Tetsumi Kudo at Hauser & Wirth London
A seminal figure in Tokyo’s Anti-Art movement in the late 1950’s, multidisciplinary artist Tetsumi Kudo (1935 – 1990) left behind a lasting legacy: this autumn, Hauser & Wirth London will host an exhibition of his works, marking 25 years since his passing.
A seminal figure in Tokyo’s Anti-Art movement in the late 1950’s, multidisciplinary artist Tetsumi Kudo (1935 – 1990) left behind a lasting legacy: this autumn, Hauser & Wirth London will host an exhibition of his works, marking 25 years since his passing.
The exhibition will present a selection of work dating from the first ten years that Kudo spent in Paris (1963 – 1972), following the completion of his studies at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts in 1958.
Although marginalised in North America and Europe for many years, Kudo’s influence on subsequent generations of artists has been profound and far-reaching. The artist spent the majority of his career preoccupied with the impact of nuclear catastrophe and the excess of consumer society associated with the post-war economic boom, his interest in these topics intensified upon his exposure to the European intellectual scene.
Developed in the context of post-war Japan and France, Kudo’s practice, which encompasses sculpture, installation and performance-based work, is dominated by a sense of disillusionment with the modern world – its blind faith in progress, technological advancement, and humanist ideals.
Consisting of a die enlarged to over 3.5 square metres with a small circular door allowing the viewer to climb into the dark interior lit with UV light, ‘Garden of the Metamorphosis in the Space Capsule’ will form the exhibition’s focal point, shown alongside examples from his cube and dome series.
In his cube series, small boxes contain decaying cocoons and shells revealing half-living forms – often replica limbs, detached phalli or papier-mâché organs – that merge with man-made items. These sculptures were intended as a comment on the individualistic outlook and eager adoption of mass-production which he found to be prevalent in Europe.
Kudo’s dome works appear as futuristic terrariums: perspex spheres fed by circuit boards or batteries house artificial plant life, soil, and radioactive detritus. What is being cultivated in these mini eco-systems is a grotesque, decomposing fusion of the biological and mechanical, illustrating Kudo’s feeling that with the pollution of nature comes the decomposition of humanity.
The simultaneously political, yet highly aesthetic, characteristic of his sculptural work is at the centre of the contemporary oeuvre.
Tetsumi Kudo
Hauser & Wirth London, North Gallery
22 September – 21 November 2015
Opening: Monday 21 September, 6 – 8 pm
Tate Sensorium: Art for all the senses
Ever wondered what art might taste like? From the 26th August to 20th September, Tate Britain are giving you the opportunity to find out...
Richard Hamilton Interior II 1964. Purchased 1967 © The estate of Richard Hamilton
From 26 August to 20 September at Tate Britain, art is no longer just for the eyes; viewers are invited to experience sounds, smells, tastes, and physical forms inspired by selected artworks, and will also be given the opportunity to record and review their physiological responses through sophisticated measurement devices – all for free!
The Tate Sensorium is the brainchild of creative agency Flying Object, winners of this year’s prestigious IK Prize, awarded annually for an idea that uses innovative technology to enable the public to discover, explore and enjoy British art from the Tate collection in new ways.
The exhibition is set to feature four twentieth century British paintings from Tate’s collection of art. Flying Object and their team of collaborators have selected works by Richard Hamilton, John Latham, Francis Bacon and David Bomberg that play with abstraction in different ways, all of which can be appreciated sensually in terms of their subject matter, use of shape, form, colour, style and one’s own imagination.
With some of Flying Object’s collaborators including audio specialist Nick Ryan, master chocolatier Paul A Young, scent expert Odette Toilette, interactive theatre maker Annette Mees, and lighting designer Cis O’Boyle, the Tate Sensorium promises to be a uniquely immersive experience – definitely not one to be missed!
26 August – 20 September 2015
Tate Britain, gallery 34
All images © www.tate.org.uk/sensorium
#TateSensorium
Justin Vernon returns with his very own Music and Arts Festival | Eaux Claires 2015
If there had to be one man who’s successfully captured the essence of a gruelling bitter heartache and put it into song, then it’s Bon Iver’s front man Justin Vernon.
If there had to be one man who’s successfully captured the essence of a gruelling bitter heartache and put it into song, then it’s Bon Iver’s front man Justin Vernon.
Image via Eaux Claires
And four seemingly quiet years later he’s returned, bursting with high–held visions that speak to a man and a mind that was never quite done with playing in the woods of Eau Claire. This July marked the first Eaux Claire Music and Arts Festival and for those lucky enough to have nabbed a ticket, Vernon secured quite the line up. Among them, Sylvan Esso, The Tallest Man on Earth, Spoon, Sufjan Stevens, Francis and the Lights, Liturgy, the National and the much-anticipated return of Bon Iver.
