1.6.10


Work No. 960

Martin Creed


Work no.189 1998

17.4.10

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO - Tate Modern



Venus of the rags 1967, 1974
Pistoletto was interested in broadening the material language of Arte Povera, and in creating complex juxtapositions of modern and historical images and ideas. Venus of the Rags appears to bring together an iconic figure of classical culture with the detritus of contemporary society as the solid Roman goddess props up a randomly formed pile of gaudily coloured second-hand clothes. In fact the figure is based on a kitsch statue found in a garden centre rather than a genuine antiquity.

JOHN HILLIARD - Tate Britain









Sixty Seconds of Light 1970
Photograph on paper

MATTHEW SMITH - Limoncello Gallery

EXHIBITION VISITED









'No means No' by Matthew Smith.
I wasn't really keen on this show for a number of reasons. The coherency between the works was really hard to discover. Each work had so many different things going on in it, that it was very hard to strike conversations between the works. The playful use of colour was nice, and the stark use of acrylic to hold a drawing in was really good. nice and clean. I didn't really understand the use of the commercial racking to house the projector, it made me think of an industrial warehouse where they would stack goods. The projection was incredibly light too, and I'm not sure it was meant to be like that. The curation was slightly predictable too. I have been to many shows at Limoncello and they all seem to use the same formula, except, Vanessa Billy, who actually used the ceiling. Its not that i didnt like the work, i just feel that it was poorly set out. When i have looked at some of his other work on the limoncello website, it got me really excited, and i was very keen to see it in the flesh. Very Viner Street.

12.4.10

TUSHAR JOAG - Saatchi Gallery

EXHIBITION VISITED




The Enlightening Army Of The Empire
2008
Installation comprising 16 figures, perspex, plastic, brass, mild steel, wood, electric bulbs, wire and mixed media
Figure size: approximately 183 x 49 x 61 cm

Really likes the way this was curated. The way in which the lights made you walk in and look closer. A bit like the work below.


SUBODH GUPTA - Saatchi gallery

EXHIBITION VISITED




Spill
2007
Stainless steel and stainless steel utensils

170 x 145h x 95 cm



Stainless Steal steel 1
2007
Oil and enamel on canvas

198x366cm


Subodh Gupta, Frieze Art Fair, Booth B20
"Curry 2 (4)", 2005
Stainless steel
220 x 138 x 39cm





Subodh Gupta UFO
2007
Brass Utensils

Subodh Gupta employs many of the original techniques of French conceptualist Marcel Duchamp by elevating the ready-made into an art object. Gupta chooses signature objects of the Indian sub-continent and relocates them as art objects in monumental installations of stainless steel and tiffin-tins. Spill is an overbearing work of great scale that has at its centre a larger than life stainless steel water vessel, with many smaller steel utensils spilling over the edge like water pouring out.


These works were of real importance to me, when walking in the room, the sensory experience was really striking. You could not helo but be drawn to them as objects due to their shiny surface. The visual appeal of these works was really strong. The use of domestic objects, such as kitchen utensils was slightly predictable and expected but they way in which they had been transformed into somethings else was really interesting, like in UFO, 2007. This eliptical shape is like my microwave plate peice and this struck me straight away. The way in which the title completly changed the way i looked at the work. The fact they were kitchen utensils was not important anymore. The shiny surface became really the main point of interest. The surface took over. The fetishness of the bright, high-shine surface was all you could look at.

10.4.10

31.3.10

SURREALIST ADVERTISING



Images taken from:
These images depict adverts in the 80's for Benson and Hedges.

Consuming Passions : The dynamics of popular culture By Judith Williamson

30.3.10

COMMON CULTURE





'Menus' explores the process by which issues of taste, class and notions of 'Britishness' are negotiated through the transaction of commodities in popular culture.

Came across 'common culture' whist looking through a book called 'variable capital' by David Cambell and Mark Durden.Interesting to realise how noticeable and identifiable a vehicle liek this is. How do we know that this peice of machinery serves some kind of fast food? Conditioning tells us. It is these design features in work, that really makes me think. I think about how we can so easily identify such objects.

I want to read more about this work along with other works from common culture. I will put it in my research journal so i can read more when i have time.

