Monday, July 13th, 2009

For this last post of the epic london journey, i've decided to go about the day with a selection of high resolution photographs from the day. here are some of the interesting highlights of the day revealed in pure photo-realism:

Van Gogh's portrait with his ear cut off at the somerset house in london

Martine chillin in front of the entrance of said Somerset House.

Riding the DLR, National Express' most clever catastrophe.

here's gerard at his day job. 

Floating bridge! a bridge designed to support the walking pedestrians from pontoons. 

us walking across the bridge - it's sturdier than it may look.

can you guess which one of these is a Foster Building??                    

             i'm just glad it's not all of them, frankly.

this was a glass waveform piece in the Canadian Building. We were told to stop taking pictures at this point, which is OK, because the rest of the building kinda sucked with it's stuffy nature-loving pink marble and the scent of staunch conservatism, met with a style as empty as the open canadian, prairie air. 

sorry, got carried away...

Walking under the River Tames...not as exciting as Driving-Disco under the river tames.

meeting at the grenich observatory/court hill for a hallmark look over london. 

Saturday, july 11th, 2009

Today would be our final day of  Critiques within the Tate Britain. Me, Ellen and Maria totally owned a large sailboat piece, created in conjuction with a poem. I think we did pretty good on it.

After this, we headed to Waiting For Godoh, a play starring Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellen . It’s supposedly one of the best plays of the 21st century thus far. The show largely revolves around a dialogoue between Stewart’s Character and Mckellan’s Character. 

After this, we went to the Futurism Show at the Tate Modern. This would be our final show from the tate and what a show it was! the exhibit featured key works from the futurist movement, like work by Kandinsky, Papova, Boccioni and Delaney. I really enjoyed this show, so much so that i had to get a copy of Taschen press’ book on Futurism.

After that, Gerard gave Jill a unique view of london on one of the top floors, to share a drink for the work she did as a MUCEP for the campus. He also treated gwen to a drink, but that was a separate instance. After, the majority of us decided to head back, with most of us just making the 7:58 train to Harlow Mill. 

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Castle, Trip to Brighton

Today, we started off with the Vans (yep, the return of Tiddles and Randall) to go see Brighton, a coastal city that’s about a 2 and a half hour drive away from harlow.  We went to visit Bodiam Castle, a heritage site maintained by the National Trust here in England. The castle was quite impressive and all encompassing; with the drawbridge, the moat and the corner towers to complete our expectations of the picture-esque castle. I went with Sarahdactyl on this visit and she had a wonderful time getting in all the rooms and nooks and crannies of the old place.

afterwards came time for tea in the gift shop area. appropriate for Britain, yes?

Delaware Pavillion was next, a stop gerard usually doesn't make for most trips. we were sure happy to be there, as a temporary exhibition of Joseph Beuy’s work was on display there. even the Fat chair was in this show! it was quite the comprehensive and even interactive show, once you factor in the playful message activity made for the show in the above floors. 

After that, we then were off to Brighton! Brighton is a small seaside town on the east coast of britian. It’s known to be, not only a former touristy seaside town, but the gay capital of Britian. in fact, UK producer-djing team Fremasons hails from Brighton (intereting thing to learn after the fact of me buying their latest album Shakedown 2 from an independent record store there). 

Our main stop within brighton was for the Royal Pavilion, owned and designed by prince of wales, George IV. Here, the prince was completely outlandish to the usual style meant for royalty and went for the exoticism of Chinese and indian-inspired motifs and themes throughout the entire palace. the palace didn’t meet very many royal standards, but this did not stop the prince from reaching a rather glorious vision. also, it was interesting to learn that the palace was only meant to last a few decades, but is slowly getting to it’s 200th year as a palace to be bewildered by.

after this, we met down by the brighton peir, which had a fun on it’s own sorts. not to mention it’s underlying beach, upon which some of the other students took advantage (despite the cold) and went swimming to their heart’s content. here's jill and kyle being a convincing Jack and Kylie.

back in the vans we were, sooner rather than later. Harlow was 2 and a half hours away and we all needed to get home. But there was still and sense that brighton might just be  great place to stay for a few nights. (hint, gerard: i’m sure you could mutter something significant to talk about for a few days :P)

haha

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Trip to Wallace Collection, Selfridges, Jeff Koons + Insanerain09

Today, we got off the subway at Bond Street station to get to the Wallace collection. Here, the place started much in the same way as the Sir John Soane house, whereby a fellow collects so much work and pieces from a time or era that it becomes almost beneficial to open up a house-based museum. here, alot of baroque and rococo-era artworks have been collected for the museum’s displays (not to mention “The Swing”, a famous painting made by Jean-Honore Fragonard). Our tour guide, though quite imformative, made the experience a little dry with her talk. Not to mention half of the group was restless to try and jump from gerard’s plans in order to make it to a Harry Potter Premere at leicester square. 

