334. GOODBYE by MATTHEW HUMPHREYS

BLOOMBERG NEW CONTEMPORARIES 

at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)

Matthew Humphreys    mjhumphreys.co.uk      @mjhumphreysArt

I got no further than the first artwork I saw when I visited the New Contemporaries Exhibition, sponsored by Bloomberg, and now in its 65th year - a  video lasting 4 minutes on a small screen with a soundtrack as ephemeral as a cloud and a few fragments of typescript on the wall. At first glance the images looked chaotic: slanted, inverted, close ups mixed in with longish scanning shots. Hands clasped or waving; security locks and keys; feet in slippers or boots; ceilings and floors; lawns, red tulips, pink hyacinths and spears of grass.It made no sense, but it did better than that.

It set up a web of associations and emotions which meant I had to stop just there, be patient, and open to the possibility of constructing links which would not produce  a static message or narrative, but something richer.I sensed the ebb and flow of repeated visits to the couple in the image above - what the artist (their son) calls the 'rhythms of language and social routines that occurred from this moment of saying goodbye'. And the poignancy of the exchanges was moving: an ambivalent mother saying both 'come down more often' and 'don't overdo it'. And a caring  ' be quick or you'll get cold' accompanied by repeated warnings about missing the bus.

' Goodbye' is what everyone says throughout a lifetime- be it in a state of grief or relief or indifference. We experience it as a necessary punctuation mark, both in daily rituals and times of great feeling. It is a rare artwork which can capture these tender and fraught transactions, let alone stir us to a new appreciation of the fragility and richness of our closest relationships

You Never Said Goodbye 2014, Embroidered calico 210 x 251 cm; 232.5 x 270 x 8.5 cm (framed)
© Tracey Emin. All rights reserved, DACS 2014 Photo: Jack Hems,  Courtesy White Cube)

Tracey Emin's beautiful, powerful You never Said Goodbye  (Blog 322), recently on show at White Cube Bermondsey, reminds us that the absence of words can be as meaningful as their presence. 

I suppose for me I was looking deeper into the video that I had created, I started to transcribe the material and found rhythms of language and social routines that occurred from this moment of saying goodbye.   I am concerned with technology and its interaction with experience, I form relationships with cameras and using the iPhone I allowed an element of chance when I was shooting the video, but with a knowing of what I was creating.  Matthew Humphreys

New Contemporaries is the leading UK organisation supporting emergent art practice from British Art Schools.

Since 1949 New Contemporaries has consistently provided a critical platform for new and recent fine art graduates primarily by means of an annual, nationally touring exhibition.

Independent of place and democratic to the core, New Contemporaries is open to all. - See more at: http://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/#sthash.gwZzf1t9.dpuf

New Contemporaries is the leading UK organisation supporting emergent art practice from British Art Schools.

Since 1949 New Contemporaries has consistently provided a critical platform for new and recent fine art graduates primarily by means of an annual, nationally touring exhibition.

Independent of place and democratic to the core, New Contemporaries is open to all. - See more at: http://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/#sthash.gwZzf1t9.dpuf

New Contemporaries is the leading UK organisation supporting emergent art practice from British Art Schools.

Since 1949 New Contemporaries has consistently provided a critical platform for new and recent fine art graduates primarily by means of an annual, nationally touring exhibition.

Independent of place and democratic to the core, New Contemporaries is open to all. - See more at: http://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/#sthash.gwZzf1t9.dpuf

P.S. The results of the latest Bloomberg New Contemporaries competition were on show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. (Anyone attending UK arts schools or who left in the last year can enter, and this year there were more than 1,400 entries). I visit the ICA on a Tuesday to keep faith with my rule to show art which is available  for the public to view free of charge. (On other days you need a £1 Day Pass).The ICA supports radical art and culture through a lively programme of exhibitions, films, events, talks and debates.

www.mjhumphreys.co.uk/
www.ica.org.uk/
www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/
www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/

New Contemporaries is the leading UK organisation supporting emergent art practice from British Art Schools.

