Exposición Inter-cambios. Isidro Ferrer en Granada

4th November - 21st November 2010
Amazing exhibition in Granada of some of the best digital art I have seen for a long time.

Esta muestra nace del deseo de crear una exposición que traspase el planteamiento convencional de una muestra monográfica: afanados en traer a Granada la particularidad de las obras de Isidro Ferrer, pero también interesados en plantear cómo sus obras actúan como referencia y repercuten en el trabajo y en la mirada de personas de diferentes ámbitos disciplinares y profesionales, concretamente en el ámbito del diseño y en el de la creación artística contemporánea.

Victoria and Albert Museum Quilts Exhibition

The photograph above is a sculpture by Andrea Schulewitz. I was a happy accident and I LOVE it, (very Joy Division). It has nothing to do with the exhibition below however.

I also went to see the quilts exhibition at the V&A too. Quilts 1700 – 2010 is a mesmerising collection of stitches, appliqué and patchwork beds galore. Once I had got over the poor lighting and the cold air jets (reasons explained to me patiently by my museums daughter) I settled down to ravish my eyes on this incredible collection.

I did have to read out several of the explanatory boards to those who hadn’t availed themselves of the audio kit available at the door. I feel my Joyce Grenfell impersonation was better than anything on offer from the headsets quite frankly. And really the gathered gawping needed the stimulation because the dimmed lights and the dormitory of beds was enough to reduce even the most hardened exhibition go-er.

Annette Messager

There is nothing remotely regular about the posting on this blog and I should change the title at some point, however for now read on. There is a retrospective of the French artist Annette Messager at the Hayward Gallery in London and I went to see it on Friday, and it was extraordinary so it qualifies for entry here.
This is a hugely theatrical exhibition where almost all the spaces are filled with mixed up creatures that are in fact stuffed toys (or ex toys), completely corrupted species with legs from one and heads from another, a conglomeration of limbs and bodies. They are all are tied to ropes, some are suspended from pulleys and are going up, and coming down; while others are dragging around the perimeters of a crazy playroom. “Articulated Disarticulated 2001-2002” pictured above, is a circus of macabre puppets come to life.
Dead birds in crochet tops and stuffed birds with replacement knitted heads are tragic but not grim; it’s a game that endures. The sea of real waves is actually swathes scarlet silk, articulated by compressed air, it rumbles from the anti room at the back of this large space flodding forward towards you feet. Underneath are glimpses of illuminated creatures and alternately sunken cities, it is so delightful and affirms for me my own child self that still lives alongside me as a ridiculously familiar comedy anchor.
The exhibition is accessible with a morbid side that is not detected by the young visitors to this art gallery, the children were entranced and stimulated by what they saw, this morphing, butchering and concocting is completely normal to them. It is so good to be reminded of our past less serious selves.
See Annette Messager in pictures here
Southbank Cerntre, Hayward Gallery click here
I have used some photographs from this site and the ones of Annette Messagers framed photographs I have scanned from her book "Word for Word"

The Seven Ages of Woman

Bobbie Bale's collection of work resonates with all my own deep memories from childhood to contemporary adult woman. At first it is slightly shocking to see those moments freeze framed that have been so personally fixed in your own psyche. At the same time there is the recognition and the confirmation that you weren’t the only one to have experienced the journey illustrated before you. I think Bale is very clear about what she means here and that authority is very reassuring.

The creative reverie that waits for you is about the spaces in which we live – corners, wardrobes, wombs, attics, cellars, nests. It is so blindly obvious what Bale has done here it makes you wonder why there is so little out there artistically on such an important aspect of the human feminine life. The painter inspires daydreams; you will suddenly find yourself off daydreaming about your own spaces. Bale has treated her subject with sensitivity and clarity of thought, taking the viewer through the various dimensions and aspects of intimate space.

Go and see this extraordinary collection. It will tell you more about the spaces you live in, but before you go visit Bobbie Bale's web site

The Seven Ages of Woman
Wednesday 4th February to Saturday 28th February
Havant Arts Centre, East Street Havant PO9 1BS

Hilary Evershed at the Ox Market

The big cat goes to the Chichester Ox Market Gallery and the word that came to mind when I walked into Hilary Evershed’s exhibition was; astonishing. This collection of work is positively drenched in emotion and it pours out of the lush pigments as if Nurse Hilary has fixed you with an intravenous drip of love right into your dorsal vein. She describes her work as art from the heart, and it is. Does she realise how rare this kind of creativity is? In this small gallery area there are 100 paintings hung closely together, they give the feeling of being in a film just like freeze frames of the mind. They work in this collective group.
There is a lot to see here, once you have finished looking at the paintings there are the poems, after that there is the catalogue. Go and see this if you can, put by the time to do it justice it is a rare treat. Hilary’s web site has more information. The Ox Market Center of Arts is in St Andrews Court, off East Street, Chichester, West Sussex P019 1YH.

Morag MacInnes in Rio Gordo

Morag MacInnes’ exhibition was a thrilling mix of myth and symbolic imagery. This was the first Spanish outing for her “raw dogs” and it looked as though these audacious mutts were frolicking on the table tops just for the shear hell of it. Frozen in high jinx their mouths held motionless, paws raised. Nothing was going to tame this crowd of devilish hounds who dared you to take them home.

By rights they should be guarding some gothic Tim Burton mansion. Collectively they give off the feeling of a marauding band which is very different to a solitary dog that changes from malevolence to charm out of the corner of your eye.

One of the most striking things about the dogs for me is their teeth, sometimes made from nails or stones embedded into to clay gums. Despite their ferocity all the animals have a tactile quality to them and it is difficult not to caress their burnished heads and bodies and trace your fingers over the smoked surface patterns made by repeated sawdust firings.
This truly great collection of dogs was complemented by Morag’s more usual ceramics, platters and bowls decorated with oxides. See these and more dogs on Morags web site