Clandestine street artist Banksy opens a theme park like no other. Inside a derelict lido in Weston-super-Mare, Dismaland features migrant boats, a dead princess and Banksy's trademark dark humour.
It’s an extraordinary, shocking and funny experience from the moment you step through the gates of Dismaland.
A fake security check underlines the fabricated threats Banksy and his collaborators believe we are being guarded against.
Once inside, every piece from more than 50 international artists is a twist on what you’d find in a seaside theme park.
Banksy himself has moved away from graffiti and street art in this exhibition, and instead his pieces are Banksy images rendered in 3-D - from the carousel with a passenger making lasagne from one of the horses, to a distressing piece about the current crisis off the seas of southern Europe, in which remote controlled boats have been taken over by migrants.
I seem to have reached the point where an art show is more interesting the less I'm in itBanksy
Banksy doesn't do interviews, so we asked him by email why he departed from street art?
He told Channel 4 News "for this show I didn't deliberately set out to snub street art. I just found other stuff a lot more interesting.
"I mean, we have a lady from a Lithuanian village who does traditional floral embroidery but with a power drill into the sides of cars.
"I seem to have reached the point where an art show is more interesting the less I'm in it."
The artist has described Dismaland as "a festival of art, amusements and entry level anarchism"
And the centrepiece of the Dismaland castle will not just outrage the nice people at Disney, but no doubt the legions of fans of Diana, the late Princess of Wales.
Banksy has taken two iconic pieces of imagery and turned them into something that is shocking, evocative and emotional.
Disney’s Cinderella carriage has crashed and is upturned, leaving the princess hanging lifeless from a window. The whole scene is illuminated by a blizzard of flash photography from the surrounding group of paparazzi photographers who were apparently in pursuit on their mopeds.
"It's a theme park whose big theme is - theme parks should have bigger themes" said Banksy in a press release.
Dismaland opens to the public on Saturday. There will be 4,000 £3 tickets available every day until end of September for this "family theme park unsuitable for small children."
Faced With Digital Ubiquity, Artists Still Cherish Crafting Materials
“Postdigital Artisans” by Jonathan Openshaw (all photos courtesy of Frame Publishers)
As digital technology becomes increasingly prevalent in our daily lives and the number of those who never knew an internet-less world only grows, so has the fear of becoming less human — of living in a screen-saturated, Black Mirror-esque dystopia where every new tool effaces a need for manual action. What does this mean for art production and our experience of visual culture today? Postdigital Artisans: Craftsmanship with a New Aesthetic in Fashion, Art, Design, and Architecture, recently published by Frame Publishers, explores the works of 60 international artists working with or in response to the digital moment. Through descriptions and images of their works as well as statements by them, the book emphasizes that appreciation for the handmade has not waned with the emergence of 3D printers and other innovative devices; rather, although influenced by the digital revolution, many artists still cherish and rely on crafting material objects.
Author Jonathan Openshaw unpacks the meaning and context of “postdigital” in his introduction, writing that we live in “a world that has been reformulated by the digital moment, and where a digital mindset is inextricably entangled with our existence, whether or not the digital technology [emphasis his] is actually present.” Even though people across the world experience the digital in vastly varying degrees, Openshaw argues that “We’re all postdigital now” and must recognize the permanence of new technologies. In art, the physical and the virtual have completely melded in both the artist’s approach and in the viewer’s experience — networks such as Instagram call for further engagement through digital documentation, for example.
Featuring such a large number of artists in one publication inevitably results in bite-sized rather than comprehensive profiles of each, and the result is a visually rich overview of the “postdigital” art scene and an easy, enjoyable page-turner (fitting, perhaps, for an age of shortening attention spans). The handful of paragraphs devoted to each artist dips only slightly into biography but largely focuses on the craftsmanship behind their creations, describing the role of the digital in their general approach as well as detailing the process of select individual works. A list of often-used materials is also included on every artist’s main page; and to further emphasize the still-tactile nature of today’s art, the book divides artists into six themes focused on the physical form of their work: forces, bodies, surfaces, particles, structures, and matter.
Many of those featured belong to what Openshaw terms the “connector generation,” having grown up in a world still reliant on the analogue but now engaging with the digital. The artists are largely Western, with mostly Japanese or Korean artists representing the East — although this may be less an editorial decision than a reflection of the geographic distribution and prevalence of the digital. Comprising both established and emerging artists, the grouping leads to fresh readings of familiar works as well as introductions to lesser-known projects, all in relation to each other. Anders Krisár’s precise, hand-sculpted human forms that appear manufactured and David DiMichele’s photographs of realistic dioramas allude to how today’s virtual visuals may mislead one’s sense of sight. Responding to our world of big data, Nathalie Miebach creates musical scores based on data sets while Marilene Oliver works with information from MRIs and CT scans to make her humanoid sculptures. Barry X Ball’s hi-tech renderings of classical sculpture marry tradition and technology, as do Faig Ahmed’s hand-woven carpets that incorporate image distortions and warps that occur in Photoshop.
