What Am I?

What do you want to do when you leave uni? That question that gets utters more and more as third year comes and (in not to long) goes. I'm a student doing a joint honours degree in Fine Art and Art History, so this immediatly raises questions as to what I am, and what I want to do. While it is not easy for any student who graduates and then has to decide upon their future, it seems increasingly difficult for arts students who don't appear to have any set career path in front of them.

This problem has many dimensions and many different angles and I don't pretend to be aware of them all and I certainly don't pretend to understand them all, but what I can say is that becoming increasingly obvious that any arts student has to be versatile. There has to be an openness about the arts almost as a given due to the nature of many arts based organisations, i.e. an open mindedness to dance, music, poetry amongst many others on top of the traditional fine arts. After this though I find that many graduates are trying several different roles in order to develop themselves, this includes writing, curating, selling as well as physical craft based skills. Many roles in the arts include several skills but also there comes the problem of lack of experience in a certain field, this is where the versatility comes into play. A Broad range of skill sets will allow for doorways to open without perhaps overly specific experience

All of this is well and good, but it doesn't answer the perhaps maybe initially simple small talk question of "what do you want to do when you finish uni?". Given my above thoughts I would say that any answer will probably just list off all my previous work experience as a specific field hasn't yet emerged, so perhaps in order to answer the question, the best answer might just be "Art stuff probably"...

Uni Summer Holidays = Art crisis

The summer holidays are a a time of mixed emotions for Art LAD, why? well because of several things. First; no studio, the university closes the studios and doesn't allow you to use them until about one week into term. Second; Where has all the decent art gone? Art LAD feels as though this summer has been relativly     poor on the art front. There have been several good shows, Hirst, Invisible, Deptford X; however, most of London hasn't quite cut it for me! I wanted more. This I suppose is a question of taste and thus I shall say no more.

Back to the studio problem though, where can one have a space to do work without having to pay asecond rent effectively? For students who are already paying £3500 to have the use of studios it seems a little ridiculous to have to pay over the summer, but yet still be expected to carry on working and thinking about work. This is another area where the Unis let down the students. Virtually all artists like to have a separate area to do their work, they like to have some  type of separation.

While this studio down time has been an inconvenience to me and my work (having to complete work for two shows in my bedroom was, excuse my French, a ball ache), there is the added benefit of being able to do an internship with ALISN at their gallery Lubomirov-Easton and write for Artfinder (check out my profile). In all I felt a slight art crisis this summer, by way of lack of quality art in London and from myself!

Invigilating delight

Many gallery interns and workers alike spend many hours every week invigilating various shows and works throughout the various galleries in our fair town. Many of these interns also find themselves doing this without previous knowledge of the entailment of a gallery interns duties. While invigilating is an essential role within a gallery as one serves to protect the artwork as some kind of art bouncer (although in reality there isn't much one could do as the chances are that the intern is scrawny and arty), and also there to provide a Q and A type service for customer who assume that because you spend all day sitting there in the same room the work, that you know every last thing about it.  While I might have had some of the easier invigilating jobs, working in smaller galleries hence being allowed to sit and use a computer, I feel that there is a certain sense of duty as an art student and art lover to start at the bottom and to quote a great man, Mr. Bean, "And my job is to sit and look at paintings". In this fast paced social media world, a few hours of contemplation breathing in the aura of the art (haha) can't be all that bad. I still maintain that it isn't the most enthralling job; however, the corniness of the aura of the artwork, being around the physical object itself rather than viewing it on a screen, can really help in the understanding of works, and can possibly really help draw out some useful criticality for young artists and critics.

Are art students losing out to art conversion students?

 I have noticed recently an increasing amount of people involved in the arts how have either taken a secondary degree in the arts or who have had some kind of conversion/postgrad qualification. Now there is nothing wrong with this, but perhaps it would be prudent of Arts based educational establishments to further prepare thier students for life beyond university with more applied skills. Now of course there are many creative entrepreneurial students from arts backgrounds; however it remains that there is still a low employability rate from this area post graduation. 

