Moonlight, Annka Kultys and Conspiracy Week

Another week moving forwards, installing exhibitions and making art. I’m starting to feel slightly complacent, even though I am working a lot. I need to start a secondary project, something to do alongside the current piece I’m working on as well as isthisit? things and stuff with A217.

I’ve been slowly putting together the Facebook Live work this week, but was slightly waylaid due to not having the correct sized drill bit. The making that’s occurring is simply drilling into various MacBook motherboards so that they can simply ‘slot’ into the tripod. Although this sounds incredibly easy, when you have too small a drill bit it becomes a very tedious process. After drilling two of the slots I resigned myself to simply ordering some bigger drill bits from Amazon. These have now arrived and will hopefully be used this coming week.

I also thought more about the content of the work, how the different motherboards could be seen as different floors of an office/tower. This inspired me to go down the incredibly clichéd path of buying some tiny figures, spray painting them blue, and attaching them to the different motherboards, obviously representing the various Facebook employees. I’m unsure if this will be a thing or not, but they’re kind of fun. It’s either that or buying a load of USB sticks to attach to the faulty motherboards, maybe with customised content on that the viewer can’t actually access but will envision. Maybe ‘fake news’ content? I’m not sure, and USB drives are expensive…

That’s slowly moving forward, along with the video for the iPhone, which still hasn’t really made any progress. I keep thinking that maybe the video should simply be an actual Facebook Live video, broadcasting live onto Facebook whenever it’s shown. I think this would be more appropriate, and then you could watch yourself on Facebook from your phone when looking at the sculpture, which would also incorporate surveillance into the whole thing. Very Yuri Pattison. It’s just annoying that I’ve now bought the Facebook emoji scroll animation, but maybe I can do something else with that, taking the same video and changing the emoji scroll? Something simple like I originally considered. Maybe I’ll make a Facebook specifically for the piece of work to broadcast to, that would work out quite well.

I’ve been incredibly busy this week putting together a few exhibitions, with Monday seeing the installation of The Sacred 419 show. The VR piece went up in the gallery alongside the aluminium print. Both looked good, if a little tucked away, but still vaguely interesting. On Tuesday I got to see people navigate through the VR space, which was fun. A few things I noted from this experience was how fragile the piece is, with a lot of the grass falling off. Another aspect was people not realising that you put the headset back on the rocks, like, if you took it off the rocks, where do you think you should put it back? Probably on the rocks mate. Here’s a picture of me, photographed standing beside my work, lol.

I also helped install the A217 exhibition, which was fun, although dragging huge 8 x 4 boards up 4 flights of stairs was fairly painful. I don’t really understand why the sculptures had to be so big, but they were. Once they were up they looked surprisingly good, filling the space and making their mark. Two of these were placed outside in the corridor, with one of them in the actual space, completely changing how one navigated inside. Inside the gallery were two tv screens, one showing a performance piece that involved slowly falling and another that was a conversation between two lamps. It was simple and nice. This is the press release that I helped Zoe write for the show:

This exhibition sees the collision of four practices, each responding to and interested in relationships, be it between inanimate objects relying on one another to function or the silent contract explored through a viewer looking at an artwork. Allowing the work to integrate not just within the confines of the galleries four walls but spilling out into the street, the exhibition considers structures, institutional and otherwise, being broken and formed by the relationships that are created when the different works are situated alongside one another. Whether it’s the building blocks of a premise for a conversation between two insentient entities reliant on their outer frame or a concrete block being manipulated to portray how one feels when in an unrewarding relationship, giving everything but gaining nothing, the idea of relations is consistent throughout. Space Cutters runs parallel to Collapse, where human and inert forces come into play to keep the different works alive, allowing a horizontal to vertical descent.

Proper photographs haven’t been taken yet, but here’s one that went on the Instagram leading up to the private view.

I’m going to be taking the lead next month, with an internet themed show looking to the past, rather than the future, considering the acceleration of time. I’m currently contacting people about artwork, with a few paintings, sculptures and video works being displayed. I’m going to either have a huge print on the floor that people can walk on created by Laila Majid, or a blue tarpaulin, walking on the waves of the internet, along with the lights a different colour, pink, or maybe blue again? Maybe these will be a custom pair of lights, ones that I’ve specially made for the show, my piece of art in there. Although I don’t want my curatorial practice to become too repetitive re coloured lights. It’ll be publicised as a collaboration between A217 and isthisit?, more publicity = more people. So that’s slowly happening, contacting people that I know alongside artists who have submitted via CuratorSpace. Here’s a very vague plan made using Sketchup.

