Every year, for as long as I can remember, I would spend this week at the New York State Fair, taking place in my hometown of Syracuse. I enjoyed the large crowds, delicious food, rides and entertainment. Currently in London, I was slightly disappointed I would be missing out until I heard the Notting Hill Carnival, apparently the second largest street festival in the world, was going on. After being warned not to wear nice jewelry, bring any valuables and not rely on your mobiles, I was a little hesitant on what to expect, but my friends and I ventured over to the west end regardless.
Upon our arrival, several cops attempted to direct the crowds. Being short, my views were primarily of others shoulders and backs, but eventually found a clearing as we approached the top of a hill and saw the massive amounts of people gathering in the streets below.
We danced and sang our way down Portobello Road, practically participating in the parade ourselves. I loved the diversity of the different music played, one minute you would be dancing along to Lil Wayne's Lollipop, and you would turn the corner and be amidst the sounds of Caribbean steel drums. The performers were enthusiastic about getting the crowd going and were determined to make sure everyone was having a good time.
The theme of this year's Carnival was, "Welcoming the World," and I was amazed by the intricacy in the costumes. People were covered in glitter, gold, feathers and animals. As they moved to the music their large costumes extended out in all directions, filling the streets with a colorful array of designs. Although I missed out on my good old American state fair, Notting Hill far exceeded my expectations for the day. I now have a new reason to look forward to the end of August and a flight to book for next year.
Tuesday 26th August
Vegas Gallery, ‘The house of Pain’: Pascal Rousson: 21st August-14th September
64-66 Redchurch Street, London E2 7DP
Elements from flea markets and charity shops, American pulp fiction and artists as rock stars all feature, with a D.I.Y slap dash feel. Mixed media pieces highlight modernist American artists as self-obsessed figures, whose works echo the ‘low aesthetics of amateur home improvement projects.
The bluecoat, ‘Green Spot’: 19th August-3rd September
School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BX
By installing solar powered audio-visuals in a courtyard, Green Spot aims highlight the importance of green spaces in urban environments.
Wednesday 27th August
The Others, ‘Venusts Effercio’: Paul Banks, Jennifer Brown, Timothy Dixon etc
6 and 8 Manor Rd, Hackney, London N16 5SA
Venustus Effercio (lovely stuff) explores the notion of carnivals and festivals. 8 artists and three live acts: Richard Wigglesworth, Liberation jumpsuit, Society present their work.
A&D Gallery, ‘Artefacts from the Dumpling Dynasty’: Fiona Hewitt: 13th August-12th September
51 Chiltern Street, London W1U 6LY
Illustration which fuses traditional imagery with digital techniques transport you back to your childhood. Illustrations full of rich colours and iconographic Chinese art mixed with commerce and fairytales are sure to tickle your fancy.
Theprintspace, ‘A Motorcycle Adventure’: Iain Crockhart: Wednesday 27th August: 7pm-10pm
74 Kingsland Rd, Shoreditch, London E2 8DL
Book launch of Crockhart’s new book detailing his adventre to Himachai Pradesh/India.
Thursday 28th August
Barbican Gallery, ‘Frolic’: Huang Yong Ping: 25th June-21st September
Barbican Centre, Silk Street London, EC2Y 8DS
Combining contemporary western art with traditional Chinese aesthetics and philosophy, Huang Yong Ping’s installations and sculptures use avant-guard elements to explore culture difference, identity and colonialism that characterise Chinese history.
Barbican Gallery, ‘Dolls Night Out: Club Night with Viva Cake’: Party: Wednesday 27th August: 6:30-10pm
Barbican Centre, Silk Street London, EC2Y 8DS
Join Viva Cake for a dolly’s tea party. There will be rock n’ roll for all you cool cats, beauty bar and parlour games for active types and free cakes and tea served by the wonderful Viva Cake roller tea girls (for everyone- come on who doesn’t like tea?!). One not to miss. See you there.
To avoid disappointment, book an ticket in advance for event entry.
Newlyn Art Gallery, Bedwyr Williams (Chydig Back Yn Too Much): 28th June-30th August
New Road, Newlyn TR18 5PZ
Exploring the notion of place and being born in North Wales, his photos resonate with rural connections. Video, photography, performance, drawing and text are also the many other forms of expression he utilises.
Trolley Gallery, ‘Romance is dead’: Isabelle Graeff and Le Gun
73a Redchurch St, London E2
A collaboration between Trolley Gallery and collective Le Gun will commence a week long exhibition and temporary arts space.
Friday 29th August
The London Book of Dead Exhibition: The Real Tuesday Weld,
Catherine Anyango,
Eva Bensasson etc.
Antique Beat
PO Box 58132
London
SW8 4YN: 29th-31st August
Antique Beat is celebrating its launch with a short multimedia exhibition of manipulated photography, painting, film, collaged tableaux and music in the extraordinary surroundings of the crypt beneath the historic St Pancras Church in London. The show brings together a group of contemporary artists whose work reflects themes of death, dreams and the city for the first time.
The show will also celebrate the UK launch of the latest album: ‘The London Book of the Dead’ by art-pop musical collective the Real Tuesday Weld.
Store, ‘The moon is down’: Margaret Salmon: 28th August-4th October
27 Hoxton St, London N1 6NH
Haunting black and white photography and film highlighting time’s transitional quality.
Shoreditch Town Hall, ‘Rapunzel Rapunzel’: Sarah Cooney, Sarah Gillham, http://www.franciskylegallery.com/sites/Gorick.htm etc: 29th-31st August
Shoreditch Town Hall (Basement), 380 Old St, London, EC1V 9LT
Rapunzel Rapunzel uses printmaking, painting, sculpture, collage and drawing from eight exciting new female artists in London to reference themes of fairytales, dreams, mythological visions, memories, creatures, domestiv interiors and other vividly imagined worlds.
