{"id":1371,"date":"2017-11-16T13:24:58","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T13:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ellaguruart.com\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2017-11-16T13:24:58","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T13:24:58","slug":"rachel-whiteread-ray-harryhausen-and-slap-up-breakfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ellaguruart.com\/?p=1371","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Whiteread, Ray Harryhausen, and Slap Up Breakfast"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day, I was in Tate Britain<\/a> for the first time in years. I have to say I was impressed.<\/p>\n

I was also going to stop at the National Gallery to do some intense studying on the use of black paint in past centuries. They often painted figures dressed mainly in black. I have a job coming up, a family portrait with a Death\/Doom\/Thrash metal singer and his wife and son, two of whom are wearing all black. Anyone who knows about oil painting will know that one is not meant to use black paint. The background on my Crucifixion was some kind of dark green, Alizarin Crimson and French Ultramarine. But when painting black clothing, is it ok to use black pigment?<\/p>\n

I have several questions on this subject. Tate Britain actually has paintings starting from 1500. It was like being in the National Gallery and Tate Modern all at once. And it feels much bigger than last time I went.<\/p>\n

I spent a good amount of time studying the 16th<\/sup> century paintings, carefully observing the subtle dark grey shading in the clothing of Ladies, Countesses and Lords of Manors. It really looks like actual black paint. But what type of black? Would anyone know?<\/p>\n

Suddenly I emerged from my Renaissance reverie to a large room and went \u201cWhat is this shit?\u201d One piece of conceptual crap after another. In an adjoining room were a bunch of cubic objects arranged in rows. \u201cAnd what the [bleep] is that\u2026. Wait\u2026 what IS that…\u201d<\/p>\n

I cautiously approached the rows of resin objects. About 1 square foot each, they all had slightly different shapes, and translucent hues. What WAS this?<\/p>\n

It was Rachel Whiteread\u2019s space under chairs<\/a>. They were resin castings that at least involved process. They suited the space.\u00a0 They were vaguely interesting in colour and material. Unlike the next room, where there was a bit of old rope on the floor that could have been found in Hastings harbour, some shredded black felt (which had been \u201cremade\u201d in 2008 presumably because the original fell apart), Robert Deacon\u2019s twisted cardboard thing, pretty much the same as the one in 180 Strand Gallery the previous day, part of a building site, and some blobs. And Sarah Lucas\u2019 effing futon. F off. Why? Beds are not sculpture! They are beds. For sleeping in. NOT for sticking a neon tube through and calling it art. (Yes. I am a Stuckist<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Off to finally find the red room with Ray Harryhausen<\/a>\u2019s inspirations, a few of his models, and some really good drawings. They also had the Dore illustrated Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/a> in a glass case (I shall note I have a copy of this same monstrous volume myself, but someone glued some kind of decorating paper inside it sometime last century, thus devaluing it \u2013 so no need to break into my house, thanks) and some huge John Martin paintings that looked like sets from, well, Ray Harryhausen\u2019s movies. Clips from the movies themselves were playing on a giant screen. Great way sit and rest while marveling at pre-digital-age special effects. I see where Josh Collins got his inspiration for Fags in the Fast Lane<\/a>, and all his earlier films.<\/p>\n

I was looking at more paintings in other rooms when a picture message came on my phone \u2013 of Ray Harryhausen\u2019s pegasus, with distinctive red walls and John Martin behind it. I headed back to the Harryhausen where Shireen was studying the model of Medusa.<\/p>\n

Shireen had a pass to get into the big Rachel\u00a0Whiteread<\/a> exhibition. It\u2019s not something I\u2019d pay for and not even something I\u2019d want to see. But I thought, why not, if it\u2019s free?<\/p>\n

Walked into a room full of grey concrete squares. \u201cOK I\u2019ve seen it, I can go now,\u201d I said. But then I started really looking at the pieces.<\/p>\n

They are cast in resin, cement and various other materials. Resin casting is not easy. As far as I know, Whiteread actually works on these, with assistants, unlike like other conceptual artists who come up with a crappy non-concept and tell some else to make it. The 9 hot water bottle castings were particularly interesting as they were different colours and different materials.<\/p>\n

Then there were the bookshelves. An animated conversation between about 6 strangers erupted. But where had the books been? Why were the pages cast and not the spines? What part is the empty space? Were these rolling bookshelves? The guards didn\u2019t seem to know anything but between the bunch of us, we worked out the books had been turned around on the shelves before casting. We then read the leaflet (d\u2019oh!) and found out that this was similar to the Holocaust memorial that Whiteread also did. Certainly an artist given the honour of a Holocaust memorial is worthwhile.<\/p>\n

And so we continued. I had only read about Whiteread and thought it a load of bollocks like the rest of them. But to see Whiteread\u2019s pieces themselves, they are not mattresses but objects – and more often empty space – cast in materials that take some knowledge and skill. They are not crumpled balls of paper or a glass of water on a shelf with a stupid title. There really was something to this show.<\/p>\n

So there you go\u2026Is this Stuckist turning? Nope. Back out in the large central rooms, the blobs were still blobs, and Lucas\u2019 futon was still excruciatingly annoying.<\/p>\n

Before my phone battery went flat on the train home, I saw that Sexton and Billy had been on tv, with their song \u201cSlap up Breakfast\u201d from \u201cDung Beetle Rolls Again\u201d, on a segment called \u201cDon\u2019t Play\u00a0This<\/a>\u201d, where songs are ridiculed on the Tonight Show. Watching it when I got home, it seemed that Ming had won over the show\u2019s presenter and band.<\/p>\n

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The other day, I was in Tate Britain for the first time in years. I have to say I was impressed. I was also going to stop at the National Gallery to do some intense studying on the use of black paint in past centuries. They often painted figures dressed mainly in black. I have … Continue reading Rachel Whiteread, Ray Harryhausen, and Slap Up Breakfast<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ellaguruart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ellaguruart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ellaguruart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ellaguruart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ellaguruart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1371"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/ellaguruart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1375,"href":"http:\/\/ellaguruart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions\/1375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ellaguruart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ellaguruart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ellaguruart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}