The b-uncut blog

‘The Library of Babel/In and Out of Place’: The Treasures of the Zabludowicz Collection

// April 21st, 2010 // View Comments // b-scene

A treasure trove of contemporary art in a Methodist chapel right in the heart of Chalk Farm, just around the corner from my flat… who knew?

I walked in without the highest expectations of the 200 works on display from the Zabludowicz Collection, curated by Anna-Catharina Gebbers, but left praising the collection and Gebbers’ curatorial finesse. It was not just the big names that impressed me; in fact, I was more impressed with some dozens of works by emerging artists that I have never come across in galleries, museums or the auction world. Who I am sure will be huge names in the next 5 years.

As I stepped in the door, I was given a guide listing 217 works that were displayed throughout the central nave of the church, the back rooms and the upstairs pews.  Having forgotten a pen, I over-eagerly checked off 20 works by impressive artists I had never heard of before with lip pencil. I was particularly fascinated by the work of Amie Dicke, Friecrich Kunath, Larry Clark, Dan Shaw-Town, Melissa McGill, Steve Bishop, and Brian Griffiths (I could go on…)

And of course, I was also impressed by the works of artists I DO know; particularly an erotic and haunting photograph by Cindy Sherman, two paintings by the up and coming expressionist painter Tomory Dodge, a recent Mat Collishaw photograph taking the idea of the lightbox installation from Jeff Wall yet creating a cinematic atmosphere vastly different from Wall’s, and of course to complete a contemporary collection there must be a work by Terrance Koh.

The exhibition’s theme was convincing – a cohesive insight into our acquisition of meaning and how we relate and connect to what we see. The title, ‘A Library of Babel’, is based on a short story by Jorge Luis Borges who portrays the world as a library that people wander through trying to create meaningful sequences amongst the books.

Walking through the exhibition I found myself trying to piece together each room and find meaning through the juxtaposition of two pieces of the exhibition. And I did piece together some consistent themes between artists and works dealing with gender, race and sexuality, eroticism, the intersection of language and art, and the body. The curator said ‘The sheer number of works forces the visitor to chose which works will receive attention.’ You got my list of favourites, now go see which ones will grab your attention! Don’t miss this exhibition, on until 23 May 2010.

b-loud! Jeanette Luchese’s Abstract & Emphatic Dreams

// April 7th, 2010 // View Comments // b-loud

“A sensory dialogue of inner vibrations embracing joy in creation and a freedom in speech.”

Jeanette Luchese‘s artwork is an empathic tussle revealing our common inner conflicts.  Jeanette explores many media including painting, jewellery, sculpture and glass work. Thick paint is puttied, scraped and brushed over surfaces. Her abstractions ring with a dynamic range of internal echoes and every song sung tells a story to the heart. She organised the online  project
‘A View From Your Window‘ at b-uncut.net where she is a consistent supporter of her fellow artists.
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What was your very first artwork?
I have always loved to draw, and only have memories of  drawing as a young child. I didn’t play with dolls, although, I enjoyed sports, I just liked to draw, I considered it playing. One day, I got tired of taping pieces of paper together to make larger drawings and decided to draw all over my bedroom wall, I hid it ingeniously for months, until the day I heard my mother scream… “Come get this artwork off the wall”.
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Describe the piece you love the most—why?
I think the piece I love most, is the piece that disturbs me the most, “What day is it”. In reflection the piece speaks to the inner struggle that unites us all. It seems to align itself to Freud’s structure of mind, the ID, SuperEgo, and the Ego. It was born out of a time I was questioning my identity, within aspects of authenticity, and much I considered “real”.
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What are your methods? Your inspirations?
My methods are very simple, I invite the experience of creation, a state that I feel gives me the freedom to “speak”, and I am inspired by everything and nothing. All intrigues me.  The pondering of the serendipity in life, the impulses that lead, the journey, and nature itself, the cycle of decay and rebirth: I gain inspiration from these acts or states of transformation. In looking at my art, I see an orchestration of opposing aspects that conflict and must find a commonality, a balance, a way to rise above. I think the negative, or what some deem “dark” translates to conviction, and is as much a necessity to expose as is the strength in spiritual up-lifting of the “light”, which I hope all can sense in my art.

