![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I wanted to go and see the Eadweard Muybridge exhibition, and the Turner Prize shortlist, if only to see the Otolith Group entry. Tate Britain offered a number of different exhibition combinations, but not Muybridge and Turner Prize, so I was forced to see the Rachel Whiteread drawings.
Let's dispense with her - here's her drawing of a floor, and of wall paper ... okay, more interesting are designs for sculptures, such as House and the Fourth Plinth, and various found objects, but whilst it's sort of fascinating to see someone drawing a keyhole rather than a lock, I find the other people in the exhibition more interesting than the exhibition itself.
Muybridge, though... First, let me warn you there is NUDITY, yes, NUDITY. Not rope stuck up the jacksie nudity of Mapplethorpe, but among the action photographs Muybridge took are athletes in the altogether. And this includes self portraits at 56. Given each of these pictures is about 2cm by 3cm I cannot help think that this is over reaction. One hopes all the nudes in Tate Britain are similarly warned about.
Muybridge is most famous for the invention of bullet time a century or more before The Matrix - images of horses, dogs, elephants, athletes and such like in action, with some of these then animated zoopraxiscope style. I see there is more of these in the Kingston museum, which demands a visit early next year. He also did action photographs of throwing buckets of water - capturing movement in stillness.
But that's the second half of his career. He also travelled extensively in the Western US, taking landscapes and stereoscopic photographs of Yosemite, Alaska, San Francisco and so forth, including native Americans (of the Tlingit variety, among others). His waterfalls an lighthouses are very striking, as is his anthropological stuff. The discovery that he had a business on Montgomery Street triggers a vague memory of PKD's address at some point, and his association with Leland Stanford triggers something about androids. There's also stupendous panoramas of San Francisco c. 1878. Astonishing.
The four artists on the the shortlist for the Turner Prize are Susan Philipsz, Angela de la Cruz, Dexter Dalwood and the Otolith Group. Philipsz offers soundscapes - folk songs sung through three speakers in an otherwise empty room. I could take or leave; I'm guessing you need to spend an hour listening. I couldn't be bothered. de la Cruz offers single colour canvases, which are then crunched up. Clever clever but not clever. Cute. Although they look vaguely kinky. Dalwood offers traditional canvases, and is my favourite, although probably he won't win. He's inspired by various novels and novelists, and there's a nice political edge. The Otolith Group are Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun (he of the book More Brilliant than the Sun on Sun Ra etc) and offers sf - they've dressed up as aliens before. Here we have a dozen screens showing episodes of a Chris Marker documentary on Greek culture and philosophy (each is 26 mins - you can't see them all) and a film which public service announcement starts on the hour and is about 50 mins. The film is based upon the conceit of filming an unrealised Sanjit Ray script The Alien, and is a mixture of found footage, clips from Ray and new stuff, mostly trying to cast the various parts, which include Arthur C. Clarke. When you hear the words "Its a not an easy thing to meet one's maker" an "I want more life, father", you wonder if Ridley Scott is reaching for his lawyer. I suspect it's half an hour too long - but then I tend to find that I get the point of video art long before it finishes.
In the meantime, I found a copy of a book secondhand which is the first step in a little artistic project of my own. Only another dozen copies to find.
Let's dispense with her - here's her drawing of a floor, and of wall paper ... okay, more interesting are designs for sculptures, such as House and the Fourth Plinth, and various found objects, but whilst it's sort of fascinating to see someone drawing a keyhole rather than a lock, I find the other people in the exhibition more interesting than the exhibition itself.
Muybridge, though... First, let me warn you there is NUDITY, yes, NUDITY. Not rope stuck up the jacksie nudity of Mapplethorpe, but among the action photographs Muybridge took are athletes in the altogether. And this includes self portraits at 56. Given each of these pictures is about 2cm by 3cm I cannot help think that this is over reaction. One hopes all the nudes in Tate Britain are similarly warned about.
Muybridge is most famous for the invention of bullet time a century or more before The Matrix - images of horses, dogs, elephants, athletes and such like in action, with some of these then animated zoopraxiscope style. I see there is more of these in the Kingston museum, which demands a visit early next year. He also did action photographs of throwing buckets of water - capturing movement in stillness.
But that's the second half of his career. He also travelled extensively in the Western US, taking landscapes and stereoscopic photographs of Yosemite, Alaska, San Francisco and so forth, including native Americans (of the Tlingit variety, among others). His waterfalls an lighthouses are very striking, as is his anthropological stuff. The discovery that he had a business on Montgomery Street triggers a vague memory of PKD's address at some point, and his association with Leland Stanford triggers something about androids. There's also stupendous panoramas of San Francisco c. 1878. Astonishing.
The four artists on the the shortlist for the Turner Prize are Susan Philipsz, Angela de la Cruz, Dexter Dalwood and the Otolith Group. Philipsz offers soundscapes - folk songs sung through three speakers in an otherwise empty room. I could take or leave; I'm guessing you need to spend an hour listening. I couldn't be bothered. de la Cruz offers single colour canvases, which are then crunched up. Clever clever but not clever. Cute. Although they look vaguely kinky. Dalwood offers traditional canvases, and is my favourite, although probably he won't win. He's inspired by various novels and novelists, and there's a nice political edge. The Otolith Group are Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun (he of the book More Brilliant than the Sun on Sun Ra etc) and offers sf - they've dressed up as aliens before. Here we have a dozen screens showing episodes of a Chris Marker documentary on Greek culture and philosophy (each is 26 mins - you can't see them all) and a film which public service announcement starts on the hour and is about 50 mins. The film is based upon the conceit of filming an unrealised Sanjit Ray script The Alien, and is a mixture of found footage, clips from Ray and new stuff, mostly trying to cast the various parts, which include Arthur C. Clarke. When you hear the words "Its a not an easy thing to meet one's maker" an "I want more life, father", you wonder if Ridley Scott is reaching for his lawyer. I suspect it's half an hour too long - but then I tend to find that I get the point of video art long before it finishes.
In the meantime, I found a copy of a book secondhand which is the first step in a little artistic project of my own. Only another dozen copies to find.
Tags: