National Portrait Gallery: Cindy Sherman
https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/cindy-sherman/exhibition/
An excellent, thorough and well-explained overview of Sherman’s artistic career and development…to date. I had heard of the name but not really got a sense of her style and approach but this show told me. Using herself as the subject from her earliest days as a student, she transforms and comments upon herself, women their role, status and place in society plays with, contemporary social groups (and historical) and always with herself front and centre. She produced a fascinating early set of scenes that looked as if they came from unmade films from various genres and directed by various masters – very cleverly she managed to suggest a director and style with just one shot – but it never head the sense that it was an artificial construct using well-known elements from that director’s work, but rather her own view of that person – and while there was no narrative per se, every scene seemed rich in possibilities. With this, as with all her work, her extraordinarily expressive and yet, in an important way, very ‘ordinary’ looking face was always front and centre. In her earlier work she used make-up (contouring before the Kardashian’s!) to convey different people but in much of her later work the devices and tricks are much more explicit and, in a way, extreme. This is particularly shown in her versions with a strong parody element) of herself as the subject in a range of Old Master portraits. Her as well as the elaborate costumes, prosthetics were used to create and exaggerate the persona she was playing. This is the polar opposite to another intriguing early set of works where she took a series of portraits of herself as a woman, naked, but with only the camera and timer wires round wound her body to suggest the clothes that women would normally war. The pictures were at once both nudes and yet quite emphatically clothed – an interesting paradox. In addition, the photographs here were in colour but she started in black and white - I suspect as much for economic necessity as anything else; ‘mother the necessity…’ perhaps?
Another fascinating series were of American society women in self-aggrandising portraits such as would appear in magazines such as Washington Society that many managed to both suggest the great wealth, success and confidence of such women and at the same time their uncertainty and shallowness.
A great show and many thanks to Jack Cullen for suggesting and taking.
Hayward Gallery: Hicham Berrada: Dreamscapes
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/hayward-gallery-art/hicham-berrada
Really did little more than walk briefly into the room. A video screen with a slow-moving image with cell-like qualities was quite striking and there were a number of coral-like looking excrescences in liquid-filled tubes which recalled Geiger Alien-style imagery. Not sure of artistic merit/message being sent; wonder if more of interest because of techniques being used.
Hayward Gallery: Kiss My Genders
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/130821-kiss-my-genders-2019
I feel that this was an exhibition where the main appeal and value was not so much in the nature of the art and the styles or approaches used but rather an indication by a very under-represented and often wildly misunderstood community of how they saw themselves. It was a very positive and life-affirming show – it recalled the old Gay Pride slogan ‘we’re here and we’re queer’ – although that word was not sufficient but the ‘vibe’ of the show was the unapologetic confidence which was very inspiring.
The photographs were…OK – to be honest none that really stood out for me re style or approaches – but as I said, this was more about the people just making the assertive statement about themselves rather than elaborately using art/techniques to communicate what they wanted to (if this makes sense; tell me if it doesn’t!). For me though two items stood out – one the AIDS Memorial Dress by Hunter Reynolds which was both a very radical statement – an elaborate black ball gown worn by a man with the names of AIDS victims on it – rather like a smaller/mobile version of the AIDS quilt – and of course the man wearing it was a statement in itself. The other item I particularly enjoyed was the immersive video presentation/installation exploring LGBTQ spaces in Blackpool with film taken in a sex bar and a cabaret club. This was a vivid, at times funny, at times erotic view of areas that gay men use for sexual encounters. I loved too, the campily impressive entry that one had to make, through lines of ruched glittering silk (?) nylon(?) satin (?) leading to the viewing area.
By the end I was filled with admiration for these brave people living their life and expressing themselves on their terms. Highly recommend – and you were right about it Jack Cullen. Also Daniel Mousley, Rollo Francis Carew, Irene Balch, Tom Moate, Leo Carlton & Alessandro Merlot – try and see before it closes