The specificity of the artist profiles are balanced with texts that reflect on greater trends and consequences of the postdigital, such as our relationship to the screen and the fetishization of online/offline lifestyles. Each section closes with an essay written by contributors such as social media theorist and The New Inquiry contributing editor Nathan Jurgenson, London-based curator Sarah Williams, and Museum of Arts and Design Director Glenn Adamson. Openshaw also briefly interviews the indefatigable curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, who addresses how curation needs to become more “extreme” in a postdigital age and attempt to engage viewers beyond the visual.
Art making has naturally evolved alongside technology, but Postdigital Artisans offers an inspiring compendium of projects that still celebrate manual craft in the 21st century. Even as we attach ourselves to new technologies, human creativity is not completely overrun by them. Our digits still manipulate the digital. As Daniel Miller, a professor of material culture at University College London, contends in his essay “Technology and Human Attainment”: “We have not become more or less human. We are simply now that form of humanity that co-exists with this collusion of digital and analogue forms.”
Postdigital Artisans (Frame Publishers, 2015) is available at Frame, Amazon, and other online booksellers.
halka sanat projesi’nin ev sahipliğinde gerçekleştirilen sergi, Yeditepe Üniversitesi Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi Sanat Yönetimi Bölümü Yüksek Lisans Programı’na devam eden küratör adaylarının Beral Madra ile yıl boyunca yaptıkları çalışmanın ürünüdür. Ekibin ortak çalışması ile oluşturulan kavramsal çerçeve bağlamında her küratör adayı bir sanatçıyı bu sergiye davet etmiştir. Serginin bütünü, küratör adaylarının ekip anlayışı içerisinde yaptıkları ortak çalışmanın ürünüdür.
Serginin başlığı olarak seçilen ve Latince bir terim olan Melior Mundus (Daha İyi Dünya), 20. yüzyılın ve küreselleşme sürecinin distopyalarına karşın, ütopyanın insana özgü bir seçenek olarak varlığının ifadesidir.
Serginin alt başlığını oluşturan “Karamsarlığı daha iyi zamanlara bırakın'' ise John Berger'in Arjantin’de rastladığı ve dünyaya sunarak popülerleştirdiği bir duvar yazısıdır. Bu ifade umudu işaret eder. Umut, olumlu ve iyimser bakış daha iyi bir dünyanın en önemli gereksinimidir.
Kendi ellerinizle yaptığınız bir deftere yazmaktan, dilediğiniz renkte ürettiğiniz bir kağıda çizmekten daha güzel ne olabilir ki! Işık Üniversitesi Moda ve Tekstil Tasarımı Bölümü öğretim üyesi Lale Çavuldur’un eşlik edeceği bu atölyede, katılımcılar çeşitli malzemelerle kendi kağıtlarını üretirken, bitki ve köklerden kağıt üretimi gibi alternatif teknikler konusunda da bilgi edinecek.
Tarih: 31 Mayıs 2015, Pazar
Saat: 11:00-18:00
Yer: Mixer
Mixer’in Printed’15 projesi kapsamında gerçekleştirilecek olan atölyenin katılım ücreti 70 TL’dir ve katılım 10 kişiyle sınırlıdır.
These incredible prints, made by Bryan Nash Gill, are created using remnants of tree stumps, which the artist inks and hand prints to make these large scale records of trees that have been felled. The printing process for this series is incredibly laborious: after rolling out the ink, the artist gingerly places the thin Japanese paper atop the section of wood, and uses the pressure of his fingertips to impress the ink upon paper.
“Cut Microbe” is a sculpture entirely hand cut out of paper. Measuring 44 inches/112cms in length, it is half a million times bigger than the ecoli bacteria upon which it is based. I wanted to create a sculpture that reflected in the process of being made the incredible scale and complexity of this microbiological world. I am amazed at the strange beauty of the natural world and wanted to open people’s eyes to aspects of it that they rarely see.
Commissioned to make this sculpture for the Eden Project in the UK. It will be part of a new exhibition centre entitled “The Invisible You“, exploring the Human Biome, that is the vast colony of microbes that live on and in our bodies. There are countless millions of these bugs swimming around our intestine like alien jellyfish! They play a crucial role in the functioning of our bodies.
“Geçen hafta, aramızdan Agnuni, Khajag, Zartaryan, Cangülyan, Dağavaryan ve Sarkis Minasyan, Ankara’dan çağırılıp yola çıktılar. Şimdi nerede olduklarını bilmiyoruz. Üzülüyorum, çünkü İstibdat rejimi altında onca zorluk çektiğimiz halde, bu Hürriyet ve Meşrutiyet döneminde de haksız yere eziyete uğruyoruz. Vatan uğruna onca sene çile ve sıkıntı çekenlerin bahtına bu mu düşecekti!” Sımpad Pürad’ın Ayaş hapishanesinden yazdığı, 30 Mayıs 1915 tarihli mektuptan
“Bir gün gitmek mecburiyetinde kalırsak ama... Tıpkı 1915’teki gibi çıkacaktık yola... Atalarımız gibi... Nereye gideceğimizi bilmeden... Yürüyerek yürüdükleri yollardan... Duyarak çileyi, yaşayarak ızdırabı...” Hrant Dink’in “Ruh Halimin Güvercin Tedirginliği” yazısından
Yüz yıl önce, 24 Nisan 1915’te İstanbul’da Ermeni fikir önderleri, mebuslar, gazeteciler, yazarlar, siyasetçiler tutuklanır ve Çankırı ile Ayaş’taki toplama merkezlerine gönderilir. Daha sonra çoğu, cezaevlerinden salınan çete mensuplarına kırdırılır. Bu tutuklamalar İttihat ve Terakki hükümetinin kısa zamanda soykırım niteliği alan tehcir kararının ilk adımı olur. 23’ünü 24’üne bağlayan gece yaklaşık 250 kişinin tutuklanmasının ardından birkaç gün içinde 2500 kişiye yönelik büyük bir polis operasyonu düzenlenir.
