John Martin @ Tate Britain
I few weeks ago, I went to see
the spectacular, awe-inspiring painting of John Martin. Martin depicted some of
my favourite Bible scenes such as, Belshazzar’s Feast. I really enjoyed the Mezzotints, they were
really precise, and I loved the ashen colour palette: Martin has such deft
hands. All in all, my highlight had to be the light and sound show accompanying
The Last Judgement triptych. Initially the giggles took me when I heard the
booming voice and over-theatrical echoes, but I was eventually transfixed by
the way in which these modern-day mediums animated the wonderful scenes by an
old master. It really brought the message home that JUDGEMENT IS A COMING BE
READY!
Ed Atkins@ Tate Britain
My new friend, Steve Nice, and I went to view Ed Atkins’ A
Tumour in English. I thought this piece was amazing. I like the fact that my friend never shares
his thoughts on the work, even though he is an artist, sometimes you need that
type person. I say this because you don’t want someone to ‘kill it’ or to be
over analytical rather. The first thoughts that popped into my head was
‘I appreciate this ‘rainbow-light-spectrum
colour palette’ that Atkins is seemingly obsessed with. On a tacky sea-side
trip I had purchased a sun catcher. It’s a really beautiful instrument that
enables you to catch the light. I look forward to midday when the sun is at its
peak and I spot the kaleidoscopic speckles that happen to fall anywhere, a
different place each day.
I remember feeling the jerky, cut and paste effect from
viewing this film-atic composition of images and blocky sound, like a DJ mixing
up tunes on the decks.
I liked the strip of colour on the bottom, in place of a
subtitle, my brain filling in the words.The revolving head spoke to me and I followed its movements.
I was bugged by the jingle towards the end as I knew it was familiar and I sheepishly asked Steve where it was from as I couldn’t place the tune. He told me it was ‘You’ve been framed’.
[...]
A day or two later I had read the text: A tumour, that was
part of the work presented. It was well written, performative with lovely use
of lexicon and artistically formatted. I liked how recurrent, isolated phrases
from the film where found in the text. I found it really rewarding to spot them;
however, I felt that the text was too much for me...maybe I’m not intelligent
enough to understand everything and I get lost easily when reading. I thought that the text directed your
interpretation of the images a bit too much, which is not very good for a
visual person like myself.
Mark Aerial Waller @ ICA
I attended the talk it was great. I didn’t know what to make
of Mark when I first saw him. Mark didn’t look like the artist that would make his
type of work. I know that later on in the talk, the interview spoke to Mark of
his Englishness but I didn’t really see that in the image that the ICA used on
their website, which featured the Simpsons.