3 D p r i n t i n g i s c o o l

Got a test done to see how the 3D printed origami unicorn would turn out and it looks great! Definitely going to proceed with the work, perhaps do a couple more tests to see what sizes would be best.

p e t i t e p r o p p r o g r e s s

We’ve made some more movements with regards to the work about small props within cinema and the value/symbolism they hold. The work will be reproductions (3D printed) of props connected by a sprue and runner system (similar to scale-model kits). There will be several sprues with specific props within each; they will either be related by concept or physicality. By reducing them to the same material they will become shadows of their original forms. The films these objects originate from are a stylized fantasy, constructed by airbrushing reality into a narrow and illusory ideal of perfection. Therefore, by rendering them in grayscale resin they’ve been stripped back to only communicating their narrative importance within the film. There’s a great quote which sums up part of our thinking “We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates… Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.” In Praise of Shadows, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki 

In terms of the different sprues, an example of a conceptual link would be small props which are all about the nature of reality; the totems in inception (the spinning top, chess piece, die, and poker chip), the small origami figures in Blade Runner (unicorn, chicken, matchstick man), the business cards in American Psycho. A physical link would be keys from films; The Mondoshawan Tomb Key (The Fifth Element), The Hatch Key (Lost), The Copper Bones Key (The Goonies), The Key to Erebor (The Hobbit), The Key to Dead Man’s Chest (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest), The Meerschaum Pipe (National Treasure), The Winged Keys (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone), The Fleur De Lis Bank Key (The Da Vinci Code), and The Key to Zathura (Zathura).

m o r e y o u t u b e r s b e i n g y o u t u b e r s

We’ve come back to a couple of ideas we had a while ago (when we were in New York so around 3 years ago). The first is to make a video of a YouTuber presenting their college portfolio. It’s a fairly touchy subject as the original videos are only kids talking about something they enjoy doing, so we don’t want to appear like big bullies making fun of teenagers. However, the videos are hilarious and are a very identifiable slice of contemporary teenagers; 99% of the work is painting and a high percentage of those paintings are self-portraits where they have chosen to depict themselves as far more muscular/good-looking/generally more attractive than they appear in the video. Due to the reasons we’ve already laid out, this will most likely need to be original content as opposed to a found footage film. It would be similar to the apology video and the Mandela Effect video; develop a character and a script by watching as many videos as we can find on the subject and insert some of our own material into it. We could also get portraits of the actor made in similar styles to those of the original videos. 

The other idea is about college professors reviewing college portfolios (for money!) on YouTube. We’re not sure how this might manifest itself but it’s definitely another strange slice of the art on YouTube. At one point, we were going to send our own work in to be reviewed but now aren’t too sure if that’s what we’re interested in. Perhaps it could be another character in the YouTuber universe and we could make the video from scratch using an actor and fictionalised paintings or a new specific body of work but it doesn’t feel right yet. Need to let it simmer for a little longer.

p a i n t i n g i s t h e n e w b l a c k

This week we've listened to a podcast which gave us some unexpected ideas. It's called Everything is Alive and it's unscripted interview show in which all the subjects are inanimate objects. It's an excellent idea for a podcast (wish we'd thought of it!) And the episode we listened to was an interview with a painting. He's a painting of President William Howard Taft, but for us it was more the idea or concept of a painting. Throughout the interview the painting says all sorts of amazing stuff such as "no one ever looks at me, just was I'm depicting" - a very astute observation. At one point the interviewer even attempts to draw the painting and ends up drawing Taft instead (much to the painting's frustration). 

It gave us a whole bunch of ideas (some more fleshed out than others) but all of them were to do with painting. The initial ideas we had were about the personification of a painting; what does a painting see. The work would then be paintings from the view of the subjects in the paintings, produced in the style of the paintings themselves. Another idea around this theme was paintings of moments that happen around famous paintings. Subjects within paintings must observe huge political decisions being made. The podcast also discussed unfinished and stolen paintings, the most famous being the unfinished painting of George Washington. Our idea was then to commission someone to paint only unfinished portion of the painting on a canvas the same size as the original.

