Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2018,
Liverpool School of Art & Design, Liverpool John Moores University
14 July 2018 - 9 September 2018
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Monday, 6 August 2018
Saturday, 23 February 2013
Carl Andre: Mass and Matter//Rosa Barba: Subject to Constant Change
Turner Contemporary, Margate
1 February - 6 May 2013
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| Rosa Barba, Subject to Constant Change |
Fans of Minimalism will want to take a trip to the Turner Contemporary in Margate. The gallery currently has two exhibitions: Mass and Matter by Carl Andre and Subject to Constant Change by Rosa Barba (both 1 February 2013 – 6 May 2013).
What can I say about Carl Andre that hasn’t already been said? More importantly, what can Turner Contemporary (TC) say about Carl Andre that hasn’t already been said? TC focus as much on his poems as his sculpture – which is refreshing. They also point out that he barely made any sculpture while working on the railways, turning instead to hand written and, latterly, typewritten poems. Andre is quoted as saying that he does not aim to express him self through words when doing so, but instead he rearranges the words of poems into columns and rows in much the same fashion as Jack does in The Shining.
In focusing on this period in Andre’s career we draw parallels between his industrial labour (and that of his father, the ship yard where he grew up and so forth) and his sculptural works. It is my understanding that the point of minimalism is, through reducing the artwork to its bare bones, to make the viewer aware of their own bodies and their physical relationship with material (with mass and matter as it were). The problem with this show is that there are simply too many sculptures crammed into one relatively small room. Works are not allowed to breath, you cannot “experience” one material without another lingering in the periphery.
Andre famously remarked that as Tuner severed colour from depiction, so he wanted to sever material from form. And yet, responding to a question (in a video about the exhibition on the TC website) about his choice of materials Andre confesses that economics is the main fact as “there’s usually a budget involved”. What was a tediously forced link with Turner (because the gallery bears his name, because of a tenuous link between the artist and Margate…sigh) turns out to expose a major inconsistency in Andre’s oeuvre. Are the materials important or does he just go with what is available? Is the space around the artworks important, or does he just cram in as much work as possible?
Rosa Barba is not a minimalist but she is an excellent example of Andre’s legacy in contemporary art. At first glance we can instantly identify her show as having all the ingredients of a first rate contemporary art exhibition. It is well laid out with plenty of space between works, just as Andre’s should have been. In fact, it is puzzling that so much space was given over to Barba at the expense of the better-known Andre. The exhibition can broadly be described as sculptural video installation. Sculptures are made out of celluloid film, sometimes moving, run by small motors. There is a nostalgic cool about old film projectors and I am often surprised by how this continually captures the imagination of my students. In their case, it is a cheap medium to play with: old, broken, projectors and used or out of date film can easily be found at car boot fayres or from Freecycle. Barba does seem to be operating in the same way “playing” with the medium but she goes beyond this simply in terms of display. Everything is exquisitely made – the fittings, the “vitrines” that house some sculptures. Her three largest pieces – a floor to ceiling laser cut text with a movie projector casting a beautiful shadow onto the wall behind it and, in the other room, text on several moving celluloid moving films and a large projected film – are all installed in a manner that would make Donald Judd proud. The back projected film falls on a large screen set in the centre of the room which reeks of minimalist cool.
But what about the content of the film? We are told that it was filmed in Manchester and Kent because…it will be exhibited in Manchester and Kent (sigh…). The propensity for linking everything to TC’s geographical location, or through this to Turner himself, is becoming evermore disappointing and unoriginal. It seems that artists are forced to make connections that seem, well… forced. Carl Andre’s only connection was through the quotation about Turner but one has to wonder about his commitment to a show in which he is in included (because of a sound-bite nod to Turner?) only to be crammed into one room. Perhaps the allure of his first UK solo exhibition in a public gallery for 10 years was too much? As with Andre, it’s all about the display to the detriment of the content for Barba. In the same film about the exhibition I mentioned above, Barba dodges a question from a kind of focus group about the show (a way of engaging with the “locals” and to prove that TC has value through social and economic regeneration) by admitting that she doesn’t have all the answers. Why? Because there are no answers. As with Carl Andre, Barba is “not a conceptual artist” and there are certainly no mysteries (mathematical of otherwise) behind her work at all. Simply, what you see is what you get.
