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.
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni come to London
Three graduate sculptors of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf come together with Tony Cragg to bring us their latest work.
Three graduate sculptors of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf come together with Tony Cragg to bring us their latest work.
Coming up at Blain Southern London this month is a sculpture exhibition by Mathias Lanfer, Gereon Lepper and Andreas Schmitten, all alumni of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. The exhibition is curated by prestigious sculptor Tony Cragg, who is also a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
Cragg is an English sculptor who moved to Germany in the 70s, he has exhibited in countless galleries and won many important awards such as the Turner Prize. His work is particularly concerned with material. His earlier work is specifically interested in making use of found and discarded objects and materials. For him material determines form.
Using sculpture, Lanfer’s work looks at form finding as well as public space, Lepper’s work investigates nature’s response to technical intervention and the ongoing transformation of energy, with the addition of Schmitten’s clean sculptures influenced by his interest in film and animation it is exciting to see how the work of these esteemed artists will come together under the curation of Tony Cragg.
The exhibition will run 10 July - 29 August 2015 at Blain Southern, London.
I Wanna Destroy (Sacred Objects From Suburban Homes) – A forthcoming performance by EMA
Musician and multimedia artist Erika M. Anderson (EMA) ensnares us into her own world of music, spoken word and virtual reality at the Barbican.
Image via © Barbican
Musician and multimedia artist Erika M. Anderson (EMA) ensnares us into her own world of music, spoken word and virtual reality at the Barbican.
Portland-based artist EMA can be described as a bit of an avant-gardist. Her most recent album, The Future’s Void, is about the Internet and the ever-encroaching virtualisation of society. She’s an artist that isn’t afraid of commenting on the digital world. And her upcoming performance, I Wanna Destroy, accomplishes that and more.
You’re taken into her immersive virtual-reality word. A nifty device known as an Oculus rift further glorifies the full experience. It’s a virtual-reality headgear that, when accompanied by the music, can fully channel the solemn and poignant environment that EMA creates.
Excerpt from EMA’s I Wanna Destroy performance in Queens, New York.
I Wanna Destroy is a part of Doug Aitken’s 1 month long exhibition, Station to Station: A 30 Day Happening. A project of his that brings ‘together a fusion of leading international and UK-based’ contemporary artists in all fields, including EMA. Her collaboration with developer Zach Krausnick and the software company, Chroma are what allow this unique cybernetic world to exist.
This performance has already proved to be a success in the states, and it’s now travelling across the pond. It’s come for those select few who wish to turn on the virtual-world, tune in to her sound, and drop out at the Barbican.
Tickets available here
7th July at 19:30, Art Gallery. Barbican Centre, Silk Street EC2Y 8DS
Michael Armitage at the White Cube
Art is an agent of social change - we interview Kenyan artist Michael Armitage.
Michael Armitage, Accident 2015
Oil on Lubugo bark cloth. 67 x 87 in. (170.2 x 221 cm) © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (George Darrell)
Renowned Nigerian photographer Johnson Donatus Aihumekeokhai Ojeikere (J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere) (1930 – 2014) once said: “Art is life. Without art, life would be frozen.” Totally true. Art is a means of expression. Be it painting, drawing, welding, fashion, writing, sculpture and poetry - Oh yes, welding and construction is art too.
Art is the grander merchandise of the human imagination. As well as “the state of our souls”, enthused Kenyan born, London-based artist Michael Armitage. “Art can be an agent of social change. I don’t think anyone should underestimate the impact of art on any society”, he worried. Little did he know he’s agreeing with the master - J. D. Ojeikere. Why is Armitage saying things and why am I in tête-à-tête with him? The reason is that this promising young aspirant has taken up residence at the White Cube - the avant-garde fashionable art gallery in Bermondsey in South East London.
In this his first solo exhibition in the UK, he’s transformed this very enormous White Cube room with eleven giant symbolic paintings that center primarily on stories from his native country, Kenya. Countless concepts for his paintings commence with reports of a newsworthy, contemporary incident, including media news, East African legends, internet chats or thoughts and images stuck in his own personal memory about a momentous event. The ensuing imagery is then developed with oil on ‘Lubugo’, a traditional bark cloth from Uganda, which is beaten over a period of days creating a natural material which when stretched taut has occasional holes and bristly indents. In one of his paintings, Accident (2015), is a snapshot of a bus crash. He returned to a scene of personal pain: an airplane crash he experienced as a teenager, with his father and uncle, deep in the Kenyan bush.
Michael Armitage, #mydressmychoice 2015
Oil on Lubugo bark cloth. 59 x 77 in. (149.9 x 195.6 cm) © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (George Darrell)
In another painting, Hornbill (2014), Armitage depicts one of the four terrorists who carried out the Westgate Shopping Mall attack in Nairobi, in which 67 people were killed including a group of children who were filming a cookery programme in the mall at the time. Michael Armitage was born in Nairobi, Kenya, now a resident of the UK for the last fifteen years, he still works between London and Nairobi. In a conversation with Armitage at the White Cube he said “I can understand if some people find my art controversial, however I am only exposing the daily realities of society’s political problems, male-dominated society, and total disrespect for women’s rights in many parts of the world and extreme disparities in wealth. The gap between the rich and the poor is on the increase both in the Western world and in sub-Saharan Africa”.
