So,
almost three weeks to catch up on... It’s been a weird term, full of change,
disappointment and some excitement. It’s all gone very fast, but that always
seems to be a thing, especially when I bring it up in this blog. I’ve learned a
lot and have made some vaguely good pieces of work. I definitely feel like I’ve
neglected galleries, which is the whole point of being in London in the first
place, so that’s kind of annoying. I think I’m just tired, and in need of a
break… Where did the summer go…? I don’t know…
Let
me think back to last week. What was I thinking, what was I feeling? I guess I
was in the midst of creating work for the Chelsea show, which I talked briefly
about in the last post, Mark Zuckerberg, etc. I’d already created two of the
three videos at this point two weeks ago, with the third one being considered.
I finally got around to creating it, which turned into a very simple video,
utilising the first Facebook Live video, which was of Zuckerberg taking the
viewer on a tour of his office. In the video he talks a lot about the office
layout, how there are no physical offices, simply desk space, so that the
company becomes a fluid system of work which allows for transparency and no
hierarchies to take charge. Everyone is (supposedly) on the same level. This
reminded me a lot of Dave Eggers’ book, The
Circle, which is a brilliant read.
I
decided to distort this video, layering multiple altered versions of the same
video on top of each other, changing Mark into a multi faced and multi layered
being. This very simple distortion looks at the multiple layers of Zuck, the
various public and private personas that he has. For me, this also comes back
to the extremely tired notion that people proclaim a lot in this new age of
internet surveillance; ‘I’ve got nothing to hide’. Obviously everyone does, and
even if they think they don’t, they don’t make the rules on what is and isn’t
valuable or ‘hide worthy’, so how would they know? Basically, Mark has
something to hide, everyone does, and people want the privacy to hide these
things, which is demonstrated by Mark’s house, which is purposefully set back
from the street for ‘extra privacy’. This want for privacy is also picked up on
in the 2013 film Terms and Conditions May
Apply, which attempts to expose what corporations and governments are
learning about ‘us’ through our internet usage. In the documentary, the
filmmakers go to Mark’s house and attempt to interview him about Facebook’s
privacy policy. He’s very dismissive and uncooperative until they agree to put
the camera down and stop filming. There’s a very brief moment where Mark
‘loosens up’ and smiles at Max (the interviewer) when he’s been told that the
camera isn’t filming anymore. This is simply coming back to the idea that we
all have different selves, including the creator of Facebook, even if he
attempts to be as transparent as possible, letting people photograph the
interior of his house or film his offices.
The
t-shirt arrived too, which had a nice sculptural quality to it when draped over
the steel structure that all the videos were shown on. Although it wasn’t the
exact shade of grey that Mark’s t-shirts are, I think that adds to the work.
Coming into the different selves/slight distortions that we see between the
public/private personas that people inhabit, which also goes for the
offline/online personas that we all navigate and work within. Hmm…
So
yeah, the structure for the show worked well, I was able to run a cable from
the ceiling down to the piece, which completely removed the continued annoyance
of using tape for wiring, as well as bringing a sense of connectivity to the
work. It felt like the videos were somehow connected to this large institution,
or the internet in general, through the power of the plug that allowed these
works looking at the lack of the individual to function. I think it’s overall a
successful work, packed full of content, an amalgamation of my curatorial
practice and my solo one. I called the work ‘Let’s Be Friends’, which is kind
of self-explanatory. The pictures of the final piece can be seen on my website
here: http://www.bobbicknell-knight.com/lets-be-friends/
What
else happened? The Sketchup Residency ended, which was a shame, but ultimately
a good thing as I was probably going to run out of content and I was basically
finished with the model. I really enjoyed showing my progress on Instagram,
using hashtags for the work alongside just having it as a thing to experiment
with, not worried by the connotations of the medium. I do keep coming back to
the platform as an interesting thing to experiment with. I want to create
something from it, another extension of isthisit?, but separate from it, not on
its current Instagram. I keep saying it, but it never seems to happen. So
fucking busy. Anyway, I really enjoyed the experience, turning this island into
a surveillance state, full of Utopian ideas from videogames and films as well
as a bunch of stuff from contemporary society. The venetian bridges used in the
model, for example, hint at Venice’s seemingly Utopian petty crime statistics.
