FEATURING ANDREW Y. AMES "MANO A MANO"

This week we are featuring the artist Andrew Y. Ames with the installation: "Mano a Mano". Andrew is a new-media artist and designer working with games. His goal is not only to make entertaining games, but to epitomize the societies that makes them so.

He says about his installation: "Mano a Mano is a regulation-size arm-wrestling table built on massive legs. However, it is not a regular arm-wresting table. The rusty steel top, worn leather elbow rests, sweat-stained pin pads and walnut enclosure, conceal electronics that sense and process the wrestling match. Players discover that the table reacts to the back-and-forth movement of their interlocked grip. The table detects hand and arm location as players exert force and press for victory, and the table responds by playing pre-recorded sounds."

You can read more about the artist HERE.

FEATURING MARIANA MADEIRA: "ORGULHOSAMENTE SÓS"

Beginning today, Wooloo will be featuring the work of one of our artist members each week.

As the first, we have chosen Mariana Madeira and her installation "Orgulhosamente Sós". A conceptual installation dealing with the isolation of Portugal during its dictatorship. Mariana explains her installation with these words:

"This installation faces the dark period that Portugal had during 48 years. Until the year 1974 the Portuguese people had to deal with the fascist government, who closed the connection of Portugal to the rest of the Europe. The aim of the politics was to value the work on fields, instead of education of the people. I realized the "wall" that my country had with the rest of the world when my grandfather said that, when he was a young boy, he and his friends thought that the Guadiana River (a portuguese river) was the end of the world, that there was nothing more besides Portugal. This installation took the one of the sentences of the fascist Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar that represented well his idea: "Orgulhosamenet Sós" which means "Proudly Alone".

You can read more about the artist and see more of her works here.