7 minute read
BATHING IN LIGHT - KEITH SONNIER
Sonnier – the name speaks volumes! Louisiana, all things Cajun and Mardi Gras come to mind. Without this multicultural background it wouldn’t be possible to understand this exceptional artist. To this day the folk in Louisiana still speak either French or Cajun. An extraordinary cultural mix. The Mardi Gras is the French variation of carnival, with delectable foods, processions and extravagant costumes introduced by the Catholic Church to inhibit the boisterous pagan saturnalia of rambunctious festivals. If one were to add the sub-tropical climate of Louisiana with its swamps, the Mississippi Delta, the biodiversity of fauna and flora to the mix, then one gets an idea where and how Keith Sonnier grew up.
Bound Saw Palm | Sagaponack Blatt Series | 2004 | Neon, Draht und Trafo
Caterina Verde Courtesy of the Artist
Ausstellung «Dialog III: Licht» Häusler Contemporary, Zürich
© Peter Baracchi
Lichtweg Müncher Flughafen
© Uwe Seyl
Characterised by an eventful life and no longer as verbose as in his most active days, the almost 80-year-old artist takes us right back there from where he came, to Louisiana, in our short almost spiritual telephone interview:
Sonnier. “The landscape and its light, was important for my inspiration.” His grandmother still practised the primordial method of healing used here – which has left a deep impression on him to this day. He would sometimes accompany her on treatment visits. “Until today it was one of the most impressive performances I’ve ever seen. She was an inspiration for all my life.”
It was from this natural world whose culture has a way of capturing the imagination that he walked away from – and landed up in Paris to begin with. Keith Sonnier belongs to the few American artists, who subsequently experienced almost more recognition in Europe than in their homeland. “It was almost easier for me to implement my art in Europe, since the trained artisans implicitly supported me in the making of my work – especially in producing curved neon tubes.”
Then there came the step that took him to New York, which has become his second home to this day. What a conspicuous contrast – a liberating, inspiring experience. “I loved it, I felt like I had come into the world!” New friends, everything a little unusual, new experiences. Sonnier took everything on board and turned it into something completely new! Also integrating into his works his mother’s expertise in repurposing old materials into something new; be it discarded laundry baskets, pink silk fabrics – everything served an experimental purpose.
It was from home that he also brought with him his culinary streak. He would apparently cook for entire artist groups in his studio in New York and outstandingly at that. Gordon MattaClark and Lynda Benglis were among his companions, while Donald Judd and Dan Flavin were around too, but were older and already established in New York. After graduating from Rutgers University he experimented with latex, satin and other mategoing beyond pure minimalism and using copper tubing as a template, Sonnier began sketching lines, arches and curves that he ultimately had come into their own in glass-tubing-enclosed neon. The linear quality of neon allowed him to draw in the surrounding space with light and colour, the light and colour in turn interacting with space. His trips to Bali and India, the Holi Festione another with, inspired works like Dis_Play II, 1970.
Keith Sonnier became part of iconic exhibitions like “Eccentric Abstraction” in the Fischbach Gallery in New York city (1966) and “Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form” in the Kunsthalle Bern (1969), under curator Harald Szeemann, who worked works were also included in the groundbreaking “Anti-Illusion” exhibition of the Whitney Museum of American Art. It was the biggest showcase ever for post-minimalism in an American museum. The year 1968 was also when the life-long collaboration with Leo Castelli (New York) and Rolf Ricke (Cologne) began. The collection that emerged from the latter was later acquired by the State Museum of Modern and Contemporary art in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, and the St. Gallen Art Museum.
However Keith Sonnier also wanted to create larger spaces with light – again he went one step further combining light & architecture and what came about was an extension of the sculptural series BA-O-BA. He came up with the name when vacationing with Gordon Matta-Clark, another New York artist, in a remote part of Haiti in 1969. Near their hotel was a bay with a little fishing skiff in wood with a white sail. Its fisherman told the artist he had named it “Ba-O-Ba”, a Haitian Creole phrase loosely meaning “bathing in moonlight”, since he did his fishing under the moon.
