continuum of images

Tonight I went to a couple of exhibitions. The first one I went to was at Felt on Compton street called Margit Bruenner: Sieben Himmel.. A couple of years ago I did  workshop with Romanian artist Calin Dan which Margit also attended. The work she was doing back then looked into the "atmosphere" present within areas and space. Her new work follows on with the principles of exploring space in order to discover the atmosphere. This exhibition features video work of Margit moving through chosen space; barren, empty landscapes. Through these video works Margit evokes Antonioni's Landscape, the action is secondary to the landscape itself. Her images may seem unimportant but in actuality work towards creating an ‘environment’. Looking at her figure moving through the image we can, as in Antonioni's cinema, begin to read it for its layers, its archaeology [1]. The centre of the space was filled with a large trampoline, on which the video equipment sat. The trampoline took up the space, was disruptive to the gallery setting and felt in some way oppositional to the movement on the screens. But the Trampoline is not an art object, but an art remainder. In object used in creating another archaeology. On the walls of the gallery were covered in layers of tiny intricate scribblings. An exploration of the movement created through the addition of the trampoline. These drawings are also a remainder, a recording of the act of discovering layers of atmosphere.

 

The second exhibition was a large group show at the Queens theatre called Big. It was a production by Format and the 2% collective. It was really exciting to see such an enormous show put on involving so many artists across so many disciplines. The best thing was the number of people who showed up to support the event, the building was buzzing with an amazing atmosphere. The piece that caught my eye was a work by Mark Niehus, a local poet/artist. The piece involved an only desk, a wonderful typewriter and a poem on a single piece of paper (will load a photo later). The space that it was in was a large hall to the left of the entrance to the theatre. Surrounding were video pieces by a number of artists and central sat the desk with the single piece of paper stretching towards the towering ceiling. Just to the left sat another smaller desk with copies of a poem and a sign inviting viewers to take one home. The most important ideal of this exhibition is the way it embraces: the large number of quality artists, the exploration of concepts and also the invitation for the viewers participation. Well done to Format + 2%.

1.            Marks, L., A Deleuzian Politics of Hybrid Cinema. Screen, 1994. 35: p. 224.