The part about stolen/missing artworks made us think about painting the spot where Barbara Hepworth sculpture was stolen from; the work would appear like a generic landscape painting but would in fact be a painting of absence. On a similar note, we wanted to make some frames that have Windowlene cream on the glass (similar to windows of buildings that are getting redecorated) and the frame is same dimensions as particular stolen artworks. We also wanted to make something about the queue to see space where Mona Lisa was stolen from. The Louvre was, unintentionally, exhibiting the first conceptual installation in the history of art: the absence of a painting.

Some more general painting ideas were to commission portraits of us and then use the paintings to commission another and so on and eventually the image will deteriorate. We also wanted to produce some paintings of locations/scenes within films that are about reality. The dream locations/sets in Inception, biblical boat journey in The Truman Show, girl with the red dress scene The Matrix. 

A very early idea is also to reproduced the fictional painting from. The Grand Budapest Hotel titled Boy with Apple. Fun going down the rabbit hole a bit with this - hopefully some of them get all the way to made!

i n t i m a t e f i l m p r o p s

The studio is now finished! For the time being anyway, it’s now definitely a work space as opposed to a space to work in. It’s quite bizarre how it changes your attitude to making; suddenly you’ve got all these ideas that you could work on slowly and not need to rush them in one or two days. Having a studio enables you to just chip away at work and it doesn’t get in the way of your life. safe to say, we’re enjoying it! 

Now, speaking of work, we’ve been thinking more about certain objects in cinema and the value/symbolism those things hold. From working on the chess video (still in progress) we began thinking about the different chess sets in film and how the small differences in the pieces have significance within the story. The relationship between the players and the pieces is very close due to the scale; they are constantly looking down at them and pick them up and hold them in their hands – it’s very intimate. This caused us to think of other intimate, smaller objects within cinema, ones that still carry a lot of narrative weight but don’t necessarily steal focus (e.g. the ring in lord of the rings). Some that we thought were most significant were the totems in inception (the spinning top, chess piece, die, and poker chip), the small origami figures in Blade Runner (unicorn, chicken, matchstick man), the blue box in Mulholland Drive, the business cards in American Psycho. 

This particular selection of props are ones which are all about the nature of reality. In Inception, the characters use the objects to make sure they’re not still dreaming; in Blade Runner Gaff uses origami to taunt Deckard by subtly referring to Deckard as an intricate fake; 

in Mulholland Drive the blue box represents the repressed memories and awareness of reality that Diane must seal away in order to construct her fantasy world; and in American Psycho the business cards are a physical nod to Patrick Bateman’s minimal grip on reality – all the business cards are identical with only slight variations in the texture of the paper stock and the font lettering yet with each new font, colour, embossment, he shudders and squirms with inadequacy. 

We had some thoughts to 3D print some of these, the origami and the totems especially but haven’t done so yet. Part of me thinks I should just do it and see what it’s like and potentially it’ll help with whatever needs to happen next…The blue box and its associated key brought on more thoughts of keys in films and we’ve got a big list below:

Alice in Wonderland Key, The Mondoshawan Tomb Key (The Fifth Element), The Kingdom Key (Kingdom Hearts), The Hatch Key (Lost), The Copper Bones Key (The Goonies), The Cupboard Key (Indian in the Cupboard), The Secret Garden Key, The Key to Erebor (The Hobbit), The Key to Dead Man’s Chest (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest), The Meerschaum Pipe (National Treasure), The Winged Keys (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone), The Fleur De Lis Bank Key (The Da Vinci Code), Cinderella’s Key (Cinderella), The Golden Scarab Beetle (Aladdin), Hellboy’s Arm (Hellboy), The Hunt for Red October Key, Kida’s Crystal (Atlantis: The Lost Empire), The Silver Key (The Silver Key), The Skeleton Key (The Skeleton Key), The Staff of Ra (Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark), and The Key to Zathura (Zathura). 

