Oh no,
it’s been 3 months! Such a long time… I’ve been severely slacking with this,
I’m not sure whether it’s the lack of a studio or being too caught up in my own
life and having to go to work at multiple jobs for money. I do have free days, I
just don’t spend them writing all day anymore. I probably should… Either way, a
lot has happened, I’ve seen a lot of shows and I’ve been in a few too. I have a
pile of press releases to get through, such a huge pile, so the ‘reviewing’
will be mostly archiving, alongside talking about the shows I’ve been in and
will be in, new work and general life movements.
So,
reading back through the last blog post, I was just leading up to the
exhibition I curated at Annka Kultys Gallery, has it been that long? The show
went well, people who came really enjoyed it and the pictures look really
crisp, of course. The whole experience was great, but it cost me a lot shipping
the works back and forth. As always, I continue to learn and evolve from these
things. I think from now on, if I’m asked to curate an exhibition, it would be
helpful to write up a contract of sorts, having an agreement with the gallery
or space, saying what I as the curator will do, and what the gallery will do
for me, speaking about money and general bits and pieces. Also, just to have
less people in my curated shows. Obviously more people = more people interested
in coming, but my shows are always just way too busy with works. They work
well, or hopefully they do, but the last couple have felt so crammed, plus
shipping works is too expensive and always ends with me spending more money
than I have. Either way, here’s some photographs: https://www.isthisitisthisit.com/terms-and-conditions-may-apply
The show
launched issue 5, which was successful. People liked the book, the design, the
essays, and most of them sold. I still have like ten left, so whenever they
sell it’s like just extra money in my pocket, which is super nice, alongside
being able to give them out to people I work with, as a nice gift. It’s not a
lot, but it’s something. If you’re reading this and still haven’t read it, head
here to buy it in print or just to read through the PDF: https://www.isthisitisthisit.com/issue-05
I’m
currently working on issue 6 now, which will come out sometime next year. I’ve
been a bit slow since this last project, which is okay, and I do want to take
some more time to think about issue 6. I feel like the last couple, especially
the most recent issue, have been a bit rushed and not my best work. I want to
be more involved, and for them to be something I’m super proud of. Plus I don’t
have a space to exhibit in yet, which I need before properly thinking of
anything. So right now I’m collecting artists, get the artists, get the space.
I think that’s how it works. Issue 6 focuses on the news, alternative facts and
everything else current. More info here if you want to apply, open call
continues until the end of November: https://www.isthisitisthisit.com/issue-06
Plus, I
updated the isthisit? logo. It was long overdue, as I designed the first one
very off handily, I called the platform isthisit?, I think that demonstrates
how little I was thinking about the whole thing. So yeah, new logo, new issue,
a hopefully revitalised platform:
What else?
The piece I showed for the exhibition came out incredibly well, titled Abandoned Bag, and is now being shown a
lot, currently at an exhibition in New York, which is very cool, and then it’ll
be in a show in London next year, and hopefully in a few other shows too. Perhaps
it will even sell at one point! Here’s the little text that goes alongside: Unattended Bag takes the form of a custom
made handbag featuring slogans from a recent Facebook advertising campaign
launched in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, whereby it was
revealed that illegal data harvesting on the platform had occurred on a
world-wide scale during the 2015/2016 United States presidential election
campaign and the 2016 Brexit vote. The unattended bag, referencing the
continued threat represented by unattended luggage in public and private
spaces, contains a number of shredded newspapers accompanied by a 3D print of
Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg’s head. The attached USB contains all of
Bicknell-Knight’s Facebook data since joining the social media platform over 10
years ago.
