Exhibition (This Is How We Bite Our Tongue)

I am going to write about my own personal experience of the seeing three exhibitions I met recently which are Whitechapel Gallery (Elmgreen & Dragset), Calvert Gallery (New East Photo Prize) & Barbican (Balata) in London. Before going to those exhibitions, we supposed to look at the text (living Pictures) by Olivier Vallerand to prepare ourselves for the exhibitions. 

Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset `s biography: They based in Berlin and London, have worked together as an artist duo since 1995. They have held lots solo exhibitions in art institutions worldwide, including Serpentine Gallery and Tate Modern in London.

That essay was related most to Whitechapel Galley which displays Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset`s art works. Olivier tries to show the impact of the transposition of spaces understood as private in the public space of the gallery and using two projects of art and architecture. He compared Mark Robbins’s Household (2003-6) with Elmgreen & Dragset’s The Collectors (their large-scale installation for the 2009 Venice) Biennale that transforms gallery pavilions into two artificial domestic spaces for a bachelor and family. Both projects emphasized the performativity of space but Olivier underlined the difficulties of transferring these critiques in lived spaces, as the design of Elmgreen & Dragset’s own house-studio shows.

Olivier pointed that two space (The collectors 2009) were different, family house had more traditional room divisions while the bachelor inhabits one large open space organized around a central glazed bathroom in a glazed enclosure in the middle of the space.

In the Whitechapel Gallery (Nov 2018) by transforming the ground floor with a new commission, they show the ghost of the Whitechapel pool and it make us questions the destiny of urban spaced in an age of austerity.

The first of their work I saw in the exhibition was that empty pool which they pointed that it reminds us the past hope and present disappointment of what is called public space. They mentioned the feeling like you arrive at part too late but it reminded me the past times when most people in my country (Iran) had a pool in their gardens (even very small) and we used to swim during the summer and in the autumn we had to keep it empty. Looking at the empty pool with soil and leaf on it, reminded me my childhood enthusiasm for waiting next summer. The interesting part of that empty pool was that all the material inside it (soil & leaf) was made by Bronze. I have to point that I found out when Emma mention that in our discussion meeting.

In that galley you also see two decades of Elmgreen & Dragset`s sculptures which are included a pregnant maid, a reversed crucifix, judge`s wig, a frightened schoolboy & a rifle on the wall. 

The first sculpture that drew my attention was the one day (The boy look at gun) which at the same time was interesting but it gave me sadness feeling. In our discussion session some students believed that it was represented the Gun culture in the United States but in my idea beside that it displayed the violence in the world which for some humans is the very simple issue. Moreover it represented the war and how easy some cruel people can kill others without a second hesitation. When I saw the innocent boy I felt there are lots of children in the world they have to get use to it.

The other sculpture I like is the Reversed Crucifix. You could see the Christ has been replaced by another ordinary man hanging the wrong way with tied wrist and it represented scenes of erotic bondage and it showed the pleasure rather than suffering. I liked artists’ braveness due to the numerous of religious beliefs in every society.  I think as an artist we should be more brave and open minded.

 The second exhibition was selected work by finalists for the second edition of the New East photo Prize and there were included 29 countries. One of my favorite photos is after season (by Adam Wilkoszarski from Poland) which focused on holiday resorts at the end of the season and gave me a relaxation and calmness and I wished I was there.

The second Photo I was interested in was Vrajitoare (By Lucia Sekerkova from Slovakia) which is focus on the witches and fortune tellers in Romania and this skill has been changed in to online business today. They can find their client online instead of walking on the streets but in my idea it represents the proper relationship between two friends or two sister and with that orange background you feel warmth of that relation more. 

 Third exhibition was about one New Zealand born artist Francis Upritchard who created a new series of sculptural interventions in the Curve to transform the space with a vibrant collection of materials and figures. All figures were in varying sizes from medieval knights to meditating hippies, painted in monochromatic or distinct patterns and decorated with bespoke garments and objects. Upritchard has conceived of the gallery as a spectrum in which to play with scale, color and texture that shifts as you move through the space.

I really like her works and I just share some of her beautiful and unique artworks.

Overall it was a great experience to see other artists`s works from all over the world.