Book Reviews

05/12/16
Book Reviews

Published in issue 23 of State magazine, Winter 2016/17

Review of Matthew Barney: River of Fundament at Haus der Kunst, Munich

03/04/14

Matthew Barney: River of Fundament

Haus der Kunst, Munich

17 March – 17 August 2014

“… Like a serpent whose insides have blown apart, I gave up, sued for peace, and gave birth to my bloody clotting history of coiled and twisted eviscerate.” [Norman Mailer, Ancient Evenings]

Matthew Barney (b1967), best known for his Cremaster Cycle (1994-2002), comprising five films, with accompanying photographs, drawings, sculptures and installations, filled with anatomical allusions to the position of the reproductive organs during the embryonic process of sexual differentiation, is back. His latest project, River of Fundament, a further collaboration with Berlin-based American composer Jonathan Bepler, likewise comprises a film (given its European premiere at the Bavarian State Opera house in Munich on 16 March 2014), 15 large-scale sculptures, several series of drawings and some “archival” photographs, story boards and annotated books (Libretti).

To read the rest of this review, please go to: http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/matthew-barney-river-of-fundament-haus-der-kunst-munich

Review of Christina Mitrentse: MAKE – METALIBRARY at the Women’s Art Library, Goldsmiths, University of London

04/09/13

Christina Mitrentse: MAKE – METALIBRARY / An Interactive Exhibition

Women’s Art Library, Special Collections, Rutherford Building, Goldsmiths, University of London

2 – 23 September 2013 (extended)

It is unusual to walk into a library and find the books laid out across the floor. It is even more unusual to do so in a Special Collections Archive, where the books and magazines in question are normally only available upon special request. But precisely this has happened in the Women’s Art Library, located in the Goldsmiths College Library Special Collections department, courtesy of Greek-born artist Christina Mitrentse (born 1977). 

Originally established as the Women Artists Slide Library in the late 1970s, this artists' initiative developed into a fully-fledged organisation and research resource, becoming part of Goldsmiths College Library Special Collections in 2004. Its holdings include a significant number of early feminist art journals, such as Feminist Artists Newsletter (UK), Heresies (USA) and Matriart (Canada), alongside, of course, the complete nine-year, 92-issue run of what came to be known as MAKE, the library’s own publication of and for women's art, focusing on historical and contemporary women's art practice and highlighting both emerging and established international artists through previews, interviews, and feature pieces. 

To read the rest of this review, please go to: http://www.divamag.co.uk/category/arts-entertainment/art-review-christina-mitrentse.aspx