Laura Gonzalez
This weekend, the Hamptons will see much more than sun beds and garden parties. On Saturday, July 30, the Watermill Center hosts Voluptuous Panic, its 18th annual summer benefit, featuring up-and-coming international artists alongside some of the most established figures in the business. The event’s catalogue includes over 25 original artist performances and installations on the center’s grounds, as well as silent and live auctions.
Founded in 1992 by director, playwright, and “theater artist” Robert Wilson, the Watermill Center provides a fertile and dynamic experimental ground for young, talented artists from over 150 countries. Through residency programs and performance schedules, the Watermill helps them develop their craft while providing a strong networking base, which connects young artists to some of the most high-profile names in the global field of art and culture.
Wilson’s own work treads many boundaries, dealing with theater, painting, sculpture, language, dance, film, etc. He has staged plays by Euripides, Shakespeare, Wagner, Ibsen, and Brecht, and has collaborated with Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, and Tom Waits, among many, many others. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Watermill’s supporters and contributors stem from all of these backgrounds and more. The Voluptuous Panic benefit auction includes lots by the likes of Shepard Fairey, Anselm Kiefer, Annie Leibovitz, and Marina Abramovic. However, it is more interesting that, true to the Watermill’s mission, the auction will also include works by the emerging artists it seeks to support, several of whom have already benefitted from the Watermill’s programs.
Davide Balliano
Turin-born Balliano makes use of many different types of media – such as drawing, photography, video, installation, and performance. He was an artist in residence at the Watermill this past spring, where he focused on the first act of a 5-act performance based on the science of sleep – its neurological intricacies, physical manifestations, and the questions science has not been able to answer thus far. Through his work, Balliano is largely interested in researching the most obscure features of our mind, showing us its fragile and paradoxical nature. The Voluptuous Panic auction, however, will feature one of his drawings – a series of semi-repetitive graphic lines superimposed on an image of the Virgin Mary.
Davide Balliano. Photo by Alessandro Zuek Simonetti. Courtesy of the Watermill Center.
Yochai Matos
Speaking of multimedia artists, there is virtually nothing Israeli Yochai Matos hasn’t delved into in his career. In 2009, after participating in one of the Watermill’s residency programs, he created a video art piece titled Make Up Tears, which deals with the contrasting issues of public spaces as property, establishing links between the streets and the art world itself. For the Watermill’s 16th benefit two years ago, he created a 26-foot high fluorescent light installation in the woods surrounding the center. This year, he has designed a cashmere sweater (edition of 70) in collaboration with Pringle of Scotland, which will form part of the benefit’s auction.
Yochai Matos, Flame (Gate), 2009, light installation. Photo courtesy of the Watermill Center.
Roman Ermakov
A recent artist-in-residence at the Watermill, 26-year-old Ermakov has also experimented with several media and formats throughout short career. In the past, the Russian artist has received attention for his “live sculptures”, in which he takes costume design to another level as he creates intricate, colorful designs and structures around living bodies. The environment around them, which plays with ambient and focal lighting, creates stark contrasts between the lifeless structures and the human bodies. Ermakov has also been involved with graphic arts, and the cover of this year’s Watermill Center’s auction pamphlet features one of his works. Titled Emotions Inside Out, the digital print consists of a graphically altered photograph of two people spewing red liquid from their mouths.
Roman Ermakov, Visionaire 59 Fairytale, 2010, installation view. Photo courtesy of Baibakov Art Projects.
