It's often better not to react emotionally to a situation but stand back and think before one acts rather than react impulsively. There are men in power who react like a child who has not mastered control of his emotions. The only thing for sure that happens when this type of personality gets in power is conflict, the only way they can truly be and feel is through creating antagonism, division and utter chaos. I was just thinking this when I read the world news. I strolled to the Tate to have a coffee and see the exhibition about Living Cities on level 4 of the new building at Tate Modern. Wouldn't it be great if such men could engage in art, the environment, helping others make the world a better place instead of handling their egotism and rage into creating more conflict and misery.
Photo Tate Modern
The exhibition shows a selection of artists from around the world and how they experience living in the city. It's a reflection on how the city can be a utopian place involving communal living, or a place of protest. Ai Weiwei has been a positive example of how an artist can create wealth for others through his work by creating a studio where assistants worked on his projects in the city he lived in, Beijing. The studio space was an oasis but now he is living in Berlin as a refugee (but this was not mentioned in the video shown at the Tate which is basically now outdated, see link below).
The exhibition shows a selection of artists from around the world and how they experience living in the city. It's a reflection on how the city can be a utopian place involving communal living, or a place of protest. Ai Weiwei has been a positive example of how an artist can create wealth for others through his work by creating a studio where assistants worked on his projects in the city he lived in, Beijing. The studio space was an oasis but now he is living in Berlin as a refugee (but this was not mentioned in the video shown at the Tate which is basically now outdated, see link below).
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/ai-weiwei-on-beijing-artist-cities
In the show there is a video of him in his former city Beijing. At one point they are shown putting red lanterns around surveillance cameras in the street outside of his studio. Ai Weiwei says it to high-light them, to make it more clear that you are under constant surveillance, that there is no freedom of speech. In the video the buzzing of a busy city, Beijing, is contrasted by a tour of his studio where they are seen working on a project involving surveillance cameras made out of marble and we see the courtyard that looks like an oasis of peace. The neighbourhood around is oblivious to what goes on inside of the studio space. He called his studio 'a station from outer space'; it's shut in, behind a metal gate, an art city within the neighbourhood of Caochangdi the 5th ring of Beijing and he has created a similar environment in his current home of Berlin.
In the show there is a video of him in his former city Beijing. At one point they are shown putting red lanterns around surveillance cameras in the street outside of his studio. Ai Weiwei says it to high-light them, to make it more clear that you are under constant surveillance, that there is no freedom of speech. In the video the buzzing of a busy city, Beijing, is contrasted by a tour of his studio where they are seen working on a project involving surveillance cameras made out of marble and we see the courtyard that looks like an oasis of peace. The neighbourhood around is oblivious to what goes on inside of the studio space. He called his studio 'a station from outer space'; it's shut in, behind a metal gate, an art city within the neighbourhood of Caochangdi the 5th ring of Beijing and he has created a similar environment in his current home of Berlin.
Another piece that interested me in the exhibition is the photography by American Photographer Stephen Shore, as I also take photographs of the ordinary and every day life. His photographs consist of his travels in different American cities in 1972, 1973. He photographs the ordinary, the every day in life. The photographs are displayed closely together and framed, this requires your attention as a viewer, it forces you to go close up to them to be able to see them properly, individually and not as a whole. They are photographs of ordinary people, walking by in their daily lives. He travelled across the USA, discovering Middle America as he had been mainly based in New York. His photographs are intuitive and they are to do with light and colour. He is a pioneer in colour photography see pics below, he also photographs the overlooked. They include street photographs, motels, basically what is right under our eye but that we do not see. The every day in his colour photography was not appreciated in the 1970's but his photographs became more appreciated later on. To be noted is that he used a view camera for documentary photography which was unusual.
Opposite his work are the photographs by Birdhead which is made out by Ji Weiju and Song Tong who work together and take photos of the every day in Shanghai. Their photographs are very different from Stephen Shore's, first of all they are monochrome and printed in large format on paper and hung not framed. There is no narrative in their photos but the subject of the photos creates their own narrative; like Shore they photograph people going about their daily life, the every day: potted plants, vegetation, tree trunks next to architectural subjects such as bridges, new apartments in Shanghai. They wander off and destroy the film after printing so it becomes a limited edition.
They use an analogue camera, the subject matter of a young person's Shanghai, directed by their own formative experience.
If you are a Gallery or a Magazine and you are interested in my work contact me here:
https://twitter.com/mirtaimperatori
If you are a Gallery or a Magazine and you are interested in my work contact me here:
https://twitter.com/mirtaimperatori
No comments:
Post a Comment