Saturday 30th August
Madame Lillies, ‘MUCALYD’ Paintings by David Fletcher & Ben Birch: 30th August-7th September
10 Cazennove Rd, London N16 6BD
Whilst Fletcher demonstrates an archetypal style towards subjective imagery, Birch focuses on stream of consciousness in drawings; involving motifs which lead to subtle narratives.
You know how it goes, first the slowness, then the grinding and eventually the total no show of anything. Shit, hard drive where have you gone?! Thus it went with my Powerbook laptop early on Sunday morning as I was trying to upload wedding photos onto Facebook. Rats! I took it to show my dad who can sometimes take computers apart, but he laughed and said I need to go to the Mac fixer, whoever that magic little gnome might be.
Luckily I live close to Mac1, an eccentric little repair shop opposite Spitalfields market which is perversely housed underneath a messy antiques shop. But it turned out that most of their staff were away on holiday and thus I found myself peddling like a mad woman into town to visit their West End branch first thing on Monday morning.
And spending most of the day reading a fine book by Doug Macdougall, Frozen Earth: The Once and Future Story of Ice Ages, whilst sat on a lovely wooden rocking chair underneath an oversized ficus plant (real and all). Sure, I desperately needed that computer back online, but hell, it's not often that I get to immerse myself in a good book for any length of time, well at least not without feeling unnecessarily guilty and that I should be doing something else. So the experience was not altogether bad.
After several false starts the pesky business of transferring info hard drive to hard drive began, but once that was all completed the fan started whirring away again like a noisy little gremlin in my keyboard, prompting us to wonder if that had been the problem all along. No matter, a fan transplant later all seemed to be okay, except now of course my desktop is all wierd and not how it used to be.
Mac1 director Marc was extremely pleasant to me even though I took up most of his day, and I witnessed him time and again tending to customers with ridiculous queries with the utmost grace and patience, whilst artfully tending to my sick computer with one hand. Meanwhile his son Julian played quietly on his game, having been dragged unceremoniously from the surf in gorgeous Cornwall and plonked down in grotty central London.
Mac1 serves as a handy alternative pit stop for all the frustrated Mac customers who have just been told that there will be a 10 day wait if they put their beloved in for treatment at the Regent Street Mac store. At Mac1 you are likely to get your problem sorted within in the day, and with none of the tedious corporate bollocks that Mac likes to peddle as a unique experience. Mac1 sounds to me like something you do in a fighter plane, oooh I'm coming over all Top Gun all of a sudden - but for all your Mac problems, it is definitely the way to go.
I got an email a while ago tempting me to go to the 'Art in mind' exhibition at Brick Lane Gallery. What drew me were Sarah Beetson’s illustrations, which contain a dollop of fun, a spoonful of neon attack and a dash of imagination. So after work I convinced the crew to join me in some arty fun, after all the gallery is only round the corner from work, which is handy!
Peter Ellison’s mixed media pieces involve photography, printing and painting resulting in expressive pieces, which are inspired by fashion and advertising images.
peter ellison art work
Steve Rack’s friendly world of acrylic creations allowed us to momentarily return to our childhood; to remember a simpler world where crayola colours, hope, happiness and bouncy characters littered children’s tv. He describes his work as containing a ‘glimpse into a magical world where anything is possible’.
steve rack
Donald Cameron’s black and white photography is really quite beautiful. Silence, surfaces and textures are documented to serenade your senses.
david camero
Sarah Beetson’s illustrations were the best thing in the exhibition. Small illustrations hung from the wall. Her naughty sense of adventure was pungent in the half naked figures parading perfectly perky breasts adorned with neon gell colours. Some frisky fun indeed!
sarah beetson illustrations
Downstairs there wasn’t that much to see. Whilst upstairs felt modern, downstairs felt like a trip to the past-to galleries where the sort of art you’re meant to ‘appreciate’ for your GCSE projects.
gary monitto
'internal bleeding' by Jaufran
esti eini
us posing for the camera
If you do happen to go to ‘Art in mind’ make sure you keep an eye out for Beetson’s illustrations.
As we all work behind our computers writing for the blog and researching for the upcoming issue of the magazine, we decided to give ourselves a bit of time in the spotlight. Since Charles is the only male and spends his days with seven other ladies, we made mustaches to make him feel a bit less outnumbered. With our pieces of art taped to our faces ready to go, we ventured outside and struck a pose.
Dearbhaile, Charles, Tanya, Melinda, Sarah, Michelle, Katie, Emma
Monday 18th
Institute of Contemporary Arts, ‘The Crystal Gaze’:Ursula Mayer: 18th-25th August
The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH
Female figures set within iconic architectural interiors are part of combined photos and films inspired by the classic Hollywood glamour and Modernist avant-garde genres.
Jake and Dino Chapman 'My Giant Colouring Book’: 16th August-14th September
27 Belfast Rd, London N16 6UN
These two brothers are no strangers to scandal when it comes to transgressing the boundaries. Defacing works by great masters, using join the dots drawings from children’s picture books are the starting point. From this has sprung improvised monstrous creations, chaotic imagery and dark obsessions. Expect the unexpected.
Tuesday 19th
Institute of Contemporary Arts, ‘Shoot Yr Idols’ films: 15th August-7th September
The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH
A selection of arty documentaries inspired by the film Face Addict, a new film release which takes place in the Downtown scene of 70s, New York. Other films include Ed Ruscha, Robert Mapplethorpe, Patti Smith, Jean-Michel Basquiat, the Velvet Underground, Ed Kienholz and, of course, Andy Warhol.
