Art Exhibitions MA Photography

Hetain Patel – New Art Exchange, Nottingham

May 3, 2012 – 6:31 pm

Let me start by saying what an amazing exhibition I found this to be. Go and see it.

I decided to pop down to the NAE the Thursday afternoon after the opening. I had seen the flyer and brochure around the Art & Design building of Nottingham Trent University. I have to be honest, I thought I was going be the usual, a British artist/photographer turns camera on self/family. What is often the case is a family so hideous that to any outsider, the subject becomes the ‘other’, a spectacle at which to gawp. This is not to say that there has not been outstanding British self/family documentary pieces: Nick Wapplington’s ‘Living Room’, Richard Billingham’s ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ and Jo Broughton’s ‘My ex-boyfriends’ girlfriends’, but with the tidal wave of reality TV, have we not seen it all. Apparently not. There are still individuals with ideas and vision not having to rely on the sensationalistic approach – enter Patel.

Whilst writing this I am still struggling to decipher what it is that led me to consider this the most complete exhibition I have witnessed in a while. The show is made up of three installations and one set of still images – itself I suppose an installation.  Each piece centres on a different member of his family: the grandma, father, his wife and himself. The first I watched was the six minute, five screen video of his grandma going about what can only be described as her routine. Timed perfectly, it culminates in a prayer at the end, five separate voices joined in a cacophony of worship. The two screen mime of his father at work wholly expresses a respect for the man who raised him, all through simple gestures. The photographs, the only still offering, display spiderman drawings and witty text, the like seldom seen in ‘serious art’, brought a lighter feel to the collection. Finally, the six screen finale (do save it until the end) is Patel’s ‘obsession’ with the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Any more information than that will be a spoiler – after watching it twice I left the gallery grinning.

So, why did this work? Why did this shine above all the other exhibitions I have seen recently. Honest, visceral, witty, refreshing, engaging are a few superlatives I can think of. Honesty shone throughout the exhibition and maybe the presence of wit made it more believable, and thus more refreshing. It has broad appeal and flings the doors of ‘art’ wide open. By engaging the viewer with the, dare I day it, ‘multimedia’ approach, it has attraction for the moving-image generation. I do also think that it has that ‘je ne sais quoi’, that something. My MA subject matter revolves around the truth in photography. After viewing this exhibition I am more compelled to believe that the truth in art, to a degree anyway, is one’s own perception, again, that ‘je ne sais quoi’. I believed every part of this show; I am still trying to fathom why. I will be going for another viewing to see if I feel the same way. I have urged others to visit and will be pressing them for their opinion.

 

 

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Cycling Family Henri

A short film revisited!

March 28, 2012 – 5:37 pm

As my project seems to be heading toward ‘multimedia’ I thought I would repost this film I made a while back. I happened upon it whilst trawling through ill-named folders in search of that elusive image file with only digits for a title. I had a semi professional 8mm camera given to me and  although it had a host of features, it was just too big. I put one reel of film through it not knowing what to expect, or even if the thing functioned, this is the result. I would like to make another on a lesser, more simplified camera but like so many things, it comes down to time and money.

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Art Exhibitions Photography

Paolo Roversi (as featured in BJP)

March 21, 2012 – 10:32 pm

I picked up this months edition of British Journal of Photography (March 2012 v.159 i.7798) at the weekend and although not taken with the cover feature – new generation still life photography – I am extremely pleased to be introduced to Paolo Roversi. The Italian photographer’s work is stunning. Not being a follower of fashion photography, I have never heard of this guy before. I love any kind of imagery, if it has soul and passion whether fashion, photojournalism or snapshots. Roversi’s images have plenty of soul and passion. The images, taken on large format polaroid film, embody the photography most practitioners would love to be producing. Using old techniques, minimal facilities at a pace that can only benefit the final piece. The interview reveals an incredible man, from his explaination of his working day – the early get together over food of all those involved – to the references to Nadar, “It’s easy to learn to take a picture. What is very difficult is to learn is to have the feeling of light. Le sentiment de la lumiére”.

Also what I found interesting are his thoughts on digital photography. It says he doesn’t have “an attitude against digital”. It seems it does not fit into his approach to photography as he states “…photography is not all about view, it’s all five of our senses – the view, the smell, the taste, everything. So I have some problems with digital, because I see and nothing else. The images are just numbers appearing on a screen…” This falls neatly in my research in the validity and truth in digital images – just numbers, no different to any other binary file. Roversi goes on to say “For me photography is not just an image floating on the screen, it’s an object, a format with weight that you can put in your pocket, your wallet, your family album.” It is an interesting point about the object. Something that Colberg wrote about on his Conscientious blog.

The final highlight for me is the comment “Do you know who you are talking to?” Normally, if I heard or read this comment I would dismiss it as verbal diarrhoea coming from the mouth of some pretentious pleb but in this situation – perfect. It was in response to a digital team who where trying to sell him the benefits of using digital photography. Roversi asked what the most important characteristics of digital was. They responded by saying “You can see the picture straight away.” They must have not realised that they were talking to a man that had been using polaroid for most of his career!

Paolo Roversi has an exhibition at The Wapping Project Bankside  running from the start of February to the end of April.

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MA Photography RPT

Fiber Festival, Amsterdam 2012

March 21, 2012 – 9:15 pm

Fiber Festival in Amsterdam is taking place this weekend (24th March). It is an Expo of digital/code artists – something I have recently been getting in to. I came about this festival via Brendan Oliver’s mention of it on Facebook. Kasia Mogla, a colleague of Brendan’s is showing work there. I did a quick search via Expedia to see how much a flight to Amsterdam is and it came back with a price of £998. The laughable part of this was that the flight was over two days which meant that for £1000 I’d miss the event!

The fortunate thing for me is that there is a similar event, bigger by all accounts, later in the year in Manchester and Brendan and Kasia have a joint exhibition going on. I might see if I can get to this event on 16-19th May 2012. I was talking to Lei Cox and Alise Piebalga the other week about Augmented Reality – if you visit the Fiber Festival site there is a great AR facility. Implemented by downloading the Layers app and using it on the digital flyer (link on site) and you get a cool AR interface.

Below are some image grabbed from either site. A couple of images show the connection between my work in the the trial video and the data with these works.

Future Everything http://futureeverything.org/
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Rant

Nice waste!!!

February 29, 2012 – 6:37 pm

I was working in Birmingham today and was handed a copy of the Metro and a complimentary Snickers (a Marathon where I come from). It came in what only be described as the most wasteful use of natural resources. The box, made of quite thick plastic, had a ‘ha ha’ factor of three seconds, then you remove the chocolate bar, then the regular wrapper from the bar, eat it and discard both wrappers. Quality thinking in this so-called ‘green’ era. I know we use packaging to protect, preserve, store etc but this box did none of these things and instead used the equivalent of about ten normal wrapper to each bar. Stupid pricks!!!

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