Last Chance To See | Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive | Towner | Eastbourne

Seven artists – Susie MacMurray, Brendan Jamison, Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, Jill Townsley, Claire Morgan and the duo Henry Seaton have been asked to produce work that challenges the commonly considered belief that repetition is purely a means to an end or a device. Here repetition opens up debates about authorship, failure through repetition and the role of labour.

Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive is a group show of five new commissions (and one earlier work) by a group of sculptors who use small scale repetitive processes to create large scale sculptural installations. The common characteristic is the need to compulsively repeat an action – by hand, in a labour intensive and painstaking way – to create a large scale work composed of multiple elements.Presented on an expansive scale, individual elements are transformed through repetition into something more than the sum of the parts. Whether through accident or design the slippages and leakage between each repetition reveal something surprising and unexpected.

In her work, Susie MacMurray questions at what point drawing becomes sculpture, or vice versa, and whether such delineations are meaningful. A new ‘sculptural drawing’ across one large wall of the gallery comprises corrugated hose extruding from the wall, in a piece that is both formal and industrial whilst also unavoidably unruly and visceral.

A new large-scale installation by Brendan Jamison (known for his sugar cube scale models of Tate Modern and NEO Bankside for the London Festival of Architecture 2010) combines elements from the architecture of local landmarks Beachy Head Lighthouse, Redoubt Fortress and the Martello Towers. Tower (2011) is 5m high and constructed from over a quarter of a million sugar cubes, weighing over 500kg. The built structure is surrounded by a sea of loose sugar crystals, rippling in waves across the gallery floor.

Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva often endures months of repetitive and nauseating labour in her process. Reoccurring Undulation is made out of 1,100 salmon and trout skin tiles which have been previously cleaned and preserved. The skin tiles are arranged to form an intriguing and dynamic pattern, taking over the full length of the wall, filing the space from floor to ceiling like a tapestry. The light reflecting on the material and its patterns makes further references to its richness and beauty.

In Claire Morgan’s Machine Says No (2007), a wild rat, preserved using traditional taxidermy techniques, is suspended and appears to be falling through geometric forms created from stretched pieces of plastic bag. Morgan is concerned with the process of life and death and the interaction between man and nature, in all its perfection and ugliness. The passage of viewers through the space creates constant and subtle movement.

Jill Townsley’s work is repetitive to the point of obsession. Using common and everyday objects, she strives for a geometric perfection in her process yet knows it is impossible to achieve. Till Rolls (2011) is a large floor-based installation consisting of 9,375 paper rolls, each extruded from its centre to form vertical cones of varying height (up to 12ft). The rolls recall the countless transactions of trade and industry and interactions between individuals. The result is an undulating structure reminiscent of a three-dimensional graph – but no clue is given as to whether the peaks and troughs of this structure represent good or bad results; the paper is blank.

Finally, a new commission by Henry Seaton (Rex Henry and Graham Seaton), known for their interest in the city, its narrative and its built forms, integrates elements of the gallery’s architecture into a field of objects.

Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive continues at Towner, Eastbourne until 18 September.

townereastbourne.org.uk

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Image:
Jill Townsley, Till Rolls (2011) (detail).

Maybe We'll Be Soldiers | Gawain Barnard | Ffotogallery | Cardiff

This summer, Ffotogallery turns the spotlight onto new photographic and lens-based media work in Wales. In a series of exhibitions and events across two spaces, the main gallery in Turner House, Penarth and The Dairy in Cardiff, an off-site venue, Wish You Were Here is dedicated to nurturing and foregrounding emerging artists in Wales. The season reflects the concerns - social, conceptual and technical - of a new generation of photographic artists. Whether challenging cultural stereotypes of offering glimpses into unseen worlds, the artists offer fresh perspectives on photography whilst exploring the expressive potential of the medium. The latest solo exhibition in this series sees Cardiff-based artist, Gawain Barnard present Maybe We'll Be Soldiers at The Dairy in Cardiff.

Maybe We'll Be Soldiers is a story of realisation, self-doubt, expectations and coming of age. A young person's sense of invincibility fades as they reach adulthood and the naivety of youth gives way to uncertainty around future plans. Barnard has captured that moment in his intimate portraits of young teenagers in Wales, juxtaposed here with images of forests, housing estates and underground passes.

