So, another two months of this. We’re now in a sort of grey area it seems, in
the UK at least, where people are going back to work, and it’s assumed that you
will work if you can, even though cases continue to ebb and flow, and the idea
of ‘normality’ is continually being scrutinised and distorted. I’ve been
continuing to apply for opportunities, and was successful in my Arts Council
England application, which is fantastic, alongside continuing to work on
several projects. I recently bought a new computer, one that is so much more powerful than my old
one, so I’m really excited to get back into developing my video game project,
which I’ve been kind of tinkering with whenever I have the time. I was, of
course, unsuccessful with my Science Gallery application (which I originally
submitted the project for) so for the time being it’ll be something I slowly
work on whenever I have the time, rather than something I’m continually working
on during my day to day. Here’s a few screenshots from the project:
I continue to produce drone-based paintings, although I’m slowly but surely
branching out and away from the more violent drone attacks. I keep applying to
various things with the idea of tracking the drone industry, and how it’s
impacting on daily life, but continue to be unsuccessful, so I thought I may as
well start doing the ‘research’ part of the work, as well as making other types
of works. I quite like the below work, depicting drones being used in a light
display of sorts by Intel for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South
Korea. It was one of the first and most prominent point in history when drones
were used in this way. I think it works as a piece, although you may not be able
to tell if they’re drones or just an expensive fireworks display. I’d like to
do a few more of these, perhaps.
Two of my recent paintings in the Amazon series were printed and displayed on
the side of TRAFOHAUS (a semi derelict building beside a busy intersection),
from August – September in Kassel, Germany. I applied for the open call a while
back and I was really happy to be selected. Even though there was no monetary
value from being a part of the project, I really liked the idea of people
walking past this very public place and seeing my work. I’d love to do more
public facing projects like this. As I’ve said before, I’d love to do a public,
outdoor sculpture commission. I think that would be really fun, although I’m
sure slightly more painful than I actually think it would be.
I also made a few more Amazon paintings too, one of which I’m really happy
with, and see as a sort of study for a larger work. Pictures below.
I started doing some very basic drawings of Amazon patents on kraft paper (basically
recycled cardboard), which I actually thought were quite successful. I’d like
to do more of these, and maybe on a larger scale, although I haven’t had the time/energy
to properly flesh out the works. I made four for now.
What else? I’ve made a few more trophy hunter works, another for Elon and one for
Mackenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos’ former wife, who was awarded $38 billion dollars when
they got divorced in 2019. Last month she was named the world’s richest woman.
The two new works are below.
I continue to apply for various projects and opportunities with these works, one
prominent proposal was for a solo exhibition at INDUSTRA space in Brno, Czech
Republic, which will be curated by Offsite Project (Pita Arreola and Elliott
Burns). I just heard back a few days ago that the proposal was successful, which
is so exciting. It’s a beautiful space, with my proposal revolving around three
recent bodies of work, my Amazon works, Trophy Hunter paintings and AI robot
dogs. There are some images of my proposal below, where I made a 1:1 Google
Sketchup model of the space. I just hope there’s a good fee involved, as in my
proposal I included lots of new commissions, and there was no mention of how
much money would be allocated to each exhibition.
As part of that exhibition I proposed to create several new sculptures. The works
will be made using the aluminium extrusion system I continue to use. The built structures
would contain several Amazon cardboard boxes, containing several 3D printed PLA
objects that are commonly used within Amazon warehouses, such as a hand scanner
and a scaled down version of a robotic hand. Then embedded within the 3D printed
objects will be USB drives, containing interviews with Amazon workers which I
will be conducting for the accompanying video work which I spoke about in my
last blog post. Each sculpture then would become an archive, or substitute body,
for each Amazon worker I speak to. I’ve been considering purchasing a 3D printer
for some time, and I may now get one with this show going ahead. I’d love to be
able to produce new sculptures whenever I want on a tighter budget.
A few more studio views, which I do enjoy doing. I think I say this in every
blog post, but I would really like to do a show of these as prints and produce
a book of them. I just need a good opportunity to come about, although at that
point will I stop producing studio views? I’m not sure I’m ready for that just
yet, even if I’ve been producing them for a little over two years now.
I also made this little painting, complete with a drone and a robotic dog.
