The London Code - Art Shows & More

Art Show: Global Cities

2007-08-13T22:52:00.000Z

In 2006 the glass turned half full - or half empty, depending on wether you belong to the species of confessional urbanites or new age country bumpkin. This year, for the first time in human history, half of the global population has chosen (or was forced economically) to survive in a habitat that is defined by speed, size, density, diversity and last but not least pollution and noise.

The great thing about this exhibition is the fact that it is so accessible, digestible. You are actually experiencing one of the displayed Mega Cities - London - either as a resident, or as a tourist during your weekend trip. And the smartly curated display does make you wonder and ponder a lot:

For instance about the densitiy issue. Think London is crowded? How must it be in Cairo then with about 35.000 - thirty five thousand - inhabitants per squaremile, which is nearly 10 times as dense as London (4.5K) You can really grasp this through this cleverly material-printed 3-D model above, the higher the topography the higher the density. BTW: The most densely populated disctrict in the world is Monkok on the Hong Kong peninsula, with an unbelievable 250.000 inhabitants per squaremile. One of the things you should experience in your life!

Also, even though I hear my native tongue nearly every day in Zone 2 (that is excluding all ze Jerman tourists on sightseeing) and the fact that there are at least five German number plates within 10 mile radius of my flat, I am always stunned to hear the latest immigration figures: 40.000 Deutsche call London their home, like me. That's the size of a so-called Middle Town, or one load at Stamford Bridge (Chelsea Stadium for non-locals or footie ignorants) However, the really striking statistic is the heterogenity of London immigrants. Ok, there are about 170K indians and another 85K from Bangladesh dominating a little bit, but other than that, there seem to be about 20-40 thousand from almost a two dozen of countries, which only mirrors the true cosmopolitan spirit of the Big Smoke. Go to L.A. and you have 1.5 million Mexicans, another quarter million from El Salvador and 150.000 from Guatemala, wheras the Germans stand at 25.000, and Brits bring it to 35K.

Speaking of Latinos, Mexico City is a monster in size and of smog, mainly driven by pollution from cars supported by a totally misled transport policy. In Mexico City, water is more expensive than gas. That is sick! Al you have another mission...Ken wanna emmigrate and become mayor...? When comparing cities like L.A. withg Tokyo on issues like puplic transport, the different styles of life couldn't be more drastic: only 7% of L.As population commutes to work on public transport (and it is mainly the poor) while a staggering 78% rides the mega efficient subway in Tokyo.

Apart from huge info-tainment walls, cubicles and videos, the show also includes art that addresses the subject matter. Richard Wentworth has made a site-specific video installation and some of Andy Gursky's large-scale photographies are on display. But the real winners are rather unknown artists: Nagoa Hatakeyama has photographed a 1/1000 scale 3-D model of Tokyo with the effect that it looks absolutely real, if clean and bar any humans or cars. The model itself contains thousands of buildings, and the texture actually comes from real photographies of the originals. This conceptual approach of a russian doll achieves remarkable aesthetical cleansing.

Then there is a weird vitrine full of every day objects and memorabilia constructing utopian city; quite impressive craftsmanship as well.

My favourite piece in the entire Turbine Hall-specific installation is a wall of photos by South African artist Kendell Geers documenting life in Johannesburg: the decay, tristesse and violence exuding 12 photos of inner city life should be shocking, but you have seen this before and heard the hideous crime stories and taxi wars. No, it is the 80 pictures from affluent suburbia that are truly disturbing, because most foreigners probably have no clue how much armed response there apparently needs to be (that is private companies protecting your property with guns and dogs) and that a multi-million villa actually resembles more a fully protected army camp in a combat zone with kilometers of barbed wires and electric fences. Very sad, but very much a reflection of the world order and safety realities in many countries.

I am glad I have lived in big cities like London, Hong Kong, NYC, LA, Singapore, Tokyo or just visited them, but somehow this Tate visit came at a time when we are thinking about moving a bit further out, bigger place with garden, getting a dog and doing more outdoors in the parks, forests and along rivers and ocean shores. It seems like I had my fair share of urbanity, but my glass is becoming half full - in favour of the country side.

Art Show: Candice Breitz

2007-08-02T23:50:00.000Z

Music is a universal art form. Most of us like certain music genres or styles over others. We also admire, fancy and love our stars. And some of us go above and beyond, and start looking like their idols and mimicking their behaviour. That's what Candice Breitz has captured in three photographs of monumental scale on the ground floor of The White Cube in Mason's Yard. The three groups of devoted followers are Iron Maiden, Marylin Manson and Abba.

At first, i was taken away by the beautiful arrangement of these group portraits, but when looking at the details it triggered fast-moving thoughts and memories: about my own stint in heavy metal gangs during adolescene as well as saturday night tribes, and our desire to belong to a group in general. More than any other art form, music seems to provide a framework for an identity, as these enthusiatic fans look pretty much like their idols - theme and variation.

Moreover, these sub-cultural identities often define themselves through mutual exclusion and aversion, think mots versus bikers back in the 70s. This phenomenon is mirrored by one beautiful detail in the Iron Maiden work: a woman wearing a typical heavy metal uniform comprised of jeans and leather vest cluttered with stickers and patches of her favourite bands and other attitude-bearing pictograms, and the one on her right arm says "Saufen gegen Goth" which means "Binge drinking against gothics" - these deeply melodramatic-depressed-looking disciples of marylin manson are hung on the opposite wall; what a genius juxtaposition!

Downstairs is a 25-screen video piece, and if the photos haven't already made you smile, this will make your day. Instead of listening to John Lennon himself, you see 25 hardcore fans singing his anthems, but each left to their own devices. They listen to the songs via earplugs, and sing alongside his voice - but you can only hear them, one by one, filling a screen on their own, 25 of them in one row, individual yet synchronized, well almost - what a gigantic and hilarious cacophony. Very funny.

To actually watch people "giving everything" in front of a camera looks like worshipping to their god: some are in pain, some look like they just entered heaven, and all that moving limbs and shaking heads, not to forget the pulling of spectacularly weird faces is comic relief and results in a rare atmosphere for a commercial art gallery - wild laughter, open and loud.

The next moment it makes you think how YOU look when passionately singing in the car at 7am in the morning on the M25...

Until 28 Aug 2007 at White Cube | check a short video on http://tinyurl.com/28dkbg

Concert: BBC Proms - Gustav Mahler Symphony No.9

2007-08-02T22:45:00.000Z

Having played Mahler's 1st myself - The Titan - on the clarinet in my late teenage days, I somewhat became obsessed with his symphonies. To my ears, there is nothing more deliciously complex and dramatic than his first, fiths, and only Schubert's Unfinished tops his ninth in terms of the opulent melodrama of romanticism. Oh well, music history...

Granted, the Royal Albert Hall is not the mecca of accustic fidelity - unlike the Cologne Philharmony, a purpose-built venue for classic concerts - but the charme to walk in after work for a fiver equipped with a blanket and a bottle of champagne urges you to re-position the evening on pleasure.

Hiding the booze like a teenager away from the patrolling staff on the gallery under the roof, it resembled the quest for a working class boy to mingle with his aristocratic lover at dawn without being detected by the entourage of the upper class girl guarding her viginity on the streets of Victorian Kensington.

Then you get the usual rituals of concert master and conductor coming in, receiving applaud, bowing, sitting down, the orchestra getting into pose, a few seconds of empty silence, and then the masterpiece emanates from the stage and illuminates the O2 of the 19th century.

Lying on the floor, closing your eyes, feeling your blood circulation and holding your better half in your arm, your thoughts float into the night and give space to concentrated listening while half asleep. You can just imagine yourself as a well-dressed gentlemenn with a broken heart in 1908 on the dawn of the Belle Epoque roaming the streets of Vienna.

Epic music meets monumental architecture. Can't wait to see the 10th - his unfinished one.

Art Show: Insider Art

2007-07-15T20:59:00.000Z

There is an urban myth that true art can only be achieved when minds and hearts are distressed, surpressed, and pushed to the limits. In the spirit of that stereotype (which is often devised by collectors and curators as a means to keep their artists poor) one should ask the question wether truth in art can be better accomplished by artists living in dodgy studios, or inmates of prisoners, mental clinics and immigration detention centres.

For all the different reasons of this world, their neccessity to think about the world is a result of the forced time they have available, timed with the pain of realising what they have lost, given up, traded in or fucked up. Hence, this summer show at the ICA displays some pieces where that pain punches you head on. For instance, somebody has painted hundres of ugly and menacing faces lurking behind him - victims that haunt him or other inmates that want to take revenge...for what?

Others are more subtle while some are even witty and funny: a game, devised to be played by new entrants in a prison as a means to learn the "the way we do things around here" is loosely based on Monopoly, but instead of expensive streets and landmarks you have different wings and visitor centres.

My favourite piece is a large embroidery work that has about hundred names with year tags next to it cluttered around the canvas (yes it does look a bit like copying Tracy's tent) but then these names are also accompanied by icons ranging from gothic faces, pigs, red lips, crosses, dolphins etc. Only when you see one sexually explicit depiction, you start to wonder what the story of this inside (or rather outside?) artist is all about - mind you the names are a mixture of female and male, and the artist is a woman.

Coincidently, I got a DVD today with little animation movies of ideas for future architecture - and one is called "Creative Prison" by Alsop. His idea to transform prisons into places where people unleash their creative potential is based on the statistic that the shocking number of 80% of ex prisoners fail after 2 years in this country. If prisons were more accomodating to inmates to be productive while serving a sentence, then they would better re-socialse and integrate afterwards, because they could apply for jobs with newly acquired skills and certificates.

Moreover, there are not many other places in this country for working class male (unfortunately the majority of inmates) to show any form of feminine emotion, and painting your hopes and fears as well as talking about it when you are awarded with one of the Koestler prizes (the basis for this exhibition). In this light, you should not focus on artistic craftsmanship, but the aspect of identity and possibility.

And never forget: there is always a - if admittably very small - number of inmates in prisons or mental clinics, that shouldn't really be there, not genuine criminals with a long history of violence, but people that somehow got onto the wrong track, did that one mistake and got caught, went to the wrong demonstration, or even got sentenced without any evidence of their guilt like so many in 21st century detention camps - and one of them could be you and me; and how could we possibly survive if not through artisitic expression, just like Koestler, a writer and the founder of this prize, who was wrongly imprisoned for three months during the Spanish Civil War - apparently for civil unrest.

Theatre: Boeing Boeing

2007-07-15T20:09:00.000Z

As much as I am a contemporary arts man, I am not exactly a theatre man by the same token. And I could - or should. My cousin Eva heads up the music production at the mighty Globe on the Southbank, but when it comes to Shakespeare versus an intense 2-cast blackbox play at the Bush theatre I would favour the latter - sorry sweetie.

