Review: ‘Morphed’ by Emma Davies at Craft Victoria, Melbourne

Exhibition dates: 19th June – 25th July, 2009

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Emma Davies
‘Sekai’ (meaning ‘be humorous’)
2009

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Emma Davies
‘Tariro’ (means ‘hope’)
2009

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Emma Davies
‘Rutendo’ (detail – means ‘faith’)
2009

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A stimulating exhibition by Emma Davies at Craft Victoria of polypropylene industrial netting and packaging that has been heated, moulded, sculpted and literally morphed into these fantastical sculptures, inspired by the artist’s experiences when visiting Johannesburg in South Africa as part of the South Project. Davies evokes the mysterious and the bizarre in her figures, making the commonplace into something uncommon, taking her themes from the relics of bush medicine present in the street markets: the medicine market of Johannesburg full of dried animal bones, skulls, skins and bottles of alchemistic objects.

Despite their comforting South African names (translated into English as ‘hope’, ‘faith’, ‘quiet, tranquil’, ‘lady’, ‘chief’, ‘prince’ for example) these extremely individual figurative ‘presences’ have a powerful melancholic affect on the viewer. Their elongated long legged and armed, no necked forms create dark eyeless creatures that crouch in rusted boxes or sit on wooden posts with their legs and arms hanging, folded. They seem lonely and sad despite their titles, perhaps reflecting the harsh realities of a life of poverty on the streets of Soweto.
Two figures on wooden blocks seem to walk aimlessly, placed on large rough industrial tables with huge wheels while another figure sits up a rusted ladder propped against the wall. A group of figures are clustered together on top of large wooden posts of different heights, some with arms round each other for comfort, others with black or red feathers sprouting from shoulders, legs or wearing a red feathered skirt. These creatures create a marvellous group of contemplative wandering minstrels while behind them their eerie shadows fall on the gallery wall.

The crystalline-like nature to the surface of the creatures, like sparkling coal, reminds me of the work of William Kentridge, his white industrial protagonist Felix haunted by images of black workers deep underground mining coal (see ‘Mine‘ (1991) where his coffee plunger goes down into the ground through the bodies of black people). Some of the figures bat like ears also bring to mind the work of Francisco de Goya and specifically his work ‘Los Caprichos’ (The Whims), plate 43 from the series of 80 etchings published in 1799 titled ‘The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters’. The artist described the collection as an exposé of “the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance, or self-interest have made usual.”1

As Goya began to sympathize with the suffering of the peasants so Davies seems to have been transformed by what she saw around her during her visit, trying to make sense of a foreign culture, dreaming the sleep of reason but surrounded and invaded by a world in which the natural and unnatural has fused and morphed.

I really liked this exhibition and the presence of these figures. I am obviously not alone as the show is almost sold out. A visit to these disturbing, enfolding creatures is recommended.

Marcus Bunyan for the Art Blart blog

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Francisco de Goya
‘Los Caprichos’ plate 43 from the series ‘El sueño de la razón produce monstros’
1799

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Emma Davies
‘Zola’ (detail – means ‘quiet, tranquil’)
2009

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Emma Davies
Group with from left to right  ‘Enitan’ (person of story), ‘Ntombi’ (lady), ‘Kgosi’ (chief), ‘Nkosana’ (prince), ‘Lucky’ and ‘Alaba’ (second child after twins)
2009

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Emma Davies
‘Nkosana’ (detail – means ‘prince’)
2009

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Craft Victoria
31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, Victoria 3000

Opening hours: Monday 12 – 5pm, Tues – Sat 10 – 5pm

Craft Victoria website

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All photographs courtesy of Craft Victoria (thankyou Amy Brand!) and taken by their photographer Alexia Skok.

1. Quotation from Future Directed website

Exhibition: ‘Gilbert & George: Jack Freak Pictures’ at Arndt & Partner, Berlin

Exhibition dates: 16th June – 18th September, 2009

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My favourite pair of ‘agent provocateurs’ are at it again!!

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Artist duo George (left) and Gilbert (right) pose in front of their work “The Church of England” in Berlin, Germany

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Gilbert & George
‘DATING’
2008

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Gilbert and George
‘BRITISHISM’
2008

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“As the international tour of the last Gilbert & George retrospective (2007–2009) did not include Berlin, Arndt & Partner are now presenting a solo exhibition of the celebrity artist duo in its gallery rooms behind the Hamburger Bahnhof. It is the first Gilbert & George solo show in Berlin for 14 years. The exhibition features a selection of 20 large-scale pieces from the Jack Freak Pictures, the largest Gilbert & George group of pictures to date. The thrust of the content is given by the colors and shapes of the Union Jack flag that dominate the bulk of the pictures as well as the recurring motive of medals, emblems and trees. In the Jack Freak Pictures the artist duo explores aspects of nationhood and of the sentient individual in the nets of society. In his essay published in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition the British writer Michael Bracewell describes these pictures as “the most iconic, philosophically astute and visually violent works that Gilbert & George have ever created …”