One would assume that Venice, with its tiny streets and dark alleyways, would
be a hub for petty crimes, but in reality it isn’t. This is mostly due to
tourism, which would be directly affected if crime on the streets rose. This is
a very weird thing, capitalism reducing crime, and crime reducing capitalism. A
simple idea; whenever capitalism is seen to be overhauled, riots occur,
shoplifting on a massive scale whilst vandalism occurs in droves. So, all these
objects within the model have these small references, like the example above,
to Utopian thoughts or considerations. I think it works? You can view and
experiment with the model here: http://www.thesketchupresidency.com/
I
do intend to do something with the Instagram photographs, most probably
printing them onto aluminium to be wall mounted to the wall, maybe two or
three, or this could just be done with photo manipulation on Photoshop, to be
printed out if they are ever accepted to an exhibition or not… For now, here’s
a quick picture of what I have in mind.
What
other art have I done in the past few weeks? A217 was a thing. It was okay, but
because we’ve all been so fucking busy, the promotion for the event was
terrible, alongside the ‘curation’ part of the whole process slightly going to
shit. This is what happens when you trust other people to do things. It was
okay, I just think it’s hard to ‘curate’ your own work, especially when you may
or may not like the work that other people have made for the thing. Hopefully
it will be better for the new year. I showed the Colleen and Joshua piece,
which still holds up. That’s two pieces of work this term about relationships,
what the fuck is that about? I need to stop being so fucking emotional…
Anything
else to write about in my art practice? Probably not, I think that’s it. I have
a few fairly vague ideas for new pieces, but right now I need to concentrate on
a few curatorial things alongside an essay that I need to write over the next
few weeks that I completely forgot about. Uni things are slowly becoming less
and less interesting to me, with the out of uni things becoming centre stage.
Obviously uni is important, but I’m slowly getting to a stage where uni is
feeling different to me, I’m not completely sure what, maybe more of a
necessary thing. I don’t know… Or maybe that’s just how I’m feeling right this
second and it will pass… Lots of confusion today, lots of unknowns.
In
other news, I created an open call for a video art screening that will occur in
the next few weeks, in/around my house in Suffolk during the holidays. The
purpose is to bring together a bunch of video works surrounding the idea of the
internet, utopia or science fiction tropes within the countryside setting.
Because of its location, no one will actually go the screening, with the event
living online for people to browse over when looking at my recent curatorial
things. It’s going to be called an
evening with isthisit?, taking inspiration from a screening event I went to
earlier in the year being hosted by David Blandy and Larry Achiampong called,
you guessed it, AN EVENING WITH LARRY
ACHIAMPONG & DAVID BLANDY. I’m thinking of streaming the experience,
and curating the videos carefully, so that I could get up and introduce them
with full knowledge of what they’re about, etc. I’m not entirely sure yet. I
may also turn it into a one night exhibition, with all the works being part of
one massive looping projection… If you want to submit, follow the link here: http://www.curatorspace.com/opportunities/detail/open-call--video-art/957
I’ve
also begun to collect/buy art under the isthisit? moniker. This involves buying
and commissioning work from emerging artists who I’ve been forging
relationships with over the past few months. The works will be mostly digital,
with some sculptural work alongside paintings and prints, etc. They will be
part of isthisit?’s personal collection, to be used in future exhibitions, etc.
I’m only looking to buy fairly small, inexpensive things, costing from £0 -
£100, so nothing extravagant. I think it’s an important step as a curatorial thing
and one that I’m excited to be doing.
Whilst
that’s been slowly happening, I’ve been continuing to organise guest curators,
which began this week! Helena Kate Whittingham started off the process with the
humorously titled exhibition it isn’t is it?
The process has been fairly smooth, which is due to it being such a loose
experience anyway. Unfortunately, I don’t have someone else ready for next week,
which is a shame, so it’ll be back to me for the time being. Here’s her
curatorial notes, which were really good!
This
is it. It isn't is it? Oh it is. There has to be more, no? Why are we all
sooooo docile though? The 33rd online exhibition on isthisit is loosely based
around institutional critique and frustrations with censorships and the 'art
world'. Titled 'it isn't is it?' the name is a direct critique of the online
exhibition space itself and critique is imbedded from the outset. Artist Liv
Fontaine’s work ‘Let’s talk about art’ consists of Liv voicing her frustrations
with the current cultural climate. 'Can U pay my rent please’, 'I can't even
afford the submission fee for your grant' are lines in the work that resonate
with me the most. The work also incorporates the irritation that occurs when
your work consists of critiquing the commodified sexual woman, which then in
turn becomes something that works against you; ' thinking is working and
working is thinking but thinking isn't paying, but I gotta keep making.' Ugh,
same! The work sits alongside Lilli Mathod’s cultural interference ‘Sketch
Show’, which is wrapped up with contemporary comment within the guise of menial
office conversation. In turn showing how bored she is with the everyday. The
work is reminiscent of artist day jobs and I was particularly interested in the
notion of these jobs informing practice. Mathod portrays many characters
throughout her sketches with an air of absurdity in the mundane or albeit familiar.
