Aesthetica
THE ART & CULTURE MAGAZINE
www.aestheticamagazine.com
Issue 117 February / March 2024
UNIVERSE OF EMOTION
HIDDEN STRUCTURES
FLUX IN MEMORIES
A survey of the sculpture genre spans sixty years of innovation
Photographs show us the longer term effects of time spent online
Telecommunication towers hide in plain sight across California
Digital imaging is harnessed to articulate human feelings
UK £6.95 Europe €12.95 USA $16.49
OBJECTS TRANSFORM
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Welcome Editor’s Note
On the Cover Tropico Photo is a studio dedicated to making jubilant work at the intersection of fine art and advertising, transporting us to idyllic locations: places filled with bright painted buildings and clear skies, where the sun never seems to set and there’s rarely a cloud in sight. (p. 108)
Cover Image: Image courtesy Tropico Photo.
Perception is everything. I like to see obstacles as stepping stones and challenges as opportunities. This viewpoint keeps me invigorated and resilient. I’m often asked the question, “where do ideas come from?” For me, it’s about absorbing as many things as possible, going out of my comfort zone and doing things differently. Inspiration can come from the most unexpected places, and, what’s exciting about that is every day you can spark your imagination. As you’re reading this, I’d like you to surprise yourself by trying something new today – maybe it’s walking home via a different route or stopping to help someone (even though you're busy). There is so much beauty in the everyday, and that is worth celebrating. This issue recognises agents of change. Throughout history, art has influenced societies, challenged norms, questioned the status quo, raised awareness and prompted new perspectives. The artists in this issue embody this notion. We speak with Tania Franco Klein about her distinct style, which is realised through cinematic photographs. She surveys present-day anxieties and effects of media overstimulation. Meanwhile, Cristóbal Ascencio’s work and research focuses on the relationship between images and memory. He looks at how experience can be appropriated between generations. Kaya & Blank is a photographic duo that explores the way that humans inhabit the world, pushing the boundaries of how reality is presented. Tara Donovan, featured in When Forms Come Alive, opening at the Hayward Gallery, London, this winter, is one of 21 artists in an exhibition that reclaims space in an increasingly digitised world. It spans 60 years of contemporary sculpture and shows works that trigger a physical response. In photography we traverse continents with an extraordinary range of practitioners, including Derrick O. Boateng, Ibai Acevedo, Jonathan Knowles, Tom Hegen and Neil Burnell. Our cover duo, Tropico Photo, offers pop colours and urban cool. Finally, the Last Words go to Yannis Davy Guibinga. Cherie Federico
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Art 18 News Climate crisis and eco-consciousness are the focal points of a landmark Edward Burtynsky show, as well as other displays across Berlin and New York.
28 10 to See From Amsterdam to Atlanta, St Ives to Saint Louis, our February and March picks look at heritage on both personal and global levels.
32 Universe of Emotion Tania Franco Klein holds a mirror up to the various effects of time spent online, such as disconnection and media overstimulation.
38 Pictures from Above Tom Hegen flies us over the Palouse region in the American northwest, producing satisfying aerial shots akin to the folds of moss-coloured fabrics.
48 Hidden Structures Duo Kaya & Blank draw attention to concealed markers of industry across southern California: telephone masts camouflaged as real life trees.
54 Visual Histories African proverbs are at the heart of Derrick Ofosu Boateng's body of work, bursting with bright colours and a palpable sense of joy.
64 Energetic Innovations What's the place of analogue in an increasingly digital world? Jonathan Knowles' machines are fun, and achieve mundane tasks through play.
74 Objects Transform A major London show looks at six decades of contemporary sculptures, spotlighting large works that move, shapeshift and transfigure.
80 Parallel Landscapes Through bold light and shadow, Ibai Acevedo stages compelling, cinematic scenes that seem to belong to an odd world just beyond ours.
92 Flux in Memories This year's Foam Talent spotlights fresh voices and innovators in lens-based media. Cristóbal Ascencio focuses on loss and remembrance.
98 Into the Woodland Photographs by Neil Burnell trace the sensory experience of being outdoors, capturing dense green thickets, plus secluded, misty clearings.
118 Aesthetica Art Prize 2024 The award presents 21 talented shortlisted creatives from across the world, for whom art is a form of expression and change-making.
126 Exhibitions Dawoud Bey, Sarah Sze and Zanele Muholi are subjects of this season's shows, alongside Wellcome Collection's big survey on beauty.
131 Film The Eternal Daughter is the next release from Joanna Hogg, whilst the acclaimed director Steve McQueen returns with Occupied City,
133 Music We're listening to the sixth album from Real Estate, as well as Sam Lee's latest folk record Songdreaming and material by Saint Saviour.
Books
Artists’ Directory
Last Words
135 The Latest Publications Fashion photographer and surrealist Viviane Sassen presents 30 years' work. Joy Gregory celebrates the legacy of Black women artists.
140 Featured Practitioners The Directory is a repository of talent and a hotbed of inspiration, with the most recent sculpture, drawing, photography and more.
146 Yannis Davy Guibinga The Gabonese creative returns to Aesthetica to speak about his show, harnessing a signature style to tell traditional stories in fresh ways.
Aesthetica Magazine is trade marked worldwide. © Aesthetica Magazine Ltd 2024.
The Aesthetica Team: Editor: Cherie Federico Creative Producer: Eleanor Sutherland Content Creator: Chloe Elliott Editorial Assistant: Fruzsina Vida Junior Content Creator: Diana Bestwish Tetteh
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Reviews
ISSN 1743-2715. All work is copyrighted to the author or artist. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without permission from the publisher.
Media Sales & Partnerships Manager: Megan Hobson Artists’ Directory Manager: Katherine Smira
Published by Cherie Federico and Dale Donley. Aesthetica Magazine 21 New Street York, YO1 8RA, UK Newstrade Distribution: Warners Group Publications plc. Gallery & Specialist Distribution: Central Books.
Production Director: Dale Donley Operations Manager: Helen Osbond Designer: Matt Glasby Projects Administrator: Megan Price Contributors: Chloe Elliott Diana Bestwish Tetteh Eleanor Sutherland Frances Johnson Vamika Sinha
Printed by Warners Midlands plc. Reviewers: Chloe Elliott, Diana Bestwish Tetteh, Fruzsina Vida, James Mottram, Jennifer Sauer, Kyle Bryony, Matt Swain, Michael Piantini, Patrick Gamble, Shirley Stevenson, Shyama Laxman
Artists’ Directory Enquiries: Katherine Smira directory@aestheticamagazine.com Subscriptions: subscriptions@aestheticamagazine.com General Enquiries: info@aestheticamagazine.com Press Releases: pr@aestheticamagazine.com
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Richard Mosse, Still from Broken Spectre, Roraima, Multispectral Gis Aerial © Richard Mosse.
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Expanded Documentary BROKEN SPECTER Photo Elysée, Lausanne| Until 25 February elysee.ch
Irish-born photographer Richard Mosse (b. 1980) is known for his documentation of the civil war in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Using Kodak Aerochrome film, Infra (2010-2014) depicts mesmeric, jarring visualisations of conflict as never seen before. The series launched a new kind of photojournalism – presenting cityscapes as otherworldly, silvery ghosts, saturated by pink tones. Now, Photo Elysée shows his moving-image work. Broken Specter plunges into the deforestation of the Amazon. It’s a piece that reminds viewers that the rainforest is rapidly approaching a point of no return. Shot over three years, aerial views, historic footage and indigenous Yanomami interviews collage together, as Mosse plays with different scales and perspectives. In one sequence, the forest floor glows a dystopian ultraviolet, illuminated by tufts of neon green and yellow bracken. In another, a crystal blue river snakes through a rosy thicket of trees. These moments are contrasted with episodes of occupation and destruction, this time using black and white film. They reveal the full extent of human extraction in the region – from logging yards to cattle enclosures as well as the systematic burning of land. What emerges is a complex and multitextured narrative, steered by scenes that offer testimony to an environment in a state of crisis. Mosse explains: “I don’t think many people fully understand the vast scale of the situation on the ground. I do not want the piece to tell you what to think or what to do. I want the viewer to sit with that eco-anxiety, to feel the ambiguity of the situation, but, more importantly, to understand what is unfolding.”
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The Past Reimagined OMAR VICTOR DIOP Fotografiska, Berlin | Until 21 April berlin.fotografiska.com
Omar Victor Diop (b. 1980) uses self-portraiture to highlight Black histories overlooked by Eurocentric societies. “My attention was drawn to portraits of Africans depicted in postures of grandeur and dignity, by renowned artists like Diego Velázquez or Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, which would normally be commissioned by popes, kings and rich merchants. Those discoveries made me want to know more about who these sumptuous African sitters were, and that’s how the historical research began. I found a trove of fascinating personal stories: resilient, creative and influential human beings who thrived in all parts of the world, despite the horrific contexts in which they lived. I describe these men I pay homage to as forgotten African heroes.” Diaspora (2014) draws from 15th to 19th century western portraits, including pictures of Malik Ambar (1549 - 1626), a child, who, due to poverty, was sold by his parents, before growing up to become Prime Minister of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate; Prince Dom Nicolau (c. 1830-1860), thought to be the earliest African leader publicly protesting colonial rule; and Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), a social reform activist, writer and statesman who escaped slavery and joined the abolitionist movement, becoming the first African American nominated for US Vice President. Liberty (2017) restages moments associated with the struggle for Black freedom, and Allegoria (2021) addresses the climate crisis and its impact on the Global South – especially the African continent. Diop’s message is clear: he asks us to imagine, and learn, a more just, accurate version of our shared human history.
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Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 4 (2021). © Omar Victor Diop. Commissioned by Autograph.
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© David Uzochukwu, Heartstrings, (2018). ˙ ˙
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Impact of Pictures HUMAN / NATURE Fotografiska, New York | 9 February - 25 May fotografiska.com
When reading about eco-conscious art, several phrases come up time and again. There are works that draw attention to “humanity’s fraught relationship with nature”, or “the impact of people on the environment.” But, after years of endless news reports, climate conferences and the ever-ticking doomsday clock, it can feel as if we are already aware of the issues this kind of work is trying to raise. We’ve heard it all before, and the climate fatigue is real. It can seem like we’re powerless and going nowhere fast. There’s an elephant in the room: how far does art really go towards making a difference? Are these pieces sparking change, and, perhaps more importantly, should they be expected to? It’s tricky to quantify, but the small amount of research that exists suggests that the answer is yes. In 2023, the journal Communications Earth & Environment published a study concluding that artistic representations of data can help bridge the US political divide over climate change, eliciting stronger positive emotions than equivalent data graphs. It was truly a heartening finding. Human / Nature, therefore, has the potential to influence its attendees in a big way. The show is about how we experience the natural world, collating moments of harmony and recovery as well as our tendency towards destruction. Amongst the 14 featured artists is David Uzochukwu. Heartstrings shows a figure ˙ ˙ immersed in a sea of green leaves; it’s a powerful visualisation of helplessness, but also of shared love and connection with the Earth. Djeneba Aduayom, Edward Burtynsky, Helene Schmitz, Ori Gersht, Yan Wang Preston are amongst the artists featured.
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Industry Visualised EXTRACTION / ABSTRACTION Saatchi Gallery, London | 14 February - 6 May saatchigallery.com
Statistics from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service show that the planet’s temperature increased by 1.48°C last year. Scientists estimate that 2024 will be the year we pass the 1.5°C target agreed in the 2015 Paris Accord. We’re already living through the consequences of the climate crisis as heatwaves, floods and wildfires touch lives across the world. In the words of the renowned landscape photographer Edward Burtynsky (b. 1955): “Our planetary system is affected by a magnitude of force as powerful as any naturally occurring global catastrophe, but it is one caused solely by the activity of a single species: us.” Burtynsky is recognised internationally for dedicating his practice to revealing the impact of human industry on the planet. Salt pans, mines and quarries are frequent subjects. We see sprawling expanses of land scarred by extraction and pollution from far above. Burtynsky also takes us below to witness the impact of excavation. The Kennecott Copper Mine, Bingham Valley, Utah (1983) brings to mind a colosseum. As we look closer, twisting roads burrow in concentric circles – deep down into the ground. Saatchi Gallery, London, presents 94 of the lens-based artist’s large-format pieces. It marks the European premiere of his most ambitious project to date, titled In the Wake of Progress. The 22minute multimedia experience is 40 years in the making, combining photography, film footage and an original score. Burtynsky's practice, which is also celebrated at London's Flowers Gallery in 2024, calls us to reflect on the cost of unbridled development. It's about building a liveable world for future generations.
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Uralkali Potash Mine #1, Berezniki, Russia, 2017 © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto.
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, La pensée Férale, (2020).
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Eyes of The Forest A LEAF SHAPES THE EYE MACBA, Barcelona | Until 20 May macba.cat
In the mountains around Rio de Janeiro, a tree stretches its winding roots in all directions across the leaf-strewn ground. It grows amongst countless others in one of the largest urban forests in the world: Tijuca National Park. A detail that sets it apart from the surrounding foliage is a photograph of a dog’s eye pinned to the trunk. Its amber iris stares beyond the frame. Barcelona-born Daniel Steegmann Mangrané's (b. 1977) piece prompts us to consider a different perspective: the viewpoint of animals and plants. The artist has lived and worked in the Brazilian capital since 2004. His series, La Pensée Férale (2021), positions the same canine eye around Tijuca to suggest that nature is an active viewer. It peers out from the ground, looks up from branches of a fallen tree and appears camouflaged by greenery. The National Park has seen more than 100 years of human intervention, from deforestation to conservation. In the 19th century, the land was stripped to accommodate coffee and sugar plantations. This led to changes in rainfall, so, in 1861, Emperor Dom Pedro II ordered a large-scale replanting project that would be carried out by enslaved people. Their work resulted in the vast ecosystem that stands today, which contains over 1,600 species of plants and 356 mammals, birds and invertebrates. Steegmann Mangrané’s work draws attention to a present-day threat: domesticated dogs are reported to be upsetting the balance of the habitat by hunting prey, spreading diseases and disrupting rewilding efforts. This is a forest steeped in a long and complicated history. What will it witness in the years to come?
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10 to See RECOMMENDED EXHIBITIONS THIS SEASON
Our must-see exhibitions this February and March include a range of group and solo presentations across various media. They show how individuals connect to their cultural heritage, ponder the line where reality and imagination meet, and offer spaces for deep contemplation.
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Making Space: Photographs of Architecture National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh | Until 3 March
nationalgalleries.org Architecture plays an integral role in the history of photography. Making Space presents the connection between places and the camera through over 40 images from the 1840s to the present-day. These works show how the medium has long been used to tell stories about the built environment. The display collects Hill & Adamson’s early visual experiments alongside spectacular scenes by contemporary names including Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer and Mark Havens, plus pictures from renowned 20th century artists such as Bernd and Hilla Becher.
