The Ethereal & Concrete: Structure & Material, Spike Island, Bristol.

Text by Regina Papachlimitzou

Structure & Material brings together three artists who, although engaging in distinctly different sculptural practices, share a similar preoccupation with the potency inhering in the ambiguous, almost taciturn nature of the materials employed in their works. Showcasing works by Claire Barclay, Becky Beasley, and Turner Prize nominee Karla Black, Structure and Material invites the viewer to consider the ethereal and the concrete no longer as two ends of a spectrum but rather as co-existing and interfusing traits.

Claire Barclay’s Quick Slow (2010) displays a jarring combination of a soft piece of tapestry resting on a harsh, black metal frame. The socio-historical resonance of tapestry as a traditionally ‘female’ pastime set against the cold, unyielding, emphatically male quality of the somewhat gallows-like structure makes for a poignant re-imagining of the ever-present spectre of the limitations that culturally dictated norms place on acceptable male/female endeavour. At the same time, the work silently questions the all-too-easily drawn distinctions of soft/feminine, hard/masculine that even now infiltrate the appreciation and interpretation of artistic output. This concern is further expressed in Barclay’s appropriation of craft techniques (traditionally considered a somehow less valid form of creativity), and the reaffirmation of these techniques as an acceptable part of fine art practice through the incorporation of obviously hand-crafted parts in larger sculptural works, as for instance in Flat Peach (2010).

The small gallery showcases a series of photographic works by Becky Beasley, including Hide (2004-2006), Infirme (2004-2006), and Stool, Towel (2006). The pictures in the series have an enigmatic quality about them, the objects they portray covered to various degrees and their ‘true’ function therefore obliterated and replaced by the compelling power of possibility. The arcane, unidentifiable nature of the works’ subjects points towards Beasley’s preoccupation with blurring the boundaries between sculpture and photography: as evidenced further in works such as the Curtains series and the dual Gloss II and Night Music (2007) works, there is a pervading desire to remove the quantifiable, measurable qualities through which a work can be definitively situated in either practice.

Black’s works are undoubtedly the most intriguing of the art displayed, not least because of their – paradoxically – almost palpable aloofness, their sustained refusal to allow for a final and concrete allocation of meaning. Using delicate and friable materials such as paper, flimsy plastic and bathbombs in a light, ‘girly’ palette, Black creates sculptural works of immense potency: dominating the space they are displayed in, the sculptures are simultaneously wide open and hermetically closed, inviting and forbidding. Speaking of her works, Black affirms that: "nothing points outside of itself" – and it is certainly the case that the sculptures included in Structure & Material compel the viewer to peer into them, through them, at them, to return again and again to the work itself rather than to go off in search of an extrinsic interpretation. Not surprisingly, her work What to Ask of Others (2010) is strongly evocative of a cocoon, a cradle, a swaddled infant, a shroud: instruments of concealment and protection that invite scrutiny by their very resistance to it. And while refusing to yield, the materials evoked – and the works showcased – insistently hint at the terrifying possibility of openness, of display.

Structure & Material continues until 4 September.

spikeisland.org.uk

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Image:
Karla Black, Unused To (2007), Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London (c) the artist and Becky Beasley, Brocken (I – VIII) (2009), Courtesy Laura Bartlett Gallery, London and artist.
Photo: Stuart Whipps
A Hayward Touring exhibition from Southbank Centre, London on behalf of Arts Council England

Profundity & Play: Anish Kapoor: Flashback, Edinburgh College of Art.

Text by Colin Herd

Following on from its first incarnation at Manchester Art Gallery in the spring, Anish Kapoor’s touring Arts Council-funded mini-retrospective Flashback is currently on show at Edinburgh College of Art as one of the flagship exhibitions of this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival. The exhibition takes place in the airy and impressive Sculpture Court, a space usually given over to displaying either the college’s collection of antique statuary, including casts of the Elgin Marbles, or occasionally, to the giddy, experimental work of mid-degree art students. It’s a liminal space itself, then, caught between two moods and aesthetics, and the perfect choice to showcase Kapoor’s trademark blend of profundity and play.

The work in Flashback changes depending on the venue. In Manchester, Kapoor presented ten works, surveying a relatively wide selection of his explorations in sculpture, spanning his whole career. In Edinburgh, perhaps as a reaction and certainly as a relief to the mayhem and frenzy that Edinburgh finds itself in each August, this is slimmed down to just two sculptures: an early piece, White Sand, Red Millet, Many Flowers (1982) and the recent Untitled (2010).

