t h e p a s t i s t h e f u t u r e w i t h l i g h t s o n

It was the offline launch of the first isthisit? magazine the other day! It was hosted at serf in Leeds so we took a trip up and it was really well done. The show basically big prints of pages in the magazine as well as one scroll containing the whole thing. Other pieces in it were isthisit? merch' such as pens, a mug, a t-shirt and a hat. It was an exhibition that seemed serious on the outside but was very tongue in cheek if you know a little about the organisation. It was the first time that we have seen the magazine in the flesh and it truly looks amazing; beautifully bound, beautiful paper quality, just a lovely object. All in all a great show, looking forward to the second issue!

While Leeds we went over to the Henry Moore Institute and saw a superb show by Aleksandra Domanović. She had been invited to create new sculptures that respond to the building itself. What’s on show are a number of sculptures made in the tradition of Greek Korai, sculptural dedications of female figures that hold offerings. Three of Domanović’s figures hold animals and fruit – taking their cue from votive statues from the Sanctuary of Hera in Samos, Greece. But these once organic things are now mechanical in their appearance, and in no way are attempting to hide it. So there’s this clever combination of the past and the future, folding the aesthetic of classical sculpture into how developing technology relates to the societies that create it.

But our favourite work in show was definitely ‘Turbo Sculpture’, a moving image work underscoring the artist’s concern with the public life of sculpture. It looks into the emergence of a new kind of public art in the ex-Yugoslavia republics, which she defines in reference to ‘Turbofolk’, a popular style of music in the region, suggesting that these sculptures remain neutral in the turmoil of political disputes. But the strange things is that unlike war memorials, these public monuments do not refer to a common history of a specific site or occurrence; they are based, instead, on modern popular culture. Instead of war heroes, who would have been immortalised by classical monuments, local authorities now decide to eternalise Hollywood stars and heroes of the Western world in bronze. Bruce Lee, Johnny Depp, Rocky Balboa, and other film characters or public personae provide new points of identification for the community in place of celebrating national heroes, following the atrocities of war and the damaged reputations of political leaders. A very interesting work which actually taught us a lot!

Some good news in Dollspace land; we’re finally getting the first show together! It’s going to be a solo show by Bob Bicknell-Knight (click >>>here<<< so check out his previous works). His plan looks pretty fun, looking into some common themes of his work such as escapism and ideas of utopia.

Today is the final day of 3030 and it’s been excellent, as always! A great opportunity to make work in a new, different and fun way, every day! For our last work we’ve made a compilation of vloggers moaning about being artists and all the problems that they go through, including the price of paints, being asked to draw stuff for people and just not being very good in general. Enjoy!

a r t a r t e v e r y w h e r e a r t

We’ve had a couple of gallery days recently, plenty to recommend and some to condemn…

We’ve had a couple of gallery days recently, plenty to recommend and some to condemn…

Elliot Dodd has a show at the Zabludowics Collection called ‘The Manbody’. It’s an amazingly beautiful 4K digital film that borrows its stylistic structure from Hip Hop music and commercial promotional videos. One of our favourite aspects is one of the characters, who is wearing a remarkable camouflage jump suit, is immersed in playing a Playstation VR system throughout the entire film.

There’s another exhibition of photography works in the other section of the gallery titled ‘You Are Looking at Something That Never Occurred’; a great title that’s borrowed from a conversation between Jeff Wall and Lucas Blalock in which they argue for art that is experimental and mysterious. It’s fun to see some of the classics IRL – Cindy Sherman’s film stills, Andreas Gursky’s trade market photo.

The Serpentine Galleries have a couple of John Latham-based shows; one of which is of his own work and then the other, work which is extend and update Latham’s radical world view. The main show containing work of his own is incredibly dense which is to be expected when dealing with such massive ideas as time-based cosmology or a space-based framework of objects. Next we had Tania Bruguera, Douglas Gordon, Laure Prouvost, and Cally Spooner. Definitely a well curated show – undeniable that all these artists deal with language as a medium for action, exchange and disruption, in a similar fashion to Latham. It’s Laure Prouvost who pays the most tender (and perhaps our favourite) homage. A series of radiators with teabags lying on their grills is surely a fond reference to the time she spent in Latham’s studio-home as his assistant; her installation ‘End Her Is Story’ is melancholy and poetic.

