This
week has been mostly dominated by isthisit?
AFK, with a lot of the days being dedicated to installing all the work
among other things. Now that that is finished with, I just need to make some
new work for the end of term exhibition, which is happening fairly soon. I also
need to go to a lot more exhibitions before leaving London, as I’ve been so
busy lately going to exhibitions has definitely taken a back seat.
So,
isthisit? AFK. After vacating my room
on Monday morning, I had multiple days to work with the space in order to
properly curate the exhibition. I’d already been making multiple Google
Sketchup models in preparation, which had already helped with choosing people
to exhibit within the show before making the final decision on who was actually
going to be in it. The two main tableaus within the exhibition were two short shelving
units which functioned as a base for multiple works. On one table there was a
video piece on an iPhone, alongside some sweets, a readable book and a sound
piece. These tables turned into micro exhibitions within themselves, which had
a much more refined theme, as opposed to the relatively simple one in the
overriding space of ‘the internet but in the real’. The install was relatively
easy, with the shelves taking a few hours to build and all the wall based work
being relatively simple to hang. I’ve had some experience wall mounting TVs in
the past, so this went smoothly too. I also decided to take the door off of the
room, creating a fluid space to move in and out of, enabling viewers to move
through the exhibition into the kitchen, as well as making it incredibly
obvious as to where the show actually was, due to the blue light flooding out
of the room. The blue light actually worked really well, giving the whole space
a futuristic spa vibe, as well as hiding the yellow-nuss of the walls, which
were definitely going to be a problem.
On
the day I was rushing around slightly, buying a bin for the alcohol to go in as
well as another universal remote because I had misplaced my own (I then found
it the day after the PV). The press releases also needed to be printed out, an
element that is incredibly important, that I didn’t want to leave until last
minute. Unfortunately, this was not the case, and I ended up stapling pieces of
paper together 20 minutes before the exhibition was set to open.
In
terms of the private view, many people came, which was great. Overall there
were 137 visitors, a lot more than I had expected. I also got to meet a few of
the artists whose work was in the show, which was exciting, if a bit daunting.
I felt a lot of pressure to say why I chose the work, which was a weird, albeit
great feeling, talking about understanding someone else’s work with the artist
in question. None of the work was broken, which is a definite plus, and the one
performance of the evening by Aidan Studwick was actually really good, and
worked well within the space.
Everyone
who I talked to said the show was a success, which is great, and has definitely
motivated me to want to put on another exhibition soon, most probably in the
new year. I also want to refine the theme a little more, and not have such a
crammed in environment, even if it worked well this time. For now, you can
still see the show by appointment, so contact me at bbk12345678910@gmail.com if you want to come down to New Cross to see it.
I’ve already had a few appointments booked, which is kind of exciting, to think
that people actually want to come and see it. I’m just slightly missing my bed
and having my own space at this point, it’s a bit weird not having somewhere to
go and just be by yourself, within your own house.
The
main problem I’m now encountering is documenting the work in the space. As it’s
so small I can’t get a clean photograph, so may just have to embrace the
madness. I’m not sure how I’m going to do it… For now, you can see some early
documentation, which probably won’t be published on the website.
In
terms of my own work generation, I don’t think anything has actually happened,
which is incredibly annoying. I did decide to utilise the shelving structure
for the upcoming show next month, placing a large television within the metal,
with my Kindle and iPhone attached to it with the metal mounts. The main video
being played on the larger tv, the one featuring Facebook’s friendship
anniversary system, would be referencing once again how all these relationships
are the same, following along a set structure that most people follow in life.
In this way, the apparent uniqueness of the videos on the tv would be visually
trapped within the shelving units pre-organised structure. I also still plan to
order some personalised items, like cups or a t-shirt, but I’m still unsure
what these will manifest as. I’ve thought about printing on a t-shirt all of
the profile pictures of the people featured in the main video, allowing the
viewer to see the similarities in each image, etc, or getting all the names of
the people in the video printed onto the back of a jumper, like a ‘leavers
hoodie’ that you’d get printed of your year group in school. Although I’m
unsure if this idea is good enough. Either way, I think the print should
probably be the same for each item, coming back to the idea of the similarities
that are shared between relationships facilitated by the internet, or simply
how the internet (or the larger companies who operate within the internet)
wants to structure these relationships, creating trends that people follow,
allowing users to ‘check in’ to various social spaces, etc. I’m also not
entirely sure yet what I want to display on the smaller screens in the
installation. A vague idea is to show myself simply scrolling down a screen of
hashtags, with the particular hashtag being searched for one that is personal
and about friendship, like #bff, but slightly better and less obvious. It also
has to be unique enough for less people to use it, but not unique enough that
it actually becomes a unique thing. This means a lot of research into #’s is
needed.
