Painting merges with sculpture, sculpture merges with sound, and sound merges with light this month – in a UK-wide guide to the best of contemporary art written for Culture24.
Brian Eno – 77 Million Paintings, Fabrica, Brighton
Religion was never so chilled out. Brian Eno offers a slow-changing digital stained glass window and soporific ambient music score. Former chapel Fabrica meanwhile offers comfy red sofas where visitors can kick back and soak it all up.
Angela de la Cruz – After, Camden Arts Centre, London
If you think you know the difference between painting and sculpture, think again. For Angela De La Cruz, the canvas is just another object, which may be torn, crushed and broken in order to challenge the authority of Western art’s most dominant form.
Helen Frik – Difficult, Chapter, Cardiff
For a show about difficulty, this promises to be accessible. Helen Frik brings humour and humanity to the proposition that difficulty is an essential, perhaps desirable aspect of everyday life. Sound art and homemade toys back up her case.
Andrew Stonyer – Audio Kinetic Sculpture, Fermynwoods, Northamptonshire
Seen in terms of the planet’s revolution through space, all sculpture is kinetic. Indeed this new commission responds to the daily cycle of the sun, using green technology to produce the effect of a solar Aeolian harp. Definitely worth a listen.
A Certain Distance, Endless Light – A Project by Felix Gonzalez-Torres and William McKeown – MIMA, Middlesbrough
If Felix Gonzalez-Torres could appear posthumously at the Venice Biennial, why should he not be named as a collaborator in MIMA’s latest show. With living Irish artist William McKeown he now posits light as the central subject of modern art.
Susan Collis – Since I Fell For You, Ikon, Birmingham
It could be the most opulent building site of all time. Susan Collis intervenes in the space at Ikon using turquoise Rawlplugs, diamond pencil marks, and much more. The results are both amusing and quietly spectacular.