Pi artworks has a group show with one work in particular which is almost hypnotising; a group of 11 canoers paddle round in a circle continuously, creating this shape in the water, marking some sort of fleeting territory. It made us think back to Song Dong’s performance where he attempts to print onto the surface of water, obviously with to no avail.

David Ferrando Giraut’s exhibition at Tender pixel was truly awesome! A 45 minute audio visual essay downstairs deconstructing the nature of image, sight and all things to do with triggering the visual parts of our brains; bringing art and capitalism together piece by piece. Not to mention the absolutely stunning 3D imagery which was spellbinding.

The work at Massimo De Carlo seemed quite decorative so we found it hard to care about whatever it stood for, but perhaps that’s because they had to stand up to a rather excessive praise by the artists (Paolo Pivi), suggesting that the works ‘stop the perception of time’…really? However, there was a funny room upstairs with a Polar bear sat at a desk in a way that makes you think it’s going to say ‘I’ve been expecting you’ when you step into the room.

Some very dull oil paintings at Timothy Taylor by Eddie Martinez a quote from the press release sums it up perfectly; ‘gestures are strong but also impulsive’, translation, he doesn’t know what he’s doing it anyway.

We saw a solo show at Carl Kostyal by Yu Honglei which was a number of videos and sculptural works dealing with the forms and objects of daily life.

Some unfortunate works by Annette Messenger at Marian Goodman, unfortunate because her work has impressed us in the past; her masked (‘The Pikes’) and sweatered (‘Le Repos des Pensionnaires’) birds have brought us much amusement. This selection didn’t seem nearly as considered and much more ‘art-like’.

Ryoji Ikeda has put together an incredible show at Almine Rech! The final room is just amazing; time, space and mathematics all condensed into nine thigh-high screens which spurt out endless reams of data – numbers, 3D grids, flickering patterns. Electronic blips fill the air, pops and hisses swirl past your ears. Ikeda is visualising unimaginable amounts of information. This is data that surrounds us, it’s in our computera, on our phones, in our minds and DNA, it’s the data that is the fabric of the universe. (a big thumbscribe from us)

Matt Collishaw’s new sculpture, installation and paintings at Blain Southern emerged from his interest in a theory about why humans make and display art. The central installation features a giant projected image of the Major Oak, a 1000-year-old oak tree in the centre of Nottingham’s Sherwood Forest that, according to local folklore, sheltered Robin Hood and his Merry Men. What is arguably the most famous tree in Britain has, since the Victorian times, been propped up by an elaborate series of crutches, chains and supports. Here, the tree is being analysed and portrayed in a very scientific manner, contradicting its mythical status in a funny sort of way; like looking for a soul with a microscope.

Fortunately, we are aware of how brilliant the shows are at Carroll Fletcher because if we were anyone else we wouldn’t have managed to see the show since we were met with a locked door on three separate occasions (none of which were mentioned on the website). We forgive and forget. The final installment of their 4 part show, ‘Looking at one thing and thinking of something else’ focuses in on the system that controls the art market. Always great to see Eva and Franco Mattes’ ‘Stolen Pieces’, a collection of tiny parts of various famous artworks. Really interesting critique of the ways art is produced, distributed and sold.

