Mike Nelson: Extinction Beckons

22 Feb –⁠ 7 May 2023 Hayward Gallery

British Pavilion – Venice Art Biennale – 2011

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 gallery upstairs contains a few pieces like the below part of the Asset Strippers group, you can read more here : https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/mike-nelson

The Assets Strippers

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 🙂 )

The Amnesiacs (1996-today)

Exhibition is closing on month 7th of March sadly, otherwise I would highly recommend it. I don’t know how long this link will be good bu tyou can check : https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/art-exhibitions/mike-nelson-extinction-beckons?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyP2zldDE_QIVEO7tCh2pGgtiEAAYASAAEgLW0PD_BwE

(All shots Leica M262+ Summicron 50mmV2, except Triple Buff Canyon shot with 35mmF3.5 ltm summaron, 2011 shot was Nikon D700+Nikkor 50mm1.8D)

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STPI Open day and Takashi Murakami: From Superflat to Bubblewrap

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.

 

SINGAPORE NATIONAL GALLERY – Part 2

This is a follow up of the last post;

As this was the first outing of the year,  I could not resist bringing along a second camera, the Nikon F photomnic with the original 50mmF1.4 non AI.

When I did the write up of the film shots of 2015, I noticed the Nikon F only went out of the box once and this is not fair, I have some interesting lenses that can attach to it and it should hit the road more often this year.

The batteries from the stock seems to be still working; I pulled from the fridge a roll of Rollei retro 80s. This is the first time I use this film, I read you can shoot it at 100. This film is expired for a bit more than a year, but sitting in the fridge that probably does not matter. When I bought the Nikon F  a few years back I grabbed two measuring prisms and both although far from mint provide accurate measuring, at least as good as the handled meter.

Same as for the Hasselblad shots, all the pictures are made handheld, the 50mm is the equivalent of the 80mm Planar on the Hassie, not the best for architecture shot, but both cameras are already quite heavy so I could not consider bringing another lens (anyway the wider I have with the connection prong is 35mm).

The Rollei film performed quite well. It has as expected fine grain, it is quite contrasty, the scanning is easy as the negs are quite flat, the film has an odd blueish tint. Some of the shots have some deep blacks, and nice grays. The measuring seems to be not always on, but maybe it is more due to the meter of the F than to the characteristics of the film. This film seems to show some character and I’ll get some more when I can. I’ll probably test with another camera, the EOS1M which has better metering capabilities.

There is not much more to add about the National Gallery from my last post, maybe that the place boasts a few restaurants (at least 3 or 4) and the prime minister of Singapore was treating a Princess of Thailand the way we visited.

 

Singapore National Gallery

The first outing of 2016 of the Singapore Photowalkers(SGPW) organized by Bernard Goh was at the newly opened National Gallery. An opportunity to bring out the Hasselblad and a roll of Rollei RPX 25Iso that I imagined well suited for Architecture.

The National Gallery is a museum displaying local collections, in a new building mixing contemporary architecture and two buildings form the colonial Area: the city hall an dthe high court.

Inside and outside the mix of the two style is visible.

Tripods are not allowed inside so all shots are handheld around 1/60s at F4. The film is very easy to scan with the old Epson V500 and the lab did not do a bad job with it.

I can let you judge the results.

I also shot a roll of Rollei Retro 400s which turned out to be so badly underexposed it is unusable. If is the second roll now, shall I blame the lab or the film? Actually I also manage to screw up another roll of 400s in the EOS1N, but I pushed that one by 1 stop. In doubt I’ll stay away from if from now on.