*Get more out of your course*: September 2013

Friday, 13 September 2013

Write a short art review

Mårten Spångberg, Epic

Manchester International Festival, July 2013

Mayfield Depot

Write a short art review (about 300 words) and tell your peers about the best or worst exhibition you saw this year. Chose an artwork relevant to your interests. Tell them...

*What you saw (name of exhibition, name of the artist(s) and artwork you saw).

*Where you saw it

*Describe the artwork

*Say what you liked/disliked & why

*Back up any statements with supporting evidence

*Think about your readers. Does it make sense? Is it interesting?

Example:

The best show I saw this summer was MIF 2013, especially live performances at Mayfield Depot. Mayfield Depot is a huge, dark and dusty, redundant warehouse in Manchester. One of the best performances I saw was by a Danish artist Mårten Spångberg called Epic. It got my feet taping, my head turning and my mind moving! I was totally captivated for 3 hours by bright colours, loud pop music and symmetrical poses.

The performance took place in a large 'stage' area marked out by glamorous colourful textiles hanging off the ceiling and laid on the floor. The performance mainly comprised of loud pop music such as Beyoncé’s Crazy In Love and seven performers, who wore several layers of colourful clothes which they took off and added to during the performance. The performers moved very slowly in and out of short poses, most of which were performed in pairs to create symmetrical shapes reminding me of Indian and Egyptian gods. The performers also used objects throughout the performance like ringing a pair of bells which reminded me of the act of ceremony.

The performance was non-stop for 4 hours and performed over several days. At any time the spectator could watch several things going on at the same time such as two performers moving on stage, one slowly undressing and one slowly moving off the stage area in the direction of the bathroom. During all of their activities they continued to remain in the performance which I found remarkable. I have never seen a choreographed toilet break before. I found this very liberating in comparison to performers who go for hours without 'seemingly' needing to use the bathroom.

I was captivated and watched the performance for more than 3 hours wondering what was going to happen next! It felt truly epic to be transported somewhere between an ancient and contemporary glamorous world.

Watch the premier of Epic (loud music starts at 7 mins 20). Click on this link for the video...Marten Spangberg - Epic