Art and the Pleasures of Knowing

The Hayward Touring exhibitions that have been running around the nation lately tend to grab my attention. Admittedly, this one starts in Margate, which isn't on my usual beat (I did make it to Nottingham last week, and I have an ambition to visit Peterborough in April). But anything with a title like Curiosity: Art and the Pleasures of Knowing is going to intrigue me. And this one is in association with the New York art and culture magazine Cabinet.

Since it is based in New York, I assume it is cooler than I am. 

The cabinet is the key: back in the seventeenth century, when I was in the process of inventing the foundations of my current critical position - I was calling it baroque subjectivity then, and it involved finding the most complex patterns to relate an art work to Jesuit philosophy - the cabinet was king. They used to stuff them full of curiosities and art, juxtaposing different items in a sort of mash up of a Believe It or Not freak-show and a more formal exhibition.

In fact, they have a little room in Nottingham Contemporary in which they have four cabinets for exactly this purpose. It was one of the many things that attracted me to the gallery on my holiday.

Curiosity: Art and the Pleasures of Knowing uses these cabinets as a model for "a detailed and spectacular meditation on the nature of wonder, fascination and inquiry." It sets diverse artifacts together (including Nina Katchadourian’s photographs of herself dressed up like a seventeenth-century Flemish portrait in a aircraft toilet) and has a fascination with how the past and present artist indulges their curiosity. 

It's worth pausing to list the attractions. 

•  Matt Mullican on video, under hypnosis, getting into his shoe 
• Tacita Dean films the artist Claes Oldenburg in his studio as he cleans the objects on his bookshelves
• A collection of ravishingly patterned and coloured stones that belonged to the Surrealist writer Roger Caillois
• German glassmakers Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka exquisitely detailed models of aquatic creatures
•  Centre for Land Use Interpretation, a scholarly-artistic institute based in Los Angeles, will exhibit a series of Rolodexes and index cards that once belonged to the US nuclear facility at Los Alamos
• Katie Paterson has images of darkness sourced from observatories all around the world
• Paterson prepares a fragment of meteorite that will be taken into orbit by the European Space Agency in 2014, becoming the subject of live webcast lessons in astrophysics
• Gerard Byrne films and photographs the territory around Loch Ness, and produces a compelling map of the frontiers between art, science and fantasy
• Three examples of Leonardo’s drawings of emblems, puzzles and curious objects
• Dürer’s celebrated woodcut of a rhinoceros, of 1515
• Nicholas Maes’s Eavesdropper, a1655 painting of a scene of domestic spying. 
• A book with an essay by Marina Warner

Brian Dillon, curator, said:

“Curiosity is the desire to uncover what lies beyond our present understanding of the world. Alongside wonder, which was traditionally considered the origin of philosophy, curiosity is valued because it leads us into new territories. But historically it has been condemned too as a form of distraction, an attraction to novelty for its own sake or a desire to unveil what is actually none of our business. Like the cabinet of curiosities, which mixed science and art, ancient and modern, reality and fiction, this exhibition refuses to choose between knowledge and pleasure. It juxtaposes historical periods and categories of objects to produce an eccentric map of curiosity in its many senses.”


Victoria Pomery, Director of Turner Contemporary, said:

‘Artists’ curiosity about the world and how it informs their artistic production is at the heart of this exhibition. The show brings together a wealth of wonderful artefacts and artworks by leading historical and contemporary artists. The opportunity to see such an extensive range of material allows visitors to think more about the role that curiosity plays in all our lives.’



TURNER CONTEMPORARY, MARGATE 

25 May - 15 September 2013 

NORWICH CASTLE MUSEUM & ART GALLERY
28 September – 5 January 2014
DE APPEL, AMSTERDAM
June – August 2014

The Winter's Tale @ EFT

Shakespeare is usually an excuse for a lack of imagination on the part of a theatre company. It's a sure fire way to attract audiences - familiarity is better hype than experimentation - and the language, if performed well, is usually enough to hide the tortuous plots and stereotyped characterisations. It's easy enough to pretend to be radical - set King Lear in outer-space - and there is little danger of having any real political controversy. Even the updating of Macbeth by various Polish companies in last year's EIF and Fringe, which tried to connect medieval monarchy to modern war zones, avoided any meaningful commentary on contemporary geopolitics, thanks to the script's awkward insistence on being obsessed with lineage. Even terrorist cells don't assume that a son will receive their father's position.

