Walker Art Gallery

Visit: 23rd March

Paula Rego - "In the Comfort of Her Bonnet"
From "hhfineart.co.uk"

I had mixed feelings about this exhibition. Whilst there were a lot of big names in this new acquisitions show (Anish Kapoor, Stella McCartney, Yoko Ono, Louise Bourgeois), I didn't know whether it was the work or the name which afforded more appraisal or interest. Having said this, I did enjoy it and there were a lot more traditional process pieces than I expected (but I suppose this would fit in with the Walker's reputation). For example, Paul Rego's series of works based on 'Jane Eyre' were beautiful for their use of line, colour and shading - I really loved the variation of line within the piece and the lithograph style is something that really interests me. There was also a gouache piece, 'Crowd Version B' by Alexander Adams that I really liked, mainly for the intimacy of the small size of the piece and it's delicacy.

But I did think some of the works were more of a achievement for their name than the work, such as a dress by Stella McCartney based on a George Stubbs painting. Perhaps its because I don't have much of a fashion interest, but I didn't think it was that great - it looked a bit dull and clumsy. Pieces such as this were nicely balanced with new artists and degree pieces, which I thought worked well as the kudos of the bigger names granted other lesser-known artists the same attention and audience. I'm not sure though whether McCartney and Ono's pieces were collected for their relationship with the city and its heritage, but if they were I have mixed feelings about this. I've been in Liverpool since July and from what I've gathered it seems to be a bit of a bitter homage to its own former glories (all of which are gone). But The Beatles got out of Liverpool and never came back, as did all of the big merchants that made it a city in the first place. It seems so obsessed with clinging on to these connections that wanted to disassociate themselves with the place - and I think this is maybe reflected in the new acquisitions in the Walker with these two artists. 

Overall, the exhibition was much better than I thought it would be - it was perhaps a bit dull and safe, but I think it's a great setting to have a juxtaposition between old and new artworks. It's also interesting to see what art galleries are collecting.

The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things

Visit: 1st March 2013

from "yourlittleampersand.tumblr.com"

I felt quite alienated from the exhibition. I was really trying to understand the relationships between the objects, which I assumed was the meaning, but I couldn’t gather anything very ‘deep’ or intellectual – only the similarity of body parts or machinery. Because of this, I didn’t feel like I understood the exhibition, in fact, I felt quite stupid. (And a look through the visitor comments book didn’t make me feel alone in this!)

The only thing which grabbed my attention was the penis model which Malcolm McDowell kills a woman with in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ – that made me feel like the exhibition was worth seeing because it’s such a classic film prop. However, I’m not sure whether I felt comfortable with it being high-jacked for the purpose of an exhibition. As with Glam!, I enjoy the mix of high and low culture in art, but I think the rather pretentious gathering of objects with some cult status, ambiguity, or cheap shock factor reduced the worth of the prop – it made it sink into that world of pretention and clever-clever self-congratulating intellectual worth of the exhibition which is an association I didn’t want it to have.

Kurt Schwitters at Tate Britain

Visit: 20th February

My initial feeling after being in the exhibition for a few moments was one of sadness. There are these incredibly animated and vibrant works that are kept in a stuffy room, surrounded by glass cases and so much distance between the art and viewer. I thought the separation that the frames and boxes completely killed the potency and energy of some of the artwork. It was a shame because I kept fantasising about what it would have been like in Schwitters' studio with these really alive pieces being stored there and worked on, but they just seemed so neutered in the exhibition.

Despite this, it was great to see the works. The highlight of the exhibition for me were the issues of Merz that were there. I've always wanted to see these and I didn't imagine that they would be so small and delicate, I expected them to be large and brash. I think, if anything, their smallness made them seem more enticing and intriguing. I also loved the collages. I thought "The Left Half of Beauty" was amazing, as was the "Adolf Gang". Collages like Schwitters' have been recreated and the technique has been reused so many times in popular culture since so it was really exciting to see the originals. I loved how witty and sharp they were, and how subtle or harsh the collage techniques could be (and vary) from work to work. It was exciting too to see the recreation of the Merz Bahn.

