I visited yesterday the very interesting exhibition “When Forms Come Alive” in Hayward Gallery in Southbank Centre in London. This is a contemporary sculpture exhibition centred on organic forms.
These are shots done during a visit to the exhibition Ai Weiwei: Making Sense in London’s Design Museum. All pictures were done with my Leica M262 and a WWII area Summitar 50mmF2.
Ai, as he is referred to through the exhibition, is a well known global artist, advocate for freedom of speech whose constant conflict with his home country makes the background of his work.
Untitled (hand made cannon balls made of Porcelain)
The change from hand craft to mass production, the speed of changes in China over the last 30 years, the rush to modernisation are all themes that are exploited in his work.
Lego and vintage Chinese woodworksGlass helmet
A lot of the work exposed are challenging the perspective between the actual way they were made and what hey represent. The construction site protective helmet is made of glass, the cushion of which it rests is in marble not foam.
The iron reinforcing concrete made of marble, the Iphone of cut-out jade.
Some pieces refers to recent events that happened in China, the rod to the collapse of badly build buildings, the snakes made of schoolbags to lives lost in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Some pieces like the glass, wood or metal seems to be realised in a very detailed and technical manner. Some others are closer to ready made like the broken porcelain tea pots and ceramics below.
250,000 porcelain spouts
Pieces of broken pottery salvaged from the destruction of Ai’s studio by the Chinese authorities in 2018
And one of the big pieces is an arrangements of Palaeolithic tools picked up on markets ( likely a single big market).
Below , the same shot with the Summitar wide open, showing the effect of selective focus.
If my memory serves me well, three selections of pictures are completing the exhibition, some of earlier works in Ai Wei Wei first atelier, some of the construction of the Nest for Beijing Olympics (Ai participated before withdrawing from the project), them a series about transforming landscape in Beijing Hutongs.
Nice show, but a bit short, worth visiting nonetheless.
I first saw Mike Nelson work in the 2011 Venice Biennale where he was occupying the British Pavilion, I quite enjoyed his set-up and particularly the dark room lit with red safety light.
Triple Buff Canyon , the woodshed (2004)
I must say to my shame that his name did not ring a bell when I saw the add for the exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London’s Southbank. But the picture of one of the artworks ( the one bove) was compelling enough to motivate me going.
Inside view of Triple Buff Canyon , the woodshed (2004)
Remnants of the Dark room were to be found both in a first piece looking like the artist storage room as the chandelier below.
But also in a recreation of the dark room itself, behind the dune of Tripple Buff Canyon
The main piece I think is maze of about 20 rooms, build with salvaged items, quite a bit of quite a bit of queue to get in as the space inside is quite narrow to get in.
The main room of the gallery, which is often the entrance of exhibition if today the last room to be visited. It offers a very striking piece with a 3D metal mesh holding concrete heads Studio Apparatus for Kunst Halle Munster.
Studio Apparatus for Kunst Halle Munster (2014)
A couple more interesting items can be found on the way out including a recreation of the artist studio in the early 2000’s (what a mess 🙂 )
Summer holidays are just a memory now and after much procrastination, here is one of the rolls shot in this happy time (12th Roll of the year)
This is a roll of Polypan 50 shot at 100 ISO with the faithful M6 Classic and some Cron or another but most probably the 50mm v5. I have asked the lab to push one stop as this roll was given to me quite a few years back now by a friend in Singapore.
The street scenes are shot in Ai- en-Provence where I spend a couple of days with my family in August. The sun was hitting pretty hard which is quite ok for a low speed film.
You already know I am not too technical, but here we go for the techie moment: The Polypan 50 lacks a anti-halation layer ( I think it means no protection from the light bouncing from the back of the camera); this makes it glow in some areas, making the images a bit old time and dreamy. I also quite like the rather profound blacks, although not as much as in the Rollei retro 80s.
The edges of the fountain are really glowing here you see what I mean.
Aix is quite picturesque, but the next day we went to Chateau Lacoste, a magnificent estate 40 minutes drive from Aix, with Michelin starred chef restaurants, a vineyard, an entrance building made by Tadao Ando and dozens of art works spread in the garden.
