Language/Language group: Spanish, English
Website: www.danimarti.com
Instagram: @danimarti0
My action brings together two works, Songs of Surrender (2004-21) and Still life under the Stars (2021) that explore the interior and exterior landscapes of the human body and its relationship to illness, mutation, deterioration and fear.
Songs of Surrender revisits a visual diary I started in August 2004 where over five months I documented myself at the start of each day as I injected a new drug that had just been added to my ‘chemical cocktail’ treatment for my HIV condition. This was an anxious time as it was the last option left for me to control the viral levels in my body. The act of self-documenting allowed me to distance myself from my experiences, but at the same time it became more tangible, as if the disease could almost be touched at the end of my fingertips.
All these images have been sitting in my hard drive since then, dormant; not re-visited nor edited. It is only after the events of last year that I decided to look at them again. This also triggered the creation Still life under the Stars, a series of videos and plastic sculptures that have been melted and transformed through a process of heat and pressure. Together, these works are reminders of the vulnerability of the body and mental health, and its capacity for strength through it all. A journey.
Dani Marti was born 1963 Barcelona, Spain. Lives and works in Cessnock, Australia and Barcelona. Marti works across video, installation and public art. His unorthodox woven and film works turn to wider notions of portraiture and sexuality in modernism, minimalism, and geometric abstraction. Since 1998, Marti has held over 40 solo exhibitions, and most recently he exhibited at Cinco Relatos con un Punto de Vista, 2020, MUSAC, Leon, Spain; Friendship as a Way of Life, 2020, UNSW Galleries, Sydney; The Public Body .02, 2017, Artspace, Sydney; Black Sun, 2016, Perth International Art Festival; Mutacan con las mujeres, 2015, Centro Cultural Mutacana 100, Chile; La Vida es Esto, 2015, Domus Artium Salamanca, Spain; Adelaide Biennial, 2014, Gallery of South Australia.
The first major monograph of his work was published by Hatje Cantz in 2012.
My father was a doctor. I remember at very early age (maybe around seven, nine or eleven) looking at his laparoscopy slide collection. Endless close-ups of diseased livers and ulcerous stomachs. The inner body under the spot light. Mesmerising.
Dark caves, gentle valleys in endless reds, stalactites in shades of milky yellows.
Dani Marti, Still Life – Pink, 2021
Sound: Richard Chartier using excerpts from ‘Variable Dimensions’ 2020 (LINE, US)
Visual diary part 2 (August)
2020 - what has happened? 😱
Maybe the positioning of the planets will reveal the answer: Mars - Jupiter -Saturn - Pluto in Capricorn…
Maybe not.
Dani Marti
Still Life – yellow/white, 2021
Sound: Richard Chartier using excerpts from ‘Variable Dimensions’ 2020 (LINE, US)
Visual diary part 2 (November)
11 December, 11am, 2020, mother dies in Barcelona.
Cycling with salty eyes in the Hunter Valley, Australia.
The screaming of cicadas deafening my senses. I stopped, and recorded their call. They resurface every 17 years.
Upon receiving the invitation to be part the 52 ACTIONS, I started working on 11 landscapes of new endless valleys and shadows.
Heat and violence underlying every act of creation and transformation.
Denial. Anger, Acceptance.
Creating new lush, unspoken landscapes to dream in.
Dani Marti
Still Life – Green, 2021
Sound: Richard Chartier using excerpts from ‘Variable Dimensions’ 2020 (LINE, US)
Visual diary part 3 (December)
07 Jun - 13 Jun 2021
Unbound Collective
31 May - 06 Jun 2021
OLC Art Collective
24 May - 30 May 2021
Naomi Hobson
17 May - 23 May 2021
Adrft Lab
10 May - 16 May 2021
Pat Brassington
03 May - 09 May 2021
Eddie Abd
26 Apr - 02 May 2021
Loren Kronemyer
19 Apr - 25 Apr 2021
Guo Jian
12 Apr - 18 Apr 2021
Kenny Pittock
05 Apr - 11 Apr 2021
Jannawi Dance Clan
29 Mar - 04 Apr 2021
Gillian Kayrooz
22 Mar - 28 Mar 2021
Nathan Beard
15 Mar - 21 Mar 2021
Pilar Mata Dupont
08 Mar - 14 Mar 2021
Michael Cook
01 Mar - 07 Mar 2021
Seini F Taumoepeau
22 Feb - 28 Feb 2021
Dani Marti
15 Feb - 21 Feb 2021
Lill Colgan & Sab D'Souza
08 Feb - 14 Feb 2021
Chris Yee
01 Feb - 07 Feb 2021
Rochelle Haley
25 Jan - 31 Jan 2021
Karrabing Film Collective
18 Jan - 24 Jan 2021
Nici Cumpston
11 Jan - 17 Jan 2021
Johnathon World Peace Bush
07 Dec - 13 Dec 2020
Aphids
30 Nov - 06 Dec 2020
Raquel Ormella
23 Nov - 29 Nov 2020
Léuli Eshrāghi
16 Nov - 22 Nov 2020
Rolande Souliere
09 Nov - 15 Nov 2020
TV Moore
02 Nov - 08 Nov 2020
Gutiŋarra Yunupiŋu
26 Oct - 01 Nov 2020
Ivey Wawn
19 Oct - 25 Oct 2020
Naomi Blacklock
12 Oct - 18 Oct 2020
Sancintya Mohini Simpson
05 Oct - 11 Oct 2020
Yhonnie Scarce
28 Sep - 04 Oct 2020
Ruha Fifita
21 Sep - 27 Sep 2020
Kaylene Whiskey
14 Sep - 20 Sep 2020
Adam Linder
07 Sep - 13 Sep 2020
Archie Barry
31 Aug - 06 Sep 2020
Min Wong
24 Aug - 30 Aug 2020
Hayley Millar-Baker
17 Aug - 23 Aug 2020
Erin Coates
10 Aug - 16 Aug 2020
Diego Bonetto
03 Aug - 09 Aug 2020
Tyza Hart
27 Jul - 02 Aug 2020
Larissa Hjorth
20 Jul - 26 Jul 2020
Louise Zhang
13 Jul - 19 Jul 2020
Henri Papin (Meijers & Walsh)
06 Jul - 12 Jul 2020
Stelarc
29 Jun - 05 Jul 2020
Rainbow Chan
22 Jun - 28 Jun 2020
Jason Phu
15 Jun - 21 Jun 2020
Abdul Abdullah
08 Jun - 14 Jun 2020
Patricia Piccinini
01 Jun - 07 Jun 2020
Brook Andrew
25 May - 31 May 2020
Radha
18 May - 24 May 2020
James Tylor