Branching out at the Bluecoat

I feel like I should be making more of an effort to enjoy Chinese art due to the fact I'm going to Australia and Chinese art is a big thing out there. As part of Liverpool Biennial, the Bluecoat has several exhibitions going on and I was glad to be forced into some oriental themed art and it wasn't actually that bad! There was a really interesting exhibition on the top floor by Sun Xun, where still images were mixed with moving, repeated videos and the effect was amazing. Photos couldn't really do it justice but even the pictures of the still work look great - the work looks textured which makes the work feel rustic and raw, especially with the overlapping strips of paper.

To me, Chinese art just felt like a lot of drawings of blue waves, birds and foliage, occasionally being painted on a pot, and after today I can't really say I was wrong. Waves featured quite a lot in the art work but it wasn't as boring as I thought. The repeated patterns were actually quite therapeutic and delicate on the wall, along with the paper hangings of birds. The colours that Chinese art uses is so calming (not boring), and whilst the art isn't the most eye-catching, controversial or interesting, there needs to be some nice, peaceful and beautiful work for us to look at after we've had enough of being interested.

Whilst there was a lot of Chinese work there, I fell in LOVE  with an artist called Jakob Kolding who had a really distinctive technique that I'm a massive fan of. Cutting and pasting images is so easy but just looks so good, very John Stezaker, and I just love it.

The Bluecoat has been gifted with having a beautiful building and 2 courtyard areas, and these are effectively used for the Biennial. The huge instillation in the front of the building looks like a revolving door that doesn't revolve. The reflective material used on the outside draws me in, and really all it is is a non revolving door.
I'm glad I'm starting to like Chinese art, hopefully I'll appreciate it more when I get to Sydney.

Bombed Church Liverpool

Today I went to the beaaaauuuutiful St Luke's bombed out church as part of the Liverpool Independents Biennial. It. Was. Amazing. Firstly the artists whose work was there definitely got the best venue kn the whole of Liverpool - the building has such a sad history due to the bombing in the Blitz, and my favourite work in the venue is heavily linked to this. Secondly, as well as the history the building has, it's got amazing architecture  I can't believe how the walls of this building are still standing after the bomb, and the walls are even still charred.

I must admit that although I was very very excited to go into the church, my first impressions weren't the best. Yes, it does look a bit like a gypsy camp/jumble sale/abandoned garden, but when you actually explore it, it's very interesting. There is an interactive table with white wooden tiles, paint and paint brushes which invites you to create your own art (which is something I love about the Biennial - there are so many activities to do), there are very menacing looking black charred spikes, obviously symbolic of the bombing, as well as ironic 'no smoking' and 'fire exit' signs hanging from the walls all over the place, along with the placement of two fire extinguishers tied to a plywood sign which says fire stuff.

My fave piece though was an instillation, a little hut which was made of shards of wood, and written on the walls inside were stories about bombings in the war, which then invited you to write your own stories and memories of the bombings. Being a history lover, I read a whole load of them, and they were so moving. One of them told of a bomb coming in through the window and hitting the wardrobe and their nan picked it up and through it out of the window to avoid the whole family dying. It's a really dramatic piece of art and the involvement of real stories makes it even more touching.


I have never been anywhere like this before and I really was an amazing day, I would recommend it to everyone. It did feel a bit dishevelled inside but I think that this is meant to suggest the chaos that was here before - the rubbish that they've used such as the insides of wheels and old signs all has a reason (the inside of the wheels were used as the sound of bells - it was amaze).

Es Baluard Palma

Whilst on holiday I visited the modern art gallery Es Baluard and before I even went inside I spent about 20 minutes just walking around the outside of the building and climbing onto the roof to see amazing views of the port and the cathedral and even Bellver castle. Its one of the most interesting galleries I've been to just from it's layout alone - the outside has so many staircases and slopes that climb onto the roofs, as well as having loads of instillation work on the grounds too. Even when you're walking towards the gallery, there are countless pieces of art in the surrounding area, including trees with jumpers on (which felt very similar to those in Liverpool outside the FACT gallery) and giant pigeons.


Whilst it is definitely one of the most interesting buildings I've been to, the content didn't disappoint. If you look at any of the famous Spanish artists - Dalí, Miró, Picasso - you'll see colour, abstract-ism  surrealism, and overall bright work. Almost all the work in this gallery follows the same genre, and almost all the work catched my attention. The paintings were great, with some of my favourites below. Also, having 3 giant needles with fluorescent thread through them tower over you when you first enter is just setting up expectations of what to expect whilst you're there.


Talking of Picasso, Es Baluard has an interesting collection of Picasso ceramimics. It was really interesting to see these as I had no idea that he made these, but when you see them all you can see is Picasso! His ceramics are as colourful as his paintings, some are funny, some are intricate, but they're all so Spanish and so Picasso, just showing what a great artist he is - his work is transferable and recognisable whatever the median.