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Outi Pieski
Tate, St Ives | 10 February – 6 May
tate.org.uk Outi Pieski is a Sámi visual artist whose practice investigates the spiritual relationship between individuals and their environment. She lives and works in Sápmi, which is today divided between Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. Drawing inspiration from her heritage, Pieski creates large-scale textile objects which reference "duodji," an Indigenous craft which was marginalised after the colonisation of the region in the 15th century. The show introduces figurative landscapes and photographs alongside sculptures and a site-specific installation.
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Murray Fredericks: The Salt Lake Museum of Australian Photography, Melbourne | Until 18 February
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maph.org.au In 2003, photographer Murray Fredericks first visited Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, one of the world’s largest endorheic lakes, located in the deserts of central Australia. Over the past two decades, he has returned 31 times to the region to document the scenery and subvert traditions of landscape photography. His series have involved interventions with mirrors, and more recently, fire. Characterised by light, colour and space, the polished images capture the powerful view and experience of walking through a void without a sense of location or scale.
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Oliver Frank Chanarin: A Perfect Sentence KARST, Plymouth | Until 23 March
karst.org.uk British artist Oliver Frank Chanarin is known for experimenting with new photographic concepts and practices. In 2023, he produced over 3,000 colour negatives portraying encounters with hundreds of participants. A Perfect Sentence explores the impact of social media on our need for attention, and the anxiety of being overlooked. Two automatic devices contrast, display, identify and sort Chanarin's archive according to an algorithm. Images of carnival troupes, gender activists and other communities come together to form a record of the UK as it is now.
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Oli Kellett: Waiting for a Sign HackelBury Fine Art, London | Until 2 March
hackelbury.co.uk Oli Kellett is fascinated by urban landscapes. Waiting for a Sign presents his cinematic images of people at junctions in global cities. The project began when Kellett, a British photographer, visited Los Angeles during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. It continued to evolve over the following four years, resulting in visits to countries including Brazil, Colombia, Japan and Spain. The large-scale works contrast the anonymity of metropolitan life with unique human experiences, inviting us to stop and consider the stories of people we pass by.
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Ilona Langbroek: Remembrance Bildhalle, Amsterdam | Until 24 February
bildhalle.ch Remembrance premieres photographer Ilona Langbroek’s new series, Silent Loss. The project is based on her family history in the former Dutch East Indies, in which the Netherlands has a long and complex colonial history. Her work asks difficult questions about how her grandparents' generation, who left the region after Independence, grappled with establishing themselves in a new place whilst dealing with the truths about where they came from. Langbroek's painterly work tells of the ongoing impact of colonialism across time and place.
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Wangechi Mutu: My Cave Call Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri | Until 31 March
slam.org Wangechi Mutu is a Kenyan-American, New York-based artist, working across moving image, sculpture and painting. Her practice is about themes of culture, globalisation, femininity and overconsumption. The 2020 video, My Cave Call, is a parable on wisdom-seeking. Set at Mount Suswa – a holy site in Kenya – the footage centres around histories that have been lost and marks the beginning of a reclamation process. The film is about the ways humans have become disconnected from their roots, and how traditional knowledge can be restored.
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Truth Told Slant High Museum of Art, Atlanta | 1 March – 11 August
high.org Truth Told Slant collates the work of five photographers who challenge established principles of recording the contemporary world. Jill Frank, Kristine Potter, Rose Marie Cromwell, Tommy Kha and Zora J Murff consider issues that are pertinent to American life today. For instance, Kha’s image of a canal in Memphis, Tennessee, is about the intersection of identity and landscape, whilst Potter’s monochrome portraits thematize violence against women. These artists push the genre of documentary, introducing methods such as archival appropriation.
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Deutsche Börse Photography Prize
The Photographers' Gallery, London | 23 February – 2 June
thephotographersgallery.org.uk The annual Deutsche Börse Photography Prize – originally established in 1996 – celebrates artists who have made a significant contribution to the discipline. In 2024, the finalists are Gauri Gill & Rajesh Vangad, Hrair Sarkissian, Lebohang Kganye and VALIE EXPORT. The shortlisted projects engage with decolonisation, diasporic experiences, equality, gender, heritage and the devastation of war. These artists demonstrate photography’s capacity to reveal what is invisible, forgotten or marginalised – and imagine a path to address injustice.
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Zheng Bo: Bamboo as Method Somerset House, London | 22 February – 28 April
somersethouse.org.uk This spring, Somerset House’s courtyard will be transformed into a grove by Hong Kongbased eco-queer artist Zheng Bo. Using over 300 locally sourced bamboo shoots, the garden creates a place for deep reflection and serves as a reminder of the restorative qualities of nature within urban London. Zheng asks the public to disconnect from their fast-paced lives, and instead immerse themselves in a restorative environment. The project breaks down the boundaries between culture and nature, reminding us to slow down and take some time out.
1. Mark Havens, Untitled (Sweetbriar and Atlantic), Image made: 2006; Printed: 2019 © Mark Havens. Collection: National Galleries of Scotland. 2. Outi Pieski (b. 1973), Beavvit - Rising Together II, 2021, detail. Courtesy: Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning, The 13th Gwangju Biennale. Photo: Sang Tae Kim. 3. Murray Fredericks (b. 1970), Blaze 28, 2023 Pigment print on cotton rag 120.0 x 150.0 cm Courtesy of the artist and ARC ONE Gallery (Melbourne). 4. Oliver Frank Chanarin (b. 1971), with Eloise, 10x8inches, C-type print, unique artist proof (#3784102246), 2023. Courtesy and © the artist. Commissioned and produced by Forma, in collaboration with eight UK organisations. Supported by Arts Council England, Art Fund and Outset Contemporary Art Fund. 5. Oli Kellett (b. 1983), Crossroad Blues (Figueroa Street, LA), 2016. 6. Ilona Langbroek (b. 1970), Memories, 2023. From the series Silent Loss. Archival pigment print on Canson Platine © Ilona Langbroek, Courtesy of Bildhalle (Zurich + Amsterdam). 7. Wangechi Mutu (b. 1972), My Cave Call, (still), 2021; Single-channel video, Colour, Sound; Duration: 12 minutes 35 seconds; Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery. © Wangechi Mutu. 8. Tommy Kha (b. 1988), Canal, North Memphis, Tennessee, 2011, Pigmented inkjet print, Courtesy of the artist and High Pictures Generation. © Tommy Kha. 9. Hrair Sarkissian (b. 1973), In Between, 2006 © Hrair Sarkissian, Courtesy the artist. 10. Zheng Bo (b. 1974), Bamboo as Method, 2018. Installation view (bamboo, paper, pencils, humans and compost) Photo by Erhan. Courtesy the artist and Kiang Malingue.
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Universe of Emotion Tania Franco Klein THE MEXICAN INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTIST HOLDS A MIRROR UP TO THE VARIOUS EFFECTS OF TIME SPENT ONLINE, FROM DISCONNECTION TO MEDIA OVERSTIMULATION.
Self-help is listed as one of the top 10 fastest growing industries on the internet. In the USA alone, there are over 22,000 life coaches, and the personal development business is worth $11 billion. It’s easy to draw a correlation between this boom and the rise of social media. In 2022, researchers at MIT Sloan School of Management found a “significant link” between the presence of Facebook and increases in anxiety and depression amongst college students. Evidence suggests that excessive use negatively affects self-esteem and life satisfaction. It’s a commonly held opinion that, whilst online platforms were initially designed to connect us, the algorithms that drive them are pushing us further apart. The question for artists is: how do we visualise this phenomenon? This is where the work of Tania Franco Klein (b. 1990) comes in to play. The Mexican interdisciplinary artist, who works primarily with photography, gif and installation, is fascinated by the effects of media overstimulation. Her various series navigate feelings of emotional disconnection, performative stresses and the unfulfilled promises of the American Dream. It’s an approach that has garnered the attention of prestigious awards like Foam Paul Huf, Sony World Photography and Prix Pictet. Her work can be found in the renowned collections of MoMA, New York, and the Getty Center, Los Angeles. A: Do you remember the first time you took a picture? TFK: My first camera was a Rollei 35 S. It was my grandfather’s, and I made terrible pictures with it, but it was a great first encounter to photography. I also experimented with photograms in the darkroom, and I think the concept of
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constructing an image through light really sparked my later conceptual interests. This experience influenced me much more than that early documentation I did with the Rollei. A: Is there a key theme or idea that drives you to create? TFK: I see my images as emotional worlds that exist somewhere between social anthropology, psychology and existentialism. My work explores the experience of everyday disconnection and, as such, I try to invite the viewer to reflect on contemporary life and the idea of the self, both individually and collectively. I also investigate the different social practices that cause disconnection, and the emotions that come with it. In general, my work has more questions than answers. A: Positive Disintegration and Proceed to the Route examine the ramifications of life online, yet employ a midcentury vintage aesthetic to tell your story. Is the contrast of pre-digital visuals in today's context intentional? TFK: Both series exist in the same universe: a world obsessed with productivity, where burnout shapes the characters’ identities and everyday lives. The internet gives us instant gratification and full access to all kinds of information, leading to a continuous cycle of “self-improvement”. In Positive Disintegration, the characters are passive towards this state of play, whilst in Proceed to the Route they start becoming more active and hyper-aware. They want to change their reality. Beyond a mid-century aesthetic, I see my sets as places where time periods are mixed. There are eclectic symbols from different eras – starting at the beginning of late capitalism up until
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Tania Franco Klein, from Positive Disintegration, (2016-2018).
“There is always an ambiguous and absurd quality to the components of my pictures – not only within the standalone images, but also in the way narratives between them are composed through fragments.”
Previous page: Tania Franco Klein, from Positive Disintegration, (2016-2018). Left: Tania Franco Klein, from Subject Studies: Chapter 1 (2022).
today. This is how time in the internet era operates: it’s nonlinear. The aesthetic evokes a sense of nostalgia for “better times past”, which weren’t necessarily all that nice in truth. A: The retro look and feel of your work is distinctive. Is there a location that inspired your approach to staging? TFK: I spent a lot of time, both as a kid and an adult, with my grandmother at her home. She was my person for art and life. Her apartment was in this beautiful mid-century building; a 5th floor space in Condesa, Mexico City, surrounded by 360degree panoramic windows. The sun would come in at dusk and light up the whole place in a whimsical, majestic way. I don’t know if there is a word to describe the intense pleasure and feeling of looking at colours and textures bathed in a golden glow, but that’s what I have. It makes me feel very connected to the here and now, and it underlines the rawness and intensity of life. “Golden hour” is a short but very intense moment of the day where places take on a special shape. A: Tell us about your most recent series, Break in Case of Emergency. It feels psychologically charged. What’s the story behind it? How do you hope viewers will respond? TFK: This series was originally born out of my curiosity about depictions of ludic catharsis, and the breaking of societal norms, in cinema and TV. Specifically, I’m intrigued by how, as spectators, we get to enjoy a liberating experience through characters on-screen. I have an inside joke with my friends about my alter-ego called Lisa and we fantasise about what Lisa would do in certain scenarios. Just the thought of it gives a similarly empowering experience to that of watching such scenes in movies. There is a Czech
film from the 1960s called Daisies. It’s by Věra Chytilová, and it very much presents that feeling for me. As the project developed, I concentrated on creating a spectrum of images – from dark to humorous and back to dark again. A: What is your relationship with the figures in your pictures? Would you say they are reflections of yourself? TFK: The characters in my series are constantly evolving; each body of work is, in a way, a continuation of the previous one. In Positive Disintegration, my characters are more passive about their situations, mostly always trapped, at the mercy of their anxiety and desperation. The figures in Proceed to the Route are looking for a way out of their circumstances and, ultimately, out of themselves. For Break In Case Of Emergency I bring them back to domestic spaces, but this time they are on the verge of destroying or morphing their surroundings. It’s this spectrum of being empowered whilst experiencing complete emotional self-destruction. Subconsciously, I always end up finding myself in my work. When I look back to the time when I was shooting a big part of this series, I realise I was going through the darkest period of my life. All my relational boundaries were being trespassed, so I guess all of that ended up in the work. Maybe there is more of Lisa there than I had intended originally. A: How would you describe your visual language? Your use of colour, light and shadow is particularly striking. TFK: There is always something ambiguous and absurd about the components of my pictures – not only within the standalone images, but also in the way the narrative between them is composed through fragments. Strong
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Tania Franco Klein, from Proceed to the Route, (2018-Ongoing).
light and shadow allows me to incorporate the duality of my characters’ emotions and the universe in which they exist. The parts of the scene that shine are equally as important as the bits that are rendered invisible through darkness, or as the things happening outside of the frame. A: Self portraiture has a long history – from Francesca Woodman to Claude Cahun, Cindy Sherman and Zanele Muholi. What inspired you to start exploring the genre? TFK: My first self-portraits were taken back in 2009. I wanted to test things to understand how lighting worked but was too shy to ask others to stand with me through the process. I would hide in my bathroom and try to experiment with different ideas. A few years later, when I started taking my practice more seriously, I began to cast people on the streets and work with my grandma and her friends. It wasn’t until 2016 that I went back to self-portraits as a way of keeping my practice alive. I was very anxious at the time, and I couldn’t cope with the idea of managing other people’s expectations of their image in my work. It was basically a case of making a choice between using myself, or not doing anything at all. A: What did you take away from working in this manner? TFK: I knew most of my characters would exist almost anonymously in the pictures, so it made the experimentation and performative aspect of my work much more interesting. I always had myself everywhere I travelled, and there were no constraints or limitations on the way I could position myself in the frame. I would say my body was at the service of the wider message of the series, rather than at the mercy of representing me. I am quite nocturnal, so,
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for a period of my life, a lot of my work was done between one and five o’clock in the morning. It was rather liberating.
Right: Tania Franco Klein, from Proceed to the Route, (2018-Ongoing).
A: Who, or what, have been your big creative influences? TFK: I take inspiration from different backgrounds. There’s a very strong academic influence, drawing on thinkers like Byung-Chul Han and Marc Augé. This gives me a strong structure upon which to build my projects. I also bring in elements from icons of photography like Harry Gruyaert, Jimmy De Sana, Jo Ann Callis, Nan Goldin, Larry Sultan, Stephen Shore and William Eggleston. I have a strong connection to multimedia – video artists who deeply inspire me are Bill Viola, Pipilotti Rist and Tony Oursler. A: Can you speak about a highlight of your career so far? TFK: Recently, MoMA in New York acquired the first chapter of a long-term project I started in 2022 called Subject Studies, along with a gif video piece called Breathe, (selfportrait, 2019). That is something I never even dreamed could happen. I didn’t think it was possible at this age. The museum’s Senior Curator of Photography, Roxana Marcoci, is so wonderful. I have, for a long time, admired the work and exhibitions she puts together with her team. Witnessing the level of love and respect that they carry for artists – at such a high-level institution – was a truly lifeaffirming experience, and it permanently changed me. A: What are you working on right now, as 2024 unfolds? TFK: I am currently preparing the next two chapters of Subject Studies, and am in the beginning stages of a travelling exhibition and a publication of Mercado de Sonora (2019).
