Exhbtions I've Seen
Late Tate
First I attended a group called Black Girl Knit club. This is an organisation with the aim of bringing Black women together to empower, learn and create a community.
I attended this event with my friend Monika who is a person of colour. As I entered the space I felt very aware of my whiteness. I was conscious that I could be taking a space from a black women who the space was designed for. As the space had 13 people per hour. The event ran for serval hours over the course of the night. But I was very aware I was occupying space that wasn’t designed for me.
The Knit group was an incredible place, a space where women sat, shared and communicated. This moment felt precious and I love the environment they had fostered. Should I have attended this event? I went with a friend, who otherwise might not have gone, I know they got alot from the event and enjoyed the experience and space. Monika commented at the start of the event, ‘don’t worry everyone I have my token white friend’ I believe to make my whiteness less problematic within this space.
Alice Neel
Walking up the stairs to the exhibition I felt excitement and pain, as my new docs ripped into the back of my heels tearing away at my skin. The show started with Neel’s nude self-portrait, painted when she was 80. The room was dimly lit, the painting lit with lights close to the frame, resulting in it looking like a hologram. A bazar futuristic twist, Neel communicating from the grave, in a digital representation.
Only when I got closer could I see the materiality of the paint on canvas, the greens in her flesh and the twist in her ankle. However, don’t get to close to the work, the slightest foot or arm over the invisible laser beams results in an alarm sounding. Striking fear into the viewer and the fellow exhibition visitors.
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The show brought together works from her 60 year career, moving chronologically from the start of her practice to her more ionic realised recognisable style.
The downstairs space, highlighted her later works from the 1960s and 70s.
Tate Library and Archive
FACT - Liverpool
Lynette Yiadom-Blakey: Tate 'Fly In League With The Night'
Tate Liverpool: Turner
Tate Liverpool: JMW Turner with Lamin Fpfang: Dark Waters
Immersive Sounds
Water,
Waves,
Breaking of the tide.
Feeling the salt burn my flesh, I didn’t put factor 50 over the whole of my body.
A shiver runs through me.
I watch as the gulls fight, tearing and darting.
Commotion.
This exhibition was an immersive experience. The walls had been painted colours that reflected Turner’s colour palette, the light had been dulled, creating a tense atmosphere. I saw this exhibition at Tate Liverpool with my uncle who lives in Liverpool. A sound piece created by the artist Lamin Fofana played from speakers as you moved around the space. My uncle Ken, in his broad scouse accent said: ‘what the bleeding hell are those sounds girl’.
The audio Fofana created blended with scouse voices, including Ken’s, and I directed him to the writing on the wall to explain the sounds. The sound work resulted in emotions of unease, unsettlement and danger.
Tate Liverpool felt designed for the show, with the docks just out of the window, combining with the historical context of Liverpool’s maritime history. (1)
The exhibition felt like a fresh look at what could be described as postcard art. Masterpieces, have been overexposed so they no longer seem to hold their grandeur. However, seeing Turner’s watercolours was a privilege. I enjoyed seeing the process of his making, some of his watercolours in the last room felt reminiscent of O’Keffee’s watercolour paintings.
1) Tate jWh Tunrer
Mark Fairnington -Studio Visit
Fairnington, creates intense realistic painting with a clear passion for observation detail. Within his studio space, there where a range of different sizes of paintings. From huge paintings of landscapes with warped perspectives to hyper detailed paintings of his children. Fairnington explained with his new tree paintings, he will go out walking and take lots and lots of photos of the landscape. He will then return to his studio and collage these different elements together to create almost monstrous creations. I was practically drawn to his figurative paintings on wood panels.
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The National Gallery Egg Tempera
Arriving at the national gallery.
It was raining. Of course, it was raining. To begin, I think arrogantly that I can locate the egg tempera paintings. I wonder around dodging all of the tourists and art lovers. I cannot locate any egg tempera paintings.
So, in defeat, I stroll over to reception and ask if they can tell me where the eggy paintings are situated. The jolly receptionist laughs at me, saying no one has ever asked her for paintings within a category of its material before. She searches on the slow, industrial computer which whirs and creaks and locates the room for me, sending me on my way.
Once I find my egg tempera paintings, I slowly rotate around the room, closely examining the brushwork and colour pattern.
I choose to draw ‘The Virgin Annunciate’ by Cosimo Tura. The Virgin Annunciate sits reading; the Archangel Gabriel has started her. This unsullitsiated intrusion from the Arcareangle spoiling Annunicate leisure times results in her hands clasping together in a delicate and challenging to-draw prayer position. Annunciate looks downwards, her book resting open on one knee.
Gesture Paint – Abstract Art Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-70
BIG WOMEN
BIG WOMEN
After a sweaty fast pace walk to the gallery. I see a woman sitting outside smoking, wearing patched jeans and a sexually explicit jumper. It was Sara Lucas.
Moving into the gallery space, you are greeted by one of her leggy cultures. This sculpture is sat slumped in a chair with tummy roles and an air of nonchalance—a stark contrast to Lucas's earlier works which were more sexually provocative sculptures.
The exhibition is made up of a group of female artists: Renata Adela, Fiona Banner, Kate Boxer, Yoko Brown, Angela Bulloch, Phillippa Clayden, Vanessa Fristedt, Maggi Hambling, Pam Hogg, Rachel Howard, Merilyn Humphries, Patricia Jordan, Princess Julia, Abigail Lane, Tory Lawrence, Millie Laws, Polly Morgan, Clare Palmier, Georgina Starr, Gillian Wearing, Sue Webster and Lucas herself.
Some of the artists included are well know, and some are lesser known. They are all female and 'middle-aged'. This show craves space for women over a certain age.
'Making older women's bodies physically prominent and visible is important throughout 'Big Women' – as Lucas, who is 60, says, 'the older woman is often overlooked, irrelevant, without currency'.' 3)
After the exhibition, Lucas was kind enough to give us her time. We all sat on the grass in the backfield of the gallery space. While cigarette after cigarette where lit by the arty students sat in a big circle around Lucas. She sat in the middle, speaking thoughtfully and quietly. She advises us to form collectives and put on a group show in rubbish spaces. Lucas explained how we were safer in numbers.
https://www.visitcolchester.com/whats-on/big-women-curated-by-sarah-lucas-p1855001 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/feb/13/big-women-review-sarah-lucas-firstsite-colchester
3) https://www.wallpaper.com/art/sarah-lucas-big-women-firstsite-colchester