CONTEMPORARY ART

Social Organisation of Appearances

Death To Me, Death To Everyone, (c)2008 Edd Pearman
Death To Me, Death To Everyone, (c)2008 Edd Pearman

“The concept of ‘the spectacle’ interrelates and explains a wide range of seemingly unconnected phenomena. The apparent diversities and contrasts of the phenomena stem from the social organisation of appearances, whose essential nature must itself be recognised. Considered in its own terms, the spectacle is an affirmation of appearances and an identification of all human social life with appearances. But a critique that grasps the spectacle’s essential character reveals it to be a visible negation of life – a negation that has taken on a visible form.”[1]

Guy Debord from Society of the Spectacle

This Me Of Mine ! Art-Pie
Whilst I Breathe, I Hope, (c)2011 Edd Pearman

I didn’t have to delve far into Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle to find what I was hoping to find. This quote by Debord states the nature of the spectacle as an affirmation of ‘appearance’, while a critical look at spectacle reveals the spectacle to be a ‘negation of life’. This is the very essence of what Edd Pearman explores in his work. “Duality has a strong influence throughout my work, each work maintains a two-fold characteristic in its content i.e. Humour and horror, life and death, hope and despair.  All initially appear to embody one intention, yet possess in equal measure, opposite qualities,” says Edd.

Appearance is seductive – and deadly. Is that a hyperbolic statement for effect? Possibly, but think of all the little deaths you’ve experienced for the sake of appearance and you may find you agree with me.

Read more of our interview, False Together, for This ‘Me’ of Mine.

 

[1] Debord, Guy, Society of the Spectacle, trans. Ken Knabb, Rebel Press, London, pg.9

CONTEMPORARY ART, IN THE NEWS

The Multiplied Fair opens this week end

The third edition of the contemporary art in editions fair, Multiplied, returns to Christie’s South Kensington this October. Christie’s is pleased to announce forty-one international contemporary galleries will be participating, in what continues to be the UK’s only contemporary print fair.

Once again the salerooms in South Kensington will be transformed during Frieze week. The fair will be open to the public with free admission from 12-15 October 2012.

We have included below a few examples of what you will be able to purchase –

CFPR Editions

Carolyn Bunt
Carolyn Bunt | And when I had looked up it had gone 1 (2010) | Pigmented Inkjet Print

Parasol Unit Foundation

Adel Abdessemed | Art-Pie
Adel Abdessemed | No Smoking (2012) | Neon, wall-mounted

Fashion Illustration Gallery

Francois Berthoud
Francois Berthoud | V (Orange) 2011

www.multipliedartfair.com
@Multiplied_Fair (hash tag) #MAF2012
https://www.facebook.com/#!/Christies

IN THE NEWS

Remap 3 – Street art project from Athens

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If there is one country that needs a push right now, it has to be Greece. Remap, an international contemporary art platform open and free to the public, could just what Greek people need to hopefully put a smile back on their faces.

ReMapKM’s main purpose, which is held bi annually in the area of Kerameikos-Metaxourgeio in Athens, in tandem with the Athens Biennial, is to goal is to create an alternative platform for the production and experiencing of contemporary art within the urban context.

The REMAP event is in third edition this year runs until the 30/10/11 which a multitude of shows and events. Read the full program.

Big names include APSET, BOOHAHA and RTMone & SIVE and these artists have come up with an installation made of human faces expressions with alongside them, a made up ladder which is supposed to lead them up to the sky where they can free their minds. The reference here is easily spottable: the need for city inhabitants to escape the sometimes tough urban jungle. Some photos of the installation are included below and are courtesy of montana-cans.com website which sponsor the paint for the event.

CONTEMPORARY ART

London Art fair – in its 23rd year but still going strong, part2

Here is the second set of selected works from this year’s London Art fair which for the sixth year includes Art Projects, now a major part of London Art Fair.. 31 Galleries feature emerging artists and new work.

Established as one of the most exciting sections of the Fair, it features solo shows, curated group displays and large-scale installations with galleries from across the world. Pryle Behrman has worked on Art Projects as curator since its inauguration in 2005. Continue reading London Art fair – in its 23rd year but still going strong, part2 →

BLOG, BOOK

Stickerbomb 3 out today, grab your copy!

Stickers fans out there have been waiting for this one – yes Stickers Bomb 3 is out today!

We published a similar post last time round when Stickers Bomb Skulls came out and gave you the opportunity to grab a free copy.

