Dark Matters Review
Well I went to see one of the current exhibitions at Whitworth Art Gallery, Oxford Road, Manchester. Very interesting it was, the whole concept on which this exhibition is based is quite relaxing. The basis being about shadows, darkness and illusion which is what this exhibition defiantly has a lot of. When arriving at the exhibition i was quite disappointed at the fact of not being able to photograph this fantastic art for my own references. Although the displays themselves are still worth seeing in person.
The whole concept of Dark Matters is combining old with new media through cutting edge digital technology, optical illusions and proto cinematic. Brass Art made up of Chara Lewis, Kristin Mojsiewicz and Anneke Pettican relates to the phantasmagoria which was an 18th century theatre using a magic lantern to project frightening moving images on the surrounding walls like skeletons, ghosts and demons. This effect was used in the Dark Matters exhibition with all lot of figures and patterns made from cello tape and clear film displayed on a table which has a lamp that moves continuously around the table and in turn projecting these figures and images on the surrounding wall, Very interesting to see this for real, the whole concept seemed kind of surreal, the careful positioning of these shapes seemed unusual when looking at them direct but when you looked at the walls and the bigger picture it was really fascinating how it took shape and how there was what appeared as a lady holding a cloud effect and a horse that seemed to be galloping around the room and plenty of other interesting pieces which seemed to fill all the surrounding walls.
The best bit for me had to be the careful positioning of four black carpets which gave the visual effect of a gentle rhythmic flow being projected onto the carpets. This effect really does have a relaxing side to it, the softness from the sways which were described as waves but i overheard 1 couple described it as turbulent and miserable. My own experience of it was relaxing, calming and gentle while still having depth. There was quite a lot of pictures exhibiting and all had their own look of depth as well, I particularly liked The Devil's Kitchen - Mountain by George Fennel Robson 1788-1833, It just looked so beautiful the whole drop of the mountain and the way the scenery just blended in, the colour's used worked so well together now i would buy that image for myself.
Antony Gormley has Etching displayed which appears to be just a cream coloured smudge of paint on black card, but only on close inspection could i see the etching in the way the black seemed to be exploding from the cream colour. Anish Kapoor - Blackness From The Womb, now the colours used in this are amazing even though there was only two colours in total, the colour, the feel, the flow all was perfect and enhancing. The snow mirror totally amazing, its fantastic how technology has advanced and this is a prime example, Its so clever how just a piece of suspended fabric can incorporate the viewers image upon it, all the while simply looking like snow flakes. The whole experience was great for both myself and my family and it seems to describe Darkness, Truth, Morality and Wonder in a fantastic way, it certainly produced a lot of awe.
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Articulate
This was an exhibition of students work for art and humanities courses. It was at Burnley and I visited it with Emma to get an idea of the sorts of work that was being created by other students. I found it very interesting the way they chose to utilise the space with their displays of work. I particularly liked the work and set up of the Eye surgery by one of the student. There were a lot of interesting displays and a whole range of ideas expressed in one room. The work of Adams i could appreciated as you could tell he had spent a long time printing those images and the detail in them were excellent. I really liked his simple yet effective way of exhibiting his work with the use of a line and pegs, I thought this suit the images as they were based on an elderly person and it was easy to relate the idea to her. There was also an interesting display of heads which i found quite surreal, they had proper teeth by the looks of them and they presented a feeling of uneasiness which was strange but yet still interesting. Going to the exhibition certainly gave me a few idea's to help me out in year 2 and I'm sure by going to more exhibitions it will broaden my knowledge a whole lot more.
