Viewing articles from 2018/06

Tramway, 25 Albert Dr, Glasgow G41 2PE

Laida Lertxundi: WORDS, PLANETS

 WORDS, PLANETS (still)

In a discussion about his work the late Chilean experimental filmmaker, Raúl Ruíz, said that his ‘films would have to be seen many times, like objects in the house, like a painting…’, that ‘landscape is used as a story’ and that he sought to draw upon ‘connections between film, installation, writing, theatre’ that in his extensive body of works, including the theoretical text ‘Poetics of Cinema’, made between 1963 and 2010, could be described as a nesting of stories, residing within each other, and of stories co-existing; of narratives, often fragmented and elliptical, and their layering together. Review by Alex Hetherington

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Chisenhale Gallery, 64 Chisenhale Rd, London E3 5QZ

Paul Maheke: A fire circle for a public hearing

Paul Maheke, A place you only go through (2018). Produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London. Commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery and Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art, Middelburg

When A Fire Circle For A Public Hearing opened at Chisenhale Gallery last April, it was quite frustrating to learn that Paul Maheke was not going to perform live for the whole duration of the exhibition. Despite being completely absent from the stage, Maheke’s body is still present through a video work that plays on a continuous loop. Review by Fiorella Lanni

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Turf Projects, 46-47 Trinity Court Whitgift Centre, Croydon CR0 1UQ

LOW BATT.

LOW BATT. installation view

The exhibition’s text opens with a quote from the film Dawn of the Dead, where a group of survivors find refuge from the zombie apocalypse in a shopping mall. The exhibition seeks to problematize our reliance on technology and looks for alternative forms of survival, asking ‘What tools might expedite shopping mall survivalism?’ For Turf projects, who are being evicted from this space at the Whitgift at the end of the year to make way for a shiny new Westfield, the question of survival has never been more urgent. Review by Amy Jones

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Josh Lilley Gallery, 44 – 46 Riding House St, Fitzrovia, London W1W 7EX

Brian Bress: Another Fine Mess

Brian Bress: Another Fine Mess installation view

Brian Bress has long been casting characters, almost always himself in costume, into videos carefully composed with subtle pathos. In these, the modes have grown more sophisticated with focus on the narrow confines of portraiture of tightly framed figures, their goofy attitude streamlined into more elegant displays with the scale of each character’s body relative to our own. Review by Alex Bennett

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www.barnebys.com/

As Easy as ABC: Contemporary Art at Auction with Barnebys

Image Courtesy of Barnebys/Bukowskis

Attention museum goers, culture vultures and art lovers! For those who understand the power of art and design, the importance of cultural heritage and art in our society, we’d like to draw your attention to the powerful connection between the art world and the auction world of which Barnebys both embodies and emanates.

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Paradise Works, East Philip Street, Salford, Manchester, M3 7LE

Nick Jordan: Mental State Signs

Nick Jordan: Mental State Signs installation view

Alongside his artistic practice, Nick Jordan has spent a number of years filming mental health training videos for the University of Manchester’s hospital teaching unit, encountering many cases of ‘disorder’ as a result. This latest body of work, presented at Paradise Works, on the border between Manchester and Salford, responds to one kind of psychosis in particular: a manifestation of schizophrenia known as ‘thought broadcasting’, whereby patients believe that their thoughts are being transmitted and heard by others. Review by Sara Jaspan

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Hayward Gallery, 337-338 Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8XX

Adapt to Survive: Notes from the Future

Adapt to Survive: Notes from the Future

Adapt to Survive: Notes from the Future is a title that would be as at home on a book by Ayn Rand as the group exhibition currently at the Hayward Gallery. Brought together by Senior Curator Dr. Cliff Lauson, the show contains seven works which each explore potential trajectories from the present. If there is a guiding thread, it is less in the fullness of its visions, than the way it challenges an inability to create alternative futures.

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Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Witte de Withstraat 50, 3012 BR Rotterdam, Netherlands

Irene Kopelman, a solo exhibition

Irene Kopelman, 77 Colors of a Volcanic Landscape A, B, C (2016) and Puzzle Piece (2012) part of Irene Kopelman, a solo exhibition, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art 2018

Stepping into Irene Kopelman, a solo exhibition, lands one in an ambiguously sparse installation filled with plenty of air and light. Here it takes time to adjust to the presentation’s scope, as some of the works offer bare whispers of visual information that are delicately precise representations that cannot be grasped in a few milliseconds. Review by John Gayer

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The Tetley, Hunslet Rd, Leeds LS10 1JQ

Material Environments

Material Environments installation view

Inspired by Yorkshire’s cult status as a UFO hotspot, Serena Korda has created a new immersive and raw sound work, ‘Clairaudience’ (2018). Korda’s research process is mapped across three galleries. Review by Jack Welsh

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Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Abandoibarra Etorb., 2, 48009 Bilbo, Bizkaia, Spain

Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World

Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World installation view, 2018

What becomes apparent in the latter stages of the exhibition is a sense that many of the exhibition’s themes collapse into one another. 2008 is painted as a pivotal moment where the Beijing Olympics act as an affirmation of China’s ascent to global power, yet the Sichuan earthquake happened only a month before. Review by Stan Portus

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