Wednesday 20th
Brick Lane Gallery, ‘Art in mind’: Sarah Beetson, Esti Eini, Steve Rack,etc: 20th August- 1st September
196 Brick Lane, London E1 65A
A dose of contemporary art with a hip twist
Empire Gallery, ‘David Le Fleming’s Gulliwing May and the Dannevirke Divas’ and ‘ElleMay Logan’s Monsters and Grotesques’: 20th August-8th September
Empire Gallery, 30 Vyner St, London, E2 9DQ
LeFleming’s visual puns, flat colours and vintage objects as well as ElleMay’s grotesque 3D paper cut outs, inspired by book ‘Demns, Visions of Evil in Art’ makes intriguing viewing.
Thursday 21st
Campbell Works, ‘You Turn’: in addition to five artists in residence,: (Shaun Doyle and Mally Mallinson, Harriet Murray, James Unsworth, Neil Taylor)15 gifted and talented youths make their response to the Chapmans imagery during a seven month workshop programme: 16th August-28th September
A counterpart to the Chapman Borhters’ series of etchings is now showing at Campbell works. As well as five artists in residence who will respond to the infamous Chapman brothers’ work, 15 talented youths will also display their work. In addition to this, art goers can get in on the act by createing their own response to become part of the exhibition. Get you paintbrushes at the ready!
Friday 22nd
Transition Gallery, ‘Pretty Vacant’: Nina Ogden, Keera Stewart, Rachel Potts: 22nd August-7th September
Unit 25a Regent Studios, 8 Andrews Road, London E8 4QN
Lo-fi methods display a quiet passion in the beautifully banal. Nina Ogden uses obsessive detail culled from eggs, bees and tadpoles to create surreal characters whilst Keara Stewart delicately displays through deadpan drawing and sculpture, her fascination with the unknown stories left behind in architecture. Rachel Potts creates a blank detachment in the painted surface whilst simultaneously hinting at fantasy.
Proud Gallery, ‘No one is innocent’ Sid Vicious: 4th June-11th August
32 John Adam Street
London
WC2N 6BP
Intimate photographic exhibition of the most infamous and tragic of punk icons features exclusive pictures from key punk photographers from the late 1970s. The highlights Sid’s chaotic life with his band-mates in the Sex Pistols, as well as his ill-fated relationship with the notorious Nancy Spungen.
Saturday 23rd
The hospital, ‘Frieze 20’ : Damien Hirst, Anya Gallaccio, Gary Hume, Sarah Lucas etc
24 Endell St, London WC2H 9HQ
Twentieth anniversary celebration of the ‘Freeze’ exhibition that lauched the YBA movement.
Sunday 24th
Lemoncello, ‘Rehearsal of a Cross-Dressing Stepfather’ by Sally O’Reilly and Zoe Pepper with Shaun French: Sunday 24th August: 3-7pm with a v short performance at 7:30pm
Limoncello, 92 Hoxton Street, London N1 6LP
‘Rehearsal of a Cross-Dressing Stepfather’ is an attempt to represent the behaviour of a fascinatingly dysfunctional, but real person through the body of an actor. Using scripts based on recorded monologues about how many meals you can serve from a single goose from Aldi, an actor, a director and a first-hand witness will explore the manner and mien of a penny-pinching, a-social, dress-wearing stepfather. Want to add a bit of drama to your Sunday? Then go to this!
Notting Hill, ‘Notting Hill Carnival’: 24th-25th August
Chepstow Rd, Westbourne Grove, Ladbroke Grove, W2
This festival needs no introduction. Europes finest celebration of music, sound systems spanning 3 miles, colour, glitter and dance all in London. Get set for some groovy shinanigans.
Shoreditch, ‘Street fest’: DJs, Cinema, live art, fashion show, hair show and events: 16th-24th August: 12pm-10pm
Make like a banana and slit your time between nottinhill and Shoreditch festival. The latter has music from the likes of Junkboxx, Damian Lazarus and others. Cimema from Future Shorts, live art: Ronzo, Andy Seize and an exclusive fashion show from satoshi date.
Nothing could quite prepare me for the 'Domestic Appliance' exhibition at Flowers East gallery on Kingsland road. Looking at the website, I was intrigued and excited to go to an exhibition full of moving, interactive sculptures – well, who wouldn't be? It's a pretty unique occurrence. However, no one warned me how moved, impressed, tickled, and indeed, mentally scarred I would be by the whole experience.
Art galleries are usually peaceful places for quiet contemplation. Not so Flowers East whilst Domestic Appliance is in residence. As I entered the gallery I was immediately confronted by an electric drill noisily doing unspeakable things to a hoover. This was Kristof Kintera's 'Conflicts of Interests', and it set the tone for an exhibition that would be dominated by merged objects that are usually inanimate but now, in a rather unsettling way, seem to have been given minds of their own.
Around the corner I was met by a strange and elegant creature. Tim Lewis' 'Pony' was less horsey than it's name suggests - the animatronic beast actually resembled an ostrich – but it was slowly pulling it's own little pony cart around a corner of the gallery. A feeling of uneasiness came over me (something that happened often during this exhibition!) as I realised the animals limbs looked to be made of robotic human arms. This meant that, whilst also resembling a giant bird, the creature was making very human movements. The familiarity of such movements jarred with the fantastical nature of 'Pony', making it rather weird to watch.
Curiouser and curiouser. This rabbit hole was getting more and more disturbing, as I was drawn to Georgy Ostretsov's 'Massage Chair'. This piece, which I can only describe as vile, consisted of a chair and doctors overall. Emerging from the arm of a doctor's overall, which was casually thrown over the chair, came an all too life-like plastic hand that was constantly thrusting it's bloody fingers in and out of a gash within the white leather seat. With the use of the doctor's overall came all sorts of connotations of botched surgery, sadomasochism and gynecology. This horror was like a car crash, you couldn't bear to look but also couldn't tear your eyes away. Who'd have thought that an overall, a chair, a plastic hand and some motors could stir up such strong emotions?
