Aesthetica Issue 90 by Aesthetica Magazine

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Aesthetica

THE ART & CULTURE MAGAZINE

www.aestheticamagazine.com

Issue 90 August / September 2019

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

SPATIAL EXPERIMENTS

ILLUSORY NARRATIVES

SOCIAL DOCUMENTARY

Parley for the Oceans sheds light on an age of plastic consumption

Unseen bends the rules through an inventive series of exhibitions

Max Pinckers examines the role of alternative facts in the media

Ute and Werner Mahler explore borders in post-war landscapes

Welcome

UK £5.95 Europe €11.95 USA $15.49

Editor’s Note

On the Cover Alessio Albi is a master of fine art portraiture, finding dramatic lighting in both interior and exterior landscapes. Each moment has been well-considered, with an intuitive sense of direction and perspective. The resulting images are emphatic, confident and instantly recognisable (p. 114).

Cover Image: Photographer: Alessio Albi. Model: Isabella Bubola. Courtesy of the artist and Trevillion.

There has never been a time in human history when things have been so interconnected. The climate crisis is connected to the economy, which is in turn connected to trade and tariffs, and so on and so forth. We are living in an age of alternative facts, fake news and misinformation. We are more divided than ever before, and politicians use populism to disintegrate battles won for justice and equality. Watching programmes like Years and Years or The Handmaid’s Tale fills me with fear because I think: are we really that far from this? Could these dystopian fictions become reality? Inside this issue, we bring you the latest from Parley for the Oceans. This is a fantastic non-profit organisation that is serious about eradicating single-use plastic and saving the seas. It has teamed up with artists, fashion brands and designers worldwide to make positive change. There is no need to buy water all the time; carry an empty bottle. The same goes for coffee cups. We could cut down on landfill waste considerably through these simple measures. Looking further back, it has been 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Ute Mahler and Werner Mahler have a retrospective coming up at Fotomuseum Den Haag, which looks at their work in the former GDR alongside more recent pieces. The show is compelling because surveillance was part of everyday life for these photographers. It’s interesting to note the similarities between then and now, given the level of voyeurism and observation in today’s world. We must ask important questions about privacy and boundaries. The following photographers are featured inside this issue: Kyle Thompson, Kyle Jeffers, Sebastian Weiss, Rebecca Reeve, Studio Brasch and cover photographer Alessio Albi, alongside our annual feature, Next Generation, completed in partnership with London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. This is your opportunity to see the breadth and scope of new work being produced today. Finally, Nina Wiedemeyer, Curator from the Bauhaus-Archiv, gives us the last words. Cherie Federico

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contents

Art 26 Taking Responsibility Parley for the Oceans tackles the issue of single use plastic, collaborating with high-profile artists and designers such as Adidas and Doug Aitken.

32 Dramatic Architecture Sebastian Weiss' images spark dialogues with buildings; glass and concrete come together in fluid structures that stretch into clean blue skies.

42 Changing Definitions A selection of 100 contemporary sculptors push the boundaries of materials, from concrete and metal to neon, plant-life and data algorithm.

48 Pockets of Colour Kyle Jeffers produces elegant and playful images within industrial surroundings; ladders, crates and cranes feature heavily in vibrant environments.

60 Spatial Experiments Photographers at Unseen Amsterdam test uneven ground with bold, abstracted compositions that explore both manmade and natural landscapes.

66 Forms of Recluse Solitude is increasingly prevalent within today's age of isolation. Kyle Thompson expresses this sense of disconnect through desolate worlds.

76 Looking Outwards Rebecca Reeve comments on our increasingly urban existence, transporting viewers to the wide, open expanses of America's national parks.

86 Illusory Narratives Max Pinckers' Margins of Excess series investigates the notion of truths and subjective realities. The images sit somewhere between fact and fiction.

92 Intimacy with Nature This issue of Aesthetica marks the sixth instalment of the Next Generation, an annual collaboration with London College of Communication, UAL.

104 Unlimited Possibilities Studio Brasch creates clean, utopian rooms that boast Wes Anderson-esque colour palettes; new spaces rendered through CGI and digital design.

114 Striking Depictions Shafts of light. Distorted facial features. Shadows falling across skin. Alessio Albi's portraits draw attention to the body with mesmerising intensity.

124 Social Documentary Ute and Werner Mahler grew up in the GDR; their photographs provide a searing reflection on the country decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Exhibitions

Film

Music

130 Gallery Reviews This edition includes coverage of Richard Learoyd at Fundación MAPFRE, as well as the European premiere of John Akomfrah's Precarity at BALTIC.

134 New Identities Shola Amoo’s fictional debut,The Last Tree, is a semi-autobiographical account that follows a young man as he is relocated to South London.

136 Interpreting Grief Sui Zhen's new album, Losing, Linda makes use of avatars, or “digital doppelgängers," tapping into the language of online platforms and realities.

Books

Artists’ Directory

Last Words

138 Icons of Progress Gold has long existed as an economic and social placeholder for wealth and power. Lisa Barnard's latest photobook looks at capitalism and labour.

154 Inside this Issue Shape and texture are key considerations for this edition's artists; they experiment with a range of patterns, surfaces, finishes and consistencies.

162 Bauhaus-Archiv Nina Wiedemeyer discusses the international legacy of the school and its wider reproductions as part of the 2019 centenary commemorations.

Aesthetica Magazine is trade marked worldwide. © Aesthetica Magazine Ltd 2019.

The Aesthetica Team: Editor: Cherie Federico Assistant Editor: Kate Simpson Digital Assistant: Eleanor Sutherland Junior Content Writer: Jack Needham Staff Writer: Olivia Hampton

Advertisement Enquiries: Jeremy Appleyard (0044) (0)844 568 2001 advertising@aestheticamagazine.com

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. Published by Cherie Federico and Dale Donley. Aesthetica Magazine PO Box 371, York, YO23 1WL, UK (0044) (0)844 568 2001 Newstrade Distribution: Warners Group Publications plc. Gallery & Specialist Distribution: Central Books. Printed by Warners Midlands plc.

Advertising Coordinator: Jeremy Appleyard Marketing Coordinator: Hannah Skidmore Artists’ Directory Coordinator: Katherine Smira Production Director: Dale Donley Operations Manager: Cassandra Weston Designer: Laura Tordoff Technical Coordinator: Andy Guy Marketing & Administration Assistant: Sophie Lake Contributors: Sarah Allen, Alexandra Genova, Diane Smyth, Beth Webb, Charlotte R-A, Gunseli Yalcinkaya. Reviewers: Kyle Bryony, James Mottram, Daniel Pateman, Matt Swain, Grace Caffyn, Sarah Jilani, Hunter Dukes, Tamara Suarez Porras, Christopher Webb, Annabel Herrick, Diego Von Lieres und Wilkau Saavedra.