I’ve
continued to work on green covered sculptures, calling them Disguised Office Infrastructures, due to
them being various office equipment, imagining them fitting in with the
aesthetics of a corporate office attempting to ‘go green’, but in a faux,
artificial way, with plastic flowers and artificial grass. I see these as
small, supplementary works, pieces that are part of a larger exhibition or
project, rather than works within themselves. Some of these were shown as part
of the exhibition Inside Intel at
Goldsmiths, as part of this big conference organised by the Centre for
Investigative Journalism. I was exhibiting alongside some really great people,
artists whose work I truly love, like Simon Denny, Yuri Pattison, Joey Holder,
Iain Ball, Eva and Franco Mattes, etc. So it was cool, plus I got paid, so what
else can you ask for? Here’s some pictures of the works and the show: https://tcij.org/inside-intel
I’ve also
recently begun using bolts and old tech, accompanied by the green, unsure of
where this will go, but for now I’m building these oddities, mushing them
together and seeing where things go. Here’s an example:
I continue
to make the fake paintings, putting them out there every so often. I’m very
close to paying someone to make one for me. I kind of want to do one at least,
to actually see whether it can be done and that it turns out well. Anyway,
we’ll see I guess. I’m slowly refining what the content of these works are,
going through a series influenced by a new video piece containing a bunch of
news media, as well as taking further footage from the site that creates
speculative animations for future products. I guess what I’m saying is, I’m
still working out what to actually paint, as it’s more money than I can throw
at a project right now, to simply have one made and it not to go anywhere. If I
could actually paint I’d paint a bunch, I keep saying maybe I should try
actually painting, with a projector and paints, or drawing with a lightbox,
tracing images. What would be the point? Here’s some of the works: https://www.bobbicknell-knight.com/paintings
Recently I
finalised a new video piece, or kind of finalised it. I’m still ironing out the
details and thinking about whether or not I should continue working on it. It’s
about 25 minutes in total, which is super long I know, featuring footage taken
from a news channel on YouTube that converts news stories into animations. I
went through the entirety of their catalogue, downloading the snippets that
looked at new media technologies and automation. I’ve then put them together,
with a fairly lucid soundtrack and fade ins, taking away the speech, and the
context from the individual snippets. At the moment it’s fairly abstract,
although there is a discernible code within the work, objects and people are
assigned colours, you see different logos and ideas pop up, from drone warfare
to surveillance states, but there’s no overt ‘this is what this is about’ type
position. I’ve been thinking about adding a person speaking, speaking a script
that brings all of this together, making this more obvious, but I’ll get to
that. Here’s a little text I wrote for something else, but may have some
mileage in this, it needs adding to of course to be viable for a 25 minute
film, but it’s a good starting point:
A plane soars overhead, you lift your head,
watching the chemtrails dissipate against the dusty red sky. It’s only
condensation, apparently, or that’s what Wikipedia says. Either way, who
worries about chemtrails anymore? If they wanted to infect the city they’d have
done it already, and wouldn’t have thrown around the kind of coin that fuels
jets to do it. Much cheaper to develop an app, hiring a small team of web
developers would be far more effective. Better yet, why not set up a
Kickstarter or start a GoFundMe, market it as something they need, something
they can’t live without. Then who else can they blame but themselves?
You zoom in, switch to infrared and close
your eyes, logging into the apparatus of digital pathways and virtual
connections that enables you to navigate past the wall. An artificial blockade,
developed by them to keep you out, away from the heat of the fire and fast
flowing data streams.
Later, lying in the dust of your family home,
black and white swatches infiltrate your eyelids, sulking in the midnight air,
waiting for a pair of unregistered eyeballs to hover over them, activating the
ad, earning revenue and a meagre amount of FiatCoin.
This is
the beginning text for a curated project, but could work for this, a sort of
speculative fiction, present but future, commenting on capitalism, automation
and current trends without being too overt. Here’s the video too, at the moment
you kind of allow it to wash over you in a way, or that’s how you’re supposed
to experience it anyway: https://vimeo.com/295207131
I’m still
thinking of how to install it, definitely within the aluminium structure that I
still have a bunch of and have been using, but in what way? Here’s a vague
digital sketch, but to build these things I need an opportunity, otherwise,
again, it’s just throwing money at a project I have no idea will actually ever
be shown. I’d like to use aluminium prints, slotted into the pieces,
potentially with snippets of the different bits from the video, or perhaps
different news sites associated with fake news? That could be fun… Kind of like
a log or timeline of different websites popping up pre/post election, fuelling
the fake news movement? Perhaps I could get that printed on vinyl, so you sit
on the sites to watch the vid? Hmm… Either way, here’s the model I previously
made:
Curatorially
I’m moving forwards with issue 6, but I recently finished a curated project for
Daata Editions, a platform I’ve really admired for some years now. The curated
project is fairly basic, bringing artists onto the platform, in order to sell
the work, in the form of an online exhibition of sorts. It was fun, although
the first time I’ve properly worked with contracts between artists. Obviously
I’ve done consignment and loan agreements before, but this was a little more
than that. Anyway, it’s been a fun process, collecting all these artists with a
large ish platform behind me. I’ve called the show Flow My Tears. It should be coming out in the next month or so,
potentially at NADA in Miami, but that’s to be confirmed. The first part of the
press release is the little fictional text above, with this being the next
part, talking about some of the artworks and being a little more proper with
the writing:
Flow My Tears is an exhibition of new and
previous works by several national and international artists, including Shamus
Clisset, Stine Deja, Bex Ilsley, Jillian Mayer, Jonathan Monaghan, Rustan
Söderling and Thomas Yeomans. The videos and moving images are predominantly
digital in nature, created using animation software and 3D scanning techniques,
concerning ideas surrounding the cyborg body, conspiracy theories, ideological
differences and enhanced memory mechanisms. The exhibition takes its name from
the 1974 novel by Philip K Dick, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Set within
a dystopian police state where a totalitarian government has complete
authority, controlling its population through vapid entertainment, material
reward, and 24/7 surveillance, the book is a parable about loneliness and
dissatisfaction within our hyper-consumerist world.