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What did it take to make it to where you are now?
In all honesty, a persistent unrelenting inner spirit that refused to lay dormant, and a total disregard for all consequences, and a passion to believe all things are possible.
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Do you make a living from your artwork?
Well if you consider graphic design artwork, which I do, then yes, if you consider visual art only artwork then no, not yet, but soon.
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Who has helped you along the way?
Actually, everyone… My art is impacted by my journey – good or bad, and although perhaps not easily seen at the time, all have played a part, even now with b-uncut. Although, to point to moments in time and accredit a person, or persons, that played a huge role, I would first have to go back to an art teacher I had in high school, Maria Kertesz, she so believed in me that she pushed me past what I was willing to do. More recently, I would have to accredit Ted Fullerton, Stu Oxley, Arron Rose, Marlene Hilton Moore, and so many more of the faculty of Georgian College, Barrie: their acceptance of my crazed expressions of visual ramblings opened the door I had closed. [I felt haunted by things I left undone and decided to complete a road I first set out on and enrolled in a visual arts program, and am currently two classes away from completing a Bachelor of Fine Art Degree]. My son Joshua inspires me through the pursuit of his own dreams, and my husband who although is very confused in the “why of it all” is supportive.
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What 5 artists (DOA) would you invite for the ultimate dinner party?
Leonardo Da Vinci – his genius is astounding, from his painting to his robotics and his constant search for answers/understanding, just would love the opportunity to listen to him. Picasso, just because, Motherwell for an affinity to the blank canvas as a portal, David Smith for his movements in steel, Duchamp for a conversation on the toilet, and if someone could not make it, I would really love to substitute Greenberg to clarify a view things.

b-Quick!
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Your favourite curse?
I don’t have one, primarily phobic and I don’t want the bad karma.
Qualities a man needs to seduce you and the flaws that will repel you?
A willingness to listen and an ability to “hear.” The flaw, pretending to listen, and being incapable of “hearing.”
Your biggest (albeit endearing) flaw?
Uncontrollable enthusiasm… I am told it is annoying.
Your parents advice you should have followed, but didn’t?
Watch your pennies.
The power you wish you had?
Other than, the power to grant world peace, end starvation and strive; the power to fly, how wondrous to physically do what I can only accomplish in my dreams.
Who would you choose to rule the world?
That crazy mouse in the cartoon that wanted to take over the world…I think his name was “Brain”… lets give him a go.
Favourite ice-cream?
Pralines and Cream
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b-Honest!

Where do you see yourself in…..

One month? Pondering, making, showing, sharing, selling.
One year? I have never had the opportunity to travel and there are so many places I dream of experiencing, I hope in a years time I will have made this dream a reality, imagine going around the world, pondering, making, showing, sharing, selling.
One decade? In a villa in Italy, inspired by the surroundings comfortable and happily pondering, making, showing, sharing, selling.

Oddball Art Fusion: Animal Collective and Danny Perez Create Visual Music with ODDSAC

// April 6th, 2010 // View Comments // b-scene

The other night I attended the LA premiere of Animal Collective’s “visual album” ODDSAC.  Like the rest of the world, based on the 26 second trailer and after 4 years of making, I had no idea what to expect.


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Most bands would stay clear of creating audible appeal harmonised with visuals.  However these guys certainly have the artistic integrity to give it a shot and they got an extra boost with the help of their friend artist/director Danny Perez.

The feature, while utterly bizarre and far from perfect, is entirely captivating and well worth the hour long ride for a peek into the band’s creative madness. It is bass-heavy and droning, filled with weird costumes, scary monsters and pleasing colour palates when the melodies kick in. Much like Animal Collective shows, there are very long kaleidoscopic interstitials of repetitive sound, serving as undulating provocations and exhalations between the more songy-songs.

