Martin Creed, a lovely
man I’m sure but I couldn’t help but observe his fascist style artwork tromping
thought the main artery of the Tate Britain. I present to you my evidence in
Hitler style bullet points. Number 1 and I quote from the literature carefully
placed in the walls ‘This work celebrates physicality and the human spirit.
Creed has instructed runners to sprint as if their lives depended on it.’ It
continues to describe the pause in the ‘neo classical gallery’ (something that
I can imagine Speer designing) as an ‘equivalent pause, like a musical rest’
which to me smacks of Wagner. I’m missing the Leni Riefensthal bit but you get
the idea… I did like the flip book though! Watching the video about Martin (I hope i’m allowed to call him that) he says bizzare things like “running is an exciting action, death is still”. I wonder where his mind took him when he was offered the space. Is it a really succinct artwork that i am reading too much into?If so I would like to ask is there going
to be a nice line running down the centre of the gallery and if so is that art
too?
Archive: September, 2008
Wilson Williams is a new artists’ run project space
in a beautiful Victorian terraced house on Hackney Downs, East London. You
enter through the downstairs doorway, and immediately greeted by a lovely clean
white space. On my left a room with strange music blaring out. Confused and
repelled by the music I turn to my right and proceed up the stairs. Which
opens up to two long thin rooms, with various people mingling about peering
deeply into the artworks or chatting. I am guided to the far room, which is
quieter, and Sonke Faltien’s Reisen a group of large color photographs, which
examine the landscapes surrounding Germany’s 14 nuclear power stations, all
which were active at the time, immediately strikes me. A Native Dalstonian he
seemed very at ease with both his photograph mounted on the wall and his book’s
containing 14 picture postcards. These self confessed sublime images are so
beautiful you miss the grotesque nuclear power plant that sits dominant in the
background. The juxtaposition between these landscape postcards and the
“ugliness” of the power stations is a deep psychological exploration of the
human. The facade that we show and the reality of what is behind. The utopian
dreams that we wish to fulfill and our inabilities to achieve those dreams. As
Faltien writes “Germany strives to leave the nuclear era behind, a once futuristic idael has itself become archaic.” The other artworks that I saw were very interesting apart from the derivative Boa Swindler, she collages images of women dressed in bondage behind funky backgrounds. It reminds me of a bad 80′s record cover. However it fails
to raise my interest with titles like “when I say yes I really mean no”. Even
if she was being ironic I was bored, it didn’t even make me angry.
A piece that did catch my eye was Ben
Sadlers “plans for finding true love” A take on Twombly, which doesn’t have his
freneticism but seems more analytical and less intense. The blue dashes vibrate
luminously against the white of the surface. This triptych of slightly
disheveled boards are a diary or a collection of memories documented. The show
was a lovely surprise that eliminated all the pomposity of the gallery space
and allowed a new breath of fresh air. I recommend going to see the gallery. check it out.
Collishaw definitely knows how to create an impact. He did it quite literally with the work Bullet Hole, which became his signature piece: a gory picture of a gun-wound in the head which, originally shown at the 1988 Freeze exhibition, is now part of the Saatchi collection. Collishaw has a flare for the shock, his use of pornography, violence and sometimes both together, typically which is at once shocking yet strangely beautiful. I first saw Mat Collishaw in 1997 when he featured in theinfamous ‘Sensation’ exhibition at the RA. In ‘Sensation’, Collishaw displayed large-scale tiled photographs of the bullet wound in a head. This work is a good indicator of Collishaw’s artistic interests and practices.
At the show at haunch of venison, Collishaw’s installation, Shooting
Stars, has a disturbing dreamlike quality. Photographs of Victorian child
prostitutes in vulnerable, yet alluring poses, are projected on to the gallery
walls and mingled with similar images re-staged by the artist with an older
model. Fired on to phosphorescent paint, they flare briefly before slowly
fading from view, which retains the fading after-image long after the projector
has swiveled its robotic head onwards to focus on a new site. A world of
ghostly memory mingles with a startlingly dramatic present. The ghostly
after-images suggest the children’s short, fragile lives, shattered by violence
and sexual diseases.
