painting

Hawthorne & Heaney Visits ”Hell in its Heyday” at Sir John Soane’s Museum

December 1, 2021 by Intern

This exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum takes you on a journey to the weird and wonderful world of contemporary artist Pablo Bronstein’s depiction of hell.

“Members club” (Gaudy mansions which used to line the avenue

have been torn down and replaced by swanky apartment buildings,

but this venerable old place is still holding out.)

This collection is a new body of work which was developed over the last year after the exhibition was delayed due to lockdown restrictions. The exhibition consists of twenty-two heavily detailed large-scale watercolour paintings created especially for the museum.

Bronstein’s vision for this collection was to turn the underworld into something glamorous and desirable. It’s not the most traditional version of hell of which most of the public would imagine, who would have thought hell would ever be described as something desirable?

This body of work presents the 19^th and 20^th centuries and their technological and economic advancements through a nostalgic but also deeply ironic filter. This exhibition invites the visitor to explore hell imagined as a monumental city, which they are then guided through. The city is made up of botanical gardens, oil rigs concert halls and casinos to name a few. The city portrays a vision of the underworld that lures the viewer in but is also extremely unsettling, where all your desires and pleasures can be satisfied. The artist even creates hells mines and factories as luxurious and expensive venues.

“Oil rigs” (Gleaming oil rigs rise from the dust and mud of the valley,

each vying with its neighbour for the best ornamentation).

Pablo Bronstein drew from a range of sources for his inspiration, from mannerist sculpture, commedia dell’arte, eighteenth-century interior design, the circus and early advertising posters and television.

“Fly over and roundabout” (A multi lane carriageway leading from the central bank and

civic administrative quarter heads to the casino)

Bronstein was inspired to make this collection for many reasons, one reason being his family. Bronstein’s family are from the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires which is referenced throughout this collection. You can see a reference to his family in the image of the three headed pink swan fountain where ribbons of the Argentine flags hang from the fountain.

“Botanical Gardens” (A romantic botanical garden features clipped

giant yew trees in terracotta urns, over- grown with lilac wisteria in bloom).

19^th century architect Sir John Soane himself was a big inspiration for this exhibition as the two had a lot in common. Bronstein’s work often shows a lot of historical architecture and antique references, and Sir John Soanes Museum holds a great deal of antique beauty. This therefore made Sir John Soanes Museum the perfect location to hold his work.

What makes this exhibition, so eye catching is the amount of colour that explodes throughout the collection. The strong colours sort of happened by accident” Bronstein stated. “Something went wrong with one of the red skies, and in trying to repair it I made it even more red. “I secretly felt quite liberated and worked back into the other drawings to make the colours stronger.”

“Flight” (Machines of aeronautical progress – balloons, Zeppelins, planes, and parachutes –

serve as sport for a group of hungry faeries)

One of our favourite pieces of Bronstein’s work is titled “Patisseries and Confections”. It consists of an array of tempting cakes which appear as skyscrapers because of the scale of the artwork. Bronstein heavily plays on scale throughout his collection which creates the unsettling feel he wants the viewers to experience. Scale is a very powerful concept and Bronstein has created a similar effect to the famous children’s book ‘Alice in Wonderland’ where everything is much larger than it should be. This can make the viewer feel uncomfortable and disturbed. Its almost like a vision from a nightmare.

“Port” (A sumptuous evening buffet is served. A large lobster on a bed of lettuce leaves

slides off a silver platter and onto a white tablecloth).

The exhibition also consists of a new film which features a group of antique dealers performing a masked ballet while trying to sell antiques to a dead man. The proprietor, played by Rosalie Wahlfird and her two assistants Iris Chan and Irene Cena, portray that in hell shopping is the ultimate cultural experience. Bronstein has previously drawn from 17th century ballet to develop performances at the Tate. The short film was shot mostly at his home during lockdown which creates a big comedic aspect however also has a quite disturbing feel with its dramatic music and hyperbolic language.

This exhibition was really interesting to visit, as well as the art work the short movie was a great extra to the exhibition and helped the visitor get inside Pablo Bronstein’s head. John Soane created the museum to educate and inspire he visitors and this exhibition lets the viewer drift off into a different world and loose themselves in a new vision of the underworld.

Make sure you go and visit Sir John Soanes Museum to have a look round.

https://www.soane.org/whats-on/curators-tour-pablo-bronstein-hell-its-heyday-exhibition

Hawthorne and Heaney takes a look at Uniqlo, Tate Lates: Night in

February 1, 2021 by Sophie Reynolds

During 2020, Uniqlo Tate Lates: Night In, brought a free online programme filled with artist talks, workshops, DJ sets, film and more. To keep us entertained this winter, Tate have re-realised three of the workshops that we can take part in at home.

These include creating your own mural at home with Lakwena, creating a zeen with the RIOT SOUP collective, and painting with Ashton Attzs.

