Aesthetica Issue 99 by Aesthetica Magazine

Aesthetica

THE ART & CULTURE MAGAZINE

www.aestheticamagazine.com

Issue 99 February / March 2021

LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS

BUILDING COMMUNITIES

UPDATING THE RECORDS

Mapping Auckland’s volcanic networks with light detection and ranging lasers

Creating a platform for women street photographers all around the world

Architects provide design solutions through locale-responsive projects

MoMA expands the art canon with groundbreaking Modernist images

UK £5.95 Europe €11.95 USA $15.49

CONCEALED TOPOGRAPHIES

Aesthetica 1

2 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 3

4 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 5

6 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 7

8 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 9

10 Aesthetica

Welcome Editor’s Note

On the Cover Evan Sheehan's photographs – which seem at once spontaneous and deeply choreographed – call upon eye-popping primary colours and dynamic environments. Sheehan's portraits are mechanisms for storytelling, inviting viewers into worlds of transformation, obscurity and intrigue (p. 58).

Cover Image: Evan Sheehan, Peek, 2017. Model: Caroline Woodford. Location: Los Angeles, CA. Courtesy of the artist.

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head for days, weeks, even months? Throughout this time period there have been a few that have stuck with me, In My Life by The Beatles, Sinnerman by Nina Simone and Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver. All of these songs must be 50+ years old, but they resonate with me, perhaps because they are all about memories, time and place. We’re coming up to one year living in a pandemic. The global experiences of Covid are near immeasurable. For those of us who have never had the virus, or those who have had it and recovered, there must be a moment of reflection to appreciate just how very lucky we are. To all the families grieving for lost loved ones: I can’t even begin to understand your pain. For all the people who have been affected by loss of work, or for businesses that have had to close down: I am so genuinely sorry. This life-changing virus has altered everything about the way we live and interact, think and engage. I am a glass-half-full kind of person; I guess I was born that way. I know that our lives will be marked by this forever, but when we come out the other side, we will be stronger and more resilient. This issue features the work of several pioneers, innovators and trailblazers. We speak with Gulnara Samoilova about Women Street Photographers, a new book published by Prestel. We start off by looking at the canon of street photographers and notice how women are missing from this list, or those only added posthumously. Samoilova is using social media to propagate a new narrative. We also look at Fotoclubismo: Brazilian Modernist Photography, 1946–1964, opening at MoMA in New York. It is the first major exhibition of its kind outside of Brazil, looking at São Paulo’s Foto-Cine Clube Bandeirante. Yet again, this show asks us to question the canon and really probe who is included and why. We are also fortunate to feature inspiring photographers exploring isolation, identity and the future. The Last Words go to Anna Dannemann about the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. Cherie Federico

Aesthetica 11

110

12 Aesthetica

contents

Art 14 News Coverage includes Lindy Lee at MCA Australia, Not Vital at Museum der Moderne Salzburg and a landmark show of Yayoi Kusama at Tate Modern.

20 10 to See A round-up of virtual and live exhibitions from V&A's Epic Iran to an online presentation of 100 lockdown images with National Portrait Gallery.

24 Concealed Topographies Chirag Jindal explores Auckland's subterranean volcanic networks using the latest innovations in light detection and ranging technology,

30 Under Moonlight Alexis Pichot draws on the dominance of nature. Ethereal images revel in stillness, with milkwhite rockfaces commanding viewer attention.

42 Playful Variations Laura Bonnefous experiments with visual codes, where the colour blue can be a varies source of abstraction, inspiration and calm simultaneously.

52 Building Communities The Beazley Designs of the Year shortlist includes architects using locale-responsive techniques to tackle key social and environmental issues.

58 Images with Intent Evan Sheehan has a background in video and design. He calls upon both these mediums in the planning and production of bold still images.

68 Laying the Foundations Gulnara Samoilova celebrates the work of women street photographers, moving from an Instagram account to a groundbreaking publication.

74 Evocative Storytelling Malick Kebe shows an established understanding of shape, colour and concept, shooting eyecatching portraits, using only an iPhone lens.

86 Visual Harmony Salva López's scintillating landscapes feature closely cropped structures, satisfying angles and large, open bodies of water stretching outwards.

96 Moments of Uneasiness Brooke DiDonato returns to Aesthetica with a new series that uncovers the subconscious in domestic spaces that are both familiar and unsettling.

110 Updating the Records MoMA expands the art canon, recognising the significant contributions of Modernist Brazilian photographers from the heart of São Paulo.

Exhibitions

Film

Music

120 Gallery Reviews We visit a Sheila Hicks exhibition at MAK Vienna, Mary Ellen Mark at NMWA, Washington DC, and Mark Ruwedel at Large Glass Gallery, London.

124 Freedom of Movement A love story between an African immigrant and a French waitress set in Brexit-torn Britain, The Drifters arrives when polarisation is at its peak.

126 Identity and Togetherness Urban Village has the impressive distinction of being the first South African band to sign with respected French label Nø Førmat!

Books

Artists’ Directory

Last Words

128 Towards the Sun If there’s anything that remedy our current state of cabin fever, frustration and claustrophobia, it’s Stefi Orazi’s visually arresting Modernist Escapes.

140 Inside this Issue This edition's artists are using colour, light and texture in new ways – describing, expressing and exploring a rapidly changing world.

146 Anna Dannemann The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize presents four artists whose wide-ranging projects cover both local and global stories.

Aesthetica Magazine is trade marked worldwide. © Aesthetica Magazine Ltd 2021.

The Aesthetica Team: Editor: Cherie Federico Associate Editor: Kate Simpson Digital Content Writer: Eleanor Sutherland Digital Assistant: Saffron Ward

Advertisement Enquiries: Megan Hobson (0044) (0)844 568 2001 advertising@aestheticamagazine.com

ISSN 1743-2715. All work is copyrighted to the author or artist. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without permission from the publisher. Published by Cherie Federico and Dale Donley. Aesthetica Magazine 21 New Street, York, YO1 8RA, UK (0044) (0)844 568 2001 Newstrade Distribution: Warners Group Publications plc. Gallery & Specialist Distribution: Central Books. Printed by Warners Midlands plc.

Advertising Coordinator: Megan Hobson Artists’ Directory Coordinator: Katherine Smira

Artists’ Directory Enquiries: Katherine Smira (0044) (0)844 568 2001 directory@aestheticamagazine.com

Production Director: Dale Donley Operations Manager: Cassandra Weston Designer: Matt Glasby Video Producer: James Brown Intern: Emily Rooms

Subscriptions: subscriptions@aestheticamagazine.com (0044) (0)844 568 2001

Contributors: Diane Smyth, Greg Thomas Beth Webb, Charlotte R-A, Gunseli Yalcinkaya. Reviewers: James Mottram, Chris Webb, Matt Swain, Kyle Bryony, Olivia Hampton, Erik Martiny, Jack Solloway, Nikita Dmitriev, Louis Soulard.

General Enquiries: info@aestheticamagazine.com Press Releases: pr@aestheticamagazine.com Follow us: aestheticamagazine.com facebook.com/aestheticamagazine twitter.com/AestheticaMag pinterest.com/AestheticaMag instagram.com/AestheticaMag

Aesthetica 13

Lindy Lee, Listening to the Moon, 2018, installation view, Lindy Lee: Moon in a Dew Drop, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2020, stainless steel, image courtesy the artist and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, © the artist, photograph: Anna Kučera.

news

In the Present Moment LINDY LEE: MOON IN A DEW DROP Daoism has existed for more than 2,000 years, as one of the two largest philosophical systems of China, associated with naturalistic or mystical religion. Traditionally, it deals with two areas: metaphysics and ethics. In its broadest sense, Daoist attitudes to life are ones of acceptance and joy. Meanwhile, Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism developed at the beginning of the sixth century CE. “Chan” transliterates as “meditation” – so the practice of this thought is loosely centred on awakening and consciousness, nullifying the roots of human suffering. Lindy Lee (b. 1954) calls upon both of these philosophies, exploring the connections between humanity, nature and the cosmos. To do this, she utilises a spectacular array of energetic and transformative processes in her practice. She flings molten bronze, burns paper and allows rain to transform surfaces. Beyond this dynamic, ephemeral engagement with mixed media, Lee is also known for investigating heritage, authenticity and identity. MCA Director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE, notes: “Lindy’s articulation of living between two cultures [Australia and China] whilst feeling alienated from both is a familiar immigrant story which resonates with many Australians. Her inclusion of family albums, of flung ink and Buddhist images make very clear reference to her cultural background which many will recognise.” Macgregor is discussing Moon in a Dew Drop, which spans four decades of extraordinary work, named after a collec-

