laidbackliving

4 days in Copenhagen and what’s not to like - the city has clean streets with benches, green spaces and playgrounds. Travelling is a truly extraordinary integrated bike/train experience, excellent clean and punctual transportation, with beautiful highly formal/folk architecture, bold physical signage/typography, and great art galleries. The food and beer is fresh interesting and feels like it’s doing you good. Apart from hanging out we went to some stunning art spaces. Getting out to Arken was fantastic. The work of Patricia Piccinini is so other - disturbing in its ability to seem so familiar and yet not, transgressing all sorts of liminal spaces. The gallery has a great cafe overlooking the sand dunes and sea, sited art in the landscape and an aesthetically pleasingly designed power station bathed in sunshine. The exhibition at salon 57 by Bob Bicknell Knight was solid and challenged notions of privacy. https://www.facebook.com/events/1309241795892568/  We had seen the work of Jesper Just at Palais d Tokyo but it was great to see it in the formal white space of Kunsthal Charlottenborg. Good to see Der Lauf der Dinge by Fischli and Weiss. It is such a winner and always a pleasure to come across. An exhibition about Europe was painfully embarrassing as a UK citizen but it had good work by amongst others juergan Teller and the bookshop has a great selection. Getting into the flooded underground space at Cisternerne to see the work of Superflex was a real gem of a find, the space delivers an experience and is a real treat, not in this show but check out the film where they flood a Macdonald’s is alarming.  https://vimeo.com/2966602  Copenhagen Contemporary had three large shows that were obviously excessively budgeted for but at the same time they felt slightly unnecessary. It’s a huge warehouse space surrounded by more abandoned yet cleverly rethought casual spaces that appears to have no formal structure or purpose, sitting and eating out is a joy here like everywhere else, lines are blurred and everybody seems really nice and positive. Cycling everywhere is a pleasure. At night Christiania was an interesting space to hang out. Late night motorised scooter action hire around Cykelslangen was fun until a crash resulted in a sore head, ribs and heavy bleeding! We shall be back.....

cleaningoutmycloset

after a busy period of house repairing I've been working on clearing out the large studio - stuff has got to go!!! do I really need 10 record decks, 3 full sets of encyclopedias or seed pods collected on a beach in the South of France 10 years ago...... you never know when you might need them - best to just burn some old work as a distraction.

meanwhile Rocketman is a gem of a film - clever and witty, Men in Black International attempts something - but just a bit too knowing with large weaponry and special effects seeming to get in the way of whatever it was trying to do. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum - glorious nonsense, possibly the worst one yet - you gotta love the madness but a story of some kind would help. Shaft - Samuel Jackson chewing the set just this side of obnoxious, maybe that's the point. Skin - dark and disturbing, leading to redemption via a fractured narrative, all in a good way. The White Crow - has some wonderful scenes of Nereyev looking at paintings and the way dance is filmed is truly beautiful.  Killing Eve ended - uummh.  

