the art journal

London Art Fair 2012

2012-01-19T10:25:00.000Z

I'm not really into writing reviews of art fairs. They're not really supposed to be reviewed or criticized (even by ingenues such as myself). Their very presentation eschews critical approach. They are they to sell art work. I don't see fashion magazines reviewing trade shows much, so why does the art world take to fairs and tackle them for review? Any round-up is essentially just a list of the galleries who can either afford, or are daring enough, to take a punt on pitch.

Anyway, this is a complete paradox given I am now writing an article about the London Art Fair. What i like about the London Art Fair, as a follower of art commercially as well as intellectually, (as well as gastronomically, the mini bagels and pastries for brunch were great) is that it's a chance to see all of the major galleries, and stumble across a few that you didn't know, side by side, and without the curatorial framework within which we're accustomed to seeing art presented.

It's usually, rather, a subtle and intriguing insight into which artists are current 'best-sellers'.

My favourite stand without doubt was Pertwee, Anderson & Gold, not only for the way they'd made an effort to make the clinical booth look more enigmatic and inviting, like an ominous, gothic living room, but also for the artists they were presenting. My favourite piece was by Susan Collis (at least, I think it was by here, since there was no-one to be seen anywhere near the booth, nor were there any prices or labels - I wonder if a deliberate send-up, I hope so, it would be a terrific joke on the gallery's part).

Susan Collis is a Hackney-based artist, represented by Seventeen Gallery. She's also part of a group show in Mayfair's Bischoff/Weiss at the moment, curated by Glenn Adamson, who put together the V&A's Postmodernism exhibition. I LOVE her work. She takes ordinary, everyday objects, and adds a satirical, playful, soupcon of luxury - for example, a step ladder covered in 'spilt paint' (as it turns out, mother of pearl) and, a piece I saw at 20 Hoxton Projects, included in Alex Dellal's private collection no less, four nails in a wall, apparently an incomplete hang - that on closer inspection are made diamond-filled platinum. Her work exactly captures that ingenious simplicity that is so effective at conveying a message, and looking beautiful - the elusive quality that escapes so many artists, but leaves you kicking yourself thinking 'why didn't i think of that??!' Just love her.

Alice Browne at Limoncello

2012-01-19T10:08:00.000Z

Here's a recent review I originally wrote for Art Slant about Limoncello gallery's current exhibition by emerging artist Alice Browne.

This is an impressive solo exhibition for an established artist, but becomes jaw-dropping when you discover Browne was born in 1986, and graduated only two years ago from Wimbledon College of Art.

Not to say, however, that she is unaccustomed to rising to the challenge; this exhibition is already her second solo show of 2011, (the first being ‘Cave’ at the renowned Jerwood Project Space). Looking at her glowing list of group exhibitions, too, would make any recent art graduate froth with envy; selected as she was by Ryan Gander (artist, and, coincidentally, husband of Limoncello's director) and Dexter Dalwood for their respective presentations of emerging British artists. Alice, Alice, Who the F**k is Alice? Well, it seems the art world knows very well who Alice is…

Alice Browne, Curfew, 2011, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 60cm x 52cm.

What is so fascinating about Browne’s work is that it challenges the way we view painting; this inquiry into viewing is very ‘of the moment’ in art, when we think of the myriad of new ways to disseminate and digest information, but it is one that has been little approached by painters of late.

At first apparently abstract, all visible brush strokes, and uneven layers of colour, which belie their precision and depth, what Browne seeks is in fact to turn abstraction on its head, to have her paintings merge with the material, the physical – to bring two dimensionality back to life, and conjure epiphanies surrounding not perceived, but depicted space.

Alice Browne, Crusades, 2011, Oil on linen, 50cm x 40cm.

Thus, we are faced with a series of works, on canvas and on film, drawing on architecture (another very current trend in fine art practice) that allude to openings, windows, walls and archways – perhaps the ‘certain obstacles’ of the title - conjuring illusions of depth. As Gair Burton notes, Browne repeatedly asks us ‘ “What are you looking at?” ‘.

This is a worthy early solo exhibition from an artist who will no doubt be interesting to watch in years to come.

Interview: Richard Batty

2012-01-06T09:46:00.000Z

In thelast edition of Frieze of the year, Lars Bang Larsen suggests that the 1990s isa decade that has yet to end. Art, he says, took a 'social turn', that continuesto permeate the art of today. By understanding this, then we can justify some kind of linkbetween an artist’s activity around their work, and interpreting it. Almost like in naturalism, actions and environment are immutably bound.

RichardBatty is certainly an artist of this category.

Richardfirst approached me with his work on Twitter; soon after followed anemail recounting his life story, closing with the statement “Tracey Emin soldher story. It would kill my Mother if I sold mine.”

Though itis easy to see why Richard’s work has been largely overlooked; a heady mix ofsharp colours, shapes and forms, it is not to everyone’s taste, though it hasbeen exhibited extensively around Europe, both as part of exhibitions, soloshows and art fairs as far as Puerto Rico.

Workinglargely with oil on canvas, and photo collage, Richard’s oil paintings in particular are impressivere-imagining the brush as a pen; pieces such as ‘Belle 2011’, in their level ofdetail, bold lines and bright colours, resemble digital art, graphic design orcomic strips. This reshaping of antiquated media with contemporary hands isperhaps Richard’s trump card, moving him into a broad group of experimentalartists who are brave enough to take on the past and the present at once. Hisdensely crowded, chaotic world - characters from bygone eras rub alongsidemodern icons – is only a soupcon of the hyperactive interior world of theartist himself.

Here is aninterview with Richard, reconfigured from emails we exchanged.

Whatare you working on?

Today I'mpainting a photo-collage I made of the Palestine wall with a beach and Tel Avivbehind it. Into this composition I'm adding to the city making a machine robotthat’s rising up, Hills with the Tree of life fill the sky and an Indra styleface is in the clouds. I've been painting this picture since 2009… it wasoriginally just the collage, but like a lot of my works it wasn't quitefinished, so it has memory, the next step...what will make the image is thelook on Indra’s face.

Whatmakes an artist?

Apparentlyto make it as an artist, you need to have a good book, and you need to make itinto a big collection.

If Ifinished all of the 50 odd unfinished works I have in my studio, the storywould be finished and I would have nowhere else to go with art – I would killmyself off as an artist. But my goal is to simply finish all my pictures I’vebegun, with hindsight this is basically to keep them bound, from the samefarmer’s bottle so to speak.

Thefighter in me wants to get over the frail Golem-like figure I've become, I wantto get my athletic figure back, and slow down my mind with coffee and weed.

On a morepositive note, subconsciously I'm aware that I must live to get the juice/mojo,that fuels the need to make art. You cant just make art, it has to be a part ofyour life.

Whatdoes art mean for you?

Fear keepsme alive and sane like my Grandma Batty Gloria. My artwork provides a world ofescapism and fantasy, where my soft little brain finds solitude, a platform forreason and meaning.

The key isto find social connections and familiarities that people relate to in the work,so to balance the weird and mischievous, naturally warped, twisted part of themental state. 100% Batty is like 100% Capitalism, it doesn't make sense, so:maybe my arts where I let out the madness, which keeps me sane in the realworld? Self actualization, have I found it? The really deluded fall through thedelusions of grandeur net and make amazingly deluded art.

How doyou create a painting?

Althoughmy paintings are very colourful, they're built with one eye on the ageingprocess, they will inevitably dull; so I don’t focus too much on
getting the tones and colours precise, I work around the canvas, contrastingone colour with the next, the outcome of the painting is never planned.

Rather,the initial drawing finishes and starts the picture, the painting part isexperimental and meditative.

My mainmuse is the singer/songwriter Belle Humble. She doesn’t talk to me anymore, butI hope to get her along to my next solo show.

Richard is represented by HF Contemporary (Berlin/London). He lives and works in London. All images courtesy the artist.

Broken Fingaz Crew, IL

2011-12-03T16:36:00.000Z

A few words with Unga of Israel's pioneering Broken Fingaz Crew, widely heralded as one of the first graffiti crew's to emerge from the country. Proving their influence and importance on the contemporary Israeli art scene, they exhibited at it's two most important institutes this summer, the Tel Aviv Museum and the Haifa Museum of Art. They've also shown at Art Beijing, China, and have a cult of followers and supported around the world.

How did you get into graffiti?

We always painted comics and cartoons, but growing up in Israel, you couldn't see any graffiti outside.. so it took us a while to understand that graffiti is the funnest thing we can do with our paintings.. Kip and me [Unga] started the crew back in 2001 when we were in highschool. At the beginning it was really hard to get better cause there was no one to learn from, we didn't even get the idea that you need to come up with a name, and just wrote random words each time like SKATE, BABYFACE, COOL etc... it looked like shit.

Ha.

Since you started out painting on the street, and your work ended up in galleries around the world, what do you feel is the difference between 'graffiti' and 'street art'? Is there even one for you? How come your work can be exhibited as easily as it can use an urban landscape for a canvas?

Well, i guess we don't really use any of these categories to describe our work. When we started we didn't even know the term "street art", even though by then it was well known in America and Europe.. most of the time we paint more images and characters then letters, so people may see it as street art. But we also use spray cans, and we still bomb and tag, and hopefully always will, so our mentality is more of a writer... anyway it's all bullshit, we just do whatever is fun and feels right. when we do stuff in galleries it's just art, how can it be street art if it's not on the streets?

You've stayed close to your hometown Haifa. How far do you see yourselves as representative of Israel? Do you feel a duty as artists to realign international perspectives of your country? Is your art political at all?

We don't really see ourselves as representative of Israel, it's kinda hard when you hate your government and what it represents so much. We do love haifa, the land, the food, so of course the fact that we grew up here and still live and work from here is something that comes out in our work in one way or another.. most of our works aren't political, probably because Israel is such a political country that art is kind of our escape to "normal life".

What about the music project...

We always tried to fuck around with as many art media as we can.. music is also one of them, and a big part of our life. We were deeply involved in the night life scene for a long period, and that what made us start doing show posters in the first place, illustrating posters for the events we organized...

What motivates you as artists? Who are you inspired by?

It's hard to pinpoint on something, it's really everything we love or hate in our every day life.. We're inspired by so many artists, from classic artists like Schiele, Lautrec and Lilian to more contemporary artists like Parra, Mike Giant, Espo, and Tomer Hanuke... just to name a few..

What happened to FingaPrints?

It [Fingaprints] used to be a Graff shop/Gallery that we opened back in 2007 but we closed it more then a year ago.. We opened it just cause there was no place to buy paint or see cool art in Haifa, but all the business side was way too much hassle for us, and at the end we decided we got to close it.. now there's a new store called Bardo instead, our friend runs it so it stayed in the family and still keeping that local, DIY vibe it had.

What projects have you lined up?

We just finished a Snowboard design for APO. We're working on a big t-shirt collection for Ghostown, which is kind of our bigger family in Haifa, we have some art shows planned, and in the free time we try to paint outside as much as we can....

Check out more at www.brokenfingaz.com

Interview: Niall O'Brien

2011-10-15T13:47:00.000+01:00

Niall O’Brien is one of the most hardworking people you'll meet. Rough around the edges but undeniably charming, Niall grew up inIreland in the 80s, intertwined with skateboarding culture and rebellion. Yearslater, he became an assistant to the director Sam Taylor Wood, before strikingout on his own, and now has a string of accolades to his name, and ambitiousprojects under his belt – such as his large-scale video-installation projectAnger, recently debuted in Dublin.

As a photographer, his adventures have beenendless, taking him around the globe, but it was his ‘Good Rats’ project, whichis showing for the first time in New York this month, that first piqued thepublic’s interest. Living alongside the K.B.C, a group of punks from South-WestLondon, O’Brien followed the group for a number of years; the resulting imagesare intimate portraits charting the lives of this adolescents as they becamemen, revealing their lives in a way that would not have been possible withoutthe implicit trust the K.B.C shared with the photographer.

As his debut solo show opens at No.10 Gallery inNYC, we were able to pin O’Brien down to talk about his work, punk life, andcontemporary photography, before he heads off on his next adventure. Niall's "Halloween" image also happens to grace the cover of issue 2 of SIX, a new counter culture foldout zine. All images Copyright Niall.

Where do you place yourself, in terms ofcontemporary art practice? Do you consider yourself an artist, or adocumentary-maker – or neither?

Oh god… I don’t know really. I suppose I makeimages and narratives but photography is my medium. I took me along time to beable to call my self a photographer and I even feel funny saying it now. Anartist is even harder but my work is driven by ideas. I used to say I was anelectrician because it meant I didn’t have to get into anything too deep withintense people.

Are your images empathetic or voyeuristic? Is there a danger of holding up outcasts fromsociety as ‘freaks’?

I always considered the pictures to be morevoyeuristic. The empathy might come from the pictures I choose to edit, and themoments of being unaware. That is what interests me. Apart from the occasionalbrawl, the still pictures, for me, are that split second of unconstructedhonesty. I respect photography for that. Being able to capture that moment intime where there is no awareness of the camera. In order to achieve that, youhave two options: hiding in a bush or hanging around so much they forget youare there!

How did you develop such a close relationshipwith the subjects of Good Rats (the K.B,C)?

I met them 5 years ago. A friend saw one of thekids in Camden [London] and knew I wanted to make a film (Superheroes). We offered him £50 quid and he agreed to take part,and brought some friends along. I spent 2 days in all with the group and knew Ineeded to keep up the relationship. They didn’t know what to make of me forsome time.

Did they ever turn on you?

God no! The lads are good kids, hence the title.They kick ribbons out of each other in a release of energy or if they are boredbut never on me. I made a film called “Tim” which sums them up, it’s avoicemail over a portrait of Tim (the tall guy being arrested in “Arrested Tim”).The voicemail is very violent and pretty dark. I woke up to this message onemorning in Berlin, and knew I had to make this film using it. I shoot thesoftest image of him to contrast, almost contradict the voicemail. That’s how Ifeel about him and them; that they’re misread – appearances often contradictwhat’s really going on. In fact I feel pretty brave running with them.

What was the most memorable moment duringthat time?

There are so many. Each adventure was pretty epic.They knew how to have fun and make fun. Saying that, one moment that sticks outis when one of the boys told me he found out a girl he was sleeping with waspregnant. He was pretty freaked out, and in total shock. That was the day Irealized that this wasn’t just fun and there were serious repercussions. Itbecame very real that day. I have been putting down all the anecdotes over theyears with a writer to compile into a screenplay. I’m getting Tim involved too.I think he could write something pretty amazing.

You must have taken hundreds of images – howdo you make the selection?

I think the more you edit the quicker you get… Iscan contact sheets and only really go along with my gut feeling. If I questionit, it doesn’t go in. I rarely pick images that I don’t think look great overan image with a story but looks pretty bland. I guess I’ve been lucky that allthe relevant stories have the right picture to go along with them.

You’ve worked a lot with moving image,assisting some reputed directors, and collaborating on films. Your photographsare full of motion, almost never static scenes. Anger is an innovative andexciting move towards merging the two – was this a conscious, or naturalprogression for you?

In thebeginning, I got into photography in order to get into film. Then I fell inlove with taking stills. I spent my youth being told I wouldn’t amount toanything in school and then I found something I was good at. I thrived off itand didn’t think of anything else. Making film only really started 5 years agowhen I collaborated with Matt Lambert on a film called Superheroes. That was a great introduction andshowed me how it can be done. It takes along time and I still don’t think Ihave found my voice in film. I can see it developing. It took me 15 years or soto feel comfortable in photography and I look forward to finding that in myfilm work. Anger was a great opportunity to do something different.