Shamus Clisset’s new animation I Wish I Could
Talk to Ponies confronts the artists relationship to New York City and the
ongoing effect that the destruction of the world trade center in 2001 has had
around the world. In the years since, the very real and impactful events of
9-11 have been remixed and diluted through throw-away meme culture and
conspiracy websites, abstracted beyond recognition and away from any meaningful
reaction. Within the work, two birthday candles atop a birthday cake burn
ferociously, while balloons endlessly scroll in the background.
Within Stine Deja’s new video series, Hard
core, soft body, you’re introduced to reimagined human forms, flesh and
technology combined into hybrid beings, grotesquely beautiful visions of future
prosthetics, edging ever closer to the technological singularity. The
constructions make familiar sounds and subtle movements, housed in a literal
‘grey area’, referencing lab like environments and in-between spaces.
Bex Ilsley’s series of short moving image
works, Telepresences, depict the artist embodying various emotive characters
and personas. The title refers to the use of virtual reality technology,
whereby the user has the ability to control objects and participate in distant
events, transporting themselves into different bodies and altering their characteristics,
digitally escaping into the net.
In Jillian Mayer’s series of video works, DAY
OFF, we watch as an unnamed protagonist engages in a fully immersive virtual
reality video game. He is completely disconnected from the world of the viewer,
oblivious to the environment as well as the viewer's physical presence and gaze,
trapped in the virtual world.
Jonathan Monaghan’s Earthly Delight combines
religious iconography with modern forms of neoliberal consumerism. Within the
work, a computer animated golden serpent wraps itself around an organic grocery
bag, slowly squeezing until a rosy red apple rises from the bag. The apple
splits in half, revealing a futuristic weapon beyond comprehension, firing at
the snake and protecting the produce.
Eternal September is Rustan Söderling’s
18-minute digital odyssey, delving into the origins of the internet and the
physicality of virtual networks. As the viewer you’re taken on a journey,
traversing through submerged office buildings and swampy waters, accompanied by
humming servers and YouTube tutorials. A short accompanying video, In The Zone,
circles a lone figure in an abandoned and overgrown industrial landscape, whose
face and head are adorned with various past and present objects, from cigarette
butts to iPhone cables.
The focus of Thomas Yeoman’s new video work,
Trooping the Battle Ensign, focuses on an animated version of the Transgender
Pride Flag, adorned with the slogan and rattle snake found on the Gadsden Flag,
an early revolutionary American flag that’s recently been co-opted by the Tea
Party. The flag waving is an emblem of government failure to protect rights or
provide basic assurances to disenfranchised people, throughout history and
during the current complicated political climate. The work imagines the
reconciliation of opposing groups and the co-option of enemy signs, slogans and
symbols, a strategy utilised by punk culture in the 1970s.
Here's a
little trailer I made for the project, with snippets of the different works and
a nice overlay. I like it, hopefully the artists do to: https://vimeo.com/298142472
I’m also
in the midst of making some more sculptural works, finally using these bolts
that I’ve been wanting to use for ages, commonly used when installing signs and
notices in various institutions and office buildings. They’re such a nice
material, which will kind of force materials together, attached to the wall,
for this new series of works. They’ll be a layer of printed aluminium dibond,
with a screengrab from the film mentioned above, then a lanyard with either
‘delegate’ or ‘volunteer’ that’s wrapped around the print, then an RFID
blocking plastic card attached to the aluminium, plus potentially another
aluminium print. The print speaks about the death of old media and news, with
new ways such as the animating of news being made to combat the lack of
interest in printed media, with the lanyards speaking about authority, the
texts being reminiscent of the kind of cliched nature of They Live quotes, or
akin to them. The RFID cards for me are symbolic of how technology continues to
develop, and with those developments people who want to interfere or take
advantage rise to the surface. So, the rise of emails meant that emailing scams
became prevalent, now with the prominence of contactless cards criminals use
card readers to electronically steal money from you by nudging up against you.
One step forwards, two steps back. Here’s a model of how it will look, I’ll
have two of these made within the next few days, once those prints arrive:
What else?
I recently got a hold of some blinds, which I thought might be cool for drawing
on or something. I then drew the Psi sign on one, it looked okay, but not too
great. I have two, so if this one is now ruined I have one more to actually do
something good with it. Something to do with privacy and change. I like the
work I did with the Psi symbol, and the idea of changing ideologies and
symbols, but will have to properly think of a way to use it well. If only they
made hand held printers that could print directly onto material. I’m sure they
do, maybe? Either way, that’s something to think about.
