art blog since 2009
This is not what you expect to see when you look in a mirror. Yet all visual art is surely a reflection of the artist and, if it resonates, the viewer. Mohamed Bourouissa works with young adults from beyond the periphique in Paris, les banlieues. And despite showing life in a culturally excluded zone, this …
November 7, 2010
It costs 10p to play. When you plug your money in the coinslot, five speakers strike up an orchestral version of The Star Spangled Banner. The speakers are black and shaped like coffins. This seems like an attack on video game culture. For some £30-40 you can buy highly realistic battle simulators such as Call …
November 4, 2010
It appears there was a steel fence preventing access to the rubble. But the barrier has been pulled away and we can now see what perches at the top of the steps: chaos on an epic scale. This is an inversion of the expected order, which puts chaos below and clouds and serenity above. It …
October 31, 2010
First please allow this bold claim. The appeal of a model train set lies not in the sexual inadequacies of a certain type of man, but in the chance to see a world made of cycles. Watching Murmur by Ray Lee puts one in mind of these maligned toys. It has been installed in a …
October 27, 2010
In most fields of human endeavour, many people put certain people at the top of the tree. But why should a few household names eclipse all contemporaries, precursors and descendants in this way? So any attempt to replace trees with a less hierarchical grass-like model of appraisal and influence is to be applauded. Something like …
October 19, 2010
Compared with art, film has a closer relation with truth. It was a spirit of scientific inquiry which drove the first experiments in taking a rapid succession of still photographs. Perhaps the best known pioneer of moving image is Eadweard Muybridge, whose work can now be seen at Tate Britain. Around 1878, by using multiple …
October 16, 2010
If photos of anything, these are of altars. Beyond that it is difficult to say what we might be looking at. The titles suggest compacted blocks of wreckage with few other clues. One implication of the recessed alcove and the lighting in these shots is we might still come to worship at the indeterminate objects. …
October 10, 2010
marxism today (prologue) is unelaborate art. If it was on TV you would think it a more or less ordinary documentary, with just one or two creative flourishes. Once, the voice of a presenter from East German TV is faded down and music is faded over the top. The track is a bittersweet instrumental in …
October 7, 2010
Around the last corner of his show at A Foundation, you stumble upon this workshop of nature-loving Antti Laitinen. The scene is not filled with charm or wonder, but rather shock and horror. Something unexpected and industrial is going on. There are gas cylinders and what look to be tar bricks. Work has suddenly stopped, …
September 30, 2010
Putting out the flags has become the most recognised gesture of welcome in every part of the world. Here we all are, they say, together in our differing categories. Seen all at once, they inspire optimism. All these national emblems will fit on the end of a flagpole or a world cup wallchart, so it …
September 28, 2010