More shockingly, I have only been to a West End show once...in five years - and that was upon request of my visiting parents. However, my partner got free tickets for Boeing Boeing, and that is where at least one end closes to my cousin: she wildly recommended me to see this production when Marc Rylance, the then artistic director and head actor at the Globe, departed his venture after 10 years to embark on a mainstream production, yes, this one. (he is not there anymore but his successor was fab to say that upfront)

So, what is it all about?

Revisit the 60s, when flying was considered not a commodity but luxury for a very few, and being an air hostess for a venerable airline granted you C-celebrity status and a lucrative affair with the tanned pilot (B-celebrity) if that was your cup of tea. In Boeing Boeing, however, the air hostesses are all engaged to Bernard, a successful architect living in Paris, and to be precise, he has three of them. He manages this love rectangle with meticulous attention to detail, by studying their flight schedules, changing his diet, and of course, all the taste swings in his swanky appartment.

It all goes smoothly until one day his old friend from school shows up - the exact opposite of the cool elegant playboy, and becomes, you guess it, witness of a day gone wrong: storm over the Atlantic brings the American from TWA back on the wrong evening, and the Italian gets another day in transit, all when his German favourite is supposed to fly in for the night.

What happens then over the course of the next 2 hours is a one big laugh caused by wicked humour, lots of banality jokes, and a terrific performance from Gretchen, the Lufthansa Eagle, who encapsulates the intense drama queen to a T. I have not laughed at my own cultural stereotypes so loudly in a while. And of course, Robert, the dorky shy friend, is being dragged into juggling these three hotbeds, together with the annoyed and cynic house keeper.

The piece is very retro, and predictably posed some questions in my head afterwards: were that the good old times my parents were talking about, when flight schedules were stable (stale) for years, when a lot of jobs triggered a romantic fascination in people, like being a sailor in the 18th century, all before the efficiency squats of huge management consultancies strip all roles and tasks bare of any (inefficient) fun parts. On a side note, an air hostess isn't even called that way any more, but I guess we call them flight attendants more for reasons of political correctness. Fine, but the glamour has gone as well: there is a sarcastic German term for it nowadays coined "Saftschubse" which literally means 'Juice Pusher'. That doesn't suggest IT Girl, does it?

Photography: The Hitcher by Chris Coekin

2007-07-08T23:18:00.000Z

Chris Coekin spent 5 years hitch hiking around the UK, picturing himself standing at the road side with cardboards in his hands, as well as documenting road deaths and other relevant topics. For this type of photos he used a disposable camera, while he shot the portraits of the kind and trusting drivers with a more sophisticated equipment, and the results look distinctively different.

Coeking achieves something magical: you start to wonder who these people are - the one in what 50...or even 100 - who actually picks up a complete stranger. I started to analyse the faces, the make of their car, any other evidence of class, background, the jobs they might have been driving to, or from, as well as their age and potential interest.

And then you ask yourself the "why question" - What makes some people to share their "moving castle" with somebody obviously handicapped in his mobility, while hordes of others drive by thinking...well...what do we think when we see somebody displaying a cardboard for a ride? I have taken hitchers when surfing in Cornwall, mainly because I felt sorry for them, and also because I thought I'd get some valuable tip offs in return (I actually did) Then I had situations where I wanted to but didn't have any space. However, I also often don't give a damn, don't I...

The photographer gives away some of the motives why people picked him up, but thankfully, but he only does this every now and again, giving you enough food for thought while leaving enough room for further guessing and wondering.

A selection of the cardboards used to write down his desired destination is mounted in a grid formation on the third wall of the cafe space. This well structured approach is an effective ironic take on the rather inconsistent hit-and-miss approach of hitch hiking, where you probably do not get from A to B in a predictable and orderly fashion, assumably more lateral, often via C and D.

At the Photographer Gallery until 2 Sept

Concert: Manteca at 606 Jazz Club

2007-07-08T22:18:00.000Z

You drive into Chelsea Harbour, Lots Road, 18th century factory buildings, you stand in front of an unassuming door eyeing through the metal bars down the stairs, no sign, then you find the door buzzer, hidden, a guy in the basment opens the door and you leave 21st century behind and expect a prohibition establishment selling Vodka made in a bath tub.

Downstairs, you enter 606, my favourite Jazz club in London. You won't find the really big international names here (go to Ronnie Scott's) but you will find the creme de la creme of British Jazz as well as young shooting stars from around the world. The trick is, you only spend £10 pounds for fine artists who (in many cases) are band members of the big names anyhow, performing with their own projects and under their own names (you just don't know them) - also a good way to make yourself accomplished with the scene.

On Friday, we were delighted by Manteca, a mixture of salsa and Latin Jazz, and they lit the spark. It only took the opener to turn everybody's attention away from half eaten dinner to a combo of seven lead by Colombian vocalist Martha Acosta. Her passionate singin was backed, pushed and embellished by Trumpet, Sax, Bass, Keyboard, Drums and Bongo. Together, they turned this little venue into a Latino hotbed. The only shame was that there is no place to dance.

At £40 per head including dinner, prosecco and wine, this venue is a real alternative to the bigger names and concert halls, especially if you like it more intimate. A great choice for a second date!

High Street: Wholefoods Temple in Kensington

2007-07-08T21:26:00.000Z

This is THE ART of Gourmet Shopping and thus it deserves a post on this blog. I know Wholefoods back from The States, where its is the kind of bigger, more corporate brother of Trader Joe's. Granted, most of the food is organic in here, but you have to close one eye on the carbon food print, since it imports a lot from around the world. The trade off is: you will find EVERYTHING, no matter how sophisticated of a home meal you want to cook.

Where in London can you get delicious rarities such plaintains from Costa Rica and fresh Tamarind from Thailand in the same supermarket, instead of trawling different markets from Green Street to North End Road? Exotic goods aside, a lot of the produce is local and spanking fresh, and I have never seen so much choice of salads on a single shelf, well it is 50 feet long!

Basically, this temple of monumental proportions devotes the size of a Tesco Local each to distinct areas such like fish, herbs, nuts, coffee, and easily the size of a Tesco Centre for cheese, wine and staple food. Oh, the wine list...is extensive and covers all our favourites from Casa Lapostolle (Chile) to Rosenblum (California) and you can even (re-) fill your own bottle of organic Spanish wine for £5.

You don't want to just do the usual after-work-stressed-pressing-for-speed go shopping there, you want to spend time on this whole experience; explore, wander, wonder, get lost, find new ways to Rome (I seriously thought about their approach to feasting) and simply be carried away by whatever your 'weakness' is - one thing is for sure, it is measured in calories. According to Meghan, I said "we need to go" apparently a number of times - as a means for self protection against being skint in the first week of a months and blowing-up to Peter Griffin size from the TV series Family Guy by the last of it.

We ended up with a few samples and tasters for a tenner and comparing the prices to Tesco and Planet Organic, well it is somewhat inbetween, depending on your taste buds.

Art Show: Mark Dion - Systema Metropolis

2007-07-01T20:46:00.001Z

Mark Dion's environments are a bit like art for geeks: a taxonomy of species (mainly insects) and objects found in urban spaces like the Brompton Cemetary, Highgate, and the Thames. In the latter, his research teams find way more plastic bags, balls of all sorts and other waste, but also a dozen species of fish, including a sea horse! And the probes have been taken in front of Battersea Power Station, not Henley.

I do like these taxonomic, almost scientific apporoaches in the art world, being it Michael Landy's 'Breakdown' or Joseph Beuys' 'Wirtschaftswerte' - meticulously documenting, clustering, and clinically displaying whatever they chose to examine. Dion's projects have an archeological strand excavating living creatures as well as man-made objects from locations across the globe. His style of installation, however, reminds me of Damie Hirst's glass vitrines.

My favourite piece in this exhition is the stuff that he digged out of the Themse river, and put it into a translucent tent: you can see what's inside, including clay pipes from the 17th century, but it is all fuzzy and blur, just like the murky water where it rested for weeks or centuries. Only when you walk around it, you can gaze through a fine green moskito-like net, and out of a sudden the objects become clear and sharp - and, well, greener. A nice reflection of the fact, that the Thames is actually a clean river, ok, at least from Fulham upstream.

Until 2 September 2007 at the Natural History Museum

Art Show: Paul Chan

2007-07-01T19:46:00.001Z

Paul Chan uses moving shadows projected onto Gallery walls and floors. Different objects move through the video surface at differnt speeds, and there is anything from abstract shapes and forms, to cars, trees, people, weapons, lines, dots, and flags

These clever immaterial installations cause many different associations in the spectator. Some samples: Genocide in Africa, Conquistadors versus Indians in 16th century Latin America, ghost ships, planes dropping bombs on cities, villagers watching bombs being dropped at them, bodies jumping down The Twin Towers, AK47 machine guns passing by as if they were feathers in the wind and so on.

However, your associations never get confirmed, it remains fuzzy and ambiguous. And that is the trick. It makes you wander what is out there, has been in the past, and will be in future - or rather is flying around you, painfully visible, or eerily unoticed.

Amongst all this dark visual poetry (the shadows are black after all) there was one thing that made me laughing out loud: I had the pleasure to observe three people either abruptly avoiding to trip onto the shadow projections, or being seriously warned by their anticipating partners "to be careful" as if they would destroy a fragile piece of art. Obviously, the formal and controlled space of a public gallery has ingrained the behaviour in many people to not touch art by all means, and if in doubt, to better not take a close inspection since the guard might strike a pre-emptive alarm. Watching folks when trying not to trip into an immaterial shadow on mere floor tiles, is quite a comical sight, believe me...At the other end, other visitors walked right through the picture, in established wave-into-the-camera-style:-)

Until 1 July at The Serpentine

Theatre: Trance at The Bush

2007-07-01T19:31:00.000Z

Being a typical small black box theatre, The Bush invites intense plays with a cast of two or three. Trance by Japanese playwright Shoji Kokami perfectly fits the bill, and fills the space with nutter-esque wit and charm: three high school friends pump into each other years later, one has become an psychiatrist, the second a writer and her patient, who also has a crush on her. The triangle is complemented by the third, who lives his identity as a drag queen, with a crush on the writer.

In his schizoid paranoia, the writer believes he is the last emperor of Japan, so his friends need to play roles that fit into this world, in order to be with him and try and help him. That's the plot, and the acting is loud, fast, crazy at times, and painfully funny, especially on the drag queen's side. Towards the end, the script plays with Descartes notion of dreaming and knowing when dreaming, and the roles take multiple twists, and at the end you are (intentionally?) made lost and literally loos the plot alongside this fulminant trio.

Not exactly light entertainment, but a great way to leave a stressful work week behind asking yourself the question: What is Normal?

At The Bush Theatre until 30 June 2007

The Great Exhibition

2007-06-17T18:26:00.000Z

Wanting to see Paul Chan's show in the Serpentine, I bumped into friends on the way and joined them to see "a graduate show in a tent" instead (I had seen Paul Chan in Boston already) It turned out to be a afternoon of exitement, arousal and inspiration. The RCA has coined this year's presentation of its students "The Great Exhibition" in hommage to the original in 1851 - and as far as I can say I have discovered some revolutionary and thought provoking concepts and ideas.

