Selected
Metro Reviews
Nicolas Moulin.
Blankludermilq, Site Gallery
****
Throughout his three-month residency at Sheffield
University, Nicolas Moulin has been exploring the
questions, ‘What is a city, what is it that people need
from it and how is our relationship to history mediated
through architecture?’ He was drawn to Sheffield’s heritage
of concrete utopias, such as Park Hill flats, and the
city’s experimental electronic music scene, which he
believes, is all connected to its industrial landscape. He
is fascinated by concrete bunkers and abandoned or
unfinished projects that have taken on new functions and
collects images of soviet-style buildings from around the
world.
The exhibition consists of new and old work inspired by the
constructivist struggle between form and function,
reinterpreted with a fantastic and romantic sensibility. In
fact, the whole show seems to be drawn together by a
delicate balance of contrasts. The extremely bright,
glaring construction of tube lighting works against the
ambiguous, night vision quality of the video in the small
gallery. Darkness and light, inside and outside, reality
and fantasy all have a part to play. Most impressive are
the large, almost panoramic photographs. Moulin creates
these science fiction landscapes by cutting and pasting
real images together, perhaps in reference to the
manipulated photographs of Soviet propaganda. He has said
that when you take a picture of something you are turning
it into a fiction, and that pictures make their own reality
and although the reality in these images looks grim,
dystopian and devoid of life, the artist’s vision is not
completely pessimistic. The enigmatic function of the
buildings depicted offers freedom outside their original
context and perhaps the Brutalist aesthetic and heavy-duty
materials are meant to offer us hope and protection from
the future that awaits us.
Out Of The Ordinary, (spectacular craft)
Millennium Galleries.
****
Can craft be spectacular? Can things that are handmade or
made using traditional methods be associated with glamour
or spectacle these days. Art in the age of mechanical
reproduction no longer relied on the magic of making in
order to impress. An artist doesn’t have to make their work
for it to be theirs, and many employ assistants or send
their ideas to a fabricator. The eight artists featured in
Out Of The Ordinary all make their work using meticulous
and painstaking methods and while it doesn’t make it better
art, (you may disagree), it certainly makes it very
impressive. Lu Shengzhong’s paper constructions are
breathtaking, even more so when you realise that each
figure has been cut out by hand. The pieces by Susan Collis
and Yoshihiro Suda make you want to look, and look again.
By reinvigorating the invisible, the ordinary and the
mundane in such a detailed, loving way, it makes you go out
and look at every stain, crack and weed with fresh eyes.
Perhaps this is what is meant by ‘spectacular’, we are
drawn in by what we see as an amazing feat of endurance, we
stare because the work is beautiful but also because we
can’t believe our own eyes. Maybe because of the
mass-produced world we live in we are even more impressed
by traditional skills, Anne Wilson’s work has its roots in
women’s crafts such as lace-making and knitting and
Catherine Bertola draws influence from how things are made
within a craft making community such as our own here in
Sheffield. Somehow they remind us of our cultural past and
make us nostalgic for a time when people felt more
connected to the things they owned and made.
Kim Coleman and Jenny Hogarth
Glare, S1 Artspace
***
In the past the word glamour was used to describe a magical
spell used by witches to make something or someone appear
more attractive than they really are. Apparently St Judith
used something like this to seduce Holofernes before
chopping his head off. There is certainly something shiny
and alluring about the video installation ‘Glare’ at S1
Artspace. As you enter you are welcomed with a disarming
burst of ‘flash’ as the image of a camera appears to take
your photo. You at once feel implicated in the work,
objectified, but not really, it is just a trick. From there
on you are on your own like a contestant on the Crystal
Maze trying to figure out what is going on. The artists
have said that they are interested in what is or isn’t
meant to be looked at and employ a kind of ironic sleight
of hand. Maybe it is as simple as that and there is no
catch, it’s just difficult to get beneath the surface of
the work. It is a show based upon illusion with the
illusion taken away. As much as we want the magician to
reveal to us his secrets we know that while gaining
knowledge we will lose out on the thrill of mystery.
Similarly, by leading us away from the glamour of the
imagery and revealing the mechanisms of display, Hogarth
and Coleman have tried to distract us into thinking that
the work isn’t beautiful, or that it shouldn’t be valued
for being so.
A Picture Of You? Identity in Contemporary British Art.
Graves Gallery, Sheffield.
