Multi-Sensory Dialogues: Q&A with Russell Hill, Catlin Art Prize Winner 2011.

Established in 2007, the Catlin Art Prize recognises and supports the development of recent art graduates in the UK. Following their final degree shows, artists are selected for their potential to make a significant mark in the art world during the next decade and invited to demonstrate their progress by presenting a new body of work at the Catlin Art Prize exhibition, held twelve months on from graduation.

This year, Russell Hill, a 2010 sculpture graduate of Wimbledon College of Art was selected as the winner of the fifth annual Catlin Art Prize, and with degree shows in full swing we caught up with Russell to find out how he got so lucky.

First of all, could you tell us a little bit about your work?
I often respond to selected contemporary objects in a playful and carefully constructed methodical manner. I regularly attempt to control, order and exploit systematic approaches to consumer culture and regularly tamper with objects displaying images of the 'natural' and the work is expressed through serial sculpture. Domestic objects and consumer products are stripped of their imagery to support the idea of mass production, while references to popular culture weave through contemporary visual strategies to intrigue the viewer. I have an apparent penchant for contemporary versions of natural interventions whilst I am continuously preoccupied with the idea of 'automation' and its relationship to contemporary culture. The objects become transformed from the familiar banal into an elegant art piece.

What experiences shape your work the most?
When I left college I remember expressing to one of my peers that I felt I just wanted to ‘live’. By this I mean I wanted to experience life away from the institution of an art school. Ultimately it's day to day living that fuels the work I make. I try to explore my own position within contemporary living, but more specifically my place within consumer culture. The apparent ease of this makes it an incredibly rich resource.

The multi-sensory nature of your work, especially in Airwicks stands out to me. What sort of experience are you trying to create for the viewer here?
The work was a two-way dialogue between the object and viewer. The multi –sensory nature of the work meant that the viewer was able to activate the work in terms of its interaction within the space. The visually stimulating aesthetic meant an often over-looked consumer object was now in an arena where its ergonomics are revealed along with its basic functionality. The work adopted a new fetish–like surface, with its high shine finish. Each object lined up like a military force assaulting the air around them, the work shifted from an affectionate consumer product to a calculated system where it paid homage to 1960s minimalism.

As a new graduate, how has the transition from art school to being an artist been for you so far?
The first few months were hard. Situating yourself within a new studio environment is a difficult thing to do when you have only just began to work in a way which you are happy with. I was lucky enough to have been given a great opportunity to be in a show called Anticipation curated by Kay Saatchi and Catriona Warren shortly after graduating. From that show things moved very quickly and Justin Hammond shortlisted me for The Catlin Art Prize which I ended up wining. This show gave me to motivation and ambition to make new work, something which was invaluable to me at that time.

What’s next for you?
Next up, I have the Bow Arts open studios, and the work featured in the Catlin Art Prize will be on show in Connection Point London, an exhibition of Bow Arts artists until late July. I have a studio visit pencilled in with Simon Oldfield Gallery so I will see how that goes.

What would be your advice to new graduates?
Go slow. I think it’s easy to put pressure on yourself too early on and that can hinder the creative process.

You can see Russell Hill's work in Connection Point London at Bow Arts from 25 June - 17 July.

bowarts.org
russellhillonline.com

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We hope you enjoying 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. In the spirit of celebration, Issue 41 includes a piece on Guggenheimn Bilbao where the Luminous Interval features internationally acclaimed artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith and Damien Hirst, ArtAngel's new commission at MIF, Bruce Nauman's retrospective at The Kunsthalle Mannheim and Cory Arcangel's Pro Tools at the Whitney in NYC. You can buy it today by calling +44(0)1904 479 168. Even better, subscribe to Aesthetica and save 20%. Go on, enjoy!

Transformations in the Domestic Realm: Haegue Yang, Teacher of Dance, Modern Art Oxford.

Review by Lucy Hobbs

Five tomato cans, elevated on a cylindrical platform boasting tightly-knitted mauve exteriors introduce visitors to Haegue Yang’s foremost solo UK exhibition Teacher of Dance. Seoul-born Yang has been living and working in Berlin and Seoul for the past fifteen years and Teacher of Dance presents an album of over a decade of the artists work. Yang’s sculptures and installations research and formulate connections between private space and domesticity by frequently utilising and manipulating recognisable household objects and consumerist goods. Transformation of household entities is a frequent attribute in Yang’s work which reflects explicitly on her impressions of modern civilisation, society and community.