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Gilbert & George installation photograph of their exhibition ‘Jack Freak Pictures’ at Arndt & Partner, Berlin

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“Gilbert & George, who met as students of sculpture at St. Martin’s School of Art in London 42 years ago, embarked on a joint artistic career that was to encompass a wide range of media from drawing to video and their trademark pictures. Further, the pair revolutionized the concept of sculpture by presenting themselves as “living sculptures” dressed in the quintessentially British tailored suit, shirt and tie. But it was their monumental trademark pictures composed of a gridlike array of smaller images which they began to create in the early 70s that first brought them international fame. Figures, cityscapes, symbols, plants, bodily fluids, excrements and text interlock in pictorial messages as visually powerful as their content is provocative. The pictures, which started out in black and white and later assumed increasingly luminous, bold colors, generally also depict portraits of the artists themselves and seize on taboo subjects like sexuality, race, religion and national identity with a brash and fearless candor.

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Gilbert & George
‘JESUS SUITS’
2008

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Gilbert & George
‘CHURCH OF ENGLAND’
2008

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“The Jack Freak Pictures again feature the bodies and/or faces of the artists. In these compositions, their bodies function as stylized representatives of the individual in society, whose relationship to social norms and categories, to national, religious and sexual identification processes is relentlessly explored and commented upon. Departing from their earlier oeuvre, some of their new pictures split the raw images into much smaller fragments before merging them into new forms. The result is a fascinating kaleidoscopic mix of the monstrously grotesque with an intricate ornamental structure reminiscent of sacred art. In ever new variations, Gilbert & George order the signs and fragments of social life they find in their neighborhood – the multicultural East End of London –, where solidarity and friendship are as visible as intolerance and marginalization.

Press release from the Arndt & Partner website

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Gilbert & George
‘POSTER DANCE’
2008

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Gilbert & George
‘REALM’
2008

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Gilbert & George
‘SPIDER’
2008

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Gilbert & George
‘UNION WALL DANCE’
2008

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Arndt & Partner
near the Hamburger Bahnhof
Invalidenstraße 50-51
D-10557 Berlin

Opening Hours
Tue-Sat: 11am-6pm

Arndt & Partner website

Exhibition: ‘Johannes Kuhnen: a survey of innovation’ at RMIT Gallery, Melbourne

Exhibition dates: 5th June – 18th July, 2009

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Photographs of the exhibition and interesting observations by Karen Thompson on the Johannes Kuknen talk can be found on the Melbourne Jeweller website.

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Johannes Kuhnen
Rings 1971

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Johannes Kuhnen
Ring 1973

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This is a superlative exhibition, one of the highlights of the year so far in Melbourne.

The exhibition presents work from the early 1970s to contemporary work and evidences the breadth of vision of this master craftsman and artist, the arc of his investigation showing a consistency of feeling for the energy and form of his materials over many decades. Technically the work is superb; conceptually the work transcends the boundaries of jewellery and becomes something else altogether: it becomes magical.

Kuhnen’s use of colour in his favoured anodised aluminium material is exquisite, the perfection of his forms flawless. His fabulous ‘Vessels’ reminding me of the ancient Neolithic standing stone circles at Stonehenge in their shape and use of vertical buttresses in different materials (such stainless steel and granite) that intersect the oval forms. His ‘Boxes’ are like small ancient reliquaries, objects for holding ashes worked with a delicacy, simplicity and feeling for form and colour that is absolutely beautiful and consistent with the containment of energy within their structure.

I went with Marianne Cseh a jeweller friend of mine. We stood transfixed before this work, peering closely at it and gasping in appreciation of the beauty, technical proficiency and pure poetry of the pieces. This exhibition is highly recommended and not to be missed!

Now showing with the international SCHMUCK jewellery exhibition from Germany.
A great selection of the work of Johannes Kuknen can be found on the Workshop Bilk website.
A book to accompany the exhibition is available from the RMIT Gallery and on the Workshop Bilk website.

Marcus Bunyan for the Art Blart blog

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Johannes Kuhnen
Boxes 1980

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Johannes Kuhnen
Tray 1986

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Johannes Kuhnen
Centrepiece 1987

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Johannes Kuhnen
Centrepiece 1991

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“Johannes Kuhnen has made a pioneering contribution to Australian design and gold and silver smithing through his commitment as a generous educator and innovative practitioner. This exhibition will create linkages between his earlier works, some of which was made in Germany prior to migrating to Australia and new work specifically produced for this exhibition and this will be done both with objects and through a catalogue/monograph to be launched at the opening venue. The exhibition will borrow from Australian public and private collections to facilitate the demonstration of connecting design elements in the work from both significant streams in Kuhnen’s work in jewellery and hollowware.”

