Starkus Carcass

Starkus Carcass has moved and become Distorted UK:

check out our new space here: http://www.distorteduk.blogspot.com/

Les Salaisons Gallery, Paris is hosting ‘L’Instant T’ an exhibition of work by Paris based artist Benjamin Renoux curated by fellow Parisian Juliette Giovannoni.

Anybody who is gong to be in Paris between the 14th October - 13th November 2011 be sure to head over and check it out. It looks like it’s going to be a good one.

Below is the press release detailing information about the artist and the exhibition.

———————————————————————-

VERNISSAGE LE VENDREDI 14 OCTOBRE à partir de 18H.

EXPOSITION DU 14/10 au 13/11.

“Pour sa première exposition personnelle intitulée ‘L’Instant T’, Benjamin Renoux vous invite à découvrir l’évolution de ses recherches, à travers différentes séries de travaux où la photographie, la peinture et la sculpture se mêlent et s’hybrident les unes aux autres.

À l’instant T, l’image est dévoilée à un moment de crise. Il s’émane des œuvres présentées une étrange dualité esthétique inspirée de la sensualité de la peinture romantique et de la radicalité de l’art minimal.

L’artiste crée entre les médiums une relation instable, une lutte continuelle faite de paradoxes esthétiques et conceptuels. L’exposition est le théâtre de fantômes virtuels, de souvenirs à l’agonie, baignant dans une atmosphère profondément méditative . Les photographies sont les images avalées des corps qui ont été, et qui ne seront jamais plus. Sous nos yeux, l’existence angoissée, recroquevillée dans sa coquille, se dirige lentement vers l’état fossile. 

Benjamin Renoux a remporté le prix Chic Art Fair 2010.
Il vit et travaille à Paris.” J.G.

Commissariat : Juliette Giovannoni

Catalogue d’exposition : 15 euros.

Plus d’infos sur : 

http://www.benjaminrenoux. com/
http://www.salaisons.org/

************************** ************************** ***

PRIVATE VIEW 14 Oct. 6pm 

Opening 14/10 to 13/11 

We are pleased to present “L’Instant T”, an exhibition of new work by Benjamin Renoux in his first solo show at the Salaisons.

“Benjamin Renoux invites you to discover the evolution of his research, through works wich combine photography, painting and sculpture. Through series of processes, the artist manipulates and distorts those mediums to explore the fragility of things as temporal elements with no fixed nature. 
The exhibition entitled “the Instant” is a meditation on the ephemeral and inevitable disapearance of things. From his work emanates a strange aesthetic duality, inspired both by the sensuality of Romantic painting and the radicality of Minimal Art. Richly influenced by historical and tradional practices, his work highlights Human being’s existence and questions its boundaries. 
The exhibition is the scene of virtual ghosts, memories in agony, symbols of the cruel fall of things into oblivion.

Benjamin Renoux won Chic Art Fair’s Prize in 2010.
He lives and works in Paris. ” J.G


Curator : Juliette Giovannoni

Exhibition’s Catalogue: 15 euros.

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=148779001883727

Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
‘Le Labourage’ (The Plowing), 1882-1883
Conté crayon - 24.5 x 32 cm
Paris, Musée d’Orsay

This afternoon I had a little wander around the Musée d’Orsey (no I don’t mean Dorset spell check - although I’m sure the Dorset County Museum is a lovely place). Whilst there I realised what is missing from my life… Rather than being the man who has it all, I realised my life in fact contained a massive Art Nouveau Bed shaped hole.

I find it hard to imagine at some point in my life not being the proud owner (or at least co-owner) of one of these magnificent creatures.

Above is  is an undoubtable throne of a bed by Eugene Vallin and below is a fine specimen by Louis Majorelle.

I would never leave my wonderful Art Nouveau bed.

Today I had my first foray into the Parisian cultural scene – being unfamiliar with the city I stayed well on the beaten track and headed for the established art world favourite the Centre Pompidou.

They currently have an excellent exhibition Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye (Sept 21 2011 – Jan 9 2012). Rather than going down the traditional Munch route of the solitary, tormented soul we all associate with works such as The Scream, the curators have tried a different approach presenting the artist as a man with a keen eye for progress and somebody quick to embrace new technologies in a progressive and ever changing art world. There are lots of photographs, the majority of these being self-portraits in which we see Munch experimenting with new developments in photography and there are also a number of his amateur films of which I was unfamiliar prior to this visit but greatly enjoyed.  There are also some more familiar painted works, but the curators have split them up thematically exploring his obsession with repetition, his later life eye problems and his interest in scientific advancement such as radiowaves and X-Ray.

