East End exhibitions – five of the best for October
A virtual view from Hackney Wick of the Olympic Park, as found in Lawrence Lek’s Delirious New Wick, part of Bonus Levels at the Museum of London. © Lawrence Lek
Thomas Ruff: Photographs 1979 – 2017 @ Whitechapel Gallery
77-82 Whitechapel High St, E1 7QX
Thomas Ruff studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alongside other exemplars of the world-famous Düsseldorf School movement in photography, and still lives and works in the city. The group built on the dispassionate, anti-expressionistic themes of the Neue Sachlichkeit (‘New Objectivity’) artists of the 1920s, like Otto Dix and George Grosz, and in doing so changed what ‘social realism’ in photography could look like forever. Ruff’s interpretation of the form is presented in this retrospective of his career at the Whitechapel, which will draw from his truly varied collections – from the more straightforward, like 1988’s Porträt (P. Stadtbäumer) and the industrial House Nr.11 III, to more conceptual shots, such as the images taken from his series of hazy alterations to internet pornography, Nudes. From 27 September until 21 January 2018
Thomas Ruff’s Haus Nr.11 III (House Nr.11 III). © Thomas Ruff
Lawrence Lek: Bonus Levels @ Museum of London
150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN
London has featured in video games for as long as the medium has existed: from satirical Thatcher-era text-adventure Hampstead to modern day 3D affairs like The Getaway and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. None of them, to my knowledge, depict Hackney Wick and the Olympic Park as “a primal utopia of floating islands, abandoned stadiums and post-industrial monuments”, or a post-Brexit Gillett Square in flames. But these are scenes from Lawrence Lek’s Bonus Levels, coming to the Museum of London this month as part of their City Now City Future season. Specifically, they come from a series of exclusive video games, created by the German-born multimedia artist to not only satirise current attitudes and affairs, but also to uncouple the London he lives in from conventional space and time. From 7 October until 3 January 2018
Tal R: Sexshops @ Victoria Miro
16 Wharf Rd, N1 7RW
Venus (2017), by Tal R. © Tal R | Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro, London
Israeli painter Tal R’s style is to create flat, often colourful compositions that are densely packed with detail. However this current collection, being exhibited until later this year at Islington’s Victoria Miro, is more stripped back and smouldering than his typical ouvre – portraying, as it does, the frontages of sex shops from around the world. Working from photographs from locales like Paris, Prague and Los Angeles, Tal R adds elements of abstraction, as well as a Rothko-like glow (he sometimes mixes pigments with glue to achieve this) which enhances the seductive quality of these images of desire and debauchery. Until 20 December
Skyhigh @ Stour Space
7 Roach Rd, E3 2PA
Stour Space’s latest group exhibition also concentrates on cityscapes, bringing together printmakers, illustrators, graffiti artists and animators from Bristol, Sheffield and London itself. Aside from the urban thread, it’s a diverse mixture of different arts and crafts. Fuller, creator of “cartographical love letters”, will be on show – his London Town is an entry into the well-worn ‘psychogeographic maps’ genre, but with a hugely impressive level of detail commensurate with its 10-year gestation period. Rowdy and Xenz represent the colourful street art scene, whereas Dan Speight creates art from streets – he screenprints them along the sides of old books. Andy Council’s anthropomorphised urban beasts, and Jo Peel’s technical topography-as-art, cap things off. From 7 October until 22 October
One of Dan Speight’s facade’s, printed onto some antique books. Image courtesy the artist and Stour Space
Ed Fornieles: Seed @ Carlos/Ishikawa
Unit 4, 88 Mile End Road, E1 4UN
Ed Fornieles is one of those ‘post-internet’ artists, which seems to me to be too wide a brief to be a meaningful term in any sense, but hey-ho. To be fair, the Oxford grad has a history of utilising the internet in ways beyond the standard .gif art or live stream. His ‘Facebook sitcom’ Dorm Daze sculpted real American students’ data into a three-month online drama played out by actors (before cutting out those middlemen and women for a follow-up piece that generated content automatically from fresh student profiles. Lock down your Facebook, kids!) After that, his Chisenhale show of 2014 dealt with the more universal theme of family, influenced by the breakup of his relationship with actress Felicity Jones. Little is known about this new show at the small Carlos/Ishikawa gallery in Mile End, but Fornieles is clearly one to keep a close eye on. From 22 September until 28 October