The Pattern is New in Every Movement - Pery Burge at Exeter University Forum

Check out this review of Pery Burge

This Was Tomorrow by Michael Samuels at Spacex Gallery Exeter

This Was Tomorrow by Michael Samuels

This month inside the Spacex Gallery there is a wall of furniture stretching eight metres in length that dominates and darkens the usually airy room.  Michael Samuels’ Tragedy of the Commons looms over gallery visitors as a monumental shrine to modernist furniture.

However this tribute does not lie with the renowned bohemian artistic output of the Omega Workshops under Roger Fry, or its polar opposite; the iconic planar forms and clean lines of Mies Van Der Rohe. Instead Samuel’s chooses predominantly G-plan furniture to construct his work. The inexpensive domestic raw materials mean that the sculptural form straddles the boundary of high art and everyday life in a challenging way.

The formal qualities of the sculpture clearly indicate the construction process. The overtly visible G-clamps and ratchet straps cannot be avoided in their semi-neon colouring. The eye is drawn towards the ways in which the sculpture is seemingly held together. This reverses the normal tidiness (and boring design) of the G-plan furniture as it would have stood in the post-WW2 home. None of the edges of this sculpture line up, it is a mess of doors opening the wrong way, draws which do not quite fit into one another and nooks filled with speakers and desk lamps bent to fit within the small spaces.

In its current formation the furniture is denied its normal usage, however the piece invokes a sense of industriousness and vibrancy that is often lacking from domestic furniture. There is a sense of chaos, but it is one that is contained in a solid wall giving the sculpture a weight and sense of stability. The cluttering of the planes of wood provokes an intimacy which does not exist in the raw materials of G-plan furniture.

 In his construction of Tragedy of the Commons Samuel’s creates something new. Whilst at first the sculpture looms and appears an oppressive wall of 70s junk, within the angular spaces is an energetic, abstract reworking of modernist design. Samuels’ creation perhaps would please the modernist demi-gods after all, Mies Van Der Rohe’s famous aphorism ‘God is in the details’ applies with Tragedy of the Commons, as the overused and underappreciated G-plan furniture assumes a new level of respect from the viewer through flawless construction and attention to detail.

7 Day Drunk by Bryony Kimmings and Preview of the Exeter Phoenix

Reginald D Hunter at Exeter Phoenix

High Impact Art from Brighton: Interview with BLAST theory founding artist Ju Row Farr

Proper stories for Halloween...

Ed Byrne at the Exeter Phoneix

Julian Sands in a celebration of Harold Pinter

Freshers Page 2

Feature on International Art with a report from students at Exeter's worldwide travels featured. Also A Much Ado about Nothing theatre review and an ART ATTACK on Jackson Pollock. Put together for the Fresher's Issue of the Paper under a short deadline! Pleased with the end result though.

  

Fresher's Paper

Tracey Emin's - Love is What You Want!

A Review and Interview with the contemporary British Artist - Tracey Emin
At the launch of her first (proper) retrospective 'Love is What You Want' at the Hayward Gallery in London
It was such a fabulously curated exhibition - thought the layout and the clever narrative structure was flawless. 

Mark Rothko Returns to the Tate Modern - Thank You!

On a recent visit to the Tate Modern, to see the Sunflower Seeds of Ai Wei Wei, I went up the escalators as I usually do, to stand outside the 'Body Art' section of Material Gestures sighing. I complained as I always do, as I approached; saying to whoever I am with, 'This is where Rothko used to be'. But to much to my surprise, and delight, all those minutes spent wishing seemed  to have had some effect on the mind of T.Modern. There, back in the heart of the gallery, were the beloved Seagram Murals, hung perfectly, in a dark chamber, just like they deserve. I had to fight back the urge to dance and give the security guard a kiss. Happiest moment in the Tate Modern for a long time. Thinking about Rothko reminded me of the very first thing I ever wrote on art for Exepose newspaper.
Its a gush-rush, but its for Rothko. So this is for him, and the curators of the Seagram Murals at the Tate. Thank You for affirming my belief in the possibility of wishes coming true.