The exhibition title was inspired by the artist’s memory of the armed forces coming to his school and talking only to children from the ‘middle’ to ‘lower’ classes, being the most likely potential recruits. Barnard remarks, “It just seemed odd that the decision to join or not join the armed forces should be made at an age when we have no idea what to do with ourselves and are quite susceptible”.

Barnard sees the work as partly autobiographical, evoking a time when he came to view the towns and villages he grew up in as a psychological barrier that was very difficult to see past. Being unable to drive and too young to move away, these familiar landscapes can become an obstruction to seeing a future beyond one’s immediate situation. 
Maybe We'll Be Soldiers opens on Thursday 8 September and continues until 24 September and is accompanied by an Artist Talk on Thursday 15 September at 6.30pm.

ffotogallery.org

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Image:
Gawain Barnard Tonisha (2011)
Courtesy the artist.

Out of the Dark Room | PhotoIreland 2011 | Various Locations | Dublin

Text by Rosa Abbott

Following on from the success of last year’s inaugural edition, the PhotoIreland Festival returned to Dublin in 2011 with a bolstered programme and the duration doubled from two weeks to a month. The festival seeks to promote photography from all levels, with participating artists ranging from internationally respected photographers to new graduates and amateurs - perhaps the most egalitarian event being the un-curated was Homeless Gallery, in which would-be photographers are given the opportunity present their work wherever they see fit in a sizable exhibition space with no gallery fees. The result of this all-encompassing approach is a festival programme that is difficult to navigate for the sheer volume of events. There are far worse complaints that could be made about a festival, however – especially considering that even some of the smallest, least publicised exhibitions I’ve attended were of a high standard. The gap in quality between the big names and the emerging artists being satisfyingly small.

By far the biggest name on the bill was the controversial Magnum documentary photographer Martin Parr. Unfortunately, though, none of Parr’s own photographic works are on display. He is instead exhibiting items from his own collection, presenting his favourite photo books from the past decade. Parr’s critical opinion on this matter is probably well worth heeding to: an avid collector of the medium, Parr has traveled to far-flung corners of the globe to source these books, and the selection on show at the National Photographic Archives is diverse and engaging. The exhibition excels in its interactive nature: each book, though attached to the display with wire, is meant to be picked up and flicked through, introducing a kinetic and textural element usually unattainable in art exhibitions. The physical qualities of photography books – from paper type to page dimensions – are of course carefully selected, and form a central part of the overall aesthetic. By presenting a selection side by side, these differences in tactile qualities are fore-grounded – the rough, grainy pages of Scrapbook create quite a different effect to the ultra-silky gloss paper of the adjacent Temporary Discomfort, for example.

Scrapbook also appears in an exhibition in the nearby Gallery of Photography as part of The Long View, which ran until 28 August 28. This time, it is dismantled, and it’s pages arranged faux-chaotically across a long white wall – the pleasing textural qualities of the book in Parr’s exhibition giving way to the visual dynamism of this alternative arrangement. Despite Scrapbook’s nostalgic title and hippy-ish floral cover, its subject matter is subversive and politically charged, dealing primarily with The Troubles (this element of deception created by the cover gives the book format seen in Parr’s exhibition an edge over the wall-mounted version, if you’re interested in comparing display formats). The theme of Northern Irish conflict appears in many of the works in The Long View, a group exhibition of six Irish photographers making an impact on the international photography world.

Despite expectations that may arise from the name PhotoIreland, this is actually one of the few exhibitions running as part of the festival to focus specifically on Irish photography. The exhibition programme is predominantly very internationally focused, with other ‘headline’ exhibitions including a retrospective of Spanish press photographer Luis Ramón Marín; a showcase of twenty-five Mexican photographers in Mexican Worlds and an exhibition of works by the Polish artist Zofia Rydet. Though it would be nice to see more Irish photography on the billing – particularly from more established names – the opportunity to catch stellar displays of international photography like these are fairly few in Dublin, so PhotoIreland still doesn’t disappoint. Rydet’s The Arc of Realism in particular was well worth visiting – her oeuvre is an ambivalent mixture of simple documentary style photographs, usually of lowly European peasants in their domestic environments, and dynamic, surrealist photo-collages. Though it’s the latter group of works that are the most instant and visually arresting, the subtleties of Rydet’s photographic sociological studies add layers of depth, especially when presented alongside their more experimental counterparts.

