This week I’ve managed to go to a
bunch of exhibitions, have heard back from the majority of the artists I’m
continuing to invite for the exhibition in June and successfully de-installed
the exhibition at arebyte. I came back from Suffolk on Thursday, which was a
shame, although it’s nice to leave London for just a week, and have been going
to see things and planning studio visits since. I guess we should begin?
So Monday – Thursday morning I was in
Suffolk, continuing to email artists and planning the upcoming exhibition. This
has been slowly progressing, with most people I’ve contacted being incredibly
nice and supportive, and me being still studying at university being not so big
of a deal, which is actually quite revealing and interesting to me. Perhaps the
negative associations about being a student are simply all in my head? Probably
not. Anyway, so far people who have said yes are Toby Christian, Fabio Lattanzi
Antinori, Joshua Citarella, Elliott Dodd, Jake Moore, Veronika Krenn and Davide
Bevilacqua, Claire Jervert, Molly Soda, Rustan Söderling, IKO
(itskindofhardtoexplain), Debora Delmar, Laura Yuile, Jonathan Monaghan, Émilie
Brout & Maxime Marion, Lydia Blakeley, Willem Weismann and of course,
myself. So that’s 21 people, 17 artist collectives/duos. So not bad, I think we’re
getting there. 13 of the 21 are men, something I’ also going to address and
balance out. So in the coming weeks I need to keep searching for more artists
to add, focus in on some of the key spaces I’ll be including in my application
and figure out a name, press release and of course how the publication is going
to look and who I should start contacting to write some essays for it. Basically
lots of things I need to start doing now, giving people enough time to both get
back to me and write new things. So yeah, that’s progressing.
When I came back to London I went
straight to arebyte for the final evening of the show, which was fine. The First
Thursdays Whitechapel Bus came by, I tried to talk about the show, it was fine,
not great, but fine. Then on Friday I de-installed the exhibition with the help
of Jim, which was finished in under 5 hours. More Ubers, more money spent, more
regret for physical exhibitions haha. The show’s also been featured on
TZVETNIK, an online platform that hosts photographs from exhibitions. I
contacted a bunch, something I’ve never really done before, not totally sure
why, and they got back to me almost immediately, which was great. Here’s the
link if you want to see pics on their site -
tzvetnik.online/portfolio_page/im-sorry-i-didnt-quite-catch-that/
I think the exhibition was fairly successful, over 220 people came overall,
including the private view, so not bad, although it was quite far away, so I
assume that did put people off. Also it was on for only two weeks. One week
longer than anything I’ve done before though, so that’s a positive.
I still have a bunch, around 20,
copies of the book to sell. It would be nice if those sold and helped to fund
future things, although it is really nice having something solid that I can
give to people who I respect. Simply sending a book goes a long way I think. So
maybe I’ll just do that? Who knows, I guess I’ll keep promoting and see.
Today I launched the open call for
the fifth issue, focusing on surveillance. It’s again, quite a general theme,
but one that suits my practice and can fit in with a lot of artists and their
practices too. This is the brief text to go alongside the call:
The overriding theme of the book will be surveillance, how offline and
online life has become increasingly monitored and mediated by corporations and
government bodies. Is a surveillance state something to be sought after,
enabling the young and old to traverse dark streets late at night, or would
this swiftly turn into a thinly veiled dystopian nightmare, built on elegant
rhetoric subliminally insinuating that minority groups are the problem, forcing
the lower classes out of cities and into oblivion? Is it ethically and morally
correct to use a data-mining company to manipulate and seduce voters? Who makes
the rules in a society that increasingly resembles a totalitarian paradise? The
upcoming book seeks to investigate and question these fundamental and increasingly
pertinent questions.
So yeah, that it, go here if you’d like to submit and read more about
the issue, now I need to start researching and contacting artists for that. It’s
going to be an email heavy few months - //www.isthisitisthisit.com/issue-05
What else? I think that might be it in terms of art production or art
thinking. I now need to get back into my own art creation, thinking about what
to produce and what I want to start thinking about. Of course the Cambridge Analytica
scandal is interesting, but maybe slightly too obvious to research and make
work about. Let’s move onto exhibitions.
Beginning with the HereNow:
Outcome Exhibition at SPACE. This is an annual show which showcases the
work that was produced by a number of artists in residence over the duration of
however many months. Some good work, some super boring ‘tech’ work, some work I
may have to return to. One piece I truly loved was by Thomas Yeomans, someone I
kind of know so may be bias. He’d created a series of light boxes with a
variety of CGI flags blowing in the wind, each lightbox a different flag,
mostly produced and fictionalised by himself, or taken from films and pop culture,
like the United Federation of Planets from Star Trek. So those are very nice
and crispy, works I’d like to curate at some point perhaps…
Next up was Hardeep Pandhal at Cubitt Gallery with a solo show titled
Liar Hydrant, all about the politics of race and gender, made up of a chair
sculpture that I enjoyed the idea of but didn’t actually get to fully embrace.
