Whitechapel Gallery: Sarah Lucas.

I went with my Uni group & tutor to visit the Whitechapel Gallery. The Whitechapel Gallery is been through extensive refurbishment completed recently (a two year programme of work done) to include the former Passmore Edwards library building next door, vacated when the Idea Whitechapel Store opened. This had given much more space to the Gallery turning it into an Education centre.

We where there specifically to view the exhibition of British Artist Sarah Lucas (YBA).  All her famous works, most recent works and her famous sculptures made out of tights, giant posters with flying penis tips are in the exhibition. I wish I had brought a camera not to take pictures of her work as it wasn't allowed but to take pictures of the shocked faces of my fellow students. Some students where saying: I thought I had seen it all I can't believe what I am seeing: flying penis tips?! Yes and I replied: Did you a have a look at the plucked fresh chicken there? Or at the kipper in a see through plastic bag?

 They looked at me horrified and replied back: not yet, I am not sure...So I said: go on they are just over there.  In Bitch she reduces the female body in a melon and kipper which I found really funny photo above.

I did ask the gallery attendant if it was a real chicken and they said yes. So I asked them; does it mean that you change the chicken on a daily basis? They replied yes and we also change the fried eggs over there. I didn't want to get into it any further but I was nearly going to ask them if they actually fry the eggs in the morning before putting them in the gallery for viewing or did they buy them every morning near by? Also I wonder what they did with the fresh chicken, eggs and kipper do they just throw it away or eat it every evening?

Sarah Lucas  was part of the famous YBA's ( Damien Hirst,, Gary Hume, Angus Fairhurst) and was in  the famous Freeze exhibition in 1988.

 She challenges basically stereotypical representations of sexuality and gender, the relationship between them, social identity and she questions  the darker side of ourselves, our self destruction using as her tools every day objects, ready mades, images. She uses collages, installations, sculptures, food, old furniture combined with assemblage techniques.  In the gallery are  shown the famous pictures of her self in particular male & sexual poses: legs wide open, wearing leather jackets, sun glasses or sacking a banana staring defiant, confrontational towards the viewer most times holding a cigarette as a weapon of defiance, independence, masculinity. She forces the viewer to look under the surface of things by using masculine posture of behaviour in her photographs undermining the stereotypical view of masculinity shown in the media in an ironic, grotesque full on way there is no escaping the images.

 

As  the photos  are not small but they are very big/large and in your face which reminded me of glamorous photos taken of famous people for display but she is making fun of this at the same time I didn't feel one could gain any pleasure by looking at her like men  do when viewing naked bodies of women as she looks distinctively unglamourous she  frustrates any attempt of voyeurism on the viewer's part. Also the repetition of portraits made me think of another artist Martin Kippenberger and kind of tragic view of human beings, of the self.

Then there are the double paper spreads from newspapers such as the Sun with pics of overly sexualized female bodies male misogyny is given prime voice to make it weak.

 Also I noticed several toilet bowls in the gallery which where direct references to Duchamp's Fountain so she uses repetition in her work to make a point they become self-referring.

 I mean there is so much in the Gallery from the sculptures made out of tights, wire & wadding to two fries & kebabs (1992) where she placed meat in place of genitalia and yolks for nipples, photo above. The art work it's crude & funny at the same time by reducing symbols of naked female bodies she is making fun of men treating women like a quick take away.

Au Naturel (1994) an old mattress where on top we see a cucumber ( melon, cucumbers possibly repressed sexual desires) and  two oranges representing a phallus ( did  I say that this exhibition is not suitable for kids) representing masculinity on the other side two melons & a bucket which represent femininity which reminds you of maybe a one night stand in a cheap bed sit, the sex in her work is not enjoyable is not supposed to make you fantasies but think, it s has a defiant punk edge to it which is very freeing.

The Upstairs gallery was covered in Wall Paper 1993/2013 (see photo below) of again male genitalia surrounded by opened bear cans and what appear to be a piece of car wreck again is sexual images ain't pleasurable but they give you strong sense of aversion.