Text from the RMIT Gallery website

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Johannes Kuhnen
Vessel 2007

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Johannes Kuhnen
Vessel 2008

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Johannes Kuhnen
Vessel 2009

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RMIT Gallery
344 Swanston St
Melbourne
Tel. +61 3 9925 1717

Opening hours:
Monday – Friday, 11 am – 5 pm
Saturday, 12 pm – 5 pm
Closed public holidays and Sundays.

RMIT Gallery website

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WORKSHOP BILK
Workshop Bilk, 53 Kendall Avenue, Queanbeyan NSW 2620.

Opening hours: Workshop Bilk Gallery is open from Wednesday to Saturday 11.00am to 5.30pm.

Workshop Bilk website – Johannes Kuhnen: a survey of innovation

Exhibition: ‘Seeing Ourselves: Masterpieces of American Photography from George Eastman House Collections’ at the Paine Art Center, Oshkosh, Wisconsin

Exhibition dates: 6th June – 11th October, 2009

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All photographs I have collected are from the exhibition. Wish I could see this show!

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Alvin Langdon Coburn
‘The Singer Building, New York’
ca. 1910

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Edward Weston
‘Nautilus’
1927

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Lewis Hine
‘Italian family looking for lost baggage, Ellis Island’
1905

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“The largest exhibition of masterpieces of American photography ever presented in Wisconsin, ‘Seeing Ourselves’ features over a hundred iconic images from the internationally acclaimed George Eastman House Collections of Rochester, New York. This extraordinary exhibition dramatically illustrates our country’s landscape, people, culture, and historic events through works ranging from vast western scenes to fascinating documentary photographs to intimate celebrity portraits. Artists represented include such masters of the medium as Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, and dozens of other accomplished photographers.

Spanning more than 150 years of photography, ‘Seeing Ourselves’ is organized according to five broad themes: American Masterpieces, American Faces, America at War, America the Beautiful, and American Families. Each section features renowned photographs documenting the American experience. The exhibition begins with “American Masterpieces,” which sheds light on celebrated images like ‘Yosemite Valley, Summer’ by Ansel Adams, ‘Nautilus’ by Edward Weston, and ‘The Steerage’ by Alfred Stieglitz. Other highlights include Oshkosh native Lewis Hine’s ‘Powerhouse Mechanic’, a dynamic image symbolizing the arrival of a new Industrial Age, and Dorothea Lange’s unforgettable photograph ‘Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California’, which gave a human face to poverty and suffering during the Great Depression.

“American Faces” illustrates the diversity of our nation, including subjects ranging from Native Americans whose ancestors have lived here for thousands of years to immigrants at Ellis Island who had just arrived in America that day. Photographs of everyday people are juxtaposed with portraits of illustrious political and civil rights leaders, artists, celebrities, and athletes, including Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Marilyn Monroe, Babe Ruth, and many other familiar faces. Master photographers who portrayed these individuals include Mathew Brady, Edward S. Curtis, Walker Evans, Richard Avedon, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Steichen …

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Benedict J. Fernandez
‘Dick Gregory with MLK [Martin Luther King, JR.] New Politics Convention, Chicago, ILL. October, 1967′
1967

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Eli Reed
‘A Mother and Her Son at Her Home In Bed Sty in Brooklyn’
ca. 1990

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Ansel Adams
‘Yosemite Valley, Summer’
1942

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Some of the most famous, memorable, and shocking images in the history of American photography are photographs of war. While photographs of war may be difficult to look at, they serve as an important record of America’s past. “America at War” displays images from the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, as well as contemporary photographs created in response to 9/11.

“America the Beautiful” features timeless photographs that capture the beauty and power of unspoiled nature, as well as scenes of westward expansion, urban America, and the intimate spaces we call home. Dramatic images of Alaskan glaciers, majestic western views, and tranquil dunes are contrasted with big-city skyscrapers, small-town neighborhoods, and backyard gardens. Major works in this section include Alvin Langdon Coburn’s beautifully atmospheric view of New York’s Singer Building and landscapes by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.

The final section, “American Families,” brings together families from all walks of life, exploring their differences and commonalities. A variety of examples by such notable photographers as Weegee, Lewis Hine, Aaron Siskind, Margaret Bourke-White, and Mary Ellen Mark are included. Some works portray idealized scenes of American life, while others capture a glimpse of everyday life and the serious challenges many families face, such as poverty or illness. Highlights include Hine’s photograph of an Italian family seeking lost luggage at Ellis Island and a tender portrait of a mother and son from the series Black in America by Eli Reed, an award-winning member of Magnum, the prestigious photojournalists’ cooperative.

