Tag: art show

A lost era

Soheila Sokhanvari
Rebel Rebel
Fri 7 Oct 2022—Sun 26 Feb 2023
The Curve, Barbican Centre, London, UK

We recently visited the Soheila Sokhanvari art exhibition at The Curve, one of the art galleries you can find at the Barbican Art Centre in London. I hadn’t been there for a while, so it was good rediscovering this space that counts on a wide cultural offer and is really warm to hang around in the winter months.

As you enter the exhibition and walk along the 90-metre gallery (light is dim and walls are hand-painted with Islamic geometric shapes), you start coming across the 27 small portraits of feminist icons from pre-revolutionary Iran, painted in the tradition of Persian miniature painting -in egg tempera onto calf vellum with a squirrel-hair brush.

The art show offers an intimate and disturbing experience, as it invites you to discover the lives of these women by getting close to the paintings and their colourful details, while you know that this is part of a lost era. They are made in a small size and are displayed without names or biographical info, just painted numbers, in dark frames against the green murals of geometric crystals.

The fashion style and the wall paper displayed on these paintings, as well as the fragmented mirror that stands at the beginning of the corridor made me think of the 1970s. Indeed, the exhibition title “Rebel Rebel” borrows from David Bowie’s 1974 cult pop song and pays tribute to the significant courage of these 27 female icons, who pursued their careers in a culture enamoured with Western style but not its freedoms.

These women include Roohangiz Saminejad, the first unveiled actress to appear in a Persian language film, who had to change her name and lived in anonymity and seclusion following the revolution; the controversial modernist poet Forough Farrokhzad; and the leading intellectual and writer Simin Dāneshvar, among many others. The title also serves as a lament to the fate of these women, after the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the subsequent establishment of a conservative Islamic theocracy, left them with a stark choice: to renounce any role in public life, or be forced into exile. Hard decision faced not only by these women, but by many other individuals throughout the years since the revolution started.

The soundtrack that accompanies your exploration along the show was composed by Marios Aristopoulos, which weaves together songs by celebrated Iranian singers from the mid-20th century, including Ramesh and Googoosh – a poignant gesture given that it remains illegal for a woman’s voice to be broadcast in Iran. And at the end of it, a big and extravagant sculptural form made of mirror hanging from the ceiling and featuring internal projections drawn from classic Iranian cinema.

The feminist icons shown in this exhibition look so western that is almost hard to believe that we’re looking at Iranian women on these portraits. Nonetheless, it’s worth looking at these paintings, before you find out more about their lives -they can be appreciated in their glory before finding out their fates after the Islamic Revolution. A lot of artists from their generation chose to “repent” and continued to work with the regime and in line with its agendas. But, the majority of women portrait in this exhibition made a choice to stand by what they believed in, even if it meant they had to go behind closed doors and no longer be publicly active. For example, Simin Dāneshvar continued to write after the revolution and refused to cooperate with the regime each time they tried to use her in their propagandists agendas.

This exhibition comes timely as Iran’s current unrest make the headlines in the news all over the world. Forty-three years after the revolution, the situation for women in this country has only got worse. Several Iranians have been sentenced to death by execution during the nationwide protests, which were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was apprehended by the state’s morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly. While it’s hard to believe the current regime will actually crumble following the current protests, a change is more than due, so fingers crossed for that.

Admission: Free.

Una época perdida

Soheila Sokhanvari
Rebelde rebelde
7 Oct 2022—26 Feb 2023
The Curve, Barbican Centre, Londres, Reino Unido.

Hace poco que visitamos esta exposición de arte de Soheila Sokhanvari en The Curve, una de las galerías de arte que puedes encontrar en el Barbican Art Centre de Londres. Hacía tiempo que no iba, así que fue bueno redescubrir este espacio, que cuenta con una amplia oferta cultural y es muy acogedor para los meses de invierno.

Al entrar en la exposición y caminar por la galería de 90 metros (la luz es tenue y las paredes están pintadas a mano con formas geométricas islámicas), empiezas a encontrarte con los 27 pequeños retratos de iconos feministas del Irán prerrevolucionario, pintados en la tradición de la pintura en miniatura persa -en temple al huevo sobre vitela de becerro con un pincel de pelo de ardilla.

La muestra de arte ofrece una experiencia íntima e inquietante, ya que invita a descubrir la vida de estas mujeres acercándose a las pinturas y sus coloridos detalles, sabiendo que todo es parte de una época perdida. Están hechos en un tamaño pequeño y se muestran sin nombres ni datos biográficos, solo números pintados, en marcos oscuros contra los murales verdes de cristales geométricos.

El estilo de moda y el papel de pared que se muestran en estas pinturas, así como el espejo fragmentado que se encuentra al comienzo del pasillo me hizo pensar en la década de 1970. De hecho, el título de la exposición “Rebel Rebel” toma prestado de la canción pop de culto de David Bowie de 1974 y rinde homenaje al valor significativo de estos 27 iconos femeninos, que siguieron sus carreras en una cultura enamorada del estilo occidental, pero no de sus libertades.

