Manuel Chavajay and Rebecca Wilcox: This Might Be a Place for Hummingbirds

Despite 8,000km stretching between Guatemala and Scotland, two artists will both consider the similarities between their hometown communities. Manuel Chavajay paints indigenous memories on shops in San Pedro de Laguna using the original Mayan language of Tz’utujil. Both Chavajay and Glasgow’s Rebecca Wilcox will create newly commissioned pieces on translating issues in both countries and locating the space where language, experience and violence coalesce.

CCA, Glasgow until 18 January
More information: www.cca-glasgow.com

By William Morris

Love is Enough

Artist Jeremy Deller turns curator to unite mammoths of the art world: the mythic decorative beauty of William Morris and the bright surface sheen of Andy Warhol. Deller spent two weeks with Warhol at the Factory in 1986 and his recent Biennale show paid homage to Morris’ socialist politics, depicting the Victorian artist hurling an Abramovich yacht (this piece can be seen at Turner Contemporary until 11 January). Both artists were committed to collaborations and their work, expansive networks and production techniques redefined the 19th and 20th centuries. A mighty pairing.

Modern Art Oxford, Oxford until 8 March
More information: www.modernartoxford.org.uk

© The Estate of Sire Terry Frost

Terry Frost: Eleven Poems by Federico Garcia Lorca

Terry Frost’s (1915-2003) long career in painting began after he was taken prisoner during the second world war, he also first encountered poetry at the frontline, igniting a love affair with the writing of Federico Garcia Lorca. Five decades after Lorca was killed by Pro-Franco militias in the Spanish civil war, Frost created a series of etchings mostly in his ‘prime colours’ – red, black and white – inspired by the writer. Shapes splash and rush around the paper, echoing the pace and violence of Lorca’s most popular pieces.

Pallant House Gallery, Chichester until February
More information: www.pallant.org.uk

Work by Willem de Rooij © Max McClure

Willem de Rooij/Fujiko Nakaya: Fog Bridge

Global outpourings of emotion are exposed in de Rooij’s large-scale installation Index: Riots, Protest, Mourning and Commemoration. Eighteen panels hold a selection of photographs cut from newspapers from January 2000 – July 2002. The pictures come without a provenance, time, description or reference to the original articles. Images of nameless firefighters, freedom fighters, supporters, mourners and marchers democratise grief, presenting a global perspective on images in the media.

Arnolfini, Bristol until 8 February

Fujiko Nakaya has played with weather for decades, creating artificial phenomena from Japan to Spain, obstructing and revealing fields and forests, public plazas and parking garages and now Pero’s Bridge, Bristol, is to be engulfed in her trademark sculptural material of choice: clouds of fog.

Arnolfini, Bristol 12 -23 February
More information: www.arnolfini.org.uk

The post Arts review: winter 2014 appeared first on Positive News.

Real love 
Love is a playful, short silent film that highlights the conflict between romantic ideals and the reality of actual relationships. We watch as Estonian artist Marko Mäetamm pesters his wife with declarations of undying love and loyalty as she attempts to slice a pile of apples in their kitchen. While she tries to swat away his relentless cuddling and nuzzling, protestations of eternal love are displayed on cards that read: “My bluebird!, My Butterfly!, “I am so happy!”. Typically for Mäetamm, this piece nestles between autobiography and fiction and he disconcerts the viewer with his naïve ‘sincerity’ in what is ultimately a charming family portrait.

Love is on show at the Ikon Gallery on Fletchers Walk, Birmingham from Monday-Saturday until 9 September
www.ikon-gallery.org

Border control
Have you ever wanted to travel around the world’s borders? There’s still a chance to have a go on Yara El-Sherbini’s interactive piece The Current Situation, part of her solo show at the New Arts Exchange, Nottingham. Viewers are invited to trace countries contours in a giant ‘buzz wire’ game. The ever-pertinent political tangling over division of land becomes an impossible game as you attempt to manoeuvre borders on a giant metal atlas.

The Current Situation runs until 7 September at the New Arts Exchange, Nottingham
www.nae.org.uk

Subversive Signs
Wind vane spinning signs usually publicise tyres, ice cream or the lottery but artist Ellie Harrison’s Early Warning Signs bear an alternative message: ‘Climate’ on one side, ‘Change’ on the other. Rather than encourage consumption on the high street, Harrison uses capitalist publicity techniques to ‘market’ sustainability. You can currently catch one of the signs outside Liverpool’s Foundation for Art & Creative Technology on Wood Street. Harrison’s signs are up for adoption, and she is looking for venues to host the signs in 2015.

www.ellieharrison.com

Like what you’re reading? Positive News depends on your support to publish quality inspiring content. Please donate to help us continue pioneering a more constructive news media.

A bee movie
“Nature doesn’t tell stories,” begins Marine Hugonnier’s film Apicula Enigma, translated as ‘bee’s riddle’. The film documents the study of a colony on Austria’s Koshuta mountains and how we observe and represent nature. Unlike a classic nature documentary, Hugonnier doesn’t attempt to unpack the mystery of the bee’s working community, but instead delights in the space and knowledge that a camera can’t access. Footage is left in its original sequence, the camera, film crew and equipment are exposed, so there are no pre-shot polar bear cubs to be found here.