Artists’ Directory Enquiries: Katherine Smira (0044) (0)844 568 2001 directory@aestheticamagazine.com Subscriptions: subscriptions@aestheticamagazine.com (0044) (0)844 568 2001 General Enquiries: info@aestheticamagazine.com Press Releases: pr@aestheticamagazine.com Follow us: aestheticamagazine.com facebook.com/aestheticamagazine twitter.com/AestheticaMag pinterest.com/AestheticaMag instagram.com/AestheticaMag

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Second Home Serpentine Pavilion by SelgasCano as it originally appeared in Hyde Park, 2015. Opening June 28, 2019 at La Brea Tar Pits.

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Beyond Aesthetics SECOND HOME SERPENTINE PAVILION A maze of organic, chrysalis-like shapes. A psychedelic hub embedded in a grassy bank. The Second Home Serpentine Pavilion, an 866 square foot structure, is the creation of SelgasCano – a venture between Spanish architects José Selgas and Lucía Cano that has made its mark with buoyant creations. An intricate construction spreads across the land with tunnels made from glowing iridescent materials. The structure uses daylight as its muse before transforming into an illuminated and colourful spectacle in the nighttime. Whilst this could easily become the latest selfie destination – like a Do Ho Suh installation or, indeed, Olafur Eliasson's new viewer-responsive show at Tate Modern – a slew of public talks around important issues such as sustainability and equity are designed to give the experience more depth. Further to this, there are a number of film screenings at the intersection of science and art. Events include David Lynch talking about mediation; Netflix and the World Wildlife Fund hosting a screening of the Our Planet series narrated by David Attenborough and a performance by rapper Octavian. In this way, the pavilion taps into the ultimate dream-making machine that is Hollywood. The project is also a teaser of sorts ahead of the opening of London-based co-working space Second Home’s first USA location later this year in Los Angeles that is being dubbed a “slingshot for creative entrepreneurs.” Designed

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by SelgasCano, it is set to host some 250 teams and organ- “An intricate lacework isations in a lush jungle of thousands of trees and plants of colourful shadows across a 90,000 square foot urban campus on the site of spreads across the the former Anne Banning Community House, designed tunnel with the help of in the 1960s by architect Paul Williams. Besides restoring ribbons and iridescent the existing building, SelgasCano adds 60 single-storey plastic materials, garden studios, meeting rooms and community spaces, all using daylight before wrapped in the designers’ signature translucent acrylic, as transforming into an well as oval-shaped, mustard yellow roofs. illuminated spectacle The installation at La Brea Tar Pits, which sits on active at nighttime.” asphalts, marks the first Serpentine Pavilion debut in the United States – having been shown first in London’s Hyde Park in 2015, as pictured above. The multicoloured Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) membrane stretches over a steel frame and invites visitors to explore the various shapes through a play between light, colour, transparency and materials. There are various entrances to the tunnel and chambers, including a hidden corridor between the structure’s outer and inner layers before converging into a spacious central area. The Pavilion is situated on prehistoric tar pits, which have preserved the bones of many mammals La Brea Tar Pits and from over 10,000 years ago. Exuberant as the location Museum, Los Angeles and its structure may be, the installation manages to link Until 24 November design and nature as one ecosystem, because one cannot exist without the other, at least not in this case. pavilion.secondhome.io

Searching for Truth DRILL: HITO STEYERL

“The centrepiece of Hito Steyerl’s survey at the Park Avenue Armory – the largest of its kind for the German-Japanese artist thus far in the United States – is a massive threechannel video.”

Park Avenue Armory, New York 20 June - 21 July Steyerl's works are also included in the Venice Biennale Arte, until 24 November. armoryonpark.org

Hito Steyerl, ExtraSpaceCraft, 2016. 3-channel HD video, environment, 12 min, 30 sec. Installation view, from Kunstmuseum Basel. Image courtesy of the Artist, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York and Esther Schipper, Berlin. Photo: Marc Asekhame.

In being discursive – and thus mirroring Steyerl’s genreDrums, brass and voices reverberate across Wade Thompson Drill Hall – the cavernous 55,000 square foot space bending practice straddling art, philosophy and politics that once hosted America's National Guard’s Seventh – the work also at times seems disorganised, jumping jarRegiment, a militia that joined the Union Army during the ringly between its disparate parts. Part of the point, however, American Civil War. The centrepiece of Hito Steyerl’s survey is precisely Steyerl’s stubborn refusal to stick to a single at the Park Avenue Armory – the largest of its kind for the perspective. The narrative of our times is simply too comGerman filmmaker and artist thus far in the USA – is a mas- plex for that. Instead, the artist encourages us to question sive three-channel video display situated in the centre of the hidden power structures behind the new technologies an illuminated floor. The perennial school shootings that that permeate our lives and the political nature of transacplague America are part of a meandering narrative that also tions. As she reminds us at the start of the piece: “History is takes in the National Rifle Association gun lobby, national the art of highlighting whatever is hiding in plain sight.” Seven other installations created since 2013 fill rooms urban violence and the Armory’s own architecture. Historian Anna Duensing, armed with a flashlight which on the first floor. The City of Broken Windows, which Steyerl she points at various portraits of eminent military figures or began last year, connects artist–activist Chris Toepfer, who bullet holes created during shooting exercises in the base- places painted canvases in the holes left by broken windows, ment, provides a tour of the opulent Armory built by New with researchers training Artificial Intelligence to identify the York’s elite (the Roosevelts and Stewarts were amongst the sound of shattering glass. The work undermines the “broken many illustrious families with members of the Seventh Regi- windows” theory that suggests small signs of disorder are ment.) The Yale University Concert and Precision Marching conducive to greater amounts of crime. Videos in Hell Yeah bands make choreographed appearances, whilst activists in- We Fuck Die (2016) show scientists abusing robots to test cluding the National Die In’s Nurah Abdulhaqq and Sandy their endurance. In Is the Museum a Battlefield? (2013), the Hook school shooting survivor Abbey Clements, discuss artist tells of the bullet which killed her friend – PKK milgun violence. A score by Jules Laplace and Thomas C. Duffy litant Andrea Wolf. The manufacturer of the bullet was a punctuates their precarious discussions, the tones matching sponsor of the Istanbul Biennial and the Art Institute of Chicago, both places where Steyerl’s work has been exhibited. data points on mass shootings or gun production.

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Mona Kuhn, AD6883, 2014. © Mona Kuhn, Courtesy of Flowers Gallery.