The Munch exhibition was good, but being a first time Pompidou visitor I was more enthralled by the permanent collection and buzzed round the floors like an excited child. There were some old faves such as Gerhard Richter’s ‘1024 Farben (305-3)’ (1973), Hans Richter’s tour de force ‘Rhythm 21’, Warhols, Picassos, Rothkos, you get the idea…  but I was particularly happy to see the inclusion of some David Byrne… that’s right Talking Heads videos are now officially art and there for I can justifiably post them here… so here they are – The wonderful Once in a Lifetime and equally fantastic The Road To Nowhere.

New discovery of the trip: Rineke Dijkstra’s ‘I see a woman crying (Weeping Woman)’ in which the artist filmed a group of Liverpudlian school children looking at Picasso’s Weeping Woman – with the children offering up their ideas on why the woman is weeping – “maybe she is crying because she is happy like they do when they win X-Factor”, “maybe her mum has died”, “maybe she is just mental”. 

Next week Starkus Carcass is upping sticks and moving to Paris -

Scotland treated me well - I have had a bit of a blogging lull over the past few weeks since my grand return to Milton Keynes (my sincerest apologies) but hopefully over the coming weeks and months I can update you on the art world in Paris and beyond ….

watch this space…

As yet I am unfamiliar with the city of Paris so any tips on where to go and what to see in the art sphere from all you cultured folk -  just email the above email address (referencing Starkus Carcass in the subject line)

… merci.

I was sad to hear about the death of Richard Hamilton yesterday - yet another loss for the art world following the recent deaths of Cy Twombly and Lucian Freud - 2011 seems to be a popular year to go. 

 

Richard Hamilton obituary - The Guardian (13/09/11)

Link to all my reviews for ThreeWeeks 2011 (bar a few that have still to be uploaded)

Come to ART LATE tonight. 

Loads of galleries are taking part:

• Ingleby
• Solar Pavillion
• Open Eye
• Bourne Fine Art
• Tamsyn Challenger
• Collective
• Stills
• City Art Centre
• Edinburgh Printmakers
• Sierra Metro

Starting with magic by Ali Cooke at Ingleby Gallery and ending with a Micachu DJ set at the 400 Women exhibition - it looks great.

Book your FREE ticket here: http://edinburghartfestivalartlate.eventbrite.com/

Link

A review I wrote for The Skinny -

It was a scene that would have had Jeff Goldblum’s heart racing. A little after 9am, on a temperate Friday morning in Edinburgh, a Tyrannosaurus Rex came rampaging down Chambers Street.

Thankfully this particular T-Rex was not real – not like that time Richard Attenborough funded that ill fated off shore ‘Dinosaur Theme Park’ – this one was animatronic. It was joined by a tribal drumming troupe, abseiling human statues, pyrotechnics and a Victorian attired Grant Stott. The pomp and fanfare was all in aid of the reopening of the National Museum of Scotland after its £47 million refurbishment project.

This long overdue revamp has done away with the archaic Victorian style displays that museum goers had long tired of and replaced everything with the latest in design and technology. From Ancient Egyptians to Morris Minors, telecommunications to hanging hippos, the loot of all nations is gathered under one roof. Now housing over 8,000 objects, many on display for the first time since the museum opened in 1888, there is something for anyone with an inquisitive mind.

Perfectly timed for the beginning of the Edinburgh Festival, and slap bang in the middle of the school holidays, don’t expect a quiet stroll about the museum just yet. The size of the museum will no doubt require a number of trips to soak it all in, and if the festival begins to pull on your purse strings, it offers a convenient free-entry get away to get lost in for the afternoon.

Below is a short review I wrote for ThreeWeeks magazine:

400 Women Tamsyn Challenger

‘400 Women’ is not easy viewing, but then, it is not intended to be. The exhibition attempts to highlight the devastation caused by the abduction and murder of thousands of women in the Mexican region of Ciudad Juárez. Over 200 hundred artists have been brought together to make portraits of just a small fraction of these missing and murdered women. Each portrait tells a highly personal story – one that invariably has an unhappy ending. The setting—a disused and dilapidated school building—adds another poignant dimension, drawing attention to the young age of many of these women and a deep sense of loss. The exhibition is not light-hearted, but successfully draws attention to gender violence in Mexico and across the globe.
Canongate Venture, 4 Aug - 4 Sep (closed Mondays), 11.00am (6.00pm), free, fpp189. 
tw rating 4/5 
[mp]

http://www.edinburghartfestival.com/exhibitions/2011/tamsyn_challenger/

I went to see the Anish Kapoor exhibition at ECA this morning. It’s really small (it only has two works) but it’s definitly worth checking out if you are in Edinburgh - it’s on until 9th October. 