latitudetiredbutstillthere

A Quiet Place - "Kevin" Garnet Mimms

well - it's that time of year so it must be Latitude - having attended all of them from day one it's easy to see the changes that have taken place - initially an alternative space with a bold live art offer we now have a NEXT and Pepsi Max - George Ezra where once we had Kraftwerk. There is also a feeling of a general lack of care, the program had lots of difference from what was actually on the stage, each tent feeling similar, the Film and Video space appears to have no direction, or anybody actually hosting hence acts were often 30 mins late and the usual rolling program of odd and interesting short films was gone. Finally the wood feels lost and slightly sleazy rather than purposeful. Oh well - anyway the highlights for me was the almost magisterial Simon Armitage who spoke with confidence and professionalism, a really class act. Egg - a comedy duo with great energy who were very funny http://eggcomedy.com/about-us/ Luke Wright - keeping the edge of old school anger alight, an alternative island in a sea of mainstream https://www.lukewright.co.uk/ Los Bitchos, all female guitar band playing a soundtrack to a dodgy psychedelic Mexican cowgirl film https://losbitchos.bandcamp.com/ Mark Kermode - talking about the bands he has been in was just a warm glow of knowingness Underworld - a 10 minute version of Born Slippy Daughter by Adam Lazarus was a harrowing series of uncomfortable calibrated questions https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/aug/11/daughter-review-canada-hub-kings-hall-edinburgh-fringe-festival The Middle Floor - easy going hip hop garage tunes from Ipswich https://www.facebook.com/themiddlefloor/ Sons of Kemet - afro jazz madness, their entire set felt like it was on the edge of collapsing with every member of the band (two drums) playing fast and furious giant solos throughout - totally excellent. http://www.shabakahutchings.com/sons-of-kemet/ The real highlight of the weekend was John Cooper Clark on Desert Island Discs - superb tracks, thoughtful and insightful commentary - a true gentle giant of words - tremendous radio https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000701x

latticeknowhow

Constellation - an exhibition of bookart that I have some work in has been extended till August 14th - https://www.wyofile.com/a-constellation-of-artists-books-challenges-viewers/ so again if you happen to be in the area pop into the County Library in Cheyenne, Wyoming. https://lclsonline.org/constellation-inspiration-and-the-artist-book/  The break means that I have had some time to create new work for knowwhere - monumental miniatures that explore lattice structures.

White cube Bermondsey has a show of 3 people - Peter Dreher's obsessive paintings of an empty glass are truly excessive and the paintings of Des Lawrence go beyond painting, their conceptual and practical making have an almost impenetrable otherness. A visit to Tate gets you a very busy lesson in 'reflected light is interesting, with Olafur Eliasson and Takis has some magnets and bulbs - the only compensation was that the Tate had left out the more dubious sculptures of women that was in his show at the Palais de Tokyo in 2015. After a long drawn out set up Captive State has a nice but fairly clearly transmitted twist and with Lying and Stealing we may of been here before. Its Latitude weekend - mainly looking forward to revisiting Underworld but quirky second choice is going to be the proto-analogue-electronic - KOKOKO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QwjURBSIPA

lookingtothefuturefromhere

Over the past month I have been contemplating the parable of the man, the child, and the donkey.

A man and his son were going with their donkey to market. As they were walking a man passed them and said, “You fools, why are you not riding your donkey?” So the man put the boy on the donkey, and they went on their way.

But soon they passed a man who said, “Lazy child, he rides while his father walks.”

So the man ordered his boy to get off, and got on himself.

But they hadn’t gone far when they passed a man, who said, “Shame on that idle man to let his child walk.” so they both got on the donkey and rode on.

But then a man passing by said, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey?” The man and boy got off and thought about what to do.

They had a great idea, they cut down a pole, tied the donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them.

I'm looking forward to a break so it's good that the Summer has started - the Private View at Camberwell for the MA's was a full on experience - it was very hot and full of lovely people. I spent a lot of the time explaining to shocked individuals that this was the last but one show as the course is closing, all this whilst surrounded by some very exciting work that was embedded in the pursuit of exploring the book. oh well.

meanwhile - deep in series 3 Stranger Things at the moment - it really has turned into full on horror. Black Mirror was a more subtle and interesting experience, especially Ashley O - it was doing all the usual trapped rock start tropes and then became something else.....great writing. Years and Years was a little too close for comfort. Shoplifters has many lessons about what makes a family - beautiful and moving. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8075192/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1

meaningfultext

on thursday it's my last day in London for this year with the opening of the penultimate MA Book Art exhibition at Camberwell on Thursday. OCA is on a break till September and I have 2 days to go at nua - I'm looking forward to a break and to work in the studio - started today by working on Transference for @halesworthgall - the small project has turned into a number of strands all connected with unknowing, the breaking down of text so that it loses its specific meaning but still talks of text, typography, words and the potential for communication.

