Hettie Judah profiles the work of Manchester-based artist Bridget O'Gorman in the first in our series of texts on artists participating in PIVOT, the inaugural artist development programme in the North West of England. PIVOT is delivered in partnership with Bluecoat, Liverpool and Castlefield Gallery, Manchester.
Hauser & Wirth Publishing
Hurtado’s conversations with Obrist stay true to her character and reveal many of her most admirable traits to the reader. We learn that she was humble and hilarious: at the admirable age of 97, she kept the menu of the Serpentine opening night dinner as a keepsake. She explained to Obrist, “you have to understand, this is one of the happiest days of my life. This will help me remember this wonderful evening once I’m old.” Review by Maximiliane Leuschner
Profile Books
Seaweed, our collective name for marine algae, seems to gather itself more than any other organism on the shoreline. Whereas other seafaring creatures drift apart, seaweed prefers to tangle, knot and assemble on the sand. Perhaps this is why they so naturally intrigued the artist and writer Miek Zwamborn. In 2018, Zwamborn wrote ‘The Seaweed Collector’s Handbook’ in her native Dutch and revealed how the mysterious qualities of this sea grass have become surprisingly integrated in our lives. Recently it has been translated into English by Michele Hutchison, thus sharing Zwamborn’s practice-based research with a new audience. Interview by Nina Hanz
Prototype Publishing
Helen Marten was awarded the Turner Prize in 2016 for her enigmatic work in sculpture. Two years later, the artist noted a disconcerting lack in critical dialogue surrounding her work. Marten usually works across sculpture, painting, print-making, film and writing, but decided to temporarily vacate her studio for a year to solely focus on writing her first novel, ‘The Boiled in Between’, published by Prototype in 2020. Article by Olivia Fletcher
Nottingham Contemporary, Weekday Cross, Nottingham NG1 2GB
‘Akimbo’ is the largest presentation of Jimmy Robert’s work in the UK to date: a survey spanning nearly two decades of Robert’s video, collage, drawing and sculpture. ‘Akimbo’ aims to embody the action of its title (standing with hands on hips) as a defiant posture which converges works in new arrangements to create new conversations and fresh perspectives. Throughout his practice questions of intimacy and touch, and what it means to see and be seen are explored using the body as a vehicle for enquiry. Review by Joshua Lockwood-Moran
The Cob Gallery, 205 Royal College St, London NW1 0SG
There’s an orgy of misdemeanours taking place—breasts are being grabbed and bottoms are being fondled, lecherous eyes are smirking and clownish faces are locking lips. It’s hard to tell where one mound of flesh ends and the next begins. Cat Roissetter’s exhibition ‘English Filth’ at The Cob Gallery is populated by some disreputable characters who look suspiciously like the lively heroes of fairy-tales and bedtime stories—gone feral. Review by Claire Phillips
Camden Art Centre, Arkwright Rd, London NW3 6DG
‘The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and The Cosmic Tree’ was originally intended to be an in-house group exhibition at Camden Art Centre. Instead, the spread of COVID-19 and the closure of public gallery spaces saw the show move to the digital realm and become ‘The Botanical Mind Online’. The exhibition is hosted at botanicalmind.online, which serves as both the main space to read about the themes and topics of the show, and the central repository for a number of digital offerings, from videos, sound recordings, and podcasts to texts. Review by Aidan Kelly Murphy
“I am intuitively attracted to organic forms, maybe because they give the illusion of spontaneity, while carrying an essentially encoded system inside. I often have a feeling that these prolific bodies grow by themselves, as if the materials would have some preordained forms secretly coded within, and I was just conforming to their attitudes. For me the excavation of these forms is like a kind of autopsy - the shapes bubble over as the insides of mankind.” Zsófia Keresztes interviewed by Sonja Teszler
Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, 270 River Road Athens, GA 30602
Amiko Li’s 'The Purpose of Disease,' curated by Katie Geha, opened at The Dodd Galleries at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, on February 27th, 2020, but was closed prematurely by the outbreak of Covid-19 in the U.S. Nevertheless, the show’s relevance continues to proliferate. Li began the research for this work in 2017 upon discovery of a mysterious rash spreading across his body. As he investigated remedies for the condition, other threads of research, ranging from tetrachromacy in birds and the relationship between photographs and text, gradually converged experiences of mind and body. The following conversation with Li considers the multiple entry points to embodied and cultural dis-ease. Written by Laurel V. McLaughlin
Modern Art Oxford, 30 Pembroke Street, Oxford OX1 1BP
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Anthropologists have long believed that the use and development of tools has played a key role in the evolution of humankind. Tools and their mechanisation have contributed to the advancement of agriculture, industrialisation and modernisation. Over the last two decades, New York-based, Chilean-born artist Johanna Unzueta has explored the impact of these technological advancements on labour and the human condition, particularly in relation to nature. Her new exhibition ‘Tools for Life’, at Modern Art Oxford (temporarily closed), brings together a body of work composed of large-scale felt sculptures, wearable garments, a Super-8 film shot in a Chilean textile factory, a wall mural and a selection of free-standing geometric drawings. Review by Alex White
BALTIC, Gateshead NE8 3BA
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The curator of the show, Filipa Ramos, says that the starting point is Deleuze’s text 'Becoming-Animal', but it goes beyond the theory. Deleuze, while writing about Francis Bacon, states that between human and animal, there is a deep identity, a zone of indiscernibility, that is more profound than any sentimental identification. Review by Gulnaz Can
15th Fotonoviembre International Photography Festival, TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes and other venues
‘Myths of the Near Future’ was the chosen theme and title of the 15th Fotonoviembre International Photography Festival directed by Laura Vallés and held at TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes and various other art venues in the Canary Islands. From the outset, the ambition was to reach out beyond the confines of photography in order to rethink the theory of the image and its limits, the places where it rubs up against other disciplines of knowledge like philosophy, sociology and anthropology. Review by Néstor Delgado Morales
The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
There is a comforting routine to visiting exhibitions in Dublin’s Douglas Hyde Gallery - you enter the foyer and walk past the main desk to the top of the staircase, which gives a sweeping preview of the work as you descend into the gallery’s main space, your foot hitting the same spot each time. This comfort has been removed by Gabriel Kuri’s radical structural intervention ‘spending static to save gas’ (2020), featured in his exhibition of the same name. Review by Aidan Kelly Murphy
Kristian Day, Broadway Gallery, 2 The Arcade, Letchworth Garden City SG6 3EW
The artists in ‘Parade’ are woven together with common threads of narrative and socially engaged themes. In vivid colours and an assortment of textures, the exhibition boasts multi-sensory appeal. Review by Sara Makari-Aghdam