Barba deconstructs the physical elements of film, but to what end? We are supposed to consider the end of the industrial age and the transition to the digital age and Barba’s film refers to Manchester as being the first industrial metropolis (debatable) and Margate as being emblematic of the seaside holiday industry that sprung up as a result. I see Barba’s deconstructed use of celluloid and light as being vacuous. Intrigue with antiquated machinery allows for curious play, for a while, but ultimately reveals nothing. A nostalgic reflection on our transition through the industrial age maybe, but nothing more.
Thursday, 21 June 2012
On Militant Art: Part 2 - King Mob
King Mob
King Mob was a radical English art collective, based in London, in the 1960s and 70s. They sought to emphasize the cultural anarchy and disorder that they saw as being ignored in Britain at the time.
Aims
The brothers David and Stuart Wise (who had studied art in
Newcastle) were the most dominant members of the group from the outset. The
Wise brothers developed a combination of hard-edged politics (Russian nihilism
and texts such as Pisarev’s “The Destruction of Aesthetics” fuelled notions of
value, politics and the lack of a social function in art) and the disruptive
potential of Dada and Surrealism.
After they moved to the Notting Hill area of London, the
brothers came into contact with Situationist
International – two of whose members (Chris Gray and Don Smith) joined King
Mob. They also met, and worked with,
John Barker who would later serve a prison sentence for his role in the Angry Brigade bombings.
Techniques
King Mob used a variety of techniques which could be placed into two categories:
- Writing and propaganda. This included: Graffiti, distribution of flyers, posters and their publication The King Mob Echo.
- Direct Action.
Writing and Propaganda
Their most famous graffiti slogan appeared as a message mocking commutors on a stretch of the
Hammersmith and City line. IT stayed there for several years, surviving until the 1990s (see below).
Same thing day after day- tube - work - dinner - work - tube - armchair - TV - sleep - tube - work -how much more can you take? - one in ten go mad, one in five cracks up
In
fact, King Mob took their name from a piece of graffiti that appeared on
Newgate prison during the 1780 Gordon riots.
Rioters smeared the walls of the prison with the phrase “His Majesty
King Mob” after having gutted the prison itself. King Mob planned to paint Wordsworth’s house with the slogan
“Coleridge Lives” but never realised this act.
King Mob used posters and their publication The King Mob Echo to
disseminate their political beliefs.
These publications sparked controversy by applauding murderers such as
Jack the Ripper, Mary Bell, and John Christie.
They even went as far as to
celebrate Valerie Solanas' 1968 shooting of Andy Warhol and to include a
hit-list of several celebrities: Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Richard
Hamilton, Mario Amaya (who was also shot by Solanas), David Hockney, Mary
Quant, Twiggy, Marianne Faithfull, and IT editor Barry Miles. Their publications were satirical and
featured cartoon characters such as Andy Capp and the Bash Street Kids (from
the Beano).
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| Front cover graphic from a King Mob anti-art diatribe, circa 1968. Anonymous. Courtesy Tate archive. A dancing skeleton holding a burning torch captioned "anarchy" and wearing a sash captioned "communism", unfurls a scroll labeled "Mob Law", upon which is written a message from King Mob encapsulating the group’s ideas regarding culture - "the commodity which helps sell all the others". |
Direct Action
Some of King Mob’s other ambitious, and
unrealised, plans included blowing up a waterfall in the Lake District and hanging
peacocks in a London park.
One infamous stunt that was executed was a critique on the ownership of public and private space that saw the group, dressed as gorillas and
pantomime horses, storm a private west London park and tear down its gating
in order to open the park up as a children’s play ground.
A strong case can be made that King Mob's use of direct action was influenced by Black Mask. In the 1960s King Mob spent time with Black Mask’s Ben Morea
and co-signed at least one statement by Up
Against the Wall Motherfucker! In a
1967 anti-war rally the group was able to storm the Pentagon (which led to a
severe beating). Militant acts such as
these distinguished King Mob and Black Mask from the intellectual French
Situationists and the British Situationist support for Morea led to their
expulsion from Situationist International.