24 Nisan ve sonrasında tutuklanan, sürgüne gönderilen ve öldürülen Ermeni aydınların portrelerinden oluşan iş, sanatçı Nalan Yırtmaç tarafından üretildi. Bu iş, onları “tutuklanıp götürülen Ermeniler” genel başlığından çıkarıp, adlarını yüzlerini bildiğimiz insanlara, kozmopolitan Osmanlı entelektüel ortamının aktif katılımcılarına dönüştürüyor. Yırtmaç’ın bugüne ulaşan az sayıda yayındaki fotoğrafları kaynak alarak kendi resimsel diliyle ürettiği bu portreler, kimilerince yok sayılan kimilerince de pek az bilinen bir geçmişi toplumsal hafızaya geri çağırıyor.
Hrant Dink’in 19 Ocak 2007’deki katlinin hemen ardından Anti-Pop’un hazırladığı iş, bu portrelerle bir arada sergileniyor. Böylelikle 1915 ile Hrant Dink cinayeti arasındaki acı veren sürekliliğe dikkat çekiliyor. Bir yanda yüz yıl önce tutuklanıp öldürülen aydınlar, diğer yanda daha birkaç yıl önce Türklerle Ermenilerin kendi kimliklerini sağlıklı bir şekilde yeniden kurarak eşit ve özgür biçimde yaşayacaklarına dair inancını hayatıyla ödeyen bir devrimci.
Osmanlı’da ve Türkiye’de yaşanan büyük felaket ile yüzleşmek, başını eğip birlikte yas tutmak için…
***
Without knowing where we are headed…
Nalan Yırtmaç and Anti-pop
4 - 26 April 2015
“Last week, from among us, Agnuni, Khajag, Zartaryan, Cangülyan, Dağavaryan and Sarkis Minasyan were summoned by Ankara and they set on the road. We do not know their whereabouts now. I grieve, because although we suffered so much hardship under the Autocracy regime, we are still being unjustly persecuted in this era of Freedom and Constitutionalism also. Was this the fortune to befall those who suffered and toiled for the sake of the motherland all those years!” From Sımpad Pürad’s letter dated May 30, 1915 written from the prison of Ayaş
“It may be that one day we would be forced to go, but... We would set out just like those in 1915 did... Like our forefathers... Without knowing where we were headed... Walking on the roads they trod... Feeling the torment, living the pain...” From Hrant Dink’s article “Like a nervous pigeon: my unsettled state of mind”
One hundred years ago, on April 24, 1915, Armenian opinion leaders, parliamentarians, journalists, writers, and politicians were arrested in İstanbul and sent to concentration camps in Çankırı and Ayaş. Later, most of them were slain by band members set loose from prisons. These arrests constitute the first step of the Committee of Union and Progress government’s decision of deportation which soon evolves into a genocide. Following the arrest of approximately 250 people on the night of the 23rd leading up to the 24th, a massive police operation is set underway which targets 2500 people over the course of a couple of days.
The work comprised of portraits of Armenian intellectuals arrested, exiled and killed on April 24 and in its aftermath was created by artist Nalan Yırtmaç. This work pulls them out from under the generic heading of “arrested and cast out Armenians” and turns them into people with familiar names and faces; the active participants of the cosmopolitan Ottoman intellectual milieu. These portraits the artist has produced in her own pictorial language based on photographs from the few publications that have survived to the present day summon a past that is scarcely known by some and completely ignored by others back to collective memory.
The work created by Anti-Pop immediately after the assassination of Hrant Dink on January 19, 2007 is exhibited together with these portraits, drawing attention to the agonizing continuity between 1915 and the massacre of Hrant. On one hand are the intellectuals arrested and killed a hundred years ago, and on the other a revolutionary who paid with his life only a few years ago for believing that Turks and Armenians will reconstruct their own identities on healthy grounds and live in equality and freedom.
To come to terms with the great catastrophe experienced in the Ottoman state and Turkey, to bow our heads and mourn together…
2015 Exhibition Program of DEPO is being realized in cooperation with Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. DEPO 2015 Sergi Programı Calouste Gulbenkian Vakfı işbirliği ile gerçekleşmektedir.
Facebook
Twitter
StumbleUpon
