Charles Avery alternative reality at Edinburgh Art Festival 2015
This year's Edinburgh Art Festival brings the immersive and complex conceptual world created by Charles Avery to engulf us.
This year's Edinburgh Art Festival brings the immersive and complex conceptual world created by Charles Avery to engulf us.
Edinburgh’s annual arts festival sets off 30th July, combining contemporary art exhibitions as well as those of more historic movements. Working with leading art spaces throughout the UK, the festival is a month long happening bringing us exhibitions, events and talks from a wide range of great artists including Charles Avery.
Represented by Ingleby Gallery, Avery is presenting more detailed insight into his imagined island with The People and Things of Onomatopoeia. Beginning in 2004, The Islanders series has continued to present the intricate details of his imagined land, evolving to give the audience understanding of the complexities of the inhabitants’ personalities, the nuances, habits and dislikes of groups and individuals.
Avery’s work has an element of fantasy but is not simply a flat rerun of the genre; there are many aspects of this world that mirror issues in our own society as well as introducing abstract concepts of myths and rumors as a potential reality in this universe, even if only existing as a belief by the inhabitants.
The audience experiences this through a wide multimedia approach to a kind of open-ended storytelling using a narrative text, visual imagery, sculpture and installation on a large scale, often presenting objects used by constituents or posters from the streets of Onomatopoeia. These are used as tools for the audience to interpret and contextualise this world.
To add to the incomplete or continual nature of the work, many of Avery’s sketches are unfinished, giving the feeling that the work continues to live alongside the artist. The inhabitants’ lives do not begin and end during the course of the exhibition, there is an endless scope of story to be told about this place and these people.
It is compelling to think of this fictional world as a form of escapism for both the artist and the audience, however, the complexities it inherits being no less problematic than those of our own society can be somewhat grounding, not allowing us to submit to a utopian fantasy.
In addition to this Avery is also presenting a tree from Onomatopoeia cast in bronze at Edinburgh train station as part of the festival which runs until 30th August 2015.
OUT OF AFRICA
Africa Industrial Revolution. This time the revolution will be downloaded.
London in summer is a wonderful place. With or without the heatwave. There’s a host of arts exhibitions across London this summer, offering a feast of delectable, outstanding and eye-opening events to indulge your eyes, add to your repertoire and broaden your horizon. And roomsmagazine.com have brought you quite a few, well more than a few. Here is one more to indulge in. All hail to the Tiwani Contemporary Gallery who have brought us this captivating exhibition titled: “African Industrial Revolution / the revolution will be downloadable”. Yes, you read right. I know most of you must have heard and read of – “this time the revolution will be televised”. But in keeping with the times as there’s been a complete revolution in digital technology, and people look more and more at art through the media, its apt for the artist to state that, this time, the African Industrial Revolution will be downloaded. How about that?
Francisco Vidal, 'If I'm free, it's because I'm always running no.1', 2015, oil and acrylic on recycled handmade paper, 255x255cm. ® Sylvain Deleu
Africa Industrial Revolution is a venture by the e-studio Luanda. E-studio Luanda is an international artistic collective of passionate artists resident in a studio complex founded in 2012 in the Angolan capital Luanda by four artists: Francisco Vidal, Rita GT, António Ole and Nelo Teixeira. The collective has played an influential role in developing the visual arts scene in Luanda, bringing into being regular shows and running an art education curriculum. What it means to be an artist now, even compared to 1980s, has changed so dramatically that they have redefined not just how we make art, but how we consume it. In this the collective’s first exhibition in the United Kingdom, A. I. R. exposition is a backdrop and also takes the form of an open studio within Tiwani Contemporary’s space, transforming the gallery space into a temporary artist studio where the visiting public can appreciate artist Francisco Vidal and Rita GT producing work live in-situ. Visitors can also observe the artists start up the U.topia Machine:
U.topia Machine is a 60 x 60 cm plywood box containing an all-in-one toolkit for producing work. I'd say this is what being an artist is in the 21st century. The complete exhibition at it's very best portrays artists who like to build momentum. The whole gallery is covered with art display – from top-to-bottom, windows and doors. The large scale works are all by Francisco Vidal and the posters are by Rita GT. The exhibition gives the visitors a whole new perspective on wall-to-wall arts. One thing among many others I find interesting is that the works are displayed in order to catch the eye and get one thinking. I don’t want to spoil things by giving too much away in this review, go see for yourself. Even if you have seen a picture or a painting on the Tiwani website or on roomsmagazine.com, when you actually stand in front of these large scale works it is a completely different experience. The paintings are challenging, moving and a lot more besides. Hurry!
It’s also worth seeing the artists live at work. How cool is that? If you ask me this exhibition is initiating a riot, but in a good way. There are many more artists coming out of Africa these days and for a long time now it’s been a lot more vibrant and less political. The international art world is now looking at Africa a lot more, not as a backwater but as a would-be front-runner of the art world, sooner rather than later.
African Industrial Revolution, Tiwani Contemporary, 2015 ® Sylvain Deleu
African Industrial Revolution | e-studio Luanda
10 July - 15 August 2015
Tiwani Contemporary, 16 Little Portland Street, London. W1W 8BP
Tuesday - Friday, 11am - 6pm
Saturday, 12pm - 5pm
Free entry
Maeng Wookjae is the Big Game Ceramic Hunter
Enter into the mind of one the most exciting up-and-coming South Korean artists of our time.
In some pieces, Maeng Wookjae adorns his ceramic animal sculptures on wooden plaques that resemble the severed heads of big game. The kind you would see in a trigger-happy Safari hunter’s lodgings. But they’re not the installations of a taxidermist. They’re ceramic, and thus fragile, just like the wild and vulnerable animals that Wookjae sculpts.
Auguste Rodin once said, “nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.” His words could not be more relevant than to Maeng Wookjae – who’s artistic expression was found during his time spent travelling to North America. I interviewed the South Korean artist himself, and his environmental conscience struck me just as potently as his sculptures do.
What is the significance of the gold eyes in your ceramic sculptures?
They can be shown to audiences in several ways. First, people can see themselves reflected in the shiny gold eyes. The scenery on the eyes represents our very plentiful environment, which can be compared with a plentiful environment for other creatures too. It also represents how the animals look from our human perspective. The colour of gold doesn’t always seem cold because it is metallic – there is warmness in it.
Would you say that one of the biggest turning points of your career were your visits to North America? If so, why?
Yes, my work changed after visiting North America. I went to a residence program called the Archie Bray foundation, after finishing my M.F.A in Korea. The environment was quite rural in comparison to life in Seoul, which is a very crowded city. I had wondrous, fresh experiences such as several chances to meet wild animals face to face.
For example, a friend of mine and I drove to another friend’s house and there was a deer on the narrow road. Usually wild animals run away from people but the deer was standing in the middle of the road. The deer looked at the ground and us several times. When I looked closer, I saw a dead baby deer. I can’t still forgot the moment of having eye contact with the mother deer.
Another moment I strongly recall was a time where I was on the way to home and found a huge dead deer by the road. I felt so sorry and immensely sad. At that time, some teenagers walked through the area and one guy loudly said something to the dead deer and spat on its carcass. I was really surprised and I tried to understand that situation. I thought maybe a wild animal injured one of his family or friends.
And then I started to have a deep concern about the relationship between humans and animals. I continued my North America trip with a residency at the Banff Centre in Canada. And I had more priceless experiences with wild animals.
Let’s talk a little bit about your most recent work – Family. What was the creative process and inspiration behind that?
It began with the thought “Are we a family?” I combined humans and other life forms on the works. Some people see the work; view it positively, friendly and relate to it. I wanted to lead people to think and talk about our environmental conditions with other creatures.
