Continuing to explore ai - creating images for a presentation about materiasl text promps around cavemen operating textile equipment look disturbingly like jehovah's witness literature. Meanwhile a day in London to obsentricaly have a sauna but dropped into the Barbican to see an extraordinary amount of plywood in Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum's exhibition and the Whitechapel to see one of my all time important artists Lygia Clark. Her approach to art making has informed my own approach to running workshops. I connected my way of thinking about bookmaking to her relationship to audience. You get to hold and operate replicas of her Bichos series, just don't sit on the plyth while you do it or you will be told off - great way to encourage audience's especially when you have paid £15:00 to get in. The extraordinary Archive of Dissent by Peter Kennard is free and alone worth the visit. Onto screens - finally got to see the beautiful Perfect Day - so thoughtful.
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Wednesday 6 November 2024
Tuesday 29 October 2024
extractsfromthepastandfuture
The profound
changes that we are experiencing on an everyday level, from the destruction of
the environment to the age of pandemics, have already transformed human subjectivity.
The prevailing sensitivity that can be discerned today is a sort of
"post-apocalyptic melancholy," the sense of an ending that is unlike
any other ending before, an ending that is inevitable if we continue with our
current world system, an ending meaning the end of the biosphere and mass
extinction, whether it is rapid or slow, the feeling that everything changes
and that the only thing that's certain is extinction. This naturally creates
anxiety-and leads to the difficulty, or rather impossibility, of coping with
the irreversible loss.
The past is
as equally contested as the future. Time itself, it seems, has become the
medium of conflict; if you unearth history, if you free time from its seemingly
logical and linear path, you can see beyond the realm of the real-which is
always constructed by those with the power to rule over the stories that govern
our societies.
Religion is a
ritual invented to create meaning here and now and today and tomorrow-and God
is needed to find a structure, to achieve community. Faith, as different from
religion, is a practice that helps you to position yourself in time and in
space.
What is human
time? What is natural time? And what if the two collide? When the British in
the seventeenth century made their way to what would later be called North
America, many of the colonists were overwhelmed by the majestic ecosystem and
abundance of wildlife. But the colonial hunger for resources quickly resulted
in mass deforestation, mass extinction, and the genocide of indigenous populations.
Human life had existed long before on the continent, but rather than claiming
to be rulers over a plot of land, native tribes saw themselves as part of the
system that surrounded them; their role was more akin to that of a steward than
an owner.
Can we tell
the story of suppression by using the master's tools? What is the price of
education, of knowledge-or rather of knowing? Who decides which voices get to
be heard? And aren't these tools in the end just perpetuating systems of
hierarchy? "It's not just about what we know, but how we come to know
it,"
What is the
mirage of power that we are presented with? What is the way politics work? And
how does it distort what we perceive as reality? How does it disfigure the
people who represent politics-politicians, lobbyists, suitcase-bearers?
Outside, inside? And what are the consequences of this spectacle of politics
for democracy in the twenty-first century?
Or, in other
words, what is power? As Europe turns itself into a fortress, the values that
helped create Europe are undermined: What is the Enlightenment, if Europe
allows thousands and thousands and thousands to drown, turning the
Mediterranean into a mass grave?
Who owns
what? First, we thought the internet was for free; then we realized that we
were the product. Facebook was not free, Twitter was not free, we were not
free. The idealism of the early days of the digital yonder is long gone. What
remains is cold calculation and doses of disgust. But is this the right
attitude? In the age of Al, can we afford to turn away and let corporations
rule this emerging new world?And connected
to this question: What is the passing of beauty, what is futility, vanity,
decay, what is the passing of time in one's life and what is the connection to
the bigger space, call it culture, civilization, the universe?
Who owns
what? First, we thought the internet was for free; then we realized that we
were the product. Facebook was not free, Twitter was not free, we were not
free. The idealism of the early days of the digital yonder is long gone. What
remains is cold calculation and doses of disgust. But is this the right
attitude? In the age of Al, can we afford to turn away and let corporations
rule this emerging new world?
What do we
think of when we think of resistance? Is it a protest, an unruly mob, armed
backlash? Finding themselves at the centre of a culture war, many trans and
nonbinary persons, specifically kids, see their sheer existence questioned on a
daily basis.
Crime is a
stigma, but for whom? Is crime committed by a person or inflicted on a person?
What is the role of society, what is the relation between power, poverty, and
the rule of the law-which tends to support both power and poverty, the codified
dividing chu line for civilization.
One failure
of liberalism is on an anthropological level: the assumption that everything
starts with the individual. The societies that we build on this assumption are
limiting both our imagination and our realities. The lives we construct on this
premise are poorer, less intense and happy-community is what we are made for,
and community is what we need to build.
Is it an
event? Or is it a process? Is it fast or slow? Is it loud or quiet? Does it
announce itself? Is it something we can anticipate? Can we wait for it to
happen? What is the meaning of anticipating without knowing? Can we prepare for
what we don't know? Or do we know?
