GALLERY, MUSEUM AND EXHIBITION VISITS
This page is for personal visits to museums and/or galleries related to contemporary art. I frequently visit art galleries and go to new exhibitions happening in Liverpool. I also try to go to ones outside of Liverpool including Manchester and Yorkshire.
Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester
04/02/2019
Today we went to Manchester to look at the new exhibition held in the Art Gallery. This gallery was quite similar to The Walker in Liverpool but wasn't as big. We went to this gallery with the Fine Art student and were split up into three groups, I was looking forward to this visit as there was going to be a guide who was addressing curating however this didn't really happen. The Gallery itself had a few exhibitions on including one by Leonardo Da Vinci and his drawings, And Breathe... and Reflection, Imagination and Repetition. They also have works from Pre-Raphaelite which are there all the time as well as Art from The Netherlands: Home, Land and Sea 1600 - 1800.
And Breathe... Exploring the relationship between art and mindfulness
I had seen the "And Breathe..." exhibition advertised online and was looking forward to visiting this as it had been co-curated with mental health organisations. The purpose of this exhibition was to get the audience to connect with the art mindfully and in peace. In relation to this, I believe they curated it very well as there wasn't too much going on in the room and had chairs placed in front of some of the pieces so you had the chance to really connect with the pieces. The chairs seemed a bit isolated from the art as the work was contemporary and the chairs didnt relate to this, if they were benches I think it would have complimented the art work. Ultimately, the way they curated it related to their theme of peace and mindfulness, however when I saw the exhibit I was disappointed with how little work there was and how much space was left in the room. There were pieces on the walls next to blank spaces which made the atmosphere feel empty and boring. If there were even two more pieces I believe it would have been an excellent exhibition and I would've felt more interested in the atmosphere. Below are some pictures of the exhibition to help understand my review.
Reflection, Imagination and Repetition
I really enjoyed walking around this exhibition, I thought the idea behind the exhibit and how it was curated really complemented one another. The purpose of this exhibit was to place lesser known works with 'highlight collections' and see how they worked next to one another while also incorporating themes of reflection, imagination and repetition. My initial thoughts on the first room was that there was a theme of expression of identity, the second room had a lot of shapes going on in it and the third had themes of mosaics, repetition and textiles. I thought the combination of all styles of art in this exhibition worked really well as they all fell under the same themes and were connected through identity. My favourite pieces were probably the installations and photography pieces shown below.
Victoria Gallery and Museum
Liverpool
07/02/2019
This exhibition was probably one of my favourites that I have visited in the last few months, it was a mix between past and present as well as highlighting themes of feminism and female power. When I first entered the gallery I thought it would be full or art that was similar to the style of the building: conservative and old. However, this wasn't the case as it was full of a combination of art and visual biographies on powerful women. The Victoria Gallery and Museum has a large collection of art including pieces from Henry Moore and Lowry to Edward Burne Jones. However, it seems as though the gallery prides themselves more with the Eleanor Rathbone and "She's Eclectic" exhibitions which are two exhibitions showing the life works of women. I thought that these exhibitions combined with the room on women, who contributed to the founding of University of Liverpool, really complement one another and can challenge what is seen as a white male dominated industry.
My favourite piece from the exhibition is one by Fiona Banner entitled "Runway Show" which she made in 2017. This piece is made of an airplane part with words written on it. This piece is quite interesting in that the concept and title connect with one another, the text printed onto this aircraft piece looks at models in the fashion industry and how they are treated and connects this to a runway in an airport. Fiona Banner uses text and objects to connect together technology and models, this piece is very inspiring in today's society where a lot of young girls aspire to be these models who are made to be something they are not. I talk more about this gallery in an exhibition review I did which can be found here.
