art blog since 2009
The manufacture and sale of a fighter jet entails a complex and shady web; such planes have wide supply chains and reach the market in lots destined for different client states. But research bodies put an incriminating figure on the contribution of UK arms manufacturers towards Israel’s aerial war on Gaza; The Ploughshares Project and …
March 18, 2026
Like a steel tiffin box the size of a small packing case, the bioscope gleams in the fairy light ambience of an artisanal market in the centre of Delhi. On its polygonal front are circular portals the size of pickle jars with tin lids hanging on chain. Hurdy-gurdy handles sit atop, used to stir whatever …
March 4, 2026
The Orobie Biennial, to be found in the Bergamo Alps of Northern Italy, draws together and curates a rolling programme of many peaks. Exhibitions, installations, interventions are all set among some of Europe’s most scenic mountains. Interesting venues for visual art, in this region better known for hiking, have included a deep chamber in a …
February 23, 2026
All at once I was on the hard shoulder of a motorway. Police were cordoning off the scene of disturbance. Lorries thundered past. Rain hammered down. Paramedics were on the scene. And, for good measure, a large dog was barking at me. This was my introduction to CAVE, a simulation machine and teaching tool at …
February 4, 2026
There is a city which seems only to be famous for the film named after it. Aside from an epic mosque, Casablanca has few other claims to fame.* But the claim to have inspired a movie which some still consider to be one of the greatest of all time is strong. The connection is set …
January 12, 2026
Protests around the Turner Prize, even if they have run out of steam in recent years, will have been put to bed last night, as the Prize went to Nnena Kalu. No one can really object to it. It is an event so cheering, it is strange to recall that this is the event that …
December 10, 2025
In the remaining days between now and Christmas you can get onto Vimeo and stream a 65-minute film which covers capitalism, social media, Drum & Bass, rave cutlure, hauntology, hyperstition, Felixstowe, M.R. James, and depression. The film is titled: We Are Making A Film About Mark Fisher (2025). Few academic lives could draw together such …
December 9, 2025
Can creative content be art? This question worried me as I picked up Tîn Droi by artist Bedwyr Williams. This book is published by the National Trust, commissioned by National Trust Cymru and promotes National Trust properties in Wales. So, I asked myself, whose beloved property is the end product? The National Trust has had …
November 28, 2025
Can an artist activate items in a museum collection, or do those items activate the artist in turn? At the Amelia Scott Civic Centre in Tunbridge Wells, a rook, a fox, a kingfisher, a crystalline rock and a dinosaur bone have all triggered a new work by David Blandy. Each of these artefacts has been …
November 6, 2025
On my way to Handel Street Projects, the bus passed Abbey Road. There were about two dozen tourists by the iconic crossing, staging photographs and re-enactments. A negotiation between drivers and pedestrians takes place all day here. It’s a scene of celebration of visual culture, which set the tone for me as I travelled to …
October 13, 2025