Artistes Only

Denise Kwan on Sophie Lisa Beresford

2011-12-19T11:05:00.002Z

My Culture is Beautiful, 2009, Single channel video, 7 min 49 sec

Dance is synonymous with escapism, conforming to rules and dictation to create idiosyncratic routines. Beginning in the bedroom, the memory of adolescence is littered with rehearsing routines of music divas and heroes to become how they are. Simultaneously dance runs parallel with illegitimacy and challenging what is acceptable as social expression. Iconic films such as Dirty Dancing epitomise this anxiety. A wealthy yet sheltered protagonist, aptly nicknamed Baby, is a chaste female who discovers her womanhood through her dance partner, Johnny Castle. An alpha male, Johnny initiates Baby through the dance routines. Reliant upon Johnny, Baby unlocks her sexual prowess.

Artist, Sophie Lisa Beresford presented her solo exhibition at Workplace Gallery, Gateshead. A young artist emerging from the North East of England, Beresford is in direct contrast with the submissive character of Baby. Through dance, Beresford packs a punch with her high-energy performances to Spanish Mákina music.

Originated in Valencia, Mákina music is defined by its frantic pace and aggressive bass line. Since the 1990s, Mákina became popular in the North East and incorporated into sub branches of urban ‘Charva’ culture. For her performances, Beresford often chooses unusual settings, from kebab shops to domestic environments. In doing this she gather a sense of heightened enthusiasm, as though intending to propel herself from these ordinary locations through the euphoria of Mákina.

In the gallery, three television sets show the artist dancing, dressed in Adidas sportswear. Each set is a separate piece, Dance in Dundee, you got the love and Bounce. Despite the rapid pace of the music, Beresford is never dictated by Mákina. She takes possession of both her body and the music and rises to the frantic challenge. Beresford twists, flicks and curls her body to the speed of the music. With a taut back, stretching out her arm, she struts and smiles like an Olympic performer. In each stretch and flick, she unleashes a playful ferocity.

In a darkened room of the gallery, Beresford is wearing only Adidas trousers while her hair falls over her breasts. In an age in which media spectacles continually turn the female body into an object of desire, Adidas Mermaid, could be mistaken as a typical Youtube footage of a female illustrating her sexuality to an imaginary audience. Against the backdrop of her bedroom, we see Beresford preparing herself for performance. She realigns her arms and her legs, checking herself and readjusting her poise. This sense of hesitation is absent from her vivacious performances. From behind the scenes, we watch her delicate indecision.

Making Adidas Mermaid, 2009, Single channel video, 7 min 39 sec

However Beresford never steers too close to the portrayal of female fragility. Anonymous Handprint explicitly shows a photograph of the artists’ bum looking sore and raw from a severe slap of the hand. A stranger approached Beresford and requested to have sex and she refused- instead offering herself to be slapped hard as possible on the condition she could photograph it afterwards.

In Dirty Dancing, it is the virile male who leads the way. Johnny dictates and Baby follows. Anonymous Handprint, however, subverts this idea of masculine potency. Beresford commands the direction and the handprint is reminder of her sexual refusal. The power of Beresford’s work is comparable to the strength of the Haka dance. A tribal dance form from Maori it is used to intimidate opponents in war. Performed as a group, they stomp and slap their bodies in aggression, snarling their mouths and widening the whites of their eyes. Beresford dances with the same vigor, she hurls and asserts her authority as much as any of the Haka warriors.

Unlike the character of Baby, Beresford does not dance for anyone. Beresford is hypnotic in her velocity, unselfconscious at every turn; she inspires with her insatiable confidence. Beresford’s work embodies an attitude closer to the energy of the Maori Haka dance than the willowy dependency of Dirty Dancing.

Illustrating a refreshing contemporary spirit, she does not dance for a man or an audience; she dances for herself. Beresford reminds us that the conventions of dance routines and formulaic gender structures are stifling. Her complete lack of inhibition is addictive: to watch someone enjoy her own conviction without performance or care of expectation.

* All images courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Concrete Skin by Samantha Sweeting

2011-12-01T06:51:00.002Z

At the end of a cobbled cul-de-sac in the heart of Stoke Newington, is Basket House Village Universe. A small artist run gallery initiative, BHVU houses intimate and innovative exhibitions, film screenings and performances. The latest show ‘Concrete Skin’, curated by photographer Eline van den Boogaard, looks at the psychological and emotional relationships between the body and the space it inhabits.

The exhibition includes painting and photography by four internationally reputed artists: Marcelle Hanselaar, Ala d’Amico, Geir Moseid and Andrew Litten. Each of these artists presents an image of domesticity in which assumptions of safety and comfort are threatened by an implicit feeling of anxiety and vulnerability. The works concentrate on the interior psychic landscapes of the bodies they portray,rather than the interiors of the domestic space. There is little of no information given about the surroundings; the only signifier fragments we are offered include a trace of wallpaper, a bathroom mirror, a hanging painting, table, chair or corner of the sofa. The figures in the works are isolated in their environments. Their eyes are closed and their faces hidden from the camera or blurred in paint, contorted. Except Marcelle’s two subjects, who stare back at us, beseechingly.
The child in ‘Afraid of the Dark’ sits huddled on the edge of an armchair in the middle of the vast darkness of their fear,while the woman in ‘Bonds’ stands naked and melancholic with one hand holding a noose around her neck and the other caressing her cunt. The rope trails off the canvas,connected to her lost lover in unrequited longing.

Andrew Litten’s subjects are not alone. His ‘Longing’ portrays a pair of identical twins fighting one another behind a table or school desk, each trying to break free from the (imaginary) other. Likewise, ‘Synthetic Realists (at home)’ shows a couple connected by their held hands. The doubling is twofold, with a second pair of eyes adorning their foreheads, and their uncovered nipple-eyes continuing the motif.In ‘Boy Thinking of Flight’, a lone boy sits on a chair, legs crossed and genitals exposed. He has detached from his twin, who hangs above him with a Munchish scream.

Geir Moseid’s photograph ‘Condensation’ exploits the Lacanian concept of themirror stage, as the hazy image of his female subject is reflected back at us. Yet, her subjectivity is hidden as her face drowns Narcissus-like in the misty surface of the bathroom mirror. This is taken a step further in ‘Submerged’, where the body lies lifeless in the pool of the bathtub. The ‘home’ that his works portray is a place of security and privacy but also claustrophobia and violence. “The home is a harbourer of some of humanities gravest crimes” says Geir. “These crimes occur behind closed doors”.

Ala d’Amico’s two black and white photographs function with a similar level of concealment and potential danger. Referencing the work of Francesca Woodman, Ala’s subjects have become part of the fabric of their surroundings, merging with the drapery of the white sheets and the print of the wallpaper.

Rebecca Baillie writes,in her discussion on Ala’s work in the ‘Concrete Skin’ catalogue, that it “reminds the viewer that not only do women inhabit houses, but that the female body is also a habitable site. A house, like the body of a woman, is a vast field of memory.” The woman in Ala’s ‘Untitled (from Perceiving Space, Rome series)’ lies eyes-closedin serene slumber, while the tentacled limbs of an octopus slide over her torso in a nightmarishly loving embrace, like a scene out of Andrzej Zulawski’s incredible culthorror film ‘The Possession’.

The domestic darkness of ‘Concrete Skin’ is a place of both fear and infatuation.