It consisted of a bouncy bench, on each side of the bench a large spring made
the bench spring up and down. Two people had to both spring at the same time to
‘activate’ this work, throwing a viewer into an enjoyable, playground like
enthusiasm with complete strangers, reverting anyone over the age of 20 to
their childhood whilst watching a series of slightly crudely animated rap
videos. I liked these, and enjoyed the idea of the bench. Yeah, good. Although
I suspect I may not be the target audience, being white, or perhaps I am?
Hannah Barry Gallery was fine, a group show titled Wasp, featuring a bunch of photographs, some paintings, a few
lovely texts and poems alongside an interesting seeming video work about a
working class woman attempting to ‘manage’ her 5 children over the course of a
day or so. The show supposedly forces us to consider way in which we as human
beings face the ‘grit’ and pressures of daily life. I’m slightly dubious of that
curatorial prerogative, I’m not sure why, it just feels slightly disingenuous
perhaps? Anyway, I liked the poetry, paintings were crap and film was
interesting. Hmm.
CGP London was next. I love going to this gallery, as it forces you to
walk through a park, which is always nice, a gallery situated in a park. The
exhibition was a solo show from Megan Broadmeadow called Seek-Pray-Advance, Episode 1: Eyes Only. You walk through a curtain
doorway, an oversized serpents mouth, into a corridor filled with infinity
mirrors, once you’re out you’re standing in a projection filled space with
desert like projection mapping and smaller screens showing various figures in
black and white being followed by a drone. It was okay, I would say fun, like a
TV science fiction set is fun to see, but for me this had all the hallmarks of stereotypical
sci-fi, the corridor of light, spaceship increments and the Nevada desert
accompanied by an ominous looking cloud. It was okay, just not great. It felt
like the artist had watched a bunch of 50s sci-fi and converted that into art
in 2018. I’m not sure, it was fine and kind of fun.
Matt’s Gallery was super dull, a solo show from Jo Bruton titled Run. They’ve moved spaces again, to a
tiny venue in Bermondsey. It was basically a bunch of laser cut things of people
and pastel coloured wallpaper. I was not interested.
After that was Maeve Brennan and Imran Perretta at Jerwood with the FVU
awards exhibition titled Unintended
Consequences. Basically the artists receive £20,000 to make a film, how
fantastic is that. Parretta’s was quite short, focusing on a slowly ruining 3D
mapped and scanned camp in the middle of a forest, questioning ideas of race
and deconstructing cultural histories. It was good. I need to return to Brennan’s,
as hers was fairly long and I had a long day ahead.
Copperfield was showing work from Rä di Martino in a solo show called Poor Poor Jerry, consisting of a film
whereby an animated Jerry from the cartoon series Tom and Jerry dances in
various environments. An animated blow up Jerry, glitching throughout these
various environments whilst recounting animators voices. I liked the film, although
accompanying this was a series of 3D prints of Jerry, sliced up bodies and full
bodied prints revealing the insides. I thought these were unneeded, drawing
attention to the inherent quality of the 3D print rather than discussing glitching
in film. However, the gallery then contacted me through Instagram, explaining the
work, which was super nice, informing me of its glitched properties and how the
3D model was forced to print through the printer. That’s always fun and something
I like to see, galleries being open and talking with their audience.
Next was Emalin and a solo show from Aslan Gaisumov called All That You See Here, Forget that featured
a back to back set of videos. It was about war, and that’s all I’ll say. It’s
fairly bleak and detached from what I usually encounter. Good art but
ultimately not for me.
Kunstraum was fine, with a solo show from Mary Hurrell titled 2 (Aerial), although it always feels
like this space is only for performance works, and the resulting exhibition
left in its wake is kind of an afterthought. Nice name though.
Ricky Swallow at Modern Art was dull, boring old sculptures. The show
was called 4. Very wanky.
Tamar Harpaz with a solo show titled Crazy
Delay at Edel Assanti was trash. Just more fetish wiring that I really do
not like. Why has this trend come back? Did it ever leave? I’m okay with
artists like Evan Roth doing it, as that becomes a thing whereby the fat cables
suffocate the gallery. In this though, when it feels like ‘oh, look at how good
at programming stuff I am’. This is boring and not exciting. This for me was
glorified music, like the Robot
Orchestra but not as cool.
A group show of Chinese artists at Pilar Corrias was good, titled Witness the exhibition consisted of responses
to changes in the urban environment within and around China. I’m mostly a fan
of Cui Jie’s work, large paintings and a 3D print of various utopic 80s architectural
drawings mashed into one. Solid work.
