Tuesday 21 April 2015

5 Years - 1826 Days - Automatic


5 years, 1826 days and I finally feel ready to release the words and films that have been so dear to me for these past years. Today, five years ago, my life changed, along with many others - it was the end of our youth as my dearest friend committed suicide on the 21st April in 2010. It's taken many years to come to terms with the heartache, the longing and the sorrow that followed that day and there are still days where it feels as though someones hands are around my neck, squeezing the breath out of me, but today the weight is much, much lighter and I want to share with you an openness, the works I made over these past five years.

Automatic, brings together a collection of works that I made, encompassing 12 automatic typewriter texts - unconscious streams of writing, almost poetic in there nature, where mistakes are many and letters run into one another. The subject matter, often dark has an honesty that bares itself open, these texts, written in 2011 physically act as a release. The short film, 11 AM is 1 of 13 that captures the passing of time, every hour on the hour, as the first anniversary dawned. Each short film, ten to fifteen minutes long, quietly documents the light falling on my written eulogy and the sounds that echo from outside, the noises of normality.

This year will see the final film made and a closing of this project, so stay turned to see the results and all that 2016 has to offer. 

Saturday 18 April 2015

London At Its Best - Marclay And Delaunay

 
It happens so often in London, that you say, 'I must see this show, don't worry I'll get to it next week' and before you realise it, the show has opened and closed before you even got a chance to put it in your diary! So with the multitude of incredible shows on at the moment, I made some time to take a few days out of work and enjoy all that the city has to offer. What better way to enjoy the summery days then with a walk around the galleries, intermixed with lunch and drinks with friends and family.

Christian Marclay's exhibition 9 x 9 x 9  at White Cube's Bermondsey space closed last Sunday, so I was determined to make sure that I didn't miss it. I am a huge fan of Marclay and to say I was not disappointed is an understatement; excitement, intrigue and amazement would be a few words to describe my feelings towards his video installations, audio performances and new works within the white walls. 

The exhibition was a triumph visually as well as conceptually. To sit inside a darken room, surrounded with four walls of projected Comic Collaged text, swirling around, up and down created this extraordinary sensory experience that was felt deep into your pit of your stomach. At times it was if your had drunk to much absinthe and been left to interrupt your dreams, as the room spun around, a group of black figures at the centre, holding tightly on. Then into the other rooms; refined silkscreen prints and large scale canvases, a nod to the Pop Art movement as well as wonderful collaborations with the London Sinfonietta and the Vinyl Factory, where performance and production where intertwined. It was truly spell binding.

 
Yesterday saw a wonderful family trip with my baby nephew to see the newly opened Sonia Delaunay exhibition at the Tate Modern. This exhibition was to our delight very quiet, we could take our time, slowly meandering through the huge exhibition, admiring the sensational colours, expressively painted in the stunning works that earned Delaunay such respect in the early 1900's. The works on paper were beautiful, the curvature of the gouache, the fluid movements created by the forms she drew, a tactility of materiality as well as a sensual, intimate touch to the figure she painted in the Tango series, we were all captivated! 

What was wonderful to see was how her natural style could so easily be translated into graphic patterns, textiles, Fashion as well as Theatre costumes. To see her design illustrations, the print and fabrics as well as clothing was intriguing. The craftsmanship of these works, the woven designs made in Russia to her costume designs for the Hungarian Dadaists, her Delaunay style, artistic vision was always so prominent, an extraordinary women of her time whose vision today seems still so contemporary, a true inspiration. I shall be sure to return again to experience this must see exhibition.

http://whitecube.com/exhibitions/christian_marclay_bermondsey_2015/

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/ey-exhibition-sonia-delaunay

Friday 10 April 2015

Alexander McQueen - Savage Beauty At V&A

 
There are few exhibitions in this world that you visit and leave feeling so unimaginably touched, it brings tears to your eyes, but I can honestly say that after seeing, being immersed into Savage Beauty, the new Alexander McQueen retrospective at the V&A, I am wholeheartedly overwhelmed and can't really find the words to describe this powerful expression to the senses. The only other exhibition that has left me in this space was Sophie Calle's exhibition Rachel Monique at the Palais de Tokyo back in 2010. 

When an exhibition touches your senses so deeply, the experience is truly monumental. You are transfixed into another universe, where time isn't important, silence encapsulates your mind and the only details you care for are within the walls and the objects that surround you. This afternoon, I was transported into a world of dark beauty, materiality and artistry that travels deep into your core. A sensory experience that touches you on every possible level, from the hard digital videos of the live runways, the intricate pattern cutting and assembly of fabrics to the mise-en scene laced with Classical scores. With every step you are stuck with more, more and more. Emotion builds, at times it is if you need to leave to take a breath, pause, and then plunge down deeper, darker before you need to resurface.

This exhibition was always going to touch me deeply, not only for the obvious reasons of being McQueen, but also for a more somber, sorrow note, that touches my heart ever so closely; that this exhibition would have been adored by my dearest friend, who the same year and having worked with McQueen, also committed suicide. This show, for me, feels almost like a binding of souls and although it brings tears to my eyes, makes me love this exhibition even more than I thought I could. It is a triumph of curation, where a true artist can change the way you feel forever. 


Thursday 9 April 2015

Forthcoming Contribution In Aperture's Spring PhotoBookReview Coming Soon...

Very, very pleased to have contribution a piece of writing about the Photobook as Performance as Photobook, part of the new Spring issue of Aperture Foundation's The PhotoBookReview! With a specific focus on Japanese Photography and Performance I am in some wonderful company; Aron Morel, Bruno Ceschel, Anouk Kruithof, Sebastian Hau, Rinko Kawauchi, Sokyusha and many, many more.

Stay turned, it's all coming soon, first release date will be at the ICP pop shop on the 26th April, part of the new Japanese Photography Symposium in New York - Shashin!


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