Have you noticed a difference between the reactions of your Western and Far-Eastern audiences? In other words – how do Americans and Europeans react to work in comparison to Koreans?
From what I’ve seen, the western audience are more interested in my works than Koreans. I think it’s because of the difference in perspective about how both cultures view art. My works focus on presenting social issues and environmental issues rather than an expression of beauty. Young people in Korea show an interest [in my work], and try to understand my expression, but a lot of the older audience don’t think it’s an art piece. They might just think ‘it’s not related to my life’, although my works tell a story about universal issues. The art market in Korea is small and restricted to the very famous artists. But it’s beginning to get better now.
As well as being represented by the Mindy Solomon gallery like you, Kate MacDowell’s work is rather similar to yours. I wanted to ask you if you would you consider doing a collaborative work with her?
I’ve seen her artwork on the web. And I like her work. It could be interesting to do something with her – I think it’s always good showing works together that convey similar themes.
If you had to choose, who are your top 5 favourite contemporary artists?
Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst, Olafur Eliasson, Clare Twomey.
What can we expect from Maeng Wookjae in 2016?
Recently, I’m trying to make an exhibition through an installation. I find that installations are a more effective way to connect my works to audiences. So I will challenge myself to make this creative way of expression.
INTERVIEW: Clay Ketter toys with familiarity and what is ‘real’
A search for “gravity” and art that “serves itself”.
Clay Ketter’s work merges art and design, whilst manipulating subjects that may be recognisable to the viewer. His art appears as everything from meticulously designed and constructed monuments to "American vernacular architecture”, to photography “influenced by modern imaging techniques”.
The work of Clay Ketter toes the line between art and design, incorporating learned practices from both disciplines, coming to merge as works of art that have a highly unique voice. With a background in construction and an education in art and design, Ketter’s artistic finger occasionally points towards the design in the art, and the art in the design, which he solidifies to me succinctly: “Design is an answer to a question. It entertains the question or request. Art has more sovereignty. It entertains nothing (in the best case scenario), only itself … In a perfect world, there is no difference (between art and design)”.
Spider Woods, 2010, 180 x 244 cm, Diasec-mounted lightjet print. image Clay Ketter. courtesy Bartha Contemporary, London.
“In a nutshell, I have realized, all too late in the game, that my artworks should not be about it, but be it." Ketter’s development in approach to his work has lead to him exhibiting seemingly larger works, which inhabit the mediums of photography, installation, drawing and many more. Size, therefore, is important in giving the subjects of these works a sense of ‘realness’: “what may seem like a ‘large-scale’ work to a viewer is actually simply 1:1, or ever so slightly smaller (to create an uneasiness or disorientation). I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. At least when it comes to drawings and photographic media, I work more and more in 1:1 scale.” In Ketter’s ‘Valencia Wall’ or ‘Road’ series of photographs, this expanse in size delivers the opportunity to consider the role of the senses in photography: “From a formalistic standpoint, a photograph subjectifies an object, it captures the play of shadow and light in a given situation, thereby implying what you refer to as texture. It becomes a matter of reading, rather than a sensory phenomenon. In a way, the large, as-1:1-as-possible, scale is an attempt to re-objectify the phenomenon represented.” With these approaches to size, comes what Ketter describes as “gravity”.
However, this “gravity” is something that Ketter believes can originate from several sources, not just magnitude: “Sometimes, art is at its best when it dashes expectations. Art is at its best when it is recalcitrant. That being said, I believe that the best design is also recalcitrant." This can be seen in abundance in Ketter’s larger installations. ‘Tomb’ and ‘Homestead’ play with the viewer’s expectations and pre-conceived notions of aesthetic and purpose. This breathes a palpable and yet indescribable energy, which the artist believes “is more the result of small adjustments in the otherwise recognizable."
Tomb, 2009, 520 x 660 x 300 cm, mixed media. image Albin Dahlström, Moderna Museet. courtesy Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
“Both Homestead and Tomb are first and foremost archetypes for an American vernacular architecture – a lowest common denominator for a dwelling within this vernacular. They are based on the dimensions of Thoreau’s cabin at Walden pond, while bearing a style more resonant of Elvis Presley’s birthplace. The adjustments I speak of are simply the removal of doors, windows, vents, stairs – the removal of physical access – perhaps opening up for a more cerebral access, contemplation. What seems, at a distance, cozy, becomes, upon closer examination, stubbornly cold. My Surface Composites or 'kitchen' pieces from the 1990’s are made in the same way. By 'bending' the artwork to the edge of its familiarity, by making it estranged, I hopefully knock the viewer, at least for a moment, out of their comfort zone of recognition. What one thinks one sees, and what one sees, form something new, something sovereign.”
Ketter’s 'bending' of his work can be seen as a logical development from some artistic traditions that sought to place meaning in the ‘absurdity’ of exhibiting common-place objects out of their original context: “The gesture of presenting a ready-made object as an art object has filled its function in art. This revolutionary gesture marked a significant turning point in art-making, and we still enjoy the liberation it unfolded and continues to encourage. However, the ready-made is a one-liner; its greatest value occurs upon the 'ah-ha' reception”. For Ketter, art should be somewhat about 'fabrication', not just in crafting something new, but also “in the literary sense of 'making-up' or telling a story."
Wall V.28, 2003, 179 x 214 cm, Diasec-mounted C-print. image Clay Ketter/Nils Bergendal. courtesy Bartha Contemporary, London.
With this “fabrication” that exists in the “story” of an artwork, a certain amount of sentimentality and reminiscence of the past can be read, which Ketter approaches with “caution”: “As a human being, I am sentimental, and do not try to curb my sentimentality, but as an artist, I find my own sentimentality, as well as the sentimentality of others, to have a clouding effect. One must try to eliminate this cloudiness or fog in order to reach clarity. Clarity is paramount, no matter what media one is using … Nostalgia is the worst of all sentimentalities, in its commonly recognized form– nostalgia concerning the past. I believe there is, however, such a thing as nostalgia concerning the imagined future, and I enjoy entertaining this notion."
Ketter’s inspiring attachment to making “work that insists on being made” sees himself “serving [his] art instead” of the art serving him, his relationship with the making of art becomes “a matter of trust”: “If I can manage to concentrate on the thing that insists on being made, that which becomes clear to me in the moments when I am both awake and a-sleep … then the rest is logistics– work." Most artists will agree that they strive for some sort of freedom in creating their work, whether it be physical and logistical freedom or whether it is freedom from the chains that hold us down mentally, to which Ketter prescribes “a self-emancipation from consistency – freedom, not only from established consensuses surrounding one’s work, but also one's own wretched half-baked dogmas, embracing the freedom to contradict one's self, and enjoying the consequent liberty of this emancipation”.
Arcade Fire: The Reflektor Tapes
This September, Arcade Fire are offering fans a unique insight into the making of Reflektor, their most recent, critically acclaimed international bestselling album.
This September, Arcade Fire are offering fans a unique insight into the making of Reflektor, their most recent, critically acclaimed international bestselling album. Featuring 20 minutes of previously unseen footage as well as an unreleased track, The Reflektor Tapes will be screened in cinemas for a limited time, unveiling the sights behind the sounds that we have loved since Reflektor’s release in 2013.
Directed by award winning LA based filmmaker Kahlil Joseph, the film recontextualizes the album experience, transporting the viewer into a kaleidoscopic sonic and visual landscape. Meeting at the crossroads of documentary, music, art, and personal history, it promises to be a unique and authentic cinematic experience; with Arcade Fire granting previously unprecedented access to Joseph, fans can expect a truly honest and intimate glimpse into the lives of the Canadian indie rockers.