When Justin took to burying his past in the snow-covered woods of Eau Claire, the result was a desolating infusion of guitar chords and soul destroying-ly beautiful lyrics. So much so that it came as no surprise when a friend mistook Vernon’s song writing for no more than a sympathy calling, feverish attempt to lure us deep into the cracks of a gut wrenching, stab in the heart Bridget Jones kinda break up. But delve in a little closer and you will discover something quite the opposite. In just two albums, Justin Vernon showed an astounding ability to take us on a journey of heartbreak, bitter resentment and ultimately hope, reaching far beyond the soppy I need wine calling love song and very quickly turning into an indie folk prodigy.
Friday at Flambeaux, Hiss Golden Messenger. Photo by: Zoe Prinds-Flash Photography
Bon Iver’s first album in 2008 For Emma, Forever ago effortlessly captured Vernon’s bitter heart-ache in a string of dark, subdued songs, absent mindedly sung and backed only by the bare strings of his acoustic guitar. In The Wolves (Act I and II) Vernon layers his vocals to project anguish, climaxing with an electrifying, soul infused clashing of chords that are quickly counterbalanced by the familiar undertones of his soft guitar strumming | ‘Someday my pain will mark you’ | he utters. And then there are other more fragile tracks like Re Stacks; so reassuringly simple but indicative of a man’s ability to use his own, pure voice to take comfort in his troubles and serving to remind us that we are all human, after all. ‘To me, it is not about getting over things and moving forward, it is about going through the sadness, taking some of it with you and being made whole because of it’.
Bon Iver. Photo by: Graham Tolbert
Bon Iver’s self titled album in 2011 marked a turning point in Vernon’s life and his first foray into multi tracking, transforming his music into something so alive that you could almost feel Justin emerging from his cabin in the woods, soaking up the joys of spring in the rich pulsating guitar melody that introduces ‘Towers’ and the blissfully potent humming that features in the one and a half minute track ‘Lisbon’.
As Vernon explained, this festival was designed to melt away the music-genre-walls that we have become so accustomed to and to create an experience that goes far beyond any ordinary festival and boy, he delivered. In a setting sat very close to Vernon’s heart, Eaux Claire bragged an impressive roster of musicians, actors, filmmakers and visual artists, reveling as one to unite in a collision of artistic forces, on a stage unique to its own and in the comfort of Vernon’s very own home, Eau Claire.
Eaux Claires Festival July 17 – 18, WI | eauxclaires.com
Ai Weiwei – Creating Under Imminent Threat
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is as well known for his art as for his activism. A steadfast critic of the Chinese government, Ai has been denied a passport for over four years and has been unable to leave or exhibit work in his native country.
Photograph by Harry Pearce Pentagram 2015
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is as well known for his art as for his activism.
A steadfast critic of the Chinese government, Ai has been denied a passport for over four years and has been unable to leave or exhibit work in his native country.
Recently Weiwei posted a photograph online of him holding up his newly returned passport and announced that he has also been granted an extended six-month visa to visit the UK, which he will coordinate with his Royal Academy retrospective.
On the 19th of September 2015, The Royal Academy will host the first major retrospective of his work, showing works from his entire oeuvre. From the smashing of a Han Dynasty vase (which will appear in the show), to the poignant critique of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that killed over 5,000 Chinese children, Weiwei’s work is bold, controversial and unforgiving.
All the works in this show have all been created since 1993, the date when Weiwei returned to his native China from America. This exhibition will show works that have never before been seen in this country, and many have been created specifically for this venue, Weiwei navigating the space digitally from China.
Often labeled as an activist or a political artist, this social conscience is what has influenced most of his works to date. Living under constant imminent threat from those with absolute authority, Weiwei’s work is created out of adversity and struggle. His oppressors are ones who are able to work above and therefore outside the law, and for that reason his struggle is a very real one. Despite this, Weiwei will not be defeated, and continues to critique the government and its actions towards the Citizens of his beloved China.
In a career spanning over three decades, his hand has also been turned to: activism, architecture, publishing, and curation, in a tour de force of creative activity. The artist worked alongside Herzog & de Meuron (the same company to design the Tate Modern in 1995) to design the 2008 Beijing National Olympic Stadium (commonly known as the Birdsnest). This project was born from a building Ai designed nine years before, when he needed a new studio, and decided to simply build it himself.
This confident disregard for convention is the attitude with which he approaches all of his work, and it has gained him many critics. The most notable of which being the Chinese government themselves, who have arrested him, seized his assets, terrified his wife and child, tracked him daily, tapped his phones, and rescinded his passport.
