Three interesting exhibitions in Manchester this weekend
1) Jane and Louise Wilson
http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whatson/exhibitions/jane-and-louise-wilson/
http://www.creativetourist.com/featured/jane-and-louise-wilson-at-the-whitworth-homage-to-chernobyl
Last year the artists Jane and Louise Wilson travelled to Pripyat to make a specially commissioned work, “Atomgrad (Nature Abhors a Vacuum)”, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the disaster. What they documented was a decaying town, slowly being subsumed by the sulphurous landscape about it. In each photograph there is a measuring stick two metres long, about the average height of a man, a small but vital link with the human existence that was once here.
The images will be exhibited at the Whitworth alongside the Wilson’s new film “The Toxic Camera”, inspired by the disturbing story of Vladimir Shevchenko, the filmmaker who travelled to Chernobyl in the immediate aftermath of the nuclear disaster to document the clean-up operation.
Atomgrad – nature abhors a vacuum
Pripyat – romantic decay
What I see: alluring romantic decay – big green and pink glossy photos of empty public indoor spaces – schoolroom, sports hall, swimming pool – that you can walk right into. Peeling paint, split and collapsing wooden floors, abandoned bookshelves, and the forest closing in. The richness of the patterns created by all of this is amazingly beautiful. They’ve used a (contrasting) black and white measuring stick as a symbol in all the photos to focus your mind on the reality of it. The films do a better job of grounding you to the reality, but I can’t help feeling I’m having the wrong reactions. It doesn’t touch me, I’m not thinking of other industrial horrors, like Bhopal for example. I’m reminded of Kolmanskop in the Namibian desert, Cambodian temples crumbling artistically into the jungle. Maybe it’s the lush glossiness of the images. If I was going to paint this I would make it look beautiful and say nothing. Time and distance.
2) Hockney to Hogarth: A Rake’s Progess
http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whatson/exhibitions/hockneytohogarth/
http://www.creativetourist.com/featured/david-hockney-exhibition-hockney-to-hogarth-at-the-whitworth
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks?gid=65348%21&ws=acno&wv=list
The Whitworth has been presented with David Hockney’s entire print series A Rake’s Progress (1961-1963) by the Contemporary Art Society. This joins William Hogarth’s eighteenth-century series of the same title…
Central to Hockney’s story is his first experience of America: as a young, gay, northern art student visiting New York in 1961. Exploring the artist’s re-interpretation of Hogarth’s story of influence, freedom and moral corruption, the exhibition examines this pivotal moment in Hockney’s life and practice.
Basically, My holiday in New York in 1961…. I’m following the story and trying to look at the printing technique quite closely. The story is picked out through fine and careful line drawings balanced with contrasting blocks of textures of different densities. The colours are black on white with a contrasting use of red. Lots of white space, and all the elements of each print carefully arranged. David’s head (drawn in detail) and body (sometimes) links each print as the story unfolds.
3) David Shrigley’s cartoons ‘HOW ARE YOU FEELING?’
http://www.cornerhouse.org/art/art-exhibitions/david-shrigley-how-are-you-feeling
http://www.creativetourist.com/featured/david-shrigley-at-cornerhouse-the-artist-as-conundrum
Rake’s Progress
I followed his drawings around the walls – wacky drawing style and witty observations on the self-help theme, with a piss pot as motif. Very funny – mostly bold line scribblings, some hint of more careful drawings and the odd tonal drawing as contrast. The style is sketchnotes and I was looking at the arrangement – the grouping together of cartoons on a different idea, while filling up the wall space, and how your eye travels around and follows the stories. It works, it’s not confusing.
There’s also a life drawing circle with a model that isn’t (alive) and you can have a go, and your drawing goes up on the wall with everybody else’s. Would be good to go back and have a proper look at these.
Printmaking 1 