The Possession trailer:

* this review was originally written by Sam Sweeting for Think Work Play and reblogged here

Clunie Reid: Cos The Body Goes In And Out, MOT Brussels and Cos What's Inside Him Never Dies, MOT London by guest blogger Kirsty Buchanan

2011-11-18T18:33:00.001Z

The new MOT International gallery in Brussels has opened with a solo exhibition of Clunie Reid's most recent work and a corresponding show in their East London gallery.The new Brussels space is larger than the one in London and located next door to a carwash, it is all timber frames, glass and high ceilings that flood the gallery with incandescent light making Reid's holographic inkjet prints dazzle.

Cos The Body Goes In And Out shows Reid's scratchy collages with visual content that fully delights today’s brain. Like flicking through all the gory bits of gossip magazines or streaming the most recent sensation of the week, she skilfully compiles, edits and splices them together with a crafty vision.Reid really is a master of layers. I had already formed the opinion that she goes beyond the basic physicality of a 2D image and explores multiple visual dimensions, she has a proficient sense of materiality with attention to surface; silvery, slippery, bumpy, silky all you want to do is look with your hands. These images go further; if you look then you will notice Reid has stuck little kitsch stickers onto each holograph and it can’t help but make you smile with delight. A photograph can't do the pictures justice, you really need to see them in all their glorious plasticy flesh.

Detail of Democ Total.

In London Cos What's Inside Him Never Dies consists of a smaller, single installation. Showing the same format of holographic images but with a more serious tone, the content isn’t as playful. Both exhibitions are evidence of a successful conversation between the two galleries using the stimulating language of Reid’s collages.In London Cos What's Inside Him Never Dies consists of a smaller, single installation. Showing the same format of holographic images but with a more serious tone, the content isn’t as playful. Both exhibitions are evidence of a successful conversation between the two galleries using the stimulating language of Reid’s collages.

Benjamin Cohen: Recent Works at BREESE LITTLE's new gallery unit 22 December 2011

2011-11-12T08:41:00.000Z

Benjamin Cohen: Recent Work
Breese Little Gallery
Show runs through 22nd December 2011

Benjamin Cohen: Recent Work will be the inaugural exhibition of BREESE LITTLE’S new permanent gallery space in Clerkenwell.
Following two years as an itinerant initiative, the space will provide a platform for consecutive exhibitions while we continue to pursue external collaborations, programmes and exhibitions.

The State: Social/Antisocial The Third Line and Traffic, Dubai

2011-10-09T13:21:00.002+01:00

The second part of an ongoing conversation of the state of the world today, opened at Rami Farook's Traffic gallery on 22 September 2011, following the Third Line's first chapter the previous day.

Dubai curator, collector and artist Rami Farook, has an ongoing concern with the present. Farook's fascination with 'the state' is borne out of his experiences in and outside of the UAE.
The starting point to the collaborative project SOCIAL / ANTISOCIAL? began with Farook's interrogation of the world post 9/11. This manifestation through the visual arts, from a socio-political perspective, comes to the foreground in works exhibited in both galleries.

Traffic and The Third Line present a continual dialogue across separate but connected spaces. They operate in tandem, as part of the exhibition's wider theme, which could be described as capturing the glocal. Glocal a term which illustrates the blurring of boundaries due to globalisation, is a fusion of the global and the local.

In The Third Line, a simple drawing by Abbas Akhavan conveys this idea aptly. All the Borders, All the Islands, 2008, states : all the borders are growing; all the borders are connecting. Borders represent global exchange of people, good and services. This fact evident in a continually evolving city like Dubai and across cities internationally.

Other works like Farhad Moshiri, A Deluxe Apartment in the Sky, 2010 are more of a contemplation on the present, almost proposing a more ephemeral future or one could interpret this as a return to the sacred in art i.e. ritualistic as opposed to religious art. Moshiri uses traditional embroidery, this also draws the viewer into thinking about craft-making in our highly digitised age. Slavs and Tatars, Resist Resisting God, 2009, Mirror mosaic also operates in this similar theme, although perhaps commenting more on the loss of religion.

Traffic's presentation opened with an hour long musical performance by Bunty (aka Kassia Zermon). Bunty is part of Brighton-based collective Beatabet. She uses her voice as improvisation magnified by fx pedals and a mix of real and made-up languages. This produces frenzied harmonies to create music live from scratch. There are also elements of funkadelia and Arabian disco. Bunty's performance on the night was exceptional, she started of in what can only be described as a faint whisper of sounds. Mid-way through the performance, she interrogates the crowd to contribute, let loose and join in (albeit this wasn't taken up by everyone). The performance activated the space as visitors were able to continue on a tour of the exhibition, contemplating works by prominent and emerging artists.

As you proceed into the first gallery space, a multimedia installation by James Claar titled, The World Keeps Turning, 2011 makes significant impact as fluorescent lights take over much of the floor space. This is accompanied by a video piece of the late Osama Bin Laden, watching a video of himself through, void of himself but depicting the room he is in. It is a bit like a kaleidoscope effect, created through digital manipulation.

James Claar, The World Keeps Turning, 2011

Claar's 8888 light installation offers a more interactive experience allowing direct engagement with the work (switching off and on to form the letters LOVE). It also confronts the notion that art as commodity should not be interacted with i.e 'Do not touch the artwork', a prevalent theme in gallery settings.

James Claar, 8888, 2011

Elsewhere there are big names, from Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Shepard Fairey to lots of Banksy's. However a stand out piece is the video work by Anahita Razmi, Walking Drunk In High Shoes, 2010. This work comments on human consumption. Consuming vices such as alcohol, sex and luxury goods. it presents a dialogue with a female who slowly consumes alcohol till she is in an intoxicated state, which is self-depreciating insight into our need to escape the reality or the present state.

Anahita Razmi, Walking Drunk In High Shoes, 2010

A more obscure work, perhaps this could be missed is presented in the ladies toilets. Looking for a husband,2011 is a text and photography based work by Emirati artist Nada Dada.
Dada's practice uses self-portraiture as a device to examine identity and gender. Here there is a contractual agreement between here and Banksy proposing her self as a bride with accompanying portrait. It is humorous but serious, comment on a practice that is still prevalent in many parts of the world.

Nada Dada, Looking for a husband,2011

Aman Mojadidi, Love Letters From Home, 2011 brings a more contemplative experience to the exhibition. The letters are melancholic and relayed through text and voice in this fascinating narrative of Love and War.

Aman Mojadidi, Love Letters From Home, 2011

SOCIAL / ANTISOCIAL? as an overall concept presents the often indescribable effects of globalisation. The rate at which globalisation is occurring is unprecedented and often how does one comment on something that is evolving. Problematics aside this exhibition, for me is presenting a universal and inescapable state of the world, east or west, we all share similar albeit culturally different experiences.

Accompanying exhibition texts for SOCIAL / ANTISOCIAL? are available to download:

Vol. 1

Vol. 2

* all images courtesy of Traffic Gallery

Laurie Simmons at Wilkinson Gallery by Guest Blogger Kirsty Buchanan

2011-07-14T12:08:00.001+01:00

The Love Doll / Day 27 / Day 1 (New in Box), 2010

Laurie Simmon's first solo show in London presented in the large boxy rooms of the Wilkinson suit the context of some of her earliest work, Early black and white interiors 1976-98, miniscule framed black and white photographs in a continuous line in main gallery space..

