NYC Frieze week rundown

I came back from NYC on Monday night and am only now piecing myself together. The week was made special in particular by the following artists: Michael Genovese / Kadar Brock / Ben Sansbury (photographed with me for Art in America by Paul Laster) / Scott Treleavan / Paul P/ Chris Dorland / Kasper Sonne / David Raymond Conroy / Cecile B Evans / Lewis Teague Wright / Ian Tweedy etc.

These are my highlights:

Frieze

J Parker Valentine @ Frieze Frame section (pictured above)

Borden Capalino @ RamikenCrucible

Andrea Bowers @ Suzanne Vielmetter

NADA

Elena Damiani @ Elaine Levy Project (pictured above)

Leah Glenn @ Night Gallery

Jason Kalogiros @ Queen’s Nails

Exhibitions

Alex Hubbard @ Maccarone (pictured above)

Wolfgang Tilmans @ Andrea Rosen

Travess Smalley @ Higher Pictures

Scott Treleavan @ Invisible Exports

Books 

David Graeber 'Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology'

Michael Genovese 'Lines and Cracks and Zebras and Horses'

The end of The Dark Cube

The show has closed - followed by a brilliant performance lecture by this year's Emdash award winner Cecile B Evans at the Palais de Tokyo, which was documented by Purple Diary. Her 'lecture' played with ideas of interpretation, association and the impossibility of things. She used The Dark Cube as an example - speaking on the show like a wikipedia entry before it collapsed on itself. It was the best closure to an exhibition I have ever experienced.

The show was also covered in the following places:

Interview magazine

Sleek

Twin

Dazed Digital - profiling Scott Treleaven

Purple Diary

And you can see some documentation here (thanks to artist-photographer-filmmaker David Ledoux)

Harry Burden 'Dirty Fucking Hippies' (2012) details

Antoine Catala 'Fantastique' (2012); Ben Sansbury 'Changing Change' (2012)

Scott Treleaven, 'The Body Electric' (2012)

 

Oliver Laric 'Chippendale Cube' (2012)

Clunie Reid 'World Without Images' (2012)

Thomas Dozol 'I Can Barely Hear You' (2012)

Scott Treleaven 'Walking With Thee' (2012); Jeremy Deller 'Did He Change Your Life?' (1994)

Juliette Bonneviot 'Stepanova/Popova/Adidas/Puma/Umbro/Reebok/Nike' (2012)

Kasper Sonne 'Untitled Carpet No 3' (2012)

Anne de Vries 'Trance Tracks' (2012)

The Dark Cube closing party

The Dark Cube closes Monday night and it should be a blinder (though hard to beat 5000 people coming for Nuit Blanche at the opening...). Leslie Kulesh (and myself) are DJing. Thanks to a 400 watt black light cannon the works are in full hardcore glow. Above is a sneaky look at much of the sowkr (i'll upload the whole lot after the show closes) and details of the closing party for all and sundry.

Coming Soon! The Dark Cube at Palais de Tokyo

THE DARK CUBE curated by Francesca Gavin

Juliette Bonneviot / Harry Burden / Antoine Catala / Anne de Vries / Jeremy Deller / Thomas Dozol / Oliver Laric / Clunie Reid / Ben Sansbury / Jeremy Shaw / KasperSonne / Scott Treleaven

Vernissage: October 6 2012 6pm-12am DJ Emma Sutton (FuseBOX)

Finissage: October 15 2012 Public 8pm-12am Virtual DJ set by Dave Maclean (Django Django)

A black or UV light emits ultraviolet radiation and little visible light. It creates an effect of fluorescence on colours and materials. ‘The Dark Cube’ exploits this effect by showing paintings, photographs, prints and sculptures in darkness, illuminated only by these purple glowing lamps.

The show was initially inspired by 1960s Black Light posters, initially created as representations or aids to hallucinogenic drugs. Alongside references to failed rebellion, this group exhibition touches on wider ideas around illumination and darkness, veiling and unveiling. Part of the aim is to demonstrate the relationship of contemporary ideas and aesthetics with defunct or less used forms of technology.

The Dark Cube is also a response to the cavernous nature of the Palais de Tokyo, and the flipside to the Garden of Eden’s idea of a forbidden space. In northern European art The Garden of Eden was depicted as a lush forest glade, while in the south a desert oasis. In our modern times creating a landscape of electronic phosphorescence is our new utopian Eden. The exhibition switches the normal viewing experience under day or white light on its head. It becomes an X-ray of the white cube.

The Dark Cube is part of a series of exhibitions and events GALERIE UTOPIA / THE FORGOTTEN BAR PROJECT: The Garden of Eden presented by Tjorg Douglas Beer being held at the Palais de Tokyo September to November 2012 (http://www.galerie-utopia.com) 

https://palaisdetokyo.com/en/exhibition/modules-fondation-pierre-berge-yves-saint-laurent/galerie-utopia-forgotten-bar-project 

Image: Harry Burden 'Dirty Fucking Hippies' (UV) 2012

Back

God what a month. Documenta (which I'll discuss after this... finally) then raced to Toronto with a dose of NYC in the middle. Then 3 days in Berlin and installing in the countryside. I am now FINALLY still for a little bit. These are the highlights from the past 5 weeks:


Seeing the Massacre of the Innocents by Rubens at the AGO in Toronto (above) : piles of greying dead baby flesh. Wow. Insanely good composition. Changed my mind from thinking he was dull.


Buying and reading a sea of books. Amongst the piles highlights were: the oh so lovely Scott Treleavan's black vinyl zine compulation 'THE SALiVATION ARMY BLACK BOOK'; Miranda July's It Chooses You (which I cried down the street after reading in 90 minutes straight); Laurent Binet's inspired HhhH

an incredibly interesting pamphlet book On Acid : A Field Guide (which was compiled by a reakAcid-Age; Michael Peppiatt's Interviews with Artists 1966-2012; Ultraviolet 69 Blacklight Posters from the Aquarian Age; 

A plethora of my articles are out at the moment. Issue 6 of Twin!!! With my interviews on Sara VanderBeek, Haroon Mirza (as well as pieces I commissioned on Javier Peres, SSION, a curated section by Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel); The Trip issue of Sleek with an 8 page interview I did with Rashid Johnson; a hilarious Q&A with Wim Delvoye in Dazed etc etc

Sang Bleu, Alfie, Bon Voyage

Watched Alfie last night for the umpteenth time - the original obviously. And only just noticed the brilliant soundtrack is by Sonny Rollins. My musical soundtrack while spending the next month in Berlin curating and drinking coffee.

On a more artistic note, I wrote a piece about the apocalyptic landscape in contemporary art in the latest issue of Sang Bleu - curating a selection of examples including work by Scott Treleavan, Seana Gavin and David Ratcliff. Its more of a muse than my usual piece. The mammoth two part book-mag (which also includes work by Wes Lang, Iris Van Dongen and Dionisis Kavilleteros) is for sale here.

The Specials and monochrome

Looking at the Glastonbury footage this year - remembered why I love The Specials so much. For a week watch here and be happy that their music hasnt aged at all and Terry Hall is still one of the best lyricists of the century. The whole two tone graphic look made me want to highlight some of the most interesting artists I've seen playing around with monochrome recently:

Scott Treleavan


Seb Patane


Jannis Varelas