Words Frances Johnson
Tania Franco Klein’s forthcoming projects can be found online. taniafrancoklein.com
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Pictures from Above Tom Hegen
In the following pages, aerial photographer Tom Hegen (b. 1991) flies us over the rolling hills of the Palouse region, an area of the American northwest that spans over 3,000 miles. Endless green fields fill every inch of these frames. At a quick glance, the landscape looks likes the folds of moss-coloured fabric, but, on closer inspection, subtle whorls left by tractor trails reveal that humans have cultivated the land. “The fertile soil is a result of ancient volcanic activity and erosion over thousands of years” explains Hegen. “These crops help diversify the agricultural landscape and provide economic stability to the region.” The German lens-based artist devotes his practice to highlighting the impact people have left on the Earth, revealing acres of copper mines, farmed land and golf courses. These images draw our attention to human intervention on a large-scale, illuminating the realities of biodiversity loss. tomhegen.com
Tom Hegen, from The Palouse Series, (2021).
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Tom Hegen, from The Palouse Series, (2021).
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Tom Hegen, from The Palouse Series, (2021).
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Tom Hegen, from The Palouse Series, (2021).
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Tom Hegen, from The Palouse Series, (2021).
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Hidden Structures Kaya & Blank THE CREATIVE DUO DRAWS ATTENTION TO OVERLOOKED MARKERS OF INDUSTRY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, AS PART OF AUSTRALIA'S MAJOR PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL
In 1992, a strange pine tree appeared in Denver, Colorado. Its ing.” Now, Kaya & Blank is presenting the project as part of goal: to remain as invisible as possible. A product of Larson PHOTO 2024, Australia’s International Festival of PhotogCo, a company specialising in set design for theme parks, raphy. The event, which encompasses over 100 exhibitions this plant was designed to hide something in plain sight. Un- – both in galleries and outdoors – is set to transform Melbeknownst to many, an antenna was concealed amongst its bourne and other locations across Victoria. This year’s title, synthetic branches. Its pine leaves were layers of camouflage. and theme, is The Future Is Shaped by Those Who Can See It. They would never grow, improve the air or temper the climate. Denver's tree was the first example of a “mono-pine” – a play A: What’s your story? When did you become interested in on the term “monopole”, used to describe undisguised tel- photography? When did you meet, and why collaborate? ecommunications towers. Mobile devices were on the rise in IK & TGB: We are visual artists working primarily with lensthe late 1980s. The industry saw a boom in its need for infra- based media. We currently live in Los Angeles, but Işık is from structure – leading to the subsequent erection of cell towers Turkey and Thomas is from Germany. We met at the Univeraround the world. In 2014 alone, it's estimated that there sity of California, San Diego, in 2018. During our time there, were four million telecoms masts installed across the globe. we started helping each other out with projects and, in the Işık Kaya (b. 1990) and Thomas Georg Blank (b. 1990) process, got more and more involved with each other’s pracare lens-based artists interested in how humans “shape and tice. Eventually, we decided to work as a duo. Photography inhabit” the world. Their project Second Nature documents is part of our profession; it’s like our “home base” medium. mobile phone trees within the southern California landscape. We both have a formal training and have worked professionWorking almost exclusively at night, Kaya & Blank accentu- ally with images and video in the past. Over the years, our ates the artificial and uncanny qualities of each structure. The approach began to expand further. We started to implement results are almost hyperreal: fake trees glowing in the dark. traces of other creative practices, collect and make objects, “One can understand the mobile phone trees as camou- and experiment with new, alternative photographic processes. flaged technology or as optimised nature, as a tree that can do more than ‘just’ look like a tree,” says author Ziad Ma- A: Where did the idea for Second Nature come from? Do hayni in Transcending Nature, an essay written for the duo’s you remember the first time you noticed an artificial tree? photobook, published by Kehrer Verlag. “They are part of a Did you think this was an idea that could go somewhere? development that, since the late 20th century, has created IK & TGB: We saw a cell tower tree for the first time in 2019 many hybrid artefacts, from genetically optimised plants on our way to Palm Springs, and neither of us had seen anyto cloned animals and artificial organs from 3D bioprint- thing like it before moving to California. After this first en-
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Kaya & Blank, Second Nature (SN.76), courtesy of the artists.
“Night can bring a strange quality to an everyday scene. After dark, the camera can push the limits of our vision. These qualities match our experience of life – especially in the American West and its 24/7 capitalism.”
Previous page: Kaya & Blank, Second Nature (SN.89), courtesy of the artists. Left: Kaya & Blank, Second Nature (SN.17), courtesy of the artists.
counter, Işık had the urge to start taking photos to observe them in more detail. We soon discovered cell tower locations were publicly accessible online, however, the challenge lay in identifying which ones were disguised as trees amongst the multitude of markers on the map. During the 2020 lockdown, Thomas diligently combed through each location in Google Street View. Weeks of effort yielded over 1,000 potential cell tower tree sites in Southern California. By 2022, we had visited almost every location from the Mexican border to Bakersfield. The sheer amount of these places was what made us realise this was really an idea worth pursuing.
to communicate, but we aspire to prompt contemplation. Recent history marked a shift in the human story: over 50% of us now live in cities. We occupy highly designed spaces which often prioritise efficiency over human needs. Our relationships with these environments are complex; we embrace the convenience of personal cars and high-speed motorways yet grapple with environmental consequences. Thanks to Edward Snowden, we now know that our reliance on ubiquitous connectivity through cell towers is accompanied by privacy concerns. The question is: what do we do about that? These are the kind of thoughts we would most like to provoke.
A: Tell us about the historical and cultural significance of this breed of camouflage? Where did it first come from? IK & TGB: Since the 1980s, a surge in mobile devices has fuelled a telecommunications infrastructure boom. The planet has become covered with cell towers. A key moment occurred in 1992 when a city in Colorado, concerned about the appearance of a proposed cellular tower in a scenic location, rejected a carrier’s request for a permit. The carrier hired a company, previously associated with Disney Theme Parks, which transformed the cell tower into an artificial pine tree. This marked the inception of a global phenomenon, raising fundamental questions about relationships between human beings and nature. Writer Amy Clarke encapsulates this as “a societal preference for 'fake' aesthetics over 'ugly' reality.”
A: Which people, places or artworks inspire you most? IK & TGB: Laura Poitras, Michael Wolf, Pipilotti Rist, Richard Misrach, Todd Hido, Trevor Paglen and Uta Barth are just a few of the artists who have had a big influence on us over the years. One specific artwork that left a lasting impression on both of us is the video Crossroads, directed by Bruce Conner in 1976. The moving-image piece showcases 37 minutes of highly slowed-down archival footage from an underwater nuclear test in the Bikini Atoll, with music from Patrick Gleeson and Terry Riley. The video possesses exactly the ambiguous quality that we aim for in our work: something that is at once uncanny, dark, terrifying, yet compelling and beautiful.
A: The images are hyperreal, absurd, and slightly alarming, all at once. Is there a particular atmosphere, or idea, you hope that audiences will take away from the series? IK & TGB: We don't have a specific feeling or message
A: You seem to have a signature visual style – photographing brightly-lit built structures, devoid of human presence, under cover of night. Why choose this look? IK & TGB: Night can bring a strange quality to an everyday scene. After dark, the camera can push the limits of our vision, either by using a long exposure or extremely high ISO
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Kaya & Blank, Second Nature (SN.43), courtesy of the artists.
values. Small traces of light can be technically enhanced to create images that seem artificial and otherworldly. These qualities match our experience of life – especially in the American West with its 24/7 capitalism. We live in a world that is obsessed with productivity and efficiency and, from a neoliberal point of view, the night as a time of rest and recovery is just a missed opportunity to produce and consume more. All these things come together to inform our aesthetic. A: It's a theme you often come back to. How does Second Nature compare to your other bodies of work, like Crude Aesthetics or Monuments? Are they similar or different? IK & TGB: All our recent projects have focused on southern California’s infrastructure. We look at how it is a local manifestation of global conditions – the culmination of American cultural history and its neoliberal politics. Second Nature is a part of this exploration. Both Crude Aesthetics and Monuments address infrastructures for the production and consumption of oil and the ever-present car dependency. Whilst Second Nature is a more straightforward photographic series, our other bodies of work experiment with video projections as installations and trial alternative lens-based processes. A: Walk us through your day-to-day. What’s it like to work as a duo? How do you manage the collaboration? IK & TGB: Işık mostly operates the camera and processes images, whilst Thomas is more involved in research and developing the concepts. However, both of us are present in every stage of the process and we make each decision together. From the first time we worked together, this has felt very natural. We share a clear vision of what we want and can
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push each other to achieve the best results. On a practical level, it is more secure to be together at night in the kind of places we usually work. Sometimes we will wait in a location for hours in order to capture a certain moment, so giving each other company is much more fun than being alone.
Right: Kaya & Blank, Second Nature (SN.87), courtesy of the artists.
A: Second Nature is part of PHOTO 2024: The Future Is Shaped by Those Who Can See It. What are you looking forward to from this year's array of events and shows? IK & TGB: The festival’s programme is so rich. We are very excited about the many outdoor exhibitions and having the opportunity to share our work alongside so many talented artists. Using public space for the presentation of contemporary photography allows a much larger and more diverse audience to experience the works of artists like Mous Lamrabat, Nan Goldin, Noémie Goudal, Omar Victor Diop and more. It is also a great way to imagine urban areas as a shared cultural space, without the constant visual clutter of advertising. A: What’s next for you both? Are you in the process of producing any new projects, exhibitions or publications? IK & TGB: We've just finished work on a new video about intermodal freight transport that is now on display as part of a group exhibition at Fondazione MAST in Bologna. Since the piece is part of a collection by different artists, the video is shown as a wall projection, but for future iterations we are planning on launching a much larger installation that will include salt prints made with water from ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, where we filmed the video. Getting the hang of these alternative photographic processes takes time, so we're pretty sure that this project will keep us busy for a while.
Words Eleanor Sutherland
PHOTO 2024 1-24 March Melbourne & Victoria photo.org.au
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Visual Histories Derrick Ofosu Boateng
“Without effort no harvest will be abundant.” It’s a fundamental message, and one of many African proverbs at the heart of Derrick Ofosu Boateng's (b. 1998) practice. Traditionally, these sayings were shared orally and seldom written down; this led to a lack of wider documentation. The Ghanaian photographer’s energetic pictures close the gap. Shot on iPhone, they interpret each maxim by bursting with colour and joy. Boateng calls this approach Hueism: “self-expression through colour therapy and visual poetry.” Figures hold balloons or flowers, making shapes in tandem against blue, red and yellow blocks. Each teaches a lesson, from humility and modesty to patience. “Launching an art movement is a powerful way to share your message, and, in my case, to address the misinterpretation of Africa. It’s not just a declaration; it’s a call to participate.” Hueism is published by Homecoming Gallery. @derrick_o_boateng.
Derrick Ofosu Boateng, Ntentan, (2021).
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Derrick Ofosu Boateng, Explore, (2019).
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Derrick Ofosu Boateng, Different Flowers, (2020).
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Derrick Ofosu Boateng, Le Sourire, (2018-2019).
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Derrick Ofosu Boateng, You Are One in a Melon, (2020).
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Derrick Ofosu Boateng, The Garden of Love, (2022). For Document Journal x Louis Vuitton.
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Derrick Ofosu Boateng, Stay Still Union, (2022).
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Derrick Ofosu Boateng, Amity with Nature, (2020).
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Derrick Ofosu Boateng, Bon Rire, (2021).
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Energetic Innovations Jonathan Knowles
The Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) is remembered for designing "machines” to perform simple actions in strange, convoluted ways. Flick a switch to unleash a sequence of balloons, bowling balls, dominos, marbles and – much later – a light bulb shines bright. Films reference these in comedic scenes, like Home Alone (1990) or Toy Story (1995). They also serve as inspiration for Jonathan Knowles’ (b. 1965) series Complex Simplicity. Here, the award-winning advertising photographer presents mundane tasks accomplished with inventive arrangements of candles, wheels and seesaws. Saturated blue dustpans, green cages and pink wafers pop against pastel backdrops. Some shots prompt deeper reflection. For instance, we see sand sifted through a funnel to refill an hourglass. At a time when technology is becoming increasingly autonomous, the pictures ask: what is the place of analogue machines in a digital world? jknowles.com
Jonathan Knowles, from Trajectories. Art Direction: Lauren Catten for Getty Images. Set Design: Kyle Bean. Retoucher: Gareth Pritchard.
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Jonathan Knowles, from Complex Simplicity. Art Direction: Lauren Catten for Getty Images. Set Design: Kyle Bean. Retoucher: Gareth Pritchard.
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Jonathan Knowles, from Complex Simplicity. Art Direction: Lauren Catten for Getty Images. Set Design: Kyle Bean. Retoucher: Gareth Pritchard.
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Jonathan Knowles, from Complex Simplicity. Art Direction: Lauren Catten for Getty Images. Set Design: Kyle Bean. Retoucher: Gareth Pritchard.
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Jonathan Knowles, from Complex Simplicity. Art Direction: Lauren Catten for Getty Images. Set Design: Kyle Bean. Retoucher: Gareth Pritchard.
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Objects Transform When Forms Come Alive HAYWARD GALLERY LOOKS AT SIXTY YEARS OF CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE, TELLING THE STORY THROUGH WORKS THAT SHAPESHIFT, MOVE AND TRANSFIGURE.
Sculpture is a paradox: it often involves building something stationary that evokes the look and feel of movement. The drapes of a dress, for example, might be carved in marble yet appear as diaphanous as silk – hitched slightly on a woman’s thigh as she sits or lays in repose. This technique can be traced back thousands of years: from antiquity right up to conceptual works by today's most genre-bending innovators. In the western canon, the idea is best exemplified by Greek statues. Later admired and reproduced by the Romans, they showed gods, athletes and heroic figures in action with striking realism. The Renaissance (1450-1650) was defined by a boom in the popularity of classical styles; ancient objects were unearthed across the Mediterranean, inspiring a revival in proportionality and trompe-l'oeil in art and architecture. Then, towards the end of the 19th century, greats like Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) added a modernist twist on tradition with the likes of The Thinker (1904). Yet the foundations remained: intricate muscle, eternally still, rippling on the cusp of movement. Across centuries, figurative sculptures have described the moments before arrival at a destination – the “slide into place”, rather than the place itself. Much like the malleability of clay, they stretch and make taffy of time. Contemporary art has, in part, disinterested itself with fixating entirely on the human form, opening instead to all sorts of daring, experimental materials and methods. In the 1960s and 1970s, artists like Claes Oldenburg (1929-2022) famously flipped the banal ubiquity of Marcel Duchamp’s “found objects” – like toilets and typewriters – into art. Oldenburg’s 1962 sculpture Floor Cake, for instance, used canvas
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and kapok to, as one might guess, create a huge, soft piece of cake placed on the floor. Minimalism also emerged at the latter end of the 20th century: Carl Andre's Equivalent VIII (1966) – a pile of 120 bricks – would go on to become an infamous example, dubbed "the most boring controversial artwork ever" by The Guardian. Meanwhile, Sol LeWitt’s Incomplete Open Cubes (1974) interrogated systematic and rule-based processes through 122 painted wooden sticks. This expanded definition of what art could look like led to the creation of multiple sub-genres, including site-specific installation and land art. Names like Christo and JeanneClaude, with their wrapped landmarks, and Richard Serra, remembered for his undulating metal shapes, became as mammoth as their works. These were sculptures that were made in and by their environments, defying existing limits of what could be achieved by the medium. Other figures like Anish Kapoor (b. 1954) broke ground by pushing a material’s perceptual boundaries, creating visual distortions we might now take for granted in the uber-technological 2020s. Chicago’s ultra-famous “The Bean” is a Kapoor work, entitled Cloud Gate (2006), the reflective surface of which throws back vast panoramas like an enormous curving TV. Now, it is synonymous with the city, unable to be missed by any new visitor. Even the most art-averse tourist is touched by public sculptures like these. Japan's Naoshima Island is dedicated to such works, with a Yayoi Kusama pumpkin as a centrepiece. Other sculptors, like the activist Ai Weiwei, harness the medium to spark change in the face of polticial upheaval. Mel Chin's Revival Field (1991-ongoing) involves planting
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Untitled (detail), (2008). Polyester film installation. Dimensions variable. Photograph by Dennis Cowley, courtesy Pace Gallery. © Tara Donovan.
