London and Dedomenici

On Friday I went to Butley once again to continue my internship. It was an enjoyable day, in the morning I was shovelling grog and transporting all kinds of rubbish to the skip. For the first time I also cleaned up the bronze after it had been cast into a mould and bathed in water. The process involves wearing layers of waterproof clothing and using a high powered hose to wash away any fragments of plaster or concrete that are still clinging to the bronze. As you can imagine this is a very messy process and the water gets everywhere. It also takes a long time, or maybe that was because it was my first time doing it.

In the afternoon I got to make a plaster mould for a head and help to attach together the wax body parts that I made last week. This was also something I hadn't done before, but hope to do again in the future, so that I can learn how to make a mould by myself without any help.

In the evening I went to see a live art performance by Richard Dedomenici, which consisted of him talking about his art work and  his on-going series of films called "The Redux Project". For this he takes a short clip of a Hollywood film and makes a no-budget version of it, using volunteers and unique props. The results are hilarious, especially when both scenes are being shown at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Over the weekend I went to London to see a range of galleries. I first went to the Saatchi which had an exhibition of new art from Africa and Latin America. This was my least favourite exhibition of the day, as the majority of the space was taken up by uninteresting paintings. The only work that I was vaguely fond of was a variety of abstract ceramic pieces by Pia Camil that were colourful and simple.

After this I went to the Whitechapel Gallery. This was a far better exhibition by the photographer Christopher Williams. Although the images displayed were interesting, I was much more intrigued by the way he used the space, exposing walls and re-using placards from past exhibitions. The whole of the lobby area was a reference to Daniel Buren and his work with coloured stripes, which was fun to see. The use of space also reminded me of Trisha Donnelly's exhibition at the Serpentine last year, the way in which she subtly manipulated the gallery by painting parts of the wall in an off white colour and cut back the wall to show its interior workings. William's was a much more obvious manipulation though, making it impossible not to notice.

I then visited the White Cube which had an exhibition by Theaster Gates. This had some really great work in it, binding aspects of Gates' personal life alongside political themes to be visualised as a range of minimalistic sculptures and paintings.

From there I went on to the Brewer Street Car Park, that was showing work by Ryoji Ikeda, who is an electronic composer and visual artist. The exhibition involved a lot of sound and flashing lights,  and is quite hard to explain. It was an amazing experience.

Tomorrow I'm back at Wensum Lodge to paint the exhibition spaces, and then on Tuesday I start to set up my work. I presume I will be able to put my work up vaguely fast, as I have planned it well and know exactly what I have to do. I am looking forward to it.