In order to solve this universites, colleges etc must provide at least some lessons in some form of business related areas, this would give all students a better founding when they are released into the real world, whether they go on to be artists, gallerists or waiters. Even though there are great career services at many of these establishments, not enough of the students regular see or visit these services. 

Because of this I propose the introduction of some kind of compolsaory careers lecture for arts students to attend once a term in order to give them a better chance of getting a job within the arts to ensure the developement of the field upon them graduating. 

try this one out IdeasTap

Yoko Ono- #smilesfilm

Im afraid I'm in a synicle mood so this is a synicle piece inspired by these words;

Send a smile to your friend so he/she can smile, too.
Think of a way to do it.
You could send a photo that says ‘smile’,
or a picture, a story, or a piece of pie,
but specify that it’s a smile you’re passing on.
Ask him/her to do the same:
to pass on the ‘smile’ in his/her own way.
Love,

Yoko Ono

What does it mean to smile? well its some form of facial expression characterized by turning up the corners of the mouth, this often to signal pleasure. What if we are broadcasting that pleasure to everyone at the will of one person? Does it not remind you of some kind of quasi Kim Jong-Ill brainwashing. While there remains some nice gesture in getting everyone to smile and send it around the world, to "brighten" our live ands days etc. I find it somewhat more sinister in terms of our kneeling to a celebrity artist. Smile like your happy, then submit it via social media to an online database, to me that seems like keeping up appearances as it were; however, i think i have taken this too far, smiles are infectious, and this is a cute way of perhaps extending alot of Ono's other works that imply a universality between us all. A smile is a simple thing that transcends boundaries of all kinds.

So in light of this don't miss the Yoko Ono show To The Light at the Serpentine Gallery

Escaping South London

Don't get me wrong, I love south London, especially South East London where i have been based for 2 years now; however, after putting on a show this week in Peckham at the Last Refuge, and inviting everyone under the sun, including bosses dads, mums, uncles, aunties, various contacts etc, south of the river just seems to far for anyone with the dollar or the interest to come. Traditionally arty types have moved to wherever is cheap and infested and overrun that area until it is expensive. They then migrate with the new generation to a new area and do the same again. It seems as though South East is where this is happening again with areas like Deptford seeing a large number of galleries etc popping up; however, while the art types in terms of the practicing artist are in great number, the buyers are not, and this leaves me with the sneaky suspicion that perhaps crossing the river South was a bad idea.

Now while I am aware that while being a Goldsmiths student Deptford seems like the perfect area to get work shown as it is just up the road, I do worry that I will get stuck here and never escape, I can already feel that worry of crossing the river to go North to visit friends and family, the classic North/South divide has hit me and I'm worried that it might soon be too late...Despite this I am glad to have such a fantastic art community around me, I just hope that we can move our work North of the river, to the business side of things when the time comes. 

Art Lad of the Month- Nick Horton

So it has come, the Art Lad of the Month or alotm. anyone who foloows the twitter account will already know, but for those who don't, this month the inaugural month into this award has gone to an inspiration of mine, a recently fellow student, who has combined LADy behavior with an art degree of a high standard. That man is Nick Horton. I think Nick is a fine example of an Art Lad, why? well because he may not convey the stereotype LADy behavior, apart from going to the gym; however, he is a fine considered man, a gentleman (gentleLAD) who took me under his wing, showed me the ropes and and passed on the great wisdom of the grandfather of Art Lads (this a man to be revealed at a later date), plus he has also just finished his degree show.

His work utilises "lo-fi" elements of popular culture, through technique (spray paint) and text, to create atmospheric space like images. He is certainly a painter interested in the act of painting, in the gesture of a mark made when plunged into historically referenced theories on perspective and form. There is also some nod towards a containment of the universe, an ever expanding object, placed into an oblong which is very measured and precise. Have a look at his cargo page or his page in the Goldsmiths Undergraduate catalog  

Invisible-Hayward Gallery

Well the South Bank Center really has pulled out all the stops for the Festival of the World, and it has made a real blockbuster of a show with Invisible: Art About the Unseen 1957-2012. The show starts with some of the most influential artists of all time with works such as Yves Klein, famously known for his Klein Blue, and looks further with work by Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol. 