Let's start with The Race by Michael Burton, a series of interventions tackling the issue of antibiotics - human mankind cannot live without it yet bacteria are developing faster than R&D labs can spin out drugs. He suggests that "with the end of the antibiotic era we have no other choice but to symbiotically evolve to meet the pressures of hostile new diseases. The photo above is called bacteria harbourer, and another piece on display (as well as video) is a fist-size fabric cage that is woven into a women's hair in order to hosts a praying mantis. Yes, it may sound absurd, but when you see it it kind of makes sense, for future generations though.

My favourite is EXTREME GREEN GUERRILLA, a project by Michiko Nitta, that responds to global warming and other threats to contemporary civilisation. Among other radical solutions, he proposes an Animal Messaging Service, in which humans send digital messages from e.g. London to New York - not through the existing infrastructure of glassfibre cables but - by using biological transmitters: whales, birds, rats and other species. The 'interface' to carry the information is stored on RFID tags that are implanted into the animals, as demonstrated below with a Mackerel.

Surely, this isn't exactly the most efficient way to communicate, but that would miss the point. Screaming of with and humour on the one hand (species are clustered into fast and slow, or low and high risk; think predator and prey...the Mackerel belongs to the latter) this project also gives amazing impulses to think about carbon footprint and other hot topics.

To Andreas Molgaard, the most pressing issues is mankind's survival in the 21st century. Focussing on the big picture of global change, he comes up with 11 ways to survive, ranging from the funny, wouldn't it be nice, to extreme thoughts of erasing one continent completely or limiting life to 33 years (like Jesus). Like it or not, this is somebody with the vision (and guts - since this is pretty controvertial stuff) to list some of the options, viable or not, the history of the future will tell...

These days however, a big imminent problem in cities like London is social unrest, in form of gangs hanging out on the streets, women getting harressed, juveniles drinking on playgrounds and so on. Nothing new so far. But did you know that the police can declare an area - ranging from a phone box to the entire borough - a so-called "dispersal zone" legally prompting suspects to leave the declared zone and keep them at bay with a 3 months prison threat if violating this order? I didn't! And I am very glad that Tamsin Fulton is pointing this out in her project www.thedispersalzone.org.uk Using the API of Google Maps she publicises all DZs in London with Tags when it was declared for what duration and what the reason was. The fact that she uses readily available yet hardly known information (to the local residents) makes this project very Mark Lombardi-ish (he re-shaped newspaper clips into intricate graphic webs of state corruption across the world) More on her blog http://tamsdesigninteractions.blogspot.com

From the Mean Streets of London to the Great Oceans of our Planet: Daniel Sjoholm thinks that current abundance in Yacht design suffers a misguided focus on marble, gold and other Oligarch toys. He sees a need for an update in Yacht design, and promotes a new luxury in the form of glass bottom "speed lounges" that look like spaceships cruising lagoons and reefs. Can he also somehow reconcile his vision with the manifesto of the EXTREME GREEN GUERRILLA folks?

Other highlights of bionic design included Il Hoon's aluminum table, that could both be interieur of Sjoholm's yachts and vanguard of a new wave of organism-inspired architecture and furniture design. Bauhaus is dead. Long live Colani.

Emphasising round forms as well are Henny van Nistelrooy's old-magazines-turned-artworks. Starting from the outside, he works his way through these magazines carving out holes of different sizes and angles to create a paper-based sculpture. When you then flick through the pages, these meticulously crafted holes appear like wormholes trying to link the (often shallow and meaningless) world of fashion and advertising with your own imagination of how you might fill these voids with your personal stories. Having always admired paper cuts (Matisse, Felix Droese to name two) I felt inclined to get one for £20, which rounded-up this fantastic endeavour on a Sunday afternoon.

Until 28 June at Kensington Gardens

Movie: Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo

2007-06-07T22:37:00.000Z

De Niro may have coined the term "method acting". But his achievement seem to be dwarfed in light of Werner Herzog's endeavour - or torture - when doing Fitzcarraldo, the story of a Western rubber Baron in 19th century Peru, who's childlike dream is to produce an entire Opera in the Amazonian jungle.

This vision includes a 50 ton steamboat that has to be lifted over a mountain in order to access a far-flung arm of the river - and here comes Herzog's heroic accomplishment: all the props are real, so is the (at times) life-threatening river as well as the indians, and they lift that monster of a ship over that mountain for real - think method shooting! No studio, no stuntmen, no frills. Instead, real danger, tropical weather, malaria mosquitos - and above all - the world-famous tantrums of notorious Klaus Kinski, who threatened to kill Herzog in another iconoclatic movie: Aguirre - Wrath of God. Before embarking on the 5 movie lasting partnership with Herzog (Grizzly) Kinski role modeled as THE German Villain in noir movies of the sixties.

Granted, the story is simple, but you should see this movie - in my opinion one of the top 10 most important movies ever - for the sheer fascination of Kinskis outburst which are surely for real and often didn't stop after the cut, and of course you have to see it to believe it: everything is really real, no fake, it all really happened that way, back in that year in the 70s.

Film History!

On 10, 16, 22 and 30 June at the ICA

Art Show: Anthony Gormley

2007-06-02T21:51:00.002Z

Event Horizon - that title reminds me of a pretty scary movie from the late 90s exploring concepts of dents in space and memory journeys back and forth into your darkest past and greyest future. Event Horizon is Antony Gormley's latest environmental installation, scattered across the Southbank of London.

30 odd casts of his own body stand on roof tops of predominantly 60s grey concrete monsters. It is an exiting journey for your eyes to wander around and discover their location and juxtapositions with the surrounding urban landscape.

Whilst not really empathising with some by-passers' concern passed on to the police that "somebody is intending to jump off the IBM building" as reported in the press, I did have an eerie moment this morning that reminded me to these people's experience: when driving on the M4 westbound just before crossing the M25 at 5:30 am on a sunny Saturday morning, I saw somebody sitting on the edge of a pedestrian bridge gazing at the approaching traffic. He seemed to contemplate whether to jump or not (Of course I called 999 and they said they were aware of the incident and sent somebody - I hope it all ended positive...) In my mind I connected this scene with Gormley's installation that reminds us of the fragility of the human body, and the anonymity of urban life.

Inside the Hayward Gallery you find typical sculptures from various periods, all good and all thought provoking. The horrenduous and cold interieur of the gallery provides a menacing platform for Gormleys messages.

The attention grabbing bit though is the cloud-filled room that I suppose gives this fabulous exhibition the title Blind Light. Once inside the cube, you are really distressed and disoriented and do what everyone else seems to be doing: meanering around the glass walls from edge to edge until you reach the exit again, but when two opposing traffic streams hit each other you might loose track and sight of the secure pathfinder and off you go back into blindness. A very physical and psychological experience.

Until 19 August at the Haywards Gallery

Photography: Edward Burtynsky

2007-06-02T20:56:00.000Z

On my way to Photo London I popped by Flower Central in Cork Street to admire some well known and some new work of one of my favourite artists: Ed Burtynsky. His prints of man-made landscapes and, more recently, the visually probing insight into contemporary China, are epic and monumental: large scale images of quarries, rubber piles, shipbreaking businesses in Bangladesh and 10.000 people assembly lines like your eyes have never seen it before. His style makes you almost smell all the toxic waste, and it is the details in the pictures that makes you grasp the scale of the sites inspected, like the house-size caterpillar trucks appearing like ants in the gigantic landscape of a quarry.

There are not a lot of photographers that combine "need-for-change" ethos a la Gore and Moore with immaculately crafted high-end aesthetics. And as far as I know, Ed doesn't digitally post-produce like Gursky does.

Until 2 June at Flowers Central, West End

Photo London

2007-06-01T20:25:00.000Z

Being a very visual person, I have always, and will always love photography. Doing a bit of photo stuff myself for now 4 years, I also had an additional hat on this time. Whilst I won't and don't want to be an artist in the first place, it becomes more and more exiting to locate my own portfolio inbetween the different positions. It feels a bit similar to the tribute acknowledgements on music albums or quotations in scientific publications, that I have certain photographers that I deeply admire, and wonder to what degree these sources of influence impact on my own stuff or not.

Anyhow, some of my favourites are present in the Old Billingsgate Market, starting with Stephen Gill. The museums guard above is a typical representation of conceptual series by Stephen Gill, who captures people getting lost in central London, pictures bill boards from behind, or photographs the silent guards in museums. He often boarderlines between conceptual sequence and documentary style. My favourite cycle is called Hackney Wick in which he saves current socio-cultural netherworlds for future generations, who will only know this area as Olympic grounds (that will have pushed these East London urbanspheres away.

The picture at the top is Susan Derges, who specialises on photograms. These prints are direct results from light hitting photo-sensitive metal plates - there is no camera involved - and the sensation is that the prints are 1:1 in scale, meaning if you see a 2-3 meter print of water splash, that is the size of the metal plate this artist is driving and carrying to Oceans, lakes and rivers, often exposing them at nightime. This process results in the sharpest and most detailed photoworks around.

Another favourite of mine, Massimo Vitali, who has a knack for aperture almost blending out texture and colour of water and sans, thus, focussing on masses of tourists in bikinis and swimshorts. His work really shines through when seen in large scale.

Therefore, go until 3 June at Old Billingsgate Market

Cutty Sark - R.I.P.

2007-05-21T18:20:00.001Z

Today on 21 May 2007, one of London's landmarks was destroyed: the Cutty Sark, the last remaining tea clipper on thisw planet. Even though a spokesman said the damage 'is not insurmountable' it remains questionable to what degree the historic ship can be restored, and if, at what costs - that largely depends on how much of the £25 restoration project has already been spent.

For me personally, I do feel quite attached to this event, since I have been to the Oriental Club in Mayfair last night (of which I never heard before and certainly wouldn't have expected such thing to exist...naive me...) and we had insightful talks about the East India Company (which founded the club) the British Empire and hence, the maritime trade - the folks I visited were a bit older so to say and had personal memories of the old Empire days. Coincidentally, a day later one of the icons of that era burns down in a fire. Weird life. And a shame for Greenwich.

I have taken the picture above in 2003. Rest in peace, Cutty Sark.

Unavailable until further notice, in Grenwich

Photography: Andreas Gursky

2007-04-17T22:20:00.000Z

Duesseldorf 1992. A photographic exhibition absolutely blows my mind: three students of the famous "Becher Class" (boring yet world-famous photographs of gas and water tanks) at the Kunstakademie show their prints in a cutting edge gallery. Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky.

This time not only marked a generation change amongst the bue chip names of the Duesseldorf art scene, but also a paradigm shift from painting towards photography.

