Alexander Calder’s mobiles come to life at the Tate Modern
The UK’s largest ever Alexander Calder exhibition of kinetic sculptures is coming to the Tate Modern. And in more ways than one, it’s moving.
Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976)
Antennae with Red and Blue Dots 1953
Tate © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015
Within art circles, if you were to mention the ‘mobile,’ there are no names that spring to mind other than Alexander Calder (1898-1976) – who is renowned for having invented these ingenious, performing sculptures.
Having amassed an impressive portfolio of work that spanned several decades, a large portion of Calder’s work is being brought to the Tate Modern for the UK audience to marvel at. The exhibition, entitled Performing Sculpture, will showcase about 100 of the American artist's works between his formative years from the late 20s to the early 60s where he had established an illustrious career.
Achim Borchardt-Hume, the Director of Exhibitions at the Tate Modern and co-curator of this exhibition, stated that Calder was ‘responsible for rethinking sculpture’ when referring to his innovative invention of the mobile. He went on to add that with regular sculptures, one must glean everything they can by moving around it – but Calder ‘made sculpture move for us.’
He further conflated Calder’s sculptures with the performance arts, stressing how important this field contributed to Calder’s work. Pieces like Dancers and Sphere (1938) showcases motion in a way similar to children playing whereas Red Gongs (1950) is a mobile that introduces the sound of a brass gong – showing how well he managed to take performance to another level.
Performing Sculpture will also feature Calder’s Alexander’s famed wire sculptures of his artistic contemporaries and friends, including a wired portrait of Joan Miró suspended in space.
However, perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of this exhibition will be the mechanics of movement behind his mobiles. The slow, cloud-like movement of the sculptures will be powered purely by the airflow in the room. This delicate motion is something that is lost in images, but can only truly experienced in person.
Perhaps the only regrettable aspect of this upcoming exhibition would be the omission of the stage sets he designed when working with choreographer Martha Graham. Nevertheless, this is a necessary omission. The entirety of his performance art is suspended within and between the movements of his sculptures. There does not need to be anyone performing in order to augment the power of his sculptures – because they do all the performing instead.
Fans of modernism, mathematics and the masterful should most certainly attend. This is not an exhibition to be missed.
Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976)
Triple Gong c.1948
Calder Foundation, New York, NY, USA
Photo credit: Calder Foundation, New York / Art Resource, NY
© ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015
Alexander Calder in his Roxbury studio, 1941
Photo credit: Calder Foundation, New York / Art Resource, NY
© ARS, NY and DACS, London 2015
Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture will be running at the Tate Modern from 11 November 2015 – 3 April 2016
The Girl of Stuff (Tracy Gray) – GET STUFFED
The Girl of Stuff's first photo book/ zine/ box is being launched soon at Parlour Skate Store on Hackney Road, the very location I housed my own exhibition Morella in 2014.
The Girl of Stuff's first photo book/ zine/ box is being launched soon at Parlour Skate Store on Hackney Road, the very location I housed my own exhibition Morella in 2014.
Get Stuffed is a photobook with a difference, the book takes as it's main underlying theme the skateboarding scene it documents, but very few of the photographs depict skateboarding itself, focusing rather upon what happens once the skateboard is put down. Described in the press release as being inspired by the Euro party vibes, lurkers, urban messages, skate rats, London locals, boozing, cruising, winning and losing.
The launch is themed around pizza, and the book is being presented in a hand screen-printed pizza box and with pizza-base(d) puns on stickers.
(Pun intended, sorry).
Free pizza will be distributed and there will be pizza bunting on the walls.
Because why the fuck not.
BM – You are very involved in skateboarding, what is it that attracts you to the subculture and why did you decide to start documenting it?
TGoS – So it all kinda started in around 1997... My first full-time job I was working in a photo lab (all analogue back then, none of this digital stuff) and a year or so before I had made some new friends through the under-age drinking scene that was the 'Ferryman's Tavern' in Maidstone, Kent. That pub sits along the river Medway, but more importantly it was next to the prime skate-spot that is the Law Courts. The new friends I had made would skate all day over the weekends. And for the rest of us that didn't skate, we'd hang out on the brick banks of the Law Courts drinking pints in plastic cups bought from the pub and watch the boys skate. We'd generally end up heading out to our late-night haunt 'Union Bar' after and I'd be armed with my Konica EU Mini camera, taking snaps of our antics and having them all developed, printed and even making enlargements for myself and my friends by the Monday lunchtime. It was a carefree life back then! My passion for photography didn't stop there, it continued through the rest of the nineties and into the new millennium when I went back into full-time education and studied BTEC Foundation in Art & Design (specialising in Photography) and then onto a BA in Photo Media at the Kent Institute of Art & Design (KIAD). The good friends I made back then are still in my life today and think it's those friendships that attracted me to skateboarding and their passion for it, rather than the skateboarding itself. I'm not sure if I'd have gravitated towards skateboarding without them. I started (trying!) to skate last year, I think I'm better off behind the camera lens and enjoying the party.
BM – Most of the photographs don’t actually document the act of skateboarding, why did you decide not to focus on it for this show?
TGoS – I've prolifically taken photos for nearly 20 years and as we are all multi-faceted human beings, inspired by many, many things; It seems obvious to include as many things that make up 'me' in my work. I also suppose that my nickname of 'The Girl of Stuff' is a reflection of that too. ;) I like seeing something beautiful, silly or absurd in the every day, mundane things we are surrounded by in our urban landscape. Documenting something that most others would miss or possibly even dismiss.
BM – I’m loving the pizza theme, but what on earth made you come up with that?
TGoS – I have wanted to make a zine of my photography for a while now. But I didn't want to have something constructed in such a way where the recipient wouldn't be able to hang one of the photographs on their wall or pass onto a friend without destroying the zine itself. My mate Tadej Vaukman from 585 Zines ( @585zines ) in Slovenia posted a video clip on Instagram where he had loose 6x4 prints in an old VHS cassette box with a photocopied sleeve which I thought was a seriously genius idea. I didn't want to rip him off, so I started thinking of other ways to package a set of photographs without the use of binding or staples. Living in Peckham, it didn't take very long before I saw a group of school kids outside one of those tacky take-away places eating from these mini pizza boxes. I started looking on eBay for pizza boxes, found a good deal and then made a call to my best friend Stu at Lovenskate to see if he could help me screen-print a design on it. He basically said he'd do it for free. I think he's just stoked to see me get over a decade's worth of happy-snapping finally into something I can share with the world. I have to say, I'm pretty stoked too.
BM – From the looks of the photos, you have had some pretty intense evenings. Describe one which relates to a photo in the show.
TGoS – HaHa! Yeah, there's lots of party photos... I really like the one of Cäptn Clepto in the shower. This was taken a couple of years back when a group our friends from Cleptomanicx in Hamburg came over for Notting Hill Carnival. Cäptn was kinda like the brand's mascot. He's a really rad dude and he'd brought an inflatable pink flamingo with him from Germany, which then became our kind of marker to keep our big group of Brits and Euros together in the madness of Carnival. We ended up going to Lilli's friend's house for an after-party and they happened to have a flamingo shower curtain. It was too good an opportunity to miss. So we snuck off into their bathroom and Cäptn got in the bathtub so we could take pics of him with the inflatable flamingo and the flamingo shower curtain. He didn't stop there, he found someone's wash mitts along the side of the tub and ended up wearing them all evening and into the next morning. Proper jokes!
BM – Have you heard of Macaulay Culkins band The Pizza Underground, and will they be providing the soundtrack?
TGoS – I can't say I've listened to them, but I've seen stuff on the internet about them and not all of it good. I'm gonna have Bryce from Parlour Skate Store on the decks for the evening... But I'm sure he can take requests if you ask him nicely.
BM – Please provide some vegetarian pizza. See you then.
GET STUFFED launches on the 23rd from 8pm and then remains open for the following week.
59 Hackney Road, E2 7NX
Audrey Hepburn: ‘Portraits of an Icon’ or Portraits of an Age?
The current exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery aims to display the portraits that capture the iconic within the icon, Audrey Hepburn. Whilst doing so, it also captures the image of an age where cultural fluctuation was rife.
The current exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery aims to display the portraits that capture the iconic within the icon, Audrey Hepburn. Whilst doing so, it also captures the image of an age where cultural fluctuation was rife.
When considering the name ‘Audrey Hepburn’ it is difficult to severe the ties and associations one carries with such a prolific name. To some extent, the name ‘Audrey Hepburn’ has come to define the term ‘pop culture icon’ whether you know as little about her as her name or not. The name is synonymous in our culture with class, elegance and beauty, only furthered by the constant cultural repetition on an image. We see Breakfast at Tiffany’s or chocolate advertisements in our mind as soon as the name is proclaimed.
Audrey Hepburn photographed by Norman Parkinson for Glamour Magazine, 1955 © Norman Parkinson Ltd/Courtesy Norman Parkinson Archive
What is interesting, then, is that the current exhibition at the NPG displays a steady and diverse chronology of still image and portraiture, which maps the changing landscape of culture that was seen during Hepburn’s lifetime. From the black and white, American Vogue photography by Irving Penn for some of the theatre projects that Hepburn undertook to the un-posed photography by Mark Shaw during the filming of Sabrina and the bold changes in fashion displayed in images by William Klein and Douglas Kirkland. For someone that knows only the iconic images of Hepburn, this exhibition portrays a landscape of change that Audrey Hepburn witnessed and, in some regards, pioneered.
The exhibition describes how at the height of her fame, and to some extent still today, Hepburn can be seen as holding the opposite traits you may imagine an ‘icon’ to posses. With the term ‘icon’, one may wrongly assume that Hepburn’s image and portrayal in media was a constant and unchanged personality. Conversely, she was ‘iconic’ for different reasons – she was the modern ‘everywoman’ that stood out amongst the aging portrayal of ‘women as sex symbols’. We learn she that she constantly agreed to film roles that challenged the culture she was surrounded by, some of which could have broken her career – both Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Children’s Hour were controversial in their content at the time. Even her charity work in her later life, which still carries on today, is an inherent element of her ‘iconic’ status.