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The Female Gaze HER GROUND: WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHING LANDSCAPE Last year, the Peruvian government officially recognised "Pallequeras" – female mineral sorters who pick through stones discarded by their male peers on the slopes of mines. This huge movement enabled the women to participate for the first time in formal, regulated gold business transactions rather than relying on the black market. Such rife gender politics are just one aspect of Lisa Barnard’s The Canary and the Hammer, a photographic exploration of gold as a measure of the economy but also the greed and political power in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. In an orotone of the Peruvian town of Filomena, perched in the coastal highlands, Barnard literally incorporates fair-trade gold leaf from mining company Sotrami in the print on Japanese mulberry washi paper. Her investigations also show how the precious metal has become an indispensable component of engineering and electronics, as well as a mechanical tool to tackle wider health and environmental problems. Barnard joins seven other women photographers in a group show, which explores tensions between genre and gender as they examine mankind’s role in a given area and the broader environment as a whole. Scarlett Hooft Graafland, who trained as a sculptor and launched her career as a performance artist, produces surreal scenes against the backdrop of desolate landscapes à la Gabriel Orozco but filled with subtleties and apparent contradictions. In

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fact, the Dutch artist often collaborates closely with locals “Barnard joins for sculptural interventions and performances in places like seven other women Bolivia’s salt desert, the Canadian Arctic or the shores of photographers in a Vanuatu. This practice yields images like burka-clad Yemeni group show which women carrying long white balloons as they walk on the explores tensions beach. “The people living in these remote places – who are between genre and so much closer to nature than most of us – are very helpful gender as they examine in creating the scenes with props that are available,” she has mankind’s role in a explained to Fotografiska, which has organised a major solo given area and the exhibition in the Stockholm venue (open until 8 September.) broader environment Dafna Talmor’s Constructed Landscapes slice and splice as a whole.” colour negatives of unrelated surroundings to create photographs of an imaginary place in a pensive metaphor for the rootlessness of globalised identities. Space, time and memory collapse in the transient spaces. The manicured public and private green areas in Corinne Silva’s Garden State, meanwhile, reveal how the very act of gardening is a political one that shapes highly contested lands now home to 22 Israeli settlements. Here, the spreading fronds of a palm tree become a metaphor for territorial encroachment. Other works turn to abstraction, such as Mona Kuhn’s She Disappeared into Complete Silence where a single figure is Flowers Gallery, London set against a modernist glass and mirror structure by Joshua Until 31 August Tree National Park. At times refracted or fragmented, the resulting images are disorienting and hallucinatory. www.flowersgallery.com

Astronomical Heights SHOOTING THE MOON exploration. In this print, an astronaut floats outside his “Spectators have their spaceship. The visual language is one borrowed from eyes, cameras and photojournalism or film, without referencing a particular binoculars pointed moment in time or artistic inspiration. Instead, it solicits a toward the sky, intent response grounded in wider American consciousness. on being witnesses to Ansel Adams’ Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941, history in the making. dramatically positions a shimmering white circle against the It was captured just background of snow-tipped mountains. The image was taken four days before the during a six-month assignment for the Interior Department spacecraft landed through western parts of the USA. The story goes that Adams humans on the moon was speeding down a highway in New Mexico after a fairly for the first time on unsuccessful day of shooting when he spotted an “inevitable July 20 1969.” photograph” out of the corner of his eye, slammed on his brakes and rushed out of the car. He could not get a hold of his Weston exposure meter quick enough. The setting sun threatened to dim the white crosses in a graveyard within moments – the image gone forever. So he took a chance and calculated the luminance based on the intensity of the moon. A number of museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, are presenting similar shows about the Museum of Fine landings. They come ahead of the first manned missions in Arts Houston five decades, taking place by 2024. The USA space agency Until 2 September also plans to send the first woman as part of the project, as well as the first sustained human presence, all by 2028. www.mfah.org

Garry Winogrand, Apollo 11 Moon Launch, Cape Kennedy, Florida, 1969. Gelatin silver print, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Allan Chasanoff Photographic Collection. © The Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

Half a century has passed since man first set foot on the moon. To celebrate such a giant leap forward for mankind, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston has pulled together a selection of 40 photographs from its expansive collection, ranging from documentary images of NASA’s moon missions to cinematic interpretations of lunar phases. Within this groundbreaking show is a range of works that traverse different media and techniques, altogether evoking a sense of wonder and achievement whilst collecting a series of voices. Hitoshi Nomura’s “Moon” Score demonstrates differing qualities of light depending on its movements across the night sky. Cassandra C. Jones’s Wax and Wane stop-motion film is a welcome animation of the moon’s progress above various landscapes and natural backgrounds. Highlights of the exhibition, however, are found in Garry Winogrand’s Apollo 11 Moon Launch, Cape Kennedy, Florida, 1969 (pictured below.) Spectators have their eyes, cameras and binoculars pointed toward the sky, intent on being witnesses to history in the making. It was captured just four days before humans landed the first spacecraft on the moon on 20 July, 1969. All but one woman face away from the camera, casting long shadows on the ground. The show also features a 20x24 Polaroid print from David Levinthal’s Space, in which he stages mass-produced vintage American toys to create futuristic visions of space

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Concrete Tent in Abu Dhabi by DAAR, 2017. Photo by John Verghese.

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Architecture Takeover CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL For the third edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, international participants are collaborating with local communities to produce new work as part of a discursive look at how the built environment can encourage exchanges or increase socioeconomic inequalities. There is a special focus on the interdisciplinary nature of architecture, which is especially appropriate as it coincides with the EXPO Chicago fair that launches the fall art season each year. Chicago sits at the crossroads of the Great Plains and the Great Lakes, and as such the flows of people, goods and capital have defined its urban development. These concerns are very much at the forefront of the biennial, which advocates for a more inclusive, equitable and shared future in the field. Spread across more than 40 sites and organisations throughout the city, it’s the largest exhibition of contemporary architecture, art and design in North America. The central venue, the Chicago Cultural Center, showcases projects by more than 80 participants from over 20 countries. Contributions range from Wolff Architects’ efforts to address social inequities and the erasure of indigenous heritage in places like their native South Africa; a repository of threatened heirloom seeds harvested by traditional Palestinian farmers; Ola Hassanain’s focus on policies affecting women in public places in Khartoum, and Doh Ho Suh’s ethereal sheer fabric structures replicating building

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and objects down to their most minute, intricate details. “Spread across Danish artists Gamborg / Magnussen’s field of 10,000 more than 40 sites cabbages and fully functional outdoor garden kitchen and organisations serve as a gathering spot for locals in the Garfield Park throughout the city, neighbourhood. Meanwhile, Theaster Gates examines the it’s the largest politics of urban planning in his social practice installations exhibition of centred around varying notions of black space and the contemporary potential of the “life within things.” At the pier, Ilya and Emilia architecture, art Kabakov’s Ship of Tolerance makes an appearance, its sails and design in composed of stitched paintings selected from those created North America.” by hundreds of local schoolchildren from different ethnic and social backgrounds after workshops on tolerance. The project ends with the wooden boat’s launch into the sunlight. Various editions of the installation have taken place across the world since 2005, from Egypt to Venice and Moscow. On the sidelines of the Biennial and a drive out of the city, a light-based art intervention by Luftwerk (Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero), in collaboration with Iker Gil, projects a grid of neon laser beams and patterns across Farnsworth House, designed by Mies van der Rohe in the mid-20th century. The piece, premiered at the Mies- Chicago Cultural Center designed Barcelona Pavilion in February, includes the site- 19 September - 5 January specific minimalist soundtrack created by Oriol Tarragó that reflects on the house’s underlying geometries which echo its chicagoarchitecture biennial.org topography in a river floodplain.

