Opening Up

Where does one begin with yesterday's Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games? The wealth of imagery, and surprising education, that was injected into Isles of Wonder presented the trials and tribulations of British social history (and its global repercussions) - three centuries condensed into a three hour performance under the artistic direction over the last four years of Danny Boyle - captivated the world, as well as the British who now have a clear reflection in the pool of identity to look at. 
A formula of all three British traits; wit, spectacle and class, were not enough for the greatest show on earth. With the addition of a good helping of bonkers, or should I say Bond-kers, it was a unique ceremony with loaded juxtaposition of both the familiar and new introductions of brand GB that Boyle unashamedly offered on a molten platter to the sweet teeth of the world. This morning an American reporter commented on how Americans felt at home on British soil due to the growing closeness of popular culture and celebrity, that some will say is unfortunately shared in equal measure across the Atlantic. After yesterday night, twenty-first century America may feel differently towards a nation that is so drowning in iconic history, the Opening Ceremony could have lasted a whole week if it were possible due to Boyle's selective choice, and we even have our very own Abraham Lincoln in the shape of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, or Kenneth Branagh if all of this detail is getting too much for you. Given that thousands were invited to the technical rehearsals earlier this week, one can add another trait to being British: keeping a secret. Paramount to any Olympic Opening Ceremony is the power of image above the word; it was an evening of open access for all into the host nation's visual archives - from the private apartments of Her Majesty The Queen at Buckingham Palace, as well as a taste of her humour, to the core of the British psyche - a brand so complex it will have curious tourists wanting more for years to come. I am not going to attempt to tackle Boyle's narrative - you only need to access the global press to read credit and critique in every possible language - here's my humble take on a remarkably humbling night to remember...

An Artist's vision with an epic tale of British history to tell, featuring icons across eras and the everyday: priceless. 

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Hot Wheels

Alexander Calder - 3.0 CSL, 1975

A work of art usually commands the pensive respect of time and reflection in environments of either beauty or clinical white space. The ICA in partnership with BMW, the Official Automotive Partner for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, have turned this concept upside down to present the brand’s celebrated Art Car series.

Spanning thirty-five years of international collaboration between art and chassis, ART DRIVE! explores an exciting vision that started in 1975 with the first commission of Alexander Calder to customise a BMW 3.0 CSL for the Le Man 24 Hour Race. This was art for the racetrack - before the era of corporate branding and art market obsession – far from the white cubes where one associates works by Hockney, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg and Koons to name only a few of the members of this exclusive club of the who's who in the contemporary art world.

Going Up: the ICA at the NCP Great Eastern Street car park

In what was one of the most enthralling entrances into an art space I have ever experienced, the carport lift of the landmark NCP Great Eastern Street car park in Shoreditch carried me to the top floor of the ICA’s temporary outpost earlier in the week to view the exhibition for art connoisseurs and petrolheads alike. From the polished intervention of metallic letters by Jenny Holzer on a V12 LMR to Andy Warhol’s fluid enamels on his M1, the artist’s touch transforms these already beautiful machines into priceless works of art on four wheels. The mobile museum is themed by art styles across all floors – the bold colours and shapes inject a vibrancy and sense of speed, which these works were initially designed for. The seventeenth Art Car by Jeff Koons - an M3 GT2 - is the last in this iconic series, digitally rendered in an explosion of colour, it appropriately culminates the journey in time of BMW’s patronage of contemporary art through a variety of mediums and technologies over more than three decades. 

While it is not known what is next for BMW’s creative future, what is certain is that this year’s London Games have employed the most culture-fuelled agenda ever seen at an Olympics with a varied and innovative schedule of events that reiterate the focus of art, music and performance alongside sport during the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. 

Having missed catching a sight of an Art Car at the BMW Welt Museum in Münich last year, it was the first time I have seen one in person and the whole experience of all seventeen models was a curatorial marvel encased within black tape screens that added a flair of minimal engineering for its design-conscious visitors amongst the classic CSis and CSLs. Due to the rarity of this unique collection's outing, it is a must-see in everyone's Olympic diary before its closure in two week's time. Below are a few photos from the my visit – sit back and enjoy the ride…

Jenny Holzer - V12 LMR, 1999

Frank Stella - 3.0 CSL, 1976

César Manrique - 730i, 1990

 Andy Warhol - M1, 1979

 Roy Lichtenstein - 320 CSi,  1977

 Robert Rauschenberg - 635 CSi, 1986

David Hockney - 850 CSi, 1995

Esther Mahlangu - 525i, 1991

A.R. Penck - Z1, 1991

Jeff Koons - M3 GT2, 2010

For more information on this exhibition and other events from the Cultural Olympiad over the London 2012 Games visit London 2012 Festival.