What this exhibition seems to reveal is the real ‘icon’ of Audrey Hepburn that is otherwise occasionally obscured behind the repeated ‘iconic’ imagery. The different photographers opting for alternate methods of photographing Hepburn each bring out the elements of her personality that existed when working together. The writing surrounding the photographs reveals this eclectic image of Hepburn as an actress, artist and generally in her everyday demeanour.
The exhibition highlights, without explicitly stating so, how she stood out amongst her contemporaries – all the reasons she’s remembered today. The photographs displayed from personal collections, in turn, contain unique purpose, each distinct and detached from the last. The fashion portraiture marks notable differences to the casual photographs – and yet the similarities bring a more cohesive view of the woman in question. More than anything, the exhibition displays Hepburn’s collaborative efforts as an artist, maintaining a strong, unique voice in a challenging industry – a voice that she kept complete control over, cementing her status as an ‘icon’.
Marc Quinn – The Toxic Sublime
White Cube Bermondsey
15 July 2015 – 13 September 2015
British-born artist Marc Quinn is perhaps most well known for his 1991 artwork Self: a life size sculpture of his head, using 4.5 litres of his own blood. Bought by Charles Saatchi for £13,000 in the year of its conception, this work has accrued almost mythical status.
In 2005, Quinn took over the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square with his sculptural artwork Alison Lapper. Alison, who is an artist herself, was born without arms and with incredibly shortened legs. This work showed her nude and unflinching, proud of her nakedness. Deformities such Alison’s are naturally compelling to observe due to their uniqueness. As a species we are intrigued by anything unusual or different, but society tells us we mustn’t. Looking upon such a drastic disability is often thought to be an insult to the recipient, and children quickly learn not to stare.
Quinn's sculpture rejects these social conventions and shows her in all her unique beauty. Placing her on a plinth he shows us that is ok to look (in fact he forced us to do so), and that Alison has nothing to hide. There was no shame in her face. This work was bold, brazen, and brilliant.
On the 14th of July Quinn’s new show The Toxic Sublime opened at the White Cube gallery in Bermondsey. This new body of work is quite far removed from his bodily excretions and his sculptures of those without limbs, seemingly more reserved and delicate.
Most prominent and striking in this show are his stainless steel Wave and Shell sculptures, dotted around on the gallery floor. Highly polished in some areas they are more Cloudgate than Wave, but are beautiful nonetheless.
The other and more subtle works in the show are vast undulating canvasses, affixed to bent aluminum sheets. Upon these canvasses is a mixture of: photographs of sunsets, spray paint, and tape (amongst a myriad of other less determinable shapes). The canvasses once painted are abrasively rubbed against drain covers in the street.
The inclusions of these humble drain covers into the artwork is possibly the most interesting element to the whole show. Something described in the press release as being:
“.. suggestive of how water, which is free and boundless in the ocean, is tamed, controlled and directed by the manmade network of conduits running beneath the surface of the city.”
Quinn’s notoriety was gained in the early nineties for bravely showing the public that which we usually hide: faeces, blood, semen, and the like. Gilded and placed on a plinth for all to see. His earlier work depicted that which lies beneath, where as this show obscures exactly that. The drain cover is an object that hides these very secretions, burying them underground.
Quinn's work is brilliant at showing us the beauty in the overlooked and the grotesque, and this show to some extent does just that. The Toxic Sublime is definitely very beautiful, but it lacks a certain grotesqueness that is a Marc Quinn trademark.
Photographs from Marcquinn.com
White Cube Bermondsey
15 July 2015 – 13 September 2015
Guillermo Mora – not your usual acrylic painter
“It would be amazing to see all the paintings of the world separated from their canvases and falling on the ground.”
Spanish artist Guillermo Mora is coming to a London gallery near you. I recently interviewed the man and he proved to me why he’s worth your time.
What is it that you enjoy the most about working with layers and layers of acrylic paint? And also what you enjoy the least about it?
Layers in life, layers in painting. Painting is not far from the way everything is constructed. We are made of layers as well. I like to conceive painting as a body, as something not eternal but alive, clumsy, tired, and capable of losing its entire shape or parts of it. Flaubert used to say: “as soon as we come to this world, pieces of us begin to fall”. I feel this exact way on painting. It would be amazing to see all the paintings of the world separated from their canvases and falling on the ground.
On the other hand, it’s weird for me to say something that I dislike about painting, but I could say its autonomy. Even though you think you can control all its processes, it always cheats you. There’s always something unexpected. Life is unexpected and painting is too.
What’s your creative process like?
“Add, subtract, multiply and divide” is my statement (and the presentation of my website). I think these words not only belong to mathematics but also to our everyday acts, thoughts and behaviors. Painting is a complex body in the world in which all these actions can take place too.
How did you feel when you won the Audemars Piguet award?
First of all, surprised. I was competing with very well known international artists and I never expected I could be the one that got it. Then I said to myself: “Guillermo, from now on you have to work much harder.” When you win an international award, it puts you immediately in a new position. I realized how less important the economical aspect of my work is. It’s true that money helps, but the most important thing was that a lot of people started to pay attention to my stuff. From the moment you win a prize, you have to demonstrate why you won it.
You have an upcoming group exhibition entitled Saturation II – Add Subtract Divide. And you’ve also described defined your work by including multiplying. In what way do you feel that your work accomplishes these operations?
Adding has always been linked to the idea of painting but we have to think that when we add something we subtract possibilities to it too. Then if I want to add, I have to divide the material into pieces, and this action is also a way of multiplying. These four actions are not as different as we think and can be easily included in my everyday process. They help me to uphold the idea of a constant changing painting.
If not Spain, where else would you like to permanently set up a studio and why?
United Kingdom for its contradictions and irreverences. Things happen when controversy is constantly present.
SATURATION II – Add Subtract Divide opening at the Copperfield Gallery
Paint is not a dead art. Especially not when six unique Spanish artists rehash the painted form and naught but maths ensues.
Paint is not a dead art. Especially not when six unique Spanish artists rehash the painted form and naught but maths ensues.
After the success of the first SATURATION exhibition series, the Spanish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN) brings us their sequel act in the Copperfield Gallery.
The past century has seen a slow, almost degenerative decline in the traditional art of painting. The painted image has almost become jaded in the minds of the average contemporary artist. But six Spanish artists are boldly revisiting this in an abstract form by utilizing new technologies.
If painting is to art what Euclid is to geometry – then this exhibition glorifies the intangible. Add Subtract Divide provides us with the experimentation that our modernistic eyes so sorely crave. There is a deep emphasis on the art of layering; the works are not bound by the uniplanar visual form – paint simply applied to a canvas. The works successful blur the boundary of painting tradition.
This exhibition certainly does what it says on the tin. Expect to see an addition of paint (a sheer, bloated mass of pure acrylic in one case) as well as a subtraction and division of the materials that make up a painting. By exploring forms such as trompe l’oeil and collages, the notion of a modernist geometric painting is explored and scrutinised.
Artists:
MARÍA ACUYO
RUBÉN GUERRERO
GUILLERMO MORA
SONIA NAVARRO
LOIS PATIÑO
ALAIN URRUTIA
6 Copperfield Street, London SE1 0EP
15th July at 6:30pm
Images via Copperfield Gallery website
Review: Barbara Hepworth, Sculpture for a Modern World Exhibition
Affable, sensual and a bit perplexing.
Barbara Hepworth in the Palais studio at work on the wood carving Hollow Form with White Interior 1963 Photograph: Val Wilmer, ©Bowness, Hepworth Estate
Affable, sensual and a bit perplexing
For ticket holders who aren't familiar with her, Tate Britain's retrospective of the British celebrity sculptor Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) cannot compare to the stature of the lady herself. Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, her passion for art and sculpting led not only to her eventual global fame but also to her future husband and collaborator Ben Nicholson, a relationship that has been at the forefront of this exhibition. After they settled in St Ives, Cornwall, without her knowing it would be where she'd reside for the rest of her life, St Ives' landscape formed a relationship with the lady which is reflected achingly beautifully in the exhibition. The sensuous and balanced shapes and forms embody the fantastic control and craftiness of Hepworth who in this almost biographical exhibition emerges not as an Iron Lady but a lady who carves with iron.
One of the reasons that I called it perplexing is that the selected works are more or less monotonously placed into vitrines that sit awkwardly with the eye level. Locking the tactile sculptures into glass cases could be a kludge to avoid big budget mise-en-scene environmental set up as many of Hepworth's works had been made for outdoors, despite the artist herself had urged that these sculptures were meant to be touched. The staging of the pieces proves to be underwhelming against expectations more than anything considering this has been the first in London in 47 years. This is not an exhibition that aims for spectacles nor is it inventive or imaginative in its presentation of such modernist works. Surely, for the female artist who changed the face of sculpting in a male dominated world of sculptors who refused to be addressed as a sculptress, there could be a bit more rickety to rock her perfectly balanced, sensual and sentient geometric nirvana. With the exception of the last room for “Garden”, the rest do not quite distinguish themselves from an Apple store.
Hepworth in the Mall Studio, London, 1933
Photograph by Paul Laib
The Barbara Hepworth Photograph Collection
© The de Laszlo Collection of Paul Laib Negatives, Witt Library, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Another reason I was underwhelmed is its lack of narrative. A lot could be said of a woman who went to art school and sculpted through two World Wars and rebelled against the totalitarian regimes of the Europe – there isn't a clear structure of feeling, in contrast to the actions that the artist has taken to ensure the way she is portrayed by the media, including mediating specific environments for photographing her works as well as public displays.
