Artists: Susan Cianciolo, Laida Lertxundi, Natsuko Uchino
Exhibition title: No guidance from the spirit guides
Venue: CIBRIÁN, San Sebastian, Spain
Date: July 1 – September 4, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and CIBRIÁN, San Sebastian
For its final exhibition in its current space, Cibrián is delighted to gather three artists whose practices encompass the idea of continuity as a permanent biological, emotional and formal change. The works — spanning art, ecology, fashion and cinema — pose multiple entry points, allowing the possibility for different viewers to shape them. This devotion to openness and the extreme attention to what has been sown is a long, inclusive process these artists know all too well. The relational aspects of their work unfolds through shared rituals such as fashion show, film set, ceramic making, cooking or teaching. What appears in the exhibition are the residues of such rituals.The trajectories of these three artists are different as are their works, yet they converge in the most natural way, contaminating each other.
Susan Cianciolo (b.1969) is an artist who founded the Run Collection in 1995, a unique fashion label which has influenced generations of designers and artists. Her work, which unfolds as much in the field of fashion as in that of art, consists in reassembling already-existing materials, finding harmony in humble simplicity.
For this exhibition Susan Cianciolo shows two type of works. Her kits, which display personal objects and archival material, condense decades of the artist’s interests and passions within the space of a small box. They are plainly placed on the ground. After a closer look, the viewer might grasp the delicate force within the work. It is not so much a confession or intrusion into the artist’s life, as it is a distillation left in plain view, a kind of gift to the viewer. The artist also presents two wall works which combines her painting and garment-making practice.
Laida Lertxundi (b. 1981, Bilbao, Spain) is an artist and film-maker. Here, she shows Teatrillo, a 2.5 min video dedicated to the ancient world of the low tech and to moving images. A pair of hands stage various arrangements of images within a small cardboard model for an unrealized three-channel film installation. The title’s double meaning—both “little theater” and “faking it”—alludes to the plans for a work becoming the work itself.
The artist makes a personal use of demanding techniques such as 16mm film or engraving, producing a tacit critique of the technical perfection. As a result, she disorients cinematographic systems of meaning. For the need of the exhibition, the designer Fran Fraca (FFraca Design Office) has designed a bench on which the viewer can sit to watch the small theatre (Teatrillo).
For her first exhibition in Spain, Natsuko Uchino (b. 1983, Kumamoto, Japan) shows a set of ceramics and a series of small bronzes. All of the ceramics are functional and directly reference the Hispano-Moresque tradition. Some of them are part of the project Keramikos in collaboration with the artist Matthew Lutz Kinoy.
Natsuko Uchino navigates with ease between art, crafts and ecology. Her installations and performances summon a great variety of collaborators, from artists to farmers. It is interesting to note her particular affection for the techniques of food fermentation and the distinctive containers necessary for this process in which, function and bacteriological relationships produce the form. Natsuko Uchino’s practice allows a space for a number of chosen elements to catalyze and react. The result is always surprisingly joyful.
No guidance from the spirit guides, 2021, exhibition view, CIBRIÁN, San Sebastian
Natsuko Uchino, Various ceramics, Earthenware, stoneware, Variable dimensions
Natsuko Uchino, Untitled, Stoneware, 33 x 34 cm
Natsuko Uchino, Untitled, Stoneware, 24 x 23 cm 27 x 23 cm
Natsuko Uchino, Untitled, Stoneware, 24 x 23 cm 27 x 23 cm
Susan Cianciolo, Spirit guide, 2019, Cloth, thread, plastic, safety pin 188 × 162.51 cm
No guidance from the spirit guides, 2021, exhibition view, CIBRIÁN, San Sebastian
Natsuko Uchino, Earthenware, 18 x 40 cm diamete
Natsuko Uchino, Earthenware, 18 x 40 cm diameter
Natsuko Uchino, Earthenware, 18 x 40 cm diameter
Natsuko Uchino, Earthenware, 18 x 40 cm diameter
Natsuko Uchino, Earthenware, 18 x 40 cm diameter
No guidance from the spirit guides, 2021, exhibition view, CIBRIÁN, San Sebastian
Laida Lertxundi, Teatrillo, 2021, 16 mm film. Color, without sound 2”30
No guidance from the spirit guides, 2021, exhibition view, CIBRIÁN, San Sebastian
No guidance from the spirit guides, 2021, exhibition view, CIBRIÁN, San Sebastian
Natsuko uchino, Squid Currency, 2021, 8 pieces,, Bronze cast in cuttlebone. Variable dimensions
No guidance from the spirit guides, 2021, exhibition view, CIBRIÁN, San Sebastian
No guidance from the spirit guides, 2021, exhibition view, CIBRIÁN, San Sebastian
Susan Cianciolo, Tapestry 3, 2017, Mixed fabric, drawings and tape. 152.40 × 294.64 cm
Susan Cianciolo, Royalty Kit, 2015, Cardboard box, with glitter, flower pattern skirt, pink cotton cloth, burlap and cotton dress, belt, Book of John, painted paper and wood planets, play food, photographs
Susan Cianciolo, Deluxe Accessories Kit, 2001-2010, Silk triangle bag, glitter, paper, cotton tapestry necklace or wall-hanging, dye and acrylic on canvas sneakers, cotton woven shawl, cotton bow tie, 2-sided offset printed poster, Run 11 Shiseido makeup bag on cotton patchwork textile with fabric by Mike Mills, 10.16 × 63.50 × 76.20 cm
No guidance from the spirit guides, 2021, exhibition view, CIBRIÁN, San Sebastian