Noisy In MAC

Yesterday was such a sunny day. I went to volunteer for Capital Theatre Festival and knew that lots of things were going around in MAC. They have their first food festival from 10-5pm. There were about 8 stalls selling from hot foods to cheese, coffee beans, cupcakes and desserts. Our information desk was just next to those food stalls. My stomach kept making "hungry noise".  Besides the food festival, there is also a new exhibition by Tom Price, a sculptor works and lives in London. The exhibition showcases three stop-motion videos which the artist animated series of clay models.

I also watched a play and a performance yesterday. I really love the play, especially the weird and mysterious atmosphere. It has a good plot. Another performance was Pecha Kucha Night. Pecha Kucha crossovered with Capital Theatre Festival. They brought us 8 new short plays with images performed in 20x20 format (20 slides for 20 second per slide).

Site visit 2 & Bharti Parmar's show

Today, I went to see our exhibition space in the Old Print Works. The whole building is now under-construction. And they are going to develop the space as artists studios, events and exhibitions venue. It's quite challenging for us to put on an exhibition when the place is still messy in the coming months. But that's point I love to use this space, I love to explore the possibility of transforming spaces. Also, I am satisfied with the price they offered. Deal!! 

I went to see Bharti Parmar's show in the afternoon. The title of the exhibition called Shag and you probably can guess what it is about. But it is not what it suppose to be about. She made a carpet using human hairs for this exhibition. It caused her 9 months to finish this piece and it is going to be toured to America next week. What it made me feel is you really need patience and heart to do this.

http://www.bhartiparmar.com/#/Home

Headed to Wolverhampton

Yesterday, I went to Wolverhampton Art Gallery to see their new exhibitions. One is Antony Donaldson: Take Five, another is Gary Hume: Flashback. Antony Donaldson is a British pop artist arising in 1960s. According to Oxford University Press, the term of Pop Art "originated in the mid-1950s at the ICA, London, in the discussions held by the Independent group concerning the artefacts of popular culture..." There is also slightly difference between British Pop Art and American Pop Art, "American Pop art insisted on a direct relationship between its use of the imagery of mass production and its adoption of modern technological procedures. Whereas British Pop art often celebrated or satirized consumer culture, American Pop artists tended to have a more ambiguous attitude towards their subject-matter." No matter how it says, I still think you can quickly recognize pop art paintings or artworks and for me, they all have the same characteristics and reflect the similarities in mass culture.

Photo: Courtesy Antony Donaldson/ Take her T-Birds away, 1965

Gary Hume was one of the Young British Artists graduated from Goldsmiths College, others included Liam Gillick, Damien Hirst, Gillian Wearing and so on. The exhibition features Hume's recent paintings and sculptures as well as the famous door paintings. I can image that the works were quite bold in the eyes of people at that period. Now, you will still love the color matching and irony of the works, but the impact of the works are definitely lesser (from my point of view).

Coincidentally, I also came across with Museums at Night where a talk was being held in the gallery and the gallery would open its door at night. I grabbed a glass of juice and enjoyed the event with my friend.

EP installation 2

It seems that the progress is smooth. Almost all of the artworks have been hanged and displayed in the main gallery. I like the work by Alice Channer the most. Alice creates objects in between sculpture and clothing. The work that displays in Eastside Projects called Cold Mental Body, but is a "figurative sculpture without the body". It's great to see how the gallery is being transformed. I realized that curating relies on developing a core and tight relationship. Others are just observers. And I know that I don't want just to be an observer!  

Alice Channer, Out of Body, South London Gallery

http://www.theapproach.co.uk/artists/channer/

Site visit & EP installation

Today, I visited the Works Gallery to check out the space for the exhibition that me and my teammates are going to hold in summer term. It is located in some kind of office place. The exhibition space is quite large. Basically, the price is reasonable but we still need to negotiate for a cheaper price.

