"It was as if I had been given my eyes back again, my innocence. We all became really quite lively, as if somehow liberated by our own behaviour on screen to make comments about ourselves, our neighbours." Art critic Jody Day describes Now Revisited.
Hilary Lawson, the founder of the video painting movement and Artscape Project, has embarked on a radical new project. Now Revisited an interactive art installation in five acts unfolded within the cavernous wake-space of the Shunt vaults last week.
Propelling the audience into the ‘Now’, the artist presented the audience with theatre-style seats into which they were convened to watch themselves in real time on a huge cinema screen. Simultaneously participants in and reviewers of the work, the unique event saw hundreds of people in dialogue with the tenets of Hilary Lawson’s philosophy of ‘openness’.
Each act, entitled ‘Now’, ‘Now Past’, ‘Now Reviewed’, ‘Now Observed’ and ‘‘Now Revisited’ respectively, allowed the audience (and some viewers who returned for a second showing) to react/interact with the art before them, entirely as they desired; from the initial awakening in Act I until the climactic release of the final visit to the present in Act V. Act II took the audience on a journey into a momentary present in the past.
Act III recalled the footage from the first act as the players in the installation related to their own moments of subjectivity just a few moments before. Act IV caught the audience watching themselves from an external observers point of view, with Act V returning to the immediate present in a return to the moment of self-referential intensity with which the piece had begun.
Billed by ‘The Times’ newspaper as one of the top fifteen things to do or see in London, Now Revisited revealed itself as a spectacle of raucous voyeurism that often gave way to moments of hushed contemplation. Viewers revealed their bodies provocatively, rose from their seats in uniform patterns, while some took to the stage to sit in their own filmed likeness.
Hilary Lawson, reflected on the new piece on the opening night of the performance, commenting that TS Eliot described the moment of the present as ‘the still point of the turning world’: “The moment ‘caught in a shaft of sunlight’. This momentary present is depicted as a place of mystery…Now Revisited attempts to encourage the viewer into the present and once there to explore the nature of this momentary present.”
To review previous works by Hilary Lawson click on collections
To read the full review from Jody Day visit www.lucky-cow.com
Tuesday 17 March 2009
"I was filled with the emotion of my stillness" Now Revisited reviewed
Now Revisited at Shunt 25th - 28th February
Embark on a journey into the strangeness of the present, as artist, philosopher, and founder of the video painting movement, Hilary Lawson creates ‘Now Revisited’: an interactive video art installation in five acts.
Over four consecutive nights between February 25th and February 28th 2009, Open Gallery will be inhabiting a cavern within Shunt - the arts and club venue beneath London Bridge.
Shunt will be host to a remarkable installation, ‘Now Revisited’, which sees Hilary Lawson leading the viewer away from the stranglehold of narrative closure and into the openness of the present with the first interactive video installation of its kind.
Please RSVP to caroline@opengallery.co.uk.
For more information on the event visit www.shunt.co.uk and to see previous work by Hilary Lawson see the Collections
Surface Design Show 10th-13th February
For the past five years, the Surface Design Show has earned renown for highlighting innovative new works in art and style.
The Open Gallery has long supported architects and designers - believing that art should extend beyond the gallery and into living spaces. From angular courtyard projections to panoramic loft spaces, the installations have the power to radically transform a space but can also function as windows to the outside world and thereby offer a subtle enhancement to the aesthetics of a building.
Open will be at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London on the 10th - 13th February 2009. The Out of Openness collection will be one of several on display at our exhibition stand 176.
This year the design powerhouse, Sebastian Conran, will be launching the Show on Tuesday 10th February. Open will be there with a glass (or two) of champagne in hand so come by and join us!
WE ARE OPEN - Artscape Project now represented by the Open Gallery
'Artscape' no longer embodies our current status nor our wider desire - to work with and support artists in their pursuit of openness in moving imagery. So we present our new incarnation to mark a new era of explorations into the world of the video painting: the Open Gallery.
A New Movement
The New Year begins and a new movement is spreading round the world: an exploration of openness through the medium of the video painting.