One thing that I felt is that the space was to small for all the items on display I think they should have chosen maybe less items to put on display or the work needs a bigger room, more space between each art work it felt claustrophobic at times.

Fuck destiny 2000, which shows an abstract scene of sexual intercourse below.

The last rooms comped of bronze sculptures Dacre (2013) abstract androgynous cold nude sex is there but less in your face, more part of the old establishment less the punk angst 

I prefer the row sculptures made out of tights and wire which reminded me of bodily functions the body both masculine & feminine as wadding & tights are used by women so are soft while wire it's cold and hard.

There was a lot going on in this exhibition so you need to stick through  the strong art work, images also I advise viewers to be aware of Freud's studies on fetishism, where objects appear in dreams this due to sexual frustration sexual repression & be aware of Surrealism as they study the 'other' as the normal one, to explore the dark side of modernity when looking at Sarah Lucas work but is not necessary. I did find that her work  made me think also about what is art and what isn't and what turns an object into art?

Marisa Mertz at the Serpentine Gallery.

Marisa Mertz is an important Italian artist (born in 1926 in Turin) who didn't get the recognition she deserved in her early years & the only woman in the Arte Povera movement. 

I was really excited to see her work exhibited at the Serpentine Gallery. On the day I was visiting the gallery I was supposed to go with my Uni group and my tutor unfortunately I had lost them so I went on my own. In the exhibition one can see her use of industrial materials such as metal sheets, metal containers which are more associated with the movement Arte Povera who embraced poor materials or what was considered low materials so to subvert the elitist status/ role of what art object had become  in a western  consumerist based society. 

What Marisa Mertz does different is the way she combines cold, industrial, ordinary materials with other different materials which are more associated with the feminine, crafts, domesticity using a variety of textiles & knitting. The knitting pieces are done using nylon, copper, iron again materials used by Arte Povera  but done in a delicate way with a careful balance between hard & soft forming geometric patterns such triangles, squares, circles  which made me think of voids some of them fairly small in their scale if compared with work from male artists of the Arte Povera giving them an inner sense of vulnerability (see also image of knitted shoe). The assembled pieces can be traced back to Alexander Calder & Pablo Picasso but have a distinct feminine touch which gives them strength.

The metal containers give out a cold steely feeling but then they have been filled with soft wax.

In the first room a portrait worked on beautifully with  a gentle blend of colourful lines of soft pastels with a linear rhythm that create  loose formless  abstract faces with no distinct identity. Which again give an intimate feeling to the overall portrait inverting what is it to be sacred in the arts especially in Italy where there is so much of it, she brings feeling into the object so the art work becomes one with life.

 In one other room filled with small clay sculptures playful unfired heads with expressions that go from mute to serene, they take you away from rationality but more into an intimate space this due to the their small size & expression they reminded me in their simplicity of Bizantine Icons with an extra element of fragility. I did wonder also if  artists Thomas Schutte (saw his exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery a while back) studied her work because his heads look so much like Maris Mertz heads...

In the room next door hanging down from the ceiling layered floating intertwined metal sheets  that remind you of organic bodies, organic shapes of on going growth. 

The exhibition must be popular because when I asked  for a leaflet in reception they said they had run out also I couldn't find any postcards of her work. I wanted to give a card to ma but there was nothing on sale just weird and disappointing. While hovering around the reception desk I noticed another work  which was outside of the exhibition area, literally on the reception desk by Marisa Mertz : a box filled with wax and flowers again a small intimate art work that could have gone un-noticed. 

I looked at it then wondered off into beautiful Hyde Park, great setting for a gallery (peaceful, quiet).

Elmgreen & Dragset at the V&A in London.

