This is our round up of the art events that we’ve seen and participated in, within this grand old town and sometimes further afield. The was originally written for York media outlet One & Other.
The Visuals Of Animaux
The visuals of Animaux (York-based electronic music night, founded and run by Mantas Zalepuga) have been of an interest to The Grid since they were first introduced to the night ; due to the sincerely innovative nature within the context of York. The most recent Animaux (17th of October) was no exception to this, only, with an increased potential. The projector had changed, and given the shift of venue to Mansion, the music-led visualizations are now beamed onto an all too well fitting, underground, brick wall. Most importantly though, there’s now a live VJ (Grimly Fiendish) attempting to seamlessly mix visual imagery with a pounding bass line to stimulate all the senses.
The Animaux bunny played a huge role in these projections, mixed in with a variety of three-dimensional geometrical shapes with a tonality and regular colour shift to suit the pace of the music. Admittedly, the positioning of the dj’s against a perpendicular wall did present a problem though, whilst the eyes should have been turned to the visuals, too often they were neglected, however, speaking to Mantas, ‘in November the visual emphasis will change due to several spatial adjustments within the club’ allowing the projections to take front seat’.
Grimly Fiendish is providing second to none visuals for nights out around York, and no matter how it is you like to party, I cannot recommend enough checking out his work not only to have the multi-sensory experience, but also simply to support what ought to be a growing scene.
For more information please visit the Animaux facbook page at: https://www.facebook.com/Animaux.York?fref=ts
J O’S
Talk: Dr Claire Hind at York St Marys on performing with Nauman.
At this York St Marys public lunchtime talk, Dr Claire Hind, professor of Theatre at York St John University spoke of how she and her students have used the ARTIST ROOMS: Bruce Nauman exhibition as a platform for performance and writing. They concentrated on Nauman’s word play. How your voice catches the words spelled out in, ‘Violins, Violence, Silence’, making you think about the links between each word’s meaning, allowing you to construct a narrative within your head. They wanted to play on this narrative and create works which ‘speak back to the work’, whilst thinking about the many different ways you can encounter Nauman, as a writer, performer, or someone who just had a fight with their sister. A few students spoke of how they interpreted the project and mentioned that instead of deconstructing the pieces, they tried to add to them. One student, performed a piece which started by repeating phrases which observed viewers laughing at Nauman’s ‘Violent Incident’. He slowly built up his voice, similar to the actors in ‘Good Boy Bad Boy’ and played with his words, morphing the piece into a surreal poem. The students will be presenting a collaborative performance taking inspiration from the feedback comments left by the exhibition’s visitors on the 5th November at the gallery. E.M.
The York St John performance will take place from 12 – 2 on the 5th November at York St Marys.
ARTIST ROOMS: Bruce Nauman is on at York St Marys until 10th November. Please see website for more details.
Anna Gammans – What Dogs Can’t See @ The Norman Rae Gallery, UoY
The second show in this year’s season was the first solo exhibition for Anna Gammans, a student at the University of York. The title clearly referred to the, at times, overwhelming use of straight-out-of-the-tube colour smudged on to the canvas. Gammans’ blurred technique leaned towards an over-reliance on black outlines but in this respect is not dissimilar to many contemporary artists – it wouldn’t have looked out of place in an According to McGee exhibition. Subject matter recalling the biggest tourist sites around the world, including the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower and York’s own Minster were nothing new but nicely composed. Testifying to her ability to capture likeness, the Norman Rae is still insisting on not labeling artworks around the gallery walls, nor giving further information on the artist. Gammans’ show reveals potential in her varied application of colour and skill for composition but as yet doesn’t bring anything new to the table.
R.H