‘Seeing Ourselves: Masterpieces of American Photography from George Eastman House Collections’ is organized by George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film and is made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as part of the American Masterpieces program. George Eastman House is the world’s oldest photography museum, founded in 1947 on the estate of Kodak founder George Eastman, the father of popular photography. The museum has unparalleled collections of 400,000 photographs from 14,000 photographers dating from the beginnings of the medium to the present day.”

Text from The Paine Art Center website

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Nikolas Muray
‘Babe Ruth’
1945

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Lewis Hine
‘Powerhouse mechanic working on steam pump’
1920

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Alfred Stieglitz
‘The Steerage’
1907

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Dorothea Lange
‘Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California’
1936

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Paine Art Center and Gardens
1410 Algoma Blvd, Oshkosh, WI

Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday
11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Closed Mondays and major holidays

Paine Art Center website

George Eastman House website

Review: ‘Apocrypha’ photographs by Julie Davis and Alex Rizkalla at Place Gallery, Richmond

Exhibition dates: 17th June – 11th July, 2009

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Apocrypha (from the Greek word ἀπόκρυφα, meaning “those having been hidden away”) are texts of uncertain authenticity, or writings where the authorship is questioned.

Definition from Wikipedia.

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Julie Davis and Alex Rizkalla
‘Apocrypha #1′ (left) and ‘Apocrypha #4′ (right)
2008

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“Intuitively we know the definition of the output from this process lies hidden within each object, seemingly carved into the underside of their skin, although we cannot see it. But actually it is not carved, it is the three-dimensional tracing of the original. The original becomes a throw-away. It is obsolete. The point of origin lies no longer within an object but at the heart of the creative impulse.”

Vanessa Mooney

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‘Apocrypha’ is an interesting, if slight, exhibition of eleven photographs by Julie Davis and Alex Rizkalla at Place Gallery in Richmond. Conceptually the work is resolved if not pushed to any great depth, the small photographs of sarcophagi like casements and moulds addressing issues surrounding the absence/presence of the original object and the subsequent loss of identity. In their masking, the objects photographed hide an inner identity that has gone missing; the headless figures, like faceless mummies, protect something that has existed since early man – the inner spiritual machinations of belief – that are embedded within the existential nature of our being. Identity has been rubbed out and spirit is splitting apart the moulds trying to escape the confines of mortality, only held in check by the wooden pegs and ropes.

Like the sutures of the human skull, the marks on the casements (see below right image) try to align form across space and time but these objects are grounded in a contextless backgrounds, seemingly floating free of earthly constraints. Here we have a double tracing – that of the tracing of the original object that has been thrown away (see Vanessa Mooney quotation above) and the tracing of the indexicality of the object by the photograph – the re-presentation of an original that no longer exists. There is a double loss through this re-retracing that fits perfectly with the title ‘Apocrypha’ – as the photographs become texts of uncertain authenticity.

Where the exhibition is less successful is in the physical presence of the photographs and their aesthetic qualities. While Vanessa Mooney asserts that the photographs are “meticulous in their detail and exact in their depth and texture” this assertion is untrue. From a technical point of view the photographs are soft in focus and lack depth of field. The ropes are fuzzy and the lack of depth of field in the focus plane from front to back adds to a lack of presence that the photographs needed to counterbalance the conceptual idea of apocrypha. I am also unsure about the scale of the photographs – there seems something in-between about the size of the images, neither here nor there. Aesthetically they needed either more presence (through being bigger), or more intensity through a jewel like nature in being smaller, again to counterbalance the conceptual themes. Finally, being surrounded by these eleven photographs in the gallery gives you the feeling of a ‘one shot’ idea that needed further investigation and refinement, an idea that needed to be pushed further. While the actual ideas themselves are interesting the work itself is too simple, too slight to hold the attention and reveal layers of meaning over time.

Marcus Bunyan for the Art Blart blog

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Julie Davis and Alex Rizkalla
‘Apocrypha #5′ (left) and ‘Apocrypha #7′ (right)
2008

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“The Father, The Son And Apocrypha

We all have faith that we must lodge somewhere: you; the microscope, me; the earth, and the artist? There are two stories present. The first is Apocrypha, a series of works by Davies and Rizkalla and the second is something you cannot see but will soon know.

Davies and Rizkalla present to us Apocrypha; a series of photographs that are meticulous in their detail and exact in their depth and texture. It is an evocative title and encapsulates the resonance of the objects. What we can see is clear – plaster moulds used by someone, somewhere for casting objects. The clarity of the details of rope, wedges of wood and the depth of the seam tell us of the real working nature of them. The inversion here from background process to foreground subject matter is not for irony’s sake but to evoke the simultaneous banality and sacredness of the transformative creative process. It is documented honestly before the viewer, and yet, the mystery remains. Intuitively we know the definition of the output from this process lies hidden within each object, seemingly carved into the underside of their skin, although we cannot see it. But actually it is not carved, it is the three-dimensional tracing of the original. The original becomes a throw-away. It is obsolete. The point of origin lies no longer within an object but at the heart of the creative impulse.

