Saturday 31 March 2012

Patrick Keiller - Tate Britain

Patrick Keiller, still from Robinson in Space, 1997
The Robinson Institute is an installation by Patrick Keiller in Tate Britain which draws upon the Tate collection and archive. 
Keiller is best known for his trilogy of 'Robinson' films: London, (1994), Robinson in Space (1997) and Robinson in Ruins (2010): 
In these film-essays, the fictional, unseen scholar Robinson and his companion, the ‘narrator’ … undertake journeys around England. In each film, these rogue flâneurs set out to study a particular ‘problem', which leads to meditations on the failings of capitalism, economic, environmental and cultural decline, the post-industrial landscape, and myriad literary, historical and occult threads that weave into a secret history. In the films’ measured pacing and crisply edited combinations of words and images, Keiller has a Ballardian capacity to find the poetry in a supermarket car park, a deserted US airbase nestled in the English countryside, or of lichen slowly consuming a metal road sign… “I think what is most urgently required to address the economic/environmental crisis is the political will to do so, followed by a certain amount of forward planning. Neither is much in evidence. But art, especially landscape art, has a key role. [French philosopher] Henri Lefebvre wrote that ‘to change life we must first change space’. Art can do this.” (From "The long awaited return of Patrick Keiller" - Phaidon)
Read reviews of the exhibition by Adrian Searle and Laura Cumming, an article by Owen Hatherley and an interview on Frieze Blog; watch a short video of Keiller talking about his films; see excerpts from London, Robinson in Space and a trailer for Robinson in Ruins; read an article about Robinson in Ruins by Brian Dillon.
The exhibition continues until 14 October.
Patrick Keiller, still from Robinson in Ruins, 2010
Patrick Keiller, still from Robinson in Ruins, 2010
Patrick Keiller, still from London, 1994
Installation shot of exhibition by everydaylife.style
Installation shot of exhibition by everydaylife.style
Installation shot of exhibition by everydaylife.style

Saturday 24 March 2012

Simon Linke: Untitled (Portraits) - Karsten Schubert

Simon Linke, Untitled (Eva Hesse), 2011
Simon Linke: Untitled (Portraits) is showing at Karsten Schubert until 20 April. This series of monochrome portraits of selected artists - Eva Hesse, Claude Monet, Robert Rauschenberg and others - are drawn in pencil from images found in Artforum and then covered in a colour wash of oil paint. This is a departure in style, but a continuation of Linke's mining of Artforum. He is best known for his succulent, impasto paintings of the magazine's covers and advertisements. See selected examples below, included here just because I like them so much. (In view of the imminent Damien Hirst fest (Tate Modern from 4 April) it seemed appropriate to include a couple of Linke's 'Hirst' works.)
Read the late Stuart Morgan on Linke in Frieze from 1997; see more work at simonlinke.com
Simon Linke, Untitled (Claude Monet), 2011
Simo Linke, Hirst/Nader
Simon Linke, Hirst/The Elusive Truth
Simon Linke, Opie, 2006
Simon Linke, Artforum May 2007

Saturday 17 March 2012

David Hall: End Piece... - Ambika P3

David Hall, still from Interruption Piece, from TV Interruptions (7 TV Pieces), 1971
David Hall: End Piece... is at Ambika P3 until 22 April.
David Hall was a pioneer of video art. His early TV interventions in the early 1970s may now seem technologically quaint but they also represent a radicalism in 'public art' that is unthinkable roday. In 1971 Hall made '10 'TV Interruptions' for Scottish Television which were broadcast unannounced in August and September of that year. A selection of these were later issued as 7 TV Pieces. These will be shown at the Ambika P3 exhibition. (See an excerpt from Tap Piece here and Interruption Piece ('Burning TV') here.)
The exhibition includes a major new work: 1001 TV Sets (End Piece) 1972-2012, which will mark the end of analogue TV in the UK as London switches to digital on 18 April. The piece is described as follows: 1001 cathode ray TV sets, of all ages and conditions... will be tuned to different analogue stations playing randomly in a cacophony of electronic signals, gradually reducing between April 4 and April 18, as the final analogue signals are broadcast from London's Crystal Palace. When transmission is turned off, the multiple sets will emit only terminal audio hiss and a visual sea of white noise. (From Ambika P3 website.)
David Hall, still from Tap Piece, from TV Interruptions (7 TV Pieces) 1971
David Hall, still from TV Shoot Out Piece, from TV Interruptions (7 TV Pieces) 1971
David Hall, 101 TV Sets, installation 1972-1975