One thing made clear during the recent Japanese deluge was that the earth does not discriminate, and all human-made objects were equally subject to the forces of destruction. The substances we choose to build with are measured in reference to human scale: Objects are hard enough only to withstand our own needs for toughness. They are as tall, soft or as resilient enough to meet only our own standards for what is optimum. Though we may build things to last several human lifetimes, they are ephemeral gestures in time as demonstrated by the waves that washed away, with a mere tide-swing of the pendulum, centuries of human toil.
The Korean artist Meekyoung Shin mimics precious Chinese porcelain vases and vaunted classical sculptures – and remodels them out of soap. Her replicas seem to mock the value of the original and their illusion of authenticity. Everything pictured is made of soap…
John Stezaker, Marriage - 2006 Collage 23.5 x 28.5 cm (Photo courtesy of: saatchi-gallery.co.uk)
The British artist John Stezaker has a retrospective of his photographic collages in London at the Whitechapel Gallery and newly commissioned works on display at the Louis Vuitton Maison. Stezaker appropriates iconic imagery from the past, landscapes, vintage studio headshots of forgotten film stars, those that show up in old shoe boxes in antique shops collecting dust along with nostalgic memorabilia, waiting to be picked through, rediscovered.
What is unusual in Stezaker’s use of these images for his collages, is that his manipulation of them is minimal – often a single incision slices and splices two photographs creating uncanny symphony. Or a composite of just two images, a poster shot of a generic waterfall placed over a face, creates a window of such powerful reflection, that the simplicity in technique seems astonishing in the context of today’s excessive digital doctoring.
Long past the debate of whether gaming is to be considered art or not, Cory Arcangel’s work deconstructs the world of the video game, imposing new rules, changing the rules that govern play, what is being played, and who is playing it. Here the Brooklyn artist flips the play switch on us, turning the gaze on our interaction with the virtual world. Arcangel, who is scheduled to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum later this year, has a display at the Barbican in London at its Curve space, of a row of video projections of bowling games – which is like a walk-through past a virtual diorama of a noisy bowling alley. The 14 games on display range from a 1977 Atari to 2001 a Gamecube. The consoles, which are not to be played with, have been messed with so each game is set to lose and the virtual bowlers repeatedly take aim and miss over and over again in an endless cycle of trials until ‘game’s over.’ (more…)
Robots an art collective in London creates public interactive sculptures, giant robots, from recycled furniture, old wood and rejects from leftover trash that prove for them, that ‘one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure.’ The two artists, former movie-set builders, Jimmy Bumble and Leonard White, also constructed the Brooklyn Griffin on a trip to New York last year.
Lucrezia Borgia Film, Credit Mike Figgis, Courtesy ENO
Interview Part 1 of 2
I met Mike Figgis in Soho the day after his opera Lucrezia Borgia premiered with ENO in the gloriously ornate London Coliseum. The English National Opera has been adventurously pairing auteurs in new productions, and Figgis, known for such films as ‘Leaving Las Vegas‘ (1995), ‘Timecode‘ (2000), and Internal Affairs, had taken on the daunting task of directing Donizetti’s rarely performed 1833 opera sung in the bel canto style.
The reviews that morning had been mixed, which was to be expected when innovators are pitted against traditionalists. Figgis was understandably anxious when I arrived late at Groucho’s, but later relaxing over coffee we digressed and talked about his early roots in music, (he is an excellent trumpet player), his Hollywood encounters, Christopher Hitchens, and renaissance porn… (more…)
Doug Foster, Frozen, Single-channel high-definition video installation HD colour, stereo sound, 2’07” seamless loop 46” LCD Screen Edition of five, 2007 Courtesy the artist and Lazarides
Doug Foster had worked as an animation cameraman for some time and had an interest in optical illusions – but only recently did availability of newer technologies make him finally realize his ambitions for his art.
