Exhibition - Bill Viola Ocean without a shore

Bill Viola American 1951– Still from Ocean without a shore 2007 Three channel high definition video transferred to computer hard drive, sound, plasma screen monitors, 90 min, edition of 3 Photo: Kira Perov © Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery, New York


Ocean without a shore by Bill Viola is currently showing at the NGV International. I saw this installation in Melbourne about three months ago and I find myself still thinking about it from time to time.

It consists of three videos on plasma screens, one on each wall, in a darkened room. Originally it was shown in a 15th century chapel in Venice, each plasma monitor placed atop a stone alter hundreds of years old. I would have liked to see that. The darkened exhibition space does still somehow carry some of the aura of a church though. It felt particularly cold in that room.

Viola describes the piece as exploring ‘the presence of the dead in our lives’. Each screen seems to house (rather than depict) a human figure wandering toward us. The footage initially seems grainy, this is because it is filmed through a cascading sheet of water (this isn't a digital effect), suddenly the figure breaks through and can be seen clearly now, trance-like, as the water pours down. Eventually the figure recedes as quietly and simply as it arrived. The exhibition notes describe the figures as "the dead attempting to re-enter our world". I was moved. Plus if you can get to Melbourne it's free..

Michelle Lopez exhibition NY

The  Simon Preston Gallery in New York is currently exhibiting the new work of 39 year old Brooklyn based artist, Michelle Lopez. The work is an installation of various objects such as a compressed car, a tree lodged through a temporary wall, sand bags and what seems to be the flames of a 'black' fire. Although all the object have no apparent physical relationship, they all seems to convey the feeling of capture or the halting of something that was once moving. The compressed car is placed, or rather left, leaning against the side of the wall - somewhat like an abandoned mattress. The tree, although leafless, is not merely a sprouting fledgling but a fully glorified sycamore, which is lodged into a temporary wall that separates the room into two spaces. The wall has been constructed so that it is small enough for the audience to still be able to navigate their way around it. 

The branches of the tree occupy the entire 'other' space while the trunk of the tree protrudes from the wall on the same side as the compressed car, black flames and the curious sand bags. Each sand bag is attached to a rope which seems to be anchoring some unseen force that hovers above the ceiling and out of sight. What i like about this work is the way it seems to amalgamate both narrative and abstraction, leaving you with the confusing mixture of movement, stagnation and the curiosity of what you 'could' be missing. This is the first show she had had in eight years, perhaps these feeling are a symbol of her rebirth into the 'art scene' or the period in which her work remained unseen and unpublicized? What ever the reasons or answers, i think this would be a interesting exhibition to see.

YBA Influence on British comedy?

Monarch of the Glen. Landseer 1851

I have been enjoying fine and young British comedy of Christopher Morris, regarded as an anarchist in residence for a brief period in 1997, creating BRASS EYE. (This may predate Gervais, but not the YBA) The documentary spoof ran for less than one season (6 Episodes) before being withdrawn, it was finally back on air in 2001 after the audiences criticism had waned.

The show had been cut after producing a work, a Special Presentation about Pedophilia, and the reaction to a sketch wherein the host's child was rejected by an presumably convicted pedophile, finding something not attractive about the child. The host, being the father was mortified and demanded to know why, it had spoiled the tell all documentary he was presenting... this was enough to cause some moral outrage.

I can explain affording the series and the work of other British comedians such as Johnny Vaughn, or Vegas, the blog as a philosophical luxury. The earlier Millennium produced a now ABC repeated series called IDEAL, Vegas is Moz, a small- time drug dealer and we learn through his experiences a lot about drug effects, masterfully achieved, and subculture.

It is all framed, within an intricate set of a disgusting council flat which he never leaves, coming across as having a character of its own because of its chambers and pockets of surreality, socio-pathy & paranoia and at times, frightening violence, amidst the fatiguing facade of good times and recreation that heavy drug users insist drugs provide.

Its underlying theme of crime is a kinky, corrupted, deforming, amoral, sulfuric atmosphere, that lets Underbelly be the glamourous example of TV apathy and cheap titillation that it actually is.

My point being that I can tie so much within the explorations of BRASS EYE and IDEAL as to suggest some response in culture and acceptance to the energy of the YBA, BRASS EYE features episodes titles that, a YBA artist may correspond (possibly utilizing the part of the brain Brass Eye knows as "Shatner's Bassoon...#", no less....)to, in terms of approach and the long- drawn bow and boundary breaking, outrageous and adult humour.