As part of my Uni course with our tutor we went around London to view Galleries this time it was an exhibition at the V&A called Tomorrow by the Scandinavian duo Elmgreen & Dragset I didn't know what to expect as I have never seen their work and didn't know much about them either. As I had lost my group I found my way on my own to the section inside the museum where they where exhibiting actually when I got there I realised that it wasn't an exhibition but a spacial installation based on a fictional narrative in the 160-year old museum's former textile department that had been close for eight years, so it was exciting to see that the space had been used again and in an alternative way. It felt great to walk through the corridors of the museum looking at artifacts behind cases and find one self suddenly in The Tomorrow exhibition where one could touch items, sit or actually lie down on the bed it was interactive unlike the rest of the Museum. It's so interactive that while I was in the bedroom I actually pocked into what I thought was a sculpture but it was to my great surprise a person that screamed & then looked at me puzzled ( in my defence I can say that the lighting in the room was quite deem) he wasn't part of exhibit oh no he was a visitor like me.

                                

 The Tomorrow exhibition occupies 5 rooms in the form of an apartment obviously of someone wealthy from an upper class background this was given by the expensive furniture, items that I found in each room of the British architect Norman Swann who apparently never built anything. As a visitors we see his house as he is about to move out of it, in the  new Kitchen ( made by the new young tenant called Daniel Wilder, the architect student) I saw a lot of boxes used for packing items. The rooms made me think of old stately houses in England, there where real waiters going around the rooms making you feel in a different space and time where the upper classes lived. Elmgreen says that Tomorrow 'is a commentary on the disappearance old British society and a failure of the European experiment'. I didn't get this while being in the rooms, I would also add that the artist's view of what the old British society was in a particular time is narrow and they weren't there to experience the dominance of the upper classes also  they are from Scandinavian egalitarian countries, not really elite based, they might base themselves on documentation but it's really just fictional out of their own imagination.

 I felt uncomfortable as I felt none of it was real, a bit like mental masturbation. Some items in the rooms where there to give clues about the character of the person living in the house but he was fictional too a bit like being in a theatre setting which is made for the viewer to engage with the 'artwork' in a different way like you would do in a site specific situation so experiencing  it directly, it really can not be described. This is not a new concept but it is interesting the way they engage the audience & again the use of the space. This specific direct way of experiencing the installation makes you silent, looking for clues and stretches the time you spend inside the installation this is if you enjoy being in the space, if you enjoy being in an opulent surreal space if not you will be running for the door.

Some of the V&A objects can be found in the rooms and they will go back to the museum, but walking around the rooms looking at the items sitting down, I felt that the artists are interested in the fear of change about the future and the past: there are the old comfortable rooms in contrast with the metallic cold kitchen that indicates a new life has come in and how the future and the past connect with each other or not, about what one does with one life or not, it's about failure of fear of failure shown ( but I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a 'Western anxiety' like the artists said I think this is really stretching it) in one room with architectural projects which never saw the day light, in this sense the installation it's successful.

All Images By Elmgreen & Dragset at the V&A.

Mark Tobey the predecessor of Jackson Pollock.

Yesterday on a seriously rainy day I decided to go to the exhibition of Mark Tobey at the Thomas Williams Gallery in posh Old Bond Street in central London. It was my first time in the gallery which set on the first floor of the building, one had to ring a bell to get in. I did find the staff in the gallery friendly. Mark Tobey's work was well set up in one room. The work was mainly of a small scale: watercolours, tempera, mixed media from his late period the 1960's. I did find interesting the sizes of his work the variety of sizes especially for the watercolours which combined with the gentle use of colours in the work an air of intimacy, delicacy far remote from the stronger, vigorous work of Jackson Pollock. Yes because while I was observing Mark Tobey's work I noticed an 'all over 'painting style with no focal point, free of boundaries which later was central to Abstract Expressionism and the work of Jackson Pollock who was introduced to Tobey's work at the Willard Gallery in new York in 1944 but while Tobey's work is carefully constructed, calm & partly inspired by calligraphy Jackson Pollock's work was strong, the execution energetically almost violent and the scale of the work much bigger. Also I did find amusing that Mark Tobey's style actually came from the period he spent in England more specifically in 1931 at Dartington Hall in rural Devon owned by Leonard Elmhirst (who studied under the poet & social reformer Rabindranath Tagore) & his wife Dorothy, where he also met Henry Moore, Lucian Clement & Stephan Freud, Piet Mondrian. In 1935  while in Devon  Mark Tobey experienced an artistic breakthrough: he started a new way of painting called Broadway see below,

