One week closer to the end of term, how
fucking weird… Where does the time go? So far I’ve made 5 different pieces this
year, alongside curating the a217 show, being in a few exhibitions, creating
this magazine and organising all the guest curators for the site. It’s been
productive, but I kind of wanted to curate another show before the term was
over, and it’s looking less and less likely that I’ll be able to put on an
offline launch event in the next few weeks for the mag which is a shame...
Anyway…
The magazine is so close to being done
now, simply waiting for one more essay to be sent to me and one more interview
to finish, which I’ve been waiting ages for, slightly annoying. I totally
understand that people are busy and have their own lives to contend with, but
if you simply took 20 minutes out of your day, every day, for a week or so, the
interview could be finished and everything would be finished… It’s looking
great, everything is windowed and I think/hope I won’t lose money from giving
out free copies due to the page count being acceptable. I do want to put on a
launch event for the magazine, to showcase the effort put in, ‘reward’ the
artists involved and make more people aware that it’s out in the world. Unfortunately,
as time goes on and none of the venues email me back I’m slowly losing hope.
Either way, in the next week or so I should have everything ready and a fresh
preview copy whisking its way to my door. I had thought about doing it at A217,
but as I think I said last week, the more I distance myself from uni the better.
Talking of A217, the exhibition that I
curated was a big success, with lots of people attending and the show looking
fucking great. Unfortunately the lights didn’t arrive in time (going to send
them back) so instead of that being my piece I customised the extension lead
which gave power to Karl’s video piece, spray painting it blue to reference
Facebook/Capitalism and how this is connected to everything, powering Karl’s
work about the internet and most televisions around the globe. I also added my
little blue Facebook users/employees to the sockets, turning it into a sort of
train carriage, or simply a nice place to sit and contemplate, dangling their
feet into the electricity…
The whole exhibition was fairly easy to
install, with the floor being the most time-consuming aspect, but arguably the
best feature. I think I mentioned this last week, that Laila decided to cover
the entire floor in fake marble, mocking the isthisit? aesthetic whilst making a comment on purchasing products
online and them not meeting your expectations. She called the piece ‘the roll
isnt as long as i would have like but for the price i really cant complain’,
which was the subject line of one of the reviews for the rolls on Amazon. Yeah,
even though the space is fairly small I’m very happy with how it looks, I’ll
attach a few images here, but if you want to see the whole thing follow this
link: http://www.isthisitisthisit.com/i-miss-you-blockbuster
or book an appointment to see the show by emailing isthisit96@gmail.com which ends on the
17th of March. I also put together a very short trailer for the
show, which can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cODK7x82M8
Alongside installing the show I made
some very basic progress with my own work; I ordered the various badges with
the different web browser designs embedded onto them. These arrived and look
great, which led me to thinking how best to display these objects and whether
they should be given out to the public or kept as a sculptural thing. I began
to consider different receptacles to hold the badges in, from Nike bags to
glass cubes, eventually landing on sweet dispensers, the kind that offers a
pick n mix selection. Utilising this plastic see-through object hints at the
badges interactivity, as well as the trivialising of the voting system that is
occurring in our society (see the recent controversy surrounding Donald Trump
and Russian voting allegations). Within this container I’m also going to
display some 3D printed objects, mostly physical bitcoins made from steel, or
even gold if I decide to spend that much money, although I highly doubt that
would be economically viable! This foregrounds it in the future of money, but
also very much in the present due to the physical nature of the virtual
currency. Alongside these objects I think I’m going to also embed an mp3
player, hidden with the mass of badges, with the earphones protruding out of
the top of the structure. At the moment, I’m unsure of what this sound will be,
maybe a vaporwave track I could make… I could delve back into that during the
next few weeks, could be fun… This would be a good accompaniment to the
physical bitcoins, due to the appropriation and lamentation of the past which
occurs throughout the vaporwave genre. Here’s a very badly put together image
of how I envision it to be:
I haven’t done any more work with the
MacBook covers, so that may be taking a back seat, although was it that good of
an idea anyway?