Diverse Curation ING DISCERNING EYE

Suzanne Moxhay, Entrance III. 32cm x 42cm. Archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photorag. Courtesy of the artist.

“The aim of the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, which is now Van Noten and Vogue. Meanwhile, Hodes, who is Professor of “With a unique sense calling for entries, is to both inspire and support those who Fine Art at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts of curation based are creating a positive impact – making the world a little London, brings a wealth of knowledge firmly situated in the upon accessibility and diversity of opinion, better for everyone. It’s our belief that progress is always wider language of fine and decorative arts. Wise, former Associate Culture Editor for The Sunday the exhibition (now possible and we empower people to realise their ambitions at the highest level – in art and in business,” says Malgorzata Times, heads up the critical sphere with Penrose, Chairman open for entries) Kolakowska, UK CEO, ING. Established in the UK in 1990, the of the Discerning Eye. Having been in the role from 2007 invites six selectors to Discerning Eye is an educational charity dedicated to encour- to 2018, Penrose has been recognised for his contributions share their expertise aging an understanding and appreciation of art, stimulating and offers passionate words about the scope of the organi- from a range of debate about the purpose of culture within society. Having sation: “What appeals so much to me about the ING Discern- backgrounds.” teamed up with global financial institution ING in 1999, the ing Eye Exhibition is that it presents the work of artists – both unknown and the established – working in every discipline, organisation has supported over 2,500 practitioners. With a unique sense of curation based upon accessibility in all styles and at varying levels of execution, to the widest and diversity of opinion, the exhibition invites six selectors of audiences. The pieces can be challenging, but essentially to share their expertise from a range of backgrounds. For they are engaging, accessible and affordable. Something, it 2019, this includes Collectors Kwame Kwei-Armah and Tim has been said, for everyone. Importantly, the art on show Rice; Artists Gill Button and Charlotte Hodes and Critics John is domestic in scale. No installations here to be dismantled Penrose and Louis Wise. Kwei-Armah is the Artistic Director and stored in a warehouse awaiting a second airing, but art of the Young Vic and he has served as Chancellor of the to be taken home and hung on the wall.” The partnership between ING and the Discerning Eye is one University of the Arts. His cultural counterpart, Tim Rice, is a lyricist and librettist who rose to fame in the 1990s as a of the longest-standing arts sponsorships in the UK, span- ING Discerning Eye is open result of a partnership with Andrew Lloyd Webber. He is one ning over two decades. To submit, practitioners are invited to for entries until 27 August. of only 15 artists to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and enter up to six works across painting, drawing, print, sculpture, a Tony Award. Button offers an individual perspective as a photography and film. With no digital pre-selection, the pro- www.thediscerningeye. well-revered practitioner who has worked with Gucci, Dries jects are selected through physical submission only. artopps.co.uk

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10 to See RECOMMENDED EXHIBITIONS THIS SEASON

This edition of Aesthetica includes shows that examine the human condition. From a new installation of Turner Prize-winning Mark Leckey to Tim Walker's most expansive retrospective to date, these shows span multiple media and themes to expand the viewer's perception.

Bruce Nauman, Rooms, Bodies, Words Museo Picasso Málaga | Until 1 September

www.museopicassomalaga.org For Bruce Nauman’s (b. 1941) first major exhibition in Spain in a quarter century, nearly 100 works span the breadth of a practice that has defied categorisation or definition. The show includes a number of sculptures, installations and neon lights as well as videos, silkscreen prints and photographs. In each of the projects, the renowned American artist throws caution to the wind, inviting the viewer to accept the unfamiliar through bold, colourful environments. Audiences are cast into sensory disarray through alarming, disconcerting worlds.

Then and Now: Life and Dreams Revisited

Hey! What’s Going On?

GetxoPhoto

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things

Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm | Until 27 October

www.walthercollection.com The 20th century ushered in profound cultural and socio-economic changes in China as it shifted from closed communism to the modern era. Here, echoes of this painful evolution are found in the rapid rise of Chinese experimental art over the past three decades. Seminal works are featured by 31 of the country’s leading contemporary artists, many of them longtime residents of Beijing’s East Village, including performance artist Zhang Huan, photographer and filmmaker Yang Fudong and photographer Rong Rong.

Fondation Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, Rencontres d'Arles | Until 22 September

www.mrofoundation.org Marvin Gaye's 11th studio album What's Going On? (1971) delivered a message of love intended to transcend cultures and identities. From the cover art to the nine songs it included, it was a testimony for acceptance. This is the attitude of Fondation Manuel RiveraOrtiz's latest show. It includes photographs of the Black Panthers by Stephen Shames in collaboration with party co-founder Bobby Seale, as well as Matthew Casteel’s portraits of cars as owned by American veterans – which double as mobile homes for some.

International Image Festival, Basque Country, Spain | 4 - 29 September

www.getxophoto.com What does it mean to live in a transhuman world where man and machine can – and might – become one? Are we hurtling towards an age of interconnectivity or separation? The 13th edition of GetxoPhoto, titled Post Homo Sapiens, examines the bio-ethical challenges presented by advanced scientific and medical developments in the digital age through photography, video, installations and documentary works under the guidance of Curator Monica Allende. Featured artists include Juno Calypso, Maija Tammi and Matthieu Gafsou.

V&A, London | 21 September - 8 March

www.vam.ac.uk For the largest survey to date, Tim Walker (b. 1970) delves into the V&A’s extensive collection of historical objects to create 10 new major photographic projects. Walker’s journey across a “palace of dreams” sees him visit the museum’s 145 public galleries, as well as the roof of the 12-acre South Kensington site and the underground Victorian passages. Found treasures like a 15th century illuminated manuscript, Indian miniature paintings and bejewelled snuffboxes inspire large-scale photographs where, for the artist, “beauty is everything.”

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Once. Again. Photographs in Series

Julian Rosefeldt, In the Land of Drought

Alex Prager, Silver Lake Drive

Getty Museum, Los Angeles | Until 10 November

www.getty.edu The passage of time leaves marks on our faces, our bodies and the places that surround us. Long-running photographic series on this subject, including contemporary works, form the basis of this show. Alfred Stieglitz’s portraits of Georgia O’Keeffe reveal the evolution – and devolution – of their romantic relationship. Seamus Murphy examines the hardships of an Afghan family living under Taliban rule. Donna Ferrato documents a woman’s progress after leaving an abusive relationship. This is a searing vision of humanity against the clock.