Estas mujeres incluyen a Roohangiz Saminejad, la primera actriz sin velo que apareció en una película en idioma persa, quien tuvo que cambiar su nombre y vivió en el anonimato y reclusión después de la revolución; la controvertida poeta modernista Forough Farrokhzad; y la destacada intelectual y escritora Simin Dāneshvar, entre muchos otras. El título también sirve como un lamento por el destino de estas mujeres, después de que la revolución iraní de 1979 y el posterior establecimiento de una teocracia islámica conservadora las dejaran con una dura elección: renunciar a cualquier papel en la vida pública o verse obligadas a exiliarse. Difícil decisión a la que se enfrentaron no sólo estas mujeres, sino muchos otros individuos a lo largo de los años desde que comenzó la revolución.

La banda sonora que acompaña tu exploración a lo largo de la muestra fue compuesta por Marios Aristopoulos, que entreteje canciones de célebres cantantes iraníes de mediados del siglo XX, incluidos Ramesh y Googoosh, un gesto conmovedor dado que sigue siendo ilegal que se transmita la voz de una mujer en Irán. Y al final, una gran y extravagante forma escultórica hecha de espejos colgados del techo y con proyecciones internas extraídas del cine iraní clásico.

Los íconos feministas que se muestran en esta exposición se ven tan occidentales que es casi difícil creer que estamos viendo mujeres iraníes en estos retratos. Sin embargo, vale la pena mirar estas pinturas antes de saber más sobre sus vidas, se pueden apreciar en su gloria antes de conocer su destino después de la Revolución Islámica. Muchas artistas de su generación optaron por “arrepentirse” y continuaron trabajando con el régimen y de acuerdo con sus agendas. Pero, la mayoría de las mujeres retratadas en esta exposición tomaron la decisión de defender lo que creían, incluso si eso significaba tener que ir a puertas cerradas y dejar de ser activas públicamente. Por ejemplo, Simin Dāneshvar continuó escribiendo después de la revolución y se negó a cooperar con el régimen cada vez que intentaron usarla en sus agendas propagandísticas.

Esta exposición es particularmente oportuna ahora que los disturbios en Irán ocupan los titulares de las noticias de todo el mundo. Cuarenta y tres años después de la revolución , la situación de las mujeres en este país no ha hecho más que empeorar. Varios iraníes han sido condenados a muerte por ejecución durante las protestas en todo el país, provocadas por la muerte de Mahsa Amini, de 22 años, después de que fuera detenida por la policía de moralidad del estado por presuntamente no llevar puesto el hiyab correctamente. Si bien es difícil creer que el régimen actual se derrumbe después de las protestas actuales, es más que necesario un cambio, así que crucemos los dedos para que ocurra.

Entrada: Libre.

Changing perceptions

Olafur Eliasson
In real life
11 July 2019 – 5 January 2020
Tate Modern, London, UK

This was a very popular art exhibition at the Tate Modern in London last summer and autumn and, although I couldn’t find the time to write about it while it was on, I believe that Olafur Eliasson is one of the best artists working nowadays, so I wouldn’t like to miss it here.

As we went into the exhibition space, the first room we entered was a model room. In dim light, he presented around 450 models, prototypes and geometric studies behind a glass. All of them are a record of his work with a studio team and with Icelandic artist, mathematician and architect Einar Thorsteinn (1942-2015). Some of these shapes can be recognised on Eliasson’s sculptures and pavilions. I was mesmerised by the different shapes, textures and materials employed by the artist here. Among the materias on display were paper, wood, rubber balls, Lego and wire. I would’ve liked to shrink and immerse myself in this magical landscape! See a small view of the models below.

The following room displayed his earliest works. Here, it can be appreciated the interest of the artist in nature and the weather. My favourite piece in this room was “Moss wall” (1994), a huge abstract work made of Scandinavian reindeer lichen that served to bring an unexpected material from nature into the space of the gallery. The texture and colour of this work captivated me and kept me staring at it for some time; there was so much detail to appreciate from it! It was like going back to nature, but within a sheltered space.

Then, we could see the use the artist does of kaleidoscopes, which he’s been making since the mid-1990s. For Eliasson this is not just a playful toy, but also as a way to reconfigure what you see. He merges inside and outside space and dissolves the boundary between the gallery and the outside world. The art blackberry can be seen in a worship position underneath one of them.

As we continued watching the art exhibition, we came across his glacial works. Visiting Iceland in his childhood made the artist very close to the global warming plight after seeing its glaciers melt in first hand. He documented this with a series of photographs he started taking in 1999 and finished in 2019, twenty years later. The changes in the landscape can be clearly appreciated.

In addition, there were other references to the changing environment like in “Glacial currents” (2018), where pieces of glacial ice were placed on top of washes of colour pigment (see image below) or in a bronze cast from 2019 called “The presence of absence pavilion”, which makes visible the empty space left by a glacial ice chunk after melting away. An Australian friend collaborate with us as a Guest berry in these photos and her hand can be seen through this artwork below.

