Lydia Ourahmane, Patten, a solo show, new work and more

Two week have gone by and a lot has happened, I handed in my dissertation, made new work, my solo show within the group show at Annka Kultys Gallery came and went, I got a job and I’m working on a few new projects too. Oh and I also had some time to watch a series and consume a film or two. How very exciting.

Let’s begin with new work, specifically the print I was working on two weeks ago, but printed out and layered in between two A4 slabs of acrylic and placed on top of some PC castor wheels. I named it Children Are Our Future, considering how the world is continually being fucked and we’re leaving nothing behind for the smiling young white girl in the piece. Or maybe it’s not so fucked?

I’ve also been continuing to create the fictitious studio space paintings. I’m beginning to enjoy this, creating a fictitious persona of a painter who has this beautiful space. I’m thinking of perhaps getting some of them printed and framed, and have opened up a new Instagram account solely for these false paintings about the future, automation, etc. For now I’ve called the artist Joe Chip, the protagonist in Philip K Dick’s Ubik. You can follow the process of creating this false persona by going to https://www.instagram.com/joechipstudio/

The Post 9/11 piece that I made for the Annka show is now up on my website, I’m super happy with how it’s turned out - https://www.bobbicknell-knight.com/post-911

The exhibition at Annka’s went incredibly well, I loved how everything in the space came together and it felt like a perfect amount of work to be in the space. An incredibly traditional feel to the show, but I don’t necessarily think that’s such a bad thing. 11 individual works, 12 in total. You can take a look at the photographs by going to my website here, they’re very good photographs - https://www.bobbicknell-knight.com/cacotopia-02

Ah and I also re-made the Guided Representation piece for the show, originally stored in an acrylic candy bin, I decided to make a small box out of MDF, going with the general aesthetic of the show being MDF. I think it looks a lot better.

In terms of more interesting new work, I’m currently building a video installation, bringing together the 3m long cable tray from last year, new prints on MDF made into a series of benches and of course a new video. The video is a continuation of my dissertation write up, taking snippets from the 6000 word discussion and diluting it down, keeping only the AIs voice as part of the piece, with the video being sometime after the discussion occurs, many years after, once humanity is long gone and only AIs remain. It takes snippets from the text and builds upon it, with the AI reflecting on our discussion. It involves a bunch of found footage accompanied by a slowly pulsating orb like object, representing the bot talking. I’m still working on the video, but I’m excited to see where it’ll go, here’s a taster:

For the install I’m building 4 benches and one TV bench, putting together a layer of MDF, the print on paper, and a layer of acrylic, screwed together to hopefully look incredibly elegant and crispy. These benches will then be attached to the cable tray, connecting them all together like a network, by physically connecting the benches to the tray, having the headphone cables running down it and by having the prints all ending with a connection to a networked world of sorts at the top. Here’s a little work-in-progress model:

The prints are all fairly similar, taking images from films, TV, videogames and the internet, blending various utopias, copyrighted content, stock images, etc to create a hyperconnected image of the now/near future. They’re all linked by having different patent drawings from (mostly) Google emblazoned on the front, already corporatizing the future market before the average consumer has had the chance to purchase, as all companies do anyway. Two of the five are drone patents, another a robotic dog, an autonomous car and a drone warehouse. At the top of each print, the part that connects to the cable tray, there is an image of a connected sphere, each one different, usually affiliated in some way with Bitcoin. All of this connectedness is hopefully communicating how AIs are hyperconnected beings, with the singularity seeing them all connected and as one. Then making parallels between that and Bitcoin, a peer to peer currency that relies on the users rather than banks to sell the currency.

Alongside this, real/fake bitcoins will be embedded ‘flush’ into the acrylic, so each bench will have a bitcoin or two, alongside one of them including a fake Donald Trump coin that I also bough, which includes Trump’s face. I thought that would probably be quite appropriate.

I think that’s it for new work from me, slowly figuring out what I can and can’t do. I’d quite like to make a new USB for this piece, but maybe not 3D printed as that’s fairly expensive, maybe carving something out of wood, etc, I dunno, something appropriate to AI. Perhaps it could be made from clay and painted? Yeah, let’s try that out this week. An incredibly human response to a piece about AI.

The open call for issue 4 has now closed and am currently aiming for a late March, early April, release date. I may have a venue sorted for it, although I’ll know more after a meeting this week. I’m still in the process of emailing artists and haven’t even started shifting through the open calls, but right now I have around 16 artists/writers and collaborators involved, a lot less than the previous issue, but I think I want this one to be a lot tighter, a lot more space dedicated to each artist and to actually properly explain the works. In previous issues it’s been a lot about throwing everyone I can find into the mix, now I want to be more considered. Anyway, I’ll release the artist list in the next few weeks, once I actually look through everything and email everyone back.