Michael Armitage, In the garden 2015
Oil on Lubugo bark cloth. 76 15/16 x 58 7/8 in. (195.5 x 149.5 cm) © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (George Darrell)
Michael Armitage, Kariakor 2015
Oil on Lubugo bark cloth. 66 15/16 x 59 1/16 in. (170 x 150 cm) © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (George Darrell)
Now, for an artist crusader who wants to show the world its ills and atrocities and inequalities via figurative paintings; to exhibit in an avant-garde, posh, experimental and high-profile gallery has raised an eyebrow or two. Why exhibit at the White Cube?
Absolutely I agree with you. Avant-garde and the rest of it. However, it is an opportunity to have my work exposed and to be looked at on a global stage And I would like the subject of the work to be considered as a global thing on the same level as other global messages out there. It is a platform that was granted to me and I took it because it will reach a lot of people and let the debate begin. The narrative of the paintings are mostly about Kenya. It’s about specific things that happened across east Africa – but it can happen anywhere in the world too. The suicide bombings in Nairobi, Kenya can affect us all in the UK or the US. No one thing is now specific to one country. So showing in this gallery will help propel my work to the world stage and that’s what any artists in my position would want. Get world-wide recognition and get the people talking – that is important to me.
Your art work is a tad bit macabre, if I may say so. Violence, suicide-bombings, prostitution and limbs flying about. One hell of a dark and sad world you portray here. From the sensible to the ridiculous. There’s no in-between. These paintings aren't like anything I have seen before. What would you like your viewing public to take away from this?
Sure. Absolutely macabre. But that is life for you in all its entreaty. Make of it what you wish. I did not want to do an uplifting pussy-fussy, tip-toe around works of art for art sake. I know I have very serious issues and messages to deal with. There are lots of dark things going on right now in this world. I portray rape – there’s rape every day. I portray child and adult prostitution – these are happening right now with no sign of abating. No offence to anyone, but I will tell those people who say my work is too dark to look around their communities or far away communities – somewhere, somehow evil is going on. We should not let these things happen. We must talk about it now. I want hard hitting, in your face works-of-art. However, I will also add, they can make of the paintings whatever they wish. If there’s a sort of miss reading at first I would quite like that. If there’s conflict, that is kind of good too.
But do you have to ill-use the current dreadful state of affairs by turning it on its head as art? This is provocative work right here. Would you concur?
Categorically yes. I hope it’s provocative in a sense that it makes the wider audience ask questions about what they are looking at. Question their attitudes. Question why some things are easy and some are not, for as I mentioned earlier in this conversation, art is an agent of social change. I don’t think anyone should underestimate the impact of art on any society. There are a lot of crazy things going on in the world that people are not willing to talk about and have a proper intelligent debate about. As artists and journalists these atrocities should be a lot higher on our agenda than they are now. For me my work is entirely necessary and justified.
Born 1984, Kenya. At that time, in a typical Kenyan family you are encouraged to either be an accountant, a doctor or a lawyer or something they call a real job. How did you become as passionate about art and art as a process for change?
Michael Armitage, Lucy 2015
Oil on Lubugo bark cloth. 66 15/16 x 58 7/8 in. (170 x 149.5 cm) © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (George Darrell)
[Laughs] Art has been very present in my life since I was a six year old growing up in Kenya. It’s not a passion I acquired when I located to Britain. I came to Britain to further my education and attend higher education. My mother is Kenyan and my father is English. Both have always said – go for it. Take it as far as you can go. They have been incredibly supportive although neither of them are artists. And I had a school teacher that encouraged and thought me the ropes and discipline to be a good artist.
Michael Armitage, Sun Wukong in Gachie 2015
Oil on Lubugo bark cloth. 77 x 59 1/16 in. (195.6 x 150 cm) © Michael Armitage. Photo © Stephen White Courtesy White Cube
Is it reasonable to conclude that Michael Armitage is an angry man or just an angry artist who is expressing himself with paintbrushes?
I would not say that I am an angry artist or that my work is angry. In the painting #mydressmychoice the events were horrific - women wearing miniskirts were taken off minibuses stripped and molested by the drivers, touts and some passengers; this was filmed and circulated on the Internet. After watching it I felt complicit in the abuse, it was my culture that was twisted to say that a woman in a mini skirt is morally wrong and that the attackers were using to justify the abuse. I was implicated in the attack through watching and I wanted to question my position, and question this attitude within my culture - in the painting the most important character is you as the viewer. Of course the attack makes me angry, but that is not why I make the paintings.
You have exhibited as part of a group, and now gone solo in a posh gallery and you will be featured in roomsmagazine.com. What more would you like to achieve?
[Laughs hysterically] Thank you very much for this interview. I appreciate that. At this stage I can say there’s a lot to come and a lot to come afterwards. So it’s hard for me to be specific about something right now. There’s a lot of stuff that we have to deal with. There’s a lot of violence that we have to deal with. So watch this space...
What is an activity or activities that you do regularly in your leisure time for pleasure or just to wind away downtime – that does not include a paint brush?
I play squash. I listen to music by artists like Cyndi Lauper, Franco and TPOK Jazz, Tallis, Toumani Diabate, Cluster, Beyoncé, Sauti Sole...etc
White Cube Bermondsey, 144–152 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3TQ
Theaster Gates: Freedom of Assembly
Michael Armitage: Inside the White Cube
28 April – 15 July 2015
Kate Clements: The bride stripped bare by her bachelors
What makes Kate Clements a truly great artist is the conversation that her work evokes about the female gender and issues of narcissistic female adornment.
To the uninitiated viewer, looking at Kate Clements’ intricate glasswork, it might be easy to dismiss her as simply another talented decorative artist.