So yeah,
in my own practice that’s what’s happening, plus curatorially too. In terms of
shows, I have the current one in New York, Total Power Exchange. I was in a
terrible open call show at PS Mirabel in Manchester in June/August. That was
just crap, solidifying my disinterest in applying to random open calls, then
there was the Orbit UK Art Graduate Show in August. That was fine, but super
random and pretty dull, then Inside Intel, which was in October. The a
screening in October in Japan, which is fun but doesn’t really do anything
aside from something for my CV. Upcoming I’m in a group show this month,
curated by Jake Major, a friend of mine who still studies at Chelsea. His first
curated show. I’m exhibiting an updated version of Colleen and Joshua, made
about two years ago at this point. It’s a fun work that I think kind of holds
up. That’s being shown in the aluminium structure, with the MDF seat that has
printed emojis on top.
Also this
month, I think I’m in a quick show at Saatchi Gallery, which I think I’m in. Also potentially at another show at a smaller
gallery, yet to fully know but we’ll see…
Then I
have this Utopia exhibition in Slovakia which will be cool, called Utopus CSR +, Time for new utopia (?),
that’s from December to March, showing a video and the hammer and sickle SIM
cards. Then nothing until January, a curated show at Sluice in Hackney, showing
the bag, then a show at Platform Southwark that same month. Then in February
the group show GROUND ZERO EARTH curated by Yasmine Rix, a curator friend. That
may have some money behind it, so potentially I’ll be able to make the paintings.
Then a
couple of online things, in March I’ll be doing a thing for Cosmos Carl,
basically a website that’s only links to other websites/artworks. I’d like to
host something on the deep web, a work or project or something. I’ve admired
them for some time. Then an interview I did about a month ago should be going
up on the Conversation Project some time soon, plus interviews with Drool and
Stimuli, although I haven’t heard back from them in a while, so we shall see I
guess.
I think
that’s everything to do with me, so, lots of group shows with previous works,
but nothing super new, no solo shows or seriously fleshed out curated projects
just yet. Hopefully this will happen at some point soon, hopefully! I just need
a nice space. At over 3000 words in, let’s begin writing about exhibitions.
Most of these will be long gone I’m sure, but as this blog is more for me as a
reference and reflective process, who cares? If you want to see/read critique
of mine, follow isthisit? on Instagram, where I document every show I go to and
write a little, or big, critique of it: https://www.instagram.com/is_this_it_is_this_it/
Starting
with Metahaven at the ICA, really nicely made videos, very long, but very full
of content and super considered. I didn’t understand most of it, but the carpet
was nice and I felt involved within it.
SURVEY at
Jerwood Space, some nice works, Frank Wasser alternative newspaper was super
nice, definitely want to email him about being in issue 6, plus nice work from
Hazel Brill, Milly Peck and Chris Alton. Everything else was okay, kind of
dislike Lindsey Mendick’s ceramic works, then always dislike work by Joe
Fletcher Orr, a known misogynist/abuser.
The
Metallurgical Ouroboros at Gossamer Fog was super nice, lots of great work,
Rustan Soderling was in it, who of course I love and have worked with before.
Yeah, consistently is key with these things, and Gossamer Fog has a
continuously great program.
Inside
Intel, the group show I was in at Goldsmiths, was really great, albeit forced
in a lot, the same work could have been shown in a space triple the size. Still
though, great art, great people, great everything. Don’t hate the space, hate
the game.
HTTPS://
curated by IKO at Sluice was nice, a show focused around artists internet
presence. It was nice, but felt slightly diluted. You could
charge your phone and connect to the WiFi, with all the works purpose being to
make you want to go to the artists’ websites. I like the premise.
Godai
Sahara at GAO Gallery was nice, hand made soap (that you could take away) plus
tea plants. What’s not to like? Plus, I work there, so am bias to an extent
aha!
Jacqueline
Humphries at Modern Art was actually quite good, paintings with basically code
on them, made from screen printing and other techniques. There were some weird
3D printed bits attached to some of the works, but the ones that weren’t
actually looked quite nice. They’re huge works, a lot bigger than any normal
wall, so that’s kind of impressive I guess within itself?
Yunchul
Kim at the Korean Cultural Centre was just very cool. Like, the works were
super science and just very impressive as objects. As works of art, I was less
interested, but they had a sense of wonder, similar to that of a kid going to
the science museum and having their hair stand on end from putting their
fingers on an electric ball. It’s that kind of excitement.
Artificially
Intelligent at the V&A was good, lots of AI based works, and favourites
from Fabio Lattanzi Antinori, although it was basically in a corridor, so felt
super not part of the main activities of the V&A. They must have so much
money, why can’t they get one person to invigilate?
Florian
Roithmayr at Tenderpixel was okay, lots of plaster based works, making me think
back to my plaster days on foundation, which you can see if you go far enough
back on this blog. It did make me want to work in plaster again, just because
of the ease, the ease of mould making and the smoothness of plaster. I should
return to that, perhaps?
