arttravel

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Lithuanian photographer Tadas Cerniauskas has created crazy photo shoots using a strong current of air that was blowing into people's faces. Have fun!

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Are We Art Aficionados With New Clothes?

By Laura Dzelzyte - esthete

Damien Hirst Retrospective at Tate Modern 

Before I went to Tate Modern, I read what ‘professionals’ think about the exhibition. Apart from Waldemar Januszczak at the Sunday Times and some positivity expressed in FT, it was more bad than good. The critique was mainly on Damien Hirst’s apparently repulsive personae, the fact that he is filthy rich and more generally damning the trend of Young British Artists selling out to the evils of consumerism and very little directly about award winning millions ripping art itself.

“He is either the presiding genius of contemporary British art, justifiably making a fortune by thrilling audiences with his memorable reflections on life and death. Or he is an empty con artist, making a fool of us and raking in millions from buyers with more money than sense.” Mark Brown

A remark made a perfect incentive to go and do own aesthetic investigation. (Pre-booking is advisable http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/damien-hirst?gclid=CNW28d3l4a8CFUkMtAodLGnWBA)

So one grey Sunday afternoon Spanish P, American S, English C and I ventured out to judge it all ourselves.

If there is one word that could sum up the exhibition it is definitely death. To reverberate Laura Cumming’s observation death was served in all forms: almost dead, dying, long dead, still dead – “there was no end to the end”.

Death is typically philosophical subject; and philosophy served in an aesthetic form usually is a good thing in itself, except in this case, - it wasn’t. The main reason is that the same idea of demise was redone, copied, pasted and repeated year after year of this artistic retrospective. At first shocking and rather repulsive, then just bland and pure boring. Spanish P suggested colouring the fish, as they looked a bit pale, while English C, by no means a GP (doctor), tried to showcase his medical wisdom by inspecting drugs in the Medicine Cabinet; or rather numerous, countless cabinets, as if made on a conveyor belt that would make Henry Ford proud.   

Good job by the show’s curator Ann Gallagher to position bright and colourful butterfly room, where insects where happily getting drunk on fruit, in the middle of the exhibition. This served as a sort of brake from dreary formaldehyde infused atmosphere at a cost.  The process of queuing for half an hour surrounded by cigarette buds (also a piece of art) to see this live insect installation wasn’t a real joy.

We didn’t get to enjoy the orgy of intoxicated butterflies for long as due to the fire alarm we were swiftly escorted outside the Tate Modern through the back door before allocated 5 minutes lapsed.

We assumed someone tried to steal a piece of art. Which is rather stupid, I thought. Its only worth stealing art that holds value, I was told, because professional smuggles wait for years before they find the right buyer to take the collectible off their hands. And I don’t see Hirst’s art appreciating in value in a long term.

So summa summarum: Shocking? Some of the things. Good ideas? Some.  To quote my colleague “more of a spectacle rather than a story.” It all felt a little cheated, since execution of the art, in many cases, is made by other artisans and craftsmen rather than Hirst himself. Take the famous skull For the Love of God – breath taking wonderful work by a jeweller from Bentley & Skinner. (I was told by a Russian socialite that you can order one yourself for around £6 million http://www.bentley-skinner.co.uk/news/damian-hirst-diamond-skull.asp)

Artist value? Very limited, when one considers quantity of items divided by quality and ingenuity of them.  

However, the exhibition is definitely worth seeing. It’s a phenomenon that a modern person ought to know and see.

[arttravel]

Can art reboot Humanism?

By Laura Dzelzyte - esthete

The question was asked by Ben Davis on ArtInfo after the conference of “Seven on Seven”, which looks to combine art and technologies.  The proposition is clear – technology dehumanises us. As highlighted by Nicholas Carr in his book “The Shallows,” constant exposure to smartphones and computers is rewiring the brain in such a way as to destroy our ability for deep thinking and perhaps feeling. Can art make us more human again?

Compassion and Humanism was the theme that I carried with me during the whole weekend. 

I visited exhibition of the Crisis Commission, at Somerset House, which aims to tackle homelessness through art. 

The truth of the matter is that the art works were rather representational of the artist – assort of insurance that cash at the auction will be raised at Christie’s on 3 May.

Tracey Emin was very generous by donating "Deep Blue III" and "Deep Blue IV", a fast hand – blue guache on paper images of a naked woman reclining - rather attractive characteristic pieces of Emin’s work as well as her neon Trust Myself and Trust Me. These were noted by some arts critics as highlights of the exhibition. 