Disconnected from my ongoing work, I think I just felt like putting together
something that wasn’t attached to anything I’m doing at the moment. A sort of release,
I guess?
Last month I was part of a huge group exhibition at The Pool, a derelict pool
in Istanbul. I enjoyed the conceit, although I think when you have that many
people in a show it gets slightly extortionate. There were at least 50, maybe
more? I sent over one of the Amazon patent drawings from earlier.
Meanwhile, I have a few exhibitions coming up. The show with Office Impart,
where my recent video I Wish I’d Been Born A Balloon was originally going to
debut, is finally opening this month online. Then they’ll have a physical show
of all the artists involved at some point after that. I’m happy that I can
finally share the finalised work. Another, slightly more exciting group show, will open in November at The
Portico Library in Manchester. I’ve been invited to be a part of the show,
titled Fun & Games: playtime past & present, and will be exhibiting a
painting or two from Bit Rot, alongside one of the accompanying videos too.
My other recent video work depicting Boris Johnson on a ventilator in hospital,
titled Outbreak, was chosen to be in a group show about protest at Elysium
Gallery in Wales. I quite like having the work displayed in such a context, and
I also got around to writing a little text about the work. Outbreak is a short, looping video work, depicting Boris Johnson, the current
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, attached to a non-invasive ventilator,
lying in a hospital bed. The work is a response to the ongoing Coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic and is inspired by Johnson’s seven day stay in April 2020
at St Thomas' Hospital in London whilst suffering from COVID-19. During his stay, and for some time afterwards, many were suspicious of Johnson
actually having had the disease, with conspiracy theorists wondering whether
the incident had been a public relations stunt to reassure the public that
COVID-19 was easily treatable. Many of the doctors and nurses who cared for Johnson were asked to sign
non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and no photographers were allowed to document
Johnson’s stay at St Thomas'. Outbreak, therefore, depicts a moment in time
that may or may not have happened, and is emblematic of Johnson’s disastrous
handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Politically bias, but I think the text works well nonetheless aha. It’s also
been semi-confirmed that the group show on algorithmic bias, which was scheduled
for April 2020, is going to be rescheduled for April 2021 instead, to coincide
with Art Brussels again. We shall see. Aside from applying to a bunch of other things (since March I think I’ve
applied for almost 100 art opportunities and jobs) the big news is that I was successful
in my Arts Council England application, which is really exciting. I applied to
produce a six-month project, producing 4 online exhibitions, paying artists and
commissioning writers, culminating in a published book and an online panel discussion.
The program will begin at the end of this month, and then continue on a rolling
basis until April 2021. I’m super excited to get started.
I think that might be it for current projects and thoughts. I have a few, unannounced
things that I’m working on too, although can’t speak about them properly just
yet. Oh, and the good news is that I’m finally getting my work back from Bit
Rot in the next week, so I can finally start sending books to people who bought
them many months ago. I hope the work is able to live on in some way, by being part
of future shows and projects, even if I feel quite disconnected from the show
at this point. I know I continue to say this, but it is such a shame that it
has to close. The more I think about it, the more annoying it becomes, being my
largest solo show to date. Anyway, I’m going to stop talking about my own stuff
and move onto things I’ve experience, watched and read.
Let’s start with exhibitions. I’m still not regularly going to see shows, as I’m
still quite uncomfortable about going out on a regular basis, but I have seen a
few. I really enjoyed going to Bold Tendencies, somewhere I’m ashamed to say I’ve
never been to, after living in London for over six years. I’m kind of annoyed
at myself more than anything, as there’s been so many fantastic looking shows
over the years. Anyway, the 2020 exhibition featured work from Sol
Bailey-Barker, Jeremy Deller, Jack Evans, Nathaniel Faulkner, Lucy Gregory, Jenny
Holzer, Rene Matić, Lilian Nejatpour, Davinia-Ann Robinson and Rafał Zajko. It
was a great group of artists, although every work was attached to the floor
using large slabs of wood, which weren’t very aesthetically appealing. I really
enjoyed seeing work by Rafał Zajko, whose work is very beautiful and has a well
made but homemade feel. Overall, though, it was just nice to go and see some
art in an outside, open space.