“There were parts of the Reflektor tour where I think we, Arcade Fire, came the closest in our careers to putting on stage what we imagined in our heads. We were insanely lucky to have Kahlil Joseph documenting from the very beginning."
Until The Reflektor Tapes opens in cinemas on the 24th of September, fans can appease themselves with the newly released exclusive music video for the track ‘Porno’, created by Kahlil Joseph and featuring footage from the film.
Cinema listings and tickets available soon at: TheReflektorTapes.com
Alexander Calder’s mobiles come to life at the Tate Modern
The UK’s largest ever Alexander Calder exhibition of kinetic sculptures is coming to the Tate Modern. And in more ways than one, it’s moving.
Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976)
Antennae with Red and Blue Dots 1953
Tate © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015
Within art circles, if you were to mention the ‘mobile,’ there are no names that spring to mind other than Alexander Calder (1898-1976) – who is renowned for having invented these ingenious, performing sculptures.
Having amassed an impressive portfolio of work that spanned several decades, a large portion of Calder’s work is being brought to the Tate Modern for the UK audience to marvel at. The exhibition, entitled Performing Sculpture, will showcase about 100 of the American artist's works between his formative years from the late 20s to the early 60s where he had established an illustrious career.
Achim Borchardt-Hume, the Director of Exhibitions at the Tate Modern and co-curator of this exhibition, stated that Calder was ‘responsible for rethinking sculpture’ when referring to his innovative invention of the mobile. He went on to add that with regular sculptures, one must glean everything they can by moving around it – but Calder ‘made sculpture move for us.’
He further conflated Calder’s sculptures with the performance arts, stressing how important this field contributed to Calder’s work. Pieces like Dancers and Sphere (1938) showcases motion in a way similar to children playing whereas Red Gongs (1950) is a mobile that introduces the sound of a brass gong – showing how well he managed to take performance to another level.
Performing Sculpture will also feature Calder’s Alexander’s famed wire sculptures of his artistic contemporaries and friends, including a wired portrait of Joan Miró suspended in space.
However, perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of this exhibition will be the mechanics of movement behind his mobiles. The slow, cloud-like movement of the sculptures will be powered purely by the airflow in the room. This delicate motion is something that is lost in images, but can only truly experienced in person.
Perhaps the only regrettable aspect of this upcoming exhibition would be the omission of the stage sets he designed when working with choreographer Martha Graham. Nevertheless, this is a necessary omission. The entirety of his performance art is suspended within and between the movements of his sculptures. There does not need to be anyone performing in order to augment the power of his sculptures – because they do all the performing instead.
Fans of modernism, mathematics and the masterful should most certainly attend. This is not an exhibition to be missed.
Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976)
Triple Gong c.1948
Calder Foundation, New York, NY, USA
Photo credit: Calder Foundation, New York / Art Resource, NY
© ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015
Alexander Calder in his Roxbury studio, 1941
Photo credit: Calder Foundation, New York / Art Resource, NY
© ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015
Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture will be running at the Tate Modern from 11 November 2015 – 3 April 2016
The Girl of Stuff (Tracy Gray) – GET STUFFED
The Girl of Stuff's first photo book/ zine/ box is being launched soon at Parlour Skate Store on Hackney Road, the very location I housed my own exhibition Morella in 2014.
The Girl of Stuff's first photo book/ zine/ box is being launched soon at Parlour Skate Store on Hackney Road, the very location I housed my own exhibition Morella in 2014.
Get Stuffed is a photobook with a difference, the book takes as it's main underlying theme the skateboarding scene it documents, but very few of the photographs depict skateboarding itself, focusing rather upon what happens once the skateboard is put down. Described in the press release as being inspired by the Euro party vibes, lurkers, urban messages, skate rats, London locals, boozing, cruising, winning and losing.
The launch is themed around pizza, and the book is being presented in a hand screen-printed pizza box and with pizza-base(d) puns on stickers.
(Pun intended, sorry).
Free pizza will be distributed and there will be pizza bunting on the walls.
Because why the fuck not.
BM – You are very involved in skateboarding, what is it that attracts you to the subculture and why did you decide to start documenting it?
TGoS – So it all kinda started in around 1997... My first full-time job I was working in a photo lab (all analogue back then, none of this digital stuff) and a year or so before I had made some new friends through the under-age drinking scene that was the 'Ferryman's Tavern' in Maidstone, Kent. That pub sits along the river Medway, but more importantly it was next to the prime skate-spot that is the Law Courts. The new friends I had made would skate all day over the weekends. And for the rest of us that didn't skate, we'd hang out on the brick banks of the Law Courts drinking pints in plastic cups bought from the pub and watch the boys skate. We'd generally end up heading out to our late-night haunt 'Union Bar' after and I'd be armed with my Konica EU Mini camera, taking snaps of our antics and having them all developed, printed and even making enlargements for myself and my friends by the Monday lunchtime. It was a carefree life back then! My passion for photography didn't stop there, it continued through the rest of the nineties and into the new millennium when I went back into full-time education and studied BTEC Foundation in Art & Design (specialising in Photography) and then onto a BA in Photo Media at the Kent Institute of Art & Design (KIAD). The good friends I made back then are still in my life today and think it's those friendships that attracted me to skateboarding and their passion for it, rather than the skateboarding itself. I'm not sure if I'd have gravitated towards skateboarding without them. I started (trying!) to skate last year, I think I'm better off behind the camera lens and enjoying the party.
BM – Most of the photographs don’t actually document the act of skateboarding, why did you decide not to focus on it for this show?
TGoS – I've prolifically taken photos for nearly 20 years and as we are all multi-faceted human beings, inspired by many, many things; It seems obvious to include as many things that make up 'me' in my work. I also suppose that my nickname of 'The Girl of Stuff' is a reflection of that too. ;) I like seeing something beautiful, silly or absurd in the every day, mundane things we are surrounded by in our urban landscape. Documenting something that most others would miss or possibly even dismiss.
BM – I’m loving the pizza theme, but what on earth made you come up with that?
TGoS – I have wanted to make a zine of my photography for a while now. But I didn't want to have something constructed in such a way where the recipient wouldn't be able to hang one of the photographs on their wall or pass onto a friend without destroying the zine itself. My mate Tadej Vaukman from 585 Zines ( @585zines ) in Slovenia posted a video clip on Instagram where he had loose 6x4 prints in an old VHS cassette box with a photocopied sleeve which I thought was a seriously genius idea. I didn't want to rip him off, so I started thinking of other ways to package a set of photographs without the use of binding or staples. Living in Peckham, it didn't take very long before I saw a group of school kids outside one of those tacky take-away places eating from these mini pizza boxes. I started looking on eBay for pizza boxes, found a good deal and then made a call to my best friend Stu at Lovenskate to see if he could help me screen-print a design on it. He basically said he'd do it for free. I think he's just stoked to see me get over a decade's worth of happy-snapping finally into something I can share with the world. I have to say, I'm pretty stoked too.
BM – From the looks of the photos, you have had some pretty intense evenings. Describe one which relates to a photo in the show.
TGoS – HaHa! Yeah, there's lots of party photos... I really like the one of Cäptn Clepto in the shower. This was taken a couple of years back when a group our friends from Cleptomanicx in Hamburg came over for Notting Hill Carnival. Cäptn was kinda like the brand's mascot. He's a really rad dude and he'd brought an inflatable pink flamingo with him from Germany, which then became our kind of marker to keep our big group of Brits and Euros together in the madness of Carnival. We ended up going to Lilli's friend's house for an after-party and they happened to have a flamingo shower curtain. It was too good an opportunity to miss. So we snuck off into their bathroom and Cäptn got in the bathtub so we could take pics of him with the inflatable flamingo and the flamingo shower curtain. He didn't stop there, he found someone's wash mitts along the side of the tub and ended up wearing them all evening and into the next morning. Proper jokes!