Perhaps most well known for his Sunflower Seeds artwork, in which he filled Tate Modern's Turbine Hall with 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds. Each seed was hand crafted and painted by hundreds of Chinese citizens from the city of Jingdezhen, in a process that took many years. Visitors to the show were overwhelmed to see the vast expanse of seeds, and were originally invited to walk and sit upon them, interacting with the work in a way in which we are rarely allowed to. (For safety reasons this was later disallowed)
The sunflower seeds appeared uniform but upon close inspection revealed themselves to be minutely unique, created using centuries-old techniques that have been passed down through generations.
In the Chinese culture sunflowers are extremely important, Chairman Mao would use the symbology of the sunflower to depict his leadership, himself being the sun, whilst those loyal to his cause were the sunflowers. In Weiwei’s opinion, sunflowers supported the whole revolution, both spiritually and materially. In this artwork, Weiwei supported an entire village for years, as well as creating something that promotes an interesting dialogue about the very culture that created it.
Weiwei’s work is about people, about the often nameless many who are oppressed or ignored. It is about justice for those who have been abandoned or neglected by those who are there to protect them, and it is most primarily about their basic human rights.
It is tragically ironic that those human rights that he has worked so tirelessly to protect for others are those denied him by his own government.
The Royal Academy has turned to Crowdfunding to help raise £100,000 to bring the centerpiece of the exhibition to Britain. Weiwei’s reconstituted Trees will sit in the exterior courtyard and be free to view for all. The campaign has just over a week left and still needs to raise just over 25% of its target.
Get involved here
The show will be on between
September 19th – December 13th 2015
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD
All images courtesy of Royal Academy
Behind the Lens: Simon Butterworth
An insight into the life and work of award winning photographer Simon Butterworth.
Winning first, second, and third place respectively in categories including Professional Aerial Photography and Professional Nature Category in the 2014 International Photography Awards, and shortlisted in the Landscape category for this year’s Sony World Photography Awards, Simon Butterworth is a force in the world of photography who really needs no introduction.
With projects including a lengthy study of his childhood home in ‘Searching for Yorkshire’ and an exploration of the human cost behind Shanghai’s rapid modernisation and development in ‘Domicide Shanghai’, there seems to be no landscape too big, small, desolate or distant to escape Butterworth’s discerning eye; we got in contact to find out a little bit more about the man behind the lens.
B: When did you first pick up a camera, and what initially inspired you to become a landscape photographer?
SB: A love of the great outdoors is in my blood. My father and grandfather were both keen outdoorsmen. From an early age I was taken on long hikes in the English countryside, particularly the Peak District and Lake District. I admit that sometimes my participation was reluctant, but nevertheless I absorbed the atmosphere and grew to love the mental and physical freedom a day in the hills gives.
As an adult much of my holiday times became devoted to exploring the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. It was a dream come true when I relocated north of the border fifteen years ago. I now had the opportunity to visit the most remote parts of Britain at all times of the year...this was the catalyst for buying my first camera. It wasn't long before the focus of my trips into the wilderness was to take photographs rather than climb as many mountains as possible. At first I was satisfied with gathering images of majestic Highland scenes in glorious light, but my ambitions soon became more sophisticated. I discovered the camera was the perfect tool to pose important questions about how we live and what we do to the planet we live on. Since then, much of my time behind the camera has been spent looking at social and environmental issues as well as capturing the beauty of the natural world.
B: Your projects have taken you to various stunning locations all over the world; is there anywhere you have particularly enjoyed photographing?
SB: I am particularly fired up by Hong Kong at the moment. Hong Kong is the city of the future - but happening now! It's a place of huge contrast, high density living at its most extreme with a backdrop of jungle clad mountains and island studded seas, a mind blowing visual mix. It's also nice to work there, you can get around easily and it's safe. I like to work alone, so personal safety is a big issue. To absorb a location and get under its skin you need time to stand and stare without constantly looking over your shoulder. Also, I can work in short trousers - don't underestimate how utterly wonderful that feels after enduring a Scottish winter!
B: It has recently been postulated that “photography is the most essential task of art in the current time”; please comment on this idea, and how you feel about it in relation to your own work.
SB: As a photographer whose work contains a large element of social documentary I agree completely. The world around us needs recording, not just big physical things but also the small things, things that are important to individuals. Photographers train themselves to observe the world in a special way, searching for motivations and drivers that can ultimately shape society. These things aren't always apparent or easy to see at the time but with hindsight become vital to our understanding of who and what we are.
B: Please give us a little insight into the general process of choosing a location to photograph, and how you go about deciding what projects to undertake.
SB: The decision to commit to a photo project is a big one. The kind of questions I ask myself before embarking on something which could quite literally occupy me for years are...
Has this idea been covered by someone else?
Can I afford the necessary equipment?
