w h o w i l l b e n e x t

We went to the RCA show at Battersea which is always an exciting one since these should be the next generation of big artist who will go on to be super successful (however that might be defined). 

One of our highlights was The Idle Institute, made up of Sonia Bernac and Eliot Allison, who had produced ‘The Itches: A Gym for Public Embarrassments’. It’s a series of objects about confronting, preparing, or assisting in social situations. Examples includes a machine for forcing your way through the crowd using the ‘elbow-hip’ method, or a machine for the practice of half-opening your mouth during a conversation. Very clever and funny. 

Another highlight was Mati Jhurry who produced a film which was a supercut of multiple spa welcome videos. It was dealing with the idea of the image of paradise. The tourism and hospitality industry really invest in this vision of utopia and it made us think and stuck with us. The set-up didn’t seem to have much logic to it but we’re only being picky because we enjoyed it!

w h i t e c h a p e l o p e n o r c l o s e d ?

We visited the Whitechapel Open exhibition this week which we have mixed feelings about. The show is a paid open call which feels weird for a publicly funded gallery but maybe that’s just us… The show itself was pretty great, our favourite work being Larry Achiampong’s Relic Traveler 1 which features an individual roaming across desolate sites uncovering fragments of audible data presenting clue-like testimonies to a forgotten Empire. They then find themselves in an atmosphere that simultaneously delivers poetic moments of the sublime met with increasingly harrowing claustrophobia and tales of trauma. It results in a familiar feeling of otherness, we are invited on a journey that embodies hysteria. 

Was excellent to see Richard Healy’s film again from his show at Tenderpixel which was all about magic and the tension between stasis and transformation. If you haven’t seen it we would highly recommend you seek it out; it shows a succession of interconnected architectural spaces, whilst following the path of a fictional narrator – half architect, half shaman – who explores his self-erected environment through a series of sexual encounters.

d e g r e e s h o w s e a s o n c o n t i n u e s

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.

l i b r a r y s t o r i e s

We’ve been looking into residencies/graduate opportunities and have been tipped off about a residency in Ipswich library. At first this may sound dull but when we think about the potential it becomes very exciting. It’s only a small proposal and it’s a good exercise to get into. Our initial thoughts would be something to do with the books themselves and how they can be a vehicle to tell a story. Something we love in when you buy a second-hand book and find a note inside. Whether it’s a shopping list or a love letter, it gives you a small insight into the person who had the book before you. This could then join up with other notes and stories that all contribute to an overall narrative. It’s only in its initial stages of thought and we’ve got about a week to think about it but it would be great to have a digital reference point too, so that people could perhaps input their pieces of the story. We’re thinking that it’s similar to Millicent Place with a real-world grounding.

w e l c o m e t o t h e r e a l w o r l d

The degree show is now completely non-existent. We took it to pieces and then threw the whole thing in the skip. It’s a strange but pleasurable experience to destroy something which you’ve spent so much time and energy on. More people should probably go through this process to teach them not to be so precious about stuff. We remember in first year where they try to get you into that sort of headspace by getting you to make loads of work and not worrying about the consequences. However, the real test is if you can spend literally hundreds of pounds on making something for it only to exist for 6 days. Not that people shouldn’t keep stuff or be proud of what they’re produced. But sometimes it may have served its purpose and it becomes a burden. Our practice and work is potentially much more suited to a commission/residency style; meaning that we really enjoy producing site-specific/experiential art and this means it generally doesn’t have a life outside of that context. This is definitely something to think about moving forward as we have to work out how to exist as artists. We don’t make beautiful objects that people want to hang on their wall or have in their garden, but that’s only one of many avenues to go down. 

Speaking of working out how to be artists, we’re in the process of putting together our application for a studio. Unfortunately, due to the number of applications they’re going to receive, what you’re allowed to send in is quite restrictive; only 5 images with no context other than your answers to 3 questions about what you think you’ll gain from the programme. There are only 8 places and due to being a collaboration we will take up 2 spaces (something we don’t necessarily fully understand and must be due to fire safety etc.). This will either work in our favour, we’re clearly open to working in a shared space, or not because we take up the space of two people but are technically one artist. Either way, we’ll just move on to another place if it doesn’t work out so it’s not the end of the world.

t h e f a t l a d y h a s f i n a l l y s u n g

Our degree how private view was the other night and went really well! lots of people enjoying the mascots and lots of people asking about the 4th floor! This meant we were also able to go round and look at the work of our peers. The first work of interest was Lenny Watson’s piece Trouble in Clubland where she tells the story of live music venues closing down and nightlife culture relocating to small-scale and domestic environments. It’s told through a screen recording of someone searching through YouTube and taking you on a journey through other material. It’s an nicely relative way of using found footage – as opposed to just cutting them together seamlessly, you see the search and the jumps to related videos. You also see that it’s 1.32am when these are being searched for. The environment is key too; a sofa surrounded by the chaos of empty beer cans and cigarette ends. It all contributes to a picture of a group of people sitting around watching/sharing YouTube videos, chatting about what’s happened to the club scene. 

