This exhibition is the first UK showing of Taryn Simon’s latest project, An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, a culmination of four years extensive research and documenting of the unseen and inaccessible hidden below the surface of national identity.

I’ve been and it’s well good, it’s free to get in and you get to meet Kenny the white tiger who is on this planet as a result of selective inbreeding don’t you know!

The exhibition is at The Photographers’ Gallery and closes next Sunday, November 11th.

Photo from Wanderer and Wonderer

Global Cities looks at the changing faces of ten dynamic international cities: Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, São Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Exploring each city through five thematic lenses – speed, size, density, diversity and form – the exhibition draws on data originally assembled for the 10th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2006 Venice Biennale. This unique show presents existing films, videos and photographs by more than 20 artists and architects to offer subjective and intimate interpretations of urban conditions in all ten cities.

I went on Saturday - the combination of larger than life human geography and the arts was hugely absorbing. You can’t help but be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff, and a second trip could well be on the cards. It’s on until August 27th.

Three things I liked:

Yang zhenzhong’s video installation ‘Let’s Puff’

Kendell Geers photographic study of Johannesburg’s secure ‘Suburbia’ (navigate to suburbia via images)

Dryden Goodwin’s short film ‘Reveal’

With work dating back to 1988 Cai Guo-Qiang’s website has a great collection of his art online. It’s great to look at a retrospective collection by an artist who consistently carries a wide variety of themes throughout his career. Animals, shadows, floating and explosions are to name a few.

Cai is currently a core member of the creative team and the director of visual and special effects of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. He is also preparing for his large-scale retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York with subsequent international venues.

Systema Metropolis is Mark Dion’s latest exhibition at Natural History Museum.

My first PTN post! Last weekend I paid a brief visit to The Great Exhibition, this year’s modestly titled RCA Summer Show which marks the 150th birthday of South Kensington institutions such as the V&A and Imperial College with a homage to the original Great Exhibition of 1851.

Housed in a specially erected pavillion in Hyde Park, the work on show from students across the school of architecture and design eschews the departmental separation typical of so many degrees shows in favour of a fitting cabinet of curiosities-style layout. Pockets of work from the various departments jostle for the viewer’s attention.

As ever, some definite themes are in the ether this year. Here are some of my pics:

Design Interactions
Students from the Design Interactions department such as Marei Wollersberger, Michiko Nitta and Tamsin Fulton posed questions about the many ethical, moral and social issues surrounding our relationship with technology through a speculative, scenario-based approach.

Design Products
Meanwhile, over at Design Products Il Hoon Roh and Luka Stepan took inspiration from nature to explore the potential application of self-generating processes that allow objects to be ‘grown’ by computer, then manufacturered using rapid manufacturing technologies.

Photography
As a big fan of Andreas Gursky-style minimalism, Gerd Hassler and Marco Bohr’s work in the main RCA building also caught my eye.

For you to visit the ‘Alan Fletcher: Fifty years of graphic work (and play)’ exhibition at the design museum (final day is February 18th). I went on Saturday as part of my 2007 week on week off exhibition policy (poke brought me lots of gallery memberships for xmas, and therefore, to do their generosity justice said policy has been introduced).

I first became aware of Alan Fletcher through his book the ‘Art of looking Sideways’, but it is only since his death last year that I have begun to fully appreciate his infleunce and stature within design, so I went along in attempt to fill in the many gaps.

I’m glad I did, what a great story, from start to finish, his training, travelling, design philosophy and career development was fascinating. I loved the self promotional work created for his first company, Fletcher Forbes Gill, plus the moving card he produced to announce he was leaving New York and the typographic posters he did for a coffee shop and much much more - I left completely exhausted, partly due to my hangover, but mostly because of the lifetime of sheer skill I had just absorbed. If you can get there in time, go for it!