‘The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!’ & Other Events To Look Out For This June

June’s cultural offering is markedly diverse, with the third edition of performance festival Block Universe taking place, alongside the London Festival of Architecture and London Fashion Week Men’s. As ever, expect a busy calendar of exhibition openings and events, including anticipated shows from artists Grayson Perry and Zadie Xa. Something Curated compiles a list of the best on offer this month, taking a closer look at the creative minds behind the projects.

 

Exhibitions

Crash, Boom, Hisssssss. Legend of the Liquid Sword at Somerset House || Zadie Xa (1 June)

Creating an immersive environment for this performance at the Lancaster Rooms at Somerset House, Zadie Xa’s work interrogates ideas of authentic versus inherited positions and displacement within the Asian diaspora. Through a fantastical overlayering of cultural references, Crash, Boom, Hisssssss. Legend of the Liquid Sword will transport the audience into a supernatural narrative inhabited by shamanistic beings, based on Manshin (Korean shaman) and loosely inspired by Pansori, a Korean genre of musical storytelling performed by a vocalist and a drummer.

 

Ann Cathrin November Høibo at Carl Freedman Gallery || Ann Cathrin November Høibo (Until 17 Jun)

In terms of process, Ann Cathrin November Høibo follows a simple pattern of warp-and-weft. Long, vertical strands – the warp – provide a working base through which she loops and knots the weft, or various muted and luminescent yarns, ropes, and cords. With this austere method, Høibo manages to make lush, complex and occasionally wild tapestries, guarded while brimming with textures and colours, like a garden that has been precisely designed to allow for overgrowth. Høibo’s background is in weaving, but it would be difficult to call her a textile artist in a traditional sense. She also has an extensive sculptural practice that includes constructing the fixtures for her textiles. The brass forms seen in this exhibition, her second at Carl Freedman Gallery, are welded together with liquid silver.

 

Nam-Gut at Banner Repeater || Jenna Sutela (Until 30 Jul)

Nam-Gut, the microbial breakdown of language, is a video by Jenna Sutela that presents a biological poetry culture based on a “wetware random number generator”. The stochastic movement of fermentation, an inherently unpredictable process, can be seen actively brewing in the symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast, in a kombucha tea ferment. The changes in the living material shape a text inspired by the ancient Sumerian incantation, a nam-shub, (Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, ’92) which questions the degree of instruction, or performativity, produced by the protocols of computer code and natural language.

 

The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever! at Serpentine Gallery || Grayson Perry (8 Jun – 10 Sep)

Perry’s abiding interest in his audience informs his choice of universally human subjects. Working in a variety of traditional media such as ceramics, cast iron, bronze, printmaking and tapestry, Perry is best known for his ability to combine delicately crafted objects with scenes of contemporary life. His subject matter is drawn from his own childhood and life as a transvestite, as well as wider social issues ranging from class and politics to sex and religion. Taking place during the Serpentine’s popular summer season, when the parks enjoy hugely increased local and international audiences, The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever! will tackle one of Perry’s central concerns: how contemporary art can best address a diverse cross section of society.

 

Retail

Balenciaga, Mount Street || Demna Gvasalia & Gonzalez Haase (TBC Jun)

Balenciaga’s flagship boutique on rue Saint-Honoré, Paris reopened earlier this year, having been the first to be redesigned by Gonzalez Haase AAS under the creative direction of Demna Gvasalia. The pioneering designer is well known for his work with Vetements, as well as Balenciaga, having been invited in 2016 to establish the French house’s spatial aesthetic. The brand’s London store is set to receive a similar minimalistic and industrial makeover, launching later this month.

 

C.H.A. at Soda Studios || Claire Barrow, Hannah Lambert & Ashley Williams (4 Jul)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUtxirYgmzq/

Claire Barrow, Hannah Lambert and Ashley Williams invite guests to C.H.A., a seven hour boutique housing designer and vintage gold dust, sold by Ashley Williams and Hannah Lambert, alongside Claire Barrow offering her eclectic archive, current collections and one off art pieces at Soda Studios.

