Like Father Like Son.
In conversation with Seun Anikulapo Kuti, son of the renowned and fearsome Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo Kuti .
An Intuitive tête-à-tête with Seun Kuti, the second and youngest son of that 20th century icon/super star, the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, at the UK’s flagship live jazz music venue – Ronnie Scott’s. Soho’s home of jazz welcomes Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 in a rare intimate outing with his band, celebrated as Seun Kuti & Egypt 80: FELA/AFROBEAT. I was not sure if Ronnie Scott’s will be able to withstand the Afrobeat power, fury and constant swear words of Seun Kuti and Egypt 80, but it was fun finding out. Boy-oh-boy, it was absolutely mental. The audience was blown away by the power and the ferocity of the fire-raising Seun Kuti and the legendary EGYPT 80 band – one of the greatest live acts sound ever. What would his father think of him performing at Ronnie Scott’s? Read on!
In 1997, Nigeria and Africa, and certainly it would not be a hyperbole to affirm that the music and political world lost a music legend and fearsome Afrobeat innovator Fela Anikulapo-Kuti; simple known as FELA and still rightly acclaimed as one of the 20th century most incendiary live acts. On the other hand a young man lost his father. It cannot be pressure - free being the offspring of a music Giant, nonetheless, Oluseun Anikulapo-Kuti (known simple as Seun Kuti) the youngest son of the Nigerian legend of Afrobeat and political protester extraordinaire, seems to have no worry stepping into the big size puffy unusual shoes of his father Fela Kuti. Five years after their inception, following the death of the legend – Fela’s original band EGYPT 80, made-up of a quarter-century of Afrobeat musicians now headed by Seun Kuti continues to travel musically forward and find themselves more and more loved by fans of Fela Kuti and fans of Seun Kuti. This just shows Seun’s ease with his inheritance. But Seun exclaims otherwise.
“It’s been a battle to get to where I am now”, said Seun. “There were those naysayers and detractors alike who denounced my choice to front my father’s band as both lead vocalist and saxophonist; (including the British press amongst others) who said it was shockingly arrogant of me and that I have a speck exaggerated pride or self-confidence to try and fill Fela’s boots. This was never my intention or ambition or aspiration. While my father’s influence cannot be underestimated, nobody can walk in Fela Kuti’s boots. No one can beat Fela Kuti. No one can replace Fela Kuti. Full stop. And who cares what critics’ think anyhow? Just kidding!” he sighs. (Laughing hysterically) He adds: “The British press are cool with me these days. I love the British newspapers. I believe everything in them about me, good and bad. You have to work hard to remain in this business.” Seun is been scripting and singing live in concert with Fela since he was a child. He maybe the son of a music icon but was and still is determined to do it his way, he tells me. He disputes any idea that he might need to intensify either his fury or racy moves on stage or with his soundtracks to stand out in the world of Afrobeat music still dominated by his late father.
When it comes to Afrobeat hopes are high and this is an unwelcome distractions I think Seun could do without or take on as a challenge. It’s a proverbial situation for kids from musical families. “Yeah. I’m definitely used to it. It’s f**king cool. I don’t mind it.” he tells me. “Fela will always be number one”, Seun said, letting the thought follow. “I do accept who I am considerately. You cannot be the son of Fela Kuti, a truly inspirational person without feeling that huge shadow over you. A renowned protest vocalist who orated against immeasurable suffering in his home country of Nigeria and across the continent of Africa, he asked? A multi-instrumentalist, human rights activist, a revolutionary and political rebel for the less privilege the world over, he asked? “Nonetheless, it has not stopped me from doing my own thing while carrying the baton. Really and truly, if you be yourself, fans and critics alike will accept you for that” he enthused. Furthermore: “Afrobeat is more than just music. It’s a movement. It’s about politics, economics, social welfare, culture, anti-corruption – all of that and more besides in musical form. I grew up believing in good old African values set by my father: hard work, equality and freedom. I am never led by money or headlines grabbing regardless”. More than anything Seun wants the youths and followers alike to always do what makes them feel better about themselves. “You have to love what you do in other to be successful, he opined.
“What I want is for young people in Africa to believe in Africa, to come together for Africa. It’s horrible to hear about these stories of Migrants dying like mammals in the seas. African migrants in particular escaping to Europe with all the risks involved to come and build Europe more than anything else”. Seun is a strong contender for the angriest musician on the planet. He still rages and talk wildly and utter profanities profusely on stage like his father. And he brought it on full throttle to the Ronnie Scott’s show. And the audience approved at every word. Once he was known for colourful costume trousers and funky boots just like his father, that were just as wild as his music, and a lifestyle of wide-eyed partying that rivalled any rock band in the western world. Seun (Angry) “I am just like you yeah! You are a journalist/reporter, observing, looking for breaking news and highlighting and analysing news worthy stuff and then put pen-to-paper. As a musician singer/songwriter I put the message out there in my lyrics to raise awareness about the untruth and the s**t propagandas politicians and big businesses do in Africa and if truth be told in the UK and the US put out there too”.
“The vision of the Afrobeat movement is to challenge the way people think about the mainstream news they read by offering them different, wholesome and productive perspectives”. Seun believes that no matter what you do or who you are, you have to give back and his way of giving back is to educate the people, be it in Africa. UK or far-flung Australia. “We become teachers to the masses via our music-words. We’ve definitely been affected and continue to be affected by a lot of s**t in the world at the moment. I feel more comfortable in telling it as it is. We deliberately set out to challenge the governments in Africa for their ill-treatment of their citizens, however, we note and deliberately set out to challenge global perceptions of Africa and its people, because we recognise that Africa is misrepresented and underrepresented in global affairs and in global media because its stories continues to be largely told by the non-Africans who have never lived and research the continent properly. Africans are very resilient. What I want to do as a number one priority is to show young transnational Africans that their homeland is beautiful”.
“Yes, there is poverty-stricken people in Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia and England. Yes, there are Somalia’s that are struggling. F***k it. That story has been written in Western newspapers and broadcast on BBC-TV and Radio and American TV, over and over. It’s about time we talk about Africa’s growth rates. The economy may not be at a galloping pace, but they are surely better than those of many other regions of the world. Africa is going through remarkable changes. I challenge you to print this. We aim to educate the masses that there are different ways of taking in the news - more productive rather than the negative sensationalism news that is delivered currently in the western mainstream”.
There’s no doubt that SEUN KUTI & EGYPT 80 is one of the guiding voices of Nigeria’s and indeed Africa’s contemporary instrumental music scene. They are a band that deftly searches for untracked and thrilling musical spaces to occupy. But will Fela Kuti not turn in his grave if he is aware that his almighty radical youngest son (inheritor to the throne) performed at a mainstream/British establishment music venue – an avant-garde venue - welcoming the Mothership radical son to planet Ronnie Scott? Oh JMJ!
This Liverpool university music graduate, described as ‘frighteningly intelligent’ said: “This is not just about music, I reiterate. Everything I write is personal. Topical lyricism. I’ve got to feel something, fundamentally, I’ve to have something to say. I have to have experienced it before I go down that road to that stage, any stage for that matter to perform live". “People always ask, what’s the difference between Western audiences and audiences in Africa? I always say it’s not about the country. It is about the venue. I believe my father will part me on the back”.