ART DRIVE! The BMW Art Car Collection 1975-2010

21st July - 4th August 2012
NCP Great Eastern Street car park

London EC2A 3ER

Rise & Shine London

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"... I think if it did work, it would be brilliant..." says Martin Creed on his latest commission, Work No. 1197 for the London 2012 Festival. The adventurous work calls for all the bells in the county to be rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes at 08:12 tomorrow morning 27th July to ring in the first days of the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games thereafter. Visit allthebells.com for more details on how to participate in what will be the biggest wake-up call across the land. 

Travel Light

Day 53 of the Olympic Torch Relay

Red, white, blue and an optimistic gold were the colours of the day in my home turf of Windsor yesterday. Marking T-minus sixteen days to the opening of the London Olympic Games, it was Day 53 of the Olympic Torch Relay which has travelled across the United Kingdom and is now beginning it’s descent around the home counties of the South East before it’s final destination of London on 27th July. Dedicated to travel within an hour’s journey time of ninety-five percent of people in the UK, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey over seventy days, its route has been coordinated with precision to involve local communities and inspirational individuals to carry the Olympic flame and represent their respective towns and cities in what is the ultimate event in the international sporting calendar. 

This year’s games are not just about sport - the launch of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad in 2008 has been committed to involve the arts through nationwide events and performances. Made in Britain obviously plays an important role during such a unique opportunity for a host nation, so when the Olympic Torch was due to pass only a few hundred yards from my doorstep I had to see it with my own eyes.

Winning design by BarberOsgerby

Winning London-based designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby of BarberOsgerby created the contemporary triangular torch from recyclable aluminum alloy. The simple perforated form is light to hold – for the varied ages and abilities of its eight thousand bearers – and represents, more golden future than golden age of British engineering and technical production. Crucially, the torch must be recognizable not just amongst crowds of spectators but when the weather can change from sunny skies to dark showers, which it did yesterday. Even through the canopy of umbrellas, the golden torch had a distinguished presence and bobbed through the thousands that welcomed the flame to Windsor Castle to meet Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. As the flames ‘kissed’ (changed hands) between Gina Macgregor and Phillip Wells before it made its way down the Long Walk, it was also a symbolic kissing of a contemporary and traditional brand GB with the world's oldest working castle for its backdrop. 

Britishness is already a global brand in itself – add the rich narrative of monarchy and the House of Windsor throughout the centuries as well as its claim to the creation of brand identity as we know it today (Brand AD, November 2011) this is a unique formula very few nations are able to offer in their culturel credentials. The drive for a contemporary and dare I say try-hard alternative Britain through neon, off-kilter graphics that are being used for the Olympics may be a design-detour too far especially with talk from Artistic Director, Danny Boyle of green and pleasant lands for the opening ceremony. Britain does juxtaposition very well. It has done so for centuries but fails when it forgets what it has to begin with. The eyes of the world will view our one-shot showcase on 27th July – my eyes will be on the Royal Box, looking at how organizers will be installing the Royal Coat of Arms next to London 2012’s asymmetrical neon pink ‘creation’: sounds like a case for a pre-show jug of juxtaposition on Boyle’s lawns to calm the nerves.

Here are few photos from yesterday’s Olympic Torch Relay through Windsor…

The Olympic Torch enters Windsor Castle 

Spectators line the Long Walk as the flame continues to Ascot

For the latest on the Olympic Torch Relay click here.

The Grayson Perry Effect

Working Girl 

Credit to the gallery steward at Victoria Miro Gallery last weekend: pleasant greeting aside, the young, tall, skinny hipster at the front door was keeping an eye out for visitors who were treading precariously around the laboratory-esque installation that scaled the floors and walls by American artist Sarah Sze, as well as keeping his other eye out for members of the public that were, let’s say, not the gallery’s regulars. I somehow passed his beady-Bourdieu  gaze and was left to my own devices in the ground floor space. In contrast, the couple behind me was catered to a press release, clear directions to the Grayson Perry exhibit and put at ease with the balsa wood and table lamps confronting them: 'Grayson Perry is through the garden and up the stairs', was surprisingly what they wanted to hear, without even having to ask. As more visitors, babies, Bugaboos and Micro scooters came through the doors I watched admirably as he greeted the visitors, directing them through the garden and up the stairs. Had he been personally trained by Perry himself to pick out the suburban-explorer-on-safari-in-East-London from the usual gallery-goers on a Saturday morning? Taking lessons in social signifiers? Wearing your Sunday best on a Saturday is admittedly like having your railcard from destination-outside-the-M25 glued to your forehead and your A to Z of London hanging out of your bag, but this guy was good and clearly knew how to pick those who were there for the tapestries.