“A sculpture could begin with one discarded office item, then multiply, coagulate and soar upwards into what appears to be a geological or biological structure: land formations, clouds or caves."
Previous page: Untitled (Styrofoam Cups) (detail), (2003/2008). Styrofoam cups and glue. Photograph by Dennis Cowley, courtesy Pace Gallery. © Tara Donovan.
Left: Untitled (Mylar) (detail), (2011). Mylar and hot glue. Photograph by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy Pace Gallery. © Tara Donovan.
hyperaccumulating plants in polluted areas to negate en- duced materials specifically because I could source massive vironmental degradation, whilst, more recently, Kara Walk- amounts quickly, then experiment with them in the studio.” er's Fons Americanus (2019) – a giant cascading fountain Donovan has no real favourite material or type of object – offered a new perspective on classical tradition, filling Tate to work with. However, she is far more likely to be drawn to Modern's Turbine Hall with a reminder of colonial legacies. something that pokes a little fun at the human gaze, testing There are also those for whom sculpture eschews labels, what we think we know about it already. “I tend to gravitate not really dwelling in the political, historical, aesthetic or towards properties like transparency and reflectivity. Light conceptual at all. The idea sounds impossible, yet fresh and plays such a central role in the perception and comprehenliberating at the same time. Tara Donovan (b. 1969), a New sion of my works. I think of it as a medium in and of itself.” Yorker, takes the chewing-gum quality of sculpture to greater One of Donovan’s most well-known pieces is Haze (2003). lengths. Her renowned practice is devoted to process, rather When first exhibited, it took up the entire width of Rice Univerthan outcome. Everything is about the journey, not the des- sity Art Gallery’s 44-foot back wall, and occupied about two tination. “There” doesn't matter and may as well not exist; for thirds of its height. The installation is a serene, translucent her, the means to an end is the most important. Now based mass of shifting whites, resembling the innards of seashells, in Brooklyn and represented by Pace Gallery, Donovan was or thick morning fog hovering over a city. Yet, when you move a MacArthur Fellow in 2008, having built up a significant, lu- closer, you see what the stuff of its cells and vessels truly are. minous career transforming everyday mundane objects into “The drinking straws in Haze are a pertinent example of how less-than-ordinary projects. Toothpicks, Slinkys, pencils and materials operate in my work. Upon closer inspection, the polystyrene cups are accumulated on a large-scale, filling individual straws reveal themselves. Their everyday function up the eye and spilling beyond its limits. A sculpture could adds a layer of complexity. Another example would be my begin with one discarded office item, then multiply, coagu- Styrofoam cups. They are hung from the ceiling such that late and soar upwards into what appears to be a geological only the interior of each cup is visible for the viewer standing or biological structure. These pieces evoke land formations, below. When combined in undulating configurations and lit clouds, caves, or, on a macro level, the molecular makeup of from behind, the cups absorb and redistribute the light into cells. We can draw parallels here with installations by Hassan the space.” The effect brings to mind an exploded Sol LeWitt. Sharif, and his pyramid-piles of brightly coloured footwear. Donovan is currently showing Untitled (Mylar) (2011) as “I began working with these types of materials when I ex- part of a landmark group show at London’s Hayward Gallery. panded my practice during graduate school,” Donovan re- Titled When Forms Come Alive, the exhibition surveys over 60 flects. “I was particularly interested in accumulation and how years of contemporary sculpture, with a focus on how arta ‘field’ of material could play with the mechanics of vision to ists have depicted and worked with “familiar experiences of manipulate perceptual capacities. I sought cheap, mass-pro- movement, flux and organic growth.” The restlessness and
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Sphere, (2020). PETG. Photograph by Melissa Goodwin & Robyn Lehr Caspare, courtesy Pace Gallery. © Tara Donovan. Right:
motion of change sits at the show’s core; its curatorial text ing here, no resistance against digitisation and the like. In- Untitled (detail), (2008). Polyester film installation. Dimensions variable. is rife with verbs such as “shifting”, “undulating”, “drooping”, stead, what Donovan mainly hopes visitors walk away with is Photograph by Dennis Cowley, courtesy “erupting” and “cascading” – promising a smorgasbord of “wonder, joy and perhaps a new understanding of their own Pace Gallery. © Tara Donovan. visual dynamism. Twenty-one international artists form the visual and perceptual capacities.” There’s an almost childline-up, including EJ Hill, whose large-scale work unpacks like drive to this, an appeal to the viewer to throw out the the history of excluding Black people from amusement limitations with which they enter, plus any impositions they parks in parts of the USA. Elsewhere, Ruth Asawa’s 1950s might want to place on the work. There’s a subtly escapist and 1960s wire pieces are meditations on natural life, whilst streak to it, too: enjoy this sculpture and let your eyes rove Marguerite Humeau presents multimedia mushrooms and without needing to address the worries at its core. Donovan’s honeycombs, imagining metamorphosis and adaptation. demand is uncomplicated: enter wide-eyed and curious. Be DRIFT also brings a digital dimension to the theme of nature; open to how each work makes you feel and see differently. the kinetic piece Shylights mimics the folding and unfolding The history of contemporary sculpture, as shown in When of flowers that close at night. Some works are cumbersome, Forms Come Alive, signals a preoccupation with our greatungainly, awkward; others are voluminously comedic, sur- est social fears and the surreal, humorous, dynamic ways real, absurd. They scream in colour, or bulge into the space. in which we build and shift around them. Donovan’s work, This thematic variety reflects not just changes in sculp- however, is a glimmer in the melee, fascinated with play and ture but also changes in what society cares about. Over the the sheer delight of building and observing. Familiar items past six decades, we have seen the development of feminist are transformed simply through creativity and an audacious theory; growing anxiety and despair surrounding climate drive to imagine and execute them into something brand new. change with desperate calls for environmental preservation; But even the most neutral voice can be harnessed as an a proliferation of discourse and theory on race and nation- agent of change. If we are to deal with our global anxieties, hood; and, of course, the rapid acceleration of technologies. this approach is precisely what is required of us: sharpen the Words Untitled (Mylar), however, isn’t really about spreading a knives of imagination, take them to work on things we have Vamika Sinha message. The sculpture appears as an enormous molecular taken for granted or don’t believe we have any authority to constellation, a playground model of a chemistry diagram change. One might ask what the next 60 years of sculpture brought to gargantuan life. The artist deems it a “microscopic will bring, as technology dominates our lives. For Donovan, growth writ large in the space. The mylar is folded in upon the answer is simple: “Sculpture has opened up from a pre- When Forms Come Alive itself and not treated as a flat mirror. Each glimpse of the in- scribed set of materials to include virtually anything that op- Hayward Gallery, London stallation holds a kaleidoscopic diffusion of light that creates erates in the material realm. I am always curious about how 7 February - 6 May a dynamic, almost vibrating, optical shift as viewers move younger artists are rethinking and remixing formulas and around it.” There is no political or environmental undergird- strategies, so I will allow them to dictate what is coming next.” southbankcentre.co.uk
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Parallel Landscapes Ibai Acevedo
Light and shadow are fundamental to the history of art. From the chiaroscuro paintings of Caravaggio and Rembrandt, to James Turrell's sensory installations, these elements have long held the ability to convey mystery, tension and emotion. Barcelona-based Ibai Acevedo (b. 1984) continues this tradition. The artist navigates the border between reality and fiction, staging scenes that belong to a world not quite our own. A woman stands in the sea, her face softly illuminated by a stream of white light. A figure poses under a streetlamp, gazing at its brilliance. Stacks of rocks glow pink, as if radiating a magical warmth. The images are hyperreal, like scenes by Gregory Crewdson and Chen Wei, characterised by a melancholic allure. Acevedo explains: "I was never too interested in reality. By closing my eyes I can dive into another world where I find myself flooded by bright colours and deep sounds. I just want to find special answers for common questions." ibaiacevedo.com
Ibai Acevedo, Un Rayo De Sol, (2014).
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Ibai Acevedo, Horas De Luz, (2013).
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Ibai Acevedo, Ganes o Piedras, (2017).
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Ibai Acevedo, Still Alive, (2018).
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Ibai Acevedo, Ganes o Piedras, (2017).
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Ibai Acevedo, Let Me Wind, (2018).
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Flux in Memories Cristóbal Ascencio EACH YEAR, FOAM TALENT RECOGNISES FRESH INNOVATORS IN LENS-BASED MEDIA. ITS NEW COHORT IS USING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY TO TELL PERSONAL STORIES OF LOSS.
When someone dies, the most mundane objects can, sud- In the 17th century, memento mori paintings were symbols denly, become filled with meaning. A glass left on the coffee of human mortality. Antonio De Pereda’s The Knight’s Dream table. A used toothbrush by the sink. Family snapshots, (c. 1650) is adorned with skulls, wilting flowers and snuffedfolded up and fading, shoved to the back of a shoebox. out candles. Fast forward to 1991, and Damien Hirst’s inAs time goes by, and life goes back to “normal”, we might famous formaldehyde shark, The Physical Impossibility of choose to carry a crumpled portrait in our wallet, or in a Death in the Mind of Someone Living, offers a different take. frame on our desk at work. Printed photographs, unlike other The Information Age has introduced new ways of engaging media, offer us something tangible – a near-identical rep- with memory. Documents can be harnessed like never before. lica of a person, time or place. Moreover, there’s a scientific The National Archive, for example, offers online access to UK reason why images might be our first choice when looking records dating back hundreds of years: wills, military inforfor an instant connection. The Picture Superiority Effect, at- mation, censuses. It’s become easier to build a family tree. tributed to psychologist Allan Paivio (1925-2016), shows Cristóbal Ascencio (b. 1988) is a Mexican photographer that the human brain remembers images better than text. who lives and works in Madrid. He’s part of Foam Talent “Recall tests consistently yielded much higher recall for pic- 2024-2025, a prestigious annual initiative run by Foam Fototures than for words under all conditions,” he wrote in 1976. grafiemuseum Amsterdam. It selects and celebrates creatives The relationship between photography and remembrance at the cutting edge of lens-based practice, and previous is as old as the camera itself. In Victorian England, when the iterations have spotlighted the likes of Erik Madigan Heck, technology was still in its infancy, families would commis- Juno Calypso, Namsa Leuba and Vasantha Yogananthan. sion daguerreotype portraits of loved ones who had recently Ascencio’s research focuses on the role images play in how passed. The results are, to modern sensibilities, deeply un- we remember those we have lost. It’s about the way pictures settling. But, for people living in the 1800s, when paintings make us feel, and how this can change with time, distance, were costly and cameras were rare, “it was often the first time knowledge and insight. He uses new forms of image-making, families thought of having a photograph taken – the last like virtual reality, data manipulation and photogrammetry, chance to have a permanent likeness,” Bethan Bell writes for to expand the definition of a photograph. His body of work the BBC. Now, thanks to smartphones, most of us carry an offers “an invitation to think about all the relationships that archive everywhere we go. A quick swipe – or rifle through we once formed and that continue to develop after death.” a cupboard – is a portal to memories of the people we love. Las flores mueren dos veces (Flowers die twice, 2022) is Grief is a key part of what makes us human, and artists rooted in a deeply personal, and multi-layered, experience have long engaged with the complexities of life and death. of loss. “My father died when I was 15, but I was not told it was
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Cristóbal Ascencio, Garden IX, from Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces, (2023).
“The pictures are ethereal, showing pixelated leaves and petals floating against stark black backdrops. There’s a sense of them being caught somewhere in space – reaching out from the darkness.”
Previous page: Cristóbal Ascencio, Cattleya, from Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces, (2023). Left: Cristóbal Ascencio, Monstera Deliciosalas, from Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces, (2023).
a suicide until I turned 30. It was then that I started to revisit legacy. The resulting pictures are ethereal, showing pixelatthe images, places and memories that were left behind.” His ed leaves and petals floating against stark black backdrops. father, Margarito, was a gardener by profession. He wrote a There’s a sense of them being caught somewhere in space farewell letter, which talked about plants, and said: “Forgive – reaching out from the darkness. They would not look out me and communicate with me.” This was a catalyst for As- of place amidst the five-dimensional “Tesseract” scene in cencio; he became driven to try to make sense of what had Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), where strings of happened. “After receiving this new information, I started to time are infinitely repeated, stretched and made malleable. revisit my family archive and the last garden in which my Ascencio took a similar approach to his family snapfather worked.” In albums, he found analogue shots cap- shots, introducing visual slippages to the surface of each turing beach days, weddings, horse riding and childhood one. Facial features are skewed and smudged, like layers football games. Ascencio also returned to Mexico to look of paint smeared across canvas. They are reminiscent of for plants his father had grown, which are still alive today. Gerhard Richter’s (b. 1932) photo-paintings of the 1960s, “Each garden reminded me of how much my father and fuzzy compositions, which depicted relatives he would his death had affected the lives of those who knew him. I never see again and childhood places he could not revisit began to think about the relationship between nature and after WWII. “The blur serves as a perfect general metaphor memory, and how it can serve as an emotional link between for memory, its degradation,” Tom McCarthy explains in a the past and the present. These plants are somehow part Guardian review. Likewise, Ascencio’s figures are caught in of my father's living memory and a tangible manifestation transition – moving from one world, bleeding into the next. of the mark he left behind.” Amongst the plants was CatPhysical intervention in photography is an effective way tleya, a genus of orchids from Costa Rica and Argentina; to communicate presence and absence. Mishka Henner’s and Monstera, a popular houseplant native to the Americas. Dutch Landscapes (2011) shows redacted areas of Google Rather than simply photographing the specimens, how- Maps – political, economic and military locations censored ever, Ascencio decided to create a three-dimensional and overlaid by bold, colourful polygons. Likewise, Diane representation of the garden using photogrammetry, a Meyer’s Berlin (2012-2019) uses embroidery to mark the procedure that makes multiple images and stitches them trajectory of the former Berlin Wall through suburbs and together to create high-fidelity digital models of the physi- forests. She calls this “a translucent trace in the landscape cal world. It’s often used in technical fields like architecture, of something that no longer exists but is a weight on hisengineering, geology and meteorology, where precise tory and memory.” Here, anonymisation is a way to draw measurements are needed. In this case, however, its appli- attention to, and detract from, difficult truths. Ascencio cation is more conceptual, serving as a “bridge” between achieved this effect “by manipulating the structural data planes and a way to connect viewers with Margarito’s of the photographs. I deconstructed them, and the narra-
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Cristóbal Ascencio, Garden I, from Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces, (2023).