Seun first began performing with Egypt 80 at the age of nine, warming up audiences in Africa, UK and North America included with performances of his father’s songs. Though, Fela Kuti passed away over twenty years ago, his Afrobeat vibration is unbelievable booming as never before, thanks a lot to Seun and his brother Femi Kuti. Seun was 15 when he lay to rest his father in Lagos-Nigeria and also took over his band at age 15. His half-brother Femi was 20 years older, had already established a distinctive musical path of his own, but over the past 13 years Seun has cut his own unique musical path, incorporating contemporary influences into the traditional Afrobeat approach. And the older guys in the band (average age 60) help keep his ego in check. “The one thing I am is very humble. This is not the be-all and end it all. I still have a lot of work to do and that keeps me grounded”.
Grounded, perhaps, but unquestionably on the way up. Regrettably Seun finds himself challenging many of the same injustices his father battled in his glory days, from corporate self-indulgence chiefs to pugnacious leaders to the ever-futile battle on corruption and human rights.
Overture: Idris Khan’s figurative translation of language
Idris Khan presents his upcoming solo exhibition Overture, revealing further interrogation of language through his practice.
London based artist Idris Khan exhibits in New York this September with some ambitious and exciting new work. Khan uses photography and digital images in his work but does not consider himself a photographer. He repeatedly layers these images, often text, to create a new piece, which is distanced from the original through the process of abstraction.
One of his more known work involved scanning every page of the Qur’an and layering the text into an image, bringing a figurative element to the writing while remaining almost readable.
Khan’s work reaches for a new perspective or a re-appropriation of an already existing visual cultural significance; he explores and interrogates language by working with text in this way. His work simultaneously addresses society’s shift on how photography as a medium is used. Khan has previously encountered the work of two German photographers and closely duplicated their photos, giving the new images new context and meaning. With the widespread use of smart phones as a photographic instrument documenting culture, the question of amateur/professional continues and images are easily available for hijack.
In his upcoming exhibition there is set to be a large-scale sculpture using panes of glass to overlap layers of text, casting an image onto the gallery wall. Khan will be exhibiting a wall drawing derived from what is cast by the glass, adding a performative element to an already complex multimedia body of work.
Overture Is opening at Sean Kelly Gallery, New York on 10 September 2015 running until 24 October 2015.
Idris Khan at Sean Kelly Gallery
‘Internet Recycling’: From Screen to Reality
Translating data into design, artists Rachel de Joode, Katja Novitskova, Julia Crabtree, and William Evans offer a new perspective on icons and images familiar to the majority in the developed and developing world alike.
Translating data into design, artists Rachel de Joode, Katja Novitskova, Julia Crabtree, and William Evans offer a new perspective on icons and images familiar to the majority in the developed and developing world alike.
It is only when taken out of context that one realises the mild absurdity of scroll bars, stock photos, and 2D web ‘pages’. First selecting images from the screen, rendering them tangible, and then exhibiting them as art objects, these four artists challenge viewers to question the ‘normality’ of things we have grown accustomed to seeing in their traditional two dimensions.
Hailing from Berlin, Dutch-born artist Rachel de Joode uniquely interprets online paraphernalia most notably in some of her earlier works, such as The Imaginary Order (2012); a performance piece exploring the border between the physical and the imaginary, the artist utilised a physical rendering of Google’s instantly recognisable search page through which a woman peered intensely, licking the page and contorting strangely at times in what seem to be efforts to push herself through it.
Illustrating the impenetrable divide between man’s often fictional online persona and his ‘true’ physical being, de Joode’s work can only have increased in relevance when considered in light of the rise of social media and the smart phone since the works conception, phenomena that has resulted in an unprecedented surge of people turning the camera upon themselves, projecting desirable ideas of their lifestyle and appearance for their online ‘followers’ to contemplate and envy via a plethora of platforms.
Using photographs to make sculptures (and vice versa) in her most recent work, de Joode has developed her study of dimensions, creating absurd and unusual objects that continue to blur the boundaries between 2 and 3D.
Featured as part of the playfully titled ‘#nostalgia’ group show, Katja Novitskova’s 2014 performance of text and image at CCA Glasgow (available to read and view on her website) is a wonderfully sharp satirical monologue based on a generic stock image representing ‘growth’.
With special focus on the jargon typically associated with business practises that involve technology and globalisation, Novitskova’s monologue highlights the vague and mildly Sisyphean aspects of the financial and technological modern world, distorting the image’s original intended meaning and purpose.
Ideas that the growth arrow signifies have recurred in her work since ‘#nostalgia’, notably in 2014 installation ‘Pattern of Activation’ – modelled out of semi-translucent polyurethane, Novitskova transforms the arrow into a tangible 3D object, juxtaposed alongside a startlingly ‘real looking’ image of an albino stallion, a digital print also originally sourced from the world wide web. Visually representing of the effects of man’s demographic and technological advancement on our planet’s ever-increasing extinction rate, ‘Pattern of Activation’ exemplifies Novitskova’s unique awareness and dexterity as an artist.
‘Antonio Bay’ is Julia Crabtree and William Evans’ most recent exhibition, the result of a continued examination by the artists on the relationship between the body and the screen. A product of their time as the Nina Stewart Artists-in-Residence in the SLG’s Outset Artists Flat, ‘Antonio Bay’ was shown at the South London Gallery in 2014, occupying the first floor with curious and immersive abstract shapes and textures.
Unlike Novitskova and de Joode, Crabtree and Evans’ work is not directly linked to the internet: in their attempts to investigate the imagery of our collective conscious, the artists focus instead on ‘the high artifice of B-movies’ and ‘the spatial logic of cartoon physics’, rendering their own interpretation of these things in physical form.
2D transformed into 3D, viewers were given the opportunity to contemplate previously flat ‘horizon lines’ sculpted into thick, undulating structures; in a mind-bending materialisation, an image of theatrical atmospheric smoke was flattened onto carpet, simultaneously indistinguishable and distinguishable, tangible and yet as impenetrable as it would be on screen.
Crabtree and Evans have worked collaboratively in an experiment in shared subjectivity over the past nine years; their most recent endeavour as part of group show ‘Back to the Things Themselves’ recently exhibited in new London artist-run space Assembly Point was a continuation in their exploration of the boundary between virtual and real spaces, involving the playful manipulation of interfaces, objects and imagery into placeless, immersive scenarios.
The human race is hurtling toward a dystopian and mechanised future at an alarming rate - as our reliance on screens and the internet increases, all aspects of life, including the way we communicate, look, and eat are changing at a rate incomparable to any other period in history.
With some of the world’s most significant and memorable art movements conceived in reaction toward rapidly changing social, mechanical, and political structures, one cannot help but wonder what lies in store for the art world – if the work of the aforementioned artists is anything to go by, then perhaps it is safe to say we have seen the future, and it works!
Julia Crabtree and William Evans
A Gentle Misinterpretation, curated by Andrew Nicholls
INTERVIEW: Andrew Nicholls delves deep into the ‘Chinoiserie’ culture in his curating of ‘A Gentle Misinterpretation’ which discusses the impact and influence of appropriated Asian cultures in art.
Andrew Nicholls’ latest collaborative project, entitled ‘A Gentle Misinterpretation’, brings together a group of Australian artists for two separate exhibitions at the Brighton Royal Pavilion inspired by the cultural effect and meaning behind the ‘Chinoiserie ‘ tradition from the 17th century, up until the 1920s in the Western world. The first residency took place in July and now, busy in preparations for the second residency taking place during August and plans for an exhibition in Perth next year, Andrew Nicholls answers my questions regarding the issues surrounding the ‘Chinoiserie’ culture.
How did your personal interest in a project revolving around the topic of ‘Chinoiserie’ begin to form?