Do I have the resources to get the shots I need?
Does it interest me sufficiently to spend the time necessary to complete it?
Is the end result going to be interesting to other people?
Is pursuing this idea going to end in divorce from my partner Lauren?
Am I going to be able to negotiate access for the shots I need?
Is it going to entail risking death or serious injury?
Ideally a project can be slotted into everyday life, as with the Yorkshire series. This was a double plus for me, it not only provided the motivation to visit my family, it gave me good outdoor exercise when I got there!
B: Have you got any projects in the works at the moment? Is there anywhere in particular you have yet to photograph that you feel would make for particularly interesting/compelling subject matter?
SB: It's important for my motivation that I have several projects on the go at any one time. At least one of these must be local to where I live and be something that I can pursue in free moments at home, ideally it should also provide some serious exercise (I hate going to the gym but like to keep reasonably fit) - as with the Full Circle project, I walked many, many miles looking for circular sheep folds!
This time next week I will be in Hong Kong following some ideas I've been working on for shooting various aspects of high rise, high density living. I can't wait to get my short trousers on after the wettest 'summer' of all time in Scotland! Later in the year I want to revisit India to follow up on a trip I did eighteen months ago. India really got under my skin in a big way, sensory overload hardly describes the assault on your mind and body that this amazing country provides 24/7.
All images © Simon Butterworth
We interview the CEO of FutureEverything Drew Hemment
A 20-year ‘art project’: Drew Hemment’s journey through digital art and innovation with FutureEverything leads him to Singapore.
A 20-year ‘art project’: Drew Hemment’s journey through digital art and innovation with FutureEverything leads him to Singapore
The FutureEverything festival began 20 years ago in Manchester as a hub for digital collaboration and innovation in the arts. This September, the festival lands in ‘the city of the future’, Singapore, ready to blow minds and challenge perceptions of digital art. FutureEverything CEO, Drew Hemment, discusses the implications of our ever-expanding digital culture surrounding the arts.
FutureEverything. Credit WeAreTape
How did you find your way into digital art and what led you to transition to focus more on curating it in a large festival setting?
I came across Internet art in the early 1990s, when I spoke at and helped organise the Virtual Futures conferences. Before that in the 1980s I got fascinated by networks when I was DJing and organising acid house parties. I set up the festival in 1995. I’d hung up the decks in ‘92 and in ‘95 I ditched the literary agent and book deal and threw myself into festival curation full time.
This was an incredibly creative moment but there was nowhere people could come together. I wanted there to be an event that was about new work and practice as well as ideas. In secret, the festival itself has always been an art project to me, or at least an arts enquiry.
It seems to me that digital art is a lot more accessible for members of the 21st century public than more traditional or current experimental art forms. What is it about digital art that makes it more accessible and do you think its accessibility promotes or encourages accessibility in other artistic mediums?
Accessibility is a good thing, but it can also be a ruse. Many digital artists working today consume and replay interaction forms and images that saturate our lives, through advertising, social media etc. So digital art can be instantly familiar and accessible, in the same way pop art was before it. Any sense of a single ‘thing’ called digital art is decisively over. I am mostly interested in art, and design, which asks questions about the underlying codes that makes changes, leaving the world and the audience different to how it found them.
How do you focus on encouraging digital art and culture that creates a ‘moment’ or ‘event’ in a digital world that allows for instant access to a variety of archived artistic material and ideas? In other words, how can one innovate artistically and digitally in a world that uses technology to access an infinite amount of ideas and artistic endeavours?
We can access everything instantly; it is at our finger tips. This can create a challenge, however, because we have this overabundance of content and connectivity, people need to meet face to face. We need to focus really hard on one thing that is amazing and profound. We’ve seen music gigs explode because people need the live experience to give meaning to streaming and downloads. It’s the same in art, and ideas events, it’s a symptom of our time.
How important do you think artistic collaboration between individuals is in digital art and culture?
Collaboration, sharing and openness are central to the DNA of digital culture. People can collaborate with tens or thousands of strangers across networks to create original and beautiful media objects in which the results of individual creativity can be seen. Mobile networks enable swift and spontaneous collaboration across loosely connected groups. There are always new ways to collaborate with people from other disciplines using them as tools for new development. Having said this, collaboration does not always lead to good art. Solo practice and isolation can create exceptional things.
How has the FutureEverything festival developed since its conception to the upcoming festival in Singapore? Are you witnessing significant changes in the way technology is being used in collaboration with art?
FutureEverything Singapore does feel like something of a culmination of our journey. We have been on this 20 year rollercoaster, imagining the near future, making it and mucking around with it. Then we rock up in this city that is a city of the future, in so many ways. We have never done two festivals the same, we keep on reinventing it. In Singapore my ambition is that we hit the mark, we tap into deep and unexpected currents there and I feel like we can do something beautiful and profound.
