Viewing articles from 2019/09

Jerwood Visual Arts, Jerwood Space, 171 Union Street, Bankside, London SE1 0LN

Jerwood Staging Series 2019

Onyeka Igwe,  the names have changed including my own and truths have been altered, 2019

This is the third year of Jerwood Staging Series, a curatorial project that creates events of work that includes film, installation, performance, and discussion. This year’s four artists are diverse in their interests and work: Onyeka Igwe, a London artist and filmmaker absorbed in the archive, place, and the body; Essex-based Rebecca Moss, whose work plays with slapstick and absurdism; multi-disciplinary artist and sculptor AJ Stockwell; and Birmingham-based curator and researcher Seán Elder. Harriet Smith Hughes reviews two of the Series’ events.

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l’étrangère, 44A Charlotte Rd, Shoredtich, London EC2A 3PD

Joanna Rajkowska: The Failure of Mankind

Joanna Rajkowska, The Failure of Mankind, installation view, l'etrangere

One of the highlights of this year’s Frieze Sculpture display in Regent’s Park is a giant egg. Titled ‘The Hatchling’, the large-scale sculpture by Polish artist Joanna Rajkowska is a replica of a blackbird’s egg, which emits the noises of a hatching bird: heartbeat, pecking, and attempts at vocalisation. Rajkowska’s current solo show at l’étrangère follows up on the themes of this piece under the bleak but apposite title ‘The Failure of Mankind’. Review by Anna Souter

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Gasworks, 155 Vauxhall Street, London SE11 5RH

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami: (15,952km) via Trans-Sahara Hwy N1

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Family Portrait, 2017 acrylic and oil on canvas 2 panels.

Each painting is thought of as an overlap of narratives, stories and representations of black bodies in many forms. In so doing, Hwami is addressing her ideas and ideals of her own family and her roots, as well as the legacies of colonialism. Review by Melissa Chemam

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Ministry of Sound, London

An Evening of Performances 3rd October 2019

Haroon Mirza and Jack Jelfs performing, Last Dance: The Wave Epoch, by Haroon Mirza, Jack Jelfs with Elijah and GAIKA. Commissioned by Lighthouse for Brighton Festival 2018. Photo: Xav Clarke.

Louise O’Kelly: In thinking about how to approach the 2019 Edition of an Evening of Performances, the context that the works would be experienced in was an important decision for me. Having worked across a host of different spaces - producing projects in institutions to theatres to office buildings, railway arches, semi-derelict churches, former power stations and everything in between - I knew how important location would be in the experience of the performances.

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Maurice and Paul Marciano Art Foundation, 4357 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90010, USA

Donna Huanca: Obsidian Ladder

Installation view of Donna Huanca: OBSIDIAN LADDER.

Donna Huanca’s ‘Obsidian Ladder’ is purposefully discomfiting, and almost too visceral and sensual to be absorbed fully in one go. Once you enter the cavernous main gallery of the Marciano Art Foundation, Huanca’s multimedia installation of paintings, sculpture, performance, sound, and scent threaten to overwhelm your senses. The combination makes for an unnerving, unsettling experience that ostensibly explores femininity and gender, but whose impact only comes across as such when you know the whole context of the work and can appreciate the importance of its site. Review by Deborah Krieger

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Luma Foundation, Parc des Ateliers 45 Chemin des Minimes, Arles, France

Rachel Rose: Enclosure

Rachel Rose, Enclosure, Luma Arles, Grande Halle, Parc des Ateliers, Arles (France), July 1 - September 22, 2019

‘Would you not too hunt the god who killed your child for no reason?’ asks a vagabond, playing the role of prophet by predicting future misfortunes in a pre-capitalist society. In her newest film, ‘Enclosure’ (2019), on view at Luma Foundation, Arles, New-York based artist Rachel Rose (b. 1986) continues to expand on her notions of land, ownership, and violence against women in the context of early seventeenth-century rural England. The work attests to the artist’s fluency in cinematic conventions even as she pushes their boundaries. Review by Angela Blanc

