So,
a week to go until I leave London. I’m slowly getting things together,
preparing for the show next week whilst ticking various galleries off my list, ‘soaking
up’ everything this place has to offer before I go. It’s been a relatively
relaxed week, enjoying the sun whilst creating some new pieces.
The
work that I’m going to show at the exhibition has slowly transformed over the
week to something else. After visiting the venue on Wednesday and actually
seeing the space for the first time without any work in it I realised that
there was a lot more space than I had originally thought; with some walls
usually being solely dedicated to the bar amongst other things. After exploring
the various spaces, I decided to show three pieces. The caps are the first, which
will be shown on a wall in two rows of six. The water video piece is another, which
will be displayed on the floor under the stairs (I think) on a computer screen that’s
sitting on a printed towel alongside some swimming goggles. The towel was
printed this week with an image of virtual water being embedded upon it;
combining the virtual with the real.
The
last piece I’m going to show is a variation of the All My Messages project that I finished last week. In this new
addition to the work I have printed all the messages onto a roller banner,
something that’s usually used to promote a brand at conferences or trade fairs.
Throughout the text, words that supposedly get you onto the NSA ‘watch list’
are highlighted in various colours. The display turns my messages into a
commodity, something to be bought and traded, whilst the emphasized text
continues to consider surveillance on the internet. I’m really happy with how
the prints turned out, with the majority of the text being too small to
actually read, yet again coming back to how the government has the ability to
look at every single communication that I’ve sent to my friends, but doesn’t necessarily
care about it, even though there is the odd mention of cannabis or bombs.
These
works will be spread around the space as, even though they all share a vaguely
same theme, they’re separate pieces of work. I’ve connected them in my artist
statement, but very vaguely. This is my statement for the show:
Bob Bicknell-Knight
/ www.bobbicknell-knight.com /
@bob.bk1
All My
Messages, Everything
Bad is Good for You, 12 Jobless Jurors
Throughout
the space three separate works are featured with one underlying motive; to observe
and critique the different uses of the internet. From all my Facebook messages
printed onto a roller banner, with the words that are flagged by the NSA
highlighted, to a video piece considering escapism within the online gaming
community. You’re also invited to participate in one of
the works by donning a twitter cap and taking a selfie with the hashtag
#controversialcaps, becoming a member of the anonymous jury of the 21stcentury
that continuously judges in a world dominated by PC culture, where arguments
are limited to 140 characters.
I
really do hope that at least one or two people take photographs with the caps
and share them on the various social medias, as then I would actually be able
to make a new work from it. I’m also going to sell the hats at the event, so
hopefully that will occur too!
I’m
also quite happy that this time around as all of my work is incredibly easy to carry,
something that’s been in the back of my mind since the last show.
Another
vague piece was also created this week in response to a film that I watched
called Unfriended. The whole film
takes place on a MacBook screen, and is also filmed in one take, both
incredibly innovative ideas. Knowing this I decided to record myself watching
the whole film on my laptop, which is the work. I’m not sure whether this
should just be an idea or whether I should present it as an actual thing on my
website. I should have probably continuously recorded my laptop screen too,
with the film playing and me scrolling through Facebook, etc simultaneously.
Maybe I’ll do it again over the summer, in a better setting where I actually
move around a little more… The current film can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bw7hXy7UoE
I
helped John a little more with the setup of his installation, which is looking
quite impressive now actually. I’m thoroughly looking forward to the private
view on Friday, seeing all the (hopefully) interesting work will be very
exciting. Speaking of the private view, this week I agreed to help invigilate
one of the works during the show as it involves a VR (virtual reality) device
and the artist in question (Reka Ritt Laklia) needed people to subtly show
people how to work it on the night. The actual piece is really interesting,
keeping you in the same location that you’re actually in in real life with very
subtle changes. Similar to Jon Rafman’s piece Junior Suite that he showed in Art Basel Miami, distorting the
space that you’re already in rather than transporting you to somewhere entirely
different. Obviously this begins to feel more like AR (Augmented Reality) but
both are interesting things to explore.
Apart
from making art I’ve been slightly drifting this week, going into uni
occasionally for group meetings or simply to get out of my room and interact
with real people. I had my feedback tutorial with Andrew which went vaguely
okay. It’s always very loose and incredibly subtle, filled with lots of big
words and metaphors which make it quite hard to actually understand what’s
being said. It’s always helpful and thought provoking, but in a way that I don’t
fully understand…
Oh
and I did go to Brighton this week for a day, which was actually really nice.