Skate culture has forged its own canon ofphotography – how much do you feel a part of this? Why do you think theconnection has remained so strong between skateboarding and photography?

As a kid all I did was skate. The culture is rifewith creativity and I owe it a lot - it got me in a lot of mischief and troublefor sure, but I think it really carved a path for my friends and me. When inthat world you are surrounded by film, music, and art, always. Even the way youlook at buildings and how to use them is extremely creative, and this is agreat exercise for the brain. I got into photography because of it, and a lotof my friends who I used to skate with have gone on to be successful in thecreative industries. We were thinkers, we were constantly analyzing and lookingat videos, photos and graphics. It was healthy. Even getting into trouble helpsget a lot out of our systems early on.

You grew up in Ireland. What connects youpersonally with photography as a medium?

My education. I was shown how to approach a sincereimage and especially a series. It gets me down alot when I see tons of greatstreet photographers with nothing to say. There are alot of great images butjust being “cool pictures” doesn’t cut it I’m afraid (for me). I need to knowwhy you were there, what brought you there and then the aesthetic can takeover. And on the other hand shit photos with deep meaning aren’t my thingeither.

Oh and my Mum.

Is there a danger of your work becomingoverly commercialized?

I don’t think so. There are alot of art directorsout there willing to think out of the box. My first venture into the commercialworld was on the back of a personal project, and sent me over 6000 miles in theNorth West USA. The guy who commissioned me believed in my work enough to sendme off on my own and bring him back 3 images. I brought back at least 40 and heended up using 8. I’d like to think my pictures look like my pictures so thechances of you getting me to do a white backdrop Chanel Campaign are slim.

Is it harder than ever to be original as aphotographer, with the proliferation of phone apps, social media, therenaissance of Lomo photography, etc?

It is extremely easy to make something look good byputting a “Look” on the image. As I said, it doesn’t mean anything to me if youdon’t have some sort of reason. There are lots of people shooting on filmbecause they think it is better but it isn’t! It is only better if you use itto the full potential. My printer and I have been building a relationshiptogether for years. No App will ever match what Daren can do and no one willhave the relationship with their work without putting the time in. Nothing isinstant except the button on the app you bought for 1.79.

Good Rats at no. 10 is your first solo showin NYC, how did this come about?

By chance really. I was in NY and I got a call froma friend who was at an exhibition saying she wanted me to meet someone from agallery. I was near by so popped in and met Rebecca Roberts who curates theGallery. She had seen my work before and seemed excited so we met up the nextday and like that it happened. The Gallery is new and I was impressed by them.Lisa Rovner showed before me in July and I love what she does. The coming lineup is great too so it filled me with confidence. I like what MadeileneKierzstan (the owner) is doing there and the energy is great.

You spent some formative years in NYC. Whatdo you like about the scene over there, compared with London?

NY is new and exciting. That is why I’m stayinghere for 3 months this time. To see if there is any chance of ruining it!Living here might change the inspiration. In London the excitement can be lost,due to familiarity. It isn’t off the cards, I just want to keep it fresh. Ilove America and have a lot coming up which means more adventures.

Can you tell us a bit more about Anger? Iimagine you approached it in a very different way to Good Rats.

Totally, I’m obsessed with youth. All my work isabout the time of your life when nothing really matters, and yet, everythingsingle thing counts. Anger is one of many emotions youths experience, and animportant one, and I turned it into an experience for everyone. It has to beseen as an exhibition to really get the sensation we all created but it gets meexcited. I showed it in Dublin recently, and because it was the first time itblew me away. The sound design is incredible and it really evokes an uncomfortablesensation. We worked with local community actors and all of my team were intown to make it look slick. It was a great collaboration.

What else are you working on?

I’m currently trying to publish the North Westproject (Porn Hurts Everyone) and there are some interesting offers on thetable. It has been quite mad this year so I am trying to pace myself. Good Ratsis up in NYC and Anger is showing in London in March - I don’t want to pack itall into a short space. I m shooting another project in New England which I’mreally excited about. It will be with my friend Ryan who was involved in thePorn Hurts project. It involves Cheerleaders and their boyfriends. Flirting,leaning on cars trying to act cool, and once again, drinking beers.

Born in Dublin in 1979, Irish photographer andfilmmaker Niall O'Brien studied fine art photography at the renowned DunLaoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology.

Hehas exhibited widely in both Ireland, England and across the globe and has manyawards to his name, including the Irish Professional Photographer's AssociationRex Roberts Medal and the International Portfolio Review Bratislava "Top20 Portfolios". In October 2010 Niall was accepted as one of 49 artists toshow in the Singapore International Photography Festival at the Lim Hak TaiGallery, NAFA. His most recent film Anger was shown at Block T Gallery inDublin as part of the 2011 Photo Ireland Festival.

www.niallobrien.co.uk

An edited version of this interview also appears on Art Slant.

Ryan Gander, Locked Room Scenario

2011-10-04T00:36:00.001+01:00

Itis a difficult job to critique something without describing it, and it’sdifficult to describe Ryan Gander’s Locked Room Scenario without giving thegame away; and the blind experience of this project, the latest offering fromArtangel, is key to its understanding. And this is what is so wonderfullyparadoxical about Gander’s latest concoction – knowledge will ruin theexperience, but without it, you won’t be able to join up the dots.

It’sone of many interesting questions raised by thisinstallation-performance-exhibition piece, housed in the rugged Londonewcastledepot. Artangel – with projects including Turner-prize nominated Roger Hiorn’sSeizure, and Rachel Whitehead’s House – are undeniably good at this kind ofart, that engages in an wholly imaginative, original way, with its otherwiseincongruous edifice – an abandoned flat on a council estate, a disusedindustrial warehouse. Making use of these spaces, in abundance across London,is incontrovertibly something to celebrate.

WhatArtangel elicit effectively here too with Gander, is the fact that ‘public’ artcan be subtle and thought-provoking, without lowering itself to some kind ofdumbing-down, or turning into a fairground. That said, Gander’s Locked RoomScenario definitely picks up on an element of play – visitors are allowed in,in tranches of 8, for a 30 minute period, and are assigned a participatoryrole, of intruders or detectives; there is no information (unless misleading,such as an exhibition statement about a fictional group show) so that afterfeeling your way around dark corridors, attempting to open numerous lockeddoors, and peering thorough awkward peepholes onto an exhibition inside that issemi-obscured from view, you begin to search in desperation for some kind ofexplanation – picking up a discarded balled up piece of paper left disarminglyon the floor, clambering on your partner to crane a look in from an elevatedwindow. There’s a sense of being watched – a figure moving enigmatically behindthe glass of another locked door, strange youths loitering outside the entrance– but also of watching, and waiting, for something strange or terrible tohappen.

Ganderalso questions the way we view art – with his ‘meta’ exhibition, at thissealed-off, ficticious gallery, with its fake artists, we are lead tocontemplate the exhibition itself as an exhibit, and enquire into all itscontrived parts. The facile comfort with which we usually contemplate art workshanging in a gallery is turned upside down. Here we struggle and strain tocatch sight of the works, and are feel conversely compelled to discover theirmeaning. Nothing is clear, and you are not sure who’s in on it – animate orinanimate – and who’s not. Locked Room Scenario is, concisely put, consistentwith what Tom Morton calls Gander’s ‘ongoing pro-wrestling bout with thebusiness of seeing and thinking, feeling and trusting’.

Ganderopens as many doors as he locks, and there is no denouement to this preciselycoordinated ‘whodunnit’; but Gander’s Locked Room creation shakes things up inan inimitable way, and there’s something irresistible about his approach.

I won’t ruin the ending bytelling you what happens next.

Originally published on ArtSlant.

Guest blog: Anna Balecho

2011-08-01T12:22:00.006+01:00

"This is my personal favourite image - a couple friends of mine, in bed talking after a day with friends drinking and a lot of sun. My friends are used to my camera now.. it's always there with me."

"I don’t really believe there is such a thing as'contemporary' photography or painting or illustration - I believe there arecontemporary artist using different tools: there’s so much information today, everything is an influence and it all gets mixed up. I think there are a lot ofartists today and different projects going on."

"When does art become fashion? That’s a billion dollarsquestion. My guesswould be they are two different things, both I respect and admire. In a way Ibelieve some forms of Fashion are so close to Art as some forms of Photographyare to Fashion."

"My family inspire me to do better, teaching us about politics, art, the mostbeautiful places... My mother exposed me to so many forms of art, make me feellike I’m a part of everything and made us feel like we can do everything.Like everything depends on us, and only on us. Maybe because of all this my work is sopersonal, so about people, not a big conceptual thing"

"I’ve tried a lot of things, and find the photography a perfecttool to express and show what is important for me. It can be very emotional. I’ve started to photograph to keepin touch with myself, to keep the connection with the important things. And inway my work as become a journey to me, every photograph I take has been as muchabout the person who’s the subject as it as been about myself."

"Portugal is a very close-knit place and we’veso many different kinds of people, from so many different cultures. As an emerging artist it’s hard here. Our whole country has almost asmany people as London.. so you can imagine. The scene here is very closed, and basically you have to know theright people to get to the right places - being good in what you do isn’t enough -but I guess nowadays it’s like that everywhere you go."

Anna Balecho is a photographer who lives and works in Portugal.

www.annabalecho.com

Galerie 8, Hackney Hoard

2011-07-27T11:33:00.002+01:00

Galerie 8 is a dynamite new venture on the periphery ofthe media spotlight Dalston. Having hosted just one show previously, and infact still under construction (you could easily walk past the builders busily drillingand hammering outside the five storey building on Richmond Road at the end ofMartello Street), there are some significant plans in store for this sumptuousspace. Founded by a group of ex-Sotheby’s employees, their first officialexhibition, Hackney Hoard has pulled in impressive household names as Gavin Turk,and presents them alongside emerging names, such as local favourites Le Gun,and Matthew Killick.

A very neatly constructed show, Hackney Hoard perhaps makes up forits slightly underwhelming presentation with the fascinating stories each workunveils, beginning with the true story of Terence Castle, who unearthed eightygold coins while digging in a garden in Hackney in 2007. Castle himselfappears in a video interview that would not be out of place in a Guy Ritchiefilm. His story — the booty was later declared to be "Not Treasure"by officials — poses intriguing questions about the true value of objects, andabout the narratives that are inspired by them.

This exhibition has a real sense of the zeitgeistfollowing a peppering of cutting-edge galleries that have recently touched upona similar theme, such as The Agency Gallery’s recent solo show by Norwegian artistAre Blytt, The Abstraction of Barry Lyndon. Le Gun’s semi-fictionalcharacter George Melly is the collective’s answer or equivalent to BarryLyndon. Melly is the owner of the artist collective’s treasured suitcase thatwas found in the basement of their shop and headquarters, the Unknown Room. LeGun worked with the contents of this suitcase as the basis for most of the workproduced within the Unknown Room and in some respects resulted in the creationof a mysterious alter-ego who takes on an autonomous creative force of his own.

This a beautiful space with big ideas that will no doubthave a major part in shaping the rapidly expanding commercial art scene in thearea. It’s an exhibition that whets the appetite for more; in fact, the currentgallery space will soon shift into the glorious, soaring atrium, coincidentallymaking way for a restaurant.

Written for and published by Art Slant www.artslant.com

Beatrix De Souza

2011-07-15T11:51:00.000+01:00

BeatrixDe Souza runs the AgencyGallery, and is co-founder of Cartelgallery. Hugely influential on the contemporary art scene, Beatrix has oftenveiled herself in various guises of anonymity. She is one of the catalystsresponsible for the rapid growth in the arts that is regenerating culture inSouth London, and among the first gallerists to bring contemporary Norwegianartists to the UK. Distinctive for their experimental, progressive, andsomewhat punk attitude, Beatrix’s galleries have enjoyed enormous success formore than a decade. The Agency’s current exhibition is the first solo show byNorwegian painter Are Blytt.

Here Beatrix gives a rare interview and reflects onthe issues facing the art scene in our times.

Wheredid you grow up? What are your most salient early memories?

I grew up in Cologne in the early Eighties. Iremember going to an all night club watching Clockwork Orange and listening toDavid Byrne either at the same time or consecutively. Being sleazilypropositioned by Georg Baselitz and friends largely because I was female andthey had too much champagne. In the name of feminism I walked on by.

How didyou become a “gallerist”?

You could say that despite no family connections toart I grew up in an art city of world-class at the time. Galleries like EstherSchipper and Daniel Buchholz were showing then unknown LA art such as PaulMccarthy and Raymond Pettibon and also Vivienne Westwood shoes. There wasexperimentation, excitement and no pretense. I guess that set the seed ofbecoming a gallerist.

You’repretty different to most.

I run a programme-based gallery, which is involvedin producing art as much as promoting and selling it. By producing I don’t meanjust throwing money at it but much in the sense of a music producer,fine-tuning art production.

What isthe story behind the agency gallery?

I was 26, into making things happen, idealistic andintellectual and clueless at the same time. It was the time of independent artfairs and independent galleries, a kind of post-punk youth scene, whichincluded people like Maureen Paley, so I thought I would contribute my bit. Istarted with some loosely affiliated artist friends, no money and a grassrootsapproach. We opted for deconstruction and conceptual art as our preferredagenda and had a fast rise to recognition in the middle of the last recession.The gallery was defined as a business by myself a bit later, largely because oflack of funding for interesting projects such as the collaborative work Jukebox by Douglas Gordon and GrahamGussin which I put up the money for and we later sold the piece to a privatecollection. The piece made it into the Hayward gallery and the Villa Arson inNice. So it was a worthwhile kamikaze initiative. The good press, positivecurator feedback and our early international art fair participation made theAgency name quicker than I could get used to. I kind of grew up in public as agallerist and took a more serious interest in what is a complex business aswell. Today I consult on the history of conceptual galleries since the mid-Seventiesand the specific business model relating to this form of gallery. Incidentally,it was Dan Graham who started the first conceptual gallery.

Tell usabout Cartel and it’s enigmatic profile.

Cartel was an initiative initially formed to add anadhoc project to the budding gallery scene in Deptford. To set it apart fromeither my gallery model or Anthony Gross’ Old Police Station we chose to invitecurators. It emerged from the ideathat UK curators were not getting enormous support to experiment, unlike theirEuropean counterparts, so we encourage a free-spirited discourse and exhibitionformat for curators of good prior repute. We still maintain that an anonymousconsortium runs it, even though of some of the involved have by now been‘outed’. It’s not for profit, so it does not need figureheads overshadowing theachievement of the curators and their chosen artists and discourses. It isstill a very small project but one with an undoubted impact.

I think it helps that it’s ego free. It’s alsoconceptually more pure. But like any project of course it involves a lot ofpractitioners working into the wee hours donating time, art, expertise etc forfree and for the love of what should hopefully remain a rigorous project. So anoccasion a slap on the back for the anonymous crew is deserved and appreciated.We have no gagging orders.

Whatwent wrong in Shoreditch?

We were in the Shoreditch triangle for twelveyears. Nothing went wrong. It was an area that was hallmarked forgentrification; the buildings were in part given to galleries on purpose,initially in tune with the economic boom. With this desired gentrification andspeculative property buying, the artists, fashion designers and undergroundclubs began to make way for more established venues, less cool hairdressers,Starbucks, and mass boozing franchised style. Shoreditch was not as organicallygrown, as some would believe, it was always hot ground next to the square mile.It is now a well-organised area for the 15 to 40 consumers of i-tunes chartsand ‘youf’ oriented fashion and art.

In between there are pockets of excellence, whichremain, but I believe the cutting edge art scene has largely moved toWhitechapel and across the river.