then was followed by Welcome Hero(1935) & a Broadway Norm(1935) in this last one there was no connection that could relate the painting to the title. In the exhibition  most  of his work did not have titles. For the first time in Broadway he used lines as a way to go beyond objects with a variety of combinations this was also present in the untitled works in the exhibition. One doesn't look at the lines to examine their intrinsic quality because they are freely combined  and unifying the object with the space around it in such away that you have to relate to the whole of the picture they are the first example of the 'bordeless'  picture or as Harold Rosenberg called them in 1952 ' an apocalyptic wallpaper'. One thing I always found curious about Mark Tobey is that he followed the Bahai faith so Tobey thought that each stroke of his brush maybe divinely directed I read some where that a portrait painter names Juliet Thompson introduced him to the Bahai' faith. Anyway one thing is for sure that from his work one can see that he was constantly searching for a freer way of painting, to be closer to nature and a strong influence of Chinese calligraphy. Chinese ink wash painting where also comes from the idea of a freely moving brush stroke he did actually travel to Shanghai in 1934 and then to Japan where he was not only absorbed by the culture, but he also discovered Japanese Zen Buddhism, Japanese ink painting and he studied Zen meditation in a Zen Buddhist monastery near Kyoto.

Most of the works in the exhibition are actually part of his late period: the 1960's where he was based in Basel Switzerland and are mainly watercolours, tempera & oil on paper with stronger colours, the use of red with a variety of forms and shapes from vertical brushstrokes Untitled 1964 to small dubs of painting Untiled 1970 in this period he also experimented with monotypes with no lines. I did find his work inspiring both in the concept, use of colours and the variety of sizes in his watercolours and the variety of types of paper he used which gave a completely different effect to his watercolours. I did find exciting that there where no figurative watercolours but they where all abstract and varied in their combinations it felt liberating after I have been to I don't how many figurative watercolour exhibitions in London. Below are the works of Mark Tobey which are on display at the Thomas Williams Gallery all untitled but from his later period the 1960's.

Gary Hume at Tate Britain

A Couple of weeks ago when it was quite inside Tate Britain I went and see Gary Hume's exhibition. Most people where visiting the other exhibition by LS Lawry who painted the masses, the working class in England during the Industrial Revolution. To enter the exhibition room I had to use the entrance doors created by himself called; How to paint a door which I thought was fun thought I didn't noticed them first when I went in as I was so spaced out ( I mean they are bright pink) I only notice them when I came out from the same entrance afterwards. 

How to Paint a door 2013 Gary Hume

Gary Hume explores emotional themes such as joy, melancholy, loss etc and he questions in his paintings the conventional notions of beauty sometimes combined a dark edge for example in paintings such as in Young Mother & Child 2002 & Beautiful 2001 where Michael Jackson's nostrils are combined with Kate Moss's face (can you see it?).

Young Mother & Child 2002 Gary Hume

Beautiful 2001 Gary Hume

I found his work in the exhibition to be over all visually pleasing & it made me think of illustrations, graphic work with simplified forms combined with contrasting colours general use of gloss paint not on canvas but on aluminium panels. Also one can not see brush work just smooth surface and sometimes he uses layers of thick paint like in the work The Whole World.

