Art & Photography

Friday, 27 July 2012

John Rafman - Saatchi Gallery

Jon Rafman, 9 Rua Pereira da Costa, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2010

Jon Rafman: The Nine Eyes of Google Street View is at The Saatchi Gallery until 29 August.

These are photographs that no one took and memories that no one has. (Jon Rafman quoted by Geoff Dyer)

When Michael Wolf was given an hounourable mention in the 2011 World Press Photo Awards for his project, A Series of Unfortunate Events: Google Street View it provoked a some controversy (see below) - Wolf's 'method' of setting up his camera on a tripod pointing at the computer screen, as he surfed and selected from the images created for Google's Street View, offended some who dismissed it as not even proper 'photography' let alone photojournalism or art.

Wolf is not alone: Doug Rickard and Jon Rafman have also put in hours mining the database. A selection of Rafman's work is now on show at the Saatchi Gallery.

Read Geoff Dyer's interesting article How Google Street View is inspiring new photography, in which he notes amomng other things that Wolf and Rafman have even used some of the same images!

Interesting stuff, I think.

Jon Rafman, 8 Rue Valette, Pompertuzat, Midi- Pyrenees, France, 2011

Jon Rafman, Rv888, Finnmark, Norway, 2010

Jon Rafman, 70 Via Trincea delle Frasche, Fiumicino, Lazio, Italia, 2010

Jon Rafman, 125 Rua Maestro Benedito Olegário Berti, Mogi das Cruzes - São Paulo, Brasil, 2010

Jon Rafman, 139 Rua Indiaporã, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil, 2012

Jon Rafman, 262 Rua Susana, São Paulo, Brasil, 2010

Jon Rafman, 265 Morelos, Reynosa, Tamaulipas, México, 2010

Jon Rafman, 330 R. Herois de Franca, Matosinhos, Portugal, 2009

Thursday, 19 July 2012

Sarah Lucas: Ordinary Things - HMI, Leeds

Sarah Lucas, Suffolk Bunny , 1997-2004

Sarah Lucas: Ordinary Things is at The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, 19 July - 21 October 2012.

Lucas might turn out to be one of the most interesting of the original YBA crowd. I was impressed by her contribution to a mixed exhibition in Gloucester Cathedral in 2010: I thought her piece (see below) the strongest work in the show, as well as being the most sensitive and subtle – which given her ‘bad girl’ reputation was a bit of a surprise.

This exhibition is billed as focusing on the ‘sculptural’, rather than the ‘sensational’, and on her work with the 'ordinary things' that form our surroundings and assumptions.

The gallery’s exhibition blurb rather boldly situates Lucas in an art historical lineage which ranges from

third century Italian votives, Bernini's classical statuary, the figures of Henry Moore and the natural materials of Barbara Hepworth, to the 'Arte Povera' strategies of Mario Merz and the found objects of Robert Filliou. Her works also recall the knotted bodies of Orlan from the 1960s and the dolls of Hans Bellmer and Oskar Kokoschka, as well as the surrealist figures of Pablo Picasso, Robert Gober and Louise Bourgeois, Cycladic torsos and archaeological artefacts.

Elevated company, indeed!

More down to earth is a description of the work itself:

Lucas' sculptures are made of and from the human body - a decaying and sensible object that requires maintenance and care. 'Au Naturel' (1994) is a portrait of a couple on a bed, a man represented by a cucumber and a pair of oranges and a woman by a pair of melons and a bucket. Both vulgar compositions are constructed from materials and vernacular slang that are commonplace, their 'human' component made from organic matter that needs to be replaced as inevitable decay sets in. In the seven 'NUDS' (2009-2010) here on display, limbs can be seen wrapping around each other in knotted couplings and solo acrobatics, the cellulite-marked flesh formed from 'natural' tights stuffed with fluff and stiffened by wire, the delicate surface bruised and wrinkled as the bodies perch on their breeze-block supports.

Read a review by Adrian Searle and interviews with Christina Patterson and Aida Edemariam.