'Early Black and White Interiors', Installation view, 2011

Each photograph successfully recreates the space within your mind which was delightfully occupated when you looked into dolls rooms as a child or any other miniature space that replicated your own reality. Admittedly at first glance, it took a few photographs to notice that the objects in the photograph belonged in a doll house. The scenes varied from contemplative interior shots of bathroom basins to scenes with the occasional doll character situated within a narrative set, the photographs began to look like the film sets belonging to a Hitchcock movie with the femme fatal finding her place amongst the decor and furniture in the space she is provided with.

Woman Lying on Floor (Ariel View), 1976

In the upper galleries we are presented with a leap in time to Simmons' most recent photographs, The love doll; days 1 - 30 (2009-11) six bigger than life size colour photographs of 'Real dolls,' as real as you can get sex dolls, which Simmons ordered online. They come with a large price tag but include a vagina and with the ability to physically move like a real human. The photographs are unnerving because of their unearthly likeness to models posing for an editorial fashion shoot, their clothes, their poses even their placid eyes and glassy skin. Simmons has located our uneasiness at any object which appears too human. The contrast between large and small, black and white, the seventies and the now; successfully describes her journey with a sophisticated and experienced feminist dialogue.

'The Love Doll: Days 1 -30', Installation view, 2011

TVOD at Transition Gallery

2011-03-15T21:09:00.006Z

I don't need a TV screen
I just stick the aerial into my skin
let the signal run through my veins
(TVOD, The Normal, 1978)

TVOD curated by the artist Paul Kindersley, brought together the works of ten contemporary artists (including Kindersley) exploring our ongoing obsession with 'life on screen'. We all play roles, embody roles and often live life akin to a TV set (think Truman Show for a more literal interpretation of this idea perhaps).

TVOD presents the after-math of ingesting TV's visual culture repetitively. Sam Austen's Untitled (Sheet), 2010, and Untitled (Hand), 2010, prints, presents abstract film posters alluding to a haunting event reminiscent of B-Movies. A decapitated TNT sculpture by Kirsty Jackman titled Always Hungry,2011 comments on hunger for fame, with it's bold 'TNT' emblem, blowing up this idea of 'fame craving'. Kindersley's own Fiona TV, 2011, sums up TVOD's prominent theme of TV Porn. We just crave it so much, can't live and allude to life on screen.

TVOD as a whole is humorous but highlights quite intelligibly our preoccupations with 'the screen'. In some ways it ridicules this obsession by really stripping bare what it means to assume a role, be it fictional or factual.

Sam Austen

Untitled (Sheet), 2010, Inkjet Print (edition of 5)

Untitled (Hand), 2010, Inkjet Print (edition of 5

Kirtsty Jackman, Always Hungry, 2011, Mixed Media, Size Variable

Neil McNally, Dirk Bogarde Wears White Socks, 2006

Paul Kindersley, Fiona TV, 2011, Inkjet Print

*TVOD photos - Courtesy of Hollie McArthur

TOO BUSY TO BLOG (Not)

2011-03-02T23:31:00.000Z

NEW BLOG FORMAT COMING SOON!

I'LL BE MUSING ABOUT A LOT OF ART...

NOT JUST IN EXHIBITIONS BUT GENERALLY CONVERSING...

STAY TUNED AND WATCH OUT FOR GUEST BLOGGERS ONCE A MONTH!

Grace Morgan Pardo for Artistes Only

2011-01-27T20:14:00.001Z

Tectonic Shift: Contemporary Art from Chile, Phillps de Pury, London
When an interest in art from more exotic places, Asia, Africa, South America, etc, sparks western audiences, one of the appeals is often that this work is refreshingly political. When given an opportunity to express the people from these distant nations made responses to colonialism, oppression and dictators. As Cildo Miereles once said. ‘In some way you become political when you don’t have a chance to be poetic. I think human beings would much prefer to be poetic’.

I think that this display of Chilean art work is that of a generation that has recovered from hardship and been given the chance to be poetic. I visited Chile over the Christmas/New Year period of the dawning of the millennium.I remember hearing discussions of the rising of the "grew cloud". What they were referring to was the dissipation of the cloud of gloom; the somber air left after a 17 year dictatorship, which ended in 1990.
This work is more universal, as the exhibitions young and prodigious curator Cecilia Brunson explained, this work explores “the ambiguous, confusing, intimate, and emotional side  of the socio–artistic struggle.”

The exhibitions was immaculately installed, with truly beautiful lighting. This created the ideal environment for this work of an incredible energetic use of modest means. The meticulous use of everyday materials,elastic bands,milk jugs,toothpicks, lipstick; to me, expressed curious sense of humility or even frugality.

Pablo Rivera, Gazelle, 2001

Magdalena Atria, Smiling Desperately I, 2004

Livia Marin,Ficciones de un uso, 2004; 2,214 lipsticks

My favourite,Paz Errazuriz a.k.a. the Chilean Nan Golden. Published a book of photography during the last days of the dictatorship, which was rejected from every book store and sold exactly... 1 copy.

The Book was called Adam's Apple (La manzana de Adán). www.pazerrazuriz.cl

Liverpool Biennial 2010 - Touched

2010-10-01T18:16:00.001+01:00

My memory of the prior edition of Liverpool Biennial is of one that was, slam bang ambitous and it certainly felt the city was 'Made Up' staging the event.

This year's Liverpool biennial (although very impressive in its artist selection), felt a more sombre and scaled back affair, perhaps a zeigiest of current times i.e entering an impending double recession, arts cuts, change of govenrment and general atrocities that have occured in recent years on a global scale.

On a personal note, what the Biennial may have lacked in grandeur, it certainly made up in a contepmlative and atimes reflective presentation centered around the theme 'Touched', and boy was I touched.

I arrived in Liverpool quite late for the openinf presentations and started of really at a very packed Bloomberg Contemporary where I was unable to get in (I returned the next day) and headed straight for the official Biennial party, which consisted of a spacious warehouse literally cladded in cling film (and accompanying projected light show). Dancing and knocking back cocktails everyone was having a good time and at 4am, I realised hangover or not I have a day to see the best of what Liverpool had to offer.

My old favourite Rapid did not dissapiont with an extensive presentation of Ryan Trecartin witty and brillaint Trill-ogy Comp, Karmelo Bermejo's The Grand Final.Bank Loan Granted to an Art Gallery Used to Pay a Firework Display at  the Closing Ceremony of Art Basel, Miami Beach, 2009, a firework show that illuminates to spell the word 'Recession'. 

Alfredo Jarr's The Marx Lounge (an impressive critical lounge-cum  library)

NS Harsha's Sky Gazers,is a contuation of his series of floor based works. This piece depicts people gazing up into the sky, in this context a mirror, reflecting the gaze downwards, creating quite a interesting and somewhat religious effect.

 Sky Gazers, 2010

Meschac Gaba presented Souvenir Place, a diverse array of souvenior memrobilia commenting on national identities.  

Souvenir Place, 2010

Aime Mpane's haunting potraits adorn a wall in Rapid...

Do Ho Su (who I first came across at Hayward's Pshycho Buildings) preseted a new site specific comission Bridging Home, an acrhitecural installation highlighting his interest in collective vs. personal space and a colliding cultures

Bridging Home, 2010

The Temple of a Thousand Bells(I tried to count but gave up) by Laura Belem is based loosley on a story of a sunken island temple with a thousand bells. It deals with past, present and future possibities with the hope the sounds produce resonate beyond the duration of the exhibtion i.e. in the viewers memory.

