Other than today's protest march on budget cuts, 16 young illustrators are voicing their anger in the form of a group exhibition. Drop by to see their amazing work until 30 March.
The illustrators are Georges Dupree, Jess Gerken, Rikki Hewitt, Paul Hickey, Ben Jennings, Nina Jorgensen, Nick Martin, Holly Monger, Suzie Patrick, Charlie Rallings, Josie Shenoy, Francesca Smyth, Lloyd Stratton, Louisa Taylor, Jade They and Sean Willmott
Haunch of Venison kick off 2011 with Korean artist Meekyoung Shin's remakes of western statues and oriental objects d'art; paired with German artist Susanne Kühn's vividly coloured paintings of surreal environmental myths.
Translation - Meekyoung Shin
Haunch of Venison
16.02-02.04.2011
Translation Series (2009)
Meekyoung plays joke with collectors and challenges the viewers on the concept of authenticity, durability and artistic values through recreating antiques and sculptures with soap as the raw material. Translation series are mock antique vases, made to every detail of the original. You could appreciate the patterns in the original vase on her version, but how would these patterns look after a period of time when the soap molecules start to diffuse? If you like the piece because of its pattern, does it make the work lower in artistic value when the pattern starts to fade away? Or does such physical nature actually qualify as part of the artistic value?
Golden Buddha (2010)
Venus (1998)
Ghost series (2010)
The centrepiece of the show is the Ghost series, a collection of around 200 vases grouped in clusters of an imac colour spectrum. Although the artist's focus is the "notion of the transience of the original by stripping the forms of both their perceived solidity and their decorative markings, leaving only an echo of the original form", one cannot stop thinking such act has the usual commercial calculation in that each cluster would be eventually sold individually to collectors. And this rainbow spectrum is very much an open palette to cater for individual buyer's preference of his/hef favourite colour.
While Meekyoung focuses on a twist of the aura of the original objects, Susanne's subject is a complete jam of the 3-dimensional meta-enironment in a 2-dimensional canvas.
Originally from East Germany (Leipzig), Susanna now lives in Freiburg. There is an inherent sense of the dark Grim tales in the ambience of her paintings. Things seems to be situated in a gravity-less space, so the interior and exterior flow and merge with each other. The human subjects inside her paintings, if any, are often only relating to a portion of this environment and not realising the extent of flux beyond that. That they seem all too happily living in the Garden Eden before Satan arises, is somehow a cynical reflection of the Black Swan phenomenon in the credit crunch.
In its 3rd year from the debut in 2009, Kinetica Art Fair has gained the status of flagship event in London's art world for February, and provides a fundamentally different flavour to art-lovers from January's London Art Fair.
As of last year, there's a 'weclome' piece at the entrance to the fair - however it is ironically full of EXIT signs:
Exit-Wall by Cécile Colle & Ralf Nuhn
There are also some layout changes to various parts of the fair - the cafe has moved from below the main entrance platform to the platform, right behind the reception counter, replacing the souvenoir and kinetica publications / merchandise shop. One may wonder whether the sales of merchandise would be significantly affected because it exists only as one of the exhibition stands now, losing its prominent physical location. Or perhaps the sales of food & beverage is a much more profitable business which even the organiser can't resist the tempt to make more money from it?
The bar has moved from the main exhibition level to the entrance level
There is an anchor piece at each end wall of the gallery - a moving floral matrix (above) as the backdrop of the bar, and a video projection wall (below) at the other end. This actually helps to contain the space and give some visual stimulations to people when they are walking across the exhibition stands at the main exhibition area and looking up.
The rear end wall of the gallery is filled with video projections this year
Here are a few highlights (in no particular order) in the fair -
Tunnel View by Hans Kotter at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art
Seeper - interactive visualisation sphere
Moving objects no 486 - 501 by Pe Lang - there's a real sense of life in these cables if you keep looking at them!
Fascinating Revolving Installations consisted of calculators (front) by David Cranmer
Last weekend I managed to drop by the Zabludowicz Collection’s London project space for its annual show Testing Ground. Drawn by the image of a beautiful converted building and a display of art graduates in the show, it proves to be well worth the ride on Northern Line.
Soapy tit wank (2007) by Dinos Chapman at the entrance
According to the official website, "the former Methodist chapel that houses the collection was built between 1867 and 1871, in the Corinthian style. For nearly a century, it was the main place of worship for the Methodist community in north London. In 1963, the building was taken over by the London Drama School, which pioneered the Russian branch of method acting in the UK.
In 2004, when The London Drama Centre moved to new premises in Clerkenwell the building fell into disrepair. It was purchased by the Zabludowicz Collection in 2005 and was restored with a minimum of interference into its natural fabric by AHMM. It reopened to the public in September 2007 as the London home of the Zabludowicz Collection. In 2010 the foyer was redesigned by Michael Marriott."