Upstairs, things were slightly less confrontational - although only very slightly. This was still all very intellectually engaging stuff. I had my feminist hat on as I perused Theo Kaccoufa's 'Dream River'. This single bed, immediately feminised by being dressed with a pink bed spread, contained a vulva-like opening that revealed a swirling whirlpool leading to an abyss. It felt very like a Sarah Lucas piece, the object becoming an objectified female which is laden with strange sexuality and also warnings of what that sexuality might mean.
Also from Theo Kaccoufa were two more dream like objects; 'Fountain', a chest of drawers streaming with water and 'Monument to the Isms', a wooden chair that seemed to have fallen over and was wiggling its legs like a beetle, on it's back, trying to right itself.
Humorous respite came in the form of Jim Bond's 'Dust'. With this piece a never ending dance was played out between an electro magnet that attracted iron filings, quietly moved forward and then dropped them before it's partner, a brush, opposite. The brush then, rather pointedly, sweeped the filings back over to the side of the table the magnet resided on. Like two siblings quietly tormenting each other, this piece had me reminiscing about my own petty sibling squabbles.
Nik Ramage's 'Jelly Wobbler' was the most fun piece in the exhibition, and no surprises for guessing what the purpose of 'Jelly Wobbler' was.
The whole time I had been in the gallery I had sporadically been hearing CRASHES!, BANGS! and WHALLOPS! On investigation I discovered the source to be Antoine Zgraggen's terrible trio of cutting, slicing, and pulverising beasts, which could be heard pummeling things mercilessly from afar. Drawing closer you could see that the three weapons of destruction (Der Entzeier, Der Grosse Hammer, and Die Zerquetscherin) were held safely behind glass and only controlled by the artist himself. You could choose your victim from the trinkets hung up around the walls, which gave a lovelt sadistic touch. Then, Zgraggen would take your victim, place it on the chopping block and you could stand in the dock, big red button beneath your finger and execute your prey. It made me wish I'd come prepared with a copy of The Sun.
Choose your victim...
...watch as the artist puts it in the dock...
...press the button and...
...the calculator gets it!
Last, but not least, Max Dean's 'Robotic Chair' was not only the most impressive, but also the most poetic piece on display. The piece was basically a chair, a robotic chair indeed, that had completely collapsed. Carefully the seat of the chair was blindly moving around the space and collecting together it's limbs, attaching each leg in turn. Finally, like a new born deer, it slowly pulled itself to it's feet. For a minute or so, upright and static, it remained as a chair, seemingly fulfilled. But perhaps this chair aspired for more? Almost as if the realisation that it could only ever become the sum of it's parts had hit the imaginative little piece of furniture, it suddenly crumbled to pieces. Once more broken up and useless, there was nothing for it to do but go back to piecing itself together again. A lesson to us all? A metaphor for the human condition? A comment on depression? Maybe I think too much.
'Domestic Appliance' was thrilling on many levels and, honestly, this is quite rare in most run of the mill art exhibitions. A mixture of the humorous and the horrifying, I would recommend anyone with a strong stomach and an inquisitive mind to go and take a look. Those with a nervous disposition might be best off staying well away!
Domestic Appliance will be on display until 13 September 2008.
Kate having a read.
Remember when Myspace hadn’t been over taken by Facebook in the war of social networking? Well around this time Fever Zine with its trademark pale pink cover, was born. A year has past since then and last weekend issue number 4 of Fever was launched at the Publish and Be Damned fair. In this time Fever, the brain child of Alex Zamora, has gone from strength to strength. Featuring a range of writers and illustrators, it covers topics highlighting the DIY ethos of its own making.
Past issues of the quarterly zine have featured the ‘What if they did’ blog, the campaign for the release of Marty McFly’s Nikes, the music programme ‘Pancake Mountain’, Nima Nourizadeh signed to Partizan Films director of Hot Chip’s 'Over and Over' video and the Mark Ronson with Lilly Allen number, short stories (my favourite on the life and death of a wart) and interviews with musicians and illustrators (Julia Pott is featured in the current issue and if you have not been acquainted with her work yet, you really should. Google ‘My First Crush’).
What I find really interesting about Fever is how successful its marketing campaign has been and continues to be. It is probably one of a very small minority of zines that are really getting a lot of attention (if not the only one). Fever has been featured in The Guardian, YCN online and It’s Nice That, was invited to participate at the V&A fete and has exhibited at RCA as part of a fanzine exhibition. Fever’s or more correctly Alex’s use of Myspace has proved fundamental in getting Fever known in the big wide world. With over 6000 virtual friends and counting, it is through social networking sites that a great majority of readers have first been introduced to Fever.
In a short space of time Fever has already established itself as a zine to be reckoned with and its grass roots approach consistently covers interesting emerging (and slightly more established) talent and trends. Fever Zine’s approach to content and marketing can surely only lead to greater growth in readers, contributors and hopefully pages.
The Monologue: It’s one of the toughest kinds of theatre to get right, but fortunately for all of those lucky enough to be at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, the writers and actors of The Murder Monologues have pulled it off spectacularly.
Made up of two short plays, the Murder Monologues is brilliantly performed by
Adrian Turner (who as it happens was an Olympic Swimmer and competed in Athens
in 2004) and Conor Irwin.
Little Boy by John Foster delves into the mind of Major Claude Eatherly, (Turner) the weatherman who gave the all-clear for the bombing of Hiroshima. Mass murder – or is it? After WWII ended on such dramatic terms, Eatherly committed a number of petty crimes and sent the profits to orphanages in Hiroshima. He was eventually put into a psychiatric unit, and it is from here he tells us his tale. An utterly convincing performance and an excellent script makes for compelling theatre.
Chocolate Cake written by Sheila West takes a more menacing angle. A fictional convicted paedophile murderer (Irwin) horrifies the audience with his sordid confessions of murdering his helpless victims. It makes for uncomfortable, but gripping viewing and delivers its twist with a punch which will leave you pondering for days.
Don’t miss it!
