Easy, ABZÛ and Virginia

Okay, so I’ve been back in London for a little over a week now, and have been visiting various galleries, exploring the city that I’ve been away from for the past 3/4 months, as well as assimilating to the new area that I’m living in; New Cross. Lots of students, lots of stuff happening. I’m still trying to figure out whether I like the area or not, as it feels a lot like a bubble, and if you were to get too immersed in this bubble you could become complacent, especially as I’m living in a house of seven all of whom are my friends. This probably means that I’ll want to go to uni every day of the week again, to make sure that I actually get any work done. Although I am writing this from the house right now, so who knows what will happen in the future...

Before moving back, I attempted to make the most out of the countryside, going on walks, sitting on the beach or seeing people that I’m now not going to see for a few months. It’s a lovely place, and will continue to be so, I just think I stayed a little too long, getting too into lounging around and just watching rather than doing. Not to say my summer was wasted, I just think I would have appreciated being in that space more if I’d have come back to London a few times, taking a break from the country for a bit. I think that’s what I’ll be doing from now on, maybe.

In art based news, I was finally officially told that we have to show a piece of work when we get back to uni, so I decided to create an installation for Who Needs Teachers When You've Got A Computer-Aided Education? Which is arguably my most recent piece of work, and one that I’m quite happy with. I’ve bought various ‘emoji pillows’, circular pillows with various emotions being portrayed on them. These will serve to prop up the tv which will be showing the video, as well as serving as seats for people to sit on whilst watching the film. As the essay used in the work is discussing the breakdown of language and how the internet will basically become a melting pot for unneeded information, I felt it apt to use emoji’s, which basically make traditional language obsolete, taking us back to a time when human beings simply used their own fascial movements to speak to others. The fact that they’re pillows communicates how the use of emoji isn’t being forced onto people, they’re willingly using them, slowly sinking into an emoji ‘enhanced’ language. I’m looking forward to talking about the work when it’s displayed, as well hearing what others think of it.

I’ve also gotten into a few more things, two of which are magazine based, which is kind of fun. The first is Average Art’s October issue titled ‘Artists Behind the Art’. I’m having some screengrabs of my videos in the issue, alongside a picture of me, which is in fact a stock photograph of a smiling white man. Follow the link here, where you can buy the issue when it comes out on the 1^st of October, or even pre-order: http://averageart.co.uk/magazine.html

The other magazine, ‘Mile #1’, is run by NOMAD 92-3. I also had to submit an ‘artist portrait’, so once again I submitted the smiling white man. Oh and I may be being interviewed for this magazine, which would be fun to do again, learning more about my practice, etc. Follow this link to their page, I’m not sure when the magazine will be available to look at/buy though: http://www.nomad92-3.com/

Another thing I got into was an exhibition in Croatia with my video work, Is the Internet úäCì@?ù.1HcpiÙîfê¿Dead: Revisited, which I made for 30/30 earlier in the year. The show was in the Siva Galerija last week. Unfortunately, it’s over now, but hopefully some people saw my work and enjoyed it. Follow the link here: http://fubar.space/

Oh and my interview for TRAVELOGUE was published online a little while ago, which you can read here: http://travelogue.space/blog/2016/9/12/bob-bicknell-knight-every-day-we-replicate-the-idea-of-what-life-should-be-like I really enjoyed the process of answering the questions and considering what my practice is all about, and hope to do more interviews in the future. I’m really happy to have been chosen for the show and it definitely validates what I’ve been saying to my peers about the value of having a digital presence, as I was contacted to do the show because of my website and blog. A few photos came back from the exhibition, which can be seen below.

No new work has been generated, although I have been thinking a lot about the aux cable project, which will definitely become a thing when I get back to uni. I’m still deciding on what will be being shown on the various screens; a video, different videos, or maybe the different devices are all on facetime to each other? I need to refine this a little more.

In other news, isthisit? has been going really well, and is something that I’m beginning to get quite proud of as it continues to grow. The more that people submit the longer it can continue on for. I definitely want to do another curatorial thing soon, something interesting and vaguely innovative, something new. Currently in this house we have a spare room, so maybe that could be utilised in some way, creating a tiny exhibition space? I don’t know, could be fun as a small thing.

Last week’s show, exhibition #21, was all about the deconstruction of information, with each of the three different works analysing data in various ways. Katie Tindle’s ‘Workbook 8’ explores the artist’s desktop and a constantly evolving Excel spreadsheet, with a range of personal data being added as the video piece continues on. It all feels very open and free, taking into consideration ideas about personal space in the age of the internet, which feeds well into Sarah Crew’s video piece ‘Reclaimed Lands’, which she describes as an “engaging, poignant and at times humorous alternative in-flight film”. Over the course of the four-minute escapade, the various narrators explore the notion of lostness, questioning whether someone can truly be lost in the 21st century internet machine. Will Hurt’s generative animation ‘Automated Spatial Transformations (House VI)’ ties everything together, with 3D models of buildings endlessly reconfiguring themselves in an information overload.