Back then, this medium was considered highly speculative and I remember that the price for some 'smaller Gursky prints was around £1000-2000 in Deutschmark value back then. Damn I didn't have the money to get one - I could buy a little flat for it today. For investors (which I am not - I still collect only nitty gritty pieces of young or historically insignificant artist every now and then) Gursky might be the world's most expensive living photographic artist, but for me he is just a 'local' icon (I am from Duisburg originally, 20 miles north of Duesseldorf).

Since then I have always been exited to see Gursky prints in full scale across the world. To my total and utter delight, he currently has a double exposure in the West End displaying almost a squaremile of photographic sensation (ok, I am slightly exaggerating here) and I am sure I will go back for further contemplation. Try and locate the manipulated details in the Formula One Series at White Cube...

The most fascinating new work is the one taken in North Korea. What an insight into the last Stalinist Regime on the planet.
Looks shockingly familiar in a way...Leni Riefenstahl...Berlin 1936...Olympics...history.

In my point of view, Gursky is simply the best social anthropology photographer, only rivalled by Edward Burtynski, who in a way is his environmental anthropolohy pendant (shipwrecks, quarries, tyre cemetaries etc).

Gursky mostly captures the mundane, but in the most monumental way. You must spoil your eyes to this!

Andreas Gursky at White Cube Mason’s Yard and Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers London, from 22 March to 12 May 2007.

Art Show: Boo Ritson - Hotdogs & Heroes

2007-04-02T20:41:00.000Z

This is an unusual one: The photograph of a painting of a portrait - by simply adding the very artificial looking acryllic colours (paint has never looked so disgustingly plastic; for me a biting take on artificial aspects of American society...) Boo Ritson creates in intricate web of layers and cross-references.

The whole series 'Hotdogs and Heroes' is very conceptual, visually narrating an average day of a professional killer, who comes down to smalltown Nevada to 'do a job' suspecting the air hostess to be the frivolous girl in the bar last night, popping up his collar in the hope to not be reckognised.

Somehow, I immediately thought about Hopper's Nighthawks, and that these characters in this series here could be the a kind of off-spring story behind the famous picture, as if Boo intended to fill the infamous void that iconic painting left behind - 60 years later, as if small town Midwest hasn't moved on, well, it often appears to not have changed that much after all.

Until 29th April, David Risley Gallery, Vyner Street, E2

Artists Anonymous: Alice Straight to Video

2007-04-01T22:46:00.000Z

We entered a fury cave labyrinth, the kind of installation that reminds you of childhood days. We joked and played around. I took this photo of hers curiously exploring what is in store to feed her exitement around the next corner.

After a minute or so she started to feel uncomfortable, claustrophobic and anxious. She asked the gallery girl for a sort of short cut to get out, cop out. I started to look at the video screens nestled into the white acryllic fur. It dawned on me relatively quickly. This was disturbing stuff - well, not exactly shocking given the first show of artists anonymous in Vyner Street exploring the traumatic side of 'drugs'.

The installation stations were mainly about sex, punch in your face with errected penises or a more subtle, morbid looking aquarium with undefinable gadgets inside. When I cam out on the other side, Katherine and Meghan were already engaged in a discussion on child abuse - the topic of this show. A terrifying corner of society, with no exit door for the victim who often get lurked into sugar-candied rabbit holes layed out by the perpetrators.

Later that day I found the press release on the collective's website and now it gets more shocking, especially being German myself: "In Germany one cannot prosecute against childhood sexual abuse after the age of 28...an infant who can or does not defend itself cannot be the victim of rape, merely of sexual abuse, even when sexual intercourse has taken place...Sexual abuse and Rape are both defined by specific occurrences...The mere memory that it was on Sundays when the mother was at church, is not enough...Germany’s leading organisation for adult survivors of sexual abuse, advises victims against prosecution, as it claims this is too traumatic for the victims..."

Incredibly important stuff. Disturbing content, encouraging format, strong message. From the outside this installation looks like a deconstructed pile of rubble, just like the life of the survivors.

Until 22 April, E2 9DG

My favourite Shops in London

2007-03-06T23:18:00.000Z

Since I started posting on the London art scene, I often thought of posting my favourite top lists of best shops, galleries, artist's books, restaurants since food or shoes can be like a piece of art itself. Starting with a topic that is closely linked to art – commerce – you’ll find my 10 picks from the 40.000 shops in London below:

Koenig’s Bookshop
Having been a loyal customer for a decade to its Cologne branch (best art bookshop in the world hands down) I was delighted to find their little London branch in the Serpentine Gallery. Sunday morning 10am, a short stroll in Hyde Park before the crowds flock in, followed by the free exhibition in the gallery, and then the ritual of exploring and screening through this tiny space crammed with monographs and catalogues of current exhibitions around London with a sale section is in the back room. Serpentine Gallery, Hyde Park

ICA Bookshop
This is the best place in London for independent, artisan-led magazines and other underground-style periodicals such as Ken360, Greenwich Emotion Map, Daydream Magazine and other ‘secrets’. You wander what else is out there…
The Mall, West End

Bookshop @ Photographer Gallery
Not surprisingly, the best stop for publications on photography. You might spend hours. Great Newport Street, West End

Miller Harris
Tranquillity. Enthralling shop design. Charming sales person. Captivating scents. Miller Harris is a heaven for perfume aficionados, and the whole thing feels like a holistic art installation for your senses. Unique! Needham Road, Notting Hill

Jeffery West
Gents: Fed-up with assembly line output of yet expensive high street brands? Ladies: bored with ‘try-to-fit-in’ footwear of your beloved City Adonis? Jeffery West of Northampton make shoes for ‘Dandies’ as they say, but for me they are simply the most flamboyant shoes to turn a great suit into an artwork or a to get you into a fancy place with your jeans on. My favourite colour is “honey leather”. Classic shapes are Chelsea Brogues and pointy Budapesters. Piccadilly Arcades, West End

Nino’s
You can spend £75 on a decent Boss shirt and the chances are 1:10 you’ll see another one on the tube the next day. Or, you spend £100 on a limited edition shirt at Nino’s and you have a guaranteed one-off in your size for a particular colour. My favourite is a dark brown shirt with each button hole stitched in various colours. The Quality? You still look 9am even after dinner! They also have great cufflinks made from porcelain marbles and LEGO cubes. Quadrant Arcade, Regent Street

HG Walters
Voted the best family butcher by so-and-so association, I am endlessly thankful to only live a stone throw away. The display cabinet wants you to eat it raw on the spot, there are great cheese for vegetarians as well. It is not even expensive given that it is organic and local produce. Palliser Road, Baron’s Court

Stanford’s
London’s No. 1 temple for travel publications. But the geek in me comes back for the abundance of maps of everything in the basement. The detailed Landranger maps are invaluable to soul surfers keen to explore secret surf spots. Long Acre, Leicester Square

The Library
This men’s boutique in Chelsea sometimes feels like a test lab for Harrods and Selfridges. In the past, you could find Trunk t-shirts, Dries van Noten Jackets, Margiella jumpers or Dirk Schoenberger shirts at least a season earlier. The price tags can make you nauseous though. Brompton Road, Chelsea

Grace & Favour
A great ‘life-style’ store that sells candles as well as clothes. I got my favourite blazer there, an eccentric Gibson Jacket with 70s-style leather elbow pads and red and yellow lines crossing the tweed pattern. North Cross Road, East Dulwich

Art Show: Karen Kilimnick

2007-03-04T21:02:00.000Z

Well, this review is actually more about the Serpentine itself rahter than about Karen Kiliminck's interesting collection of mainly oil paintings and room environments, which refer to classic painting from the 16th to the 20th century. Granted, this is good and consistent work, and her installations such as table, chairs, fireplace, curtains, wood work on the walls and a painting depicting...eh... exactly this scene are nice food for thought, but do not exactly tickly my fancy.

However, this exhibition confirms (again) what a versatile space the Serpentine Gallery really is. Most of the rooms are purpose-changed to resemble gardens, stables, dining and ballroom of Tudor mansions. I wonder how many people who enter the Serpentine for the first time really know the installation and where the regular features of this 1934 original teahouse begin.

Other great end-to-end shows blending in artwork and 'work on the place' include Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset Welfare Show and Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Houses of Dreams. My favourite Serpentine show so far was Gabriel Orosco, and he used the space more like a couple of white cubes.

Perhaps, the key success factor for attracting 750.000 visitors per year is access: located in Hyde Park and free for all, it attracts figures from all sorts of life, ranging from sunbathers seeking a break to Charles Saatchi assessing the latest shadow projection of Tim Noble & Sue Webster. One of my all-time London favourites!

Until 9 April at the Serpentine

Concert: Bonobo at The Forum

2007-02-25T22:24:00.000Z

Bonobo has become my favorite band of late. I discovered them for myself on a bodyboarding DVD soundtrack about two years ago. Hence, my exitement to get tickets at The Forum in Kentish Town from my goddess fiance for Valentine's Day.

To understand the name, Wikipedia provides a clear answer: biologists have called bonobo's pygmee chimpanzee until recently... What kind of music? Hard to say - I'd call it downbeat jazz with a pinch of chillout lounge.

However, they don't fit into boxes. Neither are the jazzy elements really improvised, nor does the collective sound of keyboard, bass, guitar, Sax, drums and various electronic effects sound cafe-del-mar-hotel-costes-supper-club at all. It is just brilliant. Very imaginative and very idiosyncratic. They look that as well, particularly the Sax player. The 90 minute show was all in all honest, perfectly played music that gets your senses going but doesn't tickle your limbs further than little, gentle and almost introvert moves. So it is not for dancing, yet it's groovy.

The third album is called day to come and features Bajka, a lovey German singer who joined the guys on stage for the four vocal songs. Her voice and style is very hard to define as well. Perhaps a fusion of Berlin Variete and Moloko.

My favourite album is 'Dial M for Monkey', but my most loved tune is 'Silver' on Animal Magic. The closest match in my collection in terms of style are certain tracks of Loka, DJ Krush and Sofa Surfers. If these names ring any bell, can anyone recommend anything vaguely similar?

Art Show: Tino Sehgal at the ICA

2007-02-05T21:53:00.000Z

The Trilogy - Part Three

Yeah - he is back. Not as clever as last year. Therefore creating links to the upper floor piece of his phenomenal first appearance in 2005.

"I have decided that this artwork is called 'success'." As suggested by the image above, this year's performance (is it really performance art, or more like a Beuys' Social Plastic where everyone is an artist - I don't know...) involves children. That's as much I wish to reveal. You need to experience yourself what it is all about: just sit down somewhere in the corner and observe - you will find inspiration, guaranteed!

Until 4 March, 2007 at the ICA, Pall Mall

Art Show: Artists Anonymous - Drugs

2007-01-22T23:09:00.000Z

What happens when you gaze at an image and then suddenly look away? You see an after image, but this time the colours are inverted.

According to wikipedia (on 22 January 2007, 23.20 GMT) "afterimages are caused when the eye's photoreceptors, primarily known as cone cells, adapt from the overstimulation and lose sensitivity".