You would however find yourself at peace and properly meditated after a walk-through, because staring into marble sculptures “Two Segments and Sphere” (1935-6) or “Large and Small Form” (1934), will make you helplessly yearn for balance as the pure genius of the weight distribution and craftiness of these sculptures must endure not to fall all over the place and panic viewers. You will genuinely wonder how Hepworth was able to determine where to make hollow or to protrude.
Four large carvings in the sumptuous African hardwood guarea (1954-5), arguably the highpoint of Hepworth's carving career, are reunited for this exhibition, which is also a highlight for me because they command the entire room, looking like four very proud half eaten apples.
Without being able to hype and emphasize one of her most important works "Single Form" (which now resides outside the UN headquarters in New York, due to a what seems to be a convoluted curational process, although it appears to be complacent in repositioning Hepworth as a global giant) Tate Britain however treats Hepworth's superfans with a never before seen experience and reveals not only the aspect of Hepworth that was only known to a few selected private owners but also a bitter-sweetness in the celebration of an English sculptress’ extraordinary life that will leave you filled with beautiful tenderness.
I recommend it for a first date.
Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World is now open at Tate Britain.
24-June – 25 October 2015
Tate Britain, Linbury Galleries
Top 5 International Exhibitions: Yoko Ono, Ryan Gander, Chen Zhen, Michael Beutler and Tianzhuo Chen.
From one of the most famous multi-faceted artist-performers celebrating approximately 125 works, to young installation artists addressing commonplace post-millennial issues: This wide spectrum of current major international exhibitions has a lot to offer.
Chen Zhen Image: Daily Incantations, 1996, Courtesy de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong and GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins, Photo Tom Powell.
From one of the most famous multi-faceted artist-performers celebrating approximately 125 works, to young installation artists addressing commonplace post-millennial issues: This wide spectrum of current major international exhibitions has a lot to offer.
Yoko Ono Image: Yoko Ono. Cut Piece. 1964. Performed by Yoko Ono in New Works of Yoko Ono, Carnegie Recital Hall, New York, March 21, 1965. Photograph by Minoru Niizuma. © Minoru Niizuma. Courtesy Lenono Photo Archive, New York
It seems as though MoMA may be the go-to destination for internationally renowned performance art: and quite rightly so. Recently, they were host to Marina Abrmović’s high-profile exhibition ‘The Artist is Present’, acting as a retrospective to her years as the world’s leading performance artist and simultaneously showcasing a piece which saw her sit in a chair across from visitors every day for three months. In a similar vein, MoMA in New York currently exhibits a Yoko Ono retrospective: ‘One Woman Show, 1960-1971’. Not only can one witness a huge variety of installation works, objects, recordings and films, but this exhibition has spawned a variety of events. Ono’s ‘Morning Peace’ event encouraged a global gathering during sunrise on the 21st June this year during the course of the current exhibition, remembering its first performance by Ono herself in Tokyo 1964, this time, seeing 5am musical performances by Devonté Hynes of Blood Orange.
Ryan Gander Image: Ryan Gander, Ampersand 2012. ©Ryan Gander, Courtesy the artist and Ishikawa Collection, Okayama. Image: Andrew Curtis
Across the Pacific, at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, is Ryan Gander’s ‘Read Only’. Gander is well known as an art innovator: a generator for streams of ideas. His artistic endeavours often surprise and intrigue audiences with a playful sense of imagination and commentary. Gander’s work has always been associated with the unseen, unknown and unpredictable, adding intrigue to a lot of his work. ‘Read Only’ sees 66 unique objects placed on a revolving conveyor belt, only to be witnessed by the audience through a ‘viewing window’ acting as an ‘irl’ slideshow. Inherent to a collection of objects shown one at a time, a viewer begins to search for narrative or association in the juxtapositions of objects, creating meaning that may not actually exist. To some extent, most of the works collated by Gander at this exhibition reflect this sentiment: the artist sets up opportunity for the viewer to infer meaning in a work by purposefully hiding components of the pieces.
Chen Zhen: Purification Room, 2000, Installation im Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai. Image via marta-blog.de
The Rockbund Art Museum, located in Shanghai, is showing the work of the late Chen Zhen. With works displayed in the Tate and MoMA, Zhen’s ability to compose large sculptural masses of combined antique objects and sand-dusted sculptural scenes is unparalleled. Often, his work is associated with an exploration of cultures and societies – obtaining the ability to discuss the contrast of modern society and cultural antiquity and the human condition. This year, the Rockbund celebrates its 5th year anniversary, and the current Zhen exhibition embodies the importance the gallery represents in the context of China’s contemporary arts scene and with the impact of the art deco building itself amidst the city of Shanghai.
Michael Beutler Image: Michael Beutler. Moby Dick, 2015, Installationsansicht, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Thomas Bruns
Located in the impressive ‘historical hall’ of Hamburger Bahnhof, or Museum für Gegenwart of Berlin, the architectural and structural mystery of Michael Beutler’s ‘Moby Dick’. Beutler transforms this former railway station into an artistic workshop, an intentional ‘work in progress’ and mass of diverse constructed materials. With this, Beutler explores industry and creativity: the act and need of ‘making’ in our society. Through colour and use of space, the exhibition creates the feeling of constant movement and work occurring in this massive space consumed by an overwhelming amount of material and construction.
Tianzhuo Chen Image: Vue de l’installation "Dead drops" d'Aram Bartholl, Palais de Tokyo (24.06 – 13.09 2015). Photo : André Morin.
Finally, Palais de Tokyo puts on the work of Tianzhuo Chen, an installation artist exploring contemporary social issues of the 21st century. Chen explores ideas surrounding morality in our celebrity-obsessed culture through unique neon-tinted imagery reflecting iconic objects and scenes throughout our current culture. With these images, Chen is able to explore devotional and near-religious reactions and attitudes regarding these moral attitudes. With a mix of sculpture, video, performance and painting, Chen creates a hypnotic new world within which the viewer will get lost in.
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni come to London
Three graduate sculptors of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf come together with Tony Cragg to bring us their latest work.
Three graduate sculptors of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf come together with Tony Cragg to bring us their latest work.
Coming up at Blain Southern London this month is a sculpture exhibition by Mathias Lanfer, Gereon Lepper and Andreas Schmitten, all alumni of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. The exhibition is curated by prestigious sculptor Tony Cragg, who is also a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
Cragg is an English sculptor who moved to Germany in the 70s, he has exhibited in countless galleries and won many important awards such as the Turner Prize. His work is particularly concerned with material. His earlier work is specifically interested in making use of found and discarded objects and materials. For him material determines form.
Using sculpture, Lanfer’s work looks at form finding as well as public space, Lepper’s work investigates nature’s response to technical intervention and the ongoing transformation of energy, with the addition of Schmitten’s clean sculptures influenced by his interest in film and animation it is exciting to see how the work of these esteemed artists will come together under the curation of Tony Cragg.
The exhibition will run 10 July - 29 August 2015 at Blain Southern, London.
Michael Armitage at the White Cube
Art is an agent of social change - we interview Kenyan artist Michael Armitage.
Michael Armitage, Accident 2015
Oil on Lubugo bark cloth. 67 x 87 in. (170.2 x 221 cm) © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (George Darrell)
Renowned Nigerian photographer Johnson Donatus Aihumekeokhai Ojeikere (J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere) (1930 – 2014) once said: “Art is life. Without art, life would be frozen.” Totally true. Art is a means of expression. Be it painting, drawing, welding, fashion, writing, sculpture and poetry - Oh yes, welding and construction is art too.
Art is the grander merchandise of the human imagination. As well as “the state of our souls”, enthused Kenyan born, London-based artist Michael Armitage. “Art can be an agent of social change. I don’t think anyone should underestimate the impact of art on any society”, he worried. Little did he know he’s agreeing with the master - J. D. Ojeikere. Why is Armitage saying things and why am I in tête-à-tête with him? The reason is that this promising young aspirant has taken up residence at the White Cube - the avant-garde fashionable art gallery in Bermondsey in South East London.
In this his first solo exhibition in the UK, he’s transformed this very enormous White Cube room with eleven giant symbolic paintings that center primarily on stories from his native country, Kenya. Countless concepts for his paintings commence with reports of a newsworthy, contemporary incident, including media news, East African legends, internet chats or thoughts and images stuck in his own personal memory about a momentous event. The ensuing imagery is then developed with oil on ‘Lubugo’, a traditional bark cloth from Uganda, which is beaten over a period of days creating a natural material which when stretched taut has occasional holes and bristly indents. In one of his paintings, Accident (2015), is a snapshot of a bus crash. He returned to a scene of personal pain: an airplane crash he experienced as a teenager, with his father and uncle, deep in the Kenyan bush.
Michael Armitage, #mydressmychoice 2015
Oil on Lubugo bark cloth. 59 x 77 in. (149.9 x 195.6 cm) © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (George Darrell)
In another painting, Hornbill (2014), Armitage depicts one of the four terrorists who carried out the Westgate Shopping Mall attack in Nairobi, in which 67 people were killed including a group of children who were filming a cookery programme in the mall at the time. Michael Armitage was born in Nairobi, Kenya, now a resident of the UK for the last fifteen years, he still works between London and Nairobi. In a conversation with Armitage at the White Cube he said “I can understand if some people find my art controversial, however I am only exposing the daily realities of society’s political problems, male-dominated society, and total disrespect for women’s rights in many parts of the world and extreme disparities in wealth. The gap between the rich and the poor is on the increase both in the Western world and in sub-Saharan Africa”.
Michael Armitage, In the garden 2015
Oil on Lubugo bark cloth. 76 15/16 x 58 7/8 in. (195.5 x 149.5 cm) © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (George Darrell)
Michael Armitage, Kariakor 2015
Oil on Lubugo bark cloth. 66 15/16 x 59 1/16 in. (170 x 150 cm) © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (George Darrell)
Now, for an artist crusader who wants to show the world its ills and atrocities and inequalities via figurative paintings; to exhibit in an avant-garde, posh, experimental and high-profile gallery has raised an eyebrow or two. Why exhibit at the White Cube?
