NEW UNITE ART EXHIBITION

Peaches and Pixie Geldof, Norman Foster and everyday Londoners who have had a profound impact on the capital will be the focus of a new exhibition of artworks by students from Central St Martins this summer.

Over 100 fine art students from the college were invited by student accommodation provider Unite to participate, and five pieces were commissioned. They will be exhibited in Blithehale Court, Bethnal Green, to celebrate the opening of seven new Unite properties across London this year.

Entries were judged by Central Saint Martins Fine Art course directors, Jane Lee and Andrew Watson, as well as Unite’s sales and marketing director, Nathan Goddard. 

The winning artists:

Ewan MacFarlane
Norman Foster
Ewan said: “Instead of painting the Gherkin itself I thought it more interesting to paint its architect Lord Foster.  However I wanted to make reference to the fantastic structural planning that made the building possible. The result is a painting made up of brush strokes but within each stroke a number of shades.”

Rose Stuart Smith
Phyllis Pearlsall
Phyllis Pearlsall created the London’s first A to Z of streets by painstakingly walking every street until she had mapped them all. Rose said: “As maps become available on mobile phones and sat-nav, the A-Z may soon fall out of use and Phyllis’ story will be lost, so I was excited to be given this opportunity to make work that commemorates her. She was, like me, a painter so it seemed fitting that the work should also be a painting.”

Charles Drinkwater
Clara Grant
Charles’ work remembers The Bundle Woman of Bow who created farthing bundles of toys to give to poor children in the early 1900s. Charles said: “I chose Clara Grant because of her amazing actions. For a single woman, during that time, to make such a difference to children’s lives was remarkable. It reaffirms my belief in human kindness.”

 

Sue Kemp

Inspirational Londoners
Sue said: “The type of people that I think inspire students, are individuals they can relate to, everyday, ordinary people who through creativity, self-belief and hard work have achieved amazing things. I consider the people I have used in my work to be inspirational Londoners.”

Phoebe Mitchell
Peaches and Pixie Geldof

Phoebe said:  “The infamous daughters of rocker Bob Geldof and the late Paula Yates are the epitome of cool, trashy, teenage hedonism. They may not be saving the world, or carving out an enviable career…yet, but they can inspire us to enjoy ourselves and to take advantage of our youth.”

BODY, SPACE, MOTION, THINGS

I had great fun at Tate Modern a couple of days ago, courtesy of Robert Morris and Bodyspacemotionthings. The interactive installation, which is essentially a playground made out of plywood, rubber and ropes, first opened in 1971, only to be closed four days later because the crowd went a bit bonkers. This time round, Tate has made some health and safety adjustments, so I didn’t see anyone bounce off the walls or get a splinter in the bum.

It was 5pm. The Turbine Hall was filled with a few children, and a lot of adults. I watched a man in an expensive suit proudly make his way along the balancing beam. French tourists queued up to climb the walls. Everyone was giggling at themselves and each other. Even the gallery assistants seemed more relaxed than normal.

My friend Gabi was a willing volunteer

 

It is possibly the least thought-provoking work to be installed in the Turbine Hall so far, but who’s to say that’s a bad thing?

ARTBABBLE

I’ve been meaning to write about this site, ArtBabble, for a while now. It offers a collection of high definition videos dedicated to art and artists, from interviews and artworks to talks and documentaries. This is how they sum it up: 

What is ArtBabble?

Art-Bab-ble[ahrt-bab-uhl]
noun; verb (used without object) -bled, -bling

1. free flowing conversation, about art, for anyone.

2. a place where everyone is invited to join an open, ongoing discussion – no art degree required.

Here is an example of the kind of video they host:

What happens when five artists come one of the world’s largest libraries in search of inspiration for their next project? Hosted by Grace Bonney of the Design*Sponge blog, “Design by the Book” follows a glassblower, letterpress printer, ceramicist, pattern designer, and graphic designer as they uncover hidden treasures in The New York Public Library and then return to their studios ready to design… by the book. The artists are: Lorena Barrezueta, Rebecca Kutys, Mike Perry, John Pomp and Julia Rothman. Special guest Isaac Mizrahi will joins us in Episode 2 to share his sources of inspiration.