What else? I continue to contact people about the magazine, whose deadline is coming up fast! So after Wednesday I’ll be putting that together, looking to publish early March, maybe I can tie that in with A217 in some way, a ‘launch party’? But yeah, that’s happening. I need to interview more artists, I’m currently talking to Pippa Eason, which is going well, alongside one other, but I think I should have at least 3, maybe 4. I’ve also been talking to people about writing, with Karl Sims writing something specifically for the publication and a few others who I’ve asked and are getting back to me. Some people have applied with writing too, with one or two actually being fairly interesting, so invited writings will go alongside submitted ones. I also want to have at least 20 or so artist features, simply name/statement/website/artwork. These will be the ‘bread and butter’ of the magazine, making up the main body of the work. Hopefully it goes well… Last few days to submit if you haven’t already - bit.ly/2iRafJc

Last week’s write up for the online exhibition that I curated on the website was also published this week:

Romanticism in the internet era has been changed and distorted, with the idea of the individual being replaced by a mass of voices, screaming as one into the emotional abyss of social media, surfing the internet, ‘liking’ and ‘sharing’ content that’s already been presented to a million other people, just like you. The new romanticist Instagram’s their private moments of sorrow, retweets a photograph of an evocative landscape with some accompanying nihilistic text whilst eating their vegan breakfast and tags their friends in a YouTube video shared on Facebook after being appropriated by the LAD Bible. ‘Romanticism: The 2k17 Edition’ features two artists, both of them being highly aware of their individual self, exploiting their bodies and the environments that they inhabit. Madeleine Andersson AKA ‘girl irl’ has spent countless hours crafting her own Instagram personality, effectively performing to the camera in a series of short, Amalia Ulman esque, looping videos that see her interacting with the materiality of the screen whilst reacting to the endless possibilities for self-determination online. Andersson being ‘popped’ out of existence by her own hand whilst eerily staring into the camera lens, for example, or continually taking her top off, to reveal the exact top underneath, over and over again. These quick, endless videos, are accompanied by a film by Soo Hyun Choi titled ‘Snow Romance’. In the video we see the artist take to the stage of a photography studio, which then proceeds to be filled with foam, creating an awkward juxtaposition between the beauty of Choi dancing as simulated snow falls across her face with the illusion-breaking way in which the whole piece is filmed, making one aware of the studio surroundings and the falsity of the snowflakes. In a sense, you’re drawn in by this broken narrative, having been shown behind the curtain from the beginning, as opposed to Andersson’s video series that seeks to convince the viewer of girl irl’s legitimacy, until the perfect image is shattered and the balloon is popped.

This week was curated by SEIZE, an artist led collective/organisation that put on exhibitions. You can see their exhibition by heading over to the website here: http://www.isthisitisthisit.com/ It was a nice change to how packed it usually is, a ‘brave move’ some would say.

These are their curatorial notes:

'If an image is seen out of context, has it really been taken? Traditional photography never died, it just never existed.’ - Sam Hutchinson

‘Now you see it’ is an opportunity to offer some resistance to the busy, layered and media-heavy aesthetics of digital art. Sam Hutchinson’s image 'I Only Exist as Myself (arrangement, overhanging)' in some way negates expectations when it comes to viewing on a screen. Coupled with the text 'Now You See It' the combination can be read as a comment on withheld information, the promise of more, and the momentary and fragmentary truths that come with the territory.

