Was it the Art...or the free wine?

Last Wednesday I was lucky enough to be invited to the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art in Sunderland for the preview of this seasons new exhibitions. As I mentioned already, I'm currently trying to broaden my artistic horizons with some contemporary art, with this in mind and with the promise of free wine, I and some friends decided it might be worth a look and headed along.

There were two exhibitions opening, 'CIVIC', an exhibition of billboards art and posters, showing across three galleries and 260 feet of commercial billboards and 'The Wonders of the Visible World', which brings together the work of 21 international artists who use photography and video to explore the relationship between the visible and the invisible worlds and "capture physical phenomena that defy belief, or defy description"...apparently!

John Kippin 'The Poor Are Always With Us',

CIVIC, is showing at the Reg Vardy Gallery and The Place as well as at the NGCA and on billboards around Sunderland. Each exhibition has a different theme - at the NGCA, a sequence of floor-to-ceiling photographic prints "examine the recent resurgence of interest in the romantic landscape in artists' photographs"...my favourite was the close-up of a muddy football! I'm not totally convinced by the over-arching theme but if nothing else this exhibition showcases some interesting and aesthically pleasing images and on this occasion, wine in hand, that was enough!

Ulla von Brandenburg 'Geister (Ghosts)'

The Wonders of the Visible World is a far more complex exhibition! To begin with the white-cube gallery space has been divided and sub-divided into a labyrinth of small brightly lit rooms showcasing a multitude of photographic works and practically pitch-dark spaces where visitors can recline on sofas whilst viewing the film installations. The sheer volume and variety of works on show makes it almost impossible to describe...but I'm going to try! The exhibition opens with Mark Wallinger's video work 'The Magic of Things', showing found footage from the TV series 'Bewitched', in which scenes of witchcraft-inspired magic "create a taxonomy of archetypes", then there's Camillo Paravicini's photographic series 'Somnambulist with Wall' documenting the alarming phenomenon of extreme sleepwalking. Jason Dee's video 'Medium' reveals the strange metamorphoses that can occur when time is slowed down in film and by far my favourite works, Georgina Mascolo's photographic series 'The Phenomenon Treatise' examines the unexplained occurrences at a former Army medical college on Millbank, where strange events from levitation to magnetism have been recorded.     

Mark Wallinger 'The Magic of Things'

Camillo Paravicini 'Somnabulist and Wall'

Jason Dee 'Medium'

Georgina Mascolo's 'Phenomenon Treatise III - Magnetism'

Moscolo's works are memorable, at least in part because there display is so different than that of the other works in the exhibition. To start with they're hung not in your average white-cube space but on walls painted a deep heritage green, there's even an antique table and a vase of fresh flowers. Accompanying the photographic works is an essay describing how the artist found the photographs, along with written reports on the experiments they document, in a former Army Medical Centre. Whether there is any truth in this or whether its all part of the larger work is down to interpretation but for me that's part of what makes this work so fascinating!

My friend Paul enjoying Georgina Mascolo's 'The Phenomenon Treatise'

If you're in the area I would definately recommend this thought-provoking exhibition! 

'The Wonders of the Visible World' is open until the 4th February 2012 and 'CIVIC' is showing until the 13th November, both are free entry.