We had a thought that reproducing these and having them on a big key ring or in a bowl or left in a plinth of ledge would feel more complete but that’s only in the very initial stages.

c h e s s i n t h e m o v i e s

Working on a new film which is basically clips of people getting 'check mate' in films. Chess is a very versatile game and can have many meanings when brought into a film. The most common use is for an analogy, usually to associate something with patience or precision (see Independence Day, 1996). It can also be used to show a character’s intelligence (see 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968), or a battle between two people (see Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, (2011). Another popular use is to illustrate a person’s sacrifice (see Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 2001). You can also allow the chess pieces themselves to serve as metaphors for what’s happening in the film (see X-Men, 2000). And sometimes it can even do all these at once (see The Wire: Season 1, Episode 3, 2002).

m a k i n g s o m e c h a n g e s

We’ve been thinking a lot about the point of this blog and there have been a few times in the recent months that it’s felt more like a chore than a purposeful activity. This is probably because we feel it’s necessary to post every week and we had a specific idea of what we thought was necessary/important to post. We’re in the process of re-assessing these parameters; we’re now going to be posting about any ideas (big or small) regardless of whether or not they’re going to make it into the full-fledged artwork category. We hope that this will keep our ideas fresh and the art-making part of our brains sharp. These might be single lines of text or a bunch of bullet points but it will encourage us to use the space as a sketchbook – making notes and building on ideas. It could also be a single YouTube video or image we’ve seen that is accompanied by the reason we find it noteworthy. Let’s see how it goes…

s t u d i o u p d a t e

The studio is going well! We’ve got all our stuff moved in and we’ve taken up the carpet and started painting the floor. Hopefully we’ll be able to take out the built-in cupboards so we’ve got more room. More progress pics to come...

m o v i n g o n w a r d s a n d u p w a r d s

Big news is that we’ve finally got a studio! It’s part of the artist studio company in Brixton shared with a couple of friends. Feels very exciting to have somewhere to go to make stuff or just to have meetings or whatever we want! Onwards and upwards…

s p e c t a c l e f o r s p e c t a c l e ' s s a k e

Went to see that Anne Imehof performance at the Tate and it was mad! So much going with so much spectacle involved; pouring bags of sugar onto each other from heights, throwing cans of larger around, setting things on fire. I enjoyed it for the same reasons I like the fast and furious franchise – it’s pure spectacle. I’m not sure if this makes it good art or not, in the same way that the fast and furious films aren’t necessarily great works of cinema. However, I do find them entertaining and I can’t deny that – the story is weak (and that’s being kind) and the characters are as 2 dimensional as they come but it’s not why I watch them. I don’t want all the films/art I see to be like this and it’s not a product that I want to be involved in making but it’s definitely something I enjoy in the moment.

w h i s p e r i n g c a n b e l o u d

Visited Cell Projects for the two person show by Rosa Aiello and Patricia L. Boyd titled ‘Join’. As its title suggests, the work in the exhibition is preoccupied with connections and overlapping structures, be they material, political or simply thresholds between different spaces. On opening the door into the gallery, Rosa Aiello’s ‘Untitled (Blasey Ford)’ begins with an edited segment of the recent sexual assault testimony of Christine Blasey Ford. Very jarring and shocking but being forced to listen intently to content of this nature makes you think about it differently. Stripped away of all reference to the perpetrators, the audio becomes a list of interior spaces: “the stairwell, the living room, the bedroom … in close proximity”. Mimicking the female voices and interactions of smart-home devices such as Alexa and Google Home, this quietly powerful invitation not only heightens the drama of entering a new interior; but foregrounds the power structures and gender relations that pervade these room typologies. Objects are hacked, re-cast or transfigured to subvert their original function throughout the exhibition. Opposite Aiello’s work is Patricia L Boyd’s ‘Treatment’, an industrial fan that has been manipulated to run at a slow, functionless speed. Directly facing the viewer on entering the space, its presence is ominuous, a droning hum promising a return to full speed that never arrives. Works such as ‘Aeron Armrest I-XII’ instead take negative casts of chairs and turn-table feet, using organic materials such as restaurant grease to disrupt the clean industrial forms of the cast objects themselves. The whole show had a very concise feel; everything was of a high production value and fitted together well.

n o l a n e p o l i c y

Got some hi-res images of the signs, perhaps a little too hi-res but they still look good! Ideally, we would like them to be hung at 7ft (minimum height road signs in UK can be hung) and only one per wall. Hopefully at some point we can get some images that reflect this.