After the visit, we then headed down the street to check out Selfridges, the major, multi-level department store. Selfridges established itself in much the same way as other major corps, like Wal-Mart, by establishing itself with a close connection to a particular group of people. in the case of selfridge’s, it’s women. Selfridges created such standardized store layouts, like having perfume in front of the store, to attract the female buyers. The strore has quite a tight support for the women’s Suffagette movement, despite an attack of vandalism on the store in one incident. 

After this, we headed to the Serpentine Gallery to see Jeff Koon’s Show, which was dedicated to Popeye, the Sailorman (yeah, you know who i mean). The show featured alot of work that made direct references to popular culture, with sculpture, installation and articulate painting being to three culprits for Koons work. The most astonishing thing (besides learning the Kanye West was in the gallery the morning of) would be Koons amazing attention to detail and the use of aluminum on objects that appeared to be just inflatable works.  

The pieces, even with the direct popeye references, had a very Snarky, nearly masongenistic quality to them. His dedication to popeye comes from his appreciation of popeye’s overall atitude, summated by his phrase “I am what i y’am”, a bold and noble statement from an artist that is clearly not self-conscious in the art world and not afraid to raise eyebrows.

After this, we did intend on going to see the princess diana memorial, not oo far away from the Sepentine galllery. Unfortunately, for us, mother nature said a whomping “NO” and it downpoured on the whole class in a way that i’ve never seen rain fall before. We had hail,, some wind and a TON of rain, enough to even close down one of the rail lines we were depending upon to get back to Liverpool St. Station.

 Me and jill made a prety epic journey down to Trafalgar square to catch the appropiate bus, only to wind up in the same Harry Potter premiere that part of the class hoped to attend. Nooo!

All in all, it was an event end to a very decent day into london.

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Class Trip to the New Harlow Town with tour of sculptures.

Today, we headed to a morning class and discovered that we’d be heading into Harlow Town, the larger, more urbanized counterpart that Old Harlow seems to reflect from. We took the town bus services to get to the main part of harlow, a town mostly known for it’s concrete feel and appeal of modernist structures. 

We met with jackie, our tour guide and a great advocate for the development of Harlow Town. She was very informative of all the sculptures, as well as the layout and design of harlow’s body in terms of structures and buildings. Harlow’s Civic centre is the newest of the buildings there, which had a sort-of post modernist style to it (if you want to be faithful, i guess you could call it that).

 We also checked out this group show of student artwork at the Civic Centre in Harlow.

 can anyone else recall 1st year VA?? i can...

After that, we were just told to be back in time for the Nick suppers (our daily feast of cafeteria food whenever we stay in old harlow for the day). 

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

Imperial War Museum + Gay Pride 2009 (alongside Basement Jaxx!)

Today was a particularly exciting day for me. Not only would the class be engaging in one of the most anticipated cultural events in london in going to the Gay Pride Parade, but myself and Andy would be heading to the Barclaycard Wireless Festival of 2009, which features great acts like The Streets, Dizzee Rascal and the headliners BASEMENT JAXX!!!

but, to start off on a somber note, gerard took us to the Imperial War Museum. This Museum was created in commemorating, not only the tragedy of war, but of it’s glory and of the advancements we’ve made in war and military technology. Amongst the displays are interactive sections, simulator stations and even a life-sized trench made in a room, complete with the smell of corpses and sounds of machine gun fire  and explosions. It’s something i certainly won’t forget visiting and experiencing.

the main reason for our visit was to take in the Holocaust memorial exhibition, a very daunting stretch of an exhibit that accurately documents the horrific events of the holocaust in quite good detail. I’d rather not elaborate too much on the content of the show (i’m sure everyone is aware of what happened there at that time) but i will offer some constructive criticism in the way of the show’s information. it was a class-held notion that the exhibit didn’t go deep into the discrimination of the disabled and those that were homosexual at time of capture and we felt that it would have been great to see them recognized within the show. many of us in the class left feeling very sorrowful, with some even in tears. the show was deep and heart-wrenching, so a peace area was provided within  the museum’s front court, designed and approved by the dali lama, as a space to find tranquility, a personal peace and to contemplate ways of achieving world peace.

on a VERY sharp contrast, we would walk ourselves 20 mins to get to trafalgar square to go see 2009’s gay pride parade in london. we were told of good spots to view the parade from, as well as local shops to pick up drinks and celebrate! the parade lasted a good 2 hours, but it was hours well spent!

 the parade didn’t have as many floats as i thought it would, but the participation of the many people that decided to walk the streets for that long was outstanding, nonetheless. the music, the crowds and atmosphere was enough to blow Canada day celebrations out of the water!

