e-flux Journal

e-flux is a mailing system, based in New York that has been providing invaluable information to art world professionals and art enthusiasts alike since 1999. Free to sign up to, e-flux sends information to one's email detailing everything from exciting new shows opening around the world to new appointments and available job positions within the art world. Whilst it's extensive network is what e-flux has become known for, it also offers a journal containing theoretical essays discussing topics that are central to current discourse on contemporary art practice and the complex institutional framework that supports it.

An essay in the May 2010 issue of the e-flux journal by Anton Vidokle, titled 'Art Without Artists' examined the rise of the curator as a quasi-artist come cultural producer and contested this role asking whether the increased influence and supposed support of the curator within the contemporary art world was a welcome development among artists. Whilst this polemical critique of curatorial practice raised some very apparent trends that certainly need to be addressed in a culture in which 'spectacle' is an ever more prominent theme and expectation, it was perhaps a little harsh to suggest that the curator (manager) was attempting to take the role of the artist (worker), acting as a controlling force restricting and keeping artists in check, stifling their raw creative ability and needs.

The archive of the e-flux journal is available online for free and provides a useful resource to artists, art professionals, art history students and anyone with an interest in contemporary art. Check it out.

Fischli und Weiss

Wilkommen ins Leipzig - Spinnerei

Matias Bechtold - Filipp Rosbach Galerie

Berlin born artist Matias Bechtold is currently showing his latest works which continue his ongoing pursuit of the modern utopian metropolis at the Filipp Rosbach Galerie in the Spinnerei. His sole use of corrugated cardboard as an artistic medium, has allowed him to gain an unprecedented understanding of the medium allowing him to execute his architectural landscapes with a level of craftsmanship that both explicitly illustrates the reality/alienation of modern urban life.

Additionally his works through such intricate detail and precision manage to transport one into a condensed reality, lost within their minutiae. Although the concept behind his works is fairly basic, it is the display of the artist as master craftsman which makes his works so effective, something that more and more is not so clearly visible within the contemporary art world.

F-Stop - Ringmessehaus – Peter Bialobrzeski

The Ringmessehaus in Leipzig contains the work of German born photographer Peter Bialobrzeski. The exhibition brings together two series of works ‘Neon Tigers’ and ‘Paradise Now’ which both document the Asian ‘Megacities’. Shot with an analogue camera Bialobrezeski seeks to explore the notion of fiction and sci-fi that are inherent to these cities. This is achieved through the use of long exposure and the juxtaposition of the built up metropolises and the natural world that surrounds them. His interest in fiction and sci-fi, portrays these cities not just as they are but as they could be and illustrates the modern utopia/dystopia imagined in both Huxley’s ‘A Brave New World’ and Orwell’s ‘1984’.

‘Neon Tigers’ consists of a mixture of close up shots of housing blocks, which through exposures ranging from 4-8 minutes result in an emptiness in which people become a blur or disappear altogether. One is left with the built up city, which up close appears chaotic, yet when viewed from afar displays a resounding order and geometrical clarity. When viewing the photos one is struck by the abstract nature of the city as a whole, but on closer inspection one is reminded that in these tower blocks, the individual units represent an individual private space within the whole.

‘Paradise Now’ explores a very different phenomenon to ‘Neon Tigers’. The close proximity of the natural wilderness to these built up manmade spaces is an unusual circumstance and heightens the fictional quality to Bialobrzeski’s work. Although shot with an analogue camera, the pictures look as if they have been artificially manipulated by a computer. Rather than juxtaposition, the natural world and the neon lights of the buildings within the city behind are homogenous. Despite its artificial appearance, Neon is a natural gas and cannot be manufactured artificially by man. This subtlety expresses Bialobrezeski’s constant search to explore the limits between fact and fiction which are so central to his works and his understanding of photography as a medium. Bialobrzeski’s unprecedented vision of these mega metropolises shows a level of thought that not only results in astounding visual impact but also encourages one to reassess one's own perception of the city.

