Pop life, the new exhibition at the Tate Modern, tackles the relationship between Art, the artist and the media/ market places that it is presented within. It dedicates itself to Warhol’s notion ‘Good business is the best art’ and shows those artists, post Warhol, who have turned themselves into products that we can buy into.

Greeted by Jeff Koon’s stainless steel Rabbit sculpture, Marukami’s fibreglass sculpture of an animated woman and Warhol’s aphotic silk screened self portrait. We are ready to devour an exhibition of products and reproductions.

Warhol’s works dominate several rooms in the show, first are his silk screened, highly saturated faces of celebrity culture. Mick Jagger, David Hockney and Grace Jones stare down on us, from their highly positioned places upon the repeated faces of Warhol wallpaper that they are hung from.  His reproductions of these iconographic figures from pop culture, also express the concurring theme in the show of replications of people and objects, but not the real thing.

The adjacent rooms display Warhol as a media celebrity, mingling with Elizabeth Taylor and Jean Michel-Basquiat. While he chased the stars, the media chased him, transforming him into a ‘brand’, that as a culture we could consume.

Following this, Keith Haring’s reproduction of his 1986’s pop up shop shows us  how to make money from your art, as his pieces are presented straight up and  ready to be bought by the public. There is even a booth where you can relive the 1986 experience and buy a t-shirt or a badge with his graphics on them.

Moving on, Jeff Koon’s large room, holding even larger photos of his exploits with his porn Bride, La Cicciolina dominate the room. Enlargements of most of his orifices and hers, line the walls all facing into the large plastic tacky looking sculpture of them, entangled in some fiery love passion. Perhaps this is Koon’s response to consumption?

Next in line are Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas’ handcrafted pop up shop in Bethnal Green. There is a self made and hand crafted feel to their varying items, but the underlying message is clear, Buy me!

On a larger sale, Damien Hirst’s  2008 Sotheby’s auction titled ‘Beautiful inside my head forever’  raked in the millions. On a smaller scale, we are offered a few of his pieces, a calf in formaldehyde with gold painted hooves and diamond decorated  butterflies set in a canvas. While I’m still unsure of the meaning behind them both, they are still selling like hot cakes.

A short walk through an almost empty room, bar Maurizio Cattelan’s dead horse with a stake through it, we reach Takashi Marukami’s room. The new king of kitsch portrays our modern day indulgence to the soundtrack of the Vapours ‘Turning Japanese’ and Kirsten Dunst’s portrayal of a Japanese  Manga Princess. Like Warhol, Marukami presents art as an object for consumption, with the content being as consumptive as those that consume it.

As I leave the gallery, still humming turning Japanese, with an aura of glitter, I feel like a product of all the brands I chose to buy into. This is best represented by Ashley Bickerton’s piece, ‘Tormented Self Portrait’ which can be seen in room 5 of the exhibition.

Scarlet Shillingford – Blay

So it’s been a while since I’ve reviewed an exhibition, let alone been to one. A couple of days ago the opportunity arrived in my inbox, a chance to check out a few exhibitions and write about them. I’m normally not one for fine art exhibitions (my knowledge ranges from Warhol to.. well that’s about it really), however the chance to extend my attention span from the several split seconds our generation spends on each image on the internet sounded like a good idea.

A little google image search to refresh my memory, and I was ready to head over to the Rod Barton gallery in Angel, London to see Innerer Klang (inner sound); An exhibition inspired by the works of Kandinsky.

Rod Barton Gallery

Located a stone’s throw away from Angel station, the gallery is a modest and small space but it serves the purpose – perfectly lit, and there to display the art. Just like it should be.
Before I put pen to paper and scribble away frantically, I had a chat with Irene Bradbury, the curator of the exhibition. I discover that the exhibition’s goal was to question ‘systems of belief, whether religious, mystical or the occult.” By incorporating both ancient and modern spiritual symbols, geometric patterns and natural shapes, that is what the artists have explored.

Upon entrance the first piece that is visible is “Achieva” by Tim Phillips (pictured above) – an intricately loud mixed media piece incorporating materials of all sorts, from glass and dark wood to plants and even Swarovski crystals. Combined in a silhouette mildly resembling the human form, it appears to be a fusion of man and woman; An androgynous figure containing the sexual counterparts of neither sex. An artifical pot of flowers representing possible blossoming sexuality. An intertwined symbol lies in the middle, encompassing all aspects of itself , unto itself. Phillips is described as manufacturing “an ambivalent union between worlds of culture and belief, commercialism and the archaic forms of religious authority”.

Culture As Nature II (Gloomy) 2009, Luke Dowd

No 217, 2009 - Henrijs Preiss

A brief scan around and I see pop-art inspired pieces, layered acryclic paintings and finally watercolour paintings. I am least blown away by the watercolour paintings (Berthold Reiss, below) and so it is these that I decide to pursue further. Upon closer inspection, the detail is nothing short of incredible. Delicate. The interesting symbology and fusion of nature and architechture (Reiss draws his inspiration from churches) makes them beautiful, arguably questioning and touching base with subjects such as heaven and hell, alternative realms and planes of existence.

The other pieces shown interpret the theme very differently, although often working around the same geometric ideas and shapes. ‘Silent’ by Andrew Palmer is a more surreal piece, and Luke Dowd’s three pieces are complementing to each other yet extremely unique, playing with different compositions, colour palettes and textures.

As usual, most things are better seen in real; To represent these works of art in pixels would simply be insulting.

Check it out for yourself – the exhibition is on until 31.10.09.

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ROD BARTON
One Paget Street,
London EC1V 7PA
Tel: 07989437214

Open Saturday 12 – 6pm or by appointment.
Nearest Tube: Angel

Jeff Hahn

These two mixed media drawings sarcastically depict some side-effects of secluded life.

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