tives with which they were associated, using a glitch or error false.” It’s another project that is rooted in family history, as a tool. This experimentation created new images that but uses generative tools as a means of bridging a gap – serve as a metaphor for corrupted memories.” Finally, he between past and present, intimacy and distance, life and transformed them into VR. Users can navigate “fragmented death. Coers also asks questions about truth in the Inforthoughts, and the different possible versions of reality that mation Age, encouraging us to be mindful of where our can arise from a change in the course of personal history.” “real” memories end and digital ones begin. After all, the Ascencio is part of the generation of image-makers who average smartphone user has around 2,000 images saved; grew up during the internet’s early years and are now play- we spend six and a half hours in front of screens each day. ing with its creative potential. Another example from Foam That’s a large portion of life taken up by zeroes and ones. Talent’s 2024-2025 cohort is Andrea Orejarena & Caleb Whilst reviewing submissions to this year’s open call, Stein, whose series American Glitch is all about the notion of Foam noticed an uptick in the use of algorithms as a crea“living in a simulation.” The idea was popularised by films tive tool. “The presence of new technologies was very nolike The Truman Show (1998) and The Matrix (1999) and has ticeable, with artificial intelligence being the number one since prompted discussion online. Much discourse is light- newcomer of the year.” For some readers, this news might hearted, noticing doppelgangers or strange coincidences, come with a feeling of apprehension, even fear. What will it whilst other conversations edge towards something darker mean for the future of individual creativity? Yet the projects and conspiratorial. In response, the duo photographs sites included in Foam’s latest selection are extremely human. around the USA that remind them – and others – of this On first seeing a photograph in around 1840, the French phenomenon. It sits nicely in Foam’s selection with Sheung painter Paul Delaroche (1797-1856) exclaimed: “From Yiu’s (Inter)Faces Of Predictions (2023), which critiques the today, painting is dead!” His quote is indicative of major automation bias of facial recognition. It was once the stuff anxieties surrounding the camera when it first emerged in of science fiction, but is now a technology used every day. the mid-19th century. Is a similar scenario unfolding? Or are Perhaps most aligned with Ascencio’s body of work is the issues wrapped up with AI and other forms of digital art, Sander Coers’ POST (2023). The photographer, in a de- including copyright and bias, just too great? Beyond the parture from his previous sun-drenched visual essays, creative industries, as the world-at-large becomes increastrained an AI bot on his grandparents’ photo albums. “As ingly automated, these questions will affect us all. One a child, I spent hours fascinated by the details in each pic- thing is certain: Foam Talent has not lost touch with humanture. I longed to connect with the people captured in those ity just yet. This year’s cohort shows how digital technoloimages and to have a glimpse into my grandfather’s past … gies can be used, in the right hands, to create something These generated versions evoke landscapes, clothing and meaningful: artwork that cuts to the core of what it means colours from that time. However, everything is completely to be part of the ebb and flow of life – and death – on Earth.
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Right: Cristóbal Ascencio, Unknown Orchid, from Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces, (2023).
Words Eleanor Sutherland
Foam Talent 2024-2025 Foam, Amsterdam 23 February - 22 May foam.org
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Into the Woodland Neil Burnell
"Forest bathing" is a therapeutic practice that involves immersing oneself in natural places to enhance well-being – a more mindful alternative to hiking. Research has shown that time in green spaces can lower blood pressure, improve the immune system and boost creativity. Beyond this, woodlands are essential to life on Earth. They provide a “carbon sink”, absorbing 7.6 billion metric tonnes of CO2 per year. Devon-based photographer Neil Burnell focuses his lens on the sensory experience of being outdoors. The artist observes landscapes around southwest England, paying attention to hidden vegetation and secluded clearings. Gnarled oak, birch and pines sprawl across dimly lit copses. Thick trunks lean over bracken, consumed by moss. Spindly branches vie for pockets of light and ripple up through dense thickets. Burnell's compositions emphasise the grandeur of ancient trees, telling a story of resilience, growth and the wonder that lies just beyond our front doors. neilburnell.com
Neil Burnell, Leviathan. Image courtesy of the artist.
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Neil Burnell, Inner Glow. Image courtesy of the artist.
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Neil Burnell, Pillars. Image courtesy of the artist.
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Neil Burnell, Kingdom. Image courtesy of the artist.
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Neil Burnell, Follow the Light. Image courtesy of the artist.
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A Joyous Destination Tropico Photo
Michelle Norris loves to seek new, unexpected colour combinations. Forrest Aguar enjoys finding unusual shapes and lines. Together, they are Tropico Photo: a studio dedicated to making jubilant work at the intersection of art and advertising. Its joyful imagery transports us to idyllic destinations: places filled with brightly-painted buildings and clear skies, where the sun never seems to set and there’s rarely a cloud in sight. Figures pose in front of lemon-yellow structures, emerge from behind magenta walls and hide amidst lime green cacti. The duo’s shared love of travel shines through, with many images having a Mediterranean feel. Whilst Tropico Photo is keen to create a sense of “ambiguous time and place,” readers might well recognise Ricardo Bofill’s now-iconic La Muralla Roja – a pink and purple labyrinth of courtyards and terraces in Alicante, Spain, or the streets of Mexico City and California. tropicophoto.com
Image courtesy Tropico Photo.
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Aesthetica Art Prize 21 FINALISTS FROM THE 2024 AWARD
This year's Art Prize presents 21 artists, from across the world, who offer creativity as a form of expression. They tap into poignant emotions and motivate us to act, inspiring a collective response to challenges facing society. Each work reminds us of the connection between artist and viewer. The exhibition runs from 16 February - 21 April at York Art Gallery, UK.
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Kriss Munsya
Genetic Bomb | Photography
krissmunsya.com Munsya is an image-based artist based in Canada. He was born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, and moved to Belgium at the age of two. Like many people who have experienced similar emigrations, he carries generational guilt and confusion. He asks: “How are we supposed to come together with our homeland? How can we embrace our roots and at the same time live in a system that is corrupting them?” Munsya’s work raises awareness about difficult topics in society, including racism, colonialism, white supremacy and patriarchy. His work creates a dissonance between what viewers see and what they really feel inside.
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Kenji Ouellet
Contrapunctus V|Artists' Film kenjiouellet.net
Ouellet’s work is experimental, often sceptical, and deliberately ambiguous. It exposes the viewer to entanglements, questions without simple answers, strange metaphors and contradictions whilst pushing against dominant narratives and ultimately offering a space to reflect. In-keeping with his dual background in musical performance and film, sound and image are of equal importance. Contrapunctus V (5) shows simultaneous events and multilayered architectural structures. The soundtrack involves quotes about sleep, capitalism, work, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence and the effect of the internet usage on the brain.
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Margeaux Walter Don't Be a Square | Photography
margeauxwalter.com Walter is a fine art photographer based in Joshua Tree, California. Dedicated to building a layered scene, she utilises photography, installation, video and performance to portray issues related to conservation, climate change, consumption and waste. Through humour and surprise, her images challenge viewers to question not only what they are seeing, but how they see it. In Don’t Be a Square, she staged site-specific interventions in the landscape that, when viewed through a camera lens, disrupted the scenery. She sees the Anthropocene as a fleeting moment in the timeline of life which has caused such disproportionate havoc.
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Antonia Luxem On Falling | Artists' Film
antonialuxem.com Luxem creates films, installations, paintings and writing that explore different realities and bodies, and transport viewers to new mental spaces. Their work stems from subjects spanning human perception, dreams, existential anxiety and queer identity. On Falling is a meditative odyssey that plays with the Greek myth of Sisyphus from the perspective of a lesbian falling slowly through a dark sky. As we follow their fall, we float, drifting in and out of dreamlike thoughts, becoming a child that incubates dreams and witnesses death and rebirth. The film explores and makes visible what it looks and feels like to be denied an identity and existence.
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JeeYoung Lee Stage of Mind | Photography
jeeyounglee.com Whereas traditional photographers convey extracts of reality, South Korean multidisciplinary artist Lee offers excerpts from her dreams, heart and memory. She reinterprets her psychological landscape into stage sets. Stage of Mind began with self-reflection; she asked: “where am I in my mind?” The series allows Lee to question identity and contemplate existence. She creates the fabric of a universe born from her mind within the confines of her studio. Unrestrained by the limits of the conventional photography, she adds theatrical performance to breathe life into her creations. In the studio, imagined worlds become real.
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Alexej Sachov Chronicles of an Emerging Diversity | Photography
sachov-art.com Sachov is a Ukrainian-German artist and diver. His work merges photography and painting to spotlight the beauty and fragility of the underwater world. Sachov studied rocket engineering and photography in Kiev, and his work advocates for environmental protection and peace. His distinctive style transforms underwater photography into compelling contemporary art, bridging the gap between the terrestrial and aquatic realms. It comes from the aftermath of our thoughtless waste, capturing new, man-made underwater species that have emerged. They broaden the idea of "life" on Earth, serving as a testament to the replacement of nature.
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Yevhen Samuchenko At the Pink Planet| Photography
q-l-n.com Ukraine-based photographer Samuchenko’s work primarily focuses on nature and studies the shifting relationship between humankind and the environment. He says: “The first time you see the pink salt lakes of the Kherson region in Ukraine, it feels as though you are looking at another planet. During the summer months, microscopic algae turn the water pink and red.” Samuchenko conveyed the atmosphere of this location by using a drone. Since this work was created, the area became occupied by Russia, and the unique landscape was, tragically, badly damaged due to flooding following the destruction of the Kakhovka Reservoir dam.
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Caroline Jane Harris
A Stopped World | Mixed-Media
carolinejaneharris.com London-born and based Harris responds to universal experiences of nature, capturing visual phenomena found in all levels of existence across time and cultures. Her fragile hand-cut pictures reflect an anxiety around the decline of physical images in the digital realm, and also perpetual innovation and destruction in the Information Age. A Stopped World derives from online videos featuring volcanic eruptions that were screen-captured, enlarged, printed and cut out in pixelation. These large-scale spectacular phenomena have become compressed, turning disasters into distractions. This speaks to our mediated experience of nature online.
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Mo H. Zareei
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Material Sequencer | Installation
millihertz.net Zareei's practice builds on an exploration of Brutalism through audiovisual media. Material Sequencer is an electromechanical sound sculpture, designed to emphasise the unseen materiality behind sound production. The simple USB-powered step-sequencer investigates one of the elemental tools of electronic music production – an 8-step rhythmic pattern. It takes the sequencing process outside the black box and into the acoustic realm, flaunting its materiality and physicality. All of its interface components are presented on a customdesigned circuit board; the sound-generating mechanism is reduced to its most basic form.
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Maryam Tafakory Nazarbazi | Artists' Film
tafakory.com Exploring the different registers through which images speak, or refuse to speak, to us, Tafakory's films pick apart veiled acts of erasure – of bodies, intimacies and histories. Nazarbazi [the play of glances] is a film about love and desire in Iranian cinema, where depictions of intimacy between women and men are prohibited. Working between cinema and live performance, she uses images, words and feelings to make textual and filmic collages of poetry, documentary and archival material. Her work observes regulatory forces maintaining the cinematic codes in post-revolution Iranian cinema, and their relationship to state violence.
1. Kriss Munsya, Dysfunctional Intentions (2022). From the series Genetic Bomb. C-type print. 2. Kenji Ouellet. Still from Contrapunctus V (2022).Single channel digital video, 17 min 51 sec. 3. Margeaux Walter, Checkout (2021). From the series Don’t Be a Square (2021-2023). 4. Antonia Luxem. Still from On Falling (2023). Single channel digital video, 16 min 8 sec. 5. JeeYoung Lee, Loveseek, (2014). From the series Stage of Mind (2007 – ongoing). Pigment print. 6. Alexej Sachov, Ballerina (2023). From the series Chronicles of an Emerging Diversity. C-type print. 7. Yevhen Samuchenko, At the Pink Planet (20192020), From the series At the Pink Planet. C-type print. 8. Caroline Jane Harris, A Stopped World (2020). 16 layered handcut archival pigment prints. 9. Mo H. Zareei, Material Sequencer (2021). Aluminium, brass, copper, concrete, steel. wood, soleniods, electronics. 10. Maryam Tafakory. Still from Nazarbazi (2022). Single channel digital video, 19 min 13 sec.
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Heather Agyepong D is for... | Photography
heatheragyepong.com Agyepong is a British-Ghanaian multidisciplinary artist and actor based in London. Her practice is concerned with mental health and wellbeing, invisibility, diaspora and truth. D is for… is from her series ego death, and is inspired by psychiatrist Carl Jung’s concept of "the Shadow." Jung defined this as "negative" aspects of one’s personality, which may have been repressed during childhood and adolescence by family, education, social norms and other external factors. Agyepong has been discovering her own "shadow": unpacking ideas around shame, whilst attempting to confront and make peace with it through self-discovery.
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Thomas Jenkins Chasing Colour | Photography
thomasjenkinsstudio.com Jenkins works with photographic processes to explore colour and abstraction, and to question what the contemporary definition of a picture is. His methods stem from interests in contemporary and historical photography, painting and sculpture. The images are not intended to be understood but to be felt, experienced and seen. They are an indulgence into colour, which is a fundamental form of visual communication. Describing colour is intrinsically difficult, as a single hue, like blue, can only be described through comparison to objects or different colours. The images make no attempt to represent the physical world.
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Cinzia Campolese
Could You Take a Picture | Installation
cinziac.net Campolese is an Italian-Canadian artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. She explores the perception of space in both virtual and real-life environments. The interplay between physical and digital defines her work as she dissects technological elements and reintegrates them into sculptural forms. This work comments on how people today document every moment in their life. Humankind has thus become a group of analytical observers who are more concerned with producing souvenir images or videos than in paying attention to the lived moment. The artist encourages us to re-evaluate our relationship with technology.
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Brigitte Amarger La Chute | Installation
brigitteamarger.com Sensitive to ecological issues, Amarger, based in Paris, creates artworks by recycling discarded materials, in an eco-responsible zero waste approach. Her practice includes textile and digital techniques, laser cutting and engraving on X-ray, luminescent and reflective media, fabric and different types of paper. In La Chute, a waterfall of bodies cascades from cut out of X-rays and tracing paper, evoking human fragility toppling into the void in an infinitesimal fall. Amarger asks: “how can we talk about humankind without talking about the environment, the Anthropocene and the imbalance caused by reckless destruction?”