When the company is The Royal Shakespeare Company, however, these objections don't apply. It's not like they don't try to make Shakespeare relevant, even collaborating with Poland's Song of The Goat for a Macbeth that did break free of the clichés. But as a company, they have the clout to get the right actors, and have a tradition of directing Shakespeare that plays to the bard's strengths without ignoring the last 200 years of stagecraft.

Besides, they are offering The Winter's Tale - not a number that turns up too frequently on the schedules. And it's got Tara Fitzgerald out of Game of Thrones in it, for added cultural capital. The director, Lucy Bailey, is enthusiastic about getting to grips with the tale of jealousy and forgiveness: and has approached its geography to add a dualistic darkness.

"‘The Winter's Tale is set in a notional Sicilia and Bohemia. Most interpretations of the play revolve around the relationship of these two worlds," says Bailey. "When I read the play, I had two strong instincts - that Sicilia and Bohemia were one and the same place, just two different modes of being, and that the "idyll" which is often understood to be Bohemia, is actually Sicilia."

"In our version which is set in the 1860s, the play begins in Sicilia, where Leontes and his court live a sheltered, beautiful dream of a life, bathed in endless sunshine and completely removed from the real world of work and suffering.  It is in essence an Ivory Tower. At the bottom of their tower well beyond view, is Bohemia, where the working men and women, despite their struggle, make the most out of very little. We have tried to encapsulate this in our design for the play."

The Winter's Tale is probably most famous for its stage direction - the one where a bear chases a character off-stage. Like most Shakespeare comedies, the laughs don't come thick and fast - having a happy ending is enough for it not to count as a tragedy - but there is the usual mesh of conflict between the sexes, jealous men (one king thinks the other is having an  affair with his wife for no good reason), attempted murders and lost children. But it all ends with the royals hooking up, after disguising themselves as shepherds and the like.

And the RSC do have an amazing website with resources, including bits of the soundtrack...

RSC presents
The Winter’s Tale
By William Shakespeare,
Directed by Lucy BaileyFestival Theatre, Edinburgh: Tuesday 2 – Saturday 6 April 2013

SKY arts...awards. Ballet and Opera

I am naturally suspicious of the Sky Arts Awards: it's something to do with TV, which I don't like (the fundamental difference between live performance and representation on a screen is that the latter fails to create a shared experience, except in virtual, anonymous terms and denies the immediacy of a critical moment). It is supported by a network that hasn't exactly shown itself to be honest and proud. The two Scottish winners have more credibility than the awards body, suggesting that the association of the artists does more for the TV network than it does for the winners - although there is a subtle interplay there. The winners get exposure, the network gets credibility and...

Enough of the doubts for the moment. It's wonderful that two of the three Scottish National Companies have won awards. A Streetcar Named Desire from Scottish Ballet got the Dance Prize: Ghost Patrol won the Opera for Scottish Opera (with Music Theatre Wales). That's the second award for Streetcar this year.

In both cases, the works are not typical of their media. Ghost Patrol was a short opera, something that SO have been working on for the past few years (their 5:15 programme was made up of new quickies). SO are slightly obsessed with getting younger audiences - they have a special price for anyone under 26 - and getting an audience in and out in an hour is a strong strategy. Meanwhile, Streetcar had both a director and a choreographer. This isn't uncommon in contemporary dance, but reflects Scottish Ballet's interest in new approaches.

On the surface, this looks like a vindication of the policies of both companies. They get in new artists - composer of Ghost Patrol MacRae is a child of the 1970s, Streetcar choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa had not worked with a ballet company before - and give them access to the support a large company can give. Streetcar was especially intriguing: despite having a pas de deux, which was possibly the most brutal use of elegance seen on stage on 2012, it owed much more to contemporary approaches,and placed SB's discipline at the service of an almost dance theatre style.

It's also a vindication of the smaller companies who have supported artists before they arrive at the National Companies. The awards might seem to celebrate large names (their popular music section is, unsurprisingly, a joke, having Plan B on the list, a good five years after he was vaguely interesting), but the two Scottish companies gave a platform to voices not usually heard on this scale.