BA-O-BA took many forms. Sonnier transformed entire buildings and squares into illuminated works of art, in which one could ‘bathe’ in the light. He created what has to be one of the largest and most spectacular works of art at Munich Airport: the 1.2 km neon work Lightway. It came about between 1989 and 1992 and is found on Arrival Level 03 of Terminal 1. Passengers are literally immersed in the light. Sonnier’s play of light and colour excites the senses, envelopes the body like a lightweight colourful coat, spurring on the imagination – and probably also has an effect on reducing stress.
„Tears for St Francis“ Eine Lichtinstallation für die Pfarrkirche St.Franziskus in Steyr/Oberösterreich.
© Dietmar Tollerian
In 1999 he transformed Kunsthaus Bregenz one of Europe‘s leading museums of contemporary art designed by Peter Zumthor into a kaleidoscope of light. In 2002 he had Berlin’s New National Gallery designed by Dutch star architect Mies van Rohe ‘wrapped around’ with light. With the advent of dusk a fascinating dialogue would present itself between the dark steel architecture and the brilliant luminescent neon colours. By affixing neon contours to the window area the transparency of the Mies architecture would become even more exaggerated. The colours selected for the installation, red, yellow and blue, and the rightangled grid achieved a veritable Piet Mondrian effect. However, what Keith Sonnier turns it into for the observer, is a playful conversation with space, reflections and interactions.
One of the largest light installations, created in 2004 for the Thom Mayne’s Caltrans District 7 Building in Los Angeles, shows the timeless elegance and aesthetics of Sonnier’s works. Hundreds of exhibitions were held and many awards were received by him until the Arts and Letters Award in Art 2013. He has ultimately also touched the hearts of the big American museums like MoMA in New York, MOCA in Los Angeles and the Whitney Museum. In Europe he is represented by Häusler Contemporary, which has been providing him with support for 25 years and will have his works exhibited in Zurich until the 14 August 2020.
In conclusion, this is how Sonnier sees where he’s at:
Bathing in light – what a marvellous description of his work!
Words: Daniel Chardon
WWW.KEITHSONNIER.NET
Titel: Keith Sonnier during the Flocked Car Project, commissioned by, collector, Larry Warsh, 2016. © Caterina Verde
USA: War of the Worlds Sagaponack Blatt Series 2004 Neon, gefundene Objekte, Trafo.
© Caterina Verde Courtesy of the Artist
CATEGORISATION & APPRAISAL BY ROLAND WÄSPE
© Daniel Chardon
Director of the St. Gallen Art Museum (since 1989)
Keith Sonnier has fascinated me since 1993, when I was invited to do a retrospective on him here. Ever since, he has been an integral part of our collection.
His art very much relates to the human being and because of its ability to communicate directly, it’s easy to appreciate his art. Unlike James Turrell or Dan Flavin, who created their own controlled perfect world, Keith Sonnier never had any fear of contact with the day-to-day world. Very few artists are capable of transforming an airport or a soccer stadium into a work of art. Within the framework of the movement of 1968 (École des Beaux-Arts which turned itself into a workshop for revolutionary messages) he lay down the foundation for New Sculpture together with others.
He researched art materials that until then had not played any role in the world of art: Foam rubber, latex, phosphorescent paint powder, video projections and performances. His art remains anthropomorphic; it always has a connection to its source material and that is what makes it empathetic, close and vulnerable.
Even when he experiments with large formats, there is something intimate about the outcome, providing an experience space that opens one’s own perception, and differentiates it. His avant-garde impetus is pronounced. Perhaps the sensuality of his art also has something to do with Louisiana. He is a gifted chef. His presentation of a ripe avocado is unsurpassed. He once invited the St. Gallen Art Society on an art outing to him in his studio and cooked for us. For the participants who speak of the occasion today, it was almost a mystical experience. He also has a way of approaching other cultures in a very adaptive manner. In India he worked with bamboo, in Japan with wood. With that being the case, his art always comes across as fresh and does very well without sensationalism. His art literally expresses his love for humanity.
Interview/Words: Daniel Chardon
WWW.KUNSTMUSEUMSG.CH
9000 St.Gallen | Switzerland
BA-O-BA BERLIN, 2002. Site specific installation, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin.
Foto © Christian Gahl
Drone A | Portal Variation Series | 2014/2020 | Neon, Kabel, Transformer | Ed. 1/5
Foto: © Caterina Verde Courtesy of the Artist
WWW.HAEUSLER-CONTEMPORARY.COM