This project has been in the making for 11 years, since I first visited the Royal Pavilion and fell in love with it. It’s my favourite building in the entire world, and I spent a decade waiting to find the right group of artists to take there. Last year I approached the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery with a request to undertake a group residency there, and thankfully they agreed.
However, my art practice has always been concerned by histories of decoration, and how they reflect their social context – the way that seemingly-innocuous aesthetic traditions actually grew out of quite nasty historical circumstances. British ceramics have been a major influence throughout my career – in fact, the first time I visited the Pavilion was when I was in the UK undertaking a residency at the Spode china factory in Stoke-on-Trent - and yet that entire industry was formed by appropriating techniques from Asia during the 18th century in quite an aggressive way, so the idea of cultural theft has been a major interest for a long time.
The Pavilion is the perfect symbol of all this, because it is so seductive. It is spectacular, and opulent and beautiful, and yet so many of the cultural references are so clumsy…and then at the same time it comes with all of the glamour of George IV who is remembered as one of England’s most self-indulgent, decadent, scandalous monarchs. So it is the ideal location to talk about the decadence of imperialism, and how this fed colonial expansion.
As a curator for this project, how did you go about finding or choosing appropriate artists for this residency? What qualities did you look for in the work of these artists?
I have a core group of artists I like to draw from in my freelance projects, all of whom enjoy taking inspiration from historical research, or in response to heritage sites. For this particular project I selected a number of artists from this group whose recent work has focused either on the relationship between Asia and 'the West', and the cultural and aesthetic legacies that this has inspired, or more broadly on tensions surrounding colonialism, nationalism and the crossing of national borders. The residency artists, Abdul Abdullah, Casey Ayres, Nathan Beard, David Collins, Thea Costantino, Travis Kelleher and Pilar Mata Dupont, have variously explored Eurasian identity, the experience of migrant communities in modern Australia, the marginalisation of minority groups within nationalism/colonialism, the plight of the refugee, and the legacy of colonial pillage.
Along with the eight residency artists, there are also four amazing senior Western Australian craft makers involved in the project, Sandra Black, Tanija and Graham Carr, and Marianne Penberthy, who will create works to complement the residency outcomes (in ceramics, leather and textiles, respectively). Each of these craft makers has drawn upon Asian tradition in one way or another in their works, and the objects they create will provide added opulence to the final exhibition. Given the George IV was such a significant patron of the arts, it feels appropriate to be commissioning new works by master craft-makers for this project.
You describe how ‘the sentimental’ is a ‘force driving mainstream culture’, which I find interesting. The concept of ‘Chinoiserie’ is almost the sentimentality of ‘Westerners’ between the 17th century and early 20th century for an ‘Asian’ aesthetic and culture. How do you feel this translates to artistry in our 21st century and why do you feel it is important to address this concept of ‘Chinoiserie’ now?
Chinoiserie was incredibly sentimental. It grew from an age when any international travel was difficult and dangerous, so the majority of designers, artists and writers who produced it had never been to Asia and probably had little desire to do so. Hence it was largely based on often-fanciful, second-hand accounts, and it often ended up being culturally insensitive or portraying Asian culture as primitive or brutal. But at the same time it was escapist, particularly for women who were largely tied to the domestic realm during that era. There is a lot of writing about the way that Chinoiserie provided escapism for women who would most likely never be able to travel the world themselves. From that sense it wasn’t ever really meant to be authentic in its portrayal of foreign cultures…not that that makes it alright!
In the 21st century I guess there’s a lot more movement between cultures, particularly in relation to materials and techniques, but I tend to be of the opinion that a lot of cultural content isn’t appropriate to reference. Non-Indigenous Australian artists are maybe more aware of this than most, because we sit alongside an incredibly rich legacy of Aboriginal art, that is absolutely not something we can appropriate or borrow from…but it will be a challenge with this project to walk that line between cultures.
One of the residency artists, Casey Ayres (who is of Chinese-Malay descent) compared the Pavilion to Disneyland, as he had expected the cultural references to be a little bit ‘off’, but wasn’t prepared for life-sized iridescent dragons and pillars in the form of palm trees. I think he felt there was an affinity there to his own cultural identity, but I’m not sure yet exactly what it was. He spent a lot of time filming himself in various parts of the building, so I’m excited to see what he comes up with over the next few months.
As well as being curator for this project, you yourself are a multi-disciplined artist who will exhibit work in this residency. The aesthetics of your work with paper and ceramics display an Asian influence most immediately to me, but I wonder how you feel the Asian culture or aesthetic influences your installation and photography - if at all?
In terms of my broader work, I think the Chinoiserie influence will be realized more in relation to decadence and luxury the movement represented, rather than a specific Asian influence. During the first residency in early July I filmed a model in the Pavilion who was meant to represent a sort of spectre of Regency decadence, mixed with a character from William Beckford’s Vathek, (an incredibly lurid Orientalist-Gothic novel set in a mythical version of Saudi Arabia). I’ve challenged a composer I work with, Ewan Jansen, to write some Regency-inspired music for it that somehow points to a kitschy ‘Orientalist’ influence. I’m not sure how that will work out, or if it’s even possible to make it clear that the cultural appropriation is ironic. Probably it’s not, and we’ll have to abandon the idea, but that failure in itself may trigger something interesting.
A Gentle Misinterpretation. Australian Artists and Chinoiserie - Opening in 2017
The von Bartha gallery hosts Bernhard Luginbühl and friends
The works of one of Switzerland’s best known sculptors, and a few of his fellow contemporaries are erected in all their glory at the von Bartha gallery.
The works of one of Switzerland’s best known sculptors, and a few of his fellow contemporaries are erected in all their glory at the von Bartha gallery.
If you live in Zürich, there’s probably no doubt that you’ve heard of Bernhard Luginbühl. And if you’ve walked down Mythenquai road you definitely would have seen De Grosse Giraffe (1969) – a great iron sculpture, with its magnificent curved beam looming over Zürich like a watchful sentry.
The sculptures of Bernhard Luginbühl (1929 – 2011) can be seen erected not only in Zürich, but in Hamburg and Muttenz too. He was an expert craftsman – who had a particular penchant for producing sculptures from scrap metal. Aside from Eduardo Chillida, he was one of the first to pioneer the iron sculpture from the 1950s, which is arguably what raised him to prominence in the art world.
A large portion of his earlier work no longer exists – due to Luginbühl destroying or burning some of them. This ‘creative arsony’ rekindled itself in his later work, from the mid 1970s, where he burned several of his wooden structures in ceremonious artistic fashion.
But of particular note were his fascinating collaborations with contemporaries Dieter Roth, Jean Tinguely and Aflred Hofkunst, who feature in this upcoming exhibition. Sculptures like HAUS (1979-94) are comprised of iron and wood, brushes and bone – showcasing his playful yet masterful ability to combine media into something to marvel at.
While some of the collaborative sculptures such as Schluckuck (1978 – 1979) look like condensed, complicated rube-goldberg machines, the exhibition displays some of his solo works too. Expect to witness his ink drawings as well as the fantastically mechanical, yet abstract Kleine Kulturkarrette II (1975) – which is more than just a colourful cabinet on wheels.
Bernhard Luginbühl and Friends will run from 4th September – 24th October 2015 and the preview will be on September 4 from 5-8pm.
Address:
von Bartha, Kannenfeldplatz 6,
4056, Basel, Switzerland
Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Friday 2-6pm, Saturday 11am – 4pm or by appointment.
