Art & Culture: The Unilever Series: Miroslaw Balka @ Tate Modern

Walking down the Turbine Hall of the Tate to be hit with this large steel sculpture initially gave me a sense of excitement and wonder. The Turbine Hall on its own holds a sense of awe but this piece adds a sense of greater expectation from the space altogether. At a glance the structure is seemingly generic in its surroundings as it wouldn't appear to be out of place in this type of setting. Upon further inspection, walking round the structure one is faced with a huge empty void that if the viewer hadn't seen its dimensions, appears to be endless.

Stepping into the darkness only guided by your feet, one is faced with an array of emotion. I was initially struck by fear, the space is pitch black with no sensory accompaniment other than the the fear of not knowing what lies ahead. After putting ones trust in the establishment, creeping on, comes a sense of relief and critique. Exploring the space with ones emotions and feet I found myself asking where do I fit into this space? Is this a lesson or task?

The whole experience did have a regimented feel. The metal felt industrial, holding a sense of purpose. There where guards (although they were invigilating the piece) monitoring your entrance in to the void. It felt as if in the event of one wanting to escape from the ramp which led to this dark space, the guards would be there to stop this action. After walking into the space I began to feel like I was being herded into a chamber at a concentration camp, the sense of unknowing and fear suddenly fell into place.

When I had made it to the back wall I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. My journey into the darkness had ended. I turned around and suddenly everything became clear. The space itself became smaller as one could now see the corners and the floor, I could now see other people undertaking their own experience of the space. Fear melted away and I felt I was left with a sense of understanding? Knowledge? That... I am not quite sure of yet.

This piece is a great tribute to fear and sensory disarray.

The Unilever Series can be seen at Tate Modern London until April 5th 2010.

Neil Batho

Art & Culture: The Sony World Photography Awards 2009/10 Global Tour

20^th – 29^th January, ART WORK SPACE, London

One of the largest photographic events, The Sony World Photography Awards, will be showcasing its winners and finalists in the 2009/10 Global Tour at ART WORK SPACE gallery London.  The event is a celebration of the still image and plays tribute to professional, amateur photographers and fine artists from all over the world.

The winning photographs have been chosen from over 60,000 images submitted from 139 countries and cover an array of categories including Current Affairs, Sport, Contemporary Issues, Arts, Advertising and Fashion. The tour itself is the main component off the prize as it gives these stunning, beautiful and thought provoking images a world stage with audiences from the most influential in the photography industry to the bystanders of the exhibitions hosted in New York, Mexico, Toronto, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Paris and Berlin.

This year the London Exhibition will be acquitted at the new independent gallery ART WORK SPACE. The gallery is an ideal fitting for the Global Tour, as the goal set by its creator Naomi Murtagh is to create a space in which to display works by emerging artist in all the various disciplines of Fine Art.

The Global Tour is a monumental occasion in the London and World Art Scene. This year we are truly blessed by the pieces submitted from the applicants as we are given the opportunity to see the influences and experiences from people all over the world, which will in turn inspire the next generation of up and coming artists and photographers.

Neil Batho

Art & Culture: The Design Museum’s 50 Dresses and Shoes Which Changed the World

I have to admit that when I received these books I was a little skeptical about any shoe or dress that could change the World...and yet I have had to retract my thinking on this subject after reading both of the books on this title and learning quite a few facts of which I wasn't previously aware of...

Fifty Dresses that Changed the World and Fifty Shoes that Changed the World offers a political and social walk through history, to witness how fashion has adapted and changed over time. It's amazing to take a glimpse through the different era's to witness what was infiltrating the collective consciousness during specific points of time.

These two books are brilliant, quick and compact reference guides for students or indeed anyone interested in fashion history, to absorb key information about cultural trends and look at both women's (and men's) attitudes to their bodies across each generation. And how these ideas keep consistently developing and repeating over time.

With snippets of the clothing and shoes featured in beautiful prints, most of the clothing is still very relevant even today...I can't wait to see where fashion takes us next. You can Buy them find out more and buy these titles here.

Art & Culture: Tatsuo Miyajima Exhibition

The Lisson Gallery’s new Tatsuo Miyajima exhibition will run from 25 November 2009 to the 16 January 2010. Since 1987, Tatsuo Miyajima has been constructing installations using LED digital counting devices. His works combine a performative aspect with architectonic structures, sometimes taking the shape of geometric patterns or organic shapes as well as encompassing vertical and horizontal surfaces. See the show here.

Art & Culture: Into The Deep

An exclusive collection of behind-the-scenes, underwater photographs taken at Pinewood Studios will be showcased at The Movieum of London, County Hall on London’s Southbank during October 2009.

Entitled ‘Water on the Lens’, the exhibition comprises images of underwater shoots for film, TV, commercials and pop videos, celebrating the heart of Britain’s creativity with breathtaking art. Keira Knightley, Jared Leto, Sharon Stone, Matt Lucas and James Blunt are amongst those captured performing underwater, alongside sets from Casino Royale, Da Vinci Code, Eastenders, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Dr. Who

Art & Culture: Coffee Goddesses

These wild images have been created for Lavazza, and I wanted to post them up here for you to admire their creativity, and what you can do with a great, original and individual team. The company worked with artist Miles Aldridge to create these dramatic and hyper-realistic photo's for Lavazza's calender.

Here's what he had to say about the project: “I didn’t just want six ravishing beauties. I wanted six women that were larger than life in their different ways,” Aldridge explains. He continues, “I like Lavazza’s idea of asking an international artist rather than an Italian to talk about Italianess. It gives us another outlook, another viewpoint, another perspective we might not have considered. I like the concept of Italy being “filtered”, rather like coffee: it’s a nice image.”

Art & Culture: ‘Creatures’ debuts at Londonewcastle Project Space

Maurice magazine and Londonewcastle have teamed up to present the first exhibition based on the ethos of Maurice. The work of children will be presented alongside the work of artists in a thought-provoking exhibition organised around the theme of the forthcoming issue of Maurice: Creatures. The exhibition will run from Saturday 17th October – 1st November

Artists to be featured in the exhibition include Tessa Farmer, Sam Griffin, John Jobson and Larry Elliott, whilst Ricky Gervais will showcase his intriguing ‘Franimal’ creations.

The much loved Quentin Blake has also contributed two illustrations, both taken from his recent book collaboration with David Walliams, ‘The Boy in The Dress’.

The exhibition will be supplemented by a series of independently curated and performed side events, including interactive sessions for children led by professional artists, including Eleanor Brown and Brian Catling.‘Creatures’ debuts at Londonewcastle Project Space