Apicula Enigma is on show at Newcastle’s Baltic from 15 August – 16 November
www.balticmill.com

The post Arts review: Autumn 2014 appeared first on Positive News.

Message in a bottle

Artist Tania Kovats has been collecting messages in bottles from around the world for the past two years, but instead of written notes, the bottles contain samples from the world’s oceans and seas (it turns out there are no customs or environmental health issues sending seawater by post). All The Sea displays 365 bottles, each one containing the unique biological make-up of that area, but also the unseen experience of the collector: bravely wading out, dangling over jetties, teetering on slippery rocks or gingerly stepping on shingles to scoop a minuscule measure of the planet’s vast pools. It’s not too late to get involved – Kovats is yet to receive samples from 37 seas, represented in the show by empty bottles.

More information: www.tania-kovats-oceans.com

Staying by going

Shaun Badham’s large neon sign declaring ‘I’M STAYING’ will be moving around Bristol for the next two years. It begins its journey on the wall of the Arnolfini gallery from 3 May, where it will face onto the harbour. The beauty of the project is that such a simple declaration will take on a multitude of meanings as it travels through the city: it would be hard not to consider Bristol’s industrial history, the people who have moved and settled in the area, and also notions of civic pride. The public are invited to suggest future destinations.

More information: www.arnolfini.org.uk

Copy cats

The first rule of The Photocopy Club is to print all photography on a photocopier – and that’s pretty much it. Each month, the Doomed Gallery in Dalston’s busy Ridley Road, London hosts a for-one-night-only exhibition of black and white photocopied snaps, each available for £5. Founder and curator Matt Martin started the project in 2011 with the hope of taking photography offline and celebrating the cheapest method of printing and distributing artwork. The concept has exploded – Martin is inundated with submissions and invites to exhibit around the world.

More information: www.thephotocopyclub.com

Lonely as a cloud

The Cloud Appreciation Society currently has over 34,000 members, all people who prefer a day heavy with altostratus and cirrocumulus rather than the tedium of clear blue skies. They might just love the new Spencer Finch exhibition at Turner Contemporary in Margate, where Finch will create an indoor suspended ‘cloud’ made from translucent filters that catch and reflect even the most subtle changes in natural light. Catch it between 24 May and 21 September.

More information: www.turnercontemporary.org

The post Arts Review: Summer 2014 appeared first on Positive News.

Aram Bartholl: Dead Drops

A ‘dead drop’ is the suitably macabre term used to describe the surreptitious transfer of information between spies. Smuggled data would be left hidden at a predetermined location, meaning the two parties would never meet in person. Media artist Aram Bartholl has reclaimed this covert intelligence term for his open source file-sharing project. Starting in 2010, Bartholl cemented USBs into walls, poles and curbs for people to discover, plug into and share their favourite data. The risk of viruses or pornographic images is real, but the beauty of the project is in the trust between strangers and the excitement of hidden treasure. And it has caught on: 1,473 USB locations have now been registered on www.deaddrops.com.

Ruth Ewan: A Jukebox of People Trying to Change the World

Some scientists believe that humans evolved to sing before we could speak as a way of communicating over distances – sung words travel further and are far easier to decipher than words being shouted – so it should be no surprise that in times of revolt we turn to crafting protest songs. Artist Ruth Ewan has been collecting politically motivated tunes since 2003 for her piece A Jukebox of People Trying to Change the World. Visitors are free to browse through the 2,500+ titles helpfully divided into themed ‘albums’ that include ecology, Central America, slavery and feminism. Sure, there are a few usual suspects, Joan Baez for example, but this expanding catalogue offers such gems as The Cutty Wren, a song attributed to the 1381 Peasant’s Revolt, and possibly the first environmental protest song from 1837, Woodman Spare That Tree!

To submit a song visit www.ruthewan.com

Marvin Gaye Chetwynd at Nottingham Contemporary

The Turner prize-nominated artist formally known as Spartacus Chetwynd (and officially titled Alalia Cichosz) is now to be referred to as Marvin Gaye Chetwynd. These theatrical nom de plumes are in keeping with her live performances: riotous carnivals dripping with cultural references. She keeps rehearsals to a minimum to retain that initial unbridled enthusiasm at the beginning of a project and to allow for improvisation. Her latest solo show will see local volunteers perform in and around a giant pink creature based on Brain Bug, the leader of the bug colony in Starship Troopers (1997), who can steal knowledge from the minds of sentient beings. To top it off, Cousin Itt from the Addams Family will be acting as exhibition guide.

Marvin Gaye Chetwynd runs from Saturday 25 January until Sunday 23 March. For details visit www.nottinghamcontemporary.org

The post Arts Review: Spring 2014 appeared first on Positive News.

Laura Eldret: Rough Play

Over the last two decades, the way we interact with the gallery space has exploded beyond the ritual of a passive audience. Rough Play, the latest piece from Laura Eldret, invited viewers to engage in ‘rough and tumble’ and step into that quite different ritual of play-fighting. She created an environment with the tools necessary for a good clean play-fight: pillows and crash mats.

