LUCA BOSANI - VISITING ARTIST LECTURE

question and challenge gender roles etc.

Seeing shoes as something more, can i expand on my own clothing ? Make my clothes sculptural ? 

Found on his website, unsure of any more info

KNAVES OF RADIANCE (UNDOING AND REIMAGING MASCULINITY) - 2017-19

two sort of juxtapostion ideas for the title - wearable paintings

About physical objects, and items that can be worn. deconstructing masculinity and reimagining identity

something in taking apart and changing suits ? wearable paintings ? im not sure - undermining macho, criticising violence , 

TOO EARLY TO LOVE YOU, TOO LATE TO KISS YOU - 2019

WHILE thinking about queer love and inclusivity and diversity CREATE SOME FORM OF DISRUPTION - sometimes might be considered a threat (typical views of queer masculinity or just queerness in general)

Shirt/Jackets that work in a pair - one says too early, the other too late. two items of clothing in conversation with eachother

there was a clock on the floor, explaining time. the performance was 1 hour. it was a lot about duration and time etc etc.

C0032: THE FLYING MASNADIERI - 2020

fake job as a private investigator, not necessarily the most fictional the idea of these MYSTERYS TO SOLVE 

falsified official records for these mysteries

this investigator initially wore black and looked quite classic, now though it has slowly turned to red, red trench, hat and car. He has become brighter. The mysteries he was involved with were live performances, things that happened in front of an audience. Luca has sort of become this false investigator. All of the world and history. These shoes are responses to history and as an investigator. 

C0042 LOS PORTALES DEL TIEMPO

An investigator in Peru. Falsified records. Almost story-telling of what is happening partly in his own life. It is about blurring the lines between reality and story-telling.

C0044 LONDON'S WHITEST WALLS

Luca literally was ask to find the whitest walls in London. Which is both fun but also more subtly speaks on capitalism and the obsessions these galleries have with pristine perfect spaces and why they have to have the whitest walls the cleanest ones. It is about picking apart those imperfections in galleries. Luca says he was able to understand how much these spaces are policed. How they could not really explore the spaces independently without security becoming involved.

Why is this investigative figure not a complete detour?

The structure of this investigator at its core is a destruction of classic masculinity, in investigating ie, becomes the opposite of the James Bond type figure in classic masculinity. Being visible doesn't necessarily mean feeling better. It makes me feel way more vulnerable. Investigators should be invisible, this one though, Luca's is completely the opposite clad in red, makeup heels. This should stand in contrast with the type of role he plays, but no. It supports it. 

Luca's grandfather was a shoemaker. There is a long history in his family as a shoemaker. the main installation room, shoes ordered from easiest to hardest to actually wear. These shoes are almost portals to bring Luca and the audience doors to stories and history and information while also being an expression of masculinity and post-gender and everything that is fluid and queer. It creates curiosity in the wearer and the viewer. It is about objects and making. It's about objects that are not categorisable. All platform shoes, 70s power and energy revolution. Leaning about making shoes, continuing courses. Keep learning all the time. Don't sink into the abyss and hard times. 

UNIDENTIFIED PERFORMING OBJECTS 

an ascension journey, in search of ecstasy and beyond labels and identity. The saxophone in this video is improvised. Performers, sheets of semi sheer material, reds and whites, greens and blacks over their heads, slowly trying on and wearing each of the shoes he has made. Naturally, becoming trickier and trickier to do so. This acts as proof that they are all in fact wearable shoes, despite their ridiculousness. For the final tallest pair, the figure almost floats above, being caried by a harness in order to reach and  the shoes that have a height equivalent to the figure itself. standing tall above the rest of the audience. It is a stressful endeavor. The figure almost floats above in this ritualisation of simply attempting to wear a pair of extravagant heels.

Its about finding the logistics of making. Put everything in context. 

Why shoes?

Wearable paintings and sculptures are powerful and also a good metaphor for identity. Shoes are the items we wear the most. Lots of sayings like walk a mile in my shoes. But also the history of identity related to shoes. The gender discourse and sexualization of shoes, red stilettos, pumps etc. they are practical and impractical. There's lots more than we think in anything so he was able to uncover gender class privilege and identity. Also can be used in performance. 

Why red?

I'm always trying to not use colours. Because sometimes it feels like a waste to not explore all the colours in your palette. Black works seem to be coming back in his practice. But red he views as a positive activating colour. To him it is also very soothing. And the context of the investigator being invisible wearing bright red doesn't make any sense, which he seems to quite like. 

What made you choose the music?

Ecstasy and elevation of the soul. Worked with CJ, which was just chatting about the mood they wanted. They went for a darker tone so slightly haunting but fundamentally with a sort of spiritual ascension. He gives musicians key words and a vibe but then they compose sort of on the spot so there's not a conventional score. He doesn't even know what it's called.