****
Identity is the central theme of this show and one that has
always been problematic, yet popular subject to the
British. Who are we? How did we get to be who we are? Are
we even who we think we are? The work chosen explores
different aspects of this theme, looking at identity within
a variety of contexts, personal, geographical, cultural and
sexual. The title invites you to consider whether you
recognise yourself in these artworks, is there anything you
identify with? It pretty much covers all the bases so, even
if you don’t find yourself in there you might see someone
you know. Although the work has been brought together to
form a coherent and beautifully presented show, some of it
is much richer and subtler than others and can be enjoyed
for their own sake outside the bounds of the curatorial
theme. Grayson Perry’s ceramic, Aspects of Myself, is
technically impressive but looks like the adolescent
ramblings of a sixth form student next to the mysterious
and elegant cut out post-cards of Tim Davies. Mona Hatoum’s
video piece, Measures of Distance discloses a very private
world in the most tender and intimate way. It shows how
family and homeland can shape us, and when this sense of
self is lost we can still reconstruct to form our own
identity. Sometimes the removal of information can tell us
as much about a person as vast swathes of imagery, but then
we each tell our stories in our different ways.
Brass Art: Sky
scraping
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
***
Tricks of the light, illusions with shadows, and digital
interventions into the landscape are all of interest to the
Brass art collective. With this set of works on show in the
YSP’s Bothy gallery it appears they are attempting to draw
us into this world of partial fantasy. Perhaps wanting us
to see the world differently? It’s a nice show but flawed.
They’ve created some captivating imagery but any attempt to
challenge our perceptions falls very short. The projection
of an aerial landscape being separated into symmetry like a
cell mirroring and dividing is an old trick. An even older
trick, but one worthy of more respect is the magic lantern.
This is used charmingly in the piece Moments of Death and
Revival. A model train bearing a light encircles delicate
acrylic figurines. They cast moving shadows that grow and
shrink across the walls. It is a beautiful and mesmerising
effect. The figurines such as the skeleton and horse headed
figure have a fairytale quality. There’s a feeling
bordering on the nightmarish but the illusion is ruined by
the very irritating noise of the model train. It’s rather
like scene in the Wizard of Oz when Toto pulls the curtain
back to reveal the man operating the machinery that
controls the mighty Oz. It’s frustrating because it’s the
kind of thing that ought to be done well. This show has
good intentions but there’s just not enough meat on the
bones.
Guido van der Werve
Site Gallery
*****
For Dutch artist Guido van der Werve it isn’t enough to
just exist and observe the world like a passive spectator.
In his melancholic and poetic films he expresses a quiet
desire to interact with and counteract the landscape
itself. Van der Werve is almost modernist in the grandness
of his gestures but most definitely Romantic in sentiment.
As a tiny figure playing out against terrifyingly vast
landscapes his silent expressions pick up where words fail.
He leaves no physical trace; he just wants to fill the air
with music. In Nummer
acht. Everything is going to be alright,
the
artist walks over the ice of the Finnish Gulf while an
icebreaker ploughs through not far behind. Rather than a
sense of danger the film gives a joyful feeling of freedom
and defiance. It is possible to relate to this heroic
figure whose restless spirit endures the long haul as the
ground is torn apart behind him. He may be tiny but he
remains undefeated. He is even able to defy the turning of
the globe in Nummer
negen. There is a
strong cinematic quality to the work, even though the
emphasis is on an emotional aesthetic rather than any kind
of narrative. The music being performed in
Nummer
vier. I don’t want to be involved in this, I don’t want to
be part of this, Talk me out of it, in the
smaller gallery drifts through into the rest of the show
providing a beautiful soundtrack to the images.
Hidden
Narratives
Graves art gallery, Sheffield
19th January - 29th March 2008
****
Enchantment and mystery are the main themes of the group
exhibition currently showing at the Graves. The work
signals a pregnant pause in the meeting between artist and
viewer, the emphasis is on what has been left unsaid. The
curators have picked a mix of internationally established
artists such as Susan Hiller and Turner prize nominated
Zarina Bhimji alongside locally based artists. They have
chosen pieces that take as their starting point the vague
notion of a story.
What stands out in the show is the way materials are used
to suggest strange, new worlds and to entice us into them.
In particular, Simon Le Ruez's intimate sculptural scenes,
uninhabited landscapes that invite contemplation, Sophie
Lascelles' dream-like film projection and Peter Callesen's
gothic paper ruin. Delicate scenes, like abandoned stage
sets constructed out of everyday materials such as paper
and glue, offer a place for us to project our imaginations.
The work on show requires the viewer to engage, fill in the
pieces and, in the case of Oona Grimes' alchemy inspired
prints, connect the dots. The intention of the curators is
therefore slightly undermined by the excessive amount of
labeling and explanation that accompanies the work. Don't
be put off though; the work is strong enough to assert
itself. It is reassuring that our public galleries are
prepared to put on this kind of exhibition, one where we
are engaged on an intimate level and allowed to contemplate
the bigger picture.
