Spot the difference: Clarisse d’Arcimoles vs. Irina Werning vs zefrank

Irina's Werning (top) work is featured in today's Sunday Times Magazine.   Clarisse d’Arcimoles showed a few months ago at Degree Art. Can you spot a trend? Can you spot the difference?
Also, here is zefrank.com project young me/ now me.

Time out. Thinking. Drawing again.

Undressing the book: inside the old bindings 2

 

 

 

Alicia Bock: prints for Japan.

 

There are some beautiful beautiful limited edition prints by Alicia Bock. Proceeds will be donated to Red Cross relief efforts in Japan.

Undressing the book: the old bindings.

Perfect stitching, fascinating markings!

A trace of 1968.

Traces. The Truth of Blacksmith Ignotas

Some of the books have been damaged and I had to remove them from their bases. I was amazed to find those beautiful traces of the books absorbed into the white earthenware: some ash fused into a glaze,  markings of iron (?) in the ink. Mesmerizing.

Compulsive hoarding and letting my artwork go.

I do not let things go easily. I am a hoarder. Our loft and basement are full to the brim. I am running out of space in my studio room too.  I remember reading somewhere an interview with Cornelia Parker. She said she started going suspended sculpture, because that was the only clear space in her house. She is hoarder as well. Susan Hiller is a hoarder too. Not a bad company - see!

Anyway - I do not let things go easily - and that includes my work*. Therefore, it was highly therapeutic for me to spend the private view talking to all those people of very very different arts/non-arts backgrounds, who were interested in my work. It almost felt that the work did not belong to me anymore. It had a life of it's own. And - wow - it was fascinating to watch that life! Many were intrigued/mortified by the fact that I burn books; but they were simultaneously drawn by the beauty of the result. Some were curious about the history and the background of my work. Some were asking about the techniques. Some were taken by the fragility. Many asked about the title. Some thought it was good example of how open-minded book arts are. Some asked about my course, assuming I was a good representation of it (I am not).

I have a few more of those 1968 pieces. Some are damaged, some went wrong. Why do I keep them?

 Here is an article about Song Dong installation and compulsive hoarding.





*Not the certain work from about a year ago, that I passionately want to burn (and keep the ashes of course!)

Fired books - 1974. Un-titled.

Beyond photography: Clarisse d’Arcimoles @ Degree Art

At the moment Degree Art has got a fascinating exhibition by Clarisse d’Arcimoles. Worth a trip to the East End.
Clarisse is a photographer, but the exhibition was not exactly what I expected of a photography exhibition. It is not one of those perfectly lit, high gloss, expensively framed, large format selection of land/city/seascapes, that fill the art fairs. Clarisse's work is intimate and homely. She recreates and documents the past (no wonder I loved the show). There are photos from her family albums (a kind of now and then arrangements), there is the story of the last resident of the demolished block of flats, there are her travels in India. I had an impression, that Clarisse functions first as an artist, and then as a photographer. I will certainly be keeping my eye on her.

Since graduating from Central Saint Martin’s just over a year ago, d’Arcimoles’ work has been enthusiastically received with exhibitions and awards in the UK and internationally. She is currently exhibiting in Newspeak: British Art Now Vol. II at the Saatchi Gallery. Clarisse d’Arcimoles immortalises, revisits and re-imagines through her work, taking memory and the passage of time as her material. Through this conflation of the past and present the results fluctuate between emotionally charged relics and documentary objects. D’Arcimoles’ delicate handling of her subjects challenges authenticity and artificiality in a bid for both nostalgia and reality.

