Landings

Tonight we visited the Minerva Cuevas preview show at the Cornerhouse. 'Landings' included instillations, projections, videos and wall paintings. Through these mediums the artist explored the relationship between nature  and man. Using old magic lantern projectors with glass slides gave the scientific research an old cinematic value. http://www.cornerhouse.org/art/art-exhibitions/minerva-cuevas-landings   

Work and Leisure at Manchester City Gallery

We attend the opening night of Mark Leckey's newest performance piece at the Manchester City Gallery. It was based around his ideas of mixing sound and sculpture, the sculpture he used was a steam press loaned by Ellenroad Engine House.  This was our first encounter with a performance piece and we felt very engaged as we observed the mix of sound and object. He also made sounds throughout the performance, purely of his own vocals, adding another personal touch. 

 Although we acquired no photos or videos, here is a link to see the artist and piece.

http://vimeo.com/37167902

The Cornerhouse - Contour States

This work is by Samantha Donnelly who explores our culture today and how the human form is objectified, especially the female body. With attachments to the media and popular culture, her material selection is key. We found as viewers, we could interact with the work and with her use of mirrors in the second photograph, we became part of the piece, making it a personal experience. 

The Cornerhouse - Lost is Found

'Lost is Found' centered around the idea of finding something new and beautiful out of found objects which are mundane or redundant. 

The first five photos are of Lucy Ridges' work. We find it interesting that the image shows only part of the subject, giving an unfinished look. This however is contrasted by the frames which make you think that these are the ideal photos the artist was working towards. 

The sixth photos shows the work of Emily Speed. She made this piece whilst exploring the idea of the home being a containment, storing memories and remnants of the occupiers. We liked the set up of the piece, including the platform which looked like it was made from pieces of an old cupboard. The way this was set up , there seemed to be an element of balance bringing the fragility of the egg-shaped sculptures to our attention .

The seventh and eighth photos are of Jon Barraclough's endeavour into the traces of life through everyday mark making. The way he made these marks appealed to us as they came across as unplanned marks, which built up to resemble a familiar shape. 

The last two images show Jessa Fairbrother's projection and projector set-up. Her work bases around femininity through different times, using Victorian novels as inspiration. We enjoyed the set-up but thought that it had very little links with 'Lost is Found' and with the surrounding pieces.

13/11/2011 'The Collection'

As part of the Asia Triennial, the Castlefield gallery displayed 'The Collection' by Osman Bozkurt. This piece focuses on the visa issue and travel in the modern world. His layout is due to the persons appearance after he discovered that some countries will refuse a visa based purely on what the person is wearing. The photos are placed inside nine insect viewing frames. As viewers we felt almost like we were judging them as we studied the images, making the work more personal. The photographs had the faces removed to express the lack of concern that these people had been rejected visa's, thus purely removing their identities. 

13/11/2011 'Everything Is Happening At Once'

Rashid Rana is well known for his exploration into two dimensional structures, and this exhibition at the Cornerhouse gallery demonstrated it well. We both found interesting the dual aspect to the pieces, as you could see an image from a distance but as you moved closer to the image you realise that it is made up of a vast amount of smaller images which often oppose what the larger image becomes, such as 'Red Carpet 1' 2007 where you see from a distance an intricate Persian carpet, but up close you see thousands of smaller photographs depicting slaughtered animals. There is a sense of shock and awe at the realisation of this. We were amazed by the images on display due to the artists effort to go above and beyond  just taking a photograph.

27/10/2011 'Welcome to the Real World'

'Welcome to the real world' held at the PSL was situated in a gallery space which visually was raw and basic but the art certainly was not. The arrangement of the pieces were extremely well thought out, for example, 'The sinking' by Victoria Lucas was displayed up against the window, the condensation and rain outside linked well to the ocean scene being shown. Photo one and three shown above are two pieces by Gill Greenhough. Through this work she expresses our natural resistance to inheret vulnerability which becomes a representation of the body as a vessel. The physical fragility of her work linked well to her concept, as a viewer we really admired her work. 

27/10/2011 Damien Hirst at the Leeds Art Gallery

Whilst walking around looking at the many pieces on display, recognising most of them from media attention, it suddenly occurred to us that the idea of Hirst as the artist seemed quite disconnected. From viewing 'Mantra' 2007 and the other various pieces containing deceased entities of life, it became hard to see these piece as art work rather than advertisements of death. Hirst's passion for the study of science, medicine and preservation was certainly portrayed well within this exhibition.

27/10/2011 'What is to be Done?'

Mario Merz exhibition held at the Henry Moore institute included pieces exploring the theme of 'inside and outside'. For example, the neon bar injecting through the car window shows physically light on the outside travelling to the inside. The light in his work portrays a string energy. We could see the structures of his work, for example, ;Object cache toi' replicated in it's shadow on the floor. This was a nice touch emphasising Merz's interest in structure particularly in nature, the igloo and the fibonacci sequence. In addition the piece which accompanied Merz's work was a film portrait by Tacita Dean. This piece was beautiful and extremely effective in the way it had been done. The lighting and location linked to his interest in nature and displayed an ageing artist in his home.

15/10/2011 'This is Sculpture'

Eva Hesse ' Addendum' 1967

Eva Rothchild 'knock knock'

Richard Long 'Circle' 1991

Cornelia Parker 'Measuring Niagara with a teaspoon' 1997

'This is sculpture' held at the TATE Liverpool explored 20th century surrealism, whilst there were many well known pieces the four above stood out to us with their contemporary nature. 

14/10/2011 'Zee'

Kurt Hentschlager known for his 'immersive and overwhelming experiences' created 'Zee' held at the FACT gallery, Liverpool. By far this was one of the most exciting and inexplicable events that either of us have ever experienced. A large room filled with fog, light and sound created a feeling of vulnerability, stripping away any sense of comfort or reference. Even the passing of time was distorted as the twelve minute long event seemed to pass by much faster. After exiting the room we felt a disorientating sense of realisation within our surroundings. The Artist's intention to create an out of body experience was totally successful, a truly memorable piece.

12/10/2011 'Ford Maddox Brown'

Last night we attended, on invitation, the opening of the Ford Maddox Brown exhibition at the Manchester City gallery. Whilst this was an opportunity to see the work on display, it was also partly to welcome new students to the Manchester Art scene.

3/10/2011 'Dark Matters'

The exhibition was held at the Whitworth gallery, the subject matter consisted of all that's considered mysterious and exciting : magic, illusion, darkness, time, loss and visual riddles. New media and modern technology used for creating art was definitely a key feature, 'The Kiss' by R. Luke Debois is a prime example of this. The artist had taken shots from films of characters kissing and applied digital effects so visually the actors appeared like pixelated, frantically moving dots; fast, rapidly changing music accompanied this. Personally i was left asking 'Is this it ?'. For me the visual effects of digital 'art' is not enough to keep my interest and attention. The work, for me, was fairly 'substance-less'. The artist collaboration 'Brass Art' had also created a piece to feature in 'Dark Matters', which consisted of a round table situated in a darkened room. On top of the table were a many number of items including a deer antler that had been created using a 3-D scanner and 3-D printer. Circling this table was a bright light that displayed the shadows of these items across the wall at a constant speed which changed the appearance continually. As a viewer my own shadow became a part of this piece as i stood viewing it, making me wonder about this as an intentional act by the artists. I truly enjoyed this piece and think it was a brilliant example of how digitally created art can still be interesting whilst allowing the viewer 'join in'. 

http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whatson/exhibitions/darkmatters/