The Temple of a Thousand Bells, 2010

At A Foundation, Bloomberg New Contemporaries was slightly disappointing, although Christain De La Riva's animation and stood out for originality and somewhat gut wreching realism. A selection of works below:

Richard Rigg at Workplace Gallery

2010-10-01T15:13:00.000+01:00

My innaugral visit to Workplace Gallery in Gateshead two weeks ago, was for a solo presentation of work by sculptor, Richard Rigg. 

Rigg reproduces everyday objects such as tables and chairs into somewhat conjoined, mutated objects. 

This presentation saw a few of his table/chair series as well a new work I forgot what was said when we were outside, stood empty, now without those words I fell back, which consists of two full size telegraph poles stood upright in the stairwell of the gallery. The lamposts contained but seemingly at home in this interior space. 

He also presented an intriguing piece Cloth arranged to look like a Jacket (Self Portrait), a jacket on the floor or rather a piece of material arranged to look like a jacket dropped loosely on a floor. The Broken Appearance of the Floor consited of two oars embedded in the wooden floors in a rowing position.

An impressive survey of recent and exisiting work, presented by Workspace which is housed in a handsome and raw old postal sorting office.

Rigg also has impressive drawings which I spotted on the gallery's office wall... 

I forgot what was said when we were outside, stood empty, now without those words I fell back, 2010

The Broken Appearance of the Floor, 2010

Cloth arranged to look like a Jacket (Self Portrait), 2010

Summer Art Round Up...

2010-09-12T15:36:00.001+01:00

From AV Festival at the end of spring to Berlin Biennial and other shows I saw in London and beyond here are snapshots of a few exhibitions I've seen this summer...

AV Festival 2010 

Alan Johntson, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds

Anish Kapoor: Studio Works, mima

Art Sheffield 2010

A Foundation, Liverpool

Newcastle University BA Fine Art Degree Show

Contort Yourself, RCA Work-Based

Berlin Biennale 2010

South London Gallery

Bonnie Camplin, mima

Serpentine Sleepover

Tatton Park Biennial 2010: Framing Identity

2010-09-08T19:38:00.003+01:00

I had the opportuinty to go up to Knustford a few weeks ago and view the second edition of Tatton Park Biennial which i throughly recommend. It's close to Manchester and on picturesque grounds. I wrote an extensive review for This Is Tomorrow here

Ryan Gander

 Fiona Curran This time next year things are going  to be different 


Helen Marten (with Fran Edgerley) coveting keratin and milk on white Jem Finer Spiegelei Jimmie Durham Spring Fever Marcia Farquhar The Horse is a Noble Animal David Burrows & Simon O'Sullivan/Plastique Fantastique The Visitation

Austin Houldsworth Two Million & 1AD 

Art Basel 2010 by Grace Morgan Pardo

2010-08-20T22:48:00.000+01:00

My dear friend and artist Grace took a trip to Basel a few weeks back...Here's what she found out:

In a few words, sheer scale. Comprising of several pavilions, two massive blocks, each with two floors, holding the booths of the tops galleries from around the world.  There was a design pavilion near by which unfortunately I did not get to but I am told it was fantastic. Just across was a pavilion entitled Statement, which consisted of large solo booths assigned to strong emerging artists to give them a space to...make a Statement...    

One of my favourites was Maria Nepomuceno, a Brazilian artist who recently had a solo show at Victoria Miro Gallery in London. Her work consists of woven and beaded, sensual, sinuous networks which look like something halfway between a hammock and something umbilical/placentaesque (For more information go here).

However, I felt a bit lost amongst the vastness and the crowds. I felt a bit more inspired when I found the black sheep (Silvia B.'Air de Fête', presented by Ron Mandos Gallery, Rotterdam). 

As one enters Volta, an offsite pavilion that hosts what the art world calls “mother galleries”, in other words, galleries held in high esteem but work exhibited here will not be seen elsewhere around the festival. It feels well curated, it is small and tight. My picks from Volta: Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins presented by Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto.

Alexander Tinei presented by Erika Deák Gallery, Budapest.

Akihiro Higuchi presented by MA2 Gallery, Tokyo.

Galeria Nara Poesler, São Paulo

Through out the fair the vibrance coming from Brazilian artists and galleries was notable.  Making myself ,and I’m sure many more, feel drawn to attend the Bienal de São Paulo this autumn (Brazilian Spring!).

Mark Alexander at St. Paul's Cathedral

2010-07-11T22:46:00.001+01:00

St Paul's has chosen two new works by the British artist Mark Alexander hung either side of the nave this summer. The installation forms part of St Paul's Cathedral Arts Project, an ongoing programme which seeks to explore the encounter between art and faith.

Both entitled Red Mannheim, Alexander's large red silkscreens are inspired by the Mannheim Cathedral altarpiece (1739-41), which was damaged by bombing in the Second World War. The original sculpture depicts Christ on the cross, surrounded by a familiar retinue of mourners. Rendered in splendid giltwood, with Christ's wracked body sculpted in relief, and the flourishes of flora and incandescent rays from heaven, this masterpiece of the German Rococo is an object of ravishing beauty and intense piety.

Whitney Live Summer 2010

2010-07-07T00:02:00.001+01:00

http://www.whitney.org/Performances/WhitneyLive

Glasgow International 2010

2010-06-20T23:17:00.004+01:00

GI 2010 had lots on view but Jimmie Durham's collaboration with Glasgow Sculpture Studios was a personal highligt. Durham's long involvement with the American Indian Movement is evident in Universal Miniature Golf (The Promise Land), a large scale sculptural installation, the result of a three month residency in Glasgow. His sculptures challenge notions of representing North American Indian and are at times haunting and political. For this presentation, Durham reappropriates golf clubs in a totem type structure, accompanied by a series of activist texts on the plight of North American Indians. He describe his practice as:

"I want to think of interruption like, not a definition of      identity, but the good part of identity. I want to think of my      own identity and identity in general as something completely      contingent on relationships. When I try to make art I don't want      to be in a studio and think about a piece of art I want to make,      I want to be with a group of people not knowing what I might      make. I want a discourse, not an invention"

Glue Factory located on the outskirts of the city, was taken over by FINN Collective who orchestrated a show with local and international artists and musicians in a disused factory. hrafnildur halldorsdottir "bad moon rising" worked exceptionally well. Use of the whole factory architecturally and curatorialy excelled as sculptural, painting, moving image and other environments were visually captivating and engaging.

hrafnildur halldorsdottir "bad moon rising"

GI ended with a closing party (epitomised by driving around Poloc Cricket Ground trying to find this little sign above in the dark) featuring GANGBAND live, GHUT DJ’s, films, quiz, whisky, food, fun and a meat raffle.

Sun et lumiere for Earth, Fire and Water, The Boyle Family at David Roberts Foundation

2010-06-20T22:24:00.005+01:00

I went to a quite unique performative lecture/light show at the David Roberts Foundation a few months back introduced by Sebastian Boyle. The evening consisted of  live projections and films related to the seminal event Son et  Lumiere for Earth, Fire and Water by Mark Boyle and Joan Hills from 1966.

The event featured microscopic type light projections of what seemed to be chemical reactions which were in fact a series of photos of exploding colour and light from a sensual laboratory liquid light environment.  

* all images courtesy of David Roberts Foundation

Back....

2010-06-06T22:52:00.002+01:00

I have been so busy with my MA I've had little time to update my blog. 