If a bullet
crosses a border, if death is sent from nation to nation, who is to judge?
What is
technology? Energy running through a system. What is knowledge? Information
embedded in a system. What is intelligence? The way to read and understand that
system. Then what is the difference between technological and human
intelligence?
Elsewhere it's been a busy week - Hofesh Shechter's From England with Love was truly awesome - from the mournful beginning through to the tragic ending, all was superbly lit. Celebrating 25 years of Home live art at Shoreditch town hall was 'liveart interesting' 6 performances on a loop. The latest Hayward shows are worth a look - Haegue Yang has her usual material repertoire of blinds and traditional techniques to create exciting work that is both aesthetically fun through the play of light as well as the political statement that the use of blinds supports. Huang Po-Chin has a great video work of a performance involving wearing copious shirts and cutting them off, alongside photographs of a version of Erwin Wurm incorrectly wearing items of clothing. Onto screens – Will & Harper – sad yet glorious road trip. The Outrun – trauma and more trauma. Deep into Fantasmas – what to say – almost indescribably odd, yet wonderous.
Sunday 20 October 2024
thesmeltofpost-industrialdampness
An evening at Dance East for conversation and film to celebrate Rosemary Lee’s dance for film https://www.artsadmin.co.uk/profiles/rosemary-lee/ I loved the film of Circadian and it was fun to see myself in the audience – proof I was there!! https://www.artsadmin.co.uk/project/circadian/ but I also loved her early films, Greenman in particular, especially its visual links to say somebody like Svankmajer and absurdist Northern European cinema. A weekend in Birmingham for the Fierce Festival. A feast of live art in the second city. What a blast – highlights include Ramona Nagabczyńska’s Silenzio, Steven Cohen’s moving and semi traumatic (watching a cow get slaughtered type of trauma) put your heart under your feet... and walk! And Untitled (Nostalgia, Act 3) by Tiran Willemse. A dance piece that slowly drags you from the challenges of gender, into race and intergenerational trauma. It was great to be amongst ‘my people’ experiencing challenging, marginalised art in spaces that smelt of post-industrial dampness! Popped into the Ikon to see an interesting show about love and war, but the most interesting show was the offsite by Exodus Crooks in the exchange, just like a heist movie. Meanwhile I’ve become a fan of sauna – I love the community aspect of Hackney Community Sauna, as well as intense body experience that is the sauna/plunge pools.
Tuesday 15 October 2024
weekendleaningtothemonday
A full Saturday – first off For Folks Sake private view at The Cut. A great crowd in a place transformed by wonderfully bloody-minded lighting - glorious. Its always a pleasure to turn out to see Eastern Angles, usually at a village hall somewhere in Suffolk. The Town Council building at Orford was the venue for their latest show - The Deep https://easternangles.co.uk/event/the-deep Monday at Norwich University of the Arts I dopped into a fashion lecture by Jeremy Hutchinson - having access to thinking reminded me why I work in an academic context. A really thoughtful take on the object and its role in the capitalist project we are caught in. Making an object - making meaning - object making - object meaning - the language of the image - the ritual of exorcism - creating something that hovers between object and subject - a person and a thing - shamanifacture - black Friday as a carnival of death - most excellent. Onto screens - The Instigators - slow start but a funning second half.
Friday 11 October 2024
westernquran
Found a particularly rare example of an ancient Quran in the Netflix series - S.W.A.T. season 6 episode 18 with a spine opening from right to left! Not suggesting that the series is western centric…..but………..
Tuesday 8 October 2024
livinghistorymorewithless
Just finished reading Stuffication - living more with less by James Wallman – the book has some excellent strategies to cope with the capitalist industrial complex! Issues around objects has been a thing for a while. My rethinking started with clothes and has moved into the kitchen. Onto screens – Nobody wants this – kooky and sweet. This time next year – sweet and kooky.
Friday 27 September 2024
somestuffandsomestuff
The 3D printed pieces I have been making are slowly being chosen for exhibitions – the work is in blend, a touring show in Nottingham libraries. https://nottsbookarts.art/ In a couple of weeks I have a piece in For Folks Sake, a group show in The Cut Art Centre in Halesworth. Curated by artists Rebecca Riess and Alexander Costello it’s a Suffolk Centric Exhibition celebrating the work of 35 artists; established to unrepresented, from across the county; Lowestoft to Subdury, and everywhere in between. Went out to Southwold Theatre to see Sex and death in Southwold, a play by Robin Brooks – meta irony all round. Meanwhile a day in Yarmouth to see/hear Yarmonics – really enjoyed the gong bath and Ecka Mordecai’s set that was beautifully slight, as if the sound was almost something, on its way to being…and the wonderful drum/text/word madness of Fritz Welch. Onto screens The Perfect Couple – a series where the only likeable characters are the police. Fly me to the moon – sky high politics. Kinds of Kindness – disjointed oddness. The bike riders – great leathers but a film looking for a story. The Union – man out of place.