The Utopian ideals of the invisible art, the invisible architecture, whereby mankind had forgone secrecy and developed into a free forming world. The first room seems to take an almost chronological step through from 1957 where Klein presented an empty space (The Specialization of Sensibility in the Raw Material State into Stabilized Pictorial Sensibility, The Void) as an art work which up to 3000 people queued to view; however, I am not hear to give you a history lesson. What I will tell you is that this is possibly the best exhibition of the year so far in my opinion, each room and stage holds a genuine interest. My personal favorite is Lai Chih-Sheng's Life Size Drawing. This is a tracing of every line in the room, so the work is literally the largest possible work that could fit in the room, without having any real physical material presence. This work kind of goes under the radar until you see the label on the wall, and then you begin to notice, you begin to realise you are standing in the middle of a huge drawing, a piece of work that is so big, yet it has no imposing influence on us. 

In all i would definitely recommend this one, a few tips though; first, if you have attended the Wide Open School (if you haven't you should!!) take your ticket along for reduced entry to the show; and second, if you can get the show handbook, its really good, a great read.

In Short:- 5/5 Best show of the year so far, a great variety of work ranging over the past 55 years of invisible art. 

Parallax Art Fair

"The displacement of an object as seen from two different points that are not on  a line with the object", this is the definition my iPhone tells me when I typed in the word parallax. In an art world driven by money, at an art fair that drives to sell work, this seems an apt title. Parallax Art Fair run by Barlow Fine Arts was held from 17th-19th of May at Chelsea Town Hall on Kings Road just up from Sloane Square. The show itself displayed a varied field of artists, with varied prices and ranges of works. 

This was a show not only to sell work but for artist and art lovers to share and converse to create a better more caring arts community, with talks from artist not only about their work, but also advice and ideas about their practice and life as an artist. This community feel really helped to drive the show to something more than just a circus such as Frieze, this is due to several factors; first, it is the artists selling their own work, so they have a genuine passion for what they are showing, rather than commission based commercial galleries, and second is the scale, while there were over 200 artist on show, the scale is able to be held in the wonderful setting of the Chelsea town hall which generates a more intimate atmosphere. 

While I attend and worked at the show with the intent to see the inner working of the side of art we like to forget about sometimes, I gained far more by seeing that there is a genuine community that is out there looking out for each other. To me looking out for one's peers and colleges is something truly LADy

Art World Pretence

A rather skeptical and cynical friend of mine (who is a self claimed artist's son) has a huge problem with the art world and its lack of accessibility to the everyman.  It's something he has always believed; however, there was one night last year in particular that exaserbated his feeligns on the matter. This was a private view at the White Cube for Christian Marclay's work The Clock whereby mate friend preceded to get very drunk and was refused entry, in light of this he preceded to call the Director "a pretentious c#%t" due to his rage that he wasnt allowed in. Here we see an obvious and probably very justified resistance to the LAD; however, the main focus here is some notion of  pretentiousness exerted by the art world.

I think despite my friends perhaps overtly hostile reaction to the justified reason to not let him in, there was perhaps something more sinister as the director would not let any of us in, it was especially disconcerting when he looked at the three sober members of the group (one of them being a relative of his) as if we were not fit to be allowed in due to our appearances. While LAD culture and behavior might not at times align itself with the "appropriate" nature of such events, it did highlight the the overtly snobbish attitude that is often held by the "art crowd". 

Much of the claims of pretentiousness relies on the continued attempts by many to live up to some form of stereotype as an art folk, this quite ironical as stereotypes are something that many artists try to critique. This does not mean that the LAD culture itself doesn't live up to some kind of stereotype; however, it never pretends it doesn't. The rise of the LAD culture does have some roots in the ironic behavior of guys laughing at actions that they previously laughed at, but now by making it ironic they have in fact become the LADs themselves. This last point is perhaps something that the art world could build upon, by this I mean making fun of the pretense that covers so much of its sphere, maybe trying to not dumb down, but laugh at its own ridiculous behavior. Art for everyone is a lovely idea; however, the commercial side of art excludes and reduces the possibility of this happening. 

