Photo Show Stroll – East is West: Three Women Artists show video works in Singapore

Still from Journal by Mariana Vassileva, courtesy the artist and DNA Galerie

Transition Detail from Nezaket Ekici's performance video shot with iPhone Miranda Gavin

Almagul Menlibayeva, The Aral Beach 2, 2011 Duratrans print in lightbox 36 x 48 in. (91 x 122 cm) Edition of 3. Still courtesy of the artist and Priska C Juschka Fine Art

East is West: Three Women Artists runs until 15 February at the Lasalle College of the Arts in the Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore. This wonderful exhibition – more to come in a later post  – introduces three women artists from outside Western Europe who now live in Berlin. Curated by Dr Charles Merewether it features Mariana Vassileva (Bulagaria), Almagul Menlibayeva (Kazakhstan) and Nezaket Ekici (Turkey).

Some of the work explores the subject of women as well as cultural differences that lie within their countries of origin and between national boundaries. Integral to their practice is performance that is recorded and subsequently shown as independent work, invloving both themselves directly as the subject, as well as others.

The Roaming Eye (tRE) took some iPhone photos (see below) and stayed at the exhibition for a couple of hours watching four video works by each of the three artists and absolutely loved the show. Of course, of the twelve video works, ranging from a couple of minutes up to 24 mins or so, there are favourites including Ekici’s performance piece Veiling and Reveiling, Menlibayeva’s Transoxiana Dreams and Vassileva’s Journal.

What was so refreshing for tRE was the way the conceptual and the technical merged to produce beautifully articulated and visually engaging works that were strong and often, profound. Sometimes, one aspect is foregrounded at the expense of the others, but this was not the case here. The videos also demonstrated a level of maturity and depth that may have something to do with the women’s ages – all are in their 40s – as well as their particular cross cultural experiences and artistic educations.

It is so nice to get away from the UK and the often London-biased exhibition scene and familiar styles of works that are – at times – dominated by certain institutions, such as the Royal College of Art. Look out folks, it’s going to be costing £25,000/year for international students to do the two year Masters in Photography – that’s a huge investment and is, if we are honest, not just about the art and the critical forums that the RCA provides for its students, but also about the brand and its status.

There’s nothing wrong with this and there are undoubtedly some exciting visual artists and photographers that have emerged from the RCA and its photography Masters. But art and photography should, in tRE’s opinion, be discovered by looking outside the usual remits and circles and seen in different environments and countries as house styles do tend to emerge and sometimes works gets repetitive, stale and becomes uninteresting. More images from the show in a later post, there’s a lot to cover. One other point, light from outside spilled inside and it compromised the bottom right-hand corner of the screen where Menlibayeva’s work was projected, as the blinds behind the glass door were not fully closed.

See over for more photos…

Flying, Suspension and Dancing

© Denis Darzacq, Hyper 08, 2007. Courtesy VU la galerie.

There are some recurring themes and visual motifs that keep cropping up in photographic work. As part of any research into presenting and working on a topic, I thought it would be good to highlight some of those which I keep coming across. Take a look at the following examples, and please comment if you have any more  examples to add or any thoughts…

© Denis Darzacq, Hyper 19, 2007. Courtesy VU la galerie.

Denis Darzacq’s fabulous Hyper series is on show in Arles at Vu Gallery, Capitole. Darzaq’a large scale colour images set the performance of street dancers amongst the consumer goods found on supermarket shelves in Rouen and Paris. The static lines of shelves with their packaged products provide a graphic backdrop for the lone dancers, who throw shapes with their bodies as they perform. Movement is frozen within the frame. A tension between stillness and movement is produced as the performance is captured on camera ‘live’ in one of the theatres of consumerism – the supermarket.

“This is motion driven by pleasure. As Paul Valery wrote in his study of dance, such movements oppose utility: they resist, refusing to submit to economic conditions. They are self-sufficient… mobilities dedicated to consumption and defined by the superstore-space meet with a response to absolute freedom.” (Taken from the Rencontres press pack).

Questions as to the photographer’s intentions arise – a function of many artists’ statements – as well as observations regarding the similarities and differences between these images, see below. What do you think?

Compare with Sam Taylor-Wood’s Self Portrait Suspended 1, 2004 of a lone figure set against an altogether different backdrop.

Then look at Julia Fullerton Batten’s recent work In Between, 2009.