BM – Have you heard of Macaulay Culkins band The Pizza Underground, and will they be providing the soundtrack?
TGoS – I can't say I've listened to them, but I've seen stuff on the internet about them and not all of it good. I'm gonna have Bryce from Parlour Skate Store on the decks for the evening... But I'm sure he can take requests if you ask him nicely.
BM – Please provide some vegetarian pizza. See you then.
GET STUFFED launches on the 23rd from 8pm and then remains open for the following week.
59 Hackney Road, E2 7NX
Audrey Hepburn: ‘Portraits of an Icon’ or Portraits of an Age?
The current exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery aims to display the portraits that capture the iconic within the icon, Audrey Hepburn. Whilst doing so, it also captures the image of an age where cultural fluctuation was rife.
The current exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery aims to display the portraits that capture the iconic within the icon, Audrey Hepburn. Whilst doing so, it also captures the image of an age where cultural fluctuation was rife.
When considering the name ‘Audrey Hepburn’ it is difficult to severe the ties and associations one carries with such a prolific name. To some extent, the name ‘Audrey Hepburn’ has come to define the term ‘pop culture icon’ whether you know as little about her as her name or not. The name is synonymous in our culture with class, elegance and beauty, only furthered by the constant cultural repetition on an image. We see Breakfast at Tiffany’s or chocolate advertisements in our mind as soon as the name is proclaimed.
Audrey Hepburn photographed by Norman Parkinson for Glamour Magazine, 1955 © Norman Parkinson Ltd/Courtesy Norman Parkinson Archive
What is interesting, then, is that the current exhibition at the NPG displays a steady and diverse chronology of still image and portraiture, which maps the changing landscape of culture that was seen during Hepburn’s lifetime. From the black and white, American Vogue photography by Irving Penn for some of the theatre projects that Hepburn undertook to the un-posed photography by Mark Shaw during the filming of Sabrina and the bold changes in fashion displayed in images by William Klein and Douglas Kirkland. For someone that knows only the iconic images of Hepburn, this exhibition portrays a landscape of change that Audrey Hepburn witnessed and, in some regards, pioneered.
The exhibition describes how at the height of her fame, and to some extent still today, Hepburn can be seen as holding the opposite traits you may imagine an ‘icon’ to posses. With the term ‘icon’, one may wrongly assume that Hepburn’s image and portrayal in media was a constant and unchanged personality. Conversely, she was ‘iconic’ for different reasons – she was the modern ‘everywoman’ that stood out amongst the aging portrayal of ‘women as sex symbols’. We learn she that she constantly agreed to film roles that challenged the culture she was surrounded by, some of which could have broken her career – both Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Children’s Hour were controversial in their content at the time. Even her charity work in her later life, which still carries on today, is an inherent element of her ‘iconic’ status.
What this exhibition seems to reveal is the real ‘icon’ of Audrey Hepburn that is otherwise occasionally obscured behind the repeated ‘iconic’ imagery. The different photographers opting for alternate methods of photographing Hepburn each bring out the elements of her personality that existed when working together. The writing surrounding the photographs reveals this eclectic image of Hepburn as an actress, artist and generally in her everyday demeanour.
The exhibition highlights, without explicitly stating so, how she stood out amongst her contemporaries – all the reasons she’s remembered today. The photographs displayed from personal collections, in turn, contain unique purpose, each distinct and detached from the last. The fashion portraiture marks notable differences to the casual photographs – and yet the similarities bring a more cohesive view of the woman in question. More than anything, the exhibition displays Hepburn’s collaborative efforts as an artist, maintaining a strong, unique voice in a challenging industry – a voice that she kept complete control over, cementing her status as an ‘icon’.
Eccentric Bxentric unveils his new catchy track - Chrome
You know that track you listen to once in a club and it just resonates within you? That track you shazam in that same club but fail to find? Then look no further – this is that track.
Photo by Alice Rainis
Under his own brand-new label, hackney-based producer Bxentric is to release his new single, Chrome, and it’s a bloody good track.
He’s got the ear for a banger. The Nanda records site states that the track was a result of a ‘2 day basement session that developed into a Neo-Electronic thumper.’ Its pretty much 80’s Disco meets 2015 Electro. Expect to be addicted.
Although it’s a rather lengthy tune (boasting nearly 8 minutes of pure, unadulterated synthy goodness), it’s not one to miss out on. There’s no unnecessary build up or painfully hackneyed dubstep-style drop. You’re pretty much thrown into the deep end from about ten seconds in. And the song teeters off to a cool ending – one that is wonderfully catered for other DJ’s to seamlessly mould it into their mixes.
And it comes with a pretty psychedelic music video too.
Bxentric will be DJing at the Lexington, Islington, on July 24. Be sure to bump this track several times and go see the man in action.
Chrome EP
Release Date: 20th July
Label Copy: Nanda Records
Five recent and upcoming releases that you want to put in your diary, but you can’t.
In an industry where solid release schedules and corporate control over the output of musicians has become the norm, some of this year’s most exciting releases are abiding by different rules.
In an industry where solid release schedules and corporate control over the output of musicians has become the norm, some of this year’s most exciting releases are abiding by different rules.
Musicians are taking control again. As consumers, we’ve gotten used to the record labels calling the shots on behalf of the artists: Musicians announce their new records proceeded by months of torturous marketing enabling ‘the suits’ a swift and large return on their investment. We find ourselves in 2015 it finally feels like musicians are using the Internet to its fullest potential. Below are five imminent releases that you should want to keep track of.
We begin with a release that actually has a solid release date, Tame Impala’s highly anticipated ‘Currents’. With four of the tracks appearing on the album already out in the open, fan’s appetites are truly whetted. Whilst some of these previews to the album have been released officially, others were just thrown onto the Internet by Kevin Parker through a Reddit ‘Ask me Anything’ in a true ‘rock and roll’ fashion. The new release sees Tame Impala take a more disco-infused direction, with some MJ-esque moments, which Parker handles with absolute ease. His voice sounds the best it has sounded in any of his records and production is unparalleled. With reports that the album has already leaked online, weeks away from the scheduled release, listeners have mixed opinions on the album online. Kevin Parker set the bar very high for himself, to the extent where fans expect more than his previous releases – but even if ‘Currents’ was anything less than older albums, it could still be a masterpiece.
Few artists make use of the Internet as a platform for releasing music as much as young label, PC Music. With only one ‘official’ release (which was a compilation of releases from their label only through iTunes and streaming services), PC Music have chosen to release music fairly spontaneously and without pomp: through soundcloud, one song or EP at a time, mostly for free. The music-makers who make up the label consist of computer-fiddling entities, usually with indiscernible identities to the extent where you wonder if it is art or music. ‘QT’, who has been signed to major independent label XL Recordings, has a single release which serves as almost an ‘advert’ for a fictional energy drink – which you could buy for a while in the US through the ‘QT’ online store. The music itself sounds exactly like you’ve had too many sweets at a primary school disco; for many, the sound of nostalgia. A. G. Cook, acting as ‘leader’ for this troop, cites Conlon Nancarrow (the 20th century pioneer of the player piano) as inspiration for the music the label churns – a mass of impossible sounds.
Image via Blood Orange
Devonté Hynes of Blood Orange is as much a collaborative artist as he is a independent musician. He has hinted online that a new Blood Orange record will be on its way very soon, and looking at his recent artistic output online can only make you incredibly excited for Blood Orange’s return. Having scored music for recent films such as Gia Coppola’s ‘Palo Alto’ and another which didn’t work out for reasons unknown (which resulted in Hynes posting the 40 minutes-worth of music online anyway), performing at New York fashion week and working on collaborative dance projects, Hyne’s output is extremely varied.
