art blog since 2009
This is a Banksy and yet not. The original image of two policemen kissing has been transferred to canvas and is now in storage. And that, as the Guardian reported last week, is up for sale. “We got it taken off a couple of years ago. What started to happen was people started to vandalise …
April 26, 2011
Another interesting week in art online has yielded up the following: Oh my aching sides! Chinese spambots have turned the #AiWeiwei hashtag into a forum for risque jokes on Twitter. Hyperallergic translates for us. As if that wasn’t bad enough, hackers have targetted an online petition in support of the dissident artist. So sign now …
April 23, 2011
Bloody immigrants, coming over here and taking part in contemporary art group shows about the geopolitical relationship between Algeria, France and the UK! As if to highlight the inequalities of that relationship, graphic artist Zineddine Bessaï was this month refused a visa to attend the launch of his own show at Cornerhouse. The Manchester gallery …
April 21, 2011
Disclaimer: this is not an eyewitness account, but then an eyewitness account would be missing the point. This is a response to a press release and a news story. By all accounts, the unendorsed performance went like this: two veiled figures poured an oil-like liquid over a naked man in the foetal position on the …
April 20, 2011
Some links from the last seven days. Peruse away: This week it was revealed that Andy Warhol accounted for 17% of all auction sales in 2010. Well, Reuters blogger Felix Salmon can explain why (via/ @Hyperallergic). In The Telegraph, Clive Aslet seems prepared to forgive the modernist architecture and the art establishment’s impudence, so long …
April 17, 2011
Lights which flash in time with music will be familiar to anyone under the age of about 80. They are the trappings of a nightclub or rock concert. They gear people up for action. It seems appropriate that younger folk take drugs, get drunk and seek out intensities like this on a Saturday night. But …
April 16, 2011
When a bronze gong is struck in the middle of an art gallery, does it make a sound? Well, according to Catalan artist Jaume Plensa, that might depend on you. The solemn clang of his well known work Jerusalem is not so much an aural phenomenon as a vibration of the heart. There are 11 …
April 14, 2011
It was not a day you would think you might need protection. My recent visit here was on a mild Spring afternoon. But once inside the skyspace, the breeze up there carried the force of a roar. The clouds or perhaps the Earth appeared to be moving twice as fast. It brought to mind footage …
April 12, 2011
Ai Weiwei’s arrest has been a gift to the blogosphere with much better coverage at Hyperallergic and Eyeteeth than you will find here. But here’s a curious thing: the dissident artist’s collected blog posts are briefly reviewed in the Guardian today. He posted every day for 4 years. Meanwhile Russia’s most troublesome artists have just …
April 9, 2011
This sign is at once ironic, illusory and completely superfluous. So it ticks a lot of boxes to signal that it really just labels itself. Arcadia is after all the name of this artwork. More irony comes from the introduction of roadside signage into such a wild, mythical realm. A nearby motorway would kill the …
April 7, 2011