Ivan Lupi’s Musings
Ivan Lupi is an internationally renowned performance artist who has performed and exhibited across the globe since 2001. Born in Ferrara, Italy, Lupi has been living and working in Aotearoa New Zealand since 2016. City Art Depot is thrilled to present Ivan Lupi’s Musings. This exhibition features A Set of Pleasant Feelings, circular artworks hung on the wall, alongside Solitaire, a duration performance comprising the processing of family photos. Both components of the exhibition reveal the artist’s focus on durational meditative practice and exploration of surface and identity.
The surfaces of Lupi’s round boards that form A Set of Pleasant Feelings are marked with continuous lines made in one take. Blindfolded, the artist works by sense of touch, his oil marker never leaving the surface of the board until they feel the work is complete. These records of time test the artist’s focus, totally consumed by the task. The tondo we see on the wall is both the action of mark making and the remnant of that performance. Described as ‘mind mandalas’ the artist is devoted to the present moment and the traced effect of time on their controlled hand.
Where Lupi glides slowly across the surface of these circular boards in A Set of Pleasant Feelings, in the performance Solitaire the artist pierces, scratches and folds photographs. Performed in the gallery over the length of the exhibition without rest – 8.30am–5pm weekdays and 10am–2pm Saturdays – Lupi works rhythmically, meditating on a set of old photographs. Being the last living member of Lupi’s closest family tree, the original photographs performed with are all relatives unknown to the artist. Reminiscent of games of Solitaire played as a child on holidays around Italy, Lupi flips the surfaces of the images revealing and concealing their identities. In an emotional investigation the artist scores and pierces the surface like a thread though time pulling the memory of the picture and ancestors through to the present.
The emotional information. This is it. That is what I retain. Not the item. The pictures can go after I mourned, grieved, remembered, cried, smiled, sighed. Some people told me I should keep them. They see them as my personal belonging. This is why the creative process is so crucial here. It allows me to transform each item and give them the life they deserve.
—Ivan Lupi, 2024
City Art Depot encourages you to view this evolving work over the course of the show. Viewers are welcome to join Lupi each day prior to and after the gallery open hours where the artist will be walking
a set one and a half hour route from and to the artist’s central city home. A map is available with gallery staff. The resulting processed photo relics of this performance will be available for purchase once the performance has concluded, an example of what this may look like is on show in the upstairs stock gallery.
One of a kind bespoke circular frames are purchasable for the artworks. Speak to a gallery staff member to find out more.
View this post on Instagram
