<span>Monthly Archives</span><h1>September 2013</h1>
    contemporary art, painting

    Bosco Sodi, Untitled (2013)

    September 26, 2013

    bosco sodi

    Neo-expressionist painting, if that’s what this be, often has literal depth. Layers of paint come between viewer and canvas. And layers don’t get much thicker than those of this Mexican artist.

    When you square up to it, there is a material heaviness. And this translates (in our primitive minds) to a metaphorical heaviness: in other words we feel the pull.

    Drawn closer to the surface one can lose oneself in the cracks and crumbles as if every square inch was ripe with intention and hard won expression.

    But it is not known how much angst this work caused Sodi. None, it is always possible. It is possible he has hit upon a decent trick to provide that instant gravitas.

    Like many painters of a certain ilk, he is all about process: spreading on a trademark mix of pigment, sawdust, pulp, fibres and glue. He lets the cracks work themselves.

    Indeed Sodi has spoken of relinquishing control. With an element of chance in all his paintings, he works on the floor a la Pollock. Then he leaves it to dry for at least two months.

    Most results in this show include a certain furriness, a certain glitter, and a sense that you could pull the paint away from the wall in chunks. As itchy as a scab.

    So there may yet be an existential wound behind this work. But equally, there may just be a painter with a technical niche and a Taoist approach to finished product. I’m not sure which to prefer.

    Bosco Sodi: Graphein can be seen at PACE London until October 4 2013. See gallery website for more details.

    conceptual art, contemporary painting, fashion

    Hannah Knox, Buff (2013)

    September 22, 2013
    courtesy of the artist and Ceri Hand Gallery, Photographer Anna Arca
    courtesy of the artist and Ceri Hand Gallery, Photographer Anna Arca

    Painting is an empty pocket. The content it once contained, the paint itself, has in many cases gone. In all cases now, a stretched canvas is a blank canvas. Put in it what you will.

    So the unadorned white t-shirt you see here, the unifying image from a show which shares its name, is more than a sly joke. It is a comment on the nowness of its chosen medium.

    It was made in 2013, but it echoes the 1980s which in turn echoed the 1950s. As Knox has said, it could make you think of Marlon Brando. It could even make you think of the band Bros.

    Those of us on the wrong side of history, during that turbulent decade, may have shown a preference for a darker, or more fey, English look. But here is the triumph of a cotton icon.

    It is as large and wide as any buddha and all the more potent for its facelessness. Buff is a strong word for it, suggesting the ripped muscles we cannot see. The muscles of thought.

    Because this is a show fully engaged with the body and the world of fashion. No two works are much the same. And the artist has even named one after the season, Fall 13.

    Fashion is a threat to anyone with artistic leanings. It implies that any success is temporal. It implies that your audience has the most superficial of relationships with your work.

    But Knox is not afraid of catwalks and collections. She grew up in what you might call a fashion household. This could be her greatest strength, acceptance.

    So again the Buddha smiles. And given that Knox has spoken about her mother’s death in relation to her show, is Buff not also a ghost of sorts? And if it be a ghost, might it not be the zeitgeist itself?

    If so, it is still waiting for your input. You might not find a better receptacle for your own ideas about art than Buff in the show BUFF at Ceri Hand Gallery. At least not this season.

    Hannah Knox: BUFF can be seen at Ceri Hand Gallery, London, until October 26 2013. See gallery website for more details.

    animation, contemporary art, Japan

    David Blandy, Anjin 1600: Edo Wonderpark (2013)

    September 13, 2013

    edo wonderpark

    Japan has multiple ways to say “I”. Artist and multiple-self David Blandy tells us this half way through his new film Anjin 1600: Edo Wonderpark, a film itself part autobiography.

    The Japanses have a dynamic way of speaking in first person, which relates to the present company; and what artist keeps such interesting company as gamer and hip hop geek Blandy?

    But despite immersion in these cult-like worlds, an artist will always report back to an art audience, as embedded reporter from a land some would rather ignore.

    Perhaps Edo Wonderpark is the first time that hat tips like Ulysses 31 and MCM Expo have made complete sense. The artist has long demanded you give them some attention.

    And so we come to his latest assimilation: the “I” of 16th century explorer William Adams. Yes, this figure was a well paid European samurai. But no, he was always an outsider.

    (Some modern comparison with Japanese footballers who sign up for the PL. It is not clear what the gaffer has in store for them. Perhaps the marketing departments know.)

    It has been said that artists must be outsiders. But in a networked society with mass media and hives of trade and blockbuster exhibitions, this tradition maybe on the wane.

    Blandy has found an imaginary land, somewhere that, on account of his height, his looks, his tongue, he cannot fit in. His art, in that sense, is really outsider.

    Another strong point made by the film in question is the discovery, “300 years after the Renaissance”, of Japanese prints. Blandy is one who credits them with the birth of modern art.

    If that be true then our ignorance about Japan is an ignorance about our own visual culture. Seen thus, the confessional script of Edo Wonderpark says is of urgent importance.

    The least that might be said is that all artists need a Japan of the imagination, an uncanny home from home. “A cypher, a receptacle”, says Blandy, who may yet be as captive there as Adams.

    Anjin 1600: Edo Wonderpark can be seen at Rose Lipman Building, 43 De Beauvoir Road, N1, until October 26. See Create London website for more details.

    Read my 2010 interview with David Blandy here and/or a post about an early video work here.

    aggregation, contemporary art

    Found Objects 02/09/13

    September 2, 2013

    Greetings cybernauts:

    • Interview of the week, possibly the month, the Guardian speak with ‘wrecker of civilisation’ Genesis P. Orridge
    • Meanwhile the Telegraph keeps it light with the trailer to a new feature about the most famous cat on the webz
    • These are a pure joy. Music videos chosen by Prosthetic Knowledge. Just why is the forefront of tech so uncanny and funny?
    • PhD funding shocker. Now two post grads have put their heads together to beat Facebook addiction.
    • Mostafa Heddaya (Hyperallergic) wonders what it meant to be alternative at the Alternative Guide to the Universe at the Hayward in London
    • Here’s a journey I have made thousands of times but never with such an ace vantage point and satisfying sense of historical continuity. London to Brighton
    • The Onion are first with the story behind the story. CNN explain why they went big on that Miley Cyrus performance
    • Just possibly the best infographic ever, director Alfred Hitchcock’s myriad obsessions: falls, journeys, deaths, blondes, etc
    • The Guardian carries a video of a day in the life of the world’s most expensive footballer. There is something a bit humdrum about the whole thing
    • Finally, poet Paul Muldoon eulogises poet Seamus Heaney in the New Yorker. Saddening.