From the first experimental pieces shot by the founder of the Artscape collective in the Black Hills of Wales, artists have now filmed video paintings in almost every corner of the earth and their work has been shown everywhere from London to Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Portugal, Napoli, New York, LA, Miami, Sao Paolo and New Zealand.
As momentum has gathered and more artists have gravitated towards the philosophies of the original collective, the exploration has grown to embody something far greater and more diverse: the video painting movement.
The History
2001: A new form of video art was born - the video painting. A collective began to form as more artists chose to experiment with this medium. They called themselves the Artscape Project. The earliest video paintings focused purely on natural landscapes and were intended to encourage the viewer to escape from the traditional precepts ingrained within moving imagery.
2003: Further modes of expression were opened as new technologies were developed to enable video paintings - for the first time - to be combined into collections of non-repetitive, intelligent sequences designed according to criteria determined by the artists. This freedom allowed artists to present their explorations of the natural world in a manner which was totally free from strictures that had previously defined video art.
2005: The Artscape Gallery was founded as the public stage upon which the work of the Artscape Project could be shown. Several high profile public exhibitions and numerous permanent installations for a diverse range of private clients followed.
2006: The work of the Artscape Project began to diversify from playful explorations into the natural world, with video paintings now touching on urban landscapes and developing along both abstract and literal themes.
2009: 'Artscape' no longer embodies our current status nor our wider desire - to work with and support artists in their pursuit of openness in moving imagery. So we present our new incarnation to mark a new era of explorations into the world of the video painting: the Open Gallery.
We hope you like it. After all, it is easier to spell!
Artscape founder speaks at Art Festival at Hay
Founding artist of the Artscape project, Hilary Lawson, has spoken at this years’ Art Festival at Hay alongside a host of artists including the prolific Gavin Turk, Jane Simpson and Eleanor Lindsay Fynn.
Over a beautifully crisp weekend in Hay, the Institute of Art and Ideas presented crunch. art in a new era - a weekend of symposiums, art exhibitions and vigorous discussions tackling how the art world will be affected by the current recession.
Covering the issues that have been plaguing the minds of many in the industry – from declining auction sales to cash-strapped galleries – Lawson engaged with other speakers including Anthony Haden Guest about how the art world hopes to re-evolve in order to survive the economic downturn. Much heated debate and an encouragingly positive symbiosis of ideas was born from the exchanges over the course of the festival.
Hilary Lawson - whose video paintings were part of the Out of Openness collection which debuted at the festival - addressed an audience of artists, critics and journalists at the Globe at Hay gallery space. Lawson tackled how the art industry will recover from the state of flux it currently finds itself in and spoke of a return to a more holistic pursuit of art.
Lawson highlighted that the bursting of the art market bubble would catalyse and reinvigorate the art scene which has, in recent years, been dominated by a focus on financial value. In agreement with the artist Adam Dant, Lawson spoke of a natural return to viewing art for its intrinsic value rather than a sensationalised monetary one.
Video highlights from the debates, including ‘Is this the End of the YBA era?’ and ‘Curating the Crunch’, are available here , where you can also read all the festival news.
Out of Openness collection debuts at the Art Festival at Hay
'Out of Openness', a capsule collection of 65 individual video paintings, has debuted at this years' Art Festival at Hay.
The collection depicts the chornology of the video painting from its inception in 2001, however the exhibition is freed from a strict sequence. If played in an order, 'Out of Openness' would last nine hours thirty four minutes. However, the collection embodies its title and could continue indefinitely, with multiple narratives.
Featuring work from artists associated with the Artscape Project - pioneers of the video painting - the exhibition includes works from Alex Bettler, Isabelle Inghilleri, Sanchita Islam, Hilary Lawson and Alys Williams.
The 'Out of Openness' collection previewed at the Art Festival at Hay this year alongside works from the ICA, Flowers and Whitechapel galleries. It will be shown in London this winter with information coming shortly.
