I never really gave the maintenance of work too much thought before but now I can see it can be an important aspect to think about with work and the environment they are in, for instance one of my sculptural installations I made didn’t take long to start falling apart which became a bit of an issue.