Symposiums and Exhibitions

So I've been living in London for nearly two weeks now, and it's been pretty great being able to go to so many galleries and exhibitions. It's been interesting to go to the majority of these places by myself, as it's enabled me to learn a little bit about manoeuvring around the city. It also reduced the amount of time that I spent in each space, as once I was done looking at the work I could just move onto the next place.

I'll start with the first gallery that I went to, and slowly progress onto the more recent things that I've seen. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the work, but I did take Snapchats. I began by going to the Tate Modern, as it's literally a five minute walk from where I'm living and I am a Tate Member, so all the temporary exhibitions are free. I went to see the EY Exhibition: The World Goes Pop. I didn't really like the work that was shown, as I'm not the biggest fan of pop art and it felt like the exhibition was displaying low quality work from people who weren't very well known in the pop art movement from locations other than American. I'm aware that being famous doesn't make you a good artist, but a lot of the work wasn't that interesting to me, compared to Warhol and Hamilton's artwork that was being produced at roughly the same time, which I do enjoy.

Whilst at the Tate I also went to see the Agnes Martin exhibition, who's work I do like. The really precise lines within her paintings and drawings are really impressive to see up close.

That evening I went to the ICA for the exhibition party for the opening of Prem Sahib's solo show titled Side On. There was some really interesting and impressive work being displayed, especially a few pieces where resin had been splashed onto sheer blocks of colour, mimicking moisture. To me this evoked the hot and sweaty atmosphere that one usually encounters when they're in a club. This was also reinforced by another piece that was positioned on the floor; a black marble like surface that was dirty with shoe prints. Overall I  really admired the work and felt like I understood what was going on within it.

The next day I went to the Larry Bell exhibition at the White Cube. I liked the distortions that were created through the use of the glass in the lower rooms, and was intrigued by the extensive use of the material. The piece that I really liked was from a series called 'Corner Lamps' where a quarter of a circle of glass is displayed in a corner of the gallery. I enjoyed it both for its aesthetic qualities (the light hits it at a perfect angle, allowing both below and above the glass to be lit up with refracted light) and for its use of the corner of the room.

After that I went to the Tate Britain to see the Barbara Hepworth exhibit, Sculpture for a Modern World. This was nice, but only nice, as I have seen a lot of her work before, so there was nothing really new for me to see there. I did however explore some of the permanent exhibitions, which are always fairly good. I also got to see Tracey Emin's 'My Bed', which is always intriguing to look at for a little while.

From there I tried out the walk back to my place, which only took me about half an hour. So that may become a daily walk when I start going to uni, if i can cope with walking that far early in the morning.

The day after that I went to the other White Cube in Bermondsey (the one I prefer) to see an exhibition featuring Cerith Wyn Evans and Robert Irwin. Similar to the exhibition I'd seen at the other White Cube, this was also predominantly made up of glass. Wyn Evans' work consisted of many neon/glass chandelier type structures, as well as one that consisted of 19 glass flutes that were uttering breath like sounds throughout the gallery. Alongside these were large plants slowly rotating on turntables, unnoticeable if you just wandered past them, but clearly seen if you actually stopped for a moment to observe the weirdly jarring movements. Irwin's work was made up of clear glass as well as strips of fluorescent tubes positioned on the walls, painted with various colours to create an intriguing display of vibrant colour. These sculptures were quite magnificent to see.

From there I went to the Jerwood Space where the Jerwood Drawing Prize was being displayed. A lot of the work was uninteresting, and the gallery had squeezed in all the work that would fit. The only piece that interested me was a work that I think was called "Found Object", consisting of a frying pan hung up on the wall. It amused me to see this in a drawing exhibition.

Afterwards I went to the Imperial War Museum to see an exhibition focused on Peter Kennard called 'Unofficial War Artist'. It showcased a number of his photographs and drawings, which were all interesting to see, especially the ones focused on the propaganda that occurs during wartime.

I'm now going to skip to Tuesday where I started the day by going to the (MDC) Milano gallery where an exhibition by Gelitin called Prosopopoeia was on. It was quite an intriguing exhibition of random-ish sculptures and assemblages. I presumed this until I went downstairs, and realised that the clay sculptures that were being displayed prominently in the middle of the room had been made through the artists having sex with the clay. This added a whole new layer to the work that I had just seen upstairs and made me value the pieces slightly more. I do like the idea of seeing something that you think is quite bland and ordinary, which is then revealed to be something a lot more complicated than you first thought, be it through watching a video in the adjacent room or some other way.

After that I went to the Richard Saltoun gallery where an exhibition called The Temptations of Pierre Molinier was being displayed. It consisted of photographs and images by Molinier who had an obsession with the female form. I was interested by the way he had created some of the images, as there were a few that involved four or five of the same woman in the same image. Today that would have been easy to accomplish, using Photoshop, but in the 50s/60s he would have been having to use the darkroom to create these complex images. I feel that they were elevated somewhat because of that detail.

