White Mercury » Painting

TOM HUNTER – Living in Hell and Other Stories

Writer — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:32:42 +0000

Currently exhibiting at The National Gallery is an east London artist depicting real life stories taken from The Hackney Gazette.

Tom Hunter tells these stories using carefully staged, large format photographs, restaging them in compositions that often directly refer to classic paintings of the past, many of the paintings to which Hunter has referred for his compositions can be found in the National Gallery. Using his friends as models, Hunter directs them to use gestures, body language and facial expressions in the same way as the characters seen in paintings by historic artists.

Left: The Fight between the Lapiths and the Centaurs piero di cosimo c. 11500-15 (The National Gallery, London)

Hunter first came to public attention in 1998, when he won the John Kobal Photographic Portrait Award, with a photograph entitled Woman Reading a Possession Order. With its meticulously arranged composition and sensitively captured light, it is a direct quotation from Vermeer’s painting, A Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden). Hunters reputation was further established with a series of engaging, puzzling and compelling photographic re-workings of other paintings from the past. They provoke thoughts about issues that are relevant in our everyday lives, however shocking.

Girls’ Sex Acts in Club: Court. Cop ‘It can only be described as having sex through clothes’

Living in Hell and Other Stories continues Hunters’ interest in the stories of inner-city life that take place in his own locality, having lived in Hackney since the age of 19. Tom Hunter is not a photo journalist. His photographs are not literal reconstructions of the actual events. It is not the specific details of the story that attract him; rather it is the idea of a story that is provoked by the eye-catching headline. The idea of turning to his local press as a source for inspiration was suggested by the example of Thomas Hardy. Thomas, like hunter, was born and brought up in Dorset and would trawl through back copies of his local paper to find the stories of public hangings, wife selling and other unlikely events that he eventually wrote about in his novels.

Murder: Two Men Wanted

‘Living in Hell’ was the headline printed in The Hackney Gazette above the story of a 74-year-old woman whose house was infested with vermin. Borrowing from the National Gallery’s Four Figures at a Table by the Le Nain brothers, Hunter composed a photograph with the help of a retired actress and several hundred cockroaches bought over the internet. The Le Nains’ paintings of around 1643 show a woman and children in a modest peasant interior. She has the expression of a care-worn older woman tempered with a quiet sense of self-respect; in Hunters 2005 version the woman has no companions, she is alone. She sits wrapped up against the cold, the electric heater switched off. The sofa is filthy and worn, decaying food lies uneaten. A naked electric light bulb illuminates the room and shows literally hundreds of cockroaches crawling over every surface. This harsh lighting starkly reveals her shocking fate. The Le Nain’s dignified poverty is ripped from its original 17th century context and in 2005, becomes brutally undignified.

A Satyr mourning over a Nymph

National Gallery paintings depict the eternal themes of love, sex, violence, life and death and Tom Hunter has used these and reflected on them in an uncompromisingly contemporary way. He has turned newspaper headlines into commentaries on both the modern world in which we live and the classic themes seen represented throughout the National Gallery.

Cupid complaining to Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder, c.1525
(the National Gallery, London)
Girls’ Sex Acts in Club: Court. Cop ‘It can only be described as having sex through clothes’

Tom Hunter : Living in Hell and Other Stories
Until 12 March
The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London, WC2N 5DN
Tel: 020 7747 2885
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
Admission Free

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ALIEN AT HEART – ‘Alien Nation’ exhibition at the ICA

Writer — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 18:13:48 +0000

The Private view of the ‘Alien Nation’ exhibition at the ICA on the 16th of November was interesting… It was an exhibition about ‘Alien Art’ a direct homage to the 50-60′s early 70′s Alien movies which mostly reflected the anti-communist, xenophobic & anti-nuclear fears of the time.

