What's On: London

Date
27 October 2011

This week in London there’s an exhibition from Doug Aitken, including Black Mirror – a brilliant multi-channel architectural installation – at Victoria Miro. Meanwhile, down at the Hayward on Southbank is Piplotti Rist’s projected wonders (appropriately titled Eyeball Massage) and finally, culture, confusion and chopsticks in Rivington Place’s group show, Entanglement.

Doug Aitken Victoria Miro

Doug Aitken’s Black Mirror is a beautifully cut, breathing-paced film installation displayed in a room built at regular angles. Every wall is encased by black mirrors with screens set into alternate walls so that the image is multiplied, reflected in a synchronised dance as the protagonist (Chloe Sevingny) navigates a borderless world and an accelerated modern life. It is very, very engaging, especially the sound which is used like an exoskeleton to the film. The exhibition continues elsewhere with light boxes and wall sculptures spelling out iconic words and dates, continuing Aitken’s exploration into pop culture and its graphic impact. On show until November 12.
www.itsnicethat.com/whats-on/doug-aitken

Entanglement: the Ambivalence of Identity Rivington Place

In the latest show at Rivington Place, the potentially heavy topic of cultural identity is treated with irony and humour, and, according to the artists in Entanglement, it is a point for frank hilarity. Like Simon Fujiwara’s spoof “artist book club” in which cross cultural confusion is more the focus than Huckleberry Fin. Or Anthony Key, whose installations include one strikingly immediate piece of over 8,000 chopsticks with the names of every Chinese takeaway in the UK written on them. And Nina Mangalanayagam’s Homeland series of photos with her father (who holds the shutter trigger) are unintentionally failed attempts at natural portraits in their Swedish home. Fascinating stories go with every exhibit and it runs until until November 19.
www.itsnicethat.com/whats-on/entanglement…

Piplotti Rist: Eyeball Massage Hayward Gallery

The subversive stylings of Piplotti Rist are a happy sort of mind anarchy and their individual projected environments are nothing short of dazzling. Employing wild colours and primitive cutting in her installations, the surreal nature of the videos is immediately appealing. Her themes are familiar – feminism, sexuality, the human body – but her extraordinarily fresh imagery and specific use of an architectural space in which to project is pretty unique – large, suspended conical spaces that you stick your head into, draped enclosures, knicker chandelier (that’s right) and a tiny two pence projection. Her trailer, Eyeball Massage, is also well worth a watch. On show until January 8, 2012.
www.itsnicethat.com/whats-on/piplotti-rist

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Bryony Quinn

Bryony was It’s Nice That’s first ever intern and worked her way up to assistant online editor before moving on to pursue other interests in the summer of 2012.

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