REVIEW: [ELCAF] East London Comic & Arts Festival @ Round Chapel, London

5th East London Comics & Arts Festival
10 - 12 June 2016
Round Chapel, London

Last weekend I went to an illustration and comics led arts festival. This event was set in Hackney, East London where a selection of independent designers and artists would be selling and promoting their work.

Unlike some of the other illustration fairs I've seen over the last year, this festival had a very intimate and low key feeling about it which I loved. It felt very easy to approach the people who had made the work and there was a real sense of community at the venue. Even though this festival was on a much smaller scale than others I've seen, it felt just as varied and popular.

One of my favourite parts of this fair was seeing the artists drawing on site. Some of them were there to sign their comic books with personalised illustrations, others were creating bespoke drawings for sale which was lovely to see.

I saw such a huge range of styles and merchandise on sale, it was difficult to choose what to come home with. Books, zines, prints, drawings, comics, cards, postcards, badges, ceramics - you name it, it was there! Armed with the long list of exhibitors, I will no doubt be trawling through them and checking out their work online for further purchases. I came home with two wonderful prints and a small drawing which was made at the fair, and the prices were super reasonable. Festivals and fairs like this are fantastic options if you're looking for amazing artwork and prints on a budget. And plus you feel good too in supporting all the emerging talent with their wonderful creations.

Isabel Greenberg (above) was very popular with visitors at the fair, signing her book 'The Encyclopedia of Early Earth' with charming personalised illustrations. Ben Newman (below) was also present, signing his children's book 'Professor Astro Cat's Atomic Adventure' which features some very colourful space-cats.

REVIEW: [Mona Hatoum/Performing for the Camera] @ Tate Modern

Mona Hatoum (4 May - 21 August 2016)
Performing for the Camera (18 February - 12 June 2016)
Tate Modern, London

I popped down to Tate Modern recently for the Mona Hatoum exhibition and whilst I was there, I also had a look around the photography and performance exhibition 'Performing for the Camera'.

Mona Hatoum has been one of my favourite artists since I first started taking art seriously at A Level. Her work commands your attention and at times has a very confrontational presence; it's unsettling, it's visceral and yet poetic too. I have seen a select few pieces of her work over the years, but I was really looking forward to seeing a whole exhibit devoted to her practice.

One of my personal highlights was the installation "Light Sentence" (as in prison sentences), as often Hatoum's work displays political and social undertones. In between a barricade of small cages stacked on top one another, a single light bulb swings in the centre. The projected light from the bulb creates an encompassing surrounding shadow cast around the entire room, transforming it into a 'prison-like' chamber. I think what really worked so well about this piece was the subtle movement of the shadows panning across the walls. The light bulb not only swings like a pendulum, but also moves slowly up and down and the consequent movement of the shadows on the wall makes you feel like you are moving - or swaying. It creates a sense of unsteadiness. The other obvious association I immediately made was feeling like I was in an interrogation room. We've all seen scenes like this in film, where a character wakes up in a dark room, a sinister bulb swings erratically and reveals the character's predicament under confinement or capture. There was something dreamy or illusive about the shadows creating an isolated cell, in comparison to the actual physical barricade in the middle of the room. It felt like being in the point of view of someone slightly hazy.

Another piece I really enjoyed for it's simplicity is '+ and -' (1994/2004). A circular container of sand has a rotating beam that simultaneously smooths and rakes the sand. This is described as a constant process of making and unmaking, a balance of two processes doing and undoing at the same time. I just found this to be really poetic but articulated in such a simple way.



As I mentioned I was at Tate Modern for the Mona Hatoum exhibition, but then I noticed the photography exhibition on and decided to take a look. I really enjoyed this exhibition too. It deconstructs performative acts for photography and allows us to see some of the outtakes or additional shots leading up an iconic image.

"Serious performance art, portraiture, or simply posing for a photograph? What does it mean to perform for the camera? The exhibition explores two forms, looking at how performance artists use photography and how photography in itself is a performance."

This exhibition featured some obvious names in the realm of performance and photography including Charles Ray, Yves Klein, Martin Parr, Erwin Wurm and Ai Wei Wei just to name a few. I really enjoyed this exhibition. I think that it offered a different perception of the artists involved - especially the process and technique to which they choose to use photography to capture an image or an artwork. Especially now where photography is such an accessible and convenient channel of documentation and creativity - it lends itself to some great possibilities.