PHOTOGRAPHY: MELBOURNE
Bill Henson: Untitled 1985 / 86
This weekend marks the opening of Melbourne’s Tolarno Galleries’ latest exhibition featuring Australian photographer Bill Henson. His photography of suburban Melbourne, Untitled 1985 / 86, is a collection of Henson’s early works mostly shot at dawn or dusk and featuring glimpses of faces, figures and places that represent the “dream of suburbia”. First shown in November 1987, the twilight imagery caught between day and night also captures a state of mind where the separation of dreams from reality becomes more difficult. Untitled, 1985 / 86 is a rare chance to see Henson’s early works that locate the profound in the mundane.
Tolarno Galleries, Level 4, 104 Exhibition Street. Open Tuesday to Friday 10.00-17.00, Saturday 13.00-17.00. Until 14 December.
tolarnogalleries.com
EXHIBITION: NEW YORK
Isaac Julien: Playtime
London-born video artist Isaac Julien’s exhibition at New York’s Metro Pictures Gallery takes its name from its highlight of an installation, “Playtime”. The piece is a 70-minute video filmed in London, Dubai and Reykjavik, probing the different sides of capitalism experienced by five individuals. Some are active agents perpetuating the system while others are passive players trapped in a harsh reality and struggling to make ends meet. Alongside the titular piece, the show features two other video works and six photos that explore the relationship between money and art.
519 West 24th Street. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10.00-18.00. Until 14 December.
metropicturesgallery.com
ART: HUMLEBAEK
Jorn & Pollock: Revolutionary Roads
Judging from Danish artist Asger Jorn and US art icon Jack Pollock’s 135 works on display at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark, it’s hard to believe that the two post-Second World War artists who revolutionised painting never crossed paths. Compared side by side, their spontaneous and abstract oeuvres bear many similarities – drip paintings and wild experimentation – but this show also seeks to tease out the differences. Where art seems to be about the encapsulating the world in painted form for Jorn, Pollock saw his work as the expression of the artist, outside of the physical world.
Gammel Strandvej 13, DK-3050 Humlebaek. Open Tuesday to Friday, 11.00-22.00, Saturday and Sunday 11.00-18.00. Until 23 February.
louisiana.dk
ART: EDINBURGH
Louise Bourgeois: A Woman Without Secrets
Mainly showcasing works from her later career, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh pays tribute to Louise Bourgeois over the coming months. Bourgeois’ work, which became well known in the 1980s and 1990s – by the time the artist was over 70 years old – represents and sexually explicit themes and the transition from childhood to womanhood. This exhibition includes key works as well as her famous “Spider” piece – the giant bronze installation that dominated galleries around the world and was synonymous with the opening of Tate Modern in 2000. Bourgeois’ art provokes through an at times uncomfortable level of involvement. “In real life,” she once said, “I identify with the victim. That’s why I went into art.”
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 75 Belford Road. Open daily, 10.00-17.00. Until 18 May 2014.
nationalgalleries.org
MUSIC: GLOBAL
Sébastian Tellier: Confection
The French singer and musician whose unashamedly lavish records have touched on tunes ranging from sleazily fantastic disco pop to, well, sleazy other sounds, returns with an almost entirely orchestral new album, Confection. But an orchestra – or the synth-sheen of one – in Tellier’s hands becomes the kind of tool (no pun intended) often used to successfully dramatic effect by previous other French musical lotharios such as Serge Gainsbourg and Michel Polnareff. All swooping grandiosity, ridiculous pomp, and beneath all the grandeur, more than a little sweet emotion, too.
Confection is available to buy now.
recordmakers.com
