Friday, 6 May 2011
Articulating Sounds As Visual Imagery: Sam Belinfante, Penumbra, mima, Middlesborough
Review by Jareh Das
As you approach mima (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) in Centre Square the viewer is confronted by a resounding female operatic voice. One wonders where this voice is coming from; it starts, stops and as you listen attentively, words are not being sung but rather, short energetic hums float through the open space. At the entrance of mima, there is a muted video on a screen. It keeps going in and out of focus, the singer unrecognisable as it zooms in on her mouth, but where is the sound being emitted? I take a seat and then viola! I hear that voice I heard earlier in the square, it's very faint in the gallery's atrium but the longer I sit, the more prominently the voice oscillates.
For his first presentation at mima, London-based artist Sam Belinfante presents Penumbra (from Latin paene 'almost' and umbra 'shade') which is the indistinct outer-region of a shadow or the idea of being at the edge, fundamental to the piece. Belinfante came up with the idea for Penumbra after being invited to visit the gallery, the work being a direct response to its unique architecture and extensive open atrium space.
Belinfante's projects endeavour to bridge the gap between the visual and the musical, his works existing in a curious space between performance and documentation. The artist is also interested in the unspoken, the transience between sound and meanings, at times influenced by Cageian notions of chance encounters. Penumbra exists as both audio and video although these two elements have been intentionally split by the artist across two floors of mima's gallery spaces.
Visitors are able to move between both levels and either piece together muted video with the sound emanating from the terrace, or experience them as separate but associated works. The mysterious voice is that of renowned opera singer Lore Lixenberg who the artist requested to take an improvised journey across her voice. During this process an array of sounds, both intentional and accidental, were emitted as she gradually searches for a clearly voiced pitch. As sounds emerge, so do the images on the screen, with a camera lens pulling in and out of focus in symphony with the singer.
As a sound installation, the show demands the viewer to spend time and reflect on the voice of the singer, it makes you really listen and wonder about what constitutes 'the spoken'. Belinfante's decision to make this sound commission and video exist as separate but interrelated works allows for this sound piece to extend to into the realm of the visual, making sound exist on par with visual imagery and thus questioning how we articulate sound as visual imagery.
Sam Belinfante's Penumbra will be on show at mima, Middlesborough until 10 July 2011. For more information please visit: www.visitmima.com
Video:
Tube Lines, 2008
3-Channel Video Installation
Courtesy the artist
The Wider Narratives of the Middle East: Rabih Mroué, The People Are Demanding, Iniva, London.
Lebanese artist, theatre director, playwright and actor, Rabih Mroué presents his first UK solo show at iniva which centres around ongoing conflicts in Lebanon and the Middle East since the Lebanese Civil War. The Lebanese Civil work ended in 1990 and lasted for fifteen years. Its effect was devastating as it resulted in almost 300,000 civilian casualties as well as a mass displacement of Lebanese people.
For
Je Veux Voir (I want to see) (2010), is an installation made up of a single looped video piece and collage mixed media installation. It is based on Mroué's experience of co-starring with French actress Catherine Deneuve in a feature film in 2008. On a visit to South Lebanon, Deneuve went to see the aftermath of the 2007 Israeli attack on the South of Lebanon with Mroué for what was his first visit back to his native village. It depicts the actress walking through the rubble of the village, repetitively calling out 'Rabih! Rabih!'. This was recorded at a point when Deneuve lost the artist, its effect poignant both in the physical and metaphysical symbolism of the aftermath of war. It’s as if it represents a displacement of the artist and a homecoming to a home that does not exist any longer, or exists in an alien form, due to the aftermath of war.
Grandfather, Father and Son, 2010, brings together material from the library of Mroué's grandfather, a religious scholar turned Communist; a treatise written by his father during 1982, the year of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon, and a story by Rabih Mroué himself in 1989. This largely text based installation is an accumulation, a certain kind which dwells on the personal history of the artist. By telling personal stories or biographical stories, Mroué could be viewed as assuming the role of storyteller although he aims to isolate often overlooked, yet vital strands, within the broader tendency: the use of story form in contemporary art as a means of comprehending and conveying recent social and political events.
Although seen as a biographical piece, Mroué describes his practice and approach to art as 'biographia', a concept or proposition that is more open ended which does not have a beginning or end. It is non-linear but more fragmental, a fusion of fiction and reality. Biographia presents a more circular reading of history as opposed to one that has a predetermined beginning and end. Rabih doesn't think art should be involved in ethics, in the context of the Middle East, he feels the history and current conflicts suspend it from the ethical. How can one describe an area of conflict as one that responds to ethics, when war invariably demands choosing a side, i.e. a dichotomy between good or bad. In a state of urgency of conflicts, there is no ethical and he feels, art should play opposite of ethical, postpone these concerns and present the situation as best as it can, in this case continually reference the phrase The People are Demanding...Change, Progress, Fairness... The list goes on.