Tamsin
Snow at Block 336 was super crisp, a very well made, slick animation of an
office building of some sort, where you sat down on a lush carpet to watch. It
was super crisp and just very elegant. There was text that came up throughout,
kind of distracting from the beautiful nature of the animation, but it
contextualised the work. Although, surely the press release does that for you?
Borbala
Szanto at Matt’s Gallery was also crisp and nice, sculptures utilising universal
objects, like plane belts, and wooden objects resembling certain objects and
things. It was very ‘nice’.
INGEST /
digest / excrete at [SPACE] was fine, not so memorable.
Sofiane
Ababri at [SPACE] was interesting but I didn’t stay long enough at the opening
to fully indulge in the work. Layered full of things that I’m not involved
with; homosexuality and African American people.
CHOP
LEISURE at IMT was good, very crisp work from Kara Chin, some lovely ceramic
fish. It was fun but not amazing, would recommend, it’s a lovely gallery.
Anni
Albers at Tate Modern was dull.
APT + ONE,
a group show at APT Gallery, was perhaps the most salon hang show I’ve been to
that wasn’t a salon hang. It was super weird and crammed and really unpleasant.
Michele
Abeles at Sadie Coles was fine, nice photographs in big, well made frames. Some
of them had cameras attached, which I was kind of bored by. Like, why use
cameras, it feels like you’re just throwing around your money, or your material
budget anyway.
Cumulative
Effect: Disability and the welfare state was very good, work about disabilities
made by disabled people. Well put together, some good work and it seemed all
very positive. Curated by Shape Arts.
Morag Keil
at Project Native Informant was truly fantastic, a show of multiple doors,
sesame street esque with lots of AI voices and motion activated videos. I can’t
do it justice by speaking about it in this deluge of shows, so please do look
it up for yourself. It ended a little while ago, but well worth visiting.
Charlotte
Johannesson at Hollybush Gardens was fine, not that interesting, but tech
based, so usually that’s enough for me.
Ben Jamie
at Castor wasn’t totally my thing, abstract painting, but the press release was
super nice and very well written, making me appreciate the work. That’s what
the press release should do!
Erica
Scourti’s show at Almanac was very good, actually intelligent work about AI,
not over indulgent work about AI. I am a big fan of her work.
Maggie Lee
at Arcadia Missa was surprisingly nice, subtle works about going to the club
and music and nicenuss.
Naomi
Fitzsimmons at Sao Roque was fun, focused on a new video about the proverbial
Emily, a name that basically sums up every female office worker in the city. It
was a fun, serious, well made piece. No press release, but the content was
pretty obvious and easy to read into.
Miriam
Naeh at Castor Projects was nice, well made sculptures peering and coming out
of an assortment of plinths. I liked it, although didn’t really fill the gallery
as much as I’d have liked them too.
Living
with Buildings at Wellcome Collection was fine, very museum esque but nice to
see work by Ilona Sagar again. She makes very nice work that I am a super fan
of.
Tim
Etchells at Vitrine was fine, neon text based work. Not so interesting.
Doris
Salcredo at White Cube was bleak, names engraved in the floor, with water
rising up and falling back in small puddles. The names were of refugees who
have drowned in the ocean. Intense, and can’t really do anything more, just
fully bleak really.
Chris
Burden at Gagosian was extortionate, a meteorite holding up a Porsche. Super
wanky.
Rachel
Maclean at the Zabludowicz was fine, I should have loved it but in reality it
just pushed the point even more that her work is pretty basic and super
simplified. I love it, but it’s just so easy, not the way in which it’s made,
but the bones and meat of the content. Yeah, not so impressed.
Cindy
Sherman at Sprüth Magers was fun, nice to see new work from her. Multiple
images of her, embodying classic characters, or duplicates of classic
characters. It felt very disconcerting and odd, which the majority of her work
is.
Moshekwa
Langa at Blain Southern was dull, big paintings.
Downstairs
though, works by Natalie Dray were super nice and crisp, evocative and
impressive. Casts of branches and leaves that I was super into.
Evan
Ifekoya at Gasworks was impressive, just because it was a literal installed
wave that ran throughout the entire gallery. Very cool, very impressive.
Banu
Cennetoglu at Chisenhale Gallery just felt like data for data’s sake, with no
real insight into anything. Basically just presenting all video/image files
from like 15 years of their life. Super dull and unthought out.
Mika
Rottenberg at CCA was fantastic and well worth a visit, such a nice building
and an amazing show.
Martine
Syms at Sadie Coles was fine, I should have liked it but I wasn’t so into it.
Philippe
Parreno at Pilar Corrias was another show where I was like, I want to like
this, but it feels so cheap and about AI but not an interesting AI, an AI
that’s just based on random ideas and not like deeply involved in something.
