Thick Steam Above The Wing Of A Sparrow

Currently showing at Saatchi Gallery is the fascinating group exhibition Gaiety Is The Most Outstanding Feature Of The Soviet Union: New Art From Russia.  Anna Parkina's sculpture Thick Steam Above The Wing Of A Sparrow and her collages remind me of Russian constructivist and Soviet propaganda art.

Parkin at Saatchi, London 2012:

Arcangel's Colors

To continue with the theme of experimental films, I must mention Cory Arcangel's Colors I saw at Tate Modern last night.  He took a film by Dennis Hopper of the same name, scrambled its cinematic images and transformed them into a dynamic abstraction of shifting colours.  Absolutely brilliant!

Arcangel at Tate Modern, London 2012:

Ulchiro Project

Ian Kiaer's installation Ulchiro Project is now on view at Tate Britain.  It is part of his ongoing research into the Ulchiro market district in Seoul, South Korea, where the process of modernism has dramatically changed its urban fabrics in recent years.  Kiaer gave his poetic narratives by using fragile architectural models, found objects and two-dimensional work.

 

Film In Space 2

I love the experimental films shown at Camden Art Centre's group exhibition Film In Space ...

Steve Farrer's 10 Drawings:

William Raban's diagonal:

... reminding me of Ryoji Ikeda's sounds and visions.

Film In Space 1

The current group exhibition Film In Space curated by Guy Sherwin at Camden Art Centre focuses on expanded cinema, an experimental film movement occurring in Britain in the early 1970s.  Works at this brilliant exhibition were selected for their strong emphasis on the experimental aspects of film, light and sound.  Some of my favourites at the show:

Emma Hart's Blind, using a motorized blind and a slide projector:

Guy Sherwin's projection Painted Screen:

Simon Payne's site-specific looping video projection Window Piece:

Dan Hays's pixellated painting First Light of red, green and blue:

Correspondence between Angela Allen's paintings Correspondences and Nicky Hamlyn's film projection Correspondences:

More to come later ...

Bochner + Gili @ Whitechapel

Whitechapel Gallery was the only art gallery that was open yesterday because of the Boxing Day holiday.  Although the Underground strike made getting around town quite challenging, I did manage to drift from west London (where I'm staying) to east London (where the gallery is) and back, not without delay though.  The reward was an inspiring show If The Colour Changes by Mel Bochner and a limited edition book from the gallery store on Jaime Gili.

Bochner's cerebral installation Theory Of Painting was my favourite but I couldn't get a picture of that.  Sorry this is the only picture of Bochner's other works I can find:

The book Jaime Gili: Repetition contains not only Gili's works, along with surprising variations, but also an interview of the artist by Pablo León de la Barra:

I.D. Tokyo

Arriving at London this morning only to find that the Underground is on strike again :(

A nicely done fan video of Kasabian's I.D., from their 2004 self-titled debut album, with clips of the lost souls of Tokyo:

Video from joetomw222's youtube channel

Knives Out + Alaska/Time To Kill

I'm flying to London tonight.  Hope I'll leave my cold behind.  Probably got it from the chill out of these ice-cold tunes ...

Flaming Lips covering my favourite Radiohead's Knives Out, 2003:

Video from Virgil Pink's youtube channel



U.K.'s live interpretation of Alaska and Time To Kill, 1979:

Video from atchiebon's youtube channel



Jan Curtis's aurora image from Alaska (thanks to H for sending me the picture), 1996:

Bubbly Chelsea

I make an ecard every year for Christmas.  This year, I used a picture I took when I was visiting NYC in November:

Some related recent drawings: