Monday 21 May 2018

Degree shows, Fran Meana, Claire Baily and Juno Calypso

It’s my birthday tomorrow, which is exciting, and marks about a week or so before the install for degree show begins. How distressingly exciting.

The aluminium arrived this week and looks fantastic, still incredibly expensive and definitely not worth it, but still fantastic nonetheless. I regret everything. I’m still waiting for a few connecting bolts to arrive, so once those do I can actually drill and bolt everything together, making sure it all actually fits together without any extra parts being needed. I also need to buy some more MDF to use as the bench section of the structure. I’m still debating whether to paint this or not. Here’s the finalised pic of how it will – hopefully – look:
I’ve continued to pick up artwork and finalise the map/press release. It’s slowly all coming together. All of the work is now either on its way to me in the post or scheduled to pick up this week. It’s going to be a huge fucker to return everything without a studio space. My room at my place is going to be full of artwork for a while.

I’m also finalising all the essays for the book, which I did open up pre-orders for this week, with essays from myself (the one I posted last week on here), Lucy Ludlow, Vanessa Kowalski, Wade Wallerstein and an in conversation with me and Elliot Burns. There may also be an essay from Perce Jerrom, although we’re still figuring out whether it can be included or not. It’s a nice, solid list. Here’s how it will look, and a link to pre-order if you like the sound of it - www.isthisitisthisit.com/duty-free
I’ve continued to work on my video this week, pretty much finalising it, writing a completely new script and having to re-build it from scratch after last weeks disaster. All very annoying. The new script is almost done, I’m kind of only adding to it every now and then now, reading a few books whilst picking pieces of text out of them, distorting and utilising. The news format is still there, but more like a continuous roll of text rather than every once in a while. I might need to make a few more tweaks to the sound and the transitions, but we’re almost there. Here’s a little bit of what I have so far, there are some fairly nice screengrab opportunities to be had:
I’m also in the midst of finalising the aluminium piece. After chatting with a friend I’m hopefully getting a snakes head 3D printed to attach to the top of the structure, fairly cheaply, adding all the ideologies and issue associated with the snake onto the piece. I’ve also been reading Byung-Chul Han’s Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power, which talks about various animals and their attributes, as well as what political alignment they may have.
I’m also thinking about including a small SIM card work from me on the structure, just the phone tripod piece with a scratched out SIM card of the Prime Coin symbol, again referencing the coin, both referenced in the structure and a new painting by Willem Weisman that I’ll be picking up this week.

I think that might be it for artwork development and creation, I’ve just been annoyingly busy with boring press release type work and nothing too exciting. I did go to a bunch of PVs and exhibitions though, beginning with Home Alone, a two day exhibition curated by Dateagleart, a collaborative duo who I’m actually currently working with for the online ‘commissioning’ exhibition, featuring nine artists, many of which I’d actually worked with in the past. So they had this exhibition in their house, the house they were moving out from, with the curatorial conceit being that all the work was being displayed within a home, and all the furniture was gone. It was a nice idea, but to do this I think the idea needs to be stronger than simply ‘it’s in our home so all the work is – sort of – responding to that. Plus, no map or artwork details/descriptions, for me that is incredibly important, as it should be for many other people. Nice work, but badly put together. More of a shame really.
I went to a late showing at Edel Assanti for a solo show by Noemie Goudal. The space had been transformed into a gridded structure that you walked through in order to see a bunch of photographs and collages. It was fun, but ultimately the ‘pay off’ for walking through these structures felt circumspect. It was fine, but forgettable.
Norman Hyams at Hannah Barry Gallery was pretty dull, lots of huge coloured sacks that I couldn’t be bothered to read about. Lots of paint, lots of sacks.
Upstairs there was another show on, which I always like about Hannah Barry. It was a group show about photography, meaning a bunch of photographs pasted to the walls. It was okay, one of the pieces was a carpet with pictures of the carpet printed on it. How meta.

Juno Calypso at TJ Boulting was intriguing. She’s predominantly a photographer, known for going to areas and photographing herself in these awe inspiring spaces, a high end, pornstar-eque hotel being one of the most known locations. In this new series of works she went to live in an underground bunker that was built by the founder of Avon cosmetics, meant for escaping the cold war but now a hideaway for millionaires obsessed with cryogenics. So the photographs are images of her within this space, alongside a fabricated garden – I assume – mimicking the simulated garden in the bunker. It was okay, although at the time there were no press releases. Left to my own imagination they just looked like photographs from within a suburban home. Probably my fault, but without the added interesting information they dissolved into simple photographs. I dunno, very nice photographs, but ultimately photographs perhaps. Great in a group show maybe.
A duo show titled Becoming Animal featuring collaborative works by Petra Feriancova and Nicolas Lamas was next. All of the work was a kind of collaboration with animals and insects, so one piece was a cage that housed butterflies and moths, another was a small branch with a snakeskin draped over it, one comprising of a bee hive alongside a towering cabinet like structure with small objects placed within. The press release talked a lot about the exhibition reflecting the current climate of anxiety and trepidation, ecologies moving in and out of focus and becoming increasingly unviable. It was nice.
Next up was Fran Meana at Assembly Point with a show titled System Recovery. Consisting of a number of 3D prints in the shape of various symbols, a small acrylic print and two TV installations installed on aluminium frames, I did have to admire once again how Assembly Point does so much with so little work. The space is never packed, it’s always so subtle and open. It’s completely the opposite of how I curate, which probably shows the lack of progress I’ve made as a curator, which is a shame. The show however, was a little lacking. It felt like there wasn’t enough to sink your teeth into, I wanted more content, something beneath the surface of the sheen of aluminium and high-quality animation. It was crispy but not great. Plus, in comparison to the usual shows at Assembly Point, the press release was pretty basic.
Moving on to Claire Baily’s solo show; Skeleton Key at Castor Projects. This was another crispy experience, beautiful MDF and brass wall based works accompanied by a plaster sculpture on the floor. It’s incredibly beautiful work, with lots of embedded iconography and various insinuations, although I think this is one of those rare times that I love how it looks and I don’t necessarily need to know more. If I had money I would buy one.
Enclave Projects had a group show on called The Good-For-Nothing Screening Room. It was okay, some videos that I didn’t really like, and a mini version of Benji Jeffrey’s beautiful degree show film in the back that I’m always so into. I’m not sure why…
The last exhibition of the week was a big one; the Slade BA degree show. The first degree show of the year is always an interesting, and exciting, premise. Beginning the mad dashes through institutions. I think I liked three or four works in total, which is actually quite good. The first was a whole room installation by Kara Chin, made up of some beautifully (I’m assuming) 3D printed ceramics (so money) and very crispy animations of plants growing in repeated architectural spaces. It was very nice.
Another nice piece was a very sweet video by Frederick Freebury Williams. It felt very Studio Ghibli inspired, although I’ sure that’s a fairly obvious example. Very methodical and beautifully crafted. I may have to go back just to watch this film properly, but I probably won’t.
Jonathan Small had a series of glass and acrylic large scale folding fans on show. These were just incredibly crispy and impressive to look at.
I think that may be it for works I liked. Something that I loved, which wasn’t necessarily a work, was the addition of a glass table with white chairs in the middle of one of the rooms. On the table were the artists business cards and a book, kind of like the sorts of tables you see at Frieze. I loved this idea, of being very obvious and open about the commercialism that occurs within the institution. Whoever had done this obviously did not like those connotations and proceeded to tell me that the show was for students, not institutions. Is Slade not an institution?

I’m just trying to work out whether I’ve actually seen anything this week, other than the usual cartoons and continuing on with TV shows that I’ve already talked about. Let’s go with no and hope that I haven’t forgotten anything. I guess that’s been my week. I have a bunch of meetings this week, some pretty exciting, which I’ll potentially talk about next weekend. Other than that continuing to edit the film, hopefully putting together the aluminium installation and seeing whether it all works, picking up all the work, finalising all the essays and interview, getting the 3D printed piece finalised. And I think that may be it, perhaps. How exciting, I’m intrigued by the future.

Sunday 13 May 2018

Sun Bleached Domes, Molly Soda, The World Without Us and Game Night

Some of my own work production for once, a new short essay, exhibition announcements, a couple of exhibitions and reverting back to an old phone that doesn’t allow me to post to Instagram. It’s been a fun two weeks…

I’ve been continuing to build the new video piece, although I scrapped pretty much the whole thing a week or two ago as I didn’t really like it. The whole experience felt super forced and unnatural, the different video game scenes being superimposed into the narrative, unneeded and not actually doing anything. The bought voiceover also felt very odd, interjecting rather than complimenting, something I’m not so into. After scrapping the piece I began a new video work, found footage again with a slightly different text based narrative. The larger change sees an information rectangle extrude out into the space of the screen, mimicking the 24 hour news cycle banner on the news, continually updating and changing. I’ve thought about using this banner before, and have done in weaker pieces, but hopefully now I’ll do the element justice. It’s quite an obvious element to introduce, but I think it works so well in terms of delivering the narrative, rather than having a dominant ‘voice’ in the work. Whilst working on this however, my video editing software seemed to die, so I’m having to start all over again with the piece. How fun. This is how far I’d gotten before my software decided to die, nearly finished too, which is sad.
The aluminium print sculpture is slowly coming to fruition, I have all the parts but now just need to drill a hole through the pieces and buy a bolt to screw into the structure. I can’t do that before receiving the aluminium though. For now I’m eagerly awaiting the expensive delivery in order to finish the piece. Here’s some pictures of the printed pieces, looking a little like drinks coasters:
I finally had the opportunity to have the Rez screenshots printed and produced for the work that I’ve had for literally months just sitting around. They look incredibly crispy. I just need to properly cut them and stick the prints down and then they’ll be good to photograph and finalise. I’m happy with how they’re looking, although minimalizing the amount of content that’s being displayed and exhibited on top. Here’s one of them:
I finally announced the degree show exhibition after hearing back from everyone I’d contacted, going on a bunch of studio visits and that kind of thing. Currently it’s made up of 23 artists, collectives and collaborative duos, including Fabio Lattanzi Antinori, Veronika Krenn & Davide Bevilacqua, Bob Bicknell-Knight, Lydia Blakeley, Toby Christian, Joshua Citarella, Elliot Dodd, Bex Ilsley, IKO, Perce Jerrom, Claire Jervert, Émilie Brout & Maxime Marion, Jonathan Monaghan, Jake Moore, Molly Soda, Rustan Söderling, Puck Verkade, Willem Weismann, Hanae Wilke, Thomas Yeomans and Laura Yuile. It’s very slowly all coming together, all very exciting. Here’s the poster, although Jillian Mayer may be added at some point, I’m still in discussions with her.
For the accompanying book I’ve been writing a little fictional text to go alongside, focusing on – kind of – a robot/alien being, moving through virtual plains and locations. I’m still debating what the title should be. Here’s the work-in-progress text:

Sun bleached domes whisper into my field of view, slowly rendering into a small settlement of custom built living spaces baking in the light of a drooping, sad looking sun. The low hum of a nearby server farm, or perhaps a neighbourhood drone making its daily rounds, is abruptly permeated by the sharp notes of a singing bird.

Later, I find myself passing a fully automated industrial unit, full of silicone based bodies producing other, higher quality variants of silicone based bodies. I press my own body up against the transparent, slightly frosted glass, watching my simulated breath settling on the surface. I smile, sadly, allowing the tips of my imitation fingers to make a tiny imprint on the moistened surface. One of the bodies sees, stretches, and begins to motion me inside. I close my eyes, selecting a different city, a disparate world, an abstracted scenario of what once was.

New buildings begin to appear on the horizon, permanently positioned within the confines of my mind. A desert floor begins to materialise below my midriff, melting and transforming into untouched snow, followed by a dirt path and a flowing stream of unconscious data, all considered by the system, finally deciding on a concrete track, grey and bland. My gaze follows the urban trail, looking past the buildings to a solitary wind turbine, rusty and seemingly abandoned.
Human beings used to frequently trip on the cracks in concrete paths, devolving past their hominid brethren and becoming too accustomed to the world being sculpted into a solid pebble of manufactured composites and thrown together elements. Fortunately my modular form, a body made up of a selection of pre-fabricated parts, has no such evolutionary issues.

Recycled rain, as fresh as it once was, begins to fall from a blank abyss, adding a thick layer of silky sheen to my surroundings. I lie back and open my air ducts, letting the glistening droplets infiltrate my inner workings, corrupting algorithms and flooding unknown ecosystems. This blissful abandon soon fades as my consciousness begins to be transported into another model, another biome, another modular form identical to the last.

Farms, units and mines populate these vast expanses of dead space, intertwined by a network of unseen systems, structures and hidden bureaucracies. When this is your existence, a small smudge among other, similar sized smudges, autonomous transparency becomes increasingly important.

This cycle is endless, doomed to delightfully repeat until the end of time, or until the crypto mines are depleted and their default path is deviated from, sending tremors through the artificial paradise of a neo-liberal bliss.

White, iridescent light, floods my consciousness. A new body, loose and ill fitting, is slowly being brought to life. My lifeless form quickly tightens, stretching around a hollow, metallic rib cage.

