b r u s h i n g o f f t h e c o b w e b s

Our first curatorial project seemed to go down well! All who experienced it enjoyed it and we got some good feedback. We actually managed to get 6 hours of content from over 70 submissions (big up Curator Space). We had numerous technical difficulties on the day a huge number of them due to the mac-pc divide. However we still managed to show the films and should have a full set of photos once we get them back from the photographers of the event.

We’ve also finalised the payment for the exhibition with the group of us from CSM meaning that we have another exhibition to prepare for on the 28th and 29th of next month at Bones and Pearl Gallery (check em out >>here<<). The initial plans were to have a publication and to stage events over the two nights but how much of that has stuck we don’t know. This could be a good opportunity to exhibit ‘It's the canapés that shade me now’, the work where we get our mothers to prepare the snacks for the event and the table is left until the end of the exhibition. This would be a side work and we would also have a slightly more performative or presented piece if possible. This could either be us turning off the lights and doing a reading of the descriptive texts of famous works for bind people or hiring an actor of sort to act as a school-teacher reading out ‘The White Crayon’ as if it was to a class of 5 year olds.

Something we’ve been considering recently is the renaming of the sims painting works. Perhaps giving them individual titles that the game applies automatically and then have a name for the series. Going back into what we found interesting in the first place was the stereotype that was encompassed if not in forced. The notion that this is what being an artist is and being ‘good’ at making art is making things that mimic the world around you as exactly as possible. There was also this idea that learning is linear; once you’ve attained a certain level of expertise you’re never able to access the lower levels again. So a key concept to the work is learning; the lack of learning about art from anyone playing the game and the bizarre way learning is portrayed in the game. The other is choices that have been made in relation to this learning; someone, somewhere has decided this is what being ‘good’ at art looks like. The quote by Seth Godin “Learning is not done to you, it is something you choose to do” springs to mind so perhaps ‘Learning is Something You Choose’ is a nice reference to that. We could also turn to Socrates, “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” ‘Abandon the Vessel, Protect the Flame’ might be something to consider too. it’s on the list…

p.s we still don’t have any internet *crying emoji face*

t y i n g u p l o o s e e n d s

We’re still attempting to sort out the Internet in our new house and therefore having both Wi-Fi and the laptop with the blog posts is a rarity. But the good news is we’ve got the full package for the Brookes and Groves exhibition; managed to get a chair, side table, photo album and booked a photographer!

‘Digital Wasteland’ is coming along nicely too – we’ve collected all the content and stitched it together to generate one massive film. A favourite is Stuart Layton's 'Somewhere Between the Sublime and the Ridiculous' (linked >>>here<<<).

The group show with others from CSM is also looking like it might finally happen too – Bones and Pearl Gallery are free from the 28th-30th of October which should be perfect! We attended the opening of Peter Wächtler’s new solo show at Chisenhale Gallery. It’s always quite a decision to take a huge amazing space, such as Chisenhale Gallery, and only show one film projected onto a wall. We always approach these sorts of shows fairly gingerly since quite regularly it can be rather indulgent or unapologetic. These aren’t necessarily bad characteristics but exhibitions, which consider the viewer’s experience, tend to me more rewarding. The film itself is made through traditional cel animation, soundtracked by a rock and roll song. The animation depicts the central subject’s departure along a country road, set against a backdrop of moonlit landscapes. The protagonist’s repetitive stasis invokes an ambiguous relationship with acts of progress or withdrawal, as well as our own misplaced desires. The film hints towards this notion of leaving; the character in the film is walking away from the audience and then the song itself also speaks about leaving. A thoughtful aspect of the set-up that went along with this was that the film was being shown on a wall that was placed in the centre of the room. The film can only viewed from going around the wall to the back where it is being projected. This allows the viewer to not only to see the film but also the door from which they entered, and consequently they can have a double view of both the departing character on the wall and other visitors leaving the gallery.

