It’s been an
interesting 7 days, involving work generation alongside a trip to Leeds, which
was ultimately a very productive holiday crammed into a 48 hour experience. It’s
always nice to get away from London, even for a few days, allowing me to think
kind of clearly and reduce the amount of stress over wasted time.
Let’s start
with 30/30 again, especially as today was the last day of the project. It’s
been an interesting month, although for most days I kind of resorted to making
bad work, simply to get things over with, which is not at all what the 30/30
project is all about. It’s supposed to be a rejuvenator, rather than a process
that you just get over with to have your name as one of the artists who made it
through the whole month… I dunno, let’s see where I am in a year’s time.
Day 24 was a
video piece made up of found ‘mystical’ music alongside an appropriated water
animation with a rendered image of an alien beast rider of some sort. Yeah, not
a lot was happening for this piece.
Day 25,
super basic, a photograph of my earphone and an old piece of work that had
manifested as a mouse pad…
On day 26 I
literally submitted a URL link to someone else’s video, which was a full
Minecraft playthrough. If you know Minecraft, you’ll know it takes many hours
to effectively ‘complete’ the game, so the video is over 10 hours long. I don’t
know what I was thinking on Wednesday.
Ha, day 27
was a Snapchat that I sent in at around 4 o’clock in the morning, with the day’s
brief being ‘make a work that you’ll regret’, pretty poignant if you ask me. Very
basic day, yet again.
Day 28 was
the classic ‘what my friends think I do’ meme, appropriated to artists who
paint. I don’t doubt that that same piece of work was sent in by about 90% of
the individuals participating in the project.
Yesterday’s
work was a photograph that I took last year when I went to Manchester that’s
been sitting in my phone for a while, un-deleted and simply taking up space. It
was taken inside a cinema.
Unsurprisingly,
todays piece was kind of basic too, a digital drawing of some kind that was
created in an un-thinking way. Hmm, it’s been fun doing 30/30 again, but I
think I need to be more into it to get more out of it. I need more of something…
Anyway, on
with the week. I still haven’t made the blue sculpture, although the stickers depicting
my Facebook messages have arrived, which look great. I’m definitely going to
make the piece this week, as it’s slowly moving towards the end of term. Right
now I’m debating what to show for the end of year exhibition. Either this new
sculpture or an installation involving the video game/bot video…
Last week I made
this terrible painting thing, utilising spray paint and fake grass. This
evolved into an interest in the painstakingly created worlds utilised to
indulge in Warhammer, etc, which lead me to thinking about purchasing and showing
this created terrain. Eventually I discovered the ability to buy pre-painted
buildings. The one I’m currently looking at is a sci-fi type experience, which
encompasses all those ideas of utopian space mixed with an interest in how ‘future
buildings’ are portrayed in our current society. It needs more thinking, and to
actually do something with the model. I had some thoughts about carpeting a
space and placing these buildings around the room, but that is one of those
ideas that involves money and space… Anyway, the next week will be about that,
and how this links to the bot video, if it even does!
Originally I
wanted to team up with another student to curate a space for the end of term
show, but it’s slowly become evident that there’s not really enough time to do
this, so I’ve kind of just given up and will probably request a very simple
space, one that will simply include my work with no real excitement to it. It
feels like I did very little concentrating on my own work during the past week…
This is added in, now that I have a plan for the final show,, I
eventually decided to propose a kind-of solo show for myself, throwing in a
bunch of artwork from the past few months. Here’s some pictures:
So Monday
was centred on my own work creation alongside going to a lecture about something.
