One week on from the rather conservative excess of Frieze, from that Cork Street Party (that we still haven’t covered properly), one week on from everything that went with all the rights and wrongs of Frieze week and the London art scene already seems a little bit flat again, it really has been a bit of a rather tired year for art here in the capital city. It doesn’t help that the heavy rain is falling, that the wind is blowing and the best thing that can be said about the East London light today is that it all feels rather dull and dirty. There is art than needs to be seen though, it is a dirty job but someone’s got to do it, a bit more faith and on we go, there are a couple of shows ending today, one worthy of what will be a fourth visit (or is it a fifth now?), one that hasn’t been checked out yet as well as a new show that opened on Friday night that only runs for the weekend or is it on until Monday? The gallery hosting the show aren’t that big on information, another one of the new breed who think posting a 24 hour story on Instagram, a story that most of us, even if we are following the gallery, probably won’t ever actually get to see, is enough. Tanya Anand’s exhibition is on at Hackney’s Lot Projects for just this one weekend, the shows demand the Saturday afternoon rain and the wind is battled…   

So Tanya Anand‘s exhibition is at Lot Projects for just one weekend. Actually, is it an exhibition? Is it a (static) fashion show? Something in between maybe? Does what it is actually matter? Are we looking at beautifully sculpted pieces of art or deliciously dyed pieces of clothing? Surely both? The art is all naturally dyed and there is something about the look and feel of natural dye, about rust and madder and indigo and the organic way it works within the fabric, something about the way, even if you fix it correctly, it is inevitably going to fade, that it is almost alive within the fabric rather than just resting on the surface of that fabric like paint does. What was it she said about dying with Pomegranate? What we have here in this small art space hiding behind Broadway Market, is something that looks and feels, even though there’s a row of clothing hanging on coat hangers in the middle of the space, like a rather engaging art exhibition. 

The raw materials that provide the natural dyes are enticingly spread out on a roll of calico down on the floor underneath the beautifully cut invitingly constructed pieces of naturally dyed clothing that are hanging in a row just off centre of the space. The fact that the artist has chosen to hang the row of clothing in a manner more fitting to a fashion event than a contemporary art exhibition whilst on the other side of the space there are two pieces hung on the gallery wall in the traditional way a painting might be hung is significant (even if she might not have thought about it too much). These are beautiful pieces of textile design, beautiful pieces of inviting contemporary art, delicious looking pieces, informed pieces, adventurously constructed pieces of clothing that are just demanding to be worn. Beautifully designed and cut, rather unique, wonderfully coloured, natural, organic, inviting and yes, there is more than a positive hint of the influence of her motherland, Punjab, India. Yes, well worth coming out to see Tanya Anand’s first solo exhibition even in this foul foul late October weather, well worth the wet feet and everything else, excellent show, fine fine pieces of art.

The rain soaked late Saturday afternoon dash started with one final look at Tenant of Culture‘s very rewarding show at Soft Opening, her disassembling of the warp and her invitation to look through the weft demanded just one more look, it has been one of the best things of the admittedly not as rewarding as usual Frieze period. The show was closing today, seems like a number of people had thought going out in the seriously bad rain was worth it, healthy flow of wet-looking people in the gallery. 

Also closing today was the Aida-Robot show at the usually rather good Annka Kultys space that hides in the far corner of that rather 80s retro industrial estate just off the traffic-bound pollution-flooded Hackney Road. Actually to get to Annka Kultys Gallery requires the passing of her old spot and the door that leads up to the art space above the shop on the afore mentioned clogged up Hackney Road. A space now occupied by Plop or Poop or whatever the hell that aloof set of unfriendly unwelcoming middle class recently spewed-out art-student types who look at you like you’re shit on their shoe and block the way up the stairs telling you you don’t look like you’re interested in art call themselves. There really is an up-itself set of unfriendly gatekeepers clogging up what’s left of the East London art scene right now. engagement is not high on their priorities, the space is open today but we’ve long since given up on bothering with that red door and whatever Plop might have up there. Shame really, East London needs art spaces almost as much as it needs a proactive artist/gallery community, it isn’t like it was around here. 