Tetsumi Kudo at Hauser & Wirth London
A seminal figure in Tokyo’s Anti-Art movement in the late 1950’s, multidisciplinary artist Tetsumi Kudo (1935 – 1990) left behind a lasting legacy: this autumn, Hauser & Wirth London will host an exhibition of his works, marking 25 years since his passing.
A seminal figure in Tokyo’s Anti-Art movement in the late 1950’s, multidisciplinary artist Tetsumi Kudo (1935 – 1990) left behind a lasting legacy: this autumn, Hauser & Wirth London will host an exhibition of his works, marking 25 years since his passing.
The exhibition will present a selection of work dating from the first ten years that Kudo spent in Paris (1963 – 1972), following the completion of his studies at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts in 1958.
Although marginalised in North America and Europe for many years, Kudo’s influence on subsequent generations of artists has been profound and far-reaching. The artist spent the majority of his career preoccupied with the impact of nuclear catastrophe and the excess of consumer society associated with the post-war economic boom, his interest in these topics intensified upon his exposure to the European intellectual scene.
Developed in the context of post-war Japan and France, Kudo’s practice, which encompasses sculpture, installation and performance-based work, is dominated by a sense of disillusionment with the modern world – its blind faith in progress, technological advancement, and humanist ideals.
Consisting of a die enlarged to over 3.5 square metres with a small circular door allowing the viewer to climb into the dark interior lit with UV light, ‘Garden of the Metamorphosis in the Space Capsule’ will form the exhibition’s focal point, shown alongside examples from his cube and dome series.
In his cube series, small boxes contain decaying cocoons and shells revealing half-living forms – often replica limbs, detached phalli or papier-mâché organs – that merge with man-made items. These sculptures were intended as a comment on the individualistic outlook and eager adoption of mass-production which he found to be prevalent in Europe.
Kudo’s dome works appear as futuristic terrariums: perspex spheres fed by circuit boards or batteries house artificial plant life, soil, and radioactive detritus. What is being cultivated in these mini eco-systems is a grotesque, decomposing fusion of the biological and mechanical, illustrating Kudo’s feeling that with the pollution of nature comes the decomposition of humanity.
The simultaneously political, yet highly aesthetic, characteristic of his sculptural work is at the centre of the contemporary oeuvre.
Tetsumi Kudo
Hauser & Wirth London, North Gallery
22 September – 21 November 2015
Opening: Monday 21 September, 6 – 8 pm
Tate Sensorium: Art for all the senses
Ever wondered what art might taste like? From the 26th August to 20th September, Tate Britain are giving you the opportunity to find out...
Richard Hamilton Interior II 1964. Purchased 1967 © The estate of Richard Hamilton
From 26 August to 20 September at Tate Britain, art is no longer just for the eyes; viewers are invited to experience sounds, smells, tastes, and physical forms inspired by selected artworks, and will also be given the opportunity to record and review their physiological responses through sophisticated measurement devices – all for free!
The Tate Sensorium is the brainchild of creative agency Flying Object, winners of this year’s prestigious IK Prize, awarded annually for an idea that uses innovative technology to enable the public to discover, explore and enjoy British art from the Tate collection in new ways.
The exhibition is set to feature four twentieth century British paintings from Tate’s collection of art. Flying Object and their team of collaborators have selected works by Richard Hamilton, John Latham, Francis Bacon and David Bomberg that play with abstraction in different ways, all of which can be appreciated sensually in terms of their subject matter, use of shape, form, colour, style and one’s own imagination.
With some of Flying Object’s collaborators including audio specialist Nick Ryan, master chocolatier Paul A Young, scent expert Odette Toilette, interactive theatre maker Annette Mees, and lighting designer Cis O’Boyle, the Tate Sensorium promises to be a uniquely immersive experience – definitely not one to be missed!
26 August – 20 September 2015
Tate Britain, gallery 34
All images © www.tate.org.uk/sensorium
#TateSensorium
Justin Vernon returns with his very own Music and Arts Festival | Eaux Claires 2015
If there had to be one man who’s successfully captured the essence of a gruelling bitter heartache and put it into song, then it’s Bon Iver’s front man Justin Vernon.
If there had to be one man who’s successfully captured the essence of a gruelling bitter heartache and put it into song, then it’s Bon Iver’s front man Justin Vernon.
Image via Eaux Claires
And four seemingly quiet years later he’s returned, bursting with high–held visions that speak to a man and a mind that was never quite done with playing in the woods of Eau Claire. This July marked the first Eaux Claire Music and Arts Festival and for those lucky enough to have nabbed a ticket, Vernon secured quite the line up. Among them, Sylvan Esso, The Tallest Man on Earth, Spoon, Sufjan Stevens, Francis and the Lights, Liturgy, the National and the much-anticipated return of Bon Iver.
When Justin took to burying his past in the snow-covered woods of Eau Claire, the result was a desolating infusion of guitar chords and soul destroying-ly beautiful lyrics. So much so that it came as no surprise when a friend mistook Vernon’s song writing for no more than a sympathy calling, feverish attempt to lure us deep into the cracks of a gut wrenching, stab in the heart Bridget Jones kinda break up. But delve in a little closer and you will discover something quite the opposite. In just two albums, Justin Vernon showed an astounding ability to take us on a journey of heartbreak, bitter resentment and ultimately hope, reaching far beyond the soppy I need wine calling love song and very quickly turning into an indie folk prodigy.
Friday at Flambeaux, Hiss Golden Messenger. Photo by: Zoe Prinds-Flash Photography
Bon Iver’s first album in 2008 For Emma, Forever ago effortlessly captured Vernon’s bitter heart-ache in a string of dark, subdued songs, absent mindedly sung and backed only by the bare strings of his acoustic guitar. In The Wolves (Act I and II) Vernon layers his vocals to project anguish, climaxing with an electrifying, soul infused clashing of chords that are quickly counterbalanced by the familiar undertones of his soft guitar strumming | ‘Someday my pain will mark you’ | he utters. And then there are other more fragile tracks like Re Stacks; so reassuringly simple but indicative of a man’s ability to use his own, pure voice to take comfort in his troubles and serving to remind us that we are all human, after all. ‘To me, it is not about getting over things and moving forward, it is about going through the sadness, taking some of it with you and being made whole because of it’.
Bon Iver. Photo by: Graham Tolbert
Bon Iver’s self titled album in 2011 marked a turning point in Vernon’s life and his first foray into multi tracking, transforming his music into something so alive that you could almost feel Justin emerging from his cabin in the woods, soaking up the joys of spring in the rich pulsating guitar melody that introduces ‘Towers’ and the blissfully potent humming that features in the one and a half minute track ‘Lisbon’.
As Vernon explained, this festival was designed to melt away the music-genre-walls that we have become so accustomed to and to create an experience that goes far beyond any ordinary festival and boy, he delivered. In a setting sat very close to Vernon’s heart, Eaux Claire bragged an impressive roster of musicians, actors, filmmakers and visual artists, reveling as one to unite in a collision of artistic forces, on a stage unique to its own and in the comfort of Vernon’s very own home, Eau Claire.
Eaux Claires Festival July 17 – 18, WI | eauxclaires.com
Ai Weiwei – Creating Under Imminent Threat
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is as well known for his art as for his activism. A steadfast critic of the Chinese government, Ai has been denied a passport for over four years and has been unable to leave or exhibit work in his native country.
Photograph by Harry Pearce Pentagram 2015
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is as well known for his art as for his activism.