Yoshua
Okon at Chalton Gallery was greatly bleak, really clever work looking at
globalisation and immigration. Very good, and uncomfortable.
The
Democratic Dish at Chelsea Space was so dull.
Taro Izumi
at White Rainbow felt super random and just full of installation crap.
Rodney
Graham’s lightboxes at Lisson Gallery were obviously super incredible and very
clever, pretty much whole stories could be read into through this tableau of
amazing content. Very clever and very impressive, I wonder how much they are
worth?
Common
Third at Copperfield was good, busy but lots of good work, and a really
impressive wad of curator content about each of the works, which I do really
respect.
Maude
Maris at Pi Artworks was full of paintings of Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures.
Really nice, impressive paintings, but not interesting.
Vanessa
Billy at Assembly Point was crispy work about sci-fi futures. It was very
‘cool’ and current. With some super lovely well made glass and bronze objects,
that I would love to have. So yeah, really nice, very stereotypical sci-fi, but
really well done, so who cares?
Dan Rees
at Assembly Point was a lot less interesting, small abstract paintings, with
the press release basically speaking about how radical abstract painting is
because it’s not seen as interesting by institutions. Really weird and uber
wanky. Maybe I missed something?
Gabriel
Hartley Landscapes at Seventeen Gallery was boring, huge abstract paintings.
Whereas
the group show accompanying the exhibition was really great, due to it being
Frieze week they had a group show with all their represented artists, or at
least most of them, which included Jon Rafman. I was finally able to see his
2016 video Open Heart Warrior, it was
good, using a lot of footage from video games, lots of references to life and
moving forwards. I’m still super into his work.
Antoine
Catala at Marlborough Contemporary was amazing, just, amazing. Vibrating and
moving silicone objects, paintings that morphed and sucked into each other. It
was super impressive and just really amazing work. I’m so glad I caught it on
the last day.
Strange
Days at 180 the strand was good, lots of video work, lots of nice work from my
favourites like Oliver Laric and Ed Atkins. Just very content with spending an
hour and a bit in there, of course there was some works that I wasn’t so into,
but who has the time or effort to write about that here?
All I Know
Is What's On The Internet at Photographers Gallery was satisfying. Slightly
dated? Yes. Full of my favourite artists? Yes. Am I complaining? No.
Jessica
Vaughn at Emalin was great, really clever critics of capital, filming workers
hands and other, similar content. Very good. I like Emalin a lot.
Flora at
Corvi-Mora was fine, nice ceramics, but fine.
Janice
Kerbel at Greengrassi downstairs was also dull, plus the prints were stuck on
the walls with a staple gun that just looked so ugly. You can kind of see it in
the pics.
From the
Inside Out at the drawing room was fine, I only really went for Marie Jacotey,
who I love.
Physarum
Borax at Platform Southwark was fine, nicely curated and everything was placed
well, with artists I like, but the actual conceit for the show; slime, is
something I’m not so into. I know there’s more to it than that, but…
Transnationalisms
at Furtherfield Gallery was fine, some good work, but yet again, as always is
with this gallery, the concept always sounds better than the actual exhibition.
Good conceit but not so interestingly executed.
Stuart
Middleton at Carlos Ishikawa was pretty tame to be honest, I was expecting more
from him, as I love his work. The drawings and wall mural were nice, and would
look nice on my wall, but as artworks? Not so much.
Alan
Michael at Cell Project Space was fine, lots of paintings of the same,
anonymous couple, walking through the big city. It was pretty tame, a little
too tame for my taste. Really well done paintings, but aside from that?
Dan Graham
at Lisson Gallery was a little too involved in conceptual art for me. A little
too much.
BOUND at
Peer Gallery was fine, an all male group show. Not so interested.
Judy
Millar at Fold was fine, a wanky press release talking about comic book art as
inspiration. Where can I see that in this work?
Taus
Makhacheva at Narrative Projects was clever, very ‘this is artwork about
artwork’ type thing, which definitely has a place.
Josefine
Reisch at Zabludowicz was fine, nicely made paintings from far away, but up
close not so interesting.
Debora
Delmar at Soft Opening was good, lots of typical office worker equipment and
assemblage work, from coffee table chairs stacked up to shirt trousers
stretched over canvas. It was good.
Tony Delap
at Edel Assanti was fine, very nice looking object like paintings. Not my thing
but nice. I would have them on my wall, but not in a show. It’s odd that that
isn’t the same thing.
School of
the Damned’s Class of 2018 exhibition at Sluice, Visions and Signs, was not good.
Badly curated and a little like a jumble sale of artworks. Not so interesting.
Lawrence
Abu Hamden at Chisenhale Gallery was fine, but felt very wanky. It’s too much
to go into here, as my fingers are slowly getting tired of typing.
