REVIEW: Tate Modern Extension (Switch House), London

I finally had some time this week to go and explore the new extension to the Tate Modern which opened a couple of weeks ago. The extension (dubbed 'Switch House') provides another ten floors worth of gallery space to the landmark contemporary gallery.

I have to say on approach, the new extension looks spectacular. It blends in surprisingly well with the existing venue but looks iconic and unique in its own right. It certainly will provide architecture and photography lovers with resourceful new inspiration.

I entered through the new extension and found myself pretty lost to begin with. I was a little disorientated as to where the new building started and where the old site met. But after a little consolidation and aimless wandering (mainly back and forth through the shiny new gift shop) I decided to explore my way up the Switch House one floor at a time.

If you're seeking actual artwork, there are three floors worth of new and old material. I have to admit, gallery-wise, the extension feels much smaller on the inside than it first appears on the outside once you've orientated yourself. As a frequent Tate visitor, I noticed that a notable portion of the artwork in the new galleries was work I'd seen from other branches of the Tate or from previous exhibitions. Despite this, the Switch House galleries are light, open and very inviting and host a different feel to the existing Tate galleries.

After exploring the art galleries, I was recommended to visit the top floor viewing level. This is probably one of the main attractions to the venue other than seeing the art, as a huge proportion of visitors were waiting to take lifts up to the tenth floor. Unfortunately the lifts are all rather small and don't seem to adequately accommodate the demand of visitors going up to the viewing level, leaving many like me braving ourselves to scale the ten flights of stairs instead (although granted, I had already conquered four out of the ten floors at this point). What I found curious on my way up was that the other six floors of the building were still very much empty. So keep this in mind if you're planning to visit. My guess is that the building is still very much a work in progress and they wanted to open as soon as possible. As I mentioned earlier, there were three floors of artwork and the ground floor hosts the gift shop and cafe.

So once I'd huffed and puffed my way up the tenth floor, the view up top is definitely worth the hike. The views across London are fantastic, and you're able to look straight across the Thames. It's also pleasantly not as crowded as you'd expect it to be judging by the amount of people taking lifts up.

All in all I am very excited at the prospect of this new extension and I think it will offer a huge potential of new opportunities. In it's current state, the building is certainly not yet finished or full to capacity but it's definitely worth a visit.

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.

REVIEW: [Pick Me Up] Graphic Arts Festival @ Somerset House

Pick Me Up Graphics Arts Festival
Embankment Galleries, Somerset House
21 April - 2 May 2016

Somerset House hosted the annual graphic arts festival 'Pick Me Up' which is currently in its seventh year running. It's a fantastic opportunity to showcase emerging and established artists, studios and collectives. Last year was the first time I came along to this festival, and I absolutely adored the experience. The Embankment galleries became a web of live workshops and stalls, selling anything from prints, zines, clothing and more. As well as that, you get to see the designers in action and watch the creative process, and possibly get something custom made. Because of how much I enjoyed myself last year, I had high hopes for the festival this time round.

The festival begins with a curated exhibit featuring a selection of upcoming artists, A couple of my favourites included Alice Bowsher with her simple but strong black ink drawings, and Aart-Jan Venema's colourful and detailed compositions. Alice Bowsher happened to be the illustrator in residence for the day, and was selling her paintings for £15 a piece.

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: [Dalston House] by Leandro Erlich @ Barbican Centre, London

Dalston House by Leandro Erlich
Barbican Centre
26 June - 4 August 2013

I've always been a fan of interactive and participatory artworks, and London's latest instalment Dalston House was just the type of work I love going to see. Having read about Leandro Erlich's work before, I was intrigued to experience his manipulation of visual and spatial dimensions in the flesh.

What struck me immediately was its nonchalant and honest simplicity. The first thing you see is the huge and imposing mirror, and in effect that is all there is to this illusion: the mirror. However I found myself drawn to the metal scaffolding holding the mirror up. Erlich has purposely allowed the viewer to be able to see the exposed mechanism behind the illusion. Nothing is concealed, there are no smoke and mirrors to the work's production. Every person participating in this work knows more or less how it works, how the illusion transpires ─and still...the magic and curiosity is still very much there. If anything, the pleasure received from the work is even more so somehow when you realise how straightforward it is in its construction.

People are always fascinated by their reflections. Even now when you see someone walk down the street and they catch their reflection in a mirror unexpectedly, they look intrigued or surprised as if seeing themselves for the first time. Seeing one's self allows an unusual, out of body semblance; an awareness of one's body and its ordinary constructs and restrictions in real time and space. Dalston House enables the impossible ─but not in actual physicality, just in the reflected image. Yet this is enough to reverse our rational understanding of our bodies and its capabilities. Participants became acrobats, superheroes, people with gravity defying abilities and contortions. Ironically enough, most viewers were adamantly trying to recreate a realistic portrayal of gravity, dangling upside down for example was popular, or sitting a window ledge from a seeming twenty or so feet off the ground. People were trying to create fantastical scenarios but within the realms of believable physics, as if this makes the illusion even more seductively deceptive. Creating a sub-real reality from the unreal. You get how it works, you see how it works, but you still find yourself staring at your own reflection thinking "I'm dangling upside down from a window ledge." You may know you're lying on the ground but this feels irrelevant when your body becomes the best full scale puppet you've ever had to play with.