Tiles pattern
Window Details
The stalls
Panoramic view of the main gallery space
Testing Ground is an annual initiative for higher education in the arts and curating of the institution. Now in its 13th year, Future Map 10 participants were selected from nearly 10 000 graduating students from University of the Arts London’s six Colleges: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion and Wimbledon College of Art.
An expert panel of leading industry insiders comprised of 20 Hoxton Square Projects founder Alexander Dellal, Associate Director of International Programmes for the Emirates Sharjah Art Foundation, Judith Greer, Grazia Style Director Paula Reed and Time Out London Visual Arts Editor Ossian Ward has selected 28 Future Map 10 exhibitors representing 17 different courses from across this year’s graduate and postgraduate shows. The works displayed include a wide range of disciplines from Fine Art to Fashion, and Wimbledon’s BA Technical Arts & Special Effects course makes its first Future Map appearance this year.
It is a wondeful experience of the space and the curatorship efforts that have been put into the show for such a wider range of works.
The organiser has arranged a late night opening tomorrow (4/2) with with special performances from Future Map artists Catherine Wharfe and Lucia Rivero and a conversation between this year’s Future Map Prize Winner, Josh Baum and Ellen Mara De Wachter, Exhibitions Curator.
Of the 124 galleries showing in London Art Fair, here are our favourites. Some of them are new comers exhibiting the first time in the fair, which we feel really pleased that the organiser had picked them! Do visit our full set of photos which would show more art works each gallery represents.
Technology changes the face of our world, and it only accelerates in the post-millennium world we all live in. What's new today would be out in a matters of months or even weeks. New techniques and media emerge all the time which bring artists countless possibilities to explore & re-invent their works.
Since the arrival of digital cameras, film cameras and polaroids have fallen into victims of the 'fastfood' generation - everything has to be fast, instant and hassle-free. It doesn't need to be perfect, but it has to be seen. It is the Zeitgeist. So do you remember how people capture what they see before cameras exist?
Well, you may say paintings. Yes, you know it because there's a National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square. But there is something between paintings and photos from cameras - well technically photos can only be taken by cameras, is it? Not really...
Given a light sensitive surface, which is what a photo paper really is, photography - capturing objects from 3D to 2D - can be done without an actual piece of camera. It is not a new technique, but most people probably don't think it is practised any more nowadays, not to mention having an exhibition. V&A Musuem has devoted its prime exhibition space right next to its main entrance to this show, to recall people's memory of how wonderful and admirable this technique is.
The show features works of 5 contemporary artists (they're not called 'photographers' in the official publications) - Garry Fabian Miller, Pierre Cordier, Adam Fuss, Floris Neusüss and Susan Derges. Although they all make photos without a camera, their photos look very different from each other's.
These photos cannot give you the HD crystal clear view of the subjects like the snapshots on your iphone, but they give you more by showing less - just as what Mies van der Rode said. The viewers are free to interpret what the photos are about, what the artist is trying to capture, and what exactly has been captured. It is a process which you cannot accelerate - you would need to spend time looking at each of them, instead of flipping them through your finger on the ipad screen.
The museum has prepared a short clip for each artist (as embedded in this post) to provide more background to the viewers how they create each photograph and why they would do it in his/her own way. It is like magicians revealing the secret - you can see how these beautiful images are made. And perhaps you will be inspired after seeing the show.
The first major fair of the year in town, London Art Fair is good in the way that it's not as exhausting as Frieze but still have enough to offer the visitors to spend an hour or two inside to discover the trend of the art market in town. A quick run around the venue revealed two interesting finds for this year's show -
We Think They Must Have Souls (2008) by Littlewhitehead
The Perfect Man (2010) by Littlewhitehead
1. They have learnt from Frieze Art Fair last year about multiple display of works by featured artist across the venue. Simon Fujiwara's Frozen City last year in Frieze had won great reviews by critics and successfully attracted visitors to walk through the whole fair to see his works, thus helping to bring a more consistent level of traffic to every stall. Sumarria Lunn Gallery has installed works by Glaswegian artist duo littlewhitehead in various locations. The duo is famous for their dark-humourous installations with life-size human figures, such as these shown previously in Saatchi Gallery.
Studio 1, Hallituskatu 7, Oulu (2007) by David Spero
Adam Hinton's series taken in Shanghai
2. Photo50 this year are showcasing 9 photographers and many impressive works can be seen in the most top attic area in the venue. Hopefully these few captures, together with the cafe, would make your feet go up a few steps to see these masterpieces. Our favourite among the 9 photographers is Scarlett Hooft Graafland from Holland -
First of all, a new year greeting to everybody - wish you an inspiring year ahead!
