All posts by butterfly

London: Hassan Hajjaj – La Caravane

January 3, 2018 butterfly

Somerset House is currently hosting Hassan Hajjaj: La Caravane, a homecoming exhibition of the British-Moroccan artist, showcasing his vibrant fusion of contemporary cultures through new and celebrated works.

The exhibition is the first UK solo show of his work in seven years, celebrating his multi-layered works which fuse traditional and contemporary North African culture with familiar Western imagery and iconography.

Born and raised in Larache, Morroco, Hassan Hajjaj moved to London aged twelve and his artistic practice sees him spend much of his life travelling between these two countries and cultures. His artworks reflect his neo-nomadic lifestyle and the relationships he has formed with a variety of characters along the way, from musicians to artists and athletes to street performers. These individuals inspire Hajjaj’s diverse artworks from photographic portraits to video installations, sculptures, music, design and handcrafted objects.
Infused with a bold palette, the materials Hajjaj uses include patterned textiles, furniture, clothes and props often created by the artist to inform our understanding of the person in the image. All of these elements, including the frames made out of everyday items in which his images sit, are chosen deliberately to highlight these individuals’ identities.
He is perhaps best known for his colourful photographic portraits, including the Kesh Angels series, from which many new works feature in the exhibition.

Blending the glossy aesthetic of a fashion shoot with Moroccan tradition and street culture, these witty and poignant images, although outwardly light-hearted, challenge Western perceptions of the hijab and female disempowerment.

Another new body of work in the exhibition is My Rock Stars: Volume 2, a nine screen installation of distinctively dressed musicians. Each musician occupies an individual screen and takes it in turns to play their instrument, while the other performers turn to watch. The clothes and brightly patterned backdrops in each screen have been carefully selected by Hajjaj to highlight each player and their individual performance.

Visitors can view the performances from Hajjaj’s signature Le Salon installation, which takes the form of a customised sofa, whilst the music travels throughout the whole exhibition.

On 6 January a free special event will take place to celebrate the final weekend of the exhibition and Somerset House’s season of African Art, including live music and a family workshop inspired by elements of Hajjaj’s work.

View the full set of pics here

Hassan Hajjaj – La Caravane
Somerset House
London

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2017 Highlights

December 24, 2017 butterfly

With 2017 coming to a close, we look back at the highlights of this incredible year.

banksywalled-off-hotel-1

Elusive artist Banksy has been very prolific throughout the year and politically engaged: between the opening of a new venture with the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, returning to Palestine after 10 years, highlighting the complex question of the UK leaving EU with a Brexit themed mural in Dover and revisiting the Girl with Balloon, paying tribute to Jean Michel Basquiat at the Barbican in London, to creating a new play with Film Director Danny Boyle ‘The Alternativity’

Banksy JMB Wheel 01 - Butterfly art News

Space Invader at Musee en Herbe in Paris

Following a roaring success, ‘ Hello My Game is… Invader’ featuring over 100 works and continues to be extented until 8 January 2018.

The Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art is now open in Berlin, a unique center for exhibitions, research and exchange on urban art with over 150 artists on its launch.

Magic City – The Art of the Street continues touring after Dresden and Munich is now in Sweden, showcasing international street artists as well as local graffiti writers with their different practices and tools.

A big THANK YOU to all the artists this year for their creativity and involvement!

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Best wishes for the Festive Season

Thank you for your continued support !

Toulouse

Video: Creve Hivernale II

December 23, 2017 butterfly 1 Comment

December 2016. A wasteland surrounded by barbed wire with a view on passing trains, home to travellers, migrants and less fortunate people. This is not a picture taken in a distant country, but actually in the center of Toulouse, South of France.

With Creve Hivernale II, local and international artists highlight the current socio -political situation, the refugee crisis with the inhumane living conditions in Europe by gathering outside and settling up in this wasteland for over a month, facing the cold and harsh elements to create immersive art installations, visual and audio performances using uniquely objects and trash found on the site, as well as collaborative artworks with children and families living there.