To simply escape London for a little bit is helpful at times, there’s just so
much stuff happening on a regular basis it makes it so that when it comes to
the end of term I’m overwhelmingly tired from all the work and the stress. Next
year I’d like to leave London at least once a term during term time, although
next year I won’t be in halls in an empty room by myself, so it’ll probably be
a lot better at that point.
At
some point in the week a few of us had a meeting with Andrew about the aid that
we don’t get because of the nature of our digital work. We spent a few hours
filling out a form, detailing what programs we all used as well as what we’d
want from a ‘digital technician’ if that were ever to occur. Obviously this is
probably all a pipe dream, but it was still nice to talk about the work with
other ‘technology minded’ individuals.
I
was lucky enough to make it to the Eva and Franco Mattes private view on
Thursday for their exhibition Abuse
Standards Violations. It’s a simply amazing show, with the front room being
dedicated to their new series of video works considering internet moderators and
the work that they do online to protect us from harmful content, displayed on and
within IKEA desks. The back area focused on video works of paid people via the
internet performing certain actions to the camera, displayed on tv screens that
force you to become part of the performance yourself; contorting your body into
various positions. It may be my favourite show of my first year, with the bonus
being that I actually talked to both the artists, with one of them taking a
photograph of my t-shirt that I actually made myself! It was definitely the
high point of my week, maybe even my month.
I
also managed to go to a bunch of galleries, cutting my list of things to see
before I leave in half. As usual there was lots of good stuff and lots of bad
stuff. Evelyn Yard was the first space that I visited, which had an exhibition by
Laurence Owen on show which was full of paintings. Although the content of the
work wasn’t that interesting to me, the way Owen chose to display the series
was quite innovative; embedding the paintings within the floor of the gallery,
submerging them under glass so that one is required to step onto the work to
explore the space. Similar to Eva and Franco’s work in a way, turning you into a
part of the work.
Edel
Assanti was next with a show focusing on textile works, with the most interesting
piece by an artist called Nevet Yitzhak. The video piece consisted of an
animated woven carpet, slowly being bombed by various fighter jets and apache
helicopters. The work was part of a series of video pieces titled War Carpets. Obviously, certain seminal
works from Jeremey Deller and Mona Hatoum were also featured, but Yitzhak’s
piece caught my eye the most.
TJ
Boulting was showing photography works that looked at the body. I was
particularly drawn to Mat Collishaw’s The
Corporal Audit. A work that simulates a modern-day CAT scan, continually scanning
a sculptural relief of ‘Veiled Christ’ by Giuseppe Sanmartino, connecting the
old with the new in an incredibly impressive way.
Josh
Lilley contained a bunch of heavy sculptural works by Kathleen Ryan. I particularly
enjoyed a work simulating an oyster presenting a pearl, with the peal being a
bowling ball. It was one of Josh Lilley’s better exhibitions.
Pilar
Corrias had some kind of dull paintings whilst Pi Artworks contained a bunch of
‘paintings’ by Nejat Satı, created using transparent acrylic gel simulating
cracked windows. These were quite beautiful and impressive to see in an
incredibly simple, face value way.
Tiwani
Contemporary was forgettable, whilst The Photographers Gallery was hosting the Deutsche
Börse Photography Foundation Prize nominees. My favourite was obviously Trevor
Paglen with his photographs of internet cables tapped by the NSA alongside his Autonomy Cube, a sculpture that provides
a secure Wi-Fi connection, routing your phone or computer automatically through
the Tor network. Paglen featured heavily in the essay that I wrote a month or
so ago, and is a key figurehead in the art world, making work about internet
surveillance, etc.
Bosco
Sodi at Blain Southern was visually exciting but not that interesting to me,
more impressive objects than anything else.
Nairy
Baghramian’s show at Marian Goodman was extremely dull, huge sculptures of
teeth displayed throughout the space. Frith Street however was showing work by Massimo
Bartolini. Lots of very subtle and beautiful works, extremely considered to
every small detail. A particular piece titled Dust Chaser was particularly lovely, a large wall work composed of tiny
drawings of dust.
Felix
Gonzalez-Torres at Hauser and Wirth was showing some exquisite works, a series
of jigsaw puzzles contained within clear plastic wallets, somehow filling the
huge gallery space. In form alone, they’re quite beautiful. Printing onto
jigsaw puzzles is definitely something to look into in the future.
Louise
Nevelson at PACE London was a little much for me, with every object she could
get her hands on being transformed into black monochrome assemblages. I was
slightly overwhelmed with how ‘samey’ it all was but that’s more the curators
fault than Nevelson’s though.
