Free Papers Project

As anyone in London knows, for the past few years we’ve had a lot of free newspapers given out in the street every weekday. While many people welcome these as a quick read for a dreary tube or bus journey, the papers do clutter up the city, especially in terms of paper piles left around bus stops. But they are par tof the landscape now, like it or not.
Free Papers Project is a platform showcasing artworks, films and design pieces inspired by the relation between London and the free newspapers.
Last year I was involved in doing film and photography for the Newspaper House an installation by Sumer Erek. I designed a photoshoot for the ident of the project and on the same shoot I did these other photos which I have made into an animation, which you can see here:

http://www.freepapersproject.com/gallery.html

tales from the electric forest

“Monsters of London!” the invitation proclaimed, like a 19^th century penny dreadful.

My review:

http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/532039

tales-from-the-electric-forest

altermodern

I went to see Altermodern, the 2009 Tate triennial, as curated by Nicholas Borriaud. My review is posted on A-N here:

http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/521413

A few immediate thoughts:

• Either there really are no good painters catching curator’s eyes right now (so they should look harder!) OR, curators think painting is dead.
• If painting is “dead” then we are in trouble because painting, together with drawing, is the fundamental, most basic art from. Picking up the piece of charcoal and using it to draw on the wall of the cave is one of the first steps that made us “human.”  If we are fundamentally  incapable of making art that is  based on pure imagination and simple tools, then the subsequent art  forms that are so prevalent (installation, video, performance, etc.) are really meaningless.
• How could Borriaud allow Shezad Dawood to put such a dreadful, nay, abysmal painting in the show? His film not much better, despite the parading of many funding marks.
• I now have respect, and even liking, for Patrick Brill, whom I used to dismiss. Mea culpa, Pat, you are damn smart.
• Nathaniel Mellors is channelling Alfred Jarry, which in some ways is fun and even admirable, but at the same time Jarry is way, way out of  Mellors’ league.
• It seems many artists in the show want to somehow be “like” historians, without really understanding anything about the practice of history. So their pronouncements, and their catalogues [written by curators and critics] sound like first year history essays.
• Appropriation has had its day, and most people are not very good at it (hats off to Tacita Dean whose Russian Ending is an example of a successful appropriation).
• I assumed Altermodern was a German neologism combining Old (alt) and Modern — but it isn’t.
• Artists should maybe stick to exhibiting the one or two things they are REALLY good at – be it sculpture, photography OR painting etc…. and consider the rest a hobby.

enough for now.

Format Photography Festival

I went to Derby to see Photocinema Format 2009 and it did not disappoint! A strong show of photography and the moving image.It was exciting to see work by Gregory Crewdson David Lynch, Jonas Mekas etc. together with that of  people I didn’t know – including the wonderful photos of cinemas in Sudan, by Frederique Cifuentes; as well as photos of frozen northern Russia by Simon Roberts.

Photography is often lost in the art world here in Britain, but Format is a real treat to those who are fascinated by the recorded image.

Telegraph review (the first, I think)

Tarkovsky’s River at the Format Festival

My work in the Format Festival of Photography

the car (after Stalker)

Incredible snowfall in London

snow on the Regent's Canal

Snow in London. Midnight.

anatomies of space

My photographic book is now available – see http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/419073

It’s a selection from 7 of my favourite photo-series, and, as a high-quality print edition,  gives a far better idea of my work than the screen-based images on my website.

“Private Nightmares” an exhibition by Nazir Tanbouli

Axis arts

I’d like to invite you to visit my axis web page

http://www.axisweb.org/artist/gillianmciver

and while you’re there, check out the other artists and articles - there’s a lot of good stuff there!

First day of summer…

It’s the first day of summer and I am looking out of the window at a deeply white sky, like a super-luxury duvet insulating us from the summer sunshine. While not dramatic enough to be truly melancholic, the London sky nevertheless does affect the mood of those of us who live here.