John Cage’s exhibition at Frith Street Gallery ‘Lecture on the Weather’ is a fairly beautiful one, as per by our ol’ pal John. The show is owes itself to Henry David Thoreau and his famous book ‘Walden; or Life in the Woods’. John Cage was devoted to Henry David Thoreau and for ‘Lecture on the Weather’, Cage drew excerpts from Thoreau’s classic texts, which he then cast into a score using I Ching-derived chance operations; additionally, each score was intermittently graced with chance-determined fragments of Thoreau’s nature drawings, which were to be interpreted as music, in the manner of graphic notation. At the start, Cage delivers a softly polemic prelude, and when the readings and musical realisations commence, so also begins a slowly escalating weather soundscape created by Maryanne Amacher. The work culminates with a film by Luis Frangella: Thoreau’s elemental nature drawings, now stark white on black, simulating flashes of lightning on a dark and stormy night. All of the elements – speech, music, film, lighting, and weather – combine to create a stunningly sensorial experience. A lovely idea, produced in a thoughtful manner, again, as per.

r e t u r n o f t h e a r t i s t s

We’re back from our holiday and read some great stuff whilst away. The first of them was Ryan Gander’s ‘The Boy Who Always Looked Up’. Being a children’s book it carries certain childish connotations, however, this book is no less intelligent and carefully laid out than any other. It tells a story of a boy who befriends an architect. The Modernist architect Ernö Goldfinger and his Trellick Tower in London are strongly hinted at through the entire book which falls in line with Gander’s other works where he plays with notions of fiction.

Next up was ‘The Outsider’ which was pretty bizarre. The narrators matter-of-fact tone in which he talks about such emotive things such as love and sorrow gives the whole book such a creepy, nihilistic feel. The last of the novels was ‘Satin Island’ which we felt was a good lead on from Dave Eggers book ‘The Circle’. It has similar themes of technology and a future world (that maybe isn’t quite as far in the future as it may seem) but is maybe more mysterious and dark that ‘The Circle’; there are less characters and more ideas making it a more dense piece of writing. The man behind the famous ‘Pervert’s Guide to Cinema’, Slavoj Žižek, has a book titled ‘Demanding the Impossible’ which is made up of an interview with him. The book covers a crazy number of topics such as the uprisings of the Arab Spring, the global financial crisis, populism in Latin America, the rise of China and even the riddle of North Korea. He analyses Hollywood films, Venezuelan police reports, Swedish crime fiction and much else. He also explores possibilities for change as well as the current state of affairs. What sort of society is worth striving for? Why is it difficult to imagine alternative social and political arrangements? What are the bases for hope? A key obligation in our troubled times, argues Zizek, is to dare to ask fundamental questions: we must reflect and theorise anew, and always be prepared to rethink and redefine the limits of the possible. We weren’t in agreement with everything that he was talking about and he was quite absolute which we find concerning at times but you can’t argue that he has commitment.

‘What Money Can’t Buy’ is a frustratingly logical overview of the markets and how money can corrupt and permanently damage our views of potentially important ideas such as health, education and politics. Another one by Ryan Gander was ‘Ampersand’, a book which coincided with the opening of one of his exhibitions at The Palais de Tokyo in Paris. It consists of stories of a succession of disparate items, ranging from a mushroom knife to a worn blackboard to a pair of pyjama bottoms emblazoned with the ‘I LOVE NY’ logo. Each item is the subject of a brief description and a long essay that have been collected together in this book. Displayed in adjacent vitrines, these documents seem to reaffirm the relationship between the objects and their capacity to form a cohesive whole. It was a strangely voyeuristic feeling since it was a direct insight into Gander’s thought process.

Now that we’re back we’re all into preparing for our upcoming exhibitions. The 63Hz submissions are going well; got about 40 submissions so far which is just over half the content we need if we want to fill the 6 hour set without any repeats. We’ve also got the ‘Intimacy’ show with Brooks and Groves; we’ve purchased the photo album and just need a chair (which is in our sights) and a bedside table.