Like Morea’s Motherfuckers,
King Mob was more extreme than, and suspicious of, most other “radicals”. They were often an unwelcome presence at
events for example: during the famous Hornsey Art College occupation they were thrown out
for mocking the level of debate. At the LSE occupation, student leaders removed their sexually explicit posters.
Inspired by Black Mask's "mill-in at Macy's", twenty five members of King
Mob stormed London's Selfridges, with one member, dressed as Father
Christmas, to distribute all of the store's toys to children. The police were
called and forced the children to return the toys. King Mob claimed they were not as radical as
Father Christmas, as "he breaks into people’s houses".
King Mob's legacy includes their influence on Malcolm McLaren, who claimed to have been at the Selfridges event, and apparently adapted
their Situationist models in the promotion of the Sex Pistols.
Further Reading:
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Circa 1960
Guest Projects, London
27 - 29 January 2012
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“Circa 1960 is a group of artists/ Circa 1960 is a residency/ Circa 1960 is a research project/ Circa 1960 is a physical and metaphorical meeting space/ Circa 1960 is a group show/ Circa 1960 is an exploration into failure, notions of modernity, sci-fi, design and ideals.”
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| Mark Selby, No Need to Shout. Photo: Jimmy Merris. Courtesy: the Artist |
John Walter tackled the failure of Modernism through a performance exploring the break up of couples, using home made theatre costumes reminiscent of Picasso’s Parade which in turn dealt with the horrors of the First World War through a Dada-esque ballet – as if the only way to respond to the realisation that the Modern world of industrialisation has just collapsed into mechanised slaughter, that all that the machine promised us in terms of helping society and lessening workloads has been reversed by taking away jobs and taking away lives, the only way to respond to this is through absurdity. This reminded me of the Gaddafi quote “If the world is crazy, we will be crazy too”. Perhaps Circa 1960 isn’t just about failed Modernism in the 60s, but a response to the absurd and frightening debt ridden situation we find ourselves in today.
Karen Tang’s wall based sculptures are inspired by science fiction. A Mass of Crystalline Tissue is inspired by a JG Ballard quote both in its form and content – the content being a distorted image of the magazine cover in which the quote first appeared. The work goes one step further by crystals set into resin to make the work a literal interpretation of the quote as well as a meditation on the Ballard story. This piece is typical of Tang’s sculptures in this show. Decision Cave, however, is visually different to the rest of her work. For a start it looks much more organic, evoking the craftsmanship of tribal communities and shamanistic practices that you could associate with such an object. Decision Cave differs from the other works in that it could be an actual object from a sci-fi story whereas the other sculptures appear more as interpretations. At the centre of Decision Cave is a toy called a Magic Eight Ball which you use to answer questions. Its answers can be enigmatic, like the oracle at Delphi. When I visited the show the words of wisdom were “Outlook so so”. I don’t know if this changed throughout the show.
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| Corinne Felgate, 'The Lady's Not for Turning' Photo: Jimmy Merris. Courtesy: the Artist. |
I made a visit to the project space on the 12th January and met three of the artists. Alastair Levy has a practice rooted in 60s Minimalism. He feels that the last hundred years has freed people to work in any way they want in a kind of pick and mix culture, taking from previous styles. In his case Minimalism and Conceptualism are raided. Levy has a series of differing works in the space. A painting about the everyday was made by stretching an old tablecloth over a frame. The tablecloth has been used as a shower curtain for sometime and had recorded the marks of a daily activity in the form of stains. A C.D. perched on a windowsill was another artwork. It was exactly half filled with data. This links with another work Box Set (featured in the exhibition) where all the paints from a Daley Rowley box set were mixed together to make a bistre-brown which he used to cover a canvas. Both works are about middle points. But Levy also had an ashtray on the floor with a half smoked cigarette made from grass taken from the pitch at White Hart Lane, and in other works he stages reconstructions of EBay photographs. For Levy failed modernism means he can do what he wants.