Image via Battles
Another New York group of musicians, Battles, have also hinted towards a new release, not yet made official, following a string of pictures online detailing working track titles, and performing new tracks in Poland and London. As a die-hard Battles fan, this is only good news – Battles have such a unique musical voice in the industry, following their highly underrated release ‘Gloss Drop’ which saw them collaborate with Gary Newman and Yamantaka Eye. John Stanier’s ability to play like a metronome in some of the most diverse of time signatures against the warped sounds protruding from the electronics and guitars of Ian Williams and Dave Konopka. Camera-phone videos of new tracks online hold a lot of promise for the next release, which sees the trio stay true to their sound whilst maintaining the electricity their records are known for.
Lastly, the surprise announcement of a APX release, more widely known as Aphex Twin. Through Warp Records, the collection of music (presumably created between 2006 and 2008 judging by the work’s title) will be released during August. If you’ve followed Richard James’ recent online efforts, you’ll know that he almost broke the Internet. Almost immediately proceeding one of the biggest releases of last year (‘Syro’), James went on to release a one-of-a-kind EP of acoustic instruments controlled by computers and simultaneously uploaded hundreds of old tracks onto Soundcloud anonymously, which he promised some of which would see a physical release soon.
Marc Quinn – The Toxic Sublime
White Cube Bermondsey
15 July 2015 – 13 September 2015
British-born artist Marc Quinn is perhaps most well known for his 1991 artwork Self: a life size sculpture of his head, using 4.5 litres of his own blood. Bought by Charles Saatchi for £13,000 in the year of its conception, this work has accrued almost mythical status.
In 2005, Quinn took over the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square with his sculptural artwork Alison Lapper. Alison, who is an artist herself, was born without arms and with incredibly shortened legs. This work showed her nude and unflinching, proud of her nakedness. Deformities such Alison’s are naturally compelling to observe due to their uniqueness. As a species we are intrigued by anything unusual or different, but society tells us we mustn’t. Looking upon such a drastic disability is often thought to be an insult to the recipient, and children quickly learn not to stare.
Quinn's sculpture rejects these social conventions and shows her in all her unique beauty. Placing her on a plinth he shows us that is ok to look (in fact he forced us to do so), and that Alison has nothing to hide. There was no shame in her face. This work was bold, brazen, and brilliant.
On the 14th of July Quinn’s new show The Toxic Sublime opened at the White Cube gallery in Bermondsey. This new body of work is quite far removed from his bodily excretions and his sculptures of those without limbs, seemingly more reserved and delicate.
Most prominent and striking in this show are his stainless steel Wave and Shell sculptures, dotted around on the gallery floor. Highly polished in some areas they are more Cloudgate than Wave, but are beautiful nonetheless.
The other and more subtle works in the show are vast undulating canvasses, affixed to bent aluminum sheets. Upon these canvasses is a mixture of: photographs of sunsets, spray paint, and tape (amongst a myriad of other less determinable shapes). The canvasses once painted are abrasively rubbed against drain covers in the street.
The inclusions of these humble drain covers into the artwork is possibly the most interesting element to the whole show. Something described in the press release as being:
“.. suggestive of how water, which is free and boundless in the ocean, is tamed, controlled and directed by the manmade network of conduits running beneath the surface of the city.”
Quinn’s notoriety was gained in the early nineties for bravely showing the public that which we usually hide: faeces, blood, semen, and the like. Gilded and placed on a plinth for all to see. His earlier work depicted that which lies beneath, where as this show obscures exactly that. The drain cover is an object that hides these very secretions, burying them underground.
Quinn's work is brilliant at showing us the beauty in the overlooked and the grotesque, and this show to some extent does just that. The Toxic Sublime is definitely very beautiful, but it lacks a certain grotesqueness that is a Marc Quinn trademark.
Photographs from Marcquinn.com
White Cube Bermondsey
15 July 2015 – 13 September 2015
AMY
A review of the biopic film featuring the infamous jazz vocalist.
‘When I tell people what I am, I say I am not a singer, I’m a Jazz singer,’ Amy sets straight in her ballsy attitude in a short candid clip of her practicing in a studio. That sets the tone of the film directed by documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia. First and foremost her love of music particularly Jazz which framed her style and a compillation of short candid videos all merged together seamlessly, bounded by the story of a young Jewish girl’s rised to stardom and fame and the tragic pitfalls that consumed her life and eventually took it away. The film itself was first debuted at a late night screening at this year's Cannes and has since snowballed from indie flick into one of the most anticipated biopics to hit the screens this year.
Image via clickypic.net
The videos are led by interviews of famous names who had been touched by the late songstress and the characters that framed her career, from the narration of her childhood friends Juliette Ashby and Lauren Gilbert who stood by her throughout her success and recognition, her father Mitch who plays a key storyteller in this biopic, to her former manager Raye Cosbert, her musical collaborators friends, Mark Ronson and Tony Bennett, to name but a few, as well as conversations with her ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, with whom Amy had developed her tumultuous relationship with drugs and alcohol.
It was easy to assume that before watching the film there would be an element of pure tragedy as Amy’s life and death was so readily noted in the media, this is true but there is also a component of good that this film delivers too. It is Amy’s side of the story from beyond the grave. It is told mostly through her voice, whether it be through her melancholic lyrics of depression and love loss or her ability to be a young silly girl, talking in accents, showing her affection to her closest friends in her personal voicemails she had left them which the film offers so honestly. She is also shown to be hilariously fun to be around, with her blunt tongue and wicked sense of humour, which she showed in one piece of archive footage of an interviewer who tried comparing her to singer Dido, her facial expression of complete disapproval lit the whole cinema with laughs.
What is clear to suggest from the way Amy acted in her short life, was that she was grieving a pain that went unnoticed for most of her life, a pain that was disguised and fuelled later on with men, drugs and alcohol and that her initial complexity was with her family separation at a young age between her mother and father. This issue is something a lot of a young people can relate to, but the real tragedy that the film uncovers was her continuous secret battle with bulimia and the painful affects this had on her body, which proved ultimately to be a key contributor in her death at the age of twenty-seven.
Amy’s private vulnerability and personal struggles did not always get the better of her, as she successfully channeled these into her craft, her timeless lyrics, five Grammy wins and forging the world famous albums Frank (2003) and Back to Black (2006) consecutively as well as stand alone singles that will live forever such as Rehab and Love is a Losing Game. In the end, what the film shines a light on is the idea that Amy was a legend of our time who helped bring classic jazz to the forefront of popular culture, the unique old-school jazz stylings of her voice were epitomised by the legendary Tony Bennett himself when he says at the end, ‘Amy was up there with Billie holiday and Ella Fitzgerald,’ which was a very true comparison and a contrast that has proved since her death to be a voice that will live on with us far longer than her life.
If you haven’t already, watch Amy at your nearest cinema. My personal recommendation, check it out in the intimacy of the Electric Cinema in Shoreditch.
Amy was released in UK cinemas 3rd July 2015.
Guillermo Mora – not your usual acrylic painter
“It would be amazing to see all the paintings of the world separated from their canvases and falling on the ground.”
Spanish artist Guillermo Mora is coming to a London gallery near you. I recently interviewed the man and he proved to me why he’s worth your time.
What is it that you enjoy the most about working with layers and layers of acrylic paint? And also what you enjoy the least about it?
