hamburg v2

hamburg is kind of like a spiritual home and it was so awesome to pop back and say hello to the pirate town again. starting with the longest frühstück ever, i got to hang out with my 'lil bro, seb, check out some great exhibitions, dance until 2am, meet up with some artists/students from HFBK and got to experience snow for the first time!




the best exhibition i got to see was son, man 1969 at the kunsthalle - a new exhibition about leaders, fanaticism, gurus and extreme idolatry behaviour. mostly focusing on mr manson and his band of crazy ladies, it also featured a fantastic mix of works about rock fan-dom, that wacky trend from the 1970s of finding a guru, obviously a couple of works about Der Führer and some new works about technology as the new über-lord.

there is an amazing list of artists included in the show, most of whom i didn't properly note. but some of my personal favourites included works by:



joseph beuys - his piece about the gallery/art scene in which he's transported to the rené block gallery by ambulance, and illustrates the relationship between artist and audience through the feeding of a dog. it's quite amazing work and i did leave that feeling simultaneously in awe and shit about my own work.

bruce nauman - both his violin and feed me works were amazing. the feed me one disturbed me, like a nauman has never done before.

elena kovylina - a performance of the homo-erotic rock moves of male superstars which was amazing and enlightening. i could imagine that mayhem might have loved it.

susi pop - beautiful pop screen print images of the manson girls.

and some of the video work was amazing too - a rendition of tom waits' king kong, some kind of disturbing marionette works and a great play on manson girls/charlie's angels, singing some song (that i didn't write down). it's quite disturbing actually.

although one of the coolest things i saw wasn't actually part of the show - an artist has inserted chemical and engineering equipment throughout the structure of the gallery to create a stalactite. using rainwater, rooftop gardens, architetural-based filtration, plus added lime, etc. it's fuckin' awesome and will be in the gallery for the next 400 years. there's the slightest beginning of an ice drip - it's pretty exciting :)

i was trying to be frugal and didn't buy the catalogue. mistake. i now have to beg my hamburg peeps to pick one up for me. bugger. having said that, if you're in the area, go see the show 'cos it's really great. i've not seen such a huge exhibition based on theme like this before and was impressed. really.




i also went to the deichtorhalle 1, which was amazing. well, the architecture and the space is amazing, the work of stephan balkenhol was not as great as i had heard it was, but i still managed to find some interest in it. his figurative sculpture i find a little, well, meh. for me figuration has to tell me something about humanity ('cos i'm a post-modern girl and no-longer interested in just the material) and his didn't, really. but his carvings-as-paintings were pretty amazing, drawings almost, with animated surface.

i also saw the cutest sight - a young boy, just sitting on the ground drawing from the artworks, as though it was the most normal thing to do in the world. undisturbed, intent and supported by his parents, the gallery and german culture in general, i was slightly jealous of him. although i did spend some time drawing him :)

which reminds me, i learned a great new german word: kunst benause. literally: art buffoon. and it's a legit insult - no one wants to be a kunst benause!

i didn't get to meet up with some local artists/students, who were all amazing and max frisinger is currently having a show at galerie bittel at the moment, which i didn't get to see, but all hamburgers should.




and the other main highlight was clubbing until 2am in st.pauli with seb. it could have ended up an early night - i got a bit freaked out in one of the clubs (german clubs are all super-squishy in winter) and the rest of our crew went home early, but thankfully we put our party hats on and went to BP1, drank lots, danced to some cool-as-fuck nostalgic stuff, caught up on all the goss and impressed the bar chick (with my "geile schuhe").




i had such an awesome time again in hamburg and am scoping out the possibility of some study there in the future, which could be a little dangerous really.