Few masterpieces came out of that strand but vintage Serie B or Z movies completely outdated and so much visually enshrined in their time. The wacky special effects and the non-existent acting or dialogues were there to reinforce the feeling of uselessness those films carried throughout their non-glorious runs in theater. Although a mostly US phenomenon, Japan had its own version with the ‘Godzillas’ and only the maverick and young Turks of the late 70′s, 80′s with the likes of Lucas (Star Wars) Cameron (Terminator, Alien ) Ridley Scott ( Blade Runner, Alien) really took the genre seriously enough to invest the time and funds to create proper storyline and build new worlds…

It is hopefully the start of a wider campaign towards the recognition of sci-fi comic books, like Marvel, DC Comics… who can now command serious power in tinsel town, but have been overlooked by the art and literature establishment for decades. A good sci-fi movie is as good as his aliens or robots…should be the premise of any Do’s and Don’t of the Sci-fi rulebook. We had them in the top room with what seemed to be spaceship of a different order. Shinny made of metal pieces, jewellery and shinny artifacts…it does verge on the tacky but hey you are watching a spaceship here, so who is to say what is tackiness in the future? A wide range of artists, with the expected reference to Star wars and… Zapata…the Mexican revolutionary and his sidekick the under-commandant Marcos Downstairs… A few films, some paintings … a not homogeneous lot but a common thread that should enthuse a young and hip audience in search of space frisson. I recommend it if you are wandering towards the Mall on a dark afternoon. Just do not forget that laser beam of yours and those thigh-hugging Lycra pants.

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THE PLANETARIUM – The Artvaults Project

Writer — Wed, 10 May 2006 14:52:07 +0000

Below the post war redevelopment that characterises Southampton’s city centre lies a labyrinth of over 100 underground vaults dating back to the twelfth century. For the second year seven of these spaces are being opened every weekend through the summer as exhibition venues. Last year the project, organised by ‘a’ space, attracted 15,000 visitors.

Three artists from east London, Alan Bond, May Cornet, and Dawn Shorten have been chosen as lead artists in the Artvaults project which takes place from July 9th to Oct 9th.

These artists have just returned from a showing in Rome and Artvaults is a development of that show. Dawn Shorten and Alan Bond will be sharing the Castle Vault with pieces about Space. Dawn Shorten, whose work is invariably wry, humorous and deadly serious will show ‘Fly Me To The Moon’, a spectacular reconstruction of a rocket launch. Alan Bond has constructed planetarium consisting of a geodesic dome which sits on a circle of doors scavenged from skips. Light penetrates through hundreds of holes drilled in the dome.

The PlanetariumThe Planetarium is a response to the form, dimensions and dark of Castle Vault. It develops ideas about space that have informed Alan Bond’s recent paintings in which eroded, scuffed and perforated painted surfaces parallel the cosmic history of collision, creation, destruction and remaking.

In The Planetarium he uses the cast-offs of the material world and makes reference to the world of advertising and consumerism. Exploiting the aesthetic attributes of these re-cycled materials he transcends their source, to create a mysterious allusion to the ethereal beauty of the night sky

Somewhere in this piece are cryptic references to medieval ideas about the underworld, heaven and earth.

May Cornet will show at 94 High Street. Her installation is reminiscent of a laboratory. The illuminated seed boxes suggest a process of cloning but May sees each of the seedlings having the potential to grow into something unique. Delicate, clinical and beguiling, the work suggests a scientific intervention into the natural processes of creation and germination.

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JAZZ IN THE CITY – Exploration of Jazz & Art

Writer — Tue, 09 May 2006 14:57:11 +0000

Nina considers the musical language of jazz to be one of her greatest inspirations. Her exhibition, Jazz in the City is the culmination of a life’s work for this innovative and unique artist.

It also begins a tour featuring Nina as an artist in residence, to include The International Jazz Festival in Moscow, during which Nina’s work will be exhibited at the State Museum for Contemporary Art, Moscow.

Nina was born in the Russian city of St. Petersburg and obtained a Masters Degree from Moscow’s Gubkin Academy. In 1991 after

she moved to Germany, Nina started her career as an artist where she studied under teacher and artist Margarita Budini. From 1994 to 1998 she established her studio in The Netherlands and in 2000 she moved to London where she has been living and working as an artist. Now based in Richmond, Nina finds artistic inspiration for her paintings in music, poetry and philosophy. The powerful colours and dramatic shapes in her paintings reflect her own experience of living in different cultures, while still infused within her Russian heritage. Nina says of her traveling experience, “I have found the most success in London, because London is a cultural centre and a major port. Kinky-Kalinki Transrussian Express is a tribute to London’s art scene, to show how you can be poor and foreign in London and still be accepted.”

