REVIEW: [The Graphic Art of Harry Potter] @ House of MinaLima, London

The Graphic Art of Harry Potter
3 June 2016 - 4 February 2017
House of MinaLima, 26 Greek Street, Soho, London, W1D 5DE

Last week I had some time to have a look at the pop-up exhibition in Soho, that features a wide range of props and original illustrations for the Harry Potter film series. Graphic designers Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima (whose names sound uncannily like they belong in said films) are the brains behind the wonderfully detailed and extensive works of art that are the printed medium in these films. From posters, newspapers, books, packaging and plenty more, this is a feast of the eyes for any Harry Potter fan. In fact, even if you aren't a Harry Potter fan, it would be difficult not to be impressed and delighted by the sheer amount of imagination and creativity that have gone into these props. Even more so when you remember that most of these props will have only been featured on screen for a few seconds, maybe less or not at all. It's an immersive sense of dedication that the two clearly project in these elaborate examples.

The exhibition isn't huge but there's something very charming about how modest the size of the venue is, crammed full to the brim with Harry Potter nostalgia and feels even more like an adventure into some place hidden and special. In a way the whole ambience of the pop-up is made to feel like a shop you may encounter on Diagon Alley in the wizarding world.

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.

REVIEW: [Richard Serra] @ Gagosian Gallery, London

Richard Serra
Gagosian Gallery, Britannia Street, London
11 October 2014 - 4 March 2015

The Gagosian Gallery, London recently exhibited a few select works by the renowned sculptor Richard Serra, perhaps most recognisable for his large scale steel installations. This exhibition was no different as the gallery featured the following works 'Backdoor Pipeline', 'Ramble', 'Dead Load' and 'London Cross'.

As is often the case with Serra's work, the sheer scale and mass of his sculptures dominate the space as you pass through it. The presence of these enormous forms have a breathtaking exchange that is only experienced face to face. It is only with such an interaction that you truly acknowledge and embody the physical grounding of the material and scale that Serra tends to work in.

Ramble (2014) by Richard Serra. Photograph by Mike Bruce

Ramble (2014) consists of a room filled with rows of oblong shaped forms that vary in size but are generally large enough to match the average height of a visitor or tower a few inches above. This immediately creates an interesting synergy between the viewer and Serra's forms, as we are made to create an instant relationship between us and this series of sculpture. The layout of these objects feels maze-like and one is compelled to meander their way through the plane of steel blocks. The distance between the blocks in some places is just wide enough to accommodate, once again emphasising the scale of the work in direct relation to the viewer. As well as appreciating the scale of each of these forms, I often felt a desire to touch them and truly appreciate their materiality and surface. There is obviously a fascination Serra has with steel and his repeated use of this material focuses the viewer's attention on just how this material functions and presents itself.

REVIEW: [Thinking with the Body] by Wayne McGregor @ The Wellcome Collection

Thinking with the Body by Wayne McGregor
The Wellcome Collection
19 September - 27 October 2013

This is my recent review I wrote for the online publishing site: http://intuition-online.co.uk/article.php?id=3416

A study of mind, movement and dance, 'Thinking with the body' was the most recent exhibition presented by the Wellcome Collection in the increasing emergence of collaborative art and science practice. In recent years, artists have become ever more interdisciplinary and multi-faceted practitioners in their own right; engaging with an array of experts, scientists and consultants alike to fuel the research invested in their artworks. In this exhibition Wayne McGregor investigates aspects of perception, sensation and physical movement in relation to cognitive and social sciences, demonstrated through the art of dance itself.

The exhibition certainly addressed some really intriguing ideas around the body as a tool and vessel of physical expression. Using dance as a case study, this spontaneous and inexplicable expressive form of behaviour allows the dancer to use their body as their chosen medium. In fact using the body as an artistic medium is not purely restricted to just dancers, performance artists have been doing the same thing for years. Whilst watching the interchange between both the dancers and choreographers, you feel very much like a voyeur; looking in on a unique form of language by those who possess an obvious enriched understanding and utility of the body as an instrument. It goes beyond ordinary gesture, its flexible, sometimes exaggerated, sometimes amazingly subtle, as if they own a completely different embedded vocabulary of movements they are able to appropriate at will. Just like any other type of artist, dancing explores the endless possibilities of the chosen medium and in this respect, the limits to which the body can be used to express both emotion and narrative. Dance is certainly not just a visually spectacular practice but an innate form of expression drawn from the emotive core. As with many art forms; what appears on the surface  is only half the story, the rather more interesting art lies in the cognitive and psychological intentions driving the resulting physical catharsis.

REVIEW: [Abandon Normal Devices] ZEE @ Fact Gallery, Liverpool

ZEE by Kurt Hentschägler
Fact Gallery, Abandon Normal Devices Festival, Liverpool
29 September - 27 November 2011

Kurt Hentschägler's immersive installation 'ZEE' was described by one viewer as "a world as viewed by a dying robot clone from the inside of a Turner painting..."

I was certainly not disappointed. ZEE was a spectacular multisensory experience, that really did made me question how the things I was seeing were happening in my brain. To date, it's one of the most wholly consuming artworks I have had the pleasure of seeing, and I went in twice.

On arrival, participants had to sign an agreement, as the flashing lights and other conditions inside the installation may cause panic, seizures and other slightly unnerving symptoms. We heard stories from the invigilators of people fainting, or having to make an early escape. So after signing my life away on a slip of paper, they took us to the entrance and briefed us on what not to do. On the first occasion, I was in a group of about five, the thought of there being other people there was quite reassuring at first. Once inside, it dawned on me that it would make no difference.