Big Deal 2

Explorations Into The Known World

image by Malcolm Hazleton

Arctic Circle

The Death of Ideology

London Stone-London Heart

London Stone-London Heart
Cabinet, Glass Jars, London Stock Bricks and Thames Water
104 x 62 x40.5cm
04/09

Between or Inside?

Everything about Cinthia Marcelle’s art speaks of quiet tension. Familiar materials and references are subverted to expose our presumptions of what we think we see in front of us and what might not be immediately evident. These subversions create a tension and show a fragility in things that we percieve to strongly represent the comfortable, recognisable constants of life. It is not that Marcelle shakes us from complacency more that she recontextualises familiar views and actions into wholly recognisable but new and perhaps slightly disturbing and disturbed assumptions of inevitable consequences, those things around us that are part of processes which we perceive to have a narratively assumed and predictable ‘beginning, middle and end’. Marcelle handles lightly her scuptural interventions and allows the viewer the freedom to observe from a distance a slowly insinuated re-reading of what we are seeing in front of our eyes. Her current works in the Sprovieri Gallery are diverse but simple, on entering the space we are faced with a divided room, a partition of wooden panels painted in yellow gloss paint, it is only on entering the room properly that we realise that this division is mirrored by another yellow painted panelled wall facing the other, a door is inserted into the panels to allow entry into the space but as this has been left ajar we only realise the echo of the door that allowed entry to the gallery after we have passed through them, once inside we are already being pulled subtly back out of the gallery before we have really entered it. To the left hand side of the gallery a reel to reel tape machine emanates the sound of its turning reels, however instead of the expected tape running through the tape head flaps of masking tape have been reeled around in its place. The masking tape appears torn under the force of the machines action, the force of its action fills the gallery with its sound. Opposite is a collage of masking tape torn and placed in strips reminiscent of brick courses, one looks intently to see the thoroughness or otherwise of the rendering of this piece but is dragged back to memories of walls and other brick built forms despite the fragility of the paper and tape image in front of your eyes.
On the other side of the yellow barrier further into a darkened gallery space is the signature piece and most beguiling of Marcelle’s exhibition, a video projects the film of a yellow earthmoving vehicle ponderously moving in a figure of eight on a muddy landscape. At some parts of its progress its mechanical arm moves downwards to push the muddy soil along its path at others the arm lifts to deposit this load along the continued path it is forming, the tyres of the vehicle flatten and cut their path through these lumps of deposited soil as the machine gradually draws its presence on the landscape whilst creating an action which destroys part of its activity. This see-sawing of movement, activity and intention appears the height of futility but this rhythmic and predictable progress is captivating for no other reason than the spectacle of its insignificant action creating nothing more than a mark on the landscape and a rhythm of activity. The final piece in Marcelle’s suite of subversions and interventions is a wooden rule longer than the height of the gallery which is squeezed between floor and ceiling, its bowed form is squashed inside the interior of the space in a tense but solid corruption of its materiality, form and function.
These actions, measurements, subversions and interventions created by Marcelle do not lead one to understanding or on the path to understanding the profundity of the world but exist in many states. Just as every individual and collective society can only control a small part of our existence at most times we are only between states, in Marcelle’s eyes we exist between predictable and unpredictable, known and unknown, comfort and discomfort and that, perhaps, is the pain and pleasure of our existence.

Goin Downstairs

V22 Presents The Sculpture Show

V22 PRESENTS: The Sculpture Show 26 April – 31 May 2009 Wed – Sun 12 – 6pm
The Almond Building, The Biscuit Factory, Bermondsey, London.

V22 PRESENTS is a series of projects produced in collaboration with artists, curators and art organisations in a variety of venues around London. V22 PRESENTS decided to explore the modes of thought and production in sculpture. To open a dialogue we put to five artists - Shahin Afrassiabi, Sam Basu, Simon Bill, Cedric Christie, Fergal Stapleton - the following:
For the second project V22 PRESENTS have invited 5 artist curators to select works that engage with current developments and critiques in contemporary Sculpture.
The archaic term Sculpture can no longer contain the multiple directions and potentials that artists have attributed to it throughout its history.
Through bringing together diverse approaches and understanding from international artists, groups and projects V22 PRESENTS: The Sculpture Show is an opportunity to engage with the diverse potentials that have come to encapsulate, and exist within, the definition Sculpture.
Artists/Organisations

Data Wall:AESD: Agency for Economy and Space Development: Maziar Afrassiabi, Shahin Afrassiabi, Sam Basu, John Colenbrander, with thanks to Julian Meinold and Piers O'Hanlon

NIS: New International School: Matthew Stock Treignac Project: Sam Basu, Elizabeth Murray.
The Real:Phyllida Barlow, Anne Damer, Karin Ruggaber, Audrey Reynolds, Fergal Stapleton, Brian Wall, Martin Westwood.

