The Slade MA show was fairly fruitful this year. There was the classic case of ‘stuff that looks like art’. Because of the amount of space everyone has, they seem to throw everything and the kitchen sink into their show. This doesn’t allow for any subtlety, obviously this is a personal preference but it’s something we noticed all the same. It genuinely feels like they each get their own little mini solo show.
Some memorable points were Solveig Settemsdal, who won the Jerwood drawing prize for a beautiful underwater bubble video. They had produced a crazy archaeological investigation room. The best part of which was a giant, inflated dragon/dinosaur tale.
Another was Gray Wielebinski’s room which was a little over the top, so much crap just thrown into it; coloured liquid tower, a full wrack of lockers with all bits and bobs in them. However, we enjoyed the baseball cards and 3D figures and models.
Next, we had Leni Dothan who made these vessels/coffins. This is another weak spot of ours; coffins/grave stones or anything else things that symbolises death. It’s the feeling of the unknown and the fact that a life is reduced to a standardised box.
Something we initially weren’t too keen on due to its look was Mary Wintour’s work. it was a collection of objects/drawings/paintings/artefacts all to do with mountains. It felt like it was all about the relationship humans have with nature; brands and religion all try to build a persona that people can relate to.
Something we hadn’t seen in a while was Kimberley Beach’s selection of small chunky TVs which in our opinion should be banned…they’re annoying and pointless.
We’ve been thinking about a new work, it’s another idea for a film to add to the list. Perhaps it would be more effective as a list of film ideas in a book or something but it’s all in progress. We’ve been thinking about opening scenes or character intros. A television series that opens its story as well as any is Patrick McGoohan’s brilliant (if occasionally maddening), The Prisoner. We re-watched a number of these recently and greatly admire the creators for trusting the audience by using a 90 second opening with no dialogue. The images make clear what the series is about economically and cleverly. The next 90 seconds of the opening were substantially the same each week, but included some tailoring for the episode at hand. It’s an arresting and innovative way to begin telling a story and it has great background music as well.
