walkingandlookingandoing

a great day on Saturday working on the art path with the Norfolk and Norwich Festival – as part of my workshop participants were asked what they would create a monument to. The results were generous and thoughtful.  I created several temporary interventions which were sited alongside the ones I ‘found’. The map is of the walk and the images some of my favourite answers to questions.  onto screens – The Mother – we may have been here before. Guy Richie’s The Covenant – a video game. Best Man – oh dear. To Catch a Killer – disturbing comment on why it’s like it is. One Ranger – great to spot local sights, the docks in Ipswich, Suffolk CC offices and a space at Bentwaters, Martlesham. Return to Seoul – a tragic stillness, beautifully shot and so sad. Inside – a biblical parable makes for a strange, distant film, the most fun is identifying the art.  

ourparentsfacesinours

A trip back to Coventry to attend my aunt’s funeral was just sad. Visits to various cemeteries was grounding as ever – the past rushing up to the present day. I loved that my dad’s neighbour, whom I have never met said he saw the face of Pauline and Tony, my parents, in mine  Player Piano the latest exhibition at The Artstation in Saxmundham was thoughtfully awesome https://theartstation.uk/exhibition/player-piano/   The range of work and the depth of research and thinking embedded within them was impressive. I particularly liked the oddly disturbing sculpture by Kumbirai Makumbe, the video piece by Catinca Malaimare and the small delicate tiles by Kara Chin. It was great to see such innovative work down the road. the onto screens –  How to blow up a pipeline explained how to blow up a pipeline. Escape room: Tournament of Champions was basically about a tournament based in an escape room for champions. Deep into Succession which is about so many things but mainly the venal nature of power. Ghosted the usual but done well. The Guard was witty and irreverent. AKA was standard gansta double double cross material. Death Roulette had a lot going on but in so many directions. 23 walks attempted to tackle some stuff we don’t talk about, not bad. photo of two sisters my mum, Pauline and her sister Diane, Di.

 

randomasawayofbeing

Where to start – Berlin – one of my favorite European cities – the most unhinged, random truly-out there place. I was there for Berlin Art Weekend with my son Bob Bicknell Knight who had a show at Number 1 Main Road Gallery. Cycling through the city examples of casual, spontaneous acts opened up in front of me – my favorites were the insane huge mass barbecue in Lichtenberg Park on a sunny day, the seemingly 24 hour club on wasteland in the Elsenbrucke Bridge and the I-think-I-will-live-here-settlement along the Flutgraben, a tributary of the Spree in the Lohmuhleninsel district - glorious. I saw so many extraordinary works of art in fantastic places steeped in layers of history – just space for the highlights as I went to around 20 spaces - where to start….. Gropius Bau had an inciteful group show Re-navigating the Afrasian sea and Notions of Diaspora. A stunning VR experience by Sim Chi Yin allowed me to light up the digital space whilst watching the world collapse. Daniel Boyd created an unbelievable experience by covering walls and windows with mirrors and holes that both revealed and concealed as you walked through the rooms.  Salome Chatriot’s paintings at Office Impart disturb in all the right ways, the video We Empty Ourselves and Accelerate the Hatching’ is mesmerizing. Photography during the Holocaust at the Museum of photography was, as expected fairly harrowing. The line that stayed with me was on a Nazi poster – Entry for Jews is Forbidden….Isn’t it wonderful to be just by ourselves!’ – all a little Brexit familiar. La Horde at the Julia Stoschek Foundation was an opportunity to re-think dance, the videos were full of energy. Cao Fei at Spruth Magers was truly mind blowing – the whole experience got me rethinking what I know. MatryoshkaVerse the video exploring the Russian/Chinese theme park on the Inner Mongolia border was extraordinary. The VR experience RMB City has amazing detail and the ability to pick up objects and examine them closely. Human Is, the group show at the Schinkel Pavillon, a stunning space, had Ian Cheng’s Emissary Sunsets The Self – just fantastic. Win McCarthy, Karen Lamassonne and Martin Wong at KW Institute had some highlights. Karen’s very odd novella type film was eccentrically bizarre. Martin’s history and excessive body of work was so insightful and disturbingly necessary today. Win had a great concept set out in such a stylish way.