a r t a d v a n c e s

A couple of good bits of news to start the day is that our new work which is currently in production called 'Figures of late' is going to be featured in a show next month called Morguefest. The proposal fitted the brief perfectly (the exhibition is actually happening in a morgue) so we're happy to be able to present the work in such a great environment. The next good bit of news is that we got into the next Scaffold Gallery exhibition which is always exciting not only to be making some new work but also that the whole team over there are always great! The premise of this next exhibition is the exhibition itself, taking a look at its rich culture and history, and asking questions of its relevance today. We think the work we'll produce will be along a similar thread to previous pieces that attempt to almost sink into the gallery walls and become part of the idea of what it is to be an art gallery/exhibition. These include 'just ignore me', where we hire a photographer to document the private view and the photographs are then displayed for the duration of the exhibition; 'don't point, it's rude', where all the lights in the gallery are replaced by ones which are potentially hazardous for historical paintings; and 'The Tower of the Winds casts no shadow', which is a leaflet for a fictional commission for a new art work that would replace the fountains at the front of Central Saint Martins, installed in the University building. A few preliminary thoughts we've been having to the new work are about exploring the art exhibition as an event, challenging their role in society, how they function, the customs and behaviours of an opening night, and to provide a comment and critique. The show isn't for a couple of months but always good to the initial thoughts in. 

We were involved in a workshop today at Light Eye Mind gallery which was about creating relationships and then eventually an exhibition between current and soon-to-be Central Saint Martins Fine Art students. It was interesting to consider us now and then 3 years ago just finishing up foundation, still living at home...The workshop was very fun and interesting but once we got to the stage where we were to consider the exhibition everyone seemed to get very serious and we stopped being a big collection and returned to being individuals. Hopefully this will have subsided by the next session.

In other news there's a new podcast on the way where we've interviewed the director of The Museum of Portable Sound to see what that's all about! If you don't know what it is then we highly recommend you to check out their website >>>here<<< and book a visit, John Kanneberg is a very intelligent and lovely guy who will take you through it all.

k i d s m a k e t h e b e s t a r t

The work we’ve produced for 30/30 today is called 'while stocks last' and is an advert for nothing. It uses all the structure and language from an advert you would see for any product from a toilet brush to a laptop. It came out of us attempting to make something as minimal as possible, and what’s more minimal than nothing? Then the problem that all minimalists face; how can we depict this nothing. Inserting it into a world which already exists but doesn’t belong felt most appropriate - an awkward fit.

We're also developing a new work titled ‘Figures of late’ which comes in the form of a fictional eulogy written for us by a ghost writer about our life and untimely death. The eulogy is delivered by an actor alongside a stock photo that we occasionally use as a fictional representation. Viewers will hear a summary of fictional projects and artworks but in real situations such as a retrospective at Tate Modern. This is another work where we’re attempting to portray that artists are fabricators by design; like children inventing their future, artists bring things into the world that did not previously exist, whether its conceptual or physical. As the eulogy is delivered two ‘mourners’ will slowly drive a selection of black Scalextric cars around a track in the shape of a figure-of-eight. This procession will feature a miniature version of the our names in flowers, humorously pointing a finger at the ridiculous nature of the fictitious eulogy summarising two fictitious lives. Using toys and story telling (in the form of a eulogy) is an attempt to analyse the future using the tools one used as a child to explore and understand the world around themselves.

Another conceptual tangent that this work is heading down is considering the point of view of a child; the mysteries of adulthood boast a marvellous array of possibilities. At that stage in a person’s life one may be aware of the jobs an ‘adult’ is required to do, but can’t quite fathom the meaning of these actions nor the stress that may be placed upon the individual as a result of certain jobs requiring attention. Children mimic adults’ linguistic skills, their mannerisms and even their jobs by engaging in acts of play involving miniaturised and non-harmful versions of real life objects attached to these jobs. Tiny plastic kitchen sets with fake fruit and vegetables, remote-control or Scalextrics cars and small plastic babies that allow the child to act as a parent. Very little of this process accurately mimics the realities of the ‘adult-world’, but from the point of view of a child’s imagination they are fulfilling a critical aspect of adulthood. The vast expanse of unknown that stretches out before them is filled up with fictions that they create for themselves. Children are hugely interesting for all these reasons, they possess the most creative and uninhibited minds; if you put a child and an adult in a gallery and ask them to talk about an artwork, the adult won’t say anything or they’ll say very little other than stating the obvious. It’s for fear of saying the wrong thing. The child will be honest and instinctive with a far more interesting answer.