A steadfast critic of the Chinese government, Ai has been denied a passport for over four years and has been unable to leave or exhibit work in his native country.
Recently Weiwei posted a photograph online of him holding up his newly returned passport and announced that he has also been granted an extended six-month visa to visit the UK, which he will coordinate with his Royal Academy retrospective.
On the 19th of September 2015, The Royal Academy will host the first major retrospective of his work, showing works from his entire oeuvre. From the smashing of a Han Dynasty vase (which will appear in the show), to the poignant critique of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that killed over 5,000 Chinese children, Weiwei’s work is bold, controversial and unforgiving.
All the works in this show have all been created since 1993, the date when Weiwei returned to his native China from America. This exhibition will show works that have never before been seen in this country, and many have been created specifically for this venue, Weiwei navigating the space digitally from China.
Often labeled as an activist or a political artist, this social conscience is what has influenced most of his works to date. Living under constant imminent threat from those with absolute authority, Weiwei’s work is created out of adversity and struggle. His oppressors are ones who are able to work above and therefore outside the law, and for that reason his struggle is a very real one. Despite this, Weiwei will not be defeated, and continues to critique the government and its actions towards the Citizens of his beloved China.
In a career spanning over three decades, his hand has also been turned to: activism, architecture, publishing, and curation, in a tour de force of creative activity. The artist worked alongside Herzog & de Meuron (the same company to design the Tate Modern in 1995) to design the 2008 Beijing National Olympic Stadium (commonly known as the Birdsnest). This project was born from a building Ai designed nine years before, when he needed a new studio, and decided to simply build it himself.
This confident disregard for convention is the attitude with which he approaches all of his work, and it has gained him many critics. The most notable of which being the Chinese government themselves, who have arrested him, seized his assets, terrified his wife and child, tracked him daily, tapped his phones, and rescinded his passport.
Perhaps most well known for his Sunflower Seeds artwork, in which he filled Tate Modern's Turbine Hall with 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds. Each seed was hand crafted and painted by hundreds of Chinese citizens from the city of Jingdezhen, in a process that took many years. Visitors to the show were overwhelmed to see the vast expanse of seeds, and were originally invited to walk and sit upon them, interacting with the work in a way in which we are rarely allowed to. (For safety reasons this was later disallowed)
The sunflower seeds appeared uniform but upon close inspection revealed themselves to be minutely unique, created using centuries-old techniques that have been passed down through generations.
In the Chinese culture sunflowers are extremely important, Chairman Mao would use the symbology of the sunflower to depict his leadership, himself being the sun, whilst those loyal to his cause were the sunflowers. In Weiwei’s opinion, sunflowers supported the whole revolution, both spiritually and materially. In this artwork, Weiwei supported an entire village for years, as well as creating something that promotes an interesting dialogue about the very culture that created it.
Weiwei’s work is about people, about the often nameless many who are oppressed or ignored. It is about justice for those who have been abandoned or neglected by those who are there to protect them, and it is most primarily about their basic human rights.
It is tragically ironic that those human rights that he has worked so tirelessly to protect for others are those denied him by his own government.
The Royal Academy has turned to Crowdfunding to help raise £100,000 to bring the centerpiece of the exhibition to Britain. Weiwei’s reconstituted Trees will sit in the exterior courtyard and be free to view for all. The campaign has just over a week left and still needs to raise just over 25% of its target.
Get involved here
The show will be on between
September 19th – December 13th 2015
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD
All images courtesy of Royal Academy
Behind the Lens: Simon Butterworth
An insight into the life and work of award winning photographer Simon Butterworth.
Winning first, second, and third place respectively in categories including Professional Aerial Photography and Professional Nature Category in the 2014 International Photography Awards, and shortlisted in the Landscape category for this year’s Sony World Photography Awards, Simon Butterworth is a force in the world of photography who really needs no introduction.
With projects including a lengthy study of his childhood home in ‘Searching for Yorkshire’ and an exploration of the human cost behind Shanghai’s rapid modernisation and development in ‘Domicide Shanghai’, there seems to be no landscape too big, small, desolate or distant to escape Butterworth’s discerning eye; we got in contact to find out a little bit more about the man behind the lens.
B: When did you first pick up a camera, and what initially inspired you to become a landscape photographer?
SB: A love of the great outdoors is in my blood. My father and grandfather were both keen outdoorsmen. From an early age I was taken on long hikes in the English countryside, particularly the Peak District and Lake District. I admit that sometimes my participation was reluctant, but nevertheless I absorbed the atmosphere and grew to love the mental and physical freedom a day in the hills gives.
As an adult much of my holiday times became devoted to exploring the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. It was a dream come true when I relocated north of the border fifteen years ago. I now had the opportunity to visit the most remote parts of Britain at all times of the year...this was the catalyst for buying my first camera. It wasn't long before the focus of my trips into the wilderness was to take photographs rather than climb as many mountains as possible. At first I was satisfied with gathering images of majestic Highland scenes in glorious light, but my ambitions soon became more sophisticated. I discovered the camera was the perfect tool to pose important questions about how we live and what we do to the planet we live on. Since then, much of my time behind the camera has been spent looking at social and environmental issues as well as capturing the beauty of the natural world.
B: Your projects have taken you to various stunning locations all over the world; is there anywhere you have particularly enjoyed photographing?
SB: I am particularly fired up by Hong Kong at the moment. Hong Kong is the city of the future - but happening now! It's a place of huge contrast, high density living at its most extreme with a backdrop of jungle clad mountains and island studded seas, a mind blowing visual mix. It's also nice to work there, you can get around easily and it's safe. I like to work alone, so personal safety is a big issue. To absorb a location and get under its skin you need time to stand and stare without constantly looking over your shoulder. Also, I can work in short trousers - don't underestimate how utterly wonderful that feels after enduring a Scottish winter!
B: It has recently been postulated that “photography is the most essential task of art in the current time”; please comment on this idea, and how you feel about it in relation to your own work.
SB: As a photographer whose work contains a large element of social documentary I agree completely. The world around us needs recording, not just big physical things but also the small things, things that are important to individuals. Photographers train themselves to observe the world in a special way, searching for motivations and drivers that can ultimately shape society. These things aren't always apparent or easy to see at the time but with hindsight become vital to our understanding of who and what we are.
B: Please give us a little insight into the general process of choosing a location to photograph, and how you go about deciding what projects to undertake.
SB: The decision to commit to a photo project is a big one. The kind of questions I ask myself before embarking on something which could quite literally occupy me for years are...
Has this idea been covered by someone else?
Can I afford the necessary equipment?
Do I have the resources to get the shots I need?
Does it interest me sufficiently to spend the time necessary to complete it?
Is the end result going to be interesting to other people?
Is pursuing this idea going to end in divorce from my partner Lauren?
Am I going to be able to negotiate access for the shots I need?
Is it going to entail risking death or serious injury?
Ideally a project can be slotted into everyday life, as with the Yorkshire series. This was a double plus for me, it not only provided the motivation to visit my family, it gave me good outdoor exercise when I got there!
B: Have you got any projects in the works at the moment? Is there anywhere in particular you have yet to photograph that you feel would make for particularly interesting/compelling subject matter?
SB: It's important for my motivation that I have several projects on the go at any one time. At least one of these must be local to where I live and be something that I can pursue in free moments at home, ideally it should also provide some serious exercise (I hate going to the gym but like to keep reasonably fit) - as with the Full Circle project, I walked many, many miles looking for circular sheep folds!