In this week’s show I decided to play around with the layout a little. For exhibition #22, two pieces were shown, each harnessing works and styles from famous artists. Ana Pastor’s video piece ‘"My one regret in life is that I am not someone else" Woody Allen’ takes a humorous look at the pressure that one has in the art world to achieve a utopian idea of success. Utilising found footage, the artist superimposes a giant smiling face onto various characters from the art world, from Ai Weiwei to Marina Abramović, becoming the artists in question whilst simultaneously anonymising them, placing them behind the unblinking, constantly smiling, papier-mâché head. The clips that are used span a number of years, and are accompanied by ‘Why Can’t I be You?’ by The Cure, a song originally released in 1987, so it’s unsurprising that the work feels slightly dated, which functions well in conjunction with Jack Ratcliffe’s ‘Mondriane’, an online clock that utilises the colours and shapes of Piet Mondrian’s various ‘Composition’ paintings. Whilst Ratcliffe brings new ideas to Mondrian’s old paintings, Pastor brings old ideas to new video sources, all made available via the internet. Both works functioning as the opposite of each other.

Other things that have happened this week? Lots of galleries. Although I didn’t completely fall in love with anything that I saw, I did like a few things

Let’s start with Carroll Fletcher, which wasn’t disappointing, just not what I expected from the place. The top floor, showing work from Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, was mostly centred around showing information, or false information, of what’s going to happen in the future, being informed by the non-fictions of the past. Lots of stuff laid out on tables and pinned on cork boards. It’s an interesting aesthetic, cut out screenshots of computer windows, taking the virtual into the physical, making the fictions that have been created offline realities. It was just a little unexpected. The main multi-channel video was of a group of people, walking through forests and ruins, discovering these black masks that hold some sort of symbolism. I did like it, it was just a bit impenetrable at times, and that’s never really a good thing.

Downstairs however, was a very clever, simple set of video works by the collaborative duo John Wood and Paul Harrison. The assortment of videos shows the pair enacting a series of bizarre experiments, using objects specifically catered to their own bodies to take part in very simple actions. They’re incredibly clinical, insightful works which have a slight design quality to them, which is interesting within itself. It’s definitely worth a visit, or a google, to experience the absurdity for yourself. Very clever work.

Vilma Gold had some work by Brian Griffiths on show, continuing his obsession with Bill Murray and his various selves, one of his houses was on show, as well as various large scale prints. I found the whole thing to be mystifying and intriguing, a combination that’s very familiar to one another. I like Vilma Gold, the ambiguity of its press releases and the very weird shows that occur within. It’s a cool place.

Let’s get some shit ones over with. At Blain Southern there were some cotton works being displayed, wall based pieces that will undoubtedly be hanging in someone’s house in a few months’ time, but entirely forgotten by me. Pretty colours but nothing more.

This was the same for the Carl Freedman Gallery, very bright and colourful aluminium wall based pieces, ‘full of emotion’, but in reality, who gives a fuck about a guy and his axe?

Erik Lindman at the Almine Rech Gallery was equally dull, metal embedded within wood, welcome back to the 70s. How is this guy a mere 11 years older than me, and making this kind of shit work?

Massimo De Carlo had a few interesting pieces from Sanford Biggers. A particular favourite was a three channel video work, showing a sculpture that’s yet to be cast being shot at, in incredible slow motion, the wax flying everywhere alongside the satisfying sound of the gunshot. The particularly ‘nice’ part of this installation was that, every time a sculpture was shot at, the television would quickly go from black (as if it were turned off) to the slow motion video. This created a beautiful audio visual experience as you stood in the middle of these three films, each ‘popping off’ as more bullets were shot at the work. The classic ‘revelatory’ moment was also there, with the sculptures being shown outside of the room, before you entered the ‘gun range’.

Campoli Presti had some very sexual, very bodily inspired works by Julia Philips. It’s always nice to see ceramics being utilised well, rather than simply making a pot. The work on show seemed to be a range of tools, created by the artist using her own body, contorting it and moulding the clay around it. Very subtle, very carefully created work, that I appreciated and understood.

The mini Sadie Coles space had some boring paintings by David Korty on show, which were just boring and unimaginative.

The larger Sadie Coles space however had a very complicated, very in depth exhibition by Uri Aran. Filling the space with black desks, Aran forced the viewer to have a solo experience with each film, which always featured two men, enacting various scenarios, all of which seemed both rehearsed and completely unnatural. They’re very weird and ambiguous films, with a lot packed in. If you have some time, I’d employ you to go and check it out at some point.

Frith Street Gallery had some nice work by Tacita Dean, the classic David Hockney film was on show, as well as some pictures of clouds? It also featured a long form video of a man parading around a theatre stage, playing an actor playing an actor, which is always fun to see. A lot of work I’d already seen and was aware of, lots of old ideas, but interesting ones, ones that I enjoy examining from time to time.

Marian Goodman on the other hand had some work by Guiseppe Penone, the famous artist who once cast his own hand and left it attached to a tree, and as the years continued on the tree grow around his hand. Penone seems to have had this idea back in the 70s and never actually moved on, continuing to milk this original idea until it’s become increasingly boring for everyone. The show was comprised of lots of casts of trees, with hands protruding from them. Wow. I am not impressed.