Finally, another one of Eliasson’s projects around this subject was “Ice Watch”, staged in front of Tate Modern in 2018 and consisting of ice blocks brought from Greenland to offer a direct experience of seeing the ice from the Artic melt. The ice was fished out of a fjord in Greenland after becoming detached from the ice sheet. As a result of global warming more icebergs are produced causing the sea levels to rise.

Olafur Eliasson is a Danish-Icelendic artist, whose body of work includes sculptures, large-scale installations, photography and paintings. He uses all sort of materials ranging from moss, glacial melt-water, light, fog and even air temperature to enhance the viewer’s experience. His main interests revolve around nature, geometry and his ongoing investigations into how we perceive, feel and shape the world around us. Hence, the audiences experience at his art shows are so much at the centre of attention of his art.

Ultimately, he believes that art can have a strong impact on the world outside the museum, and I personally agree with this view. In fact, Eliasson runs a studio in Berlin with technicians, architects, archivists, art historians, designers, filmmakers, cooks, and administrators, and he collaborates with all sort of professionals to work in matters such as sustainable energy or climate change. As an artist he’s got a strong will to change perceptions towards the environment and to achieve a more sustainable planet, and if more people had the same concerns, the world would be a better place to live in.

 

Cambiando percepciones

Olafur Eliasson
En la vida real
11 de julio de 2019 – 5 de enero de 2020
Tate Modern, Londres, Reino Unido.

Esta fue una exposición de arte muy popular en la Tate Modern de Londres el verano y otoño pasados y, aunque no encontré tiempo para escribir sobre ella mientras estaba abierta, creo que Olafur Eliasson es uno de los mejores artistas trabajando hoy día, así que no quiero dejar de cubrirla aquí.

Cuando entramos en la exposición, la primera sala con la que nos topamos fue una sala de maquetas. Con poca luz, se presentaban alrededor de 450 maquetas, prototipos y estudios geométricos detrás de un vidrio. Todas ellas son un registro de su trabajo con un equipo de su estudio y con el artista, matemático y arquitecto islandés Einar Thorsteinn (1942-2015). Algunas de estas formas se pueden reconocer en las esculturas e instalaciones de Eliasson. Me quedé fascinada con las diferentes formas, texturas y materiales empleados por el artista. Entre los materiales había papel, madera, bolas de goma, Lego y alambre. Me hubiera gustado encogerme para sumergirme en este paisaje mágico! Puedes ver una pequeña imagen de las maquetas debajo.

La siguiente sala exhibió sus primeros trabajos. Aquí, se reflejaba el interés del artista en la naturaleza y el clima. Mi pieza favorita en esta sala fue “Moss wall” (1994), una gran obra abstracta hecha de liquen de reno escandinavo que sirvió para llevar un material inesperado de la naturaleza al espacio de la galería. La textura y el color de este trabajo me cautivaron y me mantuvieron mirándolo por algún tiempo; ¡había tantos detalles que apreciar! Era como volver a la naturaleza, pero dentro de un espacio protegido.

Más adelante pudimos ver el uso que el artista hace de los caleidoscopios, que ha estado haciendo desde mediados de la década de 1990. Para Eliasson, este no es solo un juguete lúdico, sino también una forma de reconfigurar lo que ves. Fusiona el espacio interior y exterior y disuelve el límite entre la galería y el mundo exterior. The art blackberry se puede ver en una posición de adoración debajo de uno de ellos a continuación.

A medida que avanzamos por la exposición de arte, nos encontramos con sus obras glaciales. Visitar Islandia en su infancia hizo que el artista se acercara mucho a la difícil situación del calentamiento global después de ver cómo se derritieron sus glaciares de primera mano. Lo documentó con una serie de fotografías que comenzó a tomar en 1999 y terminó en 2019, veinte años después. Los cambios en el paisaje se pueden apreciar claramente.

Además, hubo otras referencias al entorno cambiante como en “Corrientes glaciales” (2018), donde se colocaron trozos de hielo glacial sobre lavados de pigmento de color (ver imagen a continuación) o en un molde de bronce de 2019 llamado “The presencia del pabellón de ausencia ”, que hace visible el espacio vacío dejado por un trozo de hielo glacial después de derretirse. Una amiga australiana visitando Londres colabora con nosotras como Guest berry y puede verse su mano  a través de esta obra abajo.

Finalmente, otro de los proyectos de Eliasson en torno a este tema fue “Ice Watch”, organizado frente a Tate Modern en 2018 y consistente en bloques de hielo traídos de Groenlandia para ofrecer una experiencia directa de ver el deshielo del Artico. El hielo fue sacado de un fiordo en Groenlandia después de separarse de la capa de hielo. Como resultado del calentamiento global, se producen más icebergs que provocan el aumento del nivel del mar.

Olafur Eliasson es un artista danés-islandés, cuyo trabajo incluye esculturas, instalaciones a gran escala, fotografía y pinturas. Utiliza todo tipo de materiales, desde musgo, agua de deshielo glacial, luz, niebla e incluso temperatura del aire para mejorar la experiencia del espectador. Sus principales intereses giran en torno a la naturaleza, la geometría y sus continuas investigaciones sobre cómo percibimos, sentimos y damos forma al mundo que nos rodea. Por lo tanto, la experiencia del público en sus exposiciones de arte está en el centro de atención de su arte.