Participating artists include:

NADIA VON FOUTRE – JEAN DENANT – MANUEL POMAR – A4 PUTEVIE – MADEMOISELLE KAT – SID POLIEKOFF – MATHIEU TREMBLIN – TILT – MARDI NOIR – UPGRAYYDD RECIDIVE– MOLO MOLO – CLAIRE SAUVAGET – BERTRAND FRAYSSE– DON QUICKSHOT– LURK WARM – BUTTERFLY – SOPHIE BACQUIE – LUCIE LAFLORENTIE – ANNLOR CODINA – NATALIE SVIT-KONA EIFYRAN

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Video: Banksy ‘ Alternativity’ with Danny Boyle

December 15, 2017 butterfly 3 Comments

Following the reveal of two new street pieces earlier in Bethlehem (covered here) Banksy will be premiering The Alternativity film on BBC Two this Sunday, the 17th of December, an unique observational arts and documentary film directed by Danny Boyle.

This hour-long film follows director Danny Boyle on his travels to Bethlehem to capture a festive performance of the nativity, directed in collaboration between the Oscar-winning director and the local theater director, performance artist, actress and teacher at Bethlehem University, Riham Isaac.

The film premiere was announced with a new artwork from Banksy that mixes his commonly used chalk doodle style with more elaborate stencil and hand painted elements. In this particular case, the characters are doodled as simple stickmen figures, with obvious emphasis put on the drone hoovering above, one of the separation wall towers “watching” over them, and a can of CS tear gas, commonly used by the Israeli forces, laying in front of the stable. The image is a hint on the theme of the play and the movie, which places the story of nativity in the context of modern day Bethlehem, described by Banksy as “the least Christmassy place on earth.”

In advance of the screening, a short teaser presents the movie:

How do you stage a nativity in the car park of a Bethlehem hotel? And, more importantly, how do you make it snow? #TheAlternativity pic.twitter.com/DWbe6NIHKD

— BBC Two (@BBCTwo) December 12, 2017

Also coming out this week end, an interview in the Financial Times where Banksy discusses about his many travels to Palestine and involvement in Bethlehem.

When asked by Financial Times Art Director Jan Dalley about the possible effectiveness of his art, Banksy mentions “There aren’t many situations where a street artist is much use,” he says. “Most of my politics is for display purposes only. But in Palestine there’s a slim chance the art could have something useful to add — anything that appeals to young people, specifically young Israelis, can only help.”

Berlin, Shows

Berlin: Barbara Kruger ‘Forever’

December 10, 2017 butterfly

US artist Barbara Kruger, who initially inspired the logo for Supreme, has created an immersive installation called ‘Forever’ for the Berlin gallery Sprüth Magers. This exhibition marks exactly three decades since her first solo show at Monika Sprüth Gallery in Cologne.

The new site-specific work occupies all four walls and the floor of the gallery’s main exhibition space, with immersive room-wraps and several new vinyl works. Their boldly designed textual statements on the nature of truth, power, belief and doubt embody the distinctive visual language that Kruger has developed over the course of her forty-year career.

Since the late 1970s, Kruger has established herself as one of the most influential figures in contemporary art. Beginning with her earliest works, for which she combined language with mass media imagery culled from books and magazines, she has turned a critical eye toward consumerism, desire, political will, and the often-hidden mechanisms of power operating within contemporary society. In the mid-1990s, Kruger produced her first multichannel video works and room-wrappings, tapping into a long-standing interest in architecture and expanding the scale of her installations to envelop viewers in disorienting, but thought-provoking, environments. Her exhibition in Berlin extends these investigations, which are as timely as ever in a moment pervaded by pseudo-facts and alternative realities.

With ‘Forever’ Barbara Kruger takes a critical look at technology and humanity through her “bold textual statements about the nature of truth, power, belief, and doubt.” The exhibition transports viewers to contemplate iconic words typed in monochrome boxes and their connotations in relation to the wallpaper of the smartphone.