November 2023: bits and bobs 2 - Matter Gone Wild, Josèfa Ntjam at the Fondation Pernod Ricard

Posted

Josèfa Ntjam is a young artist I first came across when helping with preparations for Alternating Currents, the inaugural exhibition at Parallel Circuit, in Tehran. Her name was in the list of artists whose work was to be included in the exhibition, and I found myself translating the text of one of her videos (as it happens, now showing at FRAC Ile de France's 40th birthday exhibition, Gunaikeion, in Romainville), so it could be subtitled for Iran, and taking a train to her current home town to pick up some works (cushions) for dispatch there.

Since then, I've looked out for her name and seen a few works at Poggi in Paris, and more at Toucher Terre, an exhibition of ceramic sculptures at the Espace Monte Cristo that I wrote about in July.

She now has a compact but striking installation at the Fondation Pernod Ricard, called Matter Gone Wild, and I went to see it one sodden day this month. There are two things I'd like to mention as relevant here.

First, something I often say when showing people round my flat is that the problem with buying works from young artists while you can still afford to is that they progress so quickly; soon you find yourself liking their new work as well if not even more, and aching to have some for yourself, but by then they've signed with a big gallery, and it's out of your range. All you can do is go on loving the early work you have and wish them well as they make their way.

Second, it's interesting to see how so many young artists have now (I almost wrote 'suddenly') learnt to think in terms of installation, no longer just the 'white cube' presentation of individual pieces. This is one of the things that struck me strongly at 100%, a young artists' exhibition at La Villette last spring that I went to more than once and should have written up, with pics, but didn't (and I don't remember why). It's also, incidentally, one of the skills Mamali Shafahi hopes Parallel Circuit in Tehran, which he art-directs, will help young Iranian artists develop.

Josèfa Ntjam's new installation is slick (in the most positive sense of the term) and professional, with an eye for detail (neion highlighting, specific wall colours, careful, focused lighting...). The installations, each distinct in feel, adapt to the spaces. The new video in the big, back room is more complex, more sophisticated and more finished than before, and the artists herself is notably stylishly costumes and made up, and has, according to the credits, used a choreographer. It shows. The video is projected in a custom installation, with a carpet, Josèfa's 'signature' cushions, a pop-art era inflatable armchair. She and her curator have put together a show that is compact and coherent. Very neatly done.










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Palais de Tokyo's summer exhibitions, 2023

Posted
Image
The Palais de Tokyo has no air-conditioning, and some of its galleries have glass roofs, so in the summer the place can get very hot. I well remember, during Prince.sse.s des Villes , the sprawling summer exhibition of 2019, it was stifling. It has, however, an abundance of labyrinthine, relatively rarely-used underground spaces in bare concrete. The drop from the avenue in front of the Palais to the streets at the back, at river level, is considerable. (The long flights of stairs are familiar to me from visits to the Iranian embassy's visa department.) I've no idea how many buried levels the building actually has. Anyway, this year, the curators have had the clever idea of going down nearly as deep as possible, creating a new pathway starting at least two floors below street level, where it's dark and cool. Exhibition halls on the main and upper floors aren't used at all; only the ticket offices, shop and restaurant are still open. Guards and visitors can all be gratef
Read more

Anna Uddenberg: an interesting new development

Posted
Image
Anna Uddenberg is a Swedish artist whose work has, I think, something quite original, distinctive and perceptive to say about the image of women in certain, specific currents of consumer culture that might otherwise be overlooked. I hadn't seen much of her recently, but she now has an exhibition, at her Berlin Gallery, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler (or K-T Z), of totally new works focusing, this time, not on women but on men. The resulting woodcarvings are an interesting and quite surprising development, and add to what seems to be almost a 'fashion' for reliefs in art at the moment. This is the link to the new exhibition, 'Big Baby' , at K-T Z. This is the link to a video about the new work, on Vimeo , but the video is also on the gallery website. This is the direct link to the page about Anna Uddenberg on the gallery site. The following are some photos of Anna Uddenberg's new and previous work, 'borrowed' from K-T Z.
Read more

nerd_funk and the emergence of a new genre

Posted
Image
nerd_funk is the name of an ambitious, multi-faceted project by Ali Eslami and Mamali Shafahi. Ali and Mamali are both Iranian by birth but now based mainly in Europe. Ali is from a new-technology background but has gravitated towards art, and will soon take up a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Mamali is from a fine-arts background, but has developed a strong interest in new technologies, now often at the heart of his practice. Their profiles fit together neatly, like the pieces of a puzzle; this helps explain the unique strengths of their partnership in a project that combines art and high-tech. Shared interests Mamali and Ali discovered they shared a fascination with the impact on our lives, now and in the future, for good or ill, of new and emerging technologies, along with the now-ubiquitous phenomena, such as social media, they have made possible, and it was this shared interest that cemented their partnership. They're interested in how, already, technol
Read more