Luke Ottridge was half way through his residency when we met. His installation seems to me to be very much in the spirit of mocking Modernism’s grandeur and I was pleased to see Event Horizon make the exhibition. The centrepiece of the installation is a copy of a plaster bone from Texas, which in turn was a copy of a destroyed bone from about 100 years ago. There is a creationist myth attached to the story which supposes that this is evidence that angels walked the earth. There is also doubt as to whether the original bone ever existed. The bone sits on a circular “black hole” and is surrounded by the only 3D shapes which are symmetrical. These refer to Platonic ideals and their copies (referring back to the bone as a copy). Also around the whole are a series of TV monitors depicting a blind man walking or stumbling about. Ottridge speaks about the circular composition as a tool to echo religious cults and in turn he sees the failure of the promises made by utopian 1950s gurus as unfulfilled; coming to an end with the Charles Manson murders.
The third artist I met was Mark Selby, who was yet to undertake his week-long residency. The only outcomes of his that I saw were those in the exhibition. Where the unlikely balance of No Need to Shout confronts and has a comic feel to it (like Hong Kong Fuey jumping out of a filing cabinet) Selby’s other work, Better Half, is different. Better Half is a tidy piece of conceptual sculpture in the form of a chair (no hair on this one), half made in plywood and half Perspex. Selby challenges us to judge which is the better half. Both halves are made with the industrial precision of a Donald Judd so there are no clues in the making to give away Selby’s own position. The naturalistic wood could be seen as nature re-capturing the (failed) Modernist chair, like ivy growing over a house. Or the Perspex could be seen as a triumphant prosthetic enhancing the wooden structure, like a cyborg. Better Half works well as a seat of contemplation in the exhibition, encouraging us to reflect on all of the works both individually and as a collective.
Saturday, 31 December 2011
Contemporary Art in Majorca ain’t as bad as what it oughta (be).
CCA Andratx (Majorca), Andratx
29 September 2011 - 4 March 2012
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| Photo: The Long Labb |
Having lived in Spain I already knew that Madrid and Barcelona had a lot to offer in terms of contemporary art. Three years ago I visited family in Palma de Mallorca and was surprised to find a whole host of contemporary galleries showing international artists (Richard Billingham and Mark Francis were among the British artists represented). In addition to the commercial galleries Palma boasts two top class “exhibition halls” (Salas de exposiciones). One of which, La Caixa Foundation, is a bank which has other major exhibition centres in other major Spanish cities. Palma also boasts the Es Baluard Contemporary Art Museum.
I returned to Palma for Christmas this year and set about investigating what’s on when I came across “CCA” in the town of Andratx (30mins drive from Palma, or an hour on the bus). CCA is “the largest centre of contemporary art on Mallorca”. The bus driver had never heard of it, but it was actually well sign posted, although a little way out of the town. The space is amazing and CCA is a must for any contemporary art lover visiting Mallorca. Andratx is a small, but international town with a large German retiree population. However, CCA is caught in the trap of trying too hard to appeal to everyone. Locals (Spaniards and Germans alike) are catered for with its children’s room, ESPAI (an exhibition space for artists residing in Mallorca) and a commercial print room. More hardened international visiting art aficionados look to be challenged by the best Mallorca can offer. There were four main exhibitions on in the centre when I visited, which has four wings around a quad. One side is taken up with four artist-in-residence studios and a café. The reception, shop, print room and a children’s room take up opposite side. The two other sides are called the Kunsthalle and the Galleries.
The first two exhibitions were both eclectic group shows housed in the Kunsthalle wing of the building. The first, in Kunsthalle I, comprised of works from the AFM Collection and I was pleasantly surprised to see work by Phillip Allen, Varda Caivano, Martin Creed, Jim Lambie, Martin Boyce (2011 Turner Prize winner) and many other international artists. The curatorial team of the Art Foundation Mallorca is made up of (CCA director and co-founder) Patricia Asbaek (DK), Barry Schwabsky (US) and Friederike Nymphius (DE). All three are well known experts in Contemporary Art, travelling all year round to the leading art fairs, exhibitions and events taking place on the international art scene to identify the most talented artists and their best pieces for the AFM Collection. This show is a star-studded blockbuster but has no discernible theme, other than its baffling labelling system and the strip-light overload on the ceiling echoing Creed’s work, assembled in neat geometric shapes. The second show, in Kunsthalle II, celebrates 10 years of the centre’s artist in residence programme. The work from selected artists over the last decade was generally good, diverse and…Nordic. The owner of CCA is Danish, but the most represented Nordic nation was Germany.