F-Stop Photography Festival - Leipzig

The F-Stop photography festival in Leipzig comprises of four separate exhibition spaces spread across the city and explores in depth the works of a plethora of international photographers from all around Europe, the USA and Canada. The festival aims to explore two central themes of seclusion and nakedness. Whilst the work of the photographers reflect these themes, so too do the exhibition spaces that have been chosen. For the most part they are empty, decaying former DDR (East German) factories or office blocks. Whilst engendering seclusion, these buildings stand naked, revealing the history of a city, which after the reunification of Germany was left gutted by a huge migration to the west. These exhibition spaces not only help to further clarify the works but also reflect the themes of nakedness and seclusion that are inherently relevant in Leipzig as a city.

Ostalgie

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre

Marchand and Meffre are two Parisian photographers who have an insatiable desire to document the deterioration and decay of derelict buildings of the 21st century, whether industrial factories or the multitude of theatres and cinemas which sprung up in 1940's America, these modern ruins are testament to the ephemeral nature of the 21st century.

"Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension."

Exhibition of the Summer - Johan Grimonprez

The Belgian born artist Johann Grimonprez occupied the fruitmarket gallery between the 22^nd May to 11^th July 2010, showing a retrospective of his films from Dial a H.I.S.T.O.R.Y, the film which brought him to prominence through it’s eerily prophetic allusions to 9/11, to Double Take his latest venture, a gripping narrative which explores binary opposites and their inevitable/necessary existence.

Grimonprez’s aesthetic, comprises a conglomeration of archive footage and film clips, interspersed with advertisements, resulting in a narrative, which engenders the equivalent of collage for time-based media.

Although all his films are interesting, it is Double Take which was the show-stopper for me.

His effortless combination of archive footage of the cold war years in which America and Russia are presented as an analogy of Hitchcock and his double and film clips from Hitchcock’s the Birds, question the substantiality of documentary as fact. Instead through the fictional film clips, Grimonprez undermines the supposedly factual news clips, illustrating the theatricality of television and reminding us that what we in fact accept to be truth is far from neutral.

Grimonprez preoccupation with doppelganger illustrated in the very title of the work (Double Take), uses the fictional narrative of Hitchcock meeting his double, to illustrate the threat that one feels from ‘the Other’, whether personally or politically. This is chillingly brought to the fore with the quote “if you meet your double, you should kill him, before he kills you” an idiom that wonderfully expresses the commodity of fear conjured up by the media and popular culture.

In a historical context, Grimonprez cleverly sums up the binary opposites of America and Russia, through their disparate powers, expressed through the triumph of commodity in the consumer culture of America demonstrated through the repeated coffee commercials and Russia's triumphs in science, most notably sputnik, the ‘space race’ and nuclear warheads, alluded to through clips from Hitchcock’s the birds, which suggest fear from above.

All in all through Grimonprez’s myriad of references he creates a rich and complex work, that not only questions the documentary medium itself, but through archival footage of the cold war, expresses the fact that existence does not consist of one unified reality but rather multiple realities, a point which is enforced by the suggestion that television, specifically news clips are a product of the nation in which they are aired. Grimonprez’s films are intellectually challenging, however the result is a work that is conceptually outstanding and encourages the viewer to question his own perception of the world.

As part of its educational programme, the Fruitmarket gallery organised a series of talks surrounding Grimonprez and his works which are available on the website and provide an invaluable resource for anyone interested in delving into his films.

BOOK-SHELF - To Hell With Culture - Herbert Read

My most recent dose of Art Criticism was a collection of essays by the late Herbert Read an anarchist and fervent supporter of the avant garde during the 1930's. Covering a wide range of topics from the inability of Democracy to be wholly integrated within the Capitalist superpowers of the West, to the role of pornography within art, Read consistently returns to one aim: to both define the role of Art and the artist within society.

Read at once challenges all forms of authority whether "democratic" or totalitarian and calls for liberty and a whole hearted pursuit of the arts which he defines as anything created with aesthetics and function in mind with a clear Ruskinian ideology at the heart of his writing.

Written shortly after an intense period of political turmoil, his work is all the more relevant to our own economic and political crisis in which the role of art and the artist is yet to be determined. Many of his warnings against a dogged pursuit of economic gain eerily stand, as a warning not heeded.

