Ways of remembering

The philosopher Alain de Botton, and art writer John Armstrong have co-authored a very readable book, Art as Therapy, explaining  in straight-forward language why they believe art and other creative cultural production is important, and how it can "guide, exhort and console its viewers". They list seven functions of art as remembering, hope, sorrow, rebalancing, self-understanding, growth and appreciation. In the age of  the 24/7 news cycle, it is not hard to imagine why they place remembering at the top of their list. 

In Berlin, on the way to the C/O Photography Museum we passed through the Breitscheidplatz in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm church, where in 2016, a truck deliberately  ploughed into the Christmas markets, leaving many dead and injured. Such sites are often marked by spontaneous tributes and memorials as part of a general public outpouring of grief. How to memorialise such sites in the longer term becomes a complex and sensitive subject. In Berlin, the response is understated and powerful:  the names of those killed are  engraved in the steps of the church, and a gold crack  runs from the church steps and down through the pavement. The crack  visualises the attack as a deep scar, and is a  sombre and powerfully moving image, acknowledging the co-existance of despair and hope. You can read the project description by commissioned firm merz merz here.  

Reading a little bit about merz merz as a design and consulting firm, and the way they interact with museums and public places, is a valuable insight into the changed nature of the museum industry, especially in environments where art and culture makes such a significant contribution to the economy.

The Berlin Christmas market memorial brings the work of Doris Salcedo to mind, who in 2007 installed an 157 metre long crack in the floor of the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern. This work also creates a place for grief and remembering, and in particular the ideas of borders, segregation and migration. Saucedo has a large body of public work memorialising acts of loss and violence in her native Columbia, and other parts of the world. There are many powerful interviews with this artist available online, but be warned they contain confronting themes.

Before the night market attack, the Kaiser Wilhelm church in Breitscheidplatz already stood as a memorial. Bombed in the war, the church was left as a ruin, and a modern church built alongside it. It serves as a place of contemplation and witness, and a monument for peace.

Memorial for the Berlin Christmas market attack at the Kaiser Wilhelm church in Berlin

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial by Merz Merz

Kaiser Wilhelm Church, Berlin

Fatburg!

 Museum of London 'Fatburg' samples and wall text

As its name suggests, The Museum of London is dedicated to the telling of London's history, with a large number of permanent displays charting the city's story from ancient through to modern times. As Museums go, this one is more modest than others, with numerous displays and hangs unchanged for many years. It is a place to escape crowds for those who want to learn more about the fascinating life of the city across a long timeline. 

Today, all museums face the challenge of remaining relevant, and attracting new audiences, and the Museum of London's current display of a sample from the so-called 'Whitechapel Fatburg' is designed to do both these things. Once upon a time,  museums were places to experience the glories of empire, the thrill of discovery, the lure of the unknown, and seek transcendence experiences. In this exhibition, the museum asks us to confront our own role in a monumental problem facing cities around the globe. This display presents challenges for audiences, conservators and curators, and is one in which the role of the museum to lead conversations which aim to change behaviours is highlighted. The display is meant to disgust us, and by knowing our present, inform our future.

You can watch this short clip on the Fatburg here, and learn about the conservation and safety challenges faced by the Museum in preparing this abjectly fascinating display.

What do you think? Is this the kind of thing you want to or expect to see in a Museum?

 "..museum goers can look on this unnatural wonder and perhaps reflect that a culture is most clearly understood from the things it makes and the traces that it leaves behind."

- Tim Adams Fatburg!, 04/02/18, The Observer, p 12

Your own tiny museum

My beloved 770s, nice and messy, just as they should be, because someone has been rifling through them.

I have had my nose down in the library lately. When I say the library, it’s actually been a few. The one I’m in now at Goldsmiths is warm and welcoming, with lots of space for collaborative work and conversation, as well as quiet spaces for individual study. The library is open 24 hours a day (respect to all the students  who venture out in sub-zero temperatures overnight.) There is even a café inside the library to help fuel study.

In my first visit to this library I was impressed by  the adaptive learning technologies suite, the academic assistance labs, the  student IT help desk, the café, the AV loans, the multitude of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) work stations and the digital editing suites, but I still found something missing. It wasn’t until my second or even third visit that I found it. Through a discreet entrance at the back of the building, I came across two floors of glorious books all about art, design, photography, music, theatre, media, and more. You know, paper books. Breathing a huge sigh of relief, I went straight to the 770s, where I always feel at home, no matter where in the world I am.  