South London is different in two ways. NeitherPeckham nor Deptford were driven by property concerns such as were at play inShoreditch from the outset. Peckham’s rise was charted by money from the localcouncil to make good the social blight exposed through the death of DamilolahTaylor, so in a sense to do something humanly worthwhile. As you know, blightedplaces are also the most fun to be creative in, so the seesaw of art hipsterismversus gang fights and inner-city desolation is the classical London mix. Astrong and more affluent African community will hopefully remain in Peckham,together with their most excellent food.

A similarly organic yet more grassroots story is atplay in Deptford. Declared the poorest area in Europe about 16 years ago, itdid not have a spectacular crime record, just quiet despair and deprivation,but an artistic community has been growing there without fanfares because ofits affordability. Now the amazing actors and creatives mostly own thebuildings in which they house galleries, restaurants and design offices.Therefore it is an image of much greater stability than speculation-drivenShoreditch. Of course in both cases the increased press coverage is making themmore expensive areas to live in. However the experimentation here is genuine,the need for art to fit into complex communities is greater, and the relaxeddesire to drive excellence, rather than just making the rent, creates a verydifferent atmosphere to work in. The Tate supported, Arts Council and privategalleries joint initiative of the South London Art Map being just such a casein point.

What foryou constitutes ‘good art’?

Good art for me is a work of art that can beintrinsically understood and felt by anyone, regardless of his or her backgroundand education. A good work will appeal with intellectual complexity and formalsophistication to the intelligentsia, but it will also render your local barber(sorry to all intellectual barbers) for example reflective or emotionallytouched. But such greatness does not come often. Therefore any artwork thatcomes a more than a little close to this is also good art.

Whichother galleries do you admire?

I admire different types of galleries. London: TheLisson gallery, the Pigeonwing, Alison Jacques, Anthony Reynolds, Autoitalia,South London Gallery, Form Content, Raven Row international: Paula Cooper (NewYork), Emi Fontana (Milan), Arndt and Partner (Berlin), Elizabeth Dee (NewYork), The Apartment (Athens), Bielefelder Kunstverein and many others whichare rigorous and/or adventurous in their art choices and the format of theirgallery.

Does artmake a difference?

Some art does, when it sets out to make adifference. Unfortunately all too often that difference is subsumed by internationalcultural policies - i.e our politicians highjacking culture for their own ends.I do believe art and artists as well as galleries should always be encouragedat least by their peers to try and make a difference.

How doyou feel the art scene is changing?

It is less driven by the economy and less concernedby art for consumption’s sake. Collectors/dealers such as Saatchi no longerdominate taste unquestioned. There is some really good work being made rightnow, which questions its own materiality for example, not the stuff a collectorof the spectacular will automatically pick up upon. Really hedonistic work isalso great but it always needs to be followed by a period of reflection on thebasics. Right now we are entering a period of the ephemeral and perhaps additionallynew uses of the Internet and live broadcasting. This will also appeal to adifferent type of collector. The other art genres do not fall by the waysidebut they currently make way for a lot of film, sound and performance forexample. Not unlike the 70s….

Howwould you like your galleries to be remembered?

I would like to see a time where especially inBritain not all galleries are seen as coming from and playing to the secondarymarket, but can also be understood as genuine mediators between raw artproduction and the different channels art needs to pass through in the publiceye, such as residencies, museums, as well as private collections. It would benice if both artists and collectors would appreciate more that galleries canchoose to be catalysts for art and cultural production. Such galleries need toalso be measured by their content and overall programming and not just theirreal or estimated net worth. I think that explains how a gallery should orcould be remembered.

www.theagencygallery.co.uk

Beatrix on the Culture Show, BBC http://tinyurl.com/6lbog9n

This interview was originally published in issue 1 of foldout zine SIX www.six-fold.com

Take Something Hot and Cool it Down

2011-05-23T14:25:00.000+01:00

Closing this week is the fourth solo exhibition at Timothy Taylor Gallery by acclaimed French artist Jean-Marc Bustamante. Bustamante is known for his quasi-scientific experiments in merging different artistic media, cross-fertilizing sculpture, painting and photography, Bustamante began to push his progressive way of working in the 1960s. For this exhibition at Timothy Taylor, Bustamante returns to again challenge the existing possibilities of these media, and to break down the confines of our notions and perceptions of what they should do, aesthetically and philosophically.

Take Something Hot and Cool it Down presents a stunning new series of paintings by Bustamante. Demonstrating his continuing concern with examining form, the works contained in Take Something Hot, Bustamante has embarked on a meticulous creative process. Working this time with industrial inks and plexiglass, Bustamante has refracted original watercolour sketches and drawings, reworking them digitally via a computer, before transforming them into something suggestive of sculpture through layering giving a dimensional layering of the surfaces.

Through applying this fascinating, multi-layered, technique to deconstruct expectations of what we mean by painting, sculpture, photograph, or drawing, Bustamante has created a new body of work that is visually arresting and deeply evocative. The interplay of each composition, combining the intensity of digital colours with the fluidity and authenticity of the painterly, refracted through the plexiglass transfigures further light and movement. The work beautifully conjure natural elements, mutable, rich and elusive.

This hybridization of forms of course is not exclusive only to Bustamante, but he has such a masterful way of experimenting and manipulating the creative process, of unearthing the new from the antiquated, that asserts his authority as one of the key innovators in contemporary art, a kind of mad professor, distilling something ‘hot’ and ‘cooling it down’ in his laboratory. A truly inspiring exhibition, which points to exciting new prospects for experimenting in painting in the digital era.

All images courtesy and copyright the artist and Timothy Taylor.

This review was published online at Art Slant. More stuff by me there via here:

http://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/162742-charlotte-jansen?tab=REVIEWS

Amir Mogharabi at Ibid Projects

2011-04-29T19:48:00.002+01:00

Late coming to write about this excellent show at the brilliant Ibid Projects in Hoxton Square, but with all the festivities and sunshine no-one cares anyway.

Two weeks I go I meandered around the opening of 11 Paintings, a solo exhibition by Amir Mogharabi, a 29 yro Iranian born artist with about a million degrees from some of the world's top universities. Clearly, then, a vaguely comprehensible but basically obsolete press release that doesn't do much to decipher the show for its no brow viewers.

This aside, the art itself is an intriguing and fluid course of installations and paintings, making perfect use of Ibid's borderline derelict space, with its flagrant disregard for health&safety (as one Ibid employe exclaimed with glee, "we have some walls now"). You feel like an archaeologist.

Where Mogharabi's pretentiousness repels in one way, he certainly makes up for in aesthetic. Minimalist works embrace walls and floors, minutely crafted with precise attention to colour and structure, so that the overall effect is enthralling and pure. Quite beautiful, in sum.

Ibid's roof, in contrast to the gallery, is a manicured and decked affair, overlooking Hoxton Square, and above their cosy office on the top floor. So are they more concerned with spending their money on making the roof good for sunbathing? Or is the rough interior part of their game plan? I hope it will stay the way it is inside.

Here are some pictures of the work. All courtesy Ibid Projects and the artist. So thank you to them. Forgive this haywire post, the last two weeks have been a blur. But everyone should definitely check out Ibid Projects, no matter how tawdry my words might be.

Amir Mogharabi

1, 2011
acrylic, oil-based enamel, opalescent acrylic on canvas
122 x 91 cms

Installation view

11 Paintings, IBID PROJECTS, London

Installation view

11 Paintings, IBID PROJECTS, London

Installation view

11 Paintings, IBID PROJECTS, London

Interview with Roger Ballen

2011-03-31T10:58:00.000+01:00

I felt privileged when Roger Ballen responded to my request to interview him. An American friend first showed me his work. I was instantly awe-struck. Truly unique, Roger Ballen's work is hypnotic, weird, fantastical and, ultimately, beautiful. Like a brilliantly imaginative nightmare. His answers came in a timely manner, in the week that the Richard Prince/Gagosian controversy has exploded in the media. I don't like Prince, and I don't agree with profiteering with brazen disregard and disrespect for the work and livelihood of others.

Inadvertently though, it would appear I'm showing that the Gagosian does have some truly valuble, original artists on their roster, like Ballen.

A lot has been said about the 'horror vacui' - the way you use negativespace in your images. What I enjoy about your work, and I am sure a lot ofpeople are struck by, is the flagrant presence of constructed reality, where alot of photographers instead attempt to tell a 'truth'. How do you feel about the role of photography now?

Every timeone takes a photograph one is documenting something. The fundamental issue ultimatelyfor me is the depth of meaning that an image expresses and whether the photographbecomes lodged in my mind. I am not very concerned about whether the image is truthfulor not, as all photography is ultimately subjective in nature.

Your pictures have been described as 'painterly' - on first sight, you think what you're looking at is a sculpture, oreven an illustration. How do you construct your pictures? What materials do you use? How do you comeup with these scenarios of objects and people?

I never thinkabout what type of image that I would like to create before I arrive at a locationto take a photograph.

My photographsover the past ten years have been interactive in nature, developing one step at a time. The scenarios that define “The RogerBallen Aesthetic” occur through working with the people, animals and the objectsof the places that I photograph in.

Most importantlyphotography is about catching instant that cannot be repeated. This moment almostalways evolves spontaneously.

My photographsare the result of the way that I conceptualize ‘photographic reality’and my images consist of thousands of parts that have been transformed through myconscious and subconscious mind.

You come from a family of photographers - how much has this influenced orinformed your work?

I boughtmy first camera when I was thirteen. By that stage, in the early sixties, my motherhad been working for Magnum for some years. Through her conversation, and particularlyher collecting, I was exposed to work of many photographers-some of them now consideredhistorically important. In this milieu there was a complete belief in the valueof photography; and in particular in its ability to capture and convey meaning ina socio-documentary context.

What is the story behind the Platteland twins image?

I was drivingaround a town in the Western Transvaal in 1993with my wife and children looking for photographs. Upon turning into a street, Inoticed what I believed to be an interesting subject working in the garden. I stoppedand asked Dresie if I could photograph him. He walked to the verandah of his wherehis mother and sister were sitting. I asked them for permission to photograph Dresie.As I lifted my camera to photograph Dresie against the verandah wall, a shadow appearedfrom behind. As I turned my head Dresie’s twin brother Casie appeared. Hisshirt was clean, as unlike Dresie, he worked inside the house.

What is the most important thing you've learnt through your art?

The purposeof my art has always been primarily to learn more about myself. This is a processthat continues every day of my life.

Which of your images was the most challenging to execute?

Every photographthat I have taken has been a challenge. As my photographs have become more complexthey become increasingly challenging to more execute. It is like a juggler usingbalancing more balls as he becomes more proficient. “It never gets easier”.

Your work has been well received and exhibited in countries that are culturally very diverse. What do you think it is about your photographs that speaksto so many people in such different places? Was this ever something youset out to do? Or does art always begin as an egocentric pursuit?

I have beenpassionate about taking photographs for nearly fifty years. Up to fifteen yearsago my photographs were primarily taken for myself and I saw it as a hobbyrather than profession. I certainly did not see myself as an artist.

Myphotographs are ultimately psychological in nature and can be elucidatedthrough an understanding of Jungian psychology. Many people comment that myimages are ‘dark.’ For me the dark side has always been a source oflight and energy. I often mention to people that that one cannot find lightwithout knowing the dark.

All images copyright Roger Ballen.

Roger has exhibitions lined up all over. This year, he'll be exhibiting in Italy, Germany, Russia, Denmark and Holland in Europe. Already penciled in my imaginary 2k12 diary are shows at Manchester Art Museum (yes, UK!) and Fotografiska in Stockholm, (I can not envisage any exhibition I would want to see more than Roger Ballen at Fotografiska).

I'm off to read Jung.

http://www.rogerballen.com/

Prageeth Eknaligoda

2011-03-26T20:50:00.002Z

Prageeth Eknaligoda was a renowned and talented journalist and cartoonist. He disappeared a year ago after leaving work on January 4th, 2010, in Colombo, Sri Lanka - and has not been seen since - despite the relentless efforts of his wife Sandya and his son who have committed their lives to finding Prageeth, launching campaigns and working with media and human rights groups around the world. Their story may tragically never be resolved, but Sandya has undoubtedly done a huge amount for raising awareness on an international level about the intrinsic problems with human rights in Sri Lanka, and more widely, questions the relationship between art and politics.

The Sri Lanka government has come under fire for not issuing a thorough investigation into Prageeth's disappearance, and it is widely speculated that he was abducted for political reasons - his cartoons were critical of the government, aligning more with the views of the opposition party the JVP. The Sri Lankan government has a long history of media harassment, indeed Prageeth had been abducted and released previous to his disappearance last year. Dozens of Sri Lankan journalists are now living in exile.

Prageeth's drawings have a laconic kind of beauty; perhaps it's projecting what I know onto what I see, and is therefore being too reductive in doing so, but they seem to be full of sadness of being restrained, at unable to explore his own boundaries as an artist.

Because of this devastating story, Sandya Eknaligoda finds herself now catapaulted into the spotlight of the Sri Lankan media. She was just recovering from illness when I contacted her via the group Journalists For Democracy in Sri Lanka, and she had to painstakingly translate her answers from Sinhala, but I eventually received these fascinating insights into Prageeth's life and work.

How did Prageeth begin working as a political cartoonist?

At the beginning, Prageeth worked as agraphic artist in a advertising firm. Then he started working for magazines andjournals. While he was producing cartoons and art he continued to engage toengage in writing on daily basis. He has produced many journalistic pieces andsome have been published posthumously. In 1994 Prageeth joined Lake House, agovernment-owned leading newspaper establishment, as a cartoonist and workedtherein for sometime. In 2006 Prageeth joined Lanka e-news. Prageeth is aperson with many talents – he was painting and making sculptures too.

What do you find most important about his work?

I mostly appreciate character of Prageeth: the man who lived inside him. To me there are two prominent characteristics inhim: 1) kindness and love for the people; he even look back with compassion onthe people who intimidated and dispossessed him. 2) sharp cosmopolitan thinkingand straightforwardness in action. He possessed a very good power of memory entwined with clarity. Mostlyhe was with the capacity to convince the other. He is special.

What inspired Prageeth?

His love for democratic practices and ideasis immense. I am saying this because he drew cartoons mostly during the periodof democracy at peril in Sri Lanka. For instance, during the period covering 1987 - 1989 he was endangeringhimself by providing casting a veil over so many personalities who were facing thewitch-hunt of the government then in power.

How did his work continue under the Rajapakse regime?

When Rajapakse regime started to burydemocratic practices and norms systematically, when it started to treat the ethnicissue in hegemonic manner, Prageeth started to express his vehement opposition.He believed that democratic federal solution is the only way to resolve ethniccrisis in the North and East provinces. When the war and brutal killing startedin North and East in 2008, he was openly saying that chemical weapons wereusing against the Tamil people and he has found evidence to prove it.

What do you believe was the most powerful thing about his work?

In 2009, Prageeth was kidnapped by a group of undercover people whocame in a white van; but he was released on the following day. He was boldenough to write about this torturous drama in detail and publish. it Knowing thathis phone lines were tapped, and that he was bring followed by plain-clothed policemen, he engagedin his day to day work cautiously and tactfully. During Presidential election campaignhe worked for General Fonseca.

How can people here help with your campaign?

Your organization and you can make the SriLankan government accountable for this heinous act and interrogate them - interrogate them about Prageeth and his disappearance. I intend to organize anExhibition of Cartoons in the near future. At present, I have been sacked frommy job. I am bounded with debts. I need to continue in this struggle, and anything anyone around the world can do to help, is a blessing.

Read more about Prageeth and Sandya's campaign at
http://www.jdslanka.org/2010/05/prageeths-only-crime-was-to-tell-truth.html

More of Prageeth's work can be seen at
http://prageethranjan.blogspot.com/p/cave-paintings.html

Artch.

