Ketos 2.0 – ‘Whaleless’ in Italy

I’ve just found out that my sculpture, ‘Poorly Remembered Whale’, (which had previously been showing at Strychnin’s Berlin gallery) is to now travel to Italy and go on show at the KETOS 2.0 exhibition. Below is the official press release with all the relevant details.

KETOS 2.0 is the title of the first “Whaleless” exhibition in a public space and will feature site specific installations and digital as well as fine art. It opens at the Civic Museum of Reggio Emilia, Italy on July 9th at 9pm.

Whaleless is an art project dedicated to those artists wishing to express their indignation, rage, shame, disbelief or concern about the slow disappearance of the fascinating giant marine mammals.

Pollution, whaling and unacceptable fishing practices are only some of the causes that seriously endanger their survival. It seems that they are slowly but inevitably growing extinct, while the consequences of their gradual disappearance are impossible to predict. And yet we can be certain that the world’s ecosystem – not just the oceans’ but that of our entire planet – will be affected by this change. The world would not be the same without whales, which is why action needs to be taken immediately.

The project "Whaleless" was born in 2005 on the pages of the Italian Pig magazine, created by the Italian curator Giovanni Cervi. In 2008 Whaleless started an international exhibition tour at Strychnin Gallery London. It has since travelled to major European cities and was shown at Strychnin Gallery Berlin in March 2009.

Artists featured in Reggio Emilia are:
Wayne Chisnall, Arianna Carossa, Squp, Zaelia Bishop, Aurélien Police, Giuliano Sale, Kokomoo, Tamara Ferioli, Bethany Marchman, LostFish, Lisa Mei Ling Fong, Ansgar Noeth, Karin Andersen, Mimi S, Fernanda Veron, Elena Rapa, Madeleine von Foster and Leonardo Betti.

"Whaleless" is realized with the kind support of PIG Magazine, Res Pira and of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, whose German office is based in Munich.

Musei Civici
Palazzo san Francesco, Sala Vallisneri
Reggio Emilia, Italy

Opening night: July 9th, 2009, 9 p.m.
End date: August 31st, 2009
Opening times: Thu - Sat 9 – 12 and 21 – 24; Sun 21 – 24

Losing it in Venice

What can I say about Venice Biennale 2009? Crazy, amazing, peculiar, debauched - but definitely not boring. Even if I did lose my mobile in one of the canals on my first night there I still had fantastic time. OK, I admit that losing ten years worth of telephone numbers (yes, I know - I should have backed them up) and the prospect of being without a mobile for a week might have put me in a bit of a bad mood for a while, but the circus that is Venice Biennale soon put pay to that.

I travelled over with fellow artist, James White, and in no time at all we bumped into several groups of people we knew or were about to know. It seemed that half of the London art scene was there. Our first night back at Camp Fusina, we popped over to the cabin opposite to borrow a corkscrew and found a room full of artists that we knew from back home. We also hooked up with the girls from WW Gallery and Pharos Gallery’s Sophie Wilson (who I partly blame for me losing my phone – things always get out of hand when she’s around) who curated the short lived ‘Travelling Light’ exhibition. The highlight of their opening night seemed to be when our Miss Wilson (who may or may not have been in a slightly intoxicated state) decided to clamber aboard a boat and then had to be helped off by a mysterious Russian who stripped naked and swam across the canal to her aid.

As for the artwork on show through out the Biennale – there were highs and lows (but mostly highs). Although there was the odd country that hadn’t quite grasped the concept of the whole event and just decided to stage a corporate-looking promotion of their home land, the vast majority really went for it. Of the collateral exhibitions I especially liked ‘Distortion’ from the UK, not just because it had work by some of my favourite artists but because they also had a very chilled out bar and nicely sheltered courtyard where we got to hang out with and meet lots of interesting people. And opposite from Distortion was the ‘Australia’ participation with one of the most impressive pieces I’d seen – a 30 ton monolith made out of video tapes, with the collective running time of all these tapes apparently lasting the current average life span. The most fun pieces that we came across had to be the interactive works by Miranda July (if you haven’t seen it, check out her film, ‘Me and You and Everyone We Know’). On the whole, there was just so much there that I could talk about - from the surprisingly moving Estonian entry about the Bronze Soldier Monument to the mesmerizing and roughly hewn, figurative wooden sculptures at the Italian pavilion - but the best plan would just be to go there for yourself and see as much as you can. And if you intend to go to the next one in two years time, my word of advice would be to go at the very beginning and crash as many of the opening parties as you can.
Several times I heard people mention that the Venice Biennale is like the art version of the Oscars. Well, I’ve never been to the Oscars but if they’re half as much fun as this was, they must be blood good.

V&A Museum - Friday Late View

V&A Friday Late View - May 2009, originally uploaded by Wayne Chisnall.

Well, the cut-outs seemed to go down very well at the museum's Friday Late View, even if one little girl did tell me that the St. George one needed a bit more colouring-in. Unfortunately she'd left her crayons at home and I needed a beer, so we were forced to leave it as it was. But, all four of the cut-outs were getting a lot of use and a lot of laughs so we let that one slide.

All in all it was a very busy day for me. Prior the setting up and taking down the cut-outs at the end of the night, I had to set up some of my artwork for an Art Investment Conference at the London Business School. I also met up with a couple of fantastic young artists who are setting up an artist residence program in Poland. Fingers crossed that I'll be involved in that one - it sounds incredible.

To see images from previous V and A Friday Late Views you can check out their flickr account at -
www.flickr.com/photos/fridaylate/sets/