After this, me, Kylo and An-dee somehow missed Jilly and Mar-10 somewhere in the crowds of the event. After some searching, me and andy then decided to head to Hyde park for the Concerts. We may have missed Digitalism (only just stepping in to see them dismantle their set in prep for the next) and missed Paul Oakenfold, but the combination of the acts we saw were just too phenomenal to claim we really missed anything. 

just take a look at this video compilation i made; 9 mins of footage from the Streets, Dizzee and the Jazz. hope you like it, as it’s gotten 2000+ hits on YouTube!

needless to say, my body ached like hell the next day, but i’d do it all over again if i had to and that’s what matters most.

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

Raven Row + Tower Bridge + Design Museum AND...Prince Albert Memorial

Today, i’d like to also include that my friend of DJ-ing awesomeness Andy Bowers has joined in on the Fun of a gerard-led VA trip to london today. Chops to you, Andy, for taking it up on, what should have been, a day off in harlow town for you. Hope you really liked Your First Time in the City of London!

To start things off, we headed to the first-attempt-closed Raven Row Gallery, were a group show was going on. the gallery is well known to bringing in more sound art and video art, even on the line of galleries we’ve visited. the gallery has had it’s foundation from a much older house and this shows as you walk through the spaces.

Some exciting paper constructed works harbored in one main section of the gallery, while other spaces lended to installation + sound art pieces at collaged notes and talks together. One piece even fed a mic to the room, with a connecting speaker outside the gallery. this was also done vice-versa, as the exterior of the gallery could be heard within the gallery. upstairs, there were a series of video and sound pieces, with a few 2D pieces as well.

We then headed across the Tower Bridge, a very monumental part of london, discussing it’s history and variations throughout the years. The other side of the bridge held the Design museum, which kept a very interesting retrospective of design in various media. this space also featured some fantastic work by Javier Mariscal in a retrospective show called “Drawing Life”. 

The Design museum’s main exhibit featured a Timeline along it’s walls, as well as featured designers and artists that are groundbreaking in the Design field (so glad Zaha Hadid was in this). Many different ideas were exhibited here, including the Rabbit-trashcan holder, where it’s ears would light up for entry of trash in the bin and a surveillance room of cameras that took digital stills for a photo-mosaic one complied (think CCTV commentary- sharp, man. sharp). 

Mariscal’s wonders in his exhibit really astounded me. I really admire his versatility in what he did. So many different mediums ruled over the space, those including collage, installation, video, sound, painting, sculpture, just anything you can think of, Mariscal has done it. Characters, like Codi, were fluent throughout the exhibit as they were within Mariscal’s career. It was just such a dynamic exhibit and brilliant introduction to a designer’s collection that I will be looking into for sure!

After the design museum, we took a city bus to try (the second time) to see if we could get into the Graduating show of the Royal College of Art. Unfortunately, the place was just closing as we were approaching it. Gerard had a plan B (usually a surprise) in which going to the Prince Albert Memorial would be a good alternative.

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

National Portrait gallery, National Gallery and Canada Day Celebrations

For today, we headed to the National Portrait gallery, just behind trafalgar Square in London (like literally). We peered at it’s history for a bit before venturing into the BP Portrait Awards for 2009. 

Gerard made it interesting in mentioning that, over the last few years, the entries could be artworks created with the aid of photographs, to achieve photo-realism. Photo realism is exactly what the show targeted, with many entries achieving a photo-realistic effect to a near brilliant finish, leaving many to even think it’s just a canvas printed onto. Most of the group wasn’t impressed with the lack of variation in the collection and to that i agree.