White Sand, Red Millet, Many Flowers is an early example of Kapoor’s interest in creating sculptures out of raw pigment. Four small geometric structures made of powdery pigment are arranged in dialogue with one another on the gallery floor. They look like the tightly-packed piles of dyes and spices you might see in Indian markets, or like bizarre abstract sand castles, which in a sense is what they are: a miniature red mountain, studded with prickly peaks; an angular black tree-like form, jutting out in audacious spikes; two identical yellow bergs or breast-like mounds and an enveloping black wavy trough, almost the shape of pouting lips. As they are constructed from raw-pigment, colour is more than a surface effect; it’s the physical material the sculptures are made of. The work’s strong illusory quality comes from the central paradox that we don’t normally think of colour in terms of its physicality. The sculptures convey a sense of being physical objects and somehow not being at the same time, each one leaving a powdery trace around its base into which it seems they could very quickly dissolve and disappear.

At last year’s wildly successful retrospective at the RA, the two works which most caught the public’s imagination were the self-generating crimson wax-works Shooting into the Corner (2009), a canon that shot pellets of wax onto a gallery wall, accumulating over the duration of the exhibition and Svayambh (2007), a huge train made of wax that tracked its slow, relentless way through five rooms at the RA leaving large wax smears and blobs on walls and door frames, constantly moulding itself as it pushed through. Although less outlandishly ambitious than these works, in its own way Untitled (2010), a huge self-generating bell-shaped wax form that dominates ECA’s high-ceilinged Sculpture Court, is no less affecting.

A large steal fin like a butter churn moves around a circular track, so slowly that it could be a day-dream, all the time moulding and maintaining the bell-shape in its centre. You watch the fin, you see it moving, and although you know it must be turning, its pace is such that it never seems to move. There’s an obvious solemnity to the work, the bell a strong symbol of how we experience the passing of time, and given its position almost directly under a 1914-1918 war memorial, it’s impossible not to see its imposing blood-red form as a kind of memorial in itself.

Under the relentless progress of the mechanized blade, the bell itself appears smooth from a distance, but is actually embossed all over with blemishes and ruptures. It’s the literal embodiment of not smoothing over cracks, the pressure of the steel form having the opposite effect of imprinting each imperfection all the more clearly, like imaginary maps, or like the all-too-real ‘turning the map red’ of British Colonialism.

And yet, as with Shooting into the Corner and Svayambh, this sculpture has a sense of ungainly melodrama and dark humour. The edges of the fin become smudged and blotched with ragged rashes of red gunk, which spread out onto the floor. The surface of the bell is literally sticky, a tacky texture that also infiltrates the mood of the piece. In a space which is usually given over to classical sculptures, Kapoor’s sculpture has something of the detached, exhilarating horror, the tackiness and gore of a slasher film.

It’s part of Kapoor’s magic as an artist that he’s able to achieve this balance of frivolity, abstraction and high-mindedness, without undermining anyone.

Anish Kapoor Flashback runs at the Sculpture Court of Edinburgh College of Art until 9 October.

edinburghartfestival.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:
Anish Kapoor
White Sand, Red Millet, Many Flowers (1982)
© the artist
Courtesy: Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London

Lyrical Images of Life by the Sea: Sea Creatures, Joseph Bellows Gallery, San Diego.

Sea Creatures, an exhibition featuring work from Joni Sternbach, Dana Montlack and Liz Lantz, examines life above, below and around the sea. Featuring tintype portraits of surfers, images of life beneath the deep, and the lifestyles of women surfers around southern California, Sea Creatures is on show at Joseph Bellows Gallery until 13 August.

Sternbach’s 19th century wet-plate collodion method transforms surfers from around the U.S. and Australia into timeless portraits of modern seafarers alongside the primal landscapes they inhabit. Montlack dives below the sea to capture the life there, and then re-interprets them into painterly photo collages. Lantz poetically renders the details of women surfers’ lives: the trek to the sea, the back of a van, prized tattoos and amulets. Although using different photographic styles (which complements the experience of each), the photographs on display blend the specifics of people and their environments with life around and below the ocean. They depict diversity in a place of exhilaration and solace. Taken together, these three distinct artists, who use the beach as a flash point for their subject matter, generate a more complete, lyrical picture of life by the seashore.

Joni Sternbach works with a large format camera using the wet-plate collodion process first used during the American Civil War. The procedure is labour intensive, with chemistry mixed and applied to metal plates just seconds before each exposure. Her darkroom is a rolling tent set up on site; it attracts audiences wherever she goes. On the shorelines of both American coasts, and most recently in Australia, her distinctive process lures surfers to pose for her camera. The use of a large camera slows time down, so that her subjects adopt a timeless beauty and permanence that defies the otherwise active, animated life of surfing the big wave. Some are beautiful and fit, others show the toll of sun and salt water. The styles of their boards, the decals they place there, the wet suits and swimsuits they don, the hair that is usually long — all describe a highly eclectic tribe of mariners that has long fascinated the photographer.

Sea Creatures is on show at Joseph Bellows Gallery until 13 August.

josephbellows.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!