A Goodbye Letter, A Love Call, A Wakeup Song was the title of the 2021 Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement, curated by the collective DIS and director Andrea Bellini. Envisaged as a pilot season of myriad different broadcasts that aimed to interrupt the established order of the day, the exhibition was staged in a labyrinth of set-like screening rooms, over the three floors of the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva. This stellar list of artists alongside DIS included Mandy Harris Williams, Simon Fujiwara, Camille Henrot and TELFAR.

It’s for this Biennale that DIS created their first feature film, Everything But The World, which pertinently explores the potential of debunking and deconstructing information and narrative. This feature film is now the key piece in their current exhibition How to Become A Fossil. Billed as a non-linear natural history show, it included an alt-star studded cast including Leila Weinraub, Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, Brontez Purnell and a soundtrack by Fatima Al Qadiri. The film veers from a skit on how to become a fossil to a sexed-up guide lead a tour of an Italian castle, inspired by Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch.

Alongside DIS in the Biennale, Mandy Harris Williams beckoned “Glamourise the intellectual” in her work Couture Critiques. Installed in a classroom scene, complete with wooden table and chairs, the video takes the form of an extended Instagram-inspired photoshoot, interspersed with clips of Edward Said speeches and José Esteban Muñoz excerpts. With a direct yet astute humour, Harris Williams problematizes the ways that we receive information through layers of media and performativity, questioning how hierarchies are created to legitimize different forms of knowledge. Speaking directly to the camera, she pronounces that through love, care and eroticism we can embrace the full and subversive power of ideas collectively.

Identity and its many discontents were a recurring theme within the exhibition. In Santa Sangre, an eight song story of redemption and self acceptance, Sabrina Röthlisberger Belkacem challenges the notion of Swiss national perfectionism. Moving from one music video montage to the next, and interlaced with poetry by the artist, the work draws on mysticism and pop ritual. Hannah Black and Juliana Huxtable collaborated with And Or Forever to transform their 2019 performance Penumbra into an enthralling 3D visual. The work depicts a courtroom trial that pits humans against wildlife, interrogating the distinction between nature and culture and ultimately how social construct can limit our experience of reality.

Don’t miss a second chance to catch DIS.

How to Become a Fossil by Dis is on at Secession March 4 – June 12, 2022

Guest review: Anna Corrigan

Hot off the press, The Vulgarity of Being Three-Dimensional is an immersive new book of photography and sculpture by Danish photographic artist Tine Bek. Expect aesthetic experiments that reject hierarchy and structure. Shapes that run-over, flow, crumble and bulge. Sculpture where vulgarity strangely isn’t at all  vulgar.

Fruit, material, fabric and figures are brought together in a mix of still life, found forms and photographed sculptures. Elevating everyday objects as unassuming protagonists, Bekshe exposes and rejects material hierarchy. Who says marble is more impressive than foam? Why should a stone fountain take centre stage over a bathroom tap? Scratch beneath the surface and what separates these luxury materials from scraps?

In the text ‘Within the commonality lies the sparkling truth’ Isabella Rose Celeste Davey writes, “Vulgarity, from the Latin term vulgus, was the term for common people, an insinuation of the ordinary. We consider the vulgar to be crude, below our station, brash, crass, rough – terms that are charged with ill interest, with gall, with remorse. What if vulgar was not a bad thing at all, merely a removal of a mask. The slipperiness of expectation slinking away?

Bek’s primary mediums are video and photography, with multi-media collaboration at the heart of her work. She uses photography not just to record, but rather to produce artistic crossovers that open up new possibilities. 

The book has been awarded with the Hasselblad Foundation’s Photo Book Grant 2021 and is published by Disko Bay in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Luxury footwear and accessories brand CHARLES & KEITH and the designers behind SHUSHU / TONG have unveiled their first collaborative capsule collection this spring season. And everything’s coming up roses.

The capsule features two bags and two shoe designs, centred around the motif of the rose. Beautiful and fragile, dangerous and charming, the theme evokes love and desire and we are certainly smitten with the collection’s retro romantic charm. 

