Viewing articles from 2019/11

Schinkel Pavillon, Oberwallstraße 1 (über Französische Str. wegen Bauarbeiten, Unter den Linden, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Ground Zero: Christopher Kulendran Thomas in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann

Ground Zero, Schinkel Pavillon

As virtual worlds become increasingly ubiquitous and algorithmic, we have never been more connected yet dislocated. Our networks are continually subject to change and, as globalisation accelerates, so are the intrinsic structures of identity, nation and power. The artist Christopher Kulendran Thomas investigates these shifting structures in relation to one another in ‘Ground Zero’, an exhibition which moves between fiction and documentary, personal history and simulation. Review by Eva Szwarc

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Touchstones, The Esplanade, Rochdale OL16 1AQ

Jamie Fitzpatrick: He He He He

Jamie Fitzpatrick, He He He He, 2019. Installation view. Contemporary Forward at Touchstones Rochdale.

Split between two rooms, ‘He He He He’ presents 4 male protagonists loosely based on canonical figures such as Elvis Presley, the art-world all-star Henry Moore dressed as a cowboy and an amalgamation of Charles I and Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General. Each character has aptly named one word titles relating to the figures they are based around, highlighting their fairly literal qualities and reason for being selected. Review by William Noel Clarke

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

away, completely: denigrate

away, completely; denigrate (installation view)

This group exhibition brings together four artists: Ebun Sodipo (London); Ashley Holmes (Sheffield); Halima Haruna (Lagos/Boston/London); and Libita Clayton (Bristol) to present new commissions responding to the etymology of the word denigrate

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Gagosian, 20 Grosvenor Hill, London W1K 3QD

Cy Twombly: Sculpture

Cy Twombly, Untitled (St. Sebastian), bronze, 1998

Cy Twombly’s sculptures are mostly created from materials such as wood, plaster, iron and other objects that might be found in an artist’s studio. Every piece is individually assembled displaying a sense of historic meaning. Review by Alexandra Gamrot

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iMT Gallery, 210 Cambridge Heath Rd, Cambridge Heath, London E2 9NQ

Benedict Drew: Trapped in a sticky shed with side chain compression

Benedict Drew, Bad Ffffeeeeeellll, 2019, Digital print on vinyl, 150 x 150 cm

Drew’s current exhibition ‘Trapped In A Sticky Shed With Side Chain Compression’, at iMT Gallery is a combination of material mayhem that is crudely enigmatic. The message is hardly exact upon entrance. However, Drew’s constructed chaos is compelling once the viewer mentally submits to the stroboscopic anxiety that the exhibition elicits. Review by Sheena Carrington

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Humber Street Gallery, 64 Humber St, Hull HU1 1TU

Aniara Omann: Equanipolis

Installation view, 2019. Aniara Omann, Equanipolis. Courtesy of Humber Street Gallery and the artist, 2019. Photo by Jules Lister.

In ‘Equanipolis', Aniara Omann has created two distinct yet coherent spaces. The Glasgow-based artist uses sculpture, textiles and animatronics to–in the tradition of science fiction–imagine the forms which might populate a version of our future where, according to the gallery’s information, “the boundary between symbol and material is blurred”. Review by Lucy Holt

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Various locations, Coventry

The Twin: Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art

Installation view at The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum featuring Andrew Jackson (l), Parmar & Piper (c) and Anne Forgan (r)

The figure of the twin is one that resonates with the history of Coventry, one of the first cities to form an international partnership, first twinning with Volgograd 75 years ago. The Biennial draws on this theme, showing work from artists based in several of these twinned cities, alongside recent graduates from the area, and both local and international artists. Besides exploring international relations in the current political moment, themes of the Anthropocene, nature and technology, pairing artistic practice and academic research and acts of repetition emerge throughout the exhibitions. Review by Emily Hale

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A.P.T, Harold Wharf 6 Creekside, Deptford, London SE8 4SG

The World Without Us

Andrew Leventis, Stafford Terrace House 1, 2019, oil on linen, 59 x 80 cm

The group painting exhibition ‘The World Without Us’ is based on the book by Professor Eugene Thacker at The New School, New York, called: ‘In the Dust of This Planet’. The nihilist book is a meditation on the meaning of life, or rather re-imagines a world where life has no purpose. A world plagued by catastrophe, suffering, threats of war and extinction — this isn’t a world of fairy-tales and happy endings but daily horrors created by man’s destructive nature and incessant consumption. Review by Sara Makari-Aghdam

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New Art Exchange, 39-41 Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 6BE

John Akomfrah: Mimesis: African Soldier

The Journey, Mimesis: African Soldier

The opening titles to John Akomfrah’s ‘Mimesis: African Soldier’ (2018) state that “six million colonial subjects fought and served in the Great War” and that three-hundred and fifty-thousand died in Europe. Akomfrah’s three-screen installation interweaves archival footage with new material that commemorates those conscripted into the First World War by colonial powers, to fight for a cause not their own. Review by Joshua Lockwood-Moran

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mother's tankstation London, 58 - 64 Three Colts Ln, Bethnal Green, London E2 6GP

Yuri Pattison: to-do, doing, d̶o̶n̶e̶

Yuri Pattison, installation view, to do, doing, d̶o̶n̶e̶, mother’s tankstation London, Chip Scale Atomic Clock promotional video (Super SloMo waifu2x rework), padlock nightlights

Layers of time, economic systems and environments tightly interconnect in Yuri Pattison’s new exhibition. ‘to-do, doing, d̶o̶n̶e̶’ explores the narratives embedded in time-based technologies and the very fabric of reality. A combination of existing and newly-made works shows the connection between seemingly unrelated worlds, by turning to the ineffable world of toxins, waves and frequencies. Review by Giulia Civardi

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Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG

Nam June Paik

TV Garden. 1974-1977 (2002) Single-channel video installation with live plants and colour television monitors

Early photographs of Paik at his studio in New York City show him smiling, like a kid in a sweet shop, in a room filled with clutter. The antique technology that blankets the floor arguably appears as rubbish to most. However, to Paik, broken-down technological devices were inspiration. Review by Sheena Carrington

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Spike Island, 133 Cumberland Road Bristol BS1 6UX

Imran Perretta: the destructors

the destructors, production still

In his new film ‘the destructors’, Imran Perretta uses narrative and visual storytelling to articulate his personal experiences with physical and structural violence. The result is a sensitive and poignant indictment of the British governmental policies, Austerity and the War on Terror, which have served to exacerbate the marginalisation and oppression of Muslim communities living in the UK. Review by Julia Schouten

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The Hepworth Wakefield, Gallery Walk, Wakefield WF1 5AW

Christina Quarles: In Likeness

 Christina Quarles install shots, copyright Nick Singleton

Entering Christina Quarles’ first European exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield, the viewer is greeted with a number of large-scale paintings and an architectural intervention, which includes a window revealing further works. Quarles’ arresting paintings depict female bodies that stretch, contort and intertwine. They are ambiguous and only barely legible as bodies, found somewhere in the liminal space between depiction and abstraction. Review by Joshua Lockwood-Moran

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Lane Meyer Projects, 2528 Walnut Street, Denver, CO 80205, USA

Green Gra$$

Dionne Lee, Breaking the Fall, 2016, (Diptych), archival inkjet print

The exhibition title alludes to the ways in which capitalism has become intertwined with a looming sense of environmental disaster in the age of the Anthropocene. Through collage, installation and sculpture, ‘Green Gra$$’ examines our cultural longing for a future that is already lost. Review by Rosanna van Mierlo

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