"In fact, I am giving a piss"
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This Week
💦 Bad progressive camp at the Met Gala
💦 Beano-like jouissance at Goldsmiths CCA
💦 YBA pledges to urinate into 1,000 cans
Events, 21 - 28 September
This week, London breathes a little while the art world descends on Basel. Still plenty to get excited about though, as studio-gallery spaces Turf Projects and V.O Curations both offer new exhibitions, and the Beaconsfield gallery’s bar re-opens!
🧊 22 September | 5–8pm | EQX, (group exhibition) French Riviera, E2 6AH (Bethnal Green] | Exhibition runs until 17 October 20201. Free
🧊 22 September | 7–7.30pm | Sam Keogh Performance, Goldsmiths CCA, SE14 6AD [New Cross] | Exhibition runs until 12 December. Free
🧊 23 September | Opening 3–5pm | Warning Bells with The School of the Damned, Turf Projects, CR0 1UQ [Croydon] | Exhibition runs until 10 October. Free
🧊 23 September | 7–10.30pm [Bar Opening] | Gin at The Ragged Canteen, Beaconsfield Gallery, SE11 6AY (every Thursday) [Vauxhall] | Book here
🧊 23 September | 6–9pm | Reality Check, GUTS Gallery, Anderson Contemporary, Carpenter’s Wharf Studios, E3 2PA [Hackney Wick] | Exhibition runs until 3 October. Free
🧊 24 September | 6pm | Marine lovers… their fishy beginnings. Zoe Marden performance and exhibition opening, V.O Curations, W1S 2YZ [Oxford Circus] | Book here
Exhibitions of the Week
Bassam Al-Sabah: I AM ERROR at GASWORKS. Now closed, images here.
Bassam Al-Sabah is a god of hyper realistic animation. Looking primarily at the armouring of the male body in gaming culture and queer mythology, his new work is visually spellbinding and revolting in equal measure. In a scene from one film, his male subject struggles against the invasive landscape - clad only in boxers he is trapped in jelly, like a fly in a spider's web. Now he sprouts anime armour, next he is reduced to sinewy muscle; always he glistens, as if coated in amniotic fluid. Al-Sabah deftly switches between different surfaces and textures, which pulsate, decay and glitch until (to use a line from the film itself) ‘your thoughts have solidified to the consistency of custard’.
Olivia Sterling: Really Rough Scrubbing Brush at Goldsmiths CCA, until 31 October 2021. Information here.
Considering their Beano-like jouissance, at first glance Sterling’s works appear to be graphic comic strips. Closer inspection of these deftly-painted vignettes reveal the darker underside of the racial hierarchies embedded in British society; from the way sweet treats are wrapped in puritanical white icing, to the fetishising of tanned skin on package holidays. Capturing the nuance of the microaggressions that are a daily experience for people of colour, Sterling’s works retain a confidence and subversive humour that avoids confrontational identity politics or exoticzing traits. For an in-depth interview and studio visit with Sterling, click here.
Hot Links
🤡 “A cringe-inducingly sincere visual violation” - Emily Colucci tears apart celebs’ desperate attempts to remain relevant through their fashion choices at this year’s Met Gala, identifying the emergence of a ‘fetishized aesthetic of progressive radicality that is almost entirely devoid of real meaning or action’ where many on the left try ‘to look as if they’re doing the most by really doing the least’. Read: Bad Progressive Camp. Don’t fall for it kids!
💿 Techno takes the exhibition stage - Museion, Bolzano’s newly opened exhibition, explores the cultural significance of Techno through the lens of music and art. Launching with a day rave, curated playlists, a TECHNO Reader and a podcast by Francesco Tenaglia. spittle kindly requests a London tour...
🦞The Karl Lagerfeld of Baltimore - ‘Bad taste. I don’t even think there is such a thing anymore. I think what used to be called bad taste is now American humor,’ says Hairspray filmmaker John Waters who got the profile treatment in Town & Country. Also known as the Pope of Trash, you can trust John on such matters as polyester, prurience and American originality.
🙏 Pornographic honesty is dead / a new social media trend emerges - ‘Everything cool on the internet is about God’ declares Biz Sherbert, who delves into why ‘people with art jobs, tattoos, eating disorders, and stimulant prescriptions post about their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’ – while others try to figure out if they’re being ironic or not.
🍆 “This is the pure sexual misery today.” - Dean Kissick dives into intimacy and youth today with regard to Gen X’s ‘generational preference for light demi-pleasures’ and how technology has ‘recontextualized [sex] as just one of the many soft pleasures that make up modern life.’ Damn.
🤸♂️Who else didn’t know that BTS stands for Bulletproof Boyscouts? - In a move reminiscent of a sixth form leavers' assembly, global K-pop megastars BTS showed a pre-recorded video of themselves dancing at… the UN General Assembly. Honestly, we can’t - and won’t - stop watching.
🍝 How to conduct yourself at a gallery dinner? - Listen to the art world’s favourite true crime broadcaster, Alissa Bennett, break down why you should never sit next to a friend at a gallery dinner. Embrace being a shoulder to cry on and psychoanalyse your neighbour, why not!
Add-to-Cart
“You might think I am taking the piss, in fact I am giving a piss.” YBA artist Gavin Turk launches his take on the famous Manzoni ‘Artist’s Shit’ (1961) by solemnly pledging to urinate into 1,000 Diet Coke sized cans, which are subsequently sealed and emblazoned with the words ‘Artist’s Piss’, in 36 languages. Priced at £333.00 (available here), spittle is divided on whether or not this is a bargain.
Parting Shot
We don’t often associate Time Out Magazine with hot takes (!), but this week the mag’s Art Editor, Eddy Frankel, had some strong feelings about celebrated performance artist Marina Abravomic’s latest [2 hour] video work currently on show at Lisson Gallery…
Love,