“The rose has become a significant symbol in literature and art,” explains SHUSHU/TONG, “Traditionally, roses only bloomed once a year, which means it was destined to live for a short period of time. A fragile, withering rose exudes fleeting beauty. Sharp thorns line its soft, delicate branches; this danger is a metaphor for the price we sometimes need to pay for love.”

With the collection’s red and black colour palette, the rose motif reflects SHUSHU / TONG’s unabashed femininity merged with the understated elegance of CHARLES & KEITH’s designs. Mary Janes with a twist and vintage-inspired handbags in patent leather and satin fabrics, the campaign syncs the accessories brand’s signature shapes with the duo’s whimsical charm. 

Directed by fashion photographer Zeng Wu Zhang and styled by Liu Xiao, the creative chemistry between the two brands is clear to see. The collection is available to purchase in selected CHARLES & KEITH boutiques and on www.charleskeith.com.

For some, basketball is just a sport. And for those who subscribe to the callous “shut up and dribble” mindset, may argue that it can be nothing more than just that. But for others, the act of a crossover and a lay-up into a slam-dunk is more than an act of athleticism, but something that supersedes sport to the point of being magical.

Enter Lakwena Maciver’s newest series of artwork, presented by Vigo Gallery: ‘Jump Paintings’. This series immediately evokes a sense of nostalgia, drawing a parallel to her previous work “I’ll Bring You Flowers”, created in honour of Senator Flowers’ speech against the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law in 2019, prior the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement in June 2020.

The lustrous colours laminated onto the canvas mirror basketball courts, the abstract illustrations melded with spiritual affirmations, a key motif explored in her post works. The nod to basketball legends is in the finer details. Each painting directly references individual players, each canvas fit to their exact height.

“I like the notion of the basketball court as a platform or a stage where the players become almost like superheroes… The heights that they soar to… it’s like they are flying, somehow able to rise above the limitations of this world.” – Lakwena Maciver, Artist.

The political framework Lakwena works from isn’t just a springboard, it’s imbedded into the very fabric of the work. As the sport is beloved globally, many African Americans have found solace in the craft, growing to ultimately dominate the scene over the years. Her work acknowledges the importance of the background, an arguably acts as an ode to its history. In the words of Lakwena she views the series “as an opportunity to celebrate black power, joy, and self-expression”.

The ‘Jump Paintings’ will be available for viewing at Vigo Gallery from January 18^th – February 28^th 2022 and is split into two parts.

Find out more about the exhibition on vigogallery.com.  

Presented by Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, Becoming water from the same source by South African artist Phumelele Tshabalala, is an enchanting and vibrant collection of work. The exhibition marks Phumelele’s first solo exhibition, and collates a series of his artwork which utilises a variety of mediums. Each piece is used to showcase both the individual and interpersonal experience.

The exhibitions title Becoming water acts as a metaphor denoting Phumelele’s own self-discovery, his experiences and those he has had personal and or fictional relationships with. Each piece of work takes on the life of his muses: with effervescent oil paint, the figures in his work are draped in garments dripping in a hodgepodge of colours with vivid faces that are familiar to the eye.

These paintings also appear to present Phumelele’s duplicitous identity, having recently relocating to Johannesburg after living and working in the US for a number of years. These individuals, many of which are black, with some key African American figures i.e. Ron Finley (seen in Gangsta Gardener). These figures are adorned in outfits that are akin to bright and dynamic patterns often used by Africans in clothing. Reminiscent of different cultural traditional wear, Phumelele presenting these African American characters in African clothing acts as a meeting point or bridge between the two: culminating his personal connection to both cultures.

There is a fantastical element that is prevalent in each piece, as Phumelele incorporates different carving techniques that fragment the canvas. This is a practice that both deconstructs the original image whilst simultaneously constructing something completely new. Phumelele’s presents new possibilities, bringing in eastern philosophies and perspective into a western space through his artistic expression.

Becoming water from the same source is being featured at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery from 19^th March – 1^st May. To find out more, visit www.houldsworth.co.uk