Clarisse d’Arcimoles: Un-Possible retour and other recent works will include new and recently acclaimed photography, film and installation by d’Arcimoles. Un-Possible retour is a photographic series in which the artist reconstructed snapshots from her family photo albums. The works share the simultaneously poignant and comic atmosphere of The Good Old Days, a sustained investigation through notebooks, photography and film, into the life of Jimmy Watts, the oldest resident of the Market Estate in Holloway, demolished last year. The film will be shown in a reconstruction of how the artist displayed the film in Watts’ flat, custom-built for the exhibition. 16 impressions sous plastique is a collection of self-portraits of d’Arcimoles in a series of hostels and hotel rooms while travelling across India. The intimate environments are generic yet personal in their brief occupation, defined by the detritus of previous tenants or sterile anonymity, accompanied by unlikely commentary and recommendations. These celebrated works will be accompanied by new and previously unseen works.

Normal paranormal: Susan Hiller @ Tate Britain

I am not the kind of person who would sleep in the fairy rings when sober. I would also not seek aliens or ghost voices. I do not believe in full moon or the twelve signs of Zodiac. I like science and all the nerdy things that come with it.

Susan Hiller's exhibition at Tate has ghosts, dreams and all other otherworldly things: an unusual vehicle for the ideas. If Hiller intended to create a tension with that - she succeeded well for me - I am still struggling trying to consider her dream maps without an irony.

Other than my struggle to deal with the paranormal - the show is beautifully curated: a remarkable feast for eyes, ears and mind. Starting with the burnt paintings (which is what I was going to do with my last year's work), onto the wave postcards, the fire, through to the Freud's cabinet, the auras (yep, I like even those), the bottles. What I loved most, is the pieces where her past as an anthropologist comes through: artefacts collected and documented, arranged and ordered. Now they highlight that,what has always been there, but got lost between the familiar and stagnant meaning associations. She creates imaginary taxonomies - or our desire to make sense of things creates imaginary taxonomies - that otherwise would have not been grouped together. Well - I need to read more about her systems. Fascinating!

This is her older interview.

This major survey exhibition at Tate Britain will provide a timely focus on a selection of her key works, including many of the pioneering mixed-media installations and video projections for which she is best known. It will be the largest presentation of her work to date, providing a unique opportunity to follow her exploration of dreams, memories and supernatural phenomena across a career of almost four decades.

The exhibition is curated by Ann Gallagher, Head of Collections (British Art), Tate, with Sofia Karamani, Assistant Curator, Tate Britain. The exhibition will be accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue published by Tate Publishing.

If there is cinematic poetry...

"Music articulates forms which language cannot set forth" - Susanne Langer (from G. L. Hagberg Art as Language. Wittgenstein, Meaning and Aesthetic Theory)

"Music articulates forms which language cannot set forth" - Susanne Langer (from G. L. Hagberg Art as Language. Wittgenstein, Meaning and Aesthetic Theory)

If there is cinematic poetry, this must be it. Do watch it to the end, if you have not seen it before. And get yourself a copy of the film - Spirited Away.

This must be the most beautiful scene from any film. Chihiro boards this train. It's a spirits' train - she is in the spirit land, trying to rescue her parents. The train only runs one way. It travels through the vast spaces of water. The music is sublime. So atmospheric.
I have travelled once on the slow train in winter across Lithuania. And this is how it felt. The land was vast and white; the stops seemed all in the middle of nowhere; the people were silent, pensative and carried baskets and old cases. I could almost hear that music!






PS. Apparently the magnificent soundtrack to this magnificent film is by Joe Hisaishi - one more name to add to my favorite Japanese artists, alongside Araki Takako, Yohei Nishimura and - of course - Hayao Miyazaki.

Burning books - no11; 1969

1969. Blank.

The number of books in young people's personal libraries increased 60 per cent. (from Illustrated History of the USSR)

So?




I am taking books, that no longer have the society that supports them (uh! I have got a barn full of them!) and I reduce them to an immensely fragile state (firing in the kiln) - so fragile, that they may disintegrate in hands - just like the memory of the times, that they represent.

Burning books - no10; 1978

Before:



After:



This one has been completely destroyed. I do like the aesthetics of it, even though, the outcome looks like a disaster. I do like this book. I love the traces on the clay and metal clips. It is also holding better together, so it could be mounted on the wall.





