Mårten Nilsson

Saw a fantastic little film on SVT Play - Mårten Nilsson's "Fågel däruppe".
The edititing is great, the combination of clips and treatment is superlight, seemingly haphazard but the film still feels dense and meaningful. Yeah. That just sounded extremely pretentious. But I really liked it, and this is my note to myself to remember.

I saw This is Alaska as well. Different, (I liked it :), but the other one more).

Eric Manigaud

Amazing!
I have someone who's work connects to mine and yet is different in good ways.
From the Saatchi text:

"Drawings that transcribe existing photographs operate on a tension between fast (the photograph fixing the image) and slow (the laborious transcription of something seen), and that contradiction is a way of probing our experience of the visual image and its claim to truth."*

..."so that his works occupy physical space in a way rarely associated with the photographic image: these are images that exist in our space, and must be negotiated physically."*

Not that much time has passed since the days when I felt I had to make things up when writing a bio or artist statement or exhibition text. That dark age has (at least temporarily) passed. And I am happy to read that I am not completely living in my own bubble.
In other words, sometimes I think I am crazy, this makes me feel less so.
:)

> Pics are screenshots from Charlie Smith Gallery website http://charliesmithlondon.com/

Eric Manigaud | Crime Scene (Colombes) | 2007 | Pencil & graphite powder on paper | 156x179cm

Eric Manigaud | Trachoma Pannus Keratitis 1916 | 2015 | Pencil, graphite powder on paper | 150x125cm

*http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/eric_manigaud.htm?section_name=paper

Rainbow from yesterday

Carl Kostyal 1: Mike Bouchet etc

Today I tried a new gallery that seems to have made itself the new "it".
Artists that were showing their work there were Mike Bouchet, big paintings, and Yngve Holen, Katja Novitskova, Pamela Rosenkranz och Timur Si-Qin (mixed media).
And I was struck by the power of hipness, everyone there looked intensely arty, young, blackclad in 90sstyle and hungry for connections and success. I also saw a world famous pop artist there. She seemed tired and vulnerable(?). I hope she is well. Anyhow.

Nothing I saw of the art made me feel anything interesting or think anything new. It all felt flat and pricy. It was decoration for people who like to think they like contemporary art, and the pieces looked like you would have to pay some to get some. I dont know, it felt sort of like stuff you'd find at a fair, and not neccessarily an art fair. Perhaps the art itself was decontextualized and would be more interesting if combined and contextualized differently. Although I must say that the hamburger paintings, when seen together like this just felt slapstick hipster. Oh so that someone could have an oil painting of their favorite burger on the wall? How anti-establishment.... how in the face of established traditions and more deep-going values.

I was also struck by the perfection and expense in the sheer material and method, the slick finish the works had made me think of design and industrial design. There seemed to have been an idea and then a luxurious "print out", and the distance between the artist as maker and the work was remarkable.

 I dont know actually who has made these pieces (but one of the names above I gather). If anything I liked those above, and the lizard baby (see below). I like the form, although the hearts were a bit over the top (middle pic) and the material. But the fact that the materials are so expensive and the method so clean feels a bit, over-invested somehow. The same value in as out. Does that make sense? Seen like this, on the computer screen I like them better. Odd, dont know why.

And the lizard.

 
 Lizard: Its printed on metal (aluminium?), very neatly, reflected the light awesome, but the same as above, it feels very pricy, targeted directly toward a more wealthy strata and almost like something you would find on a industrial design fair to draw peoples attention.

Hm.
The whole thing also felt very unpolitical. Almost void on and standpoint for anything.

Stockholm
150509

On gender normativity and children

One thought that I had in a conversation recently

A) The most dominant approach (today, in Sweden, at least superficially) to children seems to be to encourage them in their interests and support them in making their own decisions.
To create space for the individual choice would be the way to freedom, also in terms of creating a more equal society- simply let everyone be exactly who they want from the start. It is good!

B) But assuming society isnt a blank slate, these children make their individual choices within a preexisting system of however subtle rewards and punishments.

C) Children copy and adapt. They will make active choices towards the pre-existing roles because that is still the norm, that behavior is still rewarded (the secret pride that the child "chose the right thing" despite the given "freedom"), and few actually want want to stick out, be different. Also very few dare to stick out and be different should they not identify with x role. Not because they are scared to do differently, but they are scared to be excluded. 

D) If we really want things to change, ie mens violence towards women, equality in wages, freedom for men to spend more time with their children and so on and forth, we need to realize that we can't rely on the individual choice to produce changes on a larger scale.

