Photographing everything, progress, a screening perhaps and other things

This week, mostly taken up by installing the show with the new installation work and just carrying on. The draft copy of issue 3 arrived and looks great, over half the copies have gone and I’m in the process of making another sim card hammer and sickle, an editioned work if you will.

I’ve been documenting a lot this week, testing out my photography skills, taking pictures and naming work. The sim card hammer and sickle work is now called Solidarity for obvious reasons, but I think that’s a lot better than progress. I’m also in the process of making another because I think I’m going to be in a show in Solvakia that’s on until March, so if the piece were to be selected for the show at Annka Kultys I’d want one of the versions in the UK during that time. It’s a lot easier to make now that I have a small handsaw rather than slicing MDF board with a scalpel. Although maybe the loss of the labour intensive practice makes it not as worthwhile?

Anyway, documenting works. I took photographs of the plaster figure pieces attached to the wall. I kind of like them there, putting them on the wall made them feel like ‘art’ art, rather than having them slumped against the wall on the floor or something, but I like the consistency of having them there. They’re simply called Future Figures.

The next to be photographed was the tank work, hereby named Content Collapse, the reduction of worthwhile ‘content’ in the future to consume. It photographed vaguely well.

Full Automation was next, the digital print on canvas drone piece, which I then turned into a series of three, three different drones with the pain effect applied on photoshop. Autonomy in the age of the internet, the reduction of work, etc. In a perfect world I would have hired someone to paint the drone over the internet for me, but money. Maybe this can be a future thing.

Final bit of documenting was There are already 35 server farms on Mars. It is the perfect temperature, pics came out okay, a little yellow due to the wood taking over but overall I think it looks really great in pictures. I’m happy. On Tuesday people seemed to like it, although who knows at student shows. You can never tell.

I’d quite like to make a new piece before this year ends. I’m thinking of creating my own space or utopian future world, building drawings, sculptures, digital prints, etc, very Charles Avery or Viktor Timofeev, although I’d like to obviously put my own ‘spin’ on the process. I’m unsure where to begin with this, but we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks, obviously this would be ongoing. This is a quick digital drawing.

Another piece in the works is building on from finding a tambour cupboard about to be skipped. This is a cupboard, usually used in offices, that have sliding doors and are very office like. I had two ideas for this piece of furniture, making it into a space to sit in and watch a video, locked off from the world, very Jon Rafman like. The next idea was to make this an actual cupboard but an envisioning of a future company cupboard or something similar. Basically I’m still working it out, but I’ve been thinking about the creation of a fictitious corporation, with the box/cupboard being an office space for a future worker when the world becomes over crowded enough and the need for office space has reached an all time high. Continuing on in the same vein of the server farm work, I’ve been thinking more about communism’s relationship to capitalism, or just the general West’s view of capitalism, the hypocritical nature of the experience. This leads me to the symbol of this future company, a combination of the ‘almighty’ dollar and the hammer and sickle, although I’m still thinking about it.

That may be it for my own stuff this week, just keeping carrying on, writing and working on isthisit? stuff. The upcoming show for issue 3 at The Take Courage Gallery is moving forward, slowly collecting all the work and preparing for it. I need to start working on the press release, although I already have all the parts. I definitely feel like I’ve gone into sleep mode this week! But yeah, the book/magazine is done and looks great, feels incredibly thick and ‘proper’. I’m yet again regretting the amount of physical copies I ordered, as pre-orders are already half gone. Maybe next time it will be 100 copies? Although that is a fairly extortionate amount! This issue is big. Anyway, pre orders are still open here - www.isthisitisthisit.com/issue-03

I really wanted/still want to do something over Christmas in Suffolk, like last year with the show I held there, although better and more considered. Something to keep me active whilst not feeling a lot of pressure regarding a lot of people turning up. Like a screening, like I thought I was doing last year but it turned into an exhibition. Hmmm, maybe over the next week I’ll have a think and see, planning a video screening wouldn’t be too much work and I could simply invite friends and family, with the pictures living on forever… I’ll come back to this.

I’ve also been planning more for my curated show on isthisit? next month. The people I’ve been inviting, most of them, have not been getting back to me, which is saddening. I just need to keep pushing and inviting people I guess. I also need to write the proposal for Annka for the show in 2018, although who knows if that will happen or not. Only time will tell!

I’m going to say that’s it for actual work done, as right now it’s ten o’clock on a Sunday night and I need to write the rest of this thing. Let’s get onto galleries, beginning with Hannah Barry. An exhibition called The Unlimited Dream Company, an obvious reference to J.G Ballards novel of the same name. So basically that tells us it will be about utopia, with the main character encountering various figures throughout the book, although I won’t ruin it for anyone who hasn’t read previously. One of my favourite works was a piece by Rosie Grace Ward, previously seen at the Camberwell BA degree show this year, was various video game swords sticking into the sand with reeds. It’s great to see it in this setting, as it was so cramped for space at Camberwell. They don’t seem to give their students any room. I’d highly recommend going to see it as it’s a very good show.

Block 336 was next, Kevin Gaffney solo show. Full of videos that weren’t too long, but I definitely need to return to watch as I didn’t have time for videos at all yesterday. Sorry Block 336.

Beatriz Olabarrieta at The Sunday Painter’s new space was very nice, very liminal chopped and cut up objects. Just a very crispy space overall with a beautiful text to go alongside.