What else happened? I need to begin planning for the upcoming essay, thinking about what I want to write about, etc. I always leave it until last minute, which is always a shame…

I don’t know if anything else happened in relation to art in my own working, I did go to galleries, a bunch of them, but I’m still wondering if I did anymore or not… I’ve been thinking a little today about new artwork, and the lack of painting that I get involved in. Whilst browsing through Facebook for the millionth time I came across one of those apps that people use to determine what their baby will look like, where they literally take your profile picture, attempt to identify the face and paste it onto the body of a random child. Obviously they’re always funny and incredibly worrying, which made me think about the idea of self-portraiture, and the commissioning of paintings that used to occur when one wanted a ‘family photograph’. This led me onto thinking about how I could do this with my own face, creating this weird child from open source software, and then commission someone to paint the image, but only have this occur through the internet, or simply get it printed onto a canvas (although this is less fun). I enjoy the idea of preserving something so throwaway as a random Facebook app, something to be shared and forgotten about within days, coming back to the idea of the analogue painting styles, but taking it to a new level through the communication that occurs over the internet. I don’t know if this is just a throwaway idea or not, I guess we’ll see if I think about it after this initial interest.

Let’s move onto galleries then, beginning with the David Hockney retrospective at Tate Britain. I went in not expecting much, as it is mostly paintings, but in reality I quite enjoyed it. I am a fan of the splash paintings; they do manage to capture incredibly detailed aspects of the environment alongside being able to portray sunlight very well. They were just very good to see and quite enjoyable. Another part of the exhibition I enjoyed was the room dedicated to the video work which I believe is un-ironically called The Four Seasons, consisting of 36 huge flat screen TV’s, 9 on each of the four walls, displaying the same country road being driven down in slow motion. Obviously the different walls each portray a different season. It’s obvious, but incredibly beautiful. It was worth going simply to watch this film, and to see the amount of tech. The last room was dedicated to the iPad and iPhone paintings displayed on huge TV screens, pretty much missing the point. TV screens which were the wrong size, showing huge black bars at the bottom and the top of the screen. It was also pretty annoying that the paintings were consistently changing, showing the painting in progress, rather than simply having the digital image staying on the screen. To me it felt like these paintings weren’t being valued as much as the ‘real’ paintings, due to them constantly changing. A bit of a shame.

The next show was the last exhibition in the 5 week experiment that Annka Kultys has been currently conducting. Yet again, a really good show, this time featuring work from Ruth Waters, who had transformed the space into a ‘relaxation studio’, creating a load of custom made yoga mats with various inspirational texts printed onto them alongside a video/soundscape which is inspired by Jennifer Aniston’s personal trainer. I enjoyed the created atmosphere, the irony of it all, and the commitment to the thing. I’ve really liked the shows for the past few weeks, even though they have basically been an appropriation of a bunch of MA degree shows. Still though, Kultys knows how to pick them and has created a successful platform for young emerging artists.

Next was Cell Project Space, a really great gallery that shows off a bunch of awesome upcoming artists. This time it was Ghislaine Leung with a really clean glass installation with accompanying text, detailing a conversation that feels like it was undertaken over text message, disrupted at times to reference various things at seemingly random. Accompanying this was a carpet (I told you a few weeks ago carpets were ‘in’ right now) that smelt of newness and a sound piece, reminding you of childhood somewhat. On the huge glass panes there were lots of tiny little flower stickers, making you aware of the grub and the small cracks that probably occurred when the piece was being installed, a really lovely way of initiating someone into the details of the piece. Another part of this exhibition was a small dolls house like structure, with various videos being shown on iPhones attached to the walls, both jarring with the professionalism of the first room and working with the childhood sounds and flowery stickers. I’m not sure what to think of it just yet. Also, little night light mushrooms are a thing, which is very fun.

From there I travelled to Edel Assanti which had two great solo shows on, the first being from York Chang looking at the downfall of the printed newspaper industry. It featured huge vats of printer ink, diluted to represent the percentage loss of density in editorial content in 4 major newspapers alongside 500 real legal documents concerning Guantanamo Bay detainees and the lack of evidence against them. The great thing about this work is that Chang took one of these documents, altered it, and put it back into the 500, making them all unreliable (even though they already were, thus the point).

Downstairs was an exhibition from Sheida Soleimani, utilising a series of images of women who have been unlawfully imprisoned and executed in the state of Iran. These found images have then been printed onto fabric and hand sewn to create ‘Bobo Dolls’, ones that were used in the 60s to see if children will hit inanimate objects after seeing an adult do the same. Fucking dark and amazing work.

Then to TJ Boulting for a not very interesting exhibition featuring some ‘new paintings’ from Nick Waplington… Yeah… Thanks Nick.