Whilst there is no doubt that she is extremely talented at the physical manipulation of kiln-fired glass, what does really make Clements’ work stand out? What makes her a truly great artist is the conversation that her work evokes about the female gender and issues of narcissistic female adornment. Clements’ work goes far beyond obvious feminist debates about woman as object and the power of the female form. Instead, what Clements seeks to uncover is the very psychological reasoning that leads to the cultural construction of feminine identity, and how women’s efforts at fulfilling such ideals can lead simultaneously to feelings of guilt and individual power. Adding to this is her performance work, which examines the ideas of purity and power, using metaphors presented by external objects as a means of examining metaphysical notions of being.
Constructing decorative, non-functional glass headdresses which function as a separation between viewer and ‘wearer’, Clements highlights a persistent desire by women to transcend their physical nature, in the hopes of achieving the socially constructed fantasy of a ‘perfect’ woman. Using such an elaborate and fragile medium adds to the sense of counterfeit perfection suggested by the focus on veils and crowns, key motifs of the beauty queen and the bride. It is this close examination into our cultural constructs and farcical use of adornments that transform Clements’ work into something more than pure decoration, adding layers of meaning that make us examine the very society we live in.
Hi Kate, can you tell us a bit about yourself as an artist? What are your passions? What questions still need answering for you?
I work primarily with glass but I describe my work as sculpture and installation. I have just completed my masters at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Over the past two years I have explored the ambiguity of fashion—its capacity for imitation and distinction; its juxtaposition of the artificial and the natural; its ability to divide people by keeping some groups together while separating others and accentuating class division. I’ve come to understand the lifecycle of fashion as a process of creative destruction where the “new” replaces the “old,” yet nothing is truly new.
I am still exploring this and find inspiration in the perspective of critical theorist Georg Simmel whose observations over a hundred years ago remain all too relevant in today’s Gilded Age. “Fashion elevates even the unimportant individual by making them the representative of a totality, the embodiment of a joint spirit. It is particularly characteristic of fashion - because by its very essence it can be a norm, which is never satisfied by everyone...” Style, as Simmel suggests, both unburdens and conceals the personal, whether in behavior or home furnishings, toning down the personal to “a generality and its law.” My choice of materials comments on society’s need to conform and maintain distance.
Let’s talk about your chosen medium. What are the benefits and difficulties in working with glass? How did you first discover your interest in kiln-fired glass?
When I was 17 I took a pre-college course in kiln-fired glass at the Kansas City Art Institute, which was primarily mosaic and plate making. The professor saw potential in me and when I started my bachelors there in the fall I trained as his tech and teaching assistant for the course. I continued that job for my four years in undergrad. Because it was only offered as an elective, I learned the fundamentals through instruction but was substantially self-taught.
Working in glass has pros and cons. The glass community is small and very supportive of its artists. Because of the nature of the material, when you are working with it hot you usually need the help of one to four people to make a piece - so the sense of community is very strong.
A con can be the constant struggle of defending the material. The question of why someone creates paintings is asked much less than why someone works with glass. However, the constant question of ‘why glass’ pushes glass artists to address the relevancy of the material in the conceptual nature of the piece as well a technical one. Working within a craft material there is a wide spectrum of what people choose to do with it. It can range from pipes and paperweights to fine art. If I am speaking to someone outside of the glass world and they ask me what I do and I say glass they normally follow up with asking if I can make a pipe for them.
Breaking outside of the glass community can be difficult too. I would love to be showing in galleries that didn’t only represent other glass artists. Not to get away from other glass artists but so viewers could understand working with glass as fine art and not glass art. This seems to be a line that can be difficult to cross.
What relationships to the female form does your work provoke, and how important is it for you to express these concerns in your work?
I think initially my work was heavily reliant on the female form. As a young woman, I felt the pressures of conforming to some sort of social construct of beauty. At times that has made me feel guilty because I felt a sort of pleasure and power in partaking in that construct.
In recent work I have been addressing how these constructs get translated in different stages of the adaptation of ‘fashions.’ How taste, even ‘bad taste’ can be celebrated in aristocratic society, but once mimicked by a different social sphere it can become kitsch and regarded as ‘aesthetic slumming.’ The concept of fashion and its association with modernity is interplay between individual imitation and differentiation. Fashion, adornment, and ornament all have vicious life cycles; newness is simultaneously associated with demise and death. Though fashion and adornment are closely related to the body, ornament can expand to architecture and environment.
I really love your performance work which I find evocative of the work of Matthew Barney and his use of the body as a vessel for exploring ideas of the human condition. In your piece, Cleaning, the situation transcends the realm of normality and speaks of a higher plane of fantastical reality where juxtaposed items like smashed glass and sweet milk come together to form metaphors about us as human beings, speaking particularly of the paradigms that surround women as having to be ‘pure’ and ‘clean’, expressed powerfully in the denouement of the piece. Tell us a bit about your thoughts behind this and what you wanted to achieve.
This was a very early piece for me that was dealing with my personal experience as a victim of date rape. This marked a turning point for me that was also inspired by a speech by Eve Ensler where she describes the verb prescribed to girls as ‘to please.’ I felt strongly that for a long time I had allowed that verb to describe my interactions with men. There is a rawness and vulnerability in this performance that is mixed with anger.
Who and what influences your work? Are there any artists you recognise as having a big impact on you and your working style?
I just adore Jim Hodges’ work. I think the wide variety of materials and mediums and the way he handles them is truly inspiring and something I look to if I am nervous about working with a new material. Matthew Barney and Alexander McQueen were huge influences in the glass headdresses and the idea of masquerade and costuming. Other influences have been the palace architecture of Catherine’s Palace in Russia. I love the over-the-topness of the patterning and the idea of excess in a space that blurs the boundaries of public and private, the domestic, and the idea of display.