Finalmente, él cree que el arte puede tener un fuerte impacto en el mundo fuera del museo, y personalmente estoy de acuerdo con esta opinión. De hecho, Eliasson dirige un estudio en Berlín con técnicos, arquitectos, archiveros, historiadores del arte, diseñadores, cineastas, cocineros y administradores, y colabora con todo tipo de profesionales para trabajar en asuntos como la energía sostenible o el cambio climático. Como artista, tiene una gran voluntad de cambiar las percepciones sobre el medio ambiente y lograr un planeta más sostenible, y si más personas tuvieran las mismas preocupaciones, el mundo sería un lugar mejor para vivir.

Eliasson_Theartberries_room1Eliasson_Theartberries_KalEliasson_Theartberries_colourpicEliasson_Theartberries_GlacialCurrentsEliasson_Theartberries_Hand2Eliasson_Theartberries_Hand1

Retelling stories through found objects

Rayyane Tabet
Encounters
24 September – 14 December 2019
Parasol Unit foundation for contemporary art, London, UK
Free entry

The current art show at Parasol Unit that finishes this week is by Beirut-born and based artist Rayyane Tabet, who presents here 8 works from the past 13 years, installed together for the first time. I didn’t know this artist previously, but I was pleasantly surprised by his work. The minimalist quality of his artworks comes along with historial and cultural references to his birthplace of Lebanon that he combines sometimes with personal stories.

The artist appears to be interested in communicating an alternative view of the main political and economic events that have taken place in his country in recent years. Not only that, with his artwork he wants to contribute to the outside world’s understanding of this complex place.

All of the above, helps the visitor to connect better with his work. Tabet takes inspiration from overlooked objects that he wraps with personal anecdotes and supranational histories. According to Tabet, how Lebanon is perceived by the outside world and even by Lebaneses has no common version in history textbooks. Children in different communities are taught different versions of history.

“I’m interested in the question of whether we could create a history told by objects and materials. A lot of the time those last longer than people and are able to overcome moments of violence and marginalisation in a way that people cannot.” the artist says. 

On the ground floor, at the back of the gallery The art berries found a big red star hanging from the ceiling together with a red horse among other objects. We liked the star for some art interaction. See some photos below.

Another artwork very relevant in the show is a couple of oars of a rowing boat. The artist’s father was going to use that boat to escape their home country for Cyprus. The operation was aborted and long after that attempt of fleeting the family re-encounter the same boat by accident. The artist purchased it and decided to use as one of his artworks.

And finally, our favourite artwork on this exhibition was “Steel Rings” (2013–), a sequence of 28 rolled-steel rings arranged in a line. We liked this work for its minimalist simplicity and because it was a good art piece to interact with. Not particularly novel at first sight. But, when you pay a closer look at it and read about why the artist has chosen to display this work, you’ll be much more intrigued. Each of these rings is engraved with a distance and location in longitude and latitude, marking a specific place along the now defund Trans-Arabian Pipeline (TAPline). Built in 1947 by an alliance of US oil companies, and once the world’s largest long-distance oil pipeline, is still the only physical structure that crosses the borders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, the Golan, and Lebanon. When the American TAPline company finally closed down after decades of regional conflict, they abandoned the pipeline in situ.

The rings can be seen as a witness to that period of history. Tapline did not survive the first Gulf War (1990–91), at the onset of which it was abandoned as a result of Saudi Arabia’s opposition to Jordan’s support of Iraq. Although largely untold, this story remains part of popular consciousness and memory, and I believe that Tabet brings up the subject elegantly and skillfully inside the gallery.

 

Volver a contar historias a través de objetos encontrados

Rayyane Tabet
Encuentros
24 de septiembre – 14 de diciembre de 2019
Parasol Unit, Londres, Reino Unido.
Entrada libre

La exposición de arte que hay ahora en Parasol Unit y que termina esta semana es de Rayyane Tabet, un artista nacido y ubicado en Beirut que presenta aquí 8 obras de los últimos 13 años, instaladas juntas por primera vez. No conocía a este artista anteriormente, pero su trabajo me sorprendió gratamente. La calidad minimalista de sus obras de arte se acompaña de referencias históricas y culturales a su lugar de nacimiento del Líbano que a veces combina con historias personales.

El artista parece estar interesado en comunicar una visión alternativa de los principales acontecimientos políticos y económicos que han tenido lugar en su país en los últimos años. No solo eso, con sus obras de arte quiere contribuir a la comprensión externa de este complejo lugar. 

Todo lo anterior, ayuda al visitante a conectar mejor con su trabajo. Tabet se inspira en objetos pasados ​​por alto, que envuelve en anécdotas personales e historias supranacionales. Según Tabet, cómo el Líbano es percibido por el mundo exterior e incluso por los libaneses no tiene una versión común en los libros de texto de historia. A los niños de diferentes comunidades se les enseñan diferentes versiones de la historia.