a r t a n d a n a e r o p l a n e

We took a long weekend in Budapest and managed to squeeze seeing some art into our (totally not) busy schedule. Gábor Koós had a solo show at Chrimera-Project Gallery which was nearly interesting but felt like it was trying to hard to be ‘art’. As always with this sort of thing, not a crime by any means, just not a goal for our own art making and it’s always fun to feel aspirational when viewing art. For the exhibition he had been experimenting with an empty factory that he had then morphed into the gallery space. The morphing is executed via a huge scale rubbing which technique enables the artist to map the factory space bit by bit, he literally unfolds the space element by element and reinstalls the resulting material in the gallery space structure. Taking a look at his former body of work we became aware of this being sort of his ‘thing’; reproducing objects and creating copies with a high degree of authenticity. This familiarity is something we find slightly problematic it feels a bit too comfortable, very safe. But to say something positive it does have ties to very interesting ideas such as Walter Benjamin notion of the “aura” and how, with this particular space, it is dislocated and reproduced within the white cube setting of Chimera-Project Gallery. The press release suggested that Koós creates a reproduction, that is able to unveil and create new qualities that were not visible but were growing out of true elements in the structure of the original. It goes on to talk about the installation providing a better understanding and new conclusions regarding the inventive and questionable relation of the original, the reproduction. These are all interesting points but the work doesn’t really fill the big boots that these words have build for them. If the work is about transporting a building into a new environment, why is there no consideration as to how this might occur? The artist is just using a pre-existing formula to solve a new equation.

Today’s work we made for 30/30 came in the form of a film. As you can see below, there is a news headline banner that’s scrolling across the front of the screen with all number of things coming up on it. This is every idea that we have in our ideas list, the very first place that some insignificant thought goes before it goes into a slightly higher level of production. These can be phrases, sentences, and sometimes just single words. This work is about our focus on these things (ideas), over the physical, materialism that the ideas live in (objects). however , we do not reject the objects in the way that heavily conceptual artists might, we embrace them as powerful tools in their own right, they must be used in collaboration with each other to gain the full effect. We’ve been trying to making something out of these ideas for a while, we thought about making a book of proposals or just making the list as an on going work but this feels like an interesting way to use them. They go so fast through the screen that they become almost meaningless, almost like a stream of unconscious thought which is why they need to be embodied by a vehicle in order to communicate themselves effectively. The thinking about the news headlines is that they are very fleeting; they disappear just as quickly as they emerge and are never thought of again.

a r t e v e r y d a y

The Digital Artist Residency is over! It was a really great experience and we would recommend everyone applies! We spoke about this part of the way through but it is truly interesting how a work with a set up but not a real goal develops over time and genuinely surprises you at times. It makes us think twice about the durational performance works in which nothing is really planned but just set up. However, it is only the idea of allowing something to play out that we’re thinking about; the notion that you just want to ‘see where the space takes you’ as opposed to actually considering what you might do continues to baffle us.

It’s now the 4th day of 12ø collective’s 30/30 project where artists involved generate a work every day during the month of April. Our first work was a film about thinking and ideas and was the product of a conversation we had a while ago about where those things (things and ideas) manifest. During the conversation we discussed how it’s all but impossible to sit down and just have an idea and even if you do manage to get any blood out of that rock it’s going to be low quality. Instead to landed on ideas coming from experience and opening your eyes to the world around you and the overlooked benefits of just going for a walk or sitting in the park. So the film is basically a script about day dreaming or looking out of the window and how this can be beneficial. After producing it we came across an article with a quote by Ryan Gander who agrees with us (or maybe we agree with him?) saying that ‘ideas come in the car’.

The next work was also a film but more down the storytelling/mystery line of thinking; it was an almost still shot of a corridor from which a muffled argument could be heard. Small details were occasionally recognisable but never a full sentence, allowing the audience or viewer to create their own narrative.