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“There is only one correct way to hang the paintings according to the system out of a possible 14,529,715,199 combinations.”
This opening quote is a catcher for you to continue reading and it is also an explanation of what 14 Billion represents in the title of my latest art installation (a commission by UAL Estates team for UAL Green Week). I’m not talking about money here when I say Abstract Return but more referring to a journey of water. True, the money association is strong when talking about water, one of the most valuable natural resources and commodities, but that’s for another day. There are eleven stages in the water processes. Starting with water’s abstraction from a river or a well to its return back to a river. But before I get too technical I’ll finish this paragraph and say what a pleasure it has been to make this piece! A big thank you to the staff of the London Museum of Water & Steam where I’ve been doing some of my research.
The eleven stages I mention are interpreted in my work by eleven plaster paintings or panels, hanging on the steel structure. They are:
Image credit: Blue Painting or panel for the Abstract Return 14 Billion art installation.
Semi orange and yellow: Abstraction – water is taken from wells and rivers through pipes.
Blue: Pumping – water is pumped to reservoirs by electric pumps.
Dirty white: Storage – water is stored in open reservoirs.
Blue: Pumping – water is pumped to treatment plants by electric pumps.
Ochre: Treatment – water is filtered, cleaned, and treated.
Dirty white: Storage– water is stored in covered reservoirs and ring the main system.
Blue: Pumping – water is pumped to homes and industry, including UAL.
Purple: Homes and Industry – water is used for drinking, washing, industry.
Dark brown: Disposal – wastewater goes to drains and sewers.
Ochre: Treatment – sewage and dirty water are separated and cleaned.
Grey: Return – water is returned to rivers or used to irrigate farmland.
Image credit: Abstract Return 14 Billion art installation at Central St Martins, UAL.
Thank you for stopping by. If you would like to read more and see some more images on my website. Click this link. To learn more about water filtration and my research trip to a Thames Water water plant click here.
90 years ago, a fossilized cast of a skull (endocranium) was found in Ganovce, Slovakia. The most important Slovakian treasure of similar kind, dating back 120 thousand years. I’m from Poprad near Ganovce and I’ve always been interested in this story in connection to the local mineral springs. The story describes a Neanderthal female getting dizzy breathing poisonous gasses from the Hradok Spring and dying.
Two of my artworks in One Country Three Worlds exhibition at Embassy of the Slovak Republic in London (20 Apr-27 May) celebrate the fossil and the place. The article link offers some further reading in the Slovak language.
The image below is the place where the Neanderthal fossil was found by stonemason Koloman Koki – Ganovce near Poprad.
Neanderthal Memorial 2014 by Silvia Krupinska (Digital print 1/1)
Dried flowers in this piece were collected at Hradok in Ganovce. The outline is representing the size and the shape of the fossil. Thanks to Podtatranské múzeum v Poprade who generously helped me in the research for this project.
DATES: Wed 20th April – Fri 27th May 2016
LOCATION: Embassy of Slovakia, 25 Kensington Palace Gardens, London W8 4QY
OPENING TIMES: Monday–Friday 13:00–15:00| 25–27 May extended 9:00–15:00, 20 May closed due to an event taking place.
FREE ENTRY
PLEASE RING BELL ‘RECEPTION’ TO ACCESS THE EXHIBITION. THANK YOU!
#1country3worlds
Q-Art invited me to present at their open crit, back in November. It all took a place in Mall Galleries, London. After I briefly introduced my art and research influenced by a variation of water themes I asked questions relating to my degree show planning for May 2016 when my MA Art and Science will culminate. The feedback, comments and suggestions have been really useful. Thank you to all that contributed. Thank you Q-Art! For more images visit this link. Cheers!
It’s been a perfect Saturday really. I visited my local gallery The Stone Space. The exhibition ‘Take your Time’ is the best I’ve seen in The Stone Space so far. Of course, it’s a question of taste, and this is totally my cup of tea! The outside view to the gallery is great. You can see the dried yellow leaves covering the floor, some wooden logs are positioned in the space too, for sitting. Suspended from the wires near the ceiling are the fabric cones, hand dyed with natural nettle and other pigments. The atmosphere is idyllic. Only when you enter the gallery you realize, the bird-song is playing and with the first step your mood is transformed and “you leave four days of stress behind you”- said one of the visitors to us. The scent in the room is leafy and woody, with the hint of sage, and blue-bells refresh your smell buds too. Oh what a feeling! One that is best experienced in person.
As I was chatting to a gallerist Christine Davies, I found out some interesting facts about this show.
“The Installation ‘Take your Time’ by Perpendicular is a collaborative partnership between artists Kim Norton and Alexandra Mazur-Knyazeva. Perpendicular’s installation is a secluded space filled with the sounds and scent that people often associate with gardens or woodlands. The collection of fabric cones hanging within the gallery at varying heights create an illusion of elevation and suspension.”
