Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama's transendant expression of work captured my imagination through her use of psychedelic colours and repetative forms. Her work was aesthetically mesmerizing and conveyed intense psychological 'hallucinations' she has experienced during her life. I particularly liked her instillation of the boat covered in soft stiched forms, coating every area; including the entirity of the room in repetative images of the boat. Due to the black and white contrasts and lighting in the room it created an atmospheric motion, which swayed the room as if it were moving. This instigated thoughts within my own practise of how I can use repetitive images to create the illusion of movement.

I found most of her work was drawn to this element of illusion and was very successful. Her trademark polka-dots immersed the whole exhibition and showed an in depth progression in the ways in which she used them. The infinity room best defines this as it creates the illusion of infinate circular lights, reflected by mirrors and water. This also made me condiser how mirrors can be used to create masses and how this relevance can be used with in my own work.

Alot of Kusama's work derives from her past childhood hallucinations, which is said to have sought her 'self obliteration'. By surrounding herself and the enviroment in vast polka-dots; encouraged the idea that she found solace within the intrinsic madness. Through all the various mediums Kusama uses, you can identify her obsession and compulsion to create Art in a therapeutic manner; which can be percieved as very personal and a reflection of her psyche.

I would defiantely want to see more of Kusama's work as it intreuges my mind into what possesses her impulsesses to create such Art. I also I think with the knowledge that she has been self submitted in a psychiatric care home for the past 35 years, makes me feel like the Art work is more natural and organic, giving it a sense of presence without faulse cause or predetermined explanation.

Alighiero Boetti- Game Plan- Tate Modern

The Boetti exhibition currently showing at the Tate Modern is a must see. Boetti's skill and prowess are shown through a diverse range of works- from sculpture, to drawing, to painting, to tapestry. Not only are the works interesting aesthetically and from a material point of view, they are also backed by intriguing thoughts of the artist.

Boetti uses a huge range of materials, I enjoyed the range of building materials used in some of the earlier sculptures. In "Lo che prendo il sole a Torino il 19 gennaio 1969" [Me Sunbathing in Turin on 19 January 1969] there was something very captivating and personal about the manner in which the small cement pieces were moulded- reminiscent of Anthony Gormley's army of clay figures. Such organic shapes were juxtaposed with man-made building materials. This room led on fluidly to "Order and disorder" which I particularly enjoyed and found I could draw parallels with my own work. Boetti's work struck a cord, the simplicity yet effectiveness of works such as a checkerboard pattern of square stones placed over a ruffled tracing paper was inspiring.

As I continued into the exhibition the quantity of work Boetti produced in his lifetime struck me. The larger Biro works showed admirable labour and tedium, and although he did not in fact draw every line to the page the ideas and the interspersion of white letters and commas gave the viewer something to 'decode' so to speak.

An excellent drawer and painter their were several rooms with further paintings, and humour came across throughout, but somehow worked alongside his more serious map tapestries. These tapestries engage with the continual alteration of borders and boundaries that were seen throughout the cold war, and again the amount of work and skill is impressive and breathtaking. Such beautiful traditional works seem quite rare in the contemporary art world so the textiles were very refreshing.

Game Plan is an exhibition with something to please everyone, from traditional to the conceptual, but never without thought and meaning.

The Hayward Study Trip David Shrigley

I was looking forward to viewing the David Shrigley exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, I'd experienced some of his sketches and poems online and was eager to see the exhibition. The humour he portrays in his works is often observational and sometimes quite morbid. He brings humour to everyday life occurrences through reflecting emotions, habits, actions, violence and death. His humour is vast and at times inconceivable, however, he aims to surprise just as much as humour his audience and a lot of his work proves very thought provoking.

The exhibition featured a lot of new works by Shrigley and for some reason I found his sketches in particular not as funny, some were, but I felt some pieces lacked charisma in a sense and looked more like text book doodles than interesting artworks. The majority were thought provoking to a degree, but I just think that overtook the humour more than usual. Also, I felt some of the sketches were possibly trying too hard to be funny, they were a bit too random or a bit too plain. Everyone has their own sense of humour so its simply my own opinion, but I have to say I prefer his mass produced greeting cards than his sketches for this exhibition.

The sculpture however I did enjoy, I found his quirky take on scale and the randomness of the objects comical, also its an aspect of his work that I hadn't previously seen. My favourite piece was probably the grave stone, it brings a humorous side to death and after all death is inevitable so why not lighten the mood and see its humorous side. Overall, I did enjoy the exhibitions, I found his art work quirky and a bit different it can be both childish and explicit, intellectual and ridiculous, or funny and vulgar. All round, very entertaining and if I could spend a day inside David Shrigley's brain it would definitely be one to remember.