around galleries in October

'Mathematical Nature Painting Nested' (2008) by Keith Tyson (img via guardian.co.uk)

Keith Tyson at Parasol Unit (until 11 November)

Eduardo Paolozzi at Raven Row (until 1 November)

John Baldessari at Tate Modern (until 11 January 2010)

Miroslaw Balka at Tate Modern

‘How It Is’ by Miroslaw Balka, Tate Modern

‘How It Is’ by Miroslaw Balka, Tate Modern

‘How It Is’ by Miroslaw Balka, Tate Modern

‘How It Is’ by Miroslaw Balka, Tate Modern

Simple, terrifying, cold, and beautiful. Miroslaw Balka’s work ‘How It Is’ at Tate Modern hits hard without being overtly provocative. More of this kind of art, please.

Art Container [13]

Johanna Billing video installation (via artscouncil.org.uk)

Autumn is upon us, the wind is turning chilly and days become shorter and shorter. Summer exhibitions are closing down and London gets ready for the Turner Prize, Frieze, Zoo, etc. Some shows have been quite underwhelming, but it’s not the case of Johanna Billing’s exhibition at the Camden Arts Centre, which I stumbled upon and loved from start to end. The Swedish artist has the ability to elevate small events to poetic visions through her videos that feature light-hearted songs that will stick to your memory. Johanna Billing: ‘I’m Lost Without Your Rhythm’ closes on September 13, try not to miss it!

mishmash

Cover illustration for 'Opus International', 1968

I had been warned of the scale of Cold War Modern – the new design exhibition at the V&A – so I wasn’t shocked when I realised that the visit lasted at least two hours. Although I can’t really say I remember the cold war (but I do remember when the wall fell), growing up in Italy gave me a pretty good idea of political propaganda and strong pro- and anti-Americanism. I’ve been wanting to visit the exhibition also because of the shady 7th Syndikate, that contacted me through this blog at the beginning of September. As it turned out they’d contacted a bunch of other London-based bloggers with instructions and tasks to carry out in order to become an active ‘agent’ (I was Caroline something), and the big finale was a secret gathering for the show’s opening on September 24. Talking about viral marketing! I was sorry to miss it, but had a previous engagement with two friends and a pizza. Back to the exhibition: the posters were among the best pieces on show, especially the French ones from the 60s, but also a fine example of Trabant, a few interesting chairs and stereos, propaganda films from USA and URSS, and a short clip of Dr Strangelove by Kubrick that brilliantly summed up those years. It seems that the subject of war is quite popular with London galleries as Barbican has just opened three parallel exhibitions This is war! Robert Capa at work, Gerda Taro, and On the subject of war. Will definitely see them.

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I’d mentioned the End Of The Road festival (12-14 Sept) in a previous post saying that I was not going, but the lineup was too good to miss so I grew a spine and bought a ticket. It was worth every penny and ounce of mud, because almost all bands did amazing sets and the atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly.

Day one (12 Sept): Acorn (Canadian band that I saw opening for Akron/Family at the Luminaire, nothing too exciting but entertaining), followed by  A Hawk And A Hacksaw (they make great music fullstop), Micah P Hinson, and the almighty Dirty Three. There are no words to describe their music. Inspired by the Australians I went to the Big Top Stage to see Akron/Family leaving my friends at the Conor Oberst (aka Bright Eyes) gig.

Day two (13 Sept): Absentee (perhaps a bit too pop for me, but very dance-able), Bowerbirds, Bon Iver (amazing gig, probably one of the best of the weekend), Baby Dee (first time I’ve seen her live and enjoyed the set a lot, especially the craziness of Teeth Are The Only Bones That Show and The Earlie King), Kurt Wagner (great voice, great stage presence), Mark Kozelek with Sun Kil Moon (I love his/their albums but I find Kozelek very boring and cold when he plays live).

Day three (14 Sept): Sons of Noel and Adrian (a pleasant surprise), The Wave Pictures, Kimya Dawson (wonderful and endearing), Jason Molina (again, I love songs:ohia but live he’s a bit boring), Woodpigeon, Jeffrey Lewis (always funny), Moutain Goats (not a good gig, something was missing).

End Of The Road – A Hawk & A Hacksaw

End Of The Road – Dirty Three

End Of The Road – Baby Dee on fire

End Of The Road – A very focussed Alex Nielson drums for Baby Dee

End Of The Road – Kurt Wagner’s intimate set

Psycho buildings on the Southbank

The new exhibition at the Hayward is a mix of architecture, installation and design. Best works on display are Life fog frog… fog frog by Ernesto Neto, Fallen Star 1/5 and Staircase V (my favourite, pictured) by Do Ho Suh, In the memory of H. P. Lovecraft by Mike Nelson, and the exploding (?) Show room by Cuban duo Los Carpinteros. Not so sure about the rest, it looked a bit like a funfair.

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Thanks to my friend B. I’ve discovered Bon Iver, a.k.a. American singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. I can’t stop listening to For Emma Forever Ago, truly beautiful.

Art Container [12]

MoMA is currently showing Color Chart: reinventing color, 1950 to today (until 12 May), an anthology of colour-related artworks by famous artists. It’s a ’safe’ exhibition, nothing edgy, but very enjoyable and one gets the chance to see interesting works such as Baldessari’s video Six colorful inside jobs (1977), a few Sol LeWitt wall drawings, the omnipresent Buren stripes, François Morellet’s telephone directory painting, and Boetti’s solid-colour iron squares (most of which are in private collections, so a good chance to see them in the flesh). Seeing various works by Boetti (1940-1994) made me want to read a bit more about him hence an Art Container dedicated to him (yes, the second one in a row on an Arte Povera artist, but he did dissociate his work from that movement). In addition to the artistic interest there’s also one related to the subject of colour in art, culture and design. Seems something that comes out pretty frequently nowadays. A bit of words on Boetti from tate.org.uk:

Alighiero Boetti (b. 1940, Turin; d. 1994, Rome) worked with cement, cloth, electric light, wood and even the postal system. His array of techniques embraced embroidery, drawing, photocopying, printing, photography, construction and often involved collaboration with people both inside and outside the art world. With this diverse and democratic approach, he wanted to blur the boundaries between art and life, and to disseminate his art as widely as possible using the humblest of means. He rejected the strategies and materials of ‘high’ art in favour of ‘low’ forms such as craft and design. [...] Boetti was fascinated by the relationship between chance and order, systems of classification, and many aspects of culture, particularly non-Western traditions and practices. This global vision is reflected in his best-known works – the series of embroidered maps of the world, made in collaboration with crafts-workers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Here, the shape of each country is embroidered with the design of its national flag, vividly illustrating our world of fiercely demarcated individual nation states. As Boetti’s works demonstrate, these boundaries are nevertheless involved in a constant process of flux and negotiation due to political events such as the reunification of Germany, or the collapse of the Soviet Union. Boetti disassociated himself from Arte Povera in the early 1970s.

[img 1 via artnet.com; img 2 via moma.org]