 

Alexander McQueen Sample Sale at Shoreditch Town Hall || Sarah Burton (Until 3 Jun)

The anticipated Alexander McQueen sample sale includes a diverse selection of womenswear, menswear, McQ pieces and accessories from previous seasons with new stock every day. It may be worth reaching out to an Alexander McQueen representative prior to ensure entry to the expectedly busy event.

 

Events

London Fashion Week Men’s || Natalie Massenet (8 – 12 Jun)

With a busy schedule of menswear shows, events and presentations, including new offerings from Xander Zhou, Liam Hodges, Craig Green, Wales Bonner and more, London Fashion Week Men kicks off on Thursday 8 June. At the centre of it all, there will be plenty of activity at The Store Studios at 180 Strand; the venue houses the main BFC Show Space on the ground floor while the BFC Presentation Space and the Designer Showrooms including ready-to-wear and accessories are located on the first floor.

 

London Festival of Architecture || Barry McKeogh (1 – 30 Jun)

The festival is an annual, city-wide event taking place throughout June, inspiring debate and new thinking about the capital’s architecture and public realm. From its earliest days, the festival has been a showcase for creative talent, as well as providing a platform for engagement in, and observation about, the city. The Festival has over 150 partners, including architecture schools, arts and heritage organisations, architectural practices, designers, cultural institutions, artists and curators. These Partners from across London come together each year with the enablement of the LFA to create the programme.

 

Town Hall Classics at Town Hall Hotel || Loh Lik Peng (1 – 18 Jun)

Before the venue’s renovation, the Town Hall was used as a film set for just over a decade; the building has featured in over 300 productions. To celebrate this, Town Hall Hotel, developed by hotelier Loh Lik Peng, introduces their own series of screenings by way of the ‘Town Hall Classics’. To kick off the event, they will be hosting special screenings of Guy Ritchie’s Snatch and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels on 1st and 2nd June. In true East end style, the hotel is also collaborating with Joe and Kim of local pie shop, F. Cooke, who will be serving up pie and mash straight to visitors’ seats in the Council Chamber.

 

Nick Knight, in Conversation with Mimma Viglezio at Sarabande Foundation || Nick Knight & Mimma Viglezio (6 Jun)

Nick Knight OBE is widely recognised as one of the world’s most influential and visionary photographers, and founder and director of award-winning fashion website SHOWstudio.com. As a fashion photographer, he has consistently challenged conventional notions of beauty and is fêted for his groundbreaking creative collaborations with leading designers including Yohji Yamamoto, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen as well as advertising campaigns for the likes of Dior and Tom Ford among many others. For his first Patron event at Sarabande Nick will be ‘in conversation’ with writer and creative consultant, Mimma Viglezio on years of collaborating across the creative industries.

 

Performance

Block Universe at Various Locations || Louise O’Kelly (Until 4 Jun)

Block Universe, London’s international performance art festival, is back for the third year, presenting five newly commissioned and site-specific performances, four UK premieres as well as exclusive talks and workshops. Taking over different venues across London, the week long programme will present work by some of the most exciting UK-based and international artists working in performance art today: Eglė Budvytytė’s disruption of public space; a performative dinner by lşıl Eğrikavuk; Liz Magic Laser’s political therapy workshops at the Showroom; Nicole Bachmann’s new commission examining the relationship between language, voice and power, and more.

 

An Enemy of the People at Theatro Technis || Ian Hoare (13 – 17 Jun)

An Enemy of the People is one of Ibsen’s angriest and most radical plays, and also one of his most popular. Written in disgust at the hostile reception given to its predecessor, Ghosts, the play rages against the deceit and corruption of 19th Century public affairs, in a manner that resonates powerfully in the current era of ‘post-truth’ politics. But it’s also a penetrating study of the boundary between idealism and egotism. The story centres on Thomas Stockmann, the respected doctor of a spa town, who decides to expose a water pollution scandal. He quickly comes into an explosive conflict with the local citizenry, including the press, the business community, and the mayor – who is also his brother.

 

Feature image via Somerset House