If you carried out a survey of the creatives influencing British art students today, Outsider Artists would come way further up list than the list than the YBAs of the nineties. Call it a backlash against ultra-conceptualism and Absolut ads, there’s something undeniably appealing about the homespun, amateur and obsessive. Also known as Visionary, Self-Taught or Intuitive artists, Outsiders penetrated the heart of Shoreditch with the Whitechapel Gallery’s brilliant Inner Worlds Outside show in 2006, and the cool kids flocked to it. After all, who doesn’t love Henry Darger – the reclusive Chicago hospital porter whose twee yet ultra-violent epics of the anatomically confused Vivian girls make the Chapman brothers’ mutated children look wholesome in comparison, if only because Darger didn’t work with one eye towards the newspaper headlines.
Of course, it’s a whole lot trickier when your Outsider is alive and kicking, has graduated from art college and is about to have his first gallery show. When does an Outsider stop being an Outsider? It’s a tricky one – as anyone ever required to compose a uni essay on the subject will know. Sidestepping the semantic minefield, however, is Raw Vision magazine contributor Julia Elmore, who curates an exhibition of new works by John Joseph Sheehy at the Novas Gallery in Camden Parkway. Sheehy, who has undergone episodes of homelessness and mental illness, was inspired to create art by his psychotherapist in 1999 and completed his Fine Art degree from the University of East London this year. His work is intensely wrought, colour saturated and alive with meaning. “When I’m painting it’s like I’m dreaming with my eyes open,” he says, “it’s like I go into a trance, it’s just pure divine magical”. Even if Sheehy’s not an Outsider any more, he’s still a visionary.
The Sixties was a decade of music, passion, love and protest. It was a time that people lived freely with an unbelievable appreciation for life and determination for change. On a quiet street in Shoreditch, The Idea Generation Gallery is celebrating this decade with their current exhibition, “The Sixties: Photographs By Robert Altman." As chief photographer for Rolling Stone magazine, Altman was there to document this time period for those of us only lucky enough to wish we were the flower children our parents once were.
His successful portraits of iconic musicians, including Mick Jagger, Tina Turner and Eric Clapton, led to loads of Rolling Stone covers as he captured the genuine passion of music in their eyes mid-performance. You could practically feel the energy of a concert, merely from looking at an image. Although the music scene was prominent in Altman’s career, I think his success came from the fact that he went beyond just music to document an entire culture amidst a time worth remembering for years to come.
Although difficult for me to choose, some of my favorite images are the ordinary, everyday lives of normal individuals. He captured people who didn’t care whether they were famous or not, but believed they could make a difference in the world. The photograph below, taken at the Anti-War Moratorium in 1969 is just one example, where the people are not posed, nor altered in any way from their photograph being taken. You can see that moment in time exactly as it existed.
© Robert Altman
Another one of my favorites included this group hug, taken on Mt. Tamalpais in San Francisco, California on September 30, 1969. It takes you to the other extreme of the sixties, away from the chaos and protesting and into the serenity of the mountains, where these people could appreciate one another and the beauty of their surroundings.
© Robert Altman
After leaving the gallery, I certainly felt as though I had taken a step back in time, and I highly recommend going to check it out, as there are images for everyone to relate to. The Sixties: Photographs by Robert Altman, will be at the Idea Generation Gallery from 16th July-29th August 2008. Located at 11 Chance Street, London E2. For more information you can call 020 7749 6851. Admission is free. The Sixties, edited by Ben Fong-Torres is available from Santa Monica Press.
Having received an email by Russell Herron who introduced his new exhibition ‘Irregular pulse’ by telling me I could get a free ‘russell herron’ mug, I instantly thought, ‘ooo free’ . Unfortunately I wasn’t quick off the mark so missed out on the mug, but the exhibition sounded fun with an assortment of contemporary artists, so team Amelia headed over for the press exhibit.
us sharing a joke or two
The use of Claes Oldeburg’s quote on art ‘I am for an art that takes its form from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates spits and drips, and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself’ sets the premise for the show. With an eclectic array of artists exploring different media and subject matters, this was sure to be an evening full of fruity, eye catching art. There were even red balloons packing the gallery space. Take a peek at what was in store for us:
Sarah Doyle’s cutesy art work set with a slightly dark undertone such as ‘if you’re looking for someone to hate-then hate on me’ attracts and unnerves at the same time. Her work reminded us of Stella Vine’s work especially with the writing on the side of aesthetically pleasing yet unsettling figures.
Bedwyr Williams’s simple and colourful posters consisted of portraits. Being a stand up comedian, photographer and an artist he certainly is a jack of all trades.
James R Ford’s photos of his cat’s toys shows a child like naivity and sense of play. He is often concerned with childhood, pursuits and obsessions.
Russel Herron’s wall splayed in bold with his name is used as a tool to advertise his online blog, email listing service, paintings and performances. His work frequently uses his own name as an intervention in an ever growing series of signs and free collectables. He is also part of the band The Russellettes.
Stewart Gough’s sculptures assembles everyday plastic objects implying a new mode of transport. His work is described as ‘positive ironic scupture’.
Ayling & Conroy’s bicycle piece plays on audience engagement whereby part of the power of the piece is disseminating the work through discussion and debate. This was one of my favourite pieces as it appeared as a frozen dramatic scene that urged you to wonder what had gone on before the crash. With a script that stood alongside the piece, this heightened the drama without explicitly telling you exactly what happened. It gave you a jigsaw piece of insight into a fragmented and confused scene.
With balloons plaguing us and getting tangled in our hair we thought it was time to make our exit. ‘Irregular Pulse’ is the type of art that pervades the east end. None the less, tongue in cheek art is fun and you always sense that making this sort of art would be a ball.