2011-02-25T20:27:00.000Z

There's been lots of talk about Martin Creed, Cindy Sherman, Susan Hiller, Larry Clark, Haroon Mizra and John Stezaker in the past weeks, but I'll leave that to the experts and continue to go on about things that people don't seem to care much about.

Artch held a night of performance art last night, beguilingly entitled 'Emic/Etic'. It's an interesting new alternative arts space, with a clumsy name - located down a dark alley, inside an railway arch next to Bethnal Green station. Underground both physically and metaphorically, it's one of those damp hideouts, interior dressed like a squat - you know the drill, that is quietly contributing to the amateur art scene. With some of the more established alternative spaces dedicated to performance disappearing - Shunt's London Bridge venue being one of the sad loses - London needs more of these kind of flexible, open to all places where artists of all ilks can take to the stage.

Of course, this also means that you get a lot of crap art indeed.

Emi/Etic is described somewhat obtusely as 'a night of ritual based visual art and performance; from religious metaphor to community celebration. A loosely conjured concoction of tradition and ceremony that manifest in the individual, group action and destruction. The insider 'emic' performer uses 'ritual' as a term acknowledging that this activity can be seen as irrational/illogical by the uninitiated onlooker [the etic]'. Certainly had ambitious aims.

There were definite moments of beauty - a play by Emile Bojesen and favourite of this blog, JMF Casey, blended gorgeous live viola and guitar, voice recordings, auspicious thundering trains passing overhead; and was steeped in rich, dark, gothic mysticism - territory that these two feel most comfortable in. The short performance follows the torments, tortures and pharmaceutical experiments of Dr Voynitsky, and an outlawed pastor, his correspondent. Just when it began to take itself too seriously - erupting to the sounds of LL Cool J's "I Can't Live Without My Radio" - an excuse for Casey to show off his remarkable dance moves, I thought. But the duo explained that this ending, picking up the title of the song, represents both the undeviating obsession with the character's own ideas - something they can't live without - and therefore, miss the 'truth' about their own existence, and simultaneously plays with Nietzsche's idea of treating serious problems with a light heart. As Casey puts it 'also that tune is snappy as fuck!'

However, if you have a voice that lacks passion and you don't have a natural propensity for talking in public, it's probably best if you keep away from it - the first two performances, readings of short prosaic pieces, may have been beautifully written, but I am not sure, because the flat monotone voice made me drift off completely. It reminded me of a performance art night at Oxford, where a brilliant dinner lady-man from the college, with a severe speech impediment, used to come every month and read the most heartbreaking and hilarious poems of unrequited love you've ever heard. It's those kind of unexpected treats that were missing from this night, huddled in coats, breathing in smells of pizza, incense and damp rot.

Not to belittle the evening, I doubt they were aiming for criticism, and the important thing is that people keep organising things like this. Some would surely have scoffed at its seeming pretentiousness, but its encouraging to see art taking place because people want to do it for themselves and each other, not for critics or fame or fashion.

The night ended with a giant pinata, that I had previously thought was an amazing lampshade, being battered by blindfolded participants from the crowd. Kind of like watching the end of a party, where a few mates have gotten too drunk and start doing silly things. I gathered up a couple of chocolate eclairs from the floor and ate them on the bus home - they tasted like (I imagine) cyanide would taste. That really would have been an experimental performance - slightly poison those in the crowd greedy enough to eat freebie sweets.

http://artch.org.uk/

Adam's Return

2011-01-24T11:39:00.002Z

Guest blogger and photographer Adam Ianniello has returned to New York from Argentina where he spent the past 4 months, splitting time between living with family and working a day job in Buenos Aires, and lone adventures into the barren countryside in the north of the country. In his last post, Ianniello spoke of the chaos and corruption of the capital, of strikes, daylight murder and the ceiling of a nightclub caving in, crushing the youths who were dancing below.

This particular series of photographs was taken on one of his trips out of the city on horseback. Adam explains this beautiful series, images that are universal and inspiring, but also imbued with a deeply personal resonance for the photographer - realised during a journey of introspection, soul-searching and self-discovery - in his own elegant words.

Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 7:43 AM

Shot over the course of 4 days in the northwest of Argentina near the cusp of the Andes, these images serve as documentation of my coming-of-age enlightenment. This moment of clarity I speak of emanates from nature's uncontrollable energy, and the human desire to control, yet being fearful of new experience. The restless movements of the horse along long stretches of uninhabited landscape, up into my sedentary body, afforded me an elevated view of space. My senses and mind were amplified. Up until now, the life I have lived has been banal and confined, and this voyage was a response, a rebellion from modern mechanical travel and its detachment to nature.

Every moment spent crossing the mountain ranges were both painful and enthralling for my mind. Winding trails only wide enough for the horses legs. With one missed step, I am unable to hold back thoughts of forthcoming death. The world 3,000 meters up is breathtaking, there was no time for my mind to wonder. I become instinctive leaving little room for miscellaneous thought.

The reverse happened when I reached the desert. Hours cease as time divides into day and night. Light and dry heat are at maximum levels , and the never ending horizon switches to my primitive being.

I see a worn out plastic bottle lying alongside a cactus, what profound significance this synthetic object left in me - I spent hours thinking about the story behind the bottle, its owner, his travels. If this same bottle was lying in the gutter on a sidewalk, I wouldn't bat an eye. The desert breeds delirium and repetitive thought.

See more of Adam's words and pictures at www.andthentheysaw.com

Interview: Gustavo Ortiz

2011-01-12T15:37:00.005Z

I met Gustavo Ortiz when I was working as a performing monkey slash debt-collector at the Old Truman Brewery where he has a weekly stall at the Brick Lane empire's Backyard market. I bumped into him again, now almost a year later, buying a Christmas present for my Dad from his stall. As soon as I have so money in my pocket I'll go and buy as many more as I can afford. Ortiz is a gentle character, and modest about his art, one of those grassroots, unpretentious artists, fashioning his wares and bringing them direct to the people. If the government aren't going to be funding artists, then I can't think of a better way to do it than that.

Argentinian-born Ortiz, who is now based in London, has work at Pure Evil in Old Street, and Carre D'artistes in you're in Paris; Aesthetica magazine notes him as 'one of Argentina's rising stars'. His works are a delicate mix of craft and fine art, collages that seem like paintings, beautifully constructed and mounted in a way that makes them seem like they are part of the wood that carries them. The hybrid nature of Ortiz's work epitomizes, for me, having never been there in my life, the South American spirit.

Here some words he kindly sent me about his work. (And some pictures of it).

How much do you feel yourself connected to Argentina as an artist? What was your life there like and how is it different as a practising artist in London?

I feel a strong connection to the Latinculture - Argentina is just a small part of it - I feel a bond rather with SouthAmerica as a whole, and the history that we all share, mythology, folkloreand the European influence; after all we are a nation that was made by themigration from Europe. That said, since I have been living in the UK, myvoice as an artist is shifting to a more personal, individual language. I think that latelyI am talking more about me, rather than where I come from.

I was born in Patagonia, Argentina, and there is always something reflected in the way that I manage the compositionin my pieces about that place - it’s the way that the raw landscape influenced me, the flatnessof the land, something that I hated when I was living there, it’s one of thethings that I now miss the most, and it’s something that always shows in the barren backgrounds of my work.

One of the big differences of been anartist in Argentina versus in the UK, is the feeling that inArgentina I hit a ceiling and I wouldn’t go any further. The feeling of the things that you canaccomplish in the UK is limitless, and there is a sensation that you cango further because you can find a myriad of different people, some who might becomeinterested in what you are doing.

How long does each piece take to complete? What is your method?

I work fundamentally with collage, from thebackground to the details. I do include some details of painting, with part ofthe papers being coloured by me with watercolour paint, or some ink details,and finally I use a dark wax to tarnish the paper and make it look older, whichgives the work the feeling of being a painting. Each piece can take from a day to a coupleof weeks depending more in the level of complexity that in the size of the work.

Your art seems to have more in common with traditional craftsmanship and aesthetic, a kind of art produced to inspire and be admired, rather than to challenge our perceptions of the world - do you believe this is true?

I do think that my work is extremely tied to traditional concept of making something with your hands, andin a way satisfy my impulse of labour. If it challenges somebody’s perceptionof the world, it is just a result of the communication that is awakened whenyou do something that is going to be exhibited and analyzed.

From the feedback that I have from people,they always relate my work to things that they experience or that they know,and I think that is the way I enjoy other artists work, I just look for someelements that I can associate with my universe, I think if I can provide thoseelements to anybody the purpose of my art is part fulfilled.

Top Ten 10

2010-12-23T11:07:00.004Z

Everyone else seems to be compiling lists of the best exhibitions/books/albums/cats of the year, so I thought I might as well join in. Besides, I am virtually the only person in the office and there's not much else to do. Due to my long-term memory being fairly poor, I am keeping it to my ten personal favourite shows of this year. Looking back I realise what a great year it has been for art, the end of another decade, exploring with amateur eyes so many new venues and artists, in the company of many kinds of people. Art for me is about the experience, entertaining ideas, sparking the imagination, and trying to see the world as a better place. Before I overdose on saccharine and wistful generalisations, here is my top ten '10. In a random order.

- Pop Life, Tate Modern

The first exhibition I went to this year, it certainly warmed your cockles in the deep winter chill. Perhaps more aptly renamed 'Pop Sex' (in fact Philips de Pury ran an auction and exhibition entitled simply 'Sex' a month or two later) Pop Life was a Pop Art extravaganza, pumped with colour, steroids and erotica. Certainly a good way to kick start the post-Christmas diet.

- Sea Stories, Calvert 22

The artist Alexander Ponomarev's presence at the opening of this fascinating underwater artistic adventure really made the exhibition come to life for me. Effervescent as the champagne which flowed freely, even in English that was more or less limited to two words, Ponomarev journey to becoming an artist and his installations, video and paintings are quite unique. Calvert 22 is dedicated to emerging Russian Art and it's incongrous location in the heart of Shoreditch only adds to its mix-it-up charm. You can read a review I wrote of the show at Art Wednesday here http://artwednesday.com/2010/10/06/sea-stories/.

Just be prepared for a hangover the day after an opening here.

- God Is In The Details, Primo Alonso

A good hangover cure, however, was this delightful exhibition at Primo Alonso, a tiny gallery on Hackney Road. Charming pieces all centred around miniaturised detail, from oil painting to installation. I also reviewed this for Art Slant, if you're interested http://www.artslant.com/lon/articles/show/20388

- The Real Van Gogh, Royal Academy

I didn't think much to Van Gogh before this exhibition, but a friend offered to take me along (I had to pretend to be his 60 year old Japanese Mother) and it was warm out. The way the letters were seemlessly interwoven with the paintings, which are truly breathtaking in the flesh, made me reconsider. Even with the shuffling crowds that flood the RA, and despite being a very 2 dimensional, traditional show, the work and words of the master still have an irresistible allure. Captivating.

- Exposed, Tate Modern

The first major photography show to be held in a mainstream UK gallery, this definitely deserves a mention in all top tens. Something for everyone - even the cynics - in this umbrella show that charted the fascinating shifts in photography since it's beginnings. Its remarkable how far the medium has come, and how evocative it can be.

- Brion Gysin, New Museum, New York

Preternaturally youthful, utopian, dreamlike, obtuse, polymath.. All of these could describe Brion Gysin and his work. The New Museum crammed a floor with over 300 works by this truly original and brilliant artist, and will no doubt have inspired a new generation of precocious and angst-ridden hipsters on the Lower East Side.

- Bare Bones Issue #5 at Red Gallery

Back in London hipsters age well, and I am not only including this exhibition for the high volume of handsome characters in attendance at the opening. A genuinely grassroots show, refreshingly built from the bottom up, interactive and interdisciplinary without trying, the artists all pitching in and hanging their own work, long may the work of Bare Bones continue. Exciting things are yet to come from the collective.

- Hanako Clulow at Beaucatcher

Where else can you get a haircut and see an exhibition at the same time? Beaucatcher in Stoke Newington is turning itself into a gallery-cum-salon and supporting local illustrator Hanako Clulow, who's bright childlike illustrations adorn the walls. The exhibition is still running.

- Sandy Skoglund, Fotografiska, Stockholm

Revolting, intriguing and innovative in equal measure, this was one of my favourite discoveries of the year, in the beautiful setting of Stockholm's Fotografiska. Loud and audacious, this kind of photography won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it is mine. And a lot of other people's.

- Kultur im Heim / Restraum fur Alle GalerieWeisser Elefant, Berlin

Beyond charming, just thinking about this installation, a recreation of GDR living room and holiday home, brings a smile to my face. If all artists were as philanthropic as Meggie Schneider the world would certainly be a better place.

Thanks for putting up with my typos and ramblings for an entire year. More in 2011.

Unless the world ends, rendering this whole exercise entirely pointless anyway.

Ps.

I can't believe it's 2010 and they still haven't invented a way to travel back in time. If this was possible, these are shows I missed that I wish I hadn't. I guess I am getting really into this list thing.

Christian Marclay, The Clock at White Cube

Something about White Cube makes my stomach muscles clench, but the insanity of Marclay's live piece has an undeniable appeal. More art should be dedicated to extended acts of near-torture.

Frieze 2010

Well, I say I wish I had gone, I still don't really, but I do love the magazine.

Marina Abramović at Lisson Gallery

The Lisson's chintzy showroom vibe is not very compelling to the ordinary citizen such as myself, but something about Abramović's work really is.

Russian Criminal Tattoo at 4 Wilkes Street

I like Russians a lot and I also like tattoos a lot.

Lilah Flower and Dan Miller at Cartel

I am persistently bad at going to anything that takes me south of the river, still, but Cartel are friendly cooperative and have a consistently good line-up of shows on. Must try harder to muster the energy / courage to get down to Deptford.

Bare Bones #5

2010-11-25T12:48:00.007Z

As the nights draw in and turn colder I'm becoming more sluggish and am tardy in getting to this, the launch of issue 5 of Bare Bones a tongue-in-cheek politico-arts paper published collectively by open submission, with the support of contributors who have produced work for Le Gun. among others. Bringing together the artists in the publication the show at the Red Gallery, which closes on November 26th, is nothing short of awesome. These people know dynamic, humorous art, and it comes direct from the artists. It's grassroots art and good for the soul.

Taking over the Red Gallery on Shoreditch's Rivington Street, Bare Bones packed out the space with art and well-wishing types, creating the nicest atmosphere at any art opening i've been to in a long time. 'The Xerox Cult' had created a shrine, a pyramid containing a photocopier and dictaphones, projectors and screens played films by featured artist Robert Rubbish and the incredibly talented filmmaker Matt Lambert.

Downstairs an amazing basement smelling of rat-urine pumped out more projections of the published artists - JMF Casey included - and a mishmash of music by an undeterred and friendly DJ. Check out their great blog for images of the opening.

http://quarterlybarebones.blogspot.com/

http://www.ourbarebones.com/

Nottingham Contemporary: British Art Show 7

2010-11-24T16:08:00.001Z

Slightly reluctantly do I write about the British Art Show 7: In the Days of the Comet, which started its tour (next stop, Plymouth) at Nottingham Contemporary. I don't want to start engaging too actively with debates pursued by the mainstream arts press - that would be treading on dangerous ground since i'm seriously underqualified. The show is being pitted salaciously by the media against Saatchi's simultaneous show, Newspeak. On this occasion it certainly seems worth supporting the British Art Show's cause, since it is a more realistic portrayal of what's going on in contemporary British Art. Not that I've seen the Saatchi show, but the fact he excludes video for one seems fairly reductive - especially given the highly effective use of it in the BAS7, including a piece which recreates the inside of a panic attack - heady, intense, and mimetic. Performance and sound are also important parts of the triparte structure. A complicated and fascinating technical sound installation was one of the first things to grab our attention; eliciting the mystifying beauty of the inanimate brought to life by human hands and left to work alone.