This time next week I will be in Hong Kong following some ideas I've been working on for shooting various aspects of high rise, high density living. I can't wait to get my short trousers on after the wettest 'summer' of all time in Scotland! Later in the year I want to revisit India to follow up on a trip I did eighteen months ago. India really got under my skin in a big way, sensory overload hardly describes the assault on your mind and body that this amazing country provides 24/7.
All images © Simon Butterworth
We interview the CEO of FutureEverything Drew Hemment
A 20-year ‘art project’: Drew Hemment’s journey through digital art and innovation with FutureEverything leads him to Singapore.
A 20-year ‘art project’: Drew Hemment’s journey through digital art and innovation with FutureEverything leads him to Singapore
The FutureEverything festival began 20 years ago in Manchester as a hub for digital collaboration and innovation in the arts. This September, the festival lands in ‘the city of the future’, Singapore, ready to blow minds and challenge perceptions of digital art. FutureEverything CEO, Drew Hemment, discusses the implications of our ever-expanding digital culture surrounding the arts.
FutureEverything. Credit WeAreTape
How did you find your way into digital art and what led you to transition to focus more on curating it in a large festival setting?
I came across Internet art in the early 1990s, when I spoke at and helped organise the Virtual Futures conferences. Before that in the 1980s I got fascinated by networks when I was DJing and organising acid house parties. I set up the festival in 1995. I’d hung up the decks in ‘92 and in ‘95 I ditched the literary agent and book deal and threw myself into festival curation full time.
This was an incredibly creative moment but there was nowhere people could come together. I wanted there to be an event that was about new work and practice as well as ideas. In secret, the festival itself has always been an art project to me, or at least an arts enquiry.
It seems to me that digital art is a lot more accessible for members of the 21st century public than more traditional or current experimental art forms. What is it about digital art that makes it more accessible and do you think its accessibility promotes or encourages accessibility in other artistic mediums?
Accessibility is a good thing, but it can also be a ruse. Many digital artists working today consume and replay interaction forms and images that saturate our lives, through advertising, social media etc. So digital art can be instantly familiar and accessible, in the same way pop art was before it. Any sense of a single ‘thing’ called digital art is decisively over. I am mostly interested in art, and design, which asks questions about the underlying codes that makes changes, leaving the world and the audience different to how it found them.
How do you focus on encouraging digital art and culture that creates a ‘moment’ or ‘event’ in a digital world that allows for instant access to a variety of archived artistic material and ideas? In other words, how can one innovate artistically and digitally in a world that uses technology to access an infinite amount of ideas and artistic endeavours?
We can access everything instantly; it is at our finger tips. This can create a challenge, however, because we have this overabundance of content and connectivity, people need to meet face to face. We need to focus really hard on one thing that is amazing and profound. We’ve seen music gigs explode because people need the live experience to give meaning to streaming and downloads. It’s the same in art, and ideas events, it’s a symptom of our time.
How important do you think artistic collaboration between individuals is in digital art and culture?
Collaboration, sharing and openness are central to the DNA of digital culture. People can collaborate with tens or thousands of strangers across networks to create original and beautiful media objects in which the results of individual creativity can be seen. Mobile networks enable swift and spontaneous collaboration across loosely connected groups. There are always new ways to collaborate with people from other disciplines using them as tools for new development. Having said this, collaboration does not always lead to good art. Solo practice and isolation can create exceptional things.
How has the FutureEverything festival developed since its conception to the upcoming festival in Singapore? Are you witnessing significant changes in the way technology is being used in collaboration with art?
FutureEverything Singapore does feel like something of a culmination of our journey. We have been on this 20 year rollercoaster, imagining the near future, making it and mucking around with it. Then we rock up in this city that is a city of the future, in so many ways. We have never done two festivals the same, we keep on reinventing it. In Singapore my ambition is that we hit the mark, we tap into deep and unexpected currents there and I feel like we can do something beautiful and profound.
Drew Hemment. Image courtesy FutureEverything
The work of Javier Martin holds up a mirror to society – and on occasion, the mirror is literal
Javier Martin works with paint and sculpture in a manner that explores our current social climate incorporating fashion portraiture, recognisable brands, gun violence, climate change and money.
The work of Javier Martin reaches out to you in many ways. His early painting and digital print work merges ‘iconic’ fashion imagery, taken by himself, with brand imagery and currency. The model’s eyes are covered signifying some sort of ‘blindness’ towards the subject matter Martin wishes to convey. With similar messages, Marin’s installations and sculpture takes a more minimalist route in regards to aesthetic and visual quality.
Favouring the colour white, Martin’s installations see the human form become a blank canvas – his figures, clothed fully in white from head to toe, make any signifiers of personality or identity unrecognisable: they become robotic, uniformed figures. This forces the viewer to focus upon the actions these figures engage in or the positions they are found in. For example, ‘Portrait Inverted’ sees a figure falling into, or out of, a framed white space on the wall. ‘Man that is born of the earth’ finds this figure with a wooden branch-like head protruding from the earth, on all fours, as if forcibly attached to the land.
Martin’s installations reflect the art onto the viewer: the art is as much about the viewer as it is about the artist or the art. Mirrors are frequently used by Martin to place the viewer in the artwork, as a central figure around which the concepts discussed revolve around. ‘Social Reflection’ sees another while figure with a mirror for a face begging for money on the street. ‘Money? Where? Money? Who? Money? I?’ finds a larger-than-life one dollar bill hanging on the wall, and where one would usually find George Washington, one discovers themselves surrounded by the ornate decoration upon the currency.
The use of material and form by Martin is clever in that it can often ‘trick’ the viewer into finding reality in a situation where there is trickery. The bending, melting and protruding of material in works such as ‘El Pacto’ or ‘Climate change of design’ creates new dimension to the work. This is to the point where the crafting of these objects so seamlessly is to be highly admired.
Whilst some of Martin’s earlier works deal with printed and painted mediums, all of his later works bring the artwork out further towards the viewer. In installation and sculptural works, this is most obvious, but even in other photographic work and painting or drawing, an effort has been made to make the work more 3-D. Martin’s ‘Print Cuts’ alter photographic material to form the figures photographed as a web of material. Keeping these images suspended away from the wall in the frame allows the light in a space to interact with this web, casting shadows. In ‘Blindness Light’, Martin attaches neon lighting to edited photographic portraits, to cover the eyes of the figure and follow various contours, playing with colour and light.
Martin’s attachment to the ‘iconic’ fashion and modelling imagery with his artistic alterations has seen him collaborate with several fashion and art-based publications, creating imagery that lends itself to the glossy printed format.
Mark Mcclure | Neatly Ordered Abstraction
Mark Mcclure is an artist who utilizes reclaimed wood to create precise geometric artworks. Check out the interview by Benjamin Murphy
Mark Mcclure is an artist who utilizes reclaimed wood to create precise geometric artworks. Using both painted and untreated woods; his works have a crisp yet raw feel that exist symbiotically to create an ordered and balanced work. Sitting somewhere between sculpture, collage, and painting, his work is best interpreted when viewed in its relation to Constructivism.
BM – You combine both old and new materials in your work. Does the history of the materials ever dictate the aesthetic of the piece?
Not really. I tend not to do things that way round. I choose the materials for their colour & texture - in the same way a painter might choose from a selection of paints or charcoals. Texture, colour, and any remnants of past use - all contribute to a pretty broad palette. If I’m after specific textures or remnants to use - then I might stain the wood to adjust the colours slightly - but the history of materials never really takes priority.
