joseph scissorhands

Sunday, 13 January 2019

Robert Rauschenberg: Spreads 1975-83

Untitled (Spread) - 1982

This is the first exhibition in the UK dedicated to Robert Rauschenberg's (1925-2008) Spreads series of artworks. Many of the works are executed on a large scale (the largest being over six metres wide), and follow on from and relate to his revolutionary Combines series (1954-64) in that they are hybrids of both his painting and sculptural practices. The canvas covered wood surfaces of the Spreads are heavily saturated with classic Rauschenberg screenprinted motifs, including the American flag, images from popular culture and nature, along with physical objects such as umbrellas, tyres, bed linen, clothing, mirrors, buckets and lights affixed. In lesser hands these collaged works could have ended up as a chaotic mess, but in his arrangements for the Spreads Rauschenberg maintains a sense of order, so that each piece achieves a considered cohesiveness. Rauschenberg's inventiveness in the construction of certain pieces from this series adds to their interest such as in Consul (Spread), where he curves the picture surface making it appear to have slipped off the wall and rest on the floor, and Sky Marshall (Spread), where he purposefully interrupts the picture plane by folding the construction in half. There is much movement in these collages and their dense imagery. The eye flickers across the surfaces as if one is watching television, or a series of adverts. Asked about his use of the term "Spread", Rauschenberg responded that it meant "as far as I can make it stretch, and land (like a farmer's 'spread'), and also the stuff you put on toast." This is such a punchy, strong show of important works. Having missed his 2016 Tate Modern retrospective it was a real pleasure to catch this show and be reminded of just why Rauschenberg's place is so important in the history of art.

Installation view

Palladian Xmas (Spread) - 1980

Consul (Spread) - 1980

Clipper (Spread) - 1977

Clipper (Spread), detail - 1977

Shroud - 1979

Untitled, 1981

Sentinel - 1979

Untitled - 1980

Reflex - 1979

Vallet - 1979

Lipstick (Spread) - 1983

Lipstick (Spread), detail - 1983

Rumour (Spread) - 1980

Rumour (Spread), detail - 1980

Ruby Re-Run (Spread) - 1978

Sky Marshall (Spread) - 1978

Bough (Spread) - 1980

Bough (Spread), detail - 1980

Half a Grandstand (Spread) - 1978

Half a Grandstand (Spread), detail - 1978

Untitled (Spread) - 1982

Robert Rauschenberg: Spreads 1975-83
until 28th January
Thaddaeus Ropac
Ely House
37 Dover Street
London

Tuesday, 8 January 2019

Chiharu Shiota: Me Somewhere Else

Me Somewhere Else, 2018

I have long admired the stunning thread installation works of Chiharu Shiota, but have had to be content with doing so from a distance via the convenience of the internet. Shiota has represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 2015 (here), featured at Paris's Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche department store in 2017 (here), and Yorkshire Sculpture Park last year (here). I had not sadly had the chance to enjoy their complexities first-hand until the situation was remedied this winter when she presented her first installation with Blain Southern at their Hanover Square gallery. It was so wonderful to experience this site-specific installation and become entangled in the complex, engrossing, knot of webs Shiota weaves with thread. The colour red seems to figure most prominently in Shiota's aesthetic, and the saturated blood red intensity of this colour only serves to add to the drama of her installations. Like Yayoi Kusama's recent exhibition - The Moving Moment When I Went To The Universe, (here), Shiota here is concerned with aspects of consciousness, and our personal relationships, and sense of connectedness to others on this planet and to the greater cosmos. She also uses the huge net and its knotted connections as a metaphor for the nervous system, and the connections of the complex neuron network within the brain.

"I feel that my body is connected to the universe, but is my consciousness as well? When my feet touch the earth, I feel connected to the world, to the universe that is spread like a net of human connections, but if I don't feel my body anymore where did I go? Where do I go? Where do I go when my body is gone? When my feet do not touch the ground anymore."

The main installation consists of a vast, hand-knotted web of red yarn, which on reflection looks as if it could have been spun by one of Louise Bourgeois's huge Maman spider sculptures. The tangled mass of net narrows to a funnel of threads, and beneath the funnelled yarns are a pair of sculpted feet (cast from the artists' own feet), grounding and earthing the piece. It is an immersive, gorgeous artwork which casts ethereal shadows. The other pieces in this exhibition by Shiota are no less intriguing, especially State of Being (Dress), which has a fairytale quality to it, possibly of an enchanted princess, who having befallen a malevolent witch's curse becomes trapped in a black web, waiting for her hero to come and free her by breaking the threads and therefore the spell. In this respect I choose to imagine Shiota at work weaving in her Berlin studio, cast as the Lady of Shalott from Tennyson's eponymous poem who also wove magical webs. Other pieces in the exhibition feature maps, and pages from books of sculpture similarly encased in thread which also tell their own beguiling tales. Shiota's works are also reminiscent of those of Christo and Jean-Claude which too are physically bound, wrapped and shrouded in an air of mystery. Shiota weaves a special kind of magic. Shiota has me spellbound.

In the Hand, 2018

State of Being (Dress), 2018

State of Being (Dress), 2018 (details)

Skin, 2018

Skin, 2018 (details)

State of Being (Anatomy), 2018

State of Being (Anatomy), 2018 (detail)

In the downstairs gallery Blain Southern presents the equally enchanting -

Jonas Burgert: schlagen und bleiben

An exhibition which focuses solely on a series of beautifully executed fanciful drawings from the artists oeuvre. Drawing is a vital discipline which, judging by exhibitions seen last year appears to be coming back into fashion. The slightly other-worldly characters that inhabit these works look as though they could have been inspired by or inhabit the fantasy fiction works by such authors as J. R. R. Tolkien, or J. K. Rowling.