Sadly, and despite picking up the booklet, the works were not very clearly attributed, and despite combing the site I'm not sure who these two pieces were by. Then again, my scientist friend and I were experimenting with intoxication as we adventured off around Nottingham Contemporary's third of the show after sunset, so we probably wouldn't have paid much attention to the names if they had been there.

One name I did pick up was Wolfgang Tillman, whose whopping inkjet print is one of the most visually impactful pieces at the Nottingham Contemporary space; it has a multidimensional effect on viewing that makes you exhale deeply. The work on display at the Contemporary on the whole had a forceful effect on the senses; eyes, ears, lungs and hearts are put through a not-unpleasant gauntlet.

39 artists were invited to exhibit in the show, intended as a comprehensive survey of the past 5 years of British art. It's certainly captured some of the artists of the moment; Christian Marclay, The Otholith Group, Haroon Mizra and Sarah Lucas all appear. But aren't we obsessed with surveys and documents. Still, this show is tightly constructed and the works on display take in the full gamut of media. It creates a rich and fluid texture of British Art that's really appealing and inviting, and especially good seen outside of London's jaded gallery scene. (Though it will return there of course, eventually).

(The gallery didn't reply to my email asking for images, so if the ones above aren't copyrighted, sorry).

http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/

Sandy Skoglund at Fotografiska

2010-10-28T10:46:00.002+01:00

Fotografiska is dedicated to bringing contemporary and international photographers to the Swedish crowds. It benefits from a gorgeous setting, in an old industrial Art Nouveau building, right beside the water on one side, and to the other a rough-edged cliff. The museum gets packed out with locals, and the sun bounces off the waves on the water and reflects through the huge windows.

In the cave-like darkness of the ground floor space was American of Swedish-descent Sandy Skoglund's The Artificial Mirror. This exhibition, with pieces from the late '80s - early '90s, represents a new era of interdisciplinary art. Of recent exhibitions, none have so brazenly challenged the idea of what constitutes photography as a medium, and what its enterprise is. There is a tangible and almost repulsive quality to Skoglund's images, which take the artificial and push it to the extreme, in a lurid palette of everyday items - humans and animals all become vile asburdities. Skoglund's meticulously constructed installations recall suburban middle-class environments. These installations are then photographed with a large-format camera. This was the kind of art I'd hoped to see in Sweden.

http://en.fotografiska.eu/

http://www.sandyskoglund.com/

New pages from a cut-up collaboration with JMFC

2010-10-28T10:29:00.000+01:00

Stockholm, Moderna Musset

2010-10-26T14:17:00.002+01:00

I escaped Frieze for cold and sunny Stockholm. Though it seems regressive to be trying to write about art and not be going to Frieze, or so they'd have you believe, it was nice to detach from allthe critical information and opinion we are bombarded with and know nothing about what I was seeing at all. Nobody really knows any better than the next. Everything is subjective, after all, and people care too much what other people think. You could also call it laziness. Or ignorance. Anyway, pseudo-manifesto of criticism aside, this is part 1 of Stockholm.

Stockholm, Moderna Musset

Moderna Musset holds undoubtedly one of the most important permanent collections of modern art in Europe, if not the world. Its setting and architecture are sublime, on one of the small islands of the archipelago that makes up the Swedish capital, nestled among trees laden with autumnal leaves, and sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle.

The Stockholm musset's comprehensive and international survey includes: Francis Picabia, Man Ray (every exhibition across Europe - trying to tell us something?) Picasso's Guitar Player, Woman with Blue Collar, Dali's The Enigma of William Tell, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Vladmir Tatlin, Le Corbusier, Eric Grate's Frappkinstukfioneri Hamnstad, Matisse, Munch's Girl at the Bedside, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Miro, Kadinsky, Max Ernst (nestled comfortably next to Man-Ray, nothing original there) Fritz Lang, Leger...It's impressive.

Moderna Musset's current major exhibition, Moderna 2010, which takes place very four years is one of the most esoteric, and desultory exhibitions I've seen. Touted as an overview of contemporary Swedish art, it features works by artists, deemed to have made a significant impact on the country's contemporary scene. To be fair, the haphazard approach is justified quite fairly by the 'curators': [Moderna 2010] 'does not have one single theme, nor does it propose that there is any technique or style that defines the current art scene. Instead, the exhibition highlights mutually enhancing disparities and gives viewers examples of what relevant artistic work can involve today'.

Viewing it is like having your head emptied out. But it stays empty at the end. I'm not sure if this is a problem or not. Among the works in various media traversing varying themes, from the ludicrous and the eccentric to the downright nonsensical, almost giving up on contemporary Swedish art, we came across an outbuilding housing two video installations, by native Swede Nathalie Djurberg - Snakes Know Its Yoga and Untitled.

Nathalie Djurberg
Stills from Untitled, 2010
Clay animation, digital video
6:05
Edition of 4
Music by Hans Berg
Courtesy of Zach Feuer Gallery, New York and Giò Marconi, Milan

Hans Berg's captivating musical accompaniment is particularly successful in bringing the sentiment of the visuals come alive, transporting Djurberg's weirdly wonderful clay animations of naked protagonists engaged in complex trysts with reptiles and amphibians,to new planes of anguish and euphoria.

Nathalie Djurberg
Stills from Snakes know it's yoga, 2010
Clay animation, digital video
6:30
Edition of 4
Music by Hans Berg
Courtesy of Zach Feuer Gallery, New York and Giò Marconi, Milan

http://www.modernamuseet.se/

http://zachfeuer.com/artists/nathalie-djurberg/

Matthias Tharang

2010-10-05T16:21:00.003+01:00

I came across Matthias Tharang's Per Astera Ad Astra #2 at the Whitechapel Gallery's second annual London Art Book Fair - the first time the German artist has shown in the UK. Tharang was born in Dresden in 1980, and has exhibited almost exclusively in Switzerland and Holland, where he was also educated.

His sound sculpture / book installation is about as eccentric as they come. Anything blown up to giant proportions is always strangely compelling, perhaps because it makes you feel like a borrower - and the concept of the piece is also quite fascinating - 'a collection of phone numbers of the 193 recognized governments in the world, bound in an A0 telephone book, and accompanied by a sound installation of recordings of each government‘s reaction to the playing of martial music.'

I ended up perusing Tharang's website, http://www.matthiastharang.com. His work is just really - for want of a better word - cool. He works with bugs and mirror balls, cardboard and wood, film and fog. They are incisive and outre. I hope he comes over to London again soon with more.

Cut-up project

2010-10-04T12:59:00.000+01:00

Josef Koudelka, Buenos Aires

2010-09-20T11:15:00.003+01:00

As we're all aware, Monday mornings are the toughest thing you can face as a human being, employed or not, depressed or not. Waking up to Adam's latest update from Argentina helped me get out of bed today. Here is an extract of his enchanting correspondence, and some photographs he took at a Josef Koudelka exhibition.

date		Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 2:04 AM
subject		Re:

I stumbled upon a gallery exhibit by one of my favorite documentary/surrealist photographers, Josef Koudelka. This was a collection of photos he took during the invasion of Prague in 1968 by the soviets. It was his first attempt at documentary photography and he shot some amazing images in those few days. The rolls of film were then smuggled out of Prague and sent to Henri Cartier-Bresson at Magnum, who published them under a fake name. Koudelka wasnt recognized for taking them until 5 years after.

I have also made a friendship with an aspiring young painter, her name is Josephine Capelle and she is leaving in a week for a liberal arts scholarship in Berlin. Her website is www.bondinauta.com.ar and even though she is sort of a novice when it comes to material, she is in love with Edward Hopper and paints from photos she alters in photoshop.

Two nights at Lex Braes' Studio

2010-09-11T13:13:00.000+01:00

Overheating and hazy by mid-week I accompanied my chic-er than I friend to Lex Braes' studio. Hangovers in New York in the summertime are bad, but were soothed at Lex's dreamlike studio in an old industrial building in Brooklyn (the absolute archetype of an artist's abode, metal doors, massive windows). Near York Street, not far from the river, we sat at the banquet table drinking water, (and later tea, wine, and beer) and waxed lyrical on the current state of art, philosophy, and cats.

At Lex's studio

Lex left his native Glasgow in the 70s, and has resided in NY since, journeying back and forth from Europe where he frequently shows, in particular in Germany. He told us harrowing stories of his past, and showed us his paintings, which for him are a compulsion paramount for existing, rather than a job. My knowledge of painters is sparse but Lex's methods draw attention to the interaction colour and light, like all good painters should.

His abstract works are a dialogue between tones of colour and shape, almost trompe d'oeil. They are a deeply personal exploration of internal anxieties and pain, but to look at them, you see soaring optimism and hope for the future. His series of paintings Flora of his now 10-year-old daughter were for me the most accessible, and possess a beguiling kind of beauty.

Lex's passion is infectious and inspirational, and New York has really worked for him - he has exhibited across the city for more than 30 years.

Flora no.4, 2006

Aforementioned chic friend's charms led to the extremely generous donation of aforementioned studio to yours truly for the remaining weekend of my stay, as Lex left the hot city for Europe. The gauzy sunlight bathes the piles of books, canvases, paintbrushes, assorted battered and comfortable chairs, in warm tones that change throughout the day and induce a kind of euphoria. Lex also has the best kitchen equipment and a fantastic shower. I didn't want to leave.

Ed Templeton at the ICP

2010-09-09T15:04:00.001+01:00

Lots of free gallery happenings on the first Friday of the month in NYC. From the hectic bedlam of MoMA we pottered down 6th Ave to the International Centre of Photography, an unassuming space. On this occasion you could pay a donation for your ticket, which is always awkward. (Plumped for 5 dollars, it was Friday at the end of my holiday).

The space is split into two levels with a pleasant flow. On the ground floor Perspectives 2010, featuring works by five artists, running until September 12th, focuses on film, photography, and digital art that is concerned with defining and capturing the social, political and philosophical issues key to our times.

Ed Templeton's photographic mural of photographs absorbed the most attention, and rightly so. Templeton, a professional skateboarder and artist working in several media, paved the way for the proliferation of bold, evocative, photography documenting urban scenes which floods the pages of hipster magazines nowadays.

Top and bottom images, copyright Ed Templeton

*Middle copyright Deanna Templeton (see comments below)

His images are as gripping - portraits and scenes from his travels and everyday life - but not usual kind of everyday life, as his includes bleeding genitals, kids with guns, violence and adolescent sex. It's a pictorial language that has now been over-exposed and manipulated, but Templeton's originals are still shocking, galvanising and charismatic in equal measure.

New York, New Museum

2010-09-09T14:34:00.002+01:00

When I last had some money, I spent it on flights back to New York, and finally last week the time came around to go again. This time was much hotter, and lead to as much adventure and mishap as only New York can - mainly via lethal-sized shots that would surely be illegal in the UK.

My first productive venture was to the New Museum on a sweltering Wednesday afternoon. The air-conditioning was a draw enough in itself, but I'd been hearing a lot about this place on Bowery emblazoned with cartoonish letters on its facade 'HELL YEAH'. How American.

The New is everything its name would suggest, in that fresh, minimalist and unerringly trendy interior that is so ubiquitous in the recent generation of public galleries. The exhibitions currently running certainly reflect the ethos of the architecture. On the third and fourth floors lies Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwande's A Day Like Any Other, comprising works of painting, sculpture, collage, film, sound and 'participatory' art from 2000 to the present. Nothing particularly striking about this fractious exhibition, which was loosely tied together with a theme of circles, cycles of existence, new geographies and exploration - but some pieces were beautifully conceived. A scion of genius were the 'involuntary sculptures' on the third floor, a collection of intriguing tiny sculptures crafted from everyday items during conversations in bars and restaurants.

Down to the second floor, and a show of interdisciplinary works by a master of the group of artists and writers that New York is currently obsessed with - Brion Gysin. Gysin invented the Cut-Up Method, appropriated by William S Burroughs, and made The Third Mind, a book length collage manifesto with the latter - displayed in all its glory here. It's a fantastic exploration of an eccentric and diverse body of 300 works from the second half of the 20th century - some of it too esoteric and cerebral to get your head around. The 'dreamachine', which the exhibition is named after, is particularly wonderful, a kinetic light sculpture that utilizes the flicker effect to induce visions when experienced with closed eyes - conceived of on a journey on the metro.

Gysin also created sound poetry and was one of the first to use computers in art. Innovative and new in every sense, depsite the fact he died 20 years ago.

Brion Gysin in Algiers 1956

New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
212.219.1222

A man in Buenos Aires, Adam Ianniello

2010-09-08T13:14:00.002+01:00

The delightful Adam Ianniello, photographer, and day-time financier of sorts, is sending a visual reportage from Buenos Aires, where he'll be based for the next four months, away from his native Brooklyn.

Below are images from a gallery of local contemporary artists Adam went to, the centro cultural recoleta, in BA's plaza frances, one of many free public art galleries funded by the government enjoying prominent central locations.

Adam also tells me discos are full of mullet-clad hipsters and leather jacket club kids over there, and that there's a great tea called mate, drunk from a wooden cup with a metal straw, that is a relaxant and clears a hangover in no time.

The dress at the bottom is made of plastic synthetic skin and wig hair.

Meeting of Styles: an outdoor aerosol block party

2010-09-07T13:04:00.000+01:00

I've been taking a bit of a summer holiday of late, as that is what everyone else seems to be doing. Apparently this is what you do if you have money, so galleries shut up shop. Because, after all, art is all about money, isn't it?

In the true spirit of a summer circa 1995, the counterintuitive Meeting of Styles on August 21st was a free live graffiti event, transforming Highbury Studios near Holloway Road, to a soundtrack of hip hop and the smell of bbq, and sponsored by my new favourite beer, Desperado.

Participating artists from France, Germany, Spain, Britain and more included Da Mental Vapors, Snug, Zeus, Ghetto Farceur and 3Steps. One of its UK organisers, the galvinising Rudi Khalastchi, sent me over some of his pictures of the mightily impressive creations that unfolded before visitors very eyes.. The results are quite astounding. The event tours Europe and further afield, got to check it out next time they come around.

http://meetingofstyles.co.uk/

free range's 8 week 10th birthday party

2010-08-11T10:38:00.002+01:00

For most of the Thursdays passed since May, I've been at a series of piss-ups in a brewery. The Old Truman Brewery, E1, that is - wandering the expansive floors that make up the UK's largest graduate art & design show.

Free Range brings together graduates from colleges across the country over 8 weeks of shows spread around the Old Truman Brewery's 11 acre site, running along East London's Brick Lane. This year is the tenth running of the annual show. It's the brainchild of Tamsin O'Hanlon, founder and director of Free Range. She describes it as 'the best possible place for graduating students to showcase their work toboth industry and art lovers. It’s a supportive hub and a foundation that I hope empowers them.' Free Range, unlike other graduate shows, brings fledgling artists together in a professional ambiance, in spaces that have been used by big names in the industry. As Tamsin puts it, 'as a collective they are a force to be reckoned with.'

Free Range is different because the quality and consistency of the works on show is so vast and so varied that it seems to reflect the new art market in a more genuine and rounded way. The atmosphere it creates in bringing together industry professionals, students, friends, collectors and art lovers and uninviteds is entirely unique. This year was bursting with energy and blessed with consistent good weather.

