TURNER PRIZE 2010

Last week [DoR] took the yearly pilgrimage to Tate Britain to have a little look at the Turner Prize. There has been some quite skeptical reviews of this years prize, namely Dexter Dalwood, whose paintings have been heavily criticized.

Dexter Dalwood's large, flat imaginary landscapes and interiors exist to evoke narrative of famous figures or celebrity. Rather than using figurative painting Dalwood references politics, art history and popular culture, using collage and block colour to translate his idea of character.

The Otolith Group, a london based collaborative project founded by Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Saga, create film works questioning historic and cultural documentation using found material. You are able to take the space in which The Otolith Group presents as an installation in itself, the room is filled with monitors, reading material, a conference table and screens a large scale film, Otolith III.

The Scottish artist Susan Philipsz, uses her own recorded voice to explore notions of space and environment. For the prize Philipsz recorded different found versions of a Scottish folk song which are projected together in one space. The sound installation is haunting and evocative but it left me feeling bored and thinking it did not belong alongside the other nominees.

Angela de la Cruz was nominated for the Turner Prize after the success of her solo show at the Camden Arts Centre. The spanish artist creates bold monochrome canvases only to attack them, ripping, sawing and crushing her stretchers to produce a hybrid of painting and sculpture. Her work is the perfect example of humorous work, at the same time exploring colour, surface and form, the crucial elements that make good art.

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/turnerprize2010/default.shtm

ROBERT PRIDEAUX

Robert Prideaux came to visit us!!

Robert is an artist and a friend. This is what he says:

"I make performances that revolve around my relationship to a video camera. They exisit either as live events or as recorded videos.

I construct mechanical contraptions, using found objects such as a bike wheel, lengths of wood, or a spade, upon which I attach a video camera. I then carry, push, throw, spin, or fly these objects around landscapes, allowing the camera to capture me using or struggling with them. The contraptions often restrict or challenge my movement, whilst allowing the camera to create a new energy on screen in the way that it captures me.

I use the camera as a tool to trigger a performance and to record it. This feedback is used to explore my relation to a moving-image-screen – whether I'm trying to remain in shot, escape from it, or investigate the edge of the frame.

Through my interest in cinematic theories of broken immersion, and by acknowledging the camera's presence, I try to find and push the limits of my relation to the unreal but highly believable world inside a moving-image-screen."

Everyday Rob will be uploading a different photo onto his tumblr site- and this is the one that he took on Wednesday:

See the rest here: http://robert-prideaux.tumblr.com/

And his website here: http://www.robertprideaux.net/

Robert also gave me a picture from an exhibition that I did in Bath in the beginning of 2009, called The Letter After The First Letter- a durational drawing which took place over a week.

www.amberablett.com

TAGO MAGO: ARTIST OF THE DAY: REBECCA NOY

If you are like us and have looked at animations and videos and wondered how on earth they were made...........Rebecca will show you!

Rebecca Noy will be making a live animation through out the duration of the evening, piecing together different clips, adding affects and answering any editing questions you may have.

Find out more about her work and practice here:

TAGO MAGO: ARTIST OF THE DAY: THE TYPEWRITERS AND INES VON BONHORST

The Typewriters are a group of performers lead by Robera Vaz- they're performance will parade around the whole of the venue- so look out!

http://www.thetypewriters.co.uk/

Ines Von Bonhorst is a video maker, editer, producer and director. Projected over the bands will be a piece of her work made with a performer over the duration of an hour. Her bright visuals over the performers subtle movements and actions will look fantastic on top of the bands.

http://www.inesbonhorst.com/

TAGO MAGO: ARTIST OF THE DAY: STEPHANY POLLARD

All round talented artist, illustrator, prop maker and naked extra in Chiddy's (he's a rapper) video Stephany Pollard will be painting a wall through out the evening of TAGO MAGO with on her fantastic designs. The title will be Ghetto Blaster Warrior- expect colours, pattern and some strange creatures.

http://stephanypatriciapollard.blogspot.com/

TAGO MAGO: ARTIST OF THE DAY: RUAIDHRI RYAN

Should have kept this up to date a while ago but here is the work by Ruaidhri Ryan:

Roger That

A play on words and a playful piece of work. Perfect for exhibiting in a music venue- when people are drinking, socialising and drinking- we thought that Roger That would be a piece of work that would catch people unawares- is it art? is it a game? It questions our notion of what art can be- both aesthetically appealing and interactive, it is unashamedly kitsch and yet displayed in the toilets of a trendy London club still successfully comments on our desires to interact with the opposite sex i our busy lives.

www.ruaidhriryan.com

TAGO MAGO: ARTIST OF THE DAY: ALASTAIR LEVY

Alastair Levy graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Photography. His practice is not typically photographic but studying photography allowed Alastair to realize and recognize important transferable aspects to making successful work including function, structure and concept.

Alastair Levy’s work humorously explores the overlooked or unnoticed mundane objects that surround us everyday. By making subtly alterations to these found items Alastair transforms the everyday and the over familiar into the relevant and regarded.

Gestural process and action play a continuing role in Alastair’s work and [Details on Request] are excited and fortunate to be showing his work for the first time at TAGO MAGO. multi-dri (sounds of awe and wonder) will be installed in the female toilets, sorry boy, and will require a performative participatory role for the viewer to engage in.

TAGO MAGO: ARTIST OF THE DAY: LAURA KENNEDY

[Details on Request] have previously showed Laura Kennedy's Book of Not Knowing as part of Loot & Everything Else but are very excited to be able to see a piece of her work in such an unusual setting.

The Book of Not Knowing was made up of hand stamped soaps, each one with an anxiety on them. At TAGO MAGO the audience will not simply be asked to observe the work, but to wash their hands with them- taking part in the ritual act of washing away an worry or stress.

The work, titled Volume II, in response to the original work, will be found in the Ladies and Gents at the Queen of Hoxton.

Laura is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores everyday challenges, anxieties and potentials through process-based and labour-intensive works. Rather than being simply illustrative of a notion or an idea, Laura’s work aims to act as a platform for thought to provoke personal reflection.

POSTER FOR TAGO MAGO

GREAT DESIGN!!!!

FIND OUT MORE AT WWW.TAGO-MAGO.CO.UK