NGV, Melbourne | Until 29 September

www.ngv.vic.gov.au The follow-up to Julian Rosefeldt’s (b. 1965) Manifesto (2015) – which included Cate Blanchett playing 13 different characters – taps into the primal existential fear of our time: what comes after human activity has decimated the Earth’s flora and fauna? In the Land of Drought depicts scientists in white lab coats examining the archaeological remains of a civilisation that has rendered itself extinct. The project was shot using a drone, scanning Germany’s Ruhr area and abandoned film sets nestled in the Atlas Mountains.

Foam, Amsterdam | Until 4 September

www.foam.org In Alex Prager’s (b. 1979) hyper-real world, protagonists – often women – are stuck in a land of saturated colours. They satisfy complex narratives of life and death, power and control. These are open-ended photographic stories, often set against the backdrop of the self-taught artist’s hometown of Los Angeles, birthplace of Hollywood, the ultimate dreammaking machine. Prager’s most recent film, La Grande Sortie, closes the show with a journey of emotions from ballerina Emilie Cozette during her performance at the Opéra Bastille.

Mark Leckey, O’Magic Power of Bleakness Tate Britain, London | 24 September - 5 January

www.tate.org.uk Tate Britain’s galleries morph into a life-size replica of a British motorway bridge on the M53. It is inspired by Mark Leckey’s (b. 1964) hometown: Wirral, Merseyside. This nostalgic and impressive installation features a folkloric audio play inspired by Leckey's pre-adolescent past. Other new works accompany the Turner Prize-winning artist's groundbreaking Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1990) and Dream English Kid 1964-1999 AD (2015), examining the melding of popular culture with technology, as well as the intersection of class systems.

Visa pour l'image Festival of Photojournalism, Perpignan | 31 August - 15 September

wwww.visapourlimage.com Celebrating 31 years of photojournalism, this year’s edition of the renowned Visa pour l’image festival focuses on freedom of the press in places like Venezuela, Syria, North Korea and Russia – areas where it is perhaps most threatened. There’s a survey of Patrick Chauvel’s 50 years spent on the frontlines, Olivier Coret and Éric Hadj’s essays on France’s Yellow Vest protesters, Lorenzo Tugnoli’s images of the devastating conflict in Yemen and Kirsten Luce’s depiction of the animal suffering at the hands of wildlife tourism.

1. Bruce Nauman, Black Stones Under Yellow Light, 1987. Blocks of black marble, yellow lights, 38cm x 500cm x 600cm. Collection "la Caixa". Arte Contemporáneo. © Courtesy of Collection "la Caixa", Arte Contemporáneo, © Bruce Nauman, VEGAP, Málaga, 2019. 2. Cang Xin, To Add One Meter to an Anonymus Mountain, 1995, © The artist. Courtesy the artist and The Walther Collection. 3. DANCING IN THE STREET / LES 60 ANS DE MOTOWN. Marvin Gaye, mid 1960s. Courtesy of Universal. 4. Juno Calypso, Rosemary’s Room, 2018. From the series What to do with a Million Years. Courtesy of GETXO Photo. 5. Duckie Thot, Aubrey’s shadow. Fashion: Saint Laurent. London, 2017. © Tim Walker Studio. 6. Milton Rogovin, Yvonne and Daughter Sonya, 1985. Gelatin silver print. Image: 17.2cm x 17.2cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. © Milton Rogovin. 7. Julian Rosefeldt, In the Land of Drought, 2015-17 (still). National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased with support of the 2017 NGV Curatorial Tour donors, 2018. © Julian Rosefeldt. Image courtesy of the artist and KÖNIG GALERIE. 8. Desiree, from the series The Big Valley, 2008. © Alex Prager. Courtesy Alex Prager Studio and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong and Seoul. 9. Mark Leckey (b.1964), Dream English Kid, 1964-1999, AD 2015 (still). Courtesy of the artist, © Mark Leckey.10. Lake Victoria, Slowly Dying. © Frédéric Noy. Courtesy of 2e-Bureau.

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Taking Responsibility Parley for the Oceans A NON-PROFIT ORGANISATION TAKES CHARGE OF OCEAN HEALTH THROUGH MAJOR COLLABORATIONS WITH ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS, PROMOTING PLASTIC-FREE LIFESTYLES.

If the oceans die, so too does humanity. Our time on Earth community have in forcing change? Cyrill Gutsch, founder would be over. Even so, there are more threats to marine and of non-profit organisation Parley for the Oceans, believes coastal health than at any other time in history. The pioneer- that culture has a “very big responsibility to the environing biologist and explorer, Sylvia Earle, put it succinctly: mental cause.'' For years, Gutsch co-ran a successful design “No ocean, no life. No blue, no green. No ocean, no us.” The firm but when he learned in 2012 about the realistic chance seas are a vital part of the global ecosystem. A Greenpeace that the oceans would die within his lifetime, he felt an urreport, 30×30: A Blueprint For Ocean Protection (April 2019), gency to reinvent the company’s purpose and take action. Now, Gutsch’s focus is addressing the major threats towards produced as part of a year-long collaboration, spelled out exactly how this extinction would unfold: “High seas marine our oceans. “When starting Parley, we knew that we didn’t life drives the ocean’s biological pump, capturing carbon at want to be a protest organisation that shames or blames the the surface and storing it deep below – without this essential industry,” he says. “We wanted to move the responsibility to service, our atmosphere would contain 50% more carbon di- the creative population. To ourselves. Owning the problem means true leadership.” Parley’s central ethos is that the oxide and the planet would be uninhabitably hot.” And yet destruction marches on. Almost 80 per cent of power for change lies in the hands of the consumer. The the damage comes from land-based sources, according to impetus to shape the consumer mindset lies in the hands UNESCO, which include anything from urban development of creatives. It is not only scientists and policy-makers but and construction, discharge of nutrients and pesticides to “artists, musicians, actors, filmmakers, fashion designers, jourmining and fisheries. This pollution has contributed to a nalists, architects, product inventors” who have the tools to number of low oxygen areas known as dead zones, where mould the world. “We have learned that powerful ideas and most marine life cannot survive, resulting in the collapse of visions can turn opponents into partners,” he adds. In embarking on this venture, Gutsch was aware of the many ecosystems. There are now close to 500 dead zones, equalthreats to ocean survival; new pollution hazards compete ling in total the surface area of the United Kingdom. Across the globe, governments are waking up to this disas- with old ones and time is running out. Human overpopulater and are making commitments to help pull us back from tion and overconsumption continues to increase and plastic the brink of collapse. Following the 30×30 report, Green- waste has been choking the oceans since 1950s, according peace called for countries to work together towards a UN to research by Greenpeace, an estimated 12.7 million tonnes Global Ocean Treaty by 2020 that would pave the way to of plastic, a truck-load a minute, ends up in our oceans each year. Activist Greta Thunberg tweeted recently: “The problem protect at least 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. Outside the world of politics, what role does the creative of plastic pollution in the ocean is even worse than anyone

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Image: © SOMA.

