Advent day 14: Waking Aida

I've spent the year urging people to watch Synecdoche, New  York invariably to no avail.

This excellent use of a sample from the film is the next best thing. Enjoy.

Waking Aida - 7.45

Hachiko

Hachiko, the debut album from Waking Aida came out on yesterday. The EP has 5 lovely tunes for you to listen to and comes complete with a sample from my favourite Phillip Seymour Hoffman film, sublime artwork courtesy of Asphensia and  a price tag to suit any budget.

Apparently this is one of two out this year. The mouth waters.

more WAKING AIDA

Diplopia has done a remix of a Waking Aida song which I featured a while back. You should check it out because it is very, very, very.... good.

Waking Aida - Meanwhile... at Lounge Doom (Diplopia mix)

 Waking Aida - Meanwhil... At Lounge Doom (Diplopia Mix) by Diplopia Music 

toby raves: on students, outdoor art and the perfect song title

Story of the week:

Has to be those pesky students (one of which I used to be). They just don't know when they are beat. Here they are protesting (again). Good luck to them. I didn't join them because I like to have the happiness beat out me through the mundaneness of everyday life rather than at the hands of policemen with truncheons.

 

Opinion: can the home of art ever be outdoors?

Students of history are taught, from quite early on, of the power that a museum has on shaping your opinion of an event. Setting for example, the holocaust or slavery at the very lowest depths of an exhibition space and then going on to set related events such as the foundation of the state of Israel or the inauguration of President Obama at the pinnacle of an exhibition and bathed in light the audience will give out quite clear messages about what an audience should take away. Some may be sceptical of that kind of a leading argument from a museum, but at least it is a starting point. Anyone with initiative can then go away and challenge that story; unfortunately most don’t, but that is another issue.

In an art gallery it is no doubt the same. Every picture is put next to another for some sort of reason, some semblance of cohesion so that the punter can make sense of what is an awful lot to absorb in a short space of time. Taking art into the audience gives no narrative and can be seen as just being for the sake of it. If you are aware of it you can work hard to in your own mind to counter it (should you wish to).

So it was with a fair bit of trepidation that I paid a visit to to Kensington Gardens to see “Turning the World Upside Down” a range of sculptures from Anish Kapoor which had been dotted around the park in a seemingly random fashion. The sculptures themselves one could not really argue against; they were clearly accomplished works. But why were they outdoors?  

The apparent intention of the works is “to call in to question the viewers’ relationship to both the work and the surrounding environment,” this sounds very lofty and noble and indeed exciting. What you actually get is a sense that the objects have been placed at random in this open space. Considering they are made of highly reflective steel they are fairly static and the fact that they are so out of place in the natural environment, a feature which could  made them intriguing, only makes you realise that pieces belong in an art gallery and not in a park.

I was left so bewildered by the installation/exhibits that I wondered if any art can work outside. Gaudi who is as synonymous with Barcelona as Lionel Messi ,is one artist who did take art in to the streets with huge success. His organic structures had a real meaning to them in the age of futurist modernist architecture with its stiff, regimented lines.

Banksy, is another one who as taken art out in to the street. His messages are no nonsense “down with the system” ones (I’ll leave it to you to decide whether he’s being ironic or not) and they add to urban landscape, something that we already had lots of, graffiti and something that we have little of in the streets, Art. Hence the controversy he evokes ( He recently visited my neck of the woods to much hype and clamour.http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/8682588.Southampton____Graffiti____is_a___20_000_Banksy_original_mural/ )

Gaudi had functionality, Banksy with his graffiti was more urban than concrete. These are artist who make their art relevant to the outdoor space – graffiti doesn’t work as well indoors and architecture’s home is the outdoors. You walk past a Banksy or a Gaudi it has some relevance or purpose for being where it is; but when you just plant it for the sake of it gets lost because it has no use. Galleries and museums are there for a reason.

Pictures of the Week: National Museum Singapore

The Pictures for this week come from the recent exhibitions at the National Museum in Singapore. The freaky triangles are toby’s  favourite.

Photos courtesy Ray Tang