art blog since 2009
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
In case anyone is interested, here are some pieces written for Culture24 last week: Review: Art in the public realm at Liverpool Biennial Review: The John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery Artist’s Statement: Alfredo Jaar at the Liverpool Biennial Artist’s Statement: Jonathan Baldock at the Liverpool Biennial Artist’s Statement: Wolfgang Tillmans at the Liverpool …
September 26, 2010
A man enters a room and punches a clock every hour on the hour for 365 days. It is like something from the Guinness Book of Records. The achievement is so athletic it transcends art. But there is nothing quirky or sporty about the current exhibition of Tehching Hsieh’s performance. More than 8,000 documentational photographs …
September 23, 2010
You won’t find a more accommodating piece of art than The Marx Lounge. The sofas are as comfortable as they look. The walls are a warm shade of red. The light is perfect for reading. Then there are books. Some 1,500 paperbacks are stacked on a central table, which means the room is designed to …
September 19, 2010
The pigeon is an unlikely emblem of civic pride. They are not lions or liver birds. They confer no distinction. Even towns have them. Even some villages. But Milton Keynes is no ordinary place. Unlike most of the UK it is built on a grid system and the boulevards have numbers which reach into the …
September 14, 2010
In a week artists have rallied round a David Shrigley animation and a petition against cuts to public funding, a show which seems to offer its own discreet protest opened at Grey Area. The Butler’s Cough by Simon Morse draws polite attention to a series of 12 customised control panels, such as you might find …
September 12, 2010