The first work is White Sand, Red Millet, Many Flowers, an early work from 1982 - an earnestly delicate combination of 4 pigment sculptures, juxtaposed against Untitled (2010), a giant ‘self-generating’ blood-red wax sculpture, constantly changed by a huge mechanical metal plate slowly scraping around the edge.

Check it out - also make sure you head up to the over looking balcony area - it’s not really sign posted well but offers a great view from above.

http://www.edinburghartfestival.com/exhibitions/2011/edinburgh_college_of_art_anish_kapoor/

Today I made it to the Rauschenberg exhibition currently being staged in the Botanical Gardens as part of the Edinburgh Arts Festival. The exhibition is good, although it is made up of his later works from the 80s and 90s, which I think lack the rigour and originality of his boundary pushing work of the 50s and 60s. 

It contained a few too many mirrored screen prints for my liking - and credit must be given to Heath Iverson for pointing out that in these pieces Rauschenberg seems to have accidentally created the template for the lacklustre meaningless T-Shirts made so popular by homogeneous companies such as Super Dry, none more so than  ’Treadle/ROCI/USA (Wax Fire Works)’ from 1990 (pictured below).

Despite this, and a number of tired ready-mades, the sculptural collages made up of found materials, such as road signs, vehicle parts and scrap metal, far outweigh the more disappointing aspects of the show and create some great aesthetics.

Uptown Pig Pox (1998) - a sculpture of a pig covered in ties is also pretty good. 

There was also an interesting, if not a little overly whimsical/sentimental, film about the life and works of the artist hidden away in the basement. 

It’s setting in the Botanical Garden’s is also a nice touch - so long as it is sunny (as it was today).

(Above - Robert Rauschenberg’s Uptown Pig Pox (1988) in front of Le Coon Glut (1986) at the Botanical Vaudeville exhibition at Inverleith House in Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden)

         ——————————————————————————-

The 4th August see’s the beginning of the Edinburgh Art Festival (4th Aug - 4th Sept 2011) - Check out the link below to see what’s on offer:

http://edinburghartfestival.com/exhibitions

These are just the exhibitions in the Art Festival but there are plenty of others going on as part of the Fringe and the Edinburgh International Festival… I will keep you updated as and when I find out more

Last month I went through a ‘dark patch’ – as an escape from my mind I became addicted to playing ‘The Helicopter Game’ on my Blackberry. It’s the sort of low-tech game that you just can’t stop playing. The premise of the game is that you are in control of a helicopter and through frantic button pressing you have to try and navigate the aircraft through a bleak black tunnel, avoiding the bright green pixelated obstacles that appear before you. Every time you are playing an over whelming desire to stop playing comes over you – but as the helicopter inevitably crashes and you see you were just off your all time best score, you suddenly find yourself clicking on ‘start’ again and once again the button bashing commences.

So, after playing and playing and playing the game, I began to see it as a metaphor for life. At the beginning the tunnel is wide and the obstacles are few. As you continue along your journey the tunnel gets narrower and narrower, and the obstacles become greater in number, making it increasingly harder to avoid crashing. And then it invariably happens – you crash, and become a burning ball of flames and die.

It was at this point that I realised I had gone mad. It’s just a game. 

http://www.helicoptergame.net/

The latest instalment of Oliver O’Keeffee’s After The Rapture series - with the beautifully named Necro. 

Today I arose bright and early to make it to Chambers Street, Edinburgh for the grand opening of the National Museum of Scotland, following its lengthy £47 million revamp. 

Along with some laborious tribal drumming, human statues abseiling from the roof, a fireworks display, some blacked up scottish people playing a fan-fare on weird scottish instruments, and previously unknown to me, but apparently very famous on the Scottish circuit, Grant Stott dressed in Victorian attire - was possibly the best thing ever.

An animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex. 