00:16 Create Statement Artworks with Lakwena

Example of a mural by Lakwena

Lakwena is London-based artist who creates murals that reference elements of popular culture and using art as a form of meditation.

Her work, primarily text-based, employs a combination of words, pattern and acid-bright colour to subtly subvert prevailing mythologies. Her use of text and image re-appropriates the powerful and monumental visual language and lyrical mythologising of commercial advertising billboards and is informed by decoration both aesthetically and conceptually.

Interested in the role of the artist as mythmaker, Lakwena explores how this translates into contemporary popular culture. Concerned with the significance of how and who we decorate, and what this reflects about our values and beliefs, Lakwena positions kaleidoscopic colours, bold pattern and adornment as powerful signifiers to redefine and reassign value and glory. (Jealousgallery.co.uk)

In lockdown she has been painting her home with the aim of creating a space of meditation and relaxation. But also to create a feeling of protection, empowerment and healing.

Paintings created in her home during lockdown

Because we may not be able to, or perhaps don’t have the confidence, to paint straight onto our walls, Lakwena shows a technique whereby she paints magnetic paint onto the walls of her children’s bedroom and creates cardboard stencil lettering and shapes to then adhere to the walls. Creating instantly visually impacting decoration that is full of creativity and unqiue to you.

Screenshot of Tate Lates project

09:58 DIY Zines with RIOT SOUP Collective

Riot Soup Collective

RIOT SOUP is an art collective for women of colour, running monthly socials, curating exhibitions and hosting workshops. The 12 strong group is made up of Black African, Caribbean, South East Asian and Middle Eastern women artists, after their founder Asma Istwani failed to find a creative group that encompassed her needs as both a woman artist and person of colour.

She needed a space to create and grow as an artist but one where her experience and difference as a second generation Middle Eastern woman would be noticed, heard and valued as opposed to something that had to be diluted or cast aside in order to fit in. This fact, as well as the desire to see more women artists of colour represented in the visual art scene spurred a call out on various online sites to see if others would join her in the quest to create a community of like minded women and seize control of the narrative surrounding WOC, all the while seeing to their need of visibility within the artworld. (shado-mag.com/)

Screenshot of Tate Lates project

Founder Asma, a collage artist, and her sister Salma, a painter and collage artist, run through a workshop on tips for making your own Zeen using basic tools and papers to create something both visually stimulating and unique to them.

Tips include how to use negative space, colour blocking, adding/layering with drawings and paint, using type, and so on.

The video is starting point with all the inspiration you need to go off and create your own take on a zeen.

19:49 Nurturing Black Joy: Painting with Ashton Attzs

The last workshop is by Ashton Attzs, an illustrator and painter who creates bold, and colourful imagery. Her aim is to establish a balance between being political and joyful. Attzs is a London based painter and poet who wants to share her passion for painting, not only as a visual means of joy but for a cathartic practice. They take great great interest in capturing aspects of quotidian life as well as a personal exploration of queer and POC idenitity.

Stay in YA lane, Ashton Attzs

The workshop is aimed to reach out and give people that need support, more joy and a little pick me up in these hard times, dedicates her work to queer, black people. “Regardless of who you are, there is joy to be had in this workshop” (Ashton Attzs).

She goes through the progress of what materials you need to make a painting of your own, with the inspiration being not what the painting depicts as the focus but who you can share it with and the connections that may follow.

Screenshot of Tate Lates project

The video is not only full of great tips and techniques that you can use to create your own artwork. But even if you do not end up painting yourself, even just watching the video I found meditative and relaxing.

If you need any inspiration for some fun and creative projects, Tate Late is a great place to start!

Words written by Sophie Reynolds

Images sourced from Google Images and Tate Lates: Night in

Hawthorne & Heaney visits Bridget Riley at the Hayward

November 20, 2019 by Natasha Searls-Punter

On Thursday we were lucky enough to visit the eagerly anticipated exhibition of Bridget Riley’s most comprehensive body of work (spanning an incredible 70 years), on display at the Haywood Gallery.

It was quite a unique experience in the way that the concept behind the paintings made you really think about the theory behind colour, art is about looking; and this exhibition really brings that to your attention. It was also unique in the physical way that the paintings made your eyes and brain hurt – (but in a good way of course!)

The following images are from my favorite series of works:

Stripes and Diagonals. “At the core of colour is a paradox. It is simultaneously one thing and several things – you can never see colour by itself, it is always affected by other colours.” (Bridget Riley, 2009).

Bridget Riley, Chant 2, 1967

Finding that colour is unstable and tangible, Riley used stripes and to bring about powerful colour interactions – pairing or grouping colours along horizontal or vertical stripes, mixing and creating an illusion of hues.

This was one of my favorite series as the work is simple, in the form of perfect clean lines of pigment, but the mixture of colours really make your eyes work and see colours that aren’t there. It isn’t until you go close up to the painting that you can really see what colours the paintings really possess.