Recently, on March 4, The New York’s Guggenheim hosted Animal Collective and Danny Perez on a site-specific performance piece that changed the museum’s rotunda into a kinetic, psychedelic environment called Transverse Temporal Gyrus — featuring original recorded music composed specifically for the event along with video projections, costumes, and props, rendering the band members and performers into intense, visual abstractions.  According to the band, this installation piece was the “physical form” that the film would take if it were to become an object.

Although ODDSAC is no masterpiece of new cinema, it definitely stretches the boundaries of logic, narrative and terror and is worth having a look at!

Easter Treats and The Last Supper

// April 1st, 2010 // View Comments // Eyes on the Crowd

Spring chicks, egg-hunts and chocolate-smudged faces, the last supper and a deep fried shoe.

We love Mirko Credito’s deep-fried series. In the video we see Mirko’s unique take on a cookery show. There’s something extremely provocative about encasing objects in fat. This stiletto drips with consumerism, luxury, vices and crispy bad health. These can certainly become more visible over Easter when contemplation takes a stronger place in our minds.
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b-loud: Figurative Drawing: Sketching to the Bone: Andreja Repnik

// March 10th, 2010 // View Comments // b-loud

Slovenian artist Andreja Repnik brings a unique vision to the figure.
Seethingly torn and ripped limbs are reconstructed with fibre, wood and what could be coral. Her drawings arrest your attention and make you question the mutilation. At only 24 it’s clear what a promising future Andreja has ahead of her. Read on and you’ll learn how coherently her work exerts the way she sees the world.

b-Loud!

b-uncut: What did it take to make it to where you are now?

b-Quick!

b-uncut: Qualities a man needs to seduce you?

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b-Honest!

Graphic Art: Blotters, Posters and Teapots In the Belly of the Underdog

// March 9th, 2010 // View Comments // b-hind the scenes

Sammy Forway, 34 years old, started Underdog Art Company as an online gallery in early 2007 and opened the Underdog art gallery in London SE1 in mid 2008. Sammy discusses his gallery life, art he loves and the exhibitions held at this multi-media gallery on the Old Kent Road.

Why did you want to open a gallery?
I have always been interested in art since I was a small kid I always made art paintings drawings and was generally creative when I got older I realised I wanted to start my own business but didn’t know what yet, I only realised what it was when I started to see how difficult it was for new artists to get work seen and promoted and came up with the idea of the online gallery, since then its just progressed. We now have regular exhibitions and live events here at Underdog.

What kind of work do you love?

My Current show is called Rock around the Crockery! It’s a show of graphic art screen prints, stencil and digital work, oh and not to forget the Graffed up defaced and debouched Crockery! Tea sets, trays, coffee pots etc. Art should be fun too eh.

Very successful, I am a musician myself and know lots of bands so we have really good live music at our shows.

Raphael, he was the most productive of the old masters and he died at 37… Quids in! Only joking, I love Franz Ackermann’s work I would love to represent him. His work is very psychedelic, cerebral and visceral but still with something to say. I’d also like to have represented Von Dutch and Ed (Big Daddy) Roth. Because they were pioneers of graphic art and sure loved rock n roll.

Corrupted

// January 27th, 2010 // View Comments // b-scene

Walk into Willy Wonka’s factory and tickle your desires with an edible paradise. Fruits and flowers conjure temptations. Your eyes boggle and glands salivate uncontrollably. But hang on…there’s a clear box imprisoning these delights!

Welcome to the work of Rebecca Stevenson. A sculptor oozing with talent. You would normally expect such excitable ectoplasm in the edible creations of Ferran Adrià. Well for more than ten years Stevenson has been creating some of the most vivacious sculptures on the market. Marveling at her forbidden fruit is just the beginning of the journey. If you can peel your lust from these glistening joys a deeper narrative unfolds.