I hope you have the time to visit The Stone Space in the near future. To help to plan your visit, the opening hours and days are as follows:
The show opened on Thursday 4 December and will run until 11 January 2015. From the 15 December and over the festive season the gallery will be closed and so the show will be for viewing from the street only. But what a view!
Enjoy
Artist of the Month is back in its special January edition! It’s been a while since I wrote introducing an artist I admire and respect, and to compensate I have not one, as it’s usual, but three personae in this month’s series. I introduce a playwright / multidisciplinary artist Jennifer Farmer, artist, performer and photographer Samuel Overington and last but not least, Coffee and Sponge – composed in collaboration by these two talented creatives. Are you with me?…
I come to their studio near Unit 3 Projects gallery in London which is airy and light flooded. Both artists have their own independent creative practice, but also work together in a fresh and unique way. They create pieces that are both epic and intimate, permanent and transient and all this together with public. This cross art form company was founded in 2010 and it mixes up and plays around with many mediums, adapting from project to project. I associate with them the evocative tools, actions and unusual materials connected to their art such as spices, rice, drawing instruments, eating, poetry and performance, dance and tomatoes; I can’t wait to tell you more – let’s celebrate and look at ‘expressions extraordinaire’ by Coffee and Sponge!
EATING OUR WORDS
Illustrational image. Photo by Silvia Krupinska.
I’ve had a pleasure to take part in the première of the performance in the Eating Our Words series in June 2011, at The Old Police Station, SE14 6LG, London, in CEL(L)EBRATE GOOD TIMES- PERFORMANCE NIGHT with many different artists! C+S performance was advertised like this: ‘With a corridor as a canvas, Coffee+Sponge première their work EATING OUR WORDS, where layers of flesh, memories and food bear witness to our existence. Marking on, around and with our bodies using as materials the raw ingredients from our past and future, invites people to share their stories about food with Coffee and Sponge.’
I picked a box of ground cinnamon and described a personal cinnamon story, (it all started for me, through loving it in the Strudel my grandmother would bake). Coffee and Sponge in exchange told me one of their powder-food-based-stories, while they dusted each other with the brown powder and drew on their bodies with fingers. (Some images on Coffee and Sponge Facebook page.)
As a note I’d like to add, that the site of The Old Police Station (the cell areas for prisoners in fact) added this weird accent to the performance, as some viewers would sit in the cells and poke their heads out to observe. This was only one of the places where Eating Our Words was performed, and I’m sure that each of the sites have their own atmosphere that adds to the art.
EAT LIKE NO ONE’S WATCHING
Eat like No one’s Watching poster. © Coffee and Sponge
EAT LIKE NO ONE’S WATCHING,
like there are no rules,
like there are no manners,
like there are no consequences,
like there are no judgements,
like no one’s watching…..
…Is a widely toured performance by Coffee and Sponge shown live at the UK’s finest festivals such as Hot August Fringe Festival, Supernormal Festival and PLAYGROUP Festival, including an international residency in Hartberg, Austria. Coffee and Sponge created a black velvet booth or they call it ‘Luxury Banquet Chamber’, where they placed a tasty variety of foods, starting from cream cakes, sweets, cereal box still in its box, to burgers and other moreish snacks, and this foodie experience, one at the time, people could enjoy and literally ‘Eat like No one Was Watching‘ for as long as they wanted. No one was looking in deed, and whoever entered had a total freedom and privacy of choosing what they wanted. There was a vanity table at the end, with a hand-wash, some mints and a hand cream, to take away any left overs from one’s face and hands and soothe those hands. This mind-blowing performance has stayed undocumented, to preserve and protect it’s quality and total honesty about it. More about projects here.
WALTZING TOMATOES
© Coffee and Sponge
This is a ground breaking film and performance by Coffee and Sponge, produced as their top project in 2013. They (in short) dance around with tomatoes between their touch points of their nude bodies. It has developed from their drawing salon, dancing with tomatoes and from then on it was performed life. As Jennifer (Coffee) told me, it was for them a very visual, emotional and fulfilling piece to create. I also asked about the importance of wearing costumes / or not in this case. And they told me that they use their naked bodies as canvas. Everything else is a costume, hence raising more problems if wearing one. If they do wear a certain costume, it in deed is very specific and well thought through. This film was premièred at On Site in Unit 3 Projects in London, during the open studios On Site. I must mention Coffee and Sponge’s participation in exhibition CONTENT at ATHICA (Athens Institute for Contemporary Art), USA from September 7th, 2013 – October 26th, 2013 . This was curated by Darin Beasley, who approached them and commissioned them for this piece to be finished in it’s final form, the film.
My introduction to this creative duo (whom I’ve known for a few years now) is coming to an end. I’ve picked up some tips on this amazing research of their work myself. Samuel (Sponge) told me, for him it is ‘all about learning to trust simplicity’. Their ideas carry that simple element. They have a sense of beauty and connectivity with the world and themselves, which is original and refreshing. I’m very much looking forward to Coffee and Sponge performances in 2014, but one thing you can be sure of. There will be spice, there will be movement and there always will be silent theatrical atmosphere in their work. Follow their work and subscribe to their newsletters here and tell me, If I’m wrong.