Layers in life, layers in painting. Painting is not far from the way everything is constructed. We are made of layers as well. I like to conceive painting as a body, as something not eternal but alive, clumsy, tired, and capable of losing its entire shape or parts of it. Flaubert used to say: “as soon as we come to this world, pieces of us begin to fall”. I feel this exact way on painting. It would be amazing to see all the paintings of the world separated from their canvases and falling on the ground.
On the other hand, it’s weird for me to say something that I dislike about painting, but I could say its autonomy. Even though you think you can control all its processes, it always cheats you. There’s always something unexpected. Life is unexpected and painting is too.
What’s your creative process like?
“Add, subtract, multiply and divide” is my statement (and the presentation of my website). I think these words not only belong to mathematics but also to our everyday acts, thoughts and behaviors. Painting is a complex body in the world in which all these actions can take place too.
How did you feel when you won the Audemars Piguet award?
First of all, surprised. I was competing with very well known international artists and I never expected I could be the one that got it. Then I said to myself: “Guillermo, from now on you have to work much harder.” When you win an international award, it puts you immediately in a new position. I realized how less important the economical aspect of my work is. It’s true that money helps, but the most important thing was that a lot of people started to pay attention to my stuff. From the moment you win a prize, you have to demonstrate why you won it.
You have an upcoming group exhibition entitled Saturation II – Add Subtract Divide. And you’ve also described defined your work by including multiplying. In what way do you feel that your work accomplishes these operations?
Adding has always been linked to the idea of painting but we have to think that when we add something we subtract possibilities to it too. Then if I want to add, I have to divide the material into pieces, and this action is also a way of multiplying. These four actions are not as different as we think and can be easily included in my everyday process. They help me to uphold the idea of a constant changing painting.
If not Spain, where else would you like to permanently set up a studio and why?
United Kingdom for its contradictions and irreverences. Things happen when controversy is constantly present.
SATURATION II – Add Subtract Divide opening at the Copperfield Gallery
Paint is not a dead art. Especially not when six unique Spanish artists rehash the painted form and naught but maths ensues.
Paint is not a dead art. Especially not when six unique Spanish artists rehash the painted form and naught but maths ensues.
After the success of the first SATURATION exhibition series, the Spanish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN) brings us their sequel act in the Copperfield Gallery.
The past century has seen a slow, almost degenerative decline in the traditional art of painting. The painted image has almost become jaded in the minds of the average contemporary artist. But six Spanish artists are boldly revisiting this in an abstract form by utilizing new technologies.
If painting is to art what Euclid is to geometry – then this exhibition glorifies the intangible. Add Subtract Divide provides us with the experimentation that our modernistic eyes so sorely crave. There is a deep emphasis on the art of layering; the works are not bound by the uniplanar visual form – paint simply applied to a canvas. The works successful blur the boundary of painting tradition.
This exhibition certainly does what it says on the tin. Expect to see an addition of paint (a sheer, bloated mass of pure acrylic in one case) as well as a subtraction and division of the materials that make up a painting. By exploring forms such as trompe l’oeil and collages, the notion of a modernist geometric painting is explored and scrutinised.
Artists:
MARÍA ACUYO
RUBÉN GUERRERO
GUILLERMO MORA
SONIA NAVARRO
LOIS PATIÑO
ALAIN URRUTIA
6 Copperfield Street, London SE1 0EP
15th July at 6:30pm
Images via Copperfield Gallery website
5 new songs to sink your teeth into
Get your headphones on and your summer kit ready – here’s five summer songs to set you in the mood for these sunny days.
Puppy – Forever
To kick things off we have London-based indie-rock band Puppy with their debut track, Forever. This song brings in discernable heavy-metal influences (with significant nods to Metallica) but the London boys still ushers out their own anthemic, alt-rock banger.
This is the kind of song that if a band like Foo Fighters churned out, you’d have a sweaty-browed crowd of young adults, swaying to-and-fro, with their lighters burning as they harmoniously sing along to the lyrics. This is an all-out enjoyable song from beginning to end, and the band is certainly not one to be slept on either.
Deon Custom – Roses
When I heard Roses by Deon Custom I immediately thought “this sounds a lot like XXYYXX.’ And that’s exactly why I love it. Hailing from the Netherlands, 23-year old Deon Custom brings us a car-bumping, windows-wounded-down kind of track to get you really enjoying this weather.
Roses proves that he’s certainly a talented musician with a keen ear for composition. It’s an oddly enjoyable mish-mash of beats and electronic styles. This is the kind of track that sends elitist electronic aficionados crazy when trying to categorize it. I myself might call it future bass. But forget the finicky blurring of genres; it’s still a damn good track.
Wolf Alice – Bros
Wolf Alice is a band that has taken the UK by storm in the past year. This is a band that truly loves what they do, which leaves no surprises as to why they have die-hard fans across the world. Bros is a track that really showcases the band’s talent, as well as lead-singer Ellie Rowsell’s singing/songwriting ability.
When speaking about Bros, Ellie Rowsell has previously said, "It's an ode to childhood imagination and friendship and all the charm that comes with that." It’s a song that’s about friendship, and specifically, best friendship. It’s an upbeat, sort-of dreamy, pop-rock track that is guaranteed to put you in a great mood.
Vince Staples – Norf Norf
West-Coast rapper, Vince Staples has recently released his long-awaited debut album, Summertime 06. It’s an album that was extremely well met by critics and with tracks like Norf Norf, it’s easy to know why.
When I saw that Clams Casino produced the track, I knew the song was going to be marvellous. It’s one that you literally cannot prevent yourself from nodding your head to. It’s a no-nonsense kind of rap. One that comes out sounding different despite being conventional. But enough of that. Let the song do the speaking.
Jamie xx – I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)
And lastly we have my favourite track of this list. Know that when you listen to this, you are guaranteed for some good times – pun intended. Jamie xx has always been a musical virtuoso, who has consistently churned out hit after hit since his remix album with Gil-Scott Heron, We’re New Here.
His new, debut album, In Colour has shown that kind of consistency we yearn for as fans. The fact that he is able to churn out such quality just cements his place as one of the greatest DJ’s of our time. Good Times proves that Jamie xx is such an accessible artist. For a lot of his fans, Young Thug is a bit of a cringetastic artist, but on Good Times he is a raw talent. Don’t believe me? Listen for yourself.
An interview with illustrator Davide Bart Salvemini
Italian artist Davide Bart Salvemini lets us in to his weird and wonderful world of illustration. Keep your eyes peeled and your screen brightness dimmed.
Italian artist Davide Bart Salvemini lets us in to his weird and wonderful world of illustration. Keep your eyes peeled and your screen brightness dimmed.
There’s an almost childlike fantasy about his work. His illustrations are at times, surrealist, comical and touching. But they are always vivid, and moving in their own flamboyant way. He’s more than an illustrator and an animator. He’s a holistic artist, taking on inspiration from all forms – and utilising that to create his own magical pieces. And magical they are.
Maybe it’s the subject matter or maybe it’s the bright use of colour, but I always feel somewhat regressive when I see his work. The inner child in me is enchanted, whilst the adult in me is intrigued. And such intrigue is terribly insatiable. So I whipped up a few questions, and served them to the man himself.
Could you tell us a bit about your past? How did your upbringing lead you to become an artist?
It all started with a white paper and some colours. Afterwards I understood that I would never be a crazy scientist (I dislike chemistry) or an airplane pilot (I’m very tall). I thought that it would be great to make a living out of my art and on my schedules (very long nights).
In the first period [of my life] I had unrelated jobs like volleyball player, shoes seller, barman and photographer, and also a diploma in electronics and a first year in a criminology university. Then I took a master’s degree in Illustration and I realized that was my path.
Your art really reminds me of Jim Woodring’s work. Jim has previously stated that his surreal pieces are inspired by hallucinations that he experiences. Do you also have similar inspirations or is your creative process entirely different?