E) Its connects to a sort of "dumping" of responsibility for  necessary changes in regards to the environmental crisis, gender system and other important issues in our time.

F) It seems as if  either the underlying idea is that we are born pure good and naturally inclined to strive for peace and wealth for everybody. Letting people choose freely would create the society of peace and happiness for everyone. Or, that whatever people choose when they choose "freely" is stated to be best for everyone, the natural state, they chose it themselves.

G) Im an anarchist, not interested in any body making my decisions for me. But being free and doing the right thing isn't easy, because society isn't a blank slate.

F) Society isn't a blank slate and the behavior rewarded isn't necessarily that which is "right".

Stockholm
150503

Ann Eringstam Linköping

Im sort of on tour, the tour along Europe highway 4. Or not really. Im in Linköping and thought Id go and see some (local?) art. Anyhow, I saw Ann Eringstams photos (photo collages?) at Passagen. To be honest, Im not really into them - its like.. they nudge at something interesting but don't really get there completely.. or when they do, the surrounding images make me feel that the getting there was just accidental. 

That notion is sort of interesting in itself - to pinpoint it, but not now. 
Instead I want to focus on something that I thought worked. 

This is one of Eringstams photo collages. As a picture I think it is.. ok, Ive seen this enhanced realism/nature-romantic creepiness in other works. The piece however, sits in the inner of a separate little white space that can only be reached through a short but labyrinthian corridor. When entering the corridor, this piece is the "introduction": 

This is the same picture - pointing out the image elements that constitutes the collage (or at least I assume its meant to be read in that way). 1-2-3-4-5. 

In the inner room, flanking the center piece (the first pic in this post), these elements are shown isolated: 

to the left

to the right

Behind

I like this (why?); its like a riddle and its solution presented together, laconically, demystifying, moving the focus of the work (that would otherwise have been the center piece, its content) out of the center piece and into the making of it. What are we left with? What are those pieces when returned to their pre-collage state. The collage that gave them their new meaning, what are their meaning now? 

And the gun doesn't seem to actually be in the center piece. Wouldn't it have shown through the fabric of his pocket? Was that photographed made without the gun? Is that part of the point, the real twist(?). 

Rewind: An artwork constituted by a series of elements put together to create new meaning. And then those pieces are shown separately, like an "its done like this". "These elements are meaningless and interchangeable, see? It means nothing". 

Thats rather odd, right?

Linköping, 

15-04-29

Mixed clouds and sky phenomenas pre 15-04-18

2014 Konstfack Examshow - on ART vs TREND

It is actually a really good thing to go and see exam shows/ art fairs. By seeing so much stuff, by so many young and promising people it is easier to discern trend from art - within the art that I see and in my own head (ie preferences). 

It is a discussion I've had with myself. Sometimes I realise after a while that the piece of work that I liked half a year ago, suddenly has a reflection in the latest fashion from the big chain stores, in shoes and graphic design and design and so forth. This is annoying because it questions whether I liked the art because of the art or because Im brainwashed and trend sensitive. Obviously, what I am saying here is that for me there is a problem when an art piece is too trendy - in its aesthetic or approach.  

Why?
Perhaps because it becomes design for me. It becomes designed decorative objects or images made, not by someone dwelling deep in introspection or on the matters of the world, but someone also sensitive to trends, a maker of objects that fit those trends, a designer. And I don't think design and art are the same or should be mixed up (even if there always will be a neat grey area where these two fields can conflict and question each other - and THIS is good). 

So, there are a couple of trends that are very obvious through the displayed works. I hope I was more of an art or pop-culture historian because unfortunately I can't break down these styles, my analysis will be shallow. Basically I can see that a lot of people are doing quite similar stuff, using a similar aesthetics, and that this aesthetic also is represented somehow in todays fashion (and then I mean TODAY, cause now everything is supposed to change with like a 2-month interval) and design.

TREND 1: 
James Turell-like light-colour-scales ie like neon pink, light neon turqoise-green, light blue, orange, yellow/ pastels/ minimal pop - Triangles, pyramids, deserts, palmtrees, Illuminati, NASA, space, stars, moons, satellites, diamonds, rainbows, unicorns, waterfalls, glitter, roadkill.
Why these belong in the same grouping I can't really explain - kitch? Its clearly a form of kitch, it is ironic. 
Some examples below. Some of these I actually think superseeds the trend and feel independent. especially the video-installation by Tomas Sjögren, Deserted,  (see stills below). 

TREND 2: 
The fragmented body, Body Parts, the body material, skin, hair, flesh, fur, teeth. Small animal-like sculptures, like roadkill (and its interesting, it seems roadkill is the common factor here... thats the sort of extremely peculiar insight that totally makes my day), fleshlike clothing, body clothing, the amorphous body-object, the body-mechanic-machine.