What else happened this week? I was
emailed by a guy called Martin Zeilinger asking if I wanted to be included in a
video game art screening in London at Close-Up, and maybe participate in a
Q&A. Obviously I accepted…
I was also contacted by a woman called
Tabitha Steinberg wanting to interview me for FAD magazine which sounds kind of
fun, something I’d definitely be up for doing…
We also went to see the exhibition
space for Snap which is happening on
the 17th of this month. It’s a lovely building with lots of community
centre vibes. I’ll be showing Viewpoints
and Data Distortion, an old piece now but one that hasn’t been exhibited
before. Here’s the event if anyone is interested in attending: https://www.facebook.com/events/1895324857378988/
M I L K’s exhibition on isthisit? last week proved interesting,
with a variety of different contributions, the most interesting being a number
of people commenting on the premise of the exhibition and how the process of
submitting to the project was in fact not anonymous alongside other aspects of
the show. I loved seeing this ‘art trolling’ occur, especially when Adam (the
individual from M I L K who organised the show) responded to the comments made
critiquing his concept. I loved that isthisit?,
albeit for only a select few, became a space to discuss ideas of surveillance
and internet culture… Should there be an isthisit?
forum?
This week Katie Tindle took the reins
with an exhibition focusing on the Nancy Sinatra song ‘These Boots Are Made for
Walkin'’ with a variety of works taking the song and manipulating it in some
way. You can see it here, with the curatorial notes being published later in
the week: http://www.isthisitisthisit.com/these-boots-are-made-for-walkin
I also chose March’s resident for the
site, Stacey Davidson, who’s currently exploring the oversharing that occurs on
social media and how Instagram is an important part of an artist’s practice.
I’m already enjoying the distinct difference between the two residencies, and
hope that interesting people will continue to apply to the project. Here’s
Stacey’s page in progress: http://www.isthisitisthisit.com/share-it-with-the-world
I had a fairly basic lecture
questioning ‘what is contemporary art’. It was okay, but ran through a lot of
things without actually going in depth. Here’s my notes:
What is contemporary art? – 27/02/17
Terming it – paradoxical question –
term has been appropriated and institulionalised – instituties of contemporary
art, etc, etc – as a designating term, already fucked – both aspects – can’t
question the existence, other hand we don’t really know what it is
To think about it – heterogeneous of
totalitarity of orks being made in the now – where does it begin? Do we all
share preent time? In a way – I guess so? Shared present – Adorno – shared
present becomes problematic within itself
The term is not just a descriptive term
– it’s selective – critical dimension of it is important
Plurality – one single narrative –
crisis that determines and informs our thinking of contemporary art
3 periodizations of contemporary art
1 – 1945
Produces an easter/western block –
forms an antagonistic relationship with modernity that’s associated with
capitalism – in the west – marking a specific realisation – what is modernity,
etc – very specific links
2 – 1960s
Imerges – ontological break with the
narrative of modernism – conceptual framework which is object based and media
specific – within the context of modernism no meaning within the condeptual
framework – the medium specificity is broken down, giving way to a dispersed
plurality of practices – notion of medium asan ontological references no longer
has that critical weight – an important break – idea of the ontological break –
most important – how we can think about our art, our practice, what informs,
what gives it the status of art – how we can think about it
3 – 1989
Fall of the berlin wall – victory of
the neoliberals – as a result of this immediacy – nationialisation –
institutionally validated art – has partly to do with historical communism,
understood and defeated – permeable relationship between the cultural industry
and the context of the positive thing – biennale as exhibition form – notion of
present that was reffered to before
Terry smith – 3 currents in
contemporary art
1a retro sensationalism
Embrace of certain artists – mbrace of
rewards of neoliberal economy -
1b remodernism
These first two are both kind of
connected
Jeff wall, richter, Richard serra –
contemporary, fairly formalist, matthew barney
2 post-colonial turn
Context of globalisation – notion of
the contemporary -
3 generational change
What else happened this week? I think
that’s basically everything in relation to art that I’ve been a part of. I need
to use these next two week wisely, before uni stops and I have to begin writing
this next essay, who the fuck knows what that’s going to be about...
I did manage to go to several
exhibitions this week, some of which were actually quite good… I began by visiting
Emalin which had an incredibly boring exhibition on featuring a bunch of
paintings from Stefania Batoeva, with the only text on the press release being See how brightly the. There is on
everything. Like, seriously, fuck off with this bullshit.
