|
The Newest Visual Arts Evaluations by The Arts Desk In The Arts Desk's most recent visual arts critiques, two artists on show in London are set on reinventing the guidelines. 1st, in north London, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Camden Roundhouse's regeneration in 2006 as a centre of creativity and chance for the young and disadvantaged, renowned architect and designer Ron Arad has developed 'Curtain Call', an interactive space for visual art which reinvents the theatre constructs of the round and the curtain in an effort to bring art to the masses and make it as accessible as feasible. Alice Vincent from The Arts Desk went along to see if it has the desired effect, and it turns out to be a highly prosperous venture. Created from 6,000 silicon tubes, 8 metres tall, the curtain doubles as a cinema screen. An eclectic choice of films will be projected onto it by artists cherry-picked by Arad himself, including Mat Collishaw, fashion designer Hussein Chalayan and illustrator David Shrigley. As an added draw for the public - developed in particular to attract those who would not commonly pay a visit to art exhibitions - the events here over the subsequent month will mostly be free entry, or Pay What You Can admission. With amateur film-makers invited to project their own work onto the curtain, and author Jonathan Safran Foer installed to answer participants' questions in a deliberately impolite manner, typed out and displayed on the curtain for all to see, there is evidently an incorrigible spirit of playfulness permeating the events. Vincent was unable to resist, and strongly urges 1 and all to take a peek behind the curtain. Meanwhile on the South Bank, Sarah Kent visited the Tate Modern to see the most recent exhibition by American photographer Taryn Simon, considered by quite a few to be one of the ideal photographers in the globe. For 'A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII', Simon spent 4 years travelling the world photographing and gathering the extraordinary stories of families whose lives have been defined by the actions and decisions of other people. For example, the exhibition's title refers to 4 members of the Yadav household from Utah Pradesh, India, who had been falsely declared dead by relatives determined to lay claim to their precious land. Amongst quite a few others Simon has also photographed Latif Yahia, who spent nine years performing the dangerous job of acting as Uday Hussein's double in Iraq. He and his family now live in hiding in Ireland. Aside from these astonishing dramatic stories (all explained in footnotes alongside the images), what is most interesting about the project is how Simon chooses to present them. She consciously upends the normal guidelines of portraiture by presenting each and every individual as just 1 element in a genealogical bloodline, with every single topic photographed against a neutral background (with those who wouldn't or couldn't be photographed represented by a blank space, an item of clothing or even their human remains) and printed quite smaller, in grid formation, like specimens rather than individuals. It's a detached, clinical approach, rendering the relationships and interactions between these families or groups invisible. Seeing such emotive subjects displayed with such dispassion makes for unsettling viewing, and indeed leaves the images tough to engage with. They are easier to view and respond to when printed considerably larger in book form, but then that defies their point. It's an ambitious, impressive project, and 1 that seems to Kent far more about idea than photography. With images of rabbits injected with a illness created to eradicate the prolific breed alongside those of human households, Simon's suggestion seems to Kent to be deceptively dark and controversial. |
Best References
|
