This talk provides the chance to hear the curator of ‘Kaiki’, Saim Demircan, discuss the exhibition and expand upon the recent chronology of Kai Althoff’s diverse projects.

For exhibition images and video with Saim Demircan, see a November blog post about the project on IDEA13.

This event is free, however booking is required.

For further informationand to book tickets, please contact Lib Fox on +44 (0)1702 534 108 / libfox@southend.gov.uk

Venue: The Pod, South Essex College, Luker Road, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 1ND, UK

Don’t miss tomorrow’s ‘Painting and Performance’, a presentation by Catherine Wood.

It starts at 10.00am at The Pod.

Catherine Wood, Curator of Contemporary Art / Performance at Tate Modern, will discuss the relationship between painting and performance since the 1950s, the collaborative elements of contemporary art practice and artist Kai Althoff’s work.

The Kai Althoff is an artist currently showing at Focal Point Gallery – for photos and video from the exhibition, see our previous post here.

The Pod / South Essex College, Luker Road, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 1ND, UK

Well, the artist, Kai Althoff, does exists, and is alive and well, having premiered his theatre piece at the Palace Theatre two weeks ago. The experimental theatre piece was what the Focal Point originally commissioned the New York-based artist to do as one of their Offsite Projects. But when they asked him to accompany the piece with a solo exhibition at the gallery, he invited them to curate it without any involvement or advice from him, apart from few tips about whereabouts of the previous works.

Saim Demircan, the Focal Point curator, visited Althoff’s father and also a large collection of the artist’s works – over 60 pieces – acquired over the years by a German collector Alexander Schröder, selecting the works mostly from these two souces. Some have only ever been shown privately and range from works Althoff made when he was a teenager, to a limited edition pair of custom-made shoes finished by the artist’s blood and produced by Paragon Press.

The exhibition can be seen as a ‘weird retrospective’, says Demircan. But a retrospective that also introduces the artist to the UK audience that might not be familiar with his work, as Althoff hasn’t shown in the UK since 1997 and this is his first ever UK exhibition in a public gallery.

Saim Demircan showed Idea13 around the exhibition:

Curator’s talk by Saim Demircan will take place on 25 January 2012 at 12pm.

Focal Point Gallery, Southend Central Library, Southend on Sea, Victoria Avenue, SS2 6EX, WEBSITE

@ Dixon Studio, The Palace Theatre, Southend-on-Sea
Thursday 3rd November at 1.30pm
Friday 4th November at 7.30pm
Saturday 5th November at 7.30pm

The play will contain a cast including Yedidya Oelbaum, Yair Oelbaum, Jessica Polaniecki, Kai Althoff and Daniel Cowen who will perform a short run of three events within the theatre’s regular program. There we will be buried is a drama about a woman, who together with her closest friend, sets out on a surreal and character-defining journey to find her lost daughter.

Tickets: £8.00
Concessions: £6.00

For further information and to book tickets, contact Lib Fox on 01702 534 108 or libfox AT southend.gov.uk

‘The Year of the Left Hand’ in the project gallery is a play on the Alastair Crowley’s concept of ‘the left hand path’ as a method for practical magic, whilst ‘Folkal Point’, in the main gallery, consists of a series of back-painted Perspex paintings of face jugs inspired by artefacts found near London Wall, two large metal wells, a video of lava lamps and several wall collage drawings.

More information on Focal Point website.

Aaron Angell:

The Year of the Left Hand’ / ‘Folkal Point’ includes a range of new material from the young artist’s burgeoning practice, such as wall collages, video, sculpture, ceramics and painting – all made especially for Southend.

The title of the first series of work, ‘The Year of the Left Hand’, refers to the artist’s joy at producing a deliberately skewed hand-crafted works, or objects formed through unexpected textural amalgamations, which contain a pleasurably incorrect form of beauty. Additionally, the title links to Alastair Crowley’s idea of following ‘the left hand path’ as a method for practical magic.