What else? Ronchini gallery, a space I haven’t been to for a while, too fancy, was kind of fun with a solo show from Sean Lynch. The most interesting piece was a melted car door, slightly melted on the sides, an ode to the office block in London that was melting cars a few years ago. Quite fun.

Pilar Corrias was okay, a show of paintings by Mary Ramsden. I didn’t really get anything from them, apart from they looked kind of nice. Even that was kind of a stretch. I don’t know, I just wasn’t feeling connected.

I’m going to take a little moment here to mourn Carrol Fletcher, one of my favourite spaces when I first moved to London but has now unfortunately died, with Carrol and Fletcher splitting up and moving forwards with different projects. How sad. That and the Zabludowicz Collection got me interested in ‘digital’ art, so it’s incredibly depressing to see it go. Read more about it here on artnet news - news.artnet.com/art-world/carroll-fletcher-part-ways-1073846

Anyway, next up was Josh Lilley with an incredible show by Alex Da Corte, involved him dressing as and ‘becoming’ Eminem, transforming the gallery space and putting on an incredible exhibition. Go see it.

Copperfield, my first time there, was great. A solo show from Larry Achiampong, a great artist making amazing work who frequently collaborated with David Blandy. The show involved one film within an empty catholic church where the artist discusses the problems of religion in a hyper connected world. Very good.

Kate Macgarry was okay but very packed full of kind of okay work. I dunno, sometimes it’s great sometimes it’s packed full of very samey work that looks like it's the same colour as everything else.

Emalin on the other hand was very good, turning the gallery space into an archaeological dig, all the works are untitled, which I didn’t understand until it was pointed out to me that you become the archaeologist, coming into this space with white shoes on and not knowing what it is you’re looking at. Basically incredibly well considered work which is great. Another must see.

Union Pacific was okay. It had one of those annoying press releases where it’s like, ‘I don’t really like writing press releases, etc’. Just write the press release, or don’t and leave it pretty much blank. Or give us, the audience, something. As if your art wasn’t hard to decipher in itself, you have to give us a wanky press release to work with? The result of this was annoyance and not liking the show.

Florence Peake at Studio Leigh’s new space was okay, lots of clay works, a video work of the assumed artist literally crawling out of a clay grave like surface. I dunno, it was fun but after seeing her work a few times now, I think I’m ultimately not very interested.

Oliver Payne’s solo show at Herald St was a weird one, very unexpected. In this case the press release was there, but completely blacked out by a huge black square covering the majority, only leaving the first and last line readable. Quite a fun idea, but did it pay off? Kind of, kind of. I’d recommend going, lots of meaning but thrown around, whatever that means.

The last show, one of my favourites from the day, was by Max Colson at Arebyte. Both of which I’ve worked with in the past so I may be biased. The show focused around a new video by Max using Sketchup, but in a great way rather than how it’s been used in recent years. Looking at the English countryside, Brexit and the idea of pride in our country. How the UK and specifically the countryside is proper and has various connotations that come with it. Very good work and really ‘spoke’ to me in a weird way having been brought up in the country where a lot of people are outwardly racist and not great, especially Brexit related experiences last year. Another must see show.

I think that’s pretty much all the work I saw this week, bar the show at Chelsea oh and a show at CSM. Both student shows and both not so good. Well, aren’t all student shows the same anyway?

I also realised after publishing last week that I didn’t write about the films/TV I watched. Let’s attempt to rectify that now. I watched Your Name and cried, an incredibly moving story, a very obvious one of love and people switching bodies, but I was just so caught up that I found myself crying, early on a Sunday morning in bed. Just very emotional.

Another amazing film I watched a while ago was of course Blade Runner 2049. I went by myself to the IMAX at the BFI and loved every minute of it, incredible soundtrack, visuals and a plot that felt a lot more true to the original book, do androids dream, than the original Blade Runner film did. In the book Decker is obsessed with the fake beings, wanting to buy fake animals for his apartment, etc. None of that is mentioned in the original film, but in this newer one the new blade runner incredibly played by Ryan Gosling has his own digital girlfriend, obsessed with the very thing he’s seen to be hunting. Just brilliant all round really, well fleshed out characters from both male and female roles, with the male roles being written badly, obsessed with themselves, which works with the plot, not against it. Just go and see it, I highly recommend it.

Marjorie Prime was another sci-fi looking at people slowly being replaced by autonomous bots as they slowly die. Incredible film and available online, go watch, starring mostly Jon Hamm.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was trash, but maybe good trash? Still trash though.

Logan Lucky was very good, double, triple crossing heist film.

Why did I watch The Babysitter? I don’t know why but it was terrible.

I also watched the entirety of Mindhunter, a Netflix series focusing on two FBI agents in the 70s who begin talking to serial killers in order to better educate themselves of the phycology of killers. Well worth your time, but when is season 2 coming out?

I definitely feel like that’s not it, but it looks like it is from checking IMDB. I continue to watch Mr Robot, this season is incredible.

Oh and the end of season 4 of Nathan for You was just amazing, an hour and a half episode which was incredibly meta and had me in tears. Another must watch.

Yeah, it’s now even later and I want to go to sleep, so let’s do that. In the next week I’m going to think about holding a screening in Suffolk when I get back, making some new work perhaps and picking up all the work for the show, which I’ll begin installing next week! How exciting! Oh and I want to find a little time to play a video game or two, right now it feels like I haven’t played in weeks which is always a shame…