Since 1949 New Contemporaries has consistently provided a critical platform for new and recent fine art graduates primarily by means of an annual, nationally touring exhibition.

Independent of place and democratic to the core, New Contemporaries is open to all. - See more at: http://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/#sthash.gwZzf1t9.dpufwhitecube.com/exhibitions/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mutualart/selectors-and-selectees-w_b_6306846.html

ICA welcome Bloomberg New Contemporaries with 55 participants - See more at: http://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/exhibitions-and-events#sthash.gRn1nuJn.dpuf

ICA welcome Bloomberg New Contemporaries with 55 participants - See more at: http://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/exhibitions-and-events#sthash.gRn1nuJn.dpuf

333 COLOUR EXPERIMENT 58 2014 by OLAFUR ELIASS0N

 TATE MODERN,  Clore Gallery

To step out of the current large exhibition of Turner's later works, Late Turner - Painting Set Free, into a small gallery showing 7 circular paintings - each tightly bound, meticulously measured, still and meditative - is quite a shock.

 Olafur Eliasson is the artist whose work The Weather Project 2003 attracted 2 million of us to Tate Modern. There his huge blowsy sun, with mist and mirrors high up on the ceiling, transformed the massive Turbine Hall into an unlikely playground.There was nothing for it but to stretch out on the floor and relish the 'sun'. Groups formed ingenious patterns reflected above. 

Some years later Eliasson introduced The Little Sun, a  solar-powered lamp (Blog 178). You expose the back of a solar panel to the sun for 5 hours, turn it over and you have stored 5 hours of strong light for the evening. Could it change, even save, many lives by replacing kerosene lamps which are expensive and a serious health hazard?

Once again Olafur Eliasson has turned his attention to light. 

  Colour experiment no. 58 2014  © 2013 Olafur Eliasson

Eliasson began his  Colour experiment paintings in 2009, analysing pigments, paint production and application of colour in order to mix paint in the exact colour for each nanometre of the visible light spectrum. Seven of his paintings are in the Clore Gallery, each analysing one of Turner's painting, isolating and recording his use of light and colour. 

 Turner’s ability to shape and frame light in his paintings has had a significant impact on my work….In the Turner colour experiments, I’ve isolated light and colour in Turner’s works in order to extract his sense of ephemera from the objects of desire that his paintings have become.  The schematic arrays of colours on round canvases generate a feeling of endlessness and allow the viewer to take in the artwork in a decentralised, meandering way. (Olafur Eliasson)

 

The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, October 16, 1834,

One of the Colour experiments is based on Turner's representation of the fire which broke out in the Houses of Parliament in 1834. Tens of thousands of Londoners are said to have watched.Though started accidentally, the fire happened in a time of change and political instability. Turner sketched with pencil and watercolour what he saw from various vantage points, including a hired boat, in preparation for work with oils in the studio.He was at the beginning of what art critics have described as 'an astonishing creative flowering', a time when he produced many of his finest pictures, but was also controversial and misunderstood'

 Colour experiments:
www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/display/olafur-eliasson-turner-colour-experiments


The Weather Project:
www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/oct/16/arts.artsnews1

The Little Sun:
www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/9395022/Olafur-Eliasson-launches-Little-Sun-project-and-Tat... 

www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/ey-exhibition-late-turner-painting-set-free

332 PARYS MOUNTAIN, ANGLESEY by SAM RIELLY

YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR  COMPETITION

  

 on show at WATERLOO STATION

To enter the Young Landscape Photographer of the Year competition you need to be 17 years old or younger.   This year it goes to  17 year old Sam Rielly, from London, with his photograph taken in Anglesey, Wales. 

 The judges commented on the strong narrative interest in the picture. Who is this woman walking alone? She grasps a stick, which suggests that her route may not be entirely straightforward. And her attention is on the next step, on the ground immediately beneath her feet. She is not distracted by the young photographer, and therefore not by us, the viewers.