Oysters Ain't:Karen Ay, Fiona Banner, Richard Bartle, David Batchelor, Rob Beckett, Simon Bill, Hartmut Bohm, Cedric Christie, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Steve Claydon, Clem Crosby, Penelope Curtis, Charlotte Cullinan & Jeanine Richards (ArtLab), Cathy de Monchaux, Arnaud Desjardin, Valerie Driscoll, Richard Ducker, Garth Evans, Urs Fischer, FREEE ( Dave Beech, Andy Hewitt & Mel Jordan), John Gibbons, Kathy Gili, Tom Gidley, Paul Gildea, Andrea Giulivi, Stewart Gough, Naum Gabo, Robin Greenwood, Brian Griffiths, Zoe Griffiths, Nicola Hicks, Peter Hide, Flore Nore Josserand, Helene Kazan, Michael Kidner, Philip King, Simon Liddiment, Ed Lipski, Colin Lowe, Christina Mackie, Bruce McLean, Rebecca Johnson Marshall, Haroon Mirza, Henry Moore, Zadoc Nava, Paul Neagu, Lawson Oyekan, Eduardo Paolozzi, Nicholas Pope, Richard Priestly, Michael Sandle, Paul Sakoilsky, Celia Scott, Dallas Seitz, Meg Shirayama, Jane Simpson, Anthony Smart ,Bob & Roberta Smith, Richard Smith, Steve Smith, Sarah Staton, Dan Stevens, Michael Stubbs, Vanya Balogh, Simon Stringer, Gavin Turk, Jessica Voorsanger, Gary Webb, Richard Wentworth, Keith Wilson, Christian Wulffen, Mark Woods, Richard Woods, Lars Wolter.

Well Said

This says it all, I have always thought this and agressively put this accross to those who denigrate the work of artists and their 'usefulness' to society but sometimes someone just says it a whole lot better than you can yourself.

http://fluidthinking.karenay.com/2009/04/02/ivan-pope-bound-at-grey-area/

Elevated environment

To look at architectural drawings and plans can be a soulless experience, the clean, untouched, utopian drawings can almost seem to deny the existence of humanity and the natural environment. Elevations show details to be achieved in all their pure and pristeen forms with unbroken lines and curves that do not encounter any disruptions. It is for these reasons that architecture can be a beguiling discipline, it represents an ability to view the world in a controlled manner, but when the built environment starts to grow from its foundations and is created in its physical and geographical forms rather than its supposed intended form on the page the reality of the human and natural world starts to intervene and alter the best laid plans. To view Richard Galpin’s meticulous and highly stylised architectural themed designs is to see both the beauty, desperation and delight of the architectural process and its manifestations in the urban landscape. At first we see what appears to be processed and stylised designs of fantastical architecture. Lines, curves and blocks of colour appear as perspectives and dimensions of an idealised urban landscape. Amongst these elements of lines, lines of sight into the blocks of colour reveal the visual information contained within. Images reveal themselves, lettering and typefaces, faces, materials and surfaces, the full manifestations of Galpin’s hand rendered designs are revealed, the blocks of colour and partially glimpsed images also highlight the process by which Galpin has rendered these designs. On large scale photos the emulsion is scored into these accuarately defined blocks and lines and the surface is peeled away revealing the white layer of paper underneath, this revealed surface shows the scuffed and frayed underlayer and adjacent to these blocks of scuffed white, lines and blocks protrude into these vast white areas of space, an exploded or imploded urban landsacpe only partially reveals itself. From this point the detail we look for in the archtectural plans is lost to a wider view of the natural environment dictating its presence on the built environment. One might think that this becomes a saddening realisation, Galpin is showing us the extent to which the physical world we construct around us is open to elements of unpredictable natural change and our own interventions that alter the landscape beyond our initial intentions, however we could see this image of destruction and change as a comforting and encouraging sign that time is marching forward and correcting the arrogance of human activity. Constructions built from materials which age and alter by natural processes beyond our control gain character and alter appearance in beautiful and unexpected ways, they grow and define their own right to existence and place in history. Those which degrade and age into a derelict or weakened state defy our ability to construct our urban world from unsustainable processes or designs rendered without the full rigourousness of our conceptual abilities. We cannot deny degradation and the passing of time and these processes warn us of vanity but also allow us to embrace our world as a natural environment with which we can create a relationship and dialogue.
I leave the Hales gallery and Richard Galpin’s thoughtful and handsomely crafted images and step into the city, suddenly every scratched pavement, dried piece of chewing gum, small uninitended intervention into the materiality of the built environment takes on a much larger significance. Dried puddles of water paint their presence on walls with residues of limescale, plants protrude from cracks in the pavement that have filled with the dust and soil that have been blown by currents of winds created by neigbouring buildings. Even markings left by ourselves to demark intended improvements or repairs to the fabric of our city appear as unintended but poignant indicators of our presence. The city will only acede to our will for a very short time and as the natural world infiltrates our urban environment and time passes its effects on our constructed environment and our own efforts to adapt to the environment we have created become either something to fear or something which can reveal an unnoticed and overlooked beauty.