Kinky-Kalinki Transrussian Express is a documentary film charting London’s art, music and club scene from 2000 to 2005, the length of time that Nina has lived here. “I have focused on one east London club in this film,” says Nina, “Rhythm Factory on Whitechapel road where it is possible to have live music, art on the walls and a club night all in one. East London is a buzzing area, that’s not to say that Richmond where I am based is not buzzing, but East London has a modern and contemporary feel.”
Old Vinyl.

Nina has exhibited her work in both solo and group shows and has begun to exhibit her work across Europe and overseas. In December 2003 Nina represented the UK at The Florence Bienniale and in November 2004 was invited to be Artist in Residence for Black History Month at the National Opera Studios in London. Other artistic residencies include River Walk at The OXO Tower and The Players Theatre in The West End.

Carol Cordrey will be in conversation with Nina on the 22nd of September at the Glass House Gallery and comments, “Jazz was once the music of yesteryear. Now, it is growing in popularity in cities the world over. Its powerful rhythm and improvisation have always appealed to performers with strong characters. Using instruments or voices, passion or pathos, they have used jazz to stir the human spirit. Nina Gruschwitz has an expressive personality, loves jazz and imbues all her work with a plethora of emotions. With brushes for instruments, this artist reinforces the contemporary impact of jazz. It is now seen and not just heard.”

Nina Gruschwitz’s exploration of Jazz and its influence on her art is to be exhibited at the Glass House gallery from the 13th of September.

The Glass House Gallery
2-3 Bull’s Head Passage, Leadenhall Market, London EC3, 13 Sept – 9 Oct
In Conversation: Artist talk with Carol Cordrey: Thu. 22 Sept 6 – 8pm
Special event: Kinky-Kalinki Transrussian Express: Wed 21 Sept 8pm-midnight
Rhythm Factory
16-18 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1EW
info@thecynthiacorbettgallery.com
www.thecynthiacorbettgallery.com

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EMPIRICAL – 25 Artists Come Together

Writer — Tue, 09 May 2006 14:49:33 +0000

Carefully selected artists, based in Hackney and the east end exhibit fresh new work in conjunction with Hackney Empire’s Spice Festival. Painting, sculpture, drawing, screen-prints, photography, performance, video and computer generated images from twenty five artists come together in a show that warrants your undivided attention.

Work from Peter Ainsworth, Henrietta Armstrong, Emilie Bell, Claire Brewster, Angela Corcoran, Nicola Cunningham, Charlie Danby, Joel Ely, Kirsty Harris, Richard Hubner, Cheryl Lane, Harry Logan, James Manning, Tracy Neal, Johanna Nilsson, James Ormiston, Cara O’Keefe, Scott O’Rourke, Emily Power, Fiona Przybylski, Sophie Ruderman, Lucie Russell, Ben Twiston-Davies, Liam Williams and Mike Young will be for sale, with a percentage of the proceeds donated to Hackney Empire.

Theme Park Charlie Danby’s woodland constructions tell the story of that which is lost, and that which is to be discovered. Remnants of roller-coasters, references to theme parks, ruins, castles, bridges and fortified walls that separate nothing and safeguard even less. Myth and fairytale bring them into a landscape of synthetic idyll, where objects are both visible and invisible. The works are built on platforms that float like islands, scale and reference shift constantly and mirrors present optical recess and provide strange vistas.

Joel Ely’s paintings have been selected for the BP Portrait Award for the second consecutive year. His practice involves researching and combining disparate elements of the histories, theories and fictions surrounding food, nature and figurative art. This is realised through a bastardised approach to painting, performance and installation.

Kirsty Harris’ breakfast scene installation becomes quite unsettling when a closer look at the egg’s shell reveals it was broken by a bullet. Waking up, every day, to the carefully edited images and news reports is the way we gauge how the rest of the world exists. Reliance on corporations to transmit the truth suddenly seems naïve.

Empirical Emily Power manipulates the surface of wallpaper to include words beneath its pattern. Intermarried with the codes and regulations of the pre-made paper, the text looks towards linguistics and habit forming systems of communication, adopting a freeze-frame of gridded language to suggest an arresting of circumstances.

PRIVATE VIEW: SUNDAY 10th JULY 2005 6-9pm
Performance – 8pm Nicola Cunningham
Photography and Disc Jockeys in the Marie Lloyd bar, 8pm till late

OPEN DAILY 11th–14TH JULY 2005 5-9pm
Hackney Empire’s Exhibition Space
291 Mare Street
Hackney, London E8 1EJ

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TURNER PRIZE 2005 – Shortlist

Writer — Tue, 09 May 2006 12:34:01 +0000

Tate has announced the four artists who have been shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2005. The artists are Darren Almond, Gillian Carnegie, Jim Lambie and Simon Starling.