As I said earlier, the installations around and on top of the building are amazing too. I think the addition of being able to go on the roof is such a bonus, and one of the best things to see is the view! Another interesting architectural aspect of Es Baluard is the underground water tanker that is now empty and a huge space. You can still faintly smell aged water, and imagining the room full with water is crazy.

Miró - Es Baluard Palma

Alot of people see art and think 'a 5 year old could do that'. This is what many people think of Spanish artist Joan Miró's work. I went to the Baluard art gallery in Palma and there was a large collection of Miró's work there, and while it is understandable that people think his work is childish, colourful and easy, to me it seems inspired, imaginative, and expressive. Reading about the history behind his work is even more interesting and also further shows his imagination, as he wrote books based around his character 'Ubú', as well as later collaborating on a play.

This is what really makes Miró an interesting artist - his use of different medians, from sculpture to painting to written work, show him to be an accomplished artist instead of a '5 year old'. I found myself easy engaged with the art, the strong use of primary colours and surrealism reminding me of his fellow Spanish artist's Dalí and Picasso. It seems that the Spanish have a theme when it comes to post 1900 art - colour and nonsense.

Miró's art is friendly, it invites you to hang around infront of it for a little longer than normal. The fact that his works were all presented together also added to this as there was so much to take in in just one place. Before this exhibition I didnt really know much about Miró, but it turns out he was a great influence on art - both surrealism and expressionism, and when you look around the rest of the gallery you can see how his work has influenced others.

New and Old, better together?

After reading Jonathan Jones' article about the Met displaying modern art and old art together, and this becoming a recurring thing in other museums in Britain, I have to say I agree. When I went to see the Turner Monet Twombly exhibition, I was in awe of how well these different time periods fitted together, and I think that its undeniable that modern artists are influenced by older, established artists, if not for their technique but for their subject matter. 

Putting together a range of time periods will also broaden peoples knowledge of artists and further their appreciation. People regularly get into comfort zones, as they do with anything else in life, and showing a range of art can be seen as refreshing. The argument comes in when you start to discuss whether 'group exhibitions' are a good idea. It's all well and good having mixed art in a private collection but when it comes to exhibitions, some artists aren't happy. Rothko says that he feels 'that they only detracted from the concentrated power of his work displayed in its own company' and this is a very valid point - an artists work, solely together, has a much more powerful impact, as it can be collected thematically or chronologically, and this shows the progress and technique of an artist. Sometimes art and artists seem to get lost if they are placed with other artists, especially if there work is the least hard-hitting. 

As I have said before, people do favourite certain areas, and this can also lead certain artists who are in the same exhibition to be bypassed. Modern art is normally brighter, more graphic, whereas older art is darker and it's content is normally more obvious, meaning less time spent observing as there is with modern art. 

However, with the Turner Monet Twombly exhibition, I felt that all the work in fact added to the impact of the exhibition instead of detracting from it, and this is something that artists should consider. 

Blog vs Critical Writing

Today I was looking through creativetourist.com for some writing about the Liverpool Biennial to see what I should check out in a couple of weeks and I came across an article about a talk called 'The Medium is the Medium' about art criticism, or the lack of it, now that there is an increase in blogging. You can read the article here

I personally agree with some of the points that were bought up. The first point of 'online writers don't know how to write', is debatable. It is true that there are a vast majority of online writers who struggle to get their point across in an engaging way, mainly because they're young and inexperienced (I am both of these things), but in order for a person to grow they have to start SOMEWHERE. It's a good idea for young people to start blogging, start using twitter to network and get their posts out there, start reading other, more accomplished blogs such as the FACT blog, the guardian online or Creative Tourist. Unfortunately everyone can't be born an art critic, but they can grow into one.

Another point I agree with is that 'criticism' is becoming diluted. For bloggers, who are young and want to gain fans instead of offending every artist or curator they've ever seen, find it difficult to actually criticise anything. It is a fact that you can't please everyone, and sometimes you just need to say what you've got to say, but people forget this in a bid to become popular. This leads people to believe that you can't ever be an art critic ect ect ect. It's all a bit depressing for bloggers...

But wait! You then get the bloggers who are overly critical, in a way to make themselves stand out to the professionals, 'look, I can critique!!!'. Normally these overly critical blog posts gain a lost of backlash - people argue that you have taken the art out of context, you have not looked at the history behind the art, the artists life history and lifestyle have been neglected by the blogger. Can a blogger ever win?

I say all this now, but if I ever did become a big wig art critic that gets printed left right and center that I too would be pessimistic when it comes to bloggers. There is some real talent on the internet by people who just haven't been the given the opportunity, but most bloggers do try and keep their head above water by pleasing the masses until they realise that no one is ever happy anymore.

Is that critical enough?