14 Aesthetica

tion of writings by 13th century monk and Zen philosopher, Dōgen, who considered the moon as a representation of infinity, held inside a small phenomenon – a water droplet. Secret World of a Starlight Ember is an exhibition highlight. This oval stainless-steel sculpture, sitting outside the museum, includes over 1000 tiny holes, looking out over the harbour in Sydney. Macgregor expands: “The environment becomes reflected in the work during daytime, and at night, the installation gives off an otherworldly glow. Lindy is fascinated by the notion of time passing – the death of a star is an ember which takes thousands of years to reach us.” Lee is a prominent figure in the industry, searching into the human condition, and pulling at the threads of consciousness and re-connection. As such, Macgregor is confident that the show comes at an important moment in recent history – when panic, frustration and justice are prevalent: “Lindy is one of our most influential senior women artists. This exhibition is especially pertinent today in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, the rise in racism against Chinese people, the impact of Covid-19 on personal connections, and the relationship between human beings and the universe. The show carries the viewer along on a journey with Lindy, from her fascination with the great European portrait and painters of the 16th and 17th centuries, to working with her Chinese heritage and an increasing interest in Zen Buddhism.”

“Lindy is one of our most influential senior women artists. This exhibition is especially pertinent today in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, the rise in racism against Chinese people and the impact of Covid-19.”

Lindy Lee: Moon in a Dew Drop MCA Australia, Sydney Until 28 February mca.com.au

Through the Looking Glass YAYOI KUSAMA: INFINITY MIRROR ROOMS Tate’s contribution to the international Kusama tour includes two pieces – Chandelier of Grief and Infinity Mirrored Room - Filled with the Brilliance of Life. Both are encountered as darkened spaces where the only light emanates from the artwork itself. Though both pieces share this concept of illumination from within, they each have their own unique twists and styles: the former has a baroque aesthetic; the latter features a shallow pool of water that further exaggerates a sense of spatial disruption. These works are also presented with a selection of photographs by Harry Shunk and János Kender, who documented some of Kusama’s best-known activations in the United States in the mid-20th century, including a famous performance staged in New York in 1968. Whether the works should be enjoyed for their immense contributions to art history, or simply for the visual purposes of social media is perhaps, arbitrary. After an immensely difficult year – in which many people won’t have even considered setting foot in a gallery – Wan states that Tate is mostly looking forward to “just bringing a bit of joy to people! Hopefully we will also engage new visitors, for whom Kusama’s work might inspire a life-long love of art. We hope that circumstances will allow us to welcome visitors back to Tate Modern very soon to experience something that is uplifting, immersive and completely different to the monotony of the present situation. For Kusama, art is salve.”

“What is it about glittering symmetrical surfaces that so intrigue audiences? Are we looking for real moments of transcendence and self-reflection? Or are we purely looking to produce the perfect Instagram post?”

Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms Tate Modern, London Spring 2021, Dates TBC tate.org.uk

Yayoi Kusama, Chandelier of Grief 2016/2018, Tate. Presented by a private collector, New York 2019 © YAYOI KUSAMA.

Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) needs little introduction, famed the world over for countless works starring hallucinogenic polka dots, or, as she calls them, “Infinity Nets.” Her auction record stands at $7.1 million, a figure achieved in 2014 for a 1960 painting. However, Kusama’s most known works are the more recent Infinity Rooms – large-scale enclosed environments where reflections come in layers upon layers. These hypnotic installations have generated several thousands of selfies, with viewers seeking to document themselves in exhibition spaces for all their aesthetic appeal. Kusama's shows have welcomed between 75,000 people (David Zwirner, 2017, 23-day installation) to 160,000 (Hirshhorn, 2017, 80-day installation). In fact, The Broad, Los Angeles, imposed a 30-second “selfie rule” at their show in 2018, in order to keep people moving through the space (and not cause damage whilst straining for the perfect picture). What is it about glittering symmetrical surfaces that so intrigue audiences? Are we looking for real moments of transcendence and self-reflection? Or are we purely looking to produce the perfect Instagram post? Katy Wan, Assistant Curator at Tate, offers another perspective: one rooted within the tenets of universality and accessibility: “Language barriers and cultural specificity are conquered through the abstract nature of these installations; Kusama creates an experience that can be enjoyed by people from all backgrounds.”

Aesthetica 15

Grajau, Maranhão, September 14, 2018. A deforested area in the southern Maranhão State seen from the helicopter of IBAMA, Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources. From Amazônia, courtesy of Tommaso Protti.

news

Lungs of the Planet CARMIGNAC PHOTOJOURNALISM AWARD “Scientists say that the Amazon is reaching a crucial tipping indigenous reserve. The guard conducts thorough patrols of point. If deforestation and environmental destruction don’t the vast indigenous reserve each month, destroying loggers’ stop, the forest will begin a slow but unstoppable process of camps and seizing equipment whenever possible. “From this area I then moved onwards to the Altamira desertification with devastating effects on global scale. How do we invert this trend? Who are the drivers of this destruc- city, Pará state, to document the social and environmention? More than anything else, the Amazon’s cruellest con- tal impacts caused by the construction of the Belo Monte tradiction is that its vast natural wealth is enjoyed by so few Hydroelectric Dam, which flooded 400km2 of forest and of its inhabitants who, in the main, are desperately poor. All displaced hundreds of Ribeirinhos – Amazon River People – that make me think that, to a certain extent, we cannot really who were relocated along the banks of Xingu River. The last preserve nature without fighting poverty and inequality.” trip was in August 2019. I came back to Rondônia where ilFrom January to July 2019, Italian photojournalist Tom- legal fires were destroying a number of protected reserves.” maso Protti (b. 1986) travelled thousands of miles across the The resulting images will be on display at Saatchi Gallery, Brazilian Amazon for the 10th Carmignac Photojournalism London, this spring (once this most recent lockdown lifts). Award. From the eastern region of Maranhão to the western These striking monochrome pictures demonstrate the power region of Rondônia and through the states of Pará and Ama- of journalistic investigation to broaden public consciousness. zonas, Protti began shooting modern-day life, where social They are also presented in a momentous year as, this Noand humanitarian crises overlap with the ongoing destruc- vember, the UK hosts the 2021 UN climate summit. Protti hopes that, through this exhibition, viewers will learn tion of the rainforest – the lungs of the planet. Protti explains where the journey began: “In December more about how murder, crime, corruption and poverty con2018, I first visited the south of Pará state, a region where tribute to the destruction of the world’s last great tropical land ownership is extremely concentrated and landless forest as we look ahead to new climate policy. “The aesthetpeasant movements fight for agrarian reform. In January ics and style of the photographs are purely personal, but the 2019, I then travelled to Maranhão – the most deforested issues shown follow important research. The project is based state in the Amazon. Here, I met with the Guajajara forest on documentation; I place myself as a mere observer and a guard and I accompanied them inside the Araribóia witness for one of the biggest stories of our time.

16 Aesthetica

“The Amazon's cruellest contradiction is that its vast natural wealth is enjoyed by so few of its inhabitants. All of that made me think that we cannot preserve nature without fighting poverty and inequality.”

Carmignac Photojournalism Award Saatchi Gallery, London Spring 2021, Dates TBC saatchigallery.com

Photography as Enquiry OUT OF THE SHADOWS

Shi Guorui, The Yangtze River 7-8 May 2013, 2013, camera obscura gelatin silver print, unique. Collection of Fondation INK, Geneva. Promised gift to Los Angeles County Museum of Art. © Shi Guorui.

