art blog since 2009
If superstition ran riot, might not every human casualty take on the complexion of a sacrifice. Every death would register as an appeasement of one of our many gods. Admittedly, that is wacko. But here Chris Agnew juxtaposes what must be the most rational system of government, communism, with one of the least, Mayan. In …
June 28, 2012
Another plethora of destinations for your mice or mobiles: Anish Kapoor proves fair game for the Occupy movement as several dozen rock up at one of his second homes. Two French museums dedicated to Henri Matisse to share a newly discovered cache of colourful, but unfinished, paper cut-outs. The 340-tonne boulder which travelled from rural …
June 27, 2012
Treehuggers may well like this show in which paper from books is shredded line by line to form a copse of six or seven arboreal candidates for the sentient term Being. The pages now flow down from book shelves just underneath the ceiling. And you have to get within hugging distance to appreciate the painstaking …
June 23, 2012
Another conglomeration of interest piquers for you: Scientists have found the first suggestion that Neanderthals made cave art and tis strangely exciting. Upon the realisation this review has two inclusions of the word “Thwunk!†it had to be included: Adrian Searle on Yoko Ono. The iconic artist comes out somewhat better from this encounter with …
June 19, 2012
The Pure Good of Theory is one of the most oft quoted poem titles around. Wallace Stevens seems to have nailed it, but are there more spheres of pure good? Visitors to Brighton University last week might think so. At a degree show, you could argue for the pure good of art education, which after …
June 17, 2012
This in-depth documentary about a great living artist premiered at Brighton Festival not so long after network TV screened an in-depth doc about its maker Jeremy Deller. The results were two quite different films. But the subjects have more in common than both having worked together on The Bruce Lacey Experience. Like Deller, Lacey has …
June 15, 2012
Whether you call it a weatherbox or, more correctly a Stevenson Screen, this object provokes even more curiosity than usual. It doesn’t belong in a gallery. It doesn’t often exude a blue light. The light comes from a speaker wired up in there to make this sculpture appear sentient twice over. It glows and it …
June 7, 2012
This week’s Found Objects are a taxidermy and economics special: This NYT piece claims the art market is a totally separate economy to the one the rest of us work in, thanks to Ultra High Net Worth Individuals. But UHNWIs maybe about to lose out, for a while at least, as the art bubble bursts. …
June 5, 2012
Optimism is ridiculous, as daft as loading a missile with a payload of flags, as daft as creating flags for countries which don’t yet exist. But the positivity in Tom Dale’s piece is compelling. His 1950s rocket design looks almost cheery now, more than half a century since it became obsolescent. If this Tin Tin-esque …
May 27, 2012
Is Brighton too cosy for a performance piece with the f-word in the title. Certainly by the end of Jo Neary’s performance on Saturday 12th it appeared that way. Most of the audience may have relieved that this local comedienne chose to say, mainly, nice things about us as she adlibbed her way through a …
May 22, 2012