Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the Mayor Gallery looking at two conceptual artists Billy Apple®   and Braco Dimitrijevic. I always find it difficult to see conceptual, performative art shown in a static gallery situation but this show was made by the friendly attendant who explained the work of the two artists to me with made the works, which were mainly photographs come to life. I liked this work by Billy Apple as it references Brighton Beach so it won me over straight away. I’m now off to do some googling on the two artists. Closed 24 May 2024  

Surprisingly good exhibition at Tate Modern on the art of Yoko Ono. It is difficult to show conceptual art in exhibitions, particularly when there is a performance or interactive element, but this exhibition succeeded in giving a flavour of events and planting their ideas in a way that does make you think and participate. The show worked in participation well. Some of the actions were taken up enthusiastically, like the room at the end where you were invited to take a blue pen and add to it and tables to play all white chess, but some others weren’t so popular like the being in a bag or the shaking hands through a hole in a wall. I felt a bit sorry for the attendants with the latter two. I loved the idea of Ono’s instruction pieces putting out an idea for artists and us to take up in some way. I thought I’d find the ‘peace’ pieces a bit vapid but actually I found them simple and profound. I loved the two acorns she sent to every world leader to plant for peace on her marriage to...

Engaging interview at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival by conceptual artist Jeremy Deller. Deller was interviewed by arts producer, Claire Doughty, who took him through his career and major works. I was pleased at how many of them I had come across. It really helped that there was a screen with illustrations of the projects. The projects ranged from the video project re-enacting the Battle of Ongreave in the miners’ strike, through the wonderful piece putting young men in First World War Uniforms on the streets to mark the centenary of start of the Battle of the Somme, which in wished I’d seen, to the inflatable Stonehenge. They talked about how the work was commissioned and where he got his ideas from. I’ll certainly be looking out for his projects in the future.

Informative but dull exhibition at Tate Modern looking at the advent and development of conceptual art. I say informative because it wasn’t that attractive! I’ve never really understood what conceptual art is and the early galleries of this show explained it well but as it developed I lost it again! My summary is that it is about the idea of a piece being more important than its construction but by the end I wondered if this was art or just philosophy expressed in a visual way. It gave me a lot to think about but I’m not sure I wanted any of the pieces in my home! A common theme seemed to be pictures which were just a black canvas (Malevich has a lot to answer for!). each one needed a long explanation as to what the black canvas represented. Maybe it just represents a canvas painted black! Much of the art seemed to have been a about a time and place was an event rather than an object so these can only be shown in a later exhibition as a photograph which seems a bit of a ch...

Interesting exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey of work by Chinese conceptual artist He Xiangyu. I can sometimes find conceptual art a bit annoying and lacking in craftsmanship but I loved some of the work in this exhibition. Well in particular I loved the life sized deflated tank made of leather! I am not too sure what it was saying but it was a fascinating object. It was beautifully made and very detailed and I loved the honeycomb tread on the wheel chains. The lovely smell of leather added to the whole effect and made you realise how rarely smell is a factor in art. I wasn’t so convinced by the pink room with casts of what he felt feeling the inside of his mouth with his tongue looked like. I think it got a bit lost in translation!  

Retrospective of the work of conceptual artists Ana Mendieta at the Hayward Galley. Mendieta had a relatively short career which concentrated on being a dialogue between the landscape and the female body. She is most known for her works called Situeta where she formed a silhouette of her body in the country it often settling fire to the image. I rather liked these and oddly seem to now be seeing versions of this sort of image in other exhibitions. It seemed at first strange to have an exhibition of conceptual artist as what you want to see is the thing happening not the photograph of it however this show cleverly reproduced her first solo shows, showing work from it in the same order and environment as the original which gave a clearer idea of how she saw the work. I liked the last section best which was more sculptural and included rough planks with burnt designs and floor sculptures. Reviews Telegraph Evening Standard