Eco Visionaries: Royal Academy, Viewed 28th January 2020
Rimini Protokoll: Win Win
An invitation to enter a semi circular space set out over two curved benches facing a circular stage like a dark room/ theatre. Space enough for 8, you sit with earphones looking at a blue sea like circle in a dark room. There are headphones to listen and to block out the sound of other visitors. A voice is talking to you, guiding and filling your mind with agendas of time and life. The jelly fish explore this as he discuss facts and concepts. Humans and their nature and brought into it as the jelly fish fade and you are faced with a view into the opposite. This continues back and forth whilst engaging in instructions from the voice until you realise you are on a loop and the artist has made you a part of the art, almost through trickery.
‘The Substitute’- 2019, Alexandra Dalby Gunsberg
The last male northern white rhino died in March 2018. Rare zoo archive footage is used to explore the concept of creating and generating new life. paying no attention to extinction of other species. Combing old footage with pixelated renders, the artist visually demonstrates the lack of permanence of life and its temporal nature. The digital rhinos attempts to move around the virtual space only present themselves as artificial when after some time of observation, the viewer notices the repetition of its movements on the loop.
Beazley Designs of the Year, Design Museum, viewed 21st November 2019
Myriad (Tulips) is an installation created by artist and researcher Anna Ridler. Through documenting dutch tulips through photography and handwriting, she explores how the common system can utilise the benefits of AI in an analogue format. Her system of ‘training sets’ mirror the digital format of organising information to develop an intelligence system.
Visually, the collection is overwhelming as a taxonomy of research and enlightens you to the sense of scale that governments and corporations collect data about people in order to come to the assumptions they do in terms of suggestive advertising and targeted marketing.
Ai Weiwei: Roots, Lisson Gallery, October 2019
According to Grace Adamson, in his work ‘Illuminations’ the use of the material of Lego to recreate a selfie he took in 2009 where he had been woken up and beaten by the police, is a commentary on and ready-made and global access on our age of mass production. Pixelating an image that is already serving a purpose in its original state is discussing the wider issues of material use and scale.
Anthony Gormley RA 21 September- 3rd December 2019, Main Gallery. Visited 23 Sept 2019
The exhibition invites you to engage with the space pushing the parameters of typical gallery behaviour: ‘don’t touch the art work’, which remains a rule however this line could be crossed in a few works such as ‘Clearing VII’, 2019, which is a square space filled with approximately “8km of square section aluminium tube, coiled and allowed to expand until restricted by the floor, walls and ceiling.” The outcome is interactive and a connection is made between the art and those that experience it. This is inevitable and unavoidable, much like colliding electrons and their “sub-atomic paths”, Gormley intends to provoke. Another connection he describes is frenetic scribbles of a child. At the time of my viewing, I observed it as a playground for mostly an older generation, submerging themselves into the sculpture, making it no longer a single subject, as Gormley intended. The success of this piece comes down to the acceptance of the viewer to participate in the climbing and clambering. A slim path around can avoid the chaos with some ducking. I witnessed a lady and a pram, unable to access room 4 and pondered on the exclusivity and if this is an intentional act or an accident. Perhaps it was a mere oversight, particularly in the case of wheelchair accessibility that would have surely come up in a risk assessment? How do curators factor in risks?
‘Slabworks’, 2019 are 14 sculptures of dense hard-edged steel slabs. The process of construction involved industrial and concise methods. First appearances are simply a Tetris like series of sculptures with a possible hidden code, unknown to the reader. Eventually, the penny drops and the human form in varying positions emerges. To walk amongst the sculptures is to place yourself in a higher physical position, realising the vulnerability of humans. I found this to allow for a more reflective self and ability to observe the forms from a sort of distance, as if giant.
‘Matrix III’, 2019 A balance of weightlessness and heaviness is achieved through varying densities of 98% recycled steel metal. Described as a “vast cloud”, the work hangs low with almost just enough space to walk beneath in a sense of suspended trust. The visually intelligent part of the sculpture is that although it hangs low, to walk beneath it feels like you are also high in the sky under a cloud. The thinking behind Gormley’s design is the space of dreaming: each cage is made from 21 cages, sized at the standard new build European bedroom, or as he affectionately calls it “the ghost environment we’ve all chosen to accept as our primary habitat”. This may be a starting reference to connect to my current intended studio practice of ‘dream space’- an evolving space of physical size, scientific (or not) adhering laws and inherited social behaviours, proper or otherwise.
‘The Host’, 2019 is another prominent installation that may prove pivotal in influencing my dream research. The title, an easy connection to the brain as a host to dreamed spaces, and visitors in out dream space state. The smell comes first- cold fresh Atlantic sea water. The the temperature of cold air. Then the crowd. Only viewing point: an arched entrance. The guard protecting the work explained to viewers who observed as they do the Mona Lisa, that the floor was reinforced and sealed waterproof in order to fill the entire room in clay and sea water in the nineteenth century gallery. A return to raw materials for Gormley’s closing piece in the exhibition, he changes the atmosphere subtly as days pass and light moves. The prominent questions are over creation and destruction. Being a calm, and flat surface, reflective and imitating a solid surface, it is about the perfect stillness of nature. There is a dreamlike element to the way the work will transform over the passage of time, so slowly that you would not notice it.