Isamu Noguchi
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
****
If you haven’t heard of the Japanese – American
sculptor Isamu Noguchi then here’s an opportunity to put
that right. After visiting this quite thorough overview of
his 60-year career you’ll wonder how the work of this
wonderful and genuinely important artist slipped past your
radar. Noguchi managed to combine the spirit of modernism
with ancient Zen wisdom to create models of a kind of
sacred utopia. Unlike other modernists he was very much
concerned with the natural world, for Noguchi material and
place were connected. Parks and gardens were a huge
inspiration for him and he saw them as the embodiment of
his ideas. He wanted sculpture to be meaningful and life
enriching rather than a commodity. For obvious reasons the
YSP is the perfect place to show his work. You can see it
within the context of a beautifully arranged public space
and might even feel some of the positive effects of
aesthetic contemplation out in the open air. The four rooms
of the underground gallery are filled with work that has
been carefully arranged to help the viewer understand how
the different strands of Noguchi’s work influenced each
other. Works made for theatre rub shoulders with primitive
looking abstract sculpture. The problem with seeing such an
extensive body of work is that it’s hard to focus on any
particular aspect. There is almost too much to see.
The viewer should take their time in this exhibition,
perhaps take a packed lunch and a flask, and enjoy the
landscape.
Jiri Kovanda
Photographs of Performances
Site Gallery
∗∗∗∗
There is
something discreet about this work. Not just in the way it
is presented by the Site gallery in four smallish,
unassuming frames placed in a dimly lit room. It is in the
very nature of its subject matter. On display is
photographic documentation of a set of almost imperceptible
interventions. They show the artist bumping into strangers
on the streets of Prague or turning around on an escalator
to look into the eyes of the stranger behind him. These are
moments of contact frozen in time. When read within the
context of the Soviet period of Eastern Europe in the late
1970’s, they appear to be silent or secret acts of
communication questioning the role of the individual within
society. They are as poetic as much as they are political,
though. These non-verbal gestures say something about the
messages we send to one another, unspoken yet full of
potency. We get a sense of frustration as Kovanda attempts
to interact with his fellow human beings in such a way
where the rules of engagement are different, but no less
meaningful. Most poignant, perhaps, is the image of the
artist sitting by a telephone presumably waiting for it to
ring. There is something very Romantic about these tiny
acts. They seem meaningless and mundane and yet they
highlight something that we take for granted, the need to
connect with others. Perhaps we could attempt such acts as
we bustle about our business today?
Julius Koller
Selected photographs and printed materials
Millenium Galleries
****
Amongst the first pieces you come to when you enter the
main space of the Millennium galleries is a modest looking
selection of works by Julius Koller. The photos and hand
printed and collaged cards in the cases and on a small
section of the wall represent an overview of over 40 years
of work by the Slovakian artist. Koller, who operated
outside the boundaries of the institutionalised art-world,
seems to encapsulate the themes of Art Sheffield 08 and has
been an important influence on its curator Jan Verwoert.
Until recently conceptual artists from Eastern Europe such
as Koller have been little known and, as a result,
undervalued in the West. This exhibition gives us an
insight into the work from this period. It is easy to see
why it is now worthy of our attention.
In the late 1960’s, Koller developed a very personal means
of artistic production that defied the current Soviet
conventions of standardisation and social control. One
method was to use table tennis as a symbol for
non-hierarchical, non-violent social exchange. Its imagery
recurs throughout the work on display. We see him redrawing
the lines of a tennis court in one set of photos, in
another less subtle piece entitled ‘Ping-Pong Monument’ a
hand holding a table tennis bat is superimposed over a
landscape scene of a drab looking soviet-style housing
estate. The effect is far from mere whimsy, it really is
powerful stuff.
Koller’s Dada-esque wit is most prominent in the small
hand-made cards. Here the acronym U.F.O. is played out in
many variations including Underground Fantastic
Organisation or Utopian Fantastic Object. He is using a
kind of philosophical humour to draw out some kind of map
or diagram for another world. The U.F.O. is a symbol for
the possibility of a different society. A thing we may look
to the sky in hope for. It is fun but it’s serious. Rather
than opt for cynicism Koller chose defiance through
optimism. He showed how we could redraw our world with our
imaginations. For this he was truly radical.
Marie Cool & Fabio Balducci
Site Gallery
****
Entering the space where Marie Cool is performing is like
wandering into a church and finding a ritual taking place.
