When I was doing my research in Michael Hoppen Gallery, I looked a little bit more at this picture, of a run-down house, a pile of stuff on the street, a little girl running around, which makes it feel like an unknown town in Japan. Everything is so ordinary, the casual shooting method makes the photographer just like a tourist.

I’ve never heard this name Ishiuchi Miyako before I visit this exhibition. I must say, after I did some research on her, her work really caught my eye.

Ishiuchi Miyako,Yokosuka Story #98, 1976-1977

This work is taken on YOKOSUKA, Japan. This photo is from the series Yokosuka Story, to overcome her fear of her homeland, Ishiuchi has turned her first film series on her homeland, Yokosuka. The city is steeped in American culture because of the presence of the United States Navy. However, Yokosuka is a dangerous place, especially for a girl. There is a high incidence of sexual assault here, and no one views it as a crime. This is A place of sexual violence and humiliation. Instead of Iochi staring at the scars, let’s just say these photos are the scars themselves.

“I don’t think of Yokosuka as my hometown and I have few sweet and joyous memories there. It was natural because Yokosuka, a town of the American naval base, was not comfortable to me as a young girl who had newly moved at the time of entering elementary school, to this new place where my father had been working away from our home in the countryside.”
“I started my career as a photographer by photographing Yokosuka. The vivid contrast of light and shadow inherent in the town somehow created photogenic landscapes as the history of the town seemed to be making invisible scars everyday.”

— from the artist’s foreword (https://www.shashasha.co/en/book/from-yokosuka)

During the research, because of my obsession with textures and I’m thinking to do the theme about time in my final major project, her work taught me a lot and inspired me. One of the series is Mother’s.

After 2000, her mother died unexpectedly. Ishiuchi photographed mother’s remains, such as half lipstick, a pair of false teeth, comb, pajamas and so on, these objects are illuminated by the strong light, as if they have souls.

Mother’s #5, 2001

Mother’s #36, 2001

Mother’s #19, 2001

Mother’s #5, 2001, Gelatin Silver Print Mounted Between Plexiglas and Aluminium

11.25 x 7.5″

Mother’s #3, 2001, Gelatin Silver Print Mounted Between Plexiglas and Box Construction 11.25 x 7.5″

Another series is 1947. Ishiguro found 50 girls the same age as his High School, and photographed their bodies as they entered to middle Age. She used a macro Lens to photographed the hands and feet of women over 40,scars, thorns, skin cracks, and the age spots are all revealed.

Reference:

https://www.shashasha.co/en/book/from-yokosuka

https://www.sepiaeye.com/miyako-ishiuchi/

https://www.vincentborrelli.com/pages/books/111041/miyako-ishiuchi-hiromi-ito-koko-yamagishi/miyako-ishiuchi-1947

The ironies and realistic details are thoroughly shown in Jessica Craig-Martin’s photography, and these stand in stark contrast to the  high-society parties. At this party, the upper class sees themselves as gorgeous, luxurious, with beautiful food, champagne and wine, impeccable hair and makeup, luxurious handbags, elegant silk dresses and suits. But what her camera captures is the easy to miss, but there are weaknesses in everyone, like saggy skin, wrinkles on the face, too much blush on the cheek, the ladies who eat fast food, the creases of fine clothes and even more.

Evening Honouring Bill Blass, Waldorf Astoria, New York, 1999

Cibachrome print, 61.2 x 74 cm

AmFar Benefit, Cannes, May 1998
Cibachrome print, 61.3 x 96.2 cm

Planet Hollywood, Cannes, 1997

Cibachrome print, 61 x 84 cm

Givenchy Luncheon, Hotel Carlisle, New York, 2000

Cibachrome print, 61.3 x 91.7 cm

Film Premiere, Cannes, 1997

Cibachrome print, 61 x 84 cm

New Museum Benefit Gala, New York, 2000

Cibachrome print, 61 x 74 cm

Diffa Benefit Cipriani, New York, 2001

Cibachrome print, 61 x 91 cm

Jessica Craig-Martin,Evening Honouring Bill Blass, Waldorf Astoria, New York, 1999

Cibachrome print, 61 x 74 cm

Victory Ventures Christmas Party, New York, December, 1996

Cibachrome print, 61 x 84.2 cm

“Her work evokes the excess and abjection of Nan Goldin’s photographs, styling the upper classes as absurd purveyors of artifice. “The camera is as cruel as the fashion and styling stunts it depicts are vain and ambitious,” wrote Glenn O’Brien of her work. “We see the socialite’s world as a House of Wax—a world so inhuman it attains the status of art.” (https://www.artsy.net/artist/jessica-craig-martin)

Reference:

https://www.artsy.net/artist/jessica-craig-martin

Valerie Hegarty’s work is one of my favorites in this exhibition “Black Mirror”,  because it’s so different from everything else. It’s so special.

