Blog-Backlog_Day Three_D

War Horse was a play in a cozy theater. The play was emotionally striking for such a simple set, including projection and few props. The story was a boy and his 'orse. The boy joins the army to find the horse that was donated to the British cause to find the horse. With that being said, the story line, was slightly, over dramatic. The horse props were extremely well rendered, and Tine described them as "realized line drawings", which I cannot describe better if i tried. They were, i suppose impressionistic line drawings to describe them just a bit further, in that the motion of the horse was jerky, and as fluid as they could be, from a steel wood and mesh frame that probably weighted more than I do. I became extremely emotionally involved with the horse, despite what I'm calling an over dramatic subject matter; and I think that was due to the acting skills of those preforming and choreographing the horse.

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Other thoughts on the Tate

I was unimpressed with Gaughin, I have always hated him as a painter, I found him to be self absorbed, and his paintings lack luster. His brush strokes seemed more lazy and uneducated than painterly, and such was true (ten fold) when seeing them in person. I search the exhibit for something that would possibly change my perspective on his work, sketches, concepts, something, and was unable to find anything lasting.


ON THE OTHER HAND! All was not lost on the TATE Modern, The art-historical exhibits were fantastic. Nothing pleases me more than the importance of art modern art history in a contemporary exhibition of old works. They had a large scale map of art historical periods by year with famous artists from that movement listed near it. It really just delighted me to see that my interests are not isolated, that they are actually points of debate, at least in the London art scene anyway.

It was nice to see a piece from Art and Language all though it was just a tiny (literally post card size) portrait of Lenin. And I saw the work of Julião Sarmento for the first time and was completely and utterly blown away. Text based work referencing Joyce and Foucault. I have seldom seen work that is contemporary (as in within the past ten or so years) that makes me think, yes, art world I do in fact belong here. Normally, its work from the 70's that I am just stumbling upon for the first time in the 21st century.

//

Forget Me (2005) // Dublin-Trieste 2 December 1909 (1996)

Blog-Backlog_Day Three_B

Ai WeiWei

An installation at the Tate Modern, in the Turbine Hall, was done by Chinese Artist Ai WeiWei. The floor of the enormous hall was coated with"sunflower seeds" (made from porcelain). The piece had several layers, speaking to globalization, working class, Chinese politics (Chairmen Mao is symbolized by the sunflower) and technology of the past and present. There was the installation and an informational video from WeiWei, explaining process and some concept. I found the piece, humbling due to the contrast of the flatness of the work, and the vast number of seeds with respects to the scale of the space. It was really awe striking. I really appreciate industrial architecture, steel beams, enormous ceilings, especially in repurposed spaces, I find brilliant. Therefore further enhancing the gray tones of the the space with the blur of seeds from a distance was aesthetically pleasing. To me it was all the play of industrial gray from Manet's Rail Station Series, with the awe of color scale of Rothko.

Politically speaking, I have a few more questions, with respects to the "Made In China" phenomena. I image the workers were paid well, but were they given above or below minimum wage? While the piece gave work the village for 2 or so years, what is to become of the economy now? At what point does it go beyond self service of a community? I really would have like to have seen more credit given to the 1600 or so workers who made the seeds because they became a blur, similar to the way each individual seed does when put in the large pile. If that was the point, this parallel of individuals, blurred in the grand scheme of things, at once labored over carefully, but then when tossed in the larger picture becoming anonymous, I don't find that politically relevant. I find it completely exploitative of a position, by someone who is well known, who isn't didn't have a hand in the labor process, save for overseeing. To me, that really falls short, while something is always better than nothing, for a community that is craving work, why not create lasting infrastructure, if you can.

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The London Eye is one of London's many tourist attractions. It is huge, but the view, i must say is breathtaking. It is not one of the things i would remotely consider doing in my free time, and I'm not totally sold in the idea that it was worth it. C'est le vie tho, its done, I'm intact.

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Free Day:

The designer Dior is known quite well, some of his most iconic designs are illustrated by Rene Gruau. Gruau's illustrations are landmarks as far as fashion concerned. They are minimal yet radiate luxury. The exhibit consisted of the illustrations from Diors numerous perfumes over the years. While a small exhibit it was truly lovely.

After seeing Gruau, I wandered over to the Cezanne exhibit of "The Card Player" series, along with some other impression and post impressionist faves including Degas and Van Gogh. I can take or leave Cezanne, but Degas always has a warm place in my heart.

After impressionism I saw some photos of Joy Division taken by Kevin Cummins. Joy Division highly popular during the late 70's early 80'. Cummins worked for NME (New Music Express) a UK based music magazine, and is known for his photos of famous and well as infamous artists of the time; including The Smiths, The Clash and The Buzzcoks.

Blog-Backlog_Day One

^home sweet home for the next two weeks^

Oh my poor neglected blogger. I've updated Facebook and Tumblr (not regularly) but not you. Let's recap - back to day one.

So, after the flight, of head aches, 2 movies (Never Let You Go, and The Kids Are Alright) and a chapter of The System of Objects, we had a quick semi tour on the way to the flat, then onward to the TATE Britain to see the Turner Prize. Which is 50 thousand pound prize give to an emerging British artist under 50 years of age. It's highly controversial in art politics. This year the artists nominated were

Dexter Delwood


The paintings exhibited in the show were highly underwhelming, showing very little of the artists own idea beyond appropriating notable art historical pieces. Note able references were : Johns, Matisse and Picasso. The image above is part of the body of work that got him nominated for the prize, which is imagined spaces of pop cultural references, this one is Jimmy Hendrix's hotel room.

Angela De La Cruz
De La Cruz has paintings that want to be sculptures, to which I say, just sculpt. She has a series of deconstructive paintings, which question the dimensionality of the canvas, I find this mostly boring. This has been an on going question in painting, again, a nod to Johns's Flag piece, which is encaustic on plywood." What is a canvas? What is an object?" Also a nod to Frank Stella, and Elsworth Kelley. I wish there was a different idea to the pieces, which would change the execution or presentation that would separate her work from where I just contextualized them. I don't think the questions are relevant in this day and age. On a side note, I really dislike floor pieces, Caro did it better...

The Otolith Group
The piece above is from an installation called ' A Long Time Between Suns (part I)' which I wish we saw. The piece at the Tate was highly overwhelming after the flight and to be honest i couldn't stay focused. Dark room, white writing, multiple videos do not mix well with jet lag. While that is mostly a cop -out. I don't think their work for the Tate was inviting it was simply too dark. However, I am intrigued by their work, and look forward to hearing more from them in the future.


Susan Philipzs
The above image is 'Lowlands' how it should be installed under a bridge. She is the winner of the Prize, and with good reason. I think it is a great achievement for the recognition of sound art as a medium. She activated a calming space with a Lo-Fi recording in a High Art space. It was really very beautiful spatially and physically. While the intent may have changed due to site specificity I thought it was gorgeous, complacently sad and mildly haunting.

TATE Britain: first thoughts

a few quick thoughts on the TATE Britain...
jet lagged thoughts...

turner prize : worth or not worth the jet lag
philipsz : yes

looking forward to deeper investigation of TATE Britain when we see the next exhibit.