Tony Scalzo, my father-in-law, was drawn to this process. While the creation of a religious icon amused his communist leanings the irresistible pull of the transformation from dust and water to artefact must have, I feel, fulfilled a greater need to live through making. Countless times he would present to us his recent army of saints or holy persons (Padre Pio was a boom time) to be sold through his community, and would scoff and laugh at how he could make an object that to others was an icon. He would point to the shed, the latex, the plaster dust as if to dispel the mystery, and yet the mystery remained.

Perhaps the final mystery is the process, the collaboration that has come about since Tony passed away and his son Stefano came into possession of the simple and unusual collection. Stefano like his father is drawn to the creative process. So innately aware of the artist, his father, he approached Julie and Alex with these as gifts that are, in a way, not his to give. As a custodian might he passed on the objects and communicated his intuitive knowledge of their meaning. One plus one equals three. The result, Apocrypha, is like a window that was obscured and now has been opened. We can see with clarity what was unseen, but known, before. Apocrypha silently demonstrates the entwining of faith and mystery in the creative life of all.”

Vanessa Mooney

Text from the Place Gallery website

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Julie Davis and Alex Rizkalla
‘Apocrypha #8′ (left) and ‘Apocrypha #9′ (right)
2008

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Place Gallery
20, Tennyson Street, Richmond

Gallery hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 11.00 – 5.00pm.

Place Gallery website

Exhibition: ‘LE MONDE v. DER MOND’ by Matthew Hale at The Narrows, Melbourne

Exhibition dates: 18th June – 11th July, 2009

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Many thankx to Warren from The Narrows for supplying and allowing me to use images 1, 2 and 4.
Photographs 1, 2 and 4 are © Tobias Titz 2009.

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Installation view of ‘LE MONDE v. DER MOND’ by Matthew Hale at The Narrows, Melbourne

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Matthew Hale
‘Page 150 of MIRIAM DIVORCEE’ (detail)
2008

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Below is the only text I could find on the work – some of which was displayed in London earlier this year.

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“DER MOND v LE MONDE is Mathew Hale’s first solo exhibition in London for five years. It consists of five works: one two-projector and one three-projector slide piece; a constructed painting (that could equally be described as a wall-mounted sculpture); and two large collage works …

Hale’s work has many possible points of departure: a found photograph, a scrap of paper, a page torn from an instructive and obscure book, a bit of out-moded pornography, some anachronistic advertising from the 1970s or 1980s and so forth. Once plucked from a huge collection of such material amassed in his domestic studio space, the work evolves like an unplanned journey – both moving away and turning back on itself … The path of discovery in Hale’s work is the subject of his work, providing it with narrative and process.

With its roots in the collage traditions of political photomontage, dadaist assemblage and free associative surrealism, Hale’s work prioritises process over methodology or style. It activates a complex web of references that takes in history, politics, literature, and philosophy, as much as it does sex, religion, art, architecture and popular culture. To engage with the work is to become carried along by clues that lead to other clues and then circuitously lead somewhere else unexpected yet somehow familiar. Sometimes the clues are visual, sometimes they are language based, often they are both. Even when the work is finished and exhibited it is in a state of flux, the meaning is not fixed. Hale likes slippage of meaning and this constant state of ambiguity and openness for (mis)interpretation or confusion. He explains the title of the show as follows: ‘[in German] … and strikingly weirdly, “der Mond” means “The Moon” and, as we all know, “Le Monde” means “The Earth”. How can a word flip so totally by crossing a border? I am making a work for the show which hinges on their being apparently identical (almost) and yet meaning precisely the opposite – I wonder how it happened.’

Text from the London exhibition of this work (note with title reversed!), on the Peer website

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Matthew Hale
‘Page 145 of MRS. GILLRAY’
2009

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Matthew Hale
‘Page 48 of DIE NEUE MIRIAM’
2008

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Review in Art Monthly, June 2009 from the Peer website

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The Narrows
2/141 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Opening hours: Wed – Friday 12 – 6pm,  Sat 12-5pm

The Narrows website

Exhibition: ‘ARTIST ROOMS: Celmins, Gallagher, Hirst, Katz, Warhol, Woodman’ at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Exhibition dates: 14th March – 18th November, 2009

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Fancesca Woodman
‘From Angel Series, Roma, September 1977′
1977

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Francesca Woodman
‘Space², Providence, Rhode Island, 1975-1978′
1975-1978

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“Throughout 2009, 18 museums and galleries across the UK will be showing over 30 ARTIST ROOMS from the collection created by the dealer and collector, Anthony d’Offay, and acquired by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland in February 2008. This is the first time a national collection has been shared and shown simultaneously across the UK, and has only been made possible through the exceptional generosity of independent charity The Art Fund and, in Scotland, of the Scottish Government.