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Ayrton 'SAM' Mendes Ayaba - Rainha - Queen | Artists' Film
samvisualarts.com Mendes, also known as SAM, is a Portuguese artist based in Manchester. He explores the intersections of race, sexuality and gender. His practice weaves a unique perspective, rooted in personal experiences and a profound interest in African and urban cultures. Embracing diverse media, from video to sculpture, SAM employs an interdisciplinary approach, using unconventional materials to express his vision. Ayaba - Rainha - Queen is an experimental video that disrupts stereotypes and advocates for Black women’s experiences. The film illustrates the intersections they face due to their race and gender with emotion and empathy.
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Gala Hernández López
The Mechanics of Fluids | Artists' Film
galahernandez.com Hernández López is an artist-researcher and filmmaker. Her work is interdisciplinary and includes essay films, video installations and performances. She is interested in new modes of subjectivity produced by computational digital capitalism. Through a feminist and critical lens, she examines virtual communities as symptomatic fiction. In 2018, an incel (involuntary celibate) posted a suicide letter on Reddit entitled ‘America is responsible for my death.’ The Mechanics of Fluids attempts to find answers to his words. It is a virtual drift through the internet in search of his digital trace, and a troubling exploration of isolation and solitude.
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Edgar Martins
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Donna Mclean
I’m Still Here | Mixed-Media
edgarmartins.com When the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911, the robbery led to an unexpected influx of visitors who flocked there to see the empty space. Its absence unleashed human curiosity. I’m Still Here is the result of research projects developed with organisations such as prisons, legal medicine institutes and human rights organisations based in conflict zones. The geometric shapes are inspired by triangular suicide notes written on postits and researched at the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences. Martins appropriated images from drama films of bygone eras, and significant vintage news photographs.
Atomic | Painting
@mcleanpaintings Mclean is interested in polarity and paradox: light/dark, beauty/unease, seduction/aversion. She avoids her work being decorative by choosing unsettling imagery, imbued with an aesthetic that simultaneously comforts and disturbs. For Atomic, Mclean watched hours of archive film. She felt uneasy about getting aesthetic pleasure from so much horror. It became a dual symbol of humankind’s endless capacity to inflict destruction and suffering, and its ability to create something truly astonishing. Here, the atomic bomb is reduced to gem-like miniatures small enough to fit into a pocket.
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Sigita Silina Liminal Potential | Artists' Film
sigitasilina.com Silina is a visual artist with a focus on socio-cultural nuances. She merges art, science and philosophy, inviting viewers to discover the interplay between creativity and human consciousness. Liminal Potential surveys the profound implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its effects on humanity. Through AI-generated poetry and insightful commentary, the work explores the delicate balance between an individual's intellect and AI's exponential growth. It questions the consequences of excessive reliance on AI, highlighting concerns about dehumanisation, loss of privacy and the erosion of genuine meaningful connection between us.
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Almudena Torró
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É - Panta rei | Sculpture
almudenatorro.com Torró's sculptures are manifestations of lived experiences. The Spanish sculptor works with abstraction to create pieces that reflect the sometimes random nature in which life’s events occur. Torró’s series of works are all interconnected. The É - Panta rei series is the result of a journey through other bodies of work she has made in recent years – Trails and Jumble. These very personal artworks depict universal moments that we all share, and which therefore unite us. Despite feeling trapped by the routines of daily life, we can all undergo an internal transformation derived from freedom and love, in which the value of each individual is recognised.
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Hussina Raja Roots | Artists' Film
hussinaraja.com Raja is a British Kashmiri artist, filmmaker and actress. Using film, photography, installation, archive footage and performance, her practice is rooted in social justice. Her work navigates social constructs of reality with a focus on notions of bicultural identity, migration and belonging. Roots questions what it means to be British, surveying experiences of immigrants who have adapted their identities to fit in with cultural norms of a new society. The film reflects Raja's life as a second generation South-Asian Brit. It considers the process that migrants go through to be accepted, and questions at what stage an immigrant becomes fully integrated.
11. Heather Agyepong, D is For…(2022), From the series: Ego Death. Hahnemühle Fine Art Pearl triptych. Commissioned through Jerwood/Photoworks Award 2022. 12. Thomas Jenkins, Chasing Colour (2022). C-type print. 13. Cinzia Campolese, Could You Take a Picture (2022). Modified LCD screens, Electronics. 14. Brigitte Amarger, La Chute (2021), Recovered X-rays, paper, tracing paper, Nylon thread. 15. Ayrton 'Sam' Mendes. Still from Ayaba - Rainha - Queen (2023). Single channel digital video, 31 min 51 sec. 16. Gala Hernández López. Still from The Mechanics of Fluids (2022). Single channel digital video, 38 min 45 sec. 17. Edgar Martins, I’m Still Here (2023). Mixed media: Paper on C-print. 18. Donna Mclean, Atomic (2021). Oil on board. 19. Sigita Silina. Still from Liminal Potential (2023). Single channel digital video, 10 min 27 sec. 20. Almudena Torró, É - Panta rei series (2022). Stainless steel metal mesh and wood. 21. Hussina Raja. Still from ROOTS (2020). Single channel digital video, 3 min 46 sec.
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Exhibition Reviews
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Eye Me ZANELE MUHOLI
Zanele Muholi (b. 1972) stares straight at the viewer in Thathu I, The Sails, Durban (2019). Digital cameras are arrayed around their head and chest – positioned like jewellery, forming a crown and necklace aptly crafted from Muholi’s creative tool of choice. In addition to the artist’s piercing look, 10 more eyes – lenses – focus on us too. It’s a self-portrait that resonates with the title of their latest exhibition at SFMOMA: Eye Me. It marks the first major show of the South African visual activist’s work on the West Coast, with over 100 photographs, paintings, videos and sculptures on display. Photography has long been used by Muholi for resistance and social change. The 2006 series Being is a powerful example. Here, we see everyday moments between queer couples. They pose together, kiss tenderly and look into each other’s eyes. One frame shows Nomonde Mafunda and Tumi
Ndweni (2007) on the occasion of their civil union marriage. In 2006, South Africa became the first African country to legalise same-sex marriage. Nevertheless, hate crimes and discrimination continue to limit the freedom of LGBTQ+ people. Muholi started the ongoing series Faces and Phases in the same year as the Civil Union Act. It is a living archive of Black queer people that now comprises over 500 greyscale portraits, which are complemented by insightful interviews. The artist is paving the way for future generations. In 2020, they opened the Muholi Art Institute in Cape Town, which offers residencies for up-and-coming creatives. By creating opportunities, Muholi supports others in telling their stories. Eye Me is an opportunity to experience the work Muholi has done to make visible and celebrate the Black queer community. Here, love is harnessed as a way to fight discrimination.
Words Diana Bestwish Tetteh
SFMOMA, San Francisco Until 11 August sfmoma.org
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Rebel Rebel SOHEILA SOKHANVARI
Soheila Sokhanvari (b. 1964) was born in Shiraz, Iran, and moved to Britain as a child, a year before the Pahlavi regime was overthrown. She mixes Islamic patterns, western pop and classical paintings to create a profound tribute to Iranian women before and after the 1979 revolution. Rebel Rebel, originally commissioned by Barbican, London, makes its debut in Denmark and is the artist’s first solo show in the country. It presents 21 miniature portraits of famous Iranian women, including Vida Ghahremani, the first woman to be kissed in close-up in an Iranian film; Forough Farrokhzad, a controversial modernist poet; and writer Simin Dāneshvar. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the formation of a conservative Islamic clerical rule, women faced inconceivable challenges: to renounce their public careers or to be forced into exile. Sokhanvari says: “In my art, I illuminate collective
relationships through the stories of individuals. To tell the story of pre-revolutionary Iran, I decided to focus on some of the country's most famous women. Images of women are used as symbols of Iranian political ideologies: the stories told in the West about their lives are all about veiling orders after the revolution – I wanted to tell a different version. The women selected are all performers: they were the most visible, and therefore also the ones most clearly silenced after 1979." There is an abundance of such individuals to see here. This exhibition is truly dynamic. There is also a soundtrack of mid-20th century Iranian singers, which in itself is powerful, as women in Iran today cannot sing in public. Rebel Rebel is beautifully curated, timely and relevant, given the current political situation in Iran. It invites viewers to reflect and debate, as the world waits to see what’s going to happen next.
Words Shirley Stevenson
ARoS, Aarhus Until 2 June aros.dk
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Elements of Wonder IMMERSIVE SCULPTURAL FORMS
A Sarah Sze (b. 1969) installation is instantly recognisable. They are characterised by their large scale, suspended from the ceiling, burying into the floor or stretching across walls. Recently, Sze’s Timelapse took over New York’s Guggenheim Museum, transforming the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright building into a site of memory and timekeeping. At Peckham Rye Station, the artist converted an abandoned Victorian waiting room into a space of wonder. Here, audiences were introduced to Metronome, a luminescent sphere composed of fragmented screens, each displaying a compilation on loop. Now, at the Nasher Sculpture Center, the pivotal American artist debuts a series of site-specific works, responding to the Renzo Piano-designed space. The result is an assemblage of painting, sculpture, image, sound and video – a constant stream of objects that reflects today’s materially saturated
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world. Across print and digital forms, silvery-blue tones swirl in circular formations, glowing with orange hues and iridescent rainbows. Viewers are taken on a journey across the elements. Sculptures imitate the rippled rhythms of water, whilst photographs glow, as if underneath a blazing afternoon sun. Meanwhile, a pendulum swings above; tin granules and saltshakers encircle the room; multicoloured paint drips vertically between compositions. We’re reminded of the labour that goes into an artwork – the banal and mundane objects assorted, damaged and repaired in order to create a finished product. Through arcs, lines and textures, Sze establishes a visual language rooted in experimentation, fluidity and transformation. There’s no single idea or feeling to describe Sze’s work. It's a cornucopia of information, an interconnected web of things bending and responding to the wider world.
Words Chloe Elliott
Nasher Center, Dallas Until 18 August nashersculpturecentre.org
1a. Zanele Muholi, Thathu I, The Sails, Durban, 2019; collection of Pamela and David Hornik; © Zanele Muholi 1b. Zanele Muholi, Zazi I & II, Boston, 2019; Bader + Simon Collection; © Zanele Muholi. 2. Installation view: Soheila Sokhanvari – Rebel Rebel, ARoS Aarhus Artmuseum. STAR (2022): Design and concept: Soheila Sokhanvari. Technical design: Jflemay Architecture and Design. Photo: Mads Smidstru © ARoS 2024 3. Sarah Sze Images that Images Beget (detail), 2023 © Sarah Sze.
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4a. Harlem, 1960. © Saul Leiter Foundation, Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York. 4b. Walk with Soames, 1958. © Saul Leiter Foundation, Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York 5. Miss Black & Beautiful Sybil McLean with fellow contestants, Raphael Albert, 1972 © RA Albert, Courtesy of Autograph, London 6. Open Window from the series In This Here Place, 2019, Dawoud Bey, gelatin silver print. Rennie Collection, Vancouver. Image © Dawoud Bey
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Saul Leiter THE CENTENNIAL
Artist Saul Leiter (1923-2013) was a master of finding the extraordinary in mundane moments. Now, Centennial, at New York’s Howard Greenberg unveils some of his most poignant works, commemorating what would have been his 100th birthday. The display features more than 40 photographs and paintings, including some never-beforeseen pictures. It gives an account of a figure who retained a spirit of exploration and spontaneity throughout his career. Leiter was dedicated to his craft: he used the camera and picked up the paintbrush nearly every day for more than 60 years. Born in Pittsburgh as the son of a Talmudic scholar, he gave up his theological studies to pursue a creative path. In 1946, after moving to New York, a burgeoning friendship with Abstract Expressionist Richard Pousette-Dart and photojournalist W. Eugene Smith contributed to his entrée into the art world. Leiter began to revel in the intricacies of day-to-day
life in Manhattan, combining lens-based techniques with a painter's eye. Pull, for example, depicts people walking by a steamed-up window, whilst winterscape Postman is evocative of the season – with snowflakes obscuring the foreground. Other stand-out pieces include Walk with Soames, which has an abstract quality. Rain distorts static elements, like streetlights and passing figures, leaving only hints of silhouettes to grasp amidst the blur. By contrast, Harlem offers a crisp, sunlit scene marked by a prominent central subject. Words Alongside classic metropolitan vistas, visitors will see Leiter’s Jennifer Sauer black-and-white nudes, made during the 1940s through to the 1960s. The affectionate portraits, shown next to fashion shoots for Harper’s Bazaar, illustrate the creative practition- Howard Greenberg, NYC er’s talent in capturing the human form. Emotion emerges as Until 10 February a pivotal component of Leiter’s work. Whether in urban, intimate or editorial settings, the axis of his art lies in the detail. howardgreenberg.com
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The Cult of Beauty DECODING SOCIAL STANDARDS
“Ideal beauty is ideal because it does not exist,” wrote such as (Almost) all of my dead mother’s beautiful things American feminist author Naomi Wolf in her 1990 book, (2023), a three-metre-tall sculpture by Narcissister, which The Beauty Myth. Rules around what is considered attractive contains the belongings of the artist’s late parent. The piece have always existed. Whilst a fuller-figured woman was combines framed family portraits, items of clothing, scrapdeemed desirable in the 17th and 18th centuries, the 1990s books furniture and ephemera, expressing the difficulty of ushered in a preference for slender physiques popularised beauty ideals passed down from one generation to another. by models like Kate Moss. The discussion takes a new turn Elsewhere, Raphael Albert, a photographer of Caribbean when considering race, especially given the glorification of heritage, presents the monochrome image Miss Black & Eurocentric beauty standards and the fetishisation of women Beautiful Sybil McLean with fellow contestants (1972). It tells of colour. Today, with social media dominance, we are ever about the global movement “Black is Beautiful,” which rose so obsessed with the complexities of physical appearance. to prominence in the 1960s. Some might find it challenging The Cult of Beauty at London's Wellcome Collection con- to ignore an undercurrent of oppression when contemplatsiders how class, gender and ethnic origin influence defini- ing the various displays. There is an exploration of tools and tions and expectations around allure. Comprising over 200 cosmetic procedures, as seen in Shirin Fathi's performance historical and contemporary objects, the exhibition features The Disobedient Nose (2022), as well as a life-size Barbie doll names including Angélica Dass, J D Okhai Ojeikere and Juno with a 21-inch waist. The question arises: when does agency Calypso. Visitors can view a wide array of mixed-media works lead to compliance for those seeking aesthetic "perfection"?