At the end of a long holiday after Christmas & New Year for most of us, the urge to plan the year ahead and carry out the plan in reality is probably be in your mind at some point over the past 2 weeks. To make it easy, it's always motivating to start with some travel incentives. Have you planned any art excursions ahead? The following may be useful: the Independent's must-see calendar 2011 for global art events. (If you would like to check out events within the UK, click on this instead)
Visitors in the Giardini
Here is a retrospective of the Venice Architecture Biennale last year, focusing on the British personnel involved. According to the offical website, the event had attracted a record attendance of 170801 visitors, that means over 3 million euro of just entry-ticket sales (full price entry is 20 euro for an adult person). Attendance for its sister Art Biennale in 2009 was 375700, and who knows how much is spent for all the red carpets during the film festival. No wonder Venice can survive the rising sea level - just with its three Biennales!
Architecture Biennale - Kazuyo Sejima in Venice by BiennaleChannel - video link
The British pavilion this year is commissioned by Vicky Richardson, Director of Architecture, Design, Fashion at the British Council and under the direction of muf architecture/art Llp. This is the official information from the British Council, how the commissioning process actually work? We don't have any further information from the page, so we cannot comment on whether the team selected has got the best idea. However, from observation, the British pavilion seems to be the only one who dedicated a significant portion of its exhibition to the host city, Venice, itself. And somehow this Villa Frankenstein (name of the British pavilion, which is also unique among the exhibitors that a name other than the country's name is provided) is quite fascinating indeed.
British humour displayed at the entrance - The Puddle, a concrete-formed pond & some paddington boots aside
Plan of the pavilion
The Stadium of Close Looking - a 1:10 scaled model of the Olympic Stadium for London 2012, designed by muf architecture/art (London) and built by Spazio Legno (Venice) + Atelier One (London)
The Ruskin Wing - showcasing reference materials about the British Victorian social critic & historian of Venetian architecture John Ruskin
The Lagoon - displays illustrating the fragile eco-system in the Venice Lagoon
A 15 sq m. ecologically functioning slice of salt marsh in a tank showing a close‐up view of the native floral and fauna of the Venice Lagoon
You can see from the above, the UK pavilion is a collaboration between Venice and the British team, in terms of concept, contents as well as execution. It is quite an enjoyable and educational exhibition. Apart from the British pavilion, we also found Zaha Hadid's works featured in the Austrian pavilion -
No matter you like her works or not, Zaha Hadid has now truly be recognised around the world such that her architecture is even featured in the pavilion of another country in the Biennale. This is a great achievement for herself and her office. Other british featured in the show are -
Joanna (chapter one), by Cerith Wyn Evans - the neon tube text at the background
Tony Fretton's Piazza Salone with artist Mark Pimlott at the Arsenale
Tony Fretton at the Venice Architecture Biennale by Hugh Pearman - video link
If you would like to learn more about the UK's participation in every Venice Art or Architecture Biennale, check it out at this dedicated website by the British Council. Below are the full photo slide shows of the Biennale in the Arsenale venue, the Giardini venue and across the town.
*****
Further Readings -
Page: Official page for the Venice Architecture Biennale
Review: The sprawling Venice biennale offers frustrations and rewards by Oliver Wainwright for BD magazine, 31.08.2010
Review: RA Magazine Blog: Biennale diary by Kate Goodwin, 03.09.2010
Review: Cerith Wyn Evans at the venice architecture biennale 2010 by erica for designboom, 04.09.2010
Youtube: official youtube channel for the Biennale
Youtube: Hans Ulrich Obrist's series of interviews with all the exhibitors in the Biennale
Hope that everybody in London have had a merry Christmas. So while public transport is not around, and most shops are not open today, you can have a very good view of Ben Eine's alphabets along Middlesex street around Aldgate -
Ben Eine's alphabets in Middlesex Street video link
If you do not know who Ben Eine is, below are a few pages and videos to get you familiar on his works.
Raven Row is currently showing Hilary Lloyd's intruging video installations in its elegant 18th century household premise. The stripped space, free of any furniture but with the wall linings, motifs and fireplaces restored, is sublimed to the 21st century with the injection of clinical-gestured flat-screens installed by Hilary.
Motorway (2010)
Hilary's works are multiple projections of the same subject in each piece, varying in different manner. In Tunnel and Crane, a seconds-long clip footage is repeated on two split screens but of slightly different frequencies. You feel like watching two unsynchronised pendulum clocks going side by side in an empty household abandoned by its master. Eventually they overlap and go back in tune again, but for a very short instance. Then they diverge again. This seemingly endless cycle of overlapping/slipping clips is quite intriguing.
There are also other works which do not behave in cycles as unsynchronised pendulums. One of the highlights is the curated positioning of all these pieces with the physical space of the gallery - the projections on a wall to the windows by the street, the screen in the middle of a corridor etc. And the abundance of space help to separate the works from one another, such that when you walk past a piece with the sound distancing, you have a transition moment before picking up sound coming from another piece. The experience is enjoyable and memorable.
Floatins Forecaster by Poietic Studio, with each foam sphere's motion individually customisable by an iphone app interface
