ORGAN

I guess the answer, once more, is do it yourself, A couple of things going on elsewhere, one right over the road, one up there in Newcastle…  Both pieces of wordery taken in a cut ‘n paste manner from the born yet again no thrill pages of Organ, the Cultivate in-house on line publication – well with this weeks revelation that you have to pay for coverage in the art press, we though we’d better bring our own publication out of mothballs and back to life once more . Meanwhile, here at Cultivate this week we’re getting on with the Question?

Over on the Organ pages, each day, you’ll find a Thing Of The Day, Today it happens to be FOOT VILLAGE, yesterday it was  ROWDY and  AHN CHULHYUN, the day before that HALF MOON RUN, tomorrow it will be, well who knows, watch those pages over there and see,,, Organ was a publication that ran in many forms between 1986 ans 2010, first a hand made photocopied fanzine wrapped in a hand painted screen-printed cover,  it evolved over a twenty-four year lifespan in to a an, at times, far too a far too glossy magazine, a record label, a regular TV show on the Sky open access channel, a radio show on London arts radio station Resonance FM, it was a time eating monster that was far more comfortable in the creative days of physical print if the truth be known. Three says ago, outraged by a journalist asking us to pay her to write positive reviews for the publications she writes for, the Organ monster awoke. This time in a low key no thrills stripped to the basics simple blog form. Seems that as artists, we now not have to start our own galleries, we need to start our own media as well (well in our case, revive our own)

The pre-aftereffects days of the last century, some primitive animation and those Organ TV titles that went out weekly back there for a couple of years….

Things of the day over on the Organ blog yesterday then, Burning Candy’s Rowdy with a solo show in Newcastle, Ahn Chulhyun’s Infinite Space in East London …..

BURNING CANDY’S ROWDY has a solo show opening up there in Newcastle tonight, here’s a video taster and a bunch of words cut ‘n paste from a press release

Rowdy – ‘Get Rowdy’ @ Tower, Newcastle –  8th November – 10th January 2013

“Tower Art Gallery are pleased to announce, ‘Get Rowdy’, the first Newcastle solo show by the infamous UK artist. Known best for his trademark crocodiles, Rowdy has always used graffiti as a tool of resistance, since becoming an integral part of the Bristol graffiti scene in 1987. In recent years, he has become a key member of Burning Candy. A crew whose sustained outdoor painting campaign, has left a strong impression on many a surface, throughout the UK and beyond.

Having recently recovered from a fire that claimed both his home and studio, the artist has become more meditative in approach. This is realised in his series of abstract cityscape paintings. These will be displayed alongside other new works, combining an accomplished series of paintings, with his ever playful and unique take on urban living and landscape”. owerartgallery.com

if you’re anywhere near East London in November then you really do need to go see the latest AHN CHULHYUN  show at Vyner Street’s  Hada Contemporary,  And on line imagery you may have seem really does the show no justice whatsoever, a hint of the flavour is all you will get from photography

Ahn Chulhyun at hada, November 2012

AHN CHULHYUN – INFINITE VOYAGE @ Hada Contemporary, Vyner Street, East London – 1st – 28th NOVEMBER 2012

Infinite Voyage is the first British solo exhibition by (now Baltimore based) Korean artist Ahn Chulhyun, Infinite Voyage is a show that instantly demands attention, a show that deals with the notions of never-ending space is such a colourfully fluorescent way. The normally white-walled gallery is lit in a very low key dark blue sky at dusk manner, leaving the variety of initially subdued-looking light-emitting boxes to drag you in to their bright depth. Large light-framed boxes, illusions, holes, tricks?, No not tricks, creations composed mostly of bright fluorescent light and carefully places mirrors. Boxes and frames that demand you go peer in, go look over the edge and swim down down down to… Constructions that demand your attention and allow the artist to focus you the viewer on to the “possibility of the visualisation of the space through the illumination of the infinite depth”. Ahn Chulhyun’s work really is something you need to experience for yourself, and it really is art as experience, art as deep fun, serious art that demands you smile. The people pouring out of the busy First Thursday opening last week were glowing with enthusiasm, grabbing hold of others and insisting they go in. It was First Thursday and there was a dozen or so galleries open down Vyner Street that night, not everyone goes in to every show, it can all be a little overwhelming, an artistic bombardment of the senses, Mexican day of the dead celebrations on one corner, films shows on the next, pop up bars under street lights, pop up galleries crammed in to small spaces, expansive paintings in that gallery up those stairs, people were grabbing hold of arms and encouraging people to go in and explore the delights waiting behind Hada’s grey doors. I guess you could maybe argue that some of it was a little gimmicky, that some of it might be more at home in a theme park that a contemporary art gallery? No, no you couldn’t (or shouldn’t), this has depth, this has thought, this deep, this is painting with light, this is contemporary art as delight, this is contemporary fun, liberation, a artist freed from his paint of previous years, his “previous practice as a painter depicting hard-edged perspective two-dimensional paintings” this is Ahn Chulhyun freed in to the three-dimensionality of his space rather than having to explore through two-dimensional paintings, “he transforms the geometric objects often shown in his earlier paintings into actual objects and uses light and mirrors to visualise the space” Minimal art taken to the maximum, to infinity (and beyond)  in to the fading light of abyss, far out in to space without ever leaving the confines of the gallery. Go look in to Infinite Space, go enjoy some art, in fact go see everything that Hada Contemporary serve up down Vyner Street, their shows have been constantly rewarding since they first opened their doors in East London back in February…(S.w)

Hada Contemporary

FURTHER ORGAN READING