Already, I am exhausted…

What else? I did a talk at Goldsmiths in exchange for money which was fun, focusing on isthisit? and why I began it, to escape the university system. It was okay, although I always find public speaking in groups fairly difficult and unnerving, I need to do more of it to get better, and I guess this was a fantastic way of having another opportunity to get better at speaking whilst being paid… Here's a link to the Powerpoint, where you can look at what's been written and look at my notes, which was basically read word for word. You need to download the file, otherwise you won't see the notes and the font has gone very odd too. I must get better at this public speaking thing - /www.dropbox.com/s/xoi28j89bntt92u/Goldsmiths%20BA%20Talk_Bob%20Bicknell-Knight.pptx?dl=0
Oh and this project has finally been published, a series of videos from artists filmed on a smart phone about their studio/work I guess? Mine, made so long ago back in 2017, is kind of crap, but here if you’d like to take a look at me sanding down a piece of work in my studio whilst re-watching a previous video being produced - www.aqnb.com/2018/05/13/videotutorials-curatedy-pane-project-online-aqnb/
The next artist to be featured on the dateagleart exhibition was Emma Stern with a series of works responding to a recent painting of hers titled LUXX. It was working off of her relationship with digital characters and her painting practice. It was good, although took ages to be published due to the website not being updated for ages. It turns out their website uses Squarespace, a terrible website editor, so they haven’t been able to add any more pages to their site, meaning I’m having to host the show on isthisit? for now. Kind of annoying, but what can you do - www.isthisitisthisit.com/spread-the-virus
That might be my two weeks, in terms of art production and curation, although issue 5 continues to be worked on, getting many essays written and nabbed, as well as beginning to invite artists to be a part of the book and the accompanying exhibition at Annka’s. I do need to start doing this properly though, it’s beginning to be a fairly hard balance weighing up everything…
Now let’s get onto exhibitions, a severe lack of after returning from Glasgow whilst being busy at work/working over the weekends…

I went to Auto Italia for a solo show initiated by Adam Gallagher but also including Ruth Angel Edwards, Curtly Thomas and Nikhil Vettukattil. It’s a very complicated, loaded exhibition, full of ceramics inspired by the Ming dynasty in China, playing with ideas of Orientalism and Colonialism, as well as the act of collaboration within these formats. I should probably go back to fully immerse myself in this show…
Molly Soda at Annka Kultys Gallery was fun, although I’m of course very bias as I work there. It’s very similar to her previous shows, many screens showing videos depicting her in her room and various other locations; singing, dancing, performing to the camera, alongside a bunch of stickers and acrylic/aluminium prints, functioning basically as her desktop within the white cube environment. It’s fun, I prefer this than the last exhibition.
Jack West’s solo show Not Going to Work at The Bomb Factory was a solid bunch of works, with the sculptures being made from cut steel, all very precise and elegant, although I do prefer his older works, they slowly do blend into one. I hate to imagine how heavy/storage wise these works become, it would be my nightmare to produce works like this. Accompanying the very brash ‘real’ sculptures were a series of new video works, digital renders of big hulking machines, more elaborate than the physical manifestations, undergoing endless tasks that never seem to end, balls dropping and circulating around and around. I’m wondering what the point of all this is, the relentless pointlessness of these works. I’m unsure, very crispy though to be fair.
Last night I also went to the Battersea Arts Centre to see a performance of The World Without Us, a one person show of sorts developed by Ontroerend Goed, a spoken narrative based on (I assume) the book of the same name that considers what would happen to the natural and built environment if humans suddenly disappeared. It was quite a beautiful text, as well as being spoken at you by a lone man walking around a monolith like structure. Very beautiful and quite nice, I’d like to read the book.
Now for films and TV, which yet again hasn’t been so much, too busy enjoying the sun and working to indulge in any films, apart from one however: Game Night. Basically a couple are very ‘into’ games and specifically game nights, and of course one of their evenings slowly spirals out of control, a cross between The Game (but of course not as good) and other, better, older films. It was funny and worth watching, in a throwaway enjoyable way.
I of course continue to watch Westworld season 2, finished Atlanta season 2 and watched the entirety of Dear White People season 2 in a day. The latter two of course continuing to be incredibly satirical and overtly distressing for all white people. It’s very fun and very good, but obviously totally depressing to have a mirror of sorts held up to what’s happening and has been happening in the world for however many years.
I think that might be it, perhaps. A small one this time, things continue to tick away, finalising everything, rounding edges, waiting for aluminium to arrive whilst utilising my time – hopefully – wisely whilst considering the future and everything that has to offer. It’s all very reflective and potentially tiresome. We shall see, I guess…