As someone who has been fascinated with ethnography and identity ever since my own days in the social stew that was art school (Associated Press, June 2010), I was finding this reactive environment around Perry’s exhibition equally attractive as what was to be through the garden and up the stairs. 

Squeezed Middle

The Vanity of Small Differences has been a two-prong execution that explores the taste tribes of twenty-first century Britain. A three-part series, All in the Best Possible Taste, was presented by the artist and complemented the opening of the exhibition on national network Channel 4 – following the everyday lives of the working, middle and upper classes, Perry portrayed the ultimate lifestyle detective; entering new-builds and manors alike, dissecting decoration of home and human. The series inspired six tapestries that depict the story of class mobility and reference the mid-eighteenth century paintings, A Rake’s Progress by William Hogarth, housed in London’s Soane Museum.

Living the highlife?

Channel 4 has a strong relationship with the contemporary art world. It is the official broadcaster of Tate and subsequently transmits highlights in the art world year such as the Turner Prize and more recently, a primetime exclusive of Damien Hirst’s first retrospective at Tate Modern transmitted into millions of living rooms across the nation (Money Maker, April 2012). With the network’s remit of minority interest during the Eighties, Channel 4 is now reaping its alternative agenda in an age of social acuteness that spans everything from art to artex. Spawn from the decade of Cool Britannia under Tony Blair’s New Labour, and importantly pre-recession, British aspiration soared and with growing confidence of expression came a greater divide of social superficiality. Cue Channel 4, who’s programming may arguably be seen as a taste barometer and resolutely aspirational: telling us where we should live in the UK (Location Location Location), or abroad (A Place in the Sun) telling us how to build our dream home (Grand Designs), how to fill it with things we’ve made ourselves (Kirstie's Homemade Home), how to entertain (Come Dine With Me), how not to enjoy it too much (Supersize vs Supeskinny) and telling us what to eat from the network’s messiah of metabolism Jamie Oliver. Perry therefore is in good company amongst the network’s middle class agenda and marks the culture box with a big (Nike) tick. If you followed the television series, you may have noticed that prior to All in the Best Possible Taste was Oliver’s soapbox prodigy Jimmy Doherty urging, in effect, working classes to buy ethically reared meat in Jimmy and the Giant Supermarket – if they stayed tuned they would then have Perry taunting them with middle class frivolity in Kent that comprised of yet more organic meat, John Lewis, AGAs, faux-William Morris, ethnic souvenirs, ‘green bling’ and crucially, homemade cupcakes - as if the working classes, or anyone else for that matter had enough to worry about than with keeping up appearances. The idea of homemade and DIY is an important element that binds Channel 4 with Perry – crowned as the crusader of craft after winning the Turner Prize in 2003, Perry possesses a greater element of public accessibility, than say with Hirst or Emin. The British tabloids may have introduced the YBAs to the nation but few can relate to sharks in formaldehyde and a dirty bed. While many may not be able to understand Perry’s cross-dressing alter ego Claire, ceramic vases and tapestries – objects that genetically exude skill – are familiar and culturally accessible to non-art audiences. Perry’s appearances on the BBC’s Question Time, Desert Island Discs and Have I Got News For You has opened his persona(s) to the masses and with the success of visitor numbers that attended his curatorial showcase, The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsmen at the British Museum last year, Perry is well on the way to one day reaching national treasure status. Dame Edna watch your back.