The series Can Cosies (2010) presents the artist’s most recent and on-going body of work; knitted sleeves fashioned for wholesale food tins. The consecutive loops of wool delicately embrace the monotonous 400g cans, exchanging their former appearance for a more surreal and delightful facade. They are both bulky and delicate. The rest of the lower ground floor of Modern Art Oxford showcases a miscellany of Yang’s smaller-scale works; Manteuffelstrasse 112 (2010-2011) a sequence of venetian blinds accommodating the electrics of two light bulbs and fifteen black and white photographs of a clothes airer in different positions titled Gymnastics Of The Foldables (2006). The space is ideal for these works; frames are strategically hung on temporary triangular boarding reminiscent of a late Carl Andre sculpture, whilst Manteuffelstrasse occupies a refreshingly illuminated rear corner of the room.

On entry to the bright upper gallery, a militia of bizarre structures exposes itself in a vibrant frenzy; the skeletons of numerous clothes airers bound in plains of material avidly enclose a carousel-like structure made entirely of Venetian blinds. Non-Indepliables (2006-2010) comprises of a series of drying racks encased in fabric and yarn which establish their territory in the room as though they are alive, striking poses worthy of a fitness class. These works are emblematic products of Yang’s prime influence; movement. They engage with a multitude of colours to construct a striking environment that is both playful and foreign. The strength of the room is in the deposits of shifting hues; Non-Indépliables, azuré (2009) and neon-coloured Non-Indépliables, jaune (2010) are the foremost objects to be distinguished, but after a while spent staring at knitted emerald and cerise wool, the pallid Non-Indépliables, pastel (2010) reveals itself decorously from a tucked away space.

Amongst Non-Indepliables awaits a mechanism on wheels that encourages viewers to interact with it by entering its centre and navigating it within the space. The sculpture, almost robotically, moves awkwardly whilst its geometric body of blinds swings around the individual controlling it. In contrast to the ostensibly-still knitted airers, it appears cumbersome and hectic; conceivably touching on the complexity of the artist’s existence being divided between Europe and Asia.

Following this premise, concepts of understanding domestic space, particularly insignificant space, is fluent in Yang’s practise. The video Doubles and Half’s - Events with Nameless Neighbours (2009), projected in the middle gallery, shows footage from both dilapidated Ahyun-Don and the Korean Biennale grounds. Yang primarily used this essay as research for her sculptures, documenting urbanised landscapes from both of these abandoned scenes alongside a somewhat monotonous narration. The steady-moving images are verbalised through metaphors and contemplation; Yang divulges on philosophical advancements towards abandoned environments, reflecting on the science of condensation as contact with ex-residents.

Inhabiting the entirety of the remaining room, the Piper Gallery, a dominating system of connected blinds suspends itself from the ceiling. The level at which this hexagonal-like work is observed allows visitors to monitor the influence that movement has on its horizontal slats. Whilst the impressive sculpture is ambled around, the ladders of the Venetian blinds flickers, causing a collective scrolling between the myriad of compartments. Beneath the creation stands a smaller and more interactive arrangement of blinds which demonstrates a corresponding retort to eye level and motion.

Considering Yang’s most current work, focusing particularly on the Piper Gallery commission, it is evident that the artist’s exploration into influences such as Bauhaus associate Oskar Schlemmer and spiritual teacher GI Gurdjieff has impacted the incorporation of philosophical perspectives and form. Her interventions are not only fascinating and well-constructed, but well-informed in light of historical and cultural foundations. Teacher Of Dance has isolated the fundamental potency of Yang’s studies; the ability to produce a language between the commonplace articles that build our existence, and our existence itself.

Haegue Yang: Teacher of Dance continues until 4 September.

modernartoxford.org.uk

Aesthetica Magazine
We hope you enjoying 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. In the spirit of celebration, Issue 41 includes a piece on Guggenheimn Bilbao where the Luminous Interval features internationally acclaimed artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith and Damien Hirst, ArtAngel's new commission at MIF, Bruce Nauman's retrospective at The Kunsthalle Mannheim and Cory Arcangel's Pro Tools at the Whitney in NYC. You can buy it today by calling +44(0)1904 479 168. Even better, subscribe to Aesthetica and save 20%. Go on, enjoy!

Image:
Haegue Yang
Cloud, 2011
Installation. Aluminium Venetial blinds, hanging structure
Photography by Stuart Whipps
Courtesy of the artist

Marjolijn Dijkman: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Spike Island, Bristol.

