Space...空間＠薩奇美術館

                                                                            
Artist : Friedrich Kunath
展出藝術家：弗里德里希·庫納什

Saatchi gallery (http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/) has created quite a controversy in the art world over the years. For me Saatchi offers something which quite a few galleries seem unable to do and that is space!

過去幾年，薩奇美術館在藝術世界裡時常創造出許多令人爭議的創舉。而對我來說，薩奇美術館提供了一些其他藝廊做不到的本事，例如：空間！

I enjoy going for a walk there. It is only 5 minutes from the tube station, its in a nice area, its building is huge and its free. I have never seen this gallery packed with artworks and I definitely appreciate this. At times you do wonder if any curatorial effort goes into the shows, as there always seems to be a 2D work there, there and there, and 3D works are mostly position near the corners of the room – it is almost like walking into someone’s house where you know where you will find the house’s artworks.


我非常享受在薩奇藝廊散步的時刻。從地鐵站到這裡只需要五分鐘，而且位於一處很優美的地段，空間大又免費。我從來沒看過薩奇美術館將藝術品把空間硬是塞得滿滿的，而我真的非常的感謝他這麼做！偶爾你會猜想策展的方式，當那似乎永遠都展出平面作品，這裡那裡，那裏和那裡，而立體作品常常就安排在靠近房間的一處角落-就像是你走進某某人的住所，而且自己可以猜想到在房子的哪裡可以找到藝術品。

I enjoy Saatchi gallery because it shows a variety of works and often young people’s work, it seems. Or at least this is the impression I get because I find the work shown to be very experimental. It is as if Saatchi always goes out on a shopping spree and buys or represents artists that have just finished college or university (I hope I am not offending the artists involved with the gallery, but I do mention this as a positive thing!). And I like that; it reminds one that it’s okay to experiment, it’s good that the process is very much part of the whole. This seems at times more true and in a way simple; maybe so simple that for some it feels too simple. But to me, it acts as a reminder that art is something fun and enjoyable and it is a good escape from the formal, seriousness that I feel at times overrides the art scene.


我之所以喜歡薩奇美術館因為在那裡展示了很多年輕藝術家的作品。或者，至少我的印想中所看到的藝術品都是非常的大膽又具有實驗性質。就像是薩奇美術館買下或者呈現這些剛從大學或學院畢業的藝術家們（我希望沒有冒犯到曾在這裡展出的藝術家，但我是在說一件正面的事情！）而我非常喜歡這樣！這提醒了我“實驗性“是可行的，而過程對於最後的結果是多麼的重要！有時候他是事實，或是對於某些人來說覺得太簡單了。但對我來說，實驗精神扮演著一個提醒者的角色-藝術是好玩的，而且使人愉悅，而且我覺得有時候超乎了對美學的品味，擺脫了制式，嚴肅的規範。

The other thing Saatchi do is a small B&W leaflet with all artists involved in their current exhibition. It only costs £1 but I like this idea as I can take this with me and do further research if I am interested in a specific artist etc.

Favourite Works for me this time were the drawings below; so playful and colourful and I would love to have one of these in my house! Artists: Gurt and Uwe Tobias

薩奇還做了一件事，就是將展出的藝術家們與當期的展覽同列在B&W的手冊上。只要1英鎊的價格。但我喜歡這個點子，因為當我帶走它也可以對特別吸引我的藝術家作進一步的研究。我最喜愛的作品是下面的這幅; 有點戲謔感，而且色彩豐富，我很想在我家中也收藏一幅！

藝術家：Gurt and Uwe Tobias

 

Assumptions...假想

(Part 2 of 2)

I am not going to dwell a lot on this (part 2 of the article), as it is yet another example as the previous mentioned, and as it is also a New Year,  Happy New Year everyone!


part 1 

我在這裡不多說了（因為這是第二篇文章）這是與之前文章比較的另一個例子。現在也是亞洲的（農曆）新年，先祝大家新年快樂！

之前的文章

A friend artist was accepted to participate in an exhibition in Cork Street Gallery (http://corkstreetopenexhibition.com/default.asp - very expensive applications, although part of the income was given to a charity!); Cork Street is a street in London where quite a few galleries are placed and its right in the centre of town, placed within a very expensive area. So when you hear that someone exhibits on Cork Street it sounds great and very promising, as many renowned artists exhibit their works here. However, unfortunately, this was another example of a money making situation where the artwork was not necessarily taken as much into consideration. I actually believe it were worse than the exhibition on Vyner Street as this one seemed to also include craftwork within the contemporary works. Believe me, I have nothing against craft work, and I actually enjoy doing much of it myself, but again there did not seem to be much of a curatorial effort put into this exhibition.  Basically, it seemed more of a case of how much stuff can we fit on the walls, in the space? The sculptures, which its nature is 3D, were placed in such close proximity to one another, in corners or other such places which meant you could not actually walk around them!