For example in BRASS EYE the episode about SCIENCE, I could equate the zeitgeist of MARK QUINN, for ANIMALS the obvious example would be HIRST for CRIME you may find parallel to the work of the CHAPMAN BROTHERS. DRUGS: TRACEY EMIN ("Alcohol isn't a drug, its a drink!--#") etc. These could be, though speculative assumptions, actually quite effective comparisons.

Brass Eye
www.channel4.com/programmes/brass-eye

Ideal (Thursday 1130 pm ABC2)
http://www.babycow.co.uk/flashmen.html


# Brass Eye- Drugs

Note This is an edited quote a stream of consciousness I was performing in the late hours of yesterday evening, pending a Friday I was not looking forward to, and for a change as well considering the practical component of the course, however, the rest can be found on my own, soon to be interesting, blogging page, detailed as a cut and paste below, for fans of the oblique literal.

http://wwwtripodotrex.blogspot.com

Wilfredo Prieto and the Humourous Narrrative.

Apolitico- Apolitical Prieto 2001- 2003


Grassa- Grease Prieto 2006

The Artist is Wilfredo Pietro of Cuba, An Artist I have followed recently, since scoring an Issue of the spoken of Frieze magazine containing an article on slapstick.

As a well produced Journal it is able to quantify a number of arts issues and understandings through genre. Using editorial to prove parallels that exist within life and culture, These magazines seem especially narrative, that issue, now donated to a friend for their pursuit of philosophical truth, is an Artistic object of use. The magazine maintains an aura, with voluminousness and extrapolation and intelligence.

Cuban(prof)Wilfredo Prieto (b78) has stunned the Modern Art world with prestigious prizes and critically acclaimed, mostly site specific installations, performances and gestures. Showing an intelligent humour that is all narrative, contradictory and sublime, it crosses many cultural boundaries, gently and may be appreciated as both art and great humor by all classes and ages of people, with the deeper end of Prieto's accomplishments providing vast justification and energy toward political debate and recently the environment.

The Pictured, Grassa-(GREASE) was an installation at a Cuban convent. Timed against the sake of its rotting ingredient, speaking volumes on the clean steps, while simply, remaining to be three simple household pieces of Grease, Soap and the Banana Skin.

Flags of nations(Apolitico, pictured) have their Sovereign colours dulled into a featureless grey. Other work includes a walk about Cuba, wearing thongs with a tread facing backward (Huella), and a crane in a pit tries to winch itself off the ground.

In, A Moment of Silence, the Artist will download two minutes of immediate idle time into your computer (links below), it is safe to use.

He was present I believe, in the recent Havana Biennale

[Humour is about timing and placement and 'narrative' builds or is revealed as the comedic moment bursts.]

http://www.diaart.org/prieto/download.html
http://www.frieze.com/magazine/

Kabakov and narrative

sorry this is late! my internet was down.

The Boat of my Life 

Installation view The Boat of my Life 1995 Ilya and Emilia Kabakov

This work represents the 'story' of Ilya Kabakovs life, from day to day, up until the creation of this work. The installation illustrates a sort of memorial of his life, a historical package of materials and reminders of his existence.

The work present its self as a interactable installation, in which the audience is entreated to endeavour through the contents of its cargo. Memories, events and different parts of his life, from the ordinary to the entralling, are sorted and displayed in cardboard boxes which are left open  on the deck of the boat.

The Boat of my Life 1995 Ilya and Emilia Kabakov

The deck is order and set up as a visual biography, some what like a museum display, that you are able to walk through and discover the intricately organised 'exhibits'  that summarise a life.

Each exhibit is accompanied by inscriptions or explanations of the day, event or items that are displayed. Allowing one to feel intimately connected to the piece through the availablity of knowledge and understanding.

The boat is an all encompassing haven that you are permitted to float through, to see everything he has experience, the joys and the turmoils, from the safety of the vessel.

Exhibition - Kader Attia

I went browsing online to find current exhibitions; I ended up finding the Saatchi London Contemporary art gallery, which is currently exhibiting - "UNVEILED: NEW ART FROM THE MIDDLE EAST" which contains mainly installations. Although there are about 20 artists exhibiting, my favourite is Kader Attia.

