The London Open 2018 : Whitechapel Gallery

Question. How do you distil 2,600 artistic submissions down to a final list of just 22?

Answer. With love, care, and attention.

The London Open is a triennial exhibition with over 80 years of history, taking place at The Whitechapel Gallery. The selected artists, all 22 of whom are working in London, are engaging with topical concerns including the environment, urban changes, technology, representation of race and gender, human relations, and activism. The art forms are varied, from painting through video, sound, sculpture, and performance.

As with any open exhibition, flow can be an issue, but the way the submission invitation to The London Open 2018 had been themed around some of the topics listed above, I felt the level of artistic dissonance on display provided useful contrast, rather than just noise.

There is much to enjoy in the exhibition. I’m often drawn to art which contains a sense of geometry, and there is plenty of that on offer here. The small intricately painted panels by Gary Colclough, which are enhanced with unusually designed, extended frames, are particularly beautiful.

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As an older white man (currently 52) trying to understand how to be a better dad, husband, and person, I was particularly moved by the works of Rachel Ara and Andrea Luka Zimmerman. Both artists are exploring relationships and power dynamics. Rachel Ara’s work, titled ‘This Much I’m Worth (The self-evaluating artwork) displays its own value, calculated from a series of algorithms that reflect things such as age, gender, sexuality, race and provenance.

This Much I’m Worth by Rachel Ara

Andrea Luka Zimmernan’s work is a whole room occupied on one wall by a powerful film tracing activism in Newcastle, complemented by a series of posters and other works, including a feminism board game you can sit down and play. There are stories attached to all the pieces of this activism puzzle, I enjoyed listening to Andrea talk about this assembled work, including this flag. made by women at Greenham Common. Apparently, the makers sought and obtained a high court agreement to fly the flag upside down. The contents of this room are very moving, I was able to spend a minute or two in this space alone and the experience brought me to tears.

I got lost for a while in the beauty of Hannah Brown’s work which depicts the English landscape and the tension between town and country.

The field next to Tesco that is soon to be built on by Hannah Brown

I spent about two hours wandering about the whole show, and while I’ve shared a few personal highlights here, I get the sense there’s something for everyone at this ambitious, enjoyable, and challenging exhibition.

The London Open 2018 is on at Whitechapel Gallery until 26th August 2018.

Back To The River

After scaling up to celebrate the We Are All Artists second anniversary a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been thinking of ways to scale back down again. Carole and I took a walk along a few miles of the River Wandle earlier this week, and the river has been on my mind since.

Last night I picked up a small hardwood tile and began to draw and paint.

Several hours, and many coats of paint and varnish later.

I’ll be hiding this very soon. It’s a sunny day today, can’t wait to see how the sun makes the art sparkle.

Footnote:
I hid the art by a waterwheel in The Grove, Carshalton, here’s a photo taken on location. It’s since been found and has a new home.

We Are All Artists : Free Art Project Second Anniversary

Start something. Keep going. Be Curious.

The next free art drop is about to hit the streets. So what? This one feels a little special to me, as it marks the second anniversary of the We Are All Artists free art project. 104 consecutive weeks of making and hiding art, most of it in and around Wallington and Carshalton, with occasional trips further afield. There are 151 pieces of my work in the collection so far, plus an additional 7 made by other people.

I’ve been working on this second anniversary piece all week, and it’s now finished. Here are some photos of the work in progress.

This is the biggest piece I’ve made for the project so far, a 40cm x 80cm canvas showing a koi, a Japanese symbol of good fortune. It might prove a little tricky to hide, but I’m looking forward to finding a super sneaky place to leave it.

Thank you to everyone who has supported and taken part in the project so far. It grows into itself, and beyond too. When I look back at my work over the past 24 months I can’t imagine being without this experiment, it currently informs so much of what I do.

In case you are interested, the symbols in the lower left corner are my attempt at Chinese calligraphy. They signify ‘developing, becoming different.’

Footnote

I thought you might like to see a photo of where I eventually hid the art (long story short a mix of bad weather meant I tried and failed to hide this piece on two previous occasions – this was third time lucky).