Free Range eschews the homogeny of scholastic graduate show, by removing the work from its usual graduate environment, it strips it of its institutional convolutions. It groups courses by discipline, which drives a direct comparison that is representative of the competitive nature of breaking into the industry. Fine art, photography and graphic design all have dedicated weeks, with the latest additions to the programme weeks focusing on fashion and interior design. Trends do recur; Tamsin observes a 'strong interactive element running through different media; the buzzword in graphics, art and photography is audience participation'.

To see how art being produced has changed over the last decade, you can go to www.free-range.org.uk and browse the profile pages of students from all of the UK's major art colleges. It makes for an interesting survey charting the change in trends over the decade, and you'll recognise some names among previous exhibitors. Tamsin identifies digital media as having the greatest impact on art emerging over the past ten years. But given the diversity of its scope, Free Range always yields something new, and will no doubt continue to do so each year - especially since it is expanding, from next year, to include graduates from international schools.

Images courtesy Libby Mor www.libbymor.com
www.trumanbrewery.com
www.free-range.org.uk

Blood, phlegm and 2 kinds of bile

2010-07-20T13:59:00.001+01:00

Hippocrates developed the idea of humourism, and it became the founding of medical theory and practice, right through to the 18th century. The idea is that a healthy body, and therefore healthy disposition, depend upon a balance of the four fundamental humours: phlegm, blood, black bile and yellow bile. A person's character, according to the theory, could be divined from the levels of these fluids in the body - phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholic and choleric types manifesting certain physical and psychological traits. I was certainly bilious after being packed on a Victoria line train of wilting passengers during Friday rush hour. Too many unfragranced armpits later, it was a relief to wander down a rambunctious Coldharbour Lane to the Red Gate Gallery for the opening of The Four Humours.

The four humours at the Red Gate show are represented by artists hailing from Jamaica, Hong Kong, Norway and England. Though each artist has a different point of departure, there is a portentous knot that ties the works together - the show is like a fetishism of the unfortunate, the disastrous and the troubled. It was the first time I'd seen Hin's work hanging in a show. The pieces here are from the eerier side of his body of work - contrasts between childhood avatars, figures from popular culture, and symbols of death and depravity - in a distinctive and gung-ho aesthetic.

It was a first time too for viewing JMF Casey's work. I'd heard stories about the Church and had seen sketches and paintings half strewn and buried in rubble at a house on Richmond Road. It's something else to see it hanging, dusted off and glorious, in a gallery space. They draw you towards them with a mysterious energy, and the flawless, intricate detail fixes you on the spot. Sometimes it becomes difficult to move. This is the experience of what JMF calls 'The strange glimmer of mystery and irrational bliss that can manifestitself in an otherwise gloomy and hopeless universe - the glowing aura of theabyss.'

JMF's works displayed at the Red Gate are in a range of media, and are a powerful presence in the show. The modest artist of majestic talent himself was absent, withdrawn to a silent and almost impercetible 'JMFC' engraving in each work. Happily, I bumped into him on the way home.

I asked JMFC which of the humours he thought himself to be. (This was beginning to sound like a warped version of Blind Date). 'I'd have to say for the most part I was melancholic, though others tend to find me phlegmatic. Figuratively speaking a deep puddle of black bile with a layer of foamy phlegm on top'. I think that could be your new bio JMF.

Discussing recent inspirations he cites 'Maya Deren, Fritz Lang, gory horror movies, D.H Lawrence, observing junkies on Brick Lane, emotional turmoil, evolutionary psychology and E.M Cioran' - a lot to work with, then - and 'essential admin' as his major downfall. And what's with the nazi symbols? 'The Nazi symbols are a small part of a semiotic language, likevisual poetry, along with religious and occult iconography, soviet imagery, historicalpersonages, and figures committing various transgressive acts. Nazism does haveparticularly poignant connotations though, as I see it as both the horrificincarnation of Romanticism and the grey ghoul of modernism and bureaucracy; I thinkone can discern much about the nature of humanity by studying such aberrationsof history.'

JMF's Church. You can see it in its latest performance here:

http://paddingtonandmillie.com/movs/Church.mov

So, with all this talk of portents and the abyss, what does the future hold for JMF? 'Uncertainty! I am in the early planning stagesof a short film based on “Voyage to Cythera” by Baudelaire, butit is quite ambitious and needs time. I think I might start painting againsoon.' Waiting with baited breath.

Meggie's finissage

2010-07-16T15:38:00.003+01:00

I like the idea of a 'finissage'. That's what Meggie will be having tomorrow evening at her installation. If you're in Berlin, its from 5pm tomorrow, Auguststraße 21 at galerie weisser elefant, and in the garden with alittle camping bar.

In the meantime, these images are much better than the phone pictures I put up in previous post. All courtesy the artist.

below, stills from Meggie's hypnotic short film.

the inside installation

The Surreal House

2010-07-07T13:41:00.002+01:00

We almost forgot ourselves among the plants and the trees, sipping a 'surreal' cocktail (particularly surreal as the waitress had no idea how to mix it, and handed it to us with a shrug, calling it 'African-style').

The sublime jungle that is the Barbican's new conservatory garden.

The Barbican's new blockbuster exhibition entitled The Surreal House is the first to explore 'the dwelling within surrealism and its legacies' and is piped as 'a renegade house of mysterious chambers, dream imagery, strangely animated furniture, convulsive forms and phantom guests'. It's a perfect depiction. Arranged over two floors, twisting and turning through rooms and corridors, choc full of shadows, eerie sounds and curious objects, you've no idea what you'll meet around the next corner.

As the crowds began to thin around 9, we made our way through. Unassuming at first, the exhibition unravels into one of the most enthralling shows I've seen in London this year. Films, mating rats, photographs, paintings, bizarre chairs and grand pianos pull at your senses and vie for your eyes. It's almost overloaded. All of the big names of the movement are here, and not just in passing reference: Max Ernst, Dali, Le Corbusier, Andre Breton, Man Ray, Duchamp, Louise Bourgeois, Freud mix comfortably with lesser known and contemporary artists.

Edward Kienholz, The Wait, which includes a live budgie for 4.5 hours of the day.

Francesca Woodman's photographic series from the late 70s, is dark, rich and compelling

A stand-alone exhibition could be made of the video material they've collated for this show. It was already nearing closing time and we didn't have time to watch them all through. Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon, 1943, and Buster Keaton's evocative Steamboat Bill Jr, 1928, are quintessential of the joli-laide of surrealist art. Rewatching extracts like this to scare myself on a windy day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_riIX_JGvs

Also displayed are rare spreads Marcel Duchamp created for View magazine - a feat that almost bankrupted the magazine. The magazine was originally sold for $1. It's probably worth a thousand times that now.

The Surreal House feels like a comprehensive anthology of the interior world of the surreal, each piece unmasks new revelations of form, different approaches to cornerstone themes, and elicits new sensations in the viewer. And, if you're feeling hungry after, you could pick up a jar of pineapple & absinthe jam in the shop, for a mere £5, it is infused with sand from the great pyramids.

A caravan, some slippers, 6th Berlin Biennial

2010-06-30T14:33:00.002+01:00

We caught the 6th Berlin Biennial mid-flow on Auguststraße. After one or two false starts, meandering along this gorgeous avenue, and ‘red riding hood’ champagne between the roses in the garden of the otherworldly Clärchens Ballhaus, we stumbled across Galerie Weisser Elefant.

An unassuming entrance off the main street, Galerie Weisser Elefant spans two, or three, floors of a converted residential house. On the top floor, Valerie Otte’s 'Anwessenheit von Abwessenheit', installations using a mixture of natural materials, were beautiful and contrasted with a glut of two dimensional pieces. A hot little attic space had been covered in curios. With chinks of light falling through the skylights it became eerie and mystical.

Valerie Otte. Bad phone-camera photography.

Visitors are left to roam. On the ground floor, this was taken one step further by artist Meggie Schneider, who actively encourages visitors to become part of her installation – a meticulous recreation of a B2 home. On entering the hallway, you remove your shoes and replace them with the cosiest of slippers. In two of the three rooms, video installations examine to the interplay of history and design, to buildings ‘in progress’ such as the residential blocks at Alexanderplatz, where at one time, residents were selected, floor by floor, through a casting process. Meggie told us that for her, it was the period of anticipation prior to transformation, rather than simple nostalgia for the past, that was fascinating.

In her installation, 'Kultur im Heim / Restraum fur Alle' you are treated like a guest. As we shuffled, slipper-shod, into the living room, a perfect recreation of a GDR home, we even found ourselves to be the subjects of the work itself – invited to sit at a typewriter, to play, while she photographed us at the table. She asked us if we had noticed the caravan in the courtyard, which we had, and invited us there when she opened it up a little later.

The wonderful Meggie greeting visitors with coffee, wine and warmth.

'Mobile Heimat Heimstolz', subtitled, 'intervention in the garden', like the living room, was a gorgeous and minutely detailed recreation of a GDR mobile home. Meggie brought us coffee and later wine, and talked with real enthusiasm and warmth about her project – her aim was to bring people together, to reflect on what constitutes a home, on its portability, and how design and architecture affect the way we live. Design, architecture and their role in history and the everyday lives of real people seemed to be recurrent themes at this year’s Biennial. Meggie, who has lived in the city since 1990, has created a project that is engaging and genuine in its exploration of those themes, and its understanding of Berlin, a constantly evolving landscape.

The colourful interior of the caravan.

Its hard to describe in words how nice it was, absorbed by the fantasia of the past, sitting on the decking in the warm and hazy sunshine of the late afternoon, with the lavender (the garden was designed by two artists from France, we later learned) and the colours of caravan beaming at you, music filtering out from the record player. Maybe the design of your surroundings really does affect the soul.

Daniel Eisenberg Interview

2010-06-29T20:49:00.001+01:00

I rushed to meet Daniel Eisenberg at the Weinerei Cafe near Rosenthaler Platz, having just stepped off my flight and taken the wrong train from the airport, still absorbing the hazy sunshine and the air of a new city.

Berlin is a home from home for Eisenberg, who has a new book coming out soon, Postwar, a survey of his major works. He is one of very few filmmakers producing truly avant-garde film today. His are films that have nothing of the recognisible mise-en-scene that has infiltrated productions from independent to Hollywood; if you google his name, you won't find him easily. He is prefers to think of, as he puts it, 'a culture beyond the market'.

Better to approach Eisenberg's films as installations, or video sculptures; laconic, and impregnated with the beauty of moving photographs. They are rich with what Eisenberg calls the 'aurally liquid' sounds of the urban environment. He cites the avant-garde coming out of New York in the 1970s, as an influence that altered the way he looked at film 'but completely'. Rather than commodify film for the audience, Eisenberg, who worked as a film editor for 20 years, seeks to 'break down narratives, in a way that is as counterintuitive as possible, to deconstruct rather than construct, so that each sequence becomes an independent film in itself'.

Objects, and people, become peculiar, stripped from reality, like a word repeated ad infinitum until it becomes alien to reality. Eisenberg's films speak an visual language of railway waiting rooms, station cafes, ports, bridges that point to themes of the journey, history, displacement, immigration, and periods of apparent stasis.

Eisenberg kindly invited us along to the vernissage of Ellen Rothenberg's exhibition, at the Schalter. Rothenberg is Eisenberg's wife. Her new installation, like Eisenberg's films, is complex, intriguing, and not immediately obvious. Like Eisenberg too, she was warm and receptive - and kind enough to answer a plague of questions. Constellations runs until 31st June, at Lottumstr. 1, 10119.

Eisenberg is working on a new film, which approaches the motif of history in a new way. 'The Unstable Object' takes factories as its subject: a luxury car enterprise in Germany, in a building made of floor to ceiling glass - precisely so that the its pristine workers can be observed from every possible angle by outsiders; a factory of blind workers, who build clocks in Chicago, entirely by touch; and a cymbal factory in Istanbul, which still employs the methods of long bygone days. Eisenberg refers to each of this trio of industrial sites as 'paradigms of the senses'. The film is due to release in February 2011. Postwar: The Films of Daniel Eisenberg is on sale from July.

graduate shows head to head: camberwell vs LCC

2010-06-29T11:39:00.001+01:00

The graduate art show for London's main stage arts institutes has become serious business. From early summer, 'private' views writhe with people. Graduate shows are fun - tutors get drunk, students get drunk, friends get drunk, people from the street wander in and get drunk. But they have an unabashed commercial side. Business cards are disseminated (could easily write a whole new post just about these) statements are declaimed, talent vultures pack in, deals are done. I drew money from my savings to place bets on who would make it as what.

Camberwell College of Arts BA shows opened last week to a heavy crowd. Less occupied by Wednesday night, but it meant you could actually see the work. Lest we forget, its not all about having the opening party (but it is sort of). Very sad for the illustration course, whose work, of an impressive standard, had been hung in the corridor, sandwiched between the printing workshop and the HAZCHEM room. Photography BA's top room showed some gleaming promise, a genuine mix of techniques and concepts. Congratulations Miss P and Miss L!

The sculpture show on the 4th floor was housed in a gorgeous space, huge old windows with a massive view and evening light flooding in. A few purchasable pieces, though I haven't worked out where I would put a giant foot. Yet.

Not giant enough for some however. Quixotic sculptor/artist Mikael Alacoque, still able to recall his own halcyon undergraduate days, gave me his thoughts on the show, ''everything should just be MASSIVE!" he enthused.

London College of Communication's 'The Power of Ten' opened later that week, just up the road. Took a stupid route all around the entire roundabout but made it there eventually to pulsating crowds, drink stamps and an impressive temporary shop.

LCC are blessed with a bigger, brighter and fresher-looking space, and the quality of the work is consistently good, if at times a little corporate. As a non-curated show, some of the works get engulfed, and it was too crowded and too hot to properly survey everything there and then. Graphic Design and Media first. Lovely atmosphere here, all about support and celebration. The massive scope of a mixed media course means each final piece yields something totally unique. Love this short experimental film by Libby Mor, a moving personal history, that inevitably becomes universal, of beloved grandparents who survived the Holocaust, and the journey they made from Poland to Israel.

Graphic Design & Media's next group show is happening at the Old Truman Brewery, as part of the 8-week Free Range Graduate Show, on July 22nd.

Cartel opens

2010-06-24T11:19:00.003+01:00

Cartel is a former black shipping container in a yard of an old police station in South East London, and is opening its first show as a gallery tonight. Its inaugural exhibition, 'Modal' is curated by Art Review assistant editor Oliver Basciano. The artists, Lilah Flower and Dan Miller come together here 'to investigate the process of mathematic deduction and its relation to visual abstraction, together with highlighting the infinity suggested by universal measurements.' I'm actually to make the journey south of the river for this one before 30th July (thanks East London Line). Late nights are happening on the last Friday of the month.

A plurality of international curators and artists are proposing six fresh projects a year at Cartel. And with the people it has rumoured to be on board its going to pique interest for sure. Bar set up is in the Old Police Station.

Here are some words the enigmatic Cartel sent me about the project ...

'Cartel was acquired with a load of other shipping containers on ebay. It was decided to give it an elegant lick of paint in matt black and to open it's windows and doors for business in the back of the Old Police Station, a vibrant studio block and art centre in the upcoming Deptford area.

Cartel's emphasis is on curatorially led projects and all projects are by invitation only. It opens it's doors on Fridays and Saturdays and also by appointment. Since the art centre is open all days it is always possible to pop by and check if it can be opened.

The people involved wish to remain fairly mysterious for now, especially since it is intended to remain a flexible group with a steady core, hence the name Cartel. All involved have been active in the arts for quite some time. Cartel is its own independent not for profit entity.