The first work on display, Folie en hiver features a bust embracing a lambs head. Your eye initially sees the glossy candy separate to the classical form. The bust in fact vanishes among this wild vibrancy. Fooled by sweet shop trickery you are lured in close. Only then, slapped with some sickly contortion. Realising the confectionery is bleeding from this serene and quiet figure. Spewing like fungus on a dead tree and dangling like flayed skin. These teasers suddenly take on a darker side…

There’s one other piece exhibited thats lurks around the corner in the Nettie Horn gallery. No less delightful and gross, Luxe Vert harmonises supreme beauty with its supremely ugly flaws. This time the Disney disease has consumed the carcass of a swan. Sweet plums and raspberries have swept through its core like burrowing worms leaving a gaping shell. This beauty contest between classical and the craze has stunningly ravaged a new elegance. While the details of her feathers are in tact and her neck and head stands proud, a flourishing fantasy world has formed throughout the body.

In these sculptures, Stevenson let’s natural beauty and a magpie’s fetish have a fling. She achieves a wondrous balance between beauties and horrors. Her work leads me to think how our modern aesthetic is more a series of hybrids than a set of fixed traditional values. That these long established pillars of perfection have been released from their limitations. I urge you to make a trip to Vyner Street and experience this sticky situation for yourself.

Showing until 21st Feb at the Nettie Horn Gallery.
Have a look at her website for more fantastical examples.

b-Loud: Simone Boscolo: past meets present

// January 26th, 2010 // View Comments // b-loud

The artist in the spotlight this week is Italian appropriation photographer Simone Boscolo. Boscolo lives and works out of Milan and creates  work that is “research between memory and oblivion inspired by the history theories of Walter Benjamin and others.” His work is ephemeral and hauntingly familiar. Using images from the past the artist manipulates his medium, superimposing his own emotions, fears, and hopes on the photographs through his unique technique. b-uncut caught up with this talented illustrator turned artist for the scoop on his inspiration:

b-Loud!

b-uncut: What was your very first artwork?

SB: My first artwork was “Famiglia Deluca di Pozza di Fassa” (Deluca family from Pozza di Fassa), three years ago (2007).

b-uncut: Describe the one you love the most—why?

SB: My first, ‘cause in this work there are the aesthetic directions that I’ve tried to develop in all my works including my last work’s series.  However it’s difficult for me to love my works after too much time. When I finish a work I feel that it’s not mine anymore and when I see what I have done I see all the things I could do to make it better…

b-uncut: What are your methods? Your inspirations?

SB: It’s hard to talk about your own work because the picture is always incomplete. First of all I have to find a narrative starting point, then equally important is the choice of the pictures on which I plan to work. I get inspiration from historical and social changes that took place during the 2oth century, and more specifically within the context of a 2oth century Italian–very complex, controversial, and with the point of view often being one of countrymen. I work on survivals, on unsolved tangles of a sort of “historic unconscious,” or resistance in loss and persistence in loss deriving from changes that began in the 19th century and accelerated during the 20th. This was the century that produced junk and dizzy dreams destined to fail.

I have found in Walter Benjamin’s “Angelus Novus” a good starting point to channel this research. All this trying to set aside unjustified nostalgia and regret. I think that from my pictures emerges a kind of obsession for death but I believe  this belongs somehow to the dynamics or to the origin of the creative process. I also need a “soundtrack” when I’m working and it becomes part of the same creative process. Generally I work listening to Arvo Pärt, Fauré, Schubert, Einstuerzende Neubauten, Die Form or sacred music from 17^th and 18^th century. The soundtrack is vital for me.

b-uncut: What did it take to make it to where you are now?

SB: Some years working as an illustrator and three years as an artist. It’s a very short time and this has been a long way to walk.

b-uncut: Who has helped you along the way?

SB: The Art-Director of the gallery in which my works are in permanent exhibition (Galleria Zamenhof in Milan). Until three years ago I was an illustrator only. He suggested me to try to find an artistic way for my projects. And I have tried to do it.  Also my family try to support me and, over all, my wife that believes in what I do. Sometimes more than I do.

b-uncut: Do you consider your personal and professional life one and the same? Does your art define you, or do you define your art?