A Rothko Moment. Centre Pompidou Paris, January 2010. Photo by Rachel Samuel (Babe/ Photographer)

The Article:

There is a moment in every art lover’s lifetime, when strolling through a gallery somewhere in the world; something about one single piece of art connects to a part of your brain that you didn’t even know existed. Something suddenly clicks, illuminates a dusty field of consciousness that makes you think ‘Wow!’ For me, this moment came stepping into ‘The Red Room’ at the Tate Modern and meeting the work of Mark Rothko head on.

If you haven’t seen one yet, I can’t express enough what an astoundingly amazing painter this man is. He paints in a sort of abstract-expressionist style, but really defies all categorization; he is an artist who stands in his own category, of ‘colour-genius’ or something similar. His paintings consisting of blocks of colour layered usually in overlapping rectangular shapes may not sound much on paper, but in reality a Rothko is captivating.

His works in red are arguably the most stunning, they pulse, they breathe, they are like the inside of a living being, yet a part unfixed by scientific fact. There is a tension within the soft edged rectangles, between nature and of the act of construction. The colours and brush strokes are undeniably vivid and painterly, but there is something through the colour, an energy trapped or perhaps expressed through the paint.

Rothko is one of the great Modernist painters, and of late has not been given wide enough acclaim in the public art sphere for his work. The removal of the moody ‘Red Room’ dedicated solely to Rothko at the Tate Modern a few years ago was a tragic event, especially to be replaced by a seemingly sadistic painter who indulges in painting in blood for shock-appeal. Although there are many great Rothko’s still standing in the walls of the Tate Modern in London and indeed in the Tate Liverpool, it is a great shame that this beautiful room was lost.

Personally for me, Mark Rothko will always be a painter who defines the beauty of what art is, and what art can do and I would urge anyone who has not spend at least five minutes staring into the depths of a Rothko to do so as soon as you can, it is a fascinating experience.

Tracey Emin @ Hayward London: Love Is What You Want

LOVE IS WHAT YOU WANT - THE TITLE PIECE OF THE EXHIBITION

Tracey Emin's Press Launch - by far the most exciting thing I have been to Art-Wise in my entire life. A lovely exhibition and an exciting chance to meet the woman herself and hear what she had to say. 

Doing a piece for it for the paper Exepose this week, but I was excited so I thought I would put the basic structure on here already.

The Article: Tracey Emin @ Hayward

Tracey Emin is one of the most famous living artists on the planet. Often dubbed by the media as ‘the bad girl’ of modern art, she is equally renowned as being a touchstone for creative young people across the planet. Love her or loathe her, there is no doubt Emin has made a lasting impact on the face of contemporary art. With all this in mind, I set off in trepidation to the launch of Emin’s first major survey in London,  half expecting to witness the world’s press, taking the opportunity to throw a few below-the-belters at Emin face-to-face.  The title of the exhibition is ‘Love is What You Want’ and luckily for this not-so young British Artist, I believe this is exactly what Emin will receive in reception to her stunning retrospective.

The Hayward gallery have used the space perfectly to create the exhibition with a sense of the shifting senses of intimacy and public statement that is so inherent in Emin’s work. Ralph Rugoff, Director at the Hayward explained that ‘we wanted to use the dynamic architecture to mark the changing rhythms in Emin’s work, catering from the most public of statements to intimate works that speak in a whisper’. The exhibition is full of intimate theatres where you watch the Emin’s personal memories. In these dark interior spaces, the viewer feels alone with Emin, provoking the feeling you know her very well, which of part of her magic. ‘Why I Never Became a Dancer’ is the most moving of all the videos – documenting Emin’s liberating decision to leave Margate, a site of depression, rape and childhood suffering in the simple statement ‘I'm leaving this place – I'm getting out of here’. The video jumps from Margate to Emin alone dancing hysterically in an empty room: free. It is the clearest example of ‘sticking it to the demons of the past’ and Emin’s genuine joy is contagious.