As part of AV Festival 2010 I helped install Felix Gonzalez-Torres at mima:

The Baltic had a major Jenny Holzer exhibition as well...

On a study trip to Liverpool A Foundation were preparing for The Economy of the Gift, a boutique scaled art fair presenting eight artists and eight galleries curated by Ticiana Correa and explore the idea of value in a time of market crisis. Jacob Dahlgren was in the middle of installing a monumenatal colour block book sculpture (images below).

Larissa Bates

2010-02-14T12:53:00.004Z

American artist Larissa Bates creates drawings commenting on representations of male gender in art history. Her meticulous drawings are a contemporary interpretation of the Renaissance...

Quote

2010-02-14T12:52:00.001Z

Love of beauty is Taste. The creation of beauty is Art.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Alterpiece by Grace Morgan Pardo

2010-01-31T08:37:00.007Z

I took part in Testing Ground: Live at 176 and had the pleasure of working with my friend and artist Grace Morgan Pardo. Grace's Alterpiece performance, involved her adopt role of the artist, or maker of votive objects, performing a variation of an Umbanda (Afro-Brazilian, catholic syncretic religion) ritual that according to this religion forms a crossroads between the worlds of the living and the dead.

Alterpiece (flash forward) from Grace Morgan Pardo on Vimeo.

Pinakothek Der Moderne

2009-12-27T21:37:00.004Z

Pinakothek Der Moderne's architecutre blew my mind today as did Dan Flavin...

Edinburgh a bit ago

2009-12-24T16:28:00.004Z

THERE WILL BE NO MIRACLES HERE - Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

Tariq Alvi at Chisenhale

2009-11-01T22:55:00.007Z

Tariq's myriad collages incorporated into sculptures/paintings.....

176, Frieze and Zoo and last weekend

2009-11-01T20:28:00.019Z

I've spent the last few weekends on trains (approx 40 ish hours), studying has also made posting limited (I went to ZOO and Frieze and spent a lot of time (more than usual for various reasons projects, gallery visits) at both fairs this year. There was some good art but I'll let the pictures below do the talking. I loved Caravaggio's sculpture which incorporated quite cleverly, the baby powder. Daniel Silver (IBID Projects) at Frieze Frame worked well as did Conrad Shawcross's installation piece Slow Arc in a Cube II at Victoria Miro.

Dan Silver installation view at Camden Art Centre 2007

Carey Young signed limited edition Donorcards

ZOO

Pete and Repeat at Project 176...More from the treasure trove that is the Zabludowic collection.

Last week I was also able to catch Artangel's Museum of Non-Participation (read all about it here) and October Gallery's solo presentation of Romuald Hazoumé's Made In Porto-Novo.

Everyone must visit Everything

E17 Art Trail 2009 and Raven Row

2009-09-18T09:00:00.004+01:00

I've been very skeptical about visiting 'Walthamstow Village', having lived in Leyton, I never fathomed there would be such a glorious village in E17? I ate my words as last week as I graced Walthamstow for it's annual E17 Art Trail. 150 Venues (ranging from cafes to florist and homes) exhibiting all sorts of art (good and bad), walks, talks and cycle rides... It really was an event for all. I started off at The William Morris Gallery (big fan) where I was informed of as site specific installation by Della Rees 'Remains of Home' inspired by Morris, transforming the exterior of Walthamstow Fire Station.

I only had an hour left so I hit Orford Road (florist Petals in Bloom showcasing Jude Stedham) and The Ancient House on Church Lane where Under Construction by photographer Paul Tucker, who's work capturing the transformation of Dubai from desert into modern city was on show. Beautiful Interiors had a text installation as well as Images of E17 which included photographs, drawings, prints etc...
I feel somewhat cheated I missed a whole lot as some of the venues where only open in the evening/weekend.Next year I'm taking up residence in Walthamstow to experience Art Trail in its entirety, community and all...

Raven Row is currently showing two exhibitions: ‘Eduardo Paolozzi: The Jet Age Compendium’, and 'Surrounded by Squares' site specific ecological sculptures by Dave Hullfish Bailey and Nils Norman. Paolozzi's work in the show focuses mainly on his contribution to British Pop Art, with references to the 'Machine Age'. The show also highlights his numerous contributions to Ambit which were often politically charged.

Benjamin Beker/ArtSway

2009-09-11T09:00:00.000+01:00

I read about ArtSway recently (love the wordplay i.e. Art's Way/ Art Sway and yes the gallery is located in the village of Sway, Hampshire) and my inaugural visit coincided with Benjamin Beker's inaugural solo show 'Monuments' which recently opened at the gallery. ArtSway is a beautiful designed gallery (mirroring Camden Arts Center although on a much smaller scale with picturesque surroundings. It provides a appropriate setting for Beker's photographs which depict scaled down 'Serbian' monuments from his home city of Belgrade. Luckily I arrived in time for the private view/Q + A with the artist and ArtSway's curator Peter Bonnell, allowing for a succinct understanding of the photographic works on display.
What becomes apparent at the end of this session is that all monuments the world over, often loose their initial significance due to socio-economic changes in time, as well as across generations. Year after year we seem to have the need to erect new monuments even though in the future/future generations they become unrecognisable/unidentifiable. Beker' also takes the monuments out of their original context which allows the viewer to enagae directly with the object(s) presented. The 'monumental' becomes 'toy-like' and really one could argue monuments are 'ideological toys' specific to certain time/space.....
Other works included Gursky-esque photographs of 'Blocks' (i.e tower blocks) and video stills of the interiors of place of power in modern day Belgrade (oddly enough stuck in time/non functional, but still preserved).

CMS Graduate MFA Degree Show 2009

2009-09-07T18:08:00.023+01:00

During a fly by visit to London last week, I had the opportunity to check out CSM's MFA degree show 2009. I didn't have a lot of time and as good friends were exhibiting I made a beeline for works by Grace Morgan Prado, Kirsty Buchanan and Macarena's Yanez's site specific murals whilst noting anything else that stood out along the way.
Grace and Kirsty featured months ago in Top 3's and it was great to see Ms Morgan Prado deviate from paintings and create an installation which drew on optical illusion and moving imagery...

Kirsty's piece 'Take off your shell along with your clothes' with its accompanying voice over is true to her usual form but allows for a more thorough engagement of her exploration of sex/joys of sex through simple but effective sketches...

Other works in the show:

Leah Draisey Disorient.Orient

I am a very big fan of Macarena Yanez's 'Street Art' (I use this term loosely as I really don't like categorising her work in this genre as I feel hers goes beyond this term) as it's context and her implementation and use of CSM's bare walls is original and clever. fr someone so small but mighty, her large scaled stencils really come to life and sit so comfortably/adapt to this indoor courtyard.

Artistes Only spoke to Macarena Yanez about her work :-

AO: How it all began?
MY: It all began back home in Chile, I was studying textile art and my teacher didn't quite like my work so I start doing a kind of B side projects by my own, also by the time I was spending a lot of time with some really cool friends that did graffiti and with them i started hanging most of the time and join them when they were painting some walls.

AO: Influences?

MY: Influences in my work are mainly surrealism and Dada collage. Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Hoch, etc, and street artists like Judith Supine and Swoon are other examples, but I would say it is the street art I see each day as I walk around the city that is my main influence, I'm always searching for inspiration on the street.

AO: Projects/Artistic Oeuvre?

