Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts

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.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Bahai and all that...

I made this image in early April for an exhibition Miyuki Kasahara is organizing here: Shed and a half in London (Shoreditch) gallery in May.

Her project For Whom Do You Speak called for contributions in non-European languages. My Maori is very rusty and so I sent her a couple of Bahai prayers I still remember. This is a children's Prayer:
O God Guide me, Protect me, illumine the lamp of my heart and make of my heart a brilliant star. Thou art the Mighty and powerful.


And while on the subject of the Bahai Faith, I'll mention a few blogs by Bahais I look at occasionally.
www.bahairants.com is run by baquia who writes engaged journalist-like stuff where there's usually a lively debate.
The topic at the moment, which I wish I had more time for, is on homosexuality. Some Bahais think homosexuality is a big no, no, and are clear about announcing this. Most think homosexuality is a big no, no, but try to sweep this embarrassment into the closet (pun intended) and others, myself included, think that while there are a lot of homophobic attitudes expressed as if these are Bahai attitudes, there's nothing in Bahai Scripture to support this and if we dig away, discuss away, we create a healthier community based on Baha'u'llah's teachings of equality for all. Anyway read the debate for yourself. Most who post on this take the position that the Bahai Faith cannot offer equality towards homosexuals.
For contrast here's the blog of dear friend, Daniel Orey,
a gay married, out-the-closest Bahai!
Bahai related blog I enjoy is Bahaitheway: witty + sharp observations.
And of course Sen McGlinn's blogs on Bahai theological aspects related to the Bahai Writings.
A lot of Bahais post blogs, but these are the ones I keep returning to because they are engaging or make me think about things.
Alison's blog is a beautiful and clear tribute to Baha'u'llah's Teachings and Writings.

Monday, October 1, 2007

30th September :: New sculpture + London visit

I'm just back from an invigorating 3 days in London.
I went to pick up our latest sculpture from a group show on the northern edge of London, which was in the grounds of the Museum of Domestic Design + Architecture.

<< Cross Pollination 2007
by Sen McGlinn + Sonja van Kerkhoff
See: www.sonjavank.com/crossp.htm for more images and text about the ideas behind this work.


However as usual, I used it as an opportunity to catch up with friends and to see art exhibitions.

<< Tamatea + Sonja
28 September 2007

Photo: Shaun


Even though I've been over to London 2 or 3 times a year for the past decade, it still excites my antipodean roots to walk the streets of London.

This time I started with a few galleries in the Picadilly area and walked up along Edgeware Road but the Lisson was still putting up it's show, so I took a few photos of the foam wood-foundations of installations-to-be in in the space.
I then zipped eastward to Bethnal Green for another 6 or 7 exhibitions, soaking up the luxury of so much visual diversity before arriving tired + happy at Kath + Shaun's for a night of catching up.


Eve, Tama, Shaun, Kath, 30 September 2007
I know Kath and Eve from our Tahora Days.


On returning on Saturday, I was almost high from all the socializing. I'd met some old friends (artists) at one of the galleries, which almost never happens in the Netherlands, but always amazes me that it happens at least once a year in London.

music link of the week: Kath Tait of course!
art link of the week: Daniel Lehan a London friend