Watching people play-fight exposes those delicate social dynamics involved, the careful negotiation of personal space and often unspoken pact to never inflict actual physical pain. Eldret wants the piece to celebrate the importance of play-fighting in children’s development, and has produced a space to pay witness to the extraordinary exhilaration and personal growth courtesy of a bit of rough and tumble.

More information: www.lauraeldret.com and www.southlondongallery.org

Erwin Wurm: One Minute Sculptures

A woman hovers above the floor balancing only on a couple of oranges; a man is caught within chair legs; two felt tip pens stand to attention on a pair of shoes; and legs emerge from a large cardboard box. These are just a few of the surreal scenarios in Erwin Wurm’s photographic series, One Minute Sculptures. A mother and daughter stand unnaturally close in one image and there’s a delicious pause until you realise that they are both wearing one jumper. It’s pantomime. It’s farce. It’s mime. It’s very funny. At the beginning of the series, Wurm couldn’t afford traditional sculptural materials so used the objects that surrounded him. He encourages his models to quickly pose with everyday items and reveals spontaneous and inspiring flashes of creativity.

More information: www.erwinwurm.at

Juneau Projects: I Am The Warrior

I Am The Warrior is a touring show that anyone can be involved in. It celebrates the drive to create, whether that be glass painting, wood etching, quilt making or miniature papier-mâché animals.

Artist duo Phil Duckworth and Ben Sadler, AKA Juneau Projects, relay an open invitation to residents surrounding the gallery space and continue to accept submissions throughout the run. As people drop off their creations, the show develops and transforms. In the London incarnation, a model of Battersea Power Station made out of toilet rolls and a jar of homemade chutney sat among 300 pieces.

I Am The Warrior is much more than an appreciation for ‘craft’. Juneau Projects’ democratic approach flattens out the hierarchy of the gallery and blasts definitions of who and what can be exhibited. A win for the everyday makers.

More information: www.juneauprojectsblog.tumblr.com

The post Arts review: winter 2013 appeared first on Positive News.

Félix González-Torres, Untitled
In some circumstances a big pile of free sweets would provide the perfect opportunity for a giant leap, mouth wide open, into a mound of hard-boiled goodness. But put that pyramid of sugar into an art gallery and it’s a different situation.

Félix González-Torres (1957-1996) created 19 separate works involving sweets that are freely available for the public to take. However, many visitors are suspicious, unsure of the etiquette. Others are delighted to rebel and ‘steal’ part of an artwork.

Like all contemporary art, each piece comes laden with different meanings and counter readings. González-Torres said the dwindling mass of the sweets represented the shrinking weight of his dying lover, Ross Laycock (okay, so maybe art is sometimes about death). But he also specified a set weight for each piece to ensure that the sweets are replenished and the mass restored.

What could be a mawkish sentiment suddenly becomes a romantic gesture. There is an element of destruction – the audience collaborates to literally eat away the work, but in an optimistic twist, what has been taken is replaced.

González-Torres’ work continues to be shown internationally. For details on current exhibitions visit: www.felixgonzalez-torresfoundation.org

Chu Yun’s project

Chu Yun, Unspeakable Happiness
Bunting has recently made quite a comeback; it’s almost impossible to attend a street party without felt, flowery, pirate-themed, multicoloured or recycled pendants stretching across a road and declaring it’s party time. However, only a few years ago bunting was synonymous with secondhand car dealerships.

Chinese artist Chu Yun explores the happy symbolism of bunting in his conceptual piece, Unspeakable Happiness. Here, Chu enters into a contract with the gallery that bunting will be displayed in the space for an agreed period of time, after which point it will be destroyed. The work is only completed once a document of its destruction has been sent to Chu.

Unspeakable Happiness focuses heavily on how it’s received by the audience. Does the colourful stream of flags promise a good time? Chu Yun has always been interested in our unconscious reactions to everyday symbols. “I think we are more liable to being unconsciously changed by things we cannot easily observe,” he says. “And that these things change us even more quickly and drastically.”

More information: Vitamin Creative Space

Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane, Folk Archive
Those interested in Britain’s culture need to make a date with Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane’s Folk Archive. The collection lovingly celebrates some of this country’s funniest, weirdest and wackiest traditions, making for an incredibly heartwarming honouring of the creative practices that take place outside of galleries.

Turner Prize-winning artist Deller and pal Kane spent seven years trawling these isles, visiting women’s institutes, protest groups, dance troupes, small village communities, prisoners and lone enthusiasts.

It turns out we’ve been doing some downright quirky things in this country for a while, including rolling lit barrels down hills, dancing ribbons around poles, tossing cabers, gurning for prizes, dressing up as old ladies for nights out in Blackpool, knitting emergency service-themed pin cushions, wheelbarrow racing, and sculpting furniture from hedges.

The archive is astoundingly broad. A personal favourite is a collection from Cornish jobcentre worker Dean Briggs, who creates a new illustration for each of the sick notes he handles.

The 250-strong archive can be viewed here: www.britishcouncil.org/folkarchive/folk.html

The post Art isn’t all about death appeared first on Positive News.