COURTESY @MPSinthesky
A beautiful photo of when the fog enveloped London
A beautiful photo of when the fog enveloped London
Thursday, 12 December 2013
Chapman Brothers @ Serpentine
The Serpentine Gallery is hosting a free retrospective of the Chapman Brother's huge body of work. For those of you who love them, this is great for you - it has a little taster from a number of their series, including Fucking Hell and One Day You Will No Longer Be Loved. The room is scattered with their Klu Klux Klan
inspired figures, and even though they are wearing stripped socks and Birkenstocks, they are still oddly menacing to be around.
The Fucking Hell series inspired pieces are mesmerizing - it is so easy to stand in front of them for hours. You can see so much, and once you think you've seen it all, you see even more that you hadn't noticed before. The fact that there are several of these scattered around the room means you could be staying in the gallery for a dangerously long time. The best bit is trying to find the deformed creatures in amongst the savagely brutal scenes. The Chapman Brothers are clearly influenced by Nazi Germany and Hitler, with many of the tiny plastic character in the scenes have swastikas stuck to their arms. In 2008 they held an exhibition at the White Cube gallery of alleged watercolors by Adolf Hitler that they had drawn over, an interesting concept that I wish had been shown in this exhibition.
Surrounding these huge cabinets of figures there are the artistically vandalised paintings from the One Day You Will No Longer Be Loved series, eerily staring out from their deformed face. I love this series hugely, I think it's such a clever idea to think that because they person has deceased and everyone they know has deceased and their portrait is being sold on, they are genuinely no longer loved. This is how the Chapman Brothers justify their vandalism, and it oddly makes sense. The portraits themselves are just so creepy, with missing eyes and melting faces and dissolving features. The ones that are of children are the scariest. And the saddest.
Whilst its good to see the Chapman Brothers most influential works, it's also nice to see their clear influence from Goya. This has always interested me about the Chapman Brothers - their love of Goya. From the general feel of the room, it definitely has been influenced by it - dark colours and dark themes of war and death. /
This exhibition is open until February and definitely something that I would go back to to spend more time at. It is small but it is a beautiful little summary.
Friday, 6 December 2013
AICA Lecture - Dawn Ades @ Tate 'How Contemporary Practices Engage with the History of Art'
I recently went to a talk at the Tate Britain, in collaboration with the AICA (International Association of Art Critics), that focused on contemporary practices engaging with history of art. The talk was lead by Dawn Ades, who is an art historian and curator, and who helped curate Manifesta 9 in 2012, the European Biennial of contemporary art. The talk was insightful into the ways in which we can bring contemporary art and historical art and context together, to deepen our understanding of modern art whilst also exploring the effects that historical art has had.
It is true that a lot of curators seem to divide contemporary art and historical art, deeming they have very little in common. This can be true to a certain extent, but I feel that it is beneficial to everyone to see the progression and influences in the art world together. When talking about Manifesta 9, Ades spoke about how the Biennial was set in an industrial coal mine complex. This bought up issues of the use of coal in art works, and the influences it has had, which became the starting point for the art that was bought into Manifesta 9. Most of it was contemporary, and it took great inspiration from things like the industrial revolution, coal being used as fuel (which lead on to nuclear power which was looked at in Claire Fontane's piece), and coal being used as a material itself.
I personally think, and always have done, that exhibitions that bring together old and new are the most informative and effective. They help you visually and symbolically understand the art works on show. Whilst this talk was very heavy to digest, the main message that they were trying to get across was important - segregation of contemporary and old isn't necessary, they can both work together and compliment each other.
It is true that a lot of curators seem to divide contemporary art and historical art, deeming they have very little in common. This can be true to a certain extent, but I feel that it is beneficial to everyone to see the progression and influences in the art world together. When talking about Manifesta 9, Ades spoke about how the Biennial was set in an industrial coal mine complex. This bought up issues of the use of coal in art works, and the influences it has had, which became the starting point for the art that was bought into Manifesta 9. Most of it was contemporary, and it took great inspiration from things like the industrial revolution, coal being used as fuel (which lead on to nuclear power which was looked at in Claire Fontane's piece), and coal being used as a material itself.
I personally think, and always have done, that exhibitions that bring together old and new are the most informative and effective. They help you visually and symbolically understand the art works on show. Whilst this talk was very heavy to digest, the main message that they were trying to get across was important - segregation of contemporary and old isn't necessary, they can both work together and compliment each other.
Monday, 2 December 2013
Inside the Art World - Curators
Read this on Pi Media here
Last week I went to a great talk at the White Cube gallery (following on from the Gilbert and George talk) that explored the lives and start ups of curators. As this is a field I am very interested in going into, it was great for me. Andrea Schlieker (Director, White Cube), Paul Hobson (Director, Modern Art Oxford), Cliff Lawson (Curator, Hayward Gallery) and Anita Feldman (Head of Collections and Exhibitions, The Henry Moore Foundation) all spoke about their careers and their beginnings, opening my eyes to the wide variety of curating opportunities available, as well the skills and experience necessary.
Curating is an important part of the art world. Exhibitions in museums and galleries depend on the creative thinking, intense research and important networking that curators deal with. Since the 80's there has been a new hunger to enter into curating, with the opening of galleries offering more opportunities, leading to an increase in curatorial courses. It is the curators job to 'visualise the chaos in our minds', as Schlieker so nicely worded it.