Unfortunately, it is predominently American art and artists. The closest thing we have, for now, is Tate Shots.

PHOTOS FROM TRAVELLING LIGHT

A selection of photographs from the Travelling Light exhibition, which opened on Friday at the WW Gallery in Hackney, east London.

Artist and Studio to Go (2009) by Natasha Bailey

Friendships (2008) by Infinity Bruce

Birth of Venus (2009) by Chiara Williams

Dust (2009) by Phil Illingworth

Anywhere! Anywhere! (2009) by Valerie Jolie

Nameless (2009) by Eva Lis

How to use a life vest (2007) by Edith Dakovic

Midriff – Version 1 (2009) by Ingrid Berthon-Moine

Turns out the artwork embroiled in bureaucratic battle (see previous post) was by Sri Lankan born artist Roma Tearne. She wanted to wrap a single black or crimson cloth over the eyes of the statue of Eros in Piccadilly, London, but the people in charge refused to give the gallery permission.

TRAVELLING LIGHT: LONDON TO VENICE

 

Travelling Light is an upcoming Venice Biennale art exhibition organised by a group of women from London’s East End: Sophie Wilson of Pharos Gallery, Chiara Williams and Debra Wilson of WW Gallery. The brief said all artworks had to be posted to the London venue for the first leg of the exhibition before they could continue on their travels to Venice, so the artists (among them Roma Tearne, Kate Davis, Maria Chevska and Oona Grimes) had to work to certain size and weight restrictions.

The travelling exhibition, which will showcase a total of 58 artists, is set to open in London and end up in Venice for the opening week of the Biennale. However, one of the submissions requires public interaction, and Westminster Council has yet to give the women permission to go ahead.

 

Read more about their efforts to cut through the red tape on their blog and on Twitter, and find further information, including a list of participating artists, on the website.

ART ON TWITTER

My new personal project is to find out about interesting artists and art projects through Twitter. Here is a selection so far:

• https://twitter.com/mirrorerror Sample Tweet: “Saw the Rodchenko and Popova exhibition at Tate Modern, now have a burning desire to research the Russian Revolution.”
• https://twitter.com/DecimaProjects (Decima Gallery) Sample Tweet: “Dogs”
• https://twitter.com/Simon_Rees (Photographer) Sample Tweet: “Did you realize memories only comprise of still images”
• https://twitter.com/keemo (Artist) Sample Tweet: “Trying to muster the energy to pick up the brushes. Maybe more coffee first.”
• https://twitter.com/artreviewcom Sample Tweet: “Who cares what David Hockney does with his iPhone?”
• https://twitter.com/artfagcity (New York-based art critic) Sample Tweet: “Looking at Bill Sullivan’s photo realistic paintings (at Sasha Wolf Gallery)”
• https://twitter.com/mediascot Sample Tweet: “Enchanted in Stanley, NM. A little heavy on the Jesus, but this place got me, all the same.”
• https://twitter.com/Tate Sample Tweet: “Commiserations Brother’s McLeod – don’t worry we’ll have (Children’s) BAFTA success! Cannot wait for the next installment of Art Sparks”
• https://twitter.com/1854 (British Journal of Photography) Sample Tweet: “Walking photocops: Photographic equipment used by police forces in the UK is coming to the US.”
• https://twitter.com/WWGallery Sample Tweet: “Desperately seeking a meeting with Boris Johnson, HELP US!” 

Follow me on Twitter

ANTONY GORMLEY’S SUBJECTS

Clearly designers of the One & Other (previous post) logo and header expect the “cross section” of people applying to stand on the fourth plinth to include: a woman on a Segway (those two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicles), a portly man with a walking stick, a pregnant woman, someone in a wheelchair, and Darth Vader. Oh and Gormley himself (C’mon Antony, admit it – we recognise your silhouette from Event Horizon)

WHO WILL APPLY TO STAND ON THE FOURTH PLINTH?

Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Antony Gormley has officially opened the application process to members of the public who wish to stand on the fourth plinth of London’s Trafalgar Square, as part of his new artwork One & Other.

Every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days without a break, 2,400 different people will be able to occupy the plinth, and do whatever they like on it, as long as it’s legal.

“This is about, in some way, challenging the idea that only some people, people who are heroes or have served for their country, have the right to occupy plinths,” says Gormley.