It’s unfortunately been erased from my mind for the moment. Tuesday involved
more of the same, apart from having a tutorial for my essay focused on Trolls,
Trump, LD50 gallery, etc. I got an A, my first A for a uni essay, which was
quite exciting, and solidified my idea to include it in the next issue of the
isthisit? magazine. Wednesday involved an all-day crit with Lucy Beech, who is
incredibly clever. I showed the bot video and received a bunch of good
feedback/references for that, mostly about having the text bubbles appear for
longer alongside maybe focusing the conversation more, having specific topics
so that I can control what the bot’s responses are going to be. I think I’m going
to re-make the work this week…
Wednesday night
I went to Leeds, specifically Serf, to install the ‘is this it?’ exhibition. It
was an incredibly interesting experience, going to an established artist
studios made up of recent graduates, talking with them and seeing their work
process. It seemed like a lovely environment and I love the idea of having a project
space, inviting artists and showcasing works from the people who have their
studios in the space. I arrived at around half 9 at night and proceeded to
install until around 1. It was a fairly easy install; the prints being secured
with bulldog clips and the other works being displayed on screws. The only
major difficulty was hanging the scroll, but even that was installed smoothly.
The next day was the PV, which went well. A few copies of the mag sold,
alongside the isthisit? t-shirt, the only merch I would have actually used
myself! Obviously it would have been great if everything sold, but that was
probably/definitely just a pipe dream. Maybe the prints should have been
cheaper? Anyway, install shots from there can be found here - www.isthisitisthisit.com/is-this-it
It was great
to go up to Leeds, seeing the type of environment that I’ll probably be working
in in a few years, who knows. Leeds does feel incredibly small though, with
only a few art galleries/art based experiences in the city… The following day I
had to de-install everything, which turned out was even easier than the
install. To wrap up, Serf seems to be an incredibly nice space for artists, definitely
the hub of an artistic community and one that I definitely want to visit again.
That might
be it for the actual work that I did this week, which feels like an incredibly small
amount... I keep needing to do more.
A few art
based things I found out this week. The first being that a video of mine might
be included in a video art festival in Italy called EnterCity. Weirdly, the
video is last weeks 30/30 video called Relaaaax.
I’m also
meeting on Wednesday with the curator behind a new project space in new cross
called Compiler, that’s underneath the café ‘out of the brew’. It’s run by a
group of post-graduate students currently studying at Goldsmiths. There’s the
potential to curate a show there, which would be cool, collaborating with
another space which demonstrates that I can work well with others, etc, all
contributing to my ever-growing CV. So hopefully something will come out of
that.
Also on
Wednesday I’m going to start installing for my solo show with Dollspace, the
brain child of Sid and Jim. It’s basically a doll house, serving as a unique
gallery space for tiny works of art. I’m planning on filling the environment
with fake water/sounds as a form of escapism, linked to the doll house
aesthetic. I’ll also be showing my previous VR work ‘A Mountain Walk’,
alongside another old video maybe? Expect fake rocks and fake grass.
The
interview with Jeff should be up soon over on the KO projects page. It was a
very long interview which brought up a lot of stuff to do with my own practice
and isthisit?’s, and actually made me think about things, which is always the
key to a great interview. I’m excited to see it’s progression.
I curated
this weeks show on isthisit?, bringing in a few exciting people for isthisit?’s
one year anniversary. How weird is that? One full year of doing this shit every
week. It’s pretty overwhelming to see how far the platform has come, and will
hopefully continue to be pushed forward. I introduced another addition to the
site this week, sound art to be featured on the home page, giving artists a
space to have their work heard by over 5000 visitors a month. I’m also going to
start putting artist interviews on there too, beginning with an interview that
Helena is going to do with Kate Cooper (who currently has a show up at Vitrine
gallery). I’ll then post all the interviews I did for the first issue of
isthisit?, and need to start doing more interviews with people for the next
issue…
Which
reminds me, I’ve been emailing a lot of very exciting artists to be a part of
the USB project, with varying results. Hopefully soon I’ll have confirmed a
couple of the more exciting ones so that I can release the artist list… I need
to email more for general inclusion though, as so many awesome artists
obviously don’t apply to basic open calls that won’t garner any monetary value.
I’ve stopped
reading at this point, because it’s one in the morning and I’m very sleepy, so excuse the spelling mistakes if there is any...
Okay, let’s
get on with the art I’ve seen this week. I went to a bunch on Saturday
alongside seeing a show in Leeds at the Henry Moore Institute. Let’s start with
that space, which was showcasing a solo show from Aleksandra Domanović. It
featured an array of beautifully composed floor based sculptures, investigating
technologies impact on communication and culture. These basically involved rectangular
boxes that had pristinely sculpted arms expanding out of their incredibly clean
bodies, on the front of these was usually a colour, with the backs revealing
the inner foam of the pieces, with sections cut out to make it seem like the
arms were transported within them. If this is the case, that’s fucking cool.
