P.E.A.R.

8 August 2012

Robert Hughes, 1938-2012

‘The basic project of art is always to make the world whole and comprehensible, to restore it to us in all its glory and its occasional nastiness, not through argument but through feeling, and then to close the gap between you and everything that is not you, and in this way pass from feeling to meaning. It’s not something that committees can do. It’s not a task achieved by groups or by movements. It’s done by individuals, each person mediating in some way between a sense of history and an experience of the world.’

Robert Hughes, The Shock of the New

2 August 2012

Wiggins

The sideburns are almost architectural...

23 July 2012

Pursuit of Perfection

Timed to coincide with the 2012 London Olympics, South London Gallery’s new exhibition ‘Pursuit of Perfection: The Politics of Sport’ opens on Friday.

Included in the exhibition, displayed individually and in groups on plinths and the floor, piled on top of each other like rubbish, are 2,529 trophies from every genre of sport, dating from the 1970s onwards, and collected by Aleksandra Mir for her work Triumph. Inspired by a friend who had been a famous athlete in his youth and who kept mementos of his achievements as he was visibly ageing, Aleksandra placed an ad in the local newspaper in Palermo, Italy, asking the general public for their old sports trophies. Triumph explores the power of the trophy, both a coveted symbol of accomplishment and a garish, mass-produced item of little real value. The work is also a powerful visual statement of our tendency towards nostalgia, and the temptation to wallow in memories of past youth, vitality and joy.

Aleksandra Mir

Triumph, 2009

2529 trophies

'Pursuit of Perfection' continues until the 14 September and also includes work by Michel Auder, Roderick Buchanan, John Gerrard, Lucy Gunning, Janice Kerbel, Jonathan Monk, Ariel Orozco and Paul Pfeiffer.

A selection of Aleksandra’s collages, from her series The Dream and The Promise, featured in the most recent issue of P.E.A.R. In these, the artist combines religious iconography with that of space travel, to ask what would happen if angels and astronauts shared the same sky.

17 July 2012

Mogadishu - Forgotten Pasts and Distant Futures

Over the course of its history, Mogadishu has been influenced by the diverse cultures of its various rulers, residents and visiting traders; a combination of influences that strongly informed the city’s subsequent social, cultural and physical characteristics. However, Mogadishu’s pre-civil war architecture and built form largely owes its morphology to the region’s former colonial power, Italy, the last of the European powers to join the ‘scramble for Africa’.

Forgotten Pasts and Distant Futures is an installation that charts the urban transformation of Mogadishu, from the late 19th century to the first few decades of the 20th century. The unique, site-specific presentation in Swiss Cottage Library – one of London’s iconic modernist buildings – allows, for the first time, a broader audience to engage with this aspect of the city’s history. The project is designed and curated by P.E.A.R. co-editor Rashid Ali.

6 July 2012

Bold Tendencies

This summer, on the top floors of a disused multi-storey car park in Peckham, Bold Tendencies is again showcasing new sculptural commissions by six international artists. On the very top level of the car park, works are sited in the open air, exposed to the elements and responding more to the urban landscape of Peckham and panoramic vistas of London than the brutalism of the structure itself. Underneath, though, on a lower level, the work of the Glaswegian artists Mary Redmond offers a visceral response to the weighty concrete of the car park.

Redmond positions found objects together with manipulated industrial materials that have been shaped, bent and painted. There is a consideration to this assemblage that belies the low-key materiality and hints at a narrative that is yet indecipherable. The weight of the concrete sits heavily on the bowed forms which are held in a delicate balance, close to collapse. The poignancy of this installation is both physical and emotional.

Bold Tendencies

continues until Sunday 30 September 2012

Thursday - Sunday 11am - 10pm

Level 7-10, Peckham Multistory Car Park, 95A Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE15 4ST

3 July 2012

Mogadishu

Rashid's project 'Mogadishu - Forgotten Pasts and Distant Futures' opens tonight at the Swiss Cottage Library. We'll have images very soon! Hope to see you there.

25 June 2012

P.E.A.R. 4.5

19 June 2012

The Hackney Bureau

For one night only P.E.A.R. will be live at The Hackney Bureau on Wednesday 27 June. This live issue will include contributions by Edwin Burdis, who will perform his sound work ‘For it is a pear’, and Matthew Butcher, who will present his conceptual architecture ‘The Filter House’. There will also be plenty of time and opportunity to quiz the contributors and the editors. The full line up will be coming soon… It will be a really interesting evening and lots of fun! We look forward to meeting you there.

P.E.A.R. 4.5

Handlung Events at The Hackney Bureau

3 Mare Street

London E8 4RP

Wednesday 27 June, 7.30pm

The event is free but seating is limited. Please rsvp to handlungevents@gmail.com

And to whet your appetite here is the feature on Matthew’s ‘Filter House’ – published in the most recent issue of the paper.

11 June 2012

Imponderabilia at Art Basel

Sean Kelly Gallery is re-presenting the seminal performance work ‘Imponderabilia’ on their booth during Art Basel (14 – 17 June). This historic piece was originally performed by Marina Abramovic and Ulay in 1977. The work consists of a nude man and woman who stand facing each other in an entrance way which the public is invited to pass through. The space between the performers is narrow and the person entering must move sideways, choosing whether to face the male or female performer. In the presentation at Basel the entrance way will be to the gallery’s booth at the art fair. The performance will bring new meaning to the idea of seeing iconic artwork in the flesh.

6 June 2012

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion

This year’s Pavilion has been designed by Herzog & de Meuron & Ai Weiwei and takes the viewer beneath the lawn of the Serpentine to explore the hidden history of its previous pavilions. A distinctive cork landscape reveals and reconstructs the traces of these former pavilions and a new structure emerges from their foundations. Eleven columns characterising each past Pavilion and a twelfth representing the current structure support a floating platform roof that sits just a few feet above ground level and draws the infinitely changing sky into its reflective pool.

Traces of previous foundations

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012

Cork landscape

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012

Pavilion roof

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012

Aerial view

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012