"This image was taken on a particularly wet and windy day on Parys Mountain, the site of a former copper mine. The subject of the image is my mother, who was unaware that I was taking the picture." Sam Rielly

Powerful though the figure is, the photograph leaves us free to appreciate the landscape: windswept ragged turf, hills and hollows,  and the chimney of the old tin mine pointing to the sky. a perfect foil to the figure as she breaks into the horizon. 

To see this image and many other successful entries to the Competition, climb the steps or take the escalator to the mezzanine balcony overlooking the main concourse of Waterloo, London's busiest station. Many are shown as printed posters. There is also an opportunity to see some displayed on the Motion@Waterloo screen - a display spreading 40m across the top of the station platforms, on and off throughout the day on these dates: 19, 20, 26 & 27 January.A book, Landscape Photographer of the Year 8 (AA),  by Charlie Waite, contains many many images which I haven't yet seen because at the Waterloo station bookshop, Foyles, it had sold out. Always a good sign.

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/landscape-photographer-of-the-year-2014-from-the-j...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29976731 

331. A BEGINNING & AN END by MARK LITTLEJOHN

mark littlejohn
LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 

Waterloo Station Mezzanine Concourse 

One morning Mark Littlejohn got up at 01:30 GMT to drive from Penrith, Cumbria to Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands, but at dawn the rain was torrential. As he wandered about waiting for gaps in the weather, he saw the stream from high up on Gearr Aonach.

 "It tumbled steeply down the slopes before vanishing again near the base of the mountain.With more squalls coming through I decided to take this image as the light became slightly more diffuse. It had to be a quick handheld shot due to the sideways rain." (Mark Littlejohn)

What takes my breath away is the illusion that the slopes and stream are very close - stretch our your hand and it could get wet. We are not distracted by a mountain skyline nor by curves and convolutions and gradients. The viewer is simply present there, breathing in the mountain air.
 

Mark Littlejohn was the overall winner of the 2014 Landscape Photographer of the Year competition which comes with prize money of £10,000. The founder of the awards, Charlie Waite, said the image discovered and isolated a "fleeting moment of beauty" within a vast and "slightly threatening" arena.

But where in central London can we go to see this image? 

Not everyday do we find an art exhibition in a railway station. Not so long ago, railway stations had tracks, a platform or two, passengers getting out of and into trains - and a ticket office. Nowadays we turn up to find a shopping mall: books, food and drink, health and beauty products, fashion, jewelry, and dozens of places to eat, drink and be merry.

So climb the steps or take the escalator to the mezzanine balcony overlooking the main concourse of Waterloo station. There you will find many entries for the 2014 Landscape Photographer of the Year competition. Many are shown as printed posters. There is an opportunity to see some displayed on the Motion@Waterloo screen - a display spreading 40m across the top of the station platforms, on and off throughout the day on these dates: 16,19, 20, 26 & 27 Jan.There is also a book published, Landscape Photographer of the Year 8 (AA),  by Charlie Waite, which I haven't seen because at the Waterloo station bookshop, Foyles, it had sold out. Always a good sign.

markljphotography.co.uk/ 

For a very interesting interview with Mark Littlejohn:

www.onlandscape.co.uk/2014/11/mark-littlejohn-landscape-photographer-year/
 
www.take-a-view.co.uk/

 

330. TUBE STATION (closed) and (open) by STEVEN HUBBARD

Winter Show at the Medici Gallery, Cork Street

On the left: Tube Station (closed) Marquetry box containing marquetry and oil painting on canvas panel.  30 x 40 x 6cm

On the right: Tube Station (open) Marquetry box containing marquetry and oil painting on canvas.  30 x 76 x 6cm

What a feast! An artwork which combines painting, marquetry, surprise, travel, nostalgia, wit and joi de vivre!
Surprise, because closed, it looks like a content and complete painting: open, it undergoes a joyous transformation into a three dimensional art work .
Nostalgia, because it harks back to those between-the-wars years, the 20s and 30s,  when the convoluted geography of London's underground stations and lines was brilliantly transformed into a simple elegant design which could be read by anyone.
And wit: the squeezed and squashed tubes of paint on the interior depict the colours of the lines on the map: brown for Bakerloo, yellow for Piccadilly and so on.