Nothing Felt

Tonico Lemos Auad’s sculptures, interventions and installations are too fragile, too loose and unformed, one feels that the fragile almost insignificant machinations do not carry enough weight to be considered an art object. It is not that the craft of the art works is in question more that such materials cannot hold our weight of expectations, wishes or desires. Where others see materiality I see disintegration, process is lost in the lightness of touch, and sensuality of materials rendered in the production of the work is lost to a dull aching sense of the insignificant struggling to meet our expectations of significance.
To feel no connection to work of such critical aclaim places a critic in the awkward position of feeling that maybe they “just don’t get it”, maybe the artist wants those of us too invested in the grand gestures of art to rethink the balance of power in art and wider society. The signature piece of this show is a silver scratch card wall with a background of vaguely revealed images of offerings to the Candomble goddess of the sea. It has intimations of the overlapping territories of faith and luck being cultures apart but somehow joining, however it does not insinuate to me the significance of this concept but just appears as an amalgam of multi-cultural graffiti. Visitors have ‘scratched’ but revealed nothing more than a need to make their mark by the opportunity to deface the wall with impunity. If the goddess wishes to help encourage ‘faith’ all we have offered is our disregard of her existence beneath this silver veil and given vent to our selfish need to impose our identity on our surroundings.
Broken silver chains looped from the ceiling and repaired with pieces of thread, two holes punched into the gallery wall and grills inserted that vaguely reveal the content of the shelves of the adjacent gallery office, a boat made from felt or bottles, pots and other vessels also made from felt do not make one think of anything other than the insignificance of such objects rendered in such a way. I am only too aware of the insiginificant and overlooked and Tonico Lemos Auad’s art works do not help me to think beyond that simple premise. To reflect on issues of significance and that which is overlooked should be something with which all of us should engage and reflect on however with this current exhibition in the Stephen Friedman gallery the art works just hold an insiginificant materiality, their stories are hidden and do not impress on this viewer any motivation to engage and remain overlooked. But as I said earlier, maybe I just don’t get it.

Overland

The act of travelling can be experienced in a variety of ways, for some it is a means to an end, the destination being the only goal and the journey an inconvenience. For others the arrival at the destination is almost inconsequential to the journey, travelling is the way of experiencing an ever moving and changing landscape and diversity of human experiences and dialogues. Between these states there are numerous ways of experiencing our travels or journeys, for most of us we treat our travelling as something with which we can experience both. There is however an unpredictability to travel, journeys to new and unvisited places throws up experiences which give us potential new insights into the world around us and can lead us into unexpected and rewarding friendships or into the orbit of danger.

Sara Haq’s overland project is a series of documents of her observations and experiences as she travelled from London to Phuket, Thailand. The main focus of the exhibition is in Alexia Goethe’s downstairs gallery and in many cases the power of these images are detracted from by the documents of Haq’s journey in the upstairs gallery, along the walls of the gallery are small photographs with handwritten annotations, these snapshots of the journey both visual and written are interesting but one cant help feel that they seem just like the anecdotes of someones holiday. More interesting is the small screen video of some of Haq’s fellow travellers on the Trans-Mongolian, it is without the need for narrative that the strength of Haq’s video works, it is simply shot hand held camera work but this capture of a moment in time within Haq’s overall journey.