As you reach the top floor you find yourself slightly disconcerted which
isn’t helped by a gigantic zoetrope, a cylindrical device that produces the
illusion of motion from a rapid succession of static small sculptures. As it
begins to spin, whilst you are mesmerised by the stroboscope. The small
figurines of a Minotaur ravaging a maiden, the Three Graces, a she-wolf and a wine-swigging cherub. Combine to create a bacchanalian orgy that begin to move, conjuring in flickering shadow the dark underbelly of Victorian life and its concerns about
death and sex. The whole show questions our moral code which we inherited from
the Victorians. In our contemporary world with more choices we still desire the
same sexual gratification. With the ability to explore this more openly how
much better off are we?
In Sketch, a venue that combines a nightclub, Bar, restaurant, Gallery. The gallery although slightly sidelined still is an effective space, only showing films it has created a
soft, white couch filled arena with surround cinema. It is showing a
retrospective of Mary Ellen Bute. A little known artist she made short films,
fourteen are here and they document her pioneering use of moving image,
combining light and sound, with her experimental drawing and painting directly
onto the film. She was drawn into filmmaking by collaboration with the musician Joseph
Schillinger, who had developed an elaborate theory about musical structure,
which reduced all music to a series of mathematical formulae. Schillinger
wanted to make a film to prove that his synchronization system worked in
illustrating music with visual images, and Mary Ellen created the visuals.
In1939 Mary Ellen began to work in color, and used more conventional
animation for the main themes in the music, but still combining it with
“special effect” backgrounds–sometimes swirling liquids, clouds or
fireworks, other times light effects created with conventional stage lighting,
such as imploding or exploding circles made by rising in or out a spotlight. Set
to classical music by the likes of Bach, Saint-Saens or Shostakovich, and
filled with colorful forms, elegant design and sprightly, dance-like-rhythms,
Bute’s filmmaking is both meticulous and energetic. Her Kandinsky like films
are slightly darker in content, but you become mesmerised by the layering of
film and the colours that permeate the screen.
Starting with Danny Treacy
who I didn’t know about before I went to see the show. He produced these large
portraits that almost weren’t photographs. They looked like photocopies or scans. They also were lacking in features, even though you could tell that the
whole body was there he has covered himself in these disjointed clothing. His
fashion sense reminds me of Jean Paul Gautier’s designs for the film the fifth
element. It’s a bizarre mix of retro and rubbish. He literally finds clothes in
streets, parks and waste grounds, cuts them up and sews the clothes to make
outfits that are designed for him. He then documents this process with these
very flat planed photo’s that loom out of the darkness. I’m not sure if he is
discussing collage, fashion, photography or even portraiture (the poses
reminded me of royal paintings of the proud male showing of his finest silks).
I think that they come together quite well especially the slick presentation
only enhances your understanding of how smelly and dirty the actual clothes
potentially are.
Hans Aarsman
This display in the corridor that leads out of the café is about making use of photography instead of owning or buying things. When Aarsman had to move to a smaller house, he realised that he needed to get rid of some of his possessions. He took photos of things before he threw or gave them away. This led him to think carefully before he bought new things. Rather than buying something, he would often would take a photo of it instead. I think the most exciting thing about this project is that
if you bring something to the gallery that you are going to throw away they
will lend you a camera to document and annotate your own photo to then put on
display with the others.
In the main gallery was an exhibition that documented fashion photography over the past fifty years. However it had a different take as it showed how the photographer gets involved in the whole process. The most intriguing part of the whole show was how the
photographer positioned themselves. Because they were obviously performing for
a camera, their role as model now elevates the photograph to documentation of a
process. I especially liked the photos of tom ford (a fashion designer) abusing
models. It was very tongue in cheek and amusing in comparison to the serious snapshots of these photographers posing for their own 15 minutes in front of the camera.
I had a very interesting conversation with some people in a pub this evening. We were discussing how to engage young folk in the arts. I would be keen to know what you think arts education consists of or what you think it should consist of. The ultimate question is whether it should be skills based or creative based? I know that I am sitting on the fence but I believe that there is an argument for both. Is creativity not a skill that can be explored? Don’t the skills of drawing enable us to communicate our creativity?
let me know what you think.
I found this website and I thought that you might enjoy it! It takes pollock to a new level. enjoy.
It starts as soon as you move the mouse and if you click on the page it changes the colour.