Then onto the Photographers Gallery for Conspiracy Week, a week long exhibition dedicated to objects from outer space, etc. It was fun, but felt rather rushed, and I never really like how they show work in there, wooden stools on huge old fashioned TV’s. The big video wall in the lobby however, was as great as ever, featuring a new video piece from Joey Holder, whose work I’m a big fan of, concerning Jaws. Go see, it’s free.

Blaine Southern with a show featuring huge metal sculptures of naked men and women, not fun.

Carl Kostyál was fine, big blocky colour paintings, it’s a lovely space though.

David Zwirner had a bunch of paintings from Josef Albers, pretty much all exactly the same, yellow paintings…

Simon Lee came after, with a show looking at screen memory, something that sounds exciting but really isn’t, especially when it features a bunch of old artists. I dunno…

Almine Rech, yet again, a group show of artwork from old people. Very shiny sculptures…

After that I went to see Urs Fischer at Sadie Coles, an exhibition featuring a sculpture that is meant to be messed with, distorted and fucked with by the public. The piece is made from plasticine, so is easily moulded. I liked this idea, but kind of questioned the validity of how much you can fuck with a fancy sculpture in a fancy gallery. I started to take apart the sculpture, going against the kitsch idea that Fischer was playing with, but embracing the collaborative nature. I was promptly told to stop, and to ‘respect the art’. Although that reaction may be warranted, it’s not like I was going against what the press release had told me to do, although rather than making a penis or writing my name, I had decided to take apart the thing that the public was being a part of. I love the idea of a collaborative thing like this, but I feel like it must be fully collaborative to work. Basically I was probably stopped because the sculpture will be sold at some point, and it would be terrible if it actually did resemble what a community of people would do to a collaborative sculpture, rather than simply a timid art crowd...

Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis were showing two huge collaborative paintings at the Gagosian. It was kind of fun, landscapes of Los Angeles with evocative text overlaid. It was okay…

From there I went to the Lisson Gallery, which had two exhibitions on, a solo by Bouchra Khalili and a group show featuring a bunch of works from their collection. A bunch of videos were on show detailing different people’s journeys crossing borders illegally, showing the path that they took on a map whilst unseen individuals recount their different stories. Upstairs the group show was fine, with the standout being one of Ryan Gander’s ghost plinths, plinths/robes made out of marble, made to look like the person wearing the robe has wandered off. Really funny.

The final exhibition of the week was at the Showroom Gallery; a space I hadn’t actually been to before. Big images printed onto huge wooden boards cornering off parts of the gallery alongside a sound scape. Gentrification and stuff, I think by that point I was probably ‘done’.

I went to an artist talk that featured Mette Bole this week, although I actually really enjoy her work, the presentation was so dry and so quiet I just stopped listening as it was so dull. It’s a real shame actually, a real shame.

There was also another professional practice talk, from a fabricator called Sam Fish. It was an interesting talk, if more suited to an artist about five years older who either has the money or the funding to pay someone like him. It was interesting though, and definitely brought about some different ways of making money. He’s also fabricated work for both Ryan Gander and Ian Ball, two very cool artists. He was also a genuinely nice guy, so that was nice.

I did watch a few films this week, not as many as I’d wanted to, but a few nonetheless. Moonlight was quite wonderful, chronicling the three stages of a man’s life, from early childhood, slowly moving into a teenager and then finally mid to late twenties. It was terribly depressing and quite heart-breaking, finishing with a slow sigh rather than a fist pump. Beautiful basically, a must see feature.

Jackie was good, not great, but good. Some great acting from Natalie Portman, but the story didn’t quite grab me as much as I wanted it too. It was incredibly well themed, with the splicing of new and old footage being done very well, I just felt like nothing really happened. A lot happened, but very little did at the same time. I don’t know, it was probably just my mind-set at the time.

A Monster Calls was crushing, leaving me quite surprised that it was a PG, with a lot of the content being quite brutal, the tale of a young boy attempting to cope with his mother’s terminal illness. Like, fuck, that doesn’t sound very uplifting. Really well done with a nice mix of animation to portray the tales that this giant tree monster tells. Worthwhile if you want to cry.