You have stated that your glass headdress designs function as ‘a separation between viewer and wearer’ but that this distance is only a ‘counterfeit perfection’. How important is it for you to address ideas of distortion and fantasy in your work?
I enjoy working with things that are recognizable, but nonsensical and fantastical in their execution. I am interested in the perceptions we have in what we think we are displaying, what we actually are displaying, and how we display it. Some materials can transcend their own materiality. The glass can be seen as ice, plastic, or sugar in the headdresses. In newer work it reads as growths or caviar. Regardless of what it appears to be the fact remains that it is extremely fragile and futile. In a newer piece there is a vinyl treated chintz sofa covered in glass beads. The shiny plastic is reminiscent of plastic covered sofas as a means to preserve something nice, but it can also read almost like a piece of porcelain because of the patterning of the fabric.
What is your definition of ‘creativity’? What does it mean to be ‘creative’ in today’s world?
I believe that creativity is driven by never being satisfied with what you’ve accomplished. That there is always something that can be pushed or questioned within a material or challenged conceptually and that ending up somewhere completely different from what you intended is usually a good sign.
If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to yourself ten years ago? What have you learnt as an artist that was unexpected and what advice would you give to others?
The advice I would give myself is to never doubt your interests no matter if conceptually they might sound simplistic. There is usually something there that can be unfolded into something fairly complex.
Not being intimidated by not being technically trained in a material. Coming from an outside perspective and not knowing the right way to use a material takes away restrictions or inhibitions that might have been taught and allows a certain amount of freedom.
Herbert Golser channels mother nature in a quivering solidity
Golser’s latest exhibition at Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery showcases a tightly sculpted juxtaposition between fragility and structural durability – a combination that leaves you questioning whether these sculptures were crafted by the artist or Mother Nature herself.
Golser’s latest exhibition at Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery showcases a tightly sculpted juxtaposition between fragility and structural durability – a combination that leaves you questioning whether these sculptures were crafted by the artist or Mother Nature herself.
As one enters the unassuming Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery on London’s Rathbone Street, the space’s white-washed walls cite Michelangelo in describing the exhibition: “the figure already existed inside the slab of marble”. Indeed, Herbert Golser’s sculptures, which reveal waves, sweeping strokes and pointillist landscapes from within masses of wood, embody Michelangelo’s view in this regard.
Golser hails from Austria with lengthy experience in sculpting, particularly with wood as his medium, graduating from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Technical School for Wood and Stone Sculpture. A great deal of tradition and time is felt from behind the works displayed in this particular exhibition; one cannot help but imagine the painstaking patience required to forge such detailed and fragile works.
Fragility feels important in this collection. At times as you wander between these monuments you dare not breathe at risk of disturbing the resting flakes and strands of wood sculpted by Golser. This grants the space an inherent stillness and calm that underpins the pieces displayed. A tight relationship between the sculptures and the space grants Golser’s work further dimension; shadows cast by towers of wood protruding from the walls and between the floorboards cast warped geometries, wall-mounted lattices reveal white from the walls in the grates of wood toying with the eye, rows and columns of miniature blocks laying perpendicular to the wall shift the sense of perspective as you pass a piece enabling a sense of movement. What originally seem like still natural creations, upon closer inspection, contain great amounts of life and vitality.
Each sculpted piece conforms to a series of repeated patterns which applies a mathematical quality to the works and yet the pieces which contribute to an individual work retain a sense of individuality – much akin to mathematics found in nature. This parallel exists to the extent where at times the viewer begins to question whether an artist exists at all: perhaps through a series of natural erosive processes these artefacts themselves in a gallery.
Herbert Golser’s exhibition, A Quivering Solidity, is open at Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery until 11th July 2015.
A festival for art lovers
Style and substance go on display at Muse Gallery and at a tube station near you. We interview artists Francis Akpata and Ewa Wilczynski.
I may not know what art is, but I know what art isn’t. The ongoing Art Below annual summer group exhibition in collaboration with London’s Muse Gallery and Studio, taking place at the Muse, is a festival for lovers of good art works. A total of 50 artists, established and unknown, are exhibiting their work - 25 artists from the 4th - 14th June followed by another 25 artists from 18th - 30th June. Why would 50 people want to partake in a gig like this I hear you holler? It’s providing a tad of everything for everybody. Besides to foster the spirit of public participation and engagement in arts, some of the works are also on display on billboard posters across the London Underground network throughout June and July. Is this a winning formula or what? Answer on twitter, please.
Artists taking part includes: Welsh painter, poet and television personality Molly Parkin, 83, Ewa Wilczynski, Hayden Kays, Lora Hristova, Francis Akpata, and Nasser Azam. Paul Lemmon, Ben Moore, Dora Williams, Ani Lang, Leo Jahaan, and Christopher Flower, expressionist figurative painter from Southeastern North Carolina, USA. And there’s more: Stephanie Brown, Louise Barrett and Marty Thornton, to name but 16 - London is becoming an art capital now. The show has galvanised what can be refer to as a frenzy because The London's Muse Gallery is based in the capital's cultural heartland Portobello Road, known world-wide as the home of Europe’s biggest street festival, the London Nothing-Hill Carnival. The Carnival Bands will take to the roads on Sunday 30th and Monday 31st August.