“The threats to ocean health are myriad, but so too are solutions. As such, Parley has collaborated with a range of brands and partnered with a number of high-profile designers and artists to accelerate the impact of a fast-growing global movement.”

Previous Page: Doug Aitken, Underwater Pavilions, 2016. Installation view, Avalon, Catalina Island, CA, Pacific Ocean. Courtesy Line: MOCA Los Angeles and Parley for the Oceans. Image: Shawn Heinrichs.

Left: Adidas UltraBOOST x Parley. Courtesy of Adidas.

feared. There’s actually more microplastic 1,000 feet down one of the ways she pushed green policy into the spotlight. than there is in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” Meanwhile, Now, more clothing brands are following suit, such as Stella the emerging threat posed by deep-sea mining “risks severe McCartney, who uses “regenerated” cashmere and only uses viscose that can be traced to “the forest it came from” to and potentially irreversible environmental harm.” The factors contributing to ocean health are myriad, but ensure that it is sustainably and responsibly managed. Collaborations like Parley and Adidas show that putting so too are solutions. As such, Parley has collaborated with a range of brands and partnered with a number of high-profile the Earth’s health at the forefront can mean big business. designers to accelerate the impact of its global movement. Forbes magazine reported that if Adidas hit their target of Out of over 500 companies who expressed interest in work- selling five million pairs of Ocean Plastic shoes, the brand is ing with the organisation, Parley’s first major partnership was set to make more than a billion dollars trying to solve one of with Adidas, who, in 2016, committed to using only recycled the world’s biggest problems. “We knew that if we could conplastics in their products by 2024. Later that year, the brand vince Adidas to commit long term and become the blueprint of a new economy and the proof of concept of our strategy, unveiled its first products made from Parley’s Ocean Plastic. This patented material – which is made from upcycled we could change the whole industry,” says Gutsch. Outside of fashion, Parley is tackling the ubiquitous and marine plastic waste recovered by Parley during clean-up operations in coastal areas of the Maldives – is designed destructive plastic water bottle. A million are bought around to reduce the use of virgin plastic. Gutsch expands: “Plastic the world every minute, and as their use soars, efforts to keep lost the trust. It became a symbol of the toxic age we created. them from clogging the ocean are failing. Parley has teamed Together with our partners we are driving what we call the up with Soma to produce a reusable water bottle made from ‘Material Revolution’, which will end the use of harmful and the equivalent of two plastic bottles and a proportion of every sale goes to support initiatives of the Parley Ocean exploitative materials and production methods.” It was first used in the form of new kits for football teams Plastic Programme. “Plastic is a design flaw,” says Gutsch. Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, as well as the first Ultra- “We cannot fix it overnight, but we can all take steps to create BOOST Uncaged Parley running shoe. Three years on from change. Shifting mindsets and behaviours is as important as the initial launch, Parley and Adidas have produced a range creating new systems. We all have a role to play. This bottle of items, including yoga and tennis clothes, all made from is another reminder of that fact and the beginning of a new recycled yarn. The use of Parley’s Ocean Plastic is part of its collaboration in the movement for solutions.” Parley has also harnessed the skills of fine artists. Doug “AIR strategy,” which means to “avoid, intercept and redesign.” Environmental activism in fashion was once the reserve Aitken (b. 1968) produced a large-scale installation called of few, like punk pioneer Vivienne Westwood, whose T-shirts Underwater Pavilions in partnership with The Museum of Conemblazoned with the words “Climate Revolution” were just temporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) that consisted of three

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Image: © SOMA.

geometric sculptures made from carefully researched ma- exposing yourself to an artist, you enter such an encounter terials which work in harmony with the seascape. The eerie with an open mind. You want to be provoked, even shocked." However, environmental activism and awareness through structures were moored to the ocean floor off the coast of southern California in 2016 and were mirrored to “reflect the good design is not only the reserve of Parley. As part of underwater seascape and create a kaleidoscopic observa- Cooper Hewitt’s sixth Design Triennial, a new exhibition on tory for the viewer” and were large enough so that swimmers view at the Cube Design Museum in the Netherlands until 2020 celebrates the history of creative collaboration with could move through them. It was an altogether huge feat. The designs were intended to put “the local marine environ- nature. The work of 62 international design teams is presentment and the global challenges around ocean conversation ed, showing partnerships involving scientists, engineers, phiin dialogue with the history of art” by calling on the viewer losophers and advocates for social and environmental justice. to participate in its protection. Aitken notes: “When we talk It highlights designers’ strategies to “understand, remediate, about the oceans and we look at the radical disruption we’ve simulate, salvage, nurture, augment and facilitate.” “Nature offers a timely look into how designers are tackling created within the sea, we’re not quite aware yet how much it is going to affect us and our lives on land. The ramifica- the environmental and social challenges confronting hutions of that are immense. This is one thing which cannot be manity,” Caroline Baumann, Director of Cooper Hewitt, states. exaggerated.” The temporary underwater sculptures, which “This is not just an exhibition, this triennial is a call to action.” were hailed as a “new frontier for art”, are due to reopen to Highlights include an algae-based plastic jacket designed the public in a new location soon. The intent is to encourage by Charlotte McCurdy that helps absorb carbon and the disa sense of wonder. “With such important artworks suddenly play of a new material named Lithoplast, which was made by living underwater, there is no escape,” adds Gutsch. “One has Shahar Livne by mining petroleum-based plastics. The work that Parley and other creative organisations and to dive down to be part of the conversation. Once you are individuals are doing makes it clear that the design world is down there, you fall in love with this magic blue universe.” Aitken also lent his talents to a new Parley project called an essential part of the solution to ecological collapse. The Ocean Plastic Bags. Aitken, alongside Walton Ford, Jenny once-rigid division between disciplines – art, science, fashHolzer, Pipilotti Rist, Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel and Rose- ion – seems arbitrary in a world where the complex issues of marie Trockel, created designs for a reusable tote bag made the day need, more than ever, a collaborative approach to from roughly five plastic bottles collected from remote is- solutions. As Thunberg attests: “It is still not too late to act. It lands by the Parley team. The sale of each bag funds the will take a far-reaching vision, it will take courage, it will take clean-up of 20 pounds of marine plastic waste. The concept fierce determination to act now, to lay the foundations where merges creativity with design and, for Gutsch, shows the we may not know all the details about how to shape the ceilpower that artists have to create a strong message. “When ing. In other words, it will take cathedral thinking.”

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Right: Doug Aitken, Underwater Pavilions, 2016. Installation view, Avalon, Catalina Island, CA, Pacific Ocean. Courtesy Line: MOCA Los Angeles and Parley for the Oceans. Image: Shawn Heinrichs.

