Chiharu Shiota - One Place

Chiharu Shiota's installation One Place at Haunch of Venison is constructed from 400 windows from East Berlin. The enclosed spaces formed by the installation hint at the situation that formerly existed in East Berlin. The inhabitants were enclosed and shut off from family and friends on the other side of the Wall, always looking out towards that which was beyond their reach.

Stacked in towering layers they remind me of pictures at an exhibition, but with their stories missing - what has been seen from these windows? Who has looked longingly out? Or, did they give someone a sense of security, a place where they belonged?

The glass in windows allows light to enter a room but at the same time forms a protective barrier against the elements; wind, rain and snow are prevented from entering. However this protective barrier can also become a threat to safety; shards and splinters of glass from a broken window can inflict serious harm on the unwary.

I found it interesting to note how much clearer the view through the installation was where the glass was missing from the windows. By contrast some of the panes showed the accumulated grime of years of neglect, obscuring the view and begging the question what was being hidden and who made the marks in the dirt?

For me the most disturbing element of the installation was this window with its obscured glass (left), there were others, but it was only this one that bothered me. It seemed a much more solid barrier - No Entry - Keep Out - Don't look in here. Interestingly viewed from the 'inside' of the installation it lost its sinister feeling, perhaps because the opaqueness of the glass blended into the whiteness of the gallery walls.

This was the first time that I had seen one of Shiota's window installations and I found it one of the most impressive pieces of art that I had ever seen.

Henry Moore

Henry Moore at Tate Britain 28th February to 8th August. The introduction to the exhibition refers to the diversity of sculpture on show as illustrating the extent of his experimentation in seeking a union of material, technique and form.

Whilst this is certainly true the introduction fails to make any mention of Moore's evocative drawings, which range from abstract sketches of form to his dark renderings of life underground in coal mines and wartime air raid shelters. Miners at Work on the Coal face, 1942 (above) certainly removes any notion of romance that might be associated with the working man at his labours. Dark, damp, hot and cramped - these are the realities of working underground that Moore so eloquently captures in his underground series.

Stringed Form, 1938, Bronze and string, was my favourite piece from the exhibition. The fluid curves of the outer form are in complete contrast to the taut, geometric, lines of the strings that seem to attempt to define and confine ambiguous spaces within the outer form.

Cultex: Textile as a cross-cultural language

Cultex is being shown at The Hub, Sleaford, until 18th April. Having seen the exhibition in the setting for which the work was designed I was intrigued to see how it would translate in this very different setting.
The answer is generally very well, the large exhibition hall has been sub-divided to create a series of 'room' spaces that flow in a similar way to the rooms at Gallerie F15.

I was particularly delighted to see Anniken Amundsen's 'Mutant Clusters' and 'Shuffled Nature' occupying the same space (above left & right), the graphic qualities of one complimenting the organic qualities of the other.

Yuka Kawai's elegant explorations of space, internal and external, invite the viewer to walk around them and contemplate them from all possible angles. Seeing some of the pieces back-lit, courtesy of the single window, added to the visible depth of the work without destroying the mystery and wonder.

Eva Schjolberg's extremely long piece of sculptural pleating had not travelled from the Norwegian venue but we are treated instead to an installation of nine, shorter, arcs. Referencing the crystals in snow and ice these pieces respond well to being crisply lit in a room with substantially darker walls than the rest.

Gabriella Goransson's primordial forms are laid out in a different format here, but that is one of the beauties of working in smaller modules which offer almost infinite variation of display combinations. Their natural earthy colour and texture offer an excellent contrast to the white nylon of Kiyonori Shimada's all enveloping walls of waves. One thing that the two share is the importance of shadows within the work. It was noticeable, as the day wore on, how the soft winter sunlight produced a slight yellow cast on the white fabric and the shadows within the undulations became almost ghostly. As in Norway I was very taken with the multiple shadows that had been created within Gabriella's work (above).

My only real disappointment was with Machiko Agano and Anniken Amundsen's Greenhouse installation. As stands it is a very nice piece but it is not as stunning as it was in Norway. This was always likely to be the case as it's previous location had allowed for a taller greenhouse where Machico's sculptural pieces had more room to twist and turn and in so doing reflect the light and surrounding gardens in their mirrored surfaces. This is a small price to pay for bringing such a wonderful exhibition to a much wider audience. I look forward to seeing it again in Rugby (22nd June to 22nd August).

