Wednesday, November 19, 2008

15 - 17 november: Sonja is in London


This installation in the Tate Modern by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster was fantastic. I lay on the beds, looked at the books scattered on some, but most importantly watched the liveliness of the diverse people also walking around, trying out the beds and interacting with each other. The atmosphere was quite festive.

A large text in the turbine hall gave a context for the works:

Essay: October 2058 - Tate Modern - London
It rains incessantly in London – not a day, not an hour without rain, a deluge that has now lasted for years and changed the way people travel, their clothes, leisure activities, imagination and desires. They dream about infinitely dry deserts.
This continual watering has had a strange effect on urban sculptures. As well as erosion and rust, they have started to grow like giant, thirsty tropical plants, to become even more monumental. In order to hold this organic growth in check, it has been decided to store them in the Turbine Hall, surrounded by hundreds of bunks that shelter – day and night – refugees from the rain.

The list of sculptures (these were copies), books and films (shown on the back wall) is here and more info about the work is here.




Next was Martin Creed's work in the Duveen Galleries in the Tate Britain.

Every 30 seconds someone ran at top speed through the galleries.
Here you see a shadowy figure of a runner.
More info about this work.



BP Exhibition: Drawn from the Collection consisted of rooms of drawings.

More info about this work.




A highlight for me was a room of blackboard drawings by Tacita Dean. More info about this 1997 work: The Roaring Forties: Seven Boards in Seven Days is here

More info about the Drawn from the Collection exhibition.

Under Scan
by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Trafalgar Square
15 - 23 November 2008




The bright projection light means that the projections are only visible in your shadows.
This work was first developed in 2005 and for this installation hundreds of video-portraits came from video portraits contributed by the public between the 19th + 21st of September at Tate Modern. The portraits were shot from above, as members of the public lie beneath a suspended camera. Each individual was free to represent themselves any way they wished.
See this page for more about this and other projects by Rafael


Then Molly and I went to the Royal Academy to the GSK Contemporary Spartacus Chetwynd's Helmut Newton Ladies Night‏.

There I encountered the multi-channel digital film installation Triangle of Need by Catherine Sullivan made in collaboration with Los Angeles-based composer Sean Griffin, Minneapolis-based choreographer Dylan Skybrook, and Lagos, Nigeria-based actor and director Kunle Afolayan.
It was breath-taking. More info about this is here.
The images accompanied by a music score and sounds are an unfolding of a complex set of ideas where three participants weave stories that touch on 'normalilty', class, wealth and poverty, and inequalities and injustices.

SEIZURE by Roger Hiorns is an Artangel commission in a housing estate in south London. The large crystals you see on all surfaces were made by filling the appartment to the brim with detergent and then draining the fluid out after it had catalyzed.

29 september: we sign on the walls of the 'zweetkamer'

Masters Graduates may sign their name on the walls of this 14th century room. Alex Reuneker, Joris Slob and I went along to add our names for prosterity :)

11 September: Mini-symposium + "killer tv" presentation

Sarah Kettley was my co-supervisor for my graduation project for my masters in media technology and to make the most of her visit to Leiden in September with Alex Reuneker (www.reuneker.nl) + Kirsten Korevaar I organized the mini-symposium issues of engagement
in digital media artworks
and literature
(go to this page for more about this event) and thanks to Lucas + Rob, we had an evening in the Waag where she gave a session on her wearable technology for their interactive internet "Killer TV" event.


Above: The ceiling of the waag main conference room is filled with paintings of shields from when this room was used by the surgeon's guild for displaying and demonstrating the cutting up of bodies.

Right: Sarah presents while Matt watches.



More about Sarah is at: http://www.sarahkettley.com

13 + 14 september: old buildings in Leiden + Amsterdam

Once a year in most Dutch cities, Monument Weekend means that many buildings normally not open are possible to visit. Sen and I visited 3 churches, 2 courtyards and the Leiden Free Mason Lodge on Saturday.

Right:
The Hooglandskerk, Leiden, 13 September 2008


On Sunday we went to Amsterdam and cycled to various churches, the De Beurs van Berlage (built as a stock exchange between 1898 and 1903, but now used as a conference centre) and the Oost-Indisch Huis (where sea trade in the 17th + 18th centures was managed, which resulted in the wealth which built Amsterdam)


Amsterdam
Left: The Westerkerk.

Right: The St Elisabeth Catholic Church.

Art installations in Leiden in September 2008



Installations by Leiden based artists, Rudi Struik (www.rudi-struik.com) + Piet Franzen (he runs the Sidac Studio and organizes various exhibitions and mail art projects) in the prison cells and the torture chamber of Gravensteen, The city prison of Leiden between 1463 and 1955. Info about this on Rudi's website in Dutch

Above Left: Installation by Piet Franzen. Above Right: video projection by Rudi Struik.

>> Two views of an installation in a prison cell by Rudi Struik



The incision-like lines on the hung sheets relate to and are reminiscent of the incisions along the cell walls made by prisoners from the past.