Darren Almond’s work addresses the themes of time, geography and memory. He uses a wide range of media including film, photography and sculpture to explore the passing of time and the marks that it leaves on both social and private histories. He is shortlisted for his exhibition at K21, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf.

Gillian Carnegie explores the properties of painting. She works within the traditional genres of landscape, still life, the nude and portraiture, incorporating a wide variety of subjects and techniques to both celebrate and question the medium. She has been shortlisted for her solo exhibition at Cabinet, London.

Jim Lambie makes exuberant installations and sculptures which make reference to pop music and youth culture. He uses everyday materials including coloured tape and glitter to transform spaces and familiar objects. He is shortlisted for his exhibitions at Sadie Coles HQ, London and Anton Kern, New York.

StarlingSimon Starling transforms and reframes existing objects through a rigorous process of research. In his complex sculptural installations he creates poetic narratives by drawing together disparate cultural and historical references. He is shortlisted for his solo presentations at the Modern Institute, Glasgow and the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona.

Last year, Gordon’s increased the value of the Turner Prize to £40,000, with £25,000 being awarded to the winner and £5,000 each to the other shortlisted artists. The Prize, established in 1984, is awarded to a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding 11 May 2005. It is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art and is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe.Turner Prize Shortlist

Work by the shortlisted artists will be shown in an exhibition at Tate Britain beginning on 18 October 2005. The winner will be announced at Tate Britain on 5 December during a live broadcast by Channel 4.

The members of the Turner Prize 2005 jury are:
Louisa Buck, London Contemporary Art correspondent, The Art Newspaper; Kate Bush, Head of Art Galleries, Barbican Art Gallery; Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith, art critic and Lecturer, Modern Irish Department, University College Dublin; Eckhard Schneider, Director, Kunsthaus Bregenz; Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate and Chairman of the Jury.

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SPICE FESTIVAL 2005 – Music, Painting, Poetry & Drama

Writer — Tue, 09 May 2006 12:28:45 +0000

The opening night sees an evening of classical opera extracts performed, including Carmen, Nessun Dorma, The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro and many others at The Hackney Empire.

East London Metropolitan Opera continues to bring together top professional musicians with members of the local community and children from Hackney schools accompanied by a full orchestra.

For those with more contemporary, independent tastes, a hip triple bill on the 13th July with Billy Childish and the Buff Medways, Ed Harcourt and Paul The Girl, is not to be missed. A cult figure in America, Europe and Japan, Billy Childish is arguably the most prolific painter, poet and songwriter of his generation. In a twenty-year period he has published 30 collections of his poetry, recorded over 90 full-length independent LP’s and produced over 2000 paintings. High praise comes from Alternative Press, USA, “Of all the ’70s punk survivors Childish is one of the select few who didn’t sell out, or end up sucking.” Whilst Time Out describes Billy as “terse, gutsy and powerfully humane.” Ed Harcourt, reviewed by the Observer Music Monthly, has been praised also, “the blissful sound of a besotted drunk in love…Harcourt retains a composer’s eye for detail which repays whatever attention you care to give it.” British artist, Paul The Girl is an admired and accomplished musician; The Guardian review wrote,”…on her own tiny label, Paul is making the most original music of any British artist, of either gender.” Spice festival goers will be spoilt for choice with the line-up of drama performances. From Cardboard Citizens; an clectic mix of theatre, circus and music developed and devised by This Way Up, the UK’s largest arts performance programme for homeless people, to Rajni Shah Theatres’ story of Queen Elizabeth I, a traditional Indian bride and according to the synopsis, “…the relationships we have to the land we live on, and the theatres we all invent.”

Let’s not forget the little people for whom the Movingstage Marionette Company bring double bill, Captain Grimy and The Three Little Pigs, a charming puppet show re-telling these familiar, timeless tales. Also presented by Spice Festival is Richard Pinner, Gold Star BAFTA award winner who will be performing, “excellent close-up magic,” as described by The Stage.