But I rather preferred Nathan Coley’s Burn the Village, Feel the Warmth, 2012. A light box sign which oozes darkness was one of my favourite. Burn the Village, Feel the Warmth could have easily been a phrase said by one of Dostoyevsky’s characters. It is full of darkness and bitterness of an abandoned and confused person, although it comes from an old African proverb that goes: ‘If the young are not initiated into the village, they will burn it down just to feel its warmth'. It invoked the question whether exposing the resentment and disappointment of a homeless and unloved, make us feel for the cause? 

Can we be threatened into humanism through art?

Nika Neelova’s sculpture, which features series of decontextualised cast doors (some shattered) suspended in an eclectic fashion, uses the sense of emptiness and melancholy rather than fear to discuss homelessness. Instead of signalling hope, home and entrance to the future, black doors hang lonely in the air without frames and explicitly lead to nowhere - a very vocal expression of broken promises.  Neelova‘s installation, to my mind, was the true highlight, containing the nucleus of the Crisis exhibition theme, much more than some of the other attention grabbing works that felt typical representations of some of the celebrity artists rather than immediately relevant to the cause of homelessness.

There was an open book by the exit door to leave the bids for the art. Bids were in the range of few hundred British pounds. Rather disappointing, I thought. Let’s hope “the bling“ of Christie’s will attract money to address homelessness – the issue, that many say, is too often swept under the carpet.

[arttravel]

I always knew that Damien Hirst is an expert in marketing. He apparently saw one unused channel for promotion of his works - reality show. Now 24/7 you can see his studio or part of it that Damien wants to show us. For instance, a new work that he wants to sell :)

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If you haven't been in exhibition "The Artist is Present" by Marina Abramovic, you may do that virtually. 

To tell you the truth, I didn't have enough patience to wait in the queue both in the exhibition in MOMA and virtually, did you? What is your experience? 

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Metropolis II by Chris Burden - small version of LA. You can see it live in LACMA. Fun for both children and adults :)

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Nice hotel for street art fans in Marseille, France. I like when hotel offers not just accommodation, but the whole experience that you won't forget. 

You may see the process how the room was decorated by world famous graffiti artist Tilt here. 

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Ji-Young Lee is a young Korean photographer (1983). Rather than capturing reality, Ji-Young Lee prefers to construct it in the small studio where she takes all of her pictures. Each photograph is a scene that was meticulously put together before the final take. She uses references both from Korean and Western culture to create surrealistic metaphors of universal and personal psychological anguish. 

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There are number  of poems, songs and proverbs about eyes. Compliments about the beauty, color and depth of eyes are so common all around the world. Nevertheless when was the last time we took a  really good look into someone's eyes? Suren Manvelyan did. Isn't it amazing? 

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Dominique and Syvain Levy has established the collection in 2005. DSL collection focuses on contemporary Chinese art. It represents 110 leading Chinese avant-garde artists, many of whom play a major role in the development of contemporary art in China today.

The collection is limited to 120 works. Thus it imposes on it a condition that demands constant reconsideration and regeneration. Levies revisit the collection every year to maintain and enhance excellence, intensity, and actuality always having in mind the coherence of the collection. The idea is not to sum up works but to try to always ameliorate to create an homogenous collection with works communicating one with another. 

One of their main goal is to give visibility to art and the artists, in particular to those who are not necessarily the darlings of the auction market. The collectors promote the collection in Internet, in art magazines, using English and Chinese movie trailer. 

Recently, Dominique and Sylvain Levy presented the movie about the collection. It's kind of  a guided tour in a museum. It's really innovative and creative way to show off the collection and to present the artists. Lets have a look. 

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I am not obsessed by sculls like artist James Hopkins apparently is. Nevertheless, it is pretty cool way to use your shelves as art object. Some creativity and you may have DIY art in your house. 

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Sometimes you don't have to go to museums or galleries to see some good art. Just look around!

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140 years ago on 7th of March a painter Piet Modrian was born.  

One more occasion for a glass of wine and piece of cake, especially the one from the photo that was taken in SFMOMA. 

[arttravel]

The 6th of March is the birthday of Michelangelo. He was born in 1475. 

The photo shows “David (inspired by Michelangelo)” sculpture made by Serkan Özkaya. The Turkish conceptual artist’s golden work is twice the size of Michelangelo’s marble masterpiece. The large work is part of Storefront for Art and Architecture’s “DOUBLE [copies, fakes and replicas]”. Until the exhibition it is just traveling through streets of NYC.

P.S. Part of the joke is that Özkaya has never seen the original sculpture of David. 

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What you really collect is always yourself.

Jean Baudrillard