Cristina NualART

Tag: UK

Out of order

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In Kingston-upon-Thames, just outside London, on the corner of Old London Road and Eden Street, lies one of the most quintessentially British works of public art. ‘Out of Order’ is a sculpture by artist David Mach, made in 1989 from 12 ‘tumbling’ telephone boxes. The artist used the Kiosk 6 version of the classic red telephone box, a 1935 design much improved from the original K1, originally produced from concrete in 1920. The K6, designed by architect Sir Giles Scott, was the first phonebox that was used as standard across the UK.

Mach’s sculpture feels like it belongs to the country’s iconography as much as the telephone boxes, precisely because the ubiquity of the phoneboxes is transferred to the sculpture. It is by far one of my favourite artworks, and one of few public sculptures that really makes you smile and go all nostalgic at the same time. Fantastic!

0 comments © Cristina Nualart 10 August 2010

Made In – Oil without paint

79_MadeIn_photocnualart Excited about being in Birmingham on a nice sunny day, I dashed to Ikon gallery first, and dove right in. Seeing One’s Own Eyes is the current explosive exhibition by MadeIn artists collective. It is FUN! I went through, so absorbed in the objects that I didn’t read any of the blurb beforehand. What did I get excited about? Bombastic wall hangings, shodily made with chopped up kitch fake fur and sequined textiles, all tackily glued and stitched together. The colours are loud and the cartoons show people you will recognise from newspaper headlines. The text is as in-your-face as the imagery. The whole thing works! This is art that is cheap and cheerful, big and bold, and as amusing and meaningful as pop art can get.

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78_MadeIn_photocnualart There’s an instructive video by gallery director Jonathan Watkins on how he met Xu Zhen, one of the founding artists of MadeIn.

At this point, you can -like I did- realise that it’s all a fiction. These artists have nothing to do with Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East or a country at war. They are Chinese artists using made in China sarcasm to share with art consumers of the world, who are – of course – deeply interested in big issues like blood for oil and war in far-away countries full of invisible terrorist camps…

To give respite from the bomb-blasts on the second floor, the third floor welcomes you with some quiet anihilation, a breathing pile of rubble. Calm is the name of this surprising room of living destruction. See my video of it.

I was lucky to see MadeIn’s exhibition the day after I visited Contemporary Art Iraq in Manchester’s Cornerhouse . The latter is, clearly, art made in Iraq. The Iraqi artists share their daily stories and creative pursuits without loud protesting of their county’s situation. Not that they ignore it, they just get on with life without making a song and dance about things. Had they done so, they might have come up with some strident, controversial artwork of the sort the tabloids would discuss. But it could pigeonhole them as protest artists, which is not for every artist to be.

Since Documenta 11, in 2002, there is a tendency for much contemporary art to function as documentary,* but living amidst irrational ruination for years, their museums plundered, current Iraqi artists do what artists do: make art, quite simply. MadeIn are taking on the documentary agenda and parading it in fancy-dress. It’s a fun party. But along with a good party, there’s nothing better than a soul-baring conversation – away from the pandemonium.

* See Materialist Feminism for the 21st Century, by Angela Dimitrakaki, in Oxford Art Journal, vol. 30, 2007.

0 comments © Cristina Nualart 26 June 2010

Art/War

I visited Manchester’s Cornerhouse and Birmingham’s Ikon gallery in the same week, and was set on fire with neurological sparks seeing the art about the Middle East.

Cornerhouse has 3 floors of Iraq-based artists who collectively remind us, like my grandparents did, that life in wartime does not stop and hide in parenthesis. Artists carry on thinking about art, and how to make it, and the ones selected for this show express their plural ideas in all kinds of media. The variety alone is exciting; the Iraqi context, undeniably, adds power to the imagery.

77_ManchesterWar_photocnualart Roshna Rasool calls these old computer keys Luck. It’s not only funny, it’s intriguing. Were people lucky to have computers? Or to see them destroyed? To add to interpretive meanings, one has to notice that some keys have an Arabic character. And that there are two of these sculptures, one white and one black.

76_ManchesterWar_photocnualart Brhm Taib Ameen’s chiaroscuro photographs are rich, sumptuous and look like paintings – Ha! The days are gone when we use to say the opposite!

75_ManchesterWar_photocnualart I rarely have patience with video art, but this piece by Sarwar Mohamad Amin is a haunting story of dying traditions and the unwaivering commitment to desperately make a living. Emotional.

Rozgar Mahmood Mustfa’s Nylon crackles and breathes, while opposite it, a video of a handsome sleeping man by Hemn Hamed Sharef crackles with the noise of plastic sheets. Smart!
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Jamal Penjewy’s series of photos Iraq is Flying is really joyful! These are images that transport you to the place. I got an awareness of the ‘feeling’ of the country.
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Memories and War, by Zana Rasul Mohammed. Really beautiful… Schooling may be halted by war, but culture can be treasured in boxes and shared when safe. I loved it.
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Even though there was little actual documentary art in the show (and the choice to make it absent was a total success on the part of the curators, I think), the knowledge that the work is created by artists who live amidst the misfortunes of battle, grants the works a more poignant aura. Meanings certainly seem more prolific and appealing seen here. The same works in a white cube gallery with no emphasis on provenance would not be so alluring. Provenance, as in an auction house, adds value.

I intended with this post to compare these artworks with the equally interesting ones (but with a hugely different remit) currently on show in the Ikon gallery, but I’ll need another post to rave about them. Soon!

0 comments © Cristina Nualart 14 June 2010

 

Unless otherwise specified, text and images © 2012 Cristina Nualart