Noguchi:
// The Barbican Centre
// The White Cube
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/event/noguchi
https://whitecube.com/exhibitions/exhibition/isamu_noguchi_bermondsey_2022
// The Barbican Centre
// The White Cube
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2021/event/noguchi
https://whitecube.com/exhibitions/exhibition/isamu_noguchi_bermondsey_2022
24/04/2022
written by:
Giada Holland
https://giadaholland.cargo.site
https://www.instagram.com/giada.maia/
Ambience
I went to an exhibition of Noguchi in the Barbican that I fell in love with. To be honest, I had no idea who he was or what type of art he made. I think my favourite exhibitions are always the ones that I know the least about beforehand. I went in with a friend almost spontaneously and came out having it be one of my favourite exhibitions. It started with a story line that made you feel part of a journey through a space, accompanying the work rather than being a spectator. This feeling was perfected with the atmospheric curation. The lighting was so specific to each piece and so well thought about. It felt so close to his ideology and concepts, using everything in the room from the lighting, to the tables, to the walls, to the floor, to the use of space; to create a sculpture as a whole environment. Almost as if it was one of the forms of ‘landscape’ in which his works existed.
Aesthetic
A few months later the same person and I were told about another exhibition of his in The White Cube. Now the intentions going in changed as I got closer to going. I started seeing posts on social media as things like ‘top 10 most aesthetic things to go to in London’ as well as friends that had been and not liked it. I think that made me want to see just how different the same artists work can be exhibited in the same country within a similar time. This one felt more cold, I was missing that sense of interaction and felt more like a spectator. I might just be biased to the previous exhibition but even so, the lack of context seems to be something these type of galleries do to ‘be contemporary and cool’ but in reality lose the substance of the work. The last exhibition held so much context down to the pamphlet and its design to be easy and satisfying to follow. On top of that people weren’t taking pictures of the work, they were taking pictures with the work, probably for instagram. Which made me question what Noguchi himself would have thought about that. Would he have been happy people were so visually inclined to share pictures with the work or would he have thought that it fed more into the ego of a person rather than the interest in discovering the work? This also made me not want to take pictures of it, making the work feel less special and very commercial. Which at the end of the day the idea of art being “aesthetically pleasing” leads straight to social media commercialism.
written by:
Giada Holland
https://giadaholland.cargo.site
https://www.instagram.com/giada.maia/
Ambience
I went to an exhibition of Noguchi in the Barbican that I fell in love with. To be honest, I had no idea who he was or what type of art he made. I think my favourite exhibitions are always the ones that I know the least about beforehand. I went in with a friend almost spontaneously and came out having it be one of my favourite exhibitions. It started with a story line that made you feel part of a journey through a space, accompanying the work rather than being a spectator. This feeling was perfected with the atmospheric curation. The lighting was so specific to each piece and so well thought about. It felt so close to his ideology and concepts, using everything in the room from the lighting, to the tables, to the walls, to the floor, to the use of space; to create a sculpture as a whole environment. Almost as if it was one of the forms of ‘landscape’ in which his works existed.
Aesthetic
A few months later the same person and I were told about another exhibition of his in The White Cube. Now the intentions going in changed as I got closer to going. I started seeing posts on social media as things like ‘top 10 most aesthetic things to go to in London’ as well as friends that had been and not liked it. I think that made me want to see just how different the same artists work can be exhibited in the same country within a similar time. This one felt more cold, I was missing that sense of interaction and felt more like a spectator. I might just be biased to the previous exhibition but even so, the lack of context seems to be something these type of galleries do to ‘be contemporary and cool’ but in reality lose the substance of the work. The last exhibition held so much context down to the pamphlet and its design to be easy and satisfying to follow. On top of that people weren’t taking pictures of the work, they were taking pictures with the work, probably for instagram. Which made me question what Noguchi himself would have thought about that. Would he have been happy people were so visually inclined to share pictures with the work or would he have thought that it fed more into the ego of a person rather than the interest in discovering the work? This also made me not want to take pictures of it, making the work feel less special and very commercial. Which at the end of the day the idea of art being “aesthetically pleasing” leads straight to social media commercialism.
photos by Giada Holland