“Whether Nick Cave’s efforts qualify as fashion, body art or sculpture…they fall squarely under the heading of Must Be Seen to Be Believed.” Roberta Smith, The New York Times

Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth, until May 30, 2010 at the Fowler Museum, UCLA, USA. —is the largest presentation of work by Chicago-based artist Nick Cave (not that one), featuring thirty-five of his “Soundsuits”—multi-layered, mixed-media sculptures named for the sounds made when the “suits” are performed.

Evocative of African, Caribbean and other ceremonial ensembles as well as haute couture, Cave’s work explores issues of transformation, ritual, myth and identity through a layering of references and virtuosic construction, using materials as varied as yarn, beads, sequins, bottle caps, vintage toys, rusted iron sticks, twigs, leaves, and hair. Mad, humorous, visionary, glamorous and unexpected, the Soundsuits are created from scavenged ordinary materials and objects from both nature and culture, which Cave re-contextualizes into extraordinary works of art. The Fowler is the first LA-area museum to feature Cave’s work and the only Southern California venue for this traveling exhibition.

The Fowler presentation of this exhibition holds particular meaning for the artist and for Los Angeles because Cave’s first Soundsuit was sparked by the civil unrest in Los Angeles in 1992 following the acquittal of the officers involved in the Rodney King beating. The Soundsuits almost always cover the whole body, erasing the identity of the wearer. Thus, the Soundsuits can be understood as coats of armor, shielding Cave from the day-to-day prejudice he encounters as an African American man, and facilitating a transformation into an invented realm of vibrant associations and meanings.

“In addition to this particular relevance for Los Angeles, Nick Cave’s Soundsuits resonate with many of the genres of global art for which the Fowler is known, including African masquerade ensembles, Haitian Vodou beaded flags, Carnival costumes and examples from our vast textile collections,” says Marla C. Berns, Shirley & Ralph Shapiro Director of the Fowler Museum. “This presentation is one in a succession of solo shows focusing on works by artists that speak to the Museum’s collections and exhibition history and highlight our capacity to provocatively consider interdisciplinary international work.” Other such artists with recent solo exhibitions at the Fowler are El Anatsui, Franco Mondini-Ruiz, Samta Benyahia and Edouard Duval-Carrié.

For this exhibition, Cave also employs animal imagery in ways as complex and multi-layered as the human-based suits. While conjuring the spiritual strength and power of animal totems used in ancient rituals from around the world, Cave’s Soundsuits also become vessels of transformation, and seek to connect us to the earth and the animals around us. Using wit and humor and a fanciful sensibility, Cave’s Soundsuits beg us to pay attention and to dream of a different future.

“To me, everything outside of myself is community. I don’t see myself as an artist but as a humanitarian using art to create change. My hope is that these new Soundsuits will cause people to find ways to live with each other, extend our compassion to other communities, and take care of our natural resources. If I can create an opportunity to bring people of all creeds, identities, and interests together, then I am doing my work,” said Nick Cave.

A video montage of the suits being worn in performance will give viewers a sense of the cacophony of sounds and sensations that are integral to the work. In addition, the Fowler is partnering with dancers and choreographers in UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures to create a series of performance-interventions (termed by Nick Cave’ Soundsuit Invasions’) in and around Los Angeles that will animate a special set of wearable Soundsuits. Times and locations for these Soundsuit Invasions will be announced via the Fowler’s Fowler’s Twitter feed and Facebook page

About Nick Cave
Cave received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1982 and MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1989. He studied fiber art, but is committed to a broad spectrum of interests and disciplines. Cave is an associate professor and chairman of the Fashion Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he teaches in the Fiber Arts Program. He has led workshops on topics such as Extending the Body: Experiments in Clothing and has designed, manufactured, and marketed his own line of men’s and women’s clothing. He has received numerous awards including the United States Artist Fellow Award (2006) and Joyce Award (2006), and his work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and Europe.

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These presentations by Lawrence Lessig on Free Culture, corruption, Net Neutrality, privacy, cyberlaw, copyright, RESPONSIBILITY and Democratic politics, should be seen by every Modern mind. And every Modern mind should reflect on them. We, the people, still have the power.

Presentation made at the OpenVideoAlliance Webside Chat on February 25, 2010.

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Opening: Thursday 11 February at 6:30pm
12 February – 10 April
Admission free
To launch the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Alliance Française in Dublin, a collection of acclaimed work by the important Irish artist Seán Hillen will be shown for the first time in Dublin since the 1990’s.
Best known for his ‘Irelantis’ series, where competing myths and visions cohabit a deliciously witty montage, Hillen is one of the most significant artists of his generation.
Hillen has also undertaken sculptural pieces, most recently the Omagh Bomb Memorial which has received both popular and critical acclaim.
As the ‘Irelantis’ images have come to be seen as the most vivid and emblematic expression of the dreams and anxieties of ‘Celtic Tiger’ Ireland, his works from the ‘Troubles’ era, based on his own gritty photographs, have become more widely-known internationally and are now studied as masterworks of the medium.

The ‘Irelantis’ images have since burrowed deep into Irish culture, appearing on nearly 20 book covers and in this exhibition the public will get a rare opportunity to see several of the delicate almost miniature original collages, together with a selection of a new definitive edition of archival prints.

From the book’s introduction by Fintan O’Toole
“Seán Hillen’s Irelantis images are maps of a world in which the imagination is part
of reality, the visual equivalent of the sound the sun makes as it sinks into the sea.
As soon as they strike the eye, Hillen’s collages also hit whatever remains of
the bold child within us. They have the lawless energy that impels people to draw
moustaches on photographs of the Mona Lisa, or to decorate mundane stories with fantastic lies…”

A full colour catalogue presenting the exhibited work will be available for sale at the Alliance Française.