All in all Read's clarity of expression and literary flare, remind one not only to question one's own existence and the forces that govern it, but also maintain an air of optimism in humanity's ability to progress and combat adversity through a pursuit of the arts and an unconscious universal aestheticism in order to strive for better standard of living.

CANDID Review - Hannah Knights

The vacuous space of The Out of The Blue Drill Hall is host to a collection of work by recent graduates and undergraduates working in Scotland. The organisers' manifesto to unpretentiously curate the work of the more established artists alongside those still studying withstands scrutiny, and the outlook is a testament to the multiplicity of contemporary art.

With a map and the artist's statements to conduct us, the anonymous works are contextualised. Instead of being claustrophobically descriptive of the singular pieces, these few words provide an insight to the individual oeuvres that have informed the artworks; a consideration important to any group show. The two booth-encased video works of Max Swinton and Rachel Maclean are testament to the great potential of this medium for artists. In these confined environments the work is absorbed without distraction. Appropriately curated within the exhibition, these internal spaces allow some of the work to be hidden aiding a slower reveal to the exhibition as a whole. The double-height space in which the exhibition sits allows the first floor balcony to become an important vantage point; the angle giving Denise Torrance's 'The Sky Does Fall' an alternative facet, otherwise missed from the initial outlook. Having the ability to survey the works in this way becomes an important feature of the 'showcase' aspect to the exhibition.

Maclean's work is a standout in any show; as she adopts the technicolor aesthetic she simultaneously critiques, the falseness of the celebrity consumed media becomes dissected. The vivacity of her exhibited piece is a juxtaposition to the sculptural pieces on the main floor; which with collectively soft hues and in natural materials have a continuity to be gently consumed. Jamie Fitzpatrick's hybrid taxidermic creations offer the comedic touch to the show, universally visually affirmative but nonetheless stimulating. Nearby, the ominous black feathers of 'After Freya and Daedalus' congruously draws upon associations with animals to convey an alternative response from a similar stimulus. The development of a completeness to the exhibition is exemplified in the display of Hope-Johnstone's drawings, as recognisable in the advertising poster, and acting as an overall reminder of the versatility in creativity of this generation of artists and the sometimes indistinguishable collaboration of fine art and design.

Such is the ambition, flair and professionalism with which the event is curated that the audience may well be unaware that Candid's organisers and curators are yet to graduate themselves. It is appropriate to the aspirations of the exhibition, then, that this showcase of young talent is not descriptive of the artists alone.

Hannah Knights - The Journal

The Glue Factory - Glasgow

Set up by the Finn Collective on a nondescript industrial estate, 'The Glue Factory' is situated about a 5 minute walk from the Glasgow School of Art on 22 Farnell Street. Initially it was set up for G.I (Glasgow International) with an exhibition called KISS OF LIFE. The exhibition consisted of a showcase of both their own and invited international and local artists work which sought to respond to the architectural, social and historical context of the building.

Following its success, the Glue Factory now hosts work from the MFA degree show and is most definitely the highlight on offer in Glasgow. With a wide range of installation that makes full use of the space, the show presents a refreshing contrast to the rest of the degree show in which one trudges through, many, a make shift white cube, as if on a conveyer-belt of culture.

Particularly impressive are the light installations that reveal the architectural beauty of the building itself. Whilst a lot of work has been done to the factory to make it suitable for exhibition, some of the old machinery has been left and so the character and existing function of the building remains intact. An installation in which a room has been filled with soil and plants, serves to express the notion of new growth out of an old space and explicitly illustrates the juxtaposition of old and new which the glue factory achieves. The vast space with hidden nooks and crannies left me wanting to explore every inch of the space, excited to see what lay round the next corner. It is the response and respect for site specificity that is embedded within the curation of the show, which makes the glue factory such a successful and engaging experience.

With two impressive shows in the space under their belt, one can only hope that this industrial anti-white cube from the Finn collective continues. Well worth a visit, I eagerly anticipate their next offering.

