Cathy's Art Diary

Innovative exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery highlighting the shortlisted finalists in the inaugural Artist of the Future Prize. This first edition of the prize showcases artists who push the boundaries of digital art and the winner will be announced on 21 November. The show included work by 10 artists on large screens with earphones provided for those with sound. I found this format hard to engage with and didn't have time to watch any of them from beginning to end but some of them grabbed me with their beautiful imagery. I liked Lenar Singatullov's "Circle Dance" an abstract work involving a custom algorithm which turns the colours of flags into moving figures and James David Freeman's "In the Realm of Emptiness", scenes of empty London streets taken during the pandemic. My favourite was Dominic Harris's ball of flowers with butterflies which reacted to you walking past it. I had seen his work before at the Halcyon Gallery and loved it. ...

Interesting small display at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the digital art collection of Patric Prince which has been donated to the museum. I’m not sure I’m understood all the pieces but was moved to see that many of them would no longer exist if she hadn’t collected them. It feels like it’s almost too early to assess their importance. It was interesting to see how many pieces included notes by the artists/producers when they gave them to her. I particularly liked the idea of an event in 1992 when photographs were transferred between machines and enhanced by the receiver. The picture in the show from this was a portrait of Prince. Closes 15 September 2024  

Exhibitor at the V&A which looks at the latest developments in digital and interactive design, from small screen based graphics to large-scale installations. I made the mistake of doing this exhibit at the weekend and it was heaving with people. It’s very interactive but you had to queue to try most things. It was also full of children and push chairs in quite a cramped area. The art may have been good but the experience was rather unpleasant. Also it’s coming to the end of the run so a couple of items had broken down. However I did like the digital clock made up of photos uploaded by visitors via the web which showed numbers and the mirrors in the main galleries which picked on someone looking at them and followed their movements.