Rachel Rose had a very sweet animation at Pilar Corrias. I’ve been a big fan of Rose ever since seeing her at the Serpentine Gallery last year. The distorted and beautiful video piece is definitely something to see, with each frame made up of 19^th – 20^th century children’s book illustrations, it’s quite a feat to observe.

Arcade gallery was okay, with some works inspired by Chinese puzzles. Very illustrative and obvious.

IMT gallery had some very simple, sculptural works embedded with meaning. The really interesting thing that did catch my eye however were the cats that inhabited the gallery. These cats, that weren’t part of the show, were Sphynx cats, which are basically hairless and look like huge rat like creatures. I’ve never seen one in real life, and that in itself was an exciting experience. Head on over to IMT if you ever feel a need to see a cat with no hair.

Transition gallery had a very small, very fragile show, made up of photographs and very simplistic watercolour drawings. It was a very lovely, very considerate space.

Samson Kambalu’s show at Kate Macgarry was a little too dense, with no real way to understand the work apart from reading a lot of the books on display. As one friend put it ‘it’s the kind of work that you have to read about to get’, which sums up the whole experience for me.

George Henry Longly at Studio Leigh had created a very simple, design based exhibition which worked quite well. All the assemblages fitted well together, crafting a relationship of sorts. Is there any more I have to say? It’s nice, solid work.

Laura Bartlett Gallery had a range of ‘mixed media’ paintings on show, heavily inspired by European countries, filled with colour and mosaic esque expressionism. Not really my kind of thing, but still quite nice too look at or have in your house.

Victoria Miro had a group exhibition of works, most of which weren’t that interesting, as well as containing a bunch of work that was a little too obvious. What do you expect with an exhibition called Protest? It was okay, some big names but nothing outstanding.

Ivana Basic at Annka Kultys Gallery was fine, some visually enticing work with an obvious meaning; big glass droplets visualising the artists’ breath, etc. Very tight work, very obvious work, but kind of nice. I always enjoy the curation that occurs within that small space.

The final gallery of the week was The Ryder, which was showing a video piece by Jeremy Hutchinson titled Monster. A very simple film considering the post-work condition that’s slowly taking over the various physical industries. As always, The Ryder showing some very good work.

I think that’s everything, lots of crap and a few good things, all contributing to my week back in London.

Other than galleries, I’ve been playing some incredibly beautiful games, some of the best games I’ve played in a while. I’ll start by talking about ABZÛ, a wonderful game with incredible visuals, where you as a diver swim through various levels, exploring the sea. Simply experiencing the feeling of swimming under the sea, riding fish and leaping out of the water to do a flip or two is breath-taking. For the majority of the experience I was just admiring the visuals as well as how the game was making me feel through the gameplay; elated and excited. I’d heavily recommend anyone to play this game, as it literally ‘took my breath away’ at multiple points throughout the journey.

Another experience that was primarily based on exploring and looking was Adr1ft. A game that features the player as an astronaut attempting to get home, exploring a huge space station devoid of life. Once again the feeling of floating above earth and being able to spin around in circles, was incredible and made me feel amazing. After the first ten – twenty minutes however, the actual ‘meat’ of the experience became kind of dull, which was a shame. Once again, if you have a chance, play this game, simply for how it makes you feel.

Another game was Push Me Pull You, a crazed 2D multiplayer game that involves keeping a ball on your side of an arena. You operate your 'player' by maneuvering the thumb sticks, one stick for the front and the other for the back. Incredibly enjoyable, quick and fun, and very hard to play when drunk.

The last game on the list was Virginia, a game that is the most ‘filmy’ game I’ve ever experienced, and one that has the most mind fuck of an ending ever. It was quite mental. The gameplay is literally clicking X and exploring various rooms, but the David Lynch esque plot alongside the fact that there’s literally no talking throughout the 90-minute experience is incredibly interesting, and made me buy into the very bizarre happenings within the world of Virginia. All three of these interactive fictions are a must for anyone interested in video games, or simply anyone interested in expanding their mind with new things.

Now onto films, as I’ve been settling in to the new place, there’s been a distinct lack of film watching, which is always a shame. I think I’ve only had the chance to enjoy a measly five filmic experiences.

Crimes and Misdemeanours was very funny, and a very ‘who didn’t see that happening’ kind of thing. Once again classic Woody Allen.

Another one from Woody, Hannah and Her Sisters, was once again, classic Woody Allen. I think I’ve watched too much of his work now to actually properly talk about them, as they’re all very similar.

I did watch a film from the Harry Potter series, The Goblet of Fire. It was interesting to revisit something from my childhood. It felt very PG, and overly long, I don’t think I want to watch anymore of the franchise, as I think it would ruin my utopian ideals about the series that I’ve carried over from childhood to adulthood.

Another film that was ‘a blast from the past’ was Natural Born Killers. After watching it many years ago, it was weird to watch again, especially as it’s so fucking dull. Is it supposed to be funny? It probably is, I just didn’t enjoy the type of humour which was occurring on screen.