The Agony in the Car Park, 2012

The Annunciation of the Virgin Deal, 2012

The Upper Class at Bay, 2012

I am fascinated by this acceptance Perry has received and the influence he is now able to command, steering his cultural cohort from the familiar surroundings of the institution to one of the leading contemporary art galleries in the East End of London. I will not be explaining the works or the journey from Sunderland to the Cotswolds, via Royal Tunbridge Wells, that Perry takes on both screen and tapestry, but wish to share the live performance that was taking place before my eyes last weekend. A steady stream of visitors filled the light-filled gallery and admired the works of our very own twenty-first century Gobelins-guru. Young, old and even newborn set themselves on the journey from the innocently kitsch interiors of The Adoration of the Cage Fighters to the plush décor of The Annunciation of the Virgin Deal through to the two tragic landscapes of the upper classes – the only section of society that has nowhere to aspire to. Similar to my last visit to Victoria Miro in 2009 for Perry’s The Walthamstow Tapestry (A Question Of Craft Over Content?, November 2009) a wealth of allegory engulfs the large two-by-four metre wall hangings. Due to technological advancement, more texture and depth has been achieved with these latest works and the neon colours created by the weft are truly remarkable, resulting in an almost three-dimensional sensation. Saturday’s audience was captivated by such saturated seduction. The familiarity of brands and objects, which British sensibility inherently recognises in a default-class recognition manner; the very sensibility that I was seeing reflected between tapestry and viewer: the Cath Kidston bag, Birkenstocks, thick spectacles, iPhones and branded headphones to name but a few. “I have that… oh look, my tea towel… you used to have that...”, could be heard in the breaks of silence as couples and families associated themselves with the work and the characters from the television series. Like a mirror that reflects the past, present and future, visitors were entranced by the social taboo Perry presents in The Vanity of Small Differences. Yesteryear’s Burberry is this year’s Barbour, and so the brand bandwagon rolls on across all three classes - what Perry’s tapestries portray is a foundation of taste that is beyond instantaneous trend but of a culture that has evolved within one’s own walls and beyond, if such an environment so permits. The ornaments of social mobility are revealed to be a filler between life and death; in #Lamentation, these very ornaments – Ferrari, iPhone and other status symbol paraphernalia – come to their bitter end in the destruction that aspiration is capable of.  

Taste(less)? The general public let loose on the visitor book

I usually don’t pay any attention to visitor books but on my way out I couldn’t help but notice how well received it was and discovered a universal voice of the British public was being penned onto these pages that made for an extraordinary extension of the exhibition. Beginning with comments from the participants that featured in the television series to a mélange of society both near and far – professing, “We just came on a Middle class pilgrimage to London” - the visitor book was a font of personal reaction to the works, to Perry and life in Britain. Regional greetings were jotted, cultural conquests dropped – “… best thing I have seen since the last best which was Tomb of the Unknown Craftsmen!” – and personal taste revealed, “PS. There was a mother and toddler in a buggy. The kid was in buberry Jesus! What the fuck woman!?!”. 

One contribution read, “How odd that the subjects felt flattered”. Given Perry’s growing celebrity status and the lasting association with his work, it may not be so odd that the subjects from Sunderland, Royal Tunbridge Wells and the Cotswolds were genuinely flattered. Flattery however is an interesting concept – in 2009 when I reported on The Walthamstow Tapestry I noted that amidst the names stitched across the Bayeux-esque document, Perry’s name was absent. In 2012, the artist takes his position as social voyeur in the middle class depiction and can be seen in the reflection of the sun burst mirror, camera in hand, stitched within The Annunciation of the Virgin Deal. Playing on a style that has seen artists incorporate themselves into their paintings throughout art history, this is an interesting shift in Perry’s self perception since his accolades from 2003 and may be read as a nod to his acceptance in both greater society as well as the exclusive art world. The big players in the art world speak a language many do not understand au fait with sharks and bed sheets. In the first series of All in the Best Possible Taste Perry confesses he has, “…forged on to be comfortable in the art world” and I question whether he felt he was an ornament in the art world’s display cabinet – an exotica himself amongst the echelons of art society, curious of the craft that is now vying for space on the gallery floor. 

What is certain is that the general public’s taste for Perry and his taste for the general public is growing from cultural name drop to cross-cultural personality and television seems to be a medium the artist now relishes. Reports that Perry has signed a two-year deal with Channel 4 for a new commission around themes of etiquette and aesthetics means we will be seeing more of this 'tortured genius', whether he’s to our taste or not. If any network executives are reading this, I would like to propose my very own pitch, The Grayson Perry Effect, and follow the cultural pilgrims who are swapping their weekends in John Lewis for the white walls of the contemporary art gallery: a How To Look Good (at an art opening) meets Coach Trip perhaps? Stay tuned…

       

Visit Victoria Miro for further details on The Vanity of Small Differences and catch up on 4oD to view In the Best Possible Taste series from each social class who inspired Perry along the way.

The Vanity of Small Differences

7th June - 11th August 2012

Victoria Miro Gallery

16 Wharf Road

London N1 7RW

Happy 4th Of July!

... tread independently hispsters

Happy Independence Day to all my American readers 

across the pond and beyond!