I really liked Schwitters' sound pieces but I wasn't too enthused by his and Max Ernst's sculpture pieces - but this is perhaps because I'm quite unfamiliar with sculpture. I thought it was a bit unfair at the end to include a kind of legacy of Schwitters room at the end of the exhibition, because I thought that the work in there wasn't great and was perhaps, by association, even of detriment to Schwitters, as it was another artists' work which was influenced by Schwitters, but nowhere near as good. I see Schwitters' work as very heavily steeped in its own context, both social and historical, and although it still resonates and is effective today, it would have been nice to see entirely in its own glory. Maybe a more appropriate link (or one I would have enjoyed more) would have been a look at Schwitters' collage technique in comparison with punk album artwork which he was an influence of.

Hitler Gang (1944)
Taken from "www.wikipaintings.org"

Glam! at Tate Liverpool

Preview Thursday 7th February

My perception of Glam has always been David Bowie, Roxy Music, Marc Bolan & T-Rex, Slade and other 70s bands of a similar nature. It was interesting to see the exhibition display such a variation of topics and interpretations within the subject - things that I would never associate with the topic. For me, it was very much a distinct British music type and music image rather than the New York or transsexual scene, so it a lot of the material was new to me. I enjoyed the music paraphernalia and memorabilia as well as the influences leading up to Glam - some of which I agreed with but some seemed tenuous!

I did think that some of the artworks weren't great. I particularly didn't like Marc Camille Chaimonwicz's reinstallation of his "Celebration? Realife". I thought this was quite a weak piece and didn't really deserve a whole room. It held debris of platform shoes, beads, fairy lights and other random objects that apparently are meant to resemble the aftermath of a bohemian Glam party. I thought it relied heavily upon the soundtrack in the room (which at the time was Bowie's Ziggy album) and looked more like an A Level Art collection of objects rather than something to be worthy of Tate the monopoliser.

I did enjoy seeing the Richard Hamilton collages and Cindy Sherman photographs. I also enjoyed the interplay between high art and popular culture because I like to think I'm somebody who values "low" culture as much as "high"culture because it probably resonates more with me but some of the record sleeves and items that my Dad possesses made me question what I believe about the subject and whether I considered the choice to work. In this case, I sometimes thought that it didn't work because it felt like some room needed to be filled in the exhibition so they shoved some household products in there. Although it made Glam feel more accessible and a common subject, it was felt like it was leaving home to see things you already own.

It was really interesting to go to the gallery preview (I've never been to one before) and although it was hard to see some of the art, the people provided massively interesting subjects!

Nottingham - Lakeside Arts Centre

Visit: 2nd February 2013

'Saturday Night & Sunday Morning' is an exhibition of photographs taken in Nottingham in the 1960s during the filming of kitchen sink classic Saturday Night and Sunday Morning starring Albert Finney and Shirley Ann Fields. It also contained photographs of working class life, factory life and youth culture in 1960s Nottingham.

I really loved the exhibition. All of the photographs were iconic and beautiful, but that might just be because of the romantic nostalgia that succumbs to photos of this era. The real message that the exhibition seemed to give was a kind of working class mentality of 'us and them' that's so common in gritty kitchen sink dramas - like Albert Finney's character says in the film - "Don't let the bastards grind you down. That's one thing you learn. What I'm out for is a good time. All the rest is propaganda".

I liked the film already, but the photographs of the stars interacting with communities and each other were great. It was really interesting to see where, on some photographs, one figure had been painted or etched round, with notes about enlargement or distortion that were the original plans for press releases or posters. Black and white photographs from anywhere in the '60s have the same charm about them - it's hard not to like them.

The gallery itself was really full. I don't think I've ever seen a gallery so full and especially not an arts centre. I thought it was really great how much the space engaged with the community, which I suppose was really helped by the familiarity of the subject matter as people were talking about memories or naming products or items of clothing that they used to have. It's the first gallery I have been in where there was such a healthy cross section of the public there which I thought was great, and I don't think I've ever heard so many people discussing art with such enthusiasm in a gallery before.

I especially liked the photographs of youth culture - the photographs of teenagers in dance-halls were beautiful. The images were so nostalgic and dreamy. There was something incredibly romantic in the quality of the photographs. They were so unlike digital photographs and so superior, they had a lot of depth and that's perhaps why they were so appealing.

Because they were the real thing, not imitations, they felt authentic and honest and you could feel that when you were looking at them. You didn't feel any kind of awkwardness or weakness even because you knew they were the genuine article. So many people try to imitate that style now and it just doesn't work because it suits the time so well. It was great to see something so honest.