The opening displays at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh this spring will include the work of Vija Celmins, Ellen Gallagher, Damien Hirst, Alex Katz, Andy Warhol, and Francesca Woodman. Highlights will include Celmins’ beautiful, delicate images of seas, deserts and the night sky, a complete series of landscape and portrait paintings by the American painter Alex Katz and Francesca Woodman’s intimate, surrealist-influenced photographs. Damien Hirst, the most prominent British artist of today, will feature in an expanded display across several rooms. This will bring together works from ARTIST ROOMS – such as the iconic ‘Away from the Flock’ (an early example of Hirst’s animals in formaldehyde) and a recent butterfly painting – with additional loans from further collections.

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Andy Warhol
‘Trash cans’
1986

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Vija Celmins
‘Web #1′
1999

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American artist Vija Celmins makes paintings, drawings and prints. Using charcoal, graphite and erasers she produces delicate images based on photographs of the sea, deserts, the night sky and other natural phenomena.

The ARTIST ROOMS collection comprises 24 works on paper by Celmins, including three unique drawings. ‘Web #1′ is typical of her fragile images and is the first of nine works on the theme of the spider’s web. It is accompanied by a series of four ‘web’ prints which echo the web-like construction of the universe. Other works in the collection include an important series from the entitled ‘Concentric Bearings’ which explores different images of turning space.

Celmins works focus on something small and individual in the context of vastness. The images they depict seem fragile because they record a specific human glimpse through a telescope or camera which is temporary and frozen in time.

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Vija Celmins
‘Untitled (Web 1)’
2001

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Damien Hirst
‘Controlled Substances Key Painting (Spot 4a)’
1994

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Damien Hirst is the most prominent artist to have emerged from the British art scene in the 1990s. Hirst’s work forces viewers to question their understanding of issues such as the fragility of life, our reluctance to confront death and decay and other dilemmas of human existence.

He is best known for his ‘Natural History’ works – large-scale sculptures featuring dead animals floating in Minimalist looking vitrines – but also for his mirrored pharmacy cabinets lined with shelves full of evenly spaced drug bottles, pills, sea shells or cigarette butts, and his paintings, which he produces in series.

An example of these, included in ARTIST ROOMS, is the early ‘Controlled Substances Key Painting (Spot 4a)’. Also included in ARTIST ROOMS is the key work ‘Away from the Flock’, featuring a sheep floating in formaldehyde. The large butterfly diptych ‘Monument to the Living and the Dead’, 2006 was made specifically for ARTIST ROOMS.

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Damien Hirst
‘Away from the flock’
1995

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Francesca Woodman
‘Eel Series, Roma, May-August 1977′
1977

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American photographer Francesca Woodman has eighteen rare vintage black and white photographs in ARTIST ROOMS. They have a timeless unique quality. The artist began taking photographs at the age of thirteen and though she was only twenty two when she took her own life, she left behind a substantial body of work.

Francesca Woodman’s photographs explore issues of gender and self, looking at the representation of the body in relation to its surroundings. She puts herself in the frame most often, although these are not conventional self-portraits as she is either partially hidden, or concealed by slow exposures that blur her moving figure into a ghostly presence.

Found objects and suggestive props are carefully placed to create unsettling, surreal or claustrophobic scenarios. Her photographs are produced in thematic series’, relating to specific props, places or situations. In combining performance, play and self-exposure, Woodman’s photographs create extreme and often disturbing psychological states.

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Francesca Woodman
‘Untitled, 1975-1980′
1975-1980

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Francesca Woodman
‘Untitled, 1975-1980′
1975-1980

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Andy Warhol
‘I am blind’
1976 -1986

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Andy Warhol is one of the most influential American artists to emerge in the post-war period. ARTIST ROOMS includes an impressive selection of 232 works which span the artist’s entire work. This display focuses on a group of stitched photographs from the collection.

After graduating and moving to New York in 1949, Warhol quickly became established as one of the city’s most sought after commercial illustrators, working for magazines such as Glamour and Harper’s Bazaar. However, it was in the early-sixties that he began to produce the work for which he is most celebrated.

As the most famous proponent of Pop Art, his earliest ‘pop’ works depict consumer goods and images from the press. This evolved to reveal his enduring fascination with celebrity and mortality, with many of his most powerful images touching on these themes.