Decode: Digital Design Sensations

Decode: Digital Design Sensations at the V&A is a visually stunning feast of frequently interactive delights. Some of the exhibits exist in a state of perpetual evolution, triggered by external factors such as the wind or sales figures on the Stock Exchange whilst others are directly influenced by the action/interaction of the audience.
Body Paint by Mehmet Akten is a large scale interactive installation in which the movements of the audience are translated into colour washes or explosions on the digital screen. Whilst the audience doesn't appear to have any control over the colours they rapidly discover the effects produced by a range of gestures, from subtle flicks of the fingers to expansive sweeps of the arm. Dandelion by YOKE is another responsive piece where the audience uses a hairdryer (which houses a hidden infrared beam) to blow away the seeds from a Dandelion head. Almost ethereal in its beauty this piece belies the complexity of the programming required to produce such graceful motion.
Stockspace by Marius Watz is also driven by external influences but this time it is the Stock Market. The animations are shown in real time with the colours and shapes that are formed being in response to fluctuations in economic trading. I was particularly taken with this rendering which reminded me of files, and papers, in a rotary filing stack that has exploded. Great fun to watch but I would love to have seen a link to the reality of the stock market trading floors.

Earth: Art of a changing world

Earth: Art of a changing world at the Royal Academy of Arts is an interesting mix of established and emerging artists.
Chris Jordan's 'Paper Bags' was my favourite piece in the show. Jordan is a digital artist who draws heavily on statistics to inform his work. This piece references the 1.14 million paper bags used in American supermarkets every hour. From a distance there is the impression of looking through the branchless trunks of a forest of silver birch trees. Closer inspection reveals layer upon layer of stacked paper resembling an ever increasing archival stack that holds untold secrets.
Cornelia Parker's 'Heart of Darkness' is formed from the charred remains of a Florida forest fire. This piece benefited from being given plenty of time for contemplation. The work is a very delicate balance of small twigs and weightier limbs that interact to produce a subtly kinetic whole. The tiny movements elicited by the buildings air conditioning are a gentle reminder of the way in which our perception of events is mediated by the passage of time.
Sophie Calle's 'North Pole' is a poignant tribute to her late mother. Among her mother's three unfulfilled wishes was a visit to the North Pole. Calle used a research trip to Cape Farewell to take some of her mothers treasured possessions and bury them on the edge of the glacier. This process is documented in a series of photographs and three sandblasted porcelain plaques in the shape of the port holes through which she first observed the glacier.

New York 2010 - Final thoughts

I'm not really a city girl - a week is plenty for me but this visit has been fascinating I just wish it was closer so that I could visit more often.

The people were very friendly and helpful, the midtown area was very clean and had lots of 'formal' art but the cheaper areas such as Soho were more individual and perhaps more interesting.
One thing that did fascinate us was the American advertising; on television a company can attack its competitors by name.
We were amazed to see a giant hoarding showing the image of the plane that came down in the Hudson River being used in advertising. The event must have been horrific for those involved and this commercialisation of it seems quite demeaning.

On another corner of Times Square was a hoarding showing President Obama at the Great Wall of China wearing a particular brand of Jacket. There was quite a to-do going on in the press about the use of the President's image to promote a company but the advert was still there when we left.
On a lighter note, we were highly amused by the way that British car show Top Gear was being promoted to the American viewing audience as 'the funniest car show ever', true as it might be I suspect it's not quite how the presenters would like it to be promoted - especially not on the side of a bus!

New York 2010 - Fashion Institute of Technology

The New York Fashion Institute of Technology holds an excellent collection of fashion artifacts.

They are currently showing two exhibitions; 'Night and Day' and 'American Beauty' .
'Night and Day' looks at the changing attitudes to dress over the last 250 years. The exhibition reveals the evolution of the rules that govern fashion for particular times of day, including eras when strictly observed etiquette was the norm and other times when more flexible guidelines prevailed. Both of the dresses in the picture are by Dior, on the left is an afternoon dress in silk taffeta and on the right an evening dress in silk satin (1950's).
'American Beauty' is dedicated to the work of American designers.
In the embellishment section it was Rodarte (sisters Kate and Laura Lulleavy) who really stood out.
Their style includes gothic and distressed designs, and layered gowns with fabrics dyed by Edwina Pellikka.
On the left of the picture is a marbelised grey leather dress from their fall 2009 collection. On the right is an evening dress in steam dyed silk and mohair yarn that has overtones of gothic in the black with blood red streaks.
For me the star of the Geometries section was Yeohlee Teng. In 'Infanta' and unitard the is skirt formed from two layers of circles allowing the rear of the upper layer to be raised over the shoulders as a wrap (see upper mannequin). The label said Black Silk Gazar which didn't mean a lot to me but the fabric draped beautifully. Simple in principle, stunning in practice.

In the Constructed section Anna was very taken with the work of Rick Owen as demonstrated by the three fur jackets in the exhibition. These include the use of mink, fox and goat embellished with horsehair finishing details.
FIT is in the Fashion District where there are plaques in the sidewalk marking the contributions of Americans who have made a significant impact on the fashion world, such as Halston.
His red dress called American Beauty Rose (right) gives the exhibition its name.

Roy Halston Frowick began his fashion career as a milliner - he designed the hat Jacqueline Kennedy wore to 1961's Presidential Inauguration. His move into womens wear was marked by an easy elegance that was adopted by the jet set.

Also in this area is this wonderful, larger than life, statue dedicated to the normally forgotten garment workers of the area