'Are you tired of being overworked, underpaid, devalued and unloved day after
day' (YES!) Mathod states as she considers very similar problems as Fontaine.
The works flow symbiotically with sardonic undertones. Fontaine dominates the
exhibition and Mathod compliments it. Both works consist of women talking to
the screen and at times you see symmetry in the work, whether they are looking
at each other or both looking at you, the viewer, through the screen. Liv’s
shorter performance repeating on a loop only emphasizes the message more
alongside Lilli's durations piece. Together they approach the issue of
institutional critique in unison. For me, it was important that the works sat
on this online exhibition space and not AFK as I am interested in the accessibility
and affordability that the internet promises to uphold, becoming an embodiment
of institutional critique in its own form.
For
the last few weeks isthisit? has been going well with my curating too. The 31st
online exhibition was called ‘Emigrate or Degenerate’, part of a quote from a
government tag line in Philip K Dick’s renowned science-fiction book, ‘Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’. The text comes from an advert, encouraging
people to emigrate from Earth to Mars, to move towards a more networked
reality. Within the context of the exhibition, I’m utilising the line in order
to discuss post-humanist theories and the idea of the cyborg body, which is
becoming more and more prevalent in life, as well as the artwork that people
are creating in contemporary society. The exhibition is slightly dominated by
Natalie Wardle’s video work ‘Cocky and Contour’ which sees the artist almost
giving herself a second skin, layering on multiple coats of makeup as audio
garnered from YouTube beauty bloggers is continually heard throughout the
piece. Sandrine Deumier's exquisite video piece 'U.hotel' accompanies Wardle’s
film, following an ambiguous character across various transformations and
non-place locations, questioning the ambiguity of the trans-humanist vision.
Simeon Banner's painting 'Client Server Relationship' depicts a figure,
engrossed within the screen of their phone, seemingly unaware of their
surroundings, already a cyborg because of their attachment to their
technological device, as argued by Eula Biss in her book ‘On Immunity: An
Inoculation’. The exhibition ends with Emma Connolly's painting 'Skin and Bone'
that focuses on an internal body and the beauty of the organic form, bringing
us back to the apparent present day formations of the human condition.
For
the 32nd online exhibition, titled ‘Forward Thinking Futures’ three video works
were exhibited, each looking towards the future of various objects or
philosophies. Patrick Schabus’ film ‘We had the experience but missed the
meaning’ is made up of scavenged and distorted footage, fabricating a
fictitious future society that seems to be reflecting on the past state of
video as a medium, whilst simultaneously informing the viewer of how film is
being seen in this future tense. Having created this narrative, Schabus is able
to reflect on the now as its occurring in front of our eyes; a feature of the
piece that becomes increasingly meta as time continues forwards. Amber
Clausner’s seemingly oppressive experience ‘WE FEEL’ is a collection of clips
taken from YouTube, each of which predominantly feature the film maker vocally
responding to the environmental phenomena that they’re documenting. In doing
so, Clausner is visually critiquing how we consume content in the digital age,
usually through the medium of a screen rather than through our own eyes. The
childlike voice that’s heard throughout seems to hint at the wonder that is
simulated by individuals everywhere when watching these short videos online,
grown adults being transformed into awe inspired infants. The final piece,
Andrew McSweeney’s video ‘I Don't Lie On a Chaise Longue...’ is responding to
an interview with Sean Scully where the artist was basically stating that he
didn’t sit around and complain all day, basking in the wealth that he had
already accumulated. Although Scully belongs to an older generation of artists,
his forward thinking personal philosophy is more attuned to a younger artist,
working his way towards future success. This quote from Scully has been
transformed by McSweeney into an incredibly minimal, endlessly repeating
animation.
What
else is going on? I went to Manchester for the weekend, which was an
interesting experience. I guess it feels like any city that you don’t really
know how to function in yet, big and full of stuff. I don’t know. I feel like I
know how to function in London now, and every other city is kind of weird…
Maybe I’m just tired and worn out right now. It’s been an exhausting few
months, as you may have noticed.