The current show is exquisite, the sculptures by Lilah Fowler are perfectly balanced with the paintings by Dan Miller. The space of Cartel is small but with all our shows we endeavour to present projects that defy the spatial restrictions and present top quality shows in a timely fashion.'

That's it.. I am going on Ebay now.

Ernesto Neto

2010-06-11T15:39:00.004+01:00

Can hardly contain my excitement about this show, which christens the newly refurbished Hayward Gallery, from 19th June:

http://www.haywardgallery.org.uk/

Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto is one of the most exciting and respected installation artists working today, creating enviable works of epic proportions that most artists can only dream of. Until now we could only muse on living in a house created by Neto; thanks to this show we will be able to experience the chimera for real.

Jean Epstein

2010-06-11T15:11:00.002+01:00

This is infectious watching; I have this extract on repeat. Perfect catharsis for an existential crisis on a gloomy Friday afternoon.. Epstein himself died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1953.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iyjysUaWMQ

Luis Bunuel worked as a runner for Epstein, who was a trained doctor, published writer and later director of over 35 films.

Modern British Posters : Bunting, Battenberg and Ale

2010-06-08T13:35:00.001+01:00

Black Dog Space, located at number 10a Acton Street, WC1X 9NG, opens this colourful display of posters on Thursday night this week, with a British-themed summer party. (Of course its going to rain). Its from the largest private collection of posters of their kind in the UK. I agree with Sean (see article below). We should bring back flyposting. I tried once at the Old Truman Brewery, but with the wrong kind of glue the posters come down quickly.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/jun/06/modern-british-posters-paul-rennie

Come drink ale among the plants in the courtyard and cram in between the posters when the rain comes down. Author and collector Paul Rennie will be giving a short speech at 7pm.

The exhibition runs Mon-Fri 10am-5pm until August 13th. I may or may not have something to do with this one..

Interview: Claire Pinney, The Crypt Gallery at St Pancras Church

2010-06-01T13:00:00.005+01:00

The Crypt Gallery has to be in the top strata of interesting places to view and exhibit art in London. It endearingly combines the old and the new, both in terms of the space vs the artwork it presents, and in terms of the way it markets itself -the gallery has grown, as all the best things do, by word of mouth. It's a dream canvas for any artist, with endless possibilities of playing with darkness, light and space. The modesty and broadmindedness of Claire Pinney, director of the Crypt Gallery, has ensured that the gallery has remained an open space where artists' imaginations are set free from the imposing ego of the gallerist.
I spoke to the Claire here..

What's the history of the Crypt Gallery?

The Crypt of St Pancras Parish Church was designed and used for coffin burials from 1822, when the Church was opened, to 1854, when the crypts of all London churches were closed to burials.

In the spring of 2002, at a local meeting of organisations in the King’s Cross area, I was approached by Paul Collett, a visionary arts administrator for Camden council, who asked me if St Pancras Church would be interested in opening the crypt up for an art exhibition. The Vicar and Church Council were very positive about the idea so we cleared out most of the rubbish to allow for that first show to go ahead.

That first exhibition, Lights On, was organised by an arts group called Measure, run by Simon Day and Jon Scott. It took place in September 2002, as part of the London Open House 2002 event and, once other artists had caught sight of the space, it led to several more exhibitions in 2003. Within just 2 years of the first exhibition the crypt became a venue showing artwork nearly all year round. Amongst those early exhibitors was a sculptor called Emily Young. You can see a sculpture of hers in the grounds of St Pancras Church, at the Upper Woburn Place end. For her exhibition, Emily’s team installed a network of spotlights in the crypt, which she very kindly left for us. We have since added more lights, sockets. Besides that, and as far as we can, we have tried to keep the crypt in its original state, showing respect to the 557 people whose remains are still interred there.

Tragically, Paul Collett died in 2006 so never really saw how popular the crypt had become as an art venue.

How important is the history and significance of the Crypt in selecting exhibitions that will run in the space as a gallery?

What I feel is really significant is that the church is used to encourage people to explore, to think and reflect in as many ways as possible, in this case through art. We are really lucky to have this fantastic building and I know everyone at the church is delighted that more and more people get pleasure out of using the place. We are really pleased to be able to offer an art space in central London to all sorts of individuals and groups. For many students we have provided the opportunity for them to curate and run their first exhibition. Our open-minded approach means that the programme of exhibitions is incredibly varied and, therefore, I hope speaks to a huge range of people in a huge variety of ways. Given the location, the theme of death does inevitably raise its head more often than most other subjects, but that is down to the artists’ own choice.

In her recent article in Frieze ‘The Haunting’, Jennifer Higgie writes 'If the art of the past is like a ghost – something dead that refuses to die –then it follows that a haunting is the unresolved relationship between influence and action'. Have you ever seen a ghost in the crypt? Do you ever feel afraid there?

I am very fond of the crypt space and am often down there on my own and very rarely feel afraid. Fortunately I’m not the sort of person who picks up spooky vibes from the departed; the living have the potential to be far scarier. I am mindful and do what I can to ensure that everyone is careful how we use the crypt. It’s been a pleasure for me to meet a few people whose ancestors were buried in the crypt, and I hope, gradually, to gather more information about the lives of all who were interred. At the moment the information is barely more than a list of names, but I do actually feel I have a relationship of sorts with them. I’m often told by artists exhibiting here, and by visitors, that the crypt is a wonderful space for art and generally a very special place. If that’s what people experience, then I feel we are doing something right. I like the idea that the crypt is inspiring as a final resting place.

The Crypt Gallery's current show, Lingering Whispers, curated by Predrag Pajdic and produced by Virginie Puertolas-Syn runs until 6th June.
Hin Chiu, interviewed previously in the diaries, has an exhibition coming up at The Crypt in September.

bODY_rEMIX / gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS Comagnie Marie Chouinard

2010-05-28T16:00:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago, I set off with the former ballerina and acerbic writer Philippa Snow (see her weblog at www.touristmagazine.co.uk) to see bODY_rEMIX / gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS (not a typo, its meant to be written like that). Running for just two nights, the performance has been touring worldwide.

Dressed in diaphanous body suits, and propped with crutches, coat racks, ski poles, walking frames, and pointe shoes worn on feet and hands, there is little to ostensibly link these dancers to ballet as we know it. Resembling broken-bodied arachnids, the show clinks and taps from playful and humorous moments to modes of lament and melancholy, playing with ideas of form, disability, pain, movement and loss. Chouinard's dancers are turned into strange creatures of distorted and mutated figures, who are confined and constrained by their prosthetic parts and, at times, by repetitious choreography.

Electroacoustic musician Louis Dufort, mixed Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations with vocal extracts of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould (famed for his interpretations of Bach’s music) and this in turn was punctuated by live sonic bursts from the stage, sometimes amplified by a microphone that was partly imbibed by one dancer. In fact it is the music that haunts you, post-performance, as you try to unpack what you've just seen.

Exposed at Tate Modern

2010-05-28T14:53:00.001+01:00

Enough will surely be written about Exposed, which opened last night at the Tate Modern.It's a well-structured, poignant exploration of how warped photography has made us.

Merry Alpern's Dirty Windows and Shizuka Yokomizo's series Stranger use the window as a reminder - a barrier between the subject and the photographer - a barrier that the viewer is then made aware of crossing. Shizuka writes an engaging account of her project, which explores, almost by accident, the cultural significance of architectural differences, as well as more generally examining the complex and changing relationship between the photographer, camera and subject. She sent anonymous letters to her subjects to set up a enigmatic 'shoot'.

Shizuka Yokomizo (above, from the Stranger series)

Merry Alpern, from 'Dirty Windows', a visual diary of the comings and goings of a Wall Street Brothel

Japanese photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki's fascinating project The Park from 1970s is among those on display. Originally shown in the darkness, with visitors handed a torch on entry, to explore the mural-sized photographs of lovers and voyeurs, who often became participants, in Shinjuku, Yoyogi, and Aoyama parks. Kohei took the photographs using 35mm film, flashbulbs and infrared, and in doing so became a voyeur-viewer himself.

The great Walker Evans is also featured, as are Brassai's erotic series Secret Paris from the 1930s, and Robert Frank.

Interview: Goat-Eater Arts

2010-05-11T15:00:00.005+01:00

Anthony Mangicapra is something of a modern polymath. By day, you will find him welcoming customers at the Hospital Productions shop, on New York's East 3rd Street. He can hold your attention on almost any topic, and knows how to recommend just the right black metal for any occasion. As well as being a musician, producer, curator, and painter. Tropes include the occult, magick and surrealism - with the bouncy optimism of a sunny Miami native with Italian blood. Anthony explains it much more interestingly himself:

What inspires your painting?

I draw inspiration from many sources. Over the years the sources have changed dramatically, from goetic and theurgical literature to intensely personal subjects such as death, disease and the loss of loved ones to the Egyptian and Sumerian pantheons, their systems of belief and ideas on the inner workings of the universe, and all points in between. I guess painting and drawing is somewhat of a compulsion, for me. Finding inspiration only depends upon where I'm at both geographically and psychologically.

What is your personal favourite of your own work?

I'm not sure that I could have a personal favourite amongst my own works. I am almost always most enthusiastic about projects that I am currently working on. Even though I may like the look of one of my paintings or feel that I have turned a corner technically, often times, due to the nature of the subject matter behind the work, I'm uncomfortable looking back on it.

You had an interesting time curating the Dirty Show..?

I did but I guess that's to be expected when you're curating a pornographic art exhibit. I haven't been able to be a part of the last few due to various other exhibits I've had but I hope to join forces with them again. The show itself if the brainchild of Jeremy Harvey and Jerry Vile. I was initially drawn to the show because it was not your typical erotic art exhibit. It's called the Dirty Show for a reason. They're really looking for filth. I guess if you've spent any amount of time in Detroit, it makes sense. Having grown up in Miami, it made total sense to me.

What does painting mean to you?

Painting is just something that I do. I consider the creation of most art akin to the body's manufacture of a waste product. So the challenge to create is to absorb as much from pure and unadulterated sources as you can. It's just like eating. You are what you eat but whether you eat a beautifully cooked and cared for meal, made by the loving hands of your grandmother or some shitty concoction of street meat, slathered in hot sauce, it all comes out, upon first inspection, reasonably the same. If I happen to create something that the viewer finds beautiful, then there is no way for the viewer to possibly comprehend the beauty that I have been left with. On the same token, should I create something that the viewer finds ugly or aggressive, the same is also true. For me, painting is a way of looking in a mirror.

What projects have you got in the pipeline?

I have too many projects, right now. I'm working on a few series of paintings and several recordings as Hoor-paar-Kraat, as well as a totally new project. There are several of my own recordings coming out, most of them on cassette; Asha-Dasha C55 (Acid Casualty Productions), The Trunk Remains Unmoved C20 (Goat-Eater Arts), Handy Feet C20, (Peasant Magik), Coreah C20 (Black Horizons), split with Psychic Fare C32 (Goat-Eater Arts), The Eureka Tapes recordings as a 2CD set (Basses Frequences/Small-Doses). I also own Goat-Eater Arts and have my plate full right now with releases by Nicholas Szczepanik, Fecalove, Tim the Band, Persistence in Mourning, Zozo Fwesh. All this keeps me very busy. On the off chance that I get some free time, I'll be sure to let you know what I do with it.

https://goat-eater.blogspot.com

http://www.hospitalproductions.com/

http://www.dirtyshow.org/

Under the bridge with Hin

2010-05-05T17:22:00.002+01:00

Taking a peek at Hin’s ‘doodle book’ under London Bridge late on a Saturday night was like stepping into another world. Sketches of caravans, trees and creatures in miniscule detail are drawn by a hand that doesn’t know the constraints of human creation. Hin is a jazzyily dressed, exuberant person, who has a string of important commissions to his name already. He set up the collective East London Art Company (ELAC) and lives and works in the area. His answers came through at 3.15am this morning. I wish I could be as philosophically clear-headed at that hour.

How did you start out as an artist?

I don't think it was a choice of me to become an artist. I believe it was a passion that was born in my blood. But may be the fact that I was struggling to have friends for many years in my youth made me dependent on this language more & more over the years and now it becomes a second nature for me to express myself this way.

Your work is stylistically different and makes use of different media, and you refer to finding harmony in the face of inner conflict. Is it important to you to express some kind of internal tension in your work?

Things that go through in my mind all depend on what I want to say at a moment. Sometimes I express a tension, sometimes I express the joy of being able to feel harmony within myself. The biggest contradiction inside a person mainly is between the mind and the heart. It is a gift when the two are able to feel at peace. But even then the two still function in very different ways, therefore my style remain separate.

What single thing most influences your art?

God's creation.

You've worked for some high profile commercial clients, is there a problem with the commercialisation of art?

There is always a danger of being lost in the superficial side of life, whether it is about commercialisation of art or to interact with a beautiful woman. I guess the most important thing is to remind ourselves why we are here. I create artwork for these clients but I don't create lies for them. Commercialisation of art only becomes a problem when the artwork is used to create lies.

You have an exciting project to do with a caravan coming up..

Exciting thoughts. Hope I can realize it…

Compagnie XY: Le Grand C

2010-04-26T14:30:00.001+01:00

My terrible tardiness (sorry again Holly) to see Compagnie XY at Camden's Roundhouse on Saturday night turned out to be quite an exciting way to start viewing the performance. We were psyched up outside for ten minutes until we were allowed in - the volunteers kept making elliptical statements:

'you'll see when you go in there.. due to the nature of the performance.. we have to wait for music to start'. Ushered in at last, underneath the stalls, I caught my first glimpse of the XY, moving across the stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZBkKUhawdU

I was awe-struck from start to finish by the performance, which is part of the Roundhouse's Circusfest season. It is immensely human, comic, sensual, sad and beautiful to the point of tears. The hour long show has been structured and balance and is nothing short of genius - from the carefully thought out costumes in hues of red, grey and blue, to the music - drawing together the traditional and the unconventional. The audience gasped audibly as the performers, revealing the magnificence of the trained human body, and the strength of their absolute trust in one another, executed audacious and highly skilled feats - suffusing dance, art and acrobatic spectacle. At one point, one of the more corpulent members of the seventeen-strong multinational troupe, sang a gorgeous solo in French as gradually, four of the others, one atop the other, climbed onto his shoulders. From where I was I could see his body buckling under the strain; he controlled himself perfectly and continued to belt out his song.

Everyone who sees this will want to join a circus troupe too.

I might run away back to France with them now.

Rego, Collishaw & Emin at the Foundling Museum

2010-04-20T13:17:00.001+01:00

Sadly tickets to Paula Rego's talk had sold out, but in excellent (and very attractive) company I went to see the Foundling's latest exhibition. We quelled our disappointment, as we wandered the historic staircases on a warm evening, with a refreshing G&T (picked up a good tip, add a slice of cucumber).

The Foundling has a solid place in London's history, being both the first orphanage in the city, and also the first public art gallery. Handel and Hogarth have played an important part in its survival, and now Paula Rego, Mat Collishaw and Tracey Emin are continuing the tradition of art at the Foundling. The incongruity of the works of this particular trio in this traditional space is one of the most appealing factors of the exhibition. In rooms where the foundlings formerly ate their gruel and boiled beef, were schooled and slept, the pieces jump out at you like horrors in a curiosity shop. Rego, Emin and Collishaw, known for their subversive handling of close-to-the-bone themes such as childhood, abandonment, exploitation and sex, have not diluted their theories for this show. The resulting tension between these artists and the space is that the building is transformed, from a fusty grand old house, to a dark and sinister fairground of nightmares and memories. The museum must have been thrilled to have got such crowd-pulling artists involved.