“Out of the Shadows: Contemporary Chinese Photography Yang expresses enthusiasm toward the dragon as a tradition- “It's an unprecedented takes visitors on a journey through the eyes of contempo- al symbol, as well as sorrow for its changing connotations time for artists rary Chinese practitioners, stretching their understanding of in the modern world. He notes: “In ancient times, dragons working in China. photography as an art form. By continuing to push bounda- would represent literati spirits and integrity. However, in These practitioners ries with new technologies, these individuals are redefining modern day China, they are generalised as prosperity and have almost unlimited good fortune. These changes are indicated in Nine Dragons, access to the outside expressions that remain both Chinese and global.” Tiffany Wai-Ying Beres is an Asian contemporary art spe- which moves from a utopia into a post-civilisation landscape world, yet continue Similarly, Yang Fudong’s (b. 1971) single-channel film, to innovate in a way cialist and historian. She has worked as a curator with institutions such as the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Liu Lan (2003) investigates the dissolution of tradition, fea- that resonates with Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery, the Pagoda turing an unlikely love affair between a man from the city their own cultures.” Paris in France, and the Today Art Museum in Beijing. For and a woman from the country. Meanwhile, Hong Lei’s (b. the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, she brings 1960) Memory of Pomegranate (2005) is a stark still image together nine photographers working across the last three with yellow fruits suspended on threads. The piece quesdecades – names who question traditional aesthetics, local tions pomegranates as symbols of integrity, endurance and beauty, translating them into a clinical still life. Wang and global histories, and the possibilities of the still image. The featured artwork, The Yangtze River 7-8 May 2013, Ningde’s (b. 1972) Form of Light series is an investigation seen below, is a camera obscura gelatin silver print shot by into the essence of the photographic process, building on Shi Guorui (b. 1964). Shi is known for sweeping cityscapes Plato’s Allegory of the Cave; Polarized Cloud No. 3 (2014) is and natural vistas rendered through striking negatives. He a composite sculptural image made from film transparencies. What these artists share is innovation – an unflinching Out of the Shadows spends hours framing each shot in makeshift, on-site darkrooms, a meditative process stemming from the survival of enquiry into a new age of urbanisation and supposed “pro- Museum of Photographic a car crash and wanting to “take a long time for everything” gress.” As Wai-Ying Beres concludes: “It’s an unprecedented Arts, San Diego time for artists working in China. These practitioners have Until 28 March – uniting the body and mind with a slower mode of working. Other key works include a VR film from Yang Yongliang (b. almost unlimited access to the outside world, yet continue 1980), an immersive journey with a flight of Chinese dragons. to innovate in a way that resonates with their own cultures.” mopa.org

Aesthetica 17

Rachel Kneebone, 399 Days, 2012-13, (detail). Courtesy European Collection. Photo © Stephen White, courtesy White Cube.

news

Movement and Resistance RACHEL KNEEBONE: 399 DAYS Rachel Kneebone’s (b. 1973) monumental sculpture, 399 Days, is aptly named. It references the time it took the London-based artist to complete. It is her most ambitious work to date. The piece reaches a dizzying scale: towering at over five metres high and comprising 63 individual panels. A mass of body parts and vines emerges from a structure reminiscent of Trajan’s Column in the centre of Rome. Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP), Wakefield, is the latest location to showcase the piece, within the 18th century chapel. In recent years, Kneebone's creations have been shown across the world, with solo presentations opening at London’s V&A and the Brooklyn Museum in New York. YSP highlights Kneebone’s interest in the body and life cycles: legs, flowers, orbs and organic forms multiply and cascade from solid blocks. Clay, and its more refined form of porcelain, have been used for thousands of years to make objects for the home and public displays. Kneebone uses porcelain primarily, crafting each object by hand. She does not employ assistants, instead opting to practise alone. This unique process yields complex and delicate creations, but it can be unpredictable. “I am quite reassured when a work explodes because I think that means I am pushing the boundaries of the material,” she explains. “My work moves around metamorphosis, change and simultaneous states, so nothing about it is fixed.” Other pieces include the 2017 sculpture, Roll, which dem-

18 Aesthetica

onstrates ideas of transformation and growth; movement and resistance. White ribbons appear to escape from a porcelain tomb – coiling, bending and intertwining with one another. Roll’s position in YSP is intentional, as the gallery describes: “It resonates with the chapel as a place that historically marked key life events from the cradle to the grave.” Kneebone agrees, labelling it as a space that connects to her projects “from the wooden panels of the interior which echo a panelled structure, to the bucolic exterior and landscape, which accentuate the organic forms.” For this exhibition, she has made new sculptures, where motifs such as tendrils, folds and spheres are fluidly interwoven – producing a plant-like structure which protrudes outwards from the wall. Visitors can also explore a series of drawings. Ovid in Exile (2016) refers to the famous Roman poet Ovid, who was banished from Rome in 8 CE, for reasons that have become shrouded in mystery. Kneebone was drawn to the episode as an insight into the human condition – a recurring theme. Her sketches demonstrate the intrinsic relationship between works on paper and sculpture. A connection is clear: bent legs – rendered in light pencil – extend outwards in a circle. 399 Days is a key addition to YSP’s 2021 programme, spotlighting women creatives. This year includes pieces by Joana Vasconcelos, plus a group show, Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945 from the Arts Council Collection.

“For this exhibition, Kneebone has made new sculptures, where motifs such as tendrils, folds and spheres are fluidly interwoven – producing a plant-like structure which protrudes from the wall.”

399 Days Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield Opens 1 May ysp.org.uk

A Nomadic Practice NOT VITAL

300 Kamelköpfe aus Moskau wurden am 3.3.2005 an die Wand der Kunsthalle Bielefeld geworfen, 2005. Plaster, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist © Not Vital, photo: Eric Gregory Powell.

Not Vital (b. 1948) is driven by exploration, having turn grey … I became accustomed to these nuances in grey “Above all, Not established a number of studios across the globe, working and white and not so much colour. Even now, my favourite Vital is interested for months at a time between Rio de Janeiro, Beijing and Sent. material is plaster, not only because of the colour, but also in craftsmanship. He picks up on He has since been described as an “artist-nomad”– shifting because it dries quickly. You have to work fast.” There is an archaic iconography running through the what exists around between locations, collaborating with local craftspeople and presentation. Outside the museum, viewers discover a large him – fascinated by drawing inspiration from a variety of cultures and traditions. Museum der Moderne Salzburg launches the artist’s first stainless-steel head sitting in the landscape. It’s a mosaic of unusual materials solo exhibition in Austria, titled IR. It takes its name from Not pieces that have broken and stuck together again. Inside is a and techniques – Vital’s native Romansch language, in which ir means to go. “It pile of smashed-up sculptures, stacked against the wall in a creating with artisans speaks to a defining principle of Not Vital’s creative practice,” pyramid. Fragments appear like ruins of ancient civilisations. around the world.” Above all, Not Vital is interested in craftsmanship. He says the gallery. “It is energised by the perpetual tension between departure (leaving) and return (homecoming).” Indeed, “picks up on what exists around him” – fascinated by unusual the artist remains closely connected to his place of origin, materials and techniques – creating with artisans around the world. His partners are wide-reaching, from steel-chasers in Graubünden, Switzerland, to which he regularly returns. This sprawling presentation features 21 sculptures, three Beijing to glass blowers in Murano and silversmiths in Tuareg. expansive installations and over 140 drawings. What’s dis- “I believe that using all these different materials may also have tinctive is the clarity of the pieces, which are known for bright something to do with using different languages,” the artist whites, polished chromes and sharp lines. Plaster, steel, notes, reflecting on his interest in communication and travel. marble and ceramic are the tools of choice here. In one room, “My mother language, Romansch, is only spoken by 36,000 a slimline table and chairs gleam silver. In another room, a people, and there are five different dialects … You grow up in Not Vital a place where, if you go 20 minutes one way, they speak one Museum der smooth, pristine egg sits atop an angular wooden structure. Not Vital links a sparse palette back to memories from language; if you go 18 minutes the other way, they speak Moderne, Salzburg childhood. “If you grow up in surroundings which have snow another… I only communicate in my mother tongue maybe a Until 13 June for six months of the year, your eyes are naturally sensitive tenth of the time.” IR is the culmination of these experiences, to white,” he reflects. “When the snow melts, the mountains presenting minimalism at its most surreal and intriguing. museumdermoderne.at

Aesthetica 19

art

10 to See RECOMMENDED EXHIBITIONS THIS SEASON

This range of shows spans both narrative and documentary projects tapping into the human condition and the changing climate, as well as history and heritage. Please check all websites for the most up to date information on closures, openings, dates, bookings and times.

Ceremonies

Yossi Milo | Online

yossimilo.viewingrooms.com Shikeith (b. 1989) is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker who investigates the expansive definitions of race and masculinity. Ceremonies – referencing Essex Hemphill’s 1992 LGBT poetry collection of the same name – is available to viewers through Yossi Milo’s online viewing rooms this spring. This provocative exhibition comprises a series of portraits demonstrating a range of emotions: ecstasy, contemplation, desire, longing and fear. Shikeith explores ritual, reinvention and ancestral healing whilst examining visualisations of black masculinity.

