Ian Tweedy - Olympia, WA - Studio Dabbeni

Ian Tweedy
«Olympia, WA and a Portrait of a Picture»
February 5 – 28, 2009

» read on temporale
the magazine of Studio Dabbeni, readable on issuu.com

A dark room, a large window covered by a black curtain. The central space of Studio Dabbeni will be set up to welcome the public who, as spectators, will be able to watch “Olympia, WA”, a video work made by the American artist Ian Tweedy (the artist was born in Hahn, on an American military base on German soil, in 1982).

Through a sequence of images we find ourselves catapulted into a savage, lunar and apparently hostile landscape. Olympia, located near Seattle, is where the action takes place. In this desolate land, with a background of trees whose branches move in the wind, we find ourselves in a scenario that is harsh in every way. Ian Tweedy has photographed himself, his twin brother Britton and their other companions while, armed with illegally smuggled guns, they riddle targets on the ground with gunshots (the targets show traces of earlier assaults by others).

Ian Tweedy
Olympia, WA
2008
DVD 04'50" PAL 4:3
Published in 7 ex. + 2 PA

The artist has photocopied the images, and from them has made the video. The presence of a soundtrack in the background articulates the gunshots. The video work “Olympia, WA”, produced by Studio Dabbeni, reconstructs and retraces the images of an act that instead of being offensive represents something that Tweedy has experienced as an expression of total freedom. Nevertheless, the spectator may feel and perceive contrasting realities and dynamics, may grasp violence in an act undertaken for the pure pleasure of experimentation, or could be led to believe that it is an exercise for a future injurious act.

Tweedy disconcerts the viewer, even if this is not his intention, nor what interests him. The youths are neither hooligans nor criminals; paradoxically, they almost seem to be heroes, in their extreme attempt to escape from the constraints that are necessarily written into the law. With “Olympia, WA” Tweedy has participated in and documented the experience of going out and shooting that is common to many young people in the Unites States.

Ian Tweedy
Olympia, WA
2008
DVD 04'50" PAL 4:3
Published in 7 ex. + 2 PA

The artist explains how after this experience one can decide to not shoot again, or rather, inebriated by the sensation, decide to continue doing it. What brings us back to the layer underneath what seems most obvious on the glaring surface of Tweedy’s works are some images of war, in the video, taken from the endless archive of old images that much of his work revolves around. Tweedy has not contradicted himself in this video work, rather he has presented a challenge. To seek freedom, even if it means breaking some crystallized rules, to swim against the tide, is what he sought in going to Olympia.

In presenting this video, Studio Dabbeni invites the viewer to immerge himself in this darkened room, into the strident and at the same time fascinating succession of shots, and to follow, if only for a moment, the dream of these young men and their ineluctable desire for anarchy.

Valentina Bucco

Ian Tweedy
A Portrai of a Picture
2008
Wall Drawing
cm 238 x 172
Tempera on wall

Opening
Thursday February 5 – 18.00

Duration
February 5 – 28, 2009

Opening Hours
Tuesday - Friday
09.30 - 12.00 14.30 - 18.30
Saturday
09.30 - 12.00 14.30 - 17.00
Sunday/Monday Closed