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