Endurance and the Great White Silence

Atlas Gallery, London | Until 1 April

atlasgallery.com At the beginning of the 20th century, a number of expeditions were launched to explore the South Pole. The most dangerous of these missions was the Terra Nova – led by Captain Scott and accompanied by photographer Herbert Ponting. The last entry in Scott's diary was on 29 March 1912. Atlas Galley presents a brand-new series of platinum-palladium prints, showcasing images that were found with Scott’s body on 12 November 1912. Broken ice, crystal formations and mirror reflections are rendered in stunning monochrome.

Quinn: A Journey Oriel Colwyn, Colwyn Bay | Until 10 April

orielcolwyn.org Aesthetica Art Prize longlisted artist Lottie Davies (b. 1971) recreates the fictional journey of William Henry Quinn – a character deeply affected by the events of WWII. Moving across lush British countryside, muddied footpaths and desolate waterways, Quinn: A Journey asks whether redemption can be found when hope is lost. The large, multimedia project combines nine moving images, 18 large format photographs and an amalgamation of text and ephemera, placed in a linear sequence. Themes of grief and loneliness are central.

Edgar Martins Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry | Until 18 April

theherbert.org For four years, Edgar Martins (b. 1977) visited the inmates of HM Prison in Birmingham – the largest Category B prison in the Midlands – and their families, as well as a myriad of local organisations and individuals in order to explore the tenets of loss, conflict and confinement. He notes: “My work counters the sort of imagery usually associated with incarceration. I went to great lengths to avoid images whose sole purpose, in my opinion, is to confirm the opinions within dominant ideology about crime and punishment. Instead, I look at loss.”

Why Should I Hesitate: Putting Drawings to Work Deichtor Hallen, Hamburg | Until 18 April

deichtorhallen.de World politics are part of William Kentridge’s (b. 1955) expansive biography as a leading visual artist, opera director and animator, having grown up with parents who actively fought apartheid in South Africa. His works draw upon the sociocultural effects of post-colonialism, refuge and segregation, always beginning with drawing as the principle medium. Why Should I Hesitate is a selection from a vast archive of 1,500 prints. Kentridge notes: “There are surprises in the early drawings, to see the urge towards process and disjointed narrative.”

20 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 21

22 Aesthetica

Epic Iran

Half and the Whole

V&A, London | Opens 13 February

vam.ac.uk V&A has organised Epic Iran alongside the Iran Heritage Foundation, and in association with The Sarikhani Collection. This show is the first of its kind in 90 years, examining 5,000 years of Iranian art, with over 350 objects from ancient culture to the present-day. Highlights include Shirin Neshat’s two-screen video installation Turbulent – featuring a male singer performing in front of an all-male audience and a female singer performing to an empty auditorium – and Shirin Aliabadi’s striking photograph of a woman blowing up bubblegum.

Jack Shainman Gallery, New York | Until 20 February

jackshainman.com "I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, racism, all sorts of social wrongs.” Gordon Parks (1912-2006) was a humanitarian with a commitment to social justice. Born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, Parks was drawn to photography as a young man. He is now recognised as a visionary artist who continues to influence American culture to this day, especially in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement. Jack Shainman celebrates his legacy, making visible the triumphs and struggles of African American life.

Self Flowers Gallery, Hong Kong | Until 27 February

flowersgallery.com Shen Wei (b. 1977) produces rich self-portraits and landscapes, examining identity, memory and sexuality through high contrast palettes. Self draws upon tradition and Wei’s personal process of self-discovery. One of the featured series is Broken Sleeve, in which Wei takes on the roles of iconic Chinese characters from popular culture. The Between Blossoms series includes an interplay of darkness and light representative of fear, attraction, joy, loneliness and absence, seen most clearly in Peach Tree – where rich pink flowers emerge from a void.

Hold Still National Portrait Gallery | Online

npg.org.uk There are over 19 million images that can be found with the hashtag #covid_19 on Instagram (at time of publication). There are over 16 million with #lockdown. How has our experience of the pandemic been shaped by images? By the dissemination of data? How has 21st century culture meant that we internalise our understanding of the global crisis? National Portrait Gallery, London, presents a collective portrait of the UK during lockdown as part of Hold Still – an ambitious online project with 100 images taken from 31,000 submissions.

Intermediaries Pace Gallery, London | Until 6 March

pacegallery.com “I tend to think of scale like modernist painting; an infinite field of activity is only delimited by the frame. However, in my case, the frame is the architectural particulars. I adapt the volume of material and scale of each project for a given space.” Tara Donovan (b. 1969) produces large-scale installations, sculptures, drawings and prints, exploring the transformative effects of accumulation and mass-production. Her latest show plays with the “white cube” space at Pace; pieces like Stacked Grid (shown here) refract light and distort the surrounding space.

1. Shikeith (American, b. 1989), The Adoration (never knew love like this before), 2020, from the series Ceremonies. Archival Inkjet Print on Canson Infinity Plantine. 36" x 30" (91.5 x 76 cm). Edition of 5 + 2 Artist’s Proofs. © Shikeith, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York. 2. HERBERT G. PONTING, Beautiful, broken ice, reflections and Terra Nova, January 7th 1911. © The Scott Polar Research Institute/ Courtesy Atlas Gallery. 3. Lottie Davies, Untitled (Snowdon, Wales) from Quinn (2014-2020) © Lottie Davies. 4. What Photography And Incarceration Have In Common With An Empty Vase © Edgar Martins. 5. William Kentridge, Why Should I Hesitate: Putting Drawings to Work. Installation view, Notes Towards a Model Opera, 2015 (3-Chanal-Video projection, 11:22 Min.). Photo: Henning Rogge © Deichtorhallen Hamburg. 6. Shirin Aliabadi, Miss Hybrid #3, 2008. Photograph © Estate of Shirin Aliabadi. 7. Untitled, Chicago, Illinois, 1957. Copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation. Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. 8. Shen Wei, Plum Tree, 2014, Chromogenic print (c) Shen Wei, courtesy of Flowers Gallery. 9. Lockdown Wedding, Donna Duke Llande. 10. Tara Donovan, Stacked Grid, 2020, plastic, 9’ x 9’ x 13’ (274.3 cm x 274.3 cm x 396.2 cm). © Tara Donovan, courtesy Pace Gallery.

Aesthetica 23

art

Concealed Topographies Chirag Jindal AUCKLAND SITS ON AN ACTIVE VOLCANIC FIELD; ANCIENT NETWORKS HAVE BEEN FORMED BY LAVA. JINDAL'S IMAGES EXAMINE THESE HIDDEN LANDSCAPES AND CAVES.

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) or 3D laser scanning, church in downtown Auckland. The School of Architecture was conceived in the 1960s for high-resolution topography had just acquired an old LiDAR scanner from the Department mapping. The involves firing pulses of laser light at a sur- of Anthropology, and wanted to test out a new approach to face, some at up to two million pulses per second. A sensor document the city’s heritage. I remember being captivated measures the amount of time it takes for each pulse to echo by the process, seeing the rooms – walls, floors, ornaments, back, creating a virtual “point” accurate to less than 1mm. By paintings, textures – digitised in detail into RGB and XYZ repeating this process in quick succession, the instrument points. Through the lens of the scanner, the world was rebuilds up a “point cloud” – a precise, digital replica of reality. duced to Cartesian coordinates, visualised in a three-dimenChirag Jindal (b. 1993) is an artist and surveyor working at sional space. It offered novel readings of space; to look back the intersection of documentary journalism, new media art from impossible angles, through walls and surfaces, and flatand contemporary cartography. Jindal began exploring the ten entire spaces into a single collapsed image. When the role of terrestrial LiDAR as an emerging medium for pho- project was completed, I had some free reign to experiment tographic documentation, after graduating with a Master’s further – mapping objects, buildings and landscapes that I Degree in Architecture in 2016. Into the Underworld / Ngā found interesting. Back then, the instruments weighed over Mahi Rarowhenua, employs this technique to document 15kg and needed a main power source, so it was laborious to hidden lava caves under the city of Auckland. The caves set up and (funnily) limited by the longest extension cord I are unique to the volcanic region and are considered wāhi could afford. There weren't many resources to train from, so tapu (sacred) to local Māori groups. Jindal's practice focuses there were a few long days and nights researching and selfon humanity's relationship to marginalised landscapes, ex- learning. That was almost six years ago, and the technology ploring heritage, narrative and collective memory through has already come a long way since those early experiences. mapping and archiving. This ongoing series has won multiple awards, including the 2020 Royal Photographic Society A: What are the practical uses of this equipment, and how Under 30s Award and the Bialystok Interphoto Grand Prix. have these changed over the years? Jindal was also longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize in 2020. CJ: One of the first recorded uses was in 1971 during the Apollo 17 mission, where LiDAR was used to map the surA: How did you come across LiDAR technology, and face of the moon. Since then, its development really has been driven by the need to quantify space and represent it when did you begin learning how to use it? CJ: In our final thesis year, there was a call for students to get digitally, beginning with large-scale topographical mapping involved in a summer project to “scan” a historic neo-gothic from the air, to detailed land and building surveys from the

24 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 25

26 Aesthetica

Chirag Jindal, no.02 Ngātiawa Street, 3500mm x 1220mm (crop). 2018.