I
went to a couple of shows whilst I was there, and journeyed to Liverpool too
for a couple of exhibitions. The main one I was fully invested in was Rachel
Maclean’s solo exhibition at HOME titled Wot
u :-) about? It involved a bunch of sculptural works, alongside some wall
tapestries and a great 30-minute video that explored data and its
commodification. I’ve only really experienced her films in the past, with the
sculptures being the ‘new thing’ for me. They were pretty great, huge chunks of
yellow flesh, both disturbing and comical at the same time. Well, mostly
incredibly disturbing. It was a good show, full of distress and terrible looks
to the future. Well, mostly it’s a re-skin of our own reality. Kind of like
when a video game is just reproduced with a new brand, like the popular Call of
Duty franchise. Always the same with a different aesthetic.
Liverpool
was, yet again, a weird city. There were a few good art things however, with
Tate Liverpool being one of them. Cécile B. Evans’ performative exhibition Sprung a Leak was quite the experience,
if a little in your face with the amount of screens in the white rectangle of a
room. It involves these seemingly autonomous robots, manoeuvring through the
space whilst undergoing a dialogue with each other and the viewer. A lot of her
work seems to be very ambiguous whilst being incredibly precise, as they always
concern a very structured/considered script. Maybe it’s the amount of stuff in
these videos and experiences that she creates, which makes it feel like these
are ambiguous moments in time. It was interesting nevertheless, as well as the
fact that it’s considered a performance, with the robots being the performers.
Very cool.
The Open Eye Gallery had a show focused
on the Jerwood Photoworks Awards, which was kind of dull. Photographs of
things, people and places. I didn’t really learn anything from the experience,
or gain anything.
There were a bunch of different things
happening at the Bluecoat, which was an interesting institution. A favourite
was Adham Faramawy’s Janus Collapse,
a three screen installation that involved a lot of sand and a bunch of concrete
pillars. The video that was showing simultaneously on these various screens depicted
a bunch of different people, all melding together whilst going about various
actions. The whole thing had a weird sheen over it, a weird lucidity that
intrigued me. It reminded me of the various interfaces that Joey Holder uses in
her videos, making them more than just a stolen clip from a random YouTube
video. I’m not entirely sure on what the content of the thing was, with weird
aesthetic visuals and slippery bodies reminiscent of ‘slick’ adverts and
commercials.
The last exhibition during my time away
from London was at Fact, both a cinema and exhibition space, similar to HOME in
that respect. The exhibition was called No
Such Thing As Gravity which was composed of various science based works,
created by artists having not been scientifically trained. Some of them were
more practical applications than purely art based things, like a car that runs
off of water. It was a good show, full of projections and ideas routed in
science.
That was Manchester/Liverpool, an
interesting experience. Next we have the shows I’ve been going to in London.
There are many, as I’ve been attempting to catch up. If you like to read,
journey on to this next half of the blog.
Carroll Fletcher’s second exhibition in
the four-part exhibition series Looking
at one thing and thinking of something else was titled Observations, with the main draw being a dual screen installation
by Natascha Sadr Haghighian. The piece is made up of two monitors skyping each
other for the duration of the show whilst using an application called CatchEye,
so that when you stand in front of one screen, you appear on the other. The
application distorts your face so that you always seem to be looking at the
camera, which is a really weird idea. Weirdly great. The screens are attached
to a huge mouse type creature, which makes the whole thing even more weird and
great.
Next up we have Tenderpixel with a solo
show for Rehana Zaman which is aptly titled Tell
me the story Of all these things. It involves three video installations and
a large wall based print. The videos are split up, but form one large
dialogue/interview that she conducted with her two Muslim sisters, talking
about various aspects of their lives whilst they cook various dishes in an
incredibly clean kitchen. Definitely worth your time, although it was a little
frustrating on the opening night; a lot of people in tiny rooms who aren’t
actually interested in looking at the work. Just fuck off and move please.
Seventeen has an interesting group show
on right now called Morning uber, evening
oscillators, lots of work around negative space and urbanism with a fun
title. I need to be more relaxed about titles, they can definitely be a lot of
fun to experiment with. Eloise Hawser had a bunch of very clean, very crisp
sculptural assemblages on show, made from 3D printing technologies. A lot of her
work is very good, very clean, I’d like to see more in the future.