Absolutely I agree with you. Avant-garde and the rest of it. However, it is an opportunity to have my work exposed and to be looked at on a global stage And I would like the subject of the work to be considered as a global thing on the same level as other global messages out there. It is a platform that was granted to me and I took it because it will reach a lot of people and let the debate begin. The narrative of the paintings are mostly about Kenya. It’s about specific things that happened across east Africa – but it can happen anywhere in the world too. The suicide bombings in Nairobi, Kenya can affect us all in the UK or the US. No one thing is now specific to one country. So showing in this gallery will help propel my work to the world stage and that’s what any artists in my position would want. Get world-wide recognition and get the people talking – that is important to me.
Your art work is a tad bit macabre, if I may say so. Violence, suicide-bombings, prostitution and limbs flying about. One hell of a dark and sad world you portray here. From the sensible to the ridiculous. There’s no in-between. These paintings aren't like anything I have seen before. What would you like your viewing public to take away from this?
Sure. Absolutely macabre. But that is life for you in all its entreaty. Make of it what you wish. I did not want to do an uplifting pussy-fussy, tip-toe around works of art for art sake. I know I have very serious issues and messages to deal with. There are lots of dark things going on right now in this world. I portray rape – there’s rape every day. I portray child and adult prostitution – these are happening right now with no sign of abating. No offence to anyone, but I will tell those people who say my work is too dark to look around their communities or far away communities – somewhere, somehow evil is going on. We should not let these things happen. We must talk about it now. I want hard hitting, in your face works-of-art. However, I will also add, they can make of the paintings whatever they wish. If there’s a sort of miss reading at first I would quite like that. If there’s conflict, that is kind of good too.
But do you have to ill-use the current dreadful state of affairs by turning it on its head as art? This is provocative work right here. Would you concur?
Categorically yes. I hope it’s provocative in a sense that it makes the wider audience ask questions about what they are looking at. Question their attitudes. Question why some things are easy and some are not, for as I mentioned earlier in this conversation, art is an agent of social change. I don’t think anyone should underestimate the impact of art on any society. There are a lot of crazy things going on in the world that people are not willing to talk about and have a proper intelligent debate about. As artists and journalists these atrocities should be a lot higher on our agenda than they are now. For me my work is entirely necessary and justified.
Born 1984, Kenya. At that time, in a typical Kenyan family you are encouraged to either be an accountant, a doctor or a lawyer or something they call a real job. How did you become as passionate about art and art as a process for change?
Michael Armitage, Lucy 2015
Oil on Lubugo bark cloth. 66 15/16 x 58 7/8 in. (170 x 149.5 cm) © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (George Darrell)
[Laughs] Art has been very present in my life since I was a six year old growing up in Kenya. It’s not a passion I acquired when I located to Britain. I came to Britain to further my education and attend higher education. My mother is Kenyan and my father is English. Both have always said – go for it. Take it as far as you can go. They have been incredibly supportive although neither of them are artists. And I had a school teacher that encouraged and thought me the ropes and discipline to be a good artist.
Michael Armitage, Sun Wukong in Gachie 2015
Oil on Lubugo bark cloth. 77 x 59 1/16 in. (195.6 x 150 cm) © Michael Armitage. Photo © Stephen White Courtesy White Cube
Is it reasonable to conclude that Michael Armitage is an angry man or just an angry artist who is expressing himself with paintbrushes?
I would not say that I am an angry artist or that my work is angry. In the painting #mydressmychoice the events were horrific - women wearing miniskirts were taken off minibuses stripped and molested by the drivers, touts and some passengers; this was filmed and circulated on the Internet. After watching it I felt complicit in the abuse, it was my culture that was twisted to say that a woman in a mini skirt is morally wrong and that the attackers were using to justify the abuse. I was implicated in the attack through watching and I wanted to question my position, and question this attitude within my culture - in the painting the most important character is you as the viewer. Of course the attack makes me angry, but that is not why I make the paintings.
You have exhibited as part of a group, and now gone solo in a posh gallery and you will be featured in roomsmagazine.com. What more would you like to achieve?
[Laughs hysterically] Thank you very much for this interview. I appreciate that. At this stage I can say there’s a lot to come and a lot to come afterwards. So it’s hard for me to be specific about something right now. There’s a lot of stuff that we have to deal with. There’s a lot of violence that we have to deal with. So watch this space...
What is an activity or activities that you do regularly in your leisure time for pleasure or just to wind away downtime – that does not include a paint brush?
I play squash. I listen to music by artists like Cyndi Lauper, Franco and TPOK Jazz, Tallis, Toumani Diabate, Cluster, Beyoncé, Sauti Sole...etc
White Cube Bermondsey, 144–152 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3TQ
Theaster Gates: Freedom of Assembly
Michael Armitage: Inside the White Cube
28 April – 15 July 2015
Kate Clements: The bride stripped bare by her bachelors
What makes Kate Clements a truly great artist is the conversation that her work evokes about the female gender and issues of narcissistic female adornment.
To the uninitiated viewer, looking at Kate Clements’ intricate glasswork, it might be easy to dismiss her as simply another talented decorative artist.
Whilst there is no doubt that she is extremely talented at the physical manipulation of kiln-fired glass, what does really make Clements’ work stand out? What makes her a truly great artist is the conversation that her work evokes about the female gender and issues of narcissistic female adornment. Clements’ work goes far beyond obvious feminist debates about woman as object and the power of the female form. Instead, what Clements seeks to uncover is the very psychological reasoning that leads to the cultural construction of feminine identity, and how women’s efforts at fulfilling such ideals can lead simultaneously to feelings of guilt and individual power. Adding to this is her performance work, which examines the ideas of purity and power, using metaphors presented by external objects as a means of examining metaphysical notions of being.
Constructing decorative, non-functional glass headdresses which function as a separation between viewer and ‘wearer’, Clements highlights a persistent desire by women to transcend their physical nature, in the hopes of achieving the socially constructed fantasy of a ‘perfect’ woman. Using such an elaborate and fragile medium adds to the sense of counterfeit perfection suggested by the focus on veils and crowns, key motifs of the beauty queen and the bride. It is this close examination into our cultural constructs and farcical use of adornments that transform Clements’ work into something more than pure decoration, adding layers of meaning that make us examine the very society we live in.
Hi Kate, can you tell us a bit about yourself as an artist? What are your passions? What questions still need answering for you?
I work primarily with glass but I describe my work as sculpture and installation. I have just completed my masters at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Over the past two years I have explored the ambiguity of fashion—its capacity for imitation and distinction; its juxtaposition of the artificial and the natural; its ability to divide people by keeping some groups together while separating others and accentuating class division. I’ve come to understand the lifecycle of fashion as a process of creative destruction where the “new” replaces the “old,” yet nothing is truly new.
I am still exploring this and find inspiration in the perspective of critical theorist Georg Simmel whose observations over a hundred years ago remain all too relevant in today’s Gilded Age. “Fashion elevates even the unimportant individual by making them the representative of a totality, the embodiment of a joint spirit. It is particularly characteristic of fashion - because by its very essence it can be a norm, which is never satisfied by everyone...” Style, as Simmel suggests, both unburdens and conceals the personal, whether in behavior or home furnishings, toning down the personal to “a generality and its law.” My choice of materials comments on society’s need to conform and maintain distance.
Let’s talk about your chosen medium. What are the benefits and difficulties in working with glass? How did you first discover your interest in kiln-fired glass?
When I was 17 I took a pre-college course in kiln-fired glass at the Kansas City Art Institute, which was primarily mosaic and plate making. The professor saw potential in me and when I started my bachelors there in the fall I trained as his tech and teaching assistant for the course. I continued that job for my four years in undergrad. Because it was only offered as an elective, I learned the fundamentals through instruction but was substantially self-taught.
Working in glass has pros and cons. The glass community is small and very supportive of its artists. Because of the nature of the material, when you are working with it hot you usually need the help of one to four people to make a piece - so the sense of community is very strong.
A con can be the constant struggle of defending the material. The question of why someone creates paintings is asked much less than why someone works with glass. However, the constant question of ‘why glass’ pushes glass artists to address the relevancy of the material in the conceptual nature of the piece as well a technical one. Working within a craft material there is a wide spectrum of what people choose to do with it. It can range from pipes and paperweights to fine art. If I am speaking to someone outside of the glass world and they ask me what I do and I say glass they normally follow up with asking if I can make a pipe for them.
Breaking outside of the glass community can be difficult too. I would love to be showing in galleries that didn’t only represent other glass artists. Not to get away from other glass artists but so viewers could understand working with glass as fine art and not glass art. This seems to be a line that can be difficult to cross.
What relationships to the female form does your work provoke, and how important is it for you to express these concerns in your work?
I think initially my work was heavily reliant on the female form. As a young woman, I felt the pressures of conforming to some sort of social construct of beauty. At times that has made me feel guilty because I felt a sort of pleasure and power in partaking in that construct.
In recent work I have been addressing how these constructs get translated in different stages of the adaptation of ‘fashions.’ How taste, even ‘bad taste’ can be celebrated in aristocratic society, but once mimicked by a different social sphere it can become kitsch and regarded as ‘aesthetic slumming.’ The concept of fashion and its association with modernity is interplay between individual imitation and differentiation. Fashion, adornment, and ornament all have vicious life cycles; newness is simultaneously associated with demise and death. Though fashion and adornment are closely related to the body, ornament can expand to architecture and environment.