Richard Deacon: Lisson Gallery, viewed Tuesday 14th January 2020
Viewing the exhibitions of two male sculptors back to back concluded many similarities. Richard Deacon does however describes himself as a fabricator, which discusses the way in which he manufacturers art as well as lending itself to the narrative of ‘making up’ or story telling. There is a sense of humour and word play in his works and their titles which for me as a viewer personalises the work and allows me to be connected to the artist and his perspective. The works primarily focus on their construction which an emphasis on materials, much like Tony Cragg. The work titled ‘Remember #5’ offers an interesting approach to the idea of invitation and interiority which I explored extensively through my atmospheres project. The aim is to create an inclosed space that is not associated with feelings of fear, isolation or entrapment, rather a small space that draws you in, like the cosiness of the home.
Tony Cragg: Lisson Gallery, viewed Tuesday 14th January 2020
Tony Cragg is a British sculpture artists. First impressions of his work were merely of the similarity to the landscape described often in the cartoon about the Tasmanian devil! Further observations tell me little more than the use of materiality and form to construct a large and intimidating collection of forms much like tornados. Reading about the artist has illuminated this narrative of drawing a connection between materials and the relationships with people. All in all, as a designer who enjoys the narrative capabilities of art, I find this aspect to be thin and lacking. However, close up views of the pieces are baffling to the human eye as to how such a piece could be crafted together and lined up at every join as if it were one.
Wellcome Collection, viewed 26th November 2019
Two of the most compelling works in the exhibition of innovative and future design were the components of a home faecal transplant kit and dyslexia glasses. Things that appeal to us are very often an object of usefulness to us personally or topically common. At the time of viewing, I had just watched a South Park episode that mocks faecal transplants and discusses the lengths of human desperation in the face of needing something that is out of reach. In the usual form of the comedy cartoon it is delivered with humour, which added a funny perspective for me to view the work in a collection of fantastic exhibits that lacked any visually appealing form of display.
The dyslexia glasses were a poignant piece for me, working with children who often first learn of dyslexia through the early stages of learning to read. Using this idea, I have taken coloured acetate to experiment with different reading aids into the real world.
The Building Centre: 8th November 2019
This exhibition is so cool! Simply, a scale model of London with loads of interesting facts around the room. For the viewer it is interesting for everyone because there is always a place we want to find for ourselves that is personal to us. As I live out of the built area, I settled for locations I frequent!
Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life, Tate Modern, viewed 30 Sep 2019
Prolific model making and exploration of ideas: 450 models to be precise, is the bold introduction to the Olafur Eliasson exhibition. The ‘Model Room’ is housed at Moderna Museet, Stockholm and is an accumulation of works carried out by the Studio Olafur Eliasson that also serve as a reference library. The model making is a collaboration with Icelandic mathematician and artist/architect: Einar Thorsteinn. The vast and energetic variety of models in this exhibit serve as an inspiration for working and reworking ideas in the first stage of exploring atmospheres in my studio practise. Along with the range of materials and process applied, there is a clear and defined intention to establish a sense of atmospheric capabilities and modes to manipulate the mood of a space. This comes in the form of lighting, surface textures, movement, smell, temperature, scale and composition.
One piece that stood out to me as an exemplary example of composition and scale was ‘Moss Wall’ 1994, made of Reindeer Moss, wood and wire. Very often big and overwhelming things can evoke a feeling of scary or intimidating. It is Eliasson’s choice of a natural, soft and inoffensive material that makes the viewer experience a sense of playfulness, and even a feeling of novelty. It reminds me of clouds and evokes childhood memories of jumping on duvets. In my view a piece is most powerful if it has the ability to ignite nostalgia.
I was most compelled by “Big Bang Fountain 2014” where you are invited into a dark room in pitch black and realise there is some sort of lightning fast white light that appears momentarily. This is just enough to guide you over to it, while your eyes are still seeing the impression of it in the darkness, even though it is gone. Then, you get close and smell the freshness of water and your eyes inform you that you are looking at a fountain in the darkness. Every flash is different and if my counting is correct, the sequential pattern is off- much like lightning so you cannot predict the next flash. The audience reaction is glee and vocalising beauty for which I would agree. You are in the darkness, but it is worth the initial agitation. The artist has set up a trust exercise and rewards you for taking the chance.
‘Your spiral view’ 2002, is part of a series of Kaleidoscope work that Eliasson is interested in. His intention is not just about a playful visual experience. It is about breaking up the visuals and ‘reconfiguring what you see’. This is a tool used to bring things in and push things out. You are part of the room and the room is a part of you. In turn, this collage of people and materials blurs the boundaries of art and architecture and the composition of space itself. In terms of atmosphere, despite the unintentional outcome of playful, it is inevitable. However, this tunnel of reflection invites you in and encourages you to become reflective- literally and metaphorically. If you really do reflect outwards, it allows you to change how you feel about the space based on how you feel on the inside.
Imperial War Museum, 22nd September 2019
Images from the exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. I found the presentation of the exhibition flat and lacking in creativity to present the works with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Laid out in a stagnant fashion, the walk leads you unimaginatively from work to work, never changing in its methods of display. Finally, at the end, we have some variety in the form of the moving images on screens at the end that ask questions to the viewer. The curator may have considered inviting visitors to ponder on these important questions at the start, rather than the end.
Jessica Rosaleen Broughton 