At the moment I am reading, ingesting, compiling and drafting informaton for my major assignment. I'm out in a large open study area, alongside 100 or so other students. When it comes time for the pedantic refinement of my paper, you will find me in the sparsely-occupied book part of the library, with its church-like atmosphere, book-smell I have loved since childhood, and stunning views over London.

Museums and libraries share much in common, and in their early iterations, both often reflected the same lofty ambition of holding all the world’s knowledge under one roof. Concepts of archiving knowledge and ideas, of collecting, and of caring for the objects that contain this knowledge are found in both the museum and the library.  It is no co-incidence then, that Britain's Arts Council, which allocates funds to cultural organisations in the UK, has in its remit, the arts, museums, and libraries. (Side note: the Arts Fund here is generated via a national lottery scheme.)

Public Museums date from the late 18^th century- think the British Museum and the Louvre. However as Hans Ulrich Obrist points out in his wonderful book Ways of Curating, they also existed in ancient times and the term ‘museum’ derives its meaning from a place that is consecrated to the muses. He reminds us that the world's oldest known museum is the Library of Alexandria. Orbist also tells us that by the time of the Renaissance “scholars were using  ‘museum’ to refer to any place or object- a study, a library, a garden an encyclopedia-where items were collected for learned study.” (Orbist pp 42-3).

Orbist notes that in Renaissance times, the museum was positioned as an objective* collection, and one that dcumented the past. In the 19^th, 20^th, and 21^st centuries the notion of the museum continued to shift and evolve.  For now, knowing as you do that in the Renaissance at least, a museum could be a garden, a room, or any place really, as long as it was intended for learned study, I have some questions for you.  What does your private museum look like? Where does it sit in your home? What part of the past does it archive? What organisational system or taxonomy have you implemented? What is the name of your museum? Do you have something in the past you need to study? Will you allow it to have its own tiny museum? *(I free you from the burden of objectivity, as my site visits continue to show me that objectivity is a highly subjective matter.)

For me, today I am wondering if someone in the future wants to visit the 770s, will they go to a library, or will they go to a museum?

Exit through the gift shop*

Tate Edit, Tate Modern, London

Or in the case of Tate Edit, exit past the gift shop. Tate Edit is an elegant iteration of the ubiquitous museum shop. Whilst there multiple opportunities within the massive Tate Modern complex to purchase books, catalogues, souvenirs, postcards and other keepsakes, Tate Edit is a refined and curated collection of 'Art + objects for your home.' 

The gallery/ shop is located on the outside of the building, meaning we make a choice to enter. This is in contrast to the more typical merchandising scenario in which in order to exit,  the  exhibition-goer must walk through the merchandising sale point at the end of any major museum show. Tate Edit  is presented as hybrid shop/ gallery, with track lighting, plinth displayed work, and explanatory text by each carefully selected piece.

The space utilises the idea of a guest editor, currently design retailer Momoku Mizutani of momusan shop. It deals largely in limited edition work, assisting in both affordability and having the obvious practical benefit of allowing an edit to be in place for a decent period of time, whilst still enabling 'cash and carry' for the purchaser. 

Fine art as well as design pieces are for sale. The artists generally have some relationship to the Tate, and this space helps create a bridge between major artists and the 'general' public.  For example, currently on offer is a stunning  limited edition solar plate etching by Cornelia Parker. Perhaps most well known for blowing up a garden shed (with the assistance of the British Army), and reassembling the pieces as a still life 'explosion' in the gallery, Parker is considered one of Britain's leading contemporary artists. Many might consider owning a piece of hers as unattainable, and Tate Edit dispels that belief, for a certain demographic at least. (Just by the way, since 2001, the British government has appointed an official election artist, which in 2017 was Parker. The works created by the artist in response to the election then go on to form part of the parliamentary art collection. You can read about that work here- (it goes on display on Monday).

As well as the guest editor curation, some pieces in the store have been chosen by leading industry figures from within and outside of Tate. Museum-style labels accompany these pieces, with a short quote from the selector explaining why they had chosen the piece. Many people want to buy art, but lack the confidence or encouragement to do so. For a potential buyer to have their gut reactions validated by an industry expert is a simple and effective strategy to help develop collectors. It is an idea I can see having multiple applications in the TAFE environment, as we move to encourage entrepreneurial approaches for the benefit of our creative industry students. 