Happily, PhotoIreland this year also sees Dublin’s acquisition of noteworthy photographic works on a more permanent level. The Irish Museum of Modern Art’s offering, Out of the Dark Room, is an exhibition of the extensive collection of Dublin-born physician David Kronn. It includes photographs by the likes of Irving Penn, Robert Mapplethorpe, Diane Arbus and Herb Ritts, with works from the collection to be donated to the gallery on an annual basis - beginning with an Annie Leibovitz portrait of Louise Bourgeois. So not only will Dubliners be able to look forward to ever-bigger editions of the PhotoIreland Festival each summer (going by the success of this one), there will be a new piece from the Kronn bequest to visit each year as well. 

PhotoIreland ran from 1 - 31 July. Many of the individual exhibitions are still running. See individual websites for further details.

photoireland.org

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Opens Today | Briefly Yours | Maria & Natalia Petschatnikov | WAGNER + PARTNER | Berlin

There are some things we only own for a while, without even noticing it. Following on from the acclaimed installation Sidewalk (2009) WAGNER + PARTNER is proud to present the latest exhibition from Maria & Natalia Petschatnikov Briefly Yours. The exhibition connects paintings and objects from three of the Petschatnikovs most recent series, all which subtly investigate the notion of possession and ownership. As so often in their work it is the banal everyday things that are artistically explored and viewed from new angles.

City dogs and their owners, retractable leashes and the obligatory pile on the sidewalk. These are all things that are part of our everyday lives. The installation Dogs is a room full of stylised dogs and a network of leashes where the common becomes comical. Whose leash is leading whom here? Although each individual dog is abstract, when they are considered together, Dogs presents the viewer with many questions.

With Cash, a small-format painted series of banknotes, this idea is developed further. Rolled, creased, piled and in a multitude of variations, these notes mutate into colourful craft paper. Like still lives, these absurd arrangements in oil on parchment tell many stories. In the process the monetary worth becomes secondary. 

In U8, a series of paintings of the 24 stations of the Berlin U8 underground line, the investigation expands into urban space: moving across the city, getting out of “ones” station, or commuting to work. Temporarily we own the public space, only to forget it as quickly after use.


Briefly Yours reveals a disregarded phenomenon, an ever-present, fleeting process of appropriation that the artists make playfully known in this, their latest exhibition.

Briefly Yours:Maria & Natalia Petschatnikov continues until 22 October and will be accompanied by an Artist Talk with Dr. Lars Mextorf, writer and curator on Thursday 29 September at 7pm.

galerie-wagner-partner.com

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We hope you enjoy reading the Aesthetica Blog, if you want to explore more of the best in contemporary arts and culture you should read us in print too. You can buy it today by calling +44(0)1904 479 168. Even better, subscribe to Aesthetica and save 20%. Go on, enjoy!

Image: Maria & Natalia Petschatnikov
Exhibition views: Briefly Yours
Courtesy WAGNER + PARTNER, Berlin

Shift | The Arts University College Bournemouth Postgraduate Show Opens Today

Opening today, the highly anticipated Arts University College at Bournemouth postgraduate show features graduates from fine art, photography, graphic design, and many more, runs until the 8 September. The exhibition, entitled Shift, reflects the interdisciplinary nature of postgraduate study and represents the culmination of a meaningful, transformative and personal journey for the students involved.

Work in the show features Yves Findling who uses screen prints from the Internet and YouTube which, even if they reflect the production run of the mass-production of goods in the industry, have a hand-made character and a unique connection to the illustrator as the creator of the artworks; and Araki Shiro who investigates the complexity between architectural form and surreal sculpture and assemblage, creating objects by hand that resemble organic form using inorganic material such as carbon fibre and glass fibre, looking at the relationships between objects and the body in a subconscious form.

Shift also features the work of Noelle Barnett who’s ethereal and emotive series of oil paints investigate the depiction of skin in painting producing images that eliminate unnecessary detail and leave more breathing space for the viewer to work in their own interpretations and Isobel Browse who's practice relates to the domestic interior, a space that exists between house and home. Aesthetica spoke to Noelle and Isobel about their work and what the future holds for them after AUBC.


What has the preparation process for Shift been like?

NB: Studying part-time has meant that I experienced last year’s show, and was aware that we should plan for it earlier than the previous year. I have worked alongside another student, Isobel Browse, and we canvassed the group to establish a title for the show so it could be professionally ‘branded’ with a uniform quality of information to distribute as early as possible. I particularly wanted to advertise outside of Bournemouth and try to get people coming to visit from London! To be honest, I was really disappointed with the general lack of initial enthusiasm for the show from other students. I feel it is a really important aspect of any course, and one can learn such a great deal from the process. I hoped it would build an element of team spirit prior to installing the show in August. Nevertheless, a small working group was established with others joining later.