The latter - overstimulation and loss of sensitivity - have something to do with the content of the artworks displayed in this new space in Vyner Street: drugs. Artists Anonymous is a Berlin-originated group of 'clean' drug addicts who have moved to London to show their fascinating art. It's a clever and playful idea on a serious issue, the impact of drugs, and the successful battle to get rid of them:

First, there is the painting (picture at top here), depicting a hallucinatory scene of drug-infested sex, nonsense, games, dreams and nightmares - through inverted colours. It feels cold, like being 'on turkey' (detox) or in the wrong movie, on the wrong party, the wrong side of life. Then, the painting is photographed (picture above), and the process of shooting on negative film refers to the afterimage turning yellow into blue and green into magenta etc - negative into positive. Now the figures seem to be made of real flesh, there is warm glow, it feels better. However, the content is the same. But since the negative also shows the image mirror-invertedly, the photograph now appears to be wrong side (if it had text in there you'd realize). Right or wrong? Positive or Negative? That is the question....that survivors of drug addiction can only assess and answer for themselves.

Having tried to help a friend at university getting clean from heroin and cocain, I got some painfully close insights into this matter. I truly hope for Maya and her colleagues that the afterimage remains their daily reality, and that their memory of surreal hallucinations remain afterthoughts on seeing the wrong coloursof life. (Well done, and good luck for the next five years and beyond!)

Art is better than any LSD! Vyner Street, E2

Art Show: Andrew Bracey - Freianlage

2007-01-22T21:20:00.000Z

I love animals, preferably in free nature, rather than in a Zoo. That said, the Zoo plays a pivotal role in saving certain species from being extinct (think Panda) as well as educating humans about animals so that we take better care about our little (and big) friends.

Andrew's Freianlage is about Zoos and our relation to it. Just as observing social interaction of monkey tribes in their cages is like being shown the mirror of human behaviour (funny, sad, nasty, cheeky, egotistic, altruistic etc.), this well-curated show in this small space in Hackney exposes the imbalance of power in the battle for living space between our globalized consumer society and the billions of other species around.

His wall installation "Migrate" uses found objects, discarded, binned, thrown away, taken out of the consumer cycle, as a substitute for canvas or paper to paint birds in miniature scale. As a whole, a microcosm juxtaposing icons of nature (kingfisher, flock, robin etc.) with standard leftovers of the waste economy (cigarette boxes, screwed paper, plastic and other usual suspects). Looking at the individual piece, it is a sad yet motivated cry to mankind that battling for habitat is a zero-sum game - that our earthmates are loosing right now.

The monkey in the magnifying glass device, which looks like a robot from a car manufacturing assembly line, reminds me of the safari holiday quest: on the one hand there are the 'bad' types that leave a terrible ecological foodprint, on the other hand there are responsible tourists that understand and respect the animals' need for some remains of privacy, thus, only watching and filming animals from a decent distance with the help of this technological achievement.

My personal favourite is a tiger painted in oil on the tail end of a game dart - penetrated into a corner of the gallery walls. The arrow/dart missile is still the dominating hunting form for indigineous tribes in the rain forest across the globe - silent, efficient and deadly - just like the tiger itself who is known and respected as the king of the jungle, and only killed if attacking a human.

A real discovery! Until 28 January 2007 at Transition Gallery, E8

Art Show: Ricky Swallow

2007-01-21T00:23:00.000Z

On my last exploration tour through Hackney, I found a couple of good shows in Vyner Street, the most impressive being Ricky Swallow's wood carvings. The sculptures of this Australian artist and Venice Biennale representative are a result of extraordinary craftsmanship. There are arms, shoes and other small scales pieces mounted on the wall or positioned on the floor.

My favourite is 'Younger than Yesterday', a skull that grows barnacles out of its vessel. Both outstandingly beautiful and disturbing at the same time. Swings and balances. Giving and taking. "The deterioration of the skull's former life becomes the root from which the barnacle's macabre decoration pushes forward and flourishes." It definetely invokes some scary thoughts on brain tumour and the notion of getting older.

What a shame that the gallery rep on the day was very uncommunicative - otherwise a nice conversation could have blossomed...(post note: as happened at the current exhibition:-)

Until 21 December 2006 at Modern Art

Art Show: Carsten Hoeller at Tate Modern

2007-01-20T22:48:00.000Z

The annual turbine hall craze. Mass gatherings. Corporate Sponsorship (Unilever Series). Big Names. Monumental Scales. Art Experience. Free Entry. Media Hype. Or, in Joseph Beuys' world: a social plastic.

All installations I have seen so far in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall (Anish Kapoor Marsayas 2003, Olafour Eliasson's Weather Project 2004, Bruce Nauman 2005, Rachel Whiteread and now Carsten Hoeller's Slides) were installations that facilitate social interaction, self-assessment and geo-whatever (physical, psychological, economical, historical...) contemplation. The latter refers to the unique scales, concepts, forms and materials of these site specific commissions. They were all interesting. The white sugarboxes a bit boring. The 'sun' was magic. But the German's slides are different.

Rather than seeing or hearing, you can touch them. Finally something for the kinaesthetics amongst us. Moreover, a form of interaction and experience with art that is forbidden in most of the art shows that you will ever enter in your lifetime. Like the forbidden fruit in paradise - I have once been kicked out of the Abteiberg Museum in Germany's province because of daring to touch a specially surfaced part of the museum's white wall (oi - minimal art...!). And for a hands-on experience, what could be better than the slides? They are action, they look great (the craftsmanship make them appear to be requisites of a science fiction movie), and they tickle our mischieveous desire to be kid again and to play. And how handy that you have to accompany your off-spring for safety reasons. Excuse me, could I borrow your son please?

And even for the spectators, who choose not to take the burden of queueing away their Sunday afternoon for a 10 second episode of accelerated happiness, it is a spectacle. Being an observer and assessor of family dynamics, fashion trends and social behaviour, in an art palace like that, with no entry fee, good light to capture the scenes by camera, that's pretty priceless. And here, I think Hoeller's piece continues where the others ended (maybe Eliasson came closest); it is a happening, a social plastic, and everyone is an artist for a day, part of a masterplan: to make art more accessible, understandable and enjoyable for a wider audience.

For those who know me, I have nothing against conceptual art or other hard to digest forms of creative expression, but I do loathe some of these high-brow art farts dominating the magazines (writing) and biennales (curating), master-of-the-universe investor-collectors, star-gazing Frieze groupies, and the ridiculous art market that is more inflated than the global property bubble. Therefore, Hoeller's art is a funny yet smart piss-take on the whole scene itself: this hilarious circus | zoo | kindergarden called 21 century art world.

Until 7 April 2007 at Tate Modern

Art Show: Susanne Treister - Hexen 2039

2007-01-20T20:34:00.000Z

I have discovered Susanne Treister at Frieze 2005 and immediately fell in love with her series of conceptual waterlolours and drawings based on the NATO Supply Classification system. Who on earth would have known that an organisaiton such as this geo-political military aliance would have a number code for literally everything on this planet, the stuff above is labelled as no 3805 - Earth moving and excavating equipment. I wasn't primarily impressed by her style of painting (even though its good), but by the simple fact how unusual her drive and talent is to challenge us, the average citizen, to question the world we live in; it makes you think what the hell is out there.

This winter, the artist has a multi-site exhibition going called Hexen 2039: 'New military occult technologies for psychological warfare - a Rosalind Brodsky research programme. Yes, it sounds nuts. But it's brilliant! Not only is she taking on an alter ego - in the future - but the whole thing is a fantastic 'phantasm'. The complex drawings and diagrammes (a bit like those of Mark Lombardi) are based on combining interesting and often unknown facts about subjects such as the Metro Goldwyn Mayer film company, Radio Towers, The London Science Museum, Mussorgsky's music Night on Bald Mountain, Rasputin, as well as urban myths about Freemasonry, the MI6 and The German Walpurgisnacht where witches (hexen) fly on brooms on the 1st of May.

Or in her words, "This work uncovers or constructs links between conspiracy theories, occult groups, Chernobyl, witchcraft, the US film industry, British Intelligence agencies, Soviet brainwashing, behaviour control experiments of the US Army and recent practices of its Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (PSYOP), in light of alarming new research in contemporary neuroscience..."

Most of the 'interventions' have been closed by now, but the matter of Hexen 2039 - mind reading and mind control - is discussed at the Dana Centre on 13 February 2007

Art Show: Gabriel Orozco

2007-01-20T18:47:00.000Z

Remember the chess board-like texture drawn on a human skull in the Serpentine a few years ago. That was my introduction to one of Latin America's most prolific artist. For the opening of the new White Cube in St. James, the Mexican artist has applied the same technique - but on an exponentially larger scale.

There is only one "drawing" - called dark wave - that fills the biggest gallery room in the West End, and that is on the sceleton of a whale. The exhibition is called 12 paintings and a drawing; the paintings displayed on the ground floor are from his famous undertaking to "examine the range of permutations possible within a defined spatial and colour system based on circles.

Having seen whales in Samoa (a 60ft humpback) and others in South Africa, but from a distance, I got completely overwhelmed to be able to walk around the sculpture (takes about a minute at moderate gallery-strolling pace!) which makes you able to grasp its 'real' size. Monumental, given that this guy is of a similar tree of animal species, a mammal, like us humans. And when you stand underneath the hanging installation of this multi-ton construction of nature with a man-made graphic pattern drawn onto it, then even a Christian-turned agnostic person might easily recall the biblical story of Jonas and the whale in a moment of awe.

Unmissable! (it was until November 2006)

Art Show: Alien Nation

2007-01-15T21:44:00.000Z

Happy New Year! After three weeks surfing and finding a wedding place in Spain, I felt the urgent need to consume art. With not much going on at the moment in the West End and being to having been too lazy to make the travel to Hackney, I decided to give it another try at the ICA despite moderate reviews. Well, pretty much everything WAS crap or at least confused, except one room, harbouring the space fleet of Hew Locke.

Remember Star Wars, Star Treck and all the others? To me, the most impressive moments were when a
massive fleet of hundreds of space ships showed up out of nowhere and headed towards a planetoid object to invade and crusade.

When you enter this upper gallery, you technically enter the Locke's space, however, his installation practically overwhelms you at a first glance and takes you as prisoner. To be perfectly honest, I had one of my rare moments, where I almost wanted surrender to the 7 tonnes (hello beuys...) of glint and twinkle amassed in this small room like left over Christmas decoration, and give up my room coordinates and beam me away. Boy, am I glad I didn't, but had a second, much closer inspection.

The fleet consists of 5 space ships, on average 5 foot long, 3 wide and 3 tall - they actually are quite big. More important is the materials they are made of: the applied plastic comes in almost every shape or form, mostly toys, often cut into pieces: dolls, swords, flowers, aliens, guns, insects, chains, dragons, crowns, golden pieces, silver shields, armour, hearts.