BOOK-SHELF - Talking Prices - Olav Velthuis

Talking Prices is the second offering from Olav Velthuis an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at the university of Amsterdam. His research is unprecedented and sheds light on the forces that govern a market that even baffles those who are firmly embedded within it.

Through interviews with dealers, collectors, artists and other art world types from Amsterdam and New York Velthuis exposes the inner workings of an otherwise private community and succeeds in explaining almost anything that you would want to know about the contemporary art market whether it be why a pickled shark can fetch over $10 million at auction or why dealers insist on providing expensive champagne at their frequent exhibition openings.

All in all Velhuis delivers an interesting account of how the art market differs from traditional economies and combines engaging writing with a series of interesting anecdotes, facts and figures. As someone interested in pursuing a career in such a field, Talking Prices provided me with a greater understanding of a industry where products sell for record prices, yet price tags are virtually invisible.

An essential book for anyone with an interest in contemporary art, artists or budding dealers alike.

Ubu - Avant-Garde Video Library

Ubu Film is a video library of avant-garde film and documentaries. It is organised by artist and there is a mix of documentaries about the artist or their films. You are free to watch online or download if you wish. Well worth a visit.

Hello Again - The Cars (Directed by Andy Warhol) 1984

CANDID

Candid is the first exhibition that i have organised. Alongside Joao Abbott-Gribben and Joseph Constable, I set out to select and exhibit some of the most exciting graduate contemporary artists in Scotland. The exhibition was focused primarily on video, sculpture and installation and sought to combine the diversity and originality of young artists with a professional curatorial framework. In using a space such as Out of the Blue Drill Hall we were aware of the need to make full use of the verticality of the space. Works from Denise Torrance and Rosalind Thomson were constructed for the space and were hung from the girders. Rachael Maclean, Jamie Fitzpatrick, Catriona Gilbert, Maximilian Swinton and Jessica Dunleavy also exhibited. Here are some photos of the final layout.

www.candid-art.co.uk

CANDID Installation

Capturing the Concept - Nicholas Grimshaw

The few photographs and rows of wooden cabinets that occupy the main hall of the ECA do not immediately entice the viewer. But on closer examination the inner thoughts and working processes in this collection reveal an intimate portrait of the meticulous design process of a man hailed as one of Britain’s greatest architects.

The exhibition comprises a collection of Sir Nicholas Grimshaw’s sketchbooks, dated from 1982 to 2007, rangeingfrom initial proposals to Grimshack's private thoughts. Although illustrating the diversity and ingenuity of Grimshaw’s mind they are executed with a pervading sense of order. The books are all identical—A4 sketchbooks, with the same off-white drawing paper and illustrated with the same blue ink—and one cannot help but imagine Grimshaw at his desk realising preparatory sketches for the organic, undulating forms of his masterpiece, the Eden Project.

The sense of order and control that permeates Grimshaw’s sketchbooks recalls the notion of the architect as creator. The sketches depict the architectural process in its entirety: from initial limitations, like the climate considerations annotated on a sketch for Palkovo Airport in St Petersburg, to Grimshaw’s vision of how people will move through his buildings, as described in a plan for the British Pavilion. The totality of design so evident in Grimshaw’s sketches is reminiscent of the Corbusian vision of a utopian world with the architect as its supreme authority, and the idea that through efficient architecture once can achieve an efficient society.

The collection emphasises the importance of drawing within the design process. The sketches provide a portable platform with which the architect can record his thoughts and inspiration, with a sense of immediacy not available in the practice or studio. The consistency in Grimshaw’s sketchbooks results in a narrative of design in which the viewer is invited into Grimshaw’s mind and can trace the development from structural drawings and lists of materials, to the completed buildings shown in high-quality photographs that accompany the exhibition.

Capturing the Concept offers the viewer a rare insight into the primary stages of some of Britain’s most innovative modern architecture, while also providing an elegant portrayal of the process by which the drawn line is transformed into metal and glass.

Charlie Anderson - Interview (Bliss Henderson Gallery)

“I want to reinstate painting’s relevance within contemporary art,” Charlie Anderson tells me when I ask about his motivations and aspirations as an artist. Anderson explains that while at ECA there was an overwhelming shift away from painting towards conceptual art, and that sometimes encouragement of the practice of painting was lacking. Through his work he explores the various possibilities available through painting, testing the boundaries between fine art and street art and how this can be applied to the gallery space.

Dubbed 'graffiti pop art' by the Henderson Gallery, Anderson’s art effortlessly combines a plethora of influences from Rauschenberg and Lichtenstein to Bast and the Brooklyn street-art collective Faille. He employs images derived from all aspects of popular culture, from beer bottle labels to nightclub flyers; these images are juxtaposed to create a collage like aesthetic, which results in a layered and textual quality in his work. This is influenced by his interest in the transience of billboard advertising where the overlapping of the old and new forms a fragmented whole in which the meaning is redefined.

Anderson’s work entices and teases the viewer with its alluring fantastical comic book girls, distorted through the addition of labels such as Versace, Chanel and Coca-Cola. When asked what relevance Pop Art holds today Anderson replies that, as one is bombarded by advertisements on a daily basis, and consumerism is so entrenched within our society, it remains as important as it was in the 1950s. Although the triumph of Pop Art is often considered to have been its effect on people’s perception of what constitutes an artwork, the aesthetic that Anderson has developed through the marrying of styles and influences is hugely effective.

The Henderson gallery, where Anderson's first solo show Bliss is currently being exhibited, is a modest space that offers a platform for young artists to showcase their work. Operating as a commercial gallery, it allows the artists to sell their works in a professional environment, but not tying them into a contract, and thus allowing them the much-needed freedom which is vital in the early development of their careers. Talking to the gallery director, he told me that Anderson’s work was brought to his attention through both his degree show and its appearance on walls around his neighbourhood.

The contrasting elements of fine art and street art present within Anderson’s work are reflected in thecuration of the show, where framed pieces are exhibited alongside bare canvases pasted to the wall, reminiscent of billboards. These contrasts are further enforced through a glass box in the centre of the exhibition displaying the various mediums and techniques exploited by the artist, from acrylic paint to spray cans and stencils. Anderson was also keen to tell me that he had been invited by the gallery to paint the garage outside the space. His instinct is to play around with these influences; to continue where Pop Art left off, challenging what is acceptable within the confines of the gallery space.

Anderson’s latest works use stencils formed through a series of horizontal lines to recreate landscapes, scenes of traffic and alluring women. The works continue the trend of recreating images through fragmentation. They are sprayed onto cardboard, and whilst the images only consist of line, the result is sculptural. These are the highlight of the show, as they feel less derivative of his earlier influences, and while maintaining the concepts that are apparent in the earlier works, they develop a new mode of expression.

Although some of Anderson’s works may seem reliant on his influences, they introduce an effective marrying of styles and continue the discourse started by Pop Art of what exactly constitutes an artwork. With his works already in high profile collections like that of British Airways, and his shortlisting for the prestigious Jerwood painting prize, Charlie Anderson is an exciting prospect for the future.

Drawing for Instruction - Talbot Rice

"We should talk less and draw more. Personally I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say in sketches," proclaimed Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, establishing drawing as the paramount form of human communication. Renouncing speech may be slightly extreme, but this sentiment highlights the essential function of illustration as a means of conveying and gaining knowledge of a particular object or concept.

The Talbot Rice Gallery's first show of 2010, Drawing For Instruction, explores this didactic function of drawing across a wide range of academic disciplines, juxtaposing early 19th century life drawings from the Edinburgh College of Art with digital drawings (viewed through 3D glasses) from the School of Chemistry.

The plethora of material explores the role of drawing as a form of communication and thus illustrates its importance within the world of academia. It suggests that aesthetic value can be found in explanatory drawings, something that is displayed in James Turner Murray’s vast canvas of a skeletal horse and rider situated in the lower gallery. The painting that usually hangs in the Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies explores the contrasts between the anatomy of the horse and the human. With the addition of painterly details such as the wry smile, earrings and gilded tunic motif of the rider, Murray commands the viewer to acknowledge not only the educative but the aesthetic value of the piece.