The (sadly) last film of the week was Hacksaw Ridge, which was fine, a little weird in terms of the split between the two halves. The first is a classic boy meets girl tale, getting married and being happy, if bullied by his father. It slowly turns to shit though when the main character, Desmond, decides he wants to be in the army to be a war medic. In this second half the violence is fairly brutal, people just dying everywhere and anywhere, with no real care to how much investment the audience may have in various characters. It’s good but is a bit mixed with what kind of film you’re going to see.

The past few days I’ve gotten into a fairly new animation called Counterfeit Cat, a show that sees a normal housecat who’s befriended by a naive alien dressed as a cat. It’s kind of interesting, if you’re into that.

I think that is maybe about it? In the week ahead I want to finish the Facebook Live piece, document the work, etc, alongside film a tiny bit of Facebook Live to put alongside the documentation. I also want to start a new project alongside making an actual video of the Facebook emotion scroll, whether this is the portrait painting or customising lights, I don’t quite know right now. I then need to organise the A217 show more, probably getting artists to send their work to us now, as well as finalising who will actually be in the show. The open call for the magazine ends on Wednesday, so from then onwards I’ll be putting that together too! How fun! On isthisit? this week I’m going to be curating a solo show from Roxanne Gatt, which will hopefully be exciting. I’m also in a few things this week, a film screening on Tuesday night at the Muse Gallery as a side thing of The Sacred 419 as well as another thing there on Friday, a closing event for the 419 show. The screening can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1435848803137506/ I’m also in a new online exhibition that I just found out about today which can be seen here: http://vos.rolandwegerer.com/

So yeah, that’s it I think?

Moana, Passengers and Rehab Island

This week involved lots of planning for the future, alongside some new work being generated, films being watched, games being played, going to artist talks and an exhibition or two…

The work involving the idea of Facebook Live is slowly forming, with the installation nearly built and my ideas for the video manifesting as I type. In terms of install, I purchased a tripod like stand, which then will attach to a selfie stick, where an iPhone displaying the video will be being shown. Slotted into the tripod will be disused MacBook motherboards, creating a tower like structure. Motherboards are usually built into computers, providing electrical connections so that other components of the computer can communicate with one another. In this sense, all the data moving through our computers is routed through the motherboard; it’s a crucial part of the system. Coming back to the idea of Facebook manipulating our data/the news articles we see, when Facebook employees first arrive at Facebook, they’re given a MacBook which they will use for the majority of their time there. In some cases, they will use said MacBook to ‘manipulate’ the news, creating coding that will modify the individual users experience.

I’m still unsure of what the video will be due to other things happening this week, although I’ve been messing around with using the emoji scroll a little. One of my early experiments has been to harness a recording from a drone flying over Facebook HQ in California, overlaying the ‘wow’ emoji scroll and having corporate music play over the top. I enjoy this simply experience, especially as you’re looking up at the phone dangling from the selfie stick, reflecting on your own experiences with Facebook, but it’s a little basic. I think I need to start over, make it less obvious. People immediately recognise the emoji scroll from Facebook, so I don’t think I need to have Facebook HQ in the video to push the point further… I also thought about other obvious things, like taking the whole of Friends and going through it with the emoji overlay or something, but, yet again, obvious and maybe slightly dull. Whatever it is, there will definitely be a loop involved, where you see the same thing again, but with a different set of emoji’s, coming back to the left/right divide on social media, people staying in their ‘bubble’, etc…

Another thing that arrived this week was my GTA5 banner, which can now be seen on my website, hung up in Chelsea. I think it was important to have it photographed in situ in a public space, although having it at Chelsea is slightly annoying, as it marks me as someone who has/is at Chelsea College. I’ll probably re-photograph it soon in a different setting. I think it turned out well, transforming the virtual into the real in a very obvious way whilst speaking about the content of the advert, the utopian landscape being presented within a video game where you’re already in this utopian space. Anyway, go here for some pictures of the piece: http://www.bobbicknell-knight.com/rehab-island I called it Rehab Island, an obvious name, but one that encompasses the ideas within it.