All this talking about sponge and coffee made me somehow hungry, so I’m off to the shops to buy some, with hope you enjoyed my post.
All the best, Silvia.
Review of Fabelist ‘Connect’ exhibition by lovely Vanessa Champion. Thank you Vanessa!
So it’s raining and cold, and I’m dodging cars and vans careering around Dalston, the greyness and dark evening winter night is wrapping a bleak wet shroud across my path. It was a massive relief to arrive at the white space at the ASideBSide Gallery in Hackney Downs and to be greeted by the warm enthusiasm of artist Silvia Krupinska who had agreed to guide me around.
“Connect” is a Fabelist Group show which takes its theme from E.M Forster’s ‘Only Connect’ which challenges notions of self perception and identity. Eighteen emerging and established artists, writers and musicians explore how artistic creation re-connects us to our lived experience of the world. The range is interesting and an expressive investigation of relationships, either with their own previous body of work, the tArt movement in New York who they work with collaboratively on an ongoing basis or as a response to…
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In May 2012 I was a guest on a TV show ‘Culture Vultures’ on Sky channel 199 OH TV. Click on the link to read a post about it. What I didn’t know, that one day I’d record art reviews for the same show! So It happened to my delight back in December and January/February this year. I had recorded 19 of Artists’ reviews. There were 19 artists works I chose to share on the TV screens with you. I prefer to call them more introductions than reviews, as I share my most loved artists and artworks around me and bring those to your attention. I love doing that! There are little better things than talking about a loved piece of art, or an artist you admire. And most of all, people don’t want to listen, if one talks about herself/himself all the time! Try it. Promote your artists friends, or if you’re in an another profession, praise your colleagues’ work, and you’ll feel so good! Speaking from my own experience! I’d recommend it to anyone.
left:Culture Vultures presenter Rosemary Laryea, book reviewer Gill Fisher and sculptor and art reviewer Silvia Krupinska
More about ‘Culture Vultures’. 
Culture Vultures is a panel discussion and review show (3o min long) presented by Jazz FM radio personality Rosemary Laryea. Each week, special panel guests pick apart and review new films, music, books, classical art, plays and other trends emerging from the world of Arts and Culture. The guests on ‘Culture Vultures’ will include critics, authors, designers, film-makers and writers, each with their own eclectic styles and tastes, led by Rosemary. The second season of Culture Vultures welcomed me as part of the reviewing team (Sculptor and Art Reviewer Silvia Krupinska) and Book Critic Gill Fisher. We joined Rosemary on set alongside a special guest, who tells exciting stories from whatever creative industry they come from. Then, both Gill and I in each episode have done our reviews. Gill book reviews and me art reviews. Unfortunately the second season of ‘Culture Vultures’ had already ended. I talked about five artists and their works. They were Jason DeCaires Taylor, Shan Hur, Nicola Anthony, Carne Griffiths and Sam Shendi. You can read Nicola’s post on her website about it here. If you missed those you can look out for Season 3, which is fast approaching in April (my reviews start again on Monday 29th at 2 pm with review of art by Anne Bevan). It will also be jam-packed with an eclectic bunch of special guests such as Delia Barker, Co-Director of the English National Ballet School; Nana Afua Twi, Britain’s Top Model of Colour winner; Eryka Freemantle, celebrity make-up artist and the multi-talented musician Lonyo Englele. Thank you so much to make-up artist Juliet Onyeka Osodi (@onyekaBeauty) who had done the make up for us all!
left, presenter Rosemary Laryea, musician Ciyu Brown, Gill Fisher book reviews and Silvia Krupinska art reviews.
Schedule of my art reviews as it’s been given to me follows. Please note changes might occur without any notice. You can click on the artists to explore their websites. Do let me know if you watch it and tweet about it with #CultureVultures tag, you can follow me @silviakrupinska and @OHTV if you like too! Thanks for your visit come again and enjoy the sun. Happy Friday!
(Since first writing this post, in fact the order of the shows has been mixed up. I have no control of this matter and to ensure to see the desired show, watch each week I guess. Sorry for any inconvenience.)
| ANNE BEVAN | (29th April 2013 at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| AGNETHA SJOGREN | 6th May 2013 at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| JONNY BRIGGS | 13th May 2013 at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| ABIGAIL BOX | 20th May 2013 at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| BEN LEVY | 27th May 2013 at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| TOMAS LIBERTINY | 3rd June 2013 at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| ROGER HIORNS | (10th June 2013 at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| KATE MCCGWIRE | 17th June 2013 at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| JOANNA ROSE TIDEY | 24th June 2013 at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| KATIE PATERSON | 1st July 2013 at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| ANNA BARLOW | 8th July at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| CAROLINE JANE HARRIS | (Monday 15th July at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| JOHN BUNKER | Monday 22nd July at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
| JONATHAN GABB | Monday 29th July at 2.00pm + same time repeats for the rest of that week. |
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