Where do I find a studio with a kiln for the future?



I am taking books, that no longer have the society that supports them (uh! I have got a barn full of them!) and I reduce them to an immensely fragile state (firing in the kiln) - so fragile, that they may disintegrate in hands - just like the memory of the times, that they represent.

Burning books - no9; 1974

1974. Kaunas. That was the year when this book got published. Just think - somebody took time and effort to put it together. Somebody thought it was good and bought it. Possibly read it. Underlined words. Thought about it. Made notes.
And it has all become useless now. Discarded. Baby has outgrown the clothes.
The memory of that time and that truth have become faint and fragile. Disintegrating in mind, burning in flames, rotting away in basements.
In my case - sitting in the boxes and blocking the room.


Well - yesterday this first proper book came out of the kiln. There are a number of things I do not like and I will be changing. On the whole, it is heading the right direction. It will certainly be all white (I was considering gold and black) - like a face without blood. The book will certainly be fired on the tablet. There will be no glaze.



I am taking books, that no longer have the society that supports them (uh! I have got a barn full of them!) and I reduce them to an immensely fragile state - so fragile, that they may disintegrate in hands - just like the memory of the times, that they represent.

London Art Fair: Aliki Braine's altered landscapes for big walls.

Big landscapes! That Australian man would be oh so happy! Except that Aliki Braine's landscapes are punched, so I am not sure how they fit into the category of "lovely pictures".

Aliki is interested in how a photograph can be transformed into an object and uses destructive techniques to disrupt her otherwise pastoral landscape images. Often cutting, drawing with ink or punching holes into the negative her violation of the pristine surface of the photograph forces the viewer to look towards the texture of the photographic paper and opens up a new understanding of the photographic process and image making. For Aliki the hole puncher acts in much the same way as a painter's brush, enabling her to make a mark on her photographic canvas. (From Troika Editions website).

PS I have just realized, that I really do like artwork with absence.

London Art Fair: Diana Taylor and Rowena Huges

Diana Taylor and Rowena Huges must have been my favorite. Diana seems to be working with memories and fragmentation. Unfortunately, I cannot say much about them: the ladies at Room Artspace did not happen to be the talkative ones (hm... except with each other).

London Art Fair: Tony Charles and Deb Covell at Platform-A Gallery

Platform-A must have been the friendliest gallery at the London Art Fair. It is such a pleasure to talk to people who are willing and interested to talk about their work and their gallery.
Uh - not every stand at LAF was like that. What is it with some of the people, that they cannot be asked to respond to human interaction?

Anyway,
First I noticed Deb Covell's work on the wall on the left. Her pieces are small scale and they have an air of insignificance about them. Delicate. They are called "PLY" series. These collages are detritus of larger paintings. As such, they are invested with complex material history. Deb Covell attempts to bridge the gap between the ordinary and familliar with and often idealistic quest for beauty and purity. (the last few sentences are not mine - they are taken from press release)

Tony Charles had his work on the floor. He is interested in the ultimate fragility of something apparently permanent. For this piece, Tony had the floors removed from a house for demolition. He harvested rust and steel powder, which he then stenciled onto the floor. At the end of the day, he said, the pattern will get hoovered up. The ultimate ephemerality!

Plates: forgetfullness after David Hume

Vintage plates to be fired with ceramic decals. The images come from my own MRI scan and personal photo albums.

I have an appalling memory. Each time I read an old book, it's joy and wonder all over again, like I have never seen it. I do wonder, what would I be like if I was not so forgetful.

"Had we no memory, we should never have any notion of that succession of perceptions which constitutes our self or person." David Hume









When I go to house clearances I am always attracted to the plates. Plates are common. Everybody has plates. They get used well. They are very personal: chintzy, white, retro, etc. They are laden with specks somebody else's life: a chip on the left, a mark on the ridge.

When I get these used plates, I have an urge to scrub them scrub them scrub them to rid them of the traces of their previous owners. Is that possible at all?