Francis
Alÿs at David Zwirner had a very surreal film on show featuring a football being
kicked through the streets of Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. The major thing to note
however is that the football is engulfed in flame for the entirety of the film.
It made for a very interesting piece, pulled together by entering the space by
walking through special fire proof plastic.
Ronchini
was showing some huge photographs by Massimo Vitali which were incredibly
impressive, things that you want in your house, but not really my kind of
artwork to look at in a gallery setting.
The
last space that I went to was the Masons Yard White Cube. I’m a big fan of Dóra
Maurer’s early work with folds among other things, but the new wall based works
that were on display weren’t interesting at all. Large blocks of colour that I
didn’t really look twice at.
Apart
from going to various exhibitions, I’ve continued to watch films whilst
furthering my obsession with That ‘70s
Show. The first film was In Your Eyes,
looking at two separate people who share a connection that allows them to see
through each other’s eyes as well as experiencing their other senses. In the
beginning it was quite interesting, but the story slowly spiralled out of
control, ending with police chases and a future that looked fairly bleak for
the two main characters.
Comet
was another ‘sci-fi romance’, centred around the beginning of a couple’s
relationship, the story jumps back and forth from two days to ten years in the
future. Instead of this being a simple way of showing the couples friendship growing
over the years, within the film the characters are experiencing these time
changes too, continuously returning back to their first meeting over the course
of the film. It was an interesting spin on how rom-coms usually use this
narrative device, but apart from that nothing else was really gained.
Omega Man
was a weird one; Charlton Heston once again in an apocalyptic future. I think I
prefer the other 70s sci-fi that he’s in, for me this one was a little too
obvious, but that may be because of how the idea of a virus turning everyone
into mutants has been over-used a lot in the past 45 or so years.
Trainwreck
was, albeit incredibly obvious, vaguely enjoyable. That may be because of not
having seen Amy Schumer before in a starring role… It passed the time at least.
I’ve already mentioned Unfriended
which was quite impressive, and not too much of a ‘let’s make a loud noise
after a long silence’ type of thriller which is definitely a positive.
Eddie The Eagle
was definitely a ‘feel good’ film, detailing the exploits of Eddie Edwards’
rise to the 1988 Winter Olympics. It was actually really nice and fun; nothing
more, nothing less.
The
final two films of the week are slightly linked together with their subject matter.
The first was Eye in the Sky, a film
that centres on drones used in warfare. It holds lots of interesting ideas, and
manages to keep the tension high even when all the ‘action’ is occurring in
board rooms and over the phone; the politics of it all. Ultimately it comes
down to the question of whether or not the military has the go ahead on a
particular target that’s close to where a young girl is selling bread. This is
something that I’m particularly interested in, with my own piece Rules of Engagement considering the
politics of all of this within real life and video games. The film was good,
but I feel like in reality they would have gone ahead with the drone strike after
learning that a number of high priority ‘targets’ were in this particular
house, rather than waiting for one person to sell their bread. Although for a
Hollywood film to function one must have some sort of moral quandary as it
wouldn’t be deemed ‘sellable’ without it, as well as the fact that there would
be no film without this centrepiece drama. Maybe I’m just incredibly unfeeling?
The
last film was called Cell and is yet
to be released. In it, for some reason or another, when someone uses a mobile
phone to make a call it turns the individual into a crazed axe wielding maniac.
This event occurs and then we follow one man’s journey to find his son. It was
annoyingly dull, with basil exposition occurring every 20 minutes or so and a
cast of unmemorable characters, alongside a crap ending. It was unfortunate as
the premise sounded at least partially interesting.
Oh
and I’ve finally begun to get submissions to isthisit? after signing up to various art opportunity websites. I’ve
also set up a Facebook page for it too, where you can keep up to date with the
weekly exhibitions among other things: https://www.facebook.com/isthisitisthisit/
This
week the site is showing work by Joas Nebe and Saskia Martindale and you can
check it out here: http://isthis.wix.com/isthisit
I
think that’s my week pretty much. This last week of being in London is rather
busy, with an essay feedback crit tomorrow, the show on Wednesday and the BA
private view on Friday. I’m really looking forward to it all, sneaking in as
much art as I can in between the various scheduled activities. This time next
week I’ll hopefully be posting from Suffolk, sitting down, unpacking all my
stuff whilst drinking a cold beer. I look forward to life slowing down
slightly, if only for a few months.
Enjoi.
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