一個藝術家朋友接受了庫克藝廊的邀請（申請費非常的昂貴，儘管適因為部份的收入會捐給慈善機構！）庫克街位於倫敦一條擁有幾間藝廊坐落於此的市中心地帶，那裡是一個地價非常高的地方！所以當你聽到誰在庫克街辦了展覽，那真是聽起來很棒而且是個很好的宣傳，因為許多出名的藝術家都在這裡辦展。然而，可惜的是，商業化的買賣造成藝術品的必要性並不是被考慮的原因之一。我非常確定它比Vyner Street差多了，因為它似乎把手工藝品也加入當代藝術品的行列裡。相信我，我無意成為這類手工藝品的反對者，事實上我在創作手工品的過程中，我也非常的享受，但是我個人無法看出任何策展的用心在這個展覽之中。基本上，它似乎比較像是再說“我們能夠用多少東西把這個牆面或這個空間給塞滿？”雕像本來就是3D立體的，但卻被陳列於非常密集的範圍裡，緊緊相連著，在角落裡或其他讓你甚至無法環視欣賞它們的地方。

A catalog was made, a glossy, expensive catalog which seemed to cry out ‘how posh’ but actually, it was quite the opposite. They had included all the works of the exhibition and to my horror a lot of the artworks in it were cropped to fit, basically creating their own versions of them... 

目錄被用一種光滑又昂貴的材質製造，好像傳達”我是很高級優雅的”其實上，這是完全相反的。它們將全部的作品收集在這個展覽，我感到非常的恐怖因為它們把許多作品胡亂的剪裁過後，硬是放在編排裡面！基本上它們是再重新創造這些作品的不同版本。

Do you think its okay or even good to have such exhibitions? Yes? No? Why? Because they do show many artists’ works and they might even get sold (therefore helping the artists and obviously the galleries?) and so on? I would love to hear your opinions on this matter.

你們認為這樣的展覽可以說的過去，或者甚至說很成功嗎？贊同？反對？為什麼？因為他們可以展示很多藝術家的作品，也許已經有被買走的（因此可以幫助藝術家以及藝廊嗎？）所以然後呢？我希望可以聽聽看妳們對於這件事情的看法。

Regarding the Matt Roberts exhibition space (mentioned in previous article) I would like to let you know, I received an email by them informing me that they are moving to a bigger location – which is good. At least they recognised the necessity for such a move and might actually be putting their money into good use.

根據Matt Robets的展覽的地方（在上一篇文章有提及），我希望你們能夠知道，我收到他們的email通知我，藝廊即將要搬到更大的空間了，那真是太好了！至少他們能夠分辨出搬到合適空間的重要性，而且將她們的金錢作更好的運用。

作者Writer/照片提供Photo

Nicol Dourala

翻譯Translater

Meigo Shay

[包包突擊糾察隊！] 到當代藝術館2013展覽現場突擊Second Soul Graphic Art團員們的大背包！

私底下這些藝術家們的生活總是不為人知, 想知道他們的背袋裡面到底裝了什麼私人小物嗎? 這可是跟個人品味與興趣息息相關的小線索喔! 特派員Meigo特別在深夜裡潛入當代藝術館，祕密突擊Second Soul團員們的包包，在SS團員們忙碌的穿梭佈置2013的展覽時，還特別大方的配合拍攝，真是非常感謝呢！別錯過! 現在就讓Meigo帶你們一探究竟，打開你們好奇的心，來看看這8位藝術創者包包內不為人知的祕密吧!!

▲突擊對象：Second Soul Graphic Art members

▲突擊時間：2011/11 深夜

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編號1. Cowper Wang 男
2013策展人之一/藝術家/"做DoSomething"設計公司老大

* 突擊現場：當代藝術館（主要展間）

* 興趣: 工作，收藏古董傢具

* 專長：環遊世界同時…還是工作

* 隨身物品:

1. 超大M0851黑色背包
2. Porter錢包

3. 薄荷錠

4. 維他命（因為我超愛吃酸的，檸檬汁也是我的最愛）

5. 帽子（一定放包包裡，但不是每天都會拿出來帶）

6. Cano單眼相機

7. 粉紅逗貓棒鑰匙圈（雖然很娘，但鑰匙好找多了）

8. iphone手機

Dosomething Studio

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編號2. Bounce William 男 
2013參展藝術家/擅長街頭塗鴉藝術創作

