@londonart blog

art august in london - part 2

A Net of Eels

09.07-23.08.2009 at the Wapping Project, London

29.08-04.10.2009 at the Babylon Gallery, Cambridgeshire

outdoor seating in the evening

the restaurant part - atmosphere in the evening seems to be quite romantic-ish

The Wapping Project is a gallery in the former Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. There's also a restaurant in the same venue. Since I haven't been to this building before, it is a double reward to me on this visit.

rubber stamp - a very japanese set-up, you could see these in every train station and some tourist attractions in japan

With their personal backgrounds, what you see in this exhibition could be quite a diverse range of multimedia exhibits, from drawings, photographs, collectibles to audio recordings. The aim is probably to create a terrain of objects related to the culture of eels, mainly from the japanese population, for the visitors to explore and experience. Whether it was meant to encourage the visitors to engage in a self-reflection of culture-consumption or simply an appreciation of the dedication to a delicacy, it is up to the audience to decide.

a selection of art work related to the eels are presented

When one walk under the speakers of various fish markets from Tokyo to London, the bustling sound of people in transactions give an eerie feel to the deserted power station the exhibition is taking place. It is almost taking a volume of what's used to be white noise in the city and broadcasting it in a vacuum - anybody inside would be forced to listen to all the conversation and sound delivering out from the speaker. It's easy to say that by stepping back one could have a clearer view on things, but to a certain extent this is becoming increasingly difficult to do with information filling up the ambience every second nowadays - giant TVs in the city, speaking billboards in metro platforms, mobile boardband, twitter, facebook, etc. Everyone is trying to grab attention from everybody else. In the end, would all these white noise be productive to us? How could we tackle the dynamics and make good use of it? That remains a question to be resolved.

In the mean time, perhaps we could take inspriations first by observing how the eels navigate in water :)

Full photo set here

Further Reading -

Official page for the show at Jake Tilson's website

Happy Victim - Kyoichi Tsuzuki's last UK exhibition in the Photographers' Gallery in 2003 prior to the Wapping Project show

Official web for the Wapping Project

Official web for the Babylon Gallery

Official web of Film & Video Umbrella, the commissioner of this exhibition
Wikipedia's page on Wapping Hydraulic Power Station

art august in london - part 1

Playing the Building: an Installation by David Bryne

till 31.08.2009

The Roundhouse

antony gormley's standing man at the edge of the roundhouse (not part of the installation)

people queuing for the piano

some of the keys on the keyboard are not working any more, probably broken by previous visitors

these buttons add special effects to the sounds

the labyrinth of cables & wires at the back of the piano

the wires connecting to each sound box on each column around the hall

close-up of a sound box

official video by the Roundhouse on youtube

Full photo set here

*****

Rankin Live

till 18.09.2009

The Old Truman Brewery

Entrance of the show in truman brewery

Banner opposite the entrance at brick lane

Is this an official edit?

Cute graphics by Them Design www.them.co.uk

Rankin (full name as John Rankin Waddell) is one of the big names among British fashion photographers, if not the only one. This comprehensive retrospective show is a unique opportunity for people to understand how the master develops his career and, with a bit of luck, the chance to see him in action shooting models or even your good self.

Works are grouped in themes, visitors could see for themselves the essence of Rankin's works in different topics/subjects.

Apart from his commercial works, the show also has a generous collection of his college years' shoots, his self-portrait collection and a series he did for the people of Congo. It demonstrates how he has grown into a celebrity on his own from shooting all those fashion campaigns for Dazed & Confused magazine, and yet not forgetting to use his fame for promoting social causes and helping the underprivileged.

show catalogue

behind the scenes

*****

Jack Freak Pictures by Gilbert & George

10.07-22.08.2009

White Cube Gallery

jack freak pics by gilbert & george by you.

Gilbert & George's signature "church stained-glass"-like paintings have a mysterious psychological power, perhaps due to the prevalence of such medium in religious art. They use the Union Jack, the british flag pattern, extensively in many works on this show. Nevertheless, their version of the Union Jack is not identical to the official one - the proportion of the 3 colours in their own version is equal and unbiased, giving a subtle twist in line with the contemporary context of political change in the UK. They also apply various symbols of street art in some works - maintaining their "relevance" to a new generation of the audience.

