Sculpture drawings

Yvonne Rainer

November 2011 the BFI Gallery presented an exhibition dedicated to the work of the legendary American dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, Yvonne Rainer (b.1934) whose practice is amongst the most influential on the newest generation of video makers and choreographers alike. Yvonne Rainer's work examines the balance between the political and the private in everyday life. After exploring innovative ideas in bodily movement, she went on to develop these concerns in film. 

The exhibition features three of Rainer’s works in the BFI Gallery (until 25th Jan) and is accompanied by screenings of her seven feature films to be shown in the BFI cinemas.

There is also a curated programme of artists’ works which will include films from Rainer's Five Easy Pieces series (1966-1969). The artists featuring alongside and inspired by Rainer's work are Yael Bartana, Köken Ergun, Michel François, Laurent Goldring, Mircea Cantor, Katinka Bock, Sonia Khurana, Florence Lazar, Bea McMahon and Su-Mei Tse. The screenings are at 13:00 on 4th and 5th of Dec in the Studio a the BFI, Southbank.

Stills from Yvonne Rainer's performance 'Trio A' 1965, and photographs of performance by L. Colbourne  2009

Louise Bourgeois Symposium

Louise Bourgeois Fabric Work symposium 13th November  

Griselda Pollock started the talks off by discussing the emerging possibilities for female artists today. She called for more of an acknowledgement of the history of feminism to be seen as a part of Louise Bourgeois development and success. She stated that feminism should be seen as a field of opportunities and not a solid object in history. 

The next speaker was Meg Harris Williams, who spoke very eloquently of  Bourgeois and her working process in a psychoanalytical way, referring to her childhood and family relationships.  Harris Williams said of bourgeois that her art making was a constant growing and learning experience, one of constant 'becomings'.

Phyllida Barlow was a humerous speaker and connected to the actual 'stuff' of the art work as a pose to the politics or psychoanalysis behind it. She talked of Bourgeois relationship to the theatricality of her work, not just in the arrangement of things but also in the use of materials. Barlow mentions the 'constant future potential' in the gradual unraveling of themes and materials that are rooted in the history of Bourgeois art. She was always able to make the work appear new and full of potential. Barlow also spoke of earliest encounters with Bourgeois work and how the thing that struck her was the scale of it. Barlow's own practice has a great deal to do with the sheer scale of the work, but she said that for her it's not to do with making a grand macho gesture but 'wanting to reach up to the unknown'.

in my studio

in my studio

Cardboard box and un-fired clay,from a series based on Louise Bourgeois drawings of hair.

  

“Hair is omnipresent in Louise Bourgeois’s early drawings and paintings, luxuriant, sensual, even self-erotic.” 

Robert Storr  

Juliana Cerqueira Leite

Juliana is showing three sculptures at the current Saatchi Gallery show: 

Newspeak: British Art Now.

Juliana's sculptures are often made by a physically demanding activity,this piece is an inflated latex cast of the form that is created by burrowing into a huge block of clay (finger gouges are clearly visible). Her work engages with the history of figurative art, challenging notions of the body as static and reformulating figurative representation.

Louise Bourgeois fabric work at Hauser and Wirth

Friday 12 November 2010, 6.30 pm

Talk led by Curator Germano Celant 

Saturday 13 November 2010, 10 am – 6 pm
Symposium
Speakers include: Phyllida Barlow, Briony Fer, Mignon Nixon, Claire Pajaczkowska, Griselda Pollock and Meg Williams
Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, Wilkins Building, University College London

serpentine dance

Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Jenny Baines and I met for a chat about ideas for the Physical Center project.

I told them about a plan I had to re-create, in some sense, the Serpentine Dance by Loie Fuller (1890). What interests me is the simple way Fuller created performances involving moving coloured lights and swathes of fabric with low- tech devices, such as gel filters and arm extentions. She amazed audiences, at the time, with an illusion of the movement of flight and was one of  the first to create images and experiences that hint of a cybernetic future.

In the studio

Nunhead Open 7 Art Exhibition

Nature is the Chruch of Satan is to be screened at The Nunhead Open Art Exhibition, which is now in it’s seventh year. The Exhibition will be held at The Nunhead Community Centre and is linking with the film festival by encouraging artists to enter work on the theme of film.