I have been looking on the website and i really like them. i havnt heard of them before though, maybe they are not that well known.could be wrong here.

29.3.10

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - Ambi -Pur





These things bloody amaze me. I can not understand why someone who purchases the National Geographic would be the sort of person who buys Ambi Pur to try and re- life there travelling adventures. This is confusing.

Also reminds me of the new Glade air freshener that looks like a stone.A pebble.very odd.

MERCEDES- BENZ Design Sculpture

Modernist type of sculpture







The sculpture, named "Rising Car", represents a Mercedes-Benz Concept body taking soft, flowing form from liquid - or as if it was covered by a "shimmering cloth" draped over.

"Mercedes-Benz design is clear, calm and consistent, but yet emotional and highly sensuous. Mercedes-Benz is the brand best able to present automobile design as an art form in an authentic way."

The sculpture imitates the formative power of nature: flowing elements change their shape as the form of a new automobile emerges in line with the dynamic laws of gravity and aerodynamics, making this form vaguely visible and solidifying into a work of art with the appearance of a casting possessing contours and clear definitions.

The car being a Modernist type of sculpture. Henry Moore smoothness.

The airwick would not look how it does today with its ergonomic design without the influence of people such as Henry Moore

The high-shine , high-spec surface of the car is imitated even by the surface that covers it in secrecy.

WARHOL


Campbell's soup cans, 1962

When Warhol first exhibited these thirty–two canvases in 1962, each one simultaneously hung from the wall like a painting and rested on a shelf like groceries in a store. The number of canvases corresponds to the varieties of soup then sold by the Campbell Soup Company. Warhol assigned a different flavor to each painting, referring to a product list supplied by Campbell's. There is no evidence that Warhol envisioned the canvases in a particular sequence. Here, they are arranged in rows that reflect the chronological order in which they were introduced, beginning with "Tomato" in the upper left, which debuted in 1897.

I feel like i cant really think about my Airwick peices without at least recognising that i am aware of the above peice of work. I really didnt like this at school, in fact its the sort of work that i just didnt understand. Now, however i have come to realise the layers to a work of this kind. The exploitation of such a capitalist world is now of real interest to me, and is coming out in my recent work, however with a more domesticated tone. I am planning to read the essays in the POP LIFE catalogue that i just purchased from Amazon.

SEAN EDWARDS


‘Untitled’, 2007, InkJet Print


Sean Edwards ‘Untitled (Composition)’, 2006, Bubble Wrap, Discharged Firework

This was an old show at Limoncello called 'Fair Show' which featured all artists at the gallery, but i have just come in to contact with this peice of work. I wish i had seen this. The fragility of the burnt out firework reminds me of the pathetic look of my Party Blower peice of work with the pump. It looks old, a bit knackered. Like mutton dressed as lamb.



Bruce Nauman Good Boy Bad Boy 1985
© ARS, NY and DACS, London 2002
Good Boy Bad Boy 1985

Colour video and monitors
duration: 60 min., 52 sec.
installation

Bruce Nauman’s performances, films and video works often use language games and repetition to explore the nature of language and perception. In this work two monitors are placed at head height, so that the performers stare out directly at the viewer. Two professional actors recite the same series of one hundred phrases, beginning in a flat tone but becoming more emotional. Because they are talking at different speeds, the actors fall out of step with each other, and the continuously looped videos become out of sequence. Many of the statements imply moral judgements which, through repetition, seem increasingly threatening.

This video has the sort of pace i could never achieve. The threatening nature of this video peice is really strong.With my microwave peice, it is important to me that it has a pace to it. It must feel like anticipation in terms of when the glass plate is going to move, the more people that are in the room the better, pressure.

HARRISON AND WOOD - Wimbledon Gallery

EXHIBITION VISITED







These are two people that i could never get bored of. They were recently shown at the Wimbledon Gallery and i sat and watched there filsm over and over again. The simple graphic display of John and Paul as objects in there own right interests me everytime i see the films. There were quite a few that i had seen before. Irony was more obvious to me now. I met them on my foundation, liked there look, but now looking back, i really understand there videos much more. I read about them a lot too in books and articles.



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