Kathleen
Ryan at Josh Lilley was nice, lots of fruit based beautiful sculptures made
with pins. Nice.
In The
Company Of at TJ Boulting felt so overwhelmingly busy and not good, especially
at the PV, which was mental.
Olga
Fedorova at Annka Kultys Gallery was good.
And so was
Jillian Mayer at Annka Kultys Gallery.
I also
went to the MA exhibition at Chelsea, which was pretty consistently bad.
Ndidi
Emefiele at Rosenfeld Porcini was dull.
Keith
Farquhar at Cabinet Gallery was complicated and impressive, but also overdone
and cliched, especially when using Amazon boxes as material. That feels very
overdone at the moment.
Jesse
Darling’s ART NOW at Tate Britain was nice, very solid works about disability
and motherhood, I’m a – sort of – fan.
Gran Fury
at Auto Italia was complicated and historical, as always.
Arc
curated by Kristian Day at Herrick Gallery was nice, featuring some friends of
mine, so bias.
Andea
Galvani at Ryder Projects was weird, neon based performative works that I
wasn’t so into.
Thomas
Yeomans and Candida Powell-Williams at Exposed Arts Projects was really good,
new crispy lightboxes accompanied with digital symbols accompanied by very
physical objects that looked incredibly heavy.
Shane
Bradford at Union Gallery was dull, speaking about cults and things, but
actually it wasn’t so interesting.
KNOCK
KNOCK at South London Gallery felt over done and super cramped. The new space
feels like tiny rooms with invigilators watching over you at all times.
I also
went to Sunday Art Fair, which just felt very sad and dull. Not like Frieze,
unfortunately I didn’t get to go to Frieze this year, I was working too much
that week and couldn’t get any time to go, which was sad.
Jordan
Wolfson at the 360 reality room at the Zabludowicz was just bleak. I don’t know
why I wanted to see someone bashing in another guys head again. Pretty
scarring.
Rosie
Grace Ward at Camberwell Space was nice. Consistent, MDF based works that were
nice, but perhaps a little too consistent for my liking. I’ve liked her work in
the past, and will probably continue to do so.
Deptford X
a while back was good, MA Goldsmiths had a bunch of things going on. I think my
favourite work being made from the MA there at the moment is from Perce Jerrom,
it’s very crispy work about Anonymous and masculinity. I really want to see a
solo show from him soon, as it will be very good.
Laura
Yuile’s solo show during the festival was fantastic, many household appliances
that had been pebble dashed, common in new builds made for the rich. I’m a big
fan of her work. A while back I went on a studio visit with her and she was
saying how she used to take the pebbles from near where her studio was, on an
island in London, surrounded by new builds and dizzyingly high skyscrapers.
Oh and I
also went to the Turner Prize, which I disliked a lot more than I liked. It’s
basically four video works, or video based practices anyway. As you walk in you
are introduced to a lobby like area, with sofas and all the books associated
with the selected artists strewn on this stupidly large square table. I wanted
to like Forensic Architecture the most, as I loved their presentation at the
ICA, even if it slowly became a little too much the more you saw. Anyway, the
work at the Turner Prize was basically an expanded version of one of their
previous works. A piece that obviously investigated conflict and death. For one
reason or another I didn’t find this piece particularly interesting, which
obviously makes you as a viewer feel terrible about yourself when viewing
literal conflict. But then that’s what FA have done with this conflict, turned
it into art. And some art is better than other art, so the utilisation of
conflict and death, turned into art, makes it into art to be critiqued. So
yeah, I like their work, but this piece wasn’t so interesting, and that made me
feel bad, making me rethink the entirety of their practice.
Then there
was Naeem Mohaiemen, whose work I do like. I was particularly into the
fictional piece of work, that took an abandoned Athens airport as it’s setting,
following around a middle aged man, apparently living in the airport for many
years. It was incredibly well filmed, but ultimately I didn’t want to sit and
watch for the entirety. It was so slow and plodding along.
Luke
Willis Thompson continues to make work that doesn’t really concern him,
utilising other people and ideas to make work about, which isn’t so
interesting, plus there’s a lot of controversy surrounding what he does.
And
finally there’s Charlotte Prodger’s piece, which was an overly long film shot
on an iPhone, that felt very self-indulgent and tired. Filming the landscapes
in Scotland, their bedroom. It was tedious and tiring. Some moments were subtly
beautiful, but it was rare and I don’t particularly go for art that’s just
about beauty.