Tate Edit is also part of the own art scheme, an innovative loan scheme sponsored by the UK Arts Councils, that offers a purchase plan of 10-20 interest-free payments for the purchase of art from approved galleries. Nice.

In 2016, the creative industries in the UK were estimated to be worth a staggering 91.8 billion pounds- that's 10.5 million pounds an hour, and growing at twice the rate of the rest of the economy. Now that's something worth taking seriously.

*Exit through the gift shop is the title of a documentary/ and quite possibly mockumentary, directed by the street artist Banksy. If you are a fan of his work, it's a must-see. The film raises questions about art and money, in particular the politics and commerce of street art. 

Graffiti art and street art was born from a desire to 'flip the bird' to the mainstream polite art and create images and graphics that can't be bought and sold. Usually created illegally, street art doesn't wait for permission to be displayed. Amongst other things, the film grapples with the intersection of art for arts' sake and the huge sale prices some artists, Banksy being a notable example, attract for gallery versions of their work. 

On a related note, there is bit of excitement in Hull this week, with the recent appearance of three Banksy works......

Congratulations Helen

How lovely to have the chance to visit NADC alumna Olena Kosenko (Helen) at the Parallax Art Fair held in London on the weekend. Helen is now based in Spain, and made the trip to London to promote her work at the fair. The Kensington Town Hall was packed to the gunnels with art and art appreciators, and Helen's stall looked fantastic, resplendent with new works. 

Congratulations to Helen on a big weekend, and the beautiful work you continue to produce.

An idea worth sharing

Being a student again has all sorts of peripheral benefits. It is wonderful to experience teaching and learning from multiple sides, and benefit from best practice initiatives. For example, here's an idea  that is really worth sharing. Goldsmiths, where I am studying,  offers an extra-curricular 'learn a language' program. It is designed to encourage language learning, and all the benefits that this offers socially, and professionally. Open to students and staff alike, participants post a language they are seeking to learn, and a language they are able to speak fluently on a moodle forum, and self-match. They then meet for 1 hour a week, and speak together for half an hour in each language. 

The Goldsmiths program is in turn based on the language program at the University of West England. Both programs recognise the benefits of building College communities and social connections, simultaneously promoting harmony, understanding and inclusivity.  The programs also help prepare participants for the world of work in which a global outlook and working in diverse environments are necessary norms.

Guidelines on how to run your joint sessions are provided on the Goldsmiths moodle, and the program is supported by cafe events, where participants come together in larger groups for fun language and culture-focussed activities. The moodle provides links to LibGuides and language support resources available in the library, and also provides a place for participants to contribute their favourite language learning resources. 

This Sydney morning Herald article showing the numbers of languages spoken in Sydney 
gives us an inkling of the untapped resources we have in our student and staff populations. For Western Sydney readers, this data from the 2016 census  shows the wealth of languages in our region, and the potential of a program such as this to contribute to our rich college life. 

What do you think -should we give a program like this a go?

PS: If you are interested in language learning, you might like the freerice resource.

Drawing with the ipad

A few people have been enquiring, so for those who would like some basic information about the iPad as a drawing tool, here is a side note post with a quick bit of background information for anyone new to the concept. Please note, I am approximately 4 weeks old and a handful of drawings in as an iPad user, so please don't take this as a definitive guide :)

David Hockney,'The Arrival of Spring'  ipad drawings, 2016

http://www.fondation-vincentvangogh-arles.org/en/expositions/davidhockney/ 

The widely recognised pioneer and master of the medium in a fine art context is British artist David Hockney. Hockney started drawing on his iPhone in 2008, and has since moved to the iPad, with its obvious benefit of a larger surface area. Hockney has always embraced a wide range of media in his lengthy and prolific career. As well as traditional painting and drawing, Hockney has explored, and pushed the  artistic boundaries of media including photography, video, fax, printmaking and photocopying.  

Hockney champions the iPad as a drawing tool for its immediacy, versatility, convenience, and democracy. He famously sends pictures to friends and relatives who can do what they want with them. He exploits the luminosity inherent to screen-based work by often choosing subjects where light itself is the point of the picture. 

