I discovered the artist Spike Dennis at the recent Bodies & Selves exhibition at Milgi Lounge in Cardiff. The show featured Humanimals (Bestial Drawings), described in the accompanying leaflet as follows:

“Most of the characters’ physical attributes normally associated with gender are obscured or removed and the figures are presented as monstrous hybrid humanoid creatures. The deformation of these figures in a way negates social issues that we would commonly associate with images of the body, allowing for example a pansexual representation of love or attraction, whilst reminding us of our core bestial nature”

Bestial Drawing

Spike Dennis works in a variety of mediums, including clay, fabric, pen, paint and even sequins, resulting in a range of 2D and 3D pieces that can be seen on his website, which also features a blog.

Eurwen (Grotesques)

The artist attended Wimbledon School of Fine Art, before going on to complete a Fine Art Masters degree in Wales. He says of his own work:

“My work is primitive.  It is turbulence, chaos, conflict and violent elegance whilst at once it is peace and oneness.  It is the strange, the cruel and unusual, the grotesque, the mysterious, the supernatural, moonlight, falling water, mountains and the darkness.  It is the land beyond the wall, the Theatre of Dreams, Neverland, Scarlett Thomas’ Mindspace and the space between us.  It is also the pursuit of originality, concern with the fleeting present, desire to live in the moment, the past and the future, a sense of timelessness, the thoughtful contemplation of the unknown.  It is nostalgia, it is reverie, it is intoxicating dreams, it is sweet melancholy, solitude, the sufferings of exile, the sense of alienation and normlessness, roaming in remote places, especially in the North.  It is also self torture, self annihilation and suicide.  It is the sadness of unfulfilled expectations.  It is the primeval, the unsophisticated, the bosom of nature, green fields, wind chimes, bubbling brooks, the infinite midnight blue sky.  No less, however, is it the desire to dress up, blue hair, urban outfits, throbbing sub bass, neon plastic, faery lights, a dedication to the following of fashion.   It is wild exhibitionism, eccentricity and the hedonistic pursuit of life.  It is both in the world and of the world”

(from http://www.spikeworld.co.uk/statement/) 

Blacklight Drawing

If you would like to find out more about Spike on this website, please visit: Dennis, Spike – Info

If you would like to see more of Spike’s work, please visit his website: http://spikeworld.co.uk/

Keep Your Hands Off is a multimedia work that combines fine art, animation and sound sculpture. The focus of the piece is a collection of Russian Avant-garde paintings. Images of these paintings and sound recordings with a Russian theme are manipulated to produce a visual & sonic exhibition.

Here’s the video:

Keep Your Hands Off from Sebastiano Dessanay on Vimeo.

Here is a description of the piece by Sebastiano and credits for the video:

This multimedia work has been conceived in order to bring back to life some Russian Avant-garde paintings from last century in form of a virtual exhibition. The slogan “Keep your hands off, bourgeois!”, inscribed on a painting in the collection, inspired the title of this work.
The musical inspiration came directly from contemplation of these paintings. Twelve were chosen from the collection (totalling nearly sixty works) according to my personal taste. The sequence in which the paintings are revealed emphasizes their visual contrast and is further supported by sonic contrast, each painting being assigned different musical sources, in close relation with the aesthetics of the Russian Avant-garde music and visual concepts.

DVD Credits:

Music and visuals by Sebastiano Dessanay

Russian voices: Lenin (political speech, 1919-20), Leon Trotsky (political speech, ca. 1938), Dmitri Shostakovich (radio message broadcast, 1941).
Manipulated short music fragments from: Modest Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition), Arseny Avraamov (Symphony of Sirens, version by L. Amigo & M. Molina), Yuli Meytuss (Dnieper Water Power Station), Alexander Mossolov (The Steel Foundry), Sergei Prokofiev (Toccata in D minor), Dmitri Shostakovich (Symphony No.2).
Other music samples and noises recorded in Birmingham by the author in April-May 2009.
Also thanks to Leonid Nikishin, Vera Khait and Tatiana Dardykina for their vocal contribution and Zsófia Faragó for her ‘modified’ piano practice.

Original Russian paintings property of Araba Fenice Art Gallery, Cagliari, Italy.

Motion Graphic Design by Pawel Stec.
Cover Notes by Margherita Dessanay.
Cover Design by Stroke.

© 2009 Sebastiano Dessanay

For more information about Sebastiano on this site, please visit Dessanay, Sebastiano – Info

To see and hear more of Sebastiano’s work, please visit his website: www.sebastianodessanay.com

On the 6th December, the Turner Prize 2010 for contemporary art will be awarded to one of four shortlisted nominees. With under a week to go before the winner is announced, The Medium of takes a look at the nominees: Dexter Dalwood, Angela de la Cruz, Susan Philipsz and The Otolith Group.

The nominations for 2010 have been met with the usual mix of condemnation and praise. There are those that direct their feelings towards contemporary arts as a whole whilst others channel it toward the nominees themselves. A quick review of some news outlets shows no clear favourite, although William Hill has Dalwood as favourite and Philipsz as the outsider! To see what others are saying, check out the following: Richard Dorment – Daily Telegraph, Stephanie West – Channel-4 News, Jonathan Jones – Guardian, Shona Black – Suite101, Details on Request Blog, BBC News.

When all is said and done, it still remains to each their own. Have a look below and choose your favourite.

Dexter Dalwood

Reason for nomination:
“Dexter Dalwood has been nominated for his solo exhibition at Tate St Ives which revealed the rich depth and range of his approach to making painting that draws upon historical tradition as well as contemporary cultural and political events.” Tate website

Burroughs in Tangiers – Dexter Dalwood (via Tate website)

Angela de la Cruz

Reason for nomination:
“Angela de la Cruz has been nominated for her solo exhibition, After at Camden Arts Centre, London. De la Cruz uses the language of painting and sculpture to create striking works that combine formal tension with a deeper emotional presence.” Tate website

Super Clutter XXL – Angela de la Cruz (via Tate website)

Susan Philipsz

Reason for nomination:
“Susan Philipsz has been nominated for the presentations of her work Lowlands at the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and Long Gone in the group exhibition Mirrors at the Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo, Spain. Philipsz uses her own voice to create uniquely evocative sound installations that play upon and extend the poetics of specific, often out-of-the-way spaces.” Tate website

Lowlands – Susan Philipsz (via Tate website)

The Otolith Group.

Reason for nomination:
“The Otolith Group have been nominated for their project A Long Time Between Suns, which took the form of exhibitions at Gasworks and The Showroom, London with accompanying publication. The collaborative and discursive practice of The Otolith Group questions the nature of documentary history across time by using material found within a range of disciplines, in particular the moving image.” Tate Website

Excerpt from Otolith I – The Otolith Group (via Tate website)