Rivane Neuenschwander @ Stephen Friedman
The natural world is at the heart of Neuenschwanders practise and this is evident in the new works presented in this show. She investigates the hidden and obvious aspects of the places she inhabits using sculpture, large-scale installation, film and video.
Continent-Cloud (2007) is the piece using the entire back gallery. Replacing the ceiling and installing millions of small metal balls forms an ever-changing environment. The gentle movements of a cloudscape are played out on the ceiling, but a cycle of solid forms - islands and continents are also apparent.
Rain Maps (2008) is a series of 14 maps exposed to rainfall in Brazil. The weather leaves a unique mark on the paper, changing and blurring the inks, removing boundaries and disintergrating the paper all together. An orderly grid is put on by Neuenschwander, organising it the destroyed image. This reminded me of the work at the Thai Pavillion in Venice, by Nipan Oranniwesna.
Roni Horn @ Hauser & Wirth
Presenting the culmination of Horn's photographic series of taxidermied Icelandic wildfowl, this show was stunning. In the Colnaghi offices of Hauser and Wirth, the photographs enhance the grand surroundings and excite the viewer into wanting more.
The images of birds, photographed at close range (like in conventional studio portraiture) are taken from behind - their markings becoming the focus of the images, resulting in beautiful stripes, spots and patterns emitting from the frames. Having the images in pairs, they begin to highlight eachothers differences and similarities. This gesture of doubling, as an aesthetic and conceptual strategy is something that the artist has been doing since 1980; "it invites scrutiny from the viewer, altering the dynamic of the work. You have the necessary inclusion of circumstance"
Mario Garcia Torres @ White Cube Hoxton Square
Known for his playful take on contemporary art, in this show Garcia Torres has rethought contemporary art history to create what has been called an "aesthetics of information".
My Westphalia Days is a short film based on a few days in the history of an icon of contemporary sculpture. At last year's Sculpture Project Muenster, the commonplace caravan that Michael Asher presented and has presented every year since the show came about in 1977 went missing for four days. It was eventually found at the edge of a forest in the outskirts of the city. The film is a proposal for these missing days, and the result is an open-ended, road moving that follows the path of the caravan as it is pulled through various streets, autobahns and country roads.
Having seen this particular artwork at Muenster last year this piece was particularly meaningful for me, as it reminded me of the time I spent there. It was shot on 16mm film allowing for a dated quality which was successful to bring the story to life too.
Epic @ Auto-Italia
In an old car showrooms and garage, "Epic" brought about over 50 artists to showcase their work in the incredible location. For the first show at this new space, all the artists participating contributed in the previous incarnation of "Auto-Italia". The show was vast, and seemed to be a hive of activity, art seeped from every inch of the place! The title - Epic seemed to refer to the quantity of artists, rather than the quality in some aspects, less can be more in some cases. If you're after a wow factor, this show certainly had it.
