art blog since 2009
Work No. 117 by Martin Creed is a jokey little number. It consists of an audio tape on which can be heard, as advertised, every noise on a drum machine played in sequence. As it runs the gamut of automated sounds, it sounds like an ironic comment on the technology used. The machine sounds, well, …
September 7, 2010
As the heart relates to the body, so does this piece of land art relate to both its geographical setting as well as the social context in which it was created in 2005. Its location is a nature reserve in the centre of Lewes, a town of more than 16,000 people. Such wild habitats, it …
September 3, 2010
You would think it was put there for the children. The dinosaur stands at a picnic spot, 30ft high, robust enough to throw stones at, as some of the kids are doing. So close to a beach and a circus, a hoverport and an amusement arcade, it looks here like one more piece of spectacle. …
August 31, 2010
As Tate Modern blew out ten candles on its birthday cake this year, there was reason to think it has been lucky. The Bankside gallery has lived through a decade of turbulence in the wider world. This century has been filled with war, terror and recession, not the best conditions for an infant. But if …
August 30, 2010
To reduce it all to economics, which is often tempting, artists make product to make money, or a living at least. Those who do not manage this, still put value on their work. Say the artwork’s function is to generate revenue. It has done so historically by being beautiful and hence desirable, and from the …
August 27, 2010
Two long-ish previews written this week for Culture24 and I’m looking forward to both: Preview: Liverpool Biennial 2010 Preview: Manchester Weekender 2010
August 27, 2010
Art has always had a close relationship with the frame around the work or the plinth on which it sits. At least one entire book has been written about this frequently overlooked object. In either case, the presentation brings something to the art. It adds value. No consideration of a painting is possible without some …
August 22, 2010
Just as there is decorative art, so too is there decorative news. The lightweight stories in freesheets like Metro are there to soothe. The editorial is designed to sell advertising, and this is more or less true for any commercial publication. But as soon as a newspaper is used to decorate a gallery, meaning returns …
August 22, 2010
Visitors to the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth may be shocked by the imminent arrival of a charred and mangled car that was last driven on a suicide mission in Baghdad. “There’s a central atrium as you come in, which has all the planes and missiles and so on, and it’s going to be right …
August 21, 2010
Recent reviews and previews written for Culture24. Check ’em out: Review: Antony Gormley – Critical Mass, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea Review: Tomoko Takahashi – Introspective Retrospective, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea Review: Alice Neel – Painted Truths, Whitechapel Gallery, London Preview: Ed Pien – Memento, New Art Exchange, Nottingham Preview: Jorge Santos – the …
August 21, 2010