It was amazing - the National Museum of Scotland is pretty good, but it was overshadowed by the mechanical T-Rex

Part II: David Dale presents: Desmond Church and Lyndsey Wardrop Rhubaba Gallery | 23.07 – 07.08.2011

Preview: 22.07.2011 | 7-9pm
Friday - Sunday | 12-5pm and by appointment

Rhubaba Studios
25 Arthur Street
Edinburgh
EH6 5DA

So on Friday I hopped on a train down to Glasgow to check out the British Art Show 7. It’s definitely worth a visit. As with any big exhibition, some works were better than others, but generally the quality was pretty high. 

The exhibition is spread over three galleries - GoMA, CCA and Tramway - unfortunately, due to time and distance issues I was unable to make it to Tramway - so my apologies for not being able to dish the dirt on it. 

Anybody who has wandered remotely near the British Art Show grapevine will no doubt have caught wind of Christian Marclay’s latest work The Clock. In the piece, he and a group of researchers have spliced together scenes from throughout the history of cinema containing fragments of clocks, watches and references to the time of day to create a 24 hour film that functions as an actual working time-piece. Although quite enjoyable to watch, the prime source of enjoyment came from playing ‘guess the film’. One friend (Nude Defending a Staircase) described it as nothing more than ‘overblown youtube gimmickry’, which I think is a fair description. The best thing about this work was that it pointed me in the direction of his earlier  ’turntable art’, of which prior to Friday I remained ignorantly unaware.

My favourite work in the exhibition was Elizabeth Price’s video work User Group Disco, reminiscent of Ballet Mecanique - despite being a bit text heavy at times - the ending was amazing - spinning household implements set to a backing track of Aha’s Take on me.

Another personal fave was Nathaniel Mellor’s animatronic vomiting head sculpture - which does what you may expect an animatronic vomiting head sculpture to do - vomit. 

Obviously it can’t all be great - there was also a wall at GoMA dedicated to the woefully dull works of George Shaw, an apparent necessity of pretty much all exhibitions these days.

Well anyway… there is loads to see, the list of artists in the exhibition is endless. I think it runs in Glasgow until August 21st - so if you are around these parts definitely go and have a look. After that it heads to Plymouth, making it easier for all you southern Englanders who missed it on it’s London stop.

I’ve spent the last few months looking at naked people (for research purposes) and while telling my Auntie about this she reminded me of the work of Spencer Tunick… an artist who really has the capability to push boundaries, and gather naked people en mass.

In this short video Tunick promotes his upcoming Naked Sea - Israel Project.

I find his work fascinating, his ability to persuade such large numbers of volunteers to strip naked is amazing. After watching this clip, I think the next time he produces something nearby (I don’t think I will make it to Israel) I will go along… I imagine it to be extremely liberating to take all of your clothes off in public… maybe I won’t wait… Maybe I will do it now… Milton Keynes city centre - brace yourselves. 

Here is the latest instalment in Oliver O’Keeffe’s After The Rapture series.

As Jesus returns to earth he finds there is no place for radical Christian preachers in this largely secular land, his only option is to join the back of the queue…

Illustration - Oliver O’Keefee

Concept - Marcus Pibworth

For past instalments see my post from the 30th May 2011.

At long last the Chinese government have released Ai Weiwei on bail…

(Ai Weiwei - Study of Perspective)

[The Guardian]

China has released world-famous artist Ai Weiwei on bail after more than two-and-a-half months of detention and a sustained international campaign calling for his freedom.

“I’m back with my family,” Ai told the Guardian. “I am very happy. I’m fine.”

He said he could not comment further on his detention as he had been released on bail, adding “please understand”.

Beijing police said they had released the 54-year-old “because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes” and a chronic illness, Xinhua news agency reported.

Ai’s sister Gao Ge confirmed that he had just returned home. “I’m very, very happy,” she said repeatedly. “We thank everyone, including our media friends, for all their help and support so far.”

Ai’s detention on 3 April sparked an international outcry. He vanished after he was detained by police at Beijing airport.

Officials later said he was detained on suspicion of economic crimes, but police did not notify his family of detention.

The Xinhua report added: “The decision comes also in consideration of the fact that Ai has repeatedly said he is willing to pay the taxes he evaded, police said.

“The Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd, a company Ai controlled, was found to have evaded a huge amount of taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents, police said.”

The article gave no details of what has happened to several friends and colleagues of Ai, who went missing shortly after him.

Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, welcomed news of the 54-year-old artist’s release.