Next was Marie Jacotey’s solo show Blue Fear at Hannah Barry Gallery. I enjoyed
the show, a selection of drawings which were produced for a new animated film
by the artist, following a young couple travelling through the south of France.
I’d love to see the film.
On a different day, I visited Block 336 for two solo exhibitions, one by Andy
Holden and the other by Tom Worsfold. Although, in the past, I haven’t really
liked Worsfold’s paintings, I think I’m much more into the ones in this solo
show, titled The Sleepers. The works depict various bodies, similar to those in
the popular anime Attack on Titan. They look almost monstrous, in a way.
However, the real reason for going, and booking free tickets in advance, was to
see The Structure of Feeling (A Ghost Train Ride), a solo show from Andy Holden.
To say I loved the experience would be an understatement. You enter the exhibition
space and are encountered by a series of paintings, depicting Andy’s bit-moji
character in different scenes and scenarios. Within the main space, however, is
a train ride of sorts. Each audience member gets their own electric custom buggy,
which they sit in for the duration of the exhibition, zooming around the enclosed
area. A series of videos, extracts and add on’s to Andy’s magnificent video Laws
of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape are dotted around the room on TV screens and
projectors, which you connect your complimentary headphones to in order to
listen. The show is both playful and collaborative, whilst being deadly serious
(the centrepiece of the show is a life size sculpture of Andy’s cartoon
character, resting in an open casket). I really enjoyed the experience, and am
so glad I took the time to book and travel to the exhibition.
Elliot Fox’s solo show Idol Hands, curated by Hector Campbell at Platform
Southwark, was okay. I’m not sure whether I fully understood what the work was
trying to do or say. I dunno, it felt like a lot of work packed into a small
space, although I did enjoy the interactive nature of some of the pieces, that’s
always fun, I guess, and the works were nicely framed.
I also visited the group show Something Unknown Is Doing We Don’t Know What in
a project space in Elephant and Castle, curated by Rita Silveira Machado with
work by Ben Edmunds, Hugo Brazão, André Figueiredo Da Silva, Sid and Jim, Paula
Turmina and Kirsten Bertelsen. I thought it worked well, although the curation
seemed a little relaxed.
Next up was Goldsmiths CCA which featured a bunch of different solo shows. As
is the case with a lot of covid sensitive exhibitions/institutions, all of the
press releases were QR codes on the wall. This would kind of work, usually,
although in this case the CCA building has very little to no internet
connection throughout, especially in the basement area, so when all of the
press releases are QR codes and can’t be loaded on your phone, the whole thing
goes to shit. Anyway, the first show was Lindsey Mendick, with a series of
works revolving around the relationship that she has with her partner, both
before and during the lockdown in the UK. As usual, it featured multiple
ceramic based works and a number of paintings. I think, as always, the work was
very garish and not really to my taste. I much prefer a few shows she’s had in
the past, the one at Castor and Eastside Projects, which felt a little more
refined and much less garish. Saying this, though, that’s her style, and if you
like that style then you must love the work.
There were a few others, including a performance based exhibition by Appau Jnr
Boakye-Yiadom, many paintings from Emma Cousin and a new video from Hardeep
Pandhal. The piece focused on visiting lecturers in art schools, highlighting
the division and racial divide between students and tutors. I feel like these
are important issues to be discussed, although, for me, the work didn’t really
work as a tool for discussion, rather just pointing out the inequities, both
from the tutors and the students. I also think, for me, that kind of work, focusing
in on university life, and to art schools specifically, is not so interesting.
There was a solo retrospective of work from Hollis Frampton, featuring lots of
photographs and ephemera, which I wasn’t that excited by. Lots of photographs
of animals and objects.
The final show was from Sophie Barber, very large works on canvas featuring
tent like structures accompanied by tiny works duplicating Art Review covers.
It was fun.
Then I went to see was the Goldsmiths MFA degree show. As always, I liked two
or three things in total. Again, Rafał Zajko’s work drew me in, looking very
crisp as always. I also liked Sora Park’s work, lots of 3D prints exploring the
relationship between personal digital devices and human emotions. I also enjoyed
a well made animation by Gwil Hughes and a series of fabric heads by Anna
Perach.