NANCY HAYNES!!

Notes to myself, inspiration 15-04-18

Wes Lang

 Idea: Letting darkness cover pictures leaving things come out in blotches.

John Copeland

The double framing - interesting

Market 2015 - Cool artists

Ok the run through some of the stuff I saw at Market this year.

Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson, one of the greats right of our time(?). His works reminds me of James Turell, in how they come across so simple, sharp, light and clear. This painting above is actually more yellowish, more bright. Well. Got to be seen "live".

Andreas Albrectsen

I think I will add a specific post on this guy, since I want to start "collecting" people who work with drawing. This guy has style, the works are really pretty, although I must say that my allergy towards the subject of female nudity in art (incl pictures of sculptures of female nudes, and women with their clothes ON), is simply not getting better. I'm simply incrediby fed up. Luckily, or unluckily, the (art)world doesnt give a shit about my opinion ;) Anyhow. It will be interesting to see how this guy develops in terms of subject matter.  This is his website - I think... 

http://www.andreasalbrectsen.com/

Adam Jeppesen

Photos, somewhere in Argentina (I overheard this piece of info, for some reason Im not interested). Beautiful. Intense. The paper is folded in A4(?) and then unfolded(?), leaving the creases. I like this? Why? It reminds me of the way I collect pictures; from old magazines, from posters, photos, its totally random. Sometimes I frame stuff that's seemingly been in at the bottom of a recycling bin for a while. I like that but in those cases it isn't a piece of work costing a bunch of money - ie, its not simulating being a cheap cutout from an old travelling magazine, it is a cheap cutout from an old travelling magazine. Its so dense with irony that the aesthetic brought on by lack of quality is reproduced in work that are supposedly high quality. Its so ironic that that the signs of poverty can get processed (like grains, wheat and and corn, like milk and oil and water - its bought cheaply from the poor and then processed into a new product, where the sign of poverty now is a sign of intellect and irony, of elite). Ehm. Still pretty though. 

Marco Cueva

Nice object, it works. Pulling and taunting. Sweet and evil. Lovely. I really want to stick my hand into it. Ehm. 

Denise Grünstein

For all my ranting about women in pictures, (that made me irritated even with Karin Broos, who's almost photo-realistic paintings are really beautiful and sometimes very strong - but all these women. Ueh!), this one... I dont know. I guess she seemed menacing in a slightly ethereal way. Not sexy, not available, yet not aggressive. Just contempt and transient. Like as if she was really from another century and just stopped by in space-time, looked at us with a disinterested slightly disgusted scoff and chose to not look more. Or maybe I just made that whole thing up. 

Jason Martin

I love this stuff. It gives me the shivers, like when I saw Mika Rottenbergs show in Magasin 3. These orgies in tactility sort of imposes on my physical space, make me want to taste them, engage in well, ehm, orgies? :D  All happy and curly in the brain. 

Tatjana Valsang

Maybe not so challenging, but I simply liked this work.

Eric Bidner

A rose-like clump seemingly made out of sugar and with petals of salami. Very very likeable :) Confusing in the right way. Part "eu" and part deep fascination. 

Thats all for now

Stockholm

15-04-18

Cecile B Evans at CURATRON #5

Saw recently a piece of work at CURATRON #5 (platform Stockholm) byt Cecile B Evans
http://cecilebevans.com/

The work titled Hyperlinks or it didnt happen is a piece I want to remember for its sweetness, how well its executed, the questions it answers but also because it reminds me of a work that I tried to "make come out of me" (or whatever) and I obviously wasn't the right artist for the job (or enough talented). Thankfully there are others :)

The picture is from the artists website. Al cred to her.

on LOVE 

love Love LOVe loveloveLove

My friend is executing experiments in love. Tinder. So, according to below article and study this whole business ought not be so complicated (the subject of the article being- you can make people fall in love and here's the recipe).
Thing is consequentially Im now looking for someone that I want to fall in love with. In a cold and rational sort of way. I mean - if you get to pick the person to fall in love you might want to consider some beneficial extras. Like. Perhaps he should have a car? :D
Or. If you could fall in love with anybody - does it cease to matter if he has humor? Since you will love him anyway?

The article
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/modern-love-to-fall-in-love-with-anyone-do-this.html?_r=0

The study
http://www.stafforini.com/txt/Aron%20et%20al%20-%20The%20experimental%20generation%20of%20interpersonal%20closeness.pdf

The questions
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html