The final film was Hunt for the Wilderpeople, which was a lovely Australian film centred on a young boy who gets adopted and then subsequently gets chased through the wilderness on a police man hunt. It’s a very touching, very nice journey that takes you to lots of unexpected places. It’s also very funny, and very much worth your time.

I’ve also been indulging in some tv. I’m currently watched Modern Family, which is obviously great. Watching these kids grow up is a pleasure, and the whole ordeal is very funny, with some very nice plot points. The kind of show that you could pick up and just watch random episodes of, but to really know and understand the characters you should watch the whole thing.

Another very good tv show that I watched was Easy, a new Netflix comedy drama, where each episode focuses on one or two people, living in Chicago, just living. Very real conversations between various couples living vastly different lives. I really enjoyed it, with definite parallels to High Maintenance and Master of None. Just some very good, honest, television.

I think that’s my two weeks of stuff? Slowly moving forwards with art, alongside watching the occasional film and playing some beautiful games. I hope this trend continues. This coming week will feature more lounging around and getting used to the area, alongside more art, and hopefully some art making. We’ll see how it goes.

Enjoi.

Instagram:

bob.bk1

63Hz, Frame of Reference and Satin Island

So, I think it’s been about a month since I last posted, due to the fact that I was on holiday for a little while, enjoying the sun. Apart from going to France and reading a few books, I’ve mostly been enjoying the countryside, soaking up everything that it has to offer before I go back to London in less than a week’s time. How exhilarating.

I don’t think I’ve done any actual work for myself during this time, apart from submitting to more open calls; attempting to increase the size of my CV. I have however been thinking about some of the things that I want to create in the coming months. After reading a few things I’ve decided to make a piece of work involving The Sims, discussing life and the overwhelming virtual presence in our first world lives. The Sims is heralded as an accurate life simulator, a game that allows the player to be intricately entangled within the lives of the characters that they’re controlling. I want the work to be about this somehow, I’m not entirely sure what it will manifest itself as, but for now I’ve been playing The Sims, re-learning the game that I was obsessed with when I was young.

Another hazy idea for a piece is centred around aux cables, cables that are plugged into various screens, which are playing videos, videos that I am yet to make. The aux cables on the other end however will not be plugged into headphones, they will simply be holes, waiting for the viewer to plug their own pair of headphones into the socket; continuing on my interest in relational art. The connecting of everyone watching these different screens and listening to them through these wires could become a metaphor for the ‘web’ of the internet. Although I’m very early in my thoughts of what I might show on the screens. The use of one’s own headphones also implies a certain homeliness to the thing, somehow making the viewer more comfortable, a similar effect is created when you get a viewer to sit on a bean bag in order to watch a film for example. This is interesting, and may inspire the work. I’m not completely sure, but I guess I’ll find out the more I actively pursue this idea. For the moment I just have a picture in my head of lots of black aux cables snaking around a room; exciting.

I’ve also been trying to learn Blender, a 3D animation software, to no real avail, although I need to put more time and effort into the process. I specifically want to make an animated video work focusing on telepresence devices, a device that is usually comprised of an iPad on a stick with wheels on, allowing the user to be at work, manoeuvring around the office, whilst simultaneously sitting at home controlling this very basic robot from their own iPad. In this video I hope to make a choir of these devices, singing a song about the human race, or the wonders of being a human, etc. I assume this will be fairly simple once I learn how to make some basic models.

Another simple idea is to take landscape shots from video games, most notably ones from games with large forests or hills, and print the images onto ‘tacky’ canvas, to be displayed on the wall, mimicking the ‘basic’ paintings that you find in hotels throughout the world. This may or may not become a thing, if it does the ‘in-situ’ shot would have to be a hotel room.

Oh and I’ve also updated my website a little, with a new, ‘fresh’ layout, one that’s a little more suited to my work, rather than the one I had last year. You can check it out, as always, right here: www.bobbicknell-knight.com

 I have heard back from a few things, which is always great. A small electronic net label called Frame of Reference is going to be releasing a compilation album later this month, with my sound work Utopian Realism being included. This is kind of exciting, even though it’s a small thing. http://frameofreference.xyz/

Some videos of mine are also going to be a part of a music event in Leeds being put on by 8MANA. It’ll be comprised of three rooms, two for music and one for sitting around, staring at various projections of visually enticing art. It’s on the 21^st of September, so if you’re in Leeds go check it out: www.facebook.com/events/170699340026144/173543513075060/?notif_t=admin_plan_mall_activity&notif_id=1472141819978062

Also soon is the ‘CHROMA Pop Up Art Shop’, which will be selling a few of my more tangible works this Saturday and Sunday (17^th-18^th). My set of 12 caps, A Jobless Jury, will be on sale, alongside some USB drives holding other people’s data from the piece of work Dismantled Data. If you’re in London on the 17^th you should come for the launch, I will be there IRL. www.facebook.com/events/1206222416064822/

I also got into ‘Video Social Club #2: Post-Everything’, an event which will be a part of the Plymouth Art Weekender. Two of my videos are being featured Utopian Realism and Who Needs Teachers When You've Got A Computer-Aided Education? This is in October.