I went to Eastside Projects afterwards to help with the changeover of exhibition, sanding the wall and painting   it all white. They are going to put on new exhibitions next week. The Yangjiang Group pavilion has been demounted and will be replaced by a group exhibition of Caroline Achaintre, Sara Barker and Alice Channer. I quite like the design of the leaflet. It was designed by one of the EP's directors. The artworks are going to be put on this Thursday. EXCITING!!!

http://www.eastsideprojects.org/future/caroline-achaintre-sara-barker-alice-channer/

Two exhibitions in Birmingham

This week I visited two exhibitions, one is And Miles To Go Before I Sleep by 4 Birmingham artists-Gene George Earle, Trevor Pitt, Nikki Pugh and Adam Smythe, the other is OUTLINED by teachers from Birmingham Metropolitan College.
The most impressive work for me in ARTicle is Possibility Probes by Nikki Pugh. Nikki Pugh is an artist working across art, science and technology. She concerns the issues and interaction between people, space and landscapes. Her practice includes digital media, walking, performative actions in public spaces, installation, physical computing and collaboration. "Possibility Probe (heavy object and built environment) is a starting point for asking questions and conducting experiments. A direct response to the trend of making mobile technology smaller, lighter and more discreet; these objects are unwieldy, heavy and broadcast to all within hearing distance." The artwork is a heavy roll with sound installation inside. It was displayed after people have taken it around in Birmingham City Center. 

OUTLINED is an exhibition explores the concept of drawings using different mediums e.g. sculptures, digital printing, photography and mixed media. This exhibition showcases over 20 works. Although not all of the works can surprise me, some of them are quite amazing and skillful.

And Miles To Go Before I Sleep:
http://www.articlegallery.org/#!current-exhibition

The Artist and Hugo

I finally have time to watch these two great movies. Hugo plays tribute to the two filmmakers-Lumiere Brothers and George Melies while the Artist plays tribute the era of silence, black and white movies. Personally, I love watching movies and these two movies haven't made me disappointed. If you love the history of film and film making, I'm sure you will love them.
In Hugo, it said, “If you've ever wondered where your dreams come from when you go to sleep at night, just look around. This is where they are made. ” Those movie studios just like dream factories. When I am sad, watching movie is always the way I make myself feel better. I think everyone like dreams but not the reality. Another thing that I appreciated are the pictures and visual effects. They are really dramatic and very "Paris". 
The Artist recalled my memory of the first time that I saw silence movie and then I fell in love with it. I can't remember the name of the movie but I'm sure it's by Charlie Chaplin. I love this film, maybe it's because I love memories and those old things. The original music in this movie is also my favor.  

Lovely project space

Today, I visited Meter Room in Coventry for the exhibition called The Evaporating Office. It is such an interesting space that transforming former office into a gallery. The gallery is called Meter Room because there are still lots of meters in the space although some of them are already useless. The title of the exhibition just fits with the gallery-what originally was an office, now it's no longer be used in that way; seems like what once there was disappeared. The artist wants to give meanings to an empty space and take us to the past. Another interesting thing is the gallery will retain one of the works that the former artist did from last exhibition, that means if the gallery has already held three exhibitions in the past, then there would be totally three of the former artists' work retaining in the gallery. If they carry on, I think it can become a little memorial.

For more information, see:

http://www.meterroom.org/index.php?/future/the-evaporating-office/

OUT OF FOCUS: PHOTOGRAPHY

I really want to visit this show in Saatchi Gallery. The exhibition featured selected works from many internationally-acclaimed photographers like Ryan McGinley, Mitch Epstein, Pinar Yolacan and so on, alongside with the Google Photography Prize.

Here are some of the works:
 
Ryan McGinley-Tree #3


Berndnaut Smilde- Nimbus II





Mitch Epstein-BP Carson Refinery


 Pinar Yolacan-Untitled

OUT OF FOCUS: PHOTOGRAPHY
From 25 April-22 July 2012
See the full list of artists from here:
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/photography/

Castling online billboard

It is part of the project in Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2012. Extra Special People are presenting a collaborative project between artists in Birmingham and Glasgow as an on line billboard. Each artist has 24 hours to respond to the previous days post.

Featuring,artists: Sparrow & Castice, Beagles & Ramsay, Ross Hamilton Frew, Ortanondon, Kate Hanisch, Helen Brown, Lachlann Rattray, Sarah Messenger, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Rowe, Erica Eyres, Ernest Collective, Nita Walters, Janie Nicoll, Gavin Wade,Darren Banks, Tobias Hanisch, Anne Guest, Daniel Salisbury & Sophie Bancroft, Ellie Harrison, Gene George Earle and Jocelyn Villemont.

Beautiful online billboard here:
http://www.castlingbillboard.co.uk/