After that was Castor, with a revamped and expanded gallery space. They had two
exhibitions on view, one from Indriķis Ģelzis, which included welded metal
accompanied by sculpted wood and textual elements. I liked these, but didn’t
love them.
The other show, on the other hand, included work by Grace Woodock, which I
thoroughly enjoyed. The space was painted yellow, with curved walls and embedded
steps. The works were handmade creations, produced using perspex, silicone,
upholstery foam and various other elements. Ideas and influences of 60s sci-fi
and human bodies were present throughout these meticulous works. Yeah, I really
enjoyed the show.
Next was Gossamer Fog with a duo show from Solveig Settemsdal and Andrew
Sunderland. I enjoyed the show, although as always the press release was a
little too complicated, full of wordy descriptions and not enough actual
content to fully grip what the show was actually about. I dunno.
The final exhibition that I visited was a solo show from Samuel Capps at Seager
Gallery. So, lots of sci-fi aesthetics and veiny, spaceship like elements. The
main centrepiece for the show was a VR, interactive artwork, that you
controlled with a silicone covered joystick. Now, I’m usually quite good at
handling my VR experiences, and have never felt sick during/after using a
headset, but this piece, for some reason, made me feel incredibly ill. I’m not
sure whether it was because the sensitivity of the movement was incredibly high,
or that controlling your movement with the joystick was a little off, but
either way, it was an incredibly unpleasant experience, one that I don’t want
to experience again.
Next I’ll speak about TV and films, which is quite an extensive amount. I
watched a distressing documentary series called The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty,
detailing how Rupert Murdoch is a man whose fingers are in many pies. It was
interesting to dig into how much power he has, over the news media and through
that the general public. I’d say we are fucked.
Upgrade was a fun romp into a future where a man’s body is basically connected
to an AI, which gives him superhuman strength. I enjoyed the journey.
I watched a TV show called Pennyworth, looking into the origins of Alfred, Bruce
Wayne’s (Batman) butler. It’s set in 1960s London, although has a semi
dystopian vibe throughout. Each episode is like a little vignette, accompanied
by an overarching narrative, with Alfred slowly growing closer to Thomas (Bruce
Wayne’s father) who is from a billionaire family in the US. Yeah, I’d recommend
it.
How to Build a Girl was a great teen comedy, about a teenager who becomes a successful
music journalist. It was a very positive, happy experience.
I enjoyed American Pickle, Seth Rogan playing a double act that actually worked
quite well, I think. I definitely laughed a few times throughout, focusing on a
man who gets pickled, and 100 years later wakes up in 2020, reconnected with
his great grandson.
I had an amazing time consuming all five seasons of Line of Duty, a police drama
looking at a unit of the police force that investigates other police officers.
It’s a fantastic show, full of drama and amazing twists. At times I was jumping
up and down because of the madness and excitement that this show inspired. I
would 100% recommend this to everyone and anyone.
Ingrid Goes West was a fun film, exposing and highlighting how obsessive people
are about keeping up their appearance on social media.
Another fantastic TV show that me and my partner have been obsessed with is
Below Deck, a reality TV show that focuses on the crew of a mega yacht, with
every episode focusing on a different ‘charter’, where guests come and stay on
the boat for three or four nights. The drama comes from the evolving relationships
between the crew members alongside the very rich and painful guests. For me, I
haven’t really watched a reality TV show that involves people doing actual,
real work. In the past I’ve only really watched reality TV that shows people lounging
around in the sun, but this is an entirely different beast, with people working
20-hour days and getting increasingly angry and annoyed. It’s been very
enjoyable. The first two seasons are on Netflix, which I hoovered up in two
days.
So I watched two episodes of Lovecraft Country and am yet to return to it. I
really liked the first episode, being incredibly real, distressing and painful,
with a hint of sci-fi towards the end. The second episode, however, felt like
way too much sci-fi, crammed full of bad CGI and faux sounding rituals and
spells. The episode kind of put me off, although I would like to return to the
series, as I’m sure it does improve. I will return to it at some point, I think.
For a while I’ve been wanting to watch a good spy film, with the Bourne series
being my favourite, so I was searching for things to watch when I came upon Ava.