There is a terrific interview with Hockney in the Telegraph where he describes his use of the iPad as an artmaking tool. I love that he has always had his tailor include a special pocket in his suits to house his sketchbooks. This  pocket has now been expanded in size  to fit his iPad. 

This short clip of curator Charlie Scheips talking about Hockney's ipad art is also worth a look for some more information on Hockney's approach. 

We were lucky enough to have a Hockney exhibition recently at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre.  As per this exhibition, Hockney's iPad drawings are often shown on the devices themselves, however some also are produced as works on paper. The current technology means large scale works can be created at high quality output. 

Whilst unlikely to ever threaten traditional means of production, as Hockney points out, the characteristics of the iPad apps, and its sheer convenience mean that work can be created in all sorts of scenarios where otherwise  it may have been unlikely or impossible.

The iPad allows for painting  and drawing with fingers and also with a stylus. The ability to zoom into sections of the page means that quite detailed results can be achieved using hands alone. The Apple pencil however, is a convincing, pressure-sensitive, intuitive  and satisfying asset to the toolbox.

There are a wide range of drawing applications available. Hockney famously uses the Brushes app, and by all accounts seems happy to stick with that. A very popular app, and the one I have been exploring, is Procreate. This app is widely promoted by Apple as a drawing tool of choice, and from my perspective, well worth the $15 price tag. (It comes from Tassie by the way: hurruh!)  Many will find it intuitive to use, and anyone who has used Photoshop or Illustrator will work it out easily. If your preferred learning style is to be shown how to do something, then search 'today at Apple', and book into a free 1 hour class at your local Apple store. 

Whilst there are certain limited workarounds available, drawing apps such as Procreate, and tools such as the iPad pencil are optimised to work with the iPad pro. Check if your device is compatible. 

Cath Barcan, 'Head of Sophokles in a glass case' ipad drawing, 2018

"Bronze portrait said to represent the playwright Sophokles (about 496-406 BC)

300-100 BC

Said to have been found in a well at Smyrna

(modern Izmir, Turkey)

...

Formerly in the collection of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, who, in the 17th century, employed agents to collect sculpture along the coast of Western Turkey."

-from the descriptive text, British Museum

Of course, no self-respecting classical sculpture would have hair as messy as this. Anyone who believes that all art is a form of self-portrait might be tempted to use this as an example (beard notwithstanding of course!) 

I'm still wrestling with the overwhelming complexities of the British Museum. I'm letting these bronze sculptures flesh out a little, and look back somewhat supercilliously, after all these years of being looked at.

Creativity and play -the social role of museums

One Two Three Swing! SUPERFLEX, 2018, Tate Modern

 Tate Modern is one of four museums that form part of the Tate Galleries (Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate St Ives and Tate Liverpool.)  Located on the banks of the Thames and housed in a former power station, the conversion to gallery retained many of the features and qualities of the original site. Tate Modern opened in 2000. The  Turbine Hall is a much loved public and exhibition space, and the former Boiler House  now forms the main gallery spaces. In 2009, further development included the building of the Blavatnik Tower, with the former power station's oil tanks at the base  of the tower converted into exhibition spaces for live art, performance art and film and video work. Other education spaces and visitor ammenities are included in this building.

The Turbine Hall is the vast entrance space to Tate Modern, and site of many large scale installations. The video above is filmed from a mezzanine walkway, and shows the work of Danish art collective SUPERFLEX, who make large-scale collaborative installations. This vast and iconic industrial-scale exhibition space has been used by contemporary artists to make large scale site -specific sculpture. The Turbine Hall's first installation was creted  by Lousie Bourgeois. 'I do, I undo, I redo'  included three towers  and an enormous sculpture of a spider created from steel and  is described here. It became a site to meet and gather, and like all the installations in this space it was not permanent, however many regular visitors were saddened and surprised when it eventually came down. 

Since Beourgeois' iconic work from 2000, other artists have used the scale of the Turbine Hall to create participatory  spaces for people to gather, reflect and perhaps form connections with strangers. Olafur Eliasson's Weather Project filled the Turbine Hall with the experience of sunshine and mist.  Marcella Beccaria describes this iconic project, and how it engaged with the profound social role that a museum can play. 

