Aesthetica Magazine Issue 51

February / March 2013

Inside this issue, we start with Abraham Cruzvillegas: The Autoconstrucción Suites, a major exhibition opening at the Walker Art Center that features 35 individual sculptures and installations, along with his recent experiments in video, film and performance. We also look at the latest show to open at the Hayward Gallery, London, Light Show, which is a comprehensive survey of artists who use light as a material. David Bowie is opens at the V&A and is the first major retrospective of Bowie’s significant impact upon the world of visual art and design. Thomas Zanon-Larcher’s Falling: A Part blurs the lines between fashion and fine art photography, using cinema as its reference point.

In photography, Garry Winogrand is widely recognised as one of America’s finest photographers, and his retrospective opens at SFMOMA, highlighting 25 years of the artist’s career. Cuba is the subject for the latest exhibition to open at Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, which showcases four decades of Michael Eastman’s work. We also introduce the works of Marquis Montes, a Montreal-based photographic duo, as well as Kevin Cooley, whose use of light creates intense drama.

In film, we chat with Scott Graham about his feature-length debut, Shell, which captures how place influences personality as it follows two characters isolated in rural Scotland. We also speak with Marc Isaacs about his latest documentary, The Road: A Story of Life and Death, which looks at universal themes of loss and belonging. In music, we speak with the 2012 Mercury Prize winners Alt-J about their upcoming tour and latest single. We also examine the evolution of the music video since YouTube. In performance, we head over to Toronto for the World Stage theatre festival, and finally, for the last words, we chat with Linder Sterling about her latest performance piece opening at the Hepworth Wakefield. Enjoy the issue.

Built from Life

The practice of Abraham Cruzvillegas draws on his experiences of growing up in Mexico city, as he creates sculptures that grow from their environment.

Life Through the Lens

Full of flamboyant personality, Garry Winogrand was famed for his street shots of everybody from businessmen to hippies, animals and celebrities.

Enlightened Spaces

A survey of light art from the 1960s to the present day at The Hayward Gallery considers the way in which we think about architectural space.

Interior Dialogues

Michael Eastman has spent time in Havana, Paris, Rome and New Orleans, recording in minute detail the distinctive features of each place.

Thomas Zanon-Larcher

Photographer Thomas Zanon-Larcher blends aspects of film, performance and storytelling in his images, questioning ideals of beauty propounded by fashion.

What is David Bowie

A major exhibition at the V&A examines the impact and constant evolution of ever-influential musician, style icon and shape-shifter, David Bowie.

Universal Language

Partners in work and in life, Marquis Montes create enigmatic works that draw on many cultural references. Through dramatic staging and invigorating styling, their work captivates the imagination.

Viviane Sassen: In and Out of Fashion

Infinity Award winner Viviane Sassen’s visual language is nothing if not intriguing. Her new book chronicles her career in fashion photography through 250 prints.

The Postcard Age

Drawing on one of the finest and most comprehensive collections anywhere in the world, The Postcard Age presents 400 postcards from the decades around 1900.

Pattern: 100 Fashion Designers, 10 Curators

Following its predecessor, Sample (2005), Pattern captures a snapshot of the latest designers defining clothes rails today.

Inventing Abstraction 1910 – 1925

This mammoth text is probably one of the most conclusive surveys on the history of abstraction. Exploring its inception and development, this book brings together key works and artists from the period.

People Apart: 1950s Cape Town Revisited

In People Apart, the simultaneous historical depth and phenomenological presence of Bryan Heseltine’s photographs are the soul of the work.

Fashion Scandinavia: Contemporary Cool

In a world of outrageous colours, glitter and Anna Dello Russo, the designers of clear lines and minimal shapes stand apart as intriguing and desirable.

K-X-P

Sprinklings of hushed vocals meet a psychedelic drive worthy of Daft Punk, as the energy is high from the beginning.

Marc Carroll

Now signed to the highly regarded One Little Indian, Carroll’s latest album marks a turning point, as the label will also be reissuing his first four albums.

Klak Tik

Combining a cupboard full of instruments, choral layers and electronic blips, Klak Tik’s second album is the perfect balance of deafening calamity and peaceful clarity.

Keaton Henson

Keaton Henson’s backstory is so fascinating that there is a tiny risk of it overshadowing the music, but once immersed in his new album, Birthdays, there is no need for concern.

HK119

Opening with the provocative question “Are you there?”, HK119 responds to her audience’s presence with a twisting tale of howling vocals and pounding beats.

Beach Fossils

For their sophomore release, the Dustin Payseur-led Beach Fossils unleash a lo-fi and ethereal studio album worthy of the Brooklynite’s stellar reputation.

Amour

If you’ve ever loved, this story of an elderly couple facing the unthinkable – one half of their familiar, codependent unit fading away – will touch a raw nerve.