The Art Below was started in 2006 as a public art organisation by brothers Ben and Simon Moore with a vision to “enrich the everyday life of the traveling public by giving fresh insight into the very latest in contemporary art whilst at the same time providing a platform for emerging and established talent”. To date, Art Below have displayed the works of over 3000 international artists, both emerging and established artists in several underground stations in London and overseas. The Muse pieces on show: a mix of painting, printmaking, photography and sculpture and landscape, (a drifting jumble) arguably, I can say ranges from the absolute shocking to the damn-right sublime and some in between. To wrap up: Art Below Summer Show 2015 is the Glastonbury of Art festival and part the masterpiece of London’s big summer happening. Don’t miss it. 4 stars!
As part of my review for this piece I contacted two artists of this must see exhibition. First; Francis Akpata, is only on his second exhibition, but counting. Born in Nigeria, however, came to the UK in 1991. Akpata briefly (one year) studied Fine Art and Literature at the University of Benin, Edo State, and Western Nigeria. While he says he is mostly self-taught, looking at his works of art you will be forgiven for thinking that Akpata was some eons ago a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) or pupil of Édouard Manet (1832-1883). Francis said: “I hold the view that art should be an expression of one’s thoughts and feelings through images. I merge images and colours to express my thoughts”. Who could argue with that? However, Francis is exhibiting only one piece at the Muse gallery - titled In Repose, which precedes another one he exhibited last year called In Recline.
Francis Akpata
How would you describe your art style?
My style is either expressionist or abstract. The expressionist works are figurative while the abstract pieces describe feeling, ideas or pose a question. I paint primarily in oil for abstract work and then combine pastel, water colour and ink for figurative paintings.
Digital and computer art is upon us big time, which means that anyone with any proficiency in software design programs can produce a drawing at the drop of a hat. Does this worry you? And life drawing is now seen by many as an old-fashioned and unnecessary waste of time. Do you agree?
I think computers and digital media are tools that will also help separate artist from craftsmen. As I mentioned the artist uses his imagination and the tools, which could be paintbrush or a computer could be used by the artist. So it does not worry me, I intend to use digital media to make installation videos in future.
Francis Akpata
How do you evaluate art? Every attempt to define "good" art is doomed to frustration. Allowing the free market to decide, may sound intelligent, except that auction prices identify Damien Hirst as the best ever UK artist, which sounds a bit suspect to me, if you ask me?
I evaluate art as good when it is able to engage our imagination and understanding. Some artists like Damien Hirst are also able to market their works effectively, this is no different from Michelangelo who was able to get the attention of religious and political leaders in the 15th century which led to him painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Ever since the controversial works of Marcel Duchamp, avant-garde artists, have been pushing the boundaries of your profession to breaking point resulting in the ongoing debate about 'What constitutes art?' Is this not a trivial squabble between scorched academics? And would you agree that categories such as Contemporary Art, Fine Art; Visual Art; Decorative Art; Applied Art; Crafts; Art Glossary; Junk Art; Graffiti Art - these categories should be eliminated?
I believe the categories should be eliminated and that we should thank Marcel Duchamp for allowing us to separate craft for art. A craftsman learns a particular skill and uses that methodically without using his imagination. An artist uses different mediums, styles and genres to express ideas.
Francis poster is up at Green Park tube station till the end of June.
Thenceforward, welcome London-born Ewa Wilczynski who has been exhibiting since 2009 and this is her seventh outing. A graduate of Central Saint Martins, London, and the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris and has exhibited internationally and throughout the UK. The title of Ewa’s show is THROES. Shocking!
Why Throes as a title?
The title of the show THROES takes inspiration from death throes: that moment in-between life and death. My work deals with those elusive and ethereal moments - 'In between' in human nature.
How many paintings are you showing in this exhibition and why?
Ewa Wilczynski
The exhibition showed all the pieces I had made in the few years since graduating from St. Martins and living in Berlin and Paris. It was a chance to consolidate a whole body of work during these really influential and inspirational periods of my life as a young artist. So I had about 6 large scale pieces which took anywhere from 3-7 months to paint each one and several smaller works too.
Now, your CV, well what can I ask? A graduate of Central Saint Martins and the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris. An artist, actress and muse. Exhibited internationally and throughout the UK including campaigns across London Underground. Digital billboard campaigns across London. Exhibited at London’s Mall Galleries and your debut solo show at the Royal Academy of Art?
During my time at university I was always working, whether it be exhibiting in other countries: Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Toronto, having billboard campaigns of my work on the London Underground and digital billboards over ground using ad space like art space as an exhibition with Art Below, or working in film and fashion. Fine art has always been at the centre of everything I do, so even when working in these other fields I approached each project like I would a painting composition. I took the starring role as 'The Oracle' for Dennis Da Silva's short film Apophonista?! which was screened at Cannes film festival, and most recently collaborated with Joel Byron on our film A Thin Place.
How would you describe your art style and what drives Ewa Wilczynski?
I think what I do is quite different as I seem to have one foot in the past and another in the present. It's quite rare to see work like mine at the moment, and most people respond not only to the overpowering scale, but the overwhelming emotion they evoke. I paint using Old Masters' techniques, and am quite traditional in my appreciation for the craft and also my attraction to classical nude figures. I make my own glazes and paint layers and layers and layers of translucent colours over one another. This can take up to 7 months sometimes, but gives the most luminous effect where the colours reflect and change, and it also gives the paintings a sense of depth. But then the other side of me re-contextualises these techniques in the present day and I manipulate the form/composition in my own present day perspective , including inspiration from my interests in human nature, and as well as my own personal emotions at that time of painting.
You are in my humble opinion a high-profile artist. This is a huge accomplishment. Do you have that feeling of 'I have arrived - Let’s celebrate?'.