What else? More residents, more guest curated online shows, all that and more. I’m also in the process of planning a curated show at Annka Kultys, with an actual shipping budget and everything, but that will be in the summer and there’s a lot more to do with that in the coming months. For now I’m excited and have pitched a very vague exhibition idea considering the inherent violence incorporated within the corporation and AI systems. More on that when I know more.

This leads me onto another great thing that happened, Annka was saying how she was looking for a new intern and offered me the position, which I obviously was delighted to accept as it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, and Annka’s space is one of my favourites. I haven’t officially had my first day yet, that will be on Tuesday helping to install the last exhibition of the 5 week group show, so I don’t know officially what I’ll be doing. From what’s been said though I’ll be involved in a bit of everything, talking to artists, installing shows, invigilating, emailing press and uploading images to various websites. So yeah, everything that I’ve kind of done before, but now within a space that allows me to learn and work with other people. Unfortunately it’s unpaid, but that’s what I expected and am actually okay with, simply because I am of course still learning, plus I’m still a student and can afford to provide unpaid labour. So yeah, that’s exciting.

What else? I think that may potentially be it… Let’s take a look at the exhibitions I’ve been to over the past few weeks, beginning with Bloomberg New Contemporaries at Block 336. The yearly show of young artists willing to pay £20 to submit their work to have a slim chance of being a part of a large group exhibition in two different spaces across the UK. Bearing this in mind, I did submit this year, of course. But yes, I felt that the majority of the exhibition was fairly bland, with a few minor standouts and a couple of things that I hated with a passion.

One of the standouts for me was an obtuse film by Sarah Cockings & Harriet Fleuriot, focusing on a female character coming into contact with various objects and manipulating them in various ways, from being encased within a balloon to crawling through a tunnel opened up from a tiny nozzle. It was fun and a bit of light relief from the dullness. Also, after Googling Sarah Cockings, turns out she either has the same name as someone who won the lottery 10 years ago, or she is the person who won the lottery ten years ago. How odd.

Other nice work was by Felix Treadwell, Devlin Shea and Amanda Moström. Paintings and a lovely looking swing made from bronze.

I hated work by Rufus Roma Genn and Jake Elwes, Genn’s piece being an untitled concrete block which was so boring and terrible and Elwe’s having created a code that found the tweets from near the gallery and tweeted them live. Again, boring and not so interesting. Tech is not interesting alone, you must do something with the tech to make that transition.

I then went to Gasworks who had a solo show by Rachal Bradley, basically working from the idea of everything changing post 9/11. The space consisted of resin dripped onto the floor, an oversized washing machine and a negative ion generator, supposedly a thing that’s good for you? Anyway, I enjoyed the premise and having to take off my shoes, a little wanky though, although perhaps that’s a good thing?

Next up was Castor Projects with a solo show by Jonathan Trayte consisting of arcade machine esque sculptures, whereby you placed 20p coins strewn around the gallery space into the slots, making the different sculptures dance and produce ghost-like sounds. I liked the idea of this experience but it just felt incredibly ugly to me, the sculptures were really not my thing at all, alongside the space being dimly lit. If it had been a white cube I think they would have worked for me, allowing the work to breath rather than simulating the ‘grotty’ environment of an arcade…

I also went to Res, which was okay, not that exciting or enticing, lots of old work about mysticism, etc. The show was called Alembic I: Mystic Body, the first in a series.

After that I went to A.P.T Gallery for the first time as the exhibition, Expanding Systems, sounded interesting, exploring current and historic developments in generative art made by analogue and digital artists. It felt to me like an old person had curated the show, not because the work was bad, it just felt slightly ‘off’, the premise more interesting than the outcome, akin to when I first went to a show at Furtherfield and it was full of work that sounded really great, but in actually, it was new themes being worked on in an old light. It was good and nice to go there, but not necessarily delivering on its promise. I dunno, I wanted more, more of what I cannot say. Actually, looking at the press release, the fact that next to each of the artist names there’s a small Instagram logo (the old version pre 2016s change) and the artist’s Instagram name, that sums up how the show felt. Dated and not crispy.

Next up was IMT Gallery with an incredible array of tiny paintings by Paola Ciarska showing in small details the various spaces she’s resided in over the past few years. Truly, I wasn’t that interested in the concept of documenting places you’ve stayed, as that idea sounds incredibly cliched and tired, but the fact that those stories are on tiny pieces of board, that’s what I’m into. Yeah, into it, but not THAT into it.

I also went to the Hugo Servanin’s show at Annka’s last week. It was fun, these melting bodies of plaster, full of water, leaking onto steel trays. Not totally my thing, although looking at his other works where he’s dressed these fictitious bodies in clothing and photographed them like a fashion shoot, that’s a nice idea. In general though, unbrushed steel for me is an ugly aesthetic and dominates anything it goes with, which in this case was kind of unneeded I think.