justwhereileftit

Venice felt like it was just where I left it - returning again for the Biennale and 3 intense days of 'art looking' the anticipation is huge but this year was one of the best in terms of the work. The heat meant lots of stops for reflection and refreshment which makes it a richer experience. The Pavilions were strong with some real standouts - Latvia, Australia, Nordic, Poland and Japan will stay with me for a long time. The curated show in the Arsenale was stunning - I felt held by the thinking behind the works, wonderful links were made between the incredible artworks all presented within a wooden structure that allowed for space and showed the work off really well. a quick review of it all starting with the national pavilions ........Swiss - film backwards is always good - Venezuela - Facebook masks - Russia - mechanical son - Japan - ethereal mystic egg - Korea- dancers out of place - German - constructed rocks - Canada - Inuit issues - England- artschool meaningful tropes - France - trippy boho - check/Slovak - old school geometry- Uruguay - scattered moments - Australia - power behind and in front - Nordic- organic digital - Denmark - sci-fi death - America - tasteful americana - Hungary photographing imagined cameras - Israel - medicalisation of abuse - Brazil - dance dance dance - Austria - old fashioned porno - Serbia - 1982 again - Egypt - I once saw a picture of Egyptian stuff so I made some stuff - Poland - total mind fuck - Romania - unfinished who cares - Greece - what - Holland - measuring sticks - Finland - growing simplicity - Belgium - mechanical folk weirdness - Spain - unseen spaces between - Lithuania- sublime beach opera - Albania - sci-fi chrome dystopia - Antigua - carnival explained - Azerbaijan - truth lies - Bosnia - possible possibilities - China - water and disturbing morf - Croatia - beautiful background images of desolation - Georgia - taps water and meaningless bathrooms - India - Gandhi is important - Ireland - some materials - Italy - annoying maze - Kosovo - incredible stories told incredibly - Latvia - colourful materials - Luxembourg - a wall of wet books - Madagascar - tissue layers like mountains - Peru - uncomfortable images of lady bugs - Philippines - standing on glass for Instagram - Wales - disparate objects still disparate - Saudi Arabia - lots and lots and lots of seed pods - Singapore - stunning folded graphic scores for recorders - Slovenia - military tracking - Ukraine - wonderful shadow idea - UAE - a narrative can have 2 sides - Hong Kong - delicate balanced craft - Zimbabwe - yet more disagreements - Individual artists who had work in the Arsenale and stood out included the war film of Christian Marclay - Tavares Stachan’s neon skeleton - I saw Ed Atkins at Cabinet last year but it was good to revisit - Liu Wei’s shaking windows of protest - the slow comic burn of Alex Da Corte and his disturbing videos - the data overload of Ryoki Ikeda - the sad disturbing walls of Rula Halawani - gorgeous calm dancing weaves of Suki Seokyeong Kang - Christine and Margaret Wertheim’s crochet coral - Jon Rafmans disturbing dystopia vision of something or someplace - the quiet rebellious work of Frida Orupabo - liminal power abused by the military exposed by Lawrence Abu Hamadan - the extraordinary commentary of a black experience through BLKNEWS by Kahlil Joseph, the staged photography of Stan Douglas - the whipping chair and blood machine of Sun Yuan & Peng Yu - playful Tarek Atoui playing ceramics - Collateral Events included The Death of James Lee Byars - lots of gold leaf - Future Generation Art Prize, which had the mind and body twisted work by Jakob Steensen, quite possibly the most disorientating VR I’ve experienced -  FutuaRoma had a stunningly thoughtful animation and free wild seeds - the oppressive 3x3x6 looked at ownership of data - Living Rocks was an incredibly precise 20m projection, From image to shape presented the intriguing Arte povera work of Pino Pascali and ending the 'art looking' at the glorious Punta Della Dogana for the superbly curated Luogo e Segni show of very special work in a very special space - I just love the concrete of Tao Dao so - until 2021 - already looking forward to it.