Wakefield
11/03/2019
Today we went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park which was full of contemporary pieces, some of which were quite obscure and others which were interesting and beautiful. Yorkshire Sculpture Park changes their exhibitions quite often which is impressive considering how big some of them are. It was amazing to see artwork interacting with nature and the effect they have on one another. For example one piece was of a naked woman which was quite distorted (shown bottom left), this reminded me of the idea of mother nature and that women are at the centre of peace, nature and life. Another piece which was interesting to look at was of a rabbit with a human's body (middle left), the light shone through the space in-between the wire and it looked almost as if it were glowing. This piece is almost as if the artist is saying animals and humans are one, which I agree with, and think is very powerful especially in a time where the consumption/development of animal products is affecting the climate which humans need to survive. There was another one which commented on border control and immigrants who wish to enter countries to escape terrors happening in their own. This piece said "NO BORDERS JUST HORIZONS ONLY FREEDOM" (middle right) it was on a stand and is a very strong statement. It was quite hard to see as it was made with a white material but this may have been the point of the piece. This piece is neon and is vibrant at night against the dark background. This piece was a part of a series by Hilary Jack called "No Borders", her work look at human interaction. There were some pieces which blended into their surroundings, including those shown bottom right. These were hard to identify and when you did it was amazing to see the detail in the figures, again showing humans and nature as one. The idea that they are naked and bear shows how much they connect to their surroundings and how we should see nature, animals and humans as one and treat them one in the same.
I also included a few photographs of the sculpture park which I thought were visually pleasing underneath the in detailed photographs.
Crosby Beach
Southport
28/03/19
Today we went to Crosby to see the Iron Men, a group of 100 cast iron sculptures created by Antony Gormley as a part of a project called "Another Place". This has been shown in multiple places including Norway, Germany and more recently & permanently Crosby Beach, Merseyside. At first, the sculptures look like people which can be quite alarming but when getting up close you can see that they are all the same figure and just sculptures. Well, to begin with they were but now a lot of them have changed due to the impact of the ocean. For example some of them have a small amount of barnacles of them whereas other are covered. There are also ones which have been moved either due to the impact of the waves or the sand beneath them. There has been some controversy over this project and many questions are raised surrounding them. For example, Would they be able to be shown if they were of female bodies? What is the impact of name of the sculptures "another place" and them looking out to see have to do with each other? Do they suggest alternate realities? Are there any environmental problems surrounding these sculptures? There have also been many feminist and trans readings on these as they don't have representation within the project. Overall, I really enjoyed going to see the Iron Men at Crosby Beach and seeing 100 of these men looking out almost contemplating life and the future.
Walker Art Gallery
Liverpool
Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Making the Glasgow Style
08/04/19
Today we visited the Charles Mackintosh Exhibition at The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool which is celebrating 150 years since Mackintosh was born. Charles Rennie Mackintosh was an artist/architect who was practicing in Glasgow around the early 1980's. During the 1980's the only art nouveau movement existed in Glasgow also known as the "Glasgow style". I really liked the work of "The Four" or "The Immortals", which was an artistic group consisting of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, James Herbert McNair, Margaret MacDonald and Frances MacDonald. All of their work was shown in the exhibition, one in particular which was amazing was by Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh entitled The May Queen, 1990 (shown below). This piece was made with gesso on hessian over a wood frame with scrim, twine, glass beads, thread, mother-of-peral, tin leaf and metal pins, seeing it in person really showed how detailed and intricate the painting really is.
Another aspect of the exhibition which was really interesting was the posters that were made to advertise the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. These posters were made by "The Four" and was following the Glasgow style but was also seen to be quite spooky. "The Four" including symbols of the Glasgow rose and an arched flying bird in these posts which was how people could identify their work (bottom left).
I noticed that a lot of the work I pictured and paid attention to was by Margaret MacDonald, for example another one of her pieces resembled a sketch for a possible stained glass window entitled "Summer", 1894 (bottom right).
Another piece I thought was very intriguing and beautiful was the "Furniture and light fitting from the Chinese Room, Ingram Street Tearooms", 1911 and "Panelling section from the Chinese Room with cash desk, Ingram Street Tearooms", 1911. These were designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and developed by James Grant, Francis Smith and Andrew Hutcheson. The styles resemble that of Japanese and Chinese art styles but also include western style which comes from Mackintosh.
