Heidi Bucher

Kleines Glasportal, Bellevue Kreuzlingen 
(Small glass portal, Bellevue Kreuzlingen), 1988

"Rooms are shells; rooms are skin" - Heidi Bucher

Whilst visiting the Yayoi Kusama exhibition I also caught this exhibition at the adjacent space Parasol Unit by Swiss artist Heidi Bucher (1926-1993). Kusama's show may have garnered all the media attention, but this exhibition was every bit as intriguing to me personally, as I was unaware of Bucher's art until this visit. Bucher worked in latex creating mysterious tactile casts from all manner of spaces and objects. I couldn't help but draw parallels between her work and that of Rachel Whiteread and Antony Gormley (whose casts Bucher pre-dates), who also create ghostly casts from architectural spaces, bodies and other objects. More obviously 3-D sculptural pieces such as Borg, also reminded me of the delicate, gauzy architectural environments of Do Ho Suh seen at Victoria Miro last year (here). Bucher creates her pieces from a gauzy fabric, as does Suh, but overlayed with latex to create a surface similar to a skin. Not surprisingly then Bucher called her casts Häutungen, or 'skinnings', and they certainly are like the scalped or flayed pelts of the spaces and subjects they represent, imbued with all of the pertinent memories and associations that the 'skinnings' carry. The preserved clothes in particular evoked times past and the once traditional domestic role of women, my own series of Dresses, and Joseph Beuys' Felt Suit,1970. The surfaces of some of the objects have mother-of-pearl ground into their latex surfaces giving them a beautiful, ethereal pearly opalescence. Bucher's oeuvre was a marvellous discovery.

Small Glass Portal, Detail

Borg, 1976

Parquet floor of the study in Winterthur-Wülflingen, 1979

 Installation view, upper gallery

Anna Mannheimer With Target, 1975

Der Schlüpfakt der Parkettlibelle, (Undergarment) 1983

Libellenkleid (Dragonfly costume object), 1976

 An undated photograph of Bucher wearing the Dragonfly Dress Costume
 

Das Bett, 1975

Mental Institution in Kreuzlingen – Schloss Bellevue (Window with shutters and shingles) Undated

Heidi Bucher
until 9th December
Parasol Unit
14 Wharf Road
London 
N1

Yayoi Kusama: The Moving Moment When I Went To The Universe

My Heart Is Dancing Into The Universe

Possibly the biggest art event in London since the London Mastaba and Frieze, is this exhibition at Victoria Miro. Such was the anticipation and demand specifically for the new Infinity Room installation that entry was timed and ticketed. The whole exhibition deals with Kusama's obsession with the cosmos and infinity expressed through her signature visual language - the polka dot.

Pumpkins

I still admire Kusama's pumpkins in both sculptural and painted form. Having seen them on a smaller scale earlier this year (here), I enjoyed the larger format paintings in this show which had a little more substance, and newer versions which were further abstracted and reduced to a series of dots. The obsessive, painstakingly minute scale of the painted dots, and the dedication to the nature of their execution was admiral, but quite troubling.You can see what I mean with the dot paintings below.

Flowers That Speak All About My Heart Given To The Sky

Outside on the terrace are large flower sculptures. I had my first encounter with one of Kusama's flower sculptures in Lille earlier this year, and like their fun, Pop Art qualities.

My Eternal Soul Paintings

I felt a little sorry for the paintings in this series in the upper gallery, as though colourful and large, they lacked the impact and theatrics of the Infinity Room insatllation and the Flowers. The Infinity Mirrored Room was of course the thing the majority had come to witness, and it didn't disappoint. It was an almost psychedelic experience, although too brief due to the long queues waiting for their turn in the room. Although all of the tickets for the Infinity Mirrored Room have been booked, I noticed that many people did not turn up for their booked spot on the day I visited, so visitors desperate to see the installation who missed out may stil be able to get access. Contact the gallery for availability and details of no-shows.

Yayoi Kusama: The Moving Moment When I Went To The Universe
until 21st December
Victoria Miro
16 Wharf Road
London
N1

Paris Encore!

So, autumn once more. And once again I find myself haunting the streets of Paris. Autumn in Paris is getting to become something of a habit! The big draw on this occasion was supposed to be a couple of blockbuster exhibitions that the museums and galleries of the French capital do so brilliantly at this time of year, but once more the navigating of Parisian avenues on foot, proved just as attractive a pursuit, and perhaps more than a match for any of the art. Losing myself in the back streets and Haussmann's boulevards was a wonderful distraction.

This sojourn began (as it always does) at Gare du Nord, where I couldn't resist capturing this 'melting house' sculpture. It is Maison Fond by Argentinian sculptor Leandro Erlich and is a pun on the similar sounding French terms - "maison fond" (house melts), and "mes enfant" (my children), and serves to remind us of climate change and the impermanence of the climate legacies that we leave our children.

With Paris being smaller in size than London, I preferred to traverse the city on foot, savouring the sights, so didn't take to the Paris Métro very often. The surviving Art Nouveau-era station entrances designed between 1910-1913 by Hector Guimard though, are gorgeous works of art. When I did venture underground however there was art of another kind, with torn, artistic interventions created by commuters on the Métro station platforms - #accidentally Mimmo Rotella/Jacques Villeglé.

Illuminated fish by Frank Gehry afloat and aloft at the Fondation Louis Vuitton.

A tempting seafood display at Bastille market, with mini Tour D'Eiffels and croissants.

Speaking of croissants - streets don't get any more French than this!

Shhh! This vast mural of Dalí is a fantastic landmark, but the thought of Tintin and Captain Haddock getting it on captured in another mural was both funny and disturbing.

More graffiti art on the streets versus art masterpieces in the Musée d'Orsay.

All roads led to the Centre Georges Pompidou...

...a perplexing proliferation of pipework, and Banksy's latest.

I wondered what the significance of the three bells was on this commercial property. I thought that they had religious connotations, or were perhaps a symbol of death, or then again maybe they are a reference to Les Trois Cloches - the song made popular by French chanteuse Édith Piaf (here).

A gilded Art Deco dazzler at the Folies Bergère

I love the bistros, bars and cafes, and how each has their own distinctive pattern designed into the cane chairs lining the pavements. This could only be Paris.

A legend among restaurants in the capital is Chartier, which opened in 1896 and is still going strong. I used to take my students there for their first taste of French cuisine and experience of French dining. The original interiors are lovely, and it remains a popular eatery with both locals and tourists alike in the 9th arrondissement.

The Palais Garnier Opéra, and other architectural gems.

William Blake experienced visions of angels on Peckham Rye, and I had a similar vision whilst wandering the 3rd arrondissement when I encountered this beautiful dream of an angel on the side of a building on a Haussmannian boulevard (above). Can you see her? Most people walk by totally oblivious. She is absolutely huge at nine metres tall, and was apparently designed in 1860 by art student Emile-August Delange.

Ornate gilding and verdigris on the fountains at the Place de la Concorde.

More gilding and classical figures representing the Nymphs of the Seine on the Pont Alexandre III bridge, the most ornate of the bridges spanning the river Seine.

Having crossed the mighty Seine I happened across this lovely mermaid beached, and used as one of a pair of doorhandles on a building adjacent to, and appropriately referencing the river.

Wandering a little further I came across another lovely allegory of the river in the female form of a water nymph, again washed up, and deposited onto the facade of another building situated on the banks of the Seine. Yet another thing of beauty to be discovered and appreciated in the City of Light. I look forward to an inevitable return for another walking tour in the near future. Vive La France!