Nottingham Contemporary – criticismism ii

April 9, 2024April 9, 2024

Urine: a survey

Piss is having a comeback in art, though some will argue that it never went away. As far as my generation is concerned this bodily fluid burst onto the scene when American artist Andre Serrano sank a crucifix into a case of his own urine and photographed the result. Piss…

February 15, 2016February 15, 2016

Å½elimir Å½ilnik, Black Film (1971)

Some say, â€œFrom each according to their means to each according to their needsâ€. Some say, â€œDo as you would be done byâ€. But very few live up to either of those incontrovertible principles. And though I have witnessed several decent people buy sandwiches for homeless individuals in Brighton where…

May 17, 2015May 17, 2015

Interview: Glenn Ligon

As if to demonstrate the centre cannot hold, debates around canonical art have shaken down to the East Midlands from a point of origin in New York’s Bronx. Nottingham Contemporary hosts a curatorial project by US artist Glenn Ligon. Thanks to a creative hang, the regional gallery has set up…

April 20, 2014April 20, 2014

Mark Wallinger, Heaven (1988)

This sunday calls for a religious artwork, a blasphemous one even. What you see is a bird cage, a fishing lure and two pairs of meanÂ looking hooks. It looks like a remake of Why Not Sneeze Rose SÃ©lavy?, a birdcage which in 1921 Marcel Duchamp filled with sugar cubes. But…

January 28, 2014January 28, 2014

Tala Madani, Reading Light (2013)

At the risk of over analysing a good joke, itâ€™s worth considering this painting by Tala Madani. It’s as funny as anything in her scurrilous UK survey in Nottingham. The dude with the erect torch, well, in his mind heâ€™s a sex god. He appears to think that red shaft…