London: Day 4

Yesterday was my last day on the Curating Contemporary art course at Chelsea. We spent the majority of the day in Peckham, a community which is not what it used to be, with galleries, cafe's and small shops cropping up around the town, it is developing a cultural scene.

The 'Art Scene' is good for the economy and image of a city. It stems from people being plugged into and engaged with all aspects of people and places within a specific cultural sphere. The origins of the scene and its organisation was the topic of our lecture today, given by Pil, artist, curator and one half of the Pil and Galia Kollectiv.

Due to a shift from material labor to immaterial labor (working through conversation, verbally and mentally) work does not stop at the office anymore. It is carried always, at home, in the pub and on our phones. The contemporary art scene moves in parallel to the world of work and therefore there are no boundaries to curatorial practice, ideas and projects emerge from conversation, always in flux.
The scene is an extremely functional part of contemporary networking, generating relationships based on a shard identity. Having the ability to liaise, discuss and communicate with others upon the discourse within the scene is vital to a persons integration within it.
Try this for a tongue twister:

'Whoever is not seen 'on the scene' does not belong to the scene, and the scene which is not seen is a non-scene.' Pascal Gielen writes in The Art scene (2009: Pg15).

View from Bold Tendencies, Peckham

During this course I have most definitely increased my historic and contemporary curatorial knowledge. But perhaps more importantly I feel I am able to view exhibitions with more appreciation, with greater understanding upon how curatorial decisions effect the successful-ness of an exhibition and the viewer experience. I have also been introduced to non-conventional galleries by lecturers Pil and Galia, such as this massive gem - Bold Tendencies.

Benedict Drew, Now That's What I Call Feedback (2013)

For three months in the summer Bold Tendencies takes over the upper levels of an unused multi-storey car park. Artists are commissioned by curators to show in this vast and unusual venue. A space such as this allows for artists to realise large scale sculptural pieces that comment upon the current developments of sculpture today, along with having a mutually impactful relationship with the direct surroundings of Peckham, the skyline of London and the urban, concrete architecture of the car park.

Approaching Benedict Drew's piece on a slope reaffirms this connection. The dark, low ceilings create an almost cave like space in which Drews video acts a futuristic, moving cave painting. The sketchy animation continually revolves and pokes itself in the eye, playfully drawing attention to ways of looking, liking and commenting in the social media and online driven culture of today.  

Bold Tendencies 2013 is on show until the 30th of September.

Ruth Proctor, I see You Liking Everything (2013)

Beautiful Brutality

Mat Collishaw, Insecticide 14 (2009) C-Type photo on Dibond 

           Upon beginning the cycle of life, every natural being confronts the trials of survival. As humans we seem to forget that we are part of this, setting ourselves above nature’s barbarous world.  But still, we are drawn into natures unknown, as we strive to unpick its inner workings through intense scrutiny, experimentation and collection of living creatures.          

Directed by orchestrated moments of cruelty and beauty, The Nature of the Beast is an exhibition that treads a fine line between allure and repulsion, calling into question the very essence of mankind. What is the nature of the beast?

            The artists selected, Mat Collishaw, Polly Morgan, Tessa Farmer, Mark Fairnington, Olly & Suzi and Patricia Piccinni use varying media to critically engage with the ways in which the animal kingdom is documented, categorized and portrayed in both culture and contemporary art. Within this short write up I will highlight the pieces that really struck a chord with me when I visited the exhibition at the New Art Gallery Walsall.

            Usually regarded as social and affectionate creatures, the brightly hued taxidermy Lovebirds in Polly Morgan’s Myocardial Infarction scavenge like vultures over a bleeding heart. This violent construction bears a contradiction between beauty and brutality that is unsettling within the viewer, as frozen in time is a reminder of our primal instincts.

            Coexisting in the space with Morgan’s three taxidermy pieces are a number of works from Mat Collishaw’s Insecticide series.  The pitifully crushed wings of moths and butterflies are amplified in scale allowing the remnants of these minute beings to be studied in detail. The finite becomes infinite as these creatures, symbolic of transformation; death and beauty become celestial bodies at the hands of the artist. Coupled with Morgan’s work the control we hold over creatures smaller or less able than ourselves becomes visible, re-evaluating attitudes towards the animal kingdom.

            The immense detail in Mark Fairnington’s six prize bull paintings reflects the reproduction and meticulous breeding of live-stock.  Each is stood in an iconic, stoic pose that harks back to the history of painting and is offset by clinical, stark white backgrounds. Stripped from their natural surroundings, the bulls are treated like lab specimens, and come under scrutiny which, as a viewer, you cannot help but par-take in through the awe created by Fairingtons highly detailed and exquisitely painted surfaces.

            The ‘beasts’ portrayed within the work of these artists do not represent the natural world but rather a reflection upon ourselves as animal consumers. Our fascinations and fears have culminated in prolonging research and experimentation of animals in order for humankind to maintain control of the world through knowledge and power. Is this survival of the fittest? Is this the true nature of the beast?

The Nature of the Beast is at the New Art Galley Walsall until the 30^th June.