Further Reading -

Rankin live - official web (bandwidth-intensive)

Rankin live! preview from the Guardian

Rankin live at Sky Arts

Rankin as property developer, report from the Times

Playing the Building - office web

Official web of David Bryne

Official page of Gilbert & George's show in White Cube Gallery's website

banksy in bristol city museum

Banksy vs Bristol Museum
13.06 - 31.08.2009
Bristol Museum

Five minutes after arriving at the exhibition venue, I asked myself, "Am I queuing for Space Mountain in Dinseyland?"

There are fencings outside the Bristol City Museum with papers stating "2 hours wait from here", "1.5 hours wait from here" etc. The girls in front of me in the queue drove from Bradford, and I am sure there are quite a lot of visitors to the show are from outside Bristol.

Uncle Old McDonald sitting above the entrance of the museum

Lots of people from all over the country come to see the works of a street-art genius

Full photo set here

Many people should have visited the show by now. And if you have not yet done so, you probably should hurry up because the queues would only get longer & longer with the final day of the show counting down in 3 weeks' time.

You don't see people having the need to read any explanation notes or joining a guided tour for the show. Everybody's faces turns up a light smile or full eye open once they could finally enter the entrance and see all the works by British's most famous graffiti 'artist' (he probably is qualified as the top 20 most recognisable name in the UK). This, is the power of Banksy.

His power to connect everyday life and common people through his works is magical. You could immediately get what he want to say on most occasions - his works does not need a title to explain what it is about, just like what he painted on streets have no formal title. They are meant to be part of the urban fabric, nothing different from pedestrains on the streets, shopfronts along high streets and the seagulls flying over the river & canals. They reflect the everyday life of this country (not just London, as almost none of his works have any specific geographical reference to the city).

His work is more than a graffiti logo/signature. A logo cannot communicate so much to the general public. And the locations he picked to put his works up are strategic to generate debates and public awareness. And he does not only remain in his own circle - he expands into the public (and legal) realm. He participates in joint venture projects like Cans Festival, and contacts the Bristol City Museum to initiate this exhibition. All these events are hugely successful and create a media storm internationally. The commitment he made on all these has shown that he seems to have more to give the society other than promoting his own fame.

Everybody is taking photos and contributing to the Banksy phenomenon

Looking at the current art world, graffiti art has been employed by fashion houses and enterprises to market their merchandise to the young generation. While some people say that graffiti art has been high-jacked for commercialism, would it be more appropriate to say that graffiti has finally been formally recognised as a form of art which reflects its zeitgeist?

A few clips showing what it is like inside the show in terms of exhibits and people's reaction in the central halls -

Two more graffiti outside the museum in the city -

The street warrior aiming at the pedestrains

The graffiti attracted vandalism itself

Further Reading -
banksy.co.uk - official website for the exhibition
Banksy's stencil collection online
Report from BBC news, 12.06.2009 (with video link)
Review from Suit Yourself Magazine of Bristol
Review from the Independent by Steven Wright, 13.06.2009
Review from the Telegraph by Serena Davies, 15.06.2009
"Banksy was here, the invisible man of graffiti art" by Lauren Collins for the New Yorker 14.05.2007

Update - Banksy insisted CCTV footage was destroyed from the Times, 13.08.2009 (via @banksynews)

art july in london - part 3

Walking in my mind - Hayward Gallery

Image: http://walkinginmymind.southbankcentre.co.uk/assets/downloads/wallpapers/800x600-red.gif

Hayward Gallery's annual summer exhibition last year (Psycho Buildings) has been quite popular with its interactive exhibits. This year, the gallery invited &à artists around the world to create some large-scale pieces in an attempt to "transform the Hayward Gallery's indoor galleries and outdoor sculpture terraces into a series of gigantic sculptural environments", which in short, means "repeat the success as much as possible".

official poster showing Yayoi Kusama's (草間彌生) work

by Chiharu Shiota 塩田千春

While the show is a bit kaleidoscopic (there is really a piece applying this concept) which seems that every artist is speaking on their own, the show title does warn you that a common theme could be non-existent. Nevertheless the works shown could evoke thinking for viewers, be it the walls of posters by Keith Tyson or the signature chaotic web of strings of Chiharu Shiota. Feelings are intensified with the scale and complexity of the works, on the contrary of minimalism which takes the essence only and strips the rest. This show is about enlarging the essence and giving it a spin on and on and out around the immediate space and into the audience's mind.

by Thomas Hirschhorn

full photo set here

art july in london - part 2

Summer Exhibition - Royal Academy of Arts

Triton III by Bryan Kneale

As usual, the summer exhibition in Royal Academy of Arts is promised to be a show with a great variety of works. However, I have to express my disappointment over the layout in the Architectue Room (Room VI). In the past, one could easily get close to the architectural drawings and models to appreciate the level of details they possess. Not any more this year. The room is packed like a warehouse, with 3 levels of shelves along the wall. It is impossible to reach at least 1/3 of the exhibits. Is RAA trying to accomodate as many works as possible for sole profiteering (they get 30% commission of all works sold in the show)?

summer exhibition . royal academy of arts by you.

