Exhibition Experience

This blog post is specifically aim for writing reviews for exhibitions and gigs that I find would be worth to mention, implying the forms, topic, concept, philosophy I am currently working on. I hope it is not too messy:)

I went to a few graduation shows including RCA, CSM, Goldsmith and Kingston. I find most of them in a way of too impetuous, attracting people’s attention in a way of showing everything they have the knowledge of how to do, but without going to any further steps. I am not gonna waste too much words in describing the graduation show experience as this would be meaningless for this specifically assignment.
Travis Yu’s silent film would be a considerable mention and it is so interesting I can’t wait to write about. I don’t know how the sound staffs find about his film within his background which actually stands up as a sound artist. Hmm…it is very outstanding, I defo I don’t have the braveness to do it in my third year. I am incredibly sure the film is very pretty and narrative which would win lots of festival awards. It is a similar style as 王家卫 which actually appears to my mind. My mum felt suffering when watching it. She mentioned about everything in the real world should be speechless and you must be incredible quiet when you watching this which sounds interesting. I had a mix feeling of Travis saying don’t think to put any sounds in it. (Every sound would make it sound terrible?) because I have put effort into the investigation of silent film, so I think maybe working it with only realistic sounds (like Jingya’s afterwards) or remaining music in the background would be super nice. Well I am not the director. I suppose he has put lots of effort into it!

Anselm Kiefer’s Finnegans Wake was magnificent and poetic. The scale was something I could never described. In some way it demonstrated the nihilism. It supports the concept of pale eternal life. I have found that in recent years more and more artists like to work on themes of death and utopia. Maybe everyone wants to hide from this world. We are all suffering.


Another one is Sarah Sze’s old waiting room. It used more than 42 projectors with a globe shape. It demonstrated how an artist could think in a polyphonic way. The use of white noises made the colour visual more outstanding and realistic. The possession of time and stop motion was something I am looking for.

Trains pulling into and off from the platform outside add an incidental soundtrack — there’s a lot going on, but it all has a calming influence somehow. It is mesmerising.

I went to Marina Abramović’s exhibition in RA. The performance is powerful because we could embody it. We are human beings. We are alive.