ARTIST ROOMS comprises a superb array of important works representing all phases of Warhol’s career and a cross-section of media. Warhol explored the medium of photography extensively and began producing stitched photographs in 1986. Returning to his earlier predilection for repetition, Warhol used multiple prints of the same photographs that he then had sewn together to form a composite work of art. By repeating the same image, Warhol could extend the abstract design to the whole work and emphasize the broader significance of what might seem to be peculiarly singular and oddball.”

Text from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art website

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Andy Warhol
‘Venus in Shell’
1976 -1986

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SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART
75 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DR

Open daily, 10am-5pm.
Admission free

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art website

‘The Shape of Dreams’ 2009: new body of work by Marcus Bunyan

Greetings to all followers of the blog!
I am pleased to announce a new body of work, the second of 2009, is now online on my website.

The photographs are a sequence: one tone follows another (much like a piece of music) until the final coda. With this in mind please view the work sequentially. Below are a selection of photographs from the whole work.

My new online store is up and running (yes, finally!) where you can buy photographs from various series including the new one.

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Photographs from the series ‘The Shape of Dreams’ 2009

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“the form of formlessness

the shape of dreams”

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All the photographs from the series are now on my website.

Photographs from the series are available to purchase from my store.

Marcus Bunyan website.

Exhibition: ‘Fourteen Places to Eat: A Narrative Photographing Rural Culture in the Midwest’ by photographer Kay Westhues at the Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana

Exhibition dates: 31st May – 19th July, 2009

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There are some really good photographs on the Kay Westhues ‘Fourteen Places to Eat’ website (under the Archives heading) split into categories such as Commerce, Domestic, Landscape, Patriotism, People, Places to Eat and Structures. It’s well worth your time looking through these excellent photographs!

There is an interview with Kay Westhues on the Daily Yonder website.

All photographs © Kay Westhues used under Creative Commons 2.5 License with proper attribution.

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Kay Westhues
‘CSX railroad building, Walkerton’
2005

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Kay Westhues
‘Man with patriotic cast, Original Famous Fish of Stroh’
2005

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Kay Westhues
‘Knox laundromat’
2005

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“The Snite Museum of Art announces the opening of the exhibition: ‘Fourteen Places to Eat: a Narrative: Photographing Rural Culture in the Midwest’, opening on Sunday, May 31,2009.

Kay Westhues is a photographer who is interested in documenting the ways in which rural tradition and history are interpreted and transformed in the present day. Kay shares her intention for this series of work:

“For the past five years I have been working on a series of photographs depicting rural culture in Indiana and the Midwest. This project was inspired by my memories of growing up on a farm in Walkerton, Indiana, and observing first hand the shifting cultural identity that has occurred over time and through changing economic development. I moved back to Walkerton in order to help care for my aging parents in 2001.

These photos mirror my personal history, but I am also capturing a people’s history grounded in a sense of place. My intention is to celebrate rural life, without idealizing it.

The overall theme since the project’s inception is the effect of the demise of local economies that have historically sustained rural communities. Many of my images contain the remains of an earlier time, when locally owned stores and family farms were the norm. Today chain stores and agribusiness are prevalent in rural communities. These communities are struggling to thrive in the global economy, and my images reflect that reality …

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Kay Westhues
‘Chicken bingo, Francesville Fall Festival’
2005

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Kay Westhues
‘Patriotic hammers ($3.00)’
2005

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Kay Westhues
‘Parked trailer, Ligonier’
2006

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Kay Westhues
‘Lunch at the Crockpot, Walkerton (The Young and the Restless)’
2007

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“Most recently I have focused on the complex relationship between farmers and domesticated animals. I make many of my images at Animal Swap Meets and sale barns, places where animals are bought and sold. Family farms are quickly being replaced by large-scale food production, and these events still draw smaller farmers and the local people who support them.”

Why fourteen places to eat?

“One of my biggest complaints after moving to Walkerton was that there were not enough places to eat out. Or, rather, practically no places to eat out. So I was happy when news arrived that a new restaurant was opening there. Imagine my surprise when I read a letter to the editor in the local paper against the new restaurant. The letter stated we already had enough places to eat in this town. The writer counted a total of fourteen places to eat, which included four restaurants, three gas stations, four bars, a truck stop, a convenience mart, and a bowling alley.”

Text from the Artdaily.org website

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Kay Weshues
‘Momence Speed Wash, Momence IL’
2007

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Kay Westhues
‘Mary Ann Rubio, Family Cafe, Knox’
2007

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The Snite Museum of Art
at University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana

Opening hours:
Tues – Wed 10 – 4pm, Thurs – Sat 10 – 5pm, Sunday 1 – 5pm

The Snite Museum of Art website

Kay Westhues ‘Fourteen Places to Eat’ website

Exhibition: ‘Skyscrapers: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs of the Early Twentieth Century’ at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Exhibition dates: 6th June – 1st November, 2009

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What a fantastic exhibition! Thank you to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for allowing me to reproduce the wonderful photographs below, many from photographers that I have never heard of before.