View the 'Out of Openness' collection here To find out more about the Art Festival at Hay visit crunch
The Brighton Coast
It may not be the warmest time of year for a trip to Brighton, but if you do find yourself there, go to the Seattle Hotel at the Marina. The menu's good and the bar has a mixologist who can make cocktails that'll you'll need a spoon to finish. In addition to this, they have just completed a magnificent refurbishment, which includes a triple projected video installation along the entrance corridor, and a further collection of video works behind reception.
The specially commissioned series of video works in the entrance corridor by Mark Nelson hit you like a face full of salt water as you walk in, transforming the journey into an immersive experience of the immensely powerful boundary between land and sea. After emerging from the lift into the second floor reception, guests are welcomed by another series of specially commissioned video works whilst they check in. This collection is a more restrained and calmly paced exploration of a series of interactions between the natural and built world, giving a serene beauty to the destructive weathering processes which have shaped the remarkable coastline of Brighton and Hove. Isabelle Inghilleri contributed extensively to this collection, and those of you who have seen work from her collection 'Gone Tomorrow' which examines the Norwegian landscape melting in the spring will understand why the hotel were so keen for her to be involved in the commission. To see more of Isabelle's work, go to the Artists page.
Coutts Bank commission Video Paintings
For the last two years, Coutts bank on the Strand has been home to an impressive exhibition of artworks curated by art impresario Charles Saatchi. This exhibition drew to a close in October and Coutts tasked art consultants Full Circle to create a new exhibition of work that would be a worthy successor to Saatchi's. In response Full Circle has painstakingly assembled a superb exhibition entitled ‘Depth of Vision’. The exhibition comprises 34 works across a wide range of media, including a specially curated collection of video paintings by seven artists from the Open Gallery.
‘Unseen’ is a collection of 26 video paintings by Sarah Turner, Hilary Lawson, Alys Williams, Mark Nelson, Gabrielle le Bayon, Alexandre Bettler and Isabelle Inghilleri. Whilst wide-ranging in their subject matter, the works are strongly linked through their desire to draw the viewer into a closer examination of the intricate, marginal and often overlooked landscape of our visual encounters – the unseen.
If you would like to take a tour of the ‘Depth of Vision’ exhibition at Coutts or arrange for a private viewing of the ‘Unseen’ collection, please contact us.
Crowds in Tents: The Art Fairs
As the dust settles on Frieze in Regents Park and many other locations around London after the month of art fairs that is October, we have retreated weary, confused and happy back to the relative peace of the office to resume real work and have a think about what we saw. In short – a lot. But what really stood out for us was the arrival of the video painting. Increasing numbers of video artists from around the globe are beginning to work with and explore the medium pioneered by the Artscape Project in 2001: the video painting. [Video painting – shot with stationary camera, unedited, no evidence of traditional narrative structure]. Particular highlights were Eve Sussman's painstakingly choreographed Girls at the Pool, and Gerald Förster's beautifully subtle and simplistic work, Geisha. So, as the medium begins to revolutionise the possibilities of moving imagery, you can expect to see a lot more video painting. Just remember you saw and heard it here first.
Alys Williams exhibits at the ICA
Alys Williams, one of the Open Gallery’s newest signings, is showcasing some of her video work in a two-woman show at the ICA this month.
The exhibition, ‘My Place in Between’, is a multimedia installation, which juxtaposes Williams’ responses to her home city – London - with the work of Lebanese artist Nathalie Harb.
Following a three-week stint at the ICA the exhibition will move to Beirut, where the artists will develop their work further before unveiling it in a public exhibition in November.
Both artists will be discussing their work in a talk held at the ICA on 10th July.
For more information visit www.ica.org.uk
International Asset Management aquire Open Installation
The company has invested in two limited edition video art collections – Earth and Encounter – to transform the impressive triple-atrium space at the heart of its Clifford Street headquarters.
IAM’s CEO, Morten Spenner, approached the gallery back in February after seeing the installation at Sketch. "Since moving into the office 3 years ago we have been looking for something special to fill the blank wall in our atrium,” he said.