Go Too:
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/unveiled/index.htm
to see the full online exhibtion

Kader Attia
Ghost, 2007
Aluminium foil
Dimensions variable













In Ghost, a large installation of a group of Muslim women in prayer, Attia renders their bodies as vacant shells, empty hoods devoid of personhood or spirit. Made from tin foil - a domestic, throw away material - Attia’s figures become alien and futuristic, synthesising the abject and divine. Bowing in shimmering meditation, their ritual is equally seductive and hollow, questioning modern ideologies, identity, social perception, devotion and exclusion.

hotel suites, given a makeover. (free exhibition)

I read about this exhibition today and just had to tell you all about it. Artist Jesse Willesee and actor Kit Willesee are redecorating seven hotels into pop art and human installations. It’s free to visit between the art deco suites of Darlo Bar on Thursday, May 14, between 6.30 and 9.30pm, with drinks and music until late.

Jonathan Borofsky- art & narrative

As traditional narrative art has been mainly a focus on the retelling of biblical or historical events, modern contempery narrative art, as eleanor heartly states, seems to encompas the spectrum of fantasy, the artists personal stories or any thing that captures the artists imagination. Jonathan Borofsky, although in his art practice strived more in the direction of pop culture and minimalism, his gives narrative 'instructions' to the viewer in the titles of his works, such as the above piece from 1983 titled "I dreamed I was having my photograph taken with a group of people. Suddenly, I began to rise up and fly around the room. Half way around I tried to get out the door. When I couldn't get out, I continued to fly around the room until I landed and sat down next to my mother who said I had done a good job!"

Minka Gillian- Legge Gallery

I found an article on this exhibition in the paper on the weekend, it looks really interesting. Minka Gillian recreates these rare and exotic flowers using anything from fishing line to cable ties. They are really beautiful sculptural pieces, the exhibition finishes the 2nd of May at the Legge Gallery (Redfern).

http://www.leggegallery.com/GILLIAN/Gillian.html

Focus on Forsythe: Additive Inverse 8|5|2009 - 10|5|2009

I looked at the South London web page and found this art work in future events. ‘Additive Inverse’ is an installation that’s part of Sadler Wells’ ‘Focus on Forsythe’ season which is about to premiere in the UK. The exhibition is focused on one of the world’s foremost choreographers William Forsythe. The work is distinguished through his modern take on the practice of ballet and its escape from the stereotypical classical music into the contemporary 21st century art form. The solo performance is composed with a collaboration of thread and fog and heightens the senses through the use of music. The installation is performed at the SLG by Alessio Silvestrin and opens May 5
http://www.southlondongallery.org

Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years

As i mentioned in class i went to see this exhibition. It was absolutely amazing and like i said... i cried when i went into the Infinity mirror room. I literally did not know how else to react. Kusama works with many different media and forms including painting, collage, sculpure and insallation. It was quite evident as i wandered through the exhibition that there was a recurring theme of dots and circles. It was then explained that Kusama actually has a mental illness and throughout her life she had various episodes where she would see dots and circles (usually in times of stress or pain). So really it was Kusama's illness that led to her greatness. At this time in her life (shes about 80 y.o now) she resides in a mental institution AND of course her studio is just down the road...

Klippel's Exhibition at the Anna Schwartz Gallery

At the Anna Schwartz Gallery until the 2^nd May is an exhibition of Robert Klippel’s bronze sculptures. Klippel was an abstract artist who died in 2001. He was known for reassembling machines into beautiful and very precise objects. It took Klippel a long time, even years to finish his art. He would let his work become an obsession to the point where nothing else mattered. For him it was important to create his exact intentions and would not let anything distract his artistic brainstorming. This exhibition is a must see!

Anna Schwartz Gallery, 245 Wilson street Darlington; Tue- Fri, 11am-7pm; Sat, 1-7pm. Until May 2^nd.

Exhibition - Antony Gormley

I went looking through the link that Amanda gave to us and found an exhibition by Antony Gormley at the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropae in Paris . This artist is one of my favorite, this exhibition shows his newest work including sculpture and installation pieces.

http://www.ropac.net/

ART + Culture

I have received an email from the Director of this website: http://www.artandculture.com

(I referenced the website last week in class)...

He would love to get you all involved in his website!!!

Could you all please take a good look. I will pick up on this this next week however... I would love feedback.

ALSO>>>>> wondering if anyone has been looking at what is happening in exhibition land? 

I did ask that you post your findings here this week...???

TOMORROW

Hi everyone,

A reminder that tomorrows class is in the library!

Lets meet there at 2pm as usual... 

ART & Narrative has been moved to next week.

See you tomorrow...

A.

