Distortion
3rd May - 3rd November 2009

Gervasuti Foundation Via Garibaldi Venezia

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Distortion is a contemporary art project curated by James Putnam to coincide with the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009. Distortion has been a significant feature of creative expression throughout the history of art. In his notebooks, Leonardo da Vinci, described a bizarre use of perspective to create an anamorphosis, a deliberately distorted image that is almost unrecognizable at first sight but when viewed from a certain angle turns to a normal appearance. A famous example of this is the distorted skull in the centre foreground of Hans Holbein’s painting, ‘The Ambassadors’. We have long been familiar with distortion in caricature and ambiguous cartoon-like allegorical figures that combine elements of both the comic and the grotesque. In Surrealist art there are stylistic distortions of the human form, which can feature strangely disproportioned figures and the expressive deformation of particular features.

Distortion is not only found in all art, but in all æsthetic experience. It affects the perception of an image and depends upon the changes that the thing undergoes in the process of becoming an æsthetic object. It does not imply making an image ‘worse’, but merely represents a change in the original image’s information. This alteration can be more pleasing to human perception than if the image was ‘perfectly’ regular. In sound the slight distortion of analogue is considered by many to be a ‘warmer’ tone, more pleasing to the human ear than the ‘colder’, clearer digital sound. The entire aesthetic in the genre of rock music relies on ‘beauty’ of guitar distortion achieved by overdriven valve amps and fuzz pedals. Distortion can be either formal or emotional, it presupposes an order from which to deviate and in representation it must have a recognizable reference to the norm, such as a distorted circle. Distortion is due to the fact that abstractions from the norm are both made, and seen. A nonfigurative shape cannot be distorted because it does not depart from a recognizable representation. One of the most significant aspects of distortion that now affects our daily lives is the distortion of the ‘truth’ by the media. Digital images can also be easily manipulated in computer applications using their ‘distort’ tools

Staged in Venice, this project also celebrates the tradition of the great 16th century Venetian painters, like Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594) who used distortion to achieve dramatic effect. Their Mannerist style with human figures twisted or elongated into bizarre poses or reduced in proportion through stretching and manipulation was primarily a reaction to the idealized naturalism of the High Renaissance. In a broader sense this relates to the paradox that while the human mind strives for compositional symmetry and harmony, it also has a penchant for imbalance and distortion. Distortion expresses both the strength and the vulnerability of the human psyche. It also represents a transgressive form of creativity that evokes a darker view of the world or the universal anxieties that affect the human condition. Distortion can be used either intentionally or unintentionally. It has been used intentionally for expressive and emotional ends in contemporary art where not only figures, but also objects, scale and space can be distorted. Previously regarded as being merely a form of mannered exaggeration or an imaginative conceit, distortion was thought to be an abnormal, minor aspect of artistic output. But in our contemporary culture, it has become increasingly evident that distortion is something important and vital to all creative expression.

Distortion features work by Oliver Clegg, John Isaacs, Alastair Mackie, Mat Collishaw, Jamie Shovlin, Gavin Turk, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Tim Noble and Sue Webster.

James Putnam - curator of Distortion