Yes the music pavilion was made by FRANK O. GEHRY
Oh no that’s just a barrel.
A beautiful tractorThe olive treeYes that’s a Richard LongMore treesA dirty spaceship Art work in progress
Really worth visiting, I ll post more shots in the next posts.
Oh I lost track of the Polypan roll, well I think it aged a bit it seems there are marks here and there that are not common to processing issues, so I guess this is a bit of an experimental roll. For such a slow speed film it is a bit grainy, but all in all I really like it.
One of the new things I wanted to visit in Paris was the recently opened (Summer 2021) Bourse du Commerce. Very briefly : this building which was originally a place to trade grain, has been leased by French billionaire Francois Pinault to host the art collection of its group (well a part only as he also owns similar exceptional place in Venice, you can check back my post about the Venice Biennale of 2017 and also some of the 2011 Biennale).
Beside its exceptional architecture and location in the hear of Paris, the bourse du commerce as it is today, also boasts two major attractions to my eye. A work by Tadao Ando, under the form of the concrete cylinder at the heart of the main exhibition hall. I have made a few posts about Tadao Ando in the past, you can for instance read about the church of light in Osaka here.
But also in this same hall is a masterpiece by swiss artist Urs Fisher, that I already saw in Venice in 2011.
On the outside the concrete cylinder, forms a galley where work of arts by Bertrand Lavier
The double spiralled staircase
The glass ceiling
All shots were done with the Leica M262 and I think the Elmar 50mm F3.5 (otherwise that’s the Summicron 35mm Asph vII, but Lightroom tells me its 50mm). One of the constraints I feel when shooting in big cities it to limit the kit I am carrying : I feel like it is a bit silly (lack of style, overly touristic, …) to carry too much gear in such occasion so I often carry a single body and a single lens for the day.
This year the STPI in Singapore had its open day during the Takashi Murakami exhibition “From Superflat to Bubblewrap“, this was the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
No need I think to introduce the iconic Japanese artist who uses manga like practice to depict modern Japan. I only had B&W film that day so I did not took many pictures of the art works.
Open days at the STPI (Former Singapore Tyler Print Institute) are always enjoyable, if you have young children they can discover and experiment various print practices, that also work it seems for teenagers and young adults alike.
For guys (or gals) with a camera, it is a nice opportunity to captures willing models engaged in not so common activities.
The STPI now positions itself as a gallery, aiming to promote the usage of print and paper mediums.
Artists shown in the gallery often have a collaboration with the print makers.
The smiling lady at the printing press has been working there for years, she is now an independent architect ; time flies.
All shots were done with the Leica M6 and Summicron 50mm on Kodak Tri X, at 400 ISO. genarally shot between F2 and F4 and 1/60s ro 1/12s. The film was processed by Ruby photo (or rather their usual contractor) and scanned at home on Epson v800 with Silverfast.
I generally convert the images to grey-scale and remove dust spots in Adobe Elements and adjust the contract and brightness in Lightroom.
The workshop can also be a treasure where odd objects can be found and pictured for eternity.
One of the DIY items of the week end was an STPI apron.
You can see picture of the last workshop I went to 4 years ago STPI at that time pictures were shot with Canon EOS 1N and 1.8 Canon lens.
One of the thinks I wanted to visit during my last trip to London was Barbican Center.
The estate is an example of Britsh Brutalist architecture built between the 1960s in an area once devastated by World War II bombings. Opened in 1969 and is now home to around 4,000 people living in 2,014 apartments. The residential estate consists of three tower blocks and 13 terrace blocks. You can read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbican_Estate
I cant remember having been there in my many trips to London when I was younger, I probably spent most of my time around Camden, Soho and Portobello road.
I finally reached the place on a rainy afternoon ; weather and timing were no really photography friendly. I did not take any film shots and I think I only used the 35 and 35 summicrons. I regret not having pulled out the M6 loaded with Tri-x from the bag, but it was really feeling cold and wet at the time
The place is really majestuous in its own way, it has been shot many times and its probably great for on location shots. The brutalist style is characterized by the usage of concrete on the outside parts of the buildings.
There are a lot of different constructions, passages and angles which can provide a great variety of subjects.