Another thing that’s happening in October that I got into is MozEx, a festival about computers and the internet. As part of the festival, various exhibition spaces are being created to show artwork that uses different computer technologies. The video of mine, Utopian Realism, is going to be featured. https://mozillafestival.org/

The final thing that I’ve gotten into is Web Biennial 2017, an internet biennial, which is interesting within itself. The galleries are online, with different curators for each individual gallery space. This year there’s going to be four galleries separated by different media; photography, gifs, videos and website links. Two of my works are going to be featured, the website All My Messages and my long form video work Retrospective Obsolescence. Although this won’t happen for a few months, I’m still very excited about it happening, and I’ll be sure to link everything here when the websites start to become live. www.webbiennial.org/

The website for the TRAVELOGUE exhibition in Italy was created a while ago, and you can see my ‘artist profile’ on the site here: http://travelogue.space/artists/#/bob-bicknell-knight/ I think the show is officially finished now, which is exciting, thinking about the different people that may have seen and enjoyed my work. I’m looking forward to seeing the photographs of all the different works in situ. Oh and I’ve been sent a series of questions to answer for a text based interview, which should be a fun thing. It’s a real shame that I couldn’t make it to the exhibition, even though I’d have loved to, as all the other works in the show sounded really interesting.

What else has happened this month? Lots of reading and sitting in the sun, which is always fun. I managed to read a nice mixture of fiction and non-fiction books, although it slowly dawned on me that reading about Foucault when your brain is slowly melting from the 35°C heat isn’t the best way to actually attempt to understand something that complex.

For the books, I began by reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. A novel that envisions how the internet (or Metaverse, a term coined by Stephenson) would inevitably function and slowly consume everything in its wake. Lots of interesting ideas about advertising, and the lack of laws or space in cities. A lot of ideas about science and religion are packed in too, with many references to the Tower of Babel among other religious phenomena. It was an interesting and evocative read, exploring a world in the future not unlike our own, although a lot of sci-fi/cyberpunk does this anyway.

I also read Neuromancer by William Gibson, ticking off another seminal science-fiction/cyberpunk book from my list. It felt very disjointed, although this may have been solely to do with the fact that when new scenes occurred in a given chapter, there was no paragraph break, you simply kept reading and found yourself in a new conversation, completely different from the one that was just going on. Although I’m interested in the idea of non-linear writing, in this case it was just annoying. Apart from that it was an interesting book, a mixture of ‘old hat’ ideas with some small glimpses of the future. It was good, just not as amazing as I wanted it to be, knowing how much it influenced the cyberpunk genre.

Continuing down the sci-fi route, I revisited one of my favourite authors, Philip K. Dick, and read Ubik. A book that was ahead of its time, and still incredibly interesting to read; an envisioned world where you pay your door to open, and if not it threatens to sue you. Although a lot of Dick’s books take old world technologies into the imaginations of the future, the incredible amount of thought and detail that’s gone into visualising these new worlds overrides anything that he might have gotten wrong about what’s to come back in the late 60s. The book itself was great and satisfying to read, clever and to the point.

The last vaguely sci-fi book on my list was Satin Island by Tom McCarthy. A weird book, an interesting book, a seemingly meandering but incredibly precise book, detailing the exploits of an ethnographer. A book built on research about people who ‘do’ research for a living. It was a nice little reflection on what’s happening right now in the world, in a very mathematically concise way.

Other than the sci-fi I read a few ‘academically focused’ books. The first was a really inviting book called How Games Move Us: Emotion by Design by Katherine Isbister. It was a very interesting, evocative book that gave me a bunch of examples where video games are specifically created to conjure various emotions, etc. in a vaguely art-centred context. I didn’t learn anything major, but it did strengthen a lot of the ideas that I already have about games as art, and how important games are in society.

Capitalist Realism: Is there no alternative? by Mark Fischer was really good, especially at easing you into some of the more complex ideas embedded within it, usually beginning a chapter by talking about various films and how they relate to the given topic. Well worth a read if you want a quick injection of capitalism.

The last book I read whilst I was on holiday was Foucault: A Very Short Introduction by Gary Gutting. It gave a very concise account of the ideas looked at in his books, as well as his life in general. Pretty much what I wanted from the experience.

It was lovely to just sit around for a little while, with no real cares about anything, apart from updating isthisit? still on a weekly basis. Being able to swim every day is also a beautiful thing, how great would it be to have a pool…

In other news I created an Instagram for isthisit? which will serve as a space to inform people of the website, as well as posting pictures of exhibitions that I’ve personally been to and been inspired by from a curatorial position. I’ve always wanted to do this on my own personal account, but I kind of like just having my own work on there, rather than anything else. The username is is_this_it_is_this_it and you can follow the link here to the account: www.instagram.com/is_this_it_is_this_it/

I also finally bought a proper domain name for the site, so it no longer has ads or a ‘.wix’ address. This makes the site a lot more professional, and will hopefully get more interesting people to submit work, etc. I am really enjoying the process of curating as the weeks continue forwards, as well as making links with the various artists that I choose to feature. I definitely want to put on a physical show in the future, a properly curated one with an overarching theme, etc. I think that’s a lot more satisfying, seeing an actual relationship between the works and being ‘taken on a journey’.

