In April, we went along to the Pick Me Up exhibition in Somerset House.This was a primarily graphic exhibition by established artists. Each artist had their own space. Besides the high standard of the works themselves, it was interesting to see how the work was exhibited.

As we entered, there was an exhibit by Marie Jacotey  where the prints were stuck to the wall with black tape. The prints themselves were sketched in coloured pencils rather like a childs’ so rather simple in style, so the fact they were taped to the wall seemed to compliment their spontaneous childishness.

Another used just letters beautifully presented.

Some prints of paintings arranged in frames of primary colours.

An arrangement of paintings and wooden objects by Rachel Lillie.

Some work done with puff spray by a New York artist.

There were many others, it was an enormous exhibition, but it certainly was inspirational and showed many ways of exhibiting besides just frames. In addition to tape,  there were magnets, shelves, and post its. There was also a place where you could buy a poster which you made yourself. You choose a background, were given a wooden set, you then choose the lettering and it was printed.I choose one with eyes which I had ‘see ing’ printed on for my exhibition.

Mark Wallinger

After the Pick Me Up exhibition, we went on to Hauser and Wirth to an exhibition by Mark Wallinger who won the Turner prize in 2007 for his installation ‘State Britain’. He also had a work ‘Ecce Homo’, a sculpture, which occupied the empty plinth in Trafalgar square. This was his debut solo exhibition. There were several videos in different rooms. In one room, there was a video, created on his iphone, which was bluetacked to the driver’s side window, while going round a roundabout, of circling or revolving trees – they were supposed to give the feeling of circling round the viewer.

But the best things were a collection of large black and white paintings done using his hands. They were life sized and painted in black. They were quite extraordinary and almost musical in feel. He was using his hands simultaneously in all sorts of different movements. They were about the Id. According to Freud, who invented the concept of the Id, the Id is driven by the pleasure principal and is the source of all psychic energy. The paintings are instinctive and primal like the Id.

Id painting 15

After the Wallinger exhibition, we went to White Cube, Masons Yard. They were showing work by a South American artist, Jac Lernier, Junkie. She had collected together all the detritus or ‘ephemera’ from her drug days – now 30 years ago. These were displayed on wire or using tiny photographs as seen below. Apparently the images are laid out in a line or mnemonically creating a series of associations and narratives that chart the passage of time and the haze and energy associated with taking drugs.