Ted Polhemus

Tuesday 22nd January

Ted Polhemus

After the first day of the Level 5 History of Art Symposium we received a talk from Ted Polhemus, photographer and author specializing in youth culture style. I thought the talk was interesting, and his presence as a speaker was great. But I didn't really think what he was saying was anything new, or anything that most people don't really know - it was essentially just hip things and style through history. At the end of the talk he seemed a bit miffed about the fact that no-one was buying his book, but I sort of thought to myself it's fair enough really, anyone can watch Blow Up and read up on the history of Punk - anyone who is genuinely interested already has done. There's such a wealth of information out there already on these subjects.

I also didn't especially like the focus on the fashion of youth culture. For me, subcultures like Punk and the Beats especially aren't necessarily about an aesthetic, it's about an attitude. They rose out of dissatisfaction or craving satisfaction. There was, of course, a certain "D.I.Y" style adopted by The Clash, The Pistols and The Slits (the latter two being orchestrated by McLaren, so their genuine "style" has to be questioned), but this style wasn't punk. It became a characture. Polhemus said that if you walked down Kings Road in the '70s there was people dressed in bin-bags, but everything I've seen or heard says that this is a myth, that there weren't that many genuine punks. What about Buzzcocks? They just wore ordinary clothes and played Punk music. I think the style enhances the ethic, but it isn't really about that. Similarly, Beats were about lusting for life desperately whilst being completely aware of the spiritual or futile prospects this holds, or steals. When Polhemus referenced Beats he said something a long the lines of "there was this guy Kerouac wearing jeans. This had never happened before. And he went off on the road for a year". He was famously on the road for around 7 years and the fact he was wearing jeans doesn't really make any difference. It's the fact that he was desperate to live and to experience something, something human or above human. I think by claiming "he wore jeans" as part of his revolution demeans the actual revolution he started. It's not necessarily about a community style, but a community ethic or feeling.

He spoke about there being no new youth movements recently, the most recent one was in Japan. But the Japanese adoption of punk styles was completely aesthetic. It wasn't about the underlying ethics, so for me, I would consider that empty and pointless. It was the adoption of Western styles and whereas punk was an original look, if it was a look at all, it wasn't just stealing a style from another group.

I thought it was an interesting talk, but I found myself disagreeing with a lot of things.

Bluecoat Gallery and Printmaking

Visit: 14th January

Today we visited the Bluecoat and received a talk from Emma Gregory, a resident print-maker  She told us about the formalities and protocols of getting grants for projects or plans within an organisation with Arts Council funding, such as Bluecoat. This was really interesting, but quite disheartening. She didn't seem happy at all in her work and completely at the end of her tether with regards to getting things actually changed or improved there.

She also talked to us about herself as an artist and about teaching other artists. She commented that she felt frustration in the area of artists improvement. There seems to be a trap that artists fall into wherein they're aiming no longer for integrity, or intellectual stimulation, and instead print images of more commercial value. Emma said that she had moved beyond this stage, but was not yet at the level of working that granted galleries to be interested in her work, and so needed to develop her work more conceptually. When teaching others who do simply go for the aesthetic which sells, she said she felt frustrated and like she needed to push people forward by introducing new artists to the workshops to inspire the people she teaches.

The talk we were given was very passionate and very sad, but for good reason. It must be very hard to constantly have the battle of creativity or money. Obviously, Bluecoat aren't going to let her make improvements unless they see a financial return. But, as an arts organisation, that isn't how I would have expected it to be run, I would have thought it was community and arts before money. There seems to be a huge gap between the money thrown at exhibiting artists and that tightly given to artists resident or practicing there.

Emma noted that Bluecoat have recently become fonder of her project because it attracts young men of a certain age range who are normally seen as a 'trouble' group to  Governments and organisations. Because Bluecoat are seen to get involved with this cross-section of people, they are considering giving more funding. When you think about it, it's quite cynical and quite self-serving in the way it is run (rather than the community based space it seems to promote itself as). Although I found her talk interesting, it put me off wanting to get involved with that kind of project, because although it is admirable, it sounds like such a mess and struggle. It's a shame that because of the current climate arts funding has to be so stingy.