I finally got around to documenting the print, alongside building two other images to create a series of works that can be easily shown. It’s a ‘nice’ set, with the actual print being shown later this week in the Sacred 419 show, which is actually quite good, as I wasn't sure whether that would go in a show or not any time soon. Yet again, go here to see the documentation of the piece, titled Simple Human. Irony isn’t dead: http://www.bobbicknell-knight.com/simple-human

I think that might be all the generated work this week, slowly moving forward and making new things about ‘stuff’ that interests me. Things with isthisit? are going well, the first online resident has been making some really good work, a series of cards created by vaguely random processes whilst harnessing images from a Flickr album that’s attempting to document everything and anything. I’m a big fan of the amount of effort that’s being put in, setting a benchmark for future residents alongside simply making a strong start to the isthisit? residency, which is incredibly important I feel. Check out the progress here, on a pc not a phone: http://www.isthisitisthisit.com/echoes-from-the-internet

In terms of uni, we’re slowly moving into groups for offsite shows. We have a small group of four right now, looking to put on some sort of events evening, straying away from the usual exhibition format. It should be fun, something I haven’t done before. We’re currently looking for venues, like a community centre or church, somewhere with that kind of ‘vibe’, something a lot more interesting than simply hiring out a normal gallery space...

I’ve been gaining submissions for the magazine, alongside contacting various individuals to write essays for the publication as well as interviews with specific artists. The document is going to revolve around the internet, and now has 10 days to go until the deadline. Go here to submit if you want to - http://www.curatorspace.com/opportunities/detail/isthisit-magazine--open-call/1035

I curated this week’s exhibition on the site, showcasing work from Madeleine Andersson and Soohyun Choi. Identity, romance on the internet, etc, etc. Go read the curatorial notes which I’ll be writing in a few days if you’re interested in knowing more about my thinking behind the show. For now – here’s the show: http://www.isthisitisthisit.com/romanticism-the-2k17-edition

A guest curator wanted to delay their week to a later date from the 17^th of this month, so I’m currently planning on curating a solo show for the site, featuring work by Roxanne Gatt, a very exciting artist who’s also having some work in the Sacred 419 show on Tuesday. See her work here: http://roxmangatt.com/ I’m excited for this to happen, the first 'proper' solo show on the site.

With A217 we have the first show of 2017 coming up this Thursday with work from three artists: Dominique Baron-Bonarjee, Andrei Costache and Ben Mosher. It’s a bit of a shame, as it’s been incredibly rushed, but I think it’ll turn out well, if a little simple, two video works and three huge sculptures. The event is here if anyone is interested: https://www.facebook.com/events/1821815794725064/ Zoe Forster took the head curator job this month, with my turn next month. I’ve already chosen a bunch of artists to create a show surrounding the speed up of technology and time. I’ll be sending out emails today so that it isn’t as rushed as this show has been, which I feel is fairly important…

What else? I went to the open call exhibition that had my work in it. It was okay, kind of badly curated but you know, whatever. An exhibition for the CV more than anything. I was slightly disappointed that they didn't release a list of the artists on their website, or hand out press releases, so I was basically going to this event blind, not knowing what I’d see when I got there. This also means no real exposure for the artists involved, which is kind of disappointing, on top of making me pay however much money for what? A free beer?

Anymore things I should mention? Probably not? The Sacred 419 exhibition is opening on Tuesday this week and is actually going to be really good. My new VR piece is going to be on show as well as the aluminium print and a few of my old video works. A bunch of stuff really, which is great. I’m definitely looking forward to it all. Here’s the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/215239435606235/

Other stuff that happened this week? I went to a great artist talk at the Zabludowicz being given by Heather Phillipson. I didn’t quite realise how ‘DIY’ all her work seems to be, or maybe that’s because she was giving us a view of fairly old works. There was a lot of ‘hey look I’m using a green screen’ and precariously balanced cardboard looking cut outs. I enjoyed the apocalyptic undertones of the work, alongside her general ideas/talking points which she discussed. Yeah, it was a solid talk. Some of the work I liked, others not so much. I definitely valued the ideas behind some of the pieces more than the finished outcomes, although that’s probably just the work that I like. It’s not as clean cut as I usually prefer professional works to be… I dunno? Definitely enjoyed the video installations, and how much thoughts went into each thing, legitimising the video within itself.

We've also been having these professional practice talks at uni, last week we had the people who run Beaconsfield Gallery come in and talk to us about the value of having a relationship with the artists you curate, etc (something I already know), and this week we had an amazing lecture by a man named Tirdad Zolghadr, a freelance curator and writer. It was maybe the best talk I’ve been to at Chelsea, which is always surprising… Lots of politics, lots of interesting insights.