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| Thoralf Knobloch Kaminfeuer (2004). Photo: The Long Labb |
I had no idea Thoralf Knobloch had done this residency and, as always, it was a pleasure to see one of his paintings. Jonathan Meese (also German) was another highlight although we were spared the full force of his overindulgent self-obsessed gay Nazi porn show installation (which I was lucky enough to catch while in The Hague recently). You can read more about that here, the show’s still on until January 15th so, if you’re in the Netherlands in the next couple of weeks…go on, have an unforgettable experience.
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| Jonathan Meese. Photo: The Long Labb |
Upon entering the galleries wing you come across Wall Sculpture (04.11.11 – 04.03.12), an exhibition by resident artist Paola Ricci. The corridor-esque gallery space was filled with drawings on tracing paper pinned to the walls, hairs stuck to paper (also pinned to the walls), envelopes, strings, lamps (on the floor) casting shadows of the artworks, a linear sculpture made from pointed sticks that reminded me of giant tooth-picks (but were probably barbecue skewers) and sheets of paper (pinned to the walls). The show reminded me of several resident “exhibitions” at the Centre for Drawing at Wimbledon College of Art where, as with this exhibition, I sometimes got the feeling that the artist – pushed for time on a short residency – looked for playful and readily available ingredients to fill the space quickly. Ricci’s work is playful and it’s not by coincidence that her choices of materials are light and ephemeral. Paradoxically, however, you are left with the feeling that her intentions are profound and weighty. Much of what she’s doing in this exhibition falls very much into the language of drawing more than sculpture.
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| Paola Ricci, Wall Sculpture, Mixed Media (2011). Photo: The Long Labb |
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| Henrik Saxgren, Unintended Sculptures series. Photo: The Long Labb |
Between the two gallery shows lay a couple of paintings of waves and one abstract reminiscent of Toma Abst, by British artist Rebecca Partridge. In another small, almost hidden, space (ESPAI) resident artist Olimpia Velasco is showing In Non Places (29.01.11 – 27.11.11). These two mini-exhibitions seemed a bit shoehorned in and wouldn’t have been missed if they had not been included at all. In general, although much of the work was good, there was too much of it and no clear theme to the two Kunsthalle shows. It would have been better to delay the AFM Collection show in Kunsthalle I and allow the CCA Collection 10 Years of Residency Programme show to breath and take over both halls. This was an opportunity for the curator to really celebrate the work achieved by the resident artists – perhaps stars like Knobloch and Meese could have been invited back to produce larger showstopper centrepieces. I really regret that this didn’t happen. On the other hand there is a buzz created by such a large amount of work, almost like a degree show. Perhaps this is the intention: to create a lived-in feeling of a space used by artists-in-residence. The residencies are clearly a successful and thriving part of the centre. They only last for about a month and there are four studios so there is certainly a dynamic turnover and output long may it continue, here’s to another ten years.
Monday, 5 September 2011
Top 10 Contemporary Political Artists: 10, Wilhelm Sasnal
Is Wilhelm Sasnal a Political artist? I've always assumes that he is. His recent show at Sadie Coles HQ didn't appear as political as some of his previous works though. There were statues evoking Socialist Realist sculptures (Untitled, left) but the press release tells us that the work has more to do with motherhood. Here's how Hauser & Wirth describe his earlier work: 
He references political events. But then again, he references other things. Is Sasnal political, or is he referencing the world he lives in, the world he has grown up in? I can't remember when I first became aware of Sasnal's work, but I definitely saw him in the Hayward Gallery's 2007 show The Painting of Modern Life. This would further suggest that Sasnal can be seen as someone who just paints "Modern Life", his modern life. In the exhibition catalogue Sasnal talks about painting photographs:"I tried to make the process of transferring a photographic image onto canvas as emotionless and mechanical as possible...the reworking of a motif provides an arena for interpretation and this is what interests me most....When it comes to choosing the source image, there really are no strict rules...in most cases the image finds me...".