Blackbird 1998 Gary Hume

                                                      The Whole World 2011Gary Hume

Gary Hume uses imagery from reproductions in books and magazines he starts from a figurative drawing and then he abstracts his compositions for example in the work Orchid 2004 & Green Nicola 2003 where artist Nichola Tyson is changed abstracted into a rare flower again made with bold contrasting colours and face is dark.  He seemed to me that Gary Hume doesn't want you to know as a viewer what you are looking, what exactly is going on but at the same time he is not interested in narrative. Also his work show a fondness for flatness rather then perspective, less is more in his work.

Orchid 2004 Gary Hume

I did notice that he makes portraits of famous people which made me think he is well connected, he did study at Goldsmith University at the same time as other well know YBA's such as Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Matt Collishaw and his gloss painted doors where initially bought by Charles Saatchi. 

Again I did find fun, playful  the sculpture called: the Snowman (a childhood image perhaps) which yes you can imagine features a snowman but it's a bronze sculpture painted with enamel paint it seems Gary Hume put his own stamp on a traditional method; bronze and gave it an all together new life with the use of white enamel on top, the same as he did with the doors by painting them with household paint. I would have liked to have seen the sculpture outdoors.

The Snowman 2000 Gary Hume

My Off Site Exhibition.

As part of my course I did an off site exhibition in a laundrette in London.

I have been exploring the role of the clown in a real life setting in the real world instead of the theatre so in the laundrette. The show was called The Last Supper I was exploring renewal, loss of childhood but at the same time keeping the care free child alive within on self. My exhibition was spontaneous and site specific. In the show I  used discarded toys which I found in a second hand shops and flee markets and I gave  them a second life, a new life, a new meaning.

©Copyright Mirta Imperatori 2013

Dressed as a clown I washed my toys using ordinary facilities in a different way to alter time. On top of the washing machine put a soft toy for people to hug and two toys that people could play with and rediscover the child within and to make them do something they usually wouldn’t do in a laundrette or indeed find in a laundrette.

In my work I have been exploring language and how we use associate objects and used them in a certain way which is based on our background and how we have been taught, our cultural background. I made a video of the Laundrette  you can find if on http://vimeo.com/64391122

With this work I am questioning people's preconceptions and turning things upside down in a playful way showing what is seen as normal and ordinary isn't the only reality.

©Copyright Mirta Imperatori 2013

The clown can reveal things under the surface that are being ignored can make connections happen that are not happening also about the healing of  a place through humour and making fun of yourself and everything around you. The clown negotiates the world by playing with it. Playfulness is a guiding principle for the clown and bringing alive the inner child.

Clowning is an invitation not to ignore the bad stuff, but to look at it through lightness and playing. The child we once where that society doesn’t allow us to take into adulthood.

Three clowns that my clown is based on this is in response to the laundrette in a specific area of London where a lot of travellers come in and out. I looked at the Hobo: Migratory that finds works where he travels. Down on his luck but he maintains a positive attitude. The Tramp: Migratory and does not work where travels. Down on his luck and depressed about his situation. The Bum: non migratory and non-working. I specifically looked at the work of Emmett Kelly a famous American clown and his weary Willie: a depressed tramp clown that didn't have the whole face painted based on the hobos of the depression era.

I have also been interested in exploring the role of female clowns as clowns  have been  mostly male as if a woman is dressed like a clown people sometimes see her as a mad woman instead of a clown and why that is? I would like the audience to question this. I have been interested in the work of Cindy Sherman as she continuously explored the construction of contemporary identity and how women get stereotyped in advertising, film & media in general and the nature of representation to create her photographs she assumes multiple roles but of functional types such as the housewife, B movie actresses she creates a variety of characters form socialite to clown which can be affecting and disturbing as you can see below, the photo was shot in Rome. She started the clown series in 2003.

A photograph by Cindy Sherman for M.A.C

Cindy Sherman Clown Series 2003

I also looked at the work of French artist Bernard Pras as he recreates portraits of icons using found objects which are arranged in a specific way to merge together and the portrait appears he creates realistic portraits of his subjects but pushes the viewer to observe the massive collection of found materials, dolls, trash (that one would find in a landfill) that forms each piece.

