V&A Fashion V Sport

www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/future_exhibs/fashion_sport/index.html

Cildo Meireles

www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/cildomeireles/explore.shtm

Red Shift 1967-84, 3 part installation

Brazilian conceptual artist Cildo miereles has made some of the most politically telling,aesthetically seductive and philosophically intriguing works of the last for decades.

"A work by Miereles often starts in a commonplace, usually domestic object, or a childhood memory, which becomes transmuted into a perceptual, philosophical, even a cosmological speculation, without, however, losing its grit, its roots in social reality - a reality often harsh but marked by human resilience and inventiveness." (Guy Brett, co-curator 2008).

What really intrigues me with his work is that it's interactive. You walk through it, around it, underneath it and in it. It's part of an indescribable feeling of excitement and feeling so involved with it. Miereles says " For me the art object must be, despite everything else, instantly seductive."  I found that the wide range of materials and media was so vast, from plastic, glass, metal and fabric and so much more.

My favorite installation was room 4, Red Shift. Miereles takes us into a disorientating all-red world. the first part is 'Impregnation', a domestic setting where every item and object is red, from the telephone to the items in the fridge. The initial concept was to imagine a place in which someone would accumulate the greatest number of objects in different shades of red.

Second part was titled 'Entorno' meaning spill and environment. A bottle appears to have spilled a red liquid which looks so real i wasn't sure if i could step on it. The spill is so large you wouldn't expect to see out of such a small bottle which lead to the third part 'Shift'. In a pitch black room a small slanted sink with a tap dripping red liquid is all you can see. It was a very weird experience being in these rooms, so surreal and almost a slight terror ran through me as i walked into each part.

I have never felt like this in any exhibition i've been to all my life, the work is so unique and intriguing. I absolutely enjoyed every moment of this exhibition that i went twice, even that was not enough. 

Sir John Soane's Museum

This museum is one of my favorite places, it's like a secret house with the biggest collection of antiquities. This is the house of England's greatest Architect. After his death in 1837 his house was turned into a museum and was kept in it's shape and form ever since. No changes have ever been made. 

Walking into the house made me feel like i was walking back in time looking at historical objects from all around the world. The display is very different than any other museum i have been to. It looks just like an over cluttered house. It does feel very magical and enchanting when you walk around the house and into the rooms. the objects are displayed a any person would display ornaments around their own living space. Most people have a cabinet of curiosities full of wonderful and weird items collected from different places and i feel like the museum is a huge cabinet of curiosities.

www.soane.org

Roger Hiorns - Seizure

The title 'Seizure' is what caught me at first, as i went to the location i knew i was going to be amazed. It's a feeling that the title prepares you for. My excitement built up as i put on the wellington boots and waiting in the queue to enter. My first impressions on entering the flat was pure amazement. I was just astonished at the scale of the work, I just didn't expect it. I thought it was beautiful, the cobalt blue colour was just captivating. It did feel very surreal being in the flat, it was quite sad as well knowing it was going to be eventually demolished.

The flat, located at Elephant & Castle is part of an uninhabited council block awaiting demolition. Roger Hiorns was commissioned to produce this work. The crystals are formed of copper sulphate. The flat is very small and with very low lighting it feels even smaller giving a feeling of claustrophobia and tightness. The shine of the crystals and the dampness of the floors makes it feel like an underground cave. This was a very unforgettable visit. very unusual and unique.

www.artangel.org.uk/pages/present/present0808_seizure.htm

Francis Bacon - Tate Britain

Francis Bacon is internationally accredited as among the most influential painters of the 20^th century. personally I was really repulsed by his work that i saw in the Tate. I found it aggressive and it made me feel very uncomfortable. He is an Atheist expressing the feeling of living in world without God or Afterlife. As a Muslim i can not relate to any of his works as unlike him i do believe in God and the Afterlife.

Brixton Rough Guide

Being assigned to the Brixton area for this rough guide task was a bit of a disappointment at first. I had never actually visited Brixton before but i had heard a lot of negative things about it, mostly the high rate of crime in the area. So I went into this project with negative pre conceptions, this affected my enthusiasm towards the project at first but I learnt to challenge

these ideas and as it turns out i feel like i have learnt so much about Brixton in a very short time.

I took many photographs while out on the task, mainly around Brixton Market, Electric Lane, Electric Avenue and Atlantic Road. These places are the heart of Brixton. There is a wide variety of shops including butchers, clothes and fabric stalls, Fruit 'N' Veg stalls, International

foods supermarkets etc.

I went into an Asian and Afro Caribbean food supermarket, it's owned by a very nice old man called Ali. 

He told me he had owned that shop for over 30 years selling food, his customers are from many different countries and most of them he knows personally as they had been buying from him for many years. 

He said he was very happy in Brixton, it had become his home. He was very kind to let me take as many photos as i wanted to in his shop.

Brixton contains so much history, from the destruction of it from World War I and World War II, to the Windrush Generation  in 1948 to the Riots in 1981 and 1985 and the Brixton Bombing in 1999 and much more....

Below is the link to a website that shows a photographic history of Brixton with a comparison of Brixton today:

www.urban75.org/brixton/history

Historical Events in Brixton explained  in detail on wikipedia below:

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixton

Object

The first thing that i looked at was a stall selling cleaning products in Atlantic Road. All lined up and stacked neatly in order. Very attractive to the eye as there is so much colour, shape and pattern. Because of it's boldness it catches the eye.

Obviously the objects contain dangerous cleaning chemicals, it has a very artificial look to it. To me the way these objects look together reminds me of sweets, very pretty and colourful like you could almost imagine what it would taste like. The green objects could be the sour sweets!!!

I couldn't imagine my objects in a department store, it would look ridiculous. Department stores are classy and sell expensive designer items. My objects look Tacky and Tasteful at the same time, but not enough to be put in a department store or displayed in a gallery, it would almost be comical if you were to imagine so.

My next chosen image is from a fabric store in Brixton Market. The shop sells all sorts of fabrics and sewing accessories. I chose to look at African print fabric as it's a personal favorite of mine. The bold patterns and contrasting colours look amazing. 

The patterns have been achieved by crackle batik and print. I feel like this close up image of part of the fabric looks like a piece of simple art in itself. you could frame it and hang it up on a wall. In fact I saw African print and textile work in the British Museum while I was there drawing for the collection project.