Steven Hubbard talks of his works often having

 'a three-dimensional element, and ... made using marquetry, carving, painting and gilding, often around an MDF (medium Density Fibreboard) carcass. I originally started making these pieces as a development from the tabernacle frames I created for some of my portraits in the 1980’s. I have always been fascinated by the frames used on the work of many of the the Italian primitives. Excellent examples of these tabernacle frames can be seen in London at the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery'.

(Tabernacle frames vary in their ornamentation but, being three-dimensional, were designed to enhance/protect valuable art works and mirrors).

 Left: By Candlelight Oil on canvas in marquetry 'book' frame 22 x 42 x 9cm (closed)

 Right: By Candlelight Oil on canvas in marquetry 'book' frame 44 x 42 x 9cm (open)

Steven Hubbard again: 
After graduating I have continued to teach part-time whilst devoting myself to my own work, I first practiced as a portrait painter working mostly to commission and subsequently moved on to evolve my own distinctive genre combining painting and print-making with craft, which I consider my most rewarding activities. 
  

www.medicigallery.co.uk

www.stevenhubbard.co.uk


www.pinterest.com/hubbard1167/

www.npg.org.uk, (National Portrait Gallery
www.nationalgallery.org.uk

329 BRITISH MUSEUM by JASON BROOKS

Illustrations from London Sketchbook by Jason Brooks

 I am breaking my rule of only showing images of art works I have seen in the flesh, as it were.  These images are of book illustrations. But the quality of the drawing, and the chance to depict some of the places housing art I have written about, mean that I do not hesitate to include them

The British Museum by Jason Brooks. The Great Court at the British Museum, Bloomsbury, is one of London's most spectacular public spaces. If you are here, seek out the Enlightenment Room – the ultimate Victorian cabinet of curiosities.

 'The Great Court is one of London's most  stunning public spaces, with incredible light and that extraordinary glass roof. I love the confident and simple way the space is arranged, so I wanted a very symmetrical view across a double page'. Jason Brooks

It's a drawing which captures the breathtaking spaciousness  and freedom which greets the visitor walks. Of course glimpsed from the entrance at ground level (and being perhaps one of a record-breaking  6,701,036 visitors in 2013) the initial impact is lively and a little confusing. But not for long. It is impossible to stand in that space and not appreciate what feels like limitless opportunities to go this way or that, up or down, to ponder one work or to march briskly through  a continent.

The Saatchi Gallery by Jason Brooks

'I love the cavernous white spaces: they make me imagine what I would like to create and display here. It's always an inspiring place to visit'  Jason Brooks

 A private gallery in Chelsea, white as snow, with numbered rooms and lifts and stairs which offer you  your own private journey. If the British Museum favours ancient art, the Saatchi gallery will present to you art with the paint hardly dry. You turn a corner or glance through an open door and a new artist, a new movement seems to turn too greet you.

Tate Modern by Jason Brooks

'Monumental art that generates great public awareness' Jason Brooks

This magnificent entrance invites children and the young at heart to skip or run or roll down the slope. And there the adventure continues. This space has another important function too: memory. Here stood Louise Bourgeois' huge poetic and terrifying spider; Rachel Whiteread's sculpture of 14,000 plastic boxes(Blog 52) and above all, Al WeiWei's carpet of over one hundred million sunflower seeds (Blog  11) , each individually crafted and hand-painted. I was one of the fortunate few who walked as the artist intended on this magic carpet just before it was declared out of bounds by health and safety regulations.

London Sketchbook, part guide book, part illustrated journal, is by Jason Brooks and was published by Laurence King Publishing in January 2015   
 www.laurenceking.com/

www.jason-brooks.com/