g a l l e r y t u r n e d n i g h t c l u b

Finally managed to see Patrick Goddard at Seventeen and it did not disappoint! As you walk down the stairs of there’s a sign that warns of an uneven floor. The first room has an underground club-like feel, though illuminated with the type of UV lighting as a way to deter intravenous drug use. It’s hard to move without apprehension: the entire gallery floor is paved with highly uneven bricks. These concrete blocks are not a statement on what art is, or can be, in the manner of Carl Andre. Goddard’s blocks create a sense of potentially dangerous disorientation and recall the hostile architecture used in many cities to prevent the homeless from sleeping rough. This sense of unease is further accentuated by the black and white slides from London Zoo that are being projected on the gallery’s dark walls: the close-ups of the animals, the serene lake and the happy family shots convey a selective nostalgia that is violently interrupted by pounding “Drill” music that bleeds in from the next room. In the second exhibition gallery and still walking on deterrent bricks, one is confronted with a life-size projection of the artist, irreverently dancing. Frustration, imploding anger, nihilism, exhaustion. Stylistically inconsistent and conceptually unflinching, Patrick Goddard’s works match our incongruent lives and reflect urban culture today. In modern cities where landscape, language and emotions are monitored, mediated and controlled, how can one smash the system without being smashed? Real Estates, the title of the exhibition, refers to the world around us and our present state of being, but also extends to our state of mind. And although modern-day utopias are easily dismissed as nostalgic reverberations, the author, the artist – any artist – can still fantasise about them. And then be the one to deliriously shatter them.

p o l i t i c a l w i t h a b i g p

We’ve got some new work in the pipeline for an exhibition in Coventry. The work is set in an alternative future within which the citizens have united post-Brexit and have made great strides into healing the wounds caused by the current government. Community Unions comprised of local people are plentiful, giving previously muted individuals a voice within their communities, these unions have power locally, however, the government will only accept their decisions as advisory. Try as they might the community unions have only ever managed to change and alter local policy; the power to influence major and international policy still remains within the clutches of the current failing government. Throughout the turmoil following Brexit, the government somehow managed to cling to power. With drastically low opinion polls for both major parties, their reputation lays in tatters and their decision making remains hugely undermined by their performance throughout the immediate, post-Brexit financial crisis. Bailed out by the public, both financially and by innovative policies generated through the hard work of the Community Unions, the current government has taken the decision to make colossal structural change throughout the country. 

After intense lobbying and analysis of focus groups, the current government has taken the decision that, in order to achieve a similar level of equality as generated by the Community Unions, they must reduce the level of bureaucracy present in the current climate. Under pressure to deliver and implement this policy before the 2022 General Election, they rush out their ‘No Lanes, No Lines’ policy. A decree that orders local councils to take steps to remove the “Lanes and Lines that divide our society”, this includes but is not limited to: all road markings (road users can drive on any side of the road that suits them), lanes at local swimming pools, all markings on sports pitches, and queuing in general, to name just a few. 

The work itself comprises of three designs for a selection of fictitious road signs issued by the government as part of the implication of their ‘No Lanes, No Lines’ policy. These signs will be the exact dimensions as the current UK road signs and (if there is space in the gallery) hung at 7ft; the minimum height road signs are instructed to be installed by UK law. Whilst working as a satire of the government’s misunderstanding of the general public opinion’s it suggests that nobody really knows which direction we are heading in, surprisingly, not even the people in charge.

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

This week we finished reading a book about the highly popular TV show Friends. It’s called ‘I'll Be There for You: The one about Friends’ and it’s the definitive retrospective of Friends, exploring all aspects of the show from its unlikely origins to the elusive reasons why we still watch it. The author Kelsey Miller is a journalist and pop culture expert and relives the show's most iconic moments, analyses the ways in which Friends is occasionally problematic and examines the many trends it inspired, from the rise of coffee-shop culture to Friendsgivings to the ultimate 90s haircut, the Rachel. Weaving incisive commentary, revelatory interviews and behind-the-scenes anecdotes involving high-profile guest stars, it’s the most comprehensive take on Friends. We would really like to use the new knowledge from the book to make some art about friends. There are some obvious issues, the first being that it’s so important to so many people, secondly that it’s such a massive symbol and therefore carries so much meaning if it’s appropriated. We’ll continue thinking about it and see what comes up. Our initial thoughts are about the side characters, extras, and sets that make this fictional world so believable and comforting. Another thing we were considering was the archetypal nature of the characters and how the audience relate to each of them for different reasons.