The real strength of Haq’s documentation is in the initial downstairs gallery space, unusually for many projects of this kind it is these large scale photos freed from anecdote and without being loaded with too much context that the viewer can truly reflect on journeys, landscape and the imprint of human activity on the world around us. This seperation between the social and human documents of the journey and the representations of landscape in the lower gallery allow us to reflect on our disassociation from the natural world. The seemingly monochrome photographs of the Siberian landscape are taken through the windows of the speeding train, elements of the world outside, the weather, trees and forests, raindrops on the window seem empty and devoid of human activity but after a while the small and insignificant aspects of human activity begin to invade the seemingly untouched natural scene. Telegraph poles, train tracks and cables encroach on the natural scene breaking the rhythm of the landscape with the evidence of humanities interaction with the environment. From inside we see the condensation from the inside of the train window which obscures the image of the exterior scene and minor, almost washed out, only lightly glimpsed reflections from the interior of the carriage. Finally the blurred edges of the photos, distortions of speed of travel and the alterations made to the photograph by the interpretive mechanics of the camera disturbed by movements and actions in front of the lens that it can never capture truly.

Even the most far away and seemingly untouched environments that we may find ourselves in are never truly wilderness and as far and as long as we travel our journeys can never take us too far from the hand of human activity and the lives of others, and that perhaps is the beauty and also the problem of travel and its influence on the world.

Lost in the Orchard

The current installation by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov at Sprovieri Progetti exists somewhere between fiction and fact, the Kabakov’s installations always give the impression of having taking the real interiors of spaces and transposed them accurately into the gallery space. This experience of viewing a ‘documentation’ of a real space is, however, wholly inaccurate as the room you see before you is in essence an unreal spectacle. In the Kabakov’s imaginings the room entitled “I Sleep in the Orchard” bears all the realities of the interior of a patients room in an imaginary mental institute, supposedly the patients treatment involves the creation of their room as part of the clinical process. Within the almost cell like confines colours and objects are placed to allow the patient to realise their room as project which enables them to comprehend and accommodate the causes and manifestations of their mental illness.

Alongside the installation on the adjacent wall in Sprovieri Progetti’s gallery space is the fictional account of the patient, Eliazarova, in the text she tells of her past and the story of her removal from the countryside to a cramped and unsettling communal apartment. This disturbing urban environment finally pushes the fictional Eliazorova to attempt suicide and ultimately results in her hospitalisation and the manifestation of her room we see before us. The room contains eight pot plants that sit at the front of the room side by side almost like a barrier and beyond is a bed with its institutionalised furniture of metal frame and white sheets with dull grey woollen blankets. On green and grey walls sits a white canvas with green painted lines and blobs reminiscent of an abstracted landscape. A low wattage bulb hangs in the centre of the room creating an underlit, gloomy, dispiriting and depressing atmosphere. This stark interior and the story that creates it leaves the viewer with a sense of unresolved tension, we reflect on the outcome of this story and the gloomy interior and ultimately the fictional nature of the experience only serves to lower and diminish the mood of the viewer. We see neither hope for Eliazarova and only cursory comprehension of her illness through the realisation of her room.

One could extrapolate this experience and story to the life and work of an artist, taking the disturbed and disturbing elements of the perhaps lonely and isolated practice of an artist and their ideas and the manifestation of their visions in the ‘real’ world. Commissioned, curated, mediated and delivered from the isolation of the artists thoughts into material reality and finally into the full view of the public the inner thoughts and ideas are there to be reflected on, deciphered or just picked over by the prying eyes of the outside world. In the final reckoning perhaps the Kabakov’s suggest that no matter how free we are to place our interpretations in the real world as artists and viewers the realisations and comprehension of these thoughts and ideas can never be fully determined or understood.

Art Of Occupation - A Review

London Stone - Equivalents i, ii & iii

London Stock Bricks

Various Dimensions

09/08

photo by Karen D'Amico

"For reasons of safety, we ask the public not to run or obstruct the runners."

