Cerith Wyn Evans – White Cube

White Cube made a positive step towards returning to post lockdown normality by responsibly re-opening both London gallery spaces in mid June with reduced opening hours and pre-booked timed visiting slots to enable social distancing and avoid queues. The Bermondsey space is host to Cerith Wyn Evans’ ‘No realm of thought… No field of vision’ featuring light and glass installations, sculpture and painting. Two neon works produced in Krypton gas greet you in the corridor – one shaped like a cube and the other a bow-tie – immediately suggestive of Evans’ interest in mechanics, shape, form and perspective that are the backbone of this exhibition. As you peel away from the corridor, a gallery to the right houses multiple hanging mobiles constructed from cracked vehicle window screens that revolve subtly, refracting light as it hits them. A gallery to the left displays two tress rotating on turntables so slowly it is barely perceptible with spotlights creating kinetic shadows on the walls, accompanied by four new paintings of simple black brushstrokes across each canvas. Striking as these installations are, your attention is stolen by the next space housing a mesmerising neon sculpture suspended from the ceiling, inspired by drawings of the first helicopter designed in 1907 as well as the artists own inaugural neon commission. The prodigious gallery at the end of the corridor continues to impress with an oversized neon screen of Japanese kanji characters; a translation of a passage from ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ written in 1921-22 by Marcel Proust, describing the movement of water through an 18^th century fountain. This is flanked by numerous other neon and sound works, including ‘Composition of Flutes’ and ‘Pli S=E=L=O=N Pli’ which suspend from the ceiling or emit out of sync piano compositions or pulsating tones; the perfect soundtrack to these beautifully tangled works.

Advertisement

Evans, Janssens and Ortega: White Cube, Bermondsey

Three exhibitions for the price of one! In fact three exhibitions for the price of none if you head over to White Cube Bermondsey who offer free admission and are currently host to three different artists across their north, south and 9x9x9 gallery spaces. The first space you enter off the main corridor contains Cerith Wyn Evans’ huge neon installation ‘Neon Forms (After Noh IV) which is suspended from the ceiling and almost reaches the floor, combining single lines of light amidst chaotic overlapping assemblages. The north gallery space compliments the first show, as Ann Veronica Janssens’ sculptural works similarly play with light and perception; including halogen lamps, venetian blinds covered in gold leaf, reflective and mirrored surfaces and a spillage of glitter across the floor. The final (and largest) south gallery space is dedicated to Damian Ortega which again includes large-scale sculptures and installations alongside two-dimensional pieces. Orange infographics are pinned to the white walls, and although the imagery relates to a camera manual, the workings of a gun, or the planets within the solar system, closer inspection reveals that the labels are philosophical and comment on the impact technology has had on people’s faith and belief. Within these two-dimensional works are a series of industrial and mechanical sculptures such as the coliseum created from concrete blocks in concentric circles, and the clever ‘Deconstructing time’ sculptures which comprise the inner workings of a watch enlarged to an enormous scale and separated across the floor or stacked in free standing towers. The weather may be turning grey and miserable as autumn sets in, but the change in season also initiates the opening of several inspiring exhibitions to keep you indoors and happily distracted from the weather outside – and White Cube’s current offering certainly falls into that category!

For more information visit their website

Lauren Baker: Hang Up Gallery

Wouldn’t it be great if someone combined a contemporary art gallery with the additional bonus of a licensed bar?! Well someone has, and it can be found in Stoke Newington courtesy of Hang-Up Gallery. The Gallery has been on this site specialising in Banksy sales since 2008, but last week opened a lower-ground space, reached via a secret door and corrugated iron staircase, aptly named ‘the bunker’. Whilst the ground floor gallery continues to be dominated by Banksy’s (though there are other noteworthy artists represented including David Shrigley, Ben Eine, Peter Blake and KAWS amongst others), the bunker is currently host to neon creations by Lauren Baker. Her solo show ‘Lightvisions’ comprises a dozen original hand blown neon artworks and limited edition prints featuring provocative slogans such as ‘Everything is going to be fucking amazing’ and ‘Just kiss me, we can talk later’. These neon statements are an expression of Baker’s thoughts in her own hand-writing and hold different meanings; some highlight her positivity (‘Everything is going to be fucking amazing’ is the artists’ daily mantra!), others are tongue in cheek (‘Be kind to animals of I’ll kill you’), whilst others explore her spirituality or deeper sentiments relating to love and lust (‘You blow my mind’). The nature of these works and the stimulating impact of the light emitted from them lends itself perfectly to its home in a dark basement – or indeed bunker. Baker chose neon as a medium for exactly that reason, admitting to getting “a kick out of the energy that oozes from the glowing tubes” – it also ties back into her spirituality as neon is also reminiscent of the invisible aura of living beings and through neon this becomes more tangible and visible. So as the winter weather kicks in, I’d suggest heading over for a drink, illuminating artworks and a night that might just be ‘fucking amazing’!

Baker’s tongue in check statement about conservation

Another of Baker’s neon creations

The bunker space

Thanks to Lauren Baker for answering my questions, and to Laura at Sprout PR.

For more information visit their website

Hybrid Matters: Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen

A church dating back to the early 1200’s isn’t a typical venue for contemporary arts, but Nikolaj Kunsthal (Copenhagen’s third oldest church) provides the perfect backdrop to a constantly changing exhibition programme in Denmark’s capital. The Great Fire of the city in 1795 put an end to the buildings life as a functioning church, and following incarnations as a fire station, naval museum and public library, it became heavily associated with Copenhagen’s art scene from the late 1950’s and has been a dedicated exhibition space since 1981. ‘Hybrid Matters’ combining art and science, and the work of twelve different artists is currently on display. Visitors enter through the original bethel door and climb a flight of spiral steps into the vaulted level – on this staircase you are greeted by five neon signs created by Hanna Husberg, each powered by ionised argon and neon gas and shaped into a symbol representative of artificial heating or cooling. This is coupled with a video projection of Svalbard (in the Artic achipelagio) and together they comment on fossil fuels’ contribution to global warming. Through an archway you are then met by a wall of rotating miniature Christmas trees by Laura Beloff & Jonas Jorgensen, humorously testing the hypothesis that plant growth can be stimulated by different gravitational conditions than those found on Earth. ‘Cloud Harvest’ by Rosemary Lee & Jens Lee Jorgensen then deconstructs mobile phones and dissolves them into a vapour cloud, whilst also creating a pun on new terminology associated with the network of servers storing and transmitting global information. Around the corner is Hege Tapio’s experiment into human fat as potential fuel for cars, and the artist even underwent liposuction to draw attention to the potential use of peoples’ own bodies as a resource in the future! All of these fascinating displays aside, my favourite was undoubtedly Lawrence Malstaf’s combination of origami and 3D scanning to create a mesmerising interactive sculptural installation which moved and unfolded when sensors noticed you standing nearby. If you’re in Copenhagen before 31^st July I’d certainly suggest visiting before the exhibition closes.

One of Hanna Husberg’s neon signs

Laura Beloff & Jonas Jorgensen’s rotating Christmas trees

Lawrence Malstaf’s combination of traditional origami and 3D scanning

For more information visit their website