Marcus Coates at Workplace Gallery was fine, titled The Last of its Kind
it featured the artist going on a mission to apologise to a bird, the Great
Auk. Apologising on behalf of the human race for causing its extinction. It was
funny, work that I would have found funny a few years ago, but now it feels
like he should be apologising for his whiteness, for – kind of – mocking this
birds experiences, even though it probably isn’t mocking as it would be a lot
of work for simple mocking to be the outcome. I was left confused.
The final exhibition was at the Royal Academy, Premiums: Interim Projects. Basically a bunch of second years from
the postgraduate course there, which was actually very good, very crispy and
very professional. As obviously, these people are professional, lots having
solo shows around the globe. Débora Delmar, who I’ve met with and am showing in
the June exhibition, was in the Berlin Biennale, has had a solo show at Modern
Art Oxford. Jala Wahid had a solo show at Seventeen Gallery in 2017. These are
exciting people who’re all very cool. This is why I don’t want to do an MA now,
as you’ll be alongside people like this, who actually have real world
experience. Anyway, lots of fantastic work, Débora was showing a series of
vinyl marbled hand dryers, Daniel Burley had on show a series of custom made
swords from children’s video games in full size, alongside making a whole
album/mix for the show which you listened to on wireless headphones through the
exhibition. Basically very good and very enjoyable, even though it was situated
within the weirdness of the RA.
That’s it for exhibitions, a healthy and reasonable amount this week. Now for
films, which is probably sorely lacking. I’ve been watching so much of The Amazing World of Gumball, it’s fully
taken over now, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
Isle of Dogs from Wes Anderson was incredibly
satisfying, precise, very delicate and quite beautiful. It was a thoroughly enjoyable
experience, although many of the characters, the dogs, blended into one, with
their character traits and unique voice talents slowly melting together. This
was a shame. Another aspect is of course the controversy surrounding Anderson’s
portrayal of Japan and Japanese culture, more specifically seeing this space
through a stereotypical, tourists eye. I, having not been to Japan and not
knowing much about their culture other than what I see in films and vague research,
can’t truly comment on this. I’m going to see what my Japanese friends say
about the film, although everyone has different reactions to things, different
tolerances to stereotyping. So who knows? It was nice and impressive.
You Were Never Really Here directed by Lynne Ramsay was
incredibly brutal, lots of killing, lots of assumed killing. Basically about a mentally
and physically abused man stalking prey, and doing it very well with a series
of ball point hammers. Bleak.
Spaceship was pretty crap, only watched
because I know the main actress Tallulah Haddon. Crap whimsical story telling,
very ‘wishy washy’, and I hate tying those words.
Paddington 2 was fantastic and lovely, taking you back to beautiful and naïve
stories. Sometimes films for children are fantastic.
Ready Player One, a book by Ernest Cline I enjoyed
turned into a film. Of course it was going to be unsuccessful, and didn’t even
try. It basically took the premise of a virtual world and didn’t really take
anything else. Full of plot holes, awkward acting, basic villains and cringe
worthy referencing. I think it was fine for what it was, but not good and
certainly not great.
Proud Mary was terrible.
That’s it for film. Now for games, beginning with the final chapter (I think)
in the Life is Strange prologue. So,
to catch up. The original Life is Strange
featured Max and Chloe, Max a promising student returning to her home town to
study at a prestigious college and Chloe a drop out and old friend of Max. They
join back up and uncover terribly distressing secrets and it’s a beautiful game.
Then last year Life is Strange: Before the Storm came out. A prequel to the
events in the first game, set whilst Max was away, seeing how Chloe changed and
grew without her best friend. Again, amazingly beautiful. Now this week I
played the final part of this prequel, an extra prequel that sees you play as
13 year old Max about to leave Chloe for five or so years, where the first game
begins (five years later). Throughout these games you have various flashbacks
to Chloe’s dad dying in a fatal car crash, it’s terrible and has lasting
effects on Chloe. So in this extra prequel episode you can kind of tell that
this is going to happen, this death, occurring right before you then leave your
best friend for five years, before a whole heap of suffering occurs for Chloe
that you’ve already played through and witnessed. You’re already feeling sorry
for this beautiful character. You spend an amazing day playing these 13 year
olds, bonding and enjoying being young and free. At the end of the episode
Chloe’s mum comes in and informs you that her dad is dead, you see the funeral
and Max driving away, leaving her best friend in tears. This then caused me to
cry quite a lot, considering what Chloe’s about to go through, how she turns
from this innocent 13 year old into an abused 18 year old throughout the course
of the series of games. So yes, an incredibly beautiful experience and game
that I now want to replay, or would be interested to see how one would feel
playing these games in order, beginning at 13, then to 15 when Chloe is without
Max, then to Max returning in the later game. I wonder whether you’d be as
emotionally connected to the characters as I have been? Anyway, a beautiful
series of games, now officially my favourite game ever. If you play games
please go and play.
Annnd I think that’s it. This coming week features more planning, a
bunch of studio visits and more emails. Perhaps some of my own art making, but
maybe not. Oh and an interview too, a filmed one. How worrying.
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