Tate Liverpool/ Student show

Went to Tate Liverpool to see Andy Warhol's work! Was very excited! Love the Albert Docks! Planned to go for some time now, after a lecture about him some time ago, which showed him very well as an artist i decided to go and see for myself what his work was like in real life! With my free pass at the ready (benefits of being a student haha!) me and my friend Roisin went to see and explore his work. Few minutes into it we started discussing how we don't like the polished look of the gallery, how we preferred the raw and messy look that some student set up shows have! We felt like with clean looking gallery's you are scared to engage with the work compared to the more informal gallerys where you feel like you are engaging with the work as well as the space it is in. I like when work engages with the space and seems to work together, looked like it belongs there and not just placed on the wall for the sake of it. 

So after quick dissapproval of the way the gallery was too clean and polished we moved on onto criticizing Andy Warhol's works. To be honest nothing really grabbed me to the point that i would want to talk about it for a long period of time like some other artists work that triggered that reaction. The were however some amusing peaces of work that i liked the look of. For example:

 Do it yourself (Seascape), 1962. acrylic on canvas

This piece is quite amusing to look at as when you look at it up close you can see that it isn't perfectly made, some colors don't match as though a child has painted! And usually these sort of "do it yourself " are for children to learn how to color! 

Another piece that i found interesting but was disappointing in the way it was presented is the work:

Andy Warhal, 1928-1987 Dance Diagram 1 (Fox Trot: 'The Double Twinkle-Man')

For me this piece was the most interactive in nature, in the way it asked for us to repeat the steps of the dance and i really wanted to! However it was protected not just by one but two frames! Ridiculous! Nearly all the work had an outer shell of protection! For me it stops me from engaging with the work and the further i went in exploring his work i couldn't help but keep noticing the presentation of his work than actually seeing his work! I know the work is precious and everything but for me it was too much. The work wasn't free! However there was one work that i really liked and it was video work in one black room filled with multiple videos and a disco ball flashing on top of them all! I really felt the sense of space and freedom in this room compared to the other work which were caged and didn't have that sense of freedom in them! This work invaded space in a clever way, by taking it all up, allowing us to be part of the work in some way!

I cant say i hated it but i wanted more freedom in the way work was shown as it was too collected for me. Some more photos of the gallery space:

So after, me and my friend went around the Albert Dock a bit which was AMAZING! Loved it! Went to Costa to treat ourselves! yumm!

I went back to uni to go see an exhibition made by the show group this time and was blown away! After collected and clean looking Andy Warhol gallery i entered into a completely opposite interactive and free show space! I loved it! It was made into a maze where you need to find your way round to see all the work! I loved the tiny spaces that i had to walk through to see the next work! It made me interested and engaged which the Tate gallery failed to do for me! I loved the messiness of the walls and that they were in paint! The work was interacting with the space and in return i interacted with the space and the work too! Such a contrast between the two spaces that i have visited today! 

Love it!

Love the wall marks

~Ev