Works cramped altogether in the Architecture Room

Saint Bartholomew, Exquisite Pain by Damien Hirst

*****

Joel Shapiro at 23 Saville Row

American artist Joel Shapiro was commissioned to produce an installation at the entrance of the office-retail development. His free-floating forms standing out sharply from the monolithic facade of the building. The reflective glass around produce even more drama on these 'flying' tubes.

*****

Serpentine Pavilion 2009

SANAA designs the Serpentine Pavilion this year. Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA says, "The pavilion is designed to amplify the way things look." The enormous mirror-finished aluminium roof definitely could make it happen - unless you are a blind. You see EVERYTHING twice once you walk near the pavilion, because the mirror image and its original subjects are reciprocal to each other.

You could see how the pavilion is constructed through time in this wonderful website. Now I start to feel sorry for the roof cleaners with the amount of pigeons around!

People relaxing on SANAA-designed furniture

The lowered polished aluminium roof attracts kids to play beneath

The cafe area - people queuing for drinks

Many slender steel poles to support the roof - some pokes fun of the absence of pole dancers

full photo set here

Further reading -
Official website of RAA's Summer Exhibition 2009
Royal Academy of Arts page on Triton III
Bryan Kneale page in RAA
Official website of 23 Saville Row, see the 'Art' section for the creation process of Joel Shapiro for the installation.
Installation process of Joel's sculpture
Official profile sheet of 23 Saville Row from its architect Eric Parry Architects
An interivew with Joel Shapiro by Robert Ayers in 2007
Official page of Serpentine Pavilion 2009
An interivew with SANAA by designboom.com in 2005
Review of SANAA's pavilion by Jonathan Glancey of Guardian UK

art july in london - part 1

One & Other at Trafalgar Square

The fourth plinth got an interactive take this year initiated by famous british artist-sculptor Antony Gormley. Lots of media coverage was brought to the participants' actions. When I arrives last night, a man was playing tai-chi -

While people who get the chance to have their 1 hour on the plinth are showing how imaginative they could be and those watching definitely enjoy the acts, it is a pity that the overwhelming safety concern has resulted in an enormous safety net surrounding the plinth, which completely outcast the tiny person standing on the plinth and deprived of any beauty whoever performs up there...

Perhaps Antony or the organiser should have given a bit more endeavours to come up with a better safety solution.

the project office on site

*****

The Driftwood AA Pavilion 2009

Students in Unit 2 of The Architecture Association in London have completed this year's summer pavilion based on a concept by 3rd year student Danecia Sibingo.

The pavilion styles like Thomas Heatherwick's works, the morphing & steamlined slices create an unique focal point at the venue (Bedford Square) and blends well into the surrounding period blocks and trees -

The pavilion would open till 25.07.2009

full photo set here

Further Reading -

Official website of One & Other with live webcast on who's on the plinth & what he/she's doing

Dezeen's article on the AA Pavilion with some making-of pics

Creative Review's article on the AA Pavilion

AA Pavilions 2008 - photo set

art april in london

Tate Britain's triennial 2009 - Altermodern

This year's Triennial was curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, who co-founded the influential contemporary gallery Palais de Tokyo in Paris. The manifesto is "Post-modernism is daed" - a new universalism is emerging with the development of globalisation, and artists are reflecting changes around them, "traverse a cultural landscape saturated with signs and create new pathways between multiple formats of expression and communication".

tate triennial - altermodern . 02 by you.

Altermodern showed a vareity of works from installations, photographs to videos...

tate triennial - altermodern . 09 by you.

Transparency series and fedex series 2007-8 by Walead Beshty

guess how these works are made - see notes in the original photo link for answer

tate triennial - altermodern . 08 by you.

