Five art things, on we go then and never mind whatever we said last time, that was then, this, once again is about this week and next and needing more (just more, nothing less) and yes you are right. Here, for what any of this is worth are five more art things. Five art things, five more art things happening somewhere around right now (or any moment now). Five art shows to check out in the coming days. We do aim to make this an (almost) weekly round up of recommended art events, five shows, exhibitions or things we rather think might be worth checking out. Mostly London things for that is where we currently operate and explore, and like we said last time, these five recommendations come with no claims that they are “the best five” or the “Top Five”, we’re not one of those annoying art websites that ignore most things whilst claiming to be covering everything and proclaiming this or that to be the “top seven things” or the “best things this weekend”. This Five Things thing is simply a regular list of five or so recommended art things happening now or coming up very soon that we think you might find as interesting as we think we will…

The image up above is from a previously recommended show that continues until 2nd July – ORGAN THING: Here There Be Monsters at Peckham Safehouse, London. Navigating territories of non-knowing indeed, a group show featuring the art of Sarah Barker Brown, Benedict Johnson, Jolene Liam, Gill Roth and Kika Sroka-Miller that’s well worth your time…

And we should add, that entry to these recommended exhibitions and events, unless otherwise stated, is free.

1: Penny Slinger, Exorcism: Inside Out at Richard Saltoun Gallery – Running from 3rd July until 7th Sept 2024 with an opening evening on Tuesday July 2nd (6pm until 8pm) –  “We have many works that follow The Hero’s Journey, but how many that track that of the Heroine? This journey of the embodied soul is not sexist; we all, male and female alike, need to discover who we are. It is like a detective story, in which we, both protagonists and victims, must follow the clues and unravel the plot. This psychological processing is something that I have not seen tackled in any other artwork like I have in ‘An Exorcism’.

This is not a work that exists within a time capsule – it’s a subject that is timeless and universal. It is a blueprint for transformation and sets signposts in the sand for others who wish to know themselves.” – Penny Slinger, 2024

“Richard Saltoun Gallery is pleased to announce Exorcism: Inside Out, a solo exhibition by pioneering LA-based, London-born Feminist Surrealist, Penny SLINGER (b. 1947). Spanning original photo-collage, print and video work, the exhibition coincides with the publication of Slinger’s iconic book, An Exorcism: A Photo Romance (Fulgur Press, 21 June 2024). After the original An Exorcism was published in 1977, the artist created this extended version, which was nonetheless withheld from being published in the UK after her other collage book, Mountain Ecstasy (Dragon’s Dream, March 1978, Holland), was seized and burned by British customs for being deemed pornographic.

After nearly 50 years, Slinger’s groundbreaking project can finally be revealed to audiences in the UK and beyond. In celebration of this extraordinary moment, Exorcism: Inside Out will be one of the most ambitious exhibitions ever realised at Richard Saltoun Gallery. Inspired by the artist’s project for Dior’s haute couture fashion show in Paris in 2019, it is designed as an all-immersive audio-visual environment, with the entire gallery wrapped in images from the original An Exorcism series and presenting a spectacular evolution of the artist’s vision.

Penny Slinger began her career as one of the few celebrated women artists in the late 1960s’ “Swinging London.” Graduating from Chelsea College of Art in 1969, she focused her thesis on Max Ernst and found her primary artistic influence in Surrealism. Best known for her photo-collages, Slinger’s work foregrounds the female body and sexuality in a radical and unapologetic manner, aiming, in her own words, “to bring the inside out and the outside in” and to create “a new language for the feminine psyche to express itself.”

An Exorcism is often hailed as her magnum opus. It’s composed of a collection of erotic collages set against the backdrop of the empty mansion known to her then-partner, Peter Whitehead. Described by Slinger as a “surreal romance in photo collage,” this work represents the “deepest excavations” she has done as an artist, started in 1969 and completed over approximately 7 years. The narrative unfolds through biographical chapters, tracing a young woman’s journey towards self-actualization; from oppressive spaces dominated by phallocentric symbolism, evident in works such as He Crows, He Crows, He Crows, with the oversized head of a cock poking out from the corner, and Tribunal, in which a naked female figure stands exposed, surrounded by an all-dressed, all-male jury, to a reality where the protagonist finally comes into her feminine power, evoked in works like A Rose By Any Other Name, with a bright red, gigantic rose spreading its petals between a woman’s naked thighs, and Through the Glass, a tender communion of entangled women.