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Graz and Styria, Austria

steirischer herbst ’19

Jakob Lena Knebl and Markus Pires Mata, The Style Council, 2019, performance, Congress Graz, photo: Liz Eve

On 19 September, steirischer herbst ’19 opens its doors to the public in Graz and Styria. Titled Grand Hotel Abyss, a striking metaphor used by philosopher Georg Lukács, the festival presents a far-reaching meditation on hedonism in troubled times

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Huis Marseille, Keizersgracht 401, 1016 EK Amsterdam, Netherlands

Deana Lawson

Ring Bearer, 2016

Large-scale portraits are sparsely hung throughout lofty rooms with white panelling, accompanied by unframed snapshots and Polaroids. The latter are stuck into the portrait’s frames while the former cluster into corners like living organisms; a sprawling archive of intimate yet anonymous faces. Review by Rosanna van Mierlo

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Brazilian Pavilion, Giardini, Venice, Italy

Venice Biennale 2019: Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca: Swinguerra

Swinguerra, 2019, by Barbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca at the Brazilian Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition Biennale Arte 2019.

“Damn!” Reminiscent of a TV show you want to tell all your friends about, ‘Swinguerra’ (2019) by Brazil-based artists Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca, showcased at the Brazilian Pavilion of the 58th Venice Biennale, felt honest and communicative in a human-to-human way. This artwork possesses all the qualities you would want to find in a friend: empathy, humility, off-beat, daring and an absolute joy. Review by Laura O’Leary

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Various across Leeds and Wakefield

Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019

Shea Butter Three Ways

Yorkshire-born artist Barbara Hepworth made several sculptures bearing the title ‘Form With Inner Form’. The inaugural Yorkshire Sculpture International festival tackles a similar inside-and-out movement, somehow taking up residence within, and broadly encompassing, the established frameworks of sculptural art in Leeds and Wakefield. Enveloping (whilst also pulsing through) the county’s four best museums, YSI feels like it’s trying to be both heart and ribcage at once. Review by Adam Heardman

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Irish Museum of Modern Art, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Military Rd, Kilmainham, Dublin 8, Ireland

Kim Gordon: She bites her tender mind

Proposal For A Dance (still)

Kim Gordon first came to prominence in the mid-80s as a member of the noise band Sonic Youth - co-founded with her ex-husband Thurston Moore and active until 2011, when both the band and marriage dissolved. Since then Gordon has become a polymath: releasing music from several projects, embarking on an acting career, writing the acclaimed ‘Girl in a Band’ memoir on her years in Sonic Youth, and focusing on her visual art practice that took a backseat during her tenure with the band. It is this last category that sees us drawn to Dublin’s Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) to see Gordon’s latest exhibition ‘She bites her tender mind’. Review by Aidan Kelly Murphy

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Estonia Pavilion, c/o Legno & Legno, Giudecca 211, Venice, Italy

Venice Biennale 2019: Kris Lemsalu: Birth V – Hi and Bye

Installation view,  Kris Lemsalu: Birth V – Hi and Bye

The reverie of the crowd is suddenly interrupted by the sound of a drum, accompanied by isolated notes on a synthesiser announcing the beginning of a ritual. Three straw hats appear to be floating over the heads of the crowd towards the entrance, a trio of shamans perched on a moving chariot. Review by Angela Blanc

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New Zealand Pavilion, Palazzina Canonica, Venice, Italy

Venice Biennale 2019: Dane Mitchell: Post hoc

Dane Mitchell, Post hoc (detail), 2019. Mixed media installation. Palazzina Canonica, New Zealand Pavilion, 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia

Dane Mitchell’s works frequently oscillate between presence and absence, deliberately treading the line between materiality and immateriality. In ‘Post hoc’, his installation for the New Zealand pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale, Mitchell explores the notion of loss and extinction, through a never-ending list of obsolete things including: animal and plant species; political parties; words and languages; laws; media formats; and scientific notions. Review by Anna Souter

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