 A few Die-hards of impressionism and expressionism didn’t find it so impressive, and to that I say i couldn’t care less. Don’t dismiss something just on it’s frontal look when it takes hundreds of hours of painting alchemy to achieve; hours we know you could spare more into learning the chemistry in painting. we don’t hear you bashing ancient sculptors and their near-finish of reality, so cram it, monet-wannabes. 

anyways, after the visit, we were told that we could get started on our sketches of a particular piece of art at the National Gallery. I had been looking through most of the more-modern pieces of art, in search for something interesting to sketch. After this, we were free to roam around the Square for the canada day celebrations that the City of London held in Trafalgar Square. The even was, at the least, VERY canadian. not all that much doing on, besides the road hockey pavillion, tents with many fried foods, a beer vendor, selling Sleemans cold for about $5.50 a can. Then there’s Tim Hortons, where you can get  a small coffee for $2.80. needless to say, the event was over priced on the canadian stuff, so me and the gang headed to tesco to pick up some lovely ciders. Try 4 pint cans of Strongbow for about $6? sounding much better.

but hey, they had Cabury's Astros candies there! remember these from the 90's??

Canada day drew in a few folks, but one major problem was the heat. maybe if the event had better entertainers and, oh, i dunno, some music playing, it would have been much more festive, but all in all, it was a fair and good celebration. 

and i just thought this store was particularly awesome. Beautifully decorated, with tons of lights and selling just frozen yogurt by the looks of it. anyways, another great part of soho exemplified. 

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

I apologize, but this will have to be the first post in a while where i do not have pictures of the days events. aghh...i know, the post won't be so visually compelling, so you'll just have to fall to the way of my fantastic writing! 

i know...you're like "What fantastic writing? you write horribly, mark". anyways...

We traveled to South Kensington area, walking past a very famous part of london with a particularly infamous building. The Old Michelin building (made in 1911) was built to face a very busy street in london. As well, it was built with a style that meets a very heavy front with Art Deco extreme. As well, Michelin's main mascot Bibendum is featured all over the building in very particular tile-mosaic work. The inside even featured a brilliant mosaic floor tole piece featuring bibendum with the glass full of nuts and bolts, so that it seems like the job is just as easy to take care of as a drink.

After the Bibendim Building (not to mention it’s funky designer furniture and homewares store), we headed to the national history museum.  Here we ventured in to see a collected exhibition on Dinosaurs, as well as a natural history section and human biology section. the museum, though riddled with kids, was quite worth the Visit. after this we were instructed to head over to the V&A museum for a visit to seethe cast courts to draw from once again. 

Next up was a new show at the southbank centre for us to check out. it was a group show called “Walking in my Mind” and it featured many different artists of different mediums and perspectives, all with the intention of showing how their inner workings of their respective minds looked in their own vision. The artist roster included Charles Avery, Thomas Hirschhorn, Yayoi Kusama, Bo Christian Larsson, Mark Manders, Yoshitomo Nara, Jason Rhoades, Pipilotti Rist, Chiharu Shiota and Keith Tyson.

Yayoi was my favorite, not simply because her work was flourishing the promotional material for the show but because her work was so extremely expansive and fantasical. if it were up to me, i’d use more mirrors to a greater effect in the room, but the installation was great overall.

After that show, we were free to go explore some of london. This is where me, jillo, kylo and martenbenboo went to try out some italian in Soho on Old Compton St. Man, for 7 GBP, you could get a really mean pizza or pasta there.

Thursday, june 25th, 2009

Architecture Walk + Barker’s Department Store and Saatchi Gallery

Today, we went on a major Architectural Walk in the Holland Park Area. Most of the discussions centered around the houses in the area, with a few major buildings. Most notably, we saw Jimmy Page’s place. That about wraps up my interest on this topic.

After the walk, we headed down towards Barker’s Department Store. The store was one of the irst major department stores in england. Also, it was shaped like a boat, representing new technology and merchant ships becoming more and more to use with growing needs for consumer goods. 

After this visit, we checked out Charles Saatchi gallery. If it doesn’t ring a bell, then don’t worry, because this name is only popular for it’s dealings with the Devious YBA group here in britain.

 Saatchi would be firs to pick up on works by Quinn and Hirst before they would explode on the art scene. He’s now gained a bit of  rep as an artist’s means to fame and success, but recent shows haven’t gotten the same acclaim as in year’s past, according to gerard.

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Richard Long, Chelsea Graduating Show and Central St. Martin’s Graduating Show.