It focuses on Jessica Chastain as an assassin who always gets a little too
involved with her victims, leading to the organisation she works for wanting to
kill her. It features great actors, like Chastain, John Malkovich and Colin
Farrell, but it didn’t really hit home for me, unable to satisfy my hunger for
a good film about spies.
I had the pleasure of watching The Fungies, a new animated series about a town
of living mushrooms in what seems to be prehistoric times. It’s well written,
and lovingly animated. I’d definitely recommend it.
Archive, another sci-fi, looked promising and felt a little like Moon, although
in reality it was just a dumbed down version of Ex Machina, with very little to
no awareness.
I was really excited to watch I'm Thinking of Ending Things, the new Charlie
Kaufman film. It was beautifully absurd and very clever. However, at times, it
felt like it was being a little too clever, potentially taking advantage of it’s
audience, and forcing us to watch a conversation play out in a car over a
period of what felt like an age, but in reality was probably around 20 minutes.
I liked it, but boredom did definitely overwhelm me at times. Some absolutely amazing
acting from Jessie Buckley though, and Jess Plemons wasn’t bad either.
Two Weeks to Live was a bit too teen for me, and a bit too British…
Billions was fun, although I kind of stopped watching it in season 2, or maybe
season 3. I think the fact that I can’t really remember doesn’t portray the
show in a very good light. It focuses on the relationship between a hedge fund
manager (who does a lot of insider trading, etc) and the U.S. Attorney who
wants to catch him. It was fun, but I’m unsure if I will return. I do think
Damian Lewis is great though. Homeland was a very good show.
Teenage Bounty Hunters was light and enjoyable, about two young women who
attend an incredibly religious high school and inadvertently become bounty
hunters on the side. It’s all there in the title, really. It was a fun,
enjoyable experience.
Speaking of spy films, I also watched Ronin, a 1998 film featuring greats like
Robert De Niro, Jean Reno and Sean Bean. I quite liked the 90s stunts, which
felt incredibly real and very scary compared to how action films are produced
in the 2020s. I enjoyed it, especially the 20 minute car chase scene.
I watched the second season of Criminal: UK, a fantastic program where each
episode sees a specialised police unit interrogating a different subject about
a different crime, with the entire series taking place in one room. It’s very
clever, and very well produced and filmed. I definitely recommend.
I kind of liked The Social Dilemma, yet another documentary exploring how
social media is controlling our lives. This time, however, throughout the
documentary there’s this weird, badly written faux drama, looking at a teenager
who slowly gets obsessed with conspiracy theories and involved in alt-right
ideals. It was painfully cringe inducing.
The remake of Mulan was terrible, with Mushu being thoroughly neglected.
I kind of liked The Operative, although there wasn’t quite enough dramatic
shooting for me.
I had the pain of watching part of Made in Italy, a film about Liam Neeson
playing an artist, with his actual son acting as his son who runs a gallery.
Neeson’s wife, both in the film and in real life, died several years ago, with
the film being about a son and his father creating a stronger bond through
selling their second home in Italy. It’s basically the worst film ever, with terrible
acting, painful stereotypes and a story that reaped with privilege.
Then there was Peninsula, the sequel to Train to Busan. The first film was
fantastic, full of stereotypes but in a hilariously great way. The second was a
little less fun, and a little more dramatic, focusing on the fallout of the original
pandemic.
Then there was Dicktown, an animated TV show about a detective who does detective
work for teenagers. It was very weird, but quite enjoyable at the same time.
Very much an 18 rated experience.
I watched all three seasons of The Fall, a detective show about a serial killer
and his relationship to the detective that’s tracking him down. It’s very dramatic,
distressing and well produced. Highly recommended.
I’ve been watching The Boys, a TV show with an annoying name but a fun conceit;
superheroes are real, but instead of being perfect people, they in fact abuse
their powers and utilise them for sponsorships and money. It’s quite bleak.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Ted Lasso, an incredibly wholesome TV
show about the manager of a football team in the UK. It’s very American, built
to be watched by Americans, with lots of ‘oh look at the British people’, etc,
but aside from that, I quite enjoyed its PG-nuss.
The first season of Sword Art Online was fun, an anime about an online video
game that has trapped it's players within the virtual space, where you die in
the game you die in real life. It was fun, with the first half of the season
focusing on little moments when the main character would interact with other
players within the digital world. The second half got a little more stereotypical,
with the main character saving the damsel in distress, which felt unneeded and
uninteresting.