Tracey Emin arrived at the exhibition looking like a ferociously independent woman, but most of all, a woman comfortable in her own skin. The insecurities present in her work had evaporated as Emin took to the stage. Her message was optimistic and she clearly proud of the show, only admitting with half a smile ‘I’m a little bit embarrassed about those tampons over there; they were from a long time ago’. She spoke as an artist in their prime, with maturity and conviction; ‘Art in Britain has never been better. We have managed to do something over the last ten years that has not been done before. Britain is famous as a country for culture and arts, and that’s the soul of a country, isn’t it? Art is the soul’. Emin was enigmatic as a public speaker, and her ability to bravely confessional publically was demonstrated as she stood on the stage in front of a family photo from Emin’s childhood, at the village wrestling tournament, with her voice wavering as she said ‘my dad died a year ago today but I’m really glad he is here standing behind me now. He was very important to me’. I think it is the level of which Emin is unafraid to share emotion and pain that makes her such an important artist in the modern world. Her work is not just about sex and masturbation, Emin explained ‘it is mainly about intimacy and about love’. Her work is about the stuff of life, expressed in its varying forms and mediums, with its highs and lows, and it speaks the honest truth.

Tracey Emin has always been someone who I have admired, her work may not be the most aesthetic, or of the highest conceptual calculation, but it speaks of things that everyone can associate with, even if only in a small way. As the Q&A with Emin drew to a close I decided now was the chance to pose a burning question to Emin face-to-face: what was the moment she knew that she was going to make a career as an artist. Her Answer: ‘I held an exhibition in the South London Gallery in 1997, and I arrived, and people were queuing around the block, and I thought, what’s happened? Is there a fire? But then when I got to the door, I realised people were queuing as the exhibition was full and people were waiting to get inside, to see my work – that when I knew that I was going to make a living out of art. Today is also a very important day, coming back to London, where my harshest critics are, I hope people like the show, I am very proud’. I can only recommend the Emin exhibition for yourselves, it is the perfect introduction for people who have not given her a chance before, but it is also an exhibition to convert her critics and please her fans to the core.

My First Issue of Exepose as Arts Editor

So excited to see this hit the print! - big feature of collected comments about the Arts Councils England cuts to Exeter's largest Theatre - The Northcott.

Also wrote a review and interview for the Udderbelly on Southbank London. Speaking to Front of House Manager Ollie Hester was good fun, and he has some genuine advice for people interested in a career in the Arts. Had a great night at the 'Alternative Royal Wedding Reception' although Phil Kay's semi-nervous breakdown due to some kind of drug abuse was memorable for maybe the wrong reasons... Think that 'Le Gateau Chocolat' on the other hand was superb, only wish there was more space in the paper too run a whole feature on that fab lycra-clad singer!

May Issue of The Exeter Flying Post: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger; Woody Allen

REVIEW PIECE FOR THE EXETER PICTUREHOUSE: A review of Woody Allen's 'You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger' - had a lovely time going down to the Picture House with housemates Richard and Rachel, polished off with a few lovely cocktails at Amber Rooms. Be sure to check out all other great articles in the Exeter Flying Post this week @  ISSUU
  

Anish Kapoor

 Exepose Review 7th March 2011

Anish Kapoor in the Serpentine Gardens for free? Thats an opportunity thats too good to miss, this Turner Prize winning sculptor is a big hit in the royal park. Big mirrors to the weather and the grounds frame the landscape in style. Below is a summary in but 300 words: 

 

If you are in London in the near future, then the Serpentine Gallery, in Kensington Gardens is well worth a visit to see the outside sculpture trail by the renowned artist Anish Kapoor. Kapoor is a big name in contemporary art, and the possibility of seeing the Turner Prize Winning artist with a fantastic London Backdrop such as the Royal Parks is a rare chance that should not be missed. London is Kapoor’s city, and the sculptures provide a unique vision of the place that has seen the creation of his most famous pieces.

The large scale sculptures are dotted around the park and are totally free to visit making the trail a great thing to do outside while the promising spring weather we are enjoying lasts.  The works are formed from shiny reflective surfaces made of curved panes of stainless steel. They throw at the observer mirrored versions of the park back on itself. The aim is to ‘creating new vistas in this famous and much-loved setting’ and they succeed in challenging the perception of a renowned location. They are at the same time a massive contrast and a compliment to the natural environment. The trail is named ‘Turning the World Upside Down’ with the surfaces flipping the language 180 degrees.