Curves “When colours are twisted along the rise and fall of a curve their juxtapositions change continually” (Bridget Riley, 2009).

This series really made my head go in a spin – I think that even from the photos that I took, you can see the illusion of the waves moving and swirling. It is amazing to think that the paint is static, yet with the application of line and colour, there is so much movement.

Bridget Riley, Drift 2, 1966

Studies “The working process is one of discovery and it is worth remembering that the word discovery implies an uncovering of that which is hidden.” (Bridgit Riley, 2019). – I love this quote – it complies the meaning of creative experimentation perfectly.
I found this part of the exhibition fascinating as it showed us the ideas and some of the mathematical and theoretical workings behind the pieces. They were in themselves, very much pieces of art – intricately applied and thought out. It also made you really appreciate just how much thought and time goes into creating the final pieces of work.

Riley produces full-scale preparatory drawings, from which studio assistants under her assistance complete the final work. This gives her the time to solely work on the theory and studies behind the paintings.

Black-and-White “The basis of my paintings is this: that in each of them a particular situation is stated. Certain elements within that situation remain constant. Others precipitate the destruction of themselves by themselves.”(Bridget Riley, 1965).

Bridget Riley, Fall, 1963

Bridget Riley, Blaze 1, 1962

Even with the absolute basic level – simply black and white paint, the illusion is arguably even stronger. Maybe it’s the contrast or the simplicity that draws it back in but it was an amazing way to end the exhibition.

Overall I was really impressed by the exhibition, I thought it was well laid out and portrayed a real story. The surroundings didn’t take away from the paintings but added something to them – they really made you focus in on the work and allowed space for reflection.

“The eye roams and the brain roams with it. You think you get it, and then you don’t”.

(Guardian, 2019)

The exhibition is on until 26th Jan 2020 and I highly recommend a visit if you get the chance.

Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up – Exhibition Visit

September 5, 2018 by Natasha Searls-Punter Leave a Comment

The exhibition Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up is currently at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and we recently took the chance to visit. This unique show gives a detailed overview of Kahlo’s life: her family and heritage; her politics; her relationship with mural painter Diego Rivera; the near-fatal accident that caused her a lifetime of pain; and most importantly, how she constructed her image and the way in which she lived her life.

Upon Kahlo’s death in 1954, her husband Rivera locked up her most valuable possessions in the bathroom of the Casa Azul (The Blue House, their home in Mexico) and instructed that it not be opened until 15 years after her death. In 2004 this bathroom was opened, and the contents of the room went on display at the Casa Azul as a museum dedicated to her life. These objects are what now fill the exhibition space at the V&A, carefully shipped thousands of miles to be shown outside of Mexico for the first time.

The exhibition begins with old photographs of Kahlo and her family, some of which are adorned with Kahlo’s handwritten notes. Some simply label family members, whereas others are more personal: for example, on the back of Kahlo’s Communion photo she has scrawled “¡IDIOTA!” as she renounced Catholicism later in life.

The show continues through a series of rooms to Kahlo’s accessories: heavy jade necklaces; crescent earrings featuring paired birds, which are traditional of Mexican jewellery; and hand-woven ‘Rebozo’ shawls and ‘Morrale’ sack bags. These items highlight Kahlo’s pride in her Mexican heritage.

We then move on to Kahlo’s possessions, perhaps one of the most personal parts of the exhibition. Intimate items are on display such as used lipsticks and empty medicine bottles accompanied by letters to and from her various doctors.

Kahlo’s suffering due to childhood polio and a car accident at the age of 18 lies at the foundation of some of these objects. For most of her life she wore uncomfortable corsets to help support her back and alleviate pain, some of which were made of plaster and decorated with painting as Kahlo used them like a canvas.

Finally, the main feature of the exhibition is a stunning display case of Kahlo’s clothing. Kahlo is renowned for her combinations of indigenous garments from different regions of Mexico, and she was photographed in such outfits many times. To see them up close in real life is breathtaking.

Detailed embroidery is present in most of the outfits, from complexly shaded flowers and birds to cross stitch to traditional Chinese embroidery (due to Kahlo’s fascination with Chinatown when she moved to the USA with Rivera). The exhibition gives details of her most striking outfits, describing how she was followed by children when in the USA, who asked “Where is the circus?”.

There are some of Kahlo’s paintings – mainly self portraits as she used herself as a subject when painting from her bed – but the exhibition mainly focuses on Kahlo’s items and how she presented the complex layers of her identity within her life. It states that her wardrobe was not staged: she dressed up even when she wasn’t expecting visitors, and even when she was in bed rest.

Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up is a bewitching and intimate exhibition. The items on display are fascinating, and through them the personal details of how Kahlo naturally lived an artistic life – despite her misfortunes and pain – are revealed. A must-see for anyone interested in textiles, and anyone interested in Frida Kahlo’s complex and inspiring life.

Purchase tickets at the V&A website here.

Written by Laura Hill