For #17 there were three different works from three different artists, each considering the idea of the simulation in their own unique way. This began with Thomas Tyler’s video work ’Liquid Perfection’, contemplating notions of millennial narcissism, which was aptly linked to video games, particularly those with single player narratives from the late 90s/early 2000s, where the simulated worlds revolved around you as the player, disconnected from the internet and your peers. In these virtual worlds you as the player are constantly the centre of attention, a fact Tyler uses within the film to question whether or not the video games that millennials connected with when they were young has had an impact on their later life solipsism. Helena Kate Whittingham’s ‘Cabin Fever’ accompanied Tyler’s work, featuring the artist dancing to Fever by Madonna, donning a purple wig whilst staring back into the webcam, seemingly obsessed with her own performance. The audio on YouTube is muted for copyright reasons, playing into ideas of ownership and consent which is prevalent in both video works. Jake Mullins’ 'White and Blue Pot' completes the simulation, with a painting imitating the 'perfect home' which is always present in Home Style magazines, containing various plants sitting on a clear surface. You can see the exhibition here: www.isthisitisthisit.com/17

#18 was focused around Bex Ilsley’s endlessly repeating video piece titled ‘Twist the Head, There's Another Below’, composed of purple, totem-esque figures with bob haircuts, reminiscent of a Sphinx’s, reaching up to a considerably larger alien/god like creature that seems to be birthing the Sphinx like beings, which appear to be the inner, fragile being within all of us that has control over ones’ emotions and actions. Leading on from that was Henry Badrick’s fragmented video work ‘this is clay, this is chaos, this is collected’, a piece that utilises various objects from different institutions’ collections in order to craft a dialogue with a piece of text by William James concerning the different selves that are present within us all. To tie everything together, there is Peter Barnard’s distorted soundscape called ‘Variations on Silence’ which is made up of corrupted audio files which originally contained 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. To me, Barnard becomes a digital archaeologist, endlessly digging into audio files in the hope that some relic from previous ‘broken’ sound pieces could be discovered and used. The god-like imagery and obsession with one’s own identity in Ilsley’s work coupled with the analysis of inner selves by Badrick accompanied by the use of ‘stolen’ objects from collections and the cultivation of broken audio files by Barnard, brings the various pieces together to form a coherent exhibit. You can see the exhibition here: www.isthisitisthisit.com/18

Exhibition #19 had a medical focused theme, bringing together Joseph Cotgrave’s film 'Elite Controller 1.5', which considers the stigmas surrounding HIV being circulated through ‘meaningless hook-ups’ encouraged by gay dating apps, and Kate Frances Lingard’s series of films titled ‘DOSAGE ONE-FOUR’ that responds to hallucinations suffered by patients in Intensive Care Units when put under prolonged medical sedation. In these ICU’s, due to the amount of time that the human brain is effectively ‘shut off’, patients are known to suffer from PTSD and depression after their treatment; with the doctors focusing on “saving the physical but not considering the mental”. This links into the emphasis of Cotgrave’s piece; educating young people about the potential risks of HIV and safe sex, thinking with your mind rather than your body. The soundscape created by all four of Lingard’s videos provides a rather evocative accompaniment to Elite Controller, with snatches of speech reinterpreted in the context of the male body parts serving to sexualise both works, in a slightly problematic way. You can see the exhibition here: www.isthisitisthisit.com/19

For this week’s exhibition, #20, three works were featured, with the very basic underlying theme of summer, or more specifically the negative connotations of the beach. This began with James Choucino’s endless soundscape ‘Beach Holiday’ which explores the word ‘beached’ and the different meanings it can convey. The more you listen to the robotic voice saying ‘beached’ over and over again, the more I’m reminded of Jon Rafman’s video work ‘Oh the Humanity’, blobs of figures being crushed together in a wave pool. When listening to Choucino’s  work, rather than beached wales, I think of beached humans, slowly melting into the sand on a distant beach somewhere. Leading on from this was Campbell Mcconnell’s video work ‘Deck Chair’, featuring a man repeatedly attempting to sit in a chair. The repetition and tediousness of both of these works is so evocative of the various activities that middle class people take part in whilst at the beach; most commonly sitting in the sun, on a chair, attempting to tan, fully aware of the fact that the tan will be gone in a few months’ time. The final work ties this whole, pointless experience together; a pastel drawing by Galina Munroe simply titled ‘MR CRAB’. You can see the exhibition here: www.isthisitisthisit.com/20

I really like the idea of putting on an exhibition over Instagram, or any social media website, an idea that’s been done many times before, but one that I may want to look into, as it seems like a very simple and easy way to showcase work, work specifically catered to the app, whatever that is... Something to think about at some point in the future…

Apart from all that, I’ve watched many films and tv shows, which I’m now going to attempt to recount. How exciting…

Mistress America was a lovely film, centralised around a young woman going to New York for university. The plot was enjoyable, the acting was believable and there were some genuinely ‘nice’ moments towards the end. An all-round lovely film.