MY: Right now I want to focus on a Big Bombing i.e. bombing an area, which involves plastering a whole area covering different streets, so there's no doubt that one person did it all. I've wanted to do this for for a long time in my neighbourhood area. Now that I finished the MA I have ample time to  prepare (It's going to take me some time). I'm also looking for opportunities to show my work in gallery spaces so I don't know what's really going to happen there. Anyway I've wanted to  do bombing from so long time, and I'm really excited about it.

AO: What do you hope to achieve through your art?

MY: I just want to show my work in every street everywhere, talk to common people though my images I'm going to star working now to save some money and travel through Europe pasting my collages in different countries, that's my dream, I know I need lots of money, but I do have all the time to work and little by little been able to accomplished that.

MFACSM website

Mima

2009-08-21T00:07:00.007+01:00

I've been super busy moving out of London, interviewing at the RCA & Mima (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) which I visited a few weeks ago and I was slightly amazed but thrilled to encounter such a fantastic arts organisation in Middlesbrough (tons of regeneration initiatives since my last visit 8 years ago). Gerhard Ritcher's Modern Times is currently on show at Mima, bringing together the artist's extensive oeuvre which spans paintings, watercolour, drawings and painted photograph's. Ritcher's works span five decades and he is certainly one of this centuries influential artist. I especially like his overpainted photograph series as these present and engagement with photography/painting as one becomes a part of the other...

*all images from www.gerhard-richter.com

AOI Images - The best in contemporary British Illustration

2009-08-05T13:33:00.004+01:00

The AOI put on a marvelous show of the best in contemporary British illustration.
The show is only on till 12 Aug 09 at London's LCC so def go check it out in it's final week....
Lizzy Mary Cullen's Psychogeography and Tom Gaul's Winehouse are my favourites :)

*photography by Sophia Schorr-Kohn

Hockney

2009-08-04T13:36:00.005+01:00

I can't stop thinking about David Hockney today....
So here's a few of his works I really love especially
his poolside paintings and photo montages which I feel are phenomenal.

And that pool at The Roosevelt in LA...

Roger Hiorns - Seizure Returns....

2009-07-23T12:45:00.002+01:00

Roger Hiorns' - Seizure was one of the best art in-situ shows I've seen and I was so thrilled to find out Artangel/Jerwood have reopened this amazing space. Hiorns was commissioned to transform a council block in South London by pumping 75,000 litres of copper sulphate solution in to the council flat to create a strangely beautiful and somewhat menacing crystalline growth on the walls, floor, ceiling and bath of this abandoned dwelling. It's open Thur, Fri & Sat 11am to 7pm & Sun 11am - 5pm find out more at Artangel

Hackney Wicked 2009

2009-07-22T21:49:00.004+01:00

It's back....

Hackney Wicked 2009 is even bigger and better this year showcasing all that is great about East London's contemporary art scene. Last year went to a performance at Wallis by Eloise Fronieles and didn't realise it was part of the festival. Schwartz, Elevator and Decima galleries have very interesting schedules; Top and Tail Gallery presents ‘Glory Hole’ an exhibition revolving around Victorian London, from the Dickensian Gin palaces to the squalor of East end lifestyle. Whippit will present ‘InCounter’ at Counter Café also exhibitions will be opening at Mission Gallery, Fish Island Gallery, Stour Gallery and Main Yard Gallery.
Check out Hackney Wicked for full line up of open studios and events and be sure not to miss the opening 6-9pm, July 31st 2009.

Wysing Arts

2009-07-20T22:39:00.015+01:00

I finally made it to Wysing Arts Centre at the weekend. My last attempt was a disaster as I missed Matthew Slotover's opening of the centre due to, slow buses and q somewhat incongruous attempt on my part to try and get from London to Cambridge in and hr (at 5pm may I add. Bad idea!). Anyway second time lucky, I contacted the gallery and they kindly arranged a space on the mini bus for A Kassen and Polonca Lovšnon special event. Danish collective A Kassen's Minus Roof features the removal of a third of the Wysing's roof and visitors were invited to to fly in a light aircraft over the gallery whilst being filmed. Due to the bad weather and slight fuel and crosswind crisis, only a chosen few were invited were chosen. I happened to be one of the chosen so off I went to Bourn Airstrip to board my flight. Although slightly unnerving as these air crafts are like paper planes, it was such a thrilling experience especially viewing the gallery from above. You really get a great sense of how vast and expansive the arts centre and it's surroundings are. Polonca Lovšnon the other hand, took over the assembled building of found objects, showcasing a series of films. The highlight of which was an animated piece about how Slovenian homes are the way the are (mainly due to socio-economic factors/family). I had a chance to chat candidly about her work. She explained although the films were humorous and intelligible, some often drew scientific references (e.g. The Solar Colllection).
As part of her residency, Polonca and scientists from Cambridge will be inviting volunteers to interact with the recycled building in August, initiating a sense of theatrical architecture. Wysing's residency is exciting as it is innovative. It's bold initiatives and 11 acre surroundings make it an idyllic setting to develop and experiment. It's an artist's utopia and worth frequenting...

Baltic

2009-07-08T16:00:00.002+01:00

I went up to Newcastle recently and visited one of my favored galleries in the North East, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (it really should juts be abbrev to BCCA like MOMA, LOCA etc..). Newcastle was literally where it all began for me... Needless to say I am a big fan of BCCA and what it's doing for contemporary art in northern England. A picturesque walk down the quayside, going across the millennium bridge to the Baltic somehow mirrors crossing it's London equivalent which leads to Tate Modern.

There were a series of exhibitions on at the Baltic...
Harland Miller's Don't Let the Bastards Cheer You Up, A film installation by David Blandy titled The Barefoot Lone Pilgrim, A Duck for Mr. Darwin a group exhibition of contemporary nine artists (Conrad Shawcross, Charles Avery , Marcus Coates, Dorothy Cross, Mark Dion, Andrew Dodds, Mark Fairnington, Ben Jeans Houghton and Tania Kovats) as well as Sarah Sze's Tilting Planet and Tobias Putrih & MOS's Ovehang.
I spent most of the day working my way from the top of the building starting out with Sze's Tilting Planet. Sze's miniature sculptural installations deal with quite strategic assemblage of found objects which spreads across ever surface of the space it's quite staggering to think of the attention to detail as well as spatial symmetry that is integral to Sarah's work. Some of the sculptures rely on simple mechanics/pulleys as the artist explains in the accompanying interview at the end of this piece.

Sarah Sze

Next up was A Duck for Mr. Darwin, a group which commemorates (not in all cases) 200 years of Darwin's Origin of Species interpreted for a contemporary audiences. My highlight of the show was Conrad Shawcross's V which comprises of a hand-constructed wooden rowing boat and a series of objects collected by Shawcross as he navigated the River Lea in London last summer. and Tania Kovats’s Worm, a glass fronted display of a working wormery. Charles Avery's  drawings and sculpture describe the topology, cosmology and inhabitants of an imaginary island.

Charles Avery

Conrad Shawcross

Harland Milller's series of collage/montage portraits depicting classic penguin paperback edited with satirical statements about northern English towns. With bold statements like Bridlington - Coastal Erosion – It’s Not All Bad News; Yorkshire – It Was A Struggle When Times Were Good and You Can Rely On Me – I’ll Always Let You Down, it's easy to relate to the more humours aspect of Harland's paintings which are on a grand scale and rather aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Harland Miller

Interviews:
First up David Blandy.