Other
art based things that are happening is the creation of the gallery space within
Chelsea. It’s pretty much finished, and looks really great; a beautiful white
rectangular box with a bunch of small windows on one side. I can definitely see
some good things happening in the space. Tomorrow we’re going to give it one
more coat of paint and it’ll be ready for some work to be put in. The plan is
to hold an ongoing open call for work, which we then pick from every month in
order to curate an exhibition surrounding various themes. Before Christmas,
however, we plan to show our own work within the space as a ‘meet the people
who are going to be running the space’ kind of thing. I think this is good, and
takes away from anyone being annoyed about making the space nice and then not
getting to show any of their actual work in it. You can like the Facebook page
here: https://www.facebook.com/GalleryA217/ You can also see the website, a work I progress,
created by myself here: http://www.a217gallery.com/
What
else happened this week? We’re having to submit exhibition proposals at uni,
which are required to see what kind of space the different collective groups
require. We have asked for an incredibly sought after space in the Cookhouse,
due to it having a huge glass window looking out to the courtyard, which would
be utilised by one of the group’s members for a text based work. I made a
Sketchup model of the space, with all the different works being portrayed
within it. Although I really want it to work, I’m not sure whether it will. I
guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
I’m
still undergoing The Sketchup Residency, and still thoroughly enjoying it!
Although the model is slowly becoming impossible to navigate, due to the amount
of stuff actually in it. I’m not sure when it actually ends for me, but for now
I’m content to keep creating these small visual tableaus, which are works
within themselves. Maybe at some point they could be printed off, to be
exhibited on a long roll of paper or something? To accompany the actual
explorable 3D model. This does sound very enticing to me, very Evan Roth, etc.
Or maybe I could make a book made up of these prints, with the titles of each
work being the title I add to them when putting them on Instagram? Or maybe
this is something I could question the creators about, and they could create a
book for every resident, immortalising their work in print, bringing the
virtual into the real.
Oh
and after talking more with Catinca about curating the website for her, I think
it’s actually happening, which is exciting. It’ll go live a day before the
physical show occurs that she’s putting on, with the same artists being shown,
simply in a different setting. We’ve talked a lot about how the internet gives
all the agency over to the viewer, taking away the power from the creator of
the work and allowing the user to do with it as they want. I’m not really sure
what I intend to actually do with the platform, as I’m yet to have received all
the work for it. Even so, I’m excited to get started. Could you call this a
commission? I hope not.
The
online version of isthisit? is still moving forwards. Inspired by the
aforementioned Sketchup Residency, I intend to allow artists to do ‘Instagram
takeovers’, as well as asking fellow artists if they want to curate a show
every now and then. I think having guest curators would be a really cool thing.
I think Helena Kate Whittingham, a fellow artist/curator, will be the first.
I’ll definitely be holding an open call, or maybe I could start to contact
other people who run online spaces? Like DVDISDEAD or The iPhone Residency.
This would be a really simple way of creating more links in the artist
community, whilst taking a little less of the work load from myself.
The
title of the 29th online exhibition by isthisit? was titled ‘Private
Assurances’, pertaining to how all three of the works either questioned the
idea of privacy, or allowed the viewer to engage in other peoples’ private
moments. Alice Watkins’ website, ‘How can this be private?’, is an ongoing
archive of found texts taken from the titles of porn videos found online, with
the names growing increasingly more violent towards women as you scroll down
the seemingly endless page. Although the thumbnails of the videos have been
discarded, the view count and number of ‘likes’ are still displayed, continuing
the question that was originally posed by the title of the work, how can this
be private? Flanking the website is Silvia Carderelli-Gronau's video 'Share'
which features the artist and her son, exploring a city whilst enabling the
viewer to discover the complexities of their relationship. It’s an incredibly
subtle experience, featuring Gronau interacting with various spaces and
locations that the boy introduces her too, dancing in tandem with her son’s
skateboard as their relationship is wordlessly presented to the viewer.