When people talk about art, it is inevitable to add the word “creation” to the end. People think of art as something to be “created”,  but for artist Valerie Hegarty, the most interesting thing is not the creation, but the destruction.

This painting is just like a boat overturned by a waterfall. From the inside of the work, we can still imagine how beautiful the painting is when it hadn’t been destroyed. Waterfalls, rainbows, and turquoise river water. But the withered branches in the lower right corner, the black ruins at the lower left, and the paint falling from the frame tell us that this is reality.

Valerie Hegarty, Niagara Falls, 2007

Foam core, paper, paint, gel medium, glue , 150 x 300 x 65 cm

Various twisted works convey the traces of war, the destruction of nature, this painting seems to be more than just a painting, it’s like the name of the painting and happening in front of my eyes. Her reflections on human development and discontent seem to have spilled over into the frame. Not all beautiful, whole things can be called art

Valerie Hegarty, Still Burning, 2007

Canvas, paint, foamcore, paper, gel medium, 198.1 x 152.4 x 3.8 cm

What’s the point of having a closet full of shoes in an exhibition? What’s the story behind them? Was it because each pair of shoes went to a different place that it meant so much to the artist? They’re different, but they’re not that simple.

Bedwyr Williams, Walk a mile in my shoes, 2006

Installation with size 13 shoes, written notes, poster, shelving and foot-rests, Dimensions variable

Bedwyr Williams’ ‘Walk a mile in my shoes’  contains 13 pairs of old shoes, each with its own story. On the cabinet it says, “Before you judge me, walk a mile in my shoes.” There is a small slip of paper on each pair of shoes with a story about the owner and the shoes. He hopes that through this works, people will experience the feeling of putting on other people’s shoes, and so we tolerate those around us who we don’t understand, who we don’t like, because behind everyone is a different pain and worry.

Measured

Chris Burden

“Porsche with Meteorite” 2013, one 365 pound meteorite balanced a 19742,190 pound 914 Porsche. This proved that if applied correctly, a small amount of pressure could withstand even counter-offensive overwhelming force. This meteorite is powerful enough to pry up a much heavier artifact.

Porsche with Meteorite thus draws attention to the relativity of size, weight, and value.

What’s even more fascinating to me is when I look at this piece of work from a different angle, what should be looking bigger than a meteorite turns it upside down. For me, that’s what  Measured all about. It’s different on every side

“A functional 1964 F350 Ford crane-truck is held in balance with the weight of a one-ton cast-iron cube, and a Porsche 914 sports car is suspended in equilibrium with a meteorite. Both vehicles have been restored to pristine condition using contemporary materials, from fresh paint to new tires. In 1 Ton Crane Truck, the Ford is painted bright orange and the custom-made cube suspended from its crane boom announces its weight—“1 TON”—in recessed lettering, forcing the viewer to consider the physical capacities of the familiar American vehicle.” (https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2018/chris-burden-measured/)

Reference:

https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2018/chris-burden-measured/

Dasha by Urs Fischer

Urs Fischer’s art reflects underlying inner conflicts and contradictions through the shifting of material, the coexistence of beauty and ugliness, modesty and clumsiness, grace and load

Dasha 2018  is Dasha Zhukova life-size candle. During the exhibition, specially placed candle wicks are lit, and human figures slowly collapse into pools of wax oil — a visceral reminder of the ephemeral nature of life, beauty and art.

(Before lit)

Fischer’s candle sculptures are captivating in their materiality and haunting in their implications; they serve as both portraits and meditations on time and gravity, life and death.

“A wick at the top of her head will be lit, and the candle will slowly melt over the course of the exhibition. Additional wicks strategically placed on the figure will be lit until the sculpture is reduced to a pile of wax drippings.”

The time each visitor visited was different, and the state of the work was different.

Into ashes…

Idea: The passage of time, Life and death, Beauty is changing over time

Reference:

https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2018/urs-fischer-dasha/

PRINT SALES

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

“Print Sales presents a group show exploring our enduring fascination with man-made transportation and the journeys they evoke: metaphoric, philosophical and literal.”