Another series of works involved stacks of paper, printed so that the sides of
the stacks showed various images. Yet again, incredible. In another room was a
huge version of the rectangular sculptures, with an beautiful rendition of a
bull straddling the top. A contrast to this was a film made up of found imagery
from the internet, with a voice over track talking about various Western pop cultural
icons having statues built for them in the former Yugoslavia. Such good work,
one of those times where you want to have made it because it’s so damn good.
Back to
London, beginning with a fairly poor exhibition at Campoli Presti featuring
work from Christian Bonnefoi, paintings that he’s been doing since 1978. What
the fuck?
Moving on,
Herald St with a mixed solo exhibition by Christina Mackie. Very creamy, very
clean sculptures, very aesthetic, popping colours. Alongside these was a 3D
film of the same nature, various objects falling across the screen. I don’t
know what the work was actually trying to say, other than the beautifully
crafted object overload/assemblage work?
Laura
Bartlett was kind of dull, showing some prints and a very short/bad by
Elizabeth McAlpine. The prints were basically blurry colours from 35mm film,
with the video being focused on various colours being interrupted with flickers
of dust. Super dull.
The Ryder,
usually a great exhibition, was okay. A solo by William Mackrell featured a
variety of broken objects, from light sources to a print that attempted to
un-expose the censoring of an image. It was okay, but not that visually
enticing, with the show focusing on vulnerability/decay, a light being on the
verge of dying out, the censored image, or a seemingly silent record player.
I had a
little problem with Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s work at Maureen Paley. In the
upstairs space, he’d literally appropriated videos from protestors on the
border between Syria and Israel. These phone recordings/videos were displayed
on high quality square flat screens televisions. It was good work, but
appropriation on a different level from the norm. Downstairs was an interesting
installation of overhead projector showing traces designed from a prison layout
with an enticing concept, but I wanted more from it.
Next up was
IMT Gallery with a really good show from David Burrows, combining two
references into one show, something about a frog and it’s brain combined with
the mac vs pc advert from 2006-2009. The curation was a little over the top,
although with all of these internet themed shows, everyone seems to be able to
get away with it by saying it’s about the overload of technology, etc. It
comprised of various videos full of bright colours, a few gifs and these nicely
crafted prints/sculptures/paintings. Just go and see for yourself, they’re
intelligently funny videos that are worth your time.
From there I
visited Auto Italia East, a project space I’ve never actually been to before.
The exhibition was okay, featuring work from the NTU collective that focused on
the Ubulawu, a sacred collection of plants used in traditional Southern African
spiritual practices. This involved wall based canvas prints, small white
sculptures atop mounds of dirt and a water installation with projections which
was very cool. I’m more excited that I know to go to this space now, rather
than the current show. I wanted more from it, feeling like it was a little too
surface, but not in a good way…
After that
was Cell Project Space with a group show called Perverts. I wasn’t totally into
it, with the curation being a little weird. One example being a projector being
on the floor, projecting onto a piece of glass that reflected onto the wall. I
don’t know how you make this kind of installation look ‘good’, but I don’t
think they had managed it, which is disappointing as I am in love with that
space and their programme. I don’t know, it’s late and I want to get this
written.
Another
disappointing show, Annka Kultys, with work from Anne Vieux. Pretty much exactly
the same aesthetic paintings done on the floor, on the wall, and imprinted onto
acrylic boxes. Just super dull and not what I expect when going to that space.
It’s like you’ve typed into Google ‘internet aesthetic’ and that’s what comes
up. Just boring and didn’t learn anything, fuck abstract aesthetics.
Space was
next, with a lovely show by Jonathan Baldock that invited visitors to get into
a beautifully crafted/made four poster bed, with spoken words flowing at you
once you lay down between the sheets. A lovely experience about boundaries and
the personal.