Finally, there's Lottie Walsh's ambitious film 'Where We Go Next (A Place
That's Neither Real nor Fantasy)' which explores various unnamed territories,
mixing real world locations with virtual creations. These private landscapes are
continually surveyed from the sky, occasionally lingering on various intricate
details and idiosyncrasies of the different environments.
Hmm,
what else? I went to a panel at the ICA called Technology Now: Blackness on the Internet, which was obviously interesting.
A lot of talk about how the internet was created for the white man, and how
black people work within (or outside of) that, using the internet as a place to
critique, etc. Although at times it did simply break down to going through the
motions, which I do see the value of, as the things that are always said at
these events are important, but sometimes they are unneeded, as everyone at a
talk at the ICA are probably aware of the problems. I don’t know… It was good,
and I learned about some artists that I hadn’t been aware of before.
I
also had a lecture focusing on Afrofuturism. It’s an interesting idea, and one
that we’ve had lectures on before, so I didn’t really learn anything new. Being
taught these ideas by a white man was also kind of interesting, and definitely something
to note down.
I
don’t think I went to any galleries this week, apart from my own as well as
Touch Me Baby, the exhibition I was in where you were able to touch any of the
artworks. It was a weird experience, especially as the ‘curation’ aspect to the
show wasn’t very thought out, which is a shame. A lot of the works weren’t
actually very good either, alongside the person at the bar being incredibly
terrible at their job. Two of my caps were also taken, which is really
annoying. Yet again, maybe something just for the CV.
I
did manage to see a few films, which is always positive. I began by watching The Host, a very bland sci-fi about an
alien race slowly brainwashing the entire population of earth. It was okay, but
maybe a little too sappy, a little bit too PG…
Next
up was the dramatization of the Edward Snowden leak, unsurprisingly called Snowden. It was literally a more
‘dramatic’ version of Citizen Four.
It’s only real purpose was to gain money, although we did get more of a
backstory to why Snowden did leak millions of documents, but it’s all a
fictionalised reality anyway, so it’s pretty much bullshit. Not that great
really, which is unfortunate, as its subject matter is incredibly important to
myself and the work that I make.
Closet Monster
was an interesting one, focused around a teenagers’ ‘journey of
self-discovery’. The plot moves forward quickly, treating you to various early
childhood scenes, hastily giving layers to the characters being displayed on
screen. It was kind of fun, quite dark at times and kind of unpleasant. A very
real life drama that is never going to end well.
The BFG
was quite a lovely realisation of the Roald Dahl book, even if it wasn’t as
dark. The animation was quite incredible at times, alongside a really lovely
story about friendship that didn’t outstay its welcome. Really lovely viewing.
Now,
Sully. This was a dramatization of a
real life story of when an American pilot landed a plane in the Hudson River.
It was an incredibly moving and very well done film, especially the scenes
where they repeatedly replayed the crash, over and over again. It just kept
being hammered into you. Although I did enjoy Flight for how drug fuelled and crazy it was, I think I prefer this
very solemn, very real window into what happens after this kind of incident.
The film becomes a lot more about the aftermath, and breaking down the very
detailed moments of the crash, rather than the overall crash itself.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring was quite incredible. The film followed the
evolution of a young boy into an old man, who lives for large portions of his
life in the middle of an isolated lake in the mountains alongside a Buddhist
master. Quite awesome and a definite must watch for anyone interested in the
subtleties of film.
I Wish
was a lovely experience, documenting the journey of two brothers attempting to
rebuild their parents failed marriage. An incredibly sweet and funny
experience.
Although
it feels like I’ve done very little this week, I think I’ve accomplished a fair
amount, putting on the show all by myself, etc. The hard part will be getting
all the work back to the artists. Fuck the postal system. Now I need to
concentrate on my own art making, I have films to make and t-shirts to print,
and a lot of missed thinking time. I’m also looking forward to getting my room
back…
No comments:
Post a Comment