w e ' r e g o i n g o n a n a r t h u n t

Headed round to some exhibitions this week starting with Rachel Rose at Pilar Corrias. Some incredible lenses are positioned on a lovely carpeted floor, with a film being the main focus of attraction. The film appears like a fairly big project, multiple actors all in full period costumes. Even with these intricate details the film falls a little flat, we weren’t really sure what it was about or how it related to the lenses. Always appreciate a carpeted floor though… 

Next up was Andy Holden at the Cinema Museum. It’s a pretty exciting place – so much film paraphernalia all around. The film on show is his masterpiece ‘Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape’ which examines the formation of ‘laws’ within cartoons as a way of making sense of the world we are now within, a space where anything could potentially happen. It’s made from hundreds of cartoons clips and adopts a part-lecture, part-documentary, part-conspiracy theory tone, with the artist rendered as a cartoon avatar in order to narrate his theory. Some of our favourite laws are “Everything falls faster than an anvil” and “Anybody suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation”, and these are mixed with Greek myths, philosophy, politics, physics and the history of animation to create an hour long exploration of the world as an irrational space where anything can happen, yet certain things reoccur, and in which a new set of Laws have formed. We’ve now seen it a handful of times and it get better every time. 

Then we had ‘Subversive Stitch’ at TJ Boulting. Taking its name from Art Historian and prominent feminist Rozsika Parker’s 1984 book and 1988 touring exhibition ‘The Subversive Stitch – Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine’, it presentsa variety of textile-based artworks. Spanning the mediums of embroidery, weaving, tapestry, clothing and sculpture, it builds upon the rich history of the previously disregarded craft, considered a purely feminine and domesticated preoccupation until the twofold influence of both the Arts and Craft movement and the Suffrage movement, of the late 19th and early 20th century respectively, co-opted and subverted the medium, bringing it to the forefront of avant garde artistic practice. In contemporary art textile work retain that forward-thinking aesthetic, imbued with political, cultural and innovative touchstones usually associated with more traditional mediums. It was a really tight show, very beautiful and well-made objects with a consistent theme. 

Finally, we had isthisit? taking over Harlesden High Street for the 6th issue of their book which was all about fake news. As always it was a really diverse show, paintings, sculptures, videos and algorithms – there’s plenty to get your teeth stuck into. A work that stuck out was the fictional newspaper by Frank Wasser which depicts an alternative future where trump is assassinated. Overall a great show with so many exciting artists.

c o n d o p a r t 0 2

It’s the final week to catch the remainder of the condo shows so we ran around as many as possible. Pilar Corias was first on the list and as you enter you get Ken Okiishi a personal solo show composed by installation, video and photographs concerning the artist’s meditation on his childhood. All their childhood possessions are in boxes that fill the gallery floor. It’s actually a very hard hitting show and made us think about identity and how having such a mixed and complex one might make you feel like you have no true home. 

For Condo, the gallery’s basement had a film by artist duo Felix Bernstein & Gabe Rubin all about gender, transgender and queerness. With such over the top costumes it’s impossible not to think about Rachel Maclean. 

Sadie Coles has some boring sculptures and some even more boring paintings. 

Arcadia Missa’s new space is so incredibly small. The busts are fairly horrible but was fun to have a glittery floor. 

Rodeo had a huge, immersive and site-specific exhibition by Adriano Amaral. Reminded us a lot of old sci-fi films which is never bad but the sculptures were a bit too much. 

Southard Reid was quite bland but funny to see Bedwyr Williams’ mocking ink drawings that we’ve been seeing on Instagram for so long now. 

Finally, we had Cork Street hosting Koppe Astner, Project Native Informant, Mother’s Tankstation and Dan Gunn. The only work which we actually enjoyed in the building was ‘XOXO, Safety Net’ by DIS Collective. The video imagines Serena and Blair embracing a different sort of safety net, namely, socialism, in between checking their gold Motorola phones. It also features an ersatz Gossip Girl cast delivering socialist wisdom like “Workers should benefit from the surplus value they create,” and “Tax income from property, not labour,” and “End inheritance, bring back the death tax.” 

And some good news, we got into the next bf film festival which is going to be held in Leeds and again shown at SET in Dalston! We’re going to be showing ‘Story Time with Mr. Orange’ and it’s nice to have the piece show as it was made about a year ago ad since it was before the degree show it kind of got a bit swallowed by the process.