7. Mass and motion
Getty ImagesTransformed by the photographer’s lens into a dirty speedline accelerating behind a carefully calibrated push of polished curling stones. On the fourth day of the tournament, Switzerland’s Breier Schwaller Hülimann appeared as if he had become one with the stone itself as he played in the mixed doubles match against Canada. Their consciousnesses merged. This dissolution of matter into spirit, and vice versa, reflects the fluidity of mass and movement in Umberto Boccioni’s boundary-blurring bronze sculptures. A unique form of continuity in space (1913)accomplished – a work that is as philosophical as it is physical.
8. Human levitation
Getty ImagesBelarusian-born Anastasiya Andryanava’s photographs anchor between grace and gravity, between choreographed control and calm surrender to the laws of nature. Team Individual Neutral Athlete Taking part in freestyle ski aerial training at the Livigno Snow Park on the eighth day of the competition (February 14), the Russian and Belarusian individual athletes appear to be testing the limits of human levitation. Isolated in space, weightless yet accelerating, as if alchemized into a pure aerodynamic shape by speed and the impact of icy air, her suspenseful suspension recalls the Dalmatian Italian artists of the 20th century. Tullio Clari’s “Aviation Pitural” painting, 1939, before the parachute openswhich similarly fuses form and flight geometry.
9. Dignity in Desolation
Getty ImagesFootage of American figure skater Ilia Marin, who thrilled spectators and judges with her acrobatic backflips, falling to the ice during the men’s single free skate on day seven of the Milan Games reveals dignity amidst devastation. Marinin’s crooked posture twisted her torso and pressed her arms against the marble-white surface. Roman statue of a dying gladiator (2nd century BC, a copy of a Greek sculpture lost a century earlier) exquisitely captures the awkward accelerations and turns of a muscular heart grappling with defeat.
10. Floating in space
Getty ImagesThe photo of South Korean snowboarder Kim Kun-hee competing in the halfpipe qualifying round on the fifth day of competition at Livigno Snow Park, his upturned body crouched beneath his board, forever fixed in the frozen, snowy expanse, captures an exhilarating sense of propulsion. Hanging weightlessly below the brand name “NITRO” emblazoned on the board and surrounded by the dense glow of luminescent crystals, the athletes appear like floating molecules evaporated into a veil of scattered elements. A choreographed suspension of color and energy recalls the sublime shattering of shape and form. Jackson Pollock’s thrown enamel masterpieces.
11. Shadow that casts a shadow
Getty ImagesShadows have a way of mechanizing movement. Anonymized in the darkness, caught in the shadows, the figure often appears essentialized into an archetype, an assemblage of boundaries that somehow cross national borders. Such is the power of the multinational photo of athletes taken on the third day of the competition at the Tesero cross-country ski stadium in Lago di Tesero (Val di Fiemme). Casting shadows, these wild, indistinct figures recall the contours of Futurist experiments in stripping power from form. in italian modernism Giacomo Barra’s 1913 painting “Abstract Speed”darkness and light are cogs in a semitone machine that moves beyond movement.
—
If you liked this story, Sign up for the Essential List newsletter – Hand-picked features, videos and can’t-miss news delivered to your inbox twice a week.
For more culture coverage from the BBC, follow us on facebook and Instagram.
Source: BBC Culture – www.bbc.com