“Me interesa la cuestión de si podríamos crear una historia contada por objetos y materiales. Muchas veces duran más que las personas y son capaces de superar los momentos de violencia y marginación de una manera que la gente no puede “, dice el artista. 

En la parte posterior de la planta baja de la galería, The art berries encontramos una gran estrella roja colgando del techo junto con un caballo rojo entre otros objetos. Nos gustó la estrella para interactuar y tomar alguna foto. Podrás ver algunas fotos a continuación.

Otra obra de arte muy relevante en la exposición es un par de remos de un bote. El padre del artista iba a usar ese bote para escapar de su país de origen hacia Chipre. La operación fue abortada y mucho después de ese intento de huir de la familia se reencontró con el mismo bote  por accidente. El artista lo compró y decidió usarlo como una de sus obras de arte.

Y finalmente, nuestra obra de arte favorita en esta exposición fue Steel Rings (2013–), una secuencia de 28 anillos de acero laminado dispuestos en una línea. Nos gusto esta obra estéticamente por su simplicidad minimalista y como pieza de arte con la cual interactuar. No es particularmente novedosa a primera vista. Sin embargo, cuando echas un vistazo más de cerca y lees sobre por qué el artista ha elegido mostrar este trabajo, estarás mucho más intrigado. Cada uno de estos anillos está grabado con una distancia y ubicación en longitud y latitud, marcando un lugar específico a lo largo de la tubería Trans-Arabian (TAPline). Construido en 1947 por una alianza de compañías petroleras estadounidenses, y que una vez fue el oleoducto de larga distancia más grande del mundo, sigue siendo la única estructura física que cruza las fronteras de Arabia Saudita, Jordania, Siria, el Golán y el Líbano. Cuando la compañía estadounidense TAPline finalmente cerró después de décadas de conflicto regional, abandonaron la tubería in situ.

Los anillos pueden ser vistos como testigos de ese período de la historia. TAPline no sobrevivió a la primera Guerra del Golfo (1990-1991), al comienzo de la cual fue abandonada como resultado de la oposición de Arabia Saudita al apoyo de Jordania a Irak. Aunque en gran parte no contada, esta historia sigue siendo parte de la conciencia y la memoria popular, y creo que Tabet emplea este tema con elegancia y habilidad dentro de la galería.

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Exploring space with sculpture

Phyllida Barlow
cul-de-sac
23 February – 23 June 2019
Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK

After nearly two months without posting anything here, I’m finally back! I have a good excuse for being so quiet since January. My son Samuel was born on the 9th February and I have been really busy and enjoying his company since then.

Nevertheless, there’s a good art show now in London that I wanted to share with you. British sculptor Phyllida Barlow has currently an art exhibition at the contemporary galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts, which will be on until the end of the spring. The art berries went to visit it and I’m sharing it with you here, so you don’t miss one of the best art shows in London this season.

The photos you can see from The art berries below have been taken as usual with an iPhone. We’ve interacted with the artworks and bring you an intimate and personal approach of the art pieces we found more interesting.

As we entered the gallery space, we came across two huge sculptures. One of them is a vertical structure formed by various colourful canvases. A playful and intriguing art piece that traps your attention from the very beginning of the exhibition. From the photos below, you can see The art blackberry next to this piece. She appears to be in conversation with a colourful group of individuals.

As we moved along the art show, a new interesting sculpture is revealed. It reminds me of an amphitheatre with a semicircular seating gallery space sustained by multiple beams that go in different directions. You can see how we blend with the sculpture and contribute to this perception.

Finally, a series of pictures are presented below with The art blackberry amid a forest of inclined beams. In this pictures, her fragility is accentuated by the the menacing beams above her.

In February, Barlow created this exhibition that brings her own interpretation of a residential cul-de-sac. By closing the exit door in the final room, Barlow forced the viewer to turn around and revisit each sculpture anew from the other side. She created forests of seemingly precarious structures and uses them to explore the full height of the gallery space with looming beams, blocks and canvases.

Thresholds, the artist has said, are fascinating places, where you pass through from one space to another. Always seeking the surprise, Barlow expects the work to take her into a  journey, rather than her deciding upon that journey.

Her source of inspiration is in the everyday from a farm to an industrial state. Because of that, Barlow uses everyday materials such as plywood, expanding foam, polystyrene, plaster, cement, plastic piping, Polyfilla, tape, etc. and remind us to look at them in a new context with a new light. They are so common in our world that we’ve stopped even seeing them.

Barlow studied at Chelsea College of Art (1960 – 1963) and the Slade School of Art (1963 – 1966). She later taught at both schools and was Professor of Fine Art and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the latter until 2009.

Explorando el espacio con escultura

Phyllida Barlow
Callejón sin salida
23 de febrero – 23 de junio de 2019
Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK

Después de casi dos meses sin publicar nada aquí, ¡por fin estoy de vuelta! Tengo una buena excusa para estar tan callada desde enero. Mi hijo Samuel nació el 9 de febrero y he estado muy liada y disfrutando de su compañía desde entonces.

