Grotto

I always enjoy making the journey to Hauser + Wirth, Saville Row and peering in at tailor's workshops below street level.

Mike Kelley takes up two rooms at the gallery at the moment with 'Framed and Frame', aiming to explore the place between reality and the imagined.

Detail from Chinatown Wishing Well

Mike Kelley, 1999

Interested in Middle America's 'diverse and alternative subcultures', Kelley presents two installations that look at Los Angeles' marginalised Chinese-American community. Honestly, it's pretty weird. The grotto-like piece (above) consists of spray painted concrete with religious paraphernalia stuck and frozen on to its facade. It has a small cave underneath it, where a tatty looking mattress is hidden - it all feels a bit dark.

Detail from Chinatown Wishing Well

In some ways I was surprised it left me feeling a bit cold - aesthetically it ticks lots of boxes: the candy coloured spritz' of colour, the gaudy religious trophies - both things I really like. It reminded me of the drug fuelled hippie days described by Eileen Myles in her autobiography 'Chelsea Girls' which I've just finished. (NB: not for the faint hearted).

It also sort of reminded me (in a good way) of Koons piece, 'Play Doh' which you can catch at Newport Street Gallery now.

Play Doh
Jeff Koons, 1999 - 2014
3 Americans working at the same time, there's probably something in that (insert emoticon with rolling eyes here).

Slick of Colour

Morris Louis, Gamma Tau,1960

Clyfford Still, PH- 131, 1951

A slick of colour this morning in grey central London as I had a look round Hauser & Wirth on Saville Row.

Both paintings are part of an exhibition showing the collection of Reinhard Onnasch and spanning the London, Mayfair and Piccadilly galleries. Ends 14th December 2013.

Fleeting Visits

Opposite the colour at Issey Miyake (below) was Hauser & Wirth. Tessa, Rosa and I spent a few fleeting moments looking at the exhibition that is currently on - Volume by Michael Raedecker, showcasing vast canvases made up of strips sewn together with heavy embroidery over thick paint.

 

Presentation, 2011-12

I wasn't entirely sold on it, but there were a few pictures I quite liked, and at least I wasn't suffering from an excruciatingly embarrassing giggling fit brought on by Tessa and our trip to see Sarah Lucas' work at Sadie Coles Gallery only moments before.

 

MumMum, 2012

It seemed particularly fitting that Raedecker's thread and needle focused show was on Saville Row - I loved peering down into Tailor's workshops below shiny shop windows filled with extremely sharp suits and ties.

Phyllida Barlow

Before work yesterday I went to the current exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, Piccadilly - 'RIG' by Phyllida Barlow. The idea of Barlow's sculptures seem to work to bring the vast outside city into the small inside space of the gallery, displacing the viewer. I really enjoyed the exhibition, partly because it was so suited to the space of the gallery (wooden panelled rooms, lots of narrow winding staircases to different enclosed and interesting spaces), but also because Barlow's sculptures were to me both ugly and beautiful. Rough concrete was in places remedied by bright fabric - or paint - acting as envelopes which cast their reflections over the cornicing. The ragged pom-poms hanging from the beams in the attic were almost my favourite and reminded me of pinatas - maybe I will try and recreate them as party decorations.