Not only is the concept great, referencing a "dystopian vision of the future, with its hint of colonial invasion and indiscriminate violence", but the craftmanship is SUPERP. Get this: every ship is let's say made of roughly 1000 individual plastic pieces, and Locke went to great pains of actually screwing them one by one - that is, well, 1000 holes drilled into plastic and screwing in onto each other. Once you realise that you are in awe. Those have taken months.

Above all, it's the eerie, cute, disturbing, fascinating and ridiculing combination of baby dolls steering spaceships while looking like Rambo-turned emissaries of the Spanish inquisition on their crusade to seize the abundant gold of Ankor Wat in the insect-infested jungle of 28th century Cambodia.

Really cool. I got mesmerised for almost 15 minutes, more time than I spent on the rest together.

Until 14 Jan 2007 at the ICA, Pall Mall

Art Show: Fiona Tan - Bon Voyage

2006-11-21T00:58:00.000Z

Not as comprehensive as her 2005 Oxford show, but still worth going to keep track of her recent development. Fiona Tan's works engage the traditional dialectic between the claim to objectivity of unprejudiced witness and the personal travelogue as the search for the subjective. She draws on photographic and filmic footage and combines the two in expanded film and video installations.

Crossing the threshold of early 20th Century missionaries' and travellers' reportages, which served to reinforce the sense of 'place' of Africans and Asians in the colonial hierarchy of power, Tan interlinks personal and social formations of identity. The centrepiece in this show are projected vintage photos of Japanese girls (looking all the same) at one end of the room and the same photo of one single girl (looking the same as all the others) with voice overs on the other end.

Yes, it sounds boring at first glance, but once you have accepted its banality, it can get quite exiting in terms of broader conceptual questions regarding socio-geographical identity.

Frith Street Gallery, until 28 October, 2006

Art Fair: Zoo

2006-11-21T00:51:00.000Z

Last year I was disappointed by Frieze - this year I thought I'd learn from my mistake and don't see the mainstream craze but sneak into the alternative stuff. Puhh, how shall I put it without hurting anyone: edgy and up and coming doesn't neccessarily translate into quality.

Sorry, crap, was out in 20 minutes. Spotted Uncle Saatchi though, the third time in 4 years. He was busy on the phone giving instructions to somebody, so I couldn't ask for collecting advice (Joke!) Being a small micro-scale collector myself for about 15 years now, I find the (commercial) art world more and more annoying and frustrating.

Concert: London Soloists at St John's Church

2006-11-21T00:40:00.000Z

What to do with a solitary Saturday evening while your fiance is visiting friends & family in USA for Thanks Giving and your mates are out on dates?

Going to a concert at St John's church on Smith Square and listen to the finest young musicians this city has on offer at one of the most picturesque and pre-christmassy churches at stone throw away from Westminster Abbey. On the menue was Mussorgsky Night on a Bare Mountain, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and Dvorak Symphony No.9 (From the New World) - one of my all-time Top 5 symphonies.

I made charming contact with an older lady who was honouring her son playing the oboe, and after two hours of distinguished behaviour and acustic delight, I drove home. No I didn;t take the regular rout along the embankment. I rather meandered through the Georgian Terraces of Pimplico and then Chelsea - while my baby was in the (her old) new world.

http://www.londonsoloists.com

Art Show: Leonardo Da Vinci

2006-11-21T00:24:00.000Z

To cut through the crap: this might be a once in a life-time chance to see some of the most famous and history making drawings as originals, so go - but close both eyes and shut down your connoisseur's minds amidst this disastrous kind of curation and presentation. £10 per time-slot ticket for a single smallish room cramped with dozens of works is a joke to say the least. The V&A museum is not exactly short of space, is it. However, to see the ink with your own eyes that documented one of history's most radical inventor and inventive artist puts you in a state of silent awe and (sensuous) goose bumps.

V&A, until 7 January, 2007

Art Show: Miniature Worlds

2006-11-21T00:08:00.000Z

The main reason why I pilgrimaged to this Southbank art space is to see Tessa Farmer's fairy cosmos again. She describes her work as ‘a tool to realise imaginative possibilities that might otherwise linger unseen, just beneath the surface'.
These tiny fairies and hell's angels are created from plant and tree roots and their scale is determined by the insect wings sprouting from their backs. Of course the most natural question is how on earth are human hands capable to produce something that small (we talk milimeters rather than centimeters here. But I guess the most important question is what the hell is going on here? Cute death? Do insects secretely rule the world and Tessa's fairies are the translaters into humanoid information which she in turn scales up through her own person...

I can go back again and again, I have no logical explanation why I am so in love with these pieces - apart from knowing that when she was in the New Contemporaries exhibit in the Barbican in 2004 the then installation cost £4K, and I seriously intended to buy it until I realised that it was (still) to much dosh for someone like me. Today she is worth three times this amount...recently picked up by Uncle Saatchi.

Jerwood Space, until September 2006

Photography: Dan Holdsworth

2006-11-20T23:48:00.000Z

Dan Holdsworth's large scale photographies explore the limits of human knowledge. His extremely long exposures of the Arecibo Space Telescope (remember the movie 'Contact') document the movements this gigantic mirror that is listening into space is performing at dark.

Another stunning series is the Hyperborea where he captured the Northern Lights on Island. Filled with both time and timeliness, these photographs offer a window to another world, that feels literally alien to us mere mortals. You also see this in pictures of the European Space agencies, where the employees parking lot is framed by a rocket pointing to the main entrance. You feel like in a Bond movie, but this is real and the villain is not Dr. No, but probably you and I, not being able to grasp the many phenomena concerning the edge of space, and thus, reacting with further limiting aggression in our own little world.

National Maritime Museum, until 7 January, 2007

Art Show: Fischli & Weiss

2006-11-20T23:10:00.000Z

Many of us know the 30 minute video 'The way things go' - the most inventive, bizarre and unique domino effect that humans could possibly create, where, based on chemical, mechanical and physical effects, household appliances and other gear sets themselves in motion in an empty factory hall. The sources of inspiration for this Swiss duo are endless, yet their art is shockingly mundane and plain in execution. However, what makes it stand out is this odd combination of aestethics and philosophy by two Alpenlaender Anoraks with a cheeky humour.You have to see it to believe it. However, you also should see this exhibition at Tate Modern, the best I have seen there since the Joseph Beuys Retrospective last year.The only major area of their work I haven't seen immediately turned into one of my favorites: an entire room full of little clay models, mostly left unfinished and unfired, capturing the most inportant events in human history filtered by the duo's own perception of what's important and what not, hence, the title of this microcosm 'And suddenly this overview' couldn't be more poignant. You see moments in technology, fairy tales, civilization, sex, religion, nature and entertainment, and the funniest in the latter category is the clay model of "Mick Jagger and Brian Jones going home satisfied after composing I Can't Get No Satisfaction"

Another room is filled by large scale photographs of flowers/plants and airports, beautiful and stunning. But perhaps the most intriguing room is "Visible World": three flat screens present an archive of 3,00 photos taken by the artists on journeys across the globe. It is not so much the material, but the curation and the way the images are fading into each other. Here is a lake. Now a boat emerges. Then the boat dissapears again, and the lake is joint by mountains in the back. Of course the boat and the mountains are not around the original lake, but another one somewhere else. Better than photoshop and digital imaging effects could ever be...

Don't miss it!

Tate Modern, until 14 January 2007

Art Show: Pierre Klossowski

2006-11-20T22:02:00.000Z

"Claiming not to be a writer, philosopher, or even an artist, "but first, foremost, and always, a monomaniac," Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001) has long remained a cultish figure..."

When you enter the ground floor of the Whitechapel gallery and gaze at the ginormeous drawings and their three-dimensional sculptural elaborations, your first association might be 'this must have been De Sade's artistic dream - interpreted by Freud on LSD: Stags do business with Robin Hood looking women, young pageants make out with old ladies, and above all and through out the show there is an eerie non-explicit athmosphere of erotic violence. You don't feel as observing an act, but moments before it happens, when one might pause to give his or her rationale a chance to win over dark desires in the hope to withold yourself and not do it.

Oh, what? Do I sound weird? Well, I somehow feel surrealised by this double-bill of phantasmagic art.

Whitechapel, until 23 November, 2006

Art Show: Hans Bellmer

2006-11-20T21:49:00.000Z

Yeah - Finally! An art show of this (of course) German Maniac. I was waiting for this opportunity for almost 15 years. And now the great Whitechapel locked away in the East End displays the etchings, drawings and photo documentations of his famous dolls.What's all my raving about? Well, for those who didn't come across this hidden champion of Surealism so far (no he was never as accomplished as Dalior Ernst) this is the real surealist stuff, kinky, horrible, boundless, childlike, erotic and just a bit C-R-A-Z-Y. So if you think the Chapman brothers were revolting (in the 1990s!!!) and you would like to see how somebody was 10 times more pushing the boundaries of taste and conventions, then go and see what this man created as early as the - YES - 1930s before he had to flee Hitler and his Nazi cronies as an "Entarteter Kunstler".

Whitechapel, until 23 November, 2006

High Street: North Cross Road, SE22

2006-08-20T00:52:00.000Z

Since my cousin has moved to East Dulwhich, I have become a real fan of this little bohemian enclave for two other reasons: Lordship Lane and North Cross Road for:
Shopping on the Saturday market and in the numerous bric-a-brac, interieur design and flower shops. My favorite is www.designsix.co.uk where I bought a glorious chest of drawer hand-made in Indonesia from mango wood. 10% of the profits also go to a Tsunami relief fund.2) After the shopping spree go for great dining and wining in idiosyncratic and fair-prized bars and restaurants such as...well, I am not recommending any restaurants as there are too many little starlets, just put your nose in the wind and follow your favorite smell. Have a closing drink at Liqorish!

Movie: Wal Mart - The high cost of low price

2006-08-20T00:20:00.000Z

When I studied international marketing at business school, Wal Mart was invading the German Market in a "make em or break em" style. Deep inside, we all knew that this strategy was going to fail, but back then nobody was listening to us new economy kids in Cologne. So, we write the year 2006 and the behemoth has surrendered and is marching home - and we were right, he he.

That prompted me to finally see that movie about what's wrong with the Wal Mart business model. A lot! But the bigger picture is that of the corporation. Don't complain about fat cats, immorale values (e.g. to subsidise a profit machine like this with tax payer's money to only name one) and killing the little guy (independent local traders), unless you want to un-corporate Corporate America. The flaw is in the law.

Speaking of the devil, the movie "The Corporation" had the potential to make history, but unfortunately only the first 45 minutes are conceptually revolution calling followed by almost two hours of cineastic how-to-do-it enangelising.

However, the Wal Mart movie delivers what it promises and should become compulsary curriculum for all business and economy students. Definetively eye-opening and a milestone in critical documentary.

For those who are interested, the website www.truecosteconomics.org has an interesting call to action: to change the economic paradigm itself rather than fire-fighting the effects of the pre-vailing and harzarduous neo-liberal one. Or go back to the last remaining corner shop in your neighbourhood instead of Tesco Local.

