Laura Grisi: ‘The Measuring of Time’
Laura Grisi, The Measuring of Time, 1969, B+W digital video from 16mm film, 5 min 45 sec. Courtesy of Laura Grisi Estate, Rome and P420, Bologna
About the Work
In this 16mm film, Laura Grisi embarks on counting grains of sand in the desert. This task, with no apparent end, acts as an infinite action that stretches beyond time. Describing her process, the artist said: ‘This endless, repetitive gesture was emphasized in a film shot in a single spiral sequence, beginning with a close-up of the hands counting the grains of sand and expanding outward to reveal the figure performing the action.’ The grainy black and white of the film and the rotational movement of the filmmaker conjure up a galaxy, at the heart of which the artist is sited. Upon Grisi’s inclusion in the Venice Biennale in 2022, art historian Stefano Mudu summarized her filmic practice: ‘The body feels attuned with energies that alternate between physical and intimate, scientific and spiritual.’
About the Artist
Laura Grisi (b. 1939, Rhodes, Greece; d. 2017, Rome, Italy) was an artist living between Rome and New York. Her work has always been considered part of Italian pop art, even though from the outset she went beyond that category, with elements of various international movements in her own original synthesis. From her debut in 1964, Grisi’s work featured elements derived from the art of the first half of the 1960s: pop art, optical and kinetic art, and minimalism. However, hers work also responded to approaches from Italy and beyond in the second half of the 1960s, including arte povera and process art. Grisi developed the ‘Natural Elements’ series in 1968: works that artificially reproduce atmospheric phenomena, presenting nature as technologized.
About EMAP x FRIEZE FILM SEOUL
For the third year in a row, Frieze Film returns to Frieze Seoul 2024. This year’s programme is presented in partnership with Ewha Media Art Presentation (EMAP) and is on view from 2 – 6 September at Ewha Womans University and online at frieze.com.
Curated by Joowon Park and Valentine Umansky, this year’s programme is titled ‘All that Weaves the Universe: Of Quantum Entanglements’. It brings together time-based media works of 37 international artists, unfolding under eight chapters.
