Monday, May 12, 2008

Shelf Life 5

Thinking about the objects on my shelves, I am struck by the memory of the spaces inbetween.  

The objects I see are the survivors from a long time.  They had specific places and contexts in earlier years, and some have had many different places and several different owners.  There are a few pieces specifically chosen for these shelves but the majority are from other times and places. Some are significant items with their own dignity and value and some are insignificant items that gain gravitas by being placed on the shelves such as this piece of broken glass with an extraordinary patina and irridesence, picked up at low tide in front of Tate Modern.  They all bring with them echos, and trigger memories of faces  and voices that have gone but float about like wisps of smoke.

Regret is not on the agenda.  I am here now, I can see where I have been and I am now on my way to somewhere else...
The things on my shelves will reflect that.


Shelf Life 4

The contents of the antique rosewood box is the true archive on the glass shelves.  I rarely open it, but did so today.  It contains 97 items ranging from the very tiny (some of my children's milk teeth) to certificates and registration documents, dried wedding flowers, my baby shoes, an empty Russian rifle cartridge and sundry precious personal letters, cards and children's first drawings.  They are all packed in like archaeological strata.  Excavating each layer brought memories and thoughts flooding back, but the overall thought was the importance of all the numbers and codes which describe each individual.  Passport number, driving licence, birth certificates, death certificates, National Insurance number, National Health Number, bank codes and numbers, it goes on and on.  

Lose those, and who are you?

Shelf Life 3

The archive?
I suppose all the objects on the six glass shelves could be collectively regarded as an archive- an autobiographical archive- as most periods of my life are represented there.  But the majority of it can only be read as such by me.  My children would have a different perspective based on their childhood memories, their knowledge of me and their own experiences and taste.  My friends would have another take on the display, and strangers, yet another view, and yet the objects remain the same.

The image is of a pebble picked up on a beach more than thirty five years ago.  It is barely one inch in height, it is a flint nodule and is worthless to everyone but me.

Shelf Life 2

This is the first item in self life- a black and white photogragh by Elliott Erwitt, 1983, entitled East Hampton, New York.  The image was used on a postcard sent by a friend who asks, tongue in cheek "I assume this is what it is like at art school".  It is a temporary resident on the third shelf, causes a lot of comment, but not for binning quite yet!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

worst show

 

                                       Critique

 

There are two contenders to offer up for the coveted prize of worst show ever.

The first was a show of  a young man named Carlos Diaz and took place in Berlin some years ago and the second is the work of a contemporary London based artist and businessman named Azam.

Contender number one happened on the outskirts of Berlin in a scenic district called Spandau with the somewhat infamous past of being the post-war prison to Rudolf Hess and his cohorts. This was a group show but for our purpose, I will focus on only one of the participating artists. The work itself was poorly hung and would have been an embarrassment to an o level art student/photographer. It looked as though it was hung in absolute haste and with absolutely no thought to its impact on the other work in the show. The exhibition on a larger scale appeared to have been badly curated, if in fact, the work was considered as a whole. The artist hadn't even bothered to invest in proper frames and had instead drawn the frames onto the wall surrounding each print. To my horror, this artist decided this wasn't working so he decided (during the show) to take his work off the wall put it in the car and drive home all with the help of a large bottle of Jose Cuervo.

 

 

 

The second show is by a contemporary London artist/business man and while enthusiastic, was a poor excuse for painting. I can imagine this painter rising to fame and critical acceptance but this is said with the voice of a cynic. The work was a series of poorly executed pastiches drawing shamelessly and unapologetically from every major talent of the past century. While I can see the importance of drawing from one's antecedents I also feel, in this kind of contemporary representational painting it is crucial to have an element of originality unless one is working within the realm of appropriation, which this particular man was not. His uncontrolled and ill-considered stylistic changes he even called "periods" within his artistic life. Possibly these works were destined for the boardrooms of London and if this was the artists only desired destination for his offspring then I would have to say he was a success.  

 Azam's work has to be the prime example of what money and connection can buy. One of my old tutors was succinct in saying that money can buy many things but credibility is not one of them.