Foster has used stereoscopic video installations featuring cyclical narratives in his Human Experiments series. In the Naughty Chair, his first solo show at Lazarides‘ Georgian townhouse gallery on Rathbone Place in London, Foster plays with optical illusions using mirrors. He creates portraits with perfect symmetry that seem somehow alien and uncanny. His video loops depict endless cyclical events that seem to underscore the futility of labyrinthian structures and Sisyphean toil.
CHRISTIAN MARCLAY Still from The Clock, 2010 single-channel video 24 hours
CHRISTIAN MARCLAY Still from The Clock, 2010 single-channel video 24 hours
Christian Marclay’s film The Clock is a compilation of over 3000 movie clips that reference time, spliced together into a 24-hour film that can be synchronized to local time. The film sources clips from the vast archives of 20th century films, which itself is a chronicle of culture and thought – taken out of context and placed in an unrelenting sequence, it is also a futile countdown that exposes the banality of time’s passage.
The viewer experiences the passing of time within alternate movie realities, fictional though these scenes maybe, they illuminate our attachment to the circadian clock. Cinematic snippets from Laurel and Hardy to Steve McQueen depict our dependence on clock towers, Cartier watches, ancient timepieces, sun dials, sand clocks, sunrises, grandfather clocks, alarms and atomic wristwatches that regulate the urgency with which we wake up and shut-down. Clocks are the measure by which our physical strengths are tested, appointments kept, they are the timers by which bombs go off.
VICTOR SKREBNESKI (B. 1929) portrait of Dennis Hopper, 1990 gelatin silver diptych signed and dated in ink (on the recto) overall 19¼ x 29¼ in. (48.9 x 74.3 cm.) Sold: $9,375
Dennis Hopper (R.I.P.) began his art collection in the 1960s after actor Vincent Price, who was an impressionist art collector himself, had encouraged him, telling him it was where he needed to put his money. Dennis Hopper’s four children auctioned off their dad’s collection of 300 works of art at Christie’s today. Alex Hitz, a close friend and trustee of the estate told Associated Press, “it was Dennis’s wish to sell everything. How do you cut a Warhol and all those other wonderful pieces by four?”
One of the more notable pieces in this collection was Warhol’s Mao, a framed screenprint of Mao Zedong with two bullet holes, resulting from a wild night of partying when Hopper mistook the portrait on his wall for Mao himself and shot at it. When Hopper showed the bullet punctures later to Warhol, the pair agreed to call it a work of collaboration, with Warhol drawing circles around the two holes and labeling them “warning shot” and “bullet hole.” The mystique obviously added to its value as the screen print, which was estimated at $20-$30K, fetched quite a bit more: $302,500
ANNIE LEIBOVITZ (B. 1947) Portrait of Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken at Chateau Marmont, 1995, Estimated at $3-5K sold for $12.5K
French born photographer Jean-François Rauzier’shyper-photos envision other worlds – with the same density and clarity of detail – the way our own eyes actually see. Rauzier weds painting and technology to create these elaborate C-Type photographic prints using imaging software on Apple macs capable of handling 30-40 gigabytes of data – to capture enough detail to develop large format prints 30 feet by 10 feet – without loss of quality. In fact, the high resolution of the images allow them to be enlarged to as much as 50 metres without degradation.
Ryan McGinley, Tilda Swinton, Neville Wakefield at Pringle of Scotland / Serpentine Gallery dinner closing the 195 Collaborations project, at the Webster, Miami. Photo Credit: David X Prutting
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-director of the Serpentine Gallery in Pringle of Scotland
An unusual pairing during Art Basel Miami Beach was the jointly held event between Pringle of Scotland, the design house for Scottish woolies, and Serpentine Gallery, one of the most respected galleries in London.
The sponsorship of the arts is laudable when it’s of economic benefit to the artists, and here the alliance with art seems to be working also to the advantage of Pringle, increasing it’s corporate profile amongst art enthusiasts. Pringle’s sponsorship of artists in Scotland is ostensibly to promote Scottish craft and creativity, but its collaboration with the Serpentine is not only a strategic association that helps to legitimize a corporate brand but is also a smart economic venture for the Serpentine.