Laura Bartlett Gallery had a kind of
okay show, featuring photographs and a few wall based sculptures. Nothing
really to ‘write home about’.
Campoli Presti had a solo show by Jutta
Koether which was just a bunch of really un-interesting paintings. I didn’t really
gain anything from the experience.
Matthew Darbyshire at Herald St was
surprisingly good. He had completely distorted the gallery space, with the
floor being a mass of dust and broken plastic appliances accompanying a variety
of sculptural figures imprisoned within these structures reminiscent of 3D
printers. It was an interesting contrast, between the virtual and the handmade life-size
figures that were on show. Very good.
Maureen Paley was okay, photographs and
paintings, not worth my writing time…
The Ryder was, as always, great. A solo
exhibition from Fabio Lattanzi Antinori looking at financial algorithms and
day-trading figures. The work varied from personalised pens to this beautiful
screen printed flag. Such a good gallery.
Annka Kultys Gallery was so dull, a
variety of these abstract paintings, that had purposefully ambiguous names,
hinting at meaning where there wasn’t any. Like, what the fuck? How is this
good? It really isn’t.
Vilma Gold had some okay work coming
from KP Brehmer, a painter and graphic designer. It was alright, incredibly
poignant in the ‘current climate’ but in reality, kind of dull and not that
exciting. I don’t know, I was left with a tired tediousness.
Cell Project Space, however, was so
good. A group show, featuring two artists who make great work, Kate Mackeson
and Henrik Potter. Potter had created these beautiful aluminium frames which
were used as a tableau to hold various items, from pieces of glass representing
phone screens to lighters or nearly spent rizla packets. I was surprised at how
much I liked these assemblage sculptures, such a clean and considered aesthetic
that worked great as a canvas to hold objects and ideas. Why do I like this,
but hate Helen Marten’s work? I’m not sure…
Anselm Keifer at the White Cube was
okay, I enjoyed the extravagant installations that you had to walk through,
experiencing these various environments that Kiefer has created… I would have preferred
to go when it was a little less crowded, which made navigating around the
post-apocalyptic beds a bit of a hassle. It was good, but not really my thing.
William Kentridge at the Whitechapel
Gallery was fun, but yet again not really my thing. I liked the mechanised
structures, although it was a shame that they didn’t have projections
incorporated into them like I had assumed… I don’t know, a little dull.
However, the Guerrilla Girls installation
that’s currently on view there is quite powerful. It’s made up of over 100
answers to a questionnaire that they sent out to nearly 400 galleries and institutions
around Europe. The questionnaires were mostly enquiring about the diversity that’s
occurring, or not occurring, in these institutions, as well as asking questions
like ‘how much is an artist paid when they exhibit with you’, etc. It’s a very sobering
piece, and quite saddening really. Also, fairly problematic being embedded in
this institution that is the Whitechapel, although that is taken into account
in the show, but still!
Another installation that’s currently there,
which was also really good, was by Alicja Kwade called Medium Median, which featured 24 iPhones attached to a continually
moving metal structure that was affixed to the ceiling. That’s just fucking
cool to begin with. These phones were showing various star charts and their different
current locations. It’s worth going to the Whitechapel for this alone, and it’s
free.
Matt’s Gallery was weird but great.
Featuring a two channel video alongside a continuous performance piece by Leah
Capaldi. The films show a cowboy, preparing his horse for a ride. These are being
projected onto two boards. One of them has two ‘leg holes’, with two real human
legs poking out of them, resting on the floor. These legs are attached to a
figure around the back of the installation, lying on a board in silence for the
duration of the show. Aptly titled Lay
Down, the work considers the manipulation of power structures. Quite fun
actually.
Tate Modern’s turbine hall has a surprisingly
good piece right now on show by Philippe Parreno. It feels like a living and
breathing installation, changing as people explore the vast space. It’s a solid
work, which I’d quite like to experience again as the space changes with it. Although,
who wants to go to the Tate on a regular basis, not me.
Vitrine Gallery was fun, lots of neon
rope like sculptures. I enjoy the relation between neon and the flexible nature
of rope, dunno if I’ve seen that done before or not… It continually amuses me
that Vitrine is just a window space exhibition; I’d love to do something like
this in the future…
Union Gallery was okay, the title for
the exhibition, Post-Digital, made me
think it was going to be a lot more interesting than it was. Turned out it was
a badly curated show full of copper sculptures. Not that great.
