Beijing based artist Ye Hongxing is having her the first UK exhibition at Scream on Eastcastle street, London and the interest seems to be great and not only for this artist but for the entire Chinese contemporary art since the country has turned to capitalism.
Hongxing new works will be an answer to this profound social system change that has gone with that change. What jumps straight at you you when looking at her works is the explosion of colours and the somewhat chaos of the composition. One will see in this body of works a mirror of what China’s expansion has been – fast paced, anarchic and incoherent. The artist looks at questioning what it has cost China and its people and put forward the utopian vision that governing people may sometimes have.
On a more pratical aspect, the artist’s technique is remarkable and definitely creative. Hongxing woud use canvases and elaborate complex collages made of stickers and what we could called popular imagery collected for different medias since she was a kid. This clever assemblage often results to an eruption of colours and intricated compositions.
For those interested to know where the title of the exhibiiton comes from, it actually references the 1905 novel ‘A Modern Utopia’ by H.G Wells and is suggestive of the artist’s investigation into society and modern life.
Read more about Ye Hongxing on the Scream gallery website
What – “Modern Utopia” by Ye Hongxing
Where – Scream | 27-28 Eastcastle street, London W1W 8DH
When – opens to the public on the 13th September 2012
We strolled through the London Art Fair for the fourth consecutive year and as always stumbled upon remarkable artworks from ever so talented artists.
In this series, we will tell you why we liked a particular piece from these artists as well as posting more works. We hope you will also enjoy it as we did.
Feel free to comment too at the end of this article. Let’s get started….
________________
Shaun Doyle & Mally Mallinson
We stumbled upon the piece called “Sumo Ergo Sum(I shop therefore I am)” – cast bronze, edition of 9, H 42.5 x W 45 x D 56cm.
Click to enlarge
The skeleton sculpture, like any other ones to be honest, tickled our eyes right away.
Looking at the skull face expression, it was clear to us that it conveys a strong social message which was confirmed after reading up about the artists – keep on reading below.
About the artists
Our work deals with political and social thought. The forms we use to articulate our ideas often come from popular culture or are second hand, borrowed from another source. The way we put things together is witty, cheeky and aggressive; it mirrors the way we talk to each other. Context within our work is deliberately inconsistent. That inconsistency is our attempt to accommodate the messiness of the real world and allows different audiences different readings.
The lived-in, shabby aesthetic employed reflects the environments that excite us – the underfunded regional museum, the car boot sale, the dump; places where value systems are fluid, more confused or don’t exist at all. In these situations, forms and ideas have the potential to acquire alternate meanings and take on a new life. Through re-imagining objects and their identities we explore the processes of cultural transformation that take place after an object or idea has served its initial purpose. This re-cycling is a means of distilling useful agents; elements approaching redundancy are stripped down, re-formed and re-packaged. The results challenge the cleaner more commercial concerns of some other art forms and celebrate the possibilities of extreme behaviour and belief.
Saturday 26 November I made way to Degree Art’s gallery on Vyner Street to view the works of Helen Gorrill on show in the solo exhibition titled DEICIDE. The gallery is not so far away from Bethnal Green as people might think and a fair pace will get you to the gallery in 10 minutes.
Upon arrival to the gallery I chatted with gallery manager (and all round arts, culture & fashion voice) Ryan Lanji who gave me a few pointers about the show, which I had not picked up on from my brief musings online. The first of which being the portrait of a Pope which was attached to the floor at the entrance of the gallery; meaning that everyone that enters walks over the Pope – a sign of the conflict with sexuality and religion which appears a central aspect in Helen’s work.
Degree Art Gallery Manager, Ryan Lanji
After which Ryan explained about the Confession Chamber which was the interactive element of Helen’s work; a look at the notion of confession, who to and why. Within the chamber, which has been meticulously created to represent a real confession box, are confessions from every body that has entered, along with some well know confessors from the art world. Some of which have been stitched into the fabric of the inside, some written in chalk on the walls and some placed in envelopes on the wall. Everybody was encouraged to enter there own confessions…
The last point we covered, which really was not apparent with the online material was the sheer size of Helen’s work. I had imagined them to be water colour pieces which would look great in a plain white frame and would be of reasonable size to go above the fire place, hang in the dining room or be a centre piece for the spare room. I did not for one minute imagine them to be the slightly oversized real life height that they are!
The reason for this as I found out when talking with Helen is intertwined within the whole body of work. The role reversal; the woman in charge, the woman in power, the woman imposing in height standing above the crouched, submissive man.
Ryan Lanji and Helen Gorrill
Helen’s work was hung from chains on the ceiling to allow for the full effect of the size to be felt. They covered the main walls of the gallery and in my opinion are hard to find fault with in terms of the concept. Secured to the floor were 3 images of men in submissive postions, all positioned under the images of the women. In addition to this there was Helen’s provocative installation pieces which are steeped in religious references as well as a swipe at the controlling nature of the Church.