Through a blend of personal embodiment and imaginative transgression, Slinger integrates her own body into archetypal landscapes, engaging in a cultural exorcism that explores themes of fetishism and sexploitation from a feminist perspective. This autofictional journey is staged within the Gothic ambiance of Lilford Hall, merging the evocative allure of British neo-Romantic painting with the ominousness of horror cinema.

From the original An Exorcism, Slinger created an extended version of the book, complete with her writings and a film script, which remain unpublished. The exhibition at Richard Saltoun Gallery will present a selection of Slinger’s original collages from An Exorcism alongside her recent animated film An Exorcism – The Works (2019), which will be shown for the very first time in the UK, and reflects Slinger’s original, filmic approach to the project. The entire gallery will be transformed into an immersive environment, covered with images that mirror the surreal, decaying grandeur of the mansion, completely enveloping viewers within Slinger’s multifaceted exploration of desire, identity, and the subconscious.

Premiering in the UK, Exorcism: Inside Out invites visitors to “walk into the Mansion of Dreams and feel themselves part of it, from the inside out”.

Richard Saltoun Gallery is found at 41 Dover Street, London, W1S 4NS. The Gallery is open Tuesday through to Saturday, 10am to 6pm (11am until 5pm on Saturdays)

2: Artist of The Day at Flowers Cork Street goes into a second week. A rotating set of daily exhibitions of “up-and-coming contemporary artists”, a different artist each day over a period of two weeks, it has been happening at Flowers for years now, this is the 25th time (actually it is a little bit impressive to look back and see who the then relatively unknown artists featured over the years have actually been, there is a small collection from previous years in the gallery’s basement space). The deal is that each artist is selected by an already established artist for a one person show for one day only – a case of “one generation highlighting the emerging work of the next” so they say. “The curatorial role taken out of the hands of the gallery, leading to an unpredictable mixture of styles and mediums” and what the gallery describes as a “wonderful opportunity to discover and collect new work”. Hey look, it is a brilliant thing, you can’t complain, you’ve got to be quick to catch these one day shows and they are ONLY for one day each. You get an artist each day and an artist talk

Week two is looking this….
Monday 1 July – Bella Bradford selected by Olivia Bax
Tuesday 2 July – Angela Lizon selected by Stewart Geddes
Wednesday 3 July – Aethan Wills selected by Victoria Cantons
Thursday 4 July – Freya Tewelde selected by Barbara Walker
Friday 5 July – Nick Paton selected by Jessie Makinson
Saturday 6 July is a group show

Each exhibition will be available to visit from 11 am to 7 pm, encompassing a daily programme of events. The exhibitions will be accompanied by weekly group shows of all the week’s artists and a two-week-long installation in the Lower Gallery featuring past Artist of the Day artists including Sokari Douglas Camp, Cathy de Monchaux, Nancy Fouts, Lucy Jones, and David Robilliard.

There’s coverage from last week and the first day here – ORGAN THING: Bianca Raffaella, Artist of The Day at Flowers Gallery, an exciting painter, there’s a real need to see more and with upmost respect for what is happening here, not just what Tracey Emin has (joyously) selected for us today…

Flowers Gallery is found at 21 Cork Street, London W1

3: Dominique Rivoal/Claire Loussouarn, We are plants, we are grass, we are Hackney Marshes at Middlesex University – running from 28th June until 5th July 2024 –  “Immersive audio-visual installation that takes you on a journey of being landscape through the embodied eyes of filmmaker Dominique Rivoal and the sensing body of movement artist Claire Loussouarn It invites to slow down and attune our sensate bodies and felt sense to the incredible spectacle of nature that we constantly miss out on an everyday basis.

Hackney Marshes is the largest common land in London and has never been built upon. It is a wild oasis within urbanness which disrupts romantic portrayals of nature as separate and clean from modernity. Through Claire’s attuned movement and Dominique’s embodied framing, nature is de-glamourised and experienced directly with the senses and close to the bones shining its bleakness and immediacy with potency.

For the last five years since September 2018, the artists have been moving and filming in a specific spot of uncut grass behind the Lee Valley ice ring centre where a diversity of wild plants grow. They return every month experiencing seasonal and weather change, the life cycle of plants, park rangers’ maintenance cut back of plant friends, the ice ring demolition and re-construction, birds and planes flying by, seasonal foragers, human passers-by and their canine companions.