De cualquier manera, hay una buena exposición de arte ahora en Londres que quería compartir contigo. La escultora británica Phyllida Barlow tiene desde febrero una exposición en las galerías contemporáneas de la Royal Academy of Arts, que estará abierta hasta el final de la primavera. The art berries fuimos a visitarla y la comparto aquí contigo para que no te pierdas una de las mejores muestras de arte en Londres esta temporada.

Las fotos que puedes ver a continuación en The art berries  se han tomado como siempre con un iPhone. Hemos interactuado con las obras de arte y te brindamos un enfoque intimo y personal de las piezas que encontramos más interesantes.

Cuando entramos en el espacio de la galería, nos encontramos con dos esculturas enormes. Una de ellas es una estructura vertical formada por varios lienzos de colores. Una escultura divertida e intrigante que capta tu atención desde el principio de la exposición. En las fotos que capturamos debajo, puedes ver a The art blackberry junto a esta pieza. Parece estar en conversación con un grupo colorido de individuos.

 

A medida que avanzamos en la muestra de arte, aparece una nueva e interesante escultura. Me recuerda a un anfiteatro con un espacio semicircular en la galería de asientos sostenido por múltiples vigas que van en distintas direcciones. Puedes ver como nos mezclamos con la escultura y contribuimos a esta percepción.

Finalmente, a continuación se puede ver una serie de imágenes con The art blackberry en medio de un bosque de vigas inclinadas. En estas imágenes, su fragilidad se ve acentuada por las vigas que hay sobre ella.

En febrero, Barlow creó esta exposición que trae su propia interpretación de un callejón sin salida residencial. Al cerrar la puerta de salida en la sala final, Barlow obligó al espectador a darse la vuelta y volver a visitar cada escultura desde el otro lado. Creó bosques de estructuras aparentemente precarias y las utiliza para explorar la altura completa del espacio de la galería con vigas, bloques y lienzos que parece que se van a caer de un moment a otro.

Los umbrales, ha dicho la artista, son lugares fascinantes, donde se pasa de un espacio a otro. Siempre buscando la sorpresa, Barlow espera que el trabajo la lleve a un viaje, en lugar de que ella decida sobre ese viaje.

Su fuente de inspiración está en lo cotidiano, desde una granja hasta un estado industrial. Debido a eso, Barlow utiliza materiales cotidianos como madera contrachapada, espuma expandida, poliestireno, yeso, cemento, tuberías de plástico, Polyfilla, cinta, etc. y nos recuerdan mirarlos en un nuevo contexto, con una nueva luz. Son tan comunes en nuestro mundo que hemos dejado de verlos.

Barlow estudió en el Chelsea College of Art (1960 – 1963) y en la Slade School of Art (1963 – 1966). Más tarde enseñó en ambas escuelas y fue profesora de Bellas Artes y Directora de Estudios de Pre-grado en esta última hasta el 2009.

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Challenging South African local histories

Kemang Wa Lehulere
Not even the departed stay grounded
Marian Goodman gallery, London, UK
September 13 – October 20, 2018

We visited this art exhibition a couple of weeks ago at the Marian Goodman gallery in London and it’s now gone. But, nevertheless, I wanted to cover it to introduce you to this artist who is emerging as one of South Africa’s most prominent artistic exports.

As we entered the gallery, I encountered various installations and drawings on the wall made of various materials: wood, metal, chalk, glass and robe; all of them in black and white or the original material. It can be appreciated that the art show has a strong social message, but the artist hasn’t neglected the aesthetical aspects of it. Not only that, he used those aspects to enhance the message, which is something I strongly value. I like art exhibitions with a socio-political message, specially these days in which artists seem to have really strong tools to make us reflect about the society we live in, but I have a preference for the artworks that on top of that are aesthetically interesting.

Kemang Wa Lehulere was born in Cape-town and initially rose to prominence in 2006 with Gugulective, a community-engaged collective co-founded with childhood artistic associate, Unathi Sigenu and based in the former township of Gugulethu, Cape Town. He devoted himself at the time to community engaged performative actions such as creating pamphlets to challenge local histories or setting up interventionist pirate radio stations. Only after years of social activism, he started creating sculptural objects and drawings as a residue or remanent of performance. And he went into formal art education, graduating in 2011.

Drawing on these years of social activism, Wa Lehulere conveys feelings of post-apartheid unrest and other socio-political issues with his artworks, re-enacting what he considers to be ‘deleted scenes’ from South African history.

Some of the elements characteristic of his artistic practice include messages in bottles, sphinx-like ceramic dogs and bird houses that are symbols of the forced removals under apartheid. In addition, there were big boards covered with chalk drawings and various objects suspended by shoelaces from floor to ceiling. However, his most prominent pieces are reconfigured salvaged school desks in wood and metal or just in metal, as we can see on various images below, all of them referring to the 1976 student demonstrations.

Finally, his interest in the Dogon people of Mali and their indigenous astrological knowledge will be reflected in many of the new works, as well as the controversy surrounding his knowledge of the existence of Sirius, a dwarf moon invisible to the naked eye orbiting the Dog Star, despite not having access to astronomical instruments. Kemang used laces to form star constellations, referring not only to the racist repudiation, but also to the repeated negation of opportunities for contemporary young black South Africans.