I really love your performance work which I find evocative of the work of Matthew Barney and his use of the body as a vessel for exploring ideas of the human condition. In your piece, Cleaning, the situation transcends the realm of normality and speaks of a higher plane of fantastical reality where juxtaposed items like smashed glass and sweet milk come together to form metaphors about us as human beings, speaking particularly of the paradigms that surround women as having to be ‘pure’ and ‘clean’, expressed powerfully in the denouement of the piece. Tell us a bit about your thoughts behind this and what you wanted to achieve.
This was a very early piece for me that was dealing with my personal experience as a victim of date rape. This marked a turning point for me that was also inspired by a speech by Eve Ensler where she describes the verb prescribed to girls as ‘to please.’ I felt strongly that for a long time I had allowed that verb to describe my interactions with men. There is a rawness and vulnerability in this performance that is mixed with anger.
Who and what influences your work? Are there any artists you recognise as having a big impact on you and your working style?
I just adore Jim Hodges’ work. I think the wide variety of materials and mediums and the way he handles them is truly inspiring and something I look to if I am nervous about working with a new material. Matthew Barney and Alexander McQueen were huge influences in the glass headdresses and the idea of masquerade and costuming. Other influences have been the palace architecture of Catherine’s Palace in Russia. I love the over-the-topness of the patterning and the idea of excess in a space that blurs the boundaries of public and private, the domestic, and the idea of display.
You have stated that your glass headdress designs function as ‘a separation between viewer and wearer’ but that this distance is only a ‘counterfeit perfection’. How important is it for you to address ideas of distortion and fantasy in your work?
I enjoy working with things that are recognizable, but nonsensical and fantastical in their execution. I am interested in the perceptions we have in what we think we are displaying, what we actually are displaying, and how we display it. Some materials can transcend their own materiality. The glass can be seen as ice, plastic, or sugar in the headdresses. In newer work it reads as growths or caviar. Regardless of what it appears to be the fact remains that it is extremely fragile and futile. In a newer piece there is a vinyl treated chintz sofa covered in glass beads. The shiny plastic is reminiscent of plastic covered sofas as a means to preserve something nice, but it can also read almost like a piece of porcelain because of the patterning of the fabric.
What is your definition of ‘creativity’? What does it mean to be ‘creative’ in today’s world?
I believe that creativity is driven by never being satisfied with what you’ve accomplished. That there is always something that can be pushed or questioned within a material or challenged conceptually and that ending up somewhere completely different from what you intended is usually a good sign.
If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to yourself ten years ago? What have you learnt as an artist that was unexpected and what advice would you give to others?
The advice I would give myself is to never doubt your interests no matter if conceptually they might sound simplistic. There is usually something there that can be unfolded into something fairly complex.
Not being intimidated by not being technically trained in a material. Coming from an outside perspective and not knowing the right way to use a material takes away restrictions or inhibitions that might have been taught and allows a certain amount of freedom.
Herbert Golser channels mother nature in a quivering solidity
Golser’s latest exhibition at Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery showcases a tightly sculpted juxtaposition between fragility and structural durability – a combination that leaves you questioning whether these sculptures were crafted by the artist or Mother Nature herself.
Golser’s latest exhibition at Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery showcases a tightly sculpted juxtaposition between fragility and structural durability – a combination that leaves you questioning whether these sculptures were crafted by the artist or Mother Nature herself.
As one enters the unassuming Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery on London’s Rathbone Street, the space’s white-washed walls cite Michelangelo in describing the exhibition: “the figure already existed inside the slab of marble”. Indeed, Herbert Golser’s sculptures, which reveal waves, sweeping strokes and pointillist landscapes from within masses of wood, embody Michelangelo’s view in this regard.
Golser hails from Austria with lengthy experience in sculpting, particularly with wood as his medium, graduating from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Technical School for Wood and Stone Sculpture. A great deal of tradition and time is felt from behind the works displayed in this particular exhibition; one cannot help but imagine the painstaking patience required to forge such detailed and fragile works.
Fragility feels important in this collection. At times as you wander between these monuments you dare not breathe at risk of disturbing the resting flakes and strands of wood sculpted by Golser. This grants the space an inherent stillness and calm that underpins the pieces displayed. A tight relationship between the sculptures and the space grants Golser’s work further dimension; shadows cast by towers of wood protruding from the walls and between the floorboards cast warped geometries, wall-mounted lattices reveal white from the walls in the grates of wood toying with the eye, rows and columns of miniature blocks laying perpendicular to the wall shift the sense of perspective as you pass a piece enabling a sense of movement. What originally seem like still natural creations, upon closer inspection, contain great amounts of life and vitality.
Each sculpted piece conforms to a series of repeated patterns which applies a mathematical quality to the works and yet the pieces which contribute to an individual work retain a sense of individuality – much akin to mathematics found in nature. This parallel exists to the extent where at times the viewer begins to question whether an artist exists at all: perhaps through a series of natural erosive processes these artefacts themselves in a gallery.
Herbert Golser’s exhibition, A Quivering Solidity, is open at Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery until 11th July 2015.
A festival for art lovers
Style and substance go on display at Muse Gallery and at a tube station near you. We interview artists Francis Akpata and Ewa Wilczynski.
I may not know what art is, but I know what art isn’t. The ongoing Art Below annual summer group exhibition in collaboration with London’s Muse Gallery and Studio, taking place at the Muse, is a festival for lovers of good art works. A total of 50 artists, established and unknown, are exhibiting their work - 25 artists from the 4th - 14th June followed by another 25 artists from 18th - 30th June. Why would 50 people want to partake in a gig like this I hear you holler? It’s providing a tad of everything for everybody. Besides to foster the spirit of public participation and engagement in arts, some of the works are also on display on billboard posters across the London Underground network throughout June and July. Is this a winning formula or what? Answer on twitter, please.
Artists taking part includes: Welsh painter, poet and television personality Molly Parkin, 83, Ewa Wilczynski, Hayden Kays, Lora Hristova, Francis Akpata, and Nasser Azam. Paul Lemmon, Ben Moore, Dora Williams, Ani Lang, Leo Jahaan, and Christopher Flower, expressionist figurative painter from Southeastern North Carolina, USA. And there’s more: Stephanie Brown, Louise Barrett and Marty Thornton, to name but 16 - London is becoming an art capital now. The show has galvanised what can be refer to as a frenzy because The London's Muse Gallery is based in the capital's cultural heartland Portobello Road, known world-wide as the home of Europe’s biggest street festival, the London Nothing-Hill Carnival. The Carnival Bands will take to the roads on Sunday 30th and Monday 31st August.
The Art Below was started in 2006 as a public art organisation by brothers Ben and Simon Moore with a vision to “enrich the everyday life of the traveling public by giving fresh insight into the very latest in contemporary art whilst at the same time providing a platform for emerging and established talent”. To date, Art Below have displayed the works of over 3000 international artists, both emerging and established artists in several underground stations in London and overseas. The Muse pieces on show: a mix of painting, printmaking, photography and sculpture and landscape, (a drifting jumble) arguably, I can say ranges from the absolute shocking to the damn-right sublime and some in between. To wrap up: Art Below Summer Show 2015 is the Glastonbury of Art festival and part the masterpiece of London’s big summer happening. Don’t miss it. 4 stars!
As part of my review for this piece I contacted two artists of this must see exhibition. First; Francis Akpata, is only on his second exhibition, but counting. Born in Nigeria, however, came to the UK in 1991. Akpata briefly (one year) studied Fine Art and Literature at the University of Benin, Edo State, and Western Nigeria. While he says he is mostly self-taught, looking at his works of art you will be forgiven for thinking that Akpata was some eons ago a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) or pupil of Édouard Manet (1832-1883). Francis said: “I hold the view that art should be an expression of one’s thoughts and feelings through images. I merge images and colours to express my thoughts”. Who could argue with that? However, Francis is exhibiting only one piece at the Muse gallery - titled In Repose, which precedes another one he exhibited last year called In Recline.
Francis Akpata
How would you describe your art style?
My style is either expressionist or abstract. The expressionist works are figurative while the abstract pieces describe feeling, ideas or pose a question. I paint primarily in oil for abstract work and then combine pastel, water colour and ink for figurative paintings.
Digital and computer art is upon us big time, which means that anyone with any proficiency in software design programs can produce a drawing at the drop of a hat. Does this worry you? And life drawing is now seen by many as an old-fashioned and unnecessary waste of time. Do you agree?
I think computers and digital media are tools that will also help separate artist from craftsmen. As I mentioned the artist uses his imagination and the tools, which could be paintbrush or a computer could be used by the artist. So it does not worry me, I intend to use digital media to make installation videos in future.
Francis Akpata
How do you evaluate art? Every attempt to define "good" art is doomed to frustration. Allowing the free market to decide, may sound intelligent, except that auction prices identify Damien Hirst as the best ever UK artist, which sounds a bit suspect to me, if you ask me?
I evaluate art as good when it is able to engage our imagination and understanding. Some artists like Damien Hirst are also able to market their works effectively, this is no different from Michelangelo who was able to get the attention of religious and political leaders in the 15th century which led to him painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Ever since the controversial works of Marcel Duchamp, avant-garde artists, have been pushing the boundaries of your profession to breaking point resulting in the ongoing debate about 'What constitutes art?' Is this not a trivial squabble between scorched academics? And would you agree that categories such as Contemporary Art, Fine Art; Visual Art; Decorative Art; Applied Art; Crafts; Art Glossary; Junk Art; Graffiti Art - these categories should be eliminated?
I believe the categories should be eliminated and that we should thank Marcel Duchamp for allowing us to separate craft for art. A craftsman learns a particular skill and uses that methodically without using his imagination. An artist uses different mediums, styles and genres to express ideas.
Francis poster is up at Green Park tube station till the end of June.
Thenceforward, welcome London-born Ewa Wilczynski who has been exhibiting since 2009 and this is her seventh outing. A graduate of Central Saint Martins, London, and the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris and has exhibited internationally and throughout the UK. The title of Ewa’s show is THROES. Shocking!
Why Throes as a title?