So, there we have it. Sasnal is not political. He chooses images randomly from books, while browsing the internet, or from film stills. It just so happens that he grew up in a communist country and therefore many of the images he finds from his childhood are seen in a political light by us in the West. He surely is from a generation bewildered by the transition from a dearth of imagery during the Communist era to an influx of advertising imagery post Berlin Wall and the proliferation of internet based images. This did happen quickly and merits some consideration. But isn't the mere selection of images to paint political? He may not be telling us his opinion on the political events he chooses to depict but by raising them to our attention is surely to give them importance. His selection of images in some way memorialises them - sometimes taking a throw away image that might have been forgotten and imortalising it by rendering it as oil on canvas. But his reasons for selecting the image are just as likely to be compositional as political. Sasnal's work is about interpretation of images and the reductive process that occurs when painting a photograph. Now, of course, interpretation is political. Perhaps we need to find out what Sasnal has left out in order to discern his political stance. Or perhaps not. Perhaps this is the real potential for Sasnal's work to address the need outlined in my last post, that of imagining alternative possibilities. Perhaps by not taking a stance, or not knowing the stance of an interpreted and altered image does "provide an arena for interpretation" as Sasnal purports to do. His painterly grammar of drips and swirls allows us to enter into the image in a dreamlike fashion and in doing so allows us to imagine an alternate world. Sasnal's paintings are spaces full of potential. The source material is disparate and random. Sasnal tells us that the work is about interpretation and the reductive process of painting photographic images - and we see this in many works where the paint swirls and drips take over the source image. But there's just one thing bugging me: ultimately they are political though, aren't they?Monday, 22 August 2011
Top 10 Contemporary Political Artists
The phrase "it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of Capitalism" has been attributed to both Zizek and Jameson. It seems prophetic in the wake of the bank bail-outs: it seems impossible to even imagine the banking system (which has bankrupted not only our country but many countries) failing, we are ready to pay any price so that this broken system carries on. And even though we own the banks, we have no power to influence them as they announce that they will continue with their unlimited bonuses. It is indeed easier to imagine the end of the world: think of the recent apocalyptic scenes on London, ransacked and on fire. We can't turn to politicians for guidance, there is tri-party commitment to the same forms of Capitalism. So, how can we imagine alternatives? This is where Art can play a unique and crucial role. Philosophers or economists have to come up with an alternative before they can communicate what it might be. Only the Artist has the power to forge a space where we can imagine new possibilities. It doesn't need to be didactic either:
Even artistic experimentation and creation that is not explicitly political can do important political work, sometimes revealing the limits of our imagination and at other times fuelling it".
(Michael Hart & Antonio Negri 2009).
This got me thinking. What Artists are there out there who are capable of fitting this brief? I turned to Google for an instant answer but "Top 10 Political Artists" only returned results containing the likes of Picasso's Guernica. This is the best site here. It cites the deaths of Socrates, Caesar and even JFK. There's some Poussin, Delacroix, David and other historical paintings in there too. Not very helpful though, we can't turn to dead Artists for answers... or can we? History can teach us many things but these paintings tend to illustrate a point rather than provide space for new possibilities. For example, Guernica was very much a shock and reveal campaign telling us what has already happened, it was specifically linked to the atrocities that occurred in Guernica in 1937. Likewise Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People" is political but in more of a reportage kind of way. It tells a story, it glorifies the French Revolution, it commemorates the event. I suppose we could get involved in a debate about the use of historical painting today but I'm more interested in what artists exist now who could help us understand our world and imagine new possibilities. What would this work look like? So I Googled "Top 10 contemporary political Artists" - nothing. Then "Top 10 political contemporary artists" - nothing. Given the sense of urgency for us to understand a rapidly changing world, a world aethetised through the mass media too (we're talking about interpreting the image of, say, 9-11 as much as the act for example)...this struck me as strange. In contemporary art circles the political (especially the overtly political) isn't all that... "fashionable" I guess.
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