Side note
here, at this point in my day I’d usually wander over to Vilma Gold. Turns out,
they’re shutting down. What the fuck? Such a great space with a number of solid
artists… Work by Puppies Puppies below.
I then
travelled to Sadie Coles, because I just had to see the double Jordon Wolfson
exhibition. With a total of 4 works spread over the 2 gallery spaces, I was intrigued
as to what was on show. I wasn’t disappointed. The main space was showcasing a
short video piece, combining found internet footage with high quality
animations. In terms of aesthetics, the animations were great, but I felt it
was a little weird to begin the vid with basically screen recording of YouTube
videos, didn’t really fit the cleanness of the animation to follow. It was also
shown on like, 16 monitors attached together, which is pretty amazing. The
content focused on this shipwrecked character, presumably the artist, indulging
in himself (literally), drinking his own urine and being totally absorbed in
himself (similar to the YouTube videos being shown before). It was good,
creepy, great, but I wanting something more maybe?
The other
space was showing a few sculptures which were kind of nice alongside the VR
work Real Violence, a piece I’d been wanting to see for a while. Basically you
put them on and watch someone literally pummel another man’s skull on a New
York city street. It’s brutal, totally disorientating and is incredibly hard to
look away. Quite an interesting experience to add to the roster of VR work…
Definitely go and become distressed at the content.
Frith Street
was nearby with an incredibly dull exhibition by Cornelia Parker. It’s
basically videos that were taken on Halloween in New York, a few days before
the presidential election last year. Basically capturing the last party or
something. This literally manifests itself as slowed down blurry iPhone videos.
Come on, this is just boring and doesn’t really do anything for me in terms of
critique.
Pippy
Houldsworth was dull, paintings by Luke Diiorio.
Lisson came
next, with a brilliant exhibition by Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg, focusing
on epoxy resin figurines and a series of distressingly sexual Claymation animations.
If you want to see an animated moon kind of abusing a clay woman, this is the
place to go. If you don’t want to see that, still go, as it’s an incredible
show. I’ll let the picture speak for myself here.
The other
Lisson space had work by Anish Kapoor. Suppper dull and really uninteresting. Don’t
even bother.
The last
exhibition of the day was Showroom with a series of long form films by Alex
Martinis Roe installed within a metal installation that spanned the gallery
space. It was basically documentation/ideas spanning from
talks/seminars/retreats with various feminist communities and their political
ideas/practices. There’s an amazing hour long film, which I watched about half
an hour of, which slowly drained me academically. You just need to spend about
2 hour in this space to fully ‘get it’ I think, and I rarely give over that
kind of time, even to an amazing show.
That’s it
for art, now onto films/tv. Unsurprisingly no films were watched this week due
to a bunch of other stuff going on. In tv news, I watched the whole of 13 Reasons Why. Basically a young high
school student commits suicide, leaving a series of tapes, each dedicated to a
different person who pushed her over the edge. These were meant to be
circulated around the 13 people. In this way it glorifies suicide in a way,
being like ‘hey if you kill yourself, there’ll be a massive conspiracy surrounding
your death and everyone will care’. I think that’s in there, but doesn’t take
centre stage. It’s crushing in a way, because the main character literally
doesn’t talk to anyone about her problems, and if she had it would be
completely fine to let out her feelings. It’s okay, but felt very teenage drama,
I don’t know, maybe I’m being insensitive in doing this, or maybe the acting
was a little clichéd…
I also
watched Girlboss, which was an interesting
portrayal of women in the mid 2000s, attempting to create an online shop.
Regardless of the controversy surrounding the brand in 2017, I feel like it was
an okay story, but I never felt like she, ‘nasty gal’, wasn’t going to ‘make it’
in the industry. It felt so obvious that I began to get bored by the end,
loosing faith in the plot and the characters. I did, however, enjoy their
portrayal of internet chatrooms. That was funny.
Wow, okay, I
think that’s it. What’s going on this week? Another show to curate, a few
meetings to discuss future shows, maybe going to the LD50 gallery pv tomorrow,
a sculpture to make, a video to recreate and a few other notable things, like
setting up the solo in the dollhouse.
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