SB: This is a complex question. I can answer that what I do in the way I do is what I love to do.  It is a basic part of me. I must do it. But the artistic way is only a part of the symbolic representation codes through which I try to define the world and my role in it. I can affirm that in many ways my art can define myself, my perception of life, history, society, my personal fears and obsessions, my expectations, mistakes and illusions too. My “Weltanschauung” in other words. Perhaps art is the final product of every side of my life but I don’t live my life like an artwork.

b-uncut: If you were to design the ultimate dinner party, what 5 artists (dead or alive) would you include for stimulating conversation?

SB: Well, these fives could be it (not only painters or visual artists): Joel Peter Witkin, Peter Bruegel “the Elder”,  Jorge Luis Borges,  James Ensor  and Werner Herzog or Pier Paolo Pasolini (not very fun party indeed! I think I will also include five porno-actresses…)

b-Quick!

b-uncut: Your favorite swear word?

SB: I have a latin motto: “Nomina sunt consequentia rerum.”

b-uncut: Most attractive/least attractive quality in a significant other?

SB: It’s not a quality (I think) but in others I’m attracted by their contradictions. And I love the ones who can take themselves and their life with a touch (or a lot) of irony. Too much seriousness is not for me. But normally I don’t ask too much of other people. They are not born to entertain me and I’m not born to entertain them.

b-uncut: Your biggest (albeit endearing) flaw?

SB: A lot on the same level: like a human being I’m irremediably unreliable, often lazy, with a tendency towards selfishness and reasonably vicious.

b-uncut: Your parents advice you should have followed, but didn’t?

SB: My mother desired for me safe employment like every good mom but…

b-uncut: The superhero power you wish you had?

SB: ESP powers…

b-uncut: The celebrity you’d like to meet?

SB: No one, it is a very dangerous thing.

b-uncut: Your least favorite interview question?

SB: All good questions, really.

b-Honest!

b-uncut: Where do you see yourself in…..

One month? In Milan to finish the second and the third part of my Emanuele Gudester’s series.

One year? In Milan with some good exhibition and some more money (I hope).

One decade? I hope to be alive…and if it will be I should like to live with my wife in a cottage on the Hebrides, in Scotland, and, honestly, with a solid artistic career (not only in Scotland, obviously).

b-Loud: Joanna DROPDEAD–16 going on Tracey Emin

// January 20th, 2010 // View Comments // b-loud

16 year old Joanna “DROPDEAD” is an “artist, photographer, writer, singer, musician, mechanic and computer nerd” living and going to school in New York City. It was her passion for music (at the age of 6 she was in a band called ‘Hello Gorgeous’ that is currently still together) that led her to the visual arts, another outlet to bare her emotions. Joanna’s approach is straight and raw. Her work pulses with honesty and directness.  No commercial concerns impinge on her message and  b-uncut glimpses traces of a young Tracy Emin. “DROPDEAD”  is an artist to watch…

b-uncut: What was your very first artwork?

JD: I believe I was around eight or nine years old and my art teacher decided to do “cave paintings” on dry wall from her re-done bathroom. I got so into the project and finished with my dry wall cave painting of a wolf on a mountain. This of course was probably not my first experience with art, but it was the first time I was truly proud of my work.

b-uncut: Describe the one you love the most—why?

JD: Unique, different, adventurous, creative, curious, accepting, intelligent, understanding, someone that I can rely on to always see right through me, that can view past the cover and flip through the pages. I think I’ve always wanted someone to see me for a unique person, for a personality unlike others out there. Most people see me as a “freak” a “weirdo” and instead of trying to discover who I am, they label me as what they want me to be.

b-uncut: What are your methods? Your inspirations?