Hmm, what else? Lisson Gallery was
quite bad. Jason Martin, who usually makes these incredibly tasty looking
paintings had some not very tasty paintings on display. They’re the type of
paintings you want to have, as they just look so tasty, but these weren’t as
full of paint as usual. A lot less fun and a lot less edible and butter-icing
like.
The other Lisson however, had a few
works from Ai Weiwei on show. One of them was a 12 screen video installation
that was made up of over 7000 photographs taken on Weiwei’s phone, continually changing
at 4 second intervals. Although the meaning is obvious here, it was still very
good. Another work in the show, Fondation,
is made up of huge foundations that make up a monumental grid-like structure. Visitors
are invited to sit on this formation, which contains small pillars rising out
from the wood, to sit and reflect on the future. It was also used to house a
performative discussion earlier this month, which is very cool. It was
incredibly illuminating to walk on these foundations, taken from centuries old
Chinese halls. The oddly delicate structure placed within the gallery space
just made me not want to walk on it, but when you did you felt elevated, in both
a literal and metaphysical way.
David Zwirner was okay, but as usual
not that great. Thomas Ruff with a bunch of huge prints and Rose Wylie with
some huge childlike paintings…
Almine Rech had a good show featuring
Jeff Koons and his selection of gazing ball works. I’m usually not much of a
fan, but their positioning within various classic paintings were really
interesting, especially the analogue platforms that extended out of the works
to hold the balls. A great fusion of a sculpture and a painting in a very
literal way.
Frith Street was also good, Dayanita
Singh envisioning the invisible curator of the space. Very subtle, showing
process with actual finished works, which is actually quite good. I liked it.
Pi Artworks was dull, a show all about
drawing…
Pilar Corrias had some work by Gerasimos
Floratos on show. Huge paintings that I have no time for.
Now, Josh Lilley. A surprisingly great
show by Carla Busuttil revolving around a video work, looking at a half fake/half
real ‘hired gun’ company operating under the moniker of ‘Mosquito Lighting
Private Security’. The paintings and sculptures all revolved around this fictitious
company, taking inspiration from private security operations that are used in
South Africa, rather than the normal police force which can’t be fully trusted
due to bribery, etc. Really good and worth your time.
The Masons Yard White Cube was so dull,
paintings. Dull paintings by Magnus Plessen.
The Gagosian had some more dull
paintings by Ed Ruscha on show. Why are dull paintings still being shown? I
know the answer, but still…
Pace London was okay, featuring a bunch
of black and white photography work that we’ve all seen before. Nothing more to
add really.
The Serpentine Galleries had some very
good work on show. At the Sackler there was a solid show featuring some of Zaha
Hadid’s early paintings and drawings, very constructivist and Malevich
inspired. These are nice. The unexpected enjoyment, however, was the addition
of some VR goggles which enabled you to literally experience some of these
paintings, virtually surrounding and moving around you. You’re originally
placed in a virtual representation of the gallery, with 4 different paintings
on the walls around you. You move into these paintings and experience 4
different, incredibly subtle visual delights. Really beautiful and highly recommended.
The Lucy Raven video exhibition at the
other location was okay, although some of the works were being repaired when I
went, so that was a shame. I particularly enjoyed one of the visual techniques
being used in one of the videos, where there were multiple layers of material
on the screen, similar to an analog collage. The layers were then slowly
removed, showing the original uncut image. It was an interesting way of
layering this old footage, which I couldn’t identify, in order to create these
new image assemblages that seemed to function as a whole. Kind of interesting.
Ken Price at Hauser and Wirth was fine,
lots of pots and lots of delicate prints. The kind of thing I want in my
perfectly white house. Yeah?
Stephen Friedman had work by Huma
Bhabha on show, some huge collage works and sculptural cork pieces. I like the
collages, they have a certain humour to them, cut outs from High Times magazine
being a prominent feature within the work. Yet again, quite nice to have
around, maybe in a group show now and again.
Massimo De Carlo had some weird sand
painting type things by Jennifer Guidi. Okay, but repetitive, I don’t need to
see 20 of the same exact thing to get the idea of repetition.
Blain Southern had a packed show,
featuring 16 artists and a lot of artworks. Too many to actually go into
serious detail about, as by this point I’m sure you’re tired of this post. There
was a really nice film in the back featuring these Roman (I think) sculptures
being illuminated in a very alien/odd way. That was kind of beautiful and
subtle.