Rebranding

I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about what art means to me, and this therefore encumbers thoughts of where I figure in this realm. LAD culture is a bizarre sub-culture that has emerged form universities around the country, many (especially them of the art world) look down at this LADiness, I however want to explore these LADdy ideas and how it might not all be as bad as it seems. On the surface there are the exploits of individuals such as Man vs Booze which draw media attention; however, there is another side that creeps underneath the resistance to the growth of the metro sexual male figure, and that is some strangely configured notions behind that of a traditional Gentleman. LAD "banter" feeds on website such as TrueLad.com show that there is huge support for quotes such as "just took my lady out for dinner. knowshowtotreataLADyLAD" gaining likes just as one can on Facebook. 

So for me as an art student in London and not quite fitting into the artsy crowd, yet, and seeing around what perhaps started ironically the growth and taking over of LAD culture at university, I want to see how some of these so called LADdy actions can be in some ways a veil for something less gaudy and destructive as initially thought, and perhaps promote something more interesting in terms of a youth sub-movement. This sub movement isn't trying to subvert or destroy the establishment, or strike up some binary against progressive attitudes to the world around us, its perhaps just saying "hey wait, I can adapt to these changes, but perhaps I don't want to be so dignified in the way i do it". 

The progression of this blog is to carry on with the talk around contemporary art, but also perhaps unlock some of the snobery in the art world, perhaps one day Lads and Hoxtonities wont be so different. With this in mind i want to carry on the work that am/have already done, but from now on I want to do it with the LAD in mind. 

You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? - Not Being Able to take Photos in Galleries

I feel incensed that I am not able to take photos of works in galleries, by this I mean non-flash as obviously this can damage some works; however, especially when I have payed good money, such as any of the shows at Tate etc, i feel as though i am entitled to. Anyone who sees artwork in galleries on a regular basis knows that there is absolutely know comparison between a photograph of any quality and seeing a work in the flesh, in real life in a gallery. 

I understand there may be some gripes in commercial spaces such as Hauser and Wirth, but even so I don't  feel as though me taking a photo on my phone and uploading to for example this blog will make any difference to the work, there are already pictures available of the shows online, and in most cases pictures are taken because the work is not well known, or there is a particular aspect that one's own photo will highlight. 

In all, while we can all understand various copyright, and value related reasons for no photographs, we al know that at the end of the day the best way to view a work is in person, so an online photo or a picture in a students sketchbook isn't going to make any real difference, and in the end just creates an annoyance, and also possibly puts people of the art world.

Alighiero Boetti- Game Plan

Two days running we have retrospectives from the Tate Modern, this time it is the turn of Alighiero Boetti. The show runs chronologically, which is pretty standard, but is a little uninventive in the grande scheme of things; however, the show starts with a look at his work with building materials used in ways they were not intended. The first room seems a little crowded like the hardware store feel which is a nice touch in an nice room that runs through his work in the 1960s.

The various rooms flow through to the next stage of his career sequentially, highlighting his major works of the time. I found that my favorite room was the first biro drawing room that I encountered called Mettere Al Mondo Il Mondo (Bringing the World into the World). These biro paintings contain commas marking various phrases etc, all of which "appear like islands or stars.", but the overall appearance is like a hand crafted quilt from afar. 

Despite the biro drawing being my favorite i was still a great fan of the rooms Tutto, a room of huge montages of pictures form various sources embroided together making no particular highlight of any image, creating a unity, and the other was The Kingdom of Papers, which was work in a similar vein but this time there was a larger emphasis on tracing and collage. In all the show was logically curated flowing nicely from room to room, and due to the Hirst and Kusama exhibitions also being on this one slips under the radar a little.

In Short:- 4/5 A great show in terms of work on display, but also due to the quiet easy atmosphere due to the Tate's other shows.

