Banks Violette is the heavily-tattooed artist whose broken screens, fluorescent installations and collaborations with the likes of Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley tip the balance between doom/black metal and grabbed-by-the-scruff-of-the-neck minimalism.
Having built a cult following for his charged pieces – stages and the kinetic abandoned are recurrent – the artist presents new work in Italy this summer, until August 21, aligning his art closer than ever to purity.
"Banks Violette's work at Museo Civico Diocesano di Santa Maria dei Servi is in discordant harmony with the imposing space, both resisting and acquiescing to its past and present condition, creating a new history while commenting on the site’s specific past," says Il Giardino dei Lauri, which organised the exhibition, curated by New York-based Benjamin Godsill.
Violette, who has been the subject of solo showcases across the U.S., Norway, Spain and Belgium, and is represented in London by Maureen Paley, has realised a new dialogue for this eponymous show, responding directly to its 14th century church surroundings. Aluminium, fluorescent tubes, black cable and repurposed industrial materials come together to riff on the history of light in church spaces, where illumination and spectacle is used to instill awe and reverence.
Banks Violette is part of the Il Giardino dei Lauri art project, and is presented at the Museo Civico Diocesano di Santa Maria dei Servi, Città della Pieve until August 21, 2011.