 The four sculptures are each placed to have an impact. They reflect the sky, the water of ‘The Round Pond’ and ‘The Longwater’ of the gardens alongside the trees and moving wildlife that inhabits the park. I saw it on a rainy day, and the views were obscured by the water, on a bright day the perfect mirrors would be all the more stunning. The sculptures are about reflection, in terms of the literal visual effect of the shiny surface, and the response of the viewer.  The viewer’s response is interesting as it is a revaluing of the world which surrounds us, and how we look at it. It is safe to say that Kensington Gardens look just as gorgeous standing on its head as it down on the solid earth. The park is open until dusk every-day and a map of the route can be obtained from the Serpentine Gallery in the grounds.

March Issue of the Exeter Flying Post

  

   

The Review in the Exeter Flying Post concerning the Independent Shopping scene in Exeter, with an interview with Nathan Blaker from NO GUTS NO GLORY in McCoy's Arcade, Fore Street. First Article published with EFP - whole magazine available to view @  ISSUU - some other great reads in this 'Independent' publication!

Damien Hirst

Exepose Review - 21st Febuary 2011

Modern? yes please. British? don't mind if I do. Sculpture? oh my  Royal Academy you really have ticked all the boxes with this one.  

This is a review from the brilliant exhibition @ Royal Academy London. It was a stunning show, spanning right across the modern scope, touching on Hepburn to Cornelia Parker to the world famous Damien Hirst . His attraction was certainly 'buzzing' with interest, and left the viewer 'itching' to see more. A brilliant show, curated with the standards you can expect from the Royal Academy. I loved it, as you will see below!  

New Sculptures on Campus

Exepose Review 7th Feb 2011


Written on the recommendation of University of Exeter curator of Fine Arts, Gina Cox- a little piece on the new arrivals to the extensive sculpture collection the University holds - really like the look of Kurt Jackson's 'Trembling Sea Mat' will have to brave the train down to lovely Falmouth soon to catch a glimpse.

2011 has seen the arrival of some beautiful art across Exeter University Campuses, each new arrival paying specific tribute to the splendour of the natural environment. On the Streatham Campus, there is the new sculpture outside the Northcott theatre - ‘Flayed Stone II’, a stone piece by Peter Randall-Page. Also there has been a striking creative bench carved from a tree felled during the clearance required for the Forum project, which can be seen from the footpath up to the Queen’s Building from the Footpath on the Prince of Wales Road. Down on the Cornwall Campus, we can now enjoy ‘The Cornish Trembling Sea Mat’ a gift from the West Country artist Kurt Jackson. These creative pieces are exciting arrivals to the University’s ever-growing art collections and provide a fresh creative burst on campus.

Peter Randall-Page’s stone is made from Finnish Glacial Granite Boulder, it is like a lump of rock fallen from the sky, or perhaps unearthed from the bottom of the ocean. Covered in ripples, it is metamorphous to the eye, challenging the gaze in a visual display of lines in motion. Randall-Page has explained this bond between a solid stone and the carvings he has printed into the surface as ‘implying a sense of potential energy and life within the inanimate -working the surface of the stone to imply physical qualities held within’. The piece is certainly full of energy and a nice addition to the grass lawn outside the Northcott. If you would like the chance to hear Peter Randall-Page speaking on his new piece, we are lucky enough to have a visit from the artist himself, he is coming to Exeter on the 30^th March and will be speaking in Queen’s LT2 from 12.45 – 13.45. The talk is a rare chance to get to hear an artist in an intimate environment talking about their work, a brilliant chance to ask any questions creative to someone who knows the industry well.

The other beautiful addition to the Streatham Campus is the carved bench, created from a felled Lime Tree. Nigel Ross is a Scottish artist specialising in chainsaws and wood! He has created on campus an artistically pleasing practical seat and table for use of students up on campus. It is can be viewed by the back of Queens in the wood.  The trees and bushes which were removed as part of the Forum enabling works have also provided 33 beautifully turned bowls by local wood turner Dave Regester, together will a selection of walking sticks which will be ready sometime this year. It is nice to know that amidst all the rubble, drilling and cranes, something creative and calm has emerged, and will endure once the building works have ceased to continue.