Damien Hirst- The Retrospective

Billed as the summer blockbuster for this year i was both excited and a little apprehensive upon arrival, it would have been worse were it not for the fact i skipped the queue with my Tate membership card; however, I was knocked back at how well the Tate had dealt with this show. Work ranging from throughout his career, starting at work as he left Goldsmiths in the late 80s and moving on through to the present day. Unlike the Kusama show there were several real center pieces for the show, in fact you could almost say it about all the pieces and each of them has had either their own piece of controversy or large media coverage. 

If you enter from the West entrance as I do usually you are greeted by two things, one, a very large queue (so either book in advance for a much smaller line or get a membership) and two, the ever present amazing turbine hall, which you might have thought to be filled with perhaps work such as The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living 1991, but no instead at the very bottom end of the hall there is a black box. Before you start queueing at the rear of the box you walk pas this image,

Now for many of you this will conjure up a familiar image such as the one on my previous blog post; however, upon entry and seeing it, For the Love of God 2007, in real life, it is instantly something special. What hit me most was the scale of it, in most images it looks huge, but in reality a human head isn't actually that large. The jewel on the forehead and the way it is presented in a dark room with spot lights makes it feel extraterrestrial, alien, the jewel an all seeing third eye, the eye of god perhaps. It is a little unnerving especially in the environment that you see it, a small group with security, not invigilators, watching and monitoring you in a room filled with the sparkle off the piece. 

If we move now to the main body of the work upstairs on level 3, it would take an age to go through each piece, all works that have been analysed time after time. Anyone who knows any of Hirst's work will understand the underlying theme of death throughout, and the almost contradictory nature of the way as questions are asked they are almost instantly denied by the work. The butterfly plays wonderfully with these themes the butterflies are simultaneously hatching from the lava on the canvases as other expire or live out their lives through this room that we as viewers can walk through. One is not allowed to take pictures throughout the show; however, I took a few snaps just to give you guys a quick preview. 

Another interesting part to the exhibition is the exit to the shop where there are many of Hirst's works for sale, smaller prints and editions all at more affordable (but still out of most of our price range) prices. It says two things to me first is that maybe there is a lot of truth in the rumors surrounding the value of his work and two, perhaps he wants a wider audience to his work, giving us all a chance to own a bit of art?

In Short:- 5/5 Great retrospective showing some of the most important pieces of art over the past 25 years.

Damien Hirst...again

Ok well this time its a pre-exhibition jitters type post, I've booked the ticket with my Tate Membership for 1300 tomorrow at Tate Modern, and I am genuinely excited. I'm 22 years old and have only seen a relatively small amount of works of good old Damien. I saw the Lets Eat Outdoors Today at last years RA show and was a big fan, and a few prints etc. at various art fairs; however, I have never fully experienced some of the major works in the flesh. Far too many people knock him and his works to quickly in my view especially when i think of some of the people who have in a similar situation to me, i.e. young and not really seen many of the works face to face.

 I consider Benjamin's idea of the aura when i look at many of Hirst's pieces today as i think of how many times i have seen for example For the Love of God in various magazines and on the internet. The autonomy of the work grows and the situational experience of the work is lost, having never seen this piece behind a glass box in gallery I cannot truly imagine how I might interpret the work.

So all I can really say at this point is that i am really looking forward to seeing some of the most controversial works of all time, especially if we reconfigure some of the works under the current financial climate, in gallery for the first time, rather than sat here in this chair staring at a screen...wish me luck...

The Inception of Line- Coldharbour Studios

Coldharbour Studios is an innovative space in south London which works not only as a gallery but also houses many artists in the studios above. The latest show The Inception of Line shows creative and effective curating from Arethra Campbell, with Kate Terry's site specific thread installations cutting and reworking the architecture of the white cube space, bringing a new perspective to the work on the walls, the pieces of Keke Vilabelda.