In previous years Annka kultys Gallery has offered more that a challenge during Freeze week, strong shows from artists such as Kate Bickmore or Marton Nemes have really stood out during the busy week and it is out of respect for the usually rewarding and often challenging gallery that I make the effort to go to a show that I might have already flippantly suggested was a load of nonsense earlier in the month. It is the last day of the Aida-Robot show today. I mean we are apparently dealing with art made by a robot here? Some might say it is a healthy debate, maybe even a big one? I mean, as the press release asks, “How do you paint a self-portrait with no conscious self? Perhaps the reinvention of the idea of consciousness is a good place to start. Ai-Da, a humanoid AI-powered robot, challenges many fundamental and long-standing binaries between human vs machine and organic vs synthetic intelligence. In an ongoing performance wherein Ai-Da’s very existence can be considered an ever-evolving artwork, her work generates powerful new protocols for who or what—gets to be an artist?” 

Well besides the fact that the robot or whoever/whatever it is has has been humanised and given a gender (unless we are supposed to see a robot called Aida as gender fluid?) I guess the simple answer in terms of who decided who gets to be an artist these days is that the gatekeepers do, It is rather difficult to get people Annka Kultys to come to anything like an artist-led show or indeed to make the short walk from her gallery to an artist’s studio, I guess as a curator she’s more interested in art made by a robot and in terms of her space she’s answered her own question?  The bigger question here is about the nature of art itself, what is art? is it anything in a frame hung on a gallery wall art? Is it the same debate as the AI debate? Can anyone or anything make art? Probably, but can anyone or anything make good art? No, and what we have here on the gallery wall, really, with the best will in the world (and I did come in here with the best of intentions and as much of an open mind as I could muster), with the best will in the world, the “art” in here just isn’t very good. Surely art needs soul? Surely we demand emotion? Surely it need that battle, that failure, those hundreds (thousands) of decisions, those hours of just looking as much as actually doing? Surely it needs that commitment? That pain, that joy, that heartache, surely it needs that doubt, surely it needs humanity and really this is not art that’s hanging on the walls in here during one of the most significant weeks of the art year, it isn’t even bad art, it just isn’t art. The stuff in frames on the wall has none of the emotion just mentioned, there really is nothing when you look at it, no love, no fear, no loathing, not even tired bored indifference, just a whole big looking at “stuff” and feeling a big fat nothing. I guess some people (curators rather than artists maybe?) want to engage in the debate about AI and art and all that who gets to make what stuff – and that’s before we even get to the emperors clothing that is (or maybe was now?) NFT nonsense (did someone on the radio just say 97% of NFTs are now worthless?). 

Hey look, I had pretty much dismissed the Aida-Robot show before hand, I came in to see it on the last day out of respect for a gallery I have lots and lots of time for, I found it cold, soulless, I didn’t find it awful, it wasn’t that it was bad even, it was just nothing and having spent ten, fifteen minutes looking at the minimalist hang and the not many pieces on the wall, I really didn’t feel inclined to bother reading the gallery statement or engage in the debate, I just felt a great big nothing as I stood and looked at the these pieces supposedly produced by a robot (unless it is a sham and a human did and I’ve been suckered and then where are we?). I looked, I waited for something, a hint of a conversation, something to come back from the things in the frames on the wall, anything, just any kind of engagement, some of those things you’d expect just a hint of even when the art is average. I guess I could/should go read more of the press release or the gallery statement, I guess I could try and engage with the debate if I can’t engage with the art? But hey, you know what, I just don’t care that much, and in that much they are at least on a par with Hirst’s soulless jizz paintings Gagosian copped out with last week at Frieze – couldn’t care less is pretty much how I felt about his cum-covered flower paintings as well.  

Hey look, I really like Annka Kultys Gallery, since Fred Mann’s New Art Projects vacated the immediate area at the end of last year (he has just reopened over on the City Road, by Angel) Annka Kultys has been by far the most rewarding of East London’s galleries, but this show and  the “art” in here did nothing, the debate does nothing, robots can’t make art, they might be able to make something that almost looks but never quite feels like art and if that’s enough for you and you want your galleries showing this stuff rather then the emotion of a painter or the commitment of a sculptor or the contradictions of a performer then knock yourself out, I’ll be back in my studio throwing paint at the void.  Loved the Tanya Anand exhibition, well worth going out on cold wet wind Saturday afternoon in late October for…  (sw)

As always, do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide sohw