View the Lutz Bacher exhibition at Ravens Row Gallery

This exhibition features the disturbing and difficult to categorise work of American artist Lutz Bacher (1943-2019). The exhibition explores Bacher's use of music, sound, and voice.Bacher's work oscillates between the conceptual and the intuitive, making extensive use of appropriation, drawing from the detritus of American pop culture and the information age (popular fiction, self-help manuals, trade magazines, scientific publications, pornography, bureaucracy, discarded photographs) to create works that are at once intimate, violent, and funny.

My notes from the exhibition
I was fascinated by Lutz Bacher's unique style of art in this exhibition at Ravens Row Gallery. Her work pushes the boundaries of traditional art, transforming the trivial moments of everyday life into a profound artistic language. The use of music, sound and voice adds an ineffable power to her work, making it resonate with the viewer.

1. Appropriation and Cultural Criticism: Bacher offers a profound cultural critique of modern society by appropriating elements of American pop culture and the information age. Her work made me think about how to reflect and question the values and beliefs of contemporary society through art.

2. Exploration of Art and Identity: Bacher's practice of hiding her identity in her work while using personal dialogue and relationships made me think about the relationship between artists and their creations, and how personal identity can be explored and expressed in art.

3. Expression of emotion: The works in the exhibition are full of emotional power, whether it be intimacy, violence or humour, and made me feel the deep emotional expression of the artworks and the common emotional experience of human beings.

4. The combination of sight and sound: Bacher combines visual art with music, sound and voice to create a multi-sensory art experience. This makes me think about how to incorporate multi-sensory elements in my own art practice to enrich the expressive power of my work.

5. The contrast between the appearance of the installation and the material: I am most impressed by this art installation which is sprayed with black paint and looks sharp, but the material is sponge, and the contrast between its soft touch and hard look and feel is obvious, which fully demonstrates some of the illusions and contradictions of the human senses.

The exhibition was an inspiring and reflective experience for me, which not only challenged my traditional perception of art, but also inspired me to think about how to express complex emotions and social issues in art.