The final
show I’ll write about is the White Pube curated exhibition at Outpost in
Norwich. It was a members show, where members submit via open call, then the
curator selects work. I’m pretty sure there’s no open call details, so you just
submit whatever work you as an artist deem to be good. So, the show felt
incredibly bland, sanitised and just generally not that great work. The press
release is all about them, with nothing about the work, just about how they
selected the pieces, losing their phone and not being able to actually go to
the show due to prior commitments. There was a showreel, which I always hate at
exhibitions, like, what if you want to see one particular piece, then you have
to watch through the whole thing? Plus no time slots, and no work details, just
name and title. There was also a piece on its own video screen, so it felt like
a weird hierarchy, between the works on the showreel and the video on its own
screen. Yeah, just a not so satisfying show, that just felt super bland. Maybe
it’s the work, maybe it’s the curation, who knows. All I know is that I drove
for nearly an hour to see the show, and it really wasn’t worth it.
So, that’s
all the exhibitions. A little over 90 in total throughout the past three
months. Nearly one per day I think? It’s a lot, and has been a lot to write,
hopefully it won’t happen again next time. Anyway, let’s move onto films and TV
shows, beginning with Deadpool 2,
which I wasn’t so into.
Extinction was an okay, I think
Netflix film? It was fun, obvious but had some nice twists and turns.
Insatiable was kind of fun, a TV show
about a young woman who goes from being overweight to underweight. It was fun
but forgettable.
Skyscraper with Dwayne Johnson was of
course incredible and stupid, terrible but great.
Killing Eve was a fantastic TV show
about killers and the police, very good. Incredibly tight and impressive.
Disenchantment, the
animation made by Matt Groening, was super dull and not so good.
Ocean’s Eight was fine.
Westworld season 2 was amazing,
obviously.
Handmaid’s Tale season 2
was also great, but super bleak and that ending was so annoying.
Who is America? was an
amazing TV show, exposing how mental America is.
Ferdinand was a nice animation, very
PG but lovely.
To All the Boys I've Loved Before was a
very fun, loving TV show about young love and niceness. I liked it.
BlacKkKlansman was
amazing, obviously. As with all Spike Lee films it was incredibly obvious, but
I loved it. I watched it in the cinema and people were deadly silent at the
end, then clapped. It was thrilling and great, but deeply distressing.
Paradise PD was fine, not great.
Another
loving, PG Netflix film, Sierra Burgess
Is a Loser. It was very nice.
Next Gen was very enjoyable.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout was obviously
amazing, although Tom Cruise will always be terrible.
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, the TV
show, was actually very good. I was into it.
The Domestics was very
fun, apocalypse style excitement.
Leave No Trace was
amazing, very good, very distressing.
Both
seasons of Atypical were super great,
making you think about autism differently.
Everything Sucks! was crap,
so much so that I stopped watching a few episodes in. Too PG!
Sicario 2: Soldado was a fun
action thriller, but no way as good as the first film. It felt a little too
cliched and tired.
American Animals was
great, super tense and a lovely mix of real and dramatized.
Ant-Man and the Wasp was fine,
fun but forgettable.
Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation was fine,
not fantastic but fine for an hour and a half. Sometimes animation can be
amazing, other times it can just be super basic.
Eighth Grade was
solid, young teen drama about being in school on social media. Young people are
just fucked up these days it seems.
Craig of the Creek is an
amazing TV show, focusing on a group of friends who hang out at this creek,
where a whole society and various communities have built their lives. It’s a great
example of excellent worldbuilding in films and TV.
Sorry to Bother You was a
little crazy, I was kind of into it but it got super weird half way through. I
enjoyed parts but overall, it took it to 11 in an odd, B movie esque way.
Maniac was a fantastic TV show, I really
enjoyed it, multiple realities and a fantastic plotline. I would highly recommend
it.
22 July was just so bleak and
terrible, but an incredibly well filmed experience that needs to be seen.
Hilda was amazing, I fully loved this animation.
I would, again, fully recommend it. It was just so lovely and great, focusing
on a young girl growing up between the countryside and the city, full of
monsters and oddities.
Apple & Onion was
another fantastic animated series, really funny and one of the characters is
voiced by Richard Ayoade, who we all love.
The Mindy Project is very
light and fun, I’m into it, but it’s not overly exciting.
And
finally, I’m in the midst of watching season 6 of House of Cards, apparently the last season. Obviously it’s now
focused on Robin Wright after Kevin Spacey being fired, who is of course amazing
as the new president. It’s what’s needed, and is very good, although this
season feels less like actual politics and more like fun politics. In previous
series it’s been too complicated to follow, this season it feels like a fun
mystery experience, layered plots but easier to follow. Less involved in
politics and more into other scenarios. Still great, but different.
So, I think that is it pretty much. I've been painfully tired and feel like I'm busy, but am I that busy that I can't continue with this blog? I hope not, as I like this blog. I don't want it to be a thing I did whilst going through education and stopped as soon as it ended. I like writing this, reflecting and thinking, rather than only having an Instagram account to show what I'm up to. Anyway, until the next time, hopefully on a more bi weekly basis from now on, but, who knows anymore? Maybe it'll be another three months? I hope not.
