Art School Redux

Hey There! I know this blog is supposed to feature my musings on art and such, but I’m going to interrupt this with a little except from my personal life. I’ve recenty begun a life drawing class  at my local college, which incidentally is where I happen to work. It’s also happens to be the most artistic thing I’ve done in months, ever since the TAA debacle, in which I thoroughly embarrassed myself by making shite art. Anywho, it was immensely enjoyable, despite my limited scrawling ability and my (admittedly meagre) skills blunted by my own indifference. But yeah I enjoyed it, and reflected back on how few opportunities to do life drawing at Universtiy. The class was 2 hours and it really flew by. Our model (Devina) also suggested we partake in Tunick’s project in Salford, which I mentioned last month. Ha.

So it felt like I was back at art school for the evening which brought back memories, and when I got home I tuned into Goldsmiths: But Is It Art? On BBC4  which brought back even more memories, as we watched a likeable group of M.A. students prepare for their degree show. I actually applied to study Fine Art at Goldsmiths, back in the day, and sadly didn’t get in, so the corridors and rooms were ever so slightly familiar. Even more familiar was the general goldsmiths experience that pretty much mirrored my own. I watched in fond remembrance as the students rollered the walls white, suffered the indignity of an uninterested crit-group, translated what their tutors said into advice and generally panicked about life after art school. The show wasn’t nearly as confrontational as it’s title suggested, offering very little in the way of opinions on the artists or their artwork, allowing them to explain themselves, for better or for worse. Some of the work was good, and some was confused, and some of it was just rubbish. Which is pretty much any degree show experience.  The program was backed with a nice relaxing soundtrack, consisting of soft piano and post rock melodies. It doesn’t appear to be available on the iplayer, so you’ll have to actually tune in next week for the next part.

Speaking of Art school again, one of my tutors from Manchester Met, David Osbaldeston, has an opening on Thursday night at Castlefield gallery, Out of Time (The Light of Day / The Action of the Play). I’ve not seen his work in ages, but the billboard he had in Matt’s gallery a few years back (Your answer is mine, 2006) was really quite superb, and played with the representation of information and opinion, and the way it is presented. He was also an excellent tutor so you should go and check it out!

Oh wait hang on, that Goldsmith’s thing should be repeated on Sunday at 10PM on BBC4.

Links;

http://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk/Default.asp?eKey=333&eP=1

Some kind of weird amateur builder.

Another week, another episode of School of Saatchi for me to witter about In the same way that the extreme gravity around a black hole distorts the space-time continuum, extreme wealth too, has this curious effect, distorting the perception of reality surrounding it. Just look at Dubai. Saatchi’s unseen squillions have created this weird little bubble of unreality around the six. This time around saw the intrepid bunch of potential-art-superstars make large scale public work, which is about as realistic a career trajectory for the average artist as Eastenders is a realistic portrayal of the East end of London.

The work they produced was pretty good though, I thought, what I could see of it that was distorted through my tears of envy. They were split up into 3 different teams, and in their couples sent to Hastings to make some public art in two weeks. Public art is notoriously hard to get right. Not even a seasoned like pro Gormley can get it right all the time, I mean, how shit was that forth plinth thing? Also, Martin Creed turned up, and then left again (ha).

Suki and Sam made a cool looking geometric looking sculpture out of mirrored acrylic, inspired by radar reflected they saw affixed to boats. Their original (slightly mental considering the time frame) plan was to have one  floating out at sea, and one on the shore acting as a turbine powering a telephone link out to sea, which would relay the sound back to the shore, a logistical nightmare that makes my head hurt. In the end they left it on the shore in an old rowing boat. I though this was a bit of a disappointment, as it would have looked pretty serene floating out on the horizon, reflecting light back to shore in the same way like the real ones did with radar. It probably would have been lost in the glimmer of the sea, but if it would have been big enough… Anywho, here’s a pic. 

I found the sculpture they made really visually appealing, not sure about the boat though.

Saad was paired up with Ben who made “Ghost Huts” inspired by the net huts on the beach. I thought this was a good looking piece of work that worked very well in its location. It was inspired by a chance meeting Saad had with one of his friends who lived in Hastings. This was the piece that the public liked the most, although it was quite flat as a piece of ‘conceptual’ art.

Nice, but, what more can I say?

Eugenie Scrase and Matt made probably the most, interesting piece. A kind of visual pun, based on the architecture of disappointment, found in zoos, by mocking up an empty and suitably dilapidated animal enclosure. I liked what they made, although probably wouldn’t have got the visual cues as I haven’t been to a zoo in years and years. Knowing me it would have taken sitting on a train a few hours later for me to “get” the piece. I liked their fake rocks though. I liked it before they finished, when it was a just mass of angular shaped wood and grey sacking. I did laugh when Matt said he’d spent more time measuring the doors to the studio than making the piece, although I’d have thought Saatchi could spring for double doors.

 

This was the piece Saatchi said he liked the most, so my money’s now on Matt Clark. Although, as the voiceover pointed out, Saatchi pretty much went totally against what he set out at the beginning. Like I said last week, what Saatchi considers good work is maddeningly vague. What he considers conceptual isn’t really conceptual either, but that’s for another night.

Sadly for me, Eugenie Scrase was irresistibly good looking in this again. Luckily for you, there was no Emin, so you can have a look at her smiling in the sun as opposed to whatever it was Emin was doing with her face last week. 

Forgot to mention this on the end of yesterday's mega post. If you want to watch a more hopeful and measured view of the current art scene on TV, I recommend Where is Modern Art now, which is available via the link below.

Its part of the Modern Beauty season the BBC is running, which School of Saatchi is too. In Where is Modern Art now the art historian Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, presents a wander through contemporary art, trying to get a sense if art has changed, or where it might be going. He interviews Anthony Caro, Grayson Perry and Michael Landy. And is worth a look just for this, although Dr Casely-Hayford makes an engaging guide, his enthusiasm and knowledge evident throughout.

You'll have to be quick though as I think it goes down soon.

Click, click, click!