How to get there? Easy : Barbican is an underground stop on the Circle line, Hammersmith & City line and Metropolitan line.
A lot of details of the architecture and decoration are surely work a look as the lift lobby above (where does this flare come from?)
There are plenty of resources online about the estate, even some BBC programs about life in the estate.
All shots taken with Leica M262 and summicrons 28mm Asph v1 and 35mm Asph v2
Naoshima is an island town in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, it has been a long time project to go there, as it hosts several arts museum built by Tadao Ando as well as a famous hotel made by the same architect.
This year we finally made the trip to Osaka and on the way to Hiroshima we stopped at Naoshima. Getting there seems difficult at first, but in the end it is quite easy, you take the train either to Takamatsu or to Tamano and ferry to the island.
The Benese house hotel is full 6 months in advance so we had no chance to stay there. We then decided to sleep in Takamatsu and take a ferry for a day trip in Naoshima. Takamatsu is a secondary town, with a big hotel “JR Clement” (a bit expensive for what you get) and a few restaurants where you can manage in english. It also hosts the garden-museum of Isam Nogushi which is well worth the visit.
A day is Naoshima is probably enough, the Chichu museum hosts some art pieces made to measure and the Benese house museum has an awesome collection of modern and contemporary art. The Lee Ufan museum is also worth the visit, although less well know if you are not into minimalist art. We took a bus to the Chichu Museum with is the furthest palace from the ferry and walked our way back from there.
The subtle architecture of Tadao Ando is beautiful and invite to meditation. All the buildings are no photo, so you will see here no photos of the them. And I must say I did not miss being surrounded by people taking selfies, not that the place is packed though.
The rest of the island contains minor exhibitions in some traditional houses and some outdoors installations.
We spent a nicely filled 10 hours there and probably enjoyed most of it. Time to take the ferry back to Takamatsu
Pictures shot with Leica M262 and Summicron 28/35 or 50.
Last Sunday Mini Cooper sponsored a “street art” event in Joo Chiat area in East Singapore. I thought it was a good opportunity to go and burn some film.
I did not really read what it was about, but let s say that it brought some art in the streets and back alleys of Joo Chiat.
Windows of pastry shops got all rainbowed.
Best work in my opinion was the above by AikBeng Chia, a local photographer. Streets shots of the area print on T shirts set on the local version of drying lines.
The set-up of back alley sized sports facilities was also quite interesting.
While the lady above is responsible for the discreet weeds growing from the concrete pillars.
Finally the giant hopscotch above seemed to have been quite popular. I ran out of film when I got to the Tea bar. But I shot some 35mm with the M6, so it will be on a next post.
Joo Chiat is extraordinary even without Mini, an easy place to burn film
One roll of Cinestill 50D, shot at 50 ISO with Hasselblad 500Cm and Planar 80mm F2.8. I managed to get only 11 shots my Hassie back has a spacing problem.
The 50D is quite nice, fine grain, can pack a bit of punch even in this overcast weather. I used my old Gossen Bisix 2 meter (bought in 1989) which proved to still work quite well. Scanner is the Epson v800.
The Lion dance troupes from the Zhoujia style go each year to Bright Hill temple for Qingming celebration to honor their founder. The Zhoujia is a special form of Lion Dance, which is very energetic, founded in Singapore, there are very interesting videos on the history of this martial art, coming from the south China King-Fu. Mister Li, in his 80’s is he current master and the son (or grand son) of the founder
The Qingming or Ching Ming festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English (sometimes also called Chinese Memorial Day or Ancestors’ Day).
The troupes gather at the bottom of the slope getting up to one of the temple courtyards (for those who do not know Bright Hill temple, it is a massive compound), they run up one by one up the steep slope (and very sunny last week).
The lion dancers perform around the yard at the sound of drums and pray as different shrines before ending before a table laid with offerings. They then move aside and align waiting for the other troupes to parade as well. A total of 6 groups were present this day.
Afterwards there will be some common praying to the ancestor, Kung-Fu demonstration , a full minute of full strength drumming and a final tour.
One of the thinks I wanted to visit during my last trip to London was Barbican Center.
Waex99 PhotoBlog 