Helen’s background is that of an interesting mix of religion and control. A Christian background, a marriage to a Policeman who was also a Jehovah’s Witness and a seeming questioning of the effect of male influence in her life and choices. One of Helen’s shows was censored; the male nudity was covered but the female nudity was not – a very interesting point, especially as it was censored by men. This also questions the influence that men have had over society and the extent of control over what social acceptances should be. Helen’s work was actually featured on a Vatican sponsored website for some time because they thought it was promoting the Confession – when they realised it was actually asking a few more questions it was promptly removed!
Listening to Helen reference sexuality, feminism and religion in her work was very compelling in considering whether this is just a result of Helen’s personal experience or is a genuine perception of the world which many of us overlook or choose to ignore. Helen was supported by Degree Art’s very own Chloe Lawrence who covered some points in
literature relating to the feminist cause and the response this drew from female artists. References to Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece”, Carole Schneemann’s “Interior Scroll” and Judy Chicago’s “Dinner Party” were all made. In addition we also heard from Kim Foxton who spoke about religion and the role of women through history and how this has changed.
Ryan Lanji, Helen Gorrill, Chloe Lawrence & Kim Foxton
Questions from the audience as well as Degree Art Founders Elinor Olisa & Isobel Beauchamp followed and this evolved to more personal discussions with the speakers accompanied with refreshments.
Overall a very well put together show which had important questions to state, as well as what I felt were aesthetically pleasing works. A great
environment to discuss the work and a well chosen line up of supporting speakers made a very enjoyable ‘art evening’.
Information
The provocative solo show ran from 3 November to 28 November 2011 with an evening in conversation with the artist on Saturday 26 November 2011.
I was meant to post up the pictures from Dan Baldwin’s work at Signal, his first solo show with the gallery which happened last month.
I have inserted below what Signal says about the artist – Dan Baldwin’s colourful and deceptively alluring work has attracted the attention of international critics and buyers over the past few years. His images seem to speak of the innocence ‘gone wrong’ – whether this is societies or more personal wrongs. His work also have humour and wit in their playful use of familiar, sometimes kitsch, imagery.
Born in Doncaster in the fifties David Lee flew the nest at a young age to set up residence in London, which heralded a new phase in his life, as he discovered London’s burgeoning hippy scene. However, during his early thirties, his love affair with France began with the marriage of his French wife.
Inspired by modern French painters, particularly Cézanne, his exploration of the forthright nude and his radical brush strokes were the first step toward Impressionism.
Lee’s paintings are inspired not only from the South of France and Paris but from the era between the 1920’s and 50’s, which is a common theme in all of his work.
Lee readily adopted the cafe culture of our continental cousins where Paris seized him. Spending so much time in the City of Lights, enjoying such impassioned vibrancy, the cafes were the creative enclaves where his artistry was honed.
His work embodies a delightful image of French café culture. The distinction from Lee’s work is how he captures this hustle and bustle of Parisian cafés giving us canvases splashed with vivid colour, radiating gaiety and the joy of life.
A second love interest later developed and this new ménage-a-trois between London, Paris and the South of France was a source of nouveau inspiration. With a palette full of colour from the warm South, Lee has brought back from the azure shore paintings that palpitate with hot sunlight and dazzle with their audacious colour.
Exclusively for Graffik Gallery David Lee has also painted a series of French inspired pop-art portraits.
To celebrate Lee’s Anglo-French love affair the preview will feature a themed party, which includes feasting on French delicacies, a wine tasting and a mime artist.
‘Vive La France’ 26 April – 9 May 2012 – Daily 11am to 6pm
To RSVP to the Private View (26/4) please email art@graffikgallery.co.uk
A truly amazing project: a historic church in the Spanish city of llanera was transformed into a skate-park earlier this year by La Iglesia Skate.
The venue called Kaos Temple underwent a radical and colourful transformation at the hands of street-artist Okuda San Miguel.
We previously reported on this artist and pointed out his recognizable style of bright and isometric paintings. The result is astonishing and gives another dimension to the church. We included a few shots of the finished work below.
Another artist who is at the top of the stencils game but who wouldn’t after being at the vanguard of the French stencil art scene since the eighties.
Jef’s artworks are well executed, composed and elegant. In his second show, Jef is showing us the woman in all her sexiness and sensuality. Jef loves the female gender definitely and his pieces transpires that. Most of the artworks is made on extra thick wood panels and gives a feel of strength to the whole thing. Continue reading Jef Aerosol at Signal: girls, girls, girls and stencils→
8-bit type of art is just so simple and so brilliant. It gets even better when it depicts characters we all know such as PacMan and Mario Bros. Enjoy the pics below
Beijing based artist Ye Hongxing is having her the first UK exhibition at Scream on Eastcastle street, London and the interest seems to be great and not only for this artist but for the entire Chinese contemporary art since the country has turned to capitalism.
Born in Doncaster in the fifties David Lee flew the nest at a young age to set up residence in London, which heralded a new phase in his life, as he discovered London’s burgeoning hippy scene. However, during his early thirties, his love affair with France began with the marriage of his French wife.
