Mari Amman
Mari Amman (aka Rachel Wolfe) is a multidisciplinary artist who especially works with practices such as installation and moving-image. Her installations can be found on site-specific locations around the world and she has exhibited across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. Recent solo exhibitions include the US Consulate and Luca Pasquarella Studio in Naples, Italy as well as Arte Expuesto with citywide billboard installations in Monterrey, Mexico.
The conceptual intention of most of Mari Amman’s installations and moving-images are to provoke a neurological stimulation and alteration in order to have us reconsider notions such as purpose of locations, tyranny and war, meditation, institutional vilification, and social isolation. From contemporary dance in completely concealed suits amidst experimental audio surrounded by nature to light-design-based installations which seem like ominous monoliths from another dimension or even galaxy, Mari Amman provides a complex sensory experience to the contemporary audience.
As we explore the installations, moving-images, and moving-image installations, we will find a consistent practice of warping and meshing perspective, either literally or conceptually. Infused with experimental cool-colored light design, installations such as Vesper Monumneter and Making Sense appear as oversized monolithic slabs, as if they were summoned from the earth or floor beneath. Shimmering and marble or crystal-like, these monoliths seem as if they are reconstructed fragments by an advanced civilization of ancient archeological sites. These installations are either site-specific and gallery-based, but both convey a theme of overarching dominance of the environment which surrounds them. As a result, these works could be interpreted as a source of domination and ominous authority which feel as beautiful as they are haunting and enchanted.
In moving-images such as Solfege Souche and Afjordance, Mari Amman conducts a narrative around essentially the same or similar solitary character. A dancer in one moving-image and a victim in the other, what these two moving-images have in common is using nature as a vehicle to convey the dissemination and alteration between worlds, whether virtual, spiritual, or real. These planes of consciousness are inhabitated and infiltrated by the figures through either dance or suffering in exposure to sunlight. One is hiding while the other is openly exploring and dancing. In Afjordance, the dancing becomes increasingly energetic as if trying to summon some sort of entity outside the confines of the environment. With Solfege Souche, the concealed actor is shielding herself from the sun through a forest and tree. As she becomes exposed to the light, she twitches like a helpless ant under a magnifying glass.
Similar to some of her installations, Memoria Technica (pictured above) is a series of digitally-altered analogue vellum photographic prints which create a formation of landscapes spliced into ominous monolithic slabs. These prints are as imposing as they are aesthetically-rich. What we can gather from Memoria Technica is a manipulation of time into a single instance, captured over four seasons.
We can summarize Mari Amman’s portfolio as one which focuses on conceptual complexity, experimentation, and interdisciplinary practices. Although she usually has a somewhat specific or very specific intent with each project, these installations and moving-image projects leave room for open interpretation through their non-linear, non-literal, and often engaging subversive narratives based on questioning dimensional reality, consciousness, and institutional structures.
