Viewing articles from 2015/12

Studio Visit, Miami

Asif Farooq: BALALAIKA

Asif Farooq: BALALAIKA, pictured as a work in progress at the artist's workshop in Doral, Miami

A brief visit to Farooq’s workshop in Doral (west of Downtown Miami) provided me a glimpse of a project that only a fool could pursue: a plus-life-sized, down-to-the-centimeter reproduction of an MiG 21-BIS fighter jet. Following an artist talk hosted by Locust Projects in August 2015 and a recent studio visit, Shana Beth Mason offers her thoughts on Farooq's current work in production 'BALALAIKA'.

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Cell Project Space, 258 Cambridge Heath Rd, London E2 9DA

Anne de Vries: SUBMISSION

Submission

The space is filled with a cacophony of transmissions. Live-stream screens and discordant audio recordings of conversations transport the viewer to such real-time faraway scenes as Times Square in New York or a bird feeding in the South American jungle. Phoebe Cripps reviews

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Recorded inside Ben Cruachan, Scotland and broadcast on BBC Radio 4

Maria Fusco: Master Rock

Master Rock by Maria Fusco, performed inside Cruachan Power Station, 2015.

The voice of John Mulholland is a rich, long-vowelled working class Ulster with a bone to pick. A life of dusty toil has gritted it to the core, and as surely as he has spent his working life digging into rock, so has it dug its way into him. ‘The more we do the more we get,’ he says, ‘but over time our lungs get set.’ James Gormley responds to Master Rock by Maria Fusco.

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Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG

Jo Spence

The Highest Product of Capitalism (after John Heartfield)

Lying in fairly austere, somewhat inaccessible vitrines, the archival material shows the reality of women working in relation to the institution: as fringe observers, counter-cultural explorers and subaltern archeologists. Review by Sophie Risner

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Galerie Rudolfinum, Alšovo nábř. 79/12, 110 01 Prague 1, Czech Republic

Flaesh

Flaesh, Installation View

Flaesh brings together works by internationally renowned artists Marlene Dumas, Tracey Emin, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Kiki Smith and Louise Bourgeois, who collectively question the function of the human body in contemporary art, reflecting on the archaic ideals of beauty and medieval symbolism.

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Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3JD

Giles Bailey & Jeremiah Day

Jeremiah Day, From La Homicide Liquor Store Gods

Although without the immediate dialogue of shared sight-lines, Bailey and Day’s pairing creates a multi-layered, sometimes contradicting, but always lively discourse, drawing out new meanings, and deciphering in each other’s those that are less clear. Review by Cicely Farrer

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Kate Werble Gallery, 83 Vandam Street, New York, NY 10013

Christopher Chiappa: LIVESTRONG

Exhibition view of Christopher Chiappa, “LIVESTRONG”, 2015 - 2016 Kate Werble Gallery, New York

For his third exhibition at Kate Werble Gallery, titled ‘LIVESTRONG,’ the New York City-based artist Christopher Chiappa has prepared and assembled 7,000 unique plaster-based sculptures of sunny side up-style fried eggs, and installed them throughout the gallery. Review by Arthur Bravo

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Southampton City Art Gallery, Civic Centre Road, Southampton SO14 7LP

Ben Johnson: Spirit of Place

Ben Johnson: Spirit of Place, installation view at Southampton City Art Gallery 2015/16

Magic itself is integral to Johnson’s work. Revolving around architectural structures, his paintings are so remarkably realistic that they begin to play tricks. Review by Eva Szwarc

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The MAC, 10 Exchange Street West, Belfast BT1 2NJ

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: This Place

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, This Place Installation view at the MAC, Belfast

The judiciously sparse hang at The MAC heightens one’s sensitivity to the material nature of Gonzalez-Torres' work: to its allusions to presence and absence, resilience and fragility. Review by Ian Massey

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The Photographers' Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies St, London W1F 7LW

Noémie Goudal: Southern Light Stations

Installation Image of Noemie Goudal: Southern Light Stations on display  at The Photographers' Gallery at 16-18 Ramillies Street (2 October 2015 - 10 January 2016)

The circle becomes a consistent motif throughout the exhibition. Its form holds the fullness of a single colour, the materiality of a planet-like surface or the blackness of a celestial shadow, but it also represents an emptiness; a Gordon Matta Clark-esque excision within the photograph that is presented. Goudal is conscious to maintain this provisionality of vision, which is expertly activated at various points throughout the exhibition. Joseph Constable reviews

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narrative projects, 110 New Cavendish St, London W1W 6XR

Harm van den Dorpel: IOU

Installation view

In these newly commissioned works for narrative projects, van den Dorpel conducts something like a séance: bringing the past into the present; making visible the invisible. Siobhan Leddy reviews IOU.

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Online 14 - 28 December 2015

LADA Screens: Ron Athey Triple Bill

Three films about the work of the iconic artist Ron Athey. Including ‘Sebastiane’ (2015), ‘Live Confession de Ron Athey’ - a Super 8 film from 1998 and a conversation with writer Jennifer Doyle. Curated by Live Art Development Agency (LADA).

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Zabludowicz Collection, 176 Prince of Wales Road, London NW5 3PT

Jon Rafman

Installation view Jon Rafman, 2015 at Zabludowicz Collection, London.

Rowan Lear finds that, after a few minutes of watching and sinking deeper into the pearly mire, it’s surprisingly difficult to extricate oneself, both physically and mentally.

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