I walked past Limoncello and shed a
tear (it closed this week after 10 years) on my way to Kate Macgarry which had
a solo show by Peter McDonald featuring various water colour paintings
depicting human like figures with long heads in normal situations, waiting for
a bus, fixing the boiler, etc. These are based on McDonald’s lived experiences
alongside things that he’s witnessed occurring out in the world. I actually
really liked these simple paintings. That’s two exhibitions from Macgarry that
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed recently.
Then there was Maureen Paley with a
considered 3D video taking up the whole of the downstairs gallery by Deimantas
Narkevičius which documented the removal of several socialist realist
sculptures from a bridge in Vilnius back in 2015 over the course of a day. It
was a very interesting film, a weirdly humorous take on the erasure of history that
someone had decided needed doing, so many years after the political ideology of
the sculptures had been repealed in Lithuania… I would say go, but the show is
now finished.
Another great exhibition on that street
was at Laura Bartlett Gallery with a solo exhibition by Simon Dybbroe Møller featuring
taxidermy and a big video projection. Lots of ideas considering how one sees
images in the digital age, alongside aspects of research and the double. It was
maybe my favourite from the day…
After this there was a bunch of minimal, very clean sculptures made out
of steel being presented at Herald Street by Matt Paweski. They were incredibly
nice and pristine, the kind of work that you want in your very minimal house in
the middle of a table that you never use. That’s kind of it though, as the
objects weren’t really giving me anything other than their simple form.
Then there was Campoli Presti with a
not very interesting group show of works that ‘meditate on the place of the
subject in the marking of a space’… What? I also hate when people use the word ‘meditate’
in exchange for consider, etc, making the whole process sound incredibly wanky,
making the art world sound a lot more elite than it actually is.
Annka Kultys had a number of videos on
show, all working under the title Concrete
Jungle, man mad fantasy spaces, etc. It was good, with one particular piece
being great, featuring an architects house hosting a party packed with
influential higher ups in Brazil. I did enjoy, although I do sometimes have a
problem with exhibitions that just contain video works. Too much content to contend
with… Also, fuck having two videos looping on one screen, that is never
acceptable in a fancy gallery. Fuck show reels when you can afford a second
screen.
I then went to Rodeo Gallery. One
exhibition downstairs hosted a video by Shadi Habib Allah that utilised simple
animations and text to talk about an encounter that Allah had had at an airport
in relation to a sculpture, which was ultimately destroyed by the authorities.
Upstairs was Shahryar Nashat with some nice wall based, incredibly heavy,
sculptural work and a lovely video piece encased in a metal box. I do always
like to see screens immersed in an installation…
There was a very clean exhibition by
Jaki Irvine at Frith Street, so many bulky televisions accompanied by a fuck
load of beautifully displayed wiring. The show was looking at the Irish
uprising against the British government in 1916, commemorating the event with
11 music tracks spanning several videos using the names of women who were
involved in the uprising as a starting point, individuals who haven’t been
recognised thus far in history for their part in the rebellion. It was good
work.
Marian Goodman was solid, Gerhard
Richter, Sol Lewitt, Gabriel Orozco… etc. Big names, lots of colour, lots of
paint, lots of money.
Sadie Coles was fun, a vast
installation featuring many props from a recent feature length film that John
Bock put together that’s being shown in the back of the gallery. It was fun to
walk through, but really not my thing, and who has time to watch a 90-minute
film. I have places to be Bock…
Maria Lassnig at Hauser and Wirth was
so boring, lots of paintings, lots and lots of paintings…
After this I journeyed over to the
Serpentine galleries to see the new shows. John Latham is fun, but ultimately
boring to experience and fairly old news. I’m also not a fan of when artists
utilise books/media in their work to show how clever they are, ‘nice reference
m8’…
The Sackler gallery had a far better exhibition
happening with a group show featuring Laura Prouvost and Douglas Gordon alongside
a few others. My favourite parts were the little details, a few heaters dotted
around the place from Prouvost, with tea bags slowly drying on top. Another
piece, that I think was created by Cally Spooner, was a hotel radio clock
simply placed in the middle of the floor, going unnoticed by many of the other
gallery goers, set to (I think) the ‘wake up’ radio station. Kind of lovely…
My final institution of the day was
Tate Modern, seeing the Rauschenberg and Tillmans exhibitions. Rauschenberg was
kind of run of the mill, nothing I hadn’t seen before, lots of collage, lots of
paint.