This art show tells me that art is a powerful tool to express our concerns about the world we live in and not only that, artists like Wa Lehuler manage to do that using a very personal style and effective visual elements.

Desafiando las historias locales de Sudáfrica
Kemang Wa Lehulere
Ni siquiera los difuntos se quedan en tierra.
Galería Marian Goodman, Londres, Reino Unido
13 de septiembre – 20 de octubre de 2018

Visitamos esta exposición de arte hace un par de semanas en la galería Marian Goodman en Londres y ahora ya no está. Pero, he querido cubrirla para presentaros a este artista que se está emergiendo como una de las figuras artísticas más destacadas de Sudáfrica.

Cuando entramos en la galería, encontré varias instalaciones y dibujos en la pared hechos de varios materiales: madera, metal, tiza, vidrio, etc; todos ellos en blanco y negro o en el material original. Se puede apreciar que la muestra de arte tiene un fuerte mensaje social, pero el artista no ha descuidado sus aspectos estéticos. No solo eso, utiliza esos aspectos para ensalzar el mensaje, lo cual valoro ciertamente. Me gustan las muestras de arte con un mensaje socio-político, especialmente en estos días en los que los artistas parecen tener herramientas realmente efectivas para hacernos reflexionar sobre la sociedad en que vivimos, pero tengo preferencia por las obras de arte que, además de eso, son estéticamente interesantes.

Kemang Wa Lehulere nació en Ciudad del Cabo e inicialmente se destacó en 2006 con Gugulective, un colectivo comprometido con la comunidad y cofundado con su socio artístico de la infancia, Unathi Sigenu, y residente en la antigua ciudad de Gugulethu, Ciudad del Cabo. En ese momento se dedicó a hacer demostraciones comprometidas con la comunidad, como crear folletos para desafiar las historias locales o establecer estaciones de radio piratas intervencionistas. Solo después de años de activismo social, comenzó a crear objetos escultóricos y dibujos como un residuo o remanente de su lucha social. Y obtuvo formación artística académica al graduarse en 2011.

Haciendo uso de estos años de activismo social, Wa Lehulere transmite sentimientos de inquietud posterior al apartheid y otros problemas sociopolíticos con sus obras de arte, recreando lo que él considera “escenas borradas” de la historia de Sudáfrica.

Algunos de los elementos característicos de su práctica artística incluyen mensajes en botellas, perros de cerámica con forma de esfinge y casas de aves que simbolizan los retiros forzosos bajo el apartheid. Además, hay tablas grandes cubiertas con dibujos de tiza y varios objetos suspendidos por cordones desde el suelo hasta el techo. Sin embargo, sus piezas más prominentes se reconfiguran como escritorios escolares recuperados en madera y metal o simplemente en metal, como podemos ver en varias imágenes a continuación, todas ellas en referencia a las demostraciones estudiantiles de 1976.

Finalmente, su interés en la gente Dogon de Mali y su conocimiento astrológico indígena se reflejará en muchas de las nuevas obras, así como en la controversia que rodea su conocimiento de la existencia de Sirio, una luna enana invisible a simple vista que orbita alrededor de Dog Star, a pesar de no tener acceso a instrumentos astronómicos. Kemang usó cordones para formar constelaciones de estrellas, refiriéndose no solo al repudio racista, sino también a la negación repetida de oportunidades para los jóvenes sudafricanos negros contemporáneos.

Esta muestra de arte me dice que el arte es una herramienta poderosa para expresar nuestras preocupaciones sobre el mundo en que vivimos, y no solo eso, artistas como Wa Lehuler logran hacerlo usando un estilo muy personal y elementos visuales realmente interesantes y efectivos.

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Making air solid

Past art shows: Rachel Whiteread, Tate Britain
12 September 2017 – 24 January 2018

Rachel Whiteread is one of Britain’s leading contemporary artists and my favourite from the YBA group. The latest art exhibition she had at Tate Britain, London, a few months ago revealed the trajectory of her career over three decades from 1988 to date. Time in which she’s been casting the so-called “negative spaces” using a variety of materials such as plaster, resin, rubber, concrete, metal and paper. But what are Whiteread’s “negative spaces”? The air that surrounds our daily experience or the inner world of objects. We find them in our house, in toilet paper rolls, beneath chairs or inside the mattress we sleep on every night. She makes these “negative spaces” solid with her sculptures.

The original idea comes from the US artist Bruce Nauman work titled “A Cast of the Space Under My Chair” (1965-8) that Whiteread referenced in this art exhibition with her “Untitled (One Hundred Spaces)” (1995) showed across the south part of the Duveen galleries at Tate Britain; 100 casts of the underside of chairs in changing shades of coloured resin and with their own flaws. Whiteread, however, has gone further.

Her work ranges in scale from the modest to the monumental and plays with paradoxes such as capturing human wear and experience with geometric white shapes and minimalism.

