Art Weekly Digest: London 11 - 17 September, 2017

Every week The Art Partners post a carefully curated selection of cultural events to see in London.

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Opening Of The Week

Fickle Food Upon A Shifting Plate

Tyra Tingleff, Philosophy is probably homesickness, 2016 Image courtesy of the artist and the gallery

This group exhibition of 10 artists (Daniel Gordon, Emma Hart, Tyra Tingleff - to name just a few) examines the parallel between art and food as creations to be consumed and questions the similarities between looking and tasting, understanding and chewing, investing and digesting. Its title was inspired by the 1702 Emily Dickinson’ poem ‘Fame is a Fickle Food’, which imitates the caprice of artistic success within the language of feast and famine. The weight of food as a subject through art history inevitably echoes behind the show’s central concept. Each artwork brings its own set of historical references and material tensions - from Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s fruit faces to Salvador Dali’s lobster telephone.

The exhibition will be on view until 12 October 2017 at STUDIO LEIGH, 6-8 Garden Walk, EC2A 3EQ

Hymn For The Weekend

London Design Festival

Reflection Room by Flynn Talbot, Image courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum

In its fifteenth year, the London Design Festival will be returning to venues and institutions across the city between the 16-24 September 2017. A major feature of the Festival each year is the ambitious programme of Landmark Projects that have been installed across London since 2007; from Greenwich Peninsula to Trafalgar Square. This year it will be a metalwork sculpture by artist blacksmith Bex Simon, spanning the entire frontage of Westminster Magistrates.

The Design Museum presents an exciting project ‘Set in Stone’ - a selection of works by eight designers invited to explore the potential of marble and limestone. And of course don’t miss Reflection Room, by designer Flynn Talbot, - an immersive coloured light experience that will be the first London Design Festival installation to be housed in the Prince Consort Gallery, at the V&A Museum.

In Focus

Skinscapes

Camilla Emson, Mapping: shifting combination of a nature that tells its own stories, 2017

Skinscapes is a group exhibition by nine artists addressing a variety of current topics such as identity, architecture, technology and sexuality. In the time of the digital age, it’s important to move the attention back to our bodies and to interpret the role of the skin and its relationship with the external world. Curated by Tatiana Cheneviere & Giulia Vandelli, it’s an opportunity to see works by Camilla Emson, Romana Londi, Adeline de Monseignat and Pablo de Laborde Lascaris and Alix Marie amongst others.

The show runs until 22 September 2017 at the Unit One Gallery, 1 Bard Road, London W10 6TP

Time To Book

Tunguska Event

Renowned Russian artist Vadim Zakharov presents two evenings of exhilarating and subversive performance. A ballerina, a dog, a love duo, an accordionist and several garbage collectors feature among the characters. Taking inspiration from a wide range of cultural sources, from the book Incomplete & Utter History of Classical Music by Stephen Fry, Igor Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka (1911) to Marcel Duchamp’s Bottle Rack (1914), Zakharov conceives a humorous journey through time and history, old and new, tradition and contemporaneity. The performance marks 100 years since the Russian Revolution and highlights key moments in Russian music and culture. ‘I also wanted to create a cultural explosion linked to a real-life event: the fall of the Tunguska Meteorite which occurred in Siberia 100 years ago. It is the symbol of global irreversible changes in the consciousness of humankind.’

The performances will be happening on Thursday 21 & Friday 22 Sep 2017, at 8pm at Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX

Last Chance To See

Dreamers Awake

Julie Curtiss, Venus, 2016, Image courtesy of the artist and the gallery

Woman has a powerful presence in Surrealism. She is the object of masculine desire and fantasy; a mystery or threat. This exhibition explores the enduring influence of Surrealism through the work of more than fifty women artists and brings together sculpture, painting, collage, photography and drawing from the 1930s to the present day. Works by Louise Bourgeois, Rosemarie Trockel, Kiki Smith, Paloma Varga Weisz, Mona Hatoum, Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas, among others, testify to the far-reaching influence of Surrealism through the intervening decades.

The exhibition will be on view until 17 September 2017 at White Cube Bermondsey, 144 – 152 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3TQ