Copperfield Gallery, isthisit? issue 4, Arebyte Gallery and Eddie Peake

Another two weeks, another busy two weeks. I’ve continued to work on the video installation responding to my recent piece of extended writing with bots whilst working on issue 4 of the isthisit? magazine, getting more artists involved and working on the launch and exhibition event scheduled for the 22^nd March next month, which I’m yet to officially announce. Let’s begin.

So, new work, continuing to build the installation that I’ve been talking about for a little while now, involving benches, a video, a metal cable tray and connected headphones. I’ve successfully built all 5 of the benches and pretty much finalised the installation, with the cable tray resting on screws coming out of the benches and the TV connected with a ‘heavy duty’ metal table mount. The benches are made from layers of MDF, digital prints, acrylic and metal false bitcoins. They look like this:

Alongside the install I’ve continued to work on the video, which is pretty much done now. I just need to spend about 3 or 4 hours editing in the voice fades. I think I’m happy with how it’s progressed, not copying the essay but working off of it. As I mentioned before it takes pieces of the text and builds off of them, influenced by the conversation I had with the bot whilst taking inspiration from the fictionalised years since then. The imagery goes through various iterations, from video game content to different points of AI currently being developed alongside this female disembodied voice, digitalised due to the bot no longer striving to become human but being content with how they sound in a distinctly robotic way. I’m happy with it and hope it’s received well.

Within my own work I’ve mostly been concentrating on that, which is a slight shame. I should be doing more for my own practice, and think I will get back to that soon, making some more physical things and perhaps some digital stuff. After using predominantly found footage for the last two big video works maybe I should begin to work on something I’ve produced perhaps, alongside making some physical works that stand by themselves. Let’s see what happens next I guess.

I’ve always been continuing to make my false studio spaces, who knows where that’s going.

Other than my own work I’ve been mostly concentrating on the next issue of the isthisit? magazine, issue 4 to be exact, focusing mostly on AI and cryptocurrencies. It’s a lot more focused (I hope!) than the last issue, which was great but packed full of people and sort of lost focus I feel. This next issue will hopefully be more considered and tighter, with a shorter list of artists and some incredible writing from a bunch of people that I’m still in the process of collecting. Here’s the front cover, with some great work from Pakui Hardware:

Right now the issue is made up of the following artists: !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Aaron Vergult, Addie Wagenknecht, Anne De Boer, Ben Richards, Bob Bicknell-Knight, Bora Akinciturk, Constant Dullaart, Eleanor Hill, Elvira Højberg, Emma Stern, Eva & Franco Mattes, Harm van den Dorpel, Iain Ball, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Jamie Jenkinson, Jillian Mayer, Joachim Coucke, Joey Holder, Jonny Tanna, Joshua Citarella, Julia Faber, Mathew Zefeldt, Mathias Jansson, Mit Borrás, Nina Coulson, Olga Fedorova, Pakui Hardware, Sarah Derat & Rachel McRae, Stephan Backes, Thomas Grog, Thomas Grogan, Thomas Hämén, Trystan Williams, Wade Wallerstein, Émilie Brout & Maxime Marion. Although hopefully there will be a few more added to the list in the next few weeks before I have to send off for the issue to be printed!

I’m currently going for the simple approach with the design, a white background to not overcomplicate things and a black line with multiple arrows coming off of it that connects each of the pages. The more I work on the pages, the more I like this simple way of connecting all of the works, similar to an AI infecting everything it touches, having everything as one. That’s what I was going for anyway with the design, and hopefully it allows the works to flourish themselves. Also, less people means more space devoted to the different artists, which I think is incredibly important.

After a meeting last week I’m also incredibly excited about having the launch and accompanying exhibition at Arebyte’s new space on London City Island. They’re being incredibly lovely, both giving me the run of the fairly large space as well as giving me £500 to work with for the show, which will mostly be spent on buying 100 copies of the magazine, actually coming to a little over £600, but as (I think) I’m taking all of the money that’s gained from selling the issues, I should actually potentially make a tiny bit of money after factoring in however much the exhibition will cost me to organise among other things. So that’s something else I’ve been planning, which is obviously complicated and tough to organise when a lot of the artists in the issue are not UK based and I have pretty much no budget when shipping works. But anyway, that will happen. Right now artists I’ve signed on are Iain Ball, Jakob Steensen, Sarah Derat in collaboration with Rachel McRae, Dominic Dispirito, Bora Akinciturk and Anne De Boer. Incredibly male heavy right now, which does need to change. The current plan is to open up the floor of the space, as the floor is elevated slightly from the original floor by about a foot. This would expose the wiring, mimicking the wiring/lines exposed in the magazine as well as allowing the floor to be stacked, creating plinths for some of the works and enabling seating to watch some of the videos too. I’m still searching for more people to be involved in the physical show, but I just need to send more emails and pester more artists. The dream would be to have work from Lawrence Lek (who was in the last issue), as well as Pakui Hardware, Joshua Citarella, !Mediengruppe Bitnik and others, although right now that probably wouldn’t be functionable as shipping works is expensive. I’ll be combing through everyone involved in the next week or so though and have a final list very soon.

What else? That may potentially be it right now, I have to hand in everything for assessment on Wednesday this week, more uni stuff, so after that I’ll be free to continue working on the issue and creating new work. I guess now I should start focusing on making work for the ever important degree show? Anyway, let’s move onto exhibitions seen, only a few which is a continual shame. As I now work at Annka’s on weekends it slightly cuts into my usual gallery routine.