The press release says "The work of art exists within a trajectory or line, marking a point of communication between viewer and work that refuses to repeat itself. Both Vilabelda and Terry's practices highlight this line, never reaching a point of stasis; rather they are constantly re-aligned and re-configured within the spaces they temporarily inhabit." and i would be inclined to agree. 

The show physically impacts you as well as visually as one has to rethink the space constantly looking out for Terry's work which slices through your path at unexpected moments. Vilabelda's paintings, if you will, have a certain eeriness to them as dreamlike landscapes and structures are intersected by this imaginary frames and formulations.

You will be able to see the green thread of Terry's installation if you look closely

In Short:- 5/5 Great young space with loads of potential with a great team behind it. 

Design Awards- Design Museum

Having never been inside the Design Museum I was unsure what to expect when I entered, and to my amusement the queuing system is hilariously badly designed as the entrance hall is so small that you have to end up queuing out side with automatic doors opening and closing every few seconds; however, despite this initial hiccup I was encouraged by the set up of the design awards, as no piece seemed to have a favoured space over another. 

There were some interesting choices with a wide variety of different fields covered, this ranging from Viviene Westwood handbags to new emergency ambulance layouts. The latter being my personal favourite, one that I perceive to make the biggest potential difference in making peoples lives better.

There is a keen interest in the world around us, and we eagerly await the announcement of the winners in April.

In Short:- 4/5 A well organised space and a nice range of designs to see.

Yayoi Kusama- Tate Modern

Kusama's retrospective at Tate Modern is surprisingly large exhibition, showing a range of works from the 1950s through to today. While much of the work is very entertaining to view, there becomes a problem when Tate relies to heavily on trying to spell things out for people. We had discussed this need of the Tate's before in making the work accessible to all; however, again we feel that there is a pre-scripted way of viewing some of the work. 

The set up allows us to look at the exhibition much like that of Yoko Ono, and i feel that is an injustice to the work and the artist, this cheapens its value. Some of the best work is the work least laboured with the Tate's authority over the art, such as the spot work of obliteration and the infinity room. 

The aformentioned infinity rtoom was a room that needed time and energy to consider despite its instant impact that even to the non art lovers out there can appreciate. This is only slightly spoiled by the way that you are forced to walk through the room at considerable pace shortening the experience. 

In Short:- 3/5 Defiantly worth seeing, but don't expect anything new from the tried and tested Tate formula for retrospectives. 

Paul McCarthy- Hauser & Wirth

The King, The Island, The Train, The House, The Ship, always vulgar, always crude always unforgettable. Yes McCarthy's show at Hauser and Wirth, again despite it closing in the near future (14th January) is definitely worth a look in if you can manage. 

Pig Island is a project which has spawned and grown from the characters of George Bush and Angelina Jolie developing into grotesque machines. The simultaneous movement of them with the whiring noises of the pigs,  have the eyes following you around the room, the uncomfortable or displeasurable feeling sits with you as you go through the exhibition with a underlying sense of humor about it as well. 

But with this showing of admiration for McCarthy he mocks us. The King, a silicone copy of McCarthy himself sits upon a throne at an elevated status, as we sit in church pews following him like a priest or even a god/king. 

In all definitely get down to the show if you can at both the Picadilly and Saville Row branches of Hauser & Wirth.

Wendell Castle- Best Leg Forward

There are only 3days left of this great show as it ends on the 7th, but i liked it so much that i thought i had to tell you all about it. While it may be in the modest Albermarle Street Carpenters Workshop gallery, the work seems to say something bigger and work in a far larger way than the physical appearance of the gallery suggests. The work flows from the sketches they are based upon, working not from computer aided design but instead from the hand and mind of the artist; however, an interesting thing that Castle notes is that each piece is also sculpted by the grain and feel of the wood, the work itself presenting a resistance. The work is constructed from stack-laminated wood, which is literally inch-thick stacks of wood sculpted into these explorations of volume and shape. 

This stacking technique seems to immortalize the works for me, the banding effect created representing the rings a tree, but with these the flexibility of the materials and this technique allow the work to go on and grow. Each piece has its own character and feel, every curve telling a different story evoking different thoughts.