We caught the 9:36 train to London to stop in front of the Tate Britain. Gerard tells us that the Graduating show (undergraduate) for Chelsea School of FIne Arts is open today, but first, we would have to see Richard long’s Heaven And Earth show at the tate britain. after a small break for coffees and whatnot, we all headed into both institutes with an ample amount of time. 

The Richard Long show began with some very evokative mud drawings, done by hand on the wall, in between the bars of solid black. the work had  a very big pattern appeal in the grand scheme and a forever changing, variable feel in the smaller sense. The next few rooms also featured some black and white photography by Long (which, overall, was done beautifully) and his common pieces of installed land features with stones were well executed. Printed words also adorned the walls, telling us of long’s travels to particular parts of europe and the landscapes he’s had to encounter. 

being from canada, i feel that the over-saturation of ideologies on landscapes is something we have nothing short of. that being said, i found Long’s show to be, while greatly cohesive, just a little dry in the implementation. given the new media and mixed media circles of artists in london, long could have vastly altered this show to make it more experienced based, rather than nostalgic on his own front. At one point, he writes within the show something along the lines of “I don’t like to follow directions.. i just go on my own way, in a way no one else has seen before”. with that in  mind, it’s Long’s own personal connection with his work that kills it for me, because then we witness his route, something he doesn’t seem to enjoy having to witness himself. 

after this show, i just headed straight for the chelsea show, disregarding the Classified show of contemporary british art until later. Chelsea’s school of fine arts provided a body of work that seemed much more eclectic than that of the Royal Academy’s student body. Perhaps the most enduring of the show was it’s exhaustive layout, with each student occupying either a room or a section of room, with the layout of the building and awkward show signage making it confusing as fuck. 

 we were sure to have missed something in the show because of the horrendous layout of everything. however, i did manage to find some reasonably priced print supplies from their art store. me taking a stab at relief printmaking while in harlow? just say i’m bridging the art history/studio gap. ; )

After that, i did check out the Classifed show at the tate Britain. The work consisted of some Chapman Brothers, Damien “Hurtz” and some Dion as well. Overall, i felt the show to be lackluster, even with the Jeremy Dillon work mapping the thought process behind an orchestra making a rendition of a symphony in acid house music. Damien Hirst’s Pharmacy was a mental eyesore from 1992 (back to a time when recreating the interior of a pharmacy would have been more groundbreaking). The Champman brothers did make some snarky cultural commentary with their selection of african

 masks and artifacts, but it just seemed to push the conceptual moniker from the past works a bit to an unfinished edge. overall, the show felt like a contractual agreement’s result instead of a decent reflection of conceptual british art. 

After that, we headed for the Central St. Martins and their graduating show. The show featured a bit more of an eclectic mix in much closer quarters (the buildings was a good 7 or 8 stories high). We also made witness to a very dramatic performance piece by one of the graduates.

After this, we then headed back to Harlow mill to finish off our day of galleries and graduates. I think the group is really beginning to shape their relative value and skill in the art world by looking at the work produced by these major institutions. it a good thing to see, as it can recharge our esteem, not just as students in an art school, but as artists, too.

Saturday, june 20th, 2009

Shri Temple + Kensal Greens Graveyards

this time in london Travels, we headed into a residential area with the intention of visiting the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Temple.

 This is Europe’s first Traditional Hindu Mandir Temple, constructed just as one would be in india. Many volunteers helped in the construction of the temple, as made in the vision of the leader, Pramukh Swami Maharaj. The tour we had of the building consisted of a walking segment, followed by an invitation to take part in the Temple’s ritual service. Even with the chance to see the interior design of the temple, i decided not to go. Reading so much richard dawkins and christopher Hitchens has led me to just not bother with the idea of taking part in ceremonies like this.

After our lunch and a visit to a quant indian restaurant and grocery store, we then headed to london’s Kensal Greens graveyard and the Catacombs. First, we visited the Catacombs, where a large number of coffins were kept. You see, much in the same way that you can get buried in a churchyard, you can also choose to get placed in a section of the catacombs, a very large, brick-layered (nearly-sewer like) old age morgue, only acting as a final resting place. The place is well ventilated and lit, so it was not as smelly and spooky as one would imagine.

We then took a tour of the Kensal Greens Cemetery, where many different sorts of monuments of all sizes and shapes were to commemorate those resting below. Many interesting folks were buried here, but the scenic area and monuments were too interesting for me to take note of them. A slight rain shower through the tour was just enough to set us in a bit of a somber mood, but don’t fully fret!

The sun would pop out, just as we were to head out to return to Harlow Mill.