On first glance Twombly’s pieces could be mistaken as canvases an unruly child has scrawled all over. However, it is this freedom from structure that made the artist who emerged after Abstract Expressionism, a major mover and shaker in the art world. Even in today’s climate where it seems every boundary in art has been crossed; he still appears fresh and exciting. I checked out his eagerly anticipated ‘Cycles and Seasons’ to see whether the hype was justified.
The first room presented grayish pieces and early sculptures created from discarded objects such as wooden scraps, bandages and rusty nails. His stay in Rome from 1957 influenced his work where blanched light dominates the canvas. Spending his time on the island of Procida where his studio perched high on the cliffs overlooked the sea, Twombly commented, ‘The Mediterranean…is always just white, white, white’.
However the ‘symbolic whiteness’ that inspired him soon subsides in pieces such as ‘Murder of Passion’ where bursts of colour dominate. Scribbles of pencil that describe pubic hair, breasts that merge to form buttocks, smearing; all marks his anxiety and violence in highly erotically charged works.
The elements of automated response found in Surrealism is utilized in room six where repeated graphic structures such as boxes are repeated. An abrupt change of course in the 60s to Minimalist influences with hard edges and clean lines, makes his works almost unrecognizable.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s sketches and writings on deluges, cataclysms and floods fascinated Twombly. This is seen is his beautiful pieces made from calligraphic lines hinting at failed articulation that is both sad and alludes to frustration. The convulsive surface of water and subtle blues, pinks and yellows made from obsessive marks merge into hypnotic waves of weary dissatisfaction.
I have always been struck by Twombly’s ‘Four Seasons’ where doomed desire, love, loss and time feature. The seasons are both fervently painted with hints of fragile scrawls as if he is grappling at meaning, clutching at a feeling without trying to posses it. Emotional, elegiac, romantic with a dash of dark obsessive compulsive undertones that indicate frustration is evident. Your eyes butterfly across different sections and get utterly lost in the splatters, words, dribbles, dashes and the rainstorm of colour. Phrases such as ‘fovever touching it melts and faints’ remind you that trying to compartmentalize his work is impossible. As soon as you think you’ve worked out a piece a phrase like ‘Ah it goes, it is lost in white horizons’ pops up reminding you his work is as allusive and transitory as the sun setting.
The last room with vicious attacks or red paint rendered in repeated swirls immediately shocks your senses. Inspired by Bacchus the god of wine, whose rites were celebrated with orgies and animals being torn to pieces signals man’s inner need to attack, savage and repeat the process.
His works taste of loss, passion, evasion of time, frustration and violence. These are all emotions that aren’t containable as they bleed into one another forming a complex web that cannot be untangled by analysis. The feelings and processes he creates are universal and in some ways repeatable but never predictable. To continually question and inquire but never grasping the answer is frustrating and confusing but this is what life is all about; and that is what ‘Cycles and Seasons’ seeks to illustrate.
‘Lip-Gloss and Lacquer’ instantly perked up my interest. What’s not to love about lip-gloss or lacquer? And when merged together in the name of art, things can only get more interesting. Investigating our pursuit of commodity, celebrity and fashion whilst also exploring aspirations of glamour and luxuriant lifestyles seems like an overused concept-just pick up any fashion magazine and you’ll get a dose of this. However, this brushed aside I was curious to see how seven artists interpreted this title.
On entering the gallery space I was overwhelmed by Kirsten Glass’ pieces which are huge canvases decadently painted in bright colours. Focusing on models from fashion magazines, she then interrupts this consumer aesthetic by dismembering the figures and distorting scale and colour. Dribbling paint, eerie hues, haunted figures; you feel like you’ve walked in on a beautiful yet horrific nightmare. However, despite this tantalising mix her pieces strike out as odd rather than captivatingly strange; like flicking through a fashion magazine her images hold your attention for an instant but does not contain the power to hold it any longer.
In contrast to Glass’ bold decadence, Julie Masterton’s considered and minimalist pieces described as ‘drawings and boarders in space’ provide a refreshing juxtaposition. The interplay between two and three dimensions, photographic and object distort your senses and leave you wanting to examine the piece further with a magnifying glass.
Steve Hiett’s fashion photography follows a similar thread of enquiry as Glass. Clean, structured lines are incorporated into his fashion shots making the models an accessory to architectural influences. Pin sharp images and saturated colours paired with a simple lines gives his work an iconic feel that is both elusive yet enigmatic.
Belarus born artist and professional high-fashion model Elle Muliarchyk’s photos were a welcome return to the fun and fickle nature encapsulated in the title of the show. Staged in high-end boutiques, she smuggled her camera in to photograph herself dressed in various costumes. Self-described as ‘guerrilla fashion photography’; her images exemplified what fashion is all about. Stripped of pretention, what is left is a play of self, clothes in relation to place.
Laura Buckley’s films using broken glass and glitter as a starting point to disorientate the spectator and supposedly aim to be ‘centred on the demystification of the two dimensional visual masterpiece, using the medium of film projection sculpturally’. I know one thing; it certainly did mystify me.
In all, if you like fashion and art as two separate concepts, this exhibition works satisfactorily to fuse both in varied mixed media pieces. However unlike lip gloss and lacquer the show doesn’t quite live up to the enticing glossy title and it doesn’t leave your mouth watering for more.
Monday 11th August
Jerwood Space, ‘An Experiment in Collaboration’: Sarah Williams, curator and artists; Michael Pybus, Karen Tang & Daniel Baker plus collaborators: 11th August: 171 Union Street, London SE1 OLN
A one off talk examining the intricacies of artists operating as part of a team or partnership, laying bare the process and opening it up to scrutiny. The ongoing project is collaborative on every level: curator, writers, design team, artists and associates, share ideas, negotiate changes and make decisions about possibilities and outcomes.
Menier Gallery, ‘In Search of Beauty and Wellbeing’: Julie Cockburn & others: 23rd July-14th August
51/53 Southwark Street, London SE1 1RU
Centring on the role that art plays in a person’s emotional and physical wellbeing, the exhibition is supported by a programme of artist’s talks. The show aims to highlight the necessity for art as a means of communication, expression, and release, as well as general wellbeing.