BM – There is a conflict between form and functionality, which do you think takes precedent?
It’s interesting that you’ve preloaded the question suggesting that form and function are independent of each other. To me it’s all a sliding scale depending upon the context of a piece.
If I’m creating a wooden mural then it would automatically adopt the function of a wall surface - whilst also being an artwork. If I put a hinged door in a sculpture - it becomes a cupboard of sorts. It might be a bloody expensive & abstract cupboard - but it’s still got the potential to be a cupboard. It’s down to the context of the artwork - who owns it, how they perceive it, probably how much they paid for it as well.
BM – You have mentioned to me before that you would identify yourself as a constructivist. The Constructivists believed that the true goal was to make mass-produced objects. Your work is very hands-on, how would you feel about others making it for you?
The Constructivists had their own in-fights over the ideas of mass production. The likes of Rodchenko straddled the worlds of art & design - whilst others such as Naum Gabo believed in a purer approach that didn’t cross over into function. For me that goes back to the sliding scale & context of the artwork.
But mass production is a different beast to having other people involved in making artworks. The Uphoarding wall I created at the Olympic Park last year involved up to about 10 different people over a 10 month period - and in the future I’ll make artworks in materials I will never have time to master myself - concrete, metal etc. - So it’s inevitable that others will end up producing some of my work.
BM – Would it still feel like your artworks if you didn’t get your hands dirty?
Yes - but without the emotional attachment that comes from being so involved at every step - an attachment that probably stems from the craft side of things. They’d be put on a different shelf in my mind - but they’d still be mine.
BM – What makes the Constructivists artists as opposed to craftsmen?
Many of them were craftsmen - in that they strived to be masters of their materials - producing clothing, design objects etc. with a view to targeting a consumer market. Others had less tangible, idealistic aims - challenging or celebrating aspects of the world they lived in - expressing feeling and emotion etc. and I guess that’s what makes them artists.
BM – The Constructivists’s aim was to make artworks that force the viewer to become an ‘active viewer’, how interactive is your work and do you intend for it to be touched?
Interaction is really important and working in such tactile materials has meant that it’s hard not to touch a lot of my work - which is totally cool. I love the idea of artworks in galleries being more playful and interactive - though interaction doesn’t always have to involve touch. This is something I’m going to play with more this year…. some exciting ideas on the cards.
BM – When you clad the floor or a wall, do you see this as a two-dimensional or a three dimensional piece?
2 dimensions. I’m not too sure where the tipping point is - probably somewhere around 4 inches thick.
BM – Is collage then 2D or 3D? Would you say your work is a type of collage?
Potentially both - can we invent dimensional fractions here & now? 2.3 dimensions? I wouldn’t say my work right now is collage… though it has been. Collage to me is more layer upon layer than piece by piece - and involves a lot more glue.
BM – What exciting future projects are you working on?
A nice mix right now - a large bespoke floor and a few other fun pieces towards the ‘function’ end of that sliding scale we mentioned earlier - and also some new artworks for exhibitions & fairs over the summer. I’m also exploring some materials to add a new aspect to my work later this year. Some busy & exciting months ahead.
More of Mark’s work can be seen online at www.markmcclure.co.uk
Future fossils, the art legacy of the internet
With rapidly evolving technological advances, post-internet art discusses how humanity goes forward alongside machines.
With rapidly evolving technological advances, post-internet art discusses how humanity goes forward alongside machines.
Still in the process of being shaped and defined by artists, post-internet art is a movement referring to the way society interacts with the widespread use of the Internet and how this affects society and culture. A successor to internet art, post-internet refers to state of mind rather than the explicit use of the internet itself. We discuss artists working now who approach this issue by their own means.
Eno Henze explores the relationship between humans and machines, between organic and synthetic and the complexities of organic creativity. His work frequently uses machines to interpret human activity such as drawing or producing an original ‘good’ piece of art. In this respect it is difficult to assign authorship or originality to the work, made by a machine programmed by a human. The machine is capable of making a ‘perfect’ image but cannot make a judgment call on ‘good’ or ‘bad’ art. In a world where images are more available for editing and appropriating than before, this brings us back the ever debated question What is called Art and does not qualify?
Henze’s work asks what the rapid evolution of technology means for human creativity leading us to question what will become obsolete in the future as technological advances are made. Will human creativity become to digital drawing as analogue photography has become to digital?
TIMELAPSE/(MNEMOSYNE)
Set Design for a ballet by David Dawson
RANDOMCONDITION(ARABIDOPSIS)
Dimensions variable (ca 6 x 3 x 0,5 m)
48m laser-exposed photo paper
Wall mount: wood / aluminum
TSCHERENKOWS TRAUM (Cerenkovs Dream)
Technological objet trouvé with 4 Led Panels, power adaptor and image processor.
Approx. 5 x 1 x 1 m.
Amy Brener creates sculptures using plastic and remnants of technology to create light sensitive sculptures reminiscent of natural geological rock and crystal formations. Laptops, phones and computers, the tools we use to access the internet, are quickly made obsolete with rapid advances in hardware and buyer preferences in our current consumer culture, going quickly from the most connected and important object in one’s life to a antiquated piece of plastic and metal.
The materials used in Brener’s work subtly combine many components of these machines into human height crystals, which suggest an imagined future and allude to the merging of nature, humans and technology. Perhaps this realizes a now, eerily more precise vision of prophetic 20th century science fiction films.
However, though many artists are making work about the ongoing and always changing overlap of human and machine, Flavie Audi’s work completely moves away from the cyber connection and comes back to direct connections with objects. Audi uses glass and light in her work to create experiences in which humans can form a relationship with materials. Her art is about making a space for this to happen because, in a world of industrial production and virtual realities, she believes that humans have a desire to return to materiality.
If this is the case, it would appear that we have made a journey full circle. In the early boom of consumer capitalism the more objects one owned the higher status they had in society. More recently there is an attempt to escape this consumer culture; the word materialistic has become negative. It is therefore, somewhat alien to hear Audi talk about humans desire to return to materiality, due to the evolution of the word. Though, the use of this word does not imply that humans’ deepest desire is to own the latest sound system but that they wish to have a physical connection with an object in a space away from digital tools, and this is what her work aims to do. It is about creating social emancipation from technology.
Post-internet art has a self awareness of the networks it exists within, including influences of imagery that is for profit, advertising and merchandising, because of this aspects of design will continue to cross over into art that concerns itself with the virtual. The term post-internet is still developing but these artists approach the themes it encompasses in ways that independently question where the progression of technology will lead us, whether we should be allowing it, resisting it or if we have no choice at all. Whatever we should be doing, humanity is so entrenched in the virtual world, it seems certain that there is a long way to go before the Internet and it’s accompanying state of mind could ever become history.
An Interview with Ethiopian-American singer Meklit Hadero
Here comes a delightful music superstar with substance - simply known as Meklit.
Here comes a delightful music superstar with substance - simply known as Meklit
I’ll admit, I didn’t get Meklit Hadero, the Ethiopian-born, San Francisco-based singer and songwriter when she burst onto the music scene some six years ago. But then one of her songs from her most innovative album to date, “We Are Alive” (Six Degrees Records), implanted in my brain. (The title track, ‘We Are Alive,’ with Meklit’s silky voice floating effortlessly above the guitar-driven song) quaked my foundation and my girl crush was born. As a-matter-of-fact I love the raw ambition of the “We Are Alive” album – the preposterousness, the simplicity and also the fundamental intelligence. But, witnessing her live-in-concert was mind-blowing. Meklit Hadero is the business. She performed songs from her second solo full length album to a packed audience and critics alike at Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank, London. This singer, musician, and cultural activist simply known as Meklit took us on a musical odyssey of Ethiopian traditional tunes and more besides: American-Jazz, Hip Hop, street-level Jazz, Rock, East African Folk and Ethiopian classics - the lyricist practice of her auditory mother country.
