Gallery Visits
BALTIC
When visiting the BALTIC on the forth floor was an exhibition by Susan Philipsz called 'A Single Voice'. The Turner Prize winning artist combines the use of film, installation and sculpture to create an emotive piece of a lady playing the violin in a silent dark room. The sound from the piece was powerful and striking playing on your heart strings. The sound of the violin was crisp and easy to hear even when echoing through the room magnifying its power and volume. There is a singular spotlight pointing down on the large projected screen leaving the rest of the room dark leaving your focus to purely be on the projected screen and the sound of the violin.
Starless Midnight
This exhibition is based on the civil rights movement and the activist Dr King who stood up for what he believed in. In 1955 King led a campaign against segregation in areas such as shops, hairdressers and public transport mainly begun by Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on the bus. Therefore this exhibition brings the political and personal aspect of how times have changed and whether the world is still as divided now as it once was then. Starless Midnight includes the work of many artists: Season Butler, Louis Cameron Karon Davis Charles Gaines, Kenyatta A.C and Micol Hebron. My favourite of this exhibition being from Micol Hebron consisting of a series of posters highlighting feminism. I particularly liked this exhibition because of how all the posters were gimmicky, eye catching and some funny yet they had a very serious tone about them. Showing how the higher percentage of men had exhibitions or how the higher percentage of men had higher percentage employment when compared to women.
The waiting Room
Thw Waiting Room created by Karon Davis .The space is set up like a typical waiting room that you would see in either an office or generally in everyday life. This space reflects the uncertainty of global issues such as Brexit and Trumps issues within the new-world. The exhibition was modelled to appear like a hospital waiting room reflecting on the emotional and physical pain of the world as it moves through destruction of forests and it political instability. I really liked this exhibition as when I first saw it I was unsure if it was an art work or not due to its small details such as coffee stains up the wall near the bin or the TWIX wrapper under the table topped with a typical kids tou that you would find at the dentist or indeed in the hospital. As you walked around the exhibit it took you back to those moment where you were wawiting for the uncertainty which I believe is the soul behind this piece by Davis.
The Biscuit Factory
Although The Biscuit Factory isn't a gallery that holds many exhibitions, it's still an area where a wide range of work is shown. The ranges of artwork only cover one floor but however show a wide range of different techniques and varieties of art such as sculpture, abstraction, realism and minimalism.
John Brenton
Brenton is a contemporary artist who rather than painting in a studio paints outdoor. By doing this he is able to capture the beauty within the atmosphere which he incorporates into his landscape paintings. There was particular focus on shorelines such as a range of biodiversity, sand and rocks. Although his paintings looked detailed from a distance there was an series of visible brush strokes which added to the depth of the pieces .
June Berry
Berry's work had the theme of people living their daily lives specifically within rural France. The exhibition included watercolour and etchings as well as oil paintings, Berry's work was each individual to its aesthetic quality. Berry's work was fairly similar to Brenton's in the aspect of painting or printing very rural and unspoiled landscapes creating a dimension between the serenity within the paintings and perhaps the viewers more hectic and noisy daily life.
The BALTIC, Gateshead
Our Kisses are Petals, Lubaina Himid
Himid is a British artist and curator whose work relies on projecting a creative platform. Over the past 30 years, her work has been exhibited across Britain as well as internationally, winning the turner prize in 2017.
For this exhibition, Himid combines the use of traditional patterns and motifs of East African Kanga flags. She take traditional Kanga patterns alongside phrases in order to create an environment where people are invited to move the flags around the gallery via a system of pulleys. The cloth selected reflects a significant aspect of East African culture; its a versatile garment commonly used for clothing and head wraps. Both the pattern and words carry a symbolic function and can be used as a way of communication.
The flag-like banners which move across the space encourage the audience to create their own dialogue. Himid creates art that is able to let the audience conjure their own declarations and poems through the moving flags.
Missing Time, Serena Korda
Korda's work is set out to make us think about yourself in relation to the world. Using sculpture and sound, she considers communication as well as tradition. This exhibition is a result of a 2 year BALTIC fellowship at Newcastle University during of which Korda took inspiration from her location as well as people she has met. Drawn to the sound of the concrete sounds mirrors around the North-East coastline (used to detect enemy planes). The patterns within the dishes were created using a Japanese method of Nerikomi. This is where the clay is stained with different colours, rolled into a cylinder, sliced and then rolled back together in order to create a marbled finish throughout the dish.
When entering the exhibition, you were overcome by the sound of echoing coming from the speakers and then reflecting off of the clay disk. In the centre of the room was a domestic setting creating an atmospheric feeling to the sounds surrounding the centre of the room.
Idea of North
Where this was not a typical 'artists exhibition' the 4th level of the BALTIC did contain a range of interesting work and installations which play with the convention of 'expo' exhibition. The purposely built pavilions are constructed to explore and create a correlation between the past and the future; creating connections between historical moments and individual stories.
One of the installations titles 'PROTOHOME' addresses issues including the housing crisis, homelessness and participation in the built environment. Created alongside members of Crisis, the installation displays ways of more sustainable housing as well as invites the audience to learn more about current day housing issues and the potential for a radical rethink of how housing is created.
This Machine builds Nations, Jasmina Cribic
Joining the use of film, sculpture and performance, Cribic's practice explores how art, architecture and political rhetoric combine together. This site-specific installation shows 3 of her latest films in the Nada Trilogy. This exhibition shows her research into 'soft power' and how cultural production is used to communicate specific political principles.
Her films, photographs and installations commonly surround the female figure, some speaking and some mute. They then dance, acting as mouthpieces through which shows the nature of power and aesthetics.
When entering the exhibition on the third floor, you are introduced to a monochromatic landscape composed of images drawn from a photographic archive. On the first wall you interact with, performers are bearing phrases on gold banners across the monochrome wall. Behind this is a long, luminescent corridor with neon 'art décor' decorations on the ceiling of the passageway. At the end of this corridor is a large iron ring stating: "Everything we do today will look heroic in the future". These words are able to set the scene for the proceeding films in the other areas of the exhibition.