Upon entering the upper gallery the viewer is confronted with Andrew Kennedy's erotic, surreal and often disturbing sketches, and a plan to reorganize Edinburgh society by William Bartholomew from the archives of the Lothian Health Service; offering an insight into the mind of a psychiatric patient and exploring notions of drawing as a means of therapy.

In an increasingly technological world it is often difficult to discern whether drawing holds as important a role as it did for previous generations. Through its rich and diverse collection and its unusual juxtapositions, Drawing for Instruction reminds us of the importance of drawing as a vital tool for human communication, whether it be in developing an understanding of the human form in a life drawing class or expressing the laws of chemistry on a molecular level.

John Mclean - Sculptures from Painting

Hailed by Jeffery Camp RA as 'the always aware, ever young, ever colourful, ever colour loving, surefire abstract artist', John Mclean’s latest sculptures showcased at Bourne Fine Art certainly testify to this description. Trudging along the grey, dark, rainy streets of Edinburgh, one is immediately met by the vibrant, abstract sculptures of Mclean, which through their plethora of colour and simplicity of form engender a series of weightless geometric planes of colour, suspended in space.

The title of the exhibition ‘Sculptures from Painting’ is an apt description for Mclean’s sculptures, which are predominantly constructed from manipulated etch-primed aluminium. Starting as sheet metal Mclean effortlessly applies the flat colourful forms that float within his canvases. The sheet is then bent along straight lines to create a complex geometric shape, which invites further investigation to perceive the harmonious palette applied by the artist. Viewed from afar these three-dimensional forms appear two-dimensional and the consistency between his paintings, which accompany the sculptures, becomes apparent.

Rather than objects of solid mass, the manipulated aluminium makes use of void and the result is a sculpture that contrary to gaining solidity, seems to float within the gallery space. An exercise in colour and form, Mclean’s sculptures successfully develop his artistic expression that while remaining consistent with his paintings offer an elegant reorganisation of form, which encourages interaction.

The exhibition allows the viewer the chance to explore a side to Mclean that is often sidelined by his paintings for which he is most famous. Through his sculptures Mclean effectively develops his aesthetic and whilst derivative of his painting, their weightless elegance and burst of colour succeed in providing a suitable platform to explore the further possibilities of colour and form within space.

Tessa Lynch - Collective Gallery Edinburgh

"My work can always be seen in two formats, 2D and 3D; this constant push and pull of different dimensions directly references my interests in reality and fantasy", writes Tessa Lynch in her artist biography. This fascination with duality is clearly expressed throughout the body of work on show at Lynch’s latest solo showAlexandrite at the Collective. The exhibition name confirms this, derived from a precious gemstone revered for its ability to change colour from green to red when viewed in different lights.

Through its exploration of a wide range of media from installation to video, performance and prints, the exhibition is ambitious, remaining loosely coherent through the sometimes forced theme of duality. Although there are aspects of the exhibition that are visually enticing and encourage viewer interaction with the work, the overriding theme of ‘duality’ and Lynch’s wish to experiment with such a diverse range of media results in a lack of focus.

In works like the installation that explores the theatrical trickery of Dr Pepper’s ghost, an illusory technique successfully marries together Lynch’s interest in the use of multiple dimensions with a challenge to the viewer’s perception of reality and fantasy. Conversely, the accompanying anthropological video by Clemens von Wedemeyer and the prints that explore the contrast in colour and position of geometrical shapes yearn for further explanation. A video consisting of a series of interviews of people at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena offers the viewer a running narrative comprised of the interviewee’s responses to questions asked by the artist. The elimination of the questions requires the viewer’s interaction with the work allowing for varied interpretation and response, thus achieving multiple realities.

Although Alexandrite offers the viewer a wide range of work which testifies to Lynch’s confidence with varied media it is this, along with an overbearing central theme, that results in a lack of coherence. Whilst there are highlights in the show which express Lynch’s primary concept, they are accompanied by an array of works consisting of disparate media which are only forcibly held together by this theme. Rather than developing this concept through a consistent vocabulary, Lynch’s insistence on variety results in an exhibition where meaning remains only skin-deep.