The diverse drama available includes internationally renowned theatre company Rotozaza presenting their unique and innovative acts without any rehearsal. Actors perform by following live instructions. ROMCOM or The Distance Love Can Be Maintained Between Any Two Fixed Points, by Glen Neath is performed by two unprepared actors with headphones telling them what to say and do. The Glasgow Herald likens it to,”…one of Godards movies…as well as comedy it’s a complex study of compatibility and communication.”

2005 Events

Opera Gala Evening:
Hackney Empire:
Tuesday 12th July: 8pm, Tickets: £8, concessions £2.50

Billy Childish and The Buff Medways, Ed Harcourt, Paul The Girl:
Hackney Empire:
13 July: Doors 8.15pm Tickets: £10, conc. £7.50

Cardboard Citizens:
Acorn Theatre:
Thursday 21st July: 7.30pm

Rotozaza:
Hackney Empire:
17th July: 3pm: Tickets: £12/£8

Rajni Shah Theatre:
Acorn Theatre: Sunday 24th July: 4pm & 7.30pm: Tickets:£10/ £7

Movingstage Marionette Company:
Acorn Theatre:
16th July. 11am & 2pm: Tickets:£6, children £4.50.

Richard Pinner:
Bullion Theatre:
Sunday 24th July: 2.30pm: Tickets: £6 children, £4.50.

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BARBICAN – Folk Art Special

Writer — Tue, 09 May 2006 06:11:44 +0000

Two artists dismayed by the Millennium Dome’s corporate presentation of Britain have created their own snapshot of British artistic creativity. Five years after the Dome presented its shiny, clean vision of Britain, there is now a smaller, cheaper and more democratic snapshot of the UK on show at the Barbican Gallery.

A life-size mechanical elephant from Oswestry, trades union banners, snack shop signs, paintings on vans and hot pants from the Notting Hill Carnival can be seen in the gallery as part of a collection looking at the state of British creativity.

Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller and artist Alan Kane are the masterminds behind the show, which tries to update what we understand as folk art. They have collected images from around the country which are not normally considered art, or shown in galleries.

Some of the works are rooted in the past such as Devon’s Tar Barrel Rolling celebrations or “Well Dressing” from Derbyshire. Others are entirely modern such as homemade web page designs or a collection of fake parking tickets which are left on the windows of unwelcome 4×4 vehicles.

The exhibition reflects Deller’s work as an ‘enabler’ and curator of other people’s work. His staging of a re-enactment of the Battle of Orgreave, the most dramatic conflict between miners and police during the miners’ strike in the 1980s, was one of his most celebrated works.
As an artist who freely accepts he can neither draw nor paint, Deller says his work is to document, enable and “re-direct the flow” of other people’s work. His main work in the year he won the Turner Prize was Memory Bucket, a video documentary of a trip through George Bush’s Texas.

Some of the pieces in the exhibition have appeared before, but much of it is new. It is a reappraisal of the “overlooked and undervalued” objects which have been created by people simply for the love of making something beautiful rather than making a profit.

The Barbican’s Contemporary Popular Art from the UK exhibition runs to 24 July.

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White Mercury » Painting

TOM HUNTER – Living in Hell and Other Stories

Currently exhibiting at The National Gallery is an east London artist depicting real life stories taken from The Hackney Gazette.

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ALIEN AT HEART – ‘Alien Nation’ exhibition at the ICA

The Private view of the ‘Alien Nation’ exhibition at the ICA on the 16th of November was interesting… It was an exhibition about ‘Alien Art’ a direct homage to the 50-60′s early 70′s Alien movies which mostly reflected the anti-communist, xenophobic & anti-nuclear fears of the time.

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THE PLANETARIUM – The Artvaults Project

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JAZZ IN THE CITY – Exploration of Jazz & Art

Nina considers the musical language of jazz to be one of her greatest inspirations. Her exhibition, Jazz in the City is the culmination of a life’s work for this innovative and unique artist.

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EMPIRICAL – 25 Artists Come Together

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TURNER PRIZE 2005 – Shortlist

Tate has announced the four artists who have been shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2005. The artists are Darren Almond, Gillian Carnegie, Jim Lambie and Simon Starling.

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SPICE FESTIVAL 2005 – Music, Painting, Poetry & Drama

The opening night sees an evening of classical opera extracts performed, including Carmen, Nessun Dorma, The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro and many others at The Hackney Empire.

2005 Events

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BARBICAN – Folk Art Special

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