I’m honoured by your words, because I love Jim Woodring and his Frank!
I like to think that my mind is like a sponge, it absorbs everything that it sees from books, films, games, toys and also daily events. I note everything, building a visual atlas. Then, unconsciously linking the pieces of my atlas, I find a message and the future drawing.
Who are your favourite contemporary artists?
Observing the art in all forms, I love Simone Pellegrini’s paintings, illustrations by Sarah Mazzetti, Laurent Impeduglia, Henning Wagenbreth, Moebius, comics by Jim Woodring, Charles Burns, Cocco Bill, movies by Cronenberg, Tarantino, Lynch, Lars Von Trier, Zack Snyder, Jim Jarmusch, Guy Ritchie, and William Eggleston’s photos.
There are also three up-and-coming artists that I follow and I would like introduce: Caterina Morigi link, Alice Socal link and Nadia Pillon link.
I think that it’s very essential to have many “heroes” from whom to “steal”!
Francis Bacon once said the job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery. How do you feel about this as an illustrator?
I think that the creative artefact is more powerful when the observer is thoughtful in their mind, as if he had the last piece of puzzle. In an illustration it’s more important. When you illustrate an article, a book or simply thinking, you shouldn’t be descriptive, because the illustration must only help the text, and not suppress it.
In an interview you’ve previously said that Dante’s Inferno is a big inspiration for you. Could you tell us more about that?
Between the Dante’s circles, the hell is the most fantastic and contemporary. There are more signs and beautiful character that inspired me this project: link. I love monsters and ferocious scenarios. Dante’s hell is my heaven.
If you could work with any other media, what would it be?
In this period I would like to have more time to do animation, because I think that is like to see the magical growth of an organism. But just like Nature, you need a lot of time to develop a motion. I have some experiments in this link. I hope they are interesting for you.
And finally, do you have any future projects lined up you can tell us about?
I’m working on two private commission, one for an independent illustration children’s book and the other for a series of five illustrations for a family portrait. You will see the results by the end of the year. Also I have an idea for a crazy script, but I still don’t know if it will be a comic or a children’s illustration book. We’ll see.
instagram.com/davidebartsalvemini
cargocollective.com/davidebartsalvemini
davidebartsalvemini.tumblr.com
behance.net/davidebartsalvemini
The Guerrilla Girls turned 30; let’s talk about women
Inspired by the social activist group Guerrilla Girls, we take a look at some important female artists working now.
With contemporary art having a great focus on social and political issues and agendas, the subject of equality between the sexes in the art world is an important subject under much debate. Many say female artists are not given fair treatment or enough exposure by the art institutions however others argue that there are plenty of female artists and that it is the pay that is widely unequal.
Many female artists directly address the topic of gender inequality in both art and society as a whole. The anonymous group known as Guerrilla Girls is a massive source of feminist activist inspiration for bringing about racial and gender equality. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the group's founding, we think now is an especially relevant time to look at some women who make a significant contribution to art and creativity.
Michele Abeles’ work is about digital age of images, commodity and how people are reduced to being as insignificant as mundane objects. She combines everyday objects with nude males, using a photography process that flattens the collage of objects and people into a camouflaged Where’s Wally work which slowly reveals more parts of itself as the viewer looks on, literally reducing people to consumable generic items. For the artist, the nudes photographed in her work are as insignificant as the objects surrounding it. Abeles uses copyrighted images found on Google and edits them to create altered scales making the image almost surreal. This work is in response to how images are viewed in the digital age. We see so many layers of visual information, how much do we absorb it and in what way?
The infamous Tracey Emin is most famous for works like Everyone I Have Ever Slept With, a tent with walls of appliquéd names inside and My Bed, an installation of Emin’s unmade bed of used condoms and bloody, dirty underwear. Despite this work being some years ago now, Emin is still very present in contributing to the art world as well as selling her work to high bidders. She is an important role model as a successful and motivated female artist who makes no apologies.
Who Made Your Pants is a campaign running in Southampton, England. Becky John founds the brand and she buys material from big underwear companies at the end of the season to prevent it being wasted. Formed especially to empower women, the co-operative employ female refugees through support agencies to make and sew the pants. However, they also run kind of pop up environments where the customer can chose the fabric and sew their own pair of pants. This kind of work, I believe, is a very effective way of bringing participation based social art into the public sphere and addressing the taboo of making money from conceptual art.
Ghada Amers work addresses gender and sexuality within art using embroidery and paint to reference abstracted pornographic images of women. She challenges the male dominance and ownership of art. She uses paint abstractly, which she sees as having been made symbolic and dominant in history by men. And so by using this, she is occupying a territory, which has previously been denied to women. Simultaneously, by using uses embroidery, a practice associated with the feminine, to make a further political statement about gender.
Kara Walker uses black paper cut outs to make silhouettes exploring race, gender, sexuality and other social issues. She depicts sex and slavery and deems the viewers discomfort necessary when confronted with this. Her work investigates the dark capabilities of what people can and have done throughout history, and investigates the inability to accept the past.
The argument that feminism is no longer necessary because the sexes are equal is a statement that is wildly inaccurate due to many reasons in western culture alone, without taking into account the many parts of the world in which women aren’t afforded basic human rights. We still a long way to go inside and outside of art until we reach equality but these artists are a part of making that a reality.
6 Tribes: The New interest-based App revolutionizing social media
Facebook, instagram and Twitter have longed dominated our social media platform, being our go-to domains to connect with others. But what do you know about 6 Tribes?
Facebook, instagram and Twitter have longed dominated our social media platform, being our go-to domains to connect with others. But what do you know about 6 Tribes?
We recognizes the importance of the relationship between self-exploration of art/design/fashion and films in the social media realm so we are delighted to introduce this new tool of technology available at our fingertips and how we can use them to keep us in the know of news in the art world and introduce us to like-minded people who share that passion.
Its success and recognition by Apple App as one of the best New Apps has been pinned down to its innovative structure whereby downloaders of the app can experience a more tailor-made community in which to explore and share ideas based on interest. 6 Tribes calls it a place to ‘meet new people who share your social DNA.’ Take Pinterest as a prime example of its ability to group design and art communities.
Whereas 6 Tribes has a rounder approach, there are tribes for art, music, photography, fashion etc. There is also a feature to create a new tribe if the choices available do not suit your interests, so in little words the app seems limitless.
The function uses phone data to connect people around shared interests and passions, providing them with a common platform to connect which also allows for quicker and more effective connectivity, ‘cutting through the clutter and getting straight to the good stuff.’ This video tour tells you all you need to know in just over a minute.
The app places you in Tribes based on your interests, i.e. Wanderlusters seen in the image adjacent.
Another great thing to know about this app is that its creative master-mind, Anthony Rose, who has already had great success in the development of the BBC iplayer, and we all know how handy that has been in our lives, means positive hope for this new app.
My advice; click, download and explore your new tribe and take a fresh approach to the evolving world of social media.
Here’s the Apple app store link to download
All images reserved by Lauren Yates, Marketing Manager, 6 Tribes
Review: Barbara Hepworth, Sculpture for a Modern World Exhibition
Affable, sensual and a bit perplexing.
Barbara Hepworth in the Palais studio at work on the wood carving Hollow Form with White Interior 1963 Photograph: Val Wilmer, ©Bowness, Hepworth Estate
Affable, sensual and a bit perplexing
For ticket holders who aren't familiar with her, Tate Britain's retrospective of the British celebrity sculptor Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) cannot compare to the stature of the lady herself. Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, her passion for art and sculpting led not only to her eventual global fame but also to her future husband and collaborator Ben Nicholson, a relationship that has been at the forefront of this exhibition. After they settled in St Ives, Cornwall, without her knowing it would be where she'd reside for the rest of her life, St Ives' landscape formed a relationship with the lady which is reflected achingly beautifully in the exhibition. The sensuous and balanced shapes and forms embody the fantastic control and craftiness of Hepworth who in this almost biographical exhibition emerges not as an Iron Lady but a lady who carves with iron.