Oh thank you that's kind of you. I have a very strong work ethic, and always push myself to be the best I can be. So I get up 4am and work, work and work. So even when I had my debut solo show at the Royal Academy - especially being so early in my career to achieve such an honour - I was just in complete work mode and didn't have a chance to feel 'I have arrived'. Even now, I'm onto my next projects and challenging myself so have not really thought about things like that. However, the thing I am most proud about is seeing people's response to my painting, because that is what it's all about.
Ewa Wilczynski
What next for Ewa Wilczynski?
I will be auctioning my work with Avenir Magazine and Sotheby's at the Groucho club in the autumn and currently painting towards my next solo show! For updates follow me on Instagram and twitter @ewawilczynski or my Facebook fan page Ewa Wilczynski
The Muse at 269 Gallery & Studio, 269 Portobello Rd London W11 1LR
Opening Hours: Thursday-Sunday, 12.00-6.00pm
Watch out for the forthcoming exhibition titled: Art Below Regents Park 2015 from 05/10/2015 to 01/11/2015
Information on how you can exhibit your work on public space with Art Below go to www.artbelow.org.uk www.artbelow.org.uk/ab/Home.action
Art Vandalism – A Modern Social Problem
Vandalism of art has occurred for centuries. We all know this. But to think it still exists in our time is depressing.
Hans-Joachim Bohlmann may not be a familiar name to you. In fact, until recently, it was not a familiar name to me either. But this man led a rather interesting life. Interesting to say the least – he was responsible for damaging over 50 works of art, (together worth over £98 million) over the span of 29 years. In fact, his serial sabotage has made him become synonymous with the term ‘art vandalism.’
Art vandalism, or the deliberate damage of works of art, has seen a surge of incidences in recent years. Edward Eriksen’s The Little Mermaid sculpture in Copenhagen has been the subject of repeated damage, including a decapitation attempt). Before the Mona Lisa was encased in bulletproof glass, it sustained heavy damage from a sulphuric acid attack. And very recently, Anish Kapoor’s piece, Dirty Corners (which he describes as ‘The Queen’s Vagina’), was spoiled in a similar fashion – with the vandals marking the inside of the giant sculpture with yellow and white paint.
Chateau de Versailles workers cleaning up Kapoor’s vandalised sculpture. AP Photo/Michel Euler
Kapoor responded to this attack in an article by claiming it was ‘politically motivated.’ He was cited as saying that the motive of this attack was because his sculpture had ‘given offence to certain people of the extreme political right wing in France.’ He later makes an interesting point of drawing a distinction between political violence and artistic violence, with the former being destructive and the latter, creative. And that’s what really struck me.
This concept of political violence (which, when acted upon in this context, becomes art vandalism) is detrimental to culture. One aspect that is definitive of contemporary art is freedom of speech. Not a garish, brazen kind of freedom – not one that acts by the will of ‘freedom for freedom’s sake’ but a more refined, deeply poignant breed. And that is why acts of mindless (and mindful) art vandalism are so harmful. They represent censorship, prejudice, philistinism and all the obtuse masses of people that seek to devalue the work of an artist.
A similar incident occurred last year in France with artist Paul McCarthy’s giant inflatable sculpture, Tree. Conservative Parisians and politicians thought the 79-foot piece was in bad taste, claiming that it resembled a “giant sex toy.” But that was McCarthy’s exact inspiration. He stated that it was meant as a ‘joke’ but the assault and heckling that he received after the installation highlighted the sense of humour (or lack thereof) that his critics have. But the irony lies in the reaction. I believe that McCarthy’s intention was to cause somewhat of a stir – expecting individuals to see the piece and think ‘did he intend on making it look like a giant butt blug?’
Paul McCarthy’s controversial piece lying deflated in a Parisian floor. Martin Bureau / AFP / Getty Images)
Is there anything that can be done about vandalism in art? McCarthy responded to the vandals in perhaps the best possible way. He requested that the piece remain deflated and not be re-erected or replaced. Although his decision was driven by a desire to avoid any violence, I think that he may have paid tribute to this idea of artistic violence that Kapoor so vehemently condones. One that defies cultural annihilation, stands firm, resolute and in the words of Kapoor: ‘may scream at the tradition of previous generations.’ Fight fire with fire. Turn a bad thing into a good thing. This idea of artistic violence doesn’t seem so farfetched after all.
An Interview with Afriquoi
Delivering high-tempo tunes in the spirit of togetherness.
Based in London, Afriquoi is a UK afro cracking group, with every performer a band leader in their own right. The team stretches in age across three decades, devising from Africa, the Caribbean and the UK. How about that for World Music? They are an underground commotion, bringing an enriching fusion of live African music and electronica. Their masterful five-piece live shows always combine Gambian kora (the KORA is an ancient, and complex instrument from West Africa, shaped like a lute, with a 21 string bridge-harp and played like a harp), Congolese guitar plus Mandinka percussion styles (Mandinka is a drum-like instrument and has a body carved from hardwood and a drumhead made of untreated rawhide and comes from Mali, West Africa), with electronic music drawing on house, hip-hop, soul plus jungle, to produce incredible lock, stock and barrel exceptional vibration.