Drew Hemment. Image courtesy FutureEverything
The work of Javier Martin holds up a mirror to society – and on occasion, the mirror is literal
Javier Martin works with paint and sculpture in a manner that explores our current social climate incorporating fashion portraiture, recognisable brands, gun violence, climate change and money.
The work of Javier Martin reaches out to you in many ways. His early painting and digital print work merges ‘iconic’ fashion imagery, taken by himself, with brand imagery and currency. The model’s eyes are covered signifying some sort of ‘blindness’ towards the subject matter Martin wishes to convey. With similar messages, Marin’s installations and sculpture takes a more minimalist route in regards to aesthetic and visual quality.
Favouring the colour white, Martin’s installations see the human form become a blank canvas – his figures, clothed fully in white from head to toe, make any signifiers of personality or identity unrecognisable: they become robotic, uniformed figures. This forces the viewer to focus upon the actions these figures engage in or the positions they are found in. For example, ‘Portrait Inverted’ sees a figure falling into, or out of, a framed white space on the wall. ‘Man that is born of the earth’ finds this figure with a wooden branch-like head protruding from the earth, on all fours, as if forcibly attached to the land.
Martin’s installations reflect the art onto the viewer: the art is as much about the viewer as it is about the artist or the art. Mirrors are frequently used by Martin to place the viewer in the artwork, as a central figure around which the concepts discussed revolve around. ‘Social Reflection’ sees another while figure with a mirror for a face begging for money on the street. ‘Money? Where? Money? Who? Money? I?’ finds a larger-than-life one dollar bill hanging on the wall, and where one would usually find George Washington, one discovers themselves surrounded by the ornate decoration upon the currency.
The use of material and form by Martin is clever in that it can often ‘trick’ the viewer into finding reality in a situation where there is trickery. The bending, melting and protruding of material in works such as ‘El Pacto’ or ‘Climate change of design’ creates new dimension to the work. This is to the point where the crafting of these objects so seamlessly is to be highly admired.
Whilst some of Martin’s earlier works deal with printed and painted mediums, all of his later works bring the artwork out further towards the viewer. In installation and sculptural works, this is most obvious, but even in other photographic work and painting or drawing, an effort has been made to make the work more 3-D. Martin’s ‘Print Cuts’ alter photographic material to form the figures photographed as a web of material. Keeping these images suspended away from the wall in the frame allows the light in a space to interact with this web, casting shadows. In ‘Blindness Light’, Martin attaches neon lighting to edited photographic portraits, to cover the eyes of the figure and follow various contours, playing with colour and light.
Martin’s attachment to the ‘iconic’ fashion and modelling imagery with his artistic alterations has seen him collaborate with several fashion and art-based publications, creating imagery that lends itself to the glossy printed format.
Mark Mcclure | Neatly Ordered Abstraction
Mark Mcclure is an artist who utilizes reclaimed wood to create precise geometric artworks. Check out the interview by Benjamin Murphy
Mark Mcclure is an artist who utilizes reclaimed wood to create precise geometric artworks. Using both painted and untreated woods; his works have a crisp yet raw feel that exist symbiotically to create an ordered and balanced work. Sitting somewhere between sculpture, collage, and painting, his work is best interpreted when viewed in its relation to Constructivism.
BM – You combine both old and new materials in your work. Does the history of the materials ever dictate the aesthetic of the piece?
Not really. I tend not to do things that way round. I choose the materials for their colour & texture - in the same way a painter might choose from a selection of paints or charcoals. Texture, colour, and any remnants of past use - all contribute to a pretty broad palette. If I’m after specific textures or remnants to use - then I might stain the wood to adjust the colours slightly - but the history of materials never really takes priority.
BM – There is a conflict between form and functionality, which do you think takes precedent?
It’s interesting that you’ve preloaded the question suggesting that form and function are independent of each other. To me it’s all a sliding scale depending upon the context of a piece.
If I’m creating a wooden mural then it would automatically adopt the function of a wall surface - whilst also being an artwork. If I put a hinged door in a sculpture - it becomes a cupboard of sorts. It might be a bloody expensive & abstract cupboard - but it’s still got the potential to be a cupboard. It’s down to the context of the artwork - who owns it, how they perceive it, probably how much they paid for it as well.
BM – You have mentioned to me before that you would identify yourself as a constructivist. The Constructivists believed that the true goal was to make mass-produced objects. Your work is very hands-on, how would you feel about others making it for you?
The Constructivists had their own in-fights over the ideas of mass production. The likes of Rodchenko straddled the worlds of art & design - whilst others such as Naum Gabo believed in a purer approach that didn’t cross over into function. For me that goes back to the sliding scale & context of the artwork.