“When I saw Open’s mesmerizing exhibition at Sketch, just round the corner from our office, I immediately thought some of the video paintings could work for us. The gallery has curated a selection of their artists' work which is perfect for the office, making this installation an outstanding contemporary addition to our art collection, that has already been much admired by staff and clients."
Two 6500 lumen projectors have been blended to cast a 7.5 metre-wide image on a wall that can be seen from multiple floors in the building, compensating for a lack of external views in the otherwise windowless space.
This is Open’s third office installation, and showcases the suitability of the video paintings not just for architecturally unusual spaces, but for any environment where inspiration and calm is key.
Open Gallery goes Global
101 Video Paintings launch at The Globe at Hay
The Open Gallery has taken up residence at a brand new arts centre in Hay-on-Wye, to coincide with the opening of Britain’s best-known literary festival.
The Globe at Hay, which opened to the public on Friday, is home to the newly-founded Institute of Art and Ideas. It represents a unique exhibition, performance and social space, where new thoughts, ideas, and forms of expression can thrive. Located in a converted eighteenth-century chapel in a remarkable town on the Welsh border, The Globe endorses the Open Gallery ethos: using art to facilitate openness in traditionally closed spaces.
Three gallery spaces inside The Globe have been fitted with projection equipment to accommodate an ongoing series of video painting exhibitions from the Open Gallery, beginning with two collections comprising 101 distinctive video paintings.
‘Openness’, a collaborative sequence by Alex Bettler, Sanchita Islam, Tina Keane, Hilary Lawson and William Raban, is a dynamic installation, creating an infinite number of routes through 66 video paintings according to principles laid down by the artists. As a call to venture out from the closed confines of everyday spaces into a world of openness, it directly represents the revolutionary concept at the heart of the Open Gallery.
In contrast, Isabelle Inghilleri’s ‘Gone Tomorrow’ depicts Norwegian landscapes in transition from winter to spring, documenting the invigorating and sometimes violent processes of change evident in nature. The event marks only her second video exhibition in the UK.
101 Video Paintings will run at The Globe until 3rd July, and will be succeeded by a range of installations from the Open Gallery.
Open Gallery signs new talent
Open is proud to announce the signing of two talented young artists. Gabrielle Le Bayon and Alys Williams with their unique backgrounds aim to bring new perspectives to the established collective Open's artists.
Gabrielle was born in Paris and educated at the University of the Arts in London, where she studied Film. She has exhibited at a variety of international festivals and galleries including the Talent Circle Super Short Film Festival, London; The Projection Gallery, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool; Intermix06 Pavilion, Leeds; BBC Big Screens, Leeds; East End Film Festival, London and Athens Video Art Festival, Greece.
Speaking about her upcoming work with Open, Gabrielle elaborates on what areas of video art she plans to explore:
“Looking at the language of moving-images as a purveyor of contemporary myths, my interest lies in the multiple modes of representation of the real that our culture uses. Questioning the values and limits of the language of space and time within the expression and the communication of a situation, my work explores the way in which films use specific situations to develop and confront the visual and acoustical elements of any form of narrative.”
Alys is an emerging artist working in installation, live art and short film. She graduated from Camberwell College of Arts with a BA in Visual Arts and went on to study at Goldsmiths and then to gain a Masters in Scenography at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2004.
Alys has presented public Installations across Europe and her work has been included in various festivals and group exhibitions, including the Installation Portico (2006), an unprecedented collaboration with an Architect and Butoh Dancer, which was sponsored by The British School at Rome for the Romadesign+ International Expo. Her work has recently been included in the publication Shibboleth (2007), a catalogue documenting the group exhibition at Dilston Grove in London in 2006.
Working with Open represents an exciting new journey for Alys:
“Open is an opportunity for me to explore the richness of architecture, focusing on buildings that through habitation have a voice, which communicates history and memory, both real and imagined. Looking at temporary visual imprints such as light, shadow, nature and people, I will examine contrasts between solid and fluid, stillness and movement and surface and depth.”