“The artistic merit of this medium lies in a wide possibilities of questions and answers. Point clouds are inherently realistic, and yet otherworldly. They are at once geometrically exact, but also vaporous.”

Previous Page: Chirag Jindal, no.01 Shackleton Road, 6500mm x 1220mm (crop). 2018. Left: Chirag Jindal, no.07 Anā Kōiwi (Cave of Bones), 2500mm x 1500mm (crop). 2018.

ground. Whilst the medium has become almost ubiquitous in many forms (aerial, mobile, solid-state), the most common form today is terrestrial (ground-based) LiDAR – a technique now applied in documenting archaeological ruins, criminal forensics, computer vision, film location mapping, heritage and site analysis. Many of these applications have only emerged over the past decade. Beyond measuring space, LiDAR is increasingly taking on a documentary role in new applications; an empirical approach to index reality, to archive it and revisit it in posterity. In the near future, I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone had powerful scanners in our pockets. The latest iPads already feature basic sensors, used to measure space for AR/MR apps. Eventually, LiDAR may be the way most machines “sense” the world; we're seeing this in autonomous vehicles. A: When did you start to think of LiDAR as a potential artistic process – something immersive and conceptual as opposed to purely technological or solution-based? CJ: Part of this was realising that LiDAR could be an investigative technique. On the one hand it furnished evidence of something – to index it. Analogous to the early era of photography, it still has the innocence of an unfalsifiable medium, providing certainty of the subject with a scientific underpinning. Each of the millions of points in a single image is a kind of spatial fact – a scientific certitude. However, there is also a second moment of creation. In the real world there's the recording of the subject using LiDAR, translating it into digital data – a process that feels empirical, scientific and linear. The other is in the virtual world, looking back at the resulting point cloud. This process is

more rigorous and artistic, akin to a photographer framing the subject. The data can be viewed from any angle, at any distance, at any focal length, at any crop. What can the data reveal that wasn't previously visible? What is the right visual approach for this issue? What is shown and not shown? From what angle is it best represented? Is it best described through moving images, orthographic sections, fabricated models, virtual reality, or web-based experiences? If it is a particular section, where does the section line lie? A: How do these questions inform your vision? CJ: For me, the artistic merit of this medium lies in a wide possibility of questions and answers. Point clouds are inherently realistic, and yet otherworldly. They are at once geometrically exact, but also vaporous, at the overlap of reality and fiction. One of the first artistic explorations of this was in the music video for Radiohead's House of Cards, which layered kinetic scans of Thom Yorke against falsecolour backdrops of wide, urban point clouds. The video is a contradiction really, because on the one hand you are looking at a distorted representation of reality but underpinning this is scientific data. You're made to question the nature of the subject, all the while coming to terms with the reality of it. It's the uncanny, but made to be accepted. A: What did you want to uncover in Into the Underworld? CJ: Into the Underworld / Ngā Mahi Rarowhenua began with me posing the following provocations: how do you make the invisible visible? How do you foster stewardship for a landscape that can't be seen, or publicly accessed? Can we archive the landscape for posterity? How do we learn

Aesthetica 27

Chirag Jindal, no.09 Landscape Road, 3500mm x 1220mm (crop). 2018.

A: How important is the aesthetic? How do you feel that the ghost-like outlines are representative of a heritage that’s being lost to urban development? CJ: Auckland is in the middle of a housing crisis. It has been for the last decade or so, and the result of this is large swaths of land converted from farmland and wilderness to repetitive, homogenised tract housing. The city is built A: This particular series investigates an ancient network amongst 53 unique volcanic cones, and yet half of these of caves beneath suburban streets. What is it about this have been quarried away. We are surrounded by heritage and identity, and yet we still end up with these cookie-cutsubterranean landscape that sparked your interest? CJ: Auckland sits on top of an active volcanic field. So, ter streets. In my work, the caves take precedence, magnifythese sites aren't at all like limestone caves – they were ing the detail and textures of ancient, fossilised lava flows. formed by the region’s ancient lava flows. This is one of This is in subtle contrast to the surface – distant and temthe few places in the world where they exist. When inside, porary. The landscape below is tens of thousands of years it's powerful to witness the fossilised flows along the walls, old, whilst the built environment above has an expiry. In floors and roof where the lava cooled into rock. Despite this, reality, many of these old brick and tile dwellings will soon the caves are not at all common knowledge and exist out- be replaced by two or three-storey townhouses. It’s likely side the public realm. Auckland is a young city, and over that, when this happens, the caves may become totally dethe past two centuries of urban sprawl there hasn't been stroyed or inaccessible. The tree at the backyard of Shackany legal framework protecting the sites. So, the majority leton Road has already been removed – the site was subof these caves have become polluted or filled with road divided not long after the scan was done, and the entrance and construction debris. Their relationship to the urban to the cave has been sealed. I ask: how do we want to relate environment is extraordinary, stretching underneath sub- to these sites in the future? What is Auckland’s vernacular? urban homes, tree-lined streets, local parks, gas stations and private schools, thresholded by manholes, backyard A: How will the series develop moving forward? grottoes and street front garages. They lie underneath the CJ: The project has gained attention. Recently, I've received legal boundaries of private property, limiting entry to tres- enough funding to document a further 10 sites in 2021. passers and spurring vague understandings of ownership Through the legitimacy built over the past five years, we’ve and kaitiaki (stewardship). Any new discoveries continue to also been invited to work more closely with local iwi groups, be filled by developers without any policing, and at this including sites that are tapu and require formal protocol. rate most caves will likely be lost by the end of the century. The project will likely be ongoing for several more years. about the location of the sites? How do you gain the trust of landowners, local Māori, council and the wider community? Finally, if the issues warrant didacticism, to what extent does it lean on a museological approach? Given much of the landscape’s history is unpublished, is it possible to do this without assuming authority over the geography?

28 Aesthetica

Right: Chirag Jindal, no.12 The Uncanny, 1500mm x 1500mm (crop). 2018.

Words Kate Simpson

RPS International Photography Exhibition Touring throughout 2021 rps.org instagram.com/ _chiragchirag

Aesthetica 29

art

Under Moonlight Alexis Pichot

The moon has been a consistent source of wonder for humanity. As our only permanent satellite, it always shows the same face due to its synchronous rotation with Earth – the same craters greeting us in the night sky. Alexis Pichot (b. 1980) re-establishes viewers with a sense of wonder and curiosity, tapping into the supremacy of the organic world and its astrological cycles. The Séléné series makes reference to Greek mythology, specifically Selene (derived from “selas” meaning “bright”), who was a goddess of the full moon, celebrated with each lunar cycle. These images are hypnotic, with sharp edges, iridescent valleys, vertiginous cliffs and rippling bodies of sand cast under pearly skies. The ethereal locations transport viewers to a world seemingly adjacent to our own: both familiar and foreign. Spectral images revel in a sense of stillness, with milk-white rockfaces commanding viewer attention. alexispichot.com.

Alexis Pichot, from the series Séléné.

30 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 31

xxx

32 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 33

Alexis Pichot, from the series Séléné.

xxx

34 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 35

Alexis Pichot, from the series Séléné.

36 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 37

Alexis Pichot, from the series Séléné.

38 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 39

Alexis Pichot, from the series Séléné.

40 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 41

Alexis Pichot, from the series Séléné.

art

Playful Variations Laura Bonnefous

Blue was first used as a pigment for decorative arts around 2,200 BC by the Egyptians, who harnessed the semi-precious stone, Lapis Lazuli, to produce a calcium copper silicate. Blue has since had a rich history in art, culture and design across the world, from Picasso’s “blue period” to Yves Klein’s “International Klein Blue” and beyond. In 2020, Pantone named “Classic Blue” as its Colour of the Year, a shade “evocative of the vast and infinite evening sky, opening a world of possibilities.” Parisian photographer Laura Bonnefous experiments with unique visual codes, where colour can be a source of abstraction, inspiration and calm simultaneously. Rolled paint, spilt ink, socks and curtains are manifestations of play, allure and experimentation. Bonnefous has won numerous awards, including being listed in Artpil’s 30 Women Photographers under 30 in 2015, alongside the likes of Magnum photographer Diana Markosian. laurabonnefous.com.