But mass production is a different beast to having other people involved in making artworks. The Uphoarding wall I created at the Olympic Park last year involved up to about 10 different people over a 10 month period - and in the future I’ll make artworks in materials I will never have time to master myself - concrete, metal etc. - So it’s inevitable that others will end up producing some of my work.
BM – Would it still feel like your artworks if you didn’t get your hands dirty?
Yes - but without the emotional attachment that comes from being so involved at every step - an attachment that probably stems from the craft side of things. They’d be put on a different shelf in my mind - but they’d still be mine.
BM – What makes the Constructivists artists as opposed to craftsmen?
Many of them were craftsmen - in that they strived to be masters of their materials - producing clothing, design objects etc. with a view to targeting a consumer market. Others had less tangible, idealistic aims - challenging or celebrating aspects of the world they lived in - expressing feeling and emotion etc. and I guess that’s what makes them artists.
BM – The Constructivists’s aim was to make artworks that force the viewer to become an ‘active viewer’, how interactive is your work and do you intend for it to be touched?
Interaction is really important and working in such tactile materials has meant that it’s hard not to touch a lot of my work - which is totally cool. I love the idea of artworks in galleries being more playful and interactive - though interaction doesn’t always have to involve touch. This is something I’m going to play with more this year…. some exciting ideas on the cards.
BM – When you clad the floor or a wall, do you see this as a two-dimensional or a three dimensional piece?
2 dimensions. I’m not too sure where the tipping point is - probably somewhere around 4 inches thick.
BM – Is collage then 2D or 3D? Would you say your work is a type of collage?
Potentially both - can we invent dimensional fractions here & now? 2.3 dimensions? I wouldn’t say my work right now is collage… though it has been. Collage to me is more layer upon layer than piece by piece - and involves a lot more glue.
BM – What exciting future projects are you working on?
A nice mix right now - a large bespoke floor and a few other fun pieces towards the ‘function’ end of that sliding scale we mentioned earlier - and also some new artworks for exhibitions & fairs over the summer. I’m also exploring some materials to add a new aspect to my work later this year. Some busy & exciting months ahead.
More of Mark’s work can be seen online at www.markmcclure.co.uk
Future fossils, the art legacy of the internet
With rapidly evolving technological advances, post-internet art discusses how humanity goes forward alongside machines.
With rapidly evolving technological advances, post-internet art discusses how humanity goes forward alongside machines.
Still in the process of being shaped and defined by artists, post-internet art is a movement referring to the way society interacts with the widespread use of the Internet and how this affects society and culture. A successor to internet art, post-internet refers to state of mind rather than the explicit use of the internet itself. We discuss artists working now who approach this issue by their own means.
Eno Henze explores the relationship between humans and machines, between organic and synthetic and the complexities of organic creativity. His work frequently uses machines to interpret human activity such as drawing or producing an original ‘good’ piece of art. In this respect it is difficult to assign authorship or originality to the work, made by a machine programmed by a human. The machine is capable of making a ‘perfect’ image but cannot make a judgment call on ‘good’ or ‘bad’ art. In a world where images are more available for editing and appropriating than before, this brings us back the ever debated question What is called Art and does not qualify?
Henze’s work asks what the rapid evolution of technology means for human creativity leading us to question what will become obsolete in the future as technological advances are made. Will human creativity become to digital drawing as analogue photography has become to digital?
TIMELAPSE/(MNEMOSYNE)
Set Design for a ballet by David Dawson
RANDOMCONDITION(ARABIDOPSIS)
Dimensions variable (ca 6 x 3 x 0,5 m)
48m laser-exposed photo paper
Wall mount: wood / aluminum
TSCHERENKOWS TRAUM (Cerenkovs Dream)
Technological objet trouvé with 4 Led Panels, power adaptor and image processor.
Approx. 5 x 1 x 1 m.
Amy Brener creates sculptures using plastic and remnants of technology to create light sensitive sculptures reminiscent of natural geological rock and crystal formations. Laptops, phones and computers, the tools we use to access the internet, are quickly made obsolete with rapid advances in hardware and buyer preferences in our current consumer culture, going quickly from the most connected and important object in one’s life to a antiquated piece of plastic and metal.
The materials used in Brener’s work subtly combine many components of these machines into human height crystals, which suggest an imagined future and allude to the merging of nature, humans and technology. Perhaps this realizes a now, eerily more precise vision of prophetic 20th century science fiction films.
However, though many artists are making work about the ongoing and always changing overlap of human and machine, Flavie Audi’s work completely moves away from the cyber connection and comes back to direct connections with objects. Audi uses glass and light in her work to create experiences in which humans can form a relationship with materials. Her art is about making a space for this to happen because, in a world of industrial production and virtual realities, she believes that humans have a desire to return to materiality.