Born in Ethiopia, from Ethiopian parents, she feels deeply African and deeply American and her records are deeply inspired by Mulatu Astatke, the Godfather of Ethio-Jazz. Her work builds upon the concepts pioneered by Astatke as part of the late 60s and early 70s Golden Age of Ethiopian music. Taking these principal elements of her heritage as introductory building blocks, she explores the cultural dreams happening as part of the arrival of the Ethiopian Migration en masse to North America. In spite of this, it must be celebrated that this artist's voice makes for compelling listening. Her performance on stage makes for compelling seeing. Her voice is earthy and soulful, supple and freed, and exudes all four. If champagne were a person it would be Meklit Hadero. She is stunning. In an alternate life, one where talent was spread out differently, this is the kind of music I would like to make. It’s subtle, contemporary and one of its kind, while being massively emotional. Oh well, fair enough! What is more? There’s more to this woman. We also find this touring performer, and a political science Yale University graduate, is a committed activist extraordinaire.
In 2011 she launched the UN Women's campaign for gender equality in Africa, and co-founded the “Nile Project” with dear friend Mina Girgis, an Egyptian ethnomusicologist, with background in hospitality experience, curating and producing innovative musical collaborations across diverse styles. The Nile Project brings together artists from the eleven Nile countries that borders the River Nile, namely, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt, to make music that combines the region’s diverse instruments, languages and traditions. Meklit Hadero may not yet be your household one and you may not have heard Meklit Hadero's music before, but once you do, I promise it’ll be tough to get it out of your head.
If champagne were a person it would be you in your fizzy performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. How would you rate that performance at the Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank, London?
We had an amazing time. The UK has always been good to me, and Southbank was just wonderful. And of course having the legendary Pee Wee Ellis there (long-time musical director for James Brown) was a life highlight, especially since the funk that he helped to create was so much part of the Ethiopian tune we played together, Tiz Alegn Ye Tintu.
Where do you go in your head when performing on stage?
Well, in the best moments the “I” disappears entirely. You are consumed by the music and the sound, responding like lightning to your instincts for movement and voice, and to the band around you.
Your band was downright superb on stage. Now, have you always believed you could be successful but did not know how?
I think you have to believe in yourself like that, no matter what your vocation. But music is different because there is no definite path, especially now. Everyone in music is just making it up as they go along, and trying new things. That’s all you can do!
Is it reasonable to term your music as subtly modern and unique while being massively emotional, fierce, and brutal and a no-nonsense dagger in the heart?
Well if you describe my music that way, then I’m doing something right! I describe my music as the intersection of jazz, the singer-songwriter tradition, and Ethiopian music. I think of myself as reflecting my three sonic homelands, Addis Ababa, Brooklyn and San Francisco.
It’s a highly commercial world we live in today. Everything is a trip to profitability. Are you under pressure to produce commercial music and to put out only a money-making album?
Of course everyone is under pressure to succeed in a massive way, but I think producing for the market is tricky. If you do that, you lose what drew people to your music in the first place, which is your authentic voice in the world. I think the more deeply you go inside yourself, the more you reach the universal place that can appeal to people in a wide way. It sounds backwards, but it’s the only way to do this long-term, and I’m in for the long-term.
Wise Lady! You are involved in more than two projects. Tell us about your projects - how do you get so much done?
2015 has been so full. The Nile Project, which I co-founded with Egyptian ethnomusicologist Mina Girgis in 2011, brings together musicians from the eleven countries of the Nile Basin to learn about each other’s music, to create music together, and to bring that music to the Nile and to the world. We just finished a four month US tour, and are in the middle of our second album. What a whirlwind! After the last show, I caught a flight to the UK for a two week tour and residency, and finished off this period with a show in Zurich. I’m looking forward to spending the second half of 2015 in the Bay Area writing new music based in Ethio-Jazz.
In the last two years refugees are streaming out of your country like ants – what is your perspective on this growing humanitarian crisis? Were you a refugee at some stage?
It’s very sad…. Recently Ethiopians felt this in a huge way when 28 of our countrymen died in Libya at the hands of ISIS. They were on their way to cross the Mediterranean into Italy. There was a national mourning and a big light shone on how far people are going to search for a better life. Ethiopia has gone through a huge development leap in the last twenty years, but sadly folks are still streaming out. My cousin Teodros Teshome just made a film called Sost Maezen (Triangle) that I believe everyone should see. In it, he tells the story of a group of friends from Ethiopia and Eritrea who walk across Sudan to Libya, then take a boat to Italy, fly to Mexico, then walk to the US. It is a treacherous journey. Thousands attempt it and many die along the way. My family and I were refugees in a different sense. It was the early 80s, just after the revolution and the Red Terror in Ethiopia, and we left for East Germany, and then crossed at Check Point Charlie through Berlin. We then came to the US and spent years in a kind of limbo, adjusting to life in the US. But we were lucky. Movement takes its toll in many ways, some small and some big. Recently, we are seeing tragedy after tragedy. We are all very sad.
Back to your recent album – We Are Alive – please describe it?
We Are Alive is a collection of songs about the big arc of life, the ups and downs, the magic and the absurd, the beautiful, the danceable, and the quiet. It is the through-line of life and living that crosses all our experiences.
Recently the US R & B /hip-hop star Lauryn Hill cancelled a concert in Israel because she was banned from performing in the Palestinian territories. As one who know injustice first hand, if you were in her position, what would you have done?
I understand her position. Injustice anywhere reverberates outwards. It has also been interesting how many links are being made recently between injustices in Israel and those in the United States. For example, Ethiopians in Israel have been marching recently because of racist treatment and brutality by Israeli Police, and many have been making links to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. It’s all related.
I know you have performed in Ethiopia on more than one occasion. How does it feel performing in your birth country?
I love performing in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian people have always been so supportive of me. And it will always be home, so it’s a homecoming!
Most musicians claim that their music is inspired by heartbreak – how about you? What is your song-writing and music inspired by? Do you write all of your own songs?
I like to think that music should be inspired by the widest of possible life experiences, from heartbreak, to the birth of a child, to the natural phenomenon in the world around us. You can write a song about anything! I write about 80% of the songs I sing, but we do reinterpret some Ethiopian traditional tunes like Abay Mado and Kemekem, and the occasional pop tune, by folks like David Byrne and The Police.
People will always judge if you are good or just terrible – how do you cope?
You choose a select group of folks whose opinion you value deeply and you listen to their feedback. Beyond that, you can’t listen to what people say about you. And you have to know that you will never please everybody.
Any obsessions at the moment?
I'm always obsessed with music.... Right now Muluken Melese is on repeat. He's a classic.
How many gigs do you roughly do a year? And do you do any in African countries?
Depends on the year but generally between 25-60 gigs a year. The Nile Project has been brining me to perform regularly in the Nile Basin as well.
Who does Meklit influence?
I hope I am influencing young women, especially from Africa and the African Diaspora to find their unique voice and to sing it loud! We need more of those voices in the public dialogue, and I think we are at a tipping point where they will soon be much more present in the world sphere. I want to be there to support them!