Art Show: Surprise, Surprise

2006-08-19T23:21:00.000Z

There is this magic triangle in the art market between artist, collector and gallerist/dealer. In the spheres of not-for-sale exhibitions it respectively is artist-viewer-and-this odd thing called curator. Beuys gave birth to the famous mission statement of "everyone is an artist" but who on earth transplanted this motto into curation?

Contemporary, the magazine has recently published a special issue on 'Curators' and there are now even university diplomas to be obtained. Where the point my generic rant? To be frank, creative curating on the edge of contemporary taste and discourse incurs some risk, and the ICA had a couple of hit-and-miss attempts too much to my liking. The only outstanding shows in the last two years were by Tino Sehgal, and coincidently (or not) there was no involvement of a curator putting together random stuff, because there was simply nothing to hang, place or install.

Also, a curator can only be as good as the material at hand, and maby here lies the problem: this exhibition shows pieces from very well-known artists, but not the usual stuff and that iss supposed to be the trick here. In general, the show dissapoints, as it is only an assembly of mostly mediocre stuff of big names. It feels a bit like detecting that your favorite art house actress has commited some sitcom-sins or worse, advertising sell-outs back in the 80ies.

However, there are some pieces that charmingly stand out, even though the critical question remains how much 'unusual' these are.

This very cleverly engineered optical-effect sculpture does have some essential Matthew Barney features (think prosthetic plastic), while my favourite piece, a perpetual-through-the-wall & red-coloured-water installation of Anish Kapoor somehow instinctively reminded me to the Marsyas commision in Tate Modern before I checked the name in the leaflet provided.

Perhaps the best 'positive' surprise in terms of unusual+good was Jenny Holzer's "Lustmord": 312 animal bones arranged on a table with engraved silver rings that made me think how archaic this world still is, despite human accomplishments like culture and creative curating.

Until 10 September at the ICA

Art Show: Thomas Demand

2006-08-19T23:01:00.000Z

I guess it needs a fellow German to NOT photograph mind-boring stuff like empty town hall stairways, photocopiers and office desks, but to re-create these artefacts and places 1-2-1 from cardboard and paper - of course with the notorious meticulous attention to detail and perfectionist engineering - AND THEN to photograph THAT.

And it goes without saying that you fall into his trap at first encounter, until you are wondering about the dorky beauty of these random objects and spaces instead of the expected eerie emptiness that stuff like that would create if the photographs were capturing real things.

You are then asking yourself: But why? All this effort...what's the point? Well, it makes you better really see how boring and sense-numbing much our daily world is and how odd such a thing like a p-h-o-t-o-c-o-p-i-e-r is. Yes, say this word ten times while looking at the picture and you'll get start thinking about the bug in the matrix or check the glass table in your home is really that or.

I left with the notion that maybe we humans, that apparently inhibit all these spaces, might be only "paper-tigers" ourselves.

Until 20 August at the Serpentine Gallery

Artistic Theatre: Fuerza Bruta

2006-08-19T22:37:00.000Z

I finished work. Hot home. Picked-up my fiance. Drove to Chalk Farm. Met friends. Had no idea what to expect apart from "this is not your normal theatre experience. How so? Well, there is no stage a start and things will be moving around you.

What followed then was 60 minutes of audio-visual + kinaesthetic magic. Yes, I felt like Alice in wonderland. Might a lot of people discredit its sensationalism as been there done that or well it was more circus than theatre. What the hell, I felt purely entertained for every single second and my jaw was dropping lower and lower with every change of scene.

Phantasmagic!

Until 31 August at the Roundhouse

Art Show: Bill Viola

2006-08-19T22:10:00.000Z

Love/Death - The Tristan Project: Usually I become bored by the "more of the same" approach as this often thins out artist's creativity.

However, there are magic cooks of aesthetic ware of which you just cannot get enough of their spice, and in case of Bill Viola it is this monumental, ultra-slow motion video art that illuminates the 4 elements earth, water, fire and air as well as the usual suspect facial expression of people, projected at a pace that you assume to be better than sleeping pills.

Yet all the pieces at numerous Bill Viola exhibitions I have seen - and this includes a city-wide one-man show back in the 90ies in Frankfurt - make people seemingly stick to the wall to watch a whole loop even if that takes 50 minutes.

This is the opposite of 'what the hell' video art where you enter a dark room and leave after 7 to 60 seconds saying to your own high-brow that is screaming it wants to be a floor lower: "I know this might be an important piece of art, but hell I cannot be bothered to digest this here and now"

This stuff is just beautiful, erotic, deep, captivating and just excellent. And for the high-brows who need to grasp the intellectual decomposition of the leitmotif, go and see Wagner's opera.

Until 2 Sep at Haunch of Venison and St. Olaf College on the Southbank. The latter has the more opulent pieces in my opinion.

Art Show: The Art of Climate Change

2006-07-10T00:05:00.000Z

Not even Bush denies it categorically anymore. Polar caps are melting and so forth. But how does large-scale and long-term transformation look like?

This show at the Natural History Museum has sent a bunch of artists to a cluster of Swedish Islands up in the Arctic Sea to discover the given topic in their way - and the result is great. The work displayed is critical, beautiful and most important relevant: it catches your attention and makes you think, like Gary Hume's Hermaphrodite Polar bear.

At a first glance it makes you laugh because the title is kind of cute or funny in reference to the comic-style painting, but when you read that growing trash and their chemicals battle this majestic species to fight against the threat of extinction by undermining biological reproduction, then this assumed tongue-in-cheek turns into a rather nauseous lump in your throat.

My favorite piece was an installation though that consists of a weird mechanism that can send your audio-visual senses into delirium, yet it captures best what our pre-conceptions of nature are: that we think it doesn't change rapidly, but slowly and invisible. Stay a while, study the movements and you'll understand the undercurrents below the surface that don't make it into the daily news.

Antony Gormley delivers good stuff as most of the time, wheras Siobhan Davies' Endangered Species - an extremely filigran and subtle holographic video piece took me by surprise and changed my perception of "available space".

-> until 3 Sep 2006, free entry, Natural History Museum, SW7

Art Show: Around the World in 80 Days

2006-07-09T23:31:00.000Z

When Phileas Fogg and Passepartout committed their money and honor to this extraordinary bet starting in Victorian London, England was at the height of it's Empire. In 2006 more nationalities, ethnicities, languages and religions are found in London which (and not NYC) is the most exiting and challenging melting pot in the 21st century.

The ICA is playing with the outward gesture of Jule Verne's novel by taking an inward perspective into assessing the myriads of different backgrounds of London-based artists which is great as a curatory concept and commitment to diversity - unfortunately (to my taste) it doesn't deliver on the walls of both locations (ICA and South London Gallery).

I couldn't help but thinking that this was on of the more boring "theme" exhibitions of recent and the only piece that made me feel the entrance fee was well spent was Mona Hatoums admittedly fantastic marble floor installation making up the 5 continents with what must be tons of crystal clear marbles.

Once you dared to touch one marble in a lesser observed corner you realise that they are not glued to the floor or so but simply arranged according to the continent silhouettes and that one wrong move (you have to negotiate your way around) could shake up the formation. It made me think of the fragility of the temporary aspect of contemporary boarders with its sometimes massive geo-political implications.

Having seen her retrospective in Bonn last year I have to say it's still not even one of her best pieces though.

-> until 16 Jul at the ICA and South London Gallery

3D: New London Architecture

2006-07-09T22:44:00.000Z

What makes London different from NYC, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Chicago, Dubai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur? It's lack of a distinct and dominating skyline.

Instead of cubic miles of concrete glass and steel it seems to harbour the worlds most persistent and ample cluster of low rise period buildings with styles named Palladian, Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian.

It's beautiful-no question about it, but is it sustainable and economic? And why on earth are Londoners so resistant to anything that's higher than St. Pauls? Why does the Gherkin built by local breed Foster receive more acclaim abroad than at home?

This exhibition is primarily delivered through a mega scale 3D model positioned in the middle of the premise around which you can walk and glimpse at the "new stuff" in shiny white plastic cubes such as additional towers in Cnary Wharf and the transformation of the Battersea Power Station to and International Trade & Convention Centre. It feels a bit like Lego for adults, however, it is an excellent and precise model of London with all it's existing and proposed architectural landmarks.

This magnificent centrepiece is enriched by facts and figures per borough and graphic depiction of how this unique capital has grown over centuries.

Until 30 June 2006 at The Building Centre in 26 Store Street, WC1

Photo Show: Rinko Kawauchi

2006-05-12T02:55:00.000Z

For decades Japanese Photography was dominated by alpha males like Araki epitomising the machismo culture of the land of the rising sun. In the last ten years a new generation of female artists have gained more exposure with the likes of Hermosa and Rinko Kawauchi gaining international reputation.

This exhibition gives a great insight into the work of the latter by combining several of her series which are revolving around nature, weddings and the little odd sensations of everyday (dull) Japanese life outside the big metropolitan areas. And it has a particular (Japanese) female connotation of intimacy and delicacy that is quite similar to that of Hermosa which I have also seen in many other lesser known colleagues while I was visiting Japan for a couple of months in 2001.

Kawauchi says: "For a photographer, it's a necessity that you can shoot stuff magically. Accidents are necessary, but after I take a photograph, it is not over. I work on it more." She suggests that the editing and presentation of the work is as important to the final image as composing and taking the photograph. All pieces are presented behind formalizes glass and there is always a feeling of just the right presentation size for a subject. Quite magical indeed!

As with most of the shows in this location: a perfect lunch retreat complemented by an 18 minute DVD loop showing an abundance of her seemingly endless footage.

The Photographer's Gallery, Leicester Square - until 9 July

Art Show: Day-to-day Data at Daniel Arnaud

2006-04-17T16:16:00.000Z

An exhibition of artists who collect, list, database and absurdly analyse the data of everyday life.

A mere mile south of concrete-battered Waterloo is a nice little enclave of Georgian terraces and some bohos seemingly living around this 4 storey house that is part living space of the gallerist (who always opens the door personally) and part exhibition space.

I was naturally attracted by the shows title and I am happy to have seen documentation of trolley abductors where attached tags identify location of lost or stolen trolleys at a local Tesco. Christian Nold's Bio Mapping device allows you to measure your levels of stress and excitement as you walk through the city. Devices will be available to borrow from the gallery on a drop-in basis throughout the exhibition.

My favorite though is the little video in the entrance area of Richard Dedomenici who walked along the boarder of inner London to gather the exact demarcation line of 0207 vs 0207 phone number prefixes.

For fans of conceptual art as well as for geeks and people with a curiosity for the obvious and the odd.

FREE entry; until 23 April at Daniel Arnaud Contemporary Art, Kennington
http://www.daytodaydata.com

Art Show: Tate Triennial 2006

2006-04-17T16:03:00.000Z

I am sorry. Sorry for Tate Britain and sorry for the artists. Each participant might have his or her own qualities and importance, but the curation is numbingly boring and I swept through this show in less than 15 minutes as there was just nothing that truly caught my eye, mind or emotions. Or perhaps I was just tired and in a bad mood.