If this is the case, it would appear that we have made a journey full circle. In the early boom of consumer capitalism the more objects one owned the higher status they had in society. More recently there is an attempt to escape this consumer culture; the word materialistic has become negative. It is therefore, somewhat alien to hear Audi talk about humans desire to return to materiality, due to the evolution of the word. Though, the use of this word does not imply that humans’ deepest desire is to own the latest sound system but that they wish to have a physical connection with an object in a space away from digital tools, and this is what her work aims to do. It is about creating social emancipation from technology.
Post-internet art has a self awareness of the networks it exists within, including influences of imagery that is for profit, advertising and merchandising, because of this aspects of design will continue to cross over into art that concerns itself with the virtual. The term post-internet is still developing but these artists approach the themes it encompasses in ways that independently question where the progression of technology will lead us, whether we should be allowing it, resisting it or if we have no choice at all. Whatever we should be doing, humanity is so entrenched in the virtual world, it seems certain that there is a long way to go before the Internet and it’s accompanying state of mind could ever become history.
An Interview with Ethiopian-American singer Meklit Hadero
Here comes a delightful music superstar with substance - simply known as Meklit.
Here comes a delightful music superstar with substance - simply known as Meklit
I’ll admit, I didn’t get Meklit Hadero, the Ethiopian-born, San Francisco-based singer and songwriter when she burst onto the music scene some six years ago. But then one of her songs from her most innovative album to date, “We Are Alive” (Six Degrees Records), implanted in my brain. (The title track, ‘We Are Alive,’ with Meklit’s silky voice floating effortlessly above the guitar-driven song) quaked my foundation and my girl crush was born. As a-matter-of-fact I love the raw ambition of the “We Are Alive” album – the preposterousness, the simplicity and also the fundamental intelligence. But, witnessing her live-in-concert was mind-blowing. Meklit Hadero is the business. She performed songs from her second solo full length album to a packed audience and critics alike at Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank, London. This singer, musician, and cultural activist simply known as Meklit took us on a musical odyssey of Ethiopian traditional tunes and more besides: American-Jazz, Hip Hop, street-level Jazz, Rock, East African Folk and Ethiopian classics - the lyricist practice of her auditory mother country.
Born in Ethiopia, from Ethiopian parents, she feels deeply African and deeply American and her records are deeply inspired by Mulatu Astatke, the Godfather of Ethio-Jazz. Her work builds upon the concepts pioneered by Astatke as part of the late 60s and early 70s Golden Age of Ethiopian music. Taking these principal elements of her heritage as introductory building blocks, she explores the cultural dreams happening as part of the arrival of the Ethiopian Migration en masse to North America. In spite of this, it must be celebrated that this artist's voice makes for compelling listening. Her performance on stage makes for compelling seeing. Her voice is earthy and soulful, supple and freed, and exudes all four. If champagne were a person it would be Meklit Hadero. She is stunning. In an alternate life, one where talent was spread out differently, this is the kind of music I would like to make. It’s subtle, contemporary and one of its kind, while being massively emotional. Oh well, fair enough! What is more? There’s more to this woman. We also find this touring performer, and a political science Yale University graduate, is a committed activist extraordinaire.
In 2011 she launched the UN Women's campaign for gender equality in Africa, and co-founded the “Nile Project” with dear friend Mina Girgis, an Egyptian ethnomusicologist, with background in hospitality experience, curating and producing innovative musical collaborations across diverse styles. The Nile Project brings together artists from the eleven Nile countries that borders the River Nile, namely, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt, to make music that combines the region’s diverse instruments, languages and traditions. Meklit Hadero may not yet be your household one and you may not have heard Meklit Hadero's music before, but once you do, I promise it’ll be tough to get it out of your head.
If champagne were a person it would be you in your fizzy performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. How would you rate that performance at the Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank, London?
We had an amazing time. The UK has always been good to me, and Southbank was just wonderful. And of course having the legendary Pee Wee Ellis there (long-time musical director for James Brown) was a life highlight, especially since the funk that he helped to create was so much part of the Ethiopian tune we played together, Tiz Alegn Ye Tintu.
Where do you go in your head when performing on stage?
Well, in the best moments the “I” disappears entirely. You are consumed by the music and the sound, responding like lightning to your instincts for movement and voice, and to the band around you.
Your band was downright superb on stage. Now, have you always believed you could be successful but did not know how?
I think you have to believe in yourself like that, no matter what your vocation. But music is different because there is no definite path, especially now. Everyone in music is just making it up as they go along, and trying new things. That’s all you can do!
Is it reasonable to term your music as subtly modern and unique while being massively emotional, fierce, and brutal and a no-nonsense dagger in the heart?