These additions to the gallery’s group of artists come at a time when the Artscape Project is becoming increasingly involved with private collectors, public galleries and commercial installations. The gallery anticipates Alys’ and Gabrielle’s contributions to its existing collection of video art with great excitement.
'The subtle joy of a moving painting' - the AJ reviews 'Openness'
London, 6 December 2007
"Open Gallery is exhibiting in Sketch's gallery and restaurant space in London's Mayfair. 'Openness' features 360 degrees of silent video paintings by artists such as William Raban, Hilary Lawson, Sanchita Islam, Isabelle Inghilleri and Alex Bettler.
The works in 'Openness' balance stillness and movement; In Inghilleri's Thin Ice, a barely frozen lake ripples, then stills; in Lawson's Temporary Forest, a fire crackles as logs slowly burn and collapse. The films are streamed by an ingenious piece of specially designed software, which plays the works in a random order, loosely linked by themes and altered by the time of day.
The lack of narrative in the films is both disarming and meditative, just as Lawson, Philosopher and founding artist of the Artscape Project, intends. The video paintings are intentionally devoid of editing and the cameras never so much as shiver. Each shot runs for something between three and twenty minutes of real time.
The philosophy behind these works can be explained by the group's founder. Lawson is currently the vice-chair of the Forum for European Philosophy, and his philosophical theories on closure are closely linked to the exhibition's theme of 'Openness'.
In the clutter of Sketch, moments away from the Mayfair restaurant's infamous 'pod' bathrooms, it is difficult to appreciate the unfolding beauty of these video works and their window onto the natural world. If you can block out distractions, these paintings that move are well worth a long look and the subtle joy they inspire."
Christine Murray, Architects Journal
'Openness' at Sketch
6 Week Exhibition starting 29.10.2007
London, 29 October 2007
Open Gallery have been invited to exhibit at Sketch, London’s foremost space for Video Art.
From 29th October, for six weeks, Sketch shall be home to a large-scale installation of the collection 'Openness' which includes works by William Raban, Hilary Lawson, Sanchita Islam, Isabelle Inghilleri, and Alex Bettler.
The installation reveals the unique concept of the video painting of the artists of the Artscape Project: layered movement, abstract framing, an extraordinary aesthetic definition and the complete absence of linear narrative. Fundamentally novel, the work of the artists in this field was made possible by the unprecedented Laluna technology developed by the project, which stores the collections and determines the sequence of projection. Laluna selects the paintings thematically and taking into consideration the time of day and level of activity. Unlike traditional video art, the collections do not loop however long they play.
Distancing itself from film and video convention which has been dominated by the provision of meaning and understanding, the video painting brought by our artists aims to escape our cultural and perceptual closures, freeing the viewer to play in the openness of the visual image.
Art Hotel hosts sneak preview of new exhibition for Sketch
Bristol's first art hotel, the Berkeley Square will host a sneak preview of new artist collection for Sketch
This month’s Art at the Square event will allow visitors a first glimpse of the brand new material created by the Artscape Project for Open.
The 10th of October marks the third in a series of highly successful evenings of visual art at the fashionable boutique hotel in Clifton. In the avant-garde lounge Open’s ‘video painting’ forms a dramatic focal point to the space. Multi media artist Sanchita Islam, who is behind some of the new collection, has already contributed to the unique experience to art lovers offered by the hotel with one of her highly evocative original paintings in every bedroom.
The new collections have been put together for a six-week exhibition at London’s foremost space for video art, Sketch, which is being launched later this month.
For more information please call Miranda Johnston on 020 7837 3000 or email miranda.johnston@galleryopen.co.uk
Artscape Project exhibits at the Hayward
Following an invitation from the Hayward, the artists of the Artscape Project put together an exhibition of video paintings to show in the world-renowned gallery.
The exhibition ran in conjunction with a debate which presented the visions of those who see a positive future in the combination of art and architecture. Radical new urban landscapes were proposed which seek to avoid the alienation and isolation of contemporary living.