Chisenhale Gallery has an incredible solo exhibition on show by Lydia Ourahmane, a very young artist (born in 1992!), whereby she’s slightly increased the height of the gallery floor, installing speakers underneath that reverberate across your back as you lie down to ‘feel’ the minute long song. On the wall is a tiny tooth, a scan of her mouth, a short page long text and a glass shelf containing passports. I won’t spoil it by saying how these items are connected, you just need to go and see for yourself.

My favourite show from the past few weeks was at Tenderpixel who opened a solo show by Patten. It’s a duo, mostly known for their DJing, who have branched out into ‘art’ producing a series of films, elaborate, roaring soundtracks and mini sculptures. The films are made up of clips from various sci-fi films, attempting to re-think the genre, taking it from a common dystopic view to a more utopian one, wanting to make it to the future rather than worrying about it. Alongside the show is a publication with various texts and images from a number of artists, all being asked the same question to respond to ‘how do we make it to 3049?’. It’s a lovely concept considering the current climate and I just loved the show, really impressive and I’m thoroughly excited for the next show there, a solo from Pakui Hardware, who I love.

Next up was a solo show from Thomas van Linge at J Hammond Projects, some beautifully made sculptures made from suitcases that you’d transport music decks in alongside a huge TV showing a video focusing on animated dinosaurs discussing the future tense. It was good, no press release though, why not?

I also went to Arebyte’s new space on London City Island for the first time for the group show ‘on my island none of this would be true’. I liked the concept, escaping the city, imagining this utopian island space where all these works would be able to function. Yet again though, I felt the show didn’t quite deliver on its promise, there was no ‘radical’ aspect here, it was still the same group show, there were sculptures on the floor and pictures on the walls. I dunno, like, if I travel an hour solely to go to one space, I want something from that experience, be that a free beer or a rewarding show, and I felt I didn’t fully receive either of those. But who knows, maybe it was because it was a busy PV and I couldn’t properly ‘see’ the work, alongside the space being placed in an incredibly wealthy part of London, which went against a lot of the themes mentioned in the press release. I’ll probably go back and check it out again.

I think that may be it for galleries. As I’ll be working on Tuesdays and Saturdays from now on I’m going to have to make more of an effort to go to spaces on Sundays and during the week. Anyway, let’s move onto films, beginning with The Square. A film that focuses on a head curator for a fairly prestigious contemporary gallery in Sweden. It’s a hilarious film, mocking the art world in an incredibly knowing way, focusing on ideas like the importance of social media, corrupting power, journalists, simple installations and performance art. It was just so good, so cutting and so tense. It’s a must watch if you’re at all connected to the ‘art world’. If not, it’s great anyway and you get a little look in to the mental-nuss.

Murder on the Orient Express was fun but ultimately not that memorable, some interesting characters and a fun PG experience. You know the story but it’s fun nonetheless.

I enjoyed Molly’s Game, an incredibly dissected look at the world of poker, and a fairly predictable rise and fall.

Wonder was a beautiful film concerning a young boy with a facial deformity, going to school for the first time, being bullied and overcoming his fears. I thoroughly loved it, even if it was quite predictable, and I am and (hopefully) always will be a fan of Owen Wilson.

The 5^th Wave was incredibly predictable and not so interesting. A sci-fi with a very obvious series of twists.

Altered Carbon however, a fantastic new series from Netflix, set in the future where you can basically be immortal, transplanting your mind into different bodies, was great and I consumed the entire season in a day. I would highly recommend, so much occurs, a lot of well thought out characters with back story, developed roles and some solid fight scenes. Yeah, go watch it.

I also watched Downsizing, a film with a fantastic concept from a previously great director, which didn’t really deliver. It begins great, with the idea of reducing people’s size so they produce less waste being introduced, but then it kind of goes downhill, especially when a Vietnamese character is introduced to the plot with incredibly broken English, kind of a caricature of what you’d think a Vietnamese person would sound like. In the film she’s a political activist who is smuggled to America ten years before the main character comes into contact with her. She still, however, has a broken accent, so to me it feels unneeded and the actress Hong Chau could have simply used her own voice when in the role. I don’t know, it just felt really off to me.

Lady Bird was an incredibly beautiful film concerning a girl’s last year or so of high school before going to college. It was incredibly lovely, focusing on the relationship between her and her mum and the importance of people who love you no matter what. Yeah, I loved it, and think everyone should, it made me think of my mum, the importance of, and everything in between. Yeah, go watch it.

I think that might be it, apart from saying High Maintenance is of course great, alongside the new Star Trek that keeps coming out and The Good Place.

So, I think that might be it for the past two weeks. This week I have a few things happening, de-install tomorrow, as well as submitting a proposal for a show at uni, then Tuesday working at the gallery installing the show, Wednesday I’ll be at uni, Thursday I have a meeting and uni, Friday more uni, Saturday working at Annka’s and Sunday I’ll be writing this blog again. This week I want to begin making the physical works for the piece, potentially finish the video, start working on the next issue of the magazine, establishing the general aesthetic, as well as fitting in some other things in my schedule. Fuck.