Chloe Abrahams made an exceptionally good film about acting and reality and the lines between them. Needless to say, it was right up our street and we were so excited to feel so manipulated and confused by a work; we continued to think about it much after we left the show, running bits of dialogue through in our heads. The setup was Chloe and her sister were having a conversation, sometimes you could tell they were reading from a script but you weren’t sure if that script was made for/by them or it was a conversation they had overheard or made with someone else. That line of thought is just the tip of the iceberg. We can’t wait to see more of her stuff in the future. 

Connie Search made a discussion between two slide projectors about becoming obsolete. Each slide was another sentence of dialogue, a bit of a one liner but funny all the same. 

Kana Ikezawa was showing some photographs (or potentially videos) on side-by-side screens. We’ve heard Kana speak before about her work and she displays photos of monitors because people expect things to move. A piece of paper will be dismissed but we expect TV screens to display moving images. 

Emma Clayton made a film about falling from great heights which was positioned on a back to back TV screens suspended from the roof, viewable from the second-floor bridge. The film was strangely hypnotic, perhaps due to the excellent positioning. 

Billy Sassi started a bowling team called The Bad Boy Bowlers. His work is made up of merchandise, trophies, framed team photographs, and a documentary. It’s all set up like the domestic shrine of an amateur sporting enthusiast. It’s very thorough and planned, it all fits very snug together. 

Elliot Hewgill’s film brings previously unfeeling cables to life. Personified with a demon-like voice we hear about the frustrations of the life hacker who wants all their cables neat and tidy using paper clips or specially constructed desks. The cable drawing is a really great touch, we always enjoy when people are able to incorporate the essential elements of an installation into their work. 

Campbell McConnell has managed to increase the production of his usual bizarre performances to bring us a Roman table tennis tournament complete with singing assistants and a procession of a cardboard Trojan Horse. Truly insane. 

Finally, there’s Sophie Popper’s incredible audio guide which takes you on a rhyming journey down the main exhibition space, discussing the potential conversations that might occur while viewing the work on display. It’s both very fun and comical but also delivers thoughtful critique. Taking the platform of the degree show and running with it. It’s been a good 4 years, we’ve all done pretty well.

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

Made a venture over to Tate Modern to see some new additions to the tanks, unfortunately the most anticipated work (Jordan Wolfson’s giant animatronic puppet) was closed for maintenance. However, we did still get to see Joan Jonas and Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno’s project No Ghost Just a shell. Joan Jonas was a little busy for us; lots of energy and curiosity, you can tell she runs with her intuition, unabashed and unafraid to see where things will go. Nothing really moved us, and often her art seems like a grand exercise in misdirection. Who is Joan Jonas, and where is she? Drawing lines in the sand, a shadow on the beach grass. We weren’t convinced.

No Ghost Just a Shell however is something we’ve been aware of for a while, ever since seeing an aspect of it at a show at Zabludowicz some time ago. The basic idea is that Huyghe and Parreno purchased the cartoon character AnnLee from a Japanese manga company and this then lead to a succession of pieces beginning with a poster designed by M/M, followed by films made by Parreno, Huyghe, and other big artists such as Liam Gillick and Rirkrit Tiravanija. It brings up all these exciting questions about the status of the image, of representation, of beings in the world of the character, and on the very polyphony of the work. It was great to see so many aspects of the work in one space. 

We also went to the Slade degree show opening which was fun and informative. We always find that it ends up being lots of stuff that looks like art which is mostly always the way at a degree show but specifically with Slade and Goldsmiths. It’s all very well made and looks like the inside of an art gallery in a cartoon. However, there was still a number of works we picked up on, the first being a beautiful animation by Frederick Freebury Williams.

Shenece Oretha had made an entire room into her work in a very precise way; the space was a round room painted orange room with speakers all around the outside pointing in. You could hear all different voices telling different stories. Really well produced, intentional work. 

Milan Tarascas was doing a performance where he was playing some sculptures/musical instruments. The objects looked like to love child a Henry Moore and a guitar. Quite amazingly strange creations. They were being played by Milan and some additional performers/musicians. They were all wearing these plain robes which were also quite fascinating. It felt like the performance version of ‘things that look like art’ – it’s always difficult for us to get our heads round the artistic licence of the way a work looks since we tend to go down a fairly logical route.

Finally we had Kara Chin who had gone all out on their work about basil. The room was full of stuff from giant wall to floor wooden frames to pots of basil growing under lights. Our favourite aspect was a beautiful mechanised cog which brought a blind up and down by just continuously turning. For us could have a work on its own; an empty room with blackout blinds going up and down but obviously this is a different work for another day.