Maddox Arts was weird and not very
good. Camilo Matiz knowingly copying artists like Amish Kapoor et al. It was
okay, but their exhibitions are rarely that great…
And finally we come to the last show of
the blog, Bloomberg New Contemporaries at the ICA. What can I say? Lots of
work, downstairs was quite dull, whereas upstairs was slightly better. Quite a
dark video by Zarina Muhammad was good, a little simple, but good, featuring
morph suit dancing and video game violence. A really clean video piece by Ruth
Spencer Jolly was fun, singing We Can Work It Out (the classic Beatles song)
whilst the lyrics are typed out and deleted, line by line as a Facebook status.
Saelia Aparicio Torinos’ steel structure with glass blown bottles was aesthetically
nice to look at too… Yeah? I think that’s it probably…
So, moving away from the vast amount of
exhibitions that I’ve been catching up on, let’s look at the films I’ve been
engaging with. How fun and exciting!
Let’s begin with my maybe favourite
film of 2016, Arrival. Oh my this is
a good film, an exquisite film, from the incredibly powerful soundtrack to the fairly
layered and clever plot. The acting was great and the story was thrilling.
Really great and highly recommended to literally everyone. I’m so glad that at
least one good sci-fi film has been released this year. Amy Adams is so great.
Storks was fairly fun, if a little not funny
at times. Not the best animation and not the worst either.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Kubo and the Two Strings however was a beautiful experience;
lovingly crafted animation alongside a heart breaking (if a little obvious)
plot line with twists being seen a mile off. Really great though and highly
worth your time.
David Brent: Life on the Road was fine, Gervais doing his thing. It
was okay, if a little dull at points and incredibly predictable.
Paterson, the new film featuring Adam Driver,
was beautiful. A quiet, contemplative film looking at the week in the life of a
bus driver who is also an unpublished poet. Very nice, although his girlfriend
seemed to just lounge around the house all day being ‘kooky’ which is more than
slightly problematic. I also dislike it when ‘handwritten’ text appears on the
screen, very cliché.
Frank and Lola, a very weird ‘psychosexual’ film
starring Michael Shannon and Imogen Poots as lovers who are very angry and
jealous. Lots of twists, lots of hate, lots of Shannon having sex. Weird but
maybe good? I’m not sure.
Werner Herzog’s venture into the
internet Lo and Behold, Reveries of the
Connected World is okay, but not that eye opening, although anything and
everything is made better when Herzog is narrating.
I re-watched The Snowman to get into the Christmas mood. I truly love that film,
really beautiful and such a call back to my childhood. How middle class.
The Santa Claus was a bit of fun, although Tim Allen
is very hit and miss…
Is that it? I think I’ve seen more, but
at this point my memory is getting incredibly hazy attempting to remember films
that I engaged in nearly three weeks ago!
I also indulged in a few video games
during this time, mostly co-op ones, which makes a change. Nidhog is this amazingly fast paced game centred around the sport
of fencing. In the game each player inhabits a small pixelated 2D figure who
carries a sword, whose sole purpose is to move to the other side of the level.
The gameplay is incredible, with sword fights lasting from 2 seconds to five
minutes. I love it and had a lot of fun learning to control these anonymous
characters.
Trials Fusion is a better version of the old Trials games, which sees the player manoeuvring
through a 2.5D environment on a motorbike. It’s fun and incredibly difficult
but nothing new.
I also played Rocket League. The basic premise is football with cars, with the
gameplay being incredibly enjoyable, propelling rocket powered cars into the
air in order to score goals with balls the size of your vehicle. Very fun and definitely
worth your time.
The last game was ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS which is surprisingly beautiful. Once again a
2D affair that sees multiple players piloting small rockets around a map,
shooting and bombing one another in a futuristic setting. It gets interesting
when you activate ‘Zen Mode’ which is a passive game mode that allows you to
draw with your rockets, with the different weapons being transformed into
different colours for you to use to create some beautiful colourful line
drawings. At this point the music is key and works really well with this
relaxed gameplay. It’s a truly beautiful experience, which is made even better
by the incredible soundtrack.
I think that’s everything? I now have a
few weeks to relax, write an essay for uni that I’m yet to even think about
(FUCK) and put on a video art screening. I’ve also begun contacting people
about micro commissions for the isthisit?
collection, as well as continuing to put on weekly shows on the online
platform. And I thought the holidays were going to be a break from all this.
Fuck.
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