“His detention was political and his release is political. It is the result of a huge domestic and international outcry that forced the government to this resolution … I think Beijing realised how damaging it was to hold China’s most famous artist in detention,” he said.

Bequelin said he expected Ai to be allowed to return home, but that he would probably not be allowed to travel abroad without official permission and would have to report to police regularly.

The Chinese government has said that Ai was arrested for economic crimes, although his family believe it was retaliation for his social and political activism.

Some human rights campaigners thought the economic focus of the allegations was intended to make it harder for other governments to press Ai’s case. But others suggested that it offered officials the possibility of drawing back – as they appear to have done – whereas it would have been too embarrassing to drop political charges.

[Tania Branigan in Beijing]

Blogged by popular demand to satisfy the appetite of those lucky souls who have never had the pleasure of visiting MK.

Before such historic occasions as the establishment of the MK Dons, the opening of Oceana and the now defunct EasyCinema, Milton Keynes was famed for it’s dazzling collection of roundabouts and concrete cows (pictured above). 

The original location of the Cows was the ever popular art location, by the side of a dual carriageway. Now this location is home to some second generation dopplegangers, whilst the originals are strategically placed in the Milton Keynes shopping centre to be admired by shoppers from far and wide.

The accompanying plaque reads: “Created in 1978 by artist Liz Leyh, the cows were once cynically said to symbolise a new town consisting entirely of concrete. The reality of course is very different. Milton Keynes has 22 million trees and 20% of the city is parkland cared for by The Parks Trust” … and the other 80%?  

Concrete.

I haven’t yet made it to this exhibition, but as a fan of Toulouse-Lautrec I sure am planning to.

Here’s what Timeout have to say about it:

 An exhibition exploring the relationship between the dancer Jane Avril (1868-1943), who was nicknamed La Mélinite after a powerful form of explosive, and the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) who used Jane Avril’s likeness in a number of poster designs. The show explore’s Lautrec’s world of dancers, cabaret singers, musicians and prostitutes. Exhibits include the Courtauld’s painting ‘Jane Avril in the Entrance to the Moulin Rouge’ as well as other paintings, posters and prints on loan from collections around the world.

I’ll be sure to let you know about it when I go… watch this         space.

Last week I attended a Blessing Force event at Electrowerkz in London… Keep an eye out for them, they are an Oxford based musician and artist collective.

The night in question featured music from Chad Valley, OCD Drumline and others (a nod of the head should also be offered to the wonderful beats delivered by Kit Monteith of Trophy Wife fame). As well as a night of good music, the revellers were also treated to a bonanza of visual art work (my particular favourite, by Tinhead, pictured above: sunsequently smashed up at the end… don’t you just love art that can be smashed up?!)

Keep up to date with them on their blog: http://blessingforce.tumblr.com/

While on the subject of artist appearing in adverts, I thought I would post a Japanese TV ad featuring Andy Warhol:

Watch it here: TDK

You’ve gotta love a bit of Adrian Searle - in this video posted on The Guardian website he delivers a brilliant introduction to this years Venice Biennale, in his his witty, sarcasm tinged, highly informative style. 

Watch it here

A personal favourite line:

“The thing about pigeons is that they’re democratic… they will crap on anything, whether it’s the high renaissance or the work of the late American artist Jack Goldstein”.

Until very recently I did not have a favourable view of Salvador Dali. In fact, I didn’t have a very high opinion of Surrealist painting in general (Surrealist Cinema, however, is great). I always regarded it as the art world equivalent of somebody describing his or her dream to you. Of infinite interest to describer, and of infinite tediousness to the listener. 

However, about 1 ½ months ago (when visiting the Narcissus Reflected exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh) I saw Dali’s Metamorphosis of Narcissus and changed my mind. I think prior to this I had only really seen Dali paintings surrounded by other Dali paintings, surrounded by other surrealist paintings… and in this context always found them far too overbearing and shallow. When confronted with a single Dali, there was time to pause and absorb what was going on, to appreciate the Where’s Wally-ness of the composition, to really look intensely at the painting and see the dark fantasies concealed in the furthest depths of the painting.

A few weeks later, while jet-setting in Madrid, I visited the Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. After having had my gate-way one-on-one session with Dali in Scotland, I was now ready to up the ante. Confronted with a whole room of Dali’s work no longer seemed as daunting or as dull as I have previously found. I was taken by a number of the pieces – the two most highly praise-worthy I would suggest being  The Invisible Man (1929/33) – a perspective driven painting, full of intensity and illusion, and The Great Masturbator (1929) – as the name suggests, a highly sexualized image of eroticism, genitalia… and insects.