* 突擊現場：當代藝術館（主要展間）

* 興趣: 畫畫，玩滑板

* 專長：創作，專業塗鴉藝術家

* 隨身物品:

1. Bounce專屬塗鴉貼紙

2. 代針筆組

3. 工業蠟筆，油漆筆

4. 噴頭

5. 自製改造鞋油筆
（把鞋油用完以後，換上顏料，簽名在牆壁上超好用的！又不怕乾掉！）

6. 粗的油漆筆

7. 噴漆

8. 扁筆

9. 包中包（工具包-將畫畫用具全都放在這裡面）

10. 手繪本

Bounce Graffiti

Bounce Flicker

Assumptions...

(Part 1 of 2)

I have only been in London for a year now, and I say only because I feel in this time I have only just scratched this town’s surface, culturally. When you arrive in a new town you receive a lot of information through a plethora of ways, but often what sticks with you are other people’s perceptions.

Comments such as:

‘ah, have you not been? You must go!’

or

‘I actually do not like it because of ... and ... reason’

or

‘I love that space’

or

‘I find them all rude there and stuck-up’

or

‘that’s miles away’

or

‘a little hidden gem’

or

 ‘they used to be extremely innovative in the work shown but seem to have lost that now’

And this is how I came to apply to the Salon Art Prize 2011 (http://www.salonartprize.com/) which is held at Matt Roberts Arts (http://www.mattroberts.org.uk/) on Vyner Street.  

Book Art 剪紙藝術家-Su Blackwell

你喜歡逛二手書店嗎？書本裡面有之前擁有者的塗鴉筆記，不小心打翻的咖啡印或茶漬，斑駁的封面應該是當時經歷過不同的讀者轉手再轉手，所留下的痕跡。翻開書本那種陳舊的味道，閉起眼睛，你喚起了從前的某段記憶。來自英國的藝術家Su Blackwell，把這份感動幻化成真，用她的眼她的手，利用這些二手書的內頁，剪剪貼貼，平面鉛字/書籍圖片變成了立體童話城堡，喚起你的我的對舊書籍的感動...

Su Blackwell喜歡在二手書店找尋靈感，常常一耗就是一整天，或一整個下午。

帶著剛採購回來的二手書，Su開始著手製作她最愛的紙雕，她手奪天工的技巧，呈現的不僅是令人歎為觀止的紙雕藝術，每項紙雕作品的情境氛圍賦予著每本泛黃書籍重生的靈魂，是引人入勝的重要關鍵。看看以下影片，讓Su告訴你她的創作故事...

影片from YouTube

Su的作品有一種清新華麗的風格，注重生活中美好的小細節，透過她靈巧的手工，精確的切割出想要的線條與塊面，再纖細的質材Su都可以利用的恰到好處。

2011年的作品, The Baron in the Trees

Su的作品，柔軟中帶著永恆的特質。

2010, Carnation, Rose and Jasmine Flower

這些生動的紙花朵，就像在時空凝結時靜止了，停留在最綻放的這一刻。  

Things you come across…只是偶然...

We walked into this gallery, which did not feel like a gallery but more like one’s studio as there were no signs outside indicating that this is an exhibition space – simply, an open door, inviting you in.


我們走進這個不像美術館的展示空間, 它反而更像是一個誰的工作室,因為在外面那裏沒有任何明顯的標誌顯示這裡是一個藝術空間-因為它太過簡單, 太開放了!

Darkness

A strong spotlight is creating a just as strong shadow of a bat-like shape on the gallery floor. Quite a funny juxtaposition as this bat-like shadow on the ground, which is surrounded by darkness, actually exists due to the light. The whole atmosphere starts to feel like a cave.

The ball is bouncing all over the place

It is funny how I am all the way in London, reporting for a blog based in Taiwan, and here/now, I am going to mention Takashi Murakami who is from Japan!

But I guess that is what the contemporary art scene (and not only) is all about.

We are all influenced by someone or something from the moment we are born; starting from within our family, our close environment, to our friends, our social surroundings and so forth... So sometimes it does strike me as odd or even extra ordinary when someone from the other side of the world seems to be pre-occupied with similar if not the same topic/s as me or a fellow artist etc.

I do wonder if as a starting point it has to do with the fact that we are all made out of the same stuff and therefore share the same (basic?) needs.

Recently, I went back to Greece to visit friends and family and what struck me as being really apparent was the fact that we all live in our little bubbles troubled by the same things, miles away from each other trying to survive. I say troubled but I also mean thrilled and delighted accordingly.