Rafael Lozano-Hemmer at Manchester Art Gallery

Here is my review of 'Recorders' the exhibition by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer at Manchester Art Gallery (18th Sept 2010-13th Jan 2011) which I promised a while back! I saw this show in October but all the exhibits weren't working, so I went back for another look recently to see it again and the one that I missed was working but another wasn't, that's life! Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a Mexican-Canadian artist who creates particapatory works which only 'work' or make sense when someone, you, me or anyone else there does something from a simple walk across a floor, to writing a question, to emptying your pockets or shouting into a microphone.

As the interpretation says "He 'misuse's' technology to create experiences of connection & complicity by using ambiguity, irony, repetition, performance & self-representation."

The exhibition takes up the main changing exhibition space in Manchester Art Gallery, when you first enter you notice the light level is low and a video screen showing fingerprints the work titled 'Pulse Index' came with simple instructions to place your finger in an electronic device, it's a surprise straight off, having to figure out what to do and it comes from watching other people in the gallery, or asking staff. You have to wait for about a minute till the reader acknowledges your print and puts it up on screen, each new print bumps off an old one, always regenerating, making a new image. It becomes a record of who was there before you, who is just in front of you and around the corner, you can see the thing about a person that is unique yet which now comes with conatations of security and police. This works well visually and sets the tone of the audience making the work come into existence but is that it?

A piece I liked better was 'Please empty your pockets' where you could scan anything on a conveyor belt and a projected image of that object would then appear on the conveyor next to previous scans. with this you marvelled and laughed at what people had scrounged out of their pockets wanting to share, my contribution? a cereal bar and a timetable! The simplicty of this was light and refreshing and people stayed around a while 'playing' with it. This play aspect is interesting because it forces you into a situation with strangers which is unlike a normal gallery experience, you are put in a balancing act of participating and enjoying what others participate, you are the performance, you are the artwork and you want to be it, there's none of the age-old, I could have done that, that's not art statements, it's just pure fun and laughter which we all could do with a bit more of!

In 'Pulse Room' you walk into a room lightened by lightbulbs free-hanging over your head and then suddenly you're plunged into darkness, and then in a flash the lights are on again. Moving down the large room you see a contraption which you hold onto for 15 seconds, which monitors your pulse and transforms that into how the first lightbulb will behave. Again it's fun, you're contributing, remembering that technology can be entertaining in a physical way too, but then in the back of your mind there's the 'big brother' aspect and you realise all this technology is used for surveillance and your privacy is being compromised, are you giving away too much, is the system winning or am I being paranoid? This element of sinister darkness is helped along by the low-lighting conditions. Also on my 2nd visit there was about 2 other people in the gallery with me which was un-nerving, you're meant to be a spec in the mass of people but then you're individuality is suddenly intensely heightened.

'People on People' uses CCTV and hidden cameras to watch and survey the room with close up cameras and projections which fill an entire wall floor to ceiling it is overwhelming, embarressing, fun, strange to see your yourself that high, to see how others might be seeing you in a public space. This work only truely comes alive because of the people in the gallery, on my first visit it was busy and so was this work, it was real, people were interacting with there own image thrown back at them. On my 2nd visit it was just me which was unsettling and not fun at all, the fact that I was being recorded and projected really felt like somebody up there was watching me.

Maybe what I took away from the exhibition was that surveillance & technology are an inevitable part of our lives in 2011 and the future, it's what you do with it, your attitude towards it and how you interact with others that is the important thing as well as having a laugh and a smile on your face while you do it!

(see image links for image sources)

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year!

2011 is the Year of the Rabbit, which after the year of the tiger (2010) should be a peaceful year due to rabbits being sensitive, calm, pacifist protectors and homebodies! Here's to the New Year and a New Start, whatever's in store let's make the most of it! I drew the image to use as a nengojo (Japanese new year postcard) to send to a Japanese friend in Tokyo, the Japanese is pronounced akemashite o-medetō-gozaimasu and means something like 'Happiness to you on the dawn of a New Year!'

