The contemporary art we visit each week is certainly not to everyone's taste. One of the classes main aims is to see how the reactions and opinions students from different cultures react to the artwork, galleries, concepts and ideas differs. And we are certainly a mixed bunch- Welsh, English, French, English, German, Malaysian, Norwegian, American, Israeli etc etc. I think it would be stupid to stereotype that each of us represent the opinion of our home cultures and countries as the course claims. But nonetheless it is interesting to discuss artworks, gallery spaces and general creative life with such a diverse range of individuals.
I don't want to bore you with going into too many details about each gallery/ exhibition and to be honest it was if anything a bit of an overkill of information! Instead it is most helpful to reflect back on certain points that arouse or things which raised my curiosity and got my brain engaged.
1. GALLERY-Suzanne Tarasieve Paris/ Loft 19
EXHIBITION-Le Gun and The Black Squid, La Catastrophe
This gallery/ artists residence was hidden away in a beautiful apartment blacked in a rather squalid neighbourhood around the Belleville area. Ok so Timothy assures us it is very "up and coming" but when one narrowly misses getting a shower by a boy peeing into the street the term "Third World" seems more apt.
The gallery however is a beautifully light and spacious area complete with a modern open plan kitchen and two Japanese style wooden clad rooms in the roof for artists in residence. They invite artists to come and stay there for weeks at a time and create work in situ which is then exhibited in the space.
Currently, the gallery is hosting a group exhibition by 5 artists collectively know as The Gun who graduated from the Royal College of Art in London. It features primarily graphic illustrations with crude references to popular culture, politics, current affairs etc. The styles vary from artist to artist and although not labelled it is easy to distinguish between the artists. In the centre of the space is a rather large installation featuring a black squid sat amongst a dinning table set for a banquet. Very bizzare...yes. That is until you know the background story.
The Black Squid were in fact a group of surrealist artists based in Paris in the 1920s. They exclusively used black and white in their art as they lived by the belief that dreams were always in balck and white. In addition they had simultaneously dreamed of a giant black squid who imparted this manifesto. The squid was explored as a dream symbol for latent sexual desires and black ink as a liquid of creation. The story goes that the group split in 1925 and help a lavish black and white banquet which ended in all 5 members coming to a suspicious death with no motive, poison or suicide pact found.
Le Gun were inspired and intrigued by this age old mystery which has led them to create large scale portraits of the Black Squid's elusive members and recreate the final supper before the catastrophe. In addition the last known surviving painting of the group will be hung within the exhibition.
Believe what you want, but I personally think the whole thing is a load of made up nonsense. Timothy also later revealed that he felt the exhibition was a bit of "boys on tour" fun. The whole "black and white" theory was totally contradicted by one artist's use of colour and to be quite frank I felt as though the work was in a style which has certainly been already knocking around for a while. Yes they are talented illustrators but I found some of the work unnecessarily crude and uncalled for. Perhaps this style id new to Paris but it is certainly nothing to write home about.
2. GALLERY- Marcelle Alix
EXHIBITION- Pauline Boudry/ Renate Lorenz - Salomania.
Just when you thought things couldn't get anymore explicit or crude we step into the feathered interior of this small Belleville gallery.
Salomania (2009) - the object of this exhibition- is a film which mostly explores the concept of drag performance. Extremely interested in sexologists and sado-masochist relationships, the artists describe their working method as the following:-
"Their method consists in giving back value to minority positions and their subversive power, by shattering a normalised, hetero-centered interpretation, which had turned the transvestite and the trans-genre into freaks".
Still confused. Yes me too. And as far as the film.....no comment.
3.GALLERY- Bugada & Cargnel
EXHIBITION- Were all stars to disappear or die...
Nina BEIER, Étienne CHAMBAUD, Peggy FRANCK, Alex HUBBARD, Pamela ROSENKRANZ, Ryan SULLLIVAN.
We had visited this gallery once before for a fun interactive exhibition. Timothy was therefore pleased that the opportunity had arisen for us to see the same space during two different exhibitions in order to discover how much it can be adapted and changed.
This time, I think the sparse hanging of works made the gallery far more recognizable as its former entity- a garage! This time, the space felt vast and badly arranged. Also, despite being a group exhibition, I felt the pieces lacked any cohesion or common theme. I am beginning to learn more and more about the merits of employing a good, well practiced curator. To be blunt, this felt rather flung together and the works did not really sit together well. I believe that when reading the press release, in between the lines, the vagueness and uncertainty of why the curator has actually picked the work becomes apparent.
Despite being disappointed by the work overall, I found a few pieces intriguing technique wise. One in particular which caught my eye where large textured surfaces by the artist Ryan Sullivan (as seen above). I was interested to know how such a cracked surface had been achieved without crumbling to pieces. Turns out it is a combination of oil, enamel and latex. Fascinating!
4. GALLERY- Emmanuel Herve
EXHIBITION- Pierre Pailin- Détails d'un futur souvenir
This new gallery was absolutely tiny and some student argued that this led it to lack credibility and made it feel 'studenty' and unprofessional. I didn't really feel this way. There was a small but coherent body of work by the artist Pierre Paulin which though diverse, linked together well. This is more than can be said for some of the other galleries which bombard you with tones of work lacking a common theme or connection.
Paulin's works all explore the durability of art practices in our new world of technology and rapidly changing digital image. One piece is a film shot on 16mm stock. It features movie kisses, scenes from Hollywood love stories. As the film is played more and more, the quality deteriorates giving it an aged, grainy appearance. Opposite are images printed in white on white paper. As the paper yellows during the exhibition duration, the images will slowly reveal themselves. On the floor is an engraved rotogravure cylinder (used for intaglio printing and especially newspapers from 1930s-60s). With increasing use, the text becomes increasingly worn away leading to a less clear print. This interesting look at art practices made me consider the intentional and unintentional obsolescence of products and processes and made me curious to learn more.
5. GALLERY- Crèvecoeur
EXHIBITION- Antoine Marquis
Marquis' work consisted of extremely contrasting drawings- some very detailed life drawing and others crude scribbles and childlike doodles. He explains his work as a game he has been playing with his double personality. An interesting concept, however I found two rooms full of similar images a bit monotonous and mundane.
6. GALLERY- Galerie de Roussan
EXHIBITION- Study of a Territory
This exhibition was introduced as a group show of four young artists whose practice has been inspired, changed or adapted by travelling abroad to live in a new country. Most changed medium, other changed style and subject. Many students found this suggested link between location and practice a flimsy, feeble connection which had the air of being conceived to somehow justify the randomness of the work. During our gallery talk, some explanations did seem a little fuzzy-why on earth would the American artist Hannah Wade be inspired to change from her preferred medium of photography to the painting of abstract mountains by a move to live in London of all places. Not a mountain in sight!
Other artists showed this link far more obviously with direct references in their work to their locations, such as through sound recordings, or a cityscape mapped from memory as seen below. Despite significant disbelief in the authenticity of the chosen theme to group this work together, to be personally, I believe location can have a significant impact on ones work.
7. GALLERY- Galerie Jocelyn Wolff
EXHIBITION- Franz Erhard Walther Sternen Staub Herausgehoben
And finally we saw the final gallery. Drawing from an artists documentation of his usual performance work. By this stage I'm afraid I was too tired and cold to understand the french guide and to really appreciate the work.
And last but by no means least...the lovely ship themed bar complete with shelves of dusty models and memorabilia:-
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