I finally got to watch Jason Bourne, something that I’ve been looking forward to doing since it was announced that Matt Damon would be coming back for the fourth movie of the franchise (we don’t talk about The Bourne Legacy). Obviously it was good, but not amazing, some of the action sequences felt a little like huge Fast and Furious-esque set pieces, whereas what I love about the Bourne films in general is how clever they are, how precise and thought out those action moments are. Also, for anyone who’s ever watched a Bourne film, they know that Moby’s Extreme Ways is going to kick in at the end. Unfortunately, somebody decided to use a new version of the song in this film, which slightly ruined the ‘goose bump’ feeling that I always get when that song comes on at the end of these films. A tiny thing, but one that made the ending a little disappointing. It was good, but not as great as I wanted it to be. Now we wait for number 5.

Florence Foster Jenkins was beautifully sad, considering the later life of a woman who had always dreamed of becoming an opera singer, and had enough money to do just that. Although the one hindrance is that she is terrible at singing, but has never been informed of that fact. Meryl Streep was great as usual, and it’s always nice to see Hugh Grant doing his thing.

I watched a few Woody Allen films, beginning with his most recent, Café Society. A young man goes to Hollywood and gets into various love triangles. It had some beautiful sets, and vaguely acceptable scenes, but it didn’t really give me anything to grasp on to, and left the story very unresolved, which is probably part of the whole thing. Even so, not his best work by far; there’s still the long conversations picking apart some tiny piece of information, or someone jabbering away akin to Allen himself, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Although, the more I see Steve Carell in serious films, the more I want to see him in serious films. So that’s one of the many silver linings of this film.

I watched Whatever Works primarily because of Larry David, who I was missing since finishing Curb Your Enthusiasm many months ago now. It was a fair film, with the standout being the fourth wall breaks. I do love it when media does this, especially in a clever way, as opposed to how Deadpool initiates it. Whenever Larry talks to the camera, everyone around him questions why he’s talking and looking at us, the audience, as if there is no camera there, and its real life. It’s very clever, as this happens at the beginning and the end of the film, bookmarking the events that occur within, with Larry acknowledging the fact that it was all an act, rendering everything that you’ve just witnessed obsolete, which it, of course is. Sometimes Woody Allen can be very clever, and I feel that this was one of those times.

Now You See Me 2 was even worse than the first film, if that were even possible, which I didn’t think it was. You may as well re-watch The Prestige; the height of films about magic.

Gladiator on the other hand, was a great film. Russel Crowe being great, and Joaquin Phoenix being a bastard; what more do you want? 

For some reason, I’ve been watching the occasional episode of Scrubs recently, so I decided to dip into Zach Braff’s directorial side and watched Garden State. It was a bit sad really, as I found it kind of dull. Poor acting from Braff, portraying an unoriginal character. It just felt like a lot of self-detrimental bullshit from Braff, which is fine, but is it really?

For some reason I then decided to watch his other film, Wish I Was Here. Yet again, a mistake. Another hour and a half of watching a white man struggling through life, whining about not being able to send his kids to private school whilst driving a shiny car. Am I interested? Probably not.

Blood Father was terrible; I don’t really know why I clicked on it. I want Mel to be better than he always is nowadays. Be better Mel. Please.

Now, I Am Not a Serial Killer, this was kind of interesting. Centred around a teenager who’s a diagnosed psychopath, who discovers there’s an alien killing people in his small town. As he’s fascinated by the idea of death and killing, instead of reporting this to the police he watches this figure, questioning what he’s doing and why he does it. This allows himself to reflect on his own homicidal thoughts, which makes for an interesting filmic relationship to blossom. An intriguing indie film.

Free State of Jones was fine, McConaughey doing his thing. It felt like a rehash of a lot of films before it, which is completely allowed, and it was a good film, just not amazing. Whenever McConaughey is in anything at this point I want it to be amazing, and I guess that’s my own fault.

The Green Mile was a solid film, a little ‘wishy-washy’, but what do you expect from the director of The Shawshank Redemption. Although saying that, he did also direct The Mist, which is pretty much the exact opposite of ‘wishy-washy’. It was very distressing at times, if a little overly long. However, Tom Hanks can do no wrong.

12 Angry Men is a film I should have watched years ago. A very good film about persuasion and (arguably) how wrong the idea of a ‘jury of your peers’ is. Really clever and very impressive, that’s all I have to add to this near 60-year-old film.

I really liked White Men Can’t Jump, for the pace of the story and the likeable characters. I’ve seen very little of Wesley Snipes in films, but I haven’t really ventured into the Blade franchise. Maybe I should. There were some very good moments, alongside making me actually invested in the sport of basketball, which is a feat within itself.

I also finally got around to watching Schindler’s List. I think the fact that it’s 3 hours long and about World War II has stopped me from watching until now, but I’m very glad I finally did. It was an amazing film, with the black and white making it so much more ‘real’. When people are shot, it just feels real, which makes it even more distressing that it already is. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes are both brilliant in it, and actually makes me annoyed about the majority of Neeson’s filmography, especially when you compare both of their different career paths.