Highlights of 2010

Here's some highlights of 2010:

Exhibitions seen : Rachel Whiteread at Tate Britain, Agnes Martin at Tate Modern, Picasso at Tate Liverpool, Shackleton at Maritime Museum, Liverpool, Robert Mapplethorpe in Sheffield, Beyond limits at Chatsworth, Ron Mueck, Goya prints & Facing East in Manchester, Miroslaw Balka's & ai Weiwei's Turbine Hall installations at Tate Modern, Ai WeiWei, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer at Manchester Art Gallery & Abstract expressionism at MoMa New York & Kandinsky at the Bauhaus at the Guggenheim New York.

My art: Cut Click exhibition, Won the Dry the River Poster Competition, Finalist in Ten Images for Ithaca & work shown in Greece, Sushi carriage in the Doodlezine, Berlin Poster in the Show us Your Type exhibition in Barcelona, Picked to be in the 1st Central Station Book, To Kill a Mockingbird T-shirt design did well, Finished large complex map drawings, in the online map where I belong exhibition, started screenprinting!

Music: Idlewild at Moho Manchester in April & the 100 broken windows at Relentless Garage, London in December, Discovering great albums by Wild Nothing & Best Coast, Rediscovering old stuff by Weezer & Belle and Sebastian, Ryan Adams & the Cardinals new/old III/IV album, she & Him's Volume 2 which is just as good as Volume 1 and finding new gems like Frightened Rabbit, Loch Awe and LCD Soundsystem.

Places Visited: Visited New York City for the first time ever and found it exceeded my expectations ten-fold & they were pretty high to start with. Back on UK soil went to Chester Zoo, Chatsworth Horse Trials, London-wimbledon (queued overnight!)/kew gardens/balham

Notable Books: Finally got round to reading some Haruki Murakami (After Dark), Walden by Thoreau, Diving bell & the butterfly, Moondust, Nothing by Paul Morley, The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird for the 50th anniversary of it's publication.

Oh and who could forgot we got the cutest little kitten ever and we named him Panda!

Work in Series?

I’ve been working on a series of works for a couple of years now I loosely title them ‘Map Drawings’ as they are all drawings on maps. Working in series has brought up some questions though. This series has become a comfortable set of work, which I can easily go back too and fit into again, it’s become my comfort zone. This phrase ‘comfort zone’ has always felt negative and maybe it doesn’t have to be, maybe while restricting yourself and limiting your parameters great things can come from it too. I remember having a great quote that illustrated this but I can’t find it now so I’ve found a few more:
‘Each repetition has a new meaning’ --Gandhi
Limits increase creativity. --Kim Stimpson
‘Repetition is the mother of all skill. --Anthony Robbins

Or am I just in denial? All the great artists are put into boxes of what they are known for, we all do it go round galleries guessing who’s work that is and more often than not it’s easy to guess because of their style, their comfort zone of work is easily noticed.
Maybe because I keep coming back to this series it means it’s not finished, maybe it won’t be done until the last piece is completed. Does there have to be an end, it can be organic, just go with the flow and work to your own rhythm not dictated by anybody except yourself or at least your subconscious.
What do you think? Why do you work in series? Why don’t you work in series? Is it important?

100 Abstract Broken Windows

 

One of my favorite albums of all time is Idlewild's '100 Broken Windows' and this year was the 10th anniversary of it's release, I loved it when it came out and still love it now, it's such a complete album every song is there for a reason and it flows effortlessly. My first ever gig was on the 100 Broken Windows tour at Manchester and the last gig I went to was the 10th anniversary 100 Broken Windows gig at the Relentless Garage in London. I've seen them loads and they still surprise me with how good they are and how amazing they make me feel. They're taking a hiatus this year so they can come back better in 2012! plus it lets Roddy Woomble do a solo tour and I get to see him at the Union Chapel in March, wahoo!

Anyways to celebrate 100 broken windows' birthday I listened to the album and drew a small abstract picture for each song (1st song-'little discourage' is top left and they then carry on...). Each image was drawn in the time it took to listen to the song and then I've put them all together and you can buy a t-shirt of it here! I think they make work better individually and with some type and then maybe I'll bring them all together to make a zine. I've never made one and this would make the perfect one, so keep an eye out!