The Blue Epic. Photographer: Laura Bonnefous. Collaboration: Air Brigitte & Hugo Matha. Stylist: Fernando Damasceno. Make up: Laura Merle. Retouch: Processus. Model: Hawa Magassa. Assistant: Maud Lecompte.

42 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 43

44 Aesthetica

The Blue Epic. Photographer: Laura Bonnefous. Collaboration: Air Brigitte & Hugo Matha. Stylist: Fernando Damasceno. Hair: Nina Olivet. Make up: Laura Merle. Retouch: Processus. Model: Hawa Magassa. Assistant: Maud Lecompte.

Aesthetica 45

46 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 47

Sand Flower. Photographer: Laura Bonnefous. Stylist: Stephanie Brissay. Hair: Nina Olivet. Make up: Laura Merle. Retouch: Processus. Model: Andy Andenok. Assistant: Maud Lecompte & Clara Girbal.

48 Aesthetica

Project Blue Ink. Photographer: Laura Bonnefous. Collaboration: Stylist France. Hair: Nina Olivet. Make up: Mademoiselle Mu. Retouch: OphĂŠlie Bertrand / Granon Digital. Model: Camille. Assistant: Lisa Raio.

Aesthetica 49

xxx

50 Aesthetica

xxx

Sand Flower. Photographer: Laura Bonnefous. Stylist: Stephanie Brissay. Hair: Nina Olivet. Make up: Laura Merle. Retouch: Processus. Model: Andy Andenok. Assistant: Maud Lecompte & Clara Girbal.

Aesthetica 51

Failles. Photographer: Laura Bonnefous. Retouch: OphĂŠlie Bertrand.

art

Building Communities Beazley Designs of the Year GROUNDBREAKING PROJECTS SHOW HOW ARCHITECTS ARE TURNING TO LOCALERESPONSIVE METHODS TO DEAL WITH THE MAJOR SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES.

L’Arbre Blanc (The White Tree) has the playful quality of a – each year the guest curatorial team asks luminaries from child’s toy or scale model, in spite of its size and sleek white multiple disciplines to put forward the most innovative finish: not so much visually as conceptually. After all, the projects – “but we just thought, let’s end it around the close idea of a giant, inhabitable tree crammed with doorways, of January, and leave the whole Covid situation for another windows and balconies – increasing in size as they stretch day.” This said, the now-famous 3D illustration of the virus, upwards – seems like one from a fairytale rather than the created by Alissa Eckert and Dan Higgins for the US Centers world of contemporary architecture. Visually, the tower is for Disease Control and Prevention, is included amongst the perhaps more suggestive of a coppiced trunk than a tree, entries, and in the Architecture section is the extraordinary with its block-like shape and dense, cross-hatched patterns Leishenshan Hospital in China, built in 12 days by a team of formed from the intersecting lines of windows and balconies, 10,000 construction workers in order to house Covid patients. These were amongst a small number of projects selected in like new growth from a stump that's been pruned back. Created by the firm of Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, the order to offer a “full stop” on the curatorial narrative. The Leishenshan Hospital, of course, represents a crisis17-storey tower block looms over the Montpellier cityscape in southern France like a giant, sylvan guardian – its form era project. However, in a sense, it also expresses that same inspired by the area’s hot climate and greenery, encouraging attentiveness to local need which is the hallmark of much residents out onto its huge, canopied limbs to socialise in the forward-thinking design. The other two Chinese entries in the sunlight. L’Arbre Blanc is responsive to place in visual and Award’s Architecture section bring the ambition and scale of cultural terms. In this year’s Beazley Design of the Year, at- Leishenshan to projects enmeshed with nearby geologies tention to locale encompasses a wide range of themes, from and environments, as well as wider visual cultures. The UCCA Dune Art Museum, nestling in a sand dune on the the constraints and possibilities of community labour and construction techniques to the reuse of materials and spaces, coast of northern China, was designed by Open Architecture to the design of buildings for wholesale dismantling and re- not only to blend in with the encompassing dunes but to protect them from encroaching real estate developers and construction in response to unstable conditions. Emily King, curator of the 13th edition of the awards, is their bulldozers. Inside, the subterranean structure comprises a trained design historian. This gives her a remarkably a series of dazzling caverns – curvaceous and organic – like panoramic view, making her acutely aware of the need the cave dwellings of hunter-gatherer communities but to bracket off a new phase of design history focused on realised on a grand scale, naturally lit from above by circular the immense challenges posed by Covid. “Most years the skylights. The use of cave walls as humanity’s first canvases Beazley nomination process doesn’t have a strict deadline” gives the gallery spaces a neat metaphorical potency: “it’s

52 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 53

54 Aesthetica

UCCA Dune Art Museum by OPEN Architecture. Image credit: Wu Qingshan.

“Reacting to crises like accommodation shortages and global warming is primarily the responsibility of politicians, but these designs show how creative disciplines can lead the way in protecting the most vulnerable.”

Previous Page: L’Arbre Blanc by Sou Fujimoto Architects, Nicolas Laisné, Dimitri Roussel and OXO Architectes. Left: Housing No. 8 (Laboratorio de Vivienda) by MOS Architects. Photo credit: Jaime Navarro.

really stunning,” King says, “and shows a whole new way of thinking about the idea of a museum and its place in nature.” The Lin’an History Museum, built west of Hangzhou in eastern China, pays more direct and site-specific homage to its surrounding culture, recreating in architectural form the idealised depictions of buildings and landscapes found in regional painting, particularly in the work of the Song era artist Li Tang (ca. 1050-1130). The result is a meandering cluster of low-roofed buildings following the natural contours of the surrounding hills, intersected by paths and set on the edge of a large reservoir, festooned with vegetation. “It’s a really incredibly way of rethinking how to tell stories with objects in a particular space,” King notes. Amateur Architecture Studio, who designed the museum, has created similar projects across the country, such as the Fuyang Cultural Complex, inspired by the paintings of a 14th century Yuan Dynasty artist. In other cases, attention to artistic history and environment means repurposing structures with a site-specific value. The z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture, created by Francesca Torzo, uses a group of buildings in Hasselt, Belgium, that previously housed the city’s “beguinage,” a type of communal home for religious laywomen once common in the low countries. The extensions to the site are oriented away from the surrounding streets, opening onto a monastic courtyard, playing on the sanctum-like ambience. Another focal point for this year’s shortlist is the use of local workers' skills. By her own confession, King’s favourite is the ModSkool, conceived by India’s Social Design Collaborative as an educational space for the children of itinerant farming communities in New Delhi. The ModSkool serves a population in perpetual migratory flux, due to flooding

and land ownership issues in the Yamuna River Valley it has historically inhabited. A previous schoolhouse had been destroyed by Delhi Development Authority, so the new design had to allow for the school to be physically dismantled and reassembled in a range of different locations. First assembled by students, school staff, parents and local volunteers in less than three weeks during 2017, the ModSkool blueprint consists of a metal framework that can be easily unbolted, surrounded by replaceable panels of bamboo, dried grass and recycled wood. After the school was dismantled two years later following legal disputes, it was redesigned, at which point a new feature was introduced. Wall panels and pivoted doors were created using weaving techniques employed to make charpoys, multifunctional items of homemade furniture mostly used as daybeds. Turning to artisanal techniques used by local farming families not only made the ModSkool project affordable and less resource-intensive, but also instilled a sense of pride and ownership in a community neglected by the regional political establishment. Perhaps most crucially, the school shows how architecture might use site-specific approaches to respond to crisis. “It’s showing a way around a bad political situation,” King notes, “by allowing a community some degree of self-determination.” Given that flooding and migration are already becoming worldwide issues, the ModSkool approach, with its modular design, might provide a blueprint for civic and public structures. Other projects included in this year’s Beazley shortlist certainly suggest the increasing importance of modular and place-responsive approaches. Housing No. 8, in the Mexican City of Apan, comprises a group of 32 experimental housing

Aesthetica 55

UCCA Dune Art Museum by OPEN Architecture. Image credit: Wu Qingshan.