Tuesday 12th August
Elevator Gallery, ‘THE TOMORROW PEOPLE: Artists of the future now!’: Olsen and Johansen, Thjis groot Wasink, Tom Bradley etc: 9th-22nd August
Mother Studios, Queens Yard, White Post Lane, Hackney Wick, London E9 5EN
Presenting fresh contemporary art from artists of today that look forward to tomorrow.
Bankside Gallery, ‘Summer in the city' : various artists: 1st-30th August Vestry Room, ‘Fiona Athanassaki Paintings’: 6TH- 17th August Wednesday 13th August Handel Street Project, ‘John Plowman The Reading Room’: 24th July-16th August Thursday 14th August Castefield Gallery, ‘Shazad Dawood’: 7th August-21st September Friday 15th August Room art space, ‘Projection Room’: a selection of artist’s films: 15th August 7.30pm. Saturday 16th August Sunday 17th August
48 Hopton Street, London, SE1 9JH
Members of the Royal Watercolour society and Royal Society of Painters exhibit in this joint exhibition.
The Empire Gallery, Vyner St, E2 9DQ
Her painting is influenced by landscape primarily from the Mediterranean. Using simple abstract forms and colour, surfaces are worked on with glazes to build up a layered transparency and to create a sensation of depth.
Schwartz Gallery, ‘Reflections in time and place’: Simon Atkinson, Gabriel Birch, Panayiotis Delilabros, Ismail Erbil, etc: 8th-24th August
White Post Quay
92 White Post Lane
London E9 5EN
‘Shift - reflections in time and place’ focuses on reflections,echoes and new beginnings. Physical and imagined places, temporal divisions, traces and memories are interpreted through contemporary fine art practice.
29 Thurlow Place, London SW7
Performances of Plowman reading as the books are thrown and re-stacked within a plywood structure play out the relationship between artist, audience, and gallery, analogous to that between author, reader and library. Membership of the Reading Group will be open to all and each week will focus on a particular book and members of the group will engage in a collaborative and performative action. Resulting in an accumulative piece of work that will develop over the course of the exhibition.
Sartorial Contemporary Art, ‘4X4’: Marcus Freeman
101A Kensington Church St, London W8 7LN
Four Artists are given a four day show each week in august. Each artist has been given free reign of the gallery and a prominent journalist or critic has been asked to write 444 words about them. Freeman’s pieces focus on clean, understated graphics.
2 Hewitt Street
Knott Mill
Manchester M15 4GB
Dawood’s 55 minute film Feature and new contextual work offers the viewer further readings and associations within the structure of the film. His work engages with mythologies, (in)authenticity, multiple authorship and intercultural interpretations. His film was conceived and filmed as a series of performances linked by an overarching narrative of The Battle of Little Big Horn, perhaps the most famous war between the Federal Government and Native Americans.
Contemporary Art Projects: ‘Start your collection!’: Alex Derwert, Alex Hudson, Celia Hempton & others: 1st August- 21st September
20 Rivington Street
Shoreditch
London EC2A 3DU
Taking place over the quiet period of late summer, this annual gathering of highly collectible artworks by over 70 emerging contemporary artists takes the form of a mini-Fair and includes drawings, watercolours, small paintings and sculptures, limited edition prints and photographs.
31 Waterson St, London E2 8HT
Films, drinks and popcorn. What more could you ask for on a Friday night?
Park Gallery, ‘Gartlands’: Janie Nicoll: 9th August-8th September
Calendar Park, Falkirk FK1 1YR
The exhibition “Garlands” showcases new installations and video works by Janie Nicoll made for the Park Gallery, as a result of the residency at Callendar House and in collaboration with residents from the High Flats at Callendar Park. In one video-work, letters that spell out “Carpe Diem”* flutter on washing lines, linking art to the everyday routines, existences and environments.
Outpost Gallery, ‘FRIEDRICH NIETZCHE VS ART GARFUNKEL’S HAIRCUT VS PAUL SIMON’S HAIRCUT’: Simon Davenport: 2nd-21st August
10b Wensum Street, Tombland, Norwich NR3 1HR
Davenport describes the exhibition as a series of events, which becomes perceptible through a combination of physical processes. The installed objects and stage props are often subordinate to their performative function.
Having been disappointed by a number of Hayward Gallery’s previous offerings this year there was pressure on the gallery to prove itself with its 40th anniversary show.
Big birthdays often corral bouts of introspection, weeping that snuffs out birthday candles and so on. However ‘Psycho Buildings’ sees the Hayward in self-aware yet bouyant mood. Titled after artist Martin Kippenberger’s photographic book of buildings that reacted against Modernism, the show allows artists to run amok with the gallery creating utopian and dystopian spaces.
The Austrian collective Gelitin’s installation rests precariously on the roof, a pea green murky pond navigated by rickety yet functional two-man wooden boats. A no-frills vibe permeates the work, ‘Normally, proceeding and restricted with without title’, with watercooler bottles strapped to the underside of the boats. The angular lines of the boats force rowers to sit ridiculously upright, correcting slouching and adding to an air of larking about on the river with Ratty and Mole. This gentility is undercut by the utter precariousness of the operation, at 12-plus metres above Ole Father Thames.
There is something of a theme park ride feel to all of this, allbeit a sedate one; yet this does not necessarily exclude insights. Heath Robinson-esque contraptions spring to mind, as do apocalyptic visions of an alternate drowned London. Plus, the view and sensations are far more startling than anything that poxy Ferris wheel next door has to offer.
As with any birthday do, there is someone harping on nostalgically recalling past glories; here Ernesto Neto provides more of the same organic dripping forms, encased in nylon and filled with spices; it’s fine but really nothing that we haven’t see before from this artist, who surely has more to give.