 

Nunhead Community Centre,

56 Nunhead Lane

SE15 3TU

10- 12th September 12-5pm

 

Nature is the Church of Satan at Latitude 2010

Nature is the Church of Satan

by Louise Colbourne

A collection of short film and video including work by Zoë Brown, Dryden Goodwin, Louise Colbourne, Paul Burgess, Kate Street, Jenny Baines, Jim Hobbs, Matt Hulse, Vicki Thornton and Semiconductor.

Together these films and videos show an edgy side to nature and the landscape, revealing an intense atmosphere and the potential to evoke a response both outside and within.

This programme was screened at the Latitude festival in the woodland area on the 20 x 30' Big Screen. Also showing was Tim Simmons landscape photography and a selection of film and video work selected by Ben Borthwick. All were projected from a shack built by David Blandy as part of his installation in the woods called 'Crossroads'.

During the festival in the Lavish lounge daily 'Artists in conversation' events were hosted by Louise Gray, Anne Hilde Neset and Ben Borthwick, who also curated the Latitude Contemporary Arts programme this year with Ami Jade Cadillac from Lavish Ltd.

In our discussion were (from right to left) Louise Gray, Ben Borthwick, Mode, Matt Hulse, Vicki Thornton, Paul Burgess and Louise Colbourne. 

We were reminded of the solitude that nature inspires, and that our relationship to the landscape can be very intimate within its vastness.

The rhythmic flow and pace of the programme is quite important,the physicality of movement, timing, pace and structure of the individual pieces in 'Nature..Satan' influenced how the pieces were placed in order..

The sound was a very physical element to the work, especially for Vicki Thornton who laid letraset on to 16mm film stock which created the interference sound on her film 'Orchestra of Antimatter'. Matt Hulse's 8mm film 'Sine Die' has a soundtrack made up of a collage of folk samples from around the world which added to the 'Whicker Man' feel of his emotive and spiritual piece. Paul Burgess was inspired by the 'evil spirits in the woods' that surround the town of 'Twin Peaks', by David Lynch, and for him the sound element of the work was an important and evocative element.

'I liked the diversity and sense of freedom in your selection, and also the humour. But altogether the films worked well and I thought brought a powerful extension to the experience of those 'going into the woods'. Matt Hulse

'I saw one of the late screenings of the programme and it was really interesting seeing the films in that context late at night, I was also really pleased with the sound quality too. I think my favourite part was seeing the sun in the Semiconducter piece not long before the sun actually came up!' Vicki Thornton.

Projection stills in order from top: 'Gaze' 2010, Louise Colbourne. 'Heliocentric' 2010, Semiconductor.

With thanks to:

Latitude Contemporary Arts

Lux

'In conversation' photographs courtesy of Lucy Brown

Devil's Dyke

This is a 16mm film taken on location at Devil’s Dyke. 

The polystyrene ball (1 meter diameter) rolls down

the hill until the wind mechanism on the 16mm

camera runs out in about 30 seconds.

Whitstable Biennale

Nature is the Church of Satan, screened in the hut at the tennis courts, next to the beach in Whitstable on the 3rd of July 2010.

SHELF at Whitstable by Jim Hobbs

An exhibition of works that considered the 'shelf'.
The exhibition included a piece I made of a video animation of photographs taken of a performance based on Yvonne Rainer's 'Trio A' 1965

Just Like That

Family Phenomenon (louise colbourne)

Louise Colbourne and Jenny Baines presents

Just Like That a film and video event of new work by selected artists around the theme of humour and self parody.

Virginia Woolf said that when she wrote Orlando, she wrote it quickly and with a sense of fun - for her it was a 'holiday from writing' and an opportunity to make a parody of her usual writing style.

The artists’ response to this way of producing and presenting work is illustrated in this screening, resulting in a diverse and interesting collection of new films and reworked previously unseen footage.

Artists:
Jaye Ho
Kate Hawkins
Jenny Baines
Emma Hart
Louise Colbourne
Paul Burgess
Keran James
Vicki Thornton
Sepideh Sali
Juliana Cerqueria Leite
Eddie Peak
Oliver Bancroft
Harry Pye
Michael Wedgewood
KundE
Carali McCall
Julie Rafalski


Studio 1.1 Gallery, 57a Redchurch Street, E2 7DJ,
13th September 2009 from 7pm – 9pm.