Primal Speech by Liz Magic Laser at Jupiter Artland

PRIMAL SPEECH

Liz Magic Laser

Primal Speech, an immersive mixed media installation produced by Brooklyn, NY based artist Liz Magic Laser is currently being exhibited in the Tin Roof Gallery at Jupiter Artland.

Before entering the gallery, visitors are asked to remove their shoes. The gallery has been transformed into "Laser’s futuristic version of a primal scream room with soft grey padded walls and therapeutic devices such as punching pillows and a screaming vase. The artist has created sculptural pillows that reflect regional political emblems and for the installation at Jupiter Artland the collection includes symbols for the Scottish National Party’s thistle, Scottish Labour Party’s rose and the Scottish Liberal Democrat’s bird of liberty."

Laser’s therapeutic video and environment guide viewers to express and exorcise their sociopolitical and personal frustrations. For the video, Laser assembled a pseudo therapy group composed of actors with opposing political convictions about Brexit and the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The artist encouraged them to revisit and conflate childhood traumas with their current political frustrations. Laser collaborated with Certified Professional Life Coach, Valerie Bell, trained in Primal Therapy techniques, to elicit connections between traumatic experience and political beliefs."



I felt that the work has the potential to be much more open and expansive, but because the video specifically focuses on Brexit and the U.S. presidential election, it is restricted in its scope. For reasons I am yet to fully identify and understand, there was a rather negative tone to the work, and I came out feeling as though I had been made to feel angry about something defined by someone else (i.e. Trump and the current Brexit situation). Don't get me wrong, I do not think favourably of either Trump or the decision for the UK to leave the EU, but I felt channeled and free from thinking about other situations that 'are bothering me', and therefore felt frustrated that I had not been encouraged to bring my own direction to the work. 

Jupiter Artland

At the weekend I visited Jupiter Artland, a sculpture park and art gallery in the grounds of Bonnington House, a 19th-century country house near Edinburgh.

"Visitors to Jupiter Artland are given a map indicating the location of the artworks within the grounds. But there's no set route. Clockwise or anticlockwise is your choice, as is the retracing of steps for a second look. The artworks are land marks, events, confrontations on a journey of discovery; an open-ended journey."

Although there are a few artworks situated indoors, the vast majority are outside, and so it really is a place to be visited in good weather. There is plenty to see, and it is easy to spend 2-3hours wandering round the artworks. Even the cafe is filled with art. It was recently extended and transformed by artist Nicholas Party, into Cafe Party. 

CAFE PARTY

Nicolas Party

"Cafe Party features decorative wall painting, hand painted tables, custom designed furniture, servery and screen printed crockery. Party’s work examines classical genres and motifs explored throughout art history and painting such as still life and portraiture as well as how these are presented. The expansive mural acts as a framing device and a fantastical stage set for a series of pastel compositions delivered in Party’s unique aesthetic language.

The wall murals also tie to the artist interest in art history which are often executed in styles that retaining parameters by honouring traditional processes and materials. Recently this has expanded into the use of trope l’oiel which is used throughout Café Party in the malachite surfaces.

CAFE PARTY

Nicolas Party

Through Party’s distinctive paintings and drawings Café Party directly responds to the surrounding woodland of Jupiter Artland, borrowing imagery from the landscape to furnish the restaurant and the vibrancy of the collection is celebrated in the vivid colour palette. Patters repeat throughout with tropical shrubbery that line the foreground, whilst clashing skinny twigs and wall climbers reach for the light overall producing a fantastical, almost psychedelic scene."

In future blog posts I will give more details about a selection of the artworks, but here are a few photos to give you a taster of what there is to see.

A FOREST

Jim Lambie

A FOREST

Jim Lambie

CELLS OF LIFE 

Charles Jencks

THE LIGHT POURS OUT OF ME

Anya Gallaccio

ANIMITAS

Christian Boltanski

SARA BARKER

Separation in the Evening (a celestial blossom before the yellow house)

WEEPING GIRLS

Laura Ford

OVER HERE

Shane Waltener

BRENNER

Michael Sailstorfer

YOU IMAGINE WHAT YOU DESIRE

Nathan Coley

https://www.jupiterartland.org/

https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/jupiter-artland-p245431

Artists' Moving Image: Insights into Production & Exhibition

Northern Film & Media is the North East's creative agency, nurturing talent, supporting media businesses and driving commercial film and television production within the region.

They regularly arrange events to enable practitioners to gain critical information on the latest commercial and creative trends, and to connect with industry leading experts and commissioners.

I attended the Artists' Moving Image: Insights into Production & Exhibition event in which Marie Logie (Auguste Orts) and Peter Taylor (Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival) shared some of their invaluable insights about producing and exhibiting artists’ moving image.


Marie discussed the history and approach of Brussels-based moving image production and distribution platform Auguste Orts, where she is currently Director.

She explained that, when in an artist moving image context, the role of a producer includes

• seeing the project through from start to finish 
• writing contracts 
• arranging legal aspects 
• organising insurance 
• co-managing the budget 
• organising fundraising 
• finding locations
• working on post production
• planning distribution

Peter talked about his approach to film festival programming, drawing on his experiences as Director at Berwick as well as at Rotterdam International Film Festival.

It was interesting to hear him discuss how changes in technology have impacted on his role. For example, now that submissions are often done via vimeo, he doesn't need to physically move as much as there is no need to handle DVD cases, transfer DVDs into players and so on. He commented that vimeo helps judges share their own opinions with each other as they can each make comments about a submission in a way that the other panel members are able to view.

https://northernmedia.org/

Performances at Newcastle University Fine Art Undergraduate Degree Show

I have learned from previous experience that it is not possible to see much of the artwork at the opening of the UG Degree Show as it simply is too busy. I'm also aware that there are a number of performances that happen on the preview night, some of which will not be repeated again.

I therefore set out with the aim to see each of the performances at the preview, and I will visit again over the duration of the exhibition in order to see the rest of the work.



The first performance took place in the life room in which there were a number of cast sculptures occupying the floorspace along with piles of the skins of garlic cloves. Heather Bonnie Reid, dressed in casual clothes, entered the space, walked to one of the cast sculptures and began manipulating a slab of clay as she delivered a spoken word piece that was a cross between a poem and a story. Her actions complemented the text, and the sculptural props further added to the performance. Her soothing Irish voice made the words all the more pleasant to listen to, and her relaxed and comfortable pace and tone contributed to my feeling that she was talking to me as opposed to a crowded room. Personal yet relatable, the text was poignant and beautifully constructed.

Moving on to the seminar room, stood Cathy Garner at a lecturn with a projection behind and told the story of her nightmare of a week. In the final few days leading up to the exhibition that marks the completion of the 4 year Fine Art Degree, her external harddrive, the device on which all of her Degree Show work was stored, packed in and all of her data and work was lost. Remarkably, she delivered a immensely powerful performance that took me through a journey of emotions and left me feeling upmost respect for the courageous and resiliant artist. Told with REM's 'Everybody Hurts' as the soundtrack, her story was sad and humorous, her delivery composed and genuine. She carried the audience with her. Yes, I felt sorry for her, but she was not asking for pity or making excuses. Her positivity is honourable. Unfortunately hers is a situation that has happened before and will probably happen again, yet not every artist would be able to seize the opportunity to make a new piece of work from the experience. It spoke to me on so many levels, the expectations we have of ourselves, the pressure of deadlines and having to fit creativity into a predefined calendar, the problems we face as artists to produce, but also the experience of being a helpless human in this increasingly electronic culture. Hats off to you Cathy!