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Archive for July 2009
design isn’t art, thankfully
“…It provides a means for understanding the contemporary world, and, potentially, for making it a better place.” You’d be mistaken if you thought this ambitious phrase was lifted from an exhibition programme at a contemporary art gallery, or an expensive brochure at a museum of modern art. It would be a good guess though. People… (read more)
ikon’s water works for time
In the middle of a rare dead-level residential Birmingham are two narrow brick towers thrust into the sky, six floors in height, both called Water Works Towers. Water works towers I’ve seen in other cities around the world are usually shaped like this, tall, narrow, mysterious, and I can’t figure out why. I guess it’s… (read more)
food can be art, but not the other way around
An abundance of milk chocolate is evident in a room before I arrive at the top floor. While I climb the stairwell of the New Art Gallery in Walsall, a foul, stale dairy scent warns me to stop walking and flee back downstairs. The odor becomes more acute and recognizable, while a popping and slurping… (read more)
art for one
Attention all artists: stop the inconsequential discussion with yourselves in the secluded and singular vacuum World Of One. The reason nobody understands what you’re doing is very simple to explain: your work doesn’t mean anything to anyone but you. This is not public art. It’s not even contextual art. It’s Art for One. I hope… (read more)
giving colour a chance
In 1951, the American artist Ellsworth Kelly purchased a pre-packaged set of coloured paper squares from a Paris shop (he already had Duchamp’s idea of ready-made art in mind). Then he drew a grid of squares, numbering in the hundreds, on paper. In each of these squares, he randomly assigned numbers between 1 and 18. … (read more)
Art World is on another planet
Sorry, this one is too short by a guilty mile, but I had to get it in before my eyes rolled rightside in my head. In the June/July issue of Art World is an interview with Carl Andre; a guy who uses bricks and mortar like no brickie could. Here’s the quote verbatim, from the… (read more)