Tag Archives: exhibition

Eccentricities & Obsessions

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The other day I was walking through the Cardiff arcades and I happened to find this little student art show in an empty shop. I’ve heard talk here and there about cultural or community projects putting empty retail spaces to good use, but this is the first one I’ve seen for myself.

I must compliment the university for arranging this show. I studied a humanities subject at uni, and at times felt a huge gulf between the arts, and the society they were supposed to reflect. So giving the students and the public a chance to interact in this way, seems just great to me.

I also chatted to two of the artists whilst there, Ed and Naomi (do check out their blogs to see some of their work); and more info to be found on the course homepage here.

The show’s been extended to run until Saturday 12th of February, so if you’re in the area (map), do check it out.

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P.S. Also, my friend Will Scothern will be showing his film Queensbury Rules at Chapter Movie Maker on Monday 7th Feb (fb). Its a ten minute short I wrote the score for (lots of piano music), shot on Cannon 5D, and is described as ‘a boxing movie without any boxing’. If you’re about, then I’ll see you there.

Artes Mundi and Space Balloons

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Yesterday I happened to look in on the Artes Mundi exhibition at the National Museum Cardiff. There were quite a few nice and interesting works (such as the film from which the image below is taken), but none of them felt really exceptional to me.

A still from 'per speculum' by Adrian Paci.

Then later that day I came across this story. A man who wanted to take some aerial photos of his house attached a digital camera to a helium balloon and eventually ended up with these amazing pictures of the Earth.

One of Robert Harrison's aerial photos.

The tag line at the Artes Mundi exhibition was ‘One World, All Humanity‘ but for me, looking at these pictures and videos of the Earth were a far more powerful statement about what our world is.

This obviously isn’t the first time people have taken pictures of the earth from above, and as Robert Harrison says in the BBC interview NASA have been doing this for years. I was also reminded of this art film of a hot air balloon ascent made by Yoko Ono in 1970. But these professionally produced documents only reinforce our viewing experience as simply that of a spectator. We have all used digital cameras, handled them, carried them with us, and have a thorough experience of using them. Putting one of these cameras several miles above the earth resulted in images that for me, were far more personal and affecting than anything I happened to find on the walls of that art gallery earlier in the day.

images via Saatchi Online and flickr