I am still suspicious of Sky Arts - the development of a modern canon is too important to be left to a media organisation that has not been a force for good in the UK's political media. But it would be ungracious not to celebrate the success of MacRae and Louise Welsh (who wrote the libretto), Eve Mutso and Tama Barry (who danced Blanche and Stanley), Nancy Meckler (who directed Streetcar) and Lopez Ochoa.

Or maybe Sky are just cuddling up to Scotland before independence?

News from A Band Called Quinn and an on-line Label

There's a risk that my blog could become a series of puff pieces for bands, companies and artists who can be bothered to send a press release to my inbox - there is no guarantee that I won't add a few sardonic comments, but there has to be more to writing than repeating the honed phrases of the press agent. I am trying to build a vision of the arts in Scotland here: failing that, I'd like it to reflect my tastes at the least...

A Band Called Quinn are, fortunately, Vile Arts material. Sure, their latest venture isn't the multi-platform jamboree that they've been chasing lately, but ABCQ know enough about theatricality to make a gig a little more than predictable. They have teamed up with Threads of Sound, an on-line record label, to make this gig a special one that is going to be recorded and released.

Threads of Sound are an interesting label: they are not for profit and have a collection of live albums in their catalogue. And Louise Quinn got called a good singer once by Madonna.

There is quite a bit  more to ABCQ than a comment by Madonna. They were the best bit in Vanishing Point's  Beggar's Opera and although their sound is clearly in a post-punk lineage, there are some smart lyrics giving them a darker edge...

What? Live recorded & filmed performance by A Band Called Quinn supported by Suspire.

When? 4th April 2013. Doors 7pm.

Where? Stereo, Renfield Lane, Glasgow, G2 5AR

How Much? £5

Blues Brothers, Pinch, Tradfest

Frankly, I am a bit torn about the whole Blues Brothers industry. On the one hand, the film has stunning performances by James Brown, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, capturing those artists in full-flight and not forcing them to bend to the fashions of the time. Ray Charles is especially explosive, and that bit with John Lee Hooker stomping out a tune on the street corner is priceless.

On the other hand, it made the blues into a commodity, and unimaginative students now think a suit and a hat is a fancy dress outfit. 

Plenty of people love it, and it has a jukebox musical. Apparently, "their classics" are on the list, although I don't think James Brown is available to do the encore. 

The Blues Brothers Approved

Mon 25 – Wed 27 March

King's Glasgow

By way of contrast, there is an exhibition especially designed fort international women's month: PINCH – STUDIO 41 – AN EXHIBTION CELEBRATING CONTEMPORARY FEMALE ARTISTS IN GLASGOW. Here's the press release.

The exhibition is intended as a critical collection and celebration of work made by contemporary women in Glasgow. It will take place from the 16th to the 21st of March.

This show is the first in a series of small exhibitions representing groups of unestablished artists in under-represented demographics.

I guess this throws up some interesting questions about the linking of artists through gender, or the way that art funding has a hegemony that supports masculine work. Is the assessment of art bound to be undermined by its gender associations or do female only exhibitions provide a corrective to social assumptions? 

 However, sometimes even the oldest artists need a space to call their own: and so across the coast comes TradFest:

"A Feast of Culture in the Festival City."

Edinburgh has always been more sympathetic to the more theatrical aspects of the folk revival (Beltane on Carlton Hill springs to mind), but TradFest is getting all the ancient arts into one place in an attempt to show how they still have meaning today. There's dance, mummers plays, music (Alasdair Roberts and Karine Polwart are partner artists, two musicians who know how to make folk relevant): the press release mentions political protests as part of the tradition. I didn't know they had them in Edinburgh. 

Press release: 

"TradFest Edinburgh·Dùn Èideann digs deep into the city’s history with Beltane and the Mayday plays. But it also rides the radical edge with contemporary songs of struggle and protest. From earliest times the people of Edinburgh marked the start of summer with hilltop fires and silent dawns. Harvesting fresh boughs they then danced and performed street plays about mythical heroes such as Robin of the greenwood.

For this pilot year, the Festival is managed by (Vile Arts' favourites, again) the Scottish Storytelling Centre on behalf of TRACS (Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland). TRACS brings together the Traditional Music Forum, the Scottish Storytelling Forum, and the Traditions of Dance Forum, in a shared ambition to renew Scotland’s traditional arts for the twenty-first century."

 TradFest 24^th April to 6^th May 2013