Much of the other work wants to create a feeling of portent, or of aftermath- alluding to the psycho in the title perhaps?- the dissected and suspended domestic interior of ‘Show Room’, Mike Nelson’s monster lair, even Michael Beutler’s oddly aggressive maze of chicken wire and primary bright florist’s paper, like a shanty town sponsored by the Early Learning Centre.
michael beutler's piece
But two pieces really succeeded in ratcheting up tension and ambiguity. One was Rachel Whiteread’s ’Home’, an eerie display of dolls houses lit up and arrnaged into deserted roads and avenues. The other, Do Ho Suh’s neon elegant ‘Staircase V’ is a fabric template of a New York stairwell that creates a feeling of space and wonder but also claustrophobia.
rachel whiteread
do ho suh
The cramming in of so many works, their interactivity and the slides into theme park-ness could have led to a frenzied atmosphere where novelty trumps thought. Yet the screaming tabloid headline of a title masks the quiet moments that really make this show, the gentle lapping of water against a sky-high boat or the quiet disquiet in Whiteread’s model village. As with the best birthdays, there is a mix of giddy excitement and reflection, welcoming in the future whilst holding onto the past.
If your walls at home are looking a little bare and you have some (a lot) of extra cash to spare, then head down to the HOST Gallery to buy some art where the first annual FOTO8 Awards and Summer Show is going on until August 31. The exhibition is filled with the best reportage, portraiture and landscape photography shot by established and emerging artists. What makes this show unique is that all the prints are for sale, so if you desire, the art can come home with you.
A total of 1,800 images were submitted, and after being narrowed down by a panel of judges, 170 were chosen. I enjoyed the collection, however, I'm not sure these are the types of photographs I would have hanging in my living room. I was looking for brighter and more cheerful work. The images were similar to what I would see on the pages of PDN magazine, but not necessarily in a home decorating catalogue. Yet, maybe this is the appeal of it all. I absolutely loved the photograph shown below, taken by Aleksander Bochenek, called 4am on Las Ramblas, Barcelona, 2007. I think the eye contact and facial expressions are great, but personally, can't imagine paying 700 quid to look at it everyday. If you are willing to pay the price, you get a 20"x30" framed Giclee print(edition 1/20).
One photograph that caught my eye as a good buy was of this woman on the beach, shot by Claudia WIens. This 20"x30" color print runs at 500 quid.
Whether your intentions are to purchase work or not, it is well worth the trip just to view the show. You can also vote at the gallery for your favorite shot. The photographer with the most votes will receive the People's Choice Award. The exhibition is going on until August 31.
Monday 4th August
Idea Generation Gallery, ‘Robert Altman’s Photography from the ‘60s’: 16th July- 29th August
11 Chance St, London E2 7JB
Take a trip down memory lane to the 60s where naked love-ins and anti-war sit ins rule. Altman captures the psychedelic 60s as well as taking some shots of the Rolling Stones.
Madder139 Gallery, ‘Paul Chiappe’: 10th July- 9th August
137-139 Whitecross Street, London EC1Y 8JL
Chiappe questions the illusion between subject and object in a series of hyperrealist drawings. Taking images from the traditional school photo, books and vintage postcards, Chiappe then recreates the images with pencil drawings to blur and smudge the plots and characters. This emphasises the transitory and fragile nature of memory.
Tuesday 5th August
The Art Vinyl Gallery Shop, ‘The Art of Fac51-The Hacienda’: 31st July-27th August
13 Broadway Market, E8 4PH
Peter Hook from New Order and Joy Division curates the Art Vinyl Gallery with some classic designs from the Factory Record Vaults.
Artprojx, ‘Automamusic’: Aura Satz: 9th July-16th August
Artprokx at Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, London WC2H 1LB
A film about mechanical music investigating intricate view of self playing violins, accordions, drums and pianolas offset by scenes in which floating musical instruments are played by invisible hands. This highlights the similarities between the beginnings of musical reproduction in the 19th century and spiritualist invocations of the dead, through sound.
Wednesday 6th August
South London Gallery, ‘Games and Theory’: Jakob Kolding, Nils Norman, Lottie Child etc
65 Peckham Rd, London SE5 8UH
International artists who share interests in play, sports and gaming invite viewers to become active participants in the exhibition and climb, crawl and experience the gallery in new ways. The show explores Situationalist ideologies and the radical potential of play as a form of resistance and expression of freedom.
Thursday 7th August
Sartorial Contemporary Art, ‘4X4’: Chris Tosic
101A Kensington Church St, London W8 7LN
Four Artists are given a four day show each week in august. Each artist has been given free reign of the gallery and a prominent journalist or critic has been asked to write 444 words about them. Tosic’s pieces focus on collage, typography and collage.
Friday 8th August
Nottinghill Artsclub, ‘Gin & curiosities’: Robert Rubbish: 4th July-5th September
21 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JQ
Robert Rubbish of Le Gun magazine (he is co-editor) keenly celebrates old-fashioned eccentric ways and places in a body of work that brings together his interests in: curiosity and joke shops, facial hair, Victorian Punk revivalism and Gin. A mish-mash of paintings, drawings, posters and typography inspired by glitter and 70s cosmic rock band hawkwind is presented for your viewing pleasure.
Hackney, 'hackney wicked': decima gallery, Elevator Gallery, Mother Studios, The Residence, Schwartz Gallery: 8-10th August
Hackney Wicked is Hackney Wick's first major art festival celebrating contemporary art with open studio and galleries showcasing the best fresh new talent.
Saturday 9th August
Viewfinder photography Gallery, ‘Nearly Nothing’: Mark Bellingham, Gerd Hasler, Kelly Hill and others:12 July-17 August
Linear House, Peyton Place (off Royal hill) London SE10 8RS
A photography group exhibition exploring the aesthetics of ambiguity. Images are often poetic and allusive.