To move westwards, down to the campus in Cornwall, there is no shortage of artistic inspiration. The newest arrival to the stunning location is a piece named ‘The Cornish Trembling Sea Mat’. It has been described by the artist as ‘this sculpture represents the materials from which the economy, culture, heritage and fabric of Cornwall was made. These four massive cubes, balanced higgledy piggledy like a child's stack of bricks, show the elements of chance and change with time and history.” Although the two Exeter campuses made be one hundred miles apart, both share a steady and important connection to the creative arts, and these new additions to the family, certainly will help upkeep the tradition. Be sure to scout these recent acquisitions when up on campus, and check out the Peter Randall-Page Lecture on 30^th March.

 

Shadow Catchers

Exepose Review January 24th 2011


Saw this exhibition with Rebecca Saks, one of my best friends, who has been living in Finland for the last year. She has a lovely blog called:  Saks in Finland, which any lover of the north pole and surrounding areas should check out. It was lovely to see this exhibition with her, on our own day together in six months, maybe I was feeling sentimental, but the exhibition was very beautiful and it has stuck with me subsequently.  Derges makes the most beautiful waterscapes I have ever seen. True Art.

Camera-Less photography at the V and A

‘Shadow Catchers: Camera-Less Photography’ is the title visitors to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are presented with. Two impossibilities? Catching shadows and taking photographs without a camera are two things I considered unlikely if not unfeasible, before seeing this exhibition. This view however has changed, as I have seen photographs made with no lenses and shadows trapped on paper for eternity. The definition of a photograph is ‘a picture made using a camera, in which an image is focused on to light-sensitive material and then made visible and permanent by chemical treatment’, but the works on display made by five contemporary artists defy this definition. Floris Neususs, Pierre Cordier, Susan Derges, Garry Fabian Miller and Adam Fuss each work with photographic equipment, chemicals and light processes without bringing a camera into the equation. The V and A makes the claim that the art on display is therefore ‘an original’ whereas a photograph is a copy made from a negative, a reproduction of a reality. The pieces that adorn the walls of the exhibition have a more enticing mystical quality than standard photographic exhibitions, although they do not break so far into fantasy that they become paintings. They occupy a liminal space between the two job titles of ‘photographer’ and ‘painter’.

Each artist in the exhibition uses different techniques to abandon camera, to great differentiation and effect. My personal favourite was the work of the eccentric Pierre Cordier; an artist experimenting with the chemicals in photographic development to create pieces of art that are nothing like reality. Cordier describes how he experiments with hundreds of pieces, processed randomly to create. Developer and Fixers are used to create light and dark whilst anything from nail varnish to eggs is added to the concoction to create new patterns. The work at the end of this slightly insane process is amazing. Labyrinths of intricate parallel patterns, swirls of never-ending neatness, the randomness is lost in the end product which appears totally contained and calculated. The work created by Cordier are called ‘chemigrams’ and he is the pioneer of this increasingly popular technique.

Another artist who caught my eye in the exhibition was the British Artist Susan Derges. Her interest is water: its movement and its strong symbolism. She worked in Devon during the 1990’s and used the night sky as her darkroom and the currents in rivers as her subject. The work she has created is sublime; it is captured by reflecting water on photographic paper held under the flow of water, with sheets of foil to reflect the light. It appears a bit like the bark on a withered tree, but with the feeling of movement and dynamism, which can be lost in photographs. Derges’ work is big bold and beautiful. It is nature as close to the real thing as you can get in artistic reproduction.

On the whole the exhibition is seamlessly curated and easily explored, a series of video installations at the heart of the exhibition provide a truly moving artists’ eye view of the world of camera-less photography and the pictures are indescribably absorbing, clever and natural. The exhibition runs at the Victoria and Albert Museum until the 20^th of February, so if you get a chance, get up to London and see this contemporary exhibition – it is the best thing I have seen in the V&A for a long time.