Late Night at the Bluecoat

I went to The Late Night on the 18th November. It was the first time I had visited the Bluecoat. I went to the printing workshop for a while and watched the performance in the courtyard, but I was most interested in the current exhibitions there.

Ranjani Shettar’s beautiful cast bronze sculpture fascinated me. She has used an unconventional method of bronze casting to express her interest in the collision of industrial and the organic. The method used is called wax casting. It is actually an traditional/ outdated form of casting where the molten bronze is poured into channels leading to the ‘cast’. The works we are shown here would be remnants of those channels and, sadly would traditionally have been disposed of.

I think that she is wise to have used the wax casting method as it has more of a organic, human touch, yet her use of the metallic material give us an essence of the industrial.



I also made a point to go and see Nicolas Hlobo’s ‘Ndize’. I was made aware of his work a few days previously when curator of the bluecoat, Sarah Parsons, came to speak to us. She told us how most of the communication about the exhibition was made over the internet and how, originally the plan was that the piece was going to be hung from the walls. It was only a few days before the opening when the work was brought from overseas into the gallery that they realized the brackets and walls would not support the weight. So they had to rethink the presentation.

I found the story really interesting and wanted to see how their problem was resolved. The colourful objects were placed on the floor with ribbons leading up and out of the room. I see how the piece has changed. It is possibly more static than planned, however I imagine the effect is quite similar due to the ribbon gives fluidity and elevates our view.