                                                                               

Albert Einstein by Bernard Pras

The Scream by Bernard Pras based on the Scream by Edvard Munchs

made with found materials

Another artist that changes the function of the object is Dutch artist Florenijin Hofman whose work is site specific and uses toys in his work to connect people to their childhood. The large scale of the toy changes their function and feeling and you can't avoid them as I discovered first hand when I saw his Bear sculpture in a run down area of Amsterdam called Staalmanplein in the Netherlands because they are so big. His sculptures originate from everyday objects, they are all ready made they are like cartoons blow ups that are easily identifiable and have an instant appeal. It seems to me that the audience it's an essential part of his work, he embeds the images in their surroundings but the work is fun and he uses any types of materials. In Hofman on words: 'My sculptures  cause an uproar, astonishment and put a smile on your face. They give people a break from their daily routines'.          

                                                                                 

Steelman (2011)

                                                      The Big Yellow Rabbit Sweden 2011

                                                       made with Swedish Shingles.

©Copyright Mirta Imperatori All Rights Reserved

Ibrahim El-Salahi at Tate Modern.

On Friday evening I went to the Tate Modern to see the exhibition of Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi. 

El-Salahi was born in 1930 in Sudan where he trained in calligraphy & painting at Khartoum's School of Design in 1949-52 he also studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Some of his paintings include calligraphic lettering, geometric forms. Room n 3 in particular where the colours in the paintings reminded me of the desert, warm, dry earthy colours also throughout I noticed a limited use of colours but stone tones which made me think of Sudan, the pain of the land, of the culture/politics and it's problematic nature through his work I could feel the pain, dark versus light colours in his paintings and the initial struggle to combine  his own culture with western culture in terms of artistic training out put or to find is own to true voice artistically speaking. There are also portraits that he did when he was studying at the Slade which are done in western academic style but don't feel they are truly him with their bright well positioned colours, most of his best paintings have a really limited use of colour which made me think more of his Islamic, Arab, African visual style,background, calligraphy.

The best painting I thought also in this section called Alphabet n2 which reminded me of Paul Klee's work  (unlike the other paintings in the room) it's in the artist's collection which means it is particularly important to him. Most of the paintings include, birds, people with faces that look more like machines such as Funeral and the Crescent 1963.

 A procession of mourners that carry a corpse toward us the viewer. All of his paintings are done with a single point of view, one focus and in this particular painting again he uses earthy minimalist selection of colours as the serious machine like faces carry all the pain of death in their simple lines which is actually quite powerful, simple movement lines of the figures make you think the artist is leading you to something else more spiritual also given by the half moon symbol which is present in several of his paintings and connected to his Islamic/Arabic background. I found most of his work visually perfect of someone who is striving for perfection in his work overall quite figurative even in his abstract elements and skilful from a traditional academic background. His paintings in Room 3 with the desert earthy self contained tones combined with circles made me think of ancient history from a great culture but then the culture becomes broken & contorted hence the shift to dark tones, the experience of the artist of pain from his own culture and a heavy dreadful history. El-Salahi was imprisoned in the harsh Cooper prison for 6 month and 8 days, malnourished and living in fear of being harmed physically. Following in room 5

there is a particular work that remind me of stream of consciousness in writers, inspiration through time and space and Carl's Jung  Collective unconsciousness where past, present, future connect open up through the process of art itself so the collective unconsciousness finally connects. To move on to room 4 the Room with work using inks and called The Tree.

In El-Salahi works there is a shift, a movement from pain as seen in previous paintings into spirituality from earthy colours and dark tones to bright lines, the lines of the trees as a form of spiritual meditation, doing each line as a form of meditation like we can see in The Tree 2003. He reconnects to his own culture through nature and spirituality but recreates his own tree.

This is a really informative video on Ibrahim El-Salahi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI5LnvjBPjI