Happiness is not something that figures in Rego's contributions. She is an absolute master of posture, demonstrating how superfluous and often gratuitous other artists can be - the physical pose can be plenty revolting and shocking - in 'Rape' her figures are both fully clothed, but the violence of the act is powerfully expressed. Her showpiece at the Foundling is a mixed media installation, a twisted carousel ,which strikes at the top of the stairs on the first floor.

Emin is dividing and difficult as ever, always making you question your own opinion of her. Here for example, a booklet she has produced for the exhibition, 'Abortion How It Feels' which is beautifully written and extremely moving. Just as you're feeling empathetic towards her, her visual works go and make you feel cheated - they include a glass display case containing ten pairs of children's shoes.

If their childhood were to be as it is projected through the artists of this exhibition, the children of the Foundling certainly had a lucky escape.

Edward Fornieles explains Performance Art

2010-03-27T21:32:00.003Z

There is a great article by Anne Ellegood in the Spring edition of Tate Etc magazine, on collaborations in art. She refers to Tehching Hsieh, whose performances, acts of prolonged insanity, or, 'explorations of time and struggle' span over two decades. They include punching a clock every hour, on the hour, for an entire year, and being tied to Linda Montano from 1983 to 1984 by an 8ft rope; locking himself in a cage, for a further year, with no speech, nor radio, tv, books, or interaction of any kind. The idea of testing the limits and boundaries of our own sanity is a deeply compelling, in a world obsessed with defining insanity. But not everyone can afford to take a year out to sit a cage and try to not go mad.

Performance art can be puzzling. Once at an evening of performance at the Wallis Gallery, I watched caterwauling nuns mixing a concoction of milk, soil and other unknown substances, a man pouring cornflakes and milk all over the floor, then eating them, and various acts of whinnying poetry set to slides of insects or interpretative dance. At times I thought, 'what's the point in that?'

Edward Fornieles was one of the curators of that evening.
I asked the endearingly enthusiastic Ed (who as well as being a success in his own right, works as an assistant to Anish Kapoor, and ate moussaka for the first time at our flat once) to enlighten.

Why is performance a relevant art form?

I get really excited when I read On The Road, and Jack Kerouac is describing drinking whiskey and dancing to live music - there is that tangible wave that passes over the characters. I like the idea of a wave, it’s something you can ride, but also something that can throw you off course and saturate you. So I suppose it’s the prospect of the wave is what makes performance relevant.

How and why did you move into performance?

As a child there is a longing to experience, you are constantly experiencing things for the first time. I think you begin to sketch up a list, and later it’s cigarettes and sex but before that point it’s bicycle rides and fist fights. Each are hurdles to get over, to put yourself through. So I think to begin with I was interested in putting myself through experiences and seeing how I would cope. Now I’m more interested in manipulating other people’s experiences and that can be through sculpture, installation or painting. Whatever medium seems the most effective at the time.

Can you explain a bit about the Wallis Gallery.

The Wallis gallery was a space that I set up with some of my best friends, Ross McNicol and Vanessa Carlos in 2006 in Hackney Wick. Since then we have moved out and roam around London taking advantage of spaces when and where we find them. Our main focus has been putting on great shows as well as a series of performance evenings called Making Mistakes where the performance artist gets to try out new works in a safe and nurturing environment. Recently I’m not running stuff so much anymore, but I still like to go to the meetings and drinking coffee.
The Wallis gallery is also exciting because it’s not just one or two people with a vision, although that is part of it - it’s a support network of friends who help each other to realise their work. In actual fact it’s a network of about 20 or 30 people.

What do you hope the audience experiences at your performances?

When you're driving speedboat at 110 miles down a sleepy canal you don’t think about where you’re going, and you’ve kind of forgotten why you’re there. You’re very much forced into whichever loch you might be going to crash into next, or which other vessels you need to dodge. Or whatever. Getting people caught up is the aim in whatever art, be it sculpture, installation or performance.

http://edwardfornielesblog.blogspot.com/

http://www.paradiserow.com/

http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue18/mathieu

Interview with a Vampire

2010-03-27T18:00:00.007Z

American/Italian artist David Flinn, currently presented by Envoy Gallery New York, produces installations and drawings that abound with ethereal tragedy and study the impossibility of existing between dimensions. Deeply resonant and symbolic works point towards primordial states of being, hunting and gathering, and the quest for escape and silence. Nature intersects with man through mediums of metal, wax and fluorescent light. Though Flinn himself remains absent, he is an artist very much connected with what he is doing. He also believes he may be a vampire.

Here are some words we exchanged about his work.

Why do you ‘hunt the living and hang with the dead’?

I relate to the dead far more than the living. I wish I could bridge that gap. The living are always worried about dying. The dead only worry about living.

Why do you return to triangles in your work?

Dante established the perfect balance with the Inferno.

Your own holy trinity. Why are three dimensions better than two?

Depth.

Explain your project ‘deathprisms’.

Fractioning the information sent your way and redistributing it in an honest and crude reality. Unveiling the secrets and resting in the shadows.

http://www.envoyenterprises.com/artists_pages/flinn.html

http://deathprisms.blogspot.com/

Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial 2010

2010-03-22T11:36:00.000Z

No wonder resident art followers tend to scorn the Whitney. Each floor is arranged in a clumsy, haphazard way. Even the introduction to the show admits there is a lack of coherence, that it ‘embodies a cross section of contemporary art production rather than a specific theme’. Yet navigating all its chaos of 50 American artists is definitely worthwhile.

Dawn Clements

What the Whitney Biennal provides that equivalent London galleries are lacking is live performance. A dozen or so artists were programmed to perform within specially created spaces for the duration of the show. Perhaps this is indicative of the demands of the visitors, who clearly had a taste for ogling the human form in motion. But then it was Sunday.

Julia Fish

The exhibition was also saturated with video. One of which, on Voguing, the 80s disco craze, was particularly compelling. Rashaad Newsome had studied the dance from its roots in gay nightclubs, and distilled it to abstraction via a chain of dancers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stbgv9ZhFFY

By the fifth floor, the coda to the 2010 exhibition, the attendants were beginning to frighten me. In no other gallery are they so intensely vigilant, so nearly clones of each other, or so creepy. Among the top floor works of previous biennial/annual exhibitors was a horrifying and amusing piece by performance artist Paul McCarthy: a photographic document of his performance at a school, involving ketchup and dolls, understood as an act of auto-castration. Brilliantly conceived.

The Market Estate Project

2010-03-09T22:33:00.000Z

The Market Estate Project was a one day event, put together by TallTales, and held on Saturday 6th March on an estate near Caledonian Road. The estate, to be imminently demolished, was taken over by artists and performers spread across 20 vacant flats and outside spaces.

The project felt more like an opportunity for property voyeurism than a significant cultural experience, and the visitors, by and large seemed unfamiliar with estates such as this one. I didnt meet any former residents. Flat 1, formerly a three bed council-owned property, had been painted in lurid colours from top to bottom. Many of the vacant flats that had been recreated seemed distinctly lacking in artistic purpose - another room was papered in a desultory manner with architectural plans for regeneration. Visitors were encouraged to write on the walls, to take souvenirs, to pin memories to boards – I saw one young boy writing his name in bubble type on the wall.

The idea of the project itself is incontrovertibly good: using abandoned or soon to be demolished spaces for community or creative projects should definitely be more commonplace. But I couldnt help feeling that as nice as the atmosphere was on a cold but clear Spring afternoon, the project could have conveyed its aim more coherently, and more audaciously.

Paula Rego, Orphans and Abortions

2010-03-03T17:51:00.000Z

Paula Rego is back in the public eye, simultaneously curating and exhibiting at two London galleries. I've been fascinated by her work ever since I came across the beautiful book of selected works put together by John McEwen.

Thresholds comprises one room (4) at the Whitechapel Gallery. It is an eclectic collection of illustrations, prints and photographs, put together by Rego to mark the British Council's 75th anniversary (and the year of Rego's own 75th birthday). It brings together works by diverse 20th century artists (Hockney, Ofili, Graham Sutherland among them) that focus on one of Rego's own recurrent themes; the border between the fantastical and reality, between the animal and the human, the everyday and the strange.

Across town at the Foundling Museum, (once an orphanage/gallery where the upper classes could conveniently pick up new painting and a new child on the same trip) Rego, with artist's hat on, explores the themes associated with the Foundling's history, as part of special commission with Mat Collishaw and Tracey Emin. On Friday April 16th Rego will be giving a tour of the exhibition herself.

Chris Ofili, On Afros

2010-02-25T13:41:00.002Z

I made a hop, skip and jump around Chris Ofili, upstairs at Tate Britain, after the Henry Moore show (which was becoming rather like an over 50's club night, Laurent Perrier in free flow).

The show is delightfully playful and bursting with glitter, sequins, colour, giant phalluses, bulging breasts, elephant dung and afros. If there is an equivalent cult for afros as there is for beards (pogonology) then Ofili would certainly be an honoury member. In Room 5, 'Afromuses' there is a series of patterns and drawings, geometric and nice to look at from afar, that when you look up close, you realise are composed of hundreds of tiny afro heads, each entirely individual.

(poor quality zoom, go and see them for yourself)

This show being at the Tate Britain definitely seems to underline the fact that the Tate Modern's more conservative counterpart are trying to draw in a new crowd. Ofili's sense of fun, his allusions to hip hop and pimpin' culture, his mixing of beauty and laideur might just do so.

Foxy Roxy

Also worth visiting is the 'Upper Room' which not only smells wonderful, but is spiritually calming. A video documentary about Ofili, consolidates the exhibition very well, and makes you quite envious of the easy going, soulful way he approaches his work.

Henry Moore at Tate Britain

2010-02-24T13:40:00.000Z

And so last night, to the opening night of Henry Moore at the Tate Britain, (and also my Dad's birthday). Much hyped by the press and much debated already by the critics, due to the suggestions of darker Moore, pyschologically complex and charged with erotic tensions. This is the premise for the exhibition at the Tate, the explanation for why we might revisit Moore, Britain's most successful sculptor.

My Dad was surprised that so many people he had spoken with recently had never heard of Moore. I began to think that perhaps there was a generational divide; after all Moore became internationally diffuse during the Second World War, and in the 60s and 70s was a household name. Despite the arguably ubiquitous presence of his work, Moore seems to have been overlooked by children of the 80s and onwards, and Tate's pushing of the sexual undertones seems to be their attempt to recharge interest with a generation of Moore grandchildren.

It seems somewhat gauche to take this line, but after the first room, (walls painted red, and adorned with reductive quotes from the artist such as 'the fullness of form, the tautness of form, all these things are connected with life, and life is sex') Tate backs off and allows the works, which have been exquisitely arranged, to take the floor.

And the pieces themselves are beautiful; intensely expressive, exceptionally crafted, synaesthetic. The sculptures are still the most impressive part of Moore's work, forcing you to walk around them and study them from every angle.

It is not the Tate's sexual propoganda, but the work Henry Moore has done, in its breathtaking array of materials, from elmwood to rosewood to bronze, his stringed sculptures, his dimensional and emotive drawings of war time scenes, the overall vastness of his work, that justifies itself, and reminds us why he is such a relevant and important artist to Britain today.

One of Moore's stringed sculptures (Bird Basket, 1939) was accepted by HM Customs in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated in 2002.

Art in Industry

2010-02-18T16:59:00.003Z

Excitement in the air for Sotheby’s in Amsterdam and its upcoming auction ‘The Bat Artventure Collection, formerly know as the Peter Stuyvesant collection’ – which they state will be the largest sale of Post War & Contemporary Art ever to take place in the Netherlands. The genesis of the collection was noble; to find pieces that were bold in colour and structure, that would be placed above factory workers’ heads while they laboured at their machines, in order to inspire and encourage. Other European cities today would benefit from a similar initiative, especially during this unyielding winter. I certainly wish I had a sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle above my head as I work.

Niki de Saint Phalle created a wonderful 'Tarot card' garden in Tuscany, in turn inspired by the awesome Parco dei Monstri at Bomarzo, outside Rome (pictured bottom)

Interview with James Freeman, director of Sesame Gallery, N1

2010-02-12T20:02:00.003Z

Sesame gallery has real curb appeal. A pleasant suprise as you walk from Islington Green along Upper Street, it is warmly lit, with hints of a tantalisingly eclectic tapestry of textures within. Sesame's lifeblood is painting, and includes works from uk and international artists. 'Emerging talent' is an equivocal term that is perhaps overused across London's art venues, but Sesame genuinely promotes an exciting aesthetic which seems to be prophetic.

Works by Henrijs Preiss

Here's an interview with Sesame's discerning and eloquent director, James.

How was Sesame Gallery founded and how has it evolved?

I opened the gallery in December 2003, principally due to an enthusiasm for discovering young artists that hadn’t had much exposure (and that no other gallery would take the risk on), and for working with paintings, as I’m something of a painting fanatic. From the start the approach has been to be accessible, approachable, but with integrity and ideas as well – basically, not underestimating the audience or going with easy art just because we’re in an accessible high-street location. Since 2003, the gallery has expanded and extended its scope internationally, so I now exhibit at international fairs and deal with numerous international artists from across the world, giving them their first shows in the UK, as well as developing international exposure and profile for my British artists.

Which galleries do you admire?

There are a lot of galleries in London I enjoy and am very rarely disappointed by. A couple of them would be Stuart Shave / Modern Art (I particularly like Katy Moran’s work); Union Gallery & i-Myu Projects (I’m a big fan of Korean art); Alison Jacques (that gorgeous space on Berners Street, and a nice balance of artists); I think Nettie Horn are doing a very good job; and I used to really like going to David Risley Gallery (shame he’s gone to Copenhagen) and the Blue Gallery when they were on Great Sutton Street. Further afield, I think the Ingleby in Edinburgh do an excellent job; I always make sure to go to Carles Tache in Barcelona; Caprice Horn in Berlin; and I like PKM, Johyun, SUN Contemporary & Gana in Seoul (amongst many, many others). Oh, and Zandari in Seoul as well – nigh on impossible to find, but well, well worth it.

What do you think visitors enjoy about your gallery?

As we’re based off the obvious gallery trail (e.g. of Vyner St or Fitzrovia), the gallery has quite an independent and individual flavour to it, which I’m told is greatly appreciated by many of my collectors – we don’t just follow fashion. Given that I like to find artists ahead of the market, there’s always an element of discovery and excitement – people love to find an artist before everyone else, and then see how they grow and become more successful. Plus the kind of work that we show has a particular balance between aesthetics and ideas, work that can handle itself in both camps without falling into the trap of being either too cerebral or too retinal. It’s something that’s difficult to put into words but I know that for many people who have been returning to the gallery for years, this is a key factor.

What are the most important factors in making a gallery a success?

Enthusiasm, patience, artists, marketing, timing, endurance, integrity, contacts, perspicacity, patience and enthusiasm. In no particular order.

BRIC

2010-02-05T12:53:00.002Z

BRIC is Philips de Pury & Company's latest project, coming to the Saatchi gallery in the form of auctions from 22- 24 April. It brings together work from artists in Brazil, Russia, India and China (I think 'CRIB' would have been a better acronym) otherwise refered to in the economic sphere as the world's 'four fastest growing economies'. By appropriating this abbreviation, directly from the financial lexicon, Philips de Pury once again unflinchingly equate money and art. And if we hadn't already understood, they house the auctions at the Saatchi.

BRIC is currently open for consignments. Already in are conceptual artists Anish Kapoor and, from China, Ai Weiwei.

Dropping a Han Dynasty Vase, 1995

Ai Weiwei is also an architect, curator and activist; a controversial figure in his native country. Influential and despotic he shares more than a creative empathy with Kapoor.

He has over 17,000 followers on Twitter! Sadly I can’t read any of it. http://twitter.com/aiww