b-uncut

James Turrell: a painter with light

// May 27th, 2011 // View Comments // Uncategorized, b-inspired, b-scene

James Turrell Skyspace at Pomona College, Claremont, CA. Photo by Florian Holzherr

This week, artist James Turrell was inducted into the The American Academy of Arts and Letters along with previous members such as Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman and Michael Graves.  This election is considered to be the highest honour for an artist in the United States.  As part of the induction, Turrell will be a part of a group exhibition at the Audubon Terrace in the Academy in New York, showcasing a half dozen holograms.

Turrell is a California native who is associated with the conceptual art movement of the 1970s and with ‘land art’ in particular.  He is world-renowned for building walk-in sculptures that use light to engage viewers.  However, ‘sculpture’ may not be the best way to describe his work.  Experience? Interaction? Architecture? His work defies description. Within museum settings, his art includes sky-lit rooms and custom-designed anti-chambers made to reflect and control the daylight at particular hours.

It’s difficult to conceptualise unless you see it for yourself.  As a self-proclaimed ‘painter with light’, his work involves creating situations that eliminate outside distractions, forcing the viewers to interact with the space.  Turrell creates an enclosed room, usually with a cut-out for viewers to see the sky.  Within the ‘sculptures’, viewers experience choreographed light projections that combine with the natural hues throughout the day.

His work, whether it is a land art creation or walk-in light sculpture, is about pure perceptual experience.  “I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing,” says Turrell, “like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire”.  Turrell succeeds in creating a full-body awareness with his art.

I had to opportunity a few years ago to experience Turrell’s light sculpture at his alma mater at Pomona College in Claremont, California.  Within a busy college campus, this serene space was a welcomed escape.  Similar to his other works, this walk-in explores light and space and alters viewers’ perceptions by impacting their visual field and their bodily awareness to create a heightened sense of self.   Our fast-paced lifestyle leaves little room just to sit and think.  Turrell’s work gives us back this simple experience.

Descriptions, photos or even videos do not do justice to his art.  You have to see the installations for yourself.

Twelve Bronzed Heads Speak For Missing Artist

// May 6th, 2011 // View Comments // Uncategorized, b-inspired, featured

“Where is Ai Weiwei?” demands an imposing white banner across Berlin’s Neugerriemschneider gallery.  Forty-four other galleries in Europe have posted this banner (by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija) to draw attention to a missing artist and to ask the question: “Where is he?”

Public protests like these have been popping up all over the globe to call for the release of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.  Mr. Ai is a prominent contemporary artist and social activist best known for his profound take on architecture.  He was the creative brain behind Olympic National Stadium’s ‘Bird’s Nest’ for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.  On April 3rd, he was detained by the Chinese authorities for his criticism of the Communist Party and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

Now, artists, galleries, politicians and social activists from around the world are speaking for him.  Mr. Ai continues to be displayed throughout the West and many artists are creating public social activist pieces to protest his imprisonment.

An exhibition of his work opens next week at London’s Lisson Gallery.  Mr. Ai is often described as an architect, but these pieces lean more towards public sculpture, installation pieces or monuments.

Manhattan saw the unveiling of “Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads”, considered to be Mr. Ai’s first public sculpture.  This piece was part of a public ceremony, overseen by New York mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, in front of the Pulitzer Fountain.  This slightly jarring piece is a series of the 12 heads of the Chinese Zodiac creatures.  Each bronzed head is designed after an animal from the 12-year-cycle Chinese Zodiac: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog or boar.  This sculpture, like much of Mr. Ai’s work, is larger than life; each head is cast bronze, about four feet high and set on a narrow six-foot bronze base of abstract lotus stems and leaves.

During the Manhattan ceremony, Alexandra Munroe, a curator at the Guggenheim Museum, quoted Mr. Ai: “Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.”  It seems that even in prison Mr. Ai has the last word.

The Art Stock Exchange

// January 4th, 2011 // View Comments // b-scene

Buying a piece of art too pricey? No problem…

In a time where everything is so expensive, investing in art is the furthest thing from the average persons mind. But A&F Markets have come up with an idea that will allow investors to invest in art without breaking the bank. The Paris based company are providing a platform where users can buy and sell shares in art works, with prices quoted on a public index. Shares start at €10 for works valued at more than €100,000 (£85,880). The scheme will only trade in modern pieces from the late 19th century onwards, including painting, sculpture, video installation and photography. The project is set to launch this month.

The first pieces for sale will include a 2006 installation by German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer. Also on offer is Irregular Form, a 1998 oil painting on paper by the late American artist Sol LeWitt. Both of these pieces are gallery owned, but A&F are also negotiating with French painter and sculptor Richard Texier for one of his works. The scheme is initially working with six Paris galleries, with the plan to expand into the UK, China and across Europe. By making art investment accessible to a wider crowd and with the French tax breaks on art, the program hopes to become a quick success story.

However, the idea has been met with distain by some critics, who have warned that treating art as merely a financial commodity debases the artist’s work. Patrick Bourne of the London-based Fine Art Society had an eloquent assessment of the idea, saying it was a “stinker”. But Pierre Naquin, the 26-year-old entrepreneur behind the scheme said: “Just because someone makes an investment in art, it doesn’t mean they lose the emotional tie to the work. On the contrary, I think this will bring in new buyers, and allow people who can’t afford to pay €100,000 for their own work to take part. We’re actually opening up the market to art lovers.”