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet was sad, depicting a bleak future for
humanity.
I despised Kingsman: The Golden Circle, even worse than the first film, but I’m
still on my quest to film a really good spy film. This did not satisfy my itch.
2067 was a time travel film that may have got a little caught up in its own,
slightly confusing, way of navigating through the complicated world of time travel.
In 2067 the world’s air has become polluted, so much so that you can’t go outside
without a mask. It was a fun, indie experience.
I had fun watching/playing Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs the Reverend, an
interactive Netflix special where you controlled some of the decisions made within
the film. It was fun, although it still leaves a lot to be desired. I’d rather
play an actual video game.
I really liked the first season of Homecoming, a TV show about a global
corporation who have created a company invested in veteran redevelopment,
helping soldiers rehabilitate after they come back from fighting in various
wars. It’s very well directed and filmed, with a really nice past and present
visual dynamic, alongside splitting the screen whenever the main protagonists
are on the phone with each other. There’s just lots of really nice cinematography
techniques that are utilised throughout. Although I expect nothing less from
the creator of Mr Robot, Sam Esmail.
Another series I really enjoyed was Star Trek: Lower Decks, an animated show about
what happens on the lower decks of a Star Trek space vessel. Rather than
focusing on the people in charge, the show looks at the people who work for the
people in charge. It’s very well done and highly recommended.
So the final thing that I watched was all three films in the Bill and Ted series,
with the first two films featuring two young men, travelling through time and
space to hang out and play on their guitars, basically. The third film is set
30 years in the future, with the same actors playing their older selves. They were
fun, foolish films, with the grim reaper scenes from the second film being a particular
favourite of mine. Yeah, enjoyable but very light and inconsequential.
I’ve also been playing a few video games, and have been really enjoying The
Outer Worlds, a game developed by the creators of Fallout: New Vegas, one of my
favourite games, full of intricate, branching storylines and a living,
breathing world. Anyway, The Outer Worlds has everything, and more, than New
Vegas had. There are fantastic narrative details that occur throughout the many
side quests, accompanied by fun weapons and high-quality interactions.
Alongside the TV, films and games, I’ve read a bunch of books. The first was Queenie
written by Candice Carty-Williams, a fantastically painful book that I’ve
wanted to read for some time, detailing a year in the life of a 25-year-old
Black woman living in London. Most of the experiences she has are incredibly
painful and distressing to read about. It wasn’t fully eye opening, as I’m
aware of this sort of abuse that occurs, but definitely not on the level that occurred
and on a very regular basis in the book. As always, it's incredibly important to be reminded and shown/told that these things occur so often. I would highly recommend giving this a
read, and not just as a way into attempting to understand the Black experience,
and the female experience, but as a very well written, fun and enjoyable fictional
book.
After Dark, a novel by Haruki Murakami, wasn’t really a favourite for me. I’ve never
read a book of his before, but this, a novel that takes place over the course
of one evening, was a little basic for me, written as if it was a script
(complete with camera details) accompanied by badly written characters and an overall
non storyline. I dunno, it wasn’t for me.
I enjoyed Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin, a novel envisioning a near future where
fluffy toy animals with embedded webcams are bought and sold. When you buy one
of the toys, you turn it on and it pairs with another person, somewhere in the
world, who can watch through the webcam and move the toy around from their end.
It’s a very odd thing, where people purchase the toys as companions whilst the
people who purchase the capability to inhabit these toys are more interested in
escaping their current lives. The book follows a number of different toys, with
each narrative ending when the toy is destroyed, disconnecting the user. I really
enjoyed it, actually. It felt like a very well-produced hook of an idea that
worked really well. I think I read one or two more, but I’ve either forgotten
about it, or didn’t actually read any other books…
And I think that’s it for things that are going on at the moment. I can’t
really believe that it’s October at this point, and that I’ve spent so much
time off of work and focusing on my own projects. It’s very odd and makes me
continually reflect on what’s happening, to me and my practice. For the moment
and the next few months, I’m fully concentrating on isthisit? and the exhibition
plan, alongside working on my own projects, and now I guess the solo show that
I’ll have in Brno next year.