units. Created under the curatorship of MOS Architects, the created by pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong to slow site offers ground-breaking solutions for low-income inhab- down Chinese police vehicles, known locally as “mini-Stoneitants. All the projects in the extraordinary nine-acre setting henges.” When the arch is struck by a wheel, the top, horizonallow for structural extension by their residents. Each loca- tal brick falls way, leaving the remaining, upright bricks that supported it as a kind of buttress, trapping the wheel of the tion also responds to one of Mexico’s nine climatic zones. Housing poverty, similar to rising sea and river levels, is encroaching vehicle. “We decided to put them in the transan international problem, not confined to the Americas or port category, in that they promoted immobility,” says King, any other location – and there is undoubtedly more of this with a mischievous twinkle, “but we could have put them in to come. Another entry in the awards, Goldsmith Street in architecture, in that they’re structures with a purpose.” The same could be said of the winning entry, Teeter-Totter Norwic city centre, is a social housing development that takes inspiration from a path of terraced housing nearby Wall, installed in the US-Mexico border fence by architecture known as “the golden triangle.” Architects Mikhail Riches studio Rael San Fratello during July 2019. A set of three neon and Cathy Hawley adapted many of the classic motifs of 19th pink see-saws, these structures – also placed in the transport century British vernacular urban architecture – back alleys, section of the awards – respond to a site infused with trauma warm brickwork, individual front doors – to a Dutch-style and the spirit of political bigotry with a subversive gesture design incorporating pastel shades, stylish balconies and of joy and play. These are structures that, like Leishenshan wide streets, which also achieves Passive House standards for Hospital, respond to the needs of a local community in crisis energy efficiency. “In terms of the way it was built, the people using the available nearby materials and labour. Ultimately, it’s the idea of “structure with purpose” that it was built for, the whole funding model, the environmental underpins locale-responsive architecture. And on the basis standards, we just need more building like that,” King says. Reacting to crises like accommodation shortages and of inspiring projects like those in Hong Kong and at the US global warming is primarily the responsibility of politicians border, there’s no reason why this type of thinking can’t form and regulators rather than architects and designers. However, the basis of a much wider range of activities, including grassdesigns like ModSkool, Housing No. 8 and Goldsmith Street roots activism, rather than just professional architecture. show how creative disciplines can lead the way in protecting “From my point of view, design is everything,” King offers in the most vulnerable communities from the vicissitudes of summary: “it’s form put in the world an objective, so it doesn’t political repression and corruption, as well as ecological and have to be a building or object. It can be information, or a economic crisis. And it’s an intense sensitivity to local need, set of dance steps; it can even be a protocol or set of beculture and environment that ensures these projects’ success. haviours.” Design can be activism, protest, play, education. In Across Beazley’s other award categories we find projects short, “design can be the basis of how we deal with many of that speak to these same aims, such as the “brick arches” the urgent issues we have to face as a global culture.”

56 Aesthetica

Right: L’Arbre Blanc by Sou Fujimoto Architects, Nicolas Laisné, Dimitri Roussel and OXO Architectes.

Words Greg Thomas

Beazley Designs of the Year Design Museum, London Until 28 March designmuseum.org

Aesthetica 57

art

Images with Intent Evan Sheehan

Evan Sheehan has a background in video and design – skills and experience deftly called upon in the planning and production of bold still images. These photographs – which seem at once spontaneous and deeply choreographed – call upon eye-popping primary colours and dynamic environments. Here, portraits are mechanisms for storytelling, inviting viewers into worlds of transformation, obscurity and intrigue. Beyond this, Sheehan achieves visual balance and coherence through centring his subjects in subtle and satisfying ways. A model pulls an asymmetric jumper over his head whilst standing directly in a dipped grass bank. Frosted glass splices an anonymous figure straight down the middle. A yellow stripe cuts diagonally across a concrete frame, a shadow casting a perpendicular line backwards. These are images made, truly, by design. Sheehan has worked with the likes of Apple, Nike and Veuve Clicquot, and has been featured with VSCO and Vogue. evantsheehan.com.

Evan Sheehan, Braids, 2017. Model: Christina John. Location: Chicago, IL.

58 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 59

Evan Sheehan, Legs, 2018. Location: Chicago, IL.

60 Aesthetica

Evan Sheehan, Hands, 2017. Location: Chicago, IL.

Aesthetica 61

Evan Sheehan, Dreaming Of , 2020. Collaboration with Alex Wallbaum. Location: Chicago, IL.

62 Aesthetica

Evan Sheehan, Ghost Boys, 2019. Models: Alex Wallbaum & Cody Guilfoyle. Location: New York.

Aesthetica 63

Evan Sheehan, Stomp Stomp, 2017. Model: Caroline Woodford. Location: Los Angeles, CA.

64 Aesthetica

Evan Sheehan, Kenzie, 2016. Model: Mckenzie Hanson. Location: Chicago, IL.

Aesthetica 65

Evan Sheehan, Peek, 2017. Model: Caroline Woodford. Location: Los Angeles, CA.

66 Aesthetica

Evan Sheehan, Alex, 2018. Model: Alex Wallbaum. Location: New Buffalo, MI.

Aesthetica 67

art

Laying the Foundations Women Street Photographers GULNARA SAMOILOVA IS DETERMINED TO SPOTLIGHT WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS, FROM INSTAGRAM TO THE GALLERY, AND NOW, WITH A GROUNDBREAKING PUBLICATION.

Think of a great street photographer: who springs to mind? Henri Cartier-Bresson and the “decisive moment”, catching a man mid-air as he jumps over a puddle in Paris? Maybe Joel Meyerowitz and his shot of camel-coated passers-by, caught in shafts of sunshine and steam? Garry Winogrand or Bruce Gilden and their depictions of New York? Martin Parr shooting on the beach in Brighton, Brassaï capturing Paris at night in the 1930s or Daidō Moriyama and his raw vision of Tokyo in the 1960s and 1970s? All big names but so far none of them women – even though, as award-winning photographer, curator and wildly-popular Instagram account holder Gulnara Samoilova puts it, “There were, of course, more women street photographers than history admits to.” Some of these lesser-known practitioners are picked out in the introduction to Samoilova’s new book, Women Street Photographers, via a brief history written by Melissa Breyer – also a street photographer whose work has been featured in the likes of National Geographic. Breyer foregrounds the little-known Alice Austin, for example, who was born in New York in 1866 and who took upwards of 7000 images in Staten Island at the turn of the 20th century. Then there’s artists such as Jessie Tarbox Beals, who was born in 1870 in Hamilton, Canada and, after being hired by the Buffalo Enquirer in 1902, became America’s first female news photographer. Breyer also gives a brief overview of other women who documented people on the street and became much better known overall – Berenice Abbott, for example, Helen Levitt, or Diane Arbus, all of whom are part of the established canon and have been for a long time. Then there are the likes

68 Aesthetica

of Vivian Maier, widely celebrated only posthumously, and whose story tantalisingly suggests other great, undiscovered female practitioners. Incidentally, but not surprisingly, Maier is about to have a huge show at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris. Her work has previously been shown around the world at institutions such as FOAM Amsterdam, Somerset House, London, and the Hasselblad Foundation in Gothenburg. However, Maier was completely unknown in her lifetime, working in Chicago as a nanny in the second half of the 20th century. Pursuing photography for her own satisfaction, she quietly amassed an archive of over 100,000 negatives, which wasn’t discovered until 2007 at an auction house. Breyer makes clear that there are many reasons why fewer women are known for street photography, none of which are to do with actual images. She describes writer George Sand illegally donning trousers without a permit to walk freely around Paris, laying bare the social pressures that bound socalled “respectable women.” However, Samoilova chooses not to dwell on the many negatives. Instead, she celebrates the wealth of contemporary female practitioners currently working on the street – both to inspire others to pick up cameras, and to create a resource for curators and editors. Samoilova has brought together 100 image-makers, from those who are known within curatorial and editorial circles, such as Rebecca Norris Webb and Dimpy Bhalotia, to those who are working in obscurity, such as Nastaran Farjadpezeshk, an electrical engineer based in Mashhad, Iran, who creates images in her spare time. The book also includes many different styles and approaches, from richly coloured

Aesthetica 69

70 Aesthetica

Julia Coddington, Red Shoes, Sydney, Australia, 2018 © Julia Coddington.

“Scrolling through hundreds of feeds and accounts, Samoilova would find lots of men and, once in a blue moon, find a woman. Coming across these names, she'd save the images, and eventually began to ask herself: why not start to post them?”