The music is furious, sometimes deafening and distorted, although it can safely be described as hypnotic, funky and high-spirited, but overwhelming too. One wonder’s how an audience could endure such an onslaught and still be howling for more. On the other hand, it’s a great choice that the Songlines Encounters Festival management included Afriquoi as the closing performance of the festival. From the moment the lights dimmed and the five men appeared on stage there was no let up for the next 80 minutes as they belted out dazzling hit after hit with ageless but ecstatic excitement. And boy-o-boy did the crowd, in the moment believe these guys? They were all jumping, swinging their arms in the air and crying for more. Afriquoi knows how to keep the adrenalin flowing and they more than lived up to their reputation as crowd-pleasers. It was impossible not to admire the energy fueling this festival, especially from an ecstatic close quarter. Here is a question and answer stint with Afriquoi the group.
For anyone that does not already know about Afriquoi, tell us more about the band?
Afriquoi is a cross cultural collaboration based on fusing African music with electronic music. We started by doing some recording sessions in 2011 with Fiston (guitar), Jally (kora) and the marimba player Kudaushe Matimba, who no longer plays with us. These collaborations came about through Wormfood, the promotions company, booking agency +label run by Andre (Afriquoi percussionist - who put the band together). Running regular world music nights every Sunday at Hootenanny in Brixton, Andre got to know virtually all of the UK's African musicians, and so invited a few favourites for a collaboration, bringing in producer Nico Bentley on the controls. We didn't have a set idea of what would happen, we just came to experiment - and Afriquoi was born! Since then we've collaborated with lots of different artists including Jamaican dancehall MCs Serocee + Warrior Queen, but the band has cohered to a regular 5 piece line-up, playing shows across the UK + Europe including Glastonbury, Fusion Festival, Bestival, Secret Garden Party, London Olympics + a ton of others.
Tell us where you guys hail from originally and what instrument or instruments you play and how long you have been playing together?
Jally Kebba Susso, kora, Gambia. Andre Espeut, UK/Martinique, vox. , Fiston Lusambo – Congo. Nico Bentley - UK - production/ MD. Andre Marmot - UK – percussion. Oli Cole - UK - live electronics. We've all been playing together since the act started in 2012, except for Oli Cole - "the kid" - who has just joined us on live electronics replacing Nico. (Nico has just been on tour with Seal and is currently Musical Director for Grace Jones so needed some cover....) Nico will stay involved as Musical Director and main producer.
Why call your group and sound - African-electro dance band? And your group comprises of Africa, the Caribbean and the UK. Do you have a point here?
Ha-ha we don't call it African-electro dance band - you'd have to ask Song lines about that. We just call it music - or 'live African dance music' as we don't like to pigeonhole ourselves... not to one aspect of African music or one aspect of dance music. We just want to make exciting, positive music to make people dance. Yes, we have a point as a group - to draw on the best of African music plus electronic music plus make a new sound that represents the 21st century sound of London.
Afriquoi are a great African-electro dance band with live vocals: Gambian kora, Congolese guitar, percussion and electronics drawing on dubstep, house and hip hop with musicians from Africa, the Caribbean and the UK. However, there must be some challenges, back-biting and the root of collaboration can be a tad tricky? Who is the trouble maker in the group and who is the peace maker? Tell us more about the in-fighting stories?
Ha-ha, we are all a bunch of rascals and ruffians - especially Jally. But we always get on well together and that's one of the things that makes playing together so special. Fiston at 56 has nearly 40 years of professional experience as a musician so we look on him and respect him as a kind of father figure - Papa Fiston. And that's one of the best things about the group - we are different ages, different ethnic and social backgrounds, but we come together and collaborate as equals.
Are you guys still able to make your kind of music sculpted by your original beliefs and not that of your manager or record company or better still for solely what brings in the cash?
Absolutely. We are completely independent and make exactly the music we want to. We all believe that it is only through making music that comes from an authentic place that you have any chance of success.
How do you or the group stay motivated?
Chin-ups, pull-ups plus Fiston's beef brochettes and Andre's roast chicken. No, seriously, we just love playing the music we play and it's always a huge pleasure playing for new audiences and seeing them dancing and smiling and enjoying our music. That's the main motivating factor. It has to be or we might as well be doing something else. Catch us at show at one of the festivals we are playing this summer and see for yourself. Gig schedule is attached.
We review: All That Fall at the Barbican
Imagine seeing a play with no live actors. Just chairs. Just lights. Just sounds. And imagine it being magnificent. Here's our review of Samuel Beckett’s one-act radio play: 4/5
The stunning set for All That Fall. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh
‘Is that it?’ was the clamour of a few of the audience members immediately after the end of the performance. But this wasn’t an exclamation of disappointment. It was an insuppressible utterance for more.
The Pan Pan Theatre production company brought Samuel Beckett’s one-act 1957 radio play, All That Fall, to aural life in the Pit theatre at the Barbican. The audience are invited to sit where they please, on sporadically placed rocking chairs in a room that can only be described as a ‘sombre listening chamber.’
Jimmy Eadie’s effective use of sound design had the actors controlling the entire audial experience. The actors (in dramatic soundscaping fashion) introduced the play by voicing the sounds of barnyard animals and ended it by mimicking the convincing sound of a storm – allowing us to be immediately immersed within Beckett’s dismal, rural world.
Aside from sound, the only other sense we are invited to use was sight, but of course, to some degree. There were dozens of light bulbs hung randomly (or so it appeared) on thin wires from the ceiling along with an array of lights on the wall facing the audience. Aedín Cosgrove’s ingenious use of lighting glared into existence by having you, at times, envision the headlights of a car or even the twinkling stars of an Irish sky.
I was rather afraid that this performance would have had the effect of a glorified audiobook. And I was also worried that the dearth of any visible actors would have (if you’ll excuse the pun) enfeebled Beckett’s vision. But my fears were allayed after that one hour and ten minute performance. This was a drama performance to a T – exercising the subtle nuances that any good quality play would have utilised, made more extraordinary by the fact that all this was done without any live actors.