We are reiterating this again and have 2 copies of latest Sticker Bomb 3 up for grabs! Look to your right to find out how you can win a copy –>

We were delighted to receive again in the post this collection of over 240 peelable stickers from our favourite publisher Laurence King.

This book is part of the ever growing Stickerbomb series which includes other similar books such as  Stickerbomb, Stickerbomb 2, Stickerbomb XL, Stickerbomb Letters and Stickerbomb Monsters.

D*Face foreword

As D*FACE warns us in his foreword for this edition of Sticker Bomb, “Stickers are seriously addictive, self indulgent, egotistical, and can be life altering – and thank fuck they are. They rescued me from a life of punching hours in the 9-to-5 grind, working for the man”

Artists in this edition includes –

  • Bisser (Belgium)
  • BareOne (UK)
  • Dres13 (US)
  • FatGomez (Italy)
  • Killer Acid (US)
  • Luis Pinto (Mexico)
  • Mr Four Fingers (UK)
  • Space MCK (Australia)
  • Train Of Thoughts (Switzerland)

About Studio Rarekwai, the studio behind the StickerBomb book series –

Ryo Sanada and Suridh Hassan of Studio Rarekind (SRK) specialise in the promotion of international culture and music through documentary production and film. Their documentary film on Japanese Hip-Hop culture – “Scratching the surface: Japan” – has been broadcast Europe. This was followed by successful screenings at the 12th Raindance Film Festival in London and Vancouver International Hip-Hop Film Festival.

INTERVIEWS

The Memory Industry

Untitled 2008, (c)Darren Nixon
Untitled 2008, (c)Darren Nixon

“One of the reasons I source mainly from newspaper, television and internet imagery is because the way we interact with these media shapes so many of our opinions about the world around us. Most of what I know about the world has been drawn in a fairly disjointed and fragmentary fashion from this huge, seemingly ever present sea of information.

The sheer amount of available knowledge is so overwhelming that I end up feeling always frustrated that I know nothing about anything. Not knowing what I should be spending my time getting to know, I end up with a constant sense of only ever partially understanding even the most important current and historical events.

I am impelled by a great fascination but end up mostly confused about which direction to allow my fascination to lead me in the time I have. Although partial understanding can be frustrating and isolating, it does carry its own qualities. As events become jumbled and confused in our minds a kind of magical haze is thrown over everything. We start to create our own narratives, filling in the gaps between what we pick up from various sources with any number of unreliable memories and opinions.” Darren Nixon

Darren’s central theme of ‘not knowing’ brings up issues of ‘not remembering’ and when applied on a global scale, this “magical haze” created by the fragmented reality of media overload, threatens our formation of collective memories; memories we experience as part of a culture and a society, memories which connect our identity to the cultural experience of a larger social group.

In art since 1900, Benjamin Buchloh makes this encouraging statement in the final roundtable discussion, “The Predicament of Contemporary Art”: “…the effort to retain or to reconstruct the capacity to remember, to think historically, is one of the few acts that can oppose the almost totalitarian implementation of the universal laws of consumption…”

However, he concludes with this condemnation, “…to deliver the aesthetic capacity to construct memory images to the voracious demands of an apparatus that entirely lacks the ability to remember and to reflect historically, and to do so in the form of resuscitated myth, is an almost guaranteed route to success in the present art world, especially with its newly added wing of “the memory industry”. Chilling.

Read more of my interview with Darren Nixon, Joining a Conversation Well Underway.

CONTEMPORARY ART, STREET ART

Liu bolin, the invisible man

Liu Bolin is a Chinese artist who studied art (Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1995 and Master of Fine Arts in 2001). He exhibited on a few museums and galleries around the world but what caught my attention are his “Hiding in the City” series; photographic works that began as performance art in 2005 and which has given him the nickname of “The Invisible Man”

These series was a direct response/reaction to the destruction of his village – Suo Jia, by the Chinese government in 2005. Obviously affected by this event, Liu decided to use his art as a means of silent protest, calling attention to the lack of protection Chinese artists had received from their own government. Through the use of his own body in his practice of painting himself into various settings in Beijing, Liu created a space for the Chinese artist, preserving their social status and highlighting their often troubled relationship with their physical surroundings.

Liu Bolin, the invisible man - Art-Pie

Liu Bolin, the invisible man - Art-Pie

Liu Bolin, the invisible man - Art-Pie

STREET ART ENCOUNTERS