oh my gosh i love tate modern

i was there yesterday... oh yes.

reasons why i love tate:

Johnny Hardstaff lecture podcast - download
you must download and listen to these lectures. the first also includes scott eaton from supernatural studios (supernatural studios), who mostly talks about digital sculpture and takes you through the development of a digital scultpture of a greek titan who gets his stomach eaten out everyday by an overly chubby fairy grandmother. it's interesting.
Even more interesting is Johnny Hardstaffs talk where he asks not how we make digital media but why. if you havent seen any of his work (you silly, silly person) get yourself educated:
johnny hardstaff
personally, i think he's a genius.
It's a very inspirational lecture, where he discusses the ethics of design, wether or not digital media will ever be accepted by contemporary art, and the effect of digital mass media.

some lovely, lovely quotes:
"If you can imagine it, you can make it and it's as real as anything else. The definition of real has gone, and i think that is glorious. And we're all making our imagined worlds that we live in and the question is, to what extent are these pollutted by the commercial agendas of others, to what extent are they really us?"

"Designers can speak to the public in a language they understand, they speak this language. Well they don't speak it but they can read it and largely they can because they've always been meant to, they've been schooled and educated in it."

"Work inspired by technology itself, or by a new plugin is always going to be crass and invalid, theyre isn't going to be anything real there, that's not enough. All too often you see that, there's no substance behind that."

"The irony is digital technologies not only facilitate our liberties but they encroach on them aswell. They give you it and they take it away, and it's up to you to determine what it is... embrace photoshop but make it work for you in the design of marxist pamphlets that you can distribute, running through the streets."

YUM.

also...

exhibtions i did see, and you should too because they're great.

rings of saturn
i had to pretty much run around this one as i was about to miss my coach, but it is gorgeous. Unlike anything i've seen before. The work feels surreal but with a very contemporary edge. Some brilliant photography and sculpture.

UBS Photography exhibition
Thomas Ruff, Andreas Gursky... some other people i'm probably forgetting and will be kicking myself for later. wow. It features "99cent" by Gursky (follow the link for an image that doesn't do it justice) which is a great example of his work, photographs the size of walls, which are sometimes manipulated in sublte ways, which makes what looks like an authentic image feel unreal. I think he uses a large format camera (he must do, the photographs are huge), the people in the photographs are blurred, it looks like they don't belong in the environment they are in, which is brightly coloured and strangley symmetrical.
This exhibition also features Thomas Ruff's "Portraits", which i've read about but never seen. Rows of portraits which tell you very little of the person that has been photographed. Every face looks indifferent, baring nothing (Ruff believes that photographs can only show the surface of things) and making you wander why they're all looking at you like something they scraped off their shoe. Kinda makes you question wether or not you're worth something... or maybe that's just me.
Olivo Barbieri is also included in this exhibition. He usually photographs from above, and uses a depth of field technique to make the subjects look like models that have been placed by a malavelent giant child who might turn on them at any minute. once again, that might just be me.

states of flux
collection of design, photography and film (ie. heaven)
machine eye
If you have even the slightest interest in photography, you should go see this pernament display. I was stood drooling in front of several photographs by Rodchenko (russian constructivist who's photographs are absolutely brilliant. Influenced by the idea of 'ostrananie', or making the everyday strange, he is the master of forshortening), Stiegltiz (founder of "straight" photography), and Atget (working at the same time as Stiegltiz but virtually unknown in his lifetime). There was so much joy in my heart when i was in that room! i learnt about all these people last year and it was brilliant to see their work.

USSR in construction
i love constructivism. i love Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova. I love El Lissitsky. And now that i know that Nikolai Troshin was the magazines art director i love him too. The compostitions are influenced by ideas of constructivism and suprematism, which basically means they're brilliant. Stalinist propaganda with avant garde design. go see!

Richard Hamilton
the citizen
i might post something more in depth on his work later, but it's definately something you should check out. his paintings are amazing.

one more thing...
chemical brothers vs. jacob epstein
oh yes.