Review by Regina Papachlimitzou

In Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Dutch artist Marjolijn Dijkman offers a fresh and intriguing perspective on the well-trodden but nonetheless relevant and significant subject of the effects that human presence perpetuates on its surroundings. Setting off from starting points as disparate as 18th century exploration, atomic physics and urban decay, Dijkman’s work reveals an intriguing dimension of the (often strained) relationships between human beings and the theatrical stage that is the globe we tread on.

The scale of the eponymous work might at first seem daunting, consisting as it does of a collage of large photographs covering, floor to ceiling, the walls of Spike Island’s largest gallery. There is, however, a semantic key to help you approach and appreciate the work, in the form of a list of words etched on the wall next to the entrance: each of the underlined words - repel, confuse, torture, connect and so on- represent concepts addressed and exemplified by each column of photographs. Dijkman’s ongoing work is an attempt at documenting a visual archive, or map, of the planet, and the pictures presented here strike a note at once playful and melancholy; images depicting urban regeneration as well as deterioration, the hollowness of human triumph, and poignant instances of humanness and friendship all clutter together in a dizzying conglomeration of life on earth. An especially captivating aspect of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum is the artist’s ability to expose the pathos inherent in otherwise uneventful details: fragments of a shattered pillar still bearing the sign ‘Avenue du General De Gaulle’, a statuette of an angel covered in spikes to repel birds, the shooting branches of an ivy stiflingly tied together by wires – all snapshots of an urban landscape which nonetheless mirror, with heartbreaking accuracy, facets of the experience of being alive in the world.

Photography is only one of the mediums Dijkman works in: also showcased is Composition of the Universe, an interactive sculpture in the form of rings and disks of various diameters, colours, and thickness which the visitors are invited to rearrange and restructure. The work playfully references the basic building blocks of atomic composition, and the randomness involved in their collisions which in turn precipitate the occurrence of more complex forms. By casting the visitor in the role of the chance element, Dijkman underlines our relation to our surroundings, and qualifies the thirst to explain and understand by filtering it through our potential as a creative/destructive force.

The exhibition also includes several filmic works, Surviving New Land being particularly worth of note - in which a looping image of a sea journey is projected. The journey, however, turns out not to be a journey at all: the vessel is always moving parallel to the shore, never away from it but also never towards it. The landscape remains unchangeable, an empty featureless beach, grey unthreatening sky overhead, and the rocking movement of the surf that is guaranteed to make you a bit queasy after a while. Nothing happens. The beach remains empty of human presence, the sky doesn’t rain. The vessel moves forward, and even though at times it seems on the verge of sailing away (a sea line appears on the other side of the beach, but at the point of convergence with the foreground, it disappears again) or even dock, neither alternative materialises. Is the way to survive new land simply avoiding setting foot on it? Or perhaps avoiding sailing off in search of it? Considering Dijkman’s fascination with exploration, it seems hardly likely. The dramatic soundtrack, so jarringly incongruous with the peacefulness of the image, encapsulates the staggering contradictions inherent in the concept of a ‘New Land’, and points an auditory finger at the potential violence underlying colonisation.

This is further accentuated by the work sharing the side gallery with Surviving. Here Be Dragons, with a title obviously referring to the early cartographers’ practice of signalling the end of chartered territory with a dragon-figure, reiterates the contradictory nature of exploration by taking it to a natural conclusion: an unfortunate consequence of conquering something once feared seems to be that the conqueror becomes the monster. And yet, are such considerations to stand in the way of progress and enlightenment? There is no clear-cut answer, and none is offered.

Considered in light of works such as Wondering Around and even Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Dijkman’s approach certainly carries an element of discomfort with the human drive to explore, concomitant as this is with notions of taming or enslaving; this drive, nonetheless, remains a source of wonder and intrigue for the artist. Far from a condemnation, or even a denunciation, Dijkman’s work is more of a statement of fact; and, at its heart, the painful consciousness of just how great the distance between ourselves and our spheres of influence, how tenuous our relation to them –and ultimately, how enormous, but at the same time infinitesimal, our impact.

Marjolijn Dijkman: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum continues until 26 June.

spikeisland.org.uk

Aesthetica Magazine
We hope you enjoying 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. In the spirit of celebration, Issue 41 includes a piece on Guggenheimn Bilbao where the Luminous Interval features internationally acclaimed artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith and Damien Hirst, ArtAngel's new commission at MIF, Bruce Nauman's retrospective at The Kunsthalle Mannheim and Cory Arcangel's Pro Tools at the Whitney in NYC. 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 and Spike Island, photographs by Stuart Whipps