Image:
Je Veux Voir: installation view at Rivington Place
Courtesy the artist and Thierry Bal
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Predominantly Political Art? Peter Kennard, At Earth, Raven Row, London
Painters George Shaw and Karla Black, sculptor Martin Boyce and video artist Hilary Lloyd are shortlisted for this year’s Turner prize, to be held at Baltic, Gateshead. Hilary Lloyd is nominated for an exhibition at Raven Row gallery in London, which she filled with video projections that also became, along with their AV equipment, a sculptural installation. Raven Row is a relatively new non-profit contemporary art space in Spitalfields. Their latest show, Peter Kennard’s At Earth is a captivating look at Kennard’s practice of forty years through photomontages, paintings, and new digital images made with Tarek Salhany.
The interior of the gallery itself is designed in a way that is minimal yet intricate. The walls and staircases are entirely white although there are vine patterned sculptures that protrude from the walls giving the gallery’s interior some character. Due to the whiteness of the building’s interior, visitors are encountered with a quiet hush once they step inside. All is calm and the first image one is struck with is of a photomontage that combines a dazzling depiction of the planet Earth attached to two silver instruments. Upon further inspection, these instruments begin to look like can openers and in this way the spherical Earth seems flattened, like the top portion of a can. The ideology inherent in this image is that the globe and its resources are entirely under a system of mechanized control. How long can humans twist and turn and alter the planet so that its natural resources become unhinged?
The dazzling nature of the first photomontage is intriguing enough so that one is not let down when they learn the entire gallery is full of Kennard’s work. Due to the amount of detail and thought that the artist has put into these works it is suitable that his show is the only exhibit at the Raven Row. As a whole, his works must be viewed with patience and each image demands consideration from its viewers. The first floor combines large-scale paintings with photo montage and most of Kennard’s large-scale paintings are grouped together stylistically. Some of them have a minimal quality about them as if the artists’ mere suggestion of certain forms will require the consideration of specific subjects from the viewer. Located in the foreground of one large-scale, black and white painting, there appears the top portion of a sphere that has been cut in half. The shape is reminiscent of helmets that were worn by military forces during the Vietnam War. This impression becomes even stronger when one’s eye moves to the top portion of the painting - here there appears the silhouette of an army in line, all of which are wearing helmets. At this point, the political implications inherent in Kennard’s works become undeniable.
Moving through the gallery, Kennard’s exhibit becomes increasingly anti-war, albeit the ways in which Kennard has chosen to represent this theme is varied. In one photomontage, there appears a circular table that is surrounded with men in business suits, a symbol in the upper left hand corner of this work representing NATO, the military defense alliance. With this found image reminiscent of a conference room, Kennard inserted a bundle of missiles as the centerpiece to the table in the room. Here he uses photomontage in order to satirize the violent nature of military defense. This missile motif is applied consecutively throughout the first floor; in one piece Kennard has positioned the missiles by outlining one section of the globe. This gives the impression that the globe is a head of a body while the missiles are spiky clusters of hair. Some of Kennard’s pieces are meant to evoke a social awareness in the viewer while others are simply clever arrangements. In all of Kennard’s works, there is a real sense of tactility. The artist is precise and careful with the media he has chosen to employ. With the amount of time that Kennard has given to his works, the pieces have a handmade and almost intimate quality about them as if the viewer is glimpsing into a scene that is closed off and without a sense of time.
The most impressive set of Kennard’s works are also located on the first floor. They are carried out entirely in black paint, although it is impossible to imagine that these images weren’t carried out in charcoal. Perhaps this is due to the softness with which Kennard has painted details of facial features. One can make out the sweeping lines of a nose or the faint outline of an eyelid. The additional details of these faces are to be filled out by the minds-eye of the viewer. This idea again supports Kennard’s heavy reliance on minimalism. These paintings are bare and solemn - although each face is minimal, they are also individualized. He pays tribute to victims of war and desperation that have been lost in time. It is as if they fade helplessly into the black paint with which he has depicted them.
There is a definite sense of loss throughout the At Earth exhibit whether it be viewing the loss of our natural resources or the loss of human life. In one digital image, Kennard presents us with land that is dry and cracked as a flowing faucet intrudes the land in the foreground. From the faucet, black liquid that is reminiscent of oil pours out. In another image, a power plant’s smoky pollution is represented by pounds eloquently put together in the form of billowing factory fumes. So carefully has Kennard put together this photomontage that the viewer clearly makes out Queen Elizabeth’s face on the appropriated currency that has been used in order to represent smog. Kennard’s works are meant to represent the prices that might be paid as a result of destruction. While some of his images drive this point home a little too hard, such as the depiction of a soldier that is pointing a loaded gun at a child, the viewer leaves with sensitivity for human and economic destruction. In leaving this exhibit we might be reminded that time is running out and it is never too late to replenish life and the Earth’s natural resources.
Peter Kennard At Earth continues until 22 May. For further information and opening times please visit www.ravenrow.org
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 40 includes features on James Turrell, Wim Wenders, sculptors Alice Anderson and Kate MccGwire plus an extended feature on the Making is Thinking show at Witte De With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam. You can buy it today by calling +44(0)1904 479 168. Even better, subscribe to Aesthetica and save 20%. Go on, enjoy!
Image:
Original photomontages, 1972–96
Courtesy of Peter Kennard and Raven Row
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