Liquid Crystal Environment
1. Landscape
2. Breathing
3. Torsion
4. Kaos

2005 by Gustav Metzger

full photo set here

Tremors where forever (frequency of an image, white edit) 2008 by Loris Greaud

*****

Neue gallerie's grand opening show - keep it secret (23.04.2009)

Neue Gallerie from Switzerland has opened their London gallery with a show bringing works of 7 swiss contemporary artists with a theme of "a very volatile issue".

keep it secret | neue gallerie london . 01 by you.

keep it secret | neue gallerie london . 04 by you.

keep it secret | neue gallerie london . 10 by you.

I think the works have a sense of dark humour, and the use of materials have a similarity of those in the Altermodern show - a detournement of the original purpose of a material type, into some unexpected territory, generating a sense of strangeness within the familiars...

full photo set here

*****

Dialogue between Ron Arad & Anthony Gormley at Timothy Taylor Gallery (24.04.2009)

ron arad at timonthy taylor . 07 by you.

They made an enjoyable and enlightening dialogue in the night

ron arad at timonthy taylor . 01 by you.

'oh, the farmer & the cowman should be friends' - the proper name of the america shelf by ron arad

ron arad at timonthy taylor . 03 by you.

The two playing around the 'rod gomli' chair - Ron asked Tim (the gallery owner) if he allows people to sit on the chairs as one of the audience said he is always forbidden by gallery staff on interacting with works even if it was the intentions of the artists, Tim replied, "Yes, under proper supervision." Ron invited the guy to come out and try sitting on it : )

ron arad at timonthy taylor . 16 by you.

Bodyguards - by ron arad

full photo set here

Further Reading -

Official website for Tate Triennial 2009 (the website is very informative and contains lots of references on all the works shown)

Official website for Keep it Secret

Installation images of Ron Arad's new works at Timothy Taylor - under 'Exhibitions' -> 'Previous'

art march in london - part 2

on a saturday in march, i was taken to vyner street by a friend for a gallery tour. a 10-minute walk from bethnal green station would take you into this amazing area with so many galleries.

many of these galleries are only open by appointment, you ring the door bell and somebody would release the lock. this may be due to the limited resources the galleries have for security. it is like visiting private clubs and the uncertainty of what's lying behind the door and the mysterious nature adds to the excitement.

these galleries showcase a variety of works ranging from photography, paintings to sculptures, installations & video.

to view more photos of the galleries, goto the flickr set

below is a list of galleries / interesting shops visited during the day. those marked with a * are my personal favourite -

donlon books* . some good art books and has ACNE (the swedish denim brand) magazine on sale
IMT

monika bobinska

neon & signmakers.com
keith talent

‎vyner street gallery

nettie horn* . the photography show is great and there is a small area in the management office displaying mataerials from previous shows
vinespace

degree art* . the building has got some great timber construction, the show viewed with icelandic artist is also very cool
artists anonymous

wilkinson* . the gallery is fitted with floor-heating!! you could feel the warm coming out from the concrete to your feet, like being soaked in a virtual hotspring! :D
fred london

one in the other

you could get a free art map from commentart.com or many of the galleries which has marked locations of almost all the galleries around the neighbourhood.

art march in london - part 1

Ai wei wei's latest solo show: 4 movements was held at phillips de pury gallery. His influence on contemporary art is comparable to Damien Hirst. Being the person who introduced architects Herzog & de Meuron to bid the Beijing Olympic Stadium, he is the media icon of contemporary chinese art at the moment.

gallery reception

ai's signature re-interpretation on antique furniture

ai wei wei in conversation with wallpaper* staff

ai's signature re-interpretation on antique furniture

Further reading -
architecture critic geoff manaugh writes on ai weiwei at his BLDGBLOG - link
ai's official website - link
wikipedia entry - link

a book about ai wei wei - Ai Weiwei (contemporary artists)

art february in london

overview of the entrance

Kinetica art fair debuts in london this year. Ran from 27.02-02.03.2009, the fair connects collectors, curators and the public to view and purchase artworks from leading international galleries, artist's collectives, curatorial groups and organisations specialising in kinetic, electronic and new media art.

cinimod studio's beacon in collaboration with chris o'shea - more here, here & here.

tim lewis' pony - it strolls around with visitors 'shaking hands' with its head

wall of eyes by adrian baynes - they are motion-sensitive, would keep looking at you no matter when you move!

I attended one of the panel discussions ‘What is the Future Of Sound and Light?’, in which Martyn Ware (Future of Sound), Mike Faulkner (D-Fuse), Ghislaine Boddington (bodydataspace) & Jason Bruges showed the audience how they develop their works, how to cope with expectations from the public, bureaucracy from government officials and what have they done in the past. It is pretty valuable session -