Artistes Only: What struck me about the barefoot lone pilgrim was the fact it reminds me of a lot of Kung Fu  b-movies I'd seen as a child but then this was crossed over with star-trek references?what's this really about?

David Blandy: The Barefoot Lone Pilgrim series is a quasi-search for self and enlightenment (in some ways opposite concepts!) through travelling through an over-mediated world, a world where each moment contains an element of déjà-vu. This hill reminds me of the anime Princess Mononoke, this moment under the stars makes me think of Final Fantasy VII. It started with a question- where do I find meaning and ways to live my life if I find it impossible to have faith in organised religion? Is it from those small moments in popular culture, like the lyrucs of your favourite song, or a moment of philosophy (no matter how clichéd) in an action movie? Ben E. King singing the existential question "what is soul", David Carradine musing "what is real?".

AO: Is the film autobiographical, if so do u often use an intrinsic approach?

DB: The films are fictionalised versions of a possible autobiography. "Soul of London" follows the Lone Pilgrim searching for David Blandy by visiting the sites that were important to me growing up, that formed me. Intertwined with footage of the performance are encounters with films and songs that have influenced my world view. Bruce Lee's thoughts on how to be "a good artist" (not dreaming yet not thinking) and KRS-One's "Health, Wealth... " (and knowledge of myself) become key moments in this hallucinatory journey  

AO: Who is David Blandy as it almost seems like you the artist is embedded within the work all boundaries merge?

DB: The question "Who am I" is really where I started from with this work, and where I continue to start from whenever I'm encountering a new situation- I love this song, but how do I reconcile that with who I think I am? I see the self as a fiction made up of a collection of stories that we tell ourselves, a thought I came to both through Lacan and through the small pieces of Buddhism contained in Kung Fu movies. The whole thing of "choosing your character" in computer games like Streetfighter seemed to make sense to me too- you make a choice as to who to be in each situation.In some ways "I" am never in the work - I am an actor playing roles. "Artist" is just one of those roles, I suppose. 

AO: Describe your work to a novice David Blandy viewer?

DB:I make videos, comics, posters and other ephemera to pose questions about the nature of identity. Through these often humorous, but sometimes sad, pieces of work I try to examine the conundrums of existing in a globalised culture, when I'm utterly obsessed with mass-produced items like computer games, records, anime and films. 

AO: Inspirations/creative process/referenced

DB:A big shout out to my late brother, David Carradine R.I.P. Keep searching. And respect to everyone that strives to live a creative life and change the world. Props go to the RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Inspector Deck, U God, Method Man, Raekeon the Chef, Ghostface Killa and all the rest of the Clan. Keep it real, son. Peace to my lady Cindy Sherman. Lacan, you're crazy, bro. KRS-One, you're the Teacher, and Scott La Rock is still missed. He's jamming with Lee Scratch Perry right now, with Bruce Lee flexing his forms and Bowie and Kurt Cobain singing a duet. Homer's on drums, Dante's raising hell on the mandolin, trying to stay tight enough not to be fined by band grandmaster, James "Soul Brother Number One" Brown. Positive Energy Activates Constant Elevation. Word.

AO: Future shows?projects collaborations

DB:I'm working on a project that I think will be called “Child of the Atom”. I want to try to explore the fragility of existence and identity using the framework of my personal relationship to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945.There is a familial myth that my late Grandfather would not have survived being a Japanese Prisoner of War had the atomic bombing not occurred. So it could be argued that I owe my existence to one of the most terrifying events of human history and the death of 220,000 people. My very existence is the problem that I want to explore, through a mix of anime and footage of me existing in modern Hiroshima. That's what I want to do, anyway. We'll see what really happens. 

AO: Three word summary of your art 

DB:Searching for soul.

David's Videos:
I Am(2004)
Samurai Story (part II) (2008)
The White and Black Minstrel Show(2007)

*Photography Colin Davison courtesy of Baltic Gallery

Street Fest

2009-06-03T09:21:00.005+01:00

I popped down to Street Fest (a week ago) at a venue just off Great Eastern Street as a friend tipped off about a paint off between Secret Wars gang England vs Portugal.
Usually this isn't my bag but what a fun evening. Tempura and all sorts of yum Japanese food on the go with a blend of hip-hop and really hot skaters...It all most felt like Williamsburg.
Back to the art...
Paint Off's bring two rival street artists together, I think usually this is done by spray can, but in this case these guys were only allowed black marker pens and a time limit of 90 mins.Blank white canvas and the battle commends...
MCing commences whilst the guys get busy. The Portuguese artists went for a more collaborative approach with all three working on a modern day Madonnaesque drawing whilst their English counterparts played on the 'Bull In A China Shop' theme with each artist drawing individual characters. England won the paint off but the Portuguese guys were awesome. I like fun street art.
P.S. Check out Jimi Crayons he's great!

Miami & Henry Hudson at Trolley Books

2009-05-23T22:47:00.009+01:00

Miami turned out to be more of a vacation than Arts hunt (I needed a holiday), However I did set one morning aside to visit Miami's Bass Musuem of Art as I knew the group show The Endless Renaissance would be worth the trip.
The Endless Renaissance brings together the old and the new and ''illustrates that all art, regardless of when it was created, is contemporary because it reflects a precise moment in time and communicates the issues surrounding the artists, whether spiritual, political, economic or cultural''. I found the show particularly interesting as works by Delacroix for example was being shown together with contemporary photography, paintings and sculpture. The thematic relationship between the works from varying periods are being celebrated here and the show turned out to be riveting and contemporary in its delivery.

Pieter Hugos's photograph of Abdullahi Mohammed with Mainasara(from the Hyena & Other Men series) was a definite highlight as were Bert Rodriguez's In Your Own Image which comprise of 134 postage paid cards of the artist, left in shops, cafes, and bars throughout Paris in 2008, and were mailed back to the artist after members of the public altered his imagery.

Abdullahi Mohammed with Mainasara, Ogere-Remo, Nigeria 2007

Henry Hudson opened at Trolley Gallery on thursday with his works drawing on Willam Hogart's narrative. I liked the varying mixed medium used throughout this satircal body of work...

Back 19th May

2009-05-14T02:36:00.006+01:00

2009-05-04T17:35:00.016+01:00

John Paul Thurlow began covers a few years back and the project has been very successful he may amass a whole lot more covers. A lot of covers are from magazines John owns, whilst others have come his way by chance. John Paul describes his work below and hopefully a book will come out of it...

Artistes Only: How did covers begin? (i.e. the ideology behind your initial idea and how it has evolved; Is covers mainly based on reproduction of your 'owned' items or is it far more broad?).
John Paul Thurlow: Covers began in Japan. I was on a retreat living in a remote Buddhist temple. I was learning calligraphy and working on another project called Lyric Type (see question 8). Possibly because of the quiet solitude I started to doodle the contents of my room. I was attracted to the magazines I'd bought for the flight. One of them was Elle. As I was drawing the Covers the idea just clicked. 

Out of the 45 Covers I've drawn so far I'd say there's a maximum of 10 that I don't own. I don't own the copy of Rolling Stone or that exact copy of Harper's Bazaar, but I do posses others of those titles, (a large collection of magazines is a side effect of my day job as an art director). 

It is correct to say that the project's focus has evolved. Because of how the idea came to me I wanted to see how far I could extend that thought. But I found that making straight copies felt empty. The second idea in Covers was to mix things up by projecting my thoughts, feelings and personal mythology into the drawings. I've been drawing since I was a child (my Grandfather painted, my father is an incredible technical draughtsman) so over the years certain marks have built up and tend to repeat in my work. 