Words Alexandra Genova

www.parley.tv

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Dramatic Architecture Sebastian Weiss

“I like to think of the city as a theatre of life. Every day, dramas and comedies are performed on a stage. We are all part of this public performance.” Sebastian Weiss is an architectural photographer who sparks dialogues with buildings. Glass and concrete come together in fluid structures that branch and curve into bright blue skies. Seen from a variety of angles, the exteriors seem to move like bodies – actors to be gazed upon, critiqued and interpreted. The chosen structures range from supermarkets and garages to slick office buildings; however, every building carries the same underlying charisma regardless of its complexity or geographic location. From Lisbon to Beijing, the climates become almost indiscernible – the towers rise upwards as the central subjects. Weiss has won several accolades in recent years, including the IPA International Photography Awards, Px3 Prix de la Photograhie de Paris and the FAPA Fine Art Photography Awards. www.le-blanc.com.

Sebastian Weiss, from the series Chinese Blue. Mandarin Oriental. Location: Beijing, China. Architect: OMA, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (Rem Koolhaas). © Sebastian Weiss.

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Sebastian Weiss, from the series Chinese Blue. Bumps housing. Location: Beijing, China. Architect: SAKO Architects. ÂŠ Sebastian Weiss.

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Sebastian Weiss, from the series Dramatis personae. Stade Jean-Bouin. Location: Paris, France. Architects: Rudy Ricciotti. ÂŠ Sebastian Weiss.

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Sebastian Weiss, from the series Chinese Blue. CCTV Headquarters. Location: Beijing, China. Architect: OMA, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (Rem Koolhaas). ÂŠ Sebastian Weiss.

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Sebastian Weiss, from the series City of Light. MAAT, Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia. Location: Lisbon, Portugal. Architect: AL_A. ÂŠ Sebastian Weiss.

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Sebastian Weiss, from the series Chinese Blue. Bumps housing. Location: Beijing, China. Architect: SAKO Architects. ÂŠ Sebastian Weiss.

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Sebastian Weiss, from the series Dramatis personae. Tours Aillaud. Location: Nanterre (Paris), France. Architects: Ă&#x2030;mile Aillaud. ÂŠ Sebastian Weiss.

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Sebastian Weiss, from the series City of Light. MAAT, Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia. Location: Lisbon, Portugal. Architect: AL_A. ÂŠ Sebastian Weiss.

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Sebastian Weiss, from the series City of Light. Gare do Oriente. Location: Lisbon, Portugal. Architect: Santiago Calatrava. ÂŠ Sebastian Weiss.

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Changing Definitions 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow SCULPTURE’S NEW TALENTS CONSIDER THE BOUNDARIES OF THE MEDIUM AND ITS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT, WORKING WITH DATA AND ELECTRICITY, METAL AND SOUND.

Marcel Duchamp’s (1887-1968) brilliantly absurd Fountain (1917) forever changed the definition of art through found materials. Over the next century, Louise Bourgeois (19112010) expressed childhood traumas and sexuality on a grand scale with Cell (Eyes and Mirrors) (1989-1993) and giant steel spider Maman (1999). Light and space practitioners like Robert Irwin (b. 1928) and James Turrell (b. 1943) challenge how we see and perceive. Mona Hatoum (b. 1952) questions the inequities behind her own outsider status as the exiled daughter of Palestinian refugees. In Light Sentence (1992), walls of industrial wire mesh lockers and a single moving lightbulb create staggering geometric shadows. Gallerist Kurt Beers (BEERS London) selects contemporary sculptors that are carrying the same torch of radical change, confronting concepts with renewed audacity. He’s the author of 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow, released this September by Thames & Hudson. In perusing the pages and their lush photo spreads, it is clear that the definition of sculpture has evolved dramatically in recent decades, including works that play with intangible concepts: what we cannot see or hear. Jonathan Schipper, for example, turns time into an artistic muse. Cubicle (2016) comprises an orchestrated office space. Various mundane objects – such as printers, scanners and keyboards – are attached to strings, running through a hole in the wall. The strings pull the items at a rate of one millimetre per hour, until they meet their inevitable demise. Similarly, a drum set – built out of drywall and reclaimed hardware – slowly crumbles whilst played in Scott Carter’s 16th on Center (2012). These projects highlight the fragility of

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materials, alluding to the impact of human destruction. Philippe Allard has been wholly inspired by land art, specifically Robert Smithson’s seminal Spiral Jetty (1970) which involved moving thousands of tonnes of basalt rocks. However, instead of turning to the natural world, Allard manipulates the urban landscape for dystopian creations that foreground humanity’s impact on our surroundings. For Parasitings (2014), masses of yellow buckets pour out of the windows of an abandoned brick building in Montreal; endless and senseless protrusions that disrupt and upend commuters' expectations and day-to-day journeys. Beers provides a platform for some of the most promising emerging and even largely unknown sculptors to reach a wider audience. In doing so, the publication takes a broad view of “sculpture” beyond three-dimensionality. It’s one that includes the likes of Emanuel Tovar or Donna Huanca, for whom performance is a moving structure. A violinist uses a handsaw to play the instrument in Tovar’s A Groove in the Nothingness (2016), where the violin pieces represent creation, destruction, death and, ultimately, beauty. Critics, art historians and advisers, such as Hammer Museum Senior Curator Anne Ellegood and Artforum Editor David Huber, formed a jury that chose around 50 practitioners. The other half came from more than 4,000 people who applied through an open call. In all, 59 men, 38 women and three non-binary artists born in 38 countries are featured. It’s a follow-up to another book Beers put together in 2014, 100 Painters of Tomorrow. Next in line is photography, including artists that consider the pervasive use of new technologies.

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“Creating this book, made Beers ‘fall in love with sculpture all over again.’ He points to the ingenious ways in which practitioners are tackling the most pressing issues of our time, including manmade environmental destruction.”