It’s a Wonderful Life was lovely, James Stewart is great in everything, and that’s always a given.

Paths of Glory was depressing and just made me annoyed, which is obviously the feeling that Kubrick wanted to evoke.

Yet again, I finally got around to watching Citizen Kane, which was, yet again, great. Although I probably built it up in my mind a little too much, the overarching story was still good, alongside the set design and general scenes throughout.

North by Northwest was another good one, I think everyone knows you can never go wrong with Hitchcock.

The Apartment was a distressing premise, and even more distressing in practice; a man lets various bosses in his company bring women back to his apartment for affairs, in order to be promoted. Kind of fucked up. What follows is a very good, very interesting film.

Mary and Max was very sad, especially as Philip Seymour Hoffman was voicing one of the lead roles. If you’re a fan of animation, especially stop motion, you should definitely watch this.

I can’t believe I haven’t seen The Princess Bride before, not only because that’s where the idea of the ‘Dread Pirate Roberts’ comes from, but because of how funny and great the whole thing was. A really sweet and very lovely film; a must watch.

Grave of the Fireflies was incredibly sad and simply devastating to watch. A very good film that everyone should watch, centred around a boy and his sister, attempting to survive in Japan during World War II.

Another Studio Ghibli film, When Marnie Was There, was very beautiful and sweet. Another must watch, like pretty much all of Studio Ghibli’s vast filmography.

The Cabin in the Woods surprised me by how knowing it was. Using classic horror tropes to its advantage, I was impressed, alongside one very real-to-life scene that genuinely made me laugh for about 5 minutes, which very rarely happens. A solid fantasy/horror film.

Office Space was great, short and funny. You can’t really ask for anything else from a comedy film. I also now know where a bunch of memes come from, which is always a good thing.

Another Hitchcock, Strangers on a Train. Yet again, another good film. Very creepy and very good.

Warrior was yet another good experience, and yet another film that got me interested in the sport that it was centred around. Superb acting, great camera work, all good things.

Robert De Niro in Casino was amazing, as was the film itself. Joe Pesci, as always, was as scary and as unpredictable as ever. Whenever he’s in a room in the majority of his films, you’re always worrying about what he’ll do next. Well worth a watch if you haven’t already.

Daniel Radcliffe in Imperium was the only vaguely good thing from the film. The plot was very weak and predictable, with nothing being fully resolved, which is never fun. It passed the time, but that’s also never a good thing to be thinking, or writing.

After loving Drive and hating Only God Forgives, I was a little worried about Nicolas Winding Refn’s most recent film, The Neon Demon. It turned out to be a mixture of the two films, with huge chunks of ‘wanky’ visuals set against a genuinely creepy atmosphere and aesthetic. I also nearly threw up at one point, which is to be applauded, I guess? Great acting by Elle Fanning obviously, but the film in general was a little disappointing, alongside being about half an hour too long. I can’t wait for his next one.

Human Traffic, why have I not seen this before? Incredibly clever and a very weird DIY aesthetic that I definitely appreciated, fitting right into how late 90s/early 2000s the whole experience is. A must watch.

Election was surprisingly good. A layered plot alongside Reece Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick. You can’t really go wrong.

I finally watched the final film in the Roy Anderson trilogy, You, The Living. All I can say is, each film is simply incredible, and a must watch for anyone who thinks about, or makes films.

The Overnight was a weird film; two couples slowly bond over an evening of weirdness. That’s pretty much the whole plot, containing down to earth writing and some vaguely interesting acting. A weird film, but one you shouldn’t totally disregard.

The Sting was great. Very clever, with some solid twists. It’s The Sting, probably everyone but me has seen it by now. It was good.

My final film was Modern Times, which is my first Charlie Chaplin film, very much a ‘travesty’. It was very interesting, lots of evocative imagery alongside being genuinely funny. I really enjoyed it, and definitely will be watching more from his filmography in the coming weeks.

I also watched a bunch of tv shows, the first being Broad City. A slightly toned down version of Girls, and a lot better for it. Relatable situations with realistic and genuine conversations. That’s all you really want from a comedy about two women living in New York City.

Sit Down Shut Up was a nice little cartoon about the lives of teachers who all work together in a high school. At times it was interesting, and Will Arnett is always a great voice to hear in an animation.

Jane the Virgin was a little weird, a little unbelievable alongside the over the top comedy storyline and subplots. It was okay, but there was never really any urge to watch the next episode. On reflection, I probably wasted a lot of my time. It was okay.

I began to watch Heroes, which is fair. It hasn’t aged very well, which is a bit of a shame, making me regret not having watched it earlier. However, it is interesting, and I’m still watching it, so I guess I’ll just see what happens once I’ve finished the first, and apparently the best, season.

I think that’s been my month, watching, reading, sitting. This time next week I’ll be in London, without any internet for a little while, back to soaking up all the art that I can see before the new term starts. I am genuinely excited about starting the new year and seeing what’s to come, as well as getting back to the weekly blogs.

Enjoi.

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