‘The Invisible man’ 

‘The Great Masturbator’ 

I still do not believe that Dali or the Surrealist movement are the best that art history has to offer the world, there are many other artists I admire much more, and would much rather spend hours staring at, but it did remind me of the importance of revisiting things that I have judged as unworthy, or just rubbish.

So now I  need to go through my long list of other artists, individual works and entire genres that I have mentally assigned to the crap end of the spectrum and reassess. Maybe Impressionism isn’t as bad as all that… hhmmm.

A little over a week ago, on the 21st May 2011, the American Christian radio broadcaster, Harold Camping, predicted the end of the world as we know it. Whilst a lucky few Christians would be plucked from their earthly existence, to sit by God’s side in an eternity of celestial beauty, the rest of us would be left behind to face a post-apocalyptic world, of earthquakes, tidal waves, hell fire, general misery and death, before finally experiencing total destruction. Unfortunately for those now unlucky few Christians who had emptied their bank accounts and quit their jobs in preparation, as the 21st became the 22nd the earth still remained intact.

Below are the first few drawings in a series by Scotland based artist Oliver O’Keeffe, entitled After The Rapture in which he imagines the continuation of day-to-day life in the post-apocaliptic world we came so close to experiencing last Saturday.

Domination

Finally

Got your hands

Hairy Freak

Head-less

Homo Erectus

Life Story

Lovely Bones

Pirates

Watch this space for further additions to the series, and further information on the artist.

What happens when you fill a room with smoke and coloured lights…

This is a photo I took last year during a visit to the UCCA in Beijing’s 798 art district of Olafur Eliasson (you may remember him from the Tate Moderns Turbine Hall 2003/4) and Ma Yansong’s Feeling’s are Facts immersive environment. As you move around the space you become encapsulated by gradually changing colours. A true sensory experience.

A few photos from my personal portfolio… just a bit of shameless self promotion. Mostly taken and developed c.2008/9 during the height of my obsession of sneaking into shops and taking covert snaps of inanimate objects.

I know what you’re thinking… Jacob van Ruisdael isn’t the best 17th Dutch landscape painter / one of the best artists of all time… but guess what?

You are wrong.

(Jacob van Ruisdael - Bleaching fields at Haarlem (1627))

——————————————————————————————————-

This week I was lucky enough to go to London, and whilst there I managed to soak up a bit of that culture they have down there… I went to some great exhibitions (Ida Kar at the National Portrait Gallery/ Ai Weiwei at Somerset House / a great instillation piece in the British Museum by Xu Bing) but out of all of this, when I got to the National Gallery, (and was naturally magnetised to the 17th Century Dutch section due to my unhealthy, but repressed desire towards it) I was once again bowled over by the brilliance of Van Ruisdael.

Having been spoiled by living in Amsterdam at the end of 2007 and having had the opportunity to visit the Rijksmuseum on an almost daily basis, I now feel that no museum can deliver as much pleasure - but the National Gallery in London (and also in Edinburgh for all you Edinburgh-ers) has a adequate collection that I would urge you all to see. For another tour de force see: Meindert Hobbema.

(Meindert Hobbema - The Avenue at Middelharnis (1689))

While undertaking some heavy procrastination I rediscovered this true gem of the art world, Manzoni’s 1961 work Socle du Monde (Base of the World) - in which the world is proclaimed a work of art and the role of the artist becomes at once obsolete and all encompassing.

In the words of Art Historian Lincoln Dexter “(almost) best artwork ever”.

(Computer Simulation)

This week I’ve spent a large proportion of my time looking at the work of performance artists in the late 1960s and 1970s… above is a picture of Chris Burden’s 1974 piece ‘Transfixed’ in which he was nailed to the back of a Volkswagen Beetle, then driven into the street while the engine was revved for a number of minutes, before returning to the garage and thus ending the performance. Other notable performances he has staged include ‘Shoot’ in which, in the setting of an art gallery, he got a friend to shoot him in the arm- and ‘Five Day Locker Piece’ (1971) in which he was locked inside a a two-foot by two-foot locker for 5 days. Another interesting artist to look at in this vein is Marina Abramovic, who also uses somewhat masochistic performance to challenge the power of the artist and relationship with the spectator.