I went to the private view for the two new exhibitions at the ICA, featuring work from Helen Johnson, which I didn't really understand nor wanted to, and Sonia Boyce. Although I do like Boyce’s work usually, this time the exhibition amounted to the same video being shown on 6/7 screens, of a performance that had been created at the ICA. It was fine, featuring masked individuals dancing around in a non-conforming way. I was very bored and left very quickly.

Did I visit any other exhibitions? I don’t think so, other than my own, due to pre-made plans. There’s definitely a few on my list I’m yet to cross off, the Urs Fischer at Sadie Coles and teamLab at Pace London.

Is that everything art based? It doesn't seem like a lot unfortunately, but I think it was something at least?

I managed to watch a few films, the first being iBoy, a Netflix original film that sees a teenager gain the ability to essentially fuck with any and all types of technology. It was fun, but basic in the wide scheme of things. It passes the time, is that enough?

I then watched Moana, a beautiful animation about a young girl attempting to save her small island in ancient Polynesia from dying out. Yeah, it was lovely and fulfilling, with good voice acting and stunning animation.

I also watched Passengers, Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence trapped on a spaceship in the middle of a very long voyage to another planet. It was fun, a medium amount of filler but a satisfying experience nonetheless. A fair amount of controversy was levelled at the film when it came out, due to the fact that Pratt’s character effectively kills Lawrence's by artificially waking her up, condemning her to the same fate as his own. All the articles say that this is a minor plot point, and says that the film is shit because of it. Umm no? It’s a big deal in the film and continues to be throughout, pretty much the whole plot revolves around this moment, effecting the entirety of the film with this bastard move that Pratt’s character makes. Also, it takes him over a year to make that move, give the guy a fucking break…

Another film was The Founder, telling the tale of McDonalds and the terrible man behind its vast expansion, Ray Kroc. It’s a fun film, not really going into the seriousness of what McDonalds has done to the entire planet, with the terrible kid’s meals, food crop changes, etc, but fun nonetheless. A light-hearted biopic basically, taken at face value.

Manchester by the Sea was crushing, continually hammering home how depressing everything else. It’s just consistently unhappy, with the main character being repeatedly fucked over by life. Watch it, it’s great, but just painful overall…

Finishing on a high note with 3 Idiots, a hilarious Bollywood film that is very uplifting and bizarre. Why is it nearly three hours long? I don’t know, nor do I need to. It was great.

I think that’s it for films… Is less actually more?

I’m still making my way through Shameless, although that is just depressing and not nice at times. I do enjoy how it’s an over 17 tv show though, allowing for real things to happen, even if it is distressing.

A few weeks ago Regular Show ended, one of my favourite cartoons that I’ve been watching for probably around 5 years or so now. It will be sorely missed…

In better news however, Adventure Time: Islands was released, a mini-series branching out from Adventure Time which revealed many aspects of Finn’s backstory. This series is also coming to an end, yet another cartoon that I love. How depressing...

I’ve been playing a few interesting games too, working my way through the newest iteration of Doom again, which is as satisfying as ever…

Broforce is a fun 2D cooperative experience that sees players embody various American film heroes, from Rambo to Mad Max, in order to destroy entire levels with massive guns. It’s fun and nothing to think too hard about.

Another is Octodad: Dadliest Catch, a game that involves you embodying an octopus who’s posing as a human with a wife and two kids. The control system is basically fucked, making it incredibly hard for you to manoeuvre through levels, which is what makes the experience enjoyable, even more so when two or more people operate separate parts of the octopus’ body. It's light hearted with a surprisingly humorous story going on behind it.

I think that’s it? Tomorrow I’m installing for the 419 show, alongside a lecture and then prepping the A217 space for the exhibition later in the week. Tuesday will involve more curating of A217, as well as 2 more artist talk events and the private view for the Sacred 419 that eve. Wednesday will hopefully be dedicated to my own work generation, whilst Thursday will involve lots of rushing around for the private view, then Friday I’m assuming more of my own work as well as isthisit? exhibition things. Seize Projects is curating a minimal show on the site this week, which should be good, straying away from the usual format of packing everything in. So yeah, a busy week ahead, ish…