A Trip to Tate Modern

Visited Tate Modern to see a couple of the displays. First up was this very industrial looking installation by Abraham Cruzvillegas in the Turbine Hall which consists of a series of triangular wooden planters layed out in a geometric design. The planters are filled with earth taken from a variety of parks across London, and will be left to see what grows in the earth by the time the installation closes next April. It's not the most visually compelling installation, but the concept is intriguing. The geometric layout of the triangular planters form pleasing patterns but it remains to see what the soil will actually yield come next spring when the display closes.

I was pleasantly surprised to come across a room of Rebecca Horn's work. Her feather pieces are fantastic and I shall be featuring her butterfly pieces in a future edition of my Butterflies Through Others Eyes series.

Elements of Rebecca Horn's work are fetishishtic and erotic. These feather mask works are intimate and look wonderful when worn. I did not get the title of the feathered dress above, but the video of the layers of feathers rising and falling when the dress is worn is amazing.

Rebecca Horn - Cockfeather Mask - 1973

Rebecca Horn - Cockatoo Mask - 1973

Jacques Villeglé - Jazzmen 1961

I paid a visit to the Torn Papers and Walls Paper room as I absolutely love the torn collage work of Jacques Villeglé and Mimmo Rotella. The ripped, textural layers are beautiful as is the random nature and juxtapositions of type and colour.

Mark Bradford - Riding The Cut Vein 2013

I also like the work of Mark Bradford who also uses salvaged posters in his work, and then works into them with a variety of tools to create arial map and grid like works reminiscent of the neighborhoods where he found the posters.

Gordon Matta-Clark - Walls Paper 1972

These interested me. They are wallpaper and paint patterns taken from derelict homes in the Bronx, which the artist took photographs of to then make his own wallpaper installation.

Mathias Goeritz - Message 1959

I was seduced by the gloss and reflective surface of this golden minimalist piece - Message (1959), by Mathias Goeritz. I've also been working with lots of gold leaf this year so it really appealed to me, and I liked watching the shadows of visitors glide across the golden surface as they walked past it.

Christmas Commissions

I have been fielding enquiries about my Butterfly Balls and I'm currently working on fulfilling commissions for these. Each Butterfly Ball is unique as each contains a different configuration of both butterflies, and the coloured papers each butterfly is made from. If you would like to commission a piece of work such as a Butterfly Ball (or any of the other pieces that I create) as a Christmas present, then please submit your order by the 7th December so that I can order frames and ensure delivery in time for Christmas. 

Butterfly Balls (and other pieces that I make), can be ordered directly from myself (here), Cambridge Contemporary Art (here), and Orso Major, (here). The Rowley Gallery at the time of writing this has one Butterfly Ball in stock for purchase, as does Orso Major and also Romeo Jones in Dulwich, who are currently hosting an exhibition of my work until the end of the year.

I also have work in Cambridge Contemporary Art's Christmas show which continues until Christmas Eve.

Recent Commissions

Lovely, recent large-scale commissions incorporating colourful papers, gold/silver leaf, and paper currencies which have flown out to their new homes in corporate collections in London, New York and South Africa. The silver piece is entitled Interstice, another large, gold version (below), is available for purchase from The Rowley Gallery.
 

Roberto Cavali Papillon range

I saw these really striking Papillons textile designs on homewares by the Roberto Cavali fashion house recently. 

Very similar to the inspirational prints by E A Seguy (above), whose work I recently posted (here).

The Cavali Papillon homeware textile range also extends to tablecloths and duvet sets below.

Jean Dubuffet: Butterflies Through Others Eyes #15

Jean Dubuffet - Butterfly Wing Figure 1953

With the nights drawing in, and the trees having shed their leaves, I thought the muted colours in these two figurative butterfly wing collages by Dubuffet were suitably autumnal.

Jean Dubuffet - Butterfly Wing Figure 1953

Kaleidoscopes

Kaleidoscopes delivered to, and available from Orso Major. (Purple, orange and white versions also available).

Rafael Araujo: Butterflies Through Other Eyes #14

The work of Rafael Araujo - Butterflies and geometry. Winning combination.