This was a regressive experience too. The uniquely charming effect of having your sense of vision obliterated and completely bent into the will of the performance reminded me of being young, driven by the power of my imagination. I was focused solely on the words and envisioned my own characters – my own little, old Maddy and my own grumpy, old Dan.
My only qualm with this production was that there was just something missing. I felt that the lighting, despite being creative, was not utilised to an innovative degree. I appreciate that the true focal point of the play is in the words more than anything – but at times I struggled to see what some of the lighting attempted to convey. A scene at a train platform, for example, left me puzzled as to how the lighting connoted to that in any way. A few times it felt like I was looking at a constellation and trying to figure out how or why that disfigured coat hanger could possibly be Leo.
But the effect of trying to convince your audience to imagine the story yourself was indeed successful – and one that should be encouraged by all. If you believe in the legacy of a legend, know that Beckett lives on, and he’s at the Barbican.
4/5
United in music: Songlines Encounters Festival
Let’s sing and dance together.
I can think of no place that welcomes the music of other countries with more enthusiasm than the UK. We have long had an unquenchable appetite for the music of other countries. A visit to any of the several UK summer music festivals will offer everything from timeless King Sunny Ade music (Nigeria) to Toots and the Maytals, Jamaica’s own godfather of soul and the Southern soul sister number one Candi Staton (USA) to acts from Romania and Ukraine. Keeping with this tradition and celebrating its fifth year, Songlines Encounters Festival brought an explosion of international talent across the globe to perform live to a packed audience at London’s stylish Kings Place spot.
Mahsa and Marjan and Duncan Chisholm Collaboration
It was faithfully a celebration of the richness of our blended heritage and culture with enchanting line-up of unique global acts designed to appeal to music audiences of all ages, enthusiasts and Johnny-come-latelies. It was a must hear and a must see for anyone interested in great live performance such as act number one, Scottish fiddler Duncan Chisholm in collaboration with Iranian vocalists Mahsa and Majan. Fado singer put side by side with Cypriot musicians. Anglo-Bangladeshi Latin beats playing with Bangladeshi virtuosi. Songlines blast proves an overwhelming and emotional experience for lovers of world music. It could only happen at the Songlines Encounters Festival.
Where politicians delve around for more sticky tapes and plasters to hold us together, to all intense and purposes, the creative industries is doing a better job uniting us through music. Arts should be a lot higher up the programme of any political party in this country. On the contrary what we have now is backed funding and that is thanks largely, to the lotto – participation in the arts has levelled a bit. Well, back to the fiesta: it opened with fiddler Duncan Chisholm, one of the demanding people on Scotland’s active folk scene with six solo critically celebrated albums behind him. Duncan’s performance was flawless. He performed traditional and contemporary music from the Highlands glens inspired by the Highland glens which are his family home.
Duncan Chisholm
The only reproach I have of Songlines Encounters is why give such a dynamic fiddler-performer thirty-five minutes on stage? Too brief of course. The ladies sitting beside me felt short change. Nevertheless, Songlines made-up for it and Duncan returned later in the evening for a special Songlines Encounters collaboration with Iranian vocalists Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat (sisters). Hallelujah! Next on the bill was Gisela João, new fado singer now making huge impressions in Portugal and currently touring the UK. She sings traditional fado music at its very best. You can hear the “saudade” in her voice - a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia that is supposedly characteristic of the Portuguese nature. Saudade is the Portuguese word for a feeling, a longing for something or some event that just might not happen. Gisela’s songs are based on love poems that evoke a melancholy “saudade” that draws in the audience to feel her world and make it all seem real. Gisela’s acclaimed debut recording was an album of the year in Portugal. She is one to watch!
Gisela João
Another showstoppers of the festival were world legendary Iranian singers – Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat - sisters. Their sultry voices intertwine so beautifully in a biological yarn of sound which had the audience transfixed from start to finish. Also their social conscious lyrics is a celebration of Persian poetry of love, unkindness, revolution and freedom, and of lives lived on the fringes. Readers take note - the sisters are forbidden to perform publicly back home in Tehran, however. How about that? What is more the sisters’ special Songlines Encounters collaboration with fiddler Duncan Chisholm really packs a deceive punch. Alright, musical collaboration between the East and the West have been explored before, though never with such experimental zest, or by three people like Mahsa and Marjan and Duncan so lauded with charisma and talent. The instrumental arrangement that followed was like no other I have seen. At the conclusion the sparks between all three led to a five minutes standing ovation. Amazing indeed.
Now wait for this, for the first time Songlines Encounter did what they have never done - there was a night of very danceable live Afro-electronica from Afriquoi, one of UK’s electro-African dance bands with live vocals, kora, guitar and percussion. They were a bundle of energy. Although the show stated 25 minutes late, nonetheless, when it finally kicked off for real, it was not a disappointment. They gave an extraordinary powerful performance, singing funk, rock, ballads and Afrobeat, you name it they had it all. The audience – young and old and racially mixed – showed their appreciation by non-stop, clapping and dancing and crying for more and more.
From one show to the next I find myself saying, this is the best I have seen. Then I attend another and I find myself repeating myself, this is the best Songlines Encounters has put on. Speaking to some of the attendees they were impressed too. One said: “all acts was the best”. Another said: “absolutely brilliant. Songlines Festival nailed it”. Songlines Encounters Festival is co-curated by Songlines Magazine and Ikon Arts Management. Watch out for 2016 festival programme, due out end of June, 2015.
All images by © Haydn Wheeler