- Emma Murphy
Whitechapel - Harun Farocki, Parallel I-IV (2012-14)
15 December - 12 June 2016
Harun Fraocki (b.1944) explores the evolution of the technology used in video games over the past 30 years in this 8 screen video installation. Shown in conjunction with Electronic Superhighway (2016-1966) (an exhibition of over 100 works to open on January 28th), both displays aim to delve into the world of computer technology and the omnipresence of the Internet. Parallel I-IV (2012-14) is an astute mediation on a world blighted by tension and the latent potential of terrorism. Displayed through snippets of real time, often violent scenes from video games, this installation is sporadically overlaid with voiceovers and cutting damnations of society’s current state of affairs. A highly recommended exhibition.
Carlos / Ishikawa: - Condo
16 January – 13 February 2016
Condo is a collaborative exhibition by 24 young galleries hosted across 8 London spaces. Carlos / Ishikawa features installs by Essex Street, New York; Mathew, New York & Berlin; and Freymond-Guth, Zürich. The entrance cum gallery space is hung more like a nightmare haute couture shop cut straight from the world of a slightly optimistic Donnie Darco. Helen Marten and Magali Reus’s contribution comprises of stockings hewn from material reminiscent of animal intestines with threads and beads hang in a humorous attempt to “dress up” the internal organs. A sarcastic nod perhaps to a culture perpetually desiring women to abide by certain unattainable standards. The exhibition proper is a mishmash of groupings, from dildo inspired glass hanging from the ceiling, paintings of ghostly figures rather brashly depicted in cobalt blues and cut outs from feminist magazines attached directly to the gallery wall. The clothing shop – an installation by Carlos / Ishikawa themselves - is by far and away the most exciting display here.
16 January – 13 February 2016
Condo is a collaborative exhibition by 24 young galleries hosted across 8 London spaces. Carlos / Ishikawa features installs by Essex Street, New York; Mathew, New York & Berlin; and Freymond-Guth, Zürich. The entrance cum gallery space is hung more like a nightmare haute couture shop cut straight from the world of a slightly optimistic Donnie Darco. Helen Marten and Magali Reus’s contribution comprises of stockings hewn from material reminiscent of animal intestines with threads and beads hang in a humorous attempt to “dress up” the internal organs. A sarcastic nod perhaps to a culture perpetually desiring women to abide by certain unattainable standards. The exhibition proper is a mishmash of groupings, from dildo inspired glass hanging from the ceiling, paintings of ghostly figures rather brashly depicted in cobalt blues and cut outs from feminist magazines attached directly to the gallery wall. The clothing shop – an installation by Carlos / Ishikawa themselves - is by far and away the most exciting display here.
Marian Goodman – Sculpture 4tet
12th January – 20th February
Luciano Fabro, Jean-Luc Moulène, Bruce Nauman, Danh Vō, curated by Jean-Pierre Criqui
Taking the premise of ‘sculpture’ as its starting point, curator Jean-Pierre Criqui brings together four generations of men in an attempt to understand our current relationship with such a broad and all-encompassing term. Each artist is designated their own separate area, giving the overall impression of four distinct displays. Italian Luciano Fabro (1939-2007) pays homage to Michelangelo by reimaging the façade of a famous Palladian church into a collaged layering of architectural drawings pasted directly to the wall. His Sisyphus, 1994 consists of marble rolled across flour strewn on the gallery floor is a confident, bold sculpture reminiscent of both the readymade and land art. Bruce Nauman’s (b. 1941) idiosyncratic neons and linear drawings share this ground floor space. As so often in Nauman’s works, he tenaciously ponders life and death, pleasure and pain. It is Danh Vō, who arguably has been designated the least desirable of the gallery spaces - nestled upstairs behind the offices, who presents works that critique the notion of sculpture today. His dynamic display includes vulgar text etched into a mirror, a small image of space and a medieval, beautifully degraded wooden Madonna precariously balanced atop a contemporary stone plinth. This biblical statue on her geometric plinth reimagines a hybrid form that is both old and new, readymade and constructed. Vō brings to mind Rosalind Krauss’s seminal 1979 essay and the decimation of sculpture as an easily identifiable genre through these varied works.
Sculpture 4tet is admirable in its ambition, albeit disappointing in its lack of interrelationships between artists and generations, but worth the trip all the same.
The approach - Is this living?
10th January – 7th February
“Leftovers waste and residue”, the press release states, “are the themes of Is this living?” A group exhibition in Bethnal Green’s The approach. This premise is however the most enticing element to this show. A dreary mishmash including bones dredged from the Thames by Hannah Lee are hung like a sadistic giant’s necklace, Holly White’s hording of objects left over from a nights camping are stuffed into a plastic canopy and Helene Appel’s small paintings of internal organs covered with wax are an unsatisfactory attempt at the macabre and grotesque. This exhibition disappointingly lacks in any sort of cohesive or dynamic display, merely becoming a stagnate attempt of exploring the clichés of death through the living.
12th January – 20th February
Luciano Fabro, Jean-Luc Moulène, Bruce Nauman, Danh Vō, curated by Jean-Pierre Criqui
Taking the premise of ‘sculpture’ as its starting point, curator Jean-Pierre Criqui brings together four generations of men in an attempt to understand our current relationship with such a broad and all-encompassing term. Each artist is designated their own separate area, giving the overall impression of four distinct displays. Italian Luciano Fabro (1939-2007) pays homage to Michelangelo by reimaging the façade of a famous Palladian church into a collaged layering of architectural drawings pasted directly to the wall. His Sisyphus, 1994 consists of marble rolled across flour strewn on the gallery floor is a confident, bold sculpture reminiscent of both the readymade and land art. Bruce Nauman’s (b. 1941) idiosyncratic neons and linear drawings share this ground floor space. As so often in Nauman’s works, he tenaciously ponders life and death, pleasure and pain. It is Danh Vō, who arguably has been designated the least desirable of the gallery spaces - nestled upstairs behind the offices, who presents works that critique the notion of sculpture today. His dynamic display includes vulgar text etched into a mirror, a small image of space and a medieval, beautifully degraded wooden Madonna precariously balanced atop a contemporary stone plinth. This biblical statue on her geometric plinth reimagines a hybrid form that is both old and new, readymade and constructed. Vō brings to mind Rosalind Krauss’s seminal 1979 essay and the decimation of sculpture as an easily identifiable genre through these varied works.
Sculpture 4tet is admirable in its ambition, albeit disappointing in its lack of interrelationships between artists and generations, but worth the trip all the same.
The approach - Is this living?
10th January – 7th February
“Leftovers waste and residue”, the press release states, “are the themes of Is this living?” A group exhibition in Bethnal Green’s The approach. This premise is however the most enticing element to this show. A dreary mishmash including bones dredged from the Thames by Hannah Lee are hung like a sadistic giant’s necklace, Holly White’s hording of objects left over from a nights camping are stuffed into a plastic canopy and Helene Appel’s small paintings of internal organs covered with wax are an unsatisfactory attempt at the macabre and grotesque. This exhibition disappointingly lacks in any sort of cohesive or dynamic display, merely becoming a stagnate attempt of exploring the clichés of death through the living.