** Thank you to those contributing... There are some GREAT comments here - keep it up!

Art & Narrative

Darren Sylvester
Darren Sylvester is an artist who thrives on creative performance, whether it is being expressed through photography, music, film or sculpture. Sylvester’s artworks all display strong narratives, most of which are derived from pop-culture. One of his latest filmed performances is “I was the last in the Carpenters’ Garden (2008)”, in which the artist walks though what is a reconstructed version, of the band the “Carpenters” Garden. To view what looks to be an unnatural looking set up Asian garden, in which Sylvester embodies the modern day hero-worshiper known as the stalker, is fascinating after you know what it actually is.

 

Karl de Waal
Another artist I chose to rant on about was found by chance; who was chosen for Temperature 2: New Queensland Art exhibition (The Museum of Brisbane) Karl de Waal. The artwork that Waal chose to exhibit is called “Quilt for Melanie (2008)”, which is a collage of notes sewn together and is dedicated to the artists’ niece who committed suicide a year ago. The notes are in fact shopping lists, phone numbers, post-its etc. with a very simple narrative expressed: the most basic of communication these days, is lost and if you view the artwork long enough, you may find out the why to the narrative. I found this to be a very warm and loving artwork, executed carefully to support the narrative.

Double Take - Anne Landa Award for video and new media arts 2009

Double Take is an upcoming exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. The exhibition consists a collection of artists ( some local , some international) whose works  are performance, video or new media based. Some of the artists include Phil Collins, Gabriella and Silvana Mangano , TV Moore, Lisa Reihana, Cao Fei and Mari Velonaki. The exhibition explores ideas of the 'persona' and indulges the fantasy of what it would be like to be someone else. 

It will be open to the public from the 7th of May to the 19th of July.

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/coming/double_take

Art and Philosophers- Euclid (Euclid's Orchard) Patricia Piccinini in Tasmania.

Possibly a student of Plato, and definitely of Plato's academy, and from the text Elements, Euclid1 postulated upon, at around 300BC many of the laws of common artistic devices.*

In looking down upon Euclid's Orchard, the origin, or where the artists viewpoint extends from, is say, located at the bottom left corner of the square. the only visible trees this orchard (an orchard containing trees of roughly the same size shape and mass, planted in even rows with similar division. The trees are represented by circles, the visible trees are the blue or filled in circles. The red hollow trees represent the trees that are still there, but hidden by the algorthythm.*



Therefore the following image is of what would exist perpendicular to this as in the artists viewpoint if the visible trees were reduced to thin grey lines. The theorem exists mathematically.*




Many of the recent blogged works, perhaps have adopted Euclid's Orchard, the visualization of which, in- 3 Dimensional, walk through terms, is almost transparent, but within artistic composition this all, is almost always precisely intentional, being a visual means. Elements may have been juxtaposed and stories are to be told, but this is essentially about common communication and recognized accordingly.

Decidedly contrary, maybe unwittingly to the Orchard and specific to the site of the Tasmanian Museum And Art Gallery, is a recent exhibition in Hobart of Patricia Piccinini. Hidden sculptures burst into being around taxidermied specimens of Devils and other endangered fauna in their protection In a co - effort with Diorama (dioramas being operative toward Euclid!)specialist Brian Rooney(The Museum contains more than 800 000 items), the compelling exhibition wrought with emotive and dedication, brings together elements of her career(as pictured) and awe- strikes the audience, (including Adults?) with the sublime contradictions, of hybrids and genomes and femininity that only examples of something much like a whaling collection could contradict.


I was particularly sated by the creative dampening of the harsh colonization of Australia and especially Tassie, which was often portrayed in tabloid journalism of that age, a freak show.

With H.G Wells, The War of the Worlds (Profile picture etc...)was written upon the posterity and against the destruction of the Tasmanian Environment surmising, with parallels toward trees- bigger than Big Ben, of death by disease, of lip- less, many- tentacled monstrosities- pertaining to the case of a grossly mutilated platypus. The narrators neighbour in the book just happened to be an Astronomer, everyone was an expert on Australia at one stage.

Patricia Piccinini- Evolution (my own Photo)
http://www.tmag.tas.gov.au
Website note: The Free Teachers Reference is a great PDF on the exhibition.

*wikipedia.org
1Asimov, Issac- Asimov's Biographical Encyclopaedia of Science and Technology, Pan Books, London 1978

(I had trouble uploading some downloaded Patricia Piccinini photos, I was stopped by attendants before I actually could take more, but talked my way out of an Ear Wringing... The You Tube Author James Kalm habitually blogs exhibitions in New York I had long promised to describe thus: www.youtube.com/user/jameskalm , Copy and Paste)