Claire moves spontaneously with the environment of Hackney Marshes often finding herself entangled and in relationship with the plants growing there. She never knows what her next step will be as she lets herself be moved by the landscape. Dominique relates with her camera attuning to Claire’s movement, her own internal landscape and the space equally. She holds the camera in her hands and often doesn’t look through the viewfinder trusting her animal body to find its own footing. Together they blur the separation between object and subject on screen.

The four screens, their 360 placement in a square shape and the spatial soundscape aims to recreate the three dimensionality of this heightened state of awareness in landscape that both artists experience in each monthly encounter.

The artists never planned to film for five years. Over time, their commitment to this tiny spot of land and process of returning has organically grown creating an affinity between humans and non-humans and dissipating clear distinctions between the two. As they get more intimate with the space and the work, the relationship deepens. Seasons repeat themselves with gifts of surprises and each new cycle brings fresh excitement. There is always more to see and be amazed about: ‘The mugwort plants are so tall this year, they’ve turned into a forest! What will it be like next year?’ Hackney Marshes keep calling them in so they keep coming back.

In its first iteration (as documented in the film) the installation presents two years of monthly recordings from March 2021 to February 2023. The final installation will present three years of monthly recordings from March 2021 to February 2024.

Middlesex University is at The Burroughs, Hendon, London, NW4 4BT, The Installation can be viewed Tuesday until Sunday 10am until 6pm

4: Spray Tan at Shoreditch Modern – Just opened and on until 19th July 2024 –  “Spray Tan is a group exhibition celebrating Street Artists active in Shoreditch. The show will present original works on canvas and paper by some of the biggest names in London’s Street Art scene. From manga-inspired characters to realistic portraits and stylised figures, expect a vibrant and inclusive experience that showcases a beautiful variety of artistic voices and styles. As an East London gallery, we at Shoreditch Modern recognise the importance of Street Art for our community and beyond. Spray Tan will allow local and international visitors to further support the artists who make our area so unique”.  Well we have banned all press releases that tell us that things we be “vibrant”, but hey, we’ll let is slip this time, if they’d said “iconic” as well then we would not be picking this one out at one of the five..

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Dale Grimshaw, Jim Vision, Mishfit, Vane MG and Yorgos

Shoreditch Modern is at 93-95 Sclater Street, London, E1 6HR. The gallery is open Wednesday to Sunday, Midday until 6pm

And we have mentioned this latest Art Car Boot Fair adventure already, but hey, we’ll mention it again…

5: The Art Car Boot Fair joins Low Life for a Way Art West party by the Westway over in West London, we’re promised a post election comedown or dance up or art attack or something like that, hopefully we’ve voted them out by then… And well, off under the Westway, over in West London, Art Car Boot Fair x Lowlife presents Way Art West on the day after the election on Friday 5th July.  Those Art Car Boot Fair people say “Low Life is the best night you never heard of (unless you’re in the know). A “professional house party,” started in 1995 in Harlem, USA by dance music supremos Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, Low Life brought New York’s hedonistic dance floor spirit to the UK in 1998 and never looked back. Having grown strictly by word-of-mouth, there’s a rare spirit of fun and togetherness to be had. Expect a warm welcome, devoted dancers across the generations, and some of the best dance music known to mankind.

Frank Broughton is a DJ, writer and music historian, co-author of Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey, Sarah Tonin is a young and rising star on the scene with an incredible knowledge of music and a much-loved show on Do You Radio. Come early for the art then stay for the party…”

THE ALPHABETICAL ARTIST LIST INCLUDES: Camille Phoenix, Charlie Evarist-Boyce, Christian Furr, Christine Binnie, Daisy Gammon, Emma Harvey, Flying Leaps, Grow Up with Billy The Kid, Jayne Right, Juno Calypso, Keira Rathbone, Marie Brenneis, Misha Milovanovich, Mizuki Doura, Oli Fowler, Pure Evil, Rachel Megawhat, Rankin, Sean Worrall, Tatty Devine, The Misfortune Teller and as always, we’d expect a few surprise additions to the event that is billed as a post election celebration (we do hope there’s something to celebrate, do remember to go vote out to help out, the fewer Tories standing the better after all their self-serving contempt and pocket-lining of the last fourteen years)

Buy your £5 ticket (for access from 5pm) via this fine looking link right here. The event runs from 5pm -10pm at Basketball Court at The Scale Space, 58 Wood Lane, London, W12 7RZ.