According to the Guardian, 22,000 people have registered their interest so far. Which begs the question, what will people do with their hour as a living statue?

There will be the piss-takers; the dressing up enthusiasts; those who see it as a platform for showing off singing, acting or clowning talents; the campaigners; and, probably, a great deal of normal people who get up there with a book or an iPod, and simply wait it out, keen to simply become part of London’s artistic landscape for a while. At least, I hope that is the case.

But most, if not all, media coverage of the event will be given over to the outrageous: the nearly naked, the crazy, those with an incredible story to tell, and many other moments that are impossible to predict. It will be interesting to see if it really does represent a cross section of British society.

Antony Gormley’s One & Other will replace Thomas Schütte’s sculpture Model for a Hotel on 6 July 2009, and will be broadcast live on oneandother.co.uk and on the Sky Arts website.

BANKSY: TURNER PRIZE NOMINEE?

More than 100 people have commented on Jonathan Jones’s piece, “Should Banksy be nominated for the Turner Prize?”, over the past two days, despite the fact we’ve heard his arguments before. The question of Banksy’s artistic worth, it seems, is something we are all still itching to debate.

Jones has confessed in the past to being “pretty harsh” about Banksy, and to publishing more articles about this “unimportant graffiti and street artist than I care to count”. Writing about Banksy is, Jones says, the “thorn of being an art critic in modern Britain”. “Cy Twombly is the only graffiti artist I care about” (3 June 2008)

However, it is a thorn that has generated a lot of material for Jones’s blog, culminating in the latest piece on his decision not to nominate the street artist for this year’s Turner Prize competition.

His reasons for considering the artist are twofold: one, he would like to be convinced of Banksy’s worth, and two, he would welcome the media attention such a nomination would surely generate. However, he concludes that Banksy no longer generates the same column inches as before, and finally says:

The reason I don’t like street art is that it’s not aesthetic, it’s social. To celebrate it is to celebrate ignorance, aggression, all the things our society excels at. For middle class people to find artistic excitement in something that scares old people on estates is a bit sick.

The vast majority of people responding to this piece argue indignantly in favour of street art, pointing out that it is not the same as “tagging”, and is aesthetic as well as social. An early comment by mroli (15 April 09, 4:12pm) reads:

Are old people on estates scared by street art? I don’t think they are. Certainly not the kind of street art that Banksy perpetrates. How on earth does it celebrate ignorance? How does it celebrate aggression? Don’t nominate him if you think he’s crap, but not nominating him because he is a “social” artist, that encourages discussion, is open to everyone, whose work is essentially disposable and yet adopted as permanent is madness.

Another comment accuses Jones of blatant self-promotion, for the article reveals nothing new about Jones’s relationship with street art, and instead seems to be a thinly veiled boast about his role in nominating artists for the Turner Prize shortlist.

And now, to bring up a blog entry Jones wrote about lazy arts reporting in September 2007, which was always going to come back and bite him on the arse. “Imagine how little news about visual art would appear in the papers,” says Jones, “if the following generic stories were banned:

1. The most expensive work of art ever
2. Anything about graffiti
3. Lost masterpiece rediscovered
4. Contemporary artists as plagiarists
5. Art historian/archaeologist makes earth-shattering discovery Restoration stories”

BODYSPACEMOTIONTHINGS

Thirty-eight years ago, the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) installed Robert Morris’s interactive artwork Bodyspacemotionthings in its Duveen Galleries, and all hell broke loose. Visitors went “beserk” playing on the walls, seesaws, stilts and tunnels, getting splinters in their bums and bruises.

Photo: Tate

On May 22 this year, Bodyspacemotionthings is coming back to Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall.

Assistant curator Kathy Noble told the Independent: “It was a landmark moment in Tate’s history. The idea was to encourage viewers to become more aware of their own physicality.”

Concerned art fans will be reassured to learn the new version of the work will be made with contemporary materials instead of the rough wood of the 70s.

This is a sly move on the museum’s part. Bodyspacemotionthings will doubtless be even more popular than Carsten Höller’s slides (2006), if only because of the controversy surrounding Morris’s original.

UBS Openings: The Long Weekend will run for four days from 22 May.