Royal Academy of Arts

Lawrence Lek @ Royal Academy of Arts, Apr 24

22 April 2015

London-based artist Lawrence Lek is giving a special performance titled Unreal Estate at the Senate Room of the Royal Academy of Arts on April 24.

Commissioned for the Dazed Emerging Artist Award, the performance uses video game software to create a future world in which the Royal Academy of Arts now stands as a privately owned luxury estate. Helicopters loom above the penthouse helipad, Anish Kapoor sculptures hover around a luxuriously lit swimming pool, and Corinthian columns stand testament to the deliberate neo-classical opulence of the place.

Lek’s version of a dystopian capitalism is set against the backdrop of London’s current housing crisis, blending hardware, software, installation and performance into a full-body interactive environment. The striking installation is accompanied by music from cellist Oliver Coates and a voiceover of a found text from Russian Tatler magazine, translated into Mandarin by curator and translator Joni Zhu.

See the FB event page for details. **

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Summertime

1 July 2011

For the lack of a beach or sunshine in London, you’re bound to find a gallery opening or exhibition to make up for it on any given summer’s day. Don’t think that just because you’re not frolicking along the seashore that you won’t be getting a workout either. Apart from the exhausting flex of that mind muscle you have the opportunity to tramp through an epic showcase like the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition.

Coloring Book, by Jeff Koons (bronze). Royal Academy of Arts courtyard, London.

The Burlington House institution has been putting on this annual showcase for what feels like the beginning of time (since 1769, to be precise) to finance the training of its student practitioners, with artists from across the UK and the world making submission. With over 12,000 entries from 27 countries, the Academy and its guest curators have had their work cut out for them in containing all the pieces, spanning almost every medium and practice, to 14 rooms and one courtyard. That’s a lot of walking so for the sake of your sanity (and your ‘glutes’), you’ll need to make a judgment call on what you simply must see.

Continue reading Summertime

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