Perhaps a church would be too obvious because there is
something domestic and intimate about the set of actions
being performed. This is the kind of ritual we could all
perform. Cool, who is the performance element of the
partnership, moves through the space completely absorbed in
her work. Gently moving sheets of paper together on the
surface of the table or moving a length of string, pulling
it so slowly over the edge of the table that if you watch
carefully, you may feel the thrill of expectation as it
slips up onto the surface. Yes, string! It is the sense of
purpose and discipline that transforms these simple
materials and actions from the mundane into poignant
creative acts. It feels like something intangible is being
made, like saying a prayer or casting a spell. The
performances aren't being recorded but will be repeated
four days a week during Cool and Balducci's six week stay
at Site. In another section of the gallery a piece made
specifically for video is projected on the wall. Here we
see Cool working with patches of light, bathing her arm in
it, slowly, carefully. There is certainly a spiritual
aspect to the work. Cool and Balducci have turned those
tiny, meaningless things that we all do unconsciously, the
little games that we play into something quite special.
Nigel
Hall: Sculpture and Drawing 1965 – 2008
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
***
If you like big, masculine, modernist, sculpture then this
is the exhibition for you. The YSP have made good use of
their very beautiful Underground gallery along with the
Garden gallery and outside spaces to present this
retrospective of sculptor Nigel Hall’s work. It isn’t shown
in any clear chronological order and this seems to draw
attention to the differences in the work as it developed.
Hall is clearly a master of form, space and materials. The
linear work from the 1970’s is breathtaking in its delicate
suggestions of a shifting landscape. The drawings are bold
and stylish. It is the earlier work that is his most
interesting though. Pieces such as Magnet, 1966 resemble
surrealist paintings with their fake looking realistic
folds and clouds of stone hung suspended by wire. The small
models and drawings in the Garden gallery give some
evidence that Hall could have been an important, if not a
more interesting sculptor than he turned out to be. This
makes the most recent work so much more disappointing.
Large geometric sculptures made from industrial materials
were the triumph of early 20th century modernism. Think
back to the work of the Russian Constructivists. Here and
now it starts to resemble bland Ikea furnishings. Although
Hall claims a personal narrative to the work, it is
dangerously close to being monumental. For this reason it’s
refreshing to go back to the scruffy looking maquettes at
the beginning of the show. Big isn’t always beautiful.
Tomma Abts
‘Untitled #1 - #7’
S1 Artspace
***
This series of 7 drawings by Tomma Abts at S1 Artspace
aren't nearly as impressive as the paintings that won her
the Turner prize two years ago, so it might be easy to
dismiss them amongst the other, bolder work on display in
the many venues of Art Sheffield 08. This would be a bad
move. After giving them a little of your time you may,
hopefully, be drawn into the aesthetic reverie required to
solve these subtle visual puzzles. Made up from small dots
composed and executed with mathematical precision these
drawings have an air of coolness about them while at the
same time a sense of playfulness. One is reminded of the
counters in a game or abacus, something that can slide
between being simple or complicated. Something full of
potential. The spaces left in the drawings confound and
tease as layers are revealed and new patterns are
suggested. We search for meaning within the pattern,
searching for ways to understand or just figure out how the
drawing was put together. The process of drawing has become
the narrative. It’s a fascinating game and definitely worth
the effort. There is a destabilizing quality to the work,
like watching something being picked apart; in this way it
fits nicely within the overall theme of the space i.e. the
exhaustion of modernism and it’s utopian principles.
Remember when Abstraction was going to save the world?
There might still be a chance.
People
Like Us
Millennium
Galleries
07 November 2007- 17 February 2008
Vicky Bennett, aka People Like Us, is known for her collage
media work where existing sounds and images, often stock
footage from the mid 20th century, are sampled, animated
and recontextualised to create witty and surreal worlds.
Bennett has used the term ‘Avant Retard’ to describe her
mission to combine high brow art and popular culture, and
this is clearly evident in the piece Work, Rest & Play
that occupies the three plasma screens in the foyer of the
Millennium Galleries, Sheffield. Found images of people
engaged in all aspects of human activity ranging from
answering telephones, eating ice-creams, testing toy cars
on a factory production line are combined in a
kaleidoscopic montage that undermines the boundaries
between work, rest and play. Indeed, even when figures are
sleeping they are still engaged in the activity of
dreaming. The images are used in a playful manner,
juxtaposing, for example, a man diving into a pool with a
beautiful mountain landscape and then a computer screen in
a way that suggests nostalgia for that time when we looked
forward to the future and making the world a better place.
The piece reaches a steady climax with an over-burdened
woman calling out for help at which point we are shown that
it was all the dream of a young boy. Or was it? This is a
beautiful, remarkable piece of work that proves that
interesting art can use humour and needn’t be obscure. My
only complaint is that the sound was far too low, a touch
of nervousness on the part of the gallery?