“From the raw insouciance of a teenage couple kissing in the back seat of a car to the more random brief encounter of pedestrians captured through a taxi window, he presents his subjects with a unique autonomy and agency and offers viewers rare access to hidden lives”

Idea : To capture the inside from outside the bus

Bruce Dvidson, Brooklyn Gang, 1959

Bruce Dvidson, England/ Scotland, 1960

Sebastiao Salgado, Churchgate Station, Bombay, 1995

Elliott Erwitt, Steam Train Press, Wyoming, 1954

Elliott Erwitt, Santa Monica, California, 1955

Louis Stettner, Six Windows, Penn Station, 1958

“Penn Station was a pause, where people could get in touch with themselves, and a way that I could get in touch with them.”

Six Windows is my favorites. The six windows are like six different stories, six different lives.

Image merged within an installation.

“Rooted in research surrounding the anxiety disorders Derealisation (the condition wherein a person feels the reality surrounding them is unreal) and Depersonalisation (a feeling of detachment from oneself, or that oneself is unreal) the precarious nature of perception is performed through a series of works that accumulate to create a subtly unsettling experience.”

I can see many elements through these images Consider Falling, such as an empty space with mirrors, colour board, wood blocks, photographs and geometric shapes, the presence of mirrors allows me to see other images reflected.

The subtly unsettling experience  is also evident in the chipped nail varnish, a few stray hairs, and the reddish tint of the eyes.

Sarah Howe, from the series, Consider Falling, 2017

I’m not really sure why I took this picture, I didn’t understand what she was trying to say,  like the name of the picture, “she did things not simply”. Why did the photographer put a note paper on her head? But we can still barely see the part of the face that is blocked by the photographer, the short hair, from the way she dresses to the way she looks like an Asian woman. Anyway, I was thinking, wouldn’t it be fun to put this idea into my shoot? Label my picture differently and write down what I feel about it.

Stephanie Talber, She Did Things Not Simply, from the series Resonance, 2016

She was eating the same breakfast every day, coffee or tea, bread and strawberry jam.  It looked as if she was alone for breakfast, and there was only one plate and cup on the table, and the other chairs had not been drawn away. The flowers on the table, the floral patterned tablecloth, and the floral skirt, all of these gives  the image more lively colour. The first thing I see is all this colourful, warm stuff, but what’s wrong with her face? The lower half of her face was like wear a mask, serious and taciturn.

Lisa Caeletta, Everyday the same breakfast, from the series, The ordinary life of Alison,

2017

The feather on the image like razor-sharp Blades, same feather, same position, different light.

Idea: moving light around body or object.

Thom Bridge, Pied, 2018

The photographer retake the photo when the photo is still slightly curled. It gives a feeling of touch.This artwork inspired me to scan my body and face, see what it look likes, and what kind of texture’s gonna appear.
Victoria Fonieles, Touched and Seen with Body and Snow, 2018

When you cover your face with a towel, do you see anything? Can you breathe in?It makes me feel hard to breathe, but the color makes me feel clean and simple, extremely comfortable. Just like I don’t need to think anything, stop doing anything, just take a good rest.
Amelia Shepherd, Self-Portrait: Untitled 1, from the series While You Were Sleeping,2018

THE EDGE OF THE CITY by Rob MacDonald

It is interesting that I saw these work not from a formal place like museum or gallary, but from a comfy and casual cafe Trading Post Coffee in Brighton. That’s why it gives people a different feeling. The different environment  also gives me a different mood to appreciate the works, no longer serious and stiff, but comfortable natural.

These works, as its name implies, blend into the Coffee Shop.

I love the colour contrast in his photographs, so bright and vivacious, as bright as the city itself.

Be honestly, this photo shoot didn’t surprise me, but it’s warm enough to savoured, and each photograph is a detail of life in the city, details that are easily overlooked. Maybe it’s just the color and pattern of a wall, a visitor or some other person’s moment against the background, a lovely colored door, a emptied wine bottle, or a view from a window.

I went to Nick Ford Photography few days ago, the exhibition See Me Hide by Caroline Burrows, it’s about the relationship and interactions, at first I didn’t know that the model in the photo was herself. Her works are so sad and strong, we can feel the sad story behind photos, and how she’s been hurt in her life.

When I first saw these works, I felt depressed and it was difficult to breathe in. I was even more aware that every photo is faceless or blurred, like she was running away from herself.

But I found that these works were more like relieve of her sad feeling, let all past and made her stronger, because I saw some other work hanging on the wall, it’s all text.