The Artscape Project explores the idea of openness in a ‘closed’ urban world. Grand scale projections of natural imagery transformed the iconically urban concrete walls of the Hayward into simmering naturalistic expanses. The installations demonstrated the unique power of the video painting: filmed with a stationary camera in real time, with no subsequent editing, the video paintings bring the openness and movement of the natural world into the closed urban spaces we inhabit.
Zaha Hadid and Bill Dunster propose radically different architectural solutions: one aesthetic and organic, the other ecological. Tomas Saraceno dreams of a future of airbourne cities amongst the clouds.
The sell-out debate at 7pm saw the exhibitors explain their visions.
Chaired by Jay Merrick, architecture critic of The Independent, radical - and radically different – ideas for the future city were expounded.
Dunster demonstrated his commitment to an architectural agenda defined by ecological concerns, exploring how a ‘new urgency in our symbiotic relationship with the natural world is producing new technical solutions, new cultural priorities, and possibly a new aesthetic.’ With his airbourne city vision Saraceno explored his desire to create an aerogel realm in the clouds - the ‘first international city’ with the power to ‘challenge today’s political, social, cultural and military restrictions.’ Philosopher and founding artist of the Artscape Project, Lawson, explored the philosophy of openness – how bringing the openness of nature into cities can transform architectural spaces and redefine our urban experiences and existences. Through his video works he demonstrates how we ‘can use technology to bring the movement of nature into the city… to change the space we inhabit and make it more emotionally satisfying.’
Zaha Hadid was unfortunately unable to attend the evening’s debate.
A huge thank you to the exhibitors and speakers: Bill Dunster, Tomas Saraceno, Hilary Lawson, Jay Merrick and Zaha Hadid.
If you are interested in hearing more about the event please get in touch with Klina Jordan on 020 7837 3000 or email klina@galleryopen.co.uk
Guardian article: http://environment.guardian.co.uk
Open Gallery at Tea, London
A new installation was unveiled this week at London’s T Bar, in Shoreditch.
The installation will showcase a selection of the Artscape Project’s naturalistic video paintings by day, and a new series of urban works by night.
A private view will be taking place on Tuesday 7th November from 6.30pm - 8.30pm.
Three new installations will be displayed at the event, and there will be an opportunity to meet the artists and hear more about the project.
If you would like to attend the event, or for more information about the project, please email Imogen Mathers on imogen.mathers@galleryopen.co.uk or call 020 7837 3000.
www.tbarlondon.com
The Artscape Project live on air
Tune in to Resonance 104.4 FM on Thursday night to hear Artscape Project artist Sanchita Islam and Open Gallery Director Klina Jordan spinning some tunes and discussing the future of video art.
In the weekly Resonance show, ‘London Diaspora Live’, some of London’s finest artists discuss their work and the capital’s rich plethora of artistic expression.
This week Islam will be hosting the show. With reference to some key international video artists, Islam and Jordan will discuss how the Artscape Project’s unique aesthetics and concept set it apart from the current context of contemporary video art, while fundamentally transforming the medium.
Between getting down and arty, the pair will go back-to-back on the decks, playing some eclectic tunes from across the world.
Resonance FM is London’s first radio art station, bringing the diversity of London’s art scenes to the airwaves.
www.resonancefm.com
Debate at ICA
Debate at ICA
Thank you to everyone who came to the The Artscape Project's Debate 2006 at the ICA, "Future Cities: Nature vs. Technology" - the event was a complete sell-out!
Of course special thanks go to the inspirational speakers; Sir Terry Farrell, Julia Barfield, James Heartfield and Hilary Lawson, the film crew who captured the event for the BBC, and the journalists from the Evening Standard, Architects Journal, Building Design, Hospitality Interiors and the Landscape Institute Magazine.
Thank you also to everyone who gave us such positive feedback on the speaker presentations, the debate and video works which provided a backdrop to the event and a focus for discussion.
For anyone who was unable to attend (or was turned away at the door when tickets ran out - apologies!), please contact us if you would like a free DVD of the event.