Late at Tate Modern

My friend Rachel and I spent Wednesday evening enjoying three exhibitions at the Tate Modern.

The first exhibition was the Sigmar Polke which was the last chance as it closes this weekend. It was an eclectic mix of drawings, paintings, fabric collages and screen prints - lot's of crazy stuff!

Sigmar Polke - Resin paintings

Sigmar Polke - Resin paintings

Sigmar Polke - ink experiments

Sigmar Polke - Ink and collage experiments

Sigmar Polke - Large painting based on a photocopy experiment

The second exhibition was the new Marlene Dumas, The Image as Burden. This exhibition was a contrast to the Polke which was varied and eccentric. Dumas' work has a fluidity and cohesion in the approach to her work - the majority of which are portraits. She has a beautiful hand, using paint and inks in fluid lines to capture her subjects in arresting and sophisticated colours.

Marlene Dumas - Mixed media collage

Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas - The paintings of children were a little bit spooky / eerie in my opinion

Marlene Dumas - This large wall of ink portraits were my favourite part of the exhibition they were so characterful!

The final exhibition was Conflict, Time Photography which I saw part of in November when I attended a Tate workshop. It was a powerful exhibition that was quite thought provoking encouraging you to reflect upon the effects of and aftermath of war.

Overall, I spent a lovely evening with a great friend and enjoyed lots of art.

MA & Mad art

Last Friday I travelled to the University of Warwick with my other half and brother to attend my graduation ceremony. I have spent the last 3 years studying part-time for an MA in Educational Leadership which has involved lots of written assignments and action research projects.  It was a lovely, if slightly surreal day - I couldn't quite believe I had actually done it!

As for the mad art; I spotted a free event on Friday 30th January at Central Saint Martins at Kings Cross which seemed very intriguing.... it was entitled Curating Carnival.
I invited a few friends along and this is what we saw:

Lots of cool arty types attending the event

Dancers wearing metallic sculptures parading in the atrium 

The lights reflected off the shiny surfaces of the sculptures creating interesting effects in the space

Two dancers wearing mirrored masks weaved their way through the flock of sculpture-creatures

Three 'rope' dancers unravelled a large pile of pink rope

On different levels you could see menacing 'bird' dancers who started off with semaphore style choreography

Amazing black and white costumes adorned the 'bird' dancers whose movements had motifs of flight and birds walking

The details in the black and white costumes included applique, patchwork and the use of patterned fabric

I can not claim to understand any of the meaning behind the performance of Curating Carnival, but I do know it was a unique and entertaining experience. A fun free London event!