IB: Absolutely, working with Noelle on a show with such a diverse set of disciplines has been a fantastic experience. We couldn't have done it without the fantastic core group of students working hard on all the details of the show.


With such a broad variety of media on display, curating the show must be a challenge. Who is responsible for curatorial decisions and is there an overall theme?

NB: Last year, as the group was small, they had a lot of space and the curatorial decisions for the Course Leader were easier. This year due to a higher number of students, the show is being held in the AUCB Gallery and Fine Art Studios and the decisions are more complex. Due to the nature of the course philosophy there is no overall conceptual theme to the show. Each of our individual practices is supported and recognised in their particular diversity. However, similar concepts and ideas have emerged and traverse the pathways, and for me this aspect serves to demonstrate the excellent qualities of the course.


IB: One of the exciting aspects of the course is the diverse disciplines you find yourself working alongside. I don’t have curatorial experience but I had a strong idea of where I would like to place the work and it is quite site specific. We worked collaboratively with Ronnie Inglis, MA Course Leader and it has been fantastic watching the spaces come together. The nature of the course determines that there is not an overall concept, simply a strong desire to show all the work at its absolute best, enhanced by the pieces around it. I certainly have more experience than I did previously and I hope to be involved in many more exhibitions in the future.

Could you talk us through your work on the MA? What pieces will you be showing in Shift?

NB: I started the MA after completing a five-year, part time, BA in Fine Art at the AUCB. I had reached a point where I knew I wanted to take my work much further, and am so glad I had the opportunity and support to achieve this. My initial aims were to develop my painting skills and knowledge as far as possible, to increase my confidence in my practice and to research how skin was depicted within painting. Going back to look at Renaissance painters and looking at techniques and issues of representation of beauty and ugliness, led me to more in depth research about peoples attitudes to their own and others skin, taking into account advertising and media pressures. I used various techniques within my practice to back up this research, such as digital scanning and watercolour studies. The final phase of the MA took this research into the studio and the development of a series of oil paintings. These works are a response to the research and I have deliberately moved away from representation into an abstract and ambiguous depiction. They are quieter and more reflective, and offer a glimpse of the ephemeral, the experience of the body within the world. I am showing the final three pieces I made, as they mark both a conclusion and departure point within my practice.


IB: My practice relates to the domestic interior: the space that exists between house and home. Initially, I drew inspiration from an archive of my family’s photographs that I inherited, muddled in boxes with hardly any contextual information. I began to question whether our surroundings and possessions shape or mask our identities. Using phenomenology and anthropology, I investigate our response to our domestic space. Architectural motifs and preoccupied figures explore the transient and the permanent, serving to alienate and distance the viewer. Opposing themes of the interior and the exterior, cropped simplicity and pattern, create a sense of dislocation and unease: a series of frozen moments, psychological remoteness evoking elements of the uncanny. I work both in the traditional and digital darkroom and many of my images are initially taken using a view camera. The pieces I have chosen to show in Shift are images that reflect all aspects of my work on the MA, showing a synthesis of both method and methodology. 

What has been your main source of inspiration for this body of work?


NB: My main inspiration is skin. I have read so much about it over the past two years, and looked at so much, it almost became obsessive, staring at people in the supermarket and wanting to photograph them! The concept that skin is a two-way membrane is really important- and that it is our interface with the world. We experience so much through touch, and skin memory intrigues me - how far can we remove our touch yet still feel the surface we were touching- like the meniscus on water? The fact we shed our skin, and that it makes up 90% of house dust, means it is in the air we breathe, so the whole world can be understood as skin. I want to capture the equivalent of our existence in the world, what we experience, and how we feel.


IB: I draw inspiration from a variety of sources but throughout my time on the MA, Hammershoi, Hopper and the painters of the Dutch Golden Age have continually influenced my practice.

What’s next for you after you graduate?

NB: I want to take a short time out to consider my options, but would really like to continue with further research. I will be looking at what options are available for the following year. I have work in an Art Fair in London this October, the Parallax Art Fair at La Galleria, Pall Mall, 14-16 October, and hope to get work into exhibitions in London in the future. I would also like to do some teaching, as I am very passionate about encouraging people into education.