His series entitled entanglement and emotion do nothing more than make me weep for their naivete. It would be simplistic and small-minded for me to criticise this man because of his financial good fortune and his brazen self-publishing but with all of these advantages, I would expect a more successful effort. I do have to acknowledge that I am criticising the man and his work with a mediocre understanding of contemporary and classical art history and a slightly left of centre political viewpoint but it seems he has no understanding of contemporary art   nor, it would appear, does he want any. He has the capital to finance his foray into the London art world having worked as a successful businessman for 20 years. The show consisted of maybe sixty reasonably large canvases and I found myself envying the fact that he could be so casual with the use of these expensive supports for work that was in fact still in the sketch stage and should have been, in my humble opinion, work done on paper before one committed to the canvas. Perhaps there is a large part of me that is criticising this work based on my envy of the ease with which he is able to disseminate this nonsense but there is also a part of me that is being critically objective. Recently, he has become artist in residence at county hall and I can only assume this would be after a massive injection of cash. There is an enormous bronze placed with conspicuous proximity to the Dali bronze on the Southbank by county hall and this just makes me want to cry.

While I am ever hopeful that people can actually see the wood for the trees, I cannot help harbouring a modicum of doubt for an objective and lucid public perspective.

My subjective and possibly naive opinion is that a work of art should speak for itself but in this case, it is the titles that speak volumes on this vapid oeuvre.

Anatomica: skull 1

Bitter enchantment 11

Blue savannah duplicity 1

Blue savannah duplicity 11

Bonded essence

Bonded essence 111

Bonded essence V11

Compositional turmoil 11

Compositional turmoil 1

Embodiment 11

Embodiment 1V

Emotion 1

Emotion 11

Emotion 111

Emotion 1V

Entanglement 1

Entanglement 11

Entanglement V11

Fabricated mural V

Visceral motion 111

Visceral motion 1V

Figurative inflection: inflexion

Assimilated prey 111

Concentric contortions 1V

Assimilated prey 11

Assimilated prey 1

Figurative overture: reflex arc

Eclectic grace blue 1V

Eclectic grace blue V

Eclectic grace blue V1

Eclectic grace blue 11

Concentric contortions V

Concentric contortions V1

Concentric contortions  V11

Formlative sedation: movement  (ibid)

Rebirth linear: outset

Rebirth variations 111

Icarus scream

Bonded essence 1V

Figurative axiom: regressive 111

Formulative seadtion: passive 1

Formulative seadtion: passive111

Formulative seadtion: passive1V

 And so these wondrous titles continue ad infinitum or until I saw through my jugular with the bluntest of bread knives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UTOPIAS AND UNREALSISABLE PROJECTS

 

 

 

Utopias and unrealisable projects is a multimedia show, which has taken submissions of work from the general public. The idea of having an open exhibition was to encourage participants from every possible sphere including what is categorised as outsider art without imposing the structural confines of the London art world on the contributing artists. Utopia as an ideal is completely individual and therefore subjective but by inviting any, and all work, we hope to show a more egalitarian vision of art without boundaries. As curators, we will allow each work to claim its own space within the gallery based on our visceral responses. The thinking behind this is that fear of realising a particular project or piece of work can ultimately become limiting. When the need to comply with a particular fashion or the production of a commodity becomes our driving force in the production of art, this work can become secondary and stilted.  We hope to involve those artists in London who would not normally think about submitting or calling their work art.  

 

 

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Negative rview of Helen Chadwick Exhibition

Review for Critical practice


This is a review of Helen Chadwick’s work exhibited at the Barbican Gallery some five years ago.

The exhibition begins with Ego Geometria Sum, a very complex installation and sculptures made in plywood and photographs of the artist. She says that she is re-living a psychological journey from childhood to adulthood. However the majority of the photographs are of an adult Helen in which she appears to be oblivious to any meaning except her own narcissistic wish to attract The Gaze.

Chadwick claims to bring to attention issues of the feminine kind but indeed the very modelling of her own child like body is offensive to young and old women alike. This is a pressurised invitation for those looking up to her as a role model to immerse in all sorts of rituals in order to keep up to her dress size, therefore ending up with bulimia, anorexia and many other eating disorders. My question is whether Chadwick would have used her own body, had she been obese?

The theme continues in Mutability which is composed of several different pieces of works predominantly collages with the photographs s of he own body, as if suggesting a return to paradise. Again here we can see clearly her narcissistic trend.

She is also exploiting animal foetus, this is seen in her Chimpanzee Cameo and other plates. Chadwick keep on with the exploitation of animals in a series of sculptures made out of meat which she called Meat Abstracts. The sight of animal tongues, meat and poultry arranged in a grotesque way are an absolute obscenity and shows a great lack of respect for the public and the animals too.

Not worth the money! A butcher’s shop.


Laura