The familiar architecture draws your eye into the space and onto the spectacle, the runner walks slowly, turns the corner, a minor pause and with a small half step breaks into a run. Martin Creed is an artist who’s work divides opinion, his slight and subtle interventions into the world around him are read by some as empty gestures or others as indicators of significance through the highlighting of seemingly mundane acts in our social fabric. In the Tate his latest piece Work No.850 has a series of runners continuously running through the Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries every 30 Seconds. Ambling, confused, they disrupt the runners path, disengaged by the surrounding architecture and unsure of their onward route. A parting of bodies, quiet, unknowing subconscious reaction. Ignored, deftly negotiated almost imperceptible, the runner negotiates the space. Photographer in his way, weaving between human obstructions unaware of their influence on the runners onward movement.
The simple act of running has been described by Creed in a number of ways and in his own playful way we are left with only speculations as to his true intentions.
But as you stroll through the turbine hall it is the actions and interactions of the passing public that perhaps give a true context and understanding of the spectacle that Creed has created. A large crowd, a massive collective obstruction, unfeeling, disinterested, passive aggressive, causing the runner to make a big deviation through the space. The architecture regarded subconsciously dictating the runners efficient choice of path. A clear run, the runner is off line but easily adapting to surrounding bodies. It is at points where the runners movements are not only affected by the architecture of the Tate’s classic hall but the movements and physicality of those who are adjacent to the action that a sense of real and uncontrived fascination can be invoked in the viewer. Selfish, unconcerned, non negotiating of the space, the group collectively mark their presence in the space unconcerned by their obstructive manner. They will not move, they feel their importance and impose their will on the runner. Two others step aside polite, tolerant engaged in the full social spectacle. Here in the Tate we see modern society and its conditions reflected in the reactions of all those who inhabit the space with the runner. It is in the variety of responses that we can see a society where simple adherence to social codes and norms has shifted to more selfish and individualistic motives. Three young women. Interested, amused that they are obstructing the runners path, pleased to be influencing the process, briefly revelling in the attention. Arrogant, deliberately obstructive, more interested in their own personal space and projecting their identity to any adjacent person. The runner approaches the group, she deviates her path, they see her as an irritation.
We see a society at conflict, in which the need to assert ones own individuality and personality on many occasions predominates over a tolerant and respectful attitude to others. The runner is not only negotiating the architecture of the building but the social architecture of our times.
A Young boy watches fascinated, observing the power and movement of the runner, two others alarmed, frightened by the sound of the runners quickly moving footsteps.
The occasions at which a true and honest regard for the runner is taking place we see how an interest in the outside world can be a truly educating and rewarding experience. A large group of young men and women, a collective obstruction. One in competition chases the runner, seeking the attention and approval of the group. However in many ways society has become selfish and the interest of individuals in their right exert their individuality also affects the rights of others to exist unhindered. The way in which some chose to hinder and question the action that is unfolding around them provides a great insight into questions of personal space and intellectual freedom and the assertion of our individuality and the potential adverse affects this may have on others. Startled and concerned by the runners approach turning to interest and speculation. Anticipation of the runners path, steps aside and allows a clear path.

It reflects well on the Tate that they have enabled Creed’s current work to take place and in many ways the enormity of such a simple performance such as this comes beset with potential difficulties both logistically and conceptually. Selfishness, herd mentality, obstructive. Complete lack of awareness of surroundings, walks across the runners path, changes direction and does so again. A middle aged couple interestedly watch the runner and as he nears them exaggerate their efforts to remove themselves as an obstacle to his path.
Creed has not only challenged the hallowed environment of the Tate Gallery but also pushed the question of what art truly is. Deliberately ignoring, feigning indifference to the runner and his task. Amused, speculating, remove themselves from the runners path. A mass of human traffic, the runner stalls his run, negotiates the space with aggressive adaptive movements to continue his onward run. Watching, peripheral to the runners movement, almost an obstruction but stands to one side. Testing personal space and asserting his right to his own as the runner passes close by.
The simple act of running in the environment of the Tate addresses questions of social hierarchy, we are not just observers of art but a part of the work itself, from Creed’s initial vision of the simple act of running to the spatial negotiations that take place between the runner and the public present in the Tate. Creed has imposed a condition in the Tate with this artwork which provokes our assumptions of what constitutes an artwork, from Carl Andre’s Equivalent viii to Tracey Emin’s bed and beyond Creed’s Turner prize wining ‘lights going on and off’ we have another challenging and potentially seminal artwork of the 21st century.

Indifferent, self absorbed. An obstacle, unaware, surprised and finally embarrassed by their lack of awareness of the runners presence. Interest, awareness, speculation of the movement and mechanics of the runner and his action. Avoiding but respectful, playful and engaged. Respect for the runner and his task.
Once the action began to take place in this public environment a true dialogue ensued, it is unpredictable and uncontrollable. For as long as this piece continues Creed and his runners, the Tate and the public will be forced to interact in an unspoken conversation within the spatial boundaries of the Gallery.
A group, unaware, self absorbed. Several groups stand static in the space, the runner negotiates all with minor adaptions of his onward progress. Creed has taken the’me’society we currently inhabit and by creating a simple act created a negotiation truly in the spirit of our self absorbed ‘reality TV’ times.
Respect for endeavour, regarding the runner from a short distance.
Society has changed massively in the past 50 years and the pace of change is disconcerting and worrying, and as time races past and we try to live our lives in the manner we wish with the minimum of negative impact on others and the world around us we can but hope that a more individualistic society can recapture a sense of community and social responsibility. We have hope that art and society can progress with a true spirit of individuality allied with a respect for the world around us.
Turn of the head as the runner passes unimpeded. One shows surprise. The other gives an explanation of context. The first shows approval.