The idea is certainly a good way of making art investment viable for the masses, but it does raise the question of whether art should be viewed as a financial commodity or a beautiful expression. Can it be possible to do both?

Do you think the scheme is a good thing or an indication that art has lost its true spirit?

Sculpting In A Winter Wonderland

// December 21st, 2010 // View Comments // b-inspired

Warning: Adverse weather conditions – What to do when you’re snowed in this Winter…

Everyone has grown tired of the festive onslaught of the white stuff. The only snow fans left are small children that don’t drive and those looking for an excuse to stay off work. So what use can we find for the festive fluff, apart from a free day off or champagne cooler?  Aberdeen-based artist Uliana Maskymiuk has proved that the snow shouldn’t stop life as we know it.

She has created a rather cool 6ft by 4ft long polar bear, complete with two accompanying cubs, at her home in Bucksburn. This is the third year in  a row she has braved the cold and got snow sculpting, much to the delight of her, presumably off-work, neighbours. Ms. Maskymiuk, who has her own art and design business called ‘Ulianka Art’, said: “Working with snow is fantastic, although you have to wait for the right type of snow. If it is too cold it is impossible to use, you need it to be wet to be pliable. Unlike snow sculpting competitions where people use blocks of cut snow I have to use snowballs and work quickly to get the desired design. Sculpture isn’t my main discipline, painting is and that is why my business focuses on interior painting design, murals and commissions”.

Uliana’s polar bear got me thinking: What other weird and wonderful snow sculptures are out there? Here are a selection of the best I could find:

It’s good to see the festive spirit isn’t lost on some!

Get Lost Within Mike Nelson's Coral Reef

// November 16th, 2010 // View Comments // b-inspired

Mike Nelson’s artwork The Coral Reef is an architectural, location specific installation which is currently hosted at the Tate Britain. It is a maze made out of little rooms which act as a political, cultural or even social reference to create a parallel word which takes viewer through unforgetable experience.

Like no other art work The Coral Reef has a very instant effect on viewer. Those little rooms are very clostraphobic, worn down and each of them has many doors leading somewhere else. Every time one door is opened viewer enters a copletely new environment, which is a physical room telling it’s own part of artist’s novel. Being in The Coral Reef makes you feel very surreal because it becomes very easy to loose the feel of space. The Coral Reef steals your awareness of a geographical location and puts you face to face with what is in a small rooom. And no matter where you are within the art work there is no way to escape. Opening a new door means getting deeper and deeper into capitalistic reef’s story.

'EYES ON THE CROWD' @b-uncut: ISSUE 1: Figurative February

// February 26th, 2010 // View Comments // Eyes on the Crowd

At the end of each month we will select a small number of artists to feature in our new publication, Eyes on the Crowd. These artists will also receive an invitation to sell their work in our curated gallery. This months theme is the figure and after much deliberation and debate here is the selection…

Click on the artists below to see more of their work:

Yael Zaken
Dmitriy Kedrin
Stephen Sheffield
John Sauve
Kurt La Quaglia

b-shots: Richard Wilson Sculpture at LSE

// November 13th, 2009 // View Comments // b-street

Renowned British sculptor Richard Wilson unveiled his latest contemporary work “Square the Block.” The work is located on the northwest exterior of the London School of Economic’s Academic Building on the corner of Kingsway and Sardinia St.

The work was curated by The Contemporary Arts Society. It is over 5 stories tall coming out of the building…Check it out!

Richard Wilson has been nominated for the Turner Prize twice and was awarded the prestigious DAAD residency in Berlin 1992-03. His proposal was selected through an international competition in 2007.

b-loud: Claudie Bastide's Chair Rase

// October 22nd, 2009 // View Comments // b-loud

We asked chair-loving artist Claudie Bastide, interviewed in yesterday’s blog post, to tell us more about her art, and to cherry-pick one of her pieces to feature on our blog.

Claudie selected Chair Rase, one of her famous chairs turned into a character with hair, a mouth, eyes, a nose, a hat and breasts. The engraved caption on the seat of the chair reads “faisons chaise-rase des idées reçues” which translates as “let’s break free from pre-conceived ideas”, thus challenging the viewer to perceive objects around him in a completely different way. “This sculpture is very much the illustration of my artistic approach”, Claudie adds.

Claudie is a militant against meaningless chairs, and by using what she calls the “chair language”, wishes to unsettle the viewer and force him to ask questions about life, himself, others as well as art. Claudie openly admits that she’s not entirely sure whether her chairs are comfy, at b-uncut however, we think they are thought-provoking!

Claudie has nicknamed her chairs the “troublemakers”, as they do challenge the perception, we as humans, have of objects we take for granted.

As Claudie points out:

“Many people ask whether they can sit on them or not and what may happen if they sit on them. I answer that it is an effect of their mind that sitting becomes a thoughtful act and that my chair-sculptures are links between their bottom and their mind!”

You can check out Claudie’s pieces in the b-uncut gallery, or why not purchase a little something from our store?

How would sitting on Chair Rase make you feel?