Words Shyama Laxman
Wellcome Collection Until 28 April wellcomecollection.org
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Elegy DAWOUD BEY
“History remains with us in the present; it permeates the very ground we walk on, the air we breathe,” says American photographer Dawoud Bey (b. 1953), whose current exhibition focuses on times gone by. Born in Queens, New York, Bey is known for street scenes and expressive portraits that brim with humanity, complexity and empathy, chronicling the lives of marginalised people and unseen events. Now, in Elegy, the artist turns to landscapes, meditating on place as a profound repository of memory – a witness to African American experiences rarely represented in collective US history. The display begins with the never-before-seen Stony the Road (2023) – 12 large-scale monochrome prints that illustrate the excruciating realities of the Virginia Slave Trail. Viewers are pulled in through haunting black and white shots of a footpath, still visible amongst the bushes. This threemile-long track connected Manchester Docks and Richmond where Africans arrived in bondage and walked into enslave-
ment. Alongside the photographic series, the sound of moving image fills up the gallery. 350,000 (2023) reminds us of the sheer number of men, women and children sold from Richmond’s auction blocks between 1830 and 1860. In This Here Place (2019) delves into Black life and domestic labour. Here we see tranquil views of wooden cabins amongst shrubs and willow trees – a seemingly peaceful land permeated with violence. What first appears as a residential area with detached houses and timber fences was once the site of a plantation located along the Mississippi River. Elegy concludes with Night Coming Tenderly, Black (2017), Bey’s first project focusing on countryside vistas. Taken around Cleveland and Hudson, it charts the Underground Railroad in Ohio – pathways travelled by enslaved people making their way towards freedom. Bey’s historically grounded work asks us to become active participants and engage with legacies of people who must never be forgotten.
Words Fruzsina Vida
VMFA Until 25 February vmfa.museum
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film reviews
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The Eternal Daughter JOANNA HOGG
A wistfully elegant ghost story, The Eternal Daughter marks the latest film from Joanna Hogg, the director of Archipelago and, more recently, The Souvenir, as well as its 2021 sequel. Here, Hogg demonstrates a tendency toward the autobiographical, focusing on her early years as a filmmaker. Central to the story is the relationship between Julie – a character based on Hogg – played by Honor Swinton Byrne, and her parent, taken on by Byrne's real-life mother – Tilda Swinton. The Eternal Daughter continues Hogg's exploration of the mother-daughter bond; again, we meet filmmaker Julie, now middle-aged, and her ageing mother Rosalind. Are these the same characters we met in The Souvenir? It’s never explicitly referenced. Swinton plays both Julie and Rosalind, a remarkable skill that recalls her work in Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake, taking on multiple roles.
Set in a remote country hotel, the film builds suspense. With no guests in sight, the only other humans around are a receptionist (Carly-Sophia Davies) and a porter (Joseph Mydell). Otherwise, it’s just Rosalind’s dog, which is one of Swinton’s actual canines. We soon learn, however, that the hotel belonged to Rosalind’s aunt – she stayed here as a child. Julie also has an ulterior motive for the trip; she wants to record her mother’s recollections for a project. As the story unfolds, Hogg amps up the dread with a score that suggests something strange is happening. Akin to Jack Clayton’s The Innocents, this isn't so much a ghost tale as it is a deep dive into the psychology of a mother-daughter relationship. Swinton subtly performs in both roles, prompting audiences to wonder how much we inherit from our parents. Whilst the narrative hinges on predictability, it still informs a well crafted work.
Words James Mottram
BFI bfi.org.uk
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Occupied City STEVE MCQUEEN
Documentary, as a medium, is under constant scrutiny. The task then, to document the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, all the while balancing the development of the global pandemic, is a wholly ambitious one. Here, Steve McQueen takes on the project, adapting Bianca Stigter’s book Atlas of an Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940-1945. Occupied City presents a tapestry of personal stories, moving from past to present, combining the events of WWII with modern-day scenes. Here, the film moves between individual character arcs. In the first half, audiences are introduced to a seamstress who becomes a sex worker in the red-light district. Agonisingly, we witness her heartbreaking fate in a concentration camp. Further on, we meet a group of Indonesian activists protesting for the end of Dutch colonialism. Observing previously neglected chronicles, McQueen reckons with histories of
colonisation and slavery in the context of brutal fascism. The ruthless atrocities of the Nazi regime are apparent. It is a difficult watch as audiences witness men, women and children stripped of all liberties. This gravitas is expressed through an intermission sequence that splits the four-hour-long movie. At the halfway point, a line runs through the word "INTERMISSION." It powerfully marks the forceful division between ideology and resistance. Overwhelmingly, this film highlights the importance of action in times of crisis. We're transported between historic and contemporary moments. Places such as Dam Square, a cinema site in the 20th century for German officers, is compared with its location today: a spot for social and climate justice protests. As a result, we're reminded that history is cyclical. McQueen urges us to understand where power sits so we can change the future.
Words Michael Piantini
Modern Films modernfilms.com
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Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry ELENE NAVERIANI
Set in a small village in Georgia, Elene Naveriani’s character study begins in an arresting fashion. Picking blackberries near a ravine, Etero (Ekaterine Chavleishvili) suddenly spies a blackbird. As they exchange glances, Etero falls down the cliffside, hanging on for dear life. Is she dead? Naveriani briefly makes us think so, as villagers gather around her in a surreal dream sequence. In fact, Etero is very much alive. Before long, she’s engaged in an unexpected sexual encounter with a delivery man, Murman (Temiko Chichinadze), who brings detergent to the store she runs. “There you go,” she says at the end of their coupling. “Your 48 years of virginity.” This seismic incident completes the film’s pre-credits, leading Etero towards an awakening of sorts. There will be further hook-ups with Murman, who is married but holds a candle for Etero, announcing, “I’ll be your blackberry.”
Chavleishvili, who featured in Naveriani’s debut Wet Sand, is well cast as Etero, a woman who is filled with composure despite her tragedies. Running her store after the passing of her father and brother, Etero tries to find her place in a harsh and judgemental world. Moreover, this is a story that exceeds its love story status. Naveriani compassionately and respectively films Chavleishvili, shown in the love scenes between her and Chichinadze. These are ageing bodies that are celebrated in their passion. A counterpoint to the ordinary lives on show, the film’s production design also pops – bright greens and reds insist that life doesn’t have to be bleak. There’s optimism on screen, whether on the walls or in the mind of Etero, who is a quiet, radical force that flies in the face of convention. It doesn’t matter what age you are, Naveriani suggests. Pleasure and desire can strike us at any time.
Words James Mottram
New Wave Films newwavefilms.co.uk
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music reviews
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Daniel REAL ESTATE
Daniel is the sixth album from Real Estate, marking a return to the band's more typical and effortless melodies, especially after a decade of slightly less effervescent and dynamic tracks. Reflecting the aim of New Jersey co-founders Martin Courtney and Alex Bleeker in “letting Real Estate be Real Estate,” the music group has created a record that combines the best of its earlier work with the well-earned perspective of adulthood. Recorded in Nashville with producer and songwriter Daniel Tashian (Burt Bacharach, Kacey Musgraves), it's a composition characterised by an assured self-acceptance. Across the album particular highlights include joyful opener Somebody, beguiling in its bewitching chord progressions, followed by Interior, turning up the dial on jangling melodies even further. Listeners are given a lush display of instruments, where, in Freeze Brain, for example,
the drums play – somewhat uncharacteristically – the star in an otherwise guitar-centric tune. At just past the halfway mark of the album, Real Estate doesn't concede to an understated sound. Instead, they elevate energy and tempo levels through songs Say No More and Airdrop, successfully re-routing mid-tempo lag for listeners. In closing track You Are Here, Courtney reels the listener in, imparting, “What is it that you want to hear? There’s only so much time.” He adds, “Best we can do is be happy here / Sing another line." It's a sweet sentiment that illustrates the contentment and sense of place the band has found. Daniel possesses a consistent simplicity, providing an intriguing rhythm to lyrics that routinely look back. Throughout it all, we get the idea that Real Estate has finally rediscovered its purpose – finding meaning in melodies that demonstrate the power of a good indie track.
Words Matt Swain
Domino dominomusic.com
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Songdreaming SAM LEE
British folk music has a pastoral tradition that stretches back hundreds of years. It’s therefore no surprise that Sam Lee sees the climate crisis as more than just an empty threat, but a call to arms. In his fourth album, the Mercury-Prize nominated singer channels his activism into tracks that show the rehabilitating power of nature. Lee imbues these songs with the confidence of an artist who has dedicated his life to the preservation of traditional folk songs. However, he is also no purist – Lee is not afraid to revise old classics. Album opener Bushes and Briars reinvents the English ballad. Lyrics of unrequited love are altered to reflect his own anxieties about the environmental crisis. “Sometimes I think we’ve gone too far … to turn it around in time,” he gravely cautions. Although these songs are full of frustration and uncertainty, Lee does not raise his voice, preferring instead
to let instruments express his outrage. Perhaps the best example of this is Aye Walking Oh, presenting a rendition of Robert Burns’ poetry. Here, lyrics give way to a choir of pipes that resembles the outbreak of a dawn chorus. Elsewhere, Green Mossy Banks and Dreams of the Returning brim with bursts of bucolic noise that appear then vanish like streams of sunlight breaking through a forest canopy. From the civil rights movement to anti-war protests, folk songs have long served as anthems that galvanise communities around a common cause. This is emphasised in one of the record's best moments – when Lee is joined by Trans Voices, the UK's first professional trans+ choir. The choral arrangements of tracks like Leaves of Life and Meeting Is A Pleasant Place fill the album with spirit, reinforcing the power of collective action. They remind us that, when united, the situation is far from hopeless.
Words Patrick Gamble
Cooking Vinyl cookingvinyl.com
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Sunseeker SAINT SAVIOUR
Saint Saviour, the alt-pop solo act from singer-songwriter Becky Jones, delivers a series of breezy alt-pop bops in a much anticipated fourth studio album. Produced by Bill Ryder-Jones, formally of Merseyside rockers The Coral, Sunseeker is a perpetually smooth soundscape. It marks a move away from the more existential and downbeat feel of Jones’ previous albums Tomorrow Again and In The Seams. This is an intentional move – allowing the artist to create a work that prioritises her own self-fulfilment. It’s a beautiful topic to explore: one that shows a subject who, against all odds, chooses hope over grief. In light of her mother's passing, Jones creates a record that delicately weaves lyrics and instrumentation. Throughout, her tone remains soft, verging almost on a whisper, as it wistfully moves between chords. In Let’s Go Outside, inspired by European 1960s baroque pop, listeners can enjoy warm
strings of emotion. Here, Jones’ voice quivers with feeling as she harnesses a velvety vibrato. The duet of A Picture is All I Have, sung alongside aforementioned Orlando Weeks, similarly provides a sense of care, accomplished in the lines “You are here / You are right here.” Elsewhere, Morning Bird and final track Little Bee, dedicated to Jones' child, possesses a lullaby-like quality with upfront, heavily-gated vocals that top luscious piano chords. This is an album that attempts to keep going in the face of loss. As Not Nothing reminds us, "No one wants to see you sit there on your own. Watch the sun come up and watch it go back down. Come on, come on. We're all waiting for you." It's a moment of realisation: we’ve got to keep going because nothing else will work. This sentiment is entrenched in an album that basks in the sun of its title. Its message? We can always find the light.
Words Kyle Bryony
VLF Records vlfrecords.com
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book reviews
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Shining Lights JOY GREGORY
Shining Lights is over 30 years in the making. Artist Joy Gregory and the late activist and publisher Araba Mercer began their compendium of Black women artists in 1986 but were unable to realise their vision due to the steep costs of making a photobook at the time. In 2019, Gregory and art historian Taous Dahmani tried again. The book in our hands today transports us to the 1980s and 1990s. We meet Claudette Holmes, Mitra Tabrizian, Maxine Walker and other Black women who created lensbased media in their own communities – defying a sector intent on ignoring them. It's a text that explores everything from activism to self-portraiture, providing an enriching understanding of each contributor’s perspective. Holmes’ Simone is one captivating photomontage. We see a woman in the centre of a dark and desolate landscape. A detached hand wraps over the top half
of her face. In the black and white image, we see only her scarlet lips. Etched on top are the words: “disturbed by misunderstanding,” evoking Nina Simone’s song Don’t Let Me be Misunderstood. The resulting artwork stands out as a piece committed to authenticity. We come to Walker’s Black Beauty series later in the collection. In one frame, the artist looks into a mirror whilst dabbing a cotton ball against her cheek. Another shot, Her Room, observes the ornate but nondescript bottles and tubs that fill her table. Walker plays with this ambiguity, asking: how and why do we strive for beauty? Shining Lights defies erasure. A Google search of many of these names yields limited results, telling us just how important this archive is for future generations. Complete with a timeline of contextual events and biographies for all 57 contributors, it ensures legacies are not forgotten.
Words Diana Bestwish Tetteh
MACK mackbooks.co.uk
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Phosphor VIVIANE SASSEN
“Maybe I call myself a surrealist, I also call myself a sculptor.” These are the words of Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen (b. 1972), a creative who is recognised for her vivid colour palette, bold use of light and shadow, and unique portrayal of the body. Tracing a career of more than 30 years, Prestel publishes the accompanying compendium to Sassen's retrospective at Maison Européenne de la Photographie. The book probes relationship between art and artist, and recognises the physicality of image-making. Readers are given an insight into Sassen's life as we're taken back to Parasomnia (2007-2011), a series that references the artist's early upbringing in Kenya, where her father, a doctor, worked at a polio clinic. The work speaks to dislocation, the feeling of neither being a local nor a stranger. Two boys embrace around a banana leaf. A figure looks to the sky, his face nuzzled
into a pink paperback. A young woman is tucked into a white sheet, small brown leaves covering her eyes and mouth. A sense of unease – of sickness and loss – lingers. This is a feeling that continues in series such as Of Mud and Lotus (2017), a collection that experiments with collage and hand-coloured pieces, and Paint Study (2021), a work that introduces paint and ink to photography. Here, bodies are framed as shape-shifting forms, lathered in white shaving cream and coloured ink. Clothilde Morette writes in one of the book's opening essays: "Sassen delves into her memory, extracts her dreams, fantasies and fears, and confronts them with the materiality of the world." As a result, we're given a photobook loaded with desire, grief and humour. Sassen unpacks a world that sits just below the surface, offering up her finest compositions of intimacy and vulnerability.
Words Chloe Elliott
Prestel prestel.com
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New York ELLIOTT ERWITT
Depictions of New York have shaped western visual culture for centuries. Often referred to as “the city that never sleeps,” the metropolis has appeared on artists' canvases; provided sets for films and been documented on camera by names including Alfred Stieglitz, Berenice Abbott, Diane Arbus and, notably here, Elliott Erwitt. Born in Paris in 1928, Erwitt spent his childhood in Milan before relocating to the USA. In 1948, he moved to New York where he met Robert Capa, and started to work as a photographer. What came after this was an over 50-yearlong career, documenting everyday life in the “Big Apple.” “You can find pictures anywhere. It's simply a matter of noticing things and organising them,” said Erwitt, whose iconic black and white photographs are now republished by teNeues. New York – originally issued in 2008 – pays a monochromatic tribute to the megacity, and is a pho-
tobook with historical significance. Inside, nostalgic compositions are met with a sense of playfulness, and readers can browse through a selection of authentic and previously unreleased images from the 1950s and 1960s. Here we see classic views of Manhattan; celebrities roaming amongst residents; and day-to-day moments captured in a cheerful and often slightly quirky manner. Erwitt had an eye for spotting the absurd in the mundane. He gave an accurate depiction of city life, whilst introducing audiences to a lesser-known side of downtown. TeNeues' compendium brings a feeling of excitement as viewers never know what might come next. A gentleman playing with a yo-yo at the subway, a horse tied up in a public car park, and a neighbourhood parade with oversized inflatable figures. This sense of humanity and community is what makes New York distinctive.
