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Posts filed under contemporary art
turner: new irrelevancy
The Turner Prize, for those that are lucky enough not to hear the over-hype and follow-on grumble of this annual award at London’s Tate Museum, is announced this time of year. The 2010 Award is somewhat different. Not much grumbling, at least from the media, but large heaps of moaning from protesting art students lamenting… (read more)
len_lye: science guy
Len Lye is Science Guy for art of all kinds. “How to Enjoy Art Without Thinking” by Len Lye. It’s not the original name of Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery exhibit (The Body Electric) but it’s the first notion that comes to mind wandering through the roomful of audio-enhanced, kinetic sculpture from the New Zealand artist. In… (read more)
Moores Better
When art is more inclusive, it’s always better. This might sound counter-intuitive to today’s media specific moments and our natural magnetism toward “vertical markets”. You wouldn’t, for example, want to follow everyone on Twitter, and while collecting millions of Face Book friends is an impressive feat, it doesn’t exactly mean anything. Exceptions occur, however, where… (read more)
new contemporaries
“Artists be crazy” I read on someone’s blog, or twitter – can’t remember where exactly. Somebody has to crown themselves the maddest of hatters, and I guess it might as well be artists. They seem to have a built-in, SatNav system to insanity-town. The trick for the contemporary artist, however, is sharing the experience (read:… (read more)
Insurrection Inc.
“Culture is capital”. So reads a stray billboard, and a mis-placed poster, and are probably not the only two locations in Liverpool where a Liverpool Biennial visitor would chance upon this logic statement. This simple mathematical equation is ripe for contemporary time. Rarely, if ever, do we think about our own, living culture as capital;… (read more)
Trecartin: Turgid Waters
Ryan Trecartin is a former art student from the Rhode Island School of Design, and makes videos that he claims are scripted. The results prove otherwise, as amateur actors appear in various forms of drag and costume, seemingly having a ball slinging phrases about that don’t pretend to make any sense. The direction is a… (read more)
citrus oil
In the New York area, there exists a New York buzz for a New York art collective called The Bruce High Quality Foundation; or the Bruces, if you’re avoiding excessive typing. The Bruces are, at times, a cheeky bunch of prankster artists, not only in what they make, but how they make it. No names… (read more)
wow man!
When I was a teenager in the 1970s, our otherwise uncool bunch of smart aleck kids used to make a night of attending a show called Laserium at a local Planetarium in the middle of the USA. While laser light emitted gaseous clouds and spiky beams, played to progressive rock music of the day, we… (read more)
dust happens
Tate Modern is out with a new set of visiting directions for Ai Weiwei’s exhibit in its Turbine Hall. With the over-zealous prodding from Those That Know Best – the UK’s own disciplinarian and self-appointed headmaster, Health and Safety – gallery visitors are no longer permitted to walk onto the porcelain sunflower seeds. Turns out… (read more)
Dickensian Moments
In Dickensian fashion, a tale of two cities is exposed in the realm of British art. For rough and tumble adventures, Liverpool serves up its own, street-wise biennial, lasting from September through November. Meanwhile down in the sumptuous south, London slips us four days of glossy eye-candy at Frieze Art Fair at Regent’s Park. While… (read more)
seen this movie before?
I’m in a position to completely spoil a surprise here, so if you’re coming to IKON’s Eastside Gallery for the AVPD exhibition (until 14 Nov 2010), read no further. It’s an encounter that requires your presence and determination to go with the flow. For everyone else, pour yourself another cup of coffee or glass of… (read more)
Donald Judd IS Kitagawa
Just a few weeks back, the opportunity arose to attend two art house openings; same company, different locations. My town of Birmingham has a reluctant saviour for art in this part of the British Isles called the IKON gallery. For those not familiar, the IKON is to Birmingham, what spice is to Indian food. Fairly… (read more)
humour me just this once
In the Exhibit book for “Rude Britannia”, shown at Tate Britain earlier, the director of the Tate, Penelope Curtis, states matter-of-factly that “Understanding humour is never easy and understanding in a historical sense is especially difficult.”. Except, well, I don’t think it’s difficult at all, understanding humour, especially in “a” historical sense. In fact, history… (read more)
hypercomics: your move
Comic books are not everyone’s cup of tea, but nothing is “everyone’s” cup of tea. Except maybe tea. Everyone does, however, enjoy a witty comic story; if for no other reason than the text is much shorter than that of a novel. The comics creator, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, proves this point at a small show… (read more)
Diane Arbus: the missing link
Now that digital photography is ubiquitous, everyone can, and does, shoot photos. Without difficulty, we conveniently take shots of our friends, who are more than willing subjects to pose for the moment. Our insane family members, who will only open up to us because they have to, easily give up their privacy while we have… (read more)
slave to the Amazon
While the popular cry for the slow demise of Earth has been heard from every person, state, corporation, and politician for the past two decades, the Garden of Paradise appears to be handling it like a tough old grandmother. Think of a place on Earth that sees minimal human imprint. A green, square patch of… (read more)
calling all collections
Ikon Gallery violated one of my pet peeves from cultural institutions by organising a retrospective of its own existence. Ordinarily the realm of magazine publishers through distribution of anniversary issues, releasing new content is fairly non-existent. It’s like going to your granny’s 90th birthday where she recounts her memories of every year. In the end,… (read more)
palais de tokyo, my future thanks you
Thank the Art Gods on High for someone in the universe who is watching over each and every one of us gallery hustlers and museum freaks who just don’t have enough time in the day. Enough time in the day to pore over, wrestle through, sneer at and wonder through as much contemporary art as… (read more)
whither museum
Take comfort, common man and woman, in knowing that the world’s finest museums and galleries are thinking about the plural “you” and your struggles in appreciating art. Don’t get the wrong idea, it’s not that they’re interested in your opinion. If they wanted that, as the saying almost goes, they’d box it up in a… (read more)