1 Real To Reel: A Century Of War Movies
War has blasted its way into the history of film since 1916, when a documentary about the Battle of the Somme shocked British cinema audiences. Moving images and warfare have since evolved together: war provides the camera with spectacle and emotion, as this exhibition about the making of classics from The Dam Busters to Apocalypse Now reveals. The relationship goes deeper than that, though: it was no coincidence that director Erich von Stroheim played a German officer in La Grande Illusion, because there is an analogy between the organisation of a film set and the reality of war.
Imperial War Museum, SE1, to 8 Jan
2 Dinh Q Lê: The Colony
The abandoned site of one of Britain’s first cinemas, the Electric Theatre in Peckham, hosts an eerie film installation by Dinh Q Lê, which explores the uninhabited Chincha islands off the coast of Peru. Uninhabited by humans, that is: thousands of sea birds roost there and deposit so much guano that imperial powers fought over the natural fertiliser in the 19th century. Today the islands belong to the birds again.
3 Lines Of Thought: Drawing From Michelangelo To Now
This touring exhibition offers a window on genius via treasures from the British Museum by the likes of Cézanne, Bridget Riley and Michelangelo himself. We meet great artists much more intimately in their drawings than in large-scale works: a sketch is a direct, simple act of creativity, and to see Michelangelo’s preliminary figures for the Sistine Chapel is to stand by his side as he creates.
Poole Museum And Art Gallery, Sat to 6 Nov
4 Forein Objects
Anthropology, history and conceptual art come together in this show about how we relate to the world through physical objects. Laura Eldret uses video, textile and sculpture to document the place of rug-making in a Zapotec community in Mexico; Robert Anderson reimagines a Roman sculpture of the satyr Marsyas; and Florian Roithmayr explores relationships between materials themselves.
5 Grennan And Sperandio
As part of the Festival of Thrift, which celebrates sustainable living in Redcar, public art duo Grennan and Sperandio have made new art from sculptures in Kirkleatham Museum’s collection. It’s an interesting thought: should we be repurposing old art rather than cluttering the world with new? If so, Damien Hirst is a hero: he does nothing but recycle old ideas.