Tate Britain showed Whiteread’s most important large scale sculptures such as “Untitled (Book Corridors) 1997-8” and “Untitled (Stairs) 2001”, both of which I captured on two photos here, alongside her more intimate works with domestic objects such as tables, boxes or hot water bottles. And then, in the middle of the art show stood “Untitled (Room 101)”: the plaster cast of the BBC office, demolished in 2003, which inspired George Orwell’s torture chamber in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

I first discovered Whiteread as an artist in 2005 and became intrigued with her work. She then populated the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern with a huge labyrinth-like structure entitled “Embankment” made from 14,000 casts of the inside of different boxes. She chose the form of a cardboard box because of its associations with the storage of intimate personal items and to invoke the sense of mystery surrounding ideas of what a sealed box might contain.

Born in London in 1963, Whiteread studied painting at Brighton Polytechnic and sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art. She was the first woman to win the Turner Prize in 1993 and went on to represent Britain at the 1997 Venice Biennale. She first came to public attention with the unveiling of her first public commission “House” in London’s East End in 1993. A concrete cast of the interior of an entire Victorian terraced house with imprints or doors, windows and fireplaces in great detail. The house only stood for a few months before its demolition, but heralded Whiteread’s life-long project as an artist: fusing domestic narratives with brutalist architecture and minimalism.

Rachel Whiteread exhibition at Tate Britain was curated by Ann Gallagher and Linsey Young. The exhibition was co-organised with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, curated by Molly Donovan, where it will be shown in autumn 2018, and will also tour to the 21er Haus Vienna and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

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The poetry in traditional crafts

Past shows: Martin Puryear at Parasol unit, London
18 Sept – 6 Dec 2017

It’s not often that I discover artists like Martin Puyear. I was truly interested on the body of work he presented at the Parasol Unit gallery in Shoreditch, London, end of last year, and really inspired by it. His abstract works are finely hand-made from wood and bronze and the use of craft methods and natural materials on the sculptures he creates shows a great respect to skilled craftsmanship. He proves that abstraction isn’t separate from traditional techniques and in fact it’s more relevant than ever. To me, this exhibition brought back the spirit of the Arts & Crafts Movement promoted by William Morris and Ruskin in the XIX century, with the joy of craftsmanship that it inspired and the natural beauty of materials.

Furthermore, with his works Puryear also explores social history and makes a very subtle political statement. In addition to the sculptures, the printmaking works presented on this gallery on the first floor offered a different perspective of the wood and bronze sculptures.

This exhibition was curated by Ziba Ardalan and was the artist’s first solo show in London. It presented over 30 works of sculpture and works in paper and spans 40 years of the artist’s practice. In the ground floor gallery there were large-scale works, such as the “Big Phrygian”, 2010–2014. This five-foot tall cedarwood sculpture, painted bright red, resembles the distinctive shape of a Phrygian cap, which is a soft conical cap with the top pulled forward. People of ancient Eastern Europe and Anatolia wore such caps, which in the modern world have come to signify the pursuit of liberty.  This contrasted with the iron sculpture “Shackled”, 2014, which recalls the shackles worn by slaves when they were taken to America.

The African-American began exploring traditional craft methods in his youth, studied a BA in the States and went to spend two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leona, where he learned local woodworking techniques. Following this time in Africa, he spend two more years (1966-68) studying at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm before returning to the US to attend Yale University in 1971, where he received an MFA in Sculpture. His work is widely exhibited and collected both in the United States and internationally.

“I value the referential quality of art, the fact that a work can allude to things or states of being without in any way representing them.” Martin Puryear.

For The art berries, performing with these works was like merging with nature. Almost like when an architect thinks about how to integrate his design within the surrounding landscape, but with a more humble approach of course! We hope you enjoy the photos! 

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A peek at the Californian mountains

Past shows: Ed Ruscha at the Gagosian gallery, London
“Extremes and In-betweens”
Oct 5 – Dec 17, 2016

This is an art show we visited more than a year ago and it’s not currently on. But I’ve decided to start my blog with it because it was very inspiring for me. It made me realised what I wanted to blog about and therefore, I owe it a first post here.

I first encountered Ed Ruscha’s work at Tate Modern and have been interested since. He’s called by many the Magritte of Los Angeles and one of the longest living pop artists. He produced all the works for this exhibition in 2016, and it was Gagosian’s first show of Ruscha’s paintings since an exhibition at its Rome gallery in 2014-15.

The novelty of this show is that the words appearing on the artworks were presented in logical sequences and in diminishing or augmenting typeface over a sand background in most of them; and with blue skies over the mountains of California in some other works, combined with a circled selected view that suggests we are having a peep in, but not part of this idyllic scenery.

As per the press release published by Farah Nayeri for The New York Times, Ruscha said about his works at the opening: “I’m not trying to wrap things up or make final statements or capture anything in a big way,” he said. “It’s more like, whatever the voyage is, that’s where I am. I’m just traveling along the tops of things, not trying to bring an answer to anything, necessarily, but just to keep making pictures.”

With the comments above, it appears to me that he doesn’t want to be categorical with these artworks, but exploratory with visual images as well as with words. A search done from a rather logical perspective.

The photo with raspberry adds a new layer to these artworks. She seems to be enjoying the solitude of these mountains and looking at us from within the scenery itself.