Many artists since these have strived to use this (and other) spaces, to create artworks that give reason and purpose for members of the public to meet, gather, reflect, collaborate, connect and exchange. Spaces that give permission for the public to lie down, reflect,  play, spend time and contemplate hold considerable magnetic power for the public. Whilst the monumental  and industrial scale of spaces such as the Turbine Hall seem to assist in breaking down the reservations that might otherwise arise, in future posts I will also report on spaces where this is working on small scales, perhaps more aligned to the places where we might work and study. 

Meanwhile, a  little more on 'One Two Three Swing!'

"Each swing has been designed for three people by Danish art collective SUPERFLEX. Swinging with two other people has greater potential than swinging alone and One Two Three Swing!  invites us to realise this potential together. Swinging as three, our collective energy resists gravity and challenges the laws of nature. Count, hold, let go of the floor and soar. SUPERFLEX asks, if we all swing at the same time, can we change the way the Earth spins?

Suspended above a carpet made inthe colours of British banknotes, a pendulum swings hypnotically with the movement of the Earth. SUPERFLEX think of this as a space to contemplate the forces at work in our everyday lives. They imagine people might want to gather here  to think about whether it is the weight of gravity or the economy that pulls us down."

If you still not convinced as to what  a playground might be doing in a gallery, and need more clues on the connections between creativity and play, CEO of design firm  IDEO Tim Brown's TED talk remains an excellent primer.

-from the accompanying wall text for One Two Three Swing!

Snippets

We are always picking up snippets when we travel. I will use this space to record some curious or other fragments I pick up as I go , that might otherwise be in danger of being lost in a longer post. I loved this letter to the editor published in The Times on January 19- what a great idea :) 
In Australia, Artbank fulfills this role as fee for service in the corporate and commercial sectors. Do you think any gallery these days would offer it as a public service?

Letters to the editior, The Times, January 19, 2018.

Collecting the World

I have visited two Museums this week whose existance is owed to quintessential Enlightenment collectors. Sir Hans Sloane was a physician, naturalist and collector, who bequeathed some 71000 objects to the nation upon his death in 1753. Just five years later, and enshrined in an Act of Parliament, this collection was opened as the British Museum, the worlds first free public museum. Five thousand people visited the Museum during its first year. It has operated continuously since it first opened in 1759, and now receives close to seven million visitors a year. (A fair few of them were there the day I visited.)

The monolithic exterior symbolises everything traditionally entailled in the idea of a museum - temple, palace,  ownership, power, authority, place of learning.

In the late 1990s, construction commenced on the the Great Court of the British Museum. A competition was held for the design of the space, the brief being 'revealing hidden spaces, revising old spaces, creating new spaces.' This extraordinary covered courtyard encapsulates the space previously occupied by the now-relocated British library. It encapsulates the extraordinary challenge of positioning and defending a Museum founded in the 18th century, in today's world. 

It is some thirty years since I last visited the British Museum- (did I just say that aloud?) 

On my first 21st century visit, many displays and descriptive texts appear to be entirely unchanged since my last visit. Words such as 'found' and 'discovered' are used to describe  the artifacts  and treasures  of a myriad of nations with uncomplicated and  seemingly unreconstructed freedom. The Museum positions itself as a free resource for the world to share, allowing an uparallelled opportunity for comparative research and education. The extraordinarily  complex questions of power, ownership and permission that are at the core of any contemporary museum are not applied retrospectively. This would indeed threaten the majority of the collection.These are the questions that any museum founded in another era wrestles with. I found the experience of visiting to be intense. The sheer scale of the place, and the weight of the histories held within. The beauty, and wonder of the objects the Museum contains are undeniable. Their place there, incredibly complex. Once more, drawing proved a tool to stop and look, and contemplate (or perhaps further complicate?)  some of the layers of history. 

 Cath Barcan, ipad drawing of Anahitha in a Museum case, 2018

Head from a bronze cult statue of Anahitha, a local goddess shown here  as Aphrodite 200100 BC Found at Satala in NE  Asia Minor  (Armenia Minor)- text label accompanying the work.

Within walking distance from my digs, I will be a regular visitor to this Museum. 

Room 2A in the British Museum is famously called " Collecting the World". A future post will relate my experience of the Sir John Soane Museum, and a little of its eponymous founder.