The title of the show THROES takes inspiration from death throes: that moment in-between life and death. My work deals with those elusive and ethereal moments - 'In between' in human nature.
How many paintings are you showing in this exhibition and why?
Ewa Wilczynski
The exhibition showed all the pieces I had made in the few years since graduating from St. Martins and living in Berlin and Paris. It was a chance to consolidate a whole body of work during these really influential and inspirational periods of my life as a young artist. So I had about 6 large scale pieces which took anywhere from 3-7 months to paint each one and several smaller works too.
Now, your CV, well what can I ask? A graduate of Central Saint Martins and the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris. An artist, actress and muse. Exhibited internationally and throughout the UK including campaigns across London Underground. Digital billboard campaigns across London. Exhibited at London’s Mall Galleries and your debut solo show at the Royal Academy of Art?
During my time at university I was always working, whether it be exhibiting in other countries: Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Toronto, having billboard campaigns of my work on the London Underground and digital billboards over ground using ad space like art space as an exhibition with Art Below, or working in film and fashion. Fine art has always been at the centre of everything I do, so even when working in these other fields I approached each project like I would a painting composition. I took the starring role as 'The Oracle' for Dennis Da Silva's short film Apophonista?! which was screened at Cannes film festival, and most recently collaborated with Joel Byron on our film A Thin Place.
How would you describe your art style and what drives Ewa Wilczynski?
I think what I do is quite different as I seem to have one foot in the past and another in the present. It's quite rare to see work like mine at the moment, and most people respond not only to the overpowering scale, but the overwhelming emotion they evoke. I paint using Old Masters' techniques, and am quite traditional in my appreciation for the craft and also my attraction to classical nude figures. I make my own glazes and paint layers and layers and layers of translucent colours over one another. This can take up to 7 months sometimes, but gives the most luminous effect where the colours reflect and change, and it also gives the paintings a sense of depth. But then the other side of me re-contextualises these techniques in the present day and I manipulate the form/composition in my own present day perspective , including inspiration from my interests in human nature, and as well as my own personal emotions at that time of painting.
You are in my humble opinion a high-profile artist. This is a huge accomplishment. Do you have that feeling of 'I have arrived - Let’s celebrate?'.
Oh thank you that's kind of you. I have a very strong work ethic, and always push myself to be the best I can be. So I get up 4am and work, work and work. So even when I had my debut solo show at the Royal Academy - especially being so early in my career to achieve such an honour - I was just in complete work mode and didn't have a chance to feel 'I have arrived'. Even now, I'm onto my next projects and challenging myself so have not really thought about things like that. However, the thing I am most proud about is seeing people's response to my painting, because that is what it's all about.
Ewa Wilczynski
What next for Ewa Wilczynski?
I will be auctioning my work with Avenir Magazine and Sotheby's at the Groucho club in the autumn and currently painting towards my next solo show! For updates follow me on Instagram and twitter @ewawilczynski or my Facebook fan page Ewa Wilczynski
The Muse at 269 Gallery & Studio, 269 Portobello Rd London W11 1LR
Opening Hours: Thursday-Sunday, 12.00-6.00pm
Watch out for the forthcoming exhibition titled: Art Below Regents Park 2015 from 05/10/2015 to 01/11/2015
Information on how you can exhibit your work on public space with Art Below go to www.artbelow.org.uk www.artbelow.org.uk/ab/Home.action
Art Vandalism – A Modern Social Problem
Vandalism of art has occurred for centuries. We all know this. But to think it still exists in our time is depressing.
Hans-Joachim Bohlmann may not be a familiar name to you. In fact, until recently, it was not a familiar name to me either. But this man led a rather interesting life. Interesting to say the least – he was responsible for damaging over 50 works of art, (together worth over £98 million) over the span of 29 years. In fact, his serial sabotage has made him become synonymous with the term ‘art vandalism.’
Art vandalism, or the deliberate damage of works of art, has seen a surge of incidences in recent years. Edward Eriksen’s The Little Mermaid sculpture in Copenhagen has been the subject of repeated damage, including a decapitation attempt). Before the Mona Lisa was encased in bulletproof glass, it sustained heavy damage from a sulphuric acid attack. And very recently, Anish Kapoor’s piece, Dirty Corners (which he describes as ‘The Queen’s Vagina’), was spoiled in a similar fashion – with the vandals marking the inside of the giant sculpture with yellow and white paint.
Chateau de Versailles workers cleaning up Kapoor’s vandalised sculpture. AP Photo/Michel Euler
Kapoor responded to this attack in an article by claiming it was ‘politically motivated.’ He was cited as saying that the motive of this attack was because his sculpture had ‘given offence to certain people of the extreme political right wing in France.’ He later makes an interesting point of drawing a distinction between political violence and artistic violence, with the former being destructive and the latter, creative. And that’s what really struck me.
This concept of political violence (which, when acted upon in this context, becomes art vandalism) is detrimental to culture. One aspect that is definitive of contemporary art is freedom of speech. Not a garish, brazen kind of freedom – not one that acts by the will of ‘freedom for freedom’s sake’ but a more refined, deeply poignant breed. And that is why acts of mindless (and mindful) art vandalism are so harmful. They represent censorship, prejudice, philistinism and all the obtuse masses of people that seek to devalue the work of an artist.
A similar incident occurred last year in France with artist Paul McCarthy’s giant inflatable sculpture, Tree. Conservative Parisians and politicians thought the 79-foot piece was in bad taste, claiming that it resembled a “giant sex toy.” But that was McCarthy’s exact inspiration. He stated that it was meant as a ‘joke’ but the assault and heckling that he received after the installation highlighted the sense of humour (or lack thereof) that his critics have. But the irony lies in the reaction. I believe that McCarthy’s intention was to cause somewhat of a stir – expecting individuals to see the piece and think ‘did he intend on making it look like a giant butt blug?’
Paul McCarthy’s controversial piece lying deflated in a Parisian floor. Martin Bureau / AFP / Getty Images)
Is there anything that can be done about vandalism in art? McCarthy responded to the vandals in perhaps the best possible way. He requested that the piece remain deflated and not be re-erected or replaced. Although his decision was driven by a desire to avoid any violence, I think that he may have paid tribute to this idea of artistic violence that Kapoor so vehemently condones. One that defies cultural annihilation, stands firm, resolute and in the words of Kapoor: ‘may scream at the tradition of previous generations.’ Fight fire with fire. Turn a bad thing into a good thing. This idea of artistic violence doesn’t seem so farfetched after all.
An interview with artist Hayv Kahraman
Iraqi-born artist Hayv Kahraman has blown away the world with her refined and virtuosic ability to tell a story. But what about her own story?
Iraqi-born artist Hayv Kahraman has blown away the world with her refined and virtuosic ability to tell a story. But what about her own story?
In a previous interview, you’ve said ‘I will always be a tourist wherever I go.’ That was six years ago – how has that changed now? Do you believe that the older you get, the stronger your affinity for Iraq grows?
That hasn’t changed much and I think that feeling applies to Iraq as well. My relationship with Iraq, “my homeland” is problematic since I left at a young age and so I wasn’t able to establish a strong link to the culture and life at large. My parents on the other hand, have decades of memories to replay and that is something I have always wanted to have. Perhaps the yearning to create a stronger affinity with Iraq is more relevant in my life right now since I am a new mother. My daughter was born in the United States and having her learn her heritage is important to me.
What have been the reactions from Middle-Eastern women to your work? And what have been the reactions from Iraqi people to your work?
It was interesting seeing the different impressions people had during the opening of How Iraqi are you? Many Iraqi’s braved the NY cold to come see the show. They expressed an intimate relationship with the works as we shared the same memories – a collective memory, of war in a distant country that was once our home. They wanted me to add more paintings to the collection as they told me stories and idioms they remembered using back in the day. And there was a glimpse of pride in their voices as they saw their colloquial Arabic written on a canvas in a New York gallery. In terms of feedback from Middle Eastern women, so far they have been positive and many identify with the works.
Being of an Iraqi Kurdish background, you and/or your family must have experienced persecution from the Ba’ath party. In what way has that influenced your work?
Yes that’s correct. My parents were persecuted in many ways. My mom was interrogated once and my father was pressured to teach a certain way (he was a university professor). I only experienced this once in school during our “Wattania” class. This is a class introduced into Iraqi schools in 1978 by Saddam and the Ba’ath party. It taught the politics of Iraq and the region from the perspective of the Ba’ath party. One day the teacher handed out a test. One of the questions read: “circle the correct word; is Iraq a democracy or a dictatorship?” I was 9 or 10 years old then and didn’t know the difference between the words. Ironically I circled dictatorship and was called in after class, given an extensive lecture by the teacher on how I even dared to say that and of course hit with a ruler. I now understand that it wasn’t the teacher’s fault as she was pressured to do/act this way by the government. This memory has manifested into a work part of the series “How Iraqi are you”. (See attached image “Wattania Class”)
I myself have had a similar story to yours. Having fled Baghdad (as a result of Ba’ath persecution) with my family in 1997, I moved to London. Now I’m beginning to learn how to read and write Arabic. For your most recent exhibition, How Iraqi are you? You also had to relearn how to write Arabic yourself. Could you tell us about that?