Overall, I enjoyed this exhibition and am really interested in the work of Margaret MacDonald and how talented she was with all types of materials and mediums.
The Castle Fine Arts Foundry
Liverpool, Baltic Triangle
09/04/19
The Castle Arts Foundry in Liverpool is dedicated to sculpture, more specifically the bronzing side of it. We had an in depth talk about the process of making bronze sculptures as well as being able to see some of their previous works including a sculpture of Mohammed Ali, Abraham Lincoln and a current piece that is related to one we saw at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. First, they start off by making a mould and then a wax cast and ultimately end with a bronze casting of the original mould. If we look below, we can see a mould on the far left which is the beginning of the whole process, next they would make a wax cast of it. It was really interesting to see how they make these sculptures as well as seeing how talented everyone is who works there - as they make it look so easy, but you can see how much work goes into every stage. They also mentioned that they do a 'Free Wax' project which gets people to look into working with wax and they make the bronze cast for a certain price, more information can be found here.
Tate Exchange
Tate Liverpool
11/04/19
Today, we went to The Tate as a part of the Contemporary Art Module for the Tate Exchange. The Tate Exchange is a interactive exhibition as well as a chance for people to collaborate and test new ideas.
We looked at Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant's Famous Women Dinner Party. Before we went to The Tate, we had to do some research into one of the women included in the Famous Women Dinner Service catalogue. There are four categories in this piece: Beauties, Queens, Women of Letters, and Dancers & Actresses. I looked at the Queen section and researched about the Queen of Sheba. We then presented on the women and looked around the exhibition as well as some of the plates made by master students which included women like JK Rowling, Jo Cox, Emma Watson, Stacey Dooley and other political figures.
The Queen of Sheba
The Queen of Sheba was the ruler of the kingdom of Sheba (Saba) in approximately 1000 BCE in south western Arabia. This woman appears in a lot of religious texts including the Quran and the Hebrew Bible. In the Qu'ran, The Queen of Sheba is described as very powerful and equal to the men. In the story shown in the Qu'ran, she had sent presents to Solomon, a so called 'King' and if he accepted these he would be a true King as Kings are often interested in presents. She was testing him to see if he truly was a King or if he was a prophet. She presented/gifted him with 500 selected slaves and 500 slave maids. The slave men were clothed in dresses and styled with earrings which were considered feminine jewellery. The female slaves were dressed in mens clothing and big hats. Along with this, she sent a hand written letter saying that if he really was a prophet he would recognise or distinguish the women from the men. As well as sending all of this she sent horses and lots of jewellery. The Queen of Sheba knew that if Solomon's look was wrathful as soon as they arrived, he was a King and if he received them kindly, he was a prophet. This story is what The Queen of Sheba is known for as well as her ability to identify whether a man was a King or a Prophet.
In present day, she is seen as an exotic and mysterious woman. This is shown a lot in European Art, especially within Christian Art, going all the way back to medieval times to present day. For example, a 12th century stained glass windows featured in Canterbury Cathedral shows the story of Solomon and The Queen of Sheba. There are works made in all different mediums including metalworks, ceramics, needlework & tapestries, pictorial art, architecture as well as literature, plays, music, film and some Ethiopian art. However, The Queen of Sheba is most prominent in Islamic Art including metalwork and manuscripts. A full list of all the art work The Queen of Sheba is featured in can be found on this website: The Queen of Sheba Artwork.
Stained Glass Window at Canterbury Cathedral, 12th Century, King Solomon receiving gifts from The Queen of Sheba, [image] Available at: http://britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-7/famous-women [Accessed on Apr 13. 2019]
Screenshot from Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant's Famous Women Dinner Service, The Queen of Sheba [image] Available at: http://britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-7/famous-women [Accessed on Apr 13. 2019]
