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Viewing Georg Baselitz at Serpentine

Above Georg Baselitz, Serpentine

Georg Baselitz: Sculptures 2011-2015
Serpentine South Gallery
5 October 2023 to 7 January 2024
https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/georg-baselitz-sculptures-2011-2015/

A nine-metre-high jumble of legs in high heels will tower over visitors to Hyde Park next week as taster of what’s to come inside Georg Baselitz’s intriguing solo show at Serpentine South. Inside, the German artist’s crude, larger than life evocations of figures and body parts will roam through the gallery, their imperfect forms exposing the frailty of the human body.

The sculptures – each crafted from a single tree trunk with the help of power saws, chisels and axes between 2011 and 2015 – were originally intended as maquettes for bronze works and not for public viewing. Shown here alongside related drawings and sketches, they will give a compelling insight into the raw physicality of Baselitz’s process and his free-flowing movement between 2D and 3D work. Tributes from the likes of Erwin Wurm, Tracy Emin and Rashid Johnson in the accompanying catalogue will reveal the enduring influence of this titan of contemporary art.

Viewing Julianknxx: Chorus in Rememory of Flight

The Wick - Julianknxx, Chorus of Rememory of Flight
Barbican

Above Julianknxx, Chorus of Rememory of Flight Barbican

Julianknxx: Chorus in Rememory of Flight
The Curve, Barbican
14 September 2023 – 11 February 2024
https://www.barbican.org.uk/Julianknxx

At the heart of Julianknxx’s rousing multi-video installation at the Curve is the 4,000 odyssey he took to nine cities across Europe with a heavy colonial legacy. The films splice his own poetry with urban scenes laden with the history of slavery, and performances and accounts from Black residents he met along the way, including a dancer improvising on the German subway. Often anger and exhaustion comes to the fore, with one resident refusing to do anything but sleep while he filmed her, because she was ‘tired of talking about Blackness’ and ‘wanted to rest’.

The stories the films collect are rich and varied, intertwining across the many screens to meditative effect. Choirs and musicians repeat the same refrain in one work, ‘We are what’s left of us’ in a tone that blends elegy with defiance. This is a show that will echo in your mind for weeks to come

Viewing Daisy Collingridge, Splanchnic

Above

Above Daisy Collingridge

Daisy Collingridge, Splanchnic
TJ Boulting, Cornershop, Unit 199, Borough Yard
6 October – 11 November 2023
https://www.tjboulting.com/daisy-collingridge-splanchnic

Daisy Collingridge’s deliciously fleshy textile characters will gather in TJ Boulting’s exhibition in Borough next week, their exaggerated limbs and bellies stretching out across the gallery’s walls in flat, frieze-like formations – a new departure for the artist, whose sculptures usually stand alone.

Her first solo show Splanchnic (pronounced ‘splank-nik’) takes its name from the anatomical word relating to the internal organs of the abdomen. Collingridge is fascinated by the inner workings of the body that we know little about. She exposes them in her tactile sculptures, made from hand-dyed jersey fabric, which she quilts together.

In the second room of the gallery, she will recreate a character from her recent ‘wearable sculptures’ named Burt. Visitors will be able to crawl inside his giant head, usually worn by the artist herself, and see its innards up close. The effect will be cocooning and unsettling in equal measure.