The texts in the works of How Iraqi are you? are personal memories from growing up in Baghdad as well as tongue twisters, aphorisms, and stories of existing as a refugee in Sweden all in which are written in colloquial Arabic (Iraqi). The works are based on the 13th century Baghdadi illuminated manuscripts or more specifically “Maqamat al Hariri” that narrated the everyday life of an Iraqi at the time. I wanted to use that idea and think of it from the perspective of todays Iraqi immigrant. The process of writing the text in the works became somewhat performative for me and very much part of the work itself since I was actively relearning how to write. The calligraphy in the Maqamat is that of the “Naskh” which is a slightly looser type often written while being narrated and in the Koran. As I drew inspiration from that, I still didn’t want to copy blindly. I took my time to examine the original text in the manuscripts, each letter, the thickness of the stroke, the shape and the angle. I was re-learning how to write my language as well as read and speak my mother tongue. The tongue that I had/have grown to forget and not use anymore. The tongue I regret not have continued to learn. I look at these Arabic letters with estranged eyes now. I was exported and so was my language. But it’s also my fault for not having kept it alive. I was too busy learning the western language and training my eyes to adapt to English letters. I can now see these Arabic letters from the perspective of an American or a Swede and that terrifies me. It makes me want to reiterate them, paint them, write them, re-learn them and re-memorize them: recover them. I am on the search for recapturing my amputated mother tongue. At age 34 I am searching for my 9 year old self that spoke and wrote fluent Arabic.
I’ve shown How Iraqi Are You? to some of my family members who are also living in London. They found it really interesting how you managed to capture some very specific Baghdadi colloquialisms and sayings. Do you remember these sayings from your childhood or did you have to research them?
I’m glad you showed them to your family! I’m always in search for aphorisms and collective memories. This series has become somewhat of an archiving process for me so if you think of anything do share!
Back to your question, yes they are personal. I remember singing them, saying them and living them. Words like “Ummodach” (that translates to a swear word and is accompanied by a hand gesture) that is now appropriated in Swedish schools among kids of diverse ethnicities; this of course due to the large influx of Iraqi refugees in Sweden. Or political sayings that we used to sing as kids in school.
Are there any future projects from you that we can look forward to?
At this point I am still working on this series, collecting aphorisms and stories. I will be showing more works in Dubai in the fall and look forward to engaging with that side of the world.
All images obtained at the courtesy of the artist
Interview with artist and filmmaker Anna Franceschini
For Anna Franceschini, film is more than just a medium. It’s a living, breathing form in itself – it’s modernity manifested behind a silver screen.
For Anna Franceschini, film is more than just a medium. It’s a living, breathing form in itself – it’s modernity manifested behind a silver screen.
Milan born and bred ‘documenter of the soul’ Anna Franceschini boasts an impressive résumé of exhibitions, awards, fellowships and residencies across the world on her belt. With her numerous accolades one must wonder that she’s certainly got the art of experimental s film to a T – metaphorically and literally (See: THE STUFFED SHIRT film of hers). When viewing a film of hers I was always intrigued as to the thought process that drove such exceptional ingenuity. I was lucky enough to interview her and find out.
Very briefly, for those who have not heard of your art before. What would you describe it as?
I work mainly in experimental film, art films, and experimental documentary. By ‘experimental documentary’ I mean something that is in between straight documentation, visual anthropology, surrealist films and everything that escapes the conventional definition of 'documentary' but has, somehow, a deep relationship with the observation of phenomena and performances that involve the production of moving images in real time.
Now you studied media and film extensively. But what initially inspired you to get into this field?
When I was a child, my parents allowed me to stay up late at night only if there was a good movie on television. We would go to the video shop together with my father, which was also a bit of a ritual. This helped me to develop a 'taste' in film, and visions in general quite early on. Also, my mother and father had always been very attentive towards the cultural offerings I was exposed to. This doesn't mean they prohibited me to watch this or read that thing. It was quite the opposite – I always had a lot of freedom, but they were always present. They were always explaining, contextualizing, and entertaining themselves and I with irony. They had been the first and most important trainers of both my eyes and mind. And now, the more I grow up, the more I realize how important and inspiring that was. I now have a different look towards things, to be autonomous in my thinking. This is what led me to be an artist and this is what they taught me.
Anna Franceschini, The player may not change his position, HD video, installation view at Spike Island, Bristol, UK, 2014
What aspect of your work do you think defines you? In other words, what do you think makes you a unique artist?
I never thought about myself in terms of uniqueness, but I would say that my aim is to focus on some inherent characteristics of the film language like: movement, montage and light. I'm also interested in cinema not only as a form of art or entertainment but also as a technique – an apparatus. Besides this, I'm interested in a sort of 'cinematic experience' that encompass different aspects of life and experience. Traveling by modern means of transport, taking a escalator, watching the effect of the wind, living in a urban landscape. Everything that belongs to modernity, historically intended, is somehow cinematic. It's not by chance that the first experiments with moving images and the beginning of the modern era are coexistent. Modernity is cinematic and cinema is modern. Which makes the term ‘seventh art’ a little obsolete now. But all this is occurring in a beautiful way though. Cinema is aging gracefully.
You are a very visual artist as well as a filmmaker. Would you consider your art to be a viewing experience for pure aesthetic purposes or something else?
It's a very crucial question and answering it is quite complicated. The esthetic experience it's way more than the mere experience of 'beauty', it involves perception, rational thinking, emotional reactions, all that concerns the self and the Other. I think art has been mainly based on the form rather than its contents – otherwise it turns purely informational. Jean-Luc Godard used the expression 'politique des formes' and I think it's a perfect synthesis for what art is.
Lastly, what’s your creative process like?
It usually starts when a thought meets something that belongs to the so-called ‘phenomenological reality.’ It's an encounter between my subjectivity (or some aspects of it), and what I consider the 'outside.' It’s based on a process of identifying which is often subconscious. Then I interiorize these ideas and rationalize them in order to achieve a result.
Anna Franceschini, Polistirene, video, still, 2007
Jo Peel's Cityscapes
Jo Peel's new show ‘Cityscapes’ is a collaborative show with Anaka and Ashes57 and opens today at Jealous Gallery Shoreditch.
Jo peel is a Yorkshire-born artist who creates expressive paintings and animations of architectural structures. Often lacking people, these are the types of buildings that often go unnoticed. Peel brings these fade-into-the-background buildings to the forefront. Buildings such as tube stations, pubs, cafes, and fishmongers all have been glorified and gilded by her brush. She paints the dull greys and blues of these semi-dilapidated structures interspersed with shocking oranges and blues to give them life.
BM - Your chosen subject matter is the often ignored buildings one sees in run-down areas, what attracts you to these typically ugly subjects?
JP - Well for a start I don’t really see them as ugly, but interesting and therefore quite beautiful. The buildings I chose always intrigue me and have some sort of human history attached.
I don’t necessarily seek out run-down areas, but places that help shape the identity of where I am.
BM - The paintings also often lack people, why is this?
JP - I think that as soon as you put a person into a painting, it becomes all about them and the building becomes a backdrop. By taking the people out of a scene, the eye is then drawn to the building and this can become the focus of the image.
BM - Would you say the buildings have been personified in your paintings? For me they feel like portraits in some way.
JP - When looking at a building I try to give them some sort of humanity and imagine the personality of the space, so I guess that yes, they are portraits of buildings, rather than direct representations.
BM - How do you choose which buildings to paint?
JP - I never find it difficult to choose what to paint. Wherever I am, I walk around a lot, looking at the buildings and taking loads of photos. Normally the buildings I choose have some sort of story, or speak about their environment. My work in East London in particular was a reaction to the redevelopment happening around me and how the landscape is changing.
BM - Do you sketch the buildings themselves and then paint from sketches or do you work from photographs?
JP - Sometimes I sketch from buildings directly, but more often I take photographs and use those to create the work. I often take lots of different photographs and then make up a composition to suit me that might not actually exist.
BM - The way you paint is very fluid and free, which contrasts with the rigid forms you depict, is this an intentional device?
JP - I’m not sure how intentional or thought out it was in the beginning, but I’ve found that depicting something as rigid and straight as a building without rulers and with freehand lines gives it more character and aligns it more with a portrait or the natural environment.
BM - Were these new works created specifically for this exhibition, and if so did you paint them with the other two artists in mind?
JP - The works on show at Jealous are a collection of works made over the last few years and are predominantly taken from East London and the surrounding area.
BM - What exciting things can we expect from you in the future?
JP - I’m currently working towards a major solo show in Sheffield documenting the two twinned Steel Cities of Pittsburgh and Sheffield. Alongside paintings, drawings and a large mural in the space I have been working on a documentary made in the two cities.
I want to explore further the narratives between cities that share parallel histories and understand how this affects the people, culture and the buildings.
Jo Peel's new show ‘Cityscapes’ is a collaborative show with Anka and Ashes57 and opens today at Jealous Gallery Shoreditch.
Graphic artist Ashes 57, creates monochrome drawings rooted in the urban landscape through print and original works on canvas. Anka Dabrowska responds to feelings of displacement and notions of the outsider common to city inhabitants, combining delicate pencil work with city-found ephemera. Painter, printer and animator Jo Peel captures moments that are at once familiar and yet distant from memory, which leaves the viewer questioning their existence. This group show will take visitors on a crawl through urban city life, drawing inspiration from intimate elements of the city as a landscape, dwelling place and cultural hub.
Jealous Gallery 53 Curtain Road, Shoreditch, London EC2A 3PT
IT’S THE LEAST I COULD DO – A forthcoming exhibition from Ben Oakley
Savvy gallery owner, businessman and artist Ben Oakley brings us an electrifying and ingenious exhibition at the Ben Oakley gallery. And this time it’s his own.
Savvy gallery owner, businessman and artist Ben Oakley brings us an electrifying and ingenious exhibition at the Ben Oakley gallery. And this time it’s his own.
IT’S THE LEAST I COULD DO, is the upcoming exhibition from Ben Oakley, the man who hosts regular exhibitions by local artists at his gallery. And with his more-than-generous contribution to contemporary art, providing us with his own work certainly is the least he could do.
With a background in antiques, he has developed a keen eye for (in his own words), ‘quality and craftsmanship.’ So expect an emphasis on textures, bold, unique compositions and a diverse range of mediums as well as themes.
The exhibition is formed of several different pieces that Ben Oakley has composed over the years from his own experiences. You’ll find wood beside enamel, beside concrete, beside prints – and no less than a medley of varied materials. You can assemble around the assemblage, ponder at the portholes or find yourself beside the figurines.