I then went onto the Guildhall Art Gallery that had an exhibition called No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990. This was interesting to see and read about as I have a very small amount of knowledge about the struggle Black British artists had to face from the 60s to the 90s to get their voices heard. Most of the art was mediocre though, which was slightly unfortunate.

From there I journeyed to the Whitechapel where I saw the Barjeel Art Foundation Collection, Music for Museums and the Children's Commission 2015, done by Rivane Neuenshwander. Unfortunately the main exhibition wasn't opening until the next day, so these smaller shows were the only ones on. These were all okay, but not very interesting or imaginative, apart from the music for museums, which was showing a range of artist films that contained some really fascinating themes.

The last two spaces of that day were the Jonathon Viner Gallery and the Hales Gallery. The Jonathon Viner was really striking, showing work by Grear Patterson, Jonathan Small and Freddy Tuppen. Although I remember it all being interesting work, the piece that has stuck in my mind was the stolen towels from different hotels that were displayed throughout the gallery space. Frank Bowling's Poured Paintings were being shown at the Hales Gallery, which was my sixth gallery of the day. They were aesthetically interesting to look at but I couldn't really discern if there was any substance to them or not.

The next day was spent going to a symposium at the ICA entitled 'Utopian Realism Today, the Aesthetics and Politics of Hope'. The whole thing was incredibly compelling and detailed, so much so that the majority of what was being said was going straight over my head, which was a shame. I particularly enjoyed David Bell who spoke about music and improvisation in relation to the topic of Utopia.

On Thursday I went to the Sadie Coles Gallery that was showing some work by Ugo Rondinone. It mainly consisted of piles of brightly painted rocks, balancing on top of one another. The really intense colours worked well on the concrete type plinths. On a side note, I have been seeing a lot of concrete plinths lately, and have been wondering whether this is a new thing... The amount of work there was a slight overkill (there were over 20 of these rock sculptures), which both dulled the excitement of seeing them whilst at the same time enhanced the initial wave that hit you when you walk up the stairs and see so many.

I went onto the Hauser and Wirth gallery, which had two very different exhibitions going on. One housing solely paintings by Anj Smith, which I wasn't very interested in. The other, however, contained work by Tetsumi Kudo who was showing off a range of crazy sculptures and assemblages. The work is kind of indescribable, so I recommend googling the name if you want to see some weird art work featuring parts of the body mixed in with a nuclear attack.

I then went over to the Lisson Gallery that has an amazing exhibition on featuring Ryan Gander called Fieldwork. All of the work was consistently good and exciting to discover. Half of the gallery was given over to a conveyor belt that had fake 'found objects' continuously going around and around in an endless cycle. This could only be viewed through a small window, with the majority of the room being hidden from eyesight. I really enjoyed the idea of knowing something is there, but being unable to see it. A piece of work could be created where the whole thing is out of eyesight, and the text describing the piece would become the work. It would then change depending on the viewer, as each audience member would conjure up a different image of what the thing might be in their head, as we all have different reference points in our minds that are sculptured by our experiences. The installation would work anywhere, as  the piece of work would be the text, as there wouldn't actually be a solid manifestation hidden behind the wall. To have something actual would make the audience feel like their picture of the thing wasn't as important as the actual thing. Whereas having nothing behind the curtain allows the audiences imaginations to all be of equal importance and worth. Other work that was being displayed included Gander's phone number on a billboard and the downstairs of the gallery being filled with stones. It really was a thought provoking show.

After the Lisson I went to the Serpentine galleries, both of them had impressive exhibitions but I particularly liked Jimmie Durham's 'Various Items and Complaints'. I really like Durham's work and the humour that is so prevalent throughout his pieces. At one point I found myself laughing at a series of images that I believe were titled 'Balancing Rock Goes on Tour'. The first photograph is of a balancing rock, and then as you move down the line the rock has been (badly) photo-shopped into a number of different pictures (probably taken from Google images) of famous places. Me describing Durham's work doesn't really do it any justice, so I would recommend going and seeing this exhibition for yourself. In the other space there was an exhibition titled Rachel Rose: Palisades. This contained a bunch of sound and video installations that were quite intense and unique.

On Friday evening I went to the Slade for the private view of the MFA/MA Interim Show. I haven't really been to a private view for a while, so I'd forgotten how enjoyable it is to have a beer whilst looking at some enticing art work. The majority of the work was compelling to look at, but as usual there wasn't any text to help you to understand what was going on within the work, which is a shame. The highlights included a paint splatter on the wall which was revealed to be from a naked woman covered in paint repeatedly running into said wall, as well as some works involving picture frames and different quantities of waste material, it was a pleasant evening.

So I think that covers all the work that I've been seeing. It's been a really great two weeks-ish and I hope that that's an indication of what's to come in the future. My course starts on tomorrow (Monday) with me having to bring in some of my own work, which will then be displayed as part of a mini exhibition to start the year. I've chosen to bring in one of the yellow wax pieces and a bronze sculpture. It'll be interesting to hear what people think of it, as I haven't had the work examined by anyone but my close friends and relatives. It'll also be cool to see what other people bring in. I hope the day goes well.

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