Check also
Sean Hillen: http://www.seanhillen.com
Irelantis: http://www.irelantis.com

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The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

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Opening: November 25, 6.30pm. Exhibition continues until January 24 2010.

The Gallery of Photography is proud to present the premiere showing of a new body of work by Jackie Nickerson, one of the foremost photographic artists working today. In ‘Ten Miles Round’, Jackie Nickerson (Winner of the AIB Prize) explores the predominately rural community around her home in coastal Co Louth. In large-scale colour landscapes and portraits, she builds a psychological portrait of her community. The landscapes challenge conventional notions of the picturesque, offering instead a more engaged view of the land. Through Nickerson’s lens, muddy, rutted lanes and straggly hedgerows are imbued with the quiet poetry of the everyday. People and place are united by the distinctive, cloud-filtered, northern light. Infused with a subtle grace, the work is a profound meditation on what it is, and how it feels, to belong.

A full-colour 48-page catalogue accompanies the exhibition. It features 17 exquisitely reproduced images and an essay by Aidan Dunne. It is available in the Gallery Bookshop, price €10. The photographs are all lightjet digital c-prints mounted on dibond and framed. Each piece is available for sale in a limited edition of 3.

Artist’s Talk: Jackie Nickerson will talk about her work, on Wednesday December 2nd at 1.15pm in the Gallery. Admission free, all welcome.

About the artist: In 2008, Jackie Nickerson was nominated by the Gallery of Photography for the AIB Prize, which she won. Much coveted, the AIB Prize is one of the major art awards in Europe and identifies artists of exceptional talent. She won the Curtin O’Donoghue prize in 2009 and has been shortlisted for the John Kobal award and nominated for several prestigious prizes such as the Becks Futures Award and the Prix Pictet. In 2002, Jonathan Cape published FARM, a book of portraits of farm workers taken all over southern Africa and in 2008 SteidlMACK published Faith which captures Catholic religious communities in Ireland. Her work is represented in many important public and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin and the Santa Barbara Museum. She is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

All events and access to the Gallery are free.

For further information, press scans or to interview the artist, contact The Gallery of Photography

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Henry Jenkins is the director, Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT. In this viral-info-snack he discusses the power of media in a 21 century trans-mediated world. A world where converging technologies and cultures give rise to a new media landscape.

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Picturing New York comprises 150 masterworks from the photographic collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, covering the period from the 1880s to the present day. It celebrates the tradition of photographing New York, a tradition that frames and influences the perception of this vibrant urban centre. Including photographs by such influential photographers as Berenice Abbot, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, Lisette Model, Alfred Stieglitz and Cindy Sherman, it explores both New York and its inhabitants, highlighting associations – from the vast, overwhelming architecture and bright lights, to the diversity of people that lie at the soul of the city.

The photographs reveal New York as a city of contrasts and extremes through images of towering blocks and tenements, party-goers and street-dwellers, hurried groups and solitary individuals. Picturing New York demonstrates the symbiosis between the city’s progression from past to present and the evolution of photography as a medium and as an art form. Additionally, these photographs of New York contribute significantly to the notion that the photograph, as a work of art, is capable of constructing a sense of place and a sense of self.

Picturing New York: Photographs from The Museum of Modern Art is organised by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and is travelling under the auspices of the International Council of MoMA. It is curated by Sarah Meister, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings at MoMA. The exhibition will also be  presented at La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (26 March to 14 June 2009) and the Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy, (11 July to 11 October  2009).

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue produced by Thames & Hudson which includes a foreword by Enrique Juncosa, Director, IMMA, an essay by the curator Sarah Meister, and text by notable New Yorkers.

via IMMA

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Joachim. From the exhibition "Under a Grey Sky" at the Gallery of Photography, Dublin, October - November 2009. © Simon Burch

Exciting new work by emerging and established Irish photographers will be displayed at this year’s Photo Rencontres in Arles, France, the biggest event of the international photography calendar.

Supported by the Arts Council and Culture Ireland, the Gallery of Photography is presenting an exciting showcase of Irish photographic talent at the International Photo Rencontres in Arles, France.

The packed programme includes solo presentations by four leading photographers, and a specially curated group show, providing fascinating insights into the social landscape of new Ireland. The featured works are:

Noel Bowler – ‘Iman’. An exploration of the ethnic diversity of Islam in Ireland
Eoin O Conaill – ‘Common Place’. New colour landscapes from throughout Ireland.
Simon Burch – ‘Under a Grey Sky’. Landscapes and portraits from the boglands of the mid-West.
Jackie Nickerson – ‘DOMICILE’. A psychological portrait of a small community in County Louth.

The solo presentations are complemented by a specially-curated group exhibition, ‘Home Economics’. It features seven of the most promising of the next generation of Irish photographic artists, Ciarán Óg Arnold, Martin Cregg, Aislinn Delaney, Peter Doyle, Garvan Gallagher, Kevin Griffin and Daniel Scully. ‘Home Economics’ brings together a vibrant and diverse series of works, which portray the complexity of Ireland’s social transformation during and after the Celtic Tiger years.

The exhibitions will be presented at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles, France on July 10th 2009.
Venue: 9, Rue du Roure, La Roquette, Arles.
Press reception: July 10th 2009, 9pm.

Supported by Culture Ireland and the Arts Council.

For further information, press scans or to interview the artist, please contact: Tanya Kiang, Gallery of Photography 353-1-6714654, tanya@galleryofphotography.ie

via galleryofphotography.ie

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Just go and read after the jump this Review: David Stubbs, ‘Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don’t Get Stockhausen’

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