Well if you describe my music that way, then I’m doing something right! I describe my music as the intersection of jazz, the singer-songwriter tradition, and Ethiopian music. I think of myself as reflecting my three sonic homelands, Addis Ababa, Brooklyn and San Francisco.
It’s a highly commercial world we live in today. Everything is a trip to profitability. Are you under pressure to produce commercial music and to put out only a money-making album?
Of course everyone is under pressure to succeed in a massive way, but I think producing for the market is tricky. If you do that, you lose what drew people to your music in the first place, which is your authentic voice in the world. I think the more deeply you go inside yourself, the more you reach the universal place that can appeal to people in a wide way. It sounds backwards, but it’s the only way to do this long-term, and I’m in for the long-term.
Wise Lady! You are involved in more than two projects. Tell us about your projects - how do you get so much done?
2015 has been so full. The Nile Project, which I co-founded with Egyptian ethnomusicologist Mina Girgis in 2011, brings together musicians from the eleven countries of the Nile Basin to learn about each other’s music, to create music together, and to bring that music to the Nile and to the world. We just finished a four month US tour, and are in the middle of our second album. What a whirlwind! After the last show, I caught a flight to the UK for a two week tour and residency, and finished off this period with a show in Zurich. I’m looking forward to spending the second half of 2015 in the Bay Area writing new music based in Ethio-Jazz.
In the last two years refugees are streaming out of your country like ants – what is your perspective on this growing humanitarian crisis? Were you a refugee at some stage?
It’s very sad…. Recently Ethiopians felt this in a huge way when 28 of our countrymen died in Libya at the hands of ISIS. They were on their way to cross the Mediterranean into Italy. There was a national mourning and a big light shone on how far people are going to search for a better life. Ethiopia has gone through a huge development leap in the last twenty years, but sadly folks are still streaming out. My cousin Teodros Teshome just made a film called Sost Maezen (Triangle) that I believe everyone should see. In it, he tells the story of a group of friends from Ethiopia and Eritrea who walk across Sudan to Libya, then take a boat to Italy, fly to Mexico, then walk to the US. It is a treacherous journey. Thousands attempt it and many die along the way. My family and I were refugees in a different sense. It was the early 80s, just after the revolution and the Red Terror in Ethiopia, and we left for East Germany, and then crossed at Check Point Charlie through Berlin. We then came to the US and spent years in a kind of limbo, adjusting to life in the US. But we were lucky. Movement takes its toll in many ways, some small and some big. Recently, we are seeing tragedy after tragedy. We are all very sad.
Back to your recent album – We Are Alive – please describe it?
We Are Alive is a collection of songs about the big arc of life, the ups and downs, the magic and the absurd, the beautiful, the danceable, and the quiet. It is the through-line of life and living that crosses all our experiences.
Recently the US R & B /hip-hop star Lauryn Hill cancelled a concert in Israel because she was banned from performing in the Palestinian territories. As one who know injustice first hand, if you were in her position, what would you have done?
I understand her position. Injustice anywhere reverberates outwards. It has also been interesting how many links are being made recently between injustices in Israel and those in the United States. For example, Ethiopians in Israel have been marching recently because of racist treatment and brutality by Israeli Police, and many have been making links to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. It’s all related.
I know you have performed in Ethiopia on more than one occasion. How does it feel performing in your birth country?
I love performing in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian people have always been so supportive of me. And it will always be home, so it’s a homecoming!
Most musicians claim that their music is inspired by heartbreak – how about you? What is your song-writing and music inspired by? Do you write all of your own songs?
I like to think that music should be inspired by the widest of possible life experiences, from heartbreak, to the birth of a child, to the natural phenomenon in the world around us. You can write a song about anything! I write about 80% of the songs I sing, but we do reinterpret some Ethiopian traditional tunes like Abay Mado and Kemekem, and the occasional pop tune, by folks like David Byrne and The Police.
People will always judge if you are good or just terrible – how do you cope?
You choose a select group of folks whose opinion you value deeply and you listen to their feedback. Beyond that, you can’t listen to what people say about you. And you have to know that you will never please everybody.
Any obsessions at the moment?
I'm always obsessed with music.... Right now Muluken Melese is on repeat. He's a classic.
How many gigs do you roughly do a year? And do you do any in African countries?
Depends on the year but generally between 25-60 gigs a year. The Nile Project has been brining me to perform regularly in the Nile Basin as well.
Who does Meklit influence?
I hope I am influencing young women, especially from Africa and the African Diaspora to find their unique voice and to sing it loud! We need more of those voices in the public dialogue, and I think we are at a tipping point where they will soon be much more present in the world sphere. I want to be there to support them!
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.