Let’s begin with Eddie Peake at the White Cube, creating an audio enticing experience, especially for the private view. The space felt a lot more like a club than a private view, with live DJs in a glass booth playing garage in the largest of the four galleries in Bermondsey. The space is full of coloured lighting, so as you walk in it feels like you’re walking into a club, with tinted lights and loud music, the only negative here being that you’re of course not allowed drinks in the gallery space. The actual content of the exhibition was okay, with the same spray paint artworks on show displayed throughout the space alongside a winding sterile metal doctor’s tray spanning the length of the gallery. This housed a number of sculptures made from goo and 3D printed plastic, which I did like, splitting up the space and allowing a dialogue to occur between the space, the sculptures and the live music. It’s definitely worth visiting, especially to see the White Cube having a vaguely enticing show that attempts at least to walk out of the white cube gallery.

I also visited Copperfield Gallery to see a big group show curated by Doug Bowen for Cactus Gallery. Now, on principle I highly dislike Cactus Gallery, simply because of the affiliations that Joe Fletcher Orr (the director of the gallery) has regarding sexual ‘deviancy’ for lack of a better word and not exhibiting female artists. That’s crap and, having spoken to female artists who’ve had ‘encounters’ with Joe, seems to be quite well known. But, as this show was curated by Doug Bowen and had nothing to do with Joe, I felt it okay to go. It also featured artists I’ve worked with in the past and artists I admire. Anyway, the show worked around the idea of mantels, and having artworks displayed on a series of custom built ones, a fairly basic conceit that allows for basically any small artwork to be featured. Taking into account the show featuring 27 artists (this is in one middle sized zoom with 3 mantels) it has definitely achieved this idea of cramming everyone and anyone into the show. I’m kind of okay with this though, as it works, the show looks aesthetically pleasing and not overtly packed, or super packed and like someone’s mantel. It’s a win-win situation. Some stand out works for me were from Liv Preston, Debora Delmar, Ashley Holmes and Luke Overin. It’s a nice list and you should go if you like looking at well-made objects with no real connection other than being all kind of the same size.

Next up was Beers Gallery and their group exhibition Contemporary Visions 8, a continuation of them finding the ‘best’ artworks and current trends out there, assuming that you’re okay with paying an entrance fee for the curators to take a look at your work. So, this included work from Jiyoung Yoo (someone I’ve worked with in the past and actually exhibited the same work on show) and another interesting artist Oli Epp, who makes kind-of interesting paintings in a style evoking perspective and crafting an internal dialogue between a series of created ‘characters’. They’re fun but it’s an odd gallery.

I then went to Modern Art to see a solo show by David Altmejd, quite large wall based works made from (I assume) heavy blocks of resin. They look incredibly heavy and very expensive, mediating on the artists hand in the experience of art making, so lots of scratches and indents, simple and outwardly ‘clean’ indentations on these oddly messy but not messy artworks. I liked some of them, I enjoyed where they were heading with alternative narratives (I think) but some of them felt a little wanky, busts of women, etc.

From there I travelled to Seventeen Gallery which had an okay exhibition featuring three artists, Victoria Adam, Gabriele Beveridge, Richard Paul. So, Gabriele Beveridge I kind of like, blobby sculptural works mimicking consumerist products exhibited on shop fittings. I’m happy with this type of work. Victoria Adam’s plaster ironworks displayed on the floor however were ugly and uninspiring. I couldn’t tell what these were about and why they were on show. Richard Paul’s 3D film All that is solid was fine, but using 3D glasses still feels incredibly gimmicky to me, with this being no exception.

That may be it for art, a pitiful amount of shows, although perhaps I’ve lost a few press releases and have forgotten what I’ve been to. Either way, I feel like I’ve gotten a little lazy perhaps…

Let’s move onto films and TV, that could potentially be good, beginning with the incredible Phantom Thread. The film is quite beautiful, incredibly tight filming and attention to detail with ludicrous scenarios and varying depth. The film involves a dress maker in 1950s London, an odd setting for Paul Thomas Anderson, although this simply shows how incredibly diverse a director he is. It centres on the dress maker and the relationship that he then has with a young woman he finds whilst on a short holiday break. Things get very weird and interesting, exposing the layers of the characters involved and showing their ‘true selves’ as the film continues. Definitely go watch it.

When We First Met was terrible, of course, a Netflix film that should never be watched by anyone.

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) was fun, definitely worth a look if you’re involved with the art world, mostly concerning an old artist having delusions of grandeur about his work and seeing his life slowly fall apart. It’s funny and sad, not as good as The Square though.

A Futile and Stupid Gesture was fine, concerning a dramatized biography of Doug Kenney, the writer of Animal House, a hilarious comedy that was shown to me by my father when I was fairly young. Kenney died young and hasn’t really been recognised for his talents, but that’s what happens when you die young I guess?

The final film was Good Time which basically involves a terribly planned bank robbery that just spirals into a pile of shit. Whilst watching it you’re deeply afraid and concerned of what will happen next, what will this crazy individual (played by Robert Pattison) do next to somehow help his mentally handicapped brother. It’s kind of fucked but a very well done film.

I think that might be it for films. I’ve gotten into watching Mind Field, the YouTube Red series by Vsauce, which is kind of fun concerning various science based ideas and tests on subjects. Yeah, it’s fun.

I’m currently looking for something new to watch, something to hoover up and instantly regret watching in a week. I’m sure I’ll find something… That’s my way of saying that this may be it for the past two weeks, it feels like it’s been slow won reflection, but at the time I’ve felt incredibly busy. Maybe I’m becoming lazy. Either way, the plan for the next week is to gather everyone together for the show next month, inviting all the artists, sending all the emails and announcing the full list so that people can start planning on coming to the show. I also need to announce the artist list for the magazine. Putting together and photographing my new piece is also a must alongside beginning new physical projects. Just keeping on going and working at Annka’s too!