Previous Page: In the middle of nowhere. Alex Chinneck for IQOS. Photography: Marc Wilmot. Left: Rachel Ara, This Much I’m Worth [The SelfEvaluating Artwork], 2017. Neon, recycled server room equipment, electronics, computers, IP cameras, 420cm x 160cm x 90cm. Courtesy of Anise Gallery. www.2ra.co/tmiwfull.html

Creating this book, Beers expands, made him “fall in love Whitney Biennial and Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial. As social with sculpture all over again.” Throughout the process, he media platforms change how artists are being recognised points to the ingenious ways in which practitioners are tack- and activists challenge museums’ sources of funding, fairs ling the most pressing issues of our time, including manmade and biennials play a critical role in determining current environmental destruction. Rachael Champion produces artistic output. For its inaugural edition, Yorkshire Sculpture idealised miniature ecosystems. Rachel Pimm plays with the International (open until 29 September) has invited Phyllida Barlow CBE to be the “provocateur” – asking questions about idea of the natural world through overtly artificial forms – films, mock-anthropological displays, screen-printed ban- the “anthropological act” of making objects. Contributions ners and assemblages. Green polyurethane foam, neon and by over 20 artists from 13 countries build upon Yorkshire’s worldwide reputation for sculpture with organisations such towel construct almost playground-like structures. Artists like Rushdi Anwar, Kader Attia and Tuan Andrew as the Henry Moore Institute and The Hepworth. The London Nguyen address trauma and the multi-layered, complex Design Festival (LDF), which returns 14 to 22 September, nature of identities in a globalised world. Anwar, who has drew more than half a million visitors in 2018. Each edition worked in refugee camps in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, sits at the intersection of design, sculpture and architecture, manipulates a variety of materials, finding common threads introducing such critical pieces as Zaha Hadid’s polished that link people of varying backgrounds. Art may not suffice concrete Urban Nebula (2007), Jaime Hayón’s giant The to stop violence, he says, but “it is a powerful tool as a Tournament (2009) chessboard in Trafalgar Square or the curving tube that was Alison Brooks’ The Smile (2016). platform to generate awareness, courage and empathy.” Subversion is key for Alex Chinneck, who was commissioned Olaniyi R. Akindiya and Hiromi Tango are also amongst those taking an artist–activist approach to societal concerns. for LDF 2015 and also appears in 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow. The healing potential of the creative process is central to The artist makes a habit out of turning objects' physical Tango’s practice, which often involves large textile structures. properties. In an installation for the seaside town of Margate, Akindiya’s huge freestanding, net-like structures incorporate entitled From the knees of my nose to the belly of my toes, video, photography, sound and performance. They rely on the façade of a derelict four-storey house curves outward audience participation. He has also formed the non-profit and appears to melt into the pavement. In another surprising group ARTWITHAKIRASH, which provides financial aid to illusion – ironically titled A Spoonful of Sunrise – a giant zipper on a building causes the concrete to fold over like children in Nigeria, through community development. These groundbreaking approaches are part of what Beers cloth, revealing a blank lit interior that mimics the changing dubs a “new renaissance” in sculpture. The text provides hues of the sky. In the Middle of Nowhere is a similar piece, a bridge to key leading art fairs or festivals such as the which unzips an installation to reveal a glowing source of Venice Biennale, Art Basel, FIAC, Frieze, Biennale of Sydney, light. Chinneck, who Beers describes as “something of a

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Haroon Mirza, A C I D G E S T, 2017. Modified Marshall cabinet speakers, LED lights, bespoke media device and XLR4 cables. Dimensions variable. Installation view: Haroon Mirza: A C I D G E S T, Pérez Art Museum Miami, 21 July, 2017 - 20 May, 2018. © Pérez Art Museum Miami. Photo: Oriol Tarridas.

magician,” has also caused buildings to float, bricks to melt Texas, where it has been billed as the “most ambitious” public Right: In the middle of nowhere. Alex Chinneck commission since Elmgreen & Dragset’s Prada Marfa (2005). for IQOS. Photography: Marc Wilmot. and grandfather clocks to tie into a single knot. Rachel Ara, who won the Aesthetica Art Prize in 2016 with Eight black marble boulders arranged in a circular pattern the groundbreaking piece This Much I’m Worth (The Self- reminiscent of ancient megaliths produce electronic sound Evaluating Artwork), makes the cut here for capitalising on and light sourced from solar panels. A “mother” stone that “her frustration with the hidden issues and agendas of the sits outside the formation has a separate set of arrays that modern world to disclose, confront and create dialogues charge batteries, which in turn power a sound and light around misinformation, conspiracies of silence, the composition activated during each full moon. The piece is normalisation of violence, injustice and the economy.” That the second in Mirza’s Solar Symphonies series. Artists like Mark Whalen and Troika were picked based on same digital sculpture displays its own value in real time in a neon doomsday clock-like structure. Her background their arresting social media posts on Instagram and other in the tech industry allows Ara to use data and complex platforms that are subverting the traditional gallery space. algorithms to come up with the numbers, which also draw on Troika, a trio consisting of Eva Rucki, Conny Freyer and the work’s social media footprint and real-life reactions. It’s a Sebastien Noel, create seemingly impossible installations tongue-in-cheek critique of the art world’s obsession with the often based on complex mathematical systems. Their Dark bottom line and the inequalities faced by women, as well as Matter (2014) takes on three different shapes based on the neon’s prevalence in the sex trade. A V&A Artist in Residence, viewer’s perspective. The black flock piece at times appears Ara has also been featured in the Financial Times, and will to be a circle, a square or a hexagon. In this way, the artist be exhibiting at LDF and Copenhagen’s Ok Corral, after collective says it probes “the coalescence of seemingly appearing in the Vienna Biennale and at Seoul’s National irreconcilable opposites – nature and technology, the virtual and the real, the human and the non-human.” Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Ultimately, Beers says, the book is about “opening a Haroon Mirza works predominantly with electricity and sound. This July, he received an Honorary Doctorate from dialogue” and “challenging what is traditionally considered Words University of the Arts London alongside Aesthetica Director to be sculpture.” For readers, this is about idea generation, Olivia Hampton Cherie Federico, amongst other world-renowned designers sharing in global discussions about what art can be and who and practitioners. A disconcerting buzz of electrical currents gets to decide. As Beers continues: “I remember the first time often sets the scene for Mirza’s sculptures. Straddling the I saw a piece by David Altmejd in the flesh, my skin tingled, 100 Sculptors of digital and analogue divide, he uses objects like turntables my hair rose – a wicked smile crossed my face.” With releases Tomorrow is published and speakers, photovoltaic panels, video and LED lights – like 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow and major events like London by Thames & Hudson. referencing his years as a DJ. Since April 2018, Stone Circle Design Festival and Yorkshire Sculpture International, 2019 has been on view in the high desert grasslands of Marfa, is an exciting year for discovery and artistic inspiration. www.thamesandhudson.com

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Pockets of Colour Kyle Jeffers

Kyle Jeffers (b. 1998) is based in Hamilton, Canada, where he is currently studying for a BA in photography. Though only at the start of his career, Jeffers is already producing a multitude of elegant compositions in which the body is wrapped around industrial structures, draped over crates or gripping to ladders. Picking up on small strips of oranges, greens, blues and purples within manufactured locations, Jeffers builds up textures through costume, props and layouts. In doing so, he elevates scenes with alarm-like vibrancy. The images draw the eye in the same way that a road sign might glare from a motorway, or traffic lights might pull attention from concrete jungles. He notes: “Colour and shape come together contentedly within otherwise mucky or muted landscapes.” The result is a selection of sculptural images that dance around speed cones, cranes, bunkers and warehouses. @kylejeffers_ | www.kyle-jeffers.com.

Image © Kyle Jeffers. Courtesy of the artist.

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