One of the reasons that I called it perplexing is that the selected works are more or less monotonously placed into vitrines that sit awkwardly with the eye level. Locking the tactile sculptures into glass cases could be a kludge to avoid big budget mise-en-scene environmental set up as many of Hepworth's works had been made for outdoors, despite the artist herself had urged that these sculptures were meant to be touched. The staging of the pieces proves to be underwhelming against expectations more than anything considering this has been the first in London in 47 years. This is not an exhibition that aims for spectacles nor is it inventive or imaginative in its presentation of such modernist works. Surely, for the female artist who changed the face of sculpting in a male dominated world of sculptors who refused to be addressed as a sculptress, there could be a bit more rickety to rock her perfectly balanced, sensual and sentient geometric nirvana. With the exception of the last room for “Garden”, the rest do not quite distinguish themselves from an Apple store.
Hepworth in the Mall Studio, London, 1933
Photograph by Paul Laib
The Barbara Hepworth Photograph Collection
© The de Laszlo Collection of Paul Laib Negatives, Witt Library, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Another reason I was underwhelmed is its lack of narrative. A lot could be said of a woman who went to art school and sculpted through two World Wars and rebelled against the totalitarian regimes of the Europe – there isn't a clear structure of feeling, in contrast to the actions that the artist has taken to ensure the way she is portrayed by the media, including mediating specific environments for photographing her works as well as public displays.
You would however find yourself at peace and properly meditated after a walk-through, because staring into marble sculptures “Two Segments and Sphere” (1935-6) or “Large and Small Form” (1934), will make you helplessly yearn for balance as the pure genius of the weight distribution and craftiness of these sculptures must endure not to fall all over the place and panic viewers. You will genuinely wonder how Hepworth was able to determine where to make hollow or to protrude.
Four large carvings in the sumptuous African hardwood guarea (1954-5), arguably the highpoint of Hepworth's carving career, are reunited for this exhibition, which is also a highlight for me because they command the entire room, looking like four very proud half eaten apples.
Without being able to hype and emphasize one of her most important works "Single Form" (which now resides outside the UN headquarters in New York, due to a what seems to be a convoluted curational process, although it appears to be complacent in repositioning Hepworth as a global giant) Tate Britain however treats Hepworth's superfans with a never before seen experience and reveals not only the aspect of Hepworth that was only known to a few selected private owners but also a bitter-sweetness in the celebration of an English sculptress’ extraordinary life that will leave you filled with beautiful tenderness.
I recommend it for a first date.
Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World is now open at Tate Britain.
24-June – 25 October 2015
Tate Britain, Linbury Galleries
Top 5 International Exhibitions: Yoko Ono, Ryan Gander, Chen Zhen, Michael Beutler and Tianzhuo Chen.
From one of the most famous multi-faceted artist-performers celebrating approximately 125 works, to young installation artists addressing commonplace post-millennial issues: This wide spectrum of current major international exhibitions has a lot to offer.
Chen Zhen Image: Daily Incantations, 1996, Courtesy de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong and GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins, Photo Tom Powell.
From one of the most famous multi-faceted artist-performers celebrating approximately 125 works, to young installation artists addressing commonplace post-millennial issues: This wide spectrum of current major international exhibitions has a lot to offer.
Yoko Ono Image: Yoko Ono. Cut Piece. 1964. Performed by Yoko Ono in New Works of Yoko Ono, Carnegie Recital Hall, New York, March 21, 1965. Photograph by Minoru Niizuma. © Minoru Niizuma. Courtesy Lenono Photo Archive, New York
It seems as though MoMA may be the go-to destination for internationally renowned performance art: and quite rightly so. Recently, they were host to Marina Abrmović’s high-profile exhibition ‘The Artist is Present’, acting as a retrospective to her years as the world’s leading performance artist and simultaneously showcasing a piece which saw her sit in a chair across from visitors every day for three months. In a similar vein, MoMA in New York currently exhibits a Yoko Ono retrospective: ‘One Woman Show, 1960-1971’. Not only can one witness a huge variety of installation works, objects, recordings and films, but this exhibition has spawned a variety of events. Ono’s ‘Morning Peace’ event encouraged a global gathering during sunrise on the 21st June this year during the course of the current exhibition, remembering its first performance by Ono herself in Tokyo 1964, this time, seeing 5am musical performances by Devonté Hynes of Blood Orange.
Ryan Gander Image: Ryan Gander, Ampersand 2012. ©Ryan Gander, Courtesy the artist and Ishikawa Collection, Okayama. Image: Andrew Curtis
Across the Pacific, at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, is Ryan Gander’s ‘Read Only’. Gander is well known as an art innovator: a generator for streams of ideas. His artistic endeavours often surprise and intrigue audiences with a playful sense of imagination and commentary. Gander’s work has always been associated with the unseen, unknown and unpredictable, adding intrigue to a lot of his work. ‘Read Only’ sees 66 unique objects placed on a revolving conveyor belt, only to be witnessed by the audience through a ‘viewing window’ acting as an ‘irl’ slideshow. Inherent to a collection of objects shown one at a time, a viewer begins to search for narrative or association in the juxtapositions of objects, creating meaning that may not actually exist. To some extent, most of the works collated by Gander at this exhibition reflect this sentiment: the artist sets up opportunity for the viewer to infer meaning in a work by purposefully hiding components of the pieces.
Chen Zhen: Purification Room, 2000, Installation im Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai. Image via marta-blog.de
The Rockbund Art Museum, located in Shanghai, is showing the work of the late Chen Zhen. With works displayed in the Tate and MoMA, Zhen’s ability to compose large sculptural masses of combined antique objects and sand-dusted sculptural scenes is unparalleled. Often, his work is associated with an exploration of cultures and societies – obtaining the ability to discuss the contrast of modern society and cultural antiquity and the human condition. This year, the Rockbund celebrates its 5th year anniversary, and the current Zhen exhibition embodies the importance the gallery represents in the context of China’s contemporary arts scene and with the impact of the art deco building itself amidst the city of Shanghai.
Michael Beutler Image: Michael Beutler. Moby Dick, 2015, Installationsansicht, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Thomas Bruns
Located in the impressive ‘historical hall’ of Hamburger Bahnhof, or Museum für Gegenwart of Berlin, the architectural and structural mystery of Michael Beutler’s ‘Moby Dick’. Beutler transforms this former railway station into an artistic workshop, an intentional ‘work in progress’ and mass of diverse constructed materials. With this, Beutler explores industry and creativity: the act and need of ‘making’ in our society. Through colour and use of space, the exhibition creates the feeling of constant movement and work occurring in this massive space consumed by an overwhelming amount of material and construction.
Tianzhuo Chen Image: Vue de l’installation "Dead drops" d'Aram Bartholl, Palais de Tokyo (24.06 – 13.09 2015). Photo : André Morin.
Finally, Palais de Tokyo puts on the work of Tianzhuo Chen, an installation artist exploring contemporary social issues of the 21st century. Chen explores ideas surrounding morality in our celebrity-obsessed culture through unique neon-tinted imagery reflecting iconic objects and scenes throughout our current culture. With these images, Chen is able to explore devotional and near-religious reactions and attitudes regarding these moral attitudes. With a mix of sculpture, video, performance and painting, Chen creates a hypnotic new world within which the viewer will get lost in.