All photographs © the Philadelphia Museum of  Modern Art.

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Berenice Abbott (American, 1898 – 1991)
‘Untitled (New York City)’
1929-33
Gelatin silver print, 6 1/2 x 4 7/16 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001

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Lloyd Ullberg (American, 1904 – 1996)
‘PSFS Building, Philadelphia’
c.1932-33
Gelatin silver print Image and sheet: 10 x 7 3/8 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with the Lola Downin Peck Fund, 1999

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At the turn of the 20th century when they first began to appear, skyscrapers were seen as symbols of modernity and testaments to human achievement. Stretching the limits of popular imagination, they captured the attention of visual artists working in a variety of mediums. This summer the Philadelphia Museum of Art presents Skyscrapers: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs of the Early Twentieth Century, an exhibition that traces the rise of the American skyscraper as an iconic image. The exhibition will feature more than 50 works from the Museum’s collection, dating from 1908 to 1941, which demonstrate the many ways artists chose to portray the new giants in their landscape.

Skyscrapers includes prints by John Marin and Charles Sheeler, photographs by Berenice Abbott and Alfred Stieglitz, and drawings by Earl Horter and Abraham Walkowitz. The works in Skyscrapers reflect a wide range of styles and practices, from Walkowitz’s loosely drawn “New York Improvisations” (1910) to Abbott’s luminous photograph “New York at Night” (c.1932), which captures the dazzling allure of the city’s glowing evening skyline. The combination of mediums included in the show allows the viewer to consider the relationship between drawing, printmaking, and photography in this dynamic period.

“The visual impact of skyscrapers on the modern urban landscape is unmistakable, and for more than a century artists have been engaging with this theme,” John Vick, The Margaret R. Mainwaring Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs and the exhibition’s organizer, said, noting that the Museum’s collection includes well over 500 works related to skyscrapers. Vick added that “their distinctive contours and exaggerated scale offered artists both a chance to experiment with modernist aesthetics and a subject on which to project personal or collective ideas and emotions.”

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Wendell MacRae (American, 1896 – 1980)
‘Summer’
c. 1930-32
Gelatin silver print, Image and sheet: 6 9/16 x 4 5/8 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001

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Stella Simon (American, 1878 – 1973)
‘6th Avenue’
c. 1930-32. Gelatin silver print, Image and sheet: 9 1/2 x 7 3/16 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001

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Sherril Schell (American, 1877 – 1964)
‘Buildings on West 35th Street’
c. 1930-32. Gelatin silver print, Image and sheet: 8 x 6 5/16 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001

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The exhibition also offers a view into the interaction of architecture and urban development with art’s role as a form of documentation. Among the famous buildings featured are Chicago’s gothic-ornamented Tribune Tower, New York City’s Art Deco Empire State Building, and Philadelphia’s modernist PSFS Building. An atmospheric etching of a rainy nighttime scene at One Broad Street in Philadelphia by artist Allan Randall Freelon (American, 1895 – 1960) shows how this important intersection at the heart of the city would have appeared in the 1930s.

The towering, occasionally menacing, physical presence of these structures is a frequent visual theme in the works – whether in Howard Norton Cook’s woodcut “Skyscraper” (1929) or Sherril Schell’s photograph “Window Reflection – French Building” dating from 1930-32. Horter’s graphite drawing “Manhattan Skyline” (1916) shows a row of newly-built towers thrusting skyward in strong, vertical lines and overshadowing the residential rooftops in the foreground, an image that suggests the city’s emergence as a financial and commercial giant.

Other works take a more abstract approach, exploring the visual exciting patterns created by these massive new structures. Such works include Marin’s 1913 and 1917 prints of the Woolworth Building and Herbert Johnson’s aerial photograph of building rooftops from c.1930-32.”

Philadelphia Museum of Art press release

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Sherril Schell (American, 1877 – 1964)
‘Window Reflection - French Building’
c. 1930-32
Gelatin silver print, Image and sheet: 7 15/16 x 6 1/8 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001

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Ralph Steiner (American, 1899 – 1986)
‘Untitled (New York City)’
1931
Gelatin silver print, Image/Sheet/Mount (With Black Border from Negative): 9 15/16 x 7 15/16 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001

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Berenice Abbott (American, 1898 – 1991)
‘New York at Night’
c. 1932
Gelatin silver print. Image and sheet: 13 3/8 x 10 5/8 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Theodore T. Newbold in memory of Lee Witkin, 1984

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Philadelphia Museum of Art
26th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19130

Opening hours
Tuesday through Sunday:
10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Philadelphia Museum of Art website