In 2009 I entered a competition at the Harris Museum & Art Gallery, in which I had to create a 'low tech' sculpture out of objects supplied by the venue. This was all part of a touring exhibition titled 'Quiet Revolution' created by writer and curator Chris Fite-Wassilak, who with his efforts was winner of the curatorial open held at Hayward Gallery in London.
As I walked around the space I was forever intrigued by an element of balance within the artists work, which was well installed at the Harris, with exception of one piece created by Matt Calderwood and titled "Some things just work". Perhaps one of the strongest pieces however not framed by the space and surrounding work as well as I thought it could be...it needed more air around it.
After marvelling at the exhibition as a whole I made my way into a neighbouring room in which public could attempt to create their very own pieces of art. I grabbed a water bottle, plant pot and kite string. I then thredded the kite string through the water bottle handle and further attached the string to firstly a basketball and then secondly to a lever and placed them on the ground. If anyone was to kick the ball or pull the lever (as they instinctively might) then the water botlle would have been dislodged from its balanced position.
This was an eventual winner of the 'Quiet Revolution' competition, providing me with a much needed B&Q voucher for those artists with storage issues and also the treat of visiting Mr Fite-Wassilak in London for the day.
'Chris' as I will now refer to him was an absolute pleasure to meet. Im not going to begin waffling about the gentleman's attire and what we ate for lunch (although that was shit!!).
We spent time in Lisson Gallery looking at their current offering titled "7", which is not really worth talking about and also the Showroom where emerging artist Ruth Buchanan displayed her first London exhibition, which I have to say I am very pleased new work is inspiring me more than a repeated repertoire of oldies but goodies. If it has too longer shelf life then arguably it was too safe to begin with.
Buchanan's video work was a little uninspiring as is most video work. I try to push and seek some level of appreciation as to why the camera has even begun recording such moments of staged pointlessness, but with the exception of certain Violla pieces and Fischli & Weiss, I am often dissapointed. This doesnt give Buchanan much credit, Be uplifted in the knowledge that this was one piece within a room of rather successful pieces, most notably for me "Curved Curtain", in which the simple involvement of a timed fan gave a piece of art with everychanging narrative, which to me acknowledged an artworks time limit to the public eye and therefore changes the way we look at the piece and subsequently forces us to look again at a piece we have just grown tired of.
Anyway after this and lunch we parted company, yet with an exchange of details and a promised article to be included within BRUCE zine...a joint venture between artist Matthew Livesey and myself (only exclusively available to people in Preston).
0 comments:
Post a Comment