JD: I’m not a method person. I’m not into rules and step-by-step operations. I’m a completely free thinker and my creativity blooms from that. Anything can give me inspiration. The world is such a beautiful place. There is music everywhere, in the air, the trees, in the city, in people; everywhere you go there is music, but only for those who choose to listen.

b-uncut: What did it take to make it to where you are now?

JD: Everything takes time, for me it has been my whole life. From the beginning of 2009 to the end I have been completely content with my life. I am passionate about my art, my relationship with others, my music, and my career. So it has taken me long, but the receiving product has been worth waiting for.

b-uncut: Who has helped you along the way?

JD: I have been in a whirlpool of different people in my life, and the people who have truly helped me the most have been the people I have recently met. There have been few in my life that I can count on and trust, so most of my help has been self-given, but those who have helped me will forever be my friends.

b-uncut: Your work acutely reflects the fears, anxieties and frustrations of teenage life. It is raw, fresh, and in a word—cool. As a young artist, how do you see your style progressing as your work matures?

JD: My Artwork has always been about getting the chaos or the insanity of what you are feeling and ripping it out to lay it upon the page. It’s my insanity, my chaos, my eccentric self, and I think the main thing about my art is to challenge people. I want to challenge people to see things through different eyes, to feel the pain or the happiness that someone else may feel. It also focuses much on being trapped in a place where you feel alone, like you are a flower in a field of buds. I want my artwork to grow, what artist doesn’t? But I would love to see it still challenge people, and hopefully inspire people.

b-uncut: If you were to design the ultimate dinner party, what 5 artists (dead or alive) would you include for stimulating conversation?

JD: Picasso is the ultimate, his work is inspiring in so many ways, he was unique and his blunt way of painting the truth was beautiful in a sense. Megan Cedro is one of my role models, she is an amazing artist and she is so young. Her talent amazes me and I would love to be like her when I grow older. Oscar Wilde, his art was more reflected in his words then in a canvas, but he is such an amazing person and I use him as a model for myself. He was unafraid of being himself and I greatly look upon that as an act of bravery. Mozart, because of his success and intelligence is such a grand accomplishment at such a young age he is truly an inspiration. Then finally, Beethoven, because he poured his soul and entirety into his work, his devotion was so grand that he went deaf.

b-Quick!

b-uncut: Your favorite swear word?

JD: I would have to say this is definitely F#!k, you can use it with anything and it’ll just make any insult more interesting.

b-uncut: Most attractive/least attractive quality in a significant other?

JD: I hate stupidity, so I find intelligence attractive.

b-uncut: Your biggest (albeit endearing) flaw?

JD: I would have to say this that I rush into things to quickly.

b-uncut: Your parents advice you should have followed, but didn’t?

JD: “Don’t run on the ice.” BAM I fell.

b-uncut: The superhero power you wish you had?

JD: I wish I could fly, that would be amazing.

b-uncut: The celebrity you’d like to meet?

JD: Everyone says that I resemble Demi Lovato in personality and in appearance and I would really like to meet her just to see if it’s true.

b-uncut: Your least favorite question to be asked in any interview?

JD: I’m a pretty open person, I don’t like when people try to get in depth into my life and things like that.

b-Honest!

b-uncut: Where do you see yourself in…

One month? Studio Art class building up on my portfolio.

One year? Taking a million new classes to improve on my portfolio.

One decade? In my first home in New York City, in a small but reasonably nice apartment, managing my own art gallery, still in an amazing relationship with my only love Connor, with two dachshunds one named Bruce and the other name is still pending.

And the Oscar Goes To….

// January 7th, 2010 // View Comments // b-hind the scenes

Last month we set up a contest between all our artist members at b-uncut asking them to create a work of art inspired by their favorite street. The results are in! The winner is…..Raija Hellwig! This is her street in Örebro, Sweden–vi ska alla den vägen vandra. In Swedish, this means “We Are All Walking the Same Road.” A very fitting title indeed!

A big thank you to all those who submitted, it was very difficult to choose! Congratulations Raija!