The starting point for Angell’s second new series of work, ‘Folkal Point’, connects the artist’s interest in obscure folk music, rural and craft-based activities, ecological concerns and the marginal or radical-regional context of the gallery within which his work is situated. Here, ceramic braids, terracotta coins, back-painted Perspex paintings of face jugs, coins and mushrooms, together with four large wall drawings made with torn paper, two large black metal wells and a video of lava lamps, combine in the gallery to form a rumination on utopian activities from the past and present.

One could say that these two installations and Angell’s current work in general is influenced by a diverse set of cultural reference points from the early 1970s; aside from the aforementioned British folk scene, two popular films from 1974 act as examples. Contes immoraux (Immoral Tales) directed by Walerian Borowczyk starring Paloma Picasso, which in Angell’s view is the ‘ultimate 70s erotic medieval movie,’ andZardoz, the famous science fiction fantasy directed by John Boorman starring Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling, both form a link to the artist’s current way of thinking.

For more information see Focal Point Gallery’s WEBSITE.

Focal Point, Southend Central Library, Victoria Ave, Southend

Outrageous Fortune’ is a new Hayward Touring exhibition, curated by Andrew Hunt, director of Focal Point Gallery.

Tarot playing cards originated in Italy in the 15th century. Used in most of Europe to play games, in the English-speaking world the tarot is generally associated with divination and fortune telling. A rich source of imagery, it includes such archetypes as The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Lovers, The Wheel of Fortune, and The Hanged Man. For this project, seventy-eight artists, whose work encompasses a variety of formal, conceptual, expressionist, literary or design-based approaches, have been asked to create a card for a contemporary tarot pack.

Each artist has been drawn a card randomly, and invited to reinterpret in their own way.

Next Friday, 2 September, ‘Outrageous Fortune’ Tarot Deck / Slimvolume Poster Publication 2008 to 2011 will be launched at The Dan Graham Waterloo Sunset Pavilion, Hayward Gallery from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

FOCAL POINT GALLERY / Southend Central Library, Victoria Avenue

WEBSITE

Saturdays 10.30am to 12.30pm:

Aaron Angell: 17 September, 24 September, 1 October, 8 October, 15 October 2011.

Kai Althoff: 12 November, 19 November, 26 November, 3 December, 10 December 2011.

Cost: £7 per session, or £28 for five sessions. Advantage card holders:  £5 per session or £20 for five sessions.

More information – see Focal Point WEBSITE.

Workshops for children dates: 8-12y - 2 August to 4 August 2011, 9.30am to 12.30pm

Workshops for young people – 12+y - 2 August to 4 August 2011, 1.30pm to 4.30pm

This project will provide children with the opportunity to make their own work, using ideas developed in the exhibition ‘Outrageous Fortune’ as the starting point. Both sessions will combine digital and analogue technology as well as pinhole cameras to scan, develop and print images.
Cost: £25 for the full three-day course. Advantage card holders: £20 for the full three-day course.

For further information or to book, please contact Sharon Byrne on 01702 534109 / sharonbyrne AT southend.gov.uk

EVENT:
Artists’ Publications in Practice
SATURDAY 11 JUNE – 10.30am -2.30pm
£15 / £10 Concessions – Places are limited and booking is essential.
This half-day workshop will focus on the production of artists’ books and the myriad ways that artists organise printed activities and projects. It will examine the practicalities of printed matter and create a context for the distribution and release of publications.

The workshop will be led by Arnaud Desjardin, whose exhibition ‘Please do not place drinks on vitrines or books’ is on show until 11 June. Desjardin will introduce his own experience of publishing and distribution, as well as his varied collection of artists’ printed material. As well as providing practical examples, Desjardin will discuss how artists’ networks have informed the nature of the printed material in the exhibition.

EXHIBITION
Orbitecture II: Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent is curated by Cedar Lewisohn and Focal Point Gallery.

Watch the IDEA13 video of the curator’s tour around the exhibition:

Focal Point Gallery / Southend Central Library, Victoria Avenue
WEBSITE