The Contemporary magazine has listed 80 biennials and triennials around the globe in its special issue on Curators last year. What all started with Documenta and is still being epitomised by the one in Venice got a bit out of control in my view and it is probably time to scale back. Beuys once famously proclaimed that "Everyone is an artist". But is anyone also a curator?

Less is more!

FREE Entry; until 14 May at Tate Britain

Photo Show: Wildlife Photographer of the Year

2006-04-17T15:45:00.000Z

Surfing Penguines? Bear Babies dropped off on a tree waiting for mother? High End Snapshots of mother Nature? If that is your cup of tea then this exhibition in Kensington is your must see this year.

While my photography is more similar to that of Wolfgang Tillmanns in the way of quick and low tech snapshots of everyday life but without the consistency and quality of course, these showcased contestants here spend days and sometimes weeks in a row in tree huts and other hideouts with their expensive and sophisticated equipement waiting for the shot of their life. And the results prove them right and the patience has paid off.

And how hillarious the animal kingdom can be? Just look at that deer being trapped while fighting off a competitor even though his "damn I got caught look in his face suggest a slightly different activity...

Great for a lunch break or as part of a whole day trip with your family.

FREE Entry; until 23 April at the Natural History Museum, SW7
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/index.html

Art Show: Page 3 Girls at Fabrications, E8

2006-04-17T15:10:00.000Z

I went to Hackney today to document E8 as part of my new London post codes project when I came across this little space on Broadway Market. Some 50 to 60 Page Three Girls water colors on paper with different grades of abstraction and naturalism and hung in a grid make a provocative yet pleasing installation.

An invisible statement is expressed through a conceptual and ‘aesthetic-political’ pricing system putting value tags along definitions like ‘ugly wet’. Jody, the artist told me that she wants people to pay up to £200 for the rather beautiful pieces with realistic brushes while the more dodgy looking papers with freak-like faces or lack of personality details can make it home from £40. I am happy to have picked my favorite piece first...

In my view, this work is a well-done sarcastic take on an infamous institution of British popular culture uncovering a macho-driven fetish of British men that has somewhat outstayed emancipation waves and feminist agenda of the 21st century as well as the abundance of free and 24/7 accessible erotica of the internet. Maybe this series makes you start wondering: Who are these ‘sexy bodies’ anyhow? But be careful: They might even have a personality!

This show officially opens on Thursday evening, 6th April and lasts only until Sunday afternoon.

The space is opposite of My Life in Art on Broadway Market which feels like an artisan enclave in E8 that is not yet imperatively hip as Hoxton but still has a rather work-in-progress feel with butcher-cafes, art spaces to rent and little bookshops. For lunch go to La Vie en Rose at the corner and eat the Filet which is delicious!

Movie: Syriana at the Electric Cinema

2006-04-17T15:09:00.000Z

If you check the review comparison on the guardian online you can see that most of Britain’s newspapers are giving it an 8/10, and with the Sun, FT, Daily Telegraph and the Express these pundits are from the conservative spectrum. On the other hand, The Guardian and The Independent give rather weak marks, which is surprising for this demanding and brave political project.

To say it straight away: I think it’s a great polit-thriller and cannot wait until it’s released on DVD. What makes it refreshingly different from the recent name-and-shame yet valid celluloid attacks from the left-wing a la 9/11 Fahrenheit and The Corporation is it’s lack of accusing Bush and his cronies, or neo-cons in general. The cast is top-notch with many familiar faces to make following the plot at least possible.

What makes it so compelling in my view, is that Clooney & Co. try to make patterns transparent, but they don’t really succeed - and that is exactly the winning momentum. Because the global system dynamics of oil, money, politics, corruption and consumption is too complex even for well-informed people to be fully understood and digested - and that’s why it’s lack a dominating character, but makes a realistic assessment of rather structural leadership and systematic corruption.

After 2.5 hours in the comfy leather sofa of my favorite London Cinema in affluent Notting Hill, an eerie feeling is creeping up my mind: as long as you, I and we all together, drive cars, use plastic bags and all other things made of oil, there will be corruption (official and unofficial) and terrorist attacks (by islamist groups as well as intelligence agencies).

While watching the credits, I compared the movie’s quintessence (delivered by the career-hungry attorney) to that of the principal-agent model of modern corporations: In Syriana, we the consumers are the principals, and we mandate the politicians, the boards, the middlemen and everybody else involved to be the agents that act on our behalf, and that is to provide us with abundant supply. And that is often high-risk, politically and economically as well as personally. So the characters want the respective reward according to another grand model called Risk equals reward. And how do the participants try and cut out their slice of the pie? Correct, through corruption! And why? Unless we revoke our vote, it will not change because the incentive is too low. The corrupt analyst made 80 millions...and got away with it!

And that is a striking point, but it seems to be too disillusioning for some liberal critics. Of course I want those people being put to jail, but it’s the way this unbundled globalized economy works - until we change it...through a new mandate.

Art Show: Deutsche Boerse Photo Price at the Photographer Gallery

2006-04-17T15:06:00.001Z

1. Photography Gallery in Great Newport Street is a visual retreat during lunch break.
2. This prize is pretty understated and always well curated and of consistent quality
3. My favourite piece is Yto Barrada, Factory 1 - Prawn processing plant in the Free Trade Zone - Tangier. It is a very powerful record of Globalization and why we can afford delicatessen in abundance these days. You just wonder what social price has to be paid in countries of processing...
4. Phil Collins larger-than life video blow-ups of Turkish folks in Istanbul performing karaoke is hee-larious! Multiple accounts of wanna be stars not being cool actually, while some quieter talents reveal the story of their life through dramatic facial expressions, and please wait for the two brothers...if you ever wondered how you looked like having been forced to do karaoke, this piece has unwanted wit and joy - for the observer!
5. Alec Soth should get the price for his depicting rural and poor Mississippi land. The series is very consistent, and shows the grim side of lost and forgotten America, but also weirdly beautiful idiosyncrasies of its settlers. And it hits a contemporary American nerve.

until 22 April at 5 & 8 Great Newport Street, WC2H 7HY Tube: Leicester Square

First Drafts - Experimental Choreography at the ROH

2006-04-17T15:06:00.000Z

I was invited to this welcoming different event by Steffen, whose friend Mayumi Hotta, Dance Notator for the Royal Ballet, opened the evening with her piece “Spring Day” (imagine a girl gracefully performing on a piano while her partner is playing it...) Over the course of one hour we saw a tango-inspired piece about courtship-love-friendship and other either delicious or funny compositions.

Looking at the guys on stage, we had to accept that lifting female ballet partners up in the air all the time does have an impact on your triceps, but then, who of us regular guys would want to squeeze our ‘rescue belt’ into one of those arse-to-toe grey legging pants anyway.

However, we agreed that this recurring event makes a good date for the following reasons:
1. You (the dude) won’t fall asleep after a long day of boring meetings only interrupted by “grabbing a sandwich” for lunch, because there is just too much action on stage to keep your eyes in ‘rapid follow movement’
2. It is very sumptuous and at times erotic which might give you inspiration for later (think a gorgeous girl doing the tango girl with an equally stunning lad)
3. Since he is always gay, you won’t have any competition from that side as we all know;-)

I will certainly go back next time to witness progress of the next Alvin Ailey or Pina Bausch.

Art Show: Any Warhol at Hauser & Wirth

2006-04-17T15:03:00.000Z

Think Andy Warhol was a one trick pony only making campbell soup and Marilyn portraits?

Sure, this guy was one of the founders of pop art and his iconoclastic canvas work hangs in all museums and collections of name and fame, but in my opinion his photographic work is not only extremely exiting, it also reveals more of the real drama behind this maniac. If you survive more than one hour of the eight hour Warhol TV footage, than you get an idea why he considered buying tons of socks in a department store a spiritual event and why he is the king of pop, eh soap.

Being a teenager in the 80s, this decade is my key to adoring fame, dismissing America’s political system as corrupt but idealising NYC as the world’s capital, hero-ing John McEnroe and Sylvester Stallone and worshipping Madonna (then young) and Joan Collins (then already sexy mature).

This show contains 250 black and white photographs of the above named, Keith Haring, J-M Basquiat, Jim Carre, Ozzy Ozbourne, a hell of a lot of NYC-invented here mullets, transvestites and that I-wish-I-was-there mingling of eccentric art scene-meets- new age underground crowd that made SoHo and the Lower East side so legendary in the 80s.

You can hear, smell and taste the then scene, which Warhol captured in real life situations, much better and deeper than the ah so many celebrity photographers at the time who in turn became stars themselves (think Newton and Ellen Mark). Warhol was an elder-statesman at the time of most of the presented portraits - kind of post-pop NYC new wave soap...:-)

And as far as curating is concerned, the fact that his (self?) portraits are kept in the vault down in the basement, give the entire show this fascinating notion that in reality this ueber-star was pretty shy and often lonely. I did get goose bums! (Hauser & Wirth Gallery is located in a former Palladium-style banking building and fortunately makes use of all facilities, sometimes even including the ancient elevator. The gallery is worth a visit alone.

Art Show: Joseph Kosuth at Spruth Magers Lee

2006-04-17T14:50:00.000Z

Don’t consider conceptual art as ‘art? Do you think ‘you can do this yourself’? Do you feel conceptual art is empty and cold?

If you answer one of those questions with yes, you should go and see Joseph Kosuth’s impressive show to turn your knowledge to the better as this is the most beautifully curated small-scale show of any conceptual artist in London ever (ok, to be honest I only know about the last four years, but still:-)

You will see his history making dictionary blow-ups from the 1960s, wall-filling neon tube installations and a ginormeous article print about the Lorena Bobbit cut-his-penise story.

Sprueth Magers Lee is an institution in the art world which I know from Cologne back then. And if you have any questions, please ask the nice woman behind the desk. If she is not on the phone she is actually up for a quick chat about the show and the art wolrd and does not give you that creepy feeling that she snobbishly looks down on you - as so many unfortunately.

until 13 April, 12 Berkeley Street, W1J 8DT

Art Show: Tino Sehgal at the ICA, London

2006-04-17T14:48:00.000Z

This German hot talent is the best kept secret in contemporary art. Never seen his art? Don’t worry you can’t, you can only experience it!

“Coming from a background in choreography and political economy, Sehgal does not produce tangible objects or any form of material trace.” (ICA text).

If you are up for an instructed dialogue yet improvised human interaction that will leave you puzzled yet enlightened, the £2.50 ticket is a must for you. Somebody will pick you up at the entrance and from there on your pre-conceptions of what art is will be destroyed and re-built. For people who are looking for “progress” this show might be a link to a bigger picture.

Until 19 March, The Mall, SW1Y 5AH

2005-06-17T21:14:00.000Z