For those of you looking for something truly unique and truly personal, then just head on over to the Ben Oakley gallery in Greenwich – you will be pleasantly stunned.
June 20th – July 5th 2015
Preview Evening:
Friday, June 19th 2015
6:30 – 9:30pm
9 Turnpin Lane, Greenwich Market London SE10
Portrait Artists: from Threads to Acid Heads
With new technologies the art of portraiture has been completely redefined. I look at four interesting portrait artists of this new generation who have bent this change to their will.
With new technologies the art of portraiture has been completely redefined. I look at four interesting portrait artists of this new generation who have bent this change to their will.
Bryan Lewis Saunders
Image Credit: Huffingtonpost.it
“There’s a lot of truth in media,” says Bryan Lewis Saunders in an interview with the Guardian while discussing a self-portrait of him inhaling lighter fluid. As evident in the interview and from his works, Saunders is quite the avant-gardist. He gained notoriety for Under The Influence, an experiment he devised where he intoxicated himself with a variety of different drugs, and then composed a self-portrait for each one.
Whether it is acrylic paints or metallic crayons, the media he uses are always symbolic of the drug he had taken. From the pleasantly colourful Xanax to the frighteningly abstract bath salts, we get a sense of his emotions under the influence – all of them hermetic, isolated within his modest apartment in Tennessee. To Saunders, portraiture is more of an internal experience rather than a representation of the external.
Nikki Rosato
Image via Installation Magazine website
Over the years, we’ve seen portrait artist’s progress from using oil paints to all kinds of media in their work. Albrecht Dürer himself would be turning in his grave, scoffing with incredulity if he found out that artists of the future could compose a portrait from hand-cut road maps.
Well the emerging talent that is Nikki Rosato manages just that. She encapsulates the fragility of being human through these irregular sequences of road maps, formed on the shape of a body. She creates her pieces by using a Stanley knife to cut away all the landmasses between the roads – leaving behind an intricate system of blood vessels, pumping transport links and points of interests that lead to nowhere.
Image courtesy of Kehinde Wiley Studio
Kehinde Wiley
In the past, the idea of subverting artistic tradition is a bold notion. And to repaint artistic history is an even bolder one. But Kehinde Wiley successfully attempts to do both. When not travelling the world looking for artistic subjects, he’ll be spending his time in his New York studio, acutely detailing monumental paintings.
His subjects? Almost always African Americans. Where does he find them? On the streets of New York, with a camera crew and an attractive woman so as not to incite suspicion. He usually looks for alpha male characters, and paints them in a heroic way – akin to the style of the Old Masters. With the end result, we can discern an intense smorgasbord of different qualities and themes, leaving no surprise as to why he is one of the most prolific portrait artists of this century.
Image via Kumi Yamashita website
Kumi Yamashita
Kumi Yamashita maintains a virtuosic control of light and dark values in all of her pieces. But one particular body of work, Constellation, is like no other. These are constructed by hammering thousands of small nails across a white wooden panel and running one single black sewing thread across all these nails to form an image.
On her site, she describes these portraits as consisting of ‘three simple materials that, when combined, produce the portraits.’ And yet despite such simple ingredients – the portraits look exceedingly meticulous and you are left marveling at how one single thread can represent not only expression but emotion too.
Lesley Hilling : A Silent Way
An interview with artist Lesley Hilling ahead of her new show In A Silent Way in collaboration with Anders Knutsson.
Lesley Hilling is a contemporary artist who utilizes reclaimed antique wood to create her intricate and alluring sculptures. All of her materials have past lives, some of the objects she has included in her work include: bowling balls, lenses, saw blades, syringes, chess pieces, mirrors, and photographs. Each of these objects bring a new dialogue to the already complex plethora of interweaving stories present.
In 2013 Hilling created the character Joseph Boshier, and attributed her new exhibition to the fictional architect. The tragic story of fame, failure, and disgrace was believed by many, and can be read about in depth here: http://www.josephboshier.co.uk
BM – your work is very haptic and tactile, not only in the way it is produced, but also in the way it invites touch. Is this something you allow or would you rather the work is viewed only by the eyes?
LH – I go for that on purpose, and I’d like it to happen a lot more. I think that’s something quite important.
BM – In the Boshier exhibition there were little doors with things behind, often people think they aren’t allowed to touch an artwork. Does a lot of the detail go unseen because of this?
LH – When I did the Boshier show I was actively encouraging people to explore the works. It was about ‘what lies behind’ etcetera.
BM – That resonates nicely with the alter ego you’ve created.
LH – Yes, I think so, it was intended as another layer. Having people looking at them closely is a really important element. I started putting magnifying glasses and lenses in as well, so that as you moved around, the photographs inside became distorted. It’s all to do with memory, and how the memory distorts.
BM – How much of the aesthetic of your work is dictated by the original appearance of the materials, do you use existing joints and cuts or do you make them all yourself?
LH – I cut all of the joints myself. I think the work has two different sides, there are the pieces that are all antique wood jointed together, and there are the larger Joseph Boshier pieces. The Boshier ones are a cladded substructure. If it all goes horribly wrong I can just re-clad. So it’s only really the colour or the texture that dictates how the piece would come out, rather than the shape.
The Boshier pieces are a lie, whereas the others are quite truthful.
BM – Something very obvious in your work is your love of balance, both with colour and also with the precariousness each piece suggests. Is this something you do intentionally or is it something that happens more instinctually? A lot of the pieces look like they shouldn’t be able to stand unaided.
LH – That’s right and I love that. It’s amazing how they do stand. I think its about 40% me and 60% something else, I’m not quite sure what. It’s a bit dangerous. The bigger pieces are in sections, so when we’re photographing them or moving them and they are not in their complete form, they can fall over. The top section will balance the piece perfectly when in position, but the piece isn’t balanced without it and is liable to fall.
BM – Is the process of creating artworks for you cathartic or do you find it stressful?
LH – Both. Its interesting, because at the end of the Boshier documentary Derval reads out the last entry in his diary, and it says “My art has seen me through”, which does suggest how cathartic it has been, and I think it’s true. I can be one hell of a nasty, bad-tempered person if it’s not going well. My partner Nel knows when things aren’t going well.
BM – Your work gives off a very ‘mad scientist’ kind of vibe, do you think there are elements of that in your character? This seems to be what you have written about the Joseph Boshier alter ego. How akin are the two of you?
LH – Not at all. I’m so modern and young. I’m very up-to-date with things. I’m certainly not mad, I’m a bit reclusive maybe. (Laughs)
BM – A lot of artists are, I think you have to be.
LH – I’ve been with Nel for 32 years this year, so I’ve always had someone around, coming home from work or pottering about the house. She’s creative too, and we’re part of Brixton Housing Co-Op, which is the LGBT community. I know everyone around here, and there are loads of artists and poets. It’s full of creative people. So although I’m reclusive I still have a network of friends around me.
The Joseph Boshier character was a real recluse - his story was about guilt, loss and longing. Emotions that are important to me and my work. Maybe that’s why they have that Mad Scientist look about them.
BM – What do you think the connection is between the LGBT community and the arts community? Do you think its because artists are quite liberal and free?
LH – Maybe liberal, but also maybe damaged. A lot of people who do art are damaged in some way. We’re all a bit damaged I guess. Now it’s quite open to be a lesbian or a gay man but when we were young it was really difficult to come out. Years before that it was illegal. I think all that feeds into people wanting to have a creative outlet. There is definitely that correlation between artists and queers.
BM – Do you believe in the ‘Tortured Artist’ dialectic?
LH – I don’t know, I’ve never really thought about it. A lot of artists have emotional baggage they are working out in the art and it makes it that much more interesting. Also I think people who can create convincing political work and those who come from cultures where they experience oppression, bring so much more to the work.
BM – Maybe the past experience of hardship is what differentiates a good piece of artwork from a good piece of craft?
LH – If you have all of that going into it, it really does help.
BM – Do you think there is still a disparity between women and men in the art world?
LH – I suppose there is, there is in the world isn’t there? Not so much in the west these days though. I think there are so many great women out there doing really great work.
BM – You are using what some would call a traditionally ‘masculine medium’, do you think that’s why you chose a male pseudonym?
LH – Actually I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be a man. My dad was always doing woodwork and things, he built a boat in the front garden. So as a child I was always doing that with him. I’ve always had that interest. When people who don’t know me see the work that do assume I’m a man because Lesley can also be a man’s name.
BM – How much did you have to get into the Boshier mindset whilst creating the work, did it have any adverse effects? Did you start thinking like him? And did you create the works for that show or were they existing works?
LH – Yeah a lot of them were already existing, and I think that’s why it worked. I borrowed a lot of previously sold work so it was a bit like a retrospective. I don’t think I could have made the pieces specifically for the show. Joseph came out of the work, the work couldn’t have come from him.
BM – In your opinion, is the whole story, and the reactions from the press and the public part of the artwork itself, or is that all just auxiliary and a means of publicizing the show?
LH – Yes, it was part of it. The story was like another layer on top of all of that wood. The success of making up a story like that is dependent upon the reaction. In a way I felt it was slightly flawed, because so many people left thinking Joseph Boshier really existed. I wanted people to leave the show doubting.
BM – Did anyone come out of the woodwork genuinely claiming to have known him?
LH – Yes, we had someone claiming to have heard of him. A magazine also wrote an article and I don’t think they realized he didn’t exist.
BM – What has been the single piece of artwork or exhibition that has affected you in the most profound way?
LH – Chris Ofili, his work when he won the turner prize. I really love soul and black culture. I felt his work was saying “OK you can do anything” and I found that so inspiring.
Lesley Hilling's new show In A Silent Way is a collaborative show with Anders Knutsson and is on at :
The Knight Webb Gallery, 54 Atlantic Road, Brixton SW98PZ
6-27 June