Previous Page: Betty Goh, The Maze, Singapore, 2018 © Betty Goh (detail). Left: Selnur Okudan, Light Hair, Antalya, Turkey, 2018 © Selnur Okudan.

images by Karolina Trapp, to delicate black-and-white shots by Olga Karlovac. Samoilova features images produced through highly technical kit, as well as those shot on iPhone and other smartphone cameras, purely for Instagram. This groundbreaking publication has clearly been a labour of love; Women Street Photographers has roots in Samoilova’s personal interests and experiences. Born in Ufa, an industrial town in what was then the USSR, she fell in love with photography after tagging along to a printing class with a friend and witnessing “the most magical thing” – the moment when images appear in the dark room. It was the 1980s and times were hard in Ufa, which only had one cinema, let alone a gallery, but Samoilova finished school and quickly found work in a lab, then went on to become a portrait photographer, then a photojournalist – working for a local paper. In 1992 she moved to New York, speaking no English. By the early 2000s, she had become a contributor at Associated Press and won a prestigious World Press Photo award for her coverage of 9/11. Samoilova was in bed five blocks away when the first plane hit but, hearing multiple sirens, realised something terrible must have happened. Turning on the TV, she saw the second plane hit and heard the accompanying explosion. Immediately understanding it was a terrorist attack, she grabbed a camera and headed to the scene. Whilst she was there, a policeman tried to push her away, asking how she could take photographs with so much going on. “I told him I had to document it; this was a momentous historical event,” she told the authors of Woman Journalists at Ground Zero. She has been shooting on the street ever since. Her path hasn’t been easy though. When Samoilova started practising in Ufa she didn’t know a single female practitioner;

coming across a similar dynamic in street photography, she was determined to seek out other women. She decided that there must be others, and that, once found, she’d offer them the opportunity of a group show – which happened in New York in 2018, featuring 75 names. Samoilova found many of the artists via social media. Scrolling through hundreds of feeds and accounts, she’d find lots of men and “once in a blue moon” a woman. Coming across these names, she hit save on the images, and eventually began to start asking herself the pivotal question: “Why not start to post them?” This was the genesis of @womenstreetphotographers. By March 2018, she was posting on the account every day and, at the time of writing, it has well over 100,000 followers. One of the charms of the feed, beyond the curation, is that Samoilova appears in posts and live interviews, as well as writing about the selection of certain images, demonstrating her credentials the nerve to set herself up as a resource. The associated group show in New York is now an annual fixture, fresh from its third outing (Covid notwithstanding); the exhibition has also travelled to Italy, Switzerland, Malaysia and Russia. After deciding to put together a catalogue, Samoilova started to research self-published photobooks when Prestel got in touch. Women Street Photographers is the result, but it’s definitely not a simple catalogue. Organised as a carefully constructed flow of images rather than alphabetically, it features one shot per individual, plus commentary on the inception, production and realisation of each piece. “It’s something I do with all the exhibitions too; I collect the background stories,” she explains. “I like to read why the photographer has taken the picture, why they love pictures and what they feel.” The result is a fascinating insight into the

Aesthetica 71

Karolina Trapp, Squaring the Circle, Los Angeles, USA, 2017 © Karolina Trapp.

images, which also feels empowering because, not only has don’t pretend I’m not taking pictures, but I’m friendly,” she Samoilova given these women a platform to show their work, says. “In fact, what I love about this type of art is that it but she has also literally let them speak. Julia Coddington teaches you how to read people: to be aware and use your describes a day shooting in Sydney, in which she spotted intuition. It teaches patience and how to really look – you a pair of red shoes picked out by the light, chasing after don’t have to see someone’s face to know what’s going on. them over to Brooklyn. Linda Hacker took a totally different “All of those techniques and skills are useful in other areas approach, setting up at an interesting location and waiting of photography too,” she adds. “When I’m teaching people for someone to walk into view. Some works feel gritty, portraiture, I encourage individuals to go out into public documenting a particular time and place, but many others – spaces and gain experience there. You need to use body language – you can talk and smile with your eyes; you need including Hacker’s – have an ethereal, timeless quality. “[With] Betty [Goh] and Linda, I was so impressed that they to think about how you come across to people, whether could go to the streets and create an abstract atmosphere,” you’re nervous or relaxed, and the connotations of this.” It’s not surprising to hear, then, that she’s not fazed by says Samoilova. “I was blown away.” And, in seeking out this type of boundary pushing work, Samoilova is admirably the current pandemic, and the associated lockdowns and unsnobbish. She’s completely unfazed by practitioners who quarantines, though they have made it difficult to go out, make work with their phones and says emphatically that you or find passersby. She’s been making new work by painting don’t need to have training or expensive equipment to have on top of images, boasting a well-established art practice as talent. In fact, she says the growth in camera phones has well. There are always things you can do, she adds, whether helped more women take up the medium because they’re it’s creating collages or really getting to know your camera. “Maybe this is a great time to do something else. Danielle accessible and also discrete; they’ve helped “more and more to get brave”, she comments. Perhaps surprisingly, Goldstein took pictures from her balcony [during the first she doesn’t feel women face more barriers or risk than men lockdown]. If you can go outside, you can train your eye. You when shooting in the street, no matter which part of the world can practice. This is what I do, I stand in one corner and look at they’re based in – and her book is admirably international, the light. You can create abstracts. Anything! Creative people departing from Eurocentric traditions to include slices of life always find an outlet.” It’s a typically positive response, from an inspiring individual and artist – and maybe proof that shot in many different countries and cultures. Samoilova has also personally photographed many in life, as well as in street photography, you can get good different landscapes and locations and says she can only results if you both go with the flow and seize the day. “From my own experience, when you put your mind to remember encountering one angry response. To her, it’s all a question of how you present yourself. “I always approach something and really want it, you can achieve it,” she says. people with a smile and with my camera next to my face – I “When you have a passion, nothing can stop you.”

72 Aesthetica

Right: Linda Hacker, This Way Out, Brooklyn, New York, USA, 2019 © Linda Hacker .

Words Diane Smyth

Women Street Photographers is published by Prestel prestel.com

Aesthetica 73

art

Evocative Storytelling Malick Kebe

Abidjan is a city on the Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa. It is the fourth most populated city on the continent, with approximately 4.7 million inhabitants, and one of the largest French-speaking locations in Africa. Abidjan is a cultural crossroads, characterised by a high level of urbanisation and industrialisation. Malick Kebe (@from_abidjan) is just one of the city’s rising talents. Kebe has a strong understanding of shape, colour and concept, producing evocative storytelling through minimal subjects and limited production. “Even if I had the means, I would still shoot on iPhone. It pushes me to go further than with a pro camera. I want to show people that it’s not enough to have a great device, but it is enough to have a creative eye.” Photoshop, Lightroom, VSCO and Snapseed are the only other tools used to build “a universe that mixes modernity and African origins.” Apple and Forbes Africa are amongst the industry leaders to support Kebe’s work. fromabidjan.com.

Malick Kebe, Movement (serie 003). Courtesy of the artist.

74 Aesthetica

Aesthetica 75

Malick Kebe, Movement (serie 002). Courtesy of the artist.

76 Aesthetica

Malick Kebe, The Red Light. Courtesy of the artist.

Aesthetica 77

Malick Kebe, Blinded. Courtesy of the artist.

78 Aesthetica

Malick Kebe, Orange is Trendy. Courtesy of the artist.

Aesthetica 79

Malick Kebe, 60s Hair. Courtesy of the artist.

80 Aesthetica

Malick Kebe, Atypical. Courtesy of the artist.

Aesthetica 81

Malick Kebe, Black Don't Crack. Courtesy of the artist.

82 Aesthetica

Malick Kebe, Passion of Water. Courtesy of the artist.

Aesthetica 83

Malick Kebe, Aghien 1. Courtesy of the artist.

84 Aesthetica

Malick Kebe, Dreams. Courtesy of the artist.

Aesthetica 85

art

Visual Harmony Salva López

Barcelona-based Salva López loves architecture. His images provide a personal take on recognisable buildings, looking for what he defines as “global visual harmony.” These scintillating landscapes feature closely cropped structures, satisfying angles and large, open bodies of water stretching outwards towards the horizon. López plays with abstraction, drawing our eyes to where shadows cut across concrete – where light creates a jigsaw of lines and forms. The results are almost mathematical, with a keen eye for symmetry, perspective and geometric tessellation. Bold oranges, blues, greens and pinks entice the viewer into an everyday dialogue between pipes, chairs, walls, roofing and windows. A selection of Lopez’s images is also published in Ricardo Bofill: Visions of Architecture (Gestalten, 2019) which draws upon the poetic spaces, surreal structures and dramatic visions of the renowned Spanish architect. salvalopez.com | gestalten.com.