Tillmans’ exhibition on the other hand
was probably the best show I’ve seen at the Tate for a long time. As you walk
in you see a small text on the wall, basically saying that each room is
considered to be an installation, so unlike normal Tate exhibitions there won’t
be any explanatory text on the walls. For me this is hilarious for two reasons,
the first being that Tate seem to think they need to alert the public of this,
like they’ll be so perplexed to see that there’s no explanatory text on the
wall that they won’t know what to do with themselves. The second aspect of this
that I found funny was that, if there isn’t any text in the other shows telling
us this, is there no other installation based work in the Tate? Other than
this, I found the show to be incredibly refreshing, seeing all this photography
exploring the boring white walls. I did begin to get slightly overwhelmed by
the amount of photography and content, especially in one room that seemed to
contain all of the magazines that he’d ever published work in, alongside
another space that showed his research for various photographs laid out on DIY,
surprisingly elegant, wooden tables. Basically a really nice show that
acknowledges its location, embedded within the confines of the Tate, but flourishes
within that.
I think that’s all the art, apart from
the 3rd year interim show at Chelsea. This was fine, but nothing really
jumped out at me as being especially unique… There probably was, but who remembers
what happened 4 days ago at a student show?
Other than art, a number of films were
consumed. In preparation for watching Logan I finally decided to watch the
X-Men film series, as I’ve never really gotten into it… The first film is fine,
establishing some of the main characters alongside the basic plot of two mutant
factions going up against each other. This, weirdly enough, is kind of the same
plot of every other film in the franchise, two groups fighting against each other.
This first film was good, but incredibly old and dated.
The films slowly get better, although I’m
never really a fan of 12A/PG superhero films, especially in this case with the writers/directors
holding back from the gritty source material of the comic books. Wolverine
(Logan) is by far the most interesting character in the series, with the most
fleshed out backstory. For some reason, before watching any of the films, I
always thought that he felt pain every time he extended his claws, fighting despite
the pain. After actually watching however it turns out I was completely wrong,
but I do think this is explored in the new Logan film. Yeah, I don’t think I
have any more to say on the series, all 8 of the films were satisfying but definitely
stuck to a repetitive structure and catered to families wanting a film to go
and see on a Friday night.
What else did I watch? After the x-men
8 film marathon I decided to take a break by watching Sing, a beautiful animated feature that explores a city of anthropomorphic
animals, singling out a few individuals who all take part in a singing competition
being run by a failing theatre in a bid to bring in money to pay the rent. It’s
a beautiful, incredibly well put together film that everyone should watch.
Next up was Collateral Beauty, a kind of interesting film that sees Will Smith
being sad about the death of a loved one. Unable to cope with the depressed
Smith anymore, his colleagues hire a group of actors to portray Love, Time and
Death to fuck with his head, making him look insane in a bid to have him fired.
It’s a nice concept, but goes a bit mental towards the end. Some good acting
though, although we know these people can already act, so…
10 Things I Hate About You was a weird call back to PG films of
the early 2000s. Satisfying but super weird.
Another fun but basic one was Starter for 10, James McAvoy playing a working-class
boy going off to university. Again, fun but dumb.
The Drop was kind of shitty, with nothing really happening apart from being
shown yet again that Tom Hardy is a badass, but we already knew that… Nothing
really happens, a bit of mental manipulation, some shooting, nothing that
clever unfortunately.
I did watch The Grey, Liam Neeson being a badass out in Alaska, fighting wolves
and speaking in gruff undertones. The phrase, you get what you pay for, comes
to mind.
I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore was surprisingly
fun, a woman gets robbed and doesn’t want to feel scared in her own house, so
goes out and tries to find the robbers in order to get her shit back. Elijah
Wood is also in it, who’s always in the weirdest roles…
Tom Hanks in A Hologram for the King was fun, acclimatising to Saudi Arabia
whilst getting over his depression, although I’ve heard the book by Dave Eggers
(the guy who wrote The Circle) is a lot better.
Midnight Cowboy, my final film, was pretty great. A very well
known story, a hustler coming to New York to find fortune, etc, etc... Very depressing. You’ve
all probably seen it before and I’m losing the will to write anymore...
I’m going to say that’s the end of my
week, with the next 7 days being focused on making the new badge piece, doing
some 3D printing and hopefully making a sound piece, finishing off the entire
magazine and getting a draft printed, and generally slowly winding down to the
end of term and looking forward to a small break during Easter…
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