IB: I am going to concentrate on exposure initially. I will continue to make new work and I already feel an intense pull to continue my practice and research at the next level.

Shift will be open daily from 10 – 4:30pm with a late night opening until 8pm on Thursday 8 September.

aucbshift.co.uk

Aesthetica Magazine We hope you enjoy reading the Aesthetica Blog, if you want to explore more of the best in contemporary arts and culture you should read us in print too. You can buy it today by calling +44(0)1904 479 168. Even better, subscribe to Aesthetica and save 20%. Go on, enjoy!

Image: Courtesy the artist

The Fragile Beauty of Existence | Mathilde Rosier: Necklace of Fake Teeth | Camden Arts Centre | London

Text by Matt Swain

Camden Arts Centre hosts the first solo exhibition in the UK by French artist Mathilde Rosier (b. 1973). Renowned for creating visual embodiments of dreamlike objects and haunting animal presences, here Rosier creates atmospheric environments drawing on her interest in ancient rites and rituals. The gallery is transformed into a series of rooms, containing paintings, sculptural assemblages and film, representing the journey between conscious and unconscious states.

Rosier's work addresses the fear of death particularly in western society and it's rejection of rituals because of their link with religion. She frequently uses archaeological objects as a metaphor for the human mind and there is a clear exploration of the human psyche and a search for material that is repressed. Deeply buried objects or memories are brought back from another time, another world.

It is no surprise then that influences for the work include Sigmund Freud, Howard Carter's excavation of Tutankhamen's tomb and Jean Rouch's controversial film Les Maitres Fous (1955). Freud interpreted dreams as unfulfilled wishes or unconscious desires and Rosier recognises the paradox that you cannot dream and fulfil your wish in the same realm of consciousness. If we assume however that we are viewing the unfulfilled wish, then as the viewer we are also the dreamer becoming part of the installations.

The watercolour and photo collage that is animal mask Regard, dont le jaune (2011) possesses an avant garde minimalism that is soft but startling, revealing an uncertainty in the way that it is presented. There is a strong link to nature although it is troubled and destabilised and there is a sense of the unfinished or unresolved.

In Présentation des ronds jaunes (2011), and Plié, dressé(2011), two dancers interact in a dreamlike sequence, attempting to place time in a timeless state where technology does not exist. The muted colours in Figure rond noir 1 (2011) and Figure rond noir 2 (2011) contain elements of desire and intrigue rather than pure, ritualistic beauty but the impact is the same.

Corps vitrés (2011) is the most dramatic visual display of Rosier's other-worldly consciousness. This mysterious figure dominates the exhibition, cloaked in a dark gown with branches replacing the head and arms which protrude from a glass case as birds rest hidden beneath the branches. A framed but broken photograph of moonlight on trees sits in an armchair close by adding to the mystery and providing a sense of the occult.

The filmed performance Cruising on the Deck (2011) is part of a surreal social experiment. The opening night of the exhibition saw a performance by Rosier in which participants were invited to wear masks, becoming part of a mysterious ritual ceremony. It is these conch-shaped masks that are in the exhibition film as a relic of the performance. The audience chat with each other while wearing the masks, a ritual ceremony resembling, in Rosier’s own words, a "secret society".

There is no doubting the conviction with which Rosier has absolute belief in her ideas. There is a sense that the darkness could be darker - at times it is almost tainted by the dreamlike beauty - but then not all dreams are nightmares and it does give the feeling of being mid-state between the waking world and whatever lies beyond. Taken as a whole, the exhibition seeks a new visual language for dreaming and the unconscious and succeeds in doing so. Most significantly it gives a new perspective on death and the concept that death is not necessarily about dying. It is about moving through phases and losing a sense of space and time, which is all part of a learning process. In doing so it forms a unique connection with the outside world, highlighting the fragile beauty of existence.

Mathilde Rosier: Necklace of Fake Teeth continues at Camden Arts Centre, London until 25 September.

camdenartscentre.org

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We hope you enjoy reading the Aesthetica Blog, if you want to explore more of the best in contemporary arts and culture you should read us in print too. You can buy it today by calling +44(0)1904 479 168. Even better, subscribe to Aesthetica and save 20%. Go on, enjoy!

Image:
Mathilde Rosier Find Circumstances in the Antechamber (2010)
Installation view at Musée Jeu de Paume, Paris
Courtesy Galerie Kadel Willborn and Galleria Raffaella Cortese