There must be a connection to my life experience or I won't draw it - of course life moves forward and I encounter new magazines that I connect with - French Elle, Stars Sans Fards, is an example of this.

AO: How many Covers do you produce daily/weekly etc.)?
JPT: I've been ill recently so I work on Covers every day right now. It's excellent therapy. On average it takes between five and eight hours to make a Cover. The most I've made in one day is three (I've convinced myself that one a day is enough). The process is always the same and is influenced by my graphic design experience and 'Drawing on the right side of the brain' by Betty Edwards. I draw the format first, then the title. Then outlines, tonal masses and finally the detail; hair, eyes, nose, ears, mouth. Often drawings get parked at the end of the title or outlines phase. Cover 45 Andy Warhol's Interview sat around for two weeks at the outline stage, I got on with other Covers whilst I was waiting for the idea to develop.

AO: Are they based on themes i.e. music, art, fashion or just whatever takes your fancy?
JPT: The selection is grounded in my broad interest in contemporary pop culture and the art scene - the magazines I've bought over the years. The Covers I've made of fashion titles seem to be very popular but I'm trying not to be lead by this. There's a crossroads between art, design, fashion and music - I accept that it may make the project harder to classify - but for better or worse that's where Covers lives.

AO: Favourite cover so far?
JPT: If I was forced to make a selection: Cover 27 Yacob and Cover 29 Amelia's Magazine. The portrait for Cover 27 Yacob is the only time I've covered another artist's drawing - It's Olimpico Fusco by John Singer Sargent - an artist who's drawings I hold in high esteem. Yacob magazine is an independent publication with a humanitarian agenda that I was proud to support. This drawing is my imagined image of Yacob himself. I like the combination of pride and fragility in his expression.
Cover 29 Amelia's Magazine is a romantic vision... a honeymoon fantasy... I'll leave it at that. I use the meta data tags to tell the story...

AO: I notice you have created 45 covers so far, are you just going to keep on going?
JPT: This is a hard question to answer. I have a list of about 20 covers I still want to do, and as quickly as I draw them new ones pop up. If I make it to 100 I'll try and exhibit and/or publish something. I've been blown away by all the interest in the work so I think I'll ride the wave a little longer and see where I wash up.

AO: What are you working on at the moment?
JPT: Cover 46 will be one of the following: Anna Piaggi's Vanity, Basquiat in the New York Times, Pisszine, Haco, JDs, Esquire or Chrom. I wake up each day and let it come to me (John decided to go with Surface's cover of Sandra Bernhard).
AO: Inspirations/aspirations?Inspirations?
JPT: Covers is an hommage to the incredible creative people who make magazines. They inspire me every day. Being truly open to everyday life seems to work too. It's something I learnt in Japan, letting life wash over me and taking time to make sense of it all. I use twitter sometimes to capture little moments when I'm out and about in London. I worked as one half of a creative team for years (until recently) and that person always inspires me, teaches me things. I am lucky to have a handful of friends who challenge and encourage me and generally look out for me... they all feed into my work. My aspiration for Covers is to capture genuine emotion in my drawings - there are many people who can draw technically far better than I.... but Covers isn't about perfection it's about little moments that tell a story, that have genuine feeling. 
AO: Future plans/Something for JPT fans to look forward to?
JPT: As mentioned above I'd love to make a little compendium of the Covers, or an exhibit. I've had a fair amount of interest in terms of selling originals and making commissions so we'll see where that goes. I can't deny the recognition feels good.

Covers may branch out to include record covers - I'm not 100% certain of this yet. 

I have a project on the back-burner called Lyric Type where I typeset memorable song lyrics in a way that plays with their meaning. The aspiration for Lyric Type is to animate the typography. It's a very time consuming process, and I'm working with a brilliant young animator called Kretka. I may open the project to a couple of other designers too. We'll see, as I've only done five of them to date. 

I have a url for Lyric Type i can share with you but I'd rather not publicise it too much at this point.

Covers:

*images supplied by the artist

Altermodern and Mark Leary

2009-05-04T07:36:00.007+01:00

For the last few months i've been meaning to visit Tate Britain's Altermodern. I finally did last weekend on it's closing day in a frantic whirlwind tour of the last hour. I was really intersted in seeing Matthew Darbyshire's Palac as well as other works by Altermodern as defined by Nicolas Bourriaud, is an attempt at branding art made in today's global context as a reaction against standardisation and commercialism. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures of the piece du resistance (in my view) Matthew's Palac but I did manage to capture these great art environments...

I went over to Mark Leary's private view of his photographs of China... The show took place at George's fantastic studio with lovely music as well as a bunch of interesting types...

MusicArt & an intro to Jeremy Blake

2009-04-19T21:06:00.018+01:00

I've had this lingering thought about a whole bunch of album sleeves & music videos which I feel are very arty/artistic. The usual players come to mind Radiohead,Bjork, Muse, Bowie, Pink Floyd, Velvet Underground, Devandra Banhart, Bow Wow Wow, Stones, etc come to mind (the list is relentless & endless I'm not going to attempt to name-drop) but recently videos by loads of contemporary artists are really off the wall. Kanye West's Good Life, Vampire Weekend's Oxford Comma, Animal Collective's Fireworks, Beyonce's Single Ladies(maybe not arty but I think it is..), Mystery Jets's Young Love videos are going beyond boundaries of the usual artist records song, artist roll out video. I tell you what though, I recently saw a video of Mariam Makeba's Ananpondo I watched as a kid and even that was revolutionary check it out here (forget Josephine Baker this stuff is hot!).

I've been scheming to The Observer Music Monthly today and Ol' Damien has designed a skull explosion painting for The Hours new album (well it's good publicity for the boys, although I'm not sure of The Hours?). When one talks in terms of album sleeve art Bow Wow Wow's See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah! City All Over, Go Ape Crazy is my favourite. Let's not forget all the a nude 15 year old Anabelle Lwin caused posing for this, I feel it's take on Edouard Manet's Le déjeuner sur l'herbe is just genius.

One of my favourite artists at the moment (he also worked on a few album sleeves for Beck) is Jeremy Blake. I am currently reading the exhibition catalogue for his solo show Winchester which was inspired by the story of Sarah Winchester and the Winchester Mystery House, which was shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2005. Blake's (a posthumous artist who was led to his death by a claim of harassment by Scientologists) work characterised by 'Moving Paintings, Painted Cinema' used cinematic and digital tools to create his somewhat time-based paintings. Jeremy juxtaposed a series of film, animated stills and paintings to recreate his understanding of the Winchester madness, producing triptych series that guise the horrors of Sarah Winchester's House in a beautiful but haunting way. I especially like the way he draws on interiors/architecture of the house leaving literally no surface unturned.

series of still from The Winchester Trilogy

Nymag have an article here on his demise, Jeremy was also interviewed by Artificial when the show opened and have a look at SFMOMA's exhibition link here.

Something for the weekend...

2009-04-17T12:57:00.007+01:00

Regardless of the weather check out: Annette Messager at The Hayward have a look at images of the show at Mori Art Musuem Tokyo (very good gallery as well if in Tokyo I strongly recommend you go!)

Cindy Sherman at Sprueth Magers

Mythologies at Haunch of Venison it's closing next weekend!

London Miles Gallery has just opened way out west, check the inaugural show featuring Lowbrow and Pop Surrealist art...