Viewing articles tagged with 'Performance'

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

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

Kim Gordon: She bites her tender mind

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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Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort St, New York, NY 10014, USA

Whitney Biennial 2019

The 2017 edition of the Whitney Biennial is remembered for the animated debate surrounding the inclusion of a controversial painting by Dana Schutz titled ‘Open Casket’ (2016). It spurred an open discussion about cultural appropriation, white privilege and freedom of creativity. It divided much of the art world and prompted a discussion panel with The Racial Imaginary Institute titled ‘Perspectives on Race and Representation.’ The painting ultimately remained. Despite the best intensions of curators Jane Panetta and Rujeko Hockley, this year’s Whitney Biennial wallows yet again in controversy. Review by Anaïs Castro

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Indian Pavilion, Arsenale, Venice, Italy

Venice Biennale 2019: Our time for a future caring

Pranamita Borgohain speaks to some of the artists, organisers, and key voices behind the Indian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale.

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Glenfeshie, Cairngorms National Park

Simone Kenyon: Into the Mountain

High in the Cairngorm Mountains, a remarkable artwork was performed over four days. ‘Into the Mountain’ is a unique response to ‘The Living Mountain’ (1977) by Nan Shepherd, a lyrical text describing a sensuous exploration of the Cairngorms. Through a rich fusion of dance, music, literature and walking, the performances invited audiences to explore more-than human connections with mountain environments and ecologies. Review by Anna Fleming

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Kadist, 19bis/21 rue des Trois Frères, Paris, 75018, France

Affective Utopia

Imagining utopia seems to have become the principal task of artists as of late, any speculative, social practice is quickly branded as such. So much so that the title of Kadist’s latest exhibition ‘Affective Utopia’ almost washes past unnoticed. Review by Jessica Saxby

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Richard Saltoun Gallery, 41 Dover St, Mayfair, London W1S 4NS

Rose English: Form, Feminisms, Femininities

Two lovers lie in bed sleeping. Their duvet is a ploughed field, fabric folds replaced with the undulating peaks and troughs of soil furrows. An air of the uncanny pervades ‘Bed in Field’ (1971), a series of photographs of British performance artist Rose English and her partner of the time tucked into a pastoral landscape. Review by Lotte Johnson

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The Fabric Workshop and Museum, 1214 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Suzanne Bocanegra: Poorly Watched Girls

Laura Mulvey is best known for her essay describing the phenomenon of the 'male gaze,' where the act of looking in visual media is coded as male, or specifically for heterosexual male viewers, leaving women as passive objects that are meant to be looked at and desired. While not directly referencing Mulvey, Suzanne Bocanegra investigates this concept of women as the target of the gaze in 'Poorly Watched Girls,' using multiple media to question whether the performance of watching women can ever truly be enough to understand them as subjects in their own right. Review by Deborah Krieger

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Nottingham Contemporary, Weekday Cross, Nottingham NG1 2GB

Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance

‘Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance’ is the first act of an exhibition showing a kind of history of resistance through the means of feminisms and intersectional queer thinking. The curators started to build the exhibition as an idea two years ago. Then, we didn’t have #metoo and #timesup, Trump wasn’t yet the POTUS, women’s marches weren’t so much in the news ... Review by Gulnaz Can

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

Survey

An assembly of work from fifteen early career artists who have been nominated from across the UK, ‘Survey’ is an exhibition comprising a wide range of disciplines. From film, performance and drawing, to painting, ceramics and installation, it gives rising voices within the sector the opportunity to stand out and stand up. Review by Alexandra Gamrot

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