Words Fruzsina Vida
teNeues teneues.com
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artists’ directory
ATHINA PAPPA Athina Pappa aka Felix Felis is a Greek artist and illustrator. She explores symbolism and escapism and often references nature and the female, as seen in the Anima series. She notes: “I would like for my pieces to be perceived as visual rituals frozen in time that wish to restore the divinity of the female and bring back the equality in the male-female dipole.” Pappa’s work has been exhibited in Europe and the USA. Upcoming events include a solo show at Chalkos Gallery, Thessaloniki in March.
felixfelis.com I Instagram: @athination
YOONYOUNG KIM Yoonyoung Kim interprets and questions the world through the interaction of technology and humans. She is known for this unique approach, which includes deconstructing paintings created by artificial intelligence and then repainting them, or completing works through conversations with customised generative AI tools. This varied approach inspires Seoul-based Kim to explore not only possibilities in art but also critique our modern technological society.
yoonyoung.com I Instagram: @yy.playground
YULIIA DZHURENKO Yuliia Dzhurenko is a Ukrainian artist whose work is exhibited throughout Asia and Europe. Continuous learning forms the basis of expression in which self-portraits reflect a state of mind. Each piece reveals emotions and sentiments such as irony, loneliness and sensuality. Dzhurenko notes: “It’s a process of growth: from simple to complex, from nothing to something, from something to everything.” yuliia-dzhurenko.com I Instagram: @ hollyarty
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Agrippina Meshcheryakova
ALEKSEY OVSYANNIKOV
Interdisciplinary artist Agrippina Meshcheryakova merges painting and film, erasing the lines between these forms. Her debut feature delves into Renaissance paintings: unravelling their meanings whilst exploring public opinion. Her latest experimental work worry fear unease. the tryptich explores anxiety and dissociation using multiple screens – giving a fresh perspective on complex themes. honigberg-productions.squarespace.com
Oil painter Alexey Ovsyannikov is based in Minsk, where he explores selfidentity. Confident brushstrokes show a depth of personal emotions and memories. He notes: “I, like a transformer, pass the outside world through my internal perceptions and express the picture that I depict. It’s key to express your feelings and sensations, as these belong only to you." Instagram: @al.eksey972 I aleksey.86.00@mail.ru
Andrea Zvadova
clover
Slovakian photographer Andrea Zvadova is based in London, where she focuses on beauty, portrait and still life shoots. The myriad possibilities of colour are harnessed to create spaces in which dreaming and imagination link to escape the narrative of the predictable – a comparison of the real and the potential. Each image is created with practical effects, without any further manipulation. andreazvadova.com I Instagram: @andrea_zvadova
London-based Clover is an artist and creative director who combines photography, collage and moving image to forge new dialogues between these contemporary mediums. He notes: "Geometry, form and colour are the keystones of my creative process. Each composition is an interplay of these elements, culminating in a symphony that transcends the ordinary." clover-studio.co.uk I Instagram: @clovergreenstudio
elisabeth Ajtay
eric wiles
Cologne-based Elisabeth Ajtay is an award-winning conceptual artist who works primarily with photography. The paradox of growing up in two opposing political systems – a dictatorship and a democratic-capitalist society – forms the basis of her work, in which she examines western culture related to themes of language, migration and the notion of home. elisabethajtay.com I IG: @elisabethajtay I Facebook: elisabethajtayart
California-based Eric Wiles' fine art and landscape photography reveals dynamic images of natural beauty. His goal is to bring awareness to the variety of wondrous places in the world, in the hope that we will be inspired to contribute to global conservation efforts. He emphasises: "In showing the magnificence of our home, we can recognise that every day is Earth day." ew-photo.com I eric-wiles.pixels.com I IG: eric.wiles.photo
For submission enquiries regarding the Artists’ Directory, contact Katherine Smira on directory@aestheticamagazine.com
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artists’ directory
lang lang
Lionel Machris
Lang Lang is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist. Her works are dialogues which capture sensorial encounters and offer experimental experiences. The RONG series explores connections between families and loved ones – it unfolds through moving and still images. A recurrent motif is the presence of butter, a souvenir given to the artist by older family members upon their return from business trips. IG: @langsquare
Lionel Machris is a multidisciplinary artist based in Germany and France. A passion for painting, sculpture and photography has helped him to forge a unique path in the art world. Drawing upon the opulent history of gold in art, Machris creates contemporary interpretations of this ancient medium – his works show intense depth and radiance using 24 carat gold. lionelmachris.com I Instagram: @lionelmachris
lydia Bauman
marta Musial
Lydia Bauman is based in London, where she works as an art historian and artist. A key source of inspiration is the fragility of the environment – textured works highlight the stillness and timeless beauty of the natural world. Materials such as plaster, resin, beeswax and gold leaf are used "to convey some of the materiality of nature more effectively than oil or acrylic on canvas." lydiabauman.com I IG: @lydia_bauman_studio
Rotterdam-based photographer Marta Musial uses her keen interests in the human body, colours and design to explore new avenues of creative possibilities. Her confidence in the power of collaborations often leads to unexpected interdisciplinary experiments – working with set designers, 3D artists, fashion designers, filmmakers and dancers. She is represented by the Mrs Robinson Agency. marta-musial.com I IG: @martamusial_
Peijun cao
rebecca jonas
Shanghai-born Peijun Cao arrived in London as a portrait artist before embarking on Fashion Design studies at Middlesex University and then Innovative Pattern Cutting at UAL: Central Saint Martins. Inspired by this background, she uses digital media to create surreal images from photographs. York-based Cao notes that the striking works can be viewed as both strong and fragile. Instagram: @peijunfashion_art
Rebecca Jonas is an award-winning fine art photographer based in New York. She specialises in black and white photography, using powerful subject matter that is carefully selected for its symbolism. Jonas harnesses raw emotion to build thought-provoking narratives within her images. The work shown here is entitled What I Kept. rebeccajonasphotography.com I Instagram: @rebeccajonasphotography
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Rich DiSilvio
richard Lazzara
Rich DiSilvio is a New York-born artist and photographer. His aim is to “focus on the imagination, something unique only to humans.” DiSilvio’s visions are in oils and acrylics, with an emphasis on digital art. He has worked on projects for Pink Floyd, Yes and The Moody Blues as well as various films, whilst his fine art appears in galleries and museums, including the Tchaikovsky Museum in Russia. richdisilvio.com
Colorado, USA-based Richard Lazzara is a Yogi known as S.S.Shankar. Sources of rich inspiration for his colour-infused work include the majestic Rocky Mountains, traditional Asian art, philosophy, spirituality as well as western innovation. The artist notes: "I challenge the viewer to penetrate one's own being. It is only through this knowledge of the inner self that one can be open to my work". shankar-gallery.com
Sándor Barics
Shengdi CUI
Berlin-based Hungarian artist Sándor Barics creates interpretations of astrophysics concepts. His mixed media meditations on the cosmos can be viewed as entire worlds unto themselves. Rising out of the surface like mountains on distant planets, the use of 3D design along with 2D compositions are reminiscent of bas-relief creations by a lost culture who studied the spheres with wonder. sandorbarics.com I IG: @studio_barics
Shengdi Cui is a London-based artist and photographer known for his fantasy digital work and absurd narratives inspired by life experiences as well as science fiction novels and films. Cui holds a degree in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts at UAL and has achieved milestones such as the IPA Photography Awards and the 2023 Venice International Art Fair. shengdicui.com | Instagram: @shengdi_cui
SORAIA Sü
Temitope Adebowale
Portuguese artist Soraia Sü taps into childhood memories of local weather, colours and traditions to create three-dimensional works. Instinct and exploration guide the creation of each piece, which is most often a combination of clay and paint. France-based Sü is participating in the exhibition Lendemains de Fête at Galerie Lazarew, Paris until 24 February. soraia-su.art I Instagram: @soraia_su_art
Temitope Adebowale is a British-Nigerian artist and graphic designer. Her current practice is tethered to painting, though it ventures into territories of sculpture, woodwork and installation. The resulting works are visual intersections of the past and present, familiar and unfamiliar, 2D and 3D, present and absent – and others as discovered by the artist. www.temitope-artist.com I Instagram: @temitope.artist
For submission enquiries regarding the Artists’ Directory, contact Katherine Smira on directory@aestheticamagazine.com
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artists’ directory
Alena ArtGar
anna Weichselbaumer
Alena ArtGar is a sculptor based in Montenegro. She creates decorative items from driftwood found in the nearby Adriatic Sea – the natural material is used to depict coastal villages, boats and animals. These works represent magical worlds whilst reminding the viewer that beauty that can be found in recycled and environmentallyfriendly materials. Instagram: @alena.artgar alenagareeva2688@yandex.ru
The bold, colour-rich works by Austria-based visual artist Anna Weichselbaumer have been shown in numerous exhibitions throughout Europe. She notes: "I think painting is a way to communicate with others. I like to paint people and abstract pictures, because it is important for me to express that despite our differences, we are all essentially the same. Maybe it’s also about stimulating and questioning things.” Instagram: @annawei334
candice black
Carlos Abraham
Multidisciplinary artist Candice Black creates content and craft as ARTSTUDIOCB. Photography, video, painting and drawing are used to explore ideas around trauma, the somatic and hope. Black harnesses colour, narrative and bold imagery to express various deep emotions and challenging experiences whilst making space for humour. She says: "I believe in creativity, the human spirit and empowerment." behance.net/candiceblackwales
Carlos Abraham is an award-winning artist based in Mexico, where he studied architecture and photography. A current focus is to examine and highlight the beauty of the male body through thought-provoking images. His work has appeared in various publications and he has participated in exhibitions throughout Central and South America. Abraham’s artworks are part of the permanent collection in the Mediateca INAH, Mexico City. fotocarlos.com.mx I IG: @carlosphotoart
Christian Bruni
emi Okumura
Self-taught photographer Christian Bruni is based in Italy. The focus of his practice is portraiture, in which he combines the characterising aspects of each subject with his visual aesthetic. Observation and research of pop art, 1970s culture as well as Flemish and Renaissance paintings are used as inspiration when playing with light and colour in each unique piece. christianbruni.it Instagram: @christianbruni_
Japanese artist Emi Okumura is based in Kyoto. Detailed threedimensional works are at the heart of a practice that is driven by the personal experiences of everyday life. Each delicate piece conveys a message by comparing time and natural objects, inspired by patterns passed down through generations. Okumura encourages the viewer to explore the intricacies that can be found within their artworks. Instagram: @emiokumura8
eric hagan
ethan Dowley
Eric Hagan’s detailed ink illustrations explore human complexity through a unique method of psychological mirroring. The USA-based artist weaves and layers incongruent emotions to create experiences tailored to the viewer. Hagan notes that as no two people see the same thing, an image is only completed by projections of the viewer. erichaganart.com Instagram: @eric_hagan_art Reddit.com/r/theartofericahagan
UK-based artist Ethan Dowley uses photography explore the rich possibilities of urban landscapes. A focus on colour and architectural lines defines his editorial style of work. The image shown here is from the FRANCE23 series, in which a passion for travel is combined with a creative eye for capturing the vibrancy of French towns and cities during the 2023 summer season. Instagram: @ethandowleyphoto Instagram: @ethan_dowley4
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felix Endriss
gunilla daga
Germany-based painter Felix Endriss is on an artistic journey in which he explores the use of both traditional and contemporary techniques and materials as well as practical aspects of various art forms. He relishes the freedom that creation provides: a trial-and-error approach means that continuous experimentation and learning enhance each distinctive series. felixendriss.com Instagram: @felix_endriss
Gunilla Daga is a Stockholm-based painter whose work is drawn out of private emotions of universal experiences. Rich, earthy tones in both oils and acrylics are often mixed with dry, raw pigments before application to canvas. The resulting works show unique and striking textures within geometric forms. Daga has exhibited paintings throughout Europe and the USA. gunilladaga.se Instagram: @gunilladaga
Lena Ochkalova
Manuel Schaffernak
Lena Ochkalova is a New Zealandbased multidisciplinary artist who works in printmaking, drawing, ceramics and photography. She explores new techniques for singleedition unique monotypes. Main themes are visual aphorisms via common concepts: abundance of information and knowledge, a sense of time and place, and collisions of social norms and expectations. lenaochkalova.net Instagram: @lenaochkalova
Experimental photographer Manuel Schaffernak is based in Graz. In the Illusive series, he captures the beauty of the unclear and the abstract – it is an exploratory journey which invites the viewer to "transcend the boundaries of visual clarity." For this project Schaffernak was pleased to collaborate with hair designer Günter Steininger and model @elenarosenfeld. manuelschaffernak.com Instagram: @manuel.schaffernak
Michael Banifatov
Naoto Okuda
Israel-based artist, photographer and musician Michael Banifatov explores the abstraction of life and the irrationality of reality via surreal works; he strives to capture the very beginning of the process of decay. Distortion techniques analogous to manipulating sound are used to create confined spaces where whole worlds converge – provoking an exploration of various perspectives. michaelbanifatov.photography Instagram: @michaelbanifatov
Naoto Okuda is an installation artist based in Tokyo who uses modern techniques to explore fundamental themes in art. The Light Painting series is an homage to Monet's depictions of sunrises. The surface of Okuda's illuminated work is a sunset image, which is the basis for an experimental interpretation of light in visual art. He then poses a thought-provoking question: what is a picture? tokyo.art.factory.com
Tatsuro Kudo
Yinzhen Li
Tatsuro Kudo lives in Japan, where he is an associate professor in the Department of Information and Network Engineering at the Kurume Institute of Technology. His daily work inspires his award-winning art practice, in which he uses real-time 3DCG and XR technology. Kudo notes: "My art is always interactive with the viewer between the real and virtual, and I hope they use it to confront and redefine their own emotions." tatsuro-kudo.com
Yinzhen Li is a Chinese-Korean oil painter based in New Zealand. She is inspired by the colours, textures and movement of animals and plants, which are closely observed before the creation of each artwork. The Gold Fish explores humans' understanding of the connection we have with the natural world, and encourages us to appreciate the beauty of fellow creatures whilst protecting their future.
For submission enquiries regarding the Artists’ Directory, contact Katherine Smira on directory@aestheticamagazine.com
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Yannis Davy Guibinga, from Daybreak at Crystal Mountain, (2023).
last words
Yannis Davy Guibinga Photographer
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“How can foundational stories be understood today, and to what extent is a new visual vocabulary required? My show Children of Distant Suns explores African mythologies, demonstrating how these tales have global resonance and a relevance that transcends their geographical and cultural origins – with the same themes and figures recurring under different names. It does so through vivid colours and strong contrasts, as well as editing techniques to build environments. My journey started at an early age. I was exposed to fashion imagery and, as a result, developed an interest in wanting to create that kind of photography. Today, I tell narratives from, or inspired by, the African continent. Sunsets, very bright backgrounds and shadows are my signature technique.” Doyle Wham, London, until 23 March. doylewham.com
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