No 9 Cork Street has been hibernating since the middle of December, when it closed with Yunchul Kim, Chung Seoyoung, & Sojung Jun for Barakat Contemporary. After a brief winters nap, the space kicked off its first show of 2023 with two galleries;
1. Tiwani Contemporary based in Lagos and Cromwell Place London showing Emma Prempeh & Abigail Lucien.
2. G Gallery, based in Seoul, South Korea showing Woo Hannah.
We attended the private view on the evening of 9 March and asked the audience, what’s your hot take?
HOT TAKE 1: It’s interesting. It’s different anyway…different. Again, it’s not something I’d buy personally. It’s interesting to look at, I suppose it’s creative in a way. Art is so personal, it’s an individual thing. It’s not practical. Probably I’d sooner have a rug in my flat. I like the cats downstairs.
HOT TAKE 2: I think it’s a good turnout, and there’s a good diversity of medium. A lot of 2D mixed with 3D, I like that.
HOT TAKE 3: I felt intimidated. I felt cynical. On the other hand I think it belongs in lots of different worlds. I think of the Cork St market as a distinct world, but I do still find it accessible and populist. I don’t find the press release that convincing about inherited colonial structures and systems of belief and care. I see more forms of repetitive orthodoxy. It’s nice and pleasant though. I find the things upstairs pleasurable in a play mobile way. They also reminded me of Safiya Farhat.
I sort of inhabit several worlds. I’ve only recently re-inhabited high end commercial gallery spaces, and now it seems it’s become more indistinguishable between other areas which it never collided with, like community arts and Sunday painting, and Zine making. There seems to be more of a collapse into – at least in terms of art object and process – less distinct or interwoven.
You know press release language. I find something valuable that in all these anonymous voices are non-staged voices as well.
HOT TAKE 4: I don’t hate it. Seems like an extension of the office, really, the space.
HOT TAKE 5: I really like the orchids, all of the orchids. They feel very sculptural but also very soft, and the stitching where the artist used a different colour from the fabric, and it kind of makes it more organic in a very untidy way. They’re kind of almost fleshy. I think they’re very successful as sculptures. All of the very colourful works are a bit more complex, I guess they’re more difficult for me to engage with.
HOT TAKE 6: One of the works looks like a back scratcher. And the other one looked like those rotten fruit from Kathleen Ryan.
HOT TAKE 7: The small floor-based works look a bit like that with the encrusted jewels, very organic beadwork. There’s a lot of like ruching and pleating and interesting textile techniques.
HOT TAKE 8: It was a cool sort of exploration of the idea of domesticity and femininity. The encrusted rhinestones almost remind me of pin cushions and it feels not too obscure what she’s trying to do, it feels accessible. The messaging is very clear. Having said that, I think if I were to buy a work I would buy it from downstairs. Although I really do like the lilac orchids. They’re super tactile, you almost want to touch them and interact with the piece.
HOT TAKE 9: I didn’t think that projecting onto the painting was very practical. Because like, if I had this painting at my house, am I supposed to have the projector on all the time? Like when do I turn the projector on? Projectors take a lot of power. These days electricity is so expensive. It also just doesn’t need the projection.
HOT TAKE 10: I like the painting with the projection, if I had the painting I could remember how the projection looks like on it, so for me it would work without having the projector on all the time. I think because of the projection I look at that painting more than I would have otherwise, so it kind of did a trick for me.
HOT TAKE 11: I did make a joke when I walked into the upstairs gallery. There were two ladies standing next to the sculptures and I said to them, “is this your laundry?” and they weren’t impressed. They didn’t see the joke. I was trying to be funny but obviously it back-fired.
HOT TAKE 12: Totally different upstairs and downstairs. Not too impressed with upstairs. Downstairs was a bit better. We went to a few other galleries as well, you see. I can’t remember now. The previous gallery we went to had the most largest glasses of wine you’ve ever seen in your life, and I had two of them. As soon as I started on the second one, I thought, wow this wine is very good wine. So I can’t remember too much.
HOT TAKE 13: I liked the textiles upstairs, that was my favourite. The metalwork, I liked the idea of metalwork but I didn’t like the execution of a lot of it.
HOT TAKE 14: The corner looks like my bedroom from 1999. I used to glue like metal butterflies to the wall like they were Spicegirls.
Woo Hannah, Bleeding – 5, 2023. Wire, fabric, cotton, 40 x 214 x 227 cm. Courtesy the artist and G Gallery, Seoul.
Emma Prempeh & Abigail Lucien, With Tenderness, for Tiwani Contemporary is on view through 25 March. Woo Hannah, Appearances, for G Gallery is on view at No 9 Cork Street through 1 April
9 Cork Street
London, W1S 3LL
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