Anita Feldman, to me, offered the most interesting insight into curating. She studied at UCLA in California, before doing her graduate at the Courtald. Instead of working solely for a museum or for a gallery, she instead works for The Henry Moore Foundation, working with the art of just one artist. Whilst this may seem boring, it actually seemed like the best option - she gets to know her artist and works in great detail, and she gets to travel the world creating exhibitions for galleries everywhere. She can be involved with projects from start to finish, unlike curators who work with large galleries who may only work with the start or end of an idea. She recently finished an exhibition with the Gagosian Gallery, where she put Moore's huge sculptures indoors - this was a challenge but something that can be achieved due to the different spaces she is given to work with. Her next exhibition, Body and the Void, explores how Henry Moore changed the way the body and its surroundings are shown.
Taking a different route into the art world, Paul Hobson started his career by reading History at Oxford, followed by two MA's, the first being Arts and Management, the second, Aesthetics and Contemporary Visual Theory. He went onto run a contemporary art society that raised funds for the country to be able to buy new contemporary art, and has only recently taken the job as Director at Modern Art Oxford. in 2015 they will be holding their 50th anniversary, in which they will run a full year exhibition that will show key works from over the past 50 years, with complimentary pieces being bought in and out to give a constant feel of freshness. Hobson believes that this challenging show is the key to good curating - a good show, with great figures (whether they are known or not), and a variety of techniques.
The Hayward Gallery is part of the Southbank Centre in London, which spans 20 acres along the river. Having all this space available gives curator Cliff Lawson the ability to offer a variety of different shows - this is important to a gallery that has no permanent collecting, like the Hayward Gallery. It puts extra pressure on the curators there to create amazing shows that will bring in audiences. Lawson curated the hit exhibition The Light Show, that was regularly sold out. His humble beginnings consisted of studying his MA at no other than UCL, having studied English Literature in Canada and done work experience at the Museum of Anthropology. He has also been Assistant Curator at the Tate Modern - something which offered him a great amount of experience.
Curating is a great way to get into the art world - whilst it has its challenges, its also satisfying, can offer you great opportunities like travelling and being in a constant state of creativity, whilst also being academic in its research side.
Last week I went to a great talk at the White Cube gallery (following on from the Gilbert and George talk) that explored the lives and start ups of curators. As this is a field I am very interested in going into, it was great for me. Andrea Schlieker (Director, White Cube), Paul Hobson (Director, Modern Art Oxford), Cliff Lawson (Curator, Hayward Gallery) and Anita Feldman (Head of Collections and Exhibitions, The Henry Moore Foundation) all spoke about their careers and their beginnings, opening my eyes to the wide variety of curating opportunities available, as well the skills and experience necessary.
Curating is an important part of the art world. Exhibitions in museums and galleries depend on the creative thinking, intense research and important networking that curators deal with. Since the 80's there has been a new hunger to enter into curating, with the opening of galleries offering more opportunities, leading to an increase in curatorial courses. It is the curators job to 'visualise the chaos in our minds', as Schlieker so nicely worded it.
Anita Feldman, to me, offered the most interesting insight into curating. She studied at UCLA in California, before doing her graduate at the Courtald. Instead of working solely for a museum or for a gallery, she instead works for The Henry Moore Foundation, working with the art of just one artist. Whilst this may seem boring, it actually seemed like the best option - she gets to know her artist and works in great detail, and she gets to travel the world creating exhibitions for galleries everywhere. She can be involved with projects from start to finish, unlike curators who work with large galleries who may only work with the start or end of an idea. She recently finished an exhibition with the Gagosian Gallery, where she put Moore's huge sculptures indoors - this was a challenge but something that can be achieved due to the different spaces she is given to work with. Her next exhibition, Body and the Void, explores how Henry Moore changed the way the body and its surroundings are shown.
Taking a different route into the art world, Paul Hobson started his career by reading History at Oxford, followed by two MA's, the first being Arts and Management, the second, Aesthetics and Contemporary Visual Theory. He went onto run a contemporary art society that raised funds for the country to be able to buy new contemporary art, and has only recently taken the job as Director at Modern Art Oxford. in 2015 they will be holding their 50th anniversary, in which they will run a full year exhibition that will show key works from over the past 50 years, with complimentary pieces being bought in and out to give a constant feel of freshness. Hobson believes that this challenging show is the key to good curating - a good show, with great figures (whether they are known or not), and a variety of techniques.
The Hayward Gallery is part of the Southbank Centre in London, which spans 20 acres along the river. Having all this space available gives curator Cliff Lawson the ability to offer a variety of different shows - this is important to a gallery that has no permanent collecting, like the Hayward Gallery. It puts extra pressure on the curators there to create amazing shows that will bring in audiences. Lawson curated the hit exhibition The Light Show, that was regularly sold out. His humble beginnings consisted of studying his MA at no other than UCL, having studied English Literature in Canada and done work experience at the Museum of Anthropology. He has also been Assistant Curator at the Tate Modern - something which offered him a great amount of experience.
Curating is a great way to get into the art world - whilst it has its challenges, its also satisfying, can offer you great opportunities like travelling and being in a constant state of creativity, whilst also being academic in its research side.
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