contemporary art
Pierre Huyghe/ Paul McCarthy, Hauser & WirthWednesday, 22 October 2014
In a tavern somewhere in Tokyo, two Japanese macaque monkeys work a daily, two-hour shift (under Japanese law, these hours are regulated). Dressed in miniature uniforms, the monkeys’ main task is to deliver hot towels to amused customers before... Read more... |
The spooky and the bold in the art of contemporary ChinaSunday, 19 October 2014
In China there are more than 100 million fans of Manchester United. At least that’s what I’m told when I get to the the city's National Football Museum. And in a sartorial decision unusual in the art world, we are greeted by artist Chen Wenbo... Read more... |
Richard Tuttle, Tate Modern / Whitechapel GalleryThursday, 16 October 2014
It could be an aircraft, hastily covered with some very inadequate wrappings and squeezed into the great hangar of the Turbine Hall. Or perhaps an eccentric sort of bird, its bedraggled wings missing chunks of orange plumage, in contrast to its... Read more... |
Steve McQueen: Ashes, Thomas Dane GalleryWednesday, 15 October 2014
Ashes is a two-part exhibition. The darkened gallery at 3 Duke Street, St James’s is filled with the onscreen image of a young black man sitting on the prow of a small boat with his back to us (main picture). He turns occasionally to smile to camera... Read more... |
Time, Weather, Place: Folkestone Triennial 2014Monday, 01 September 2014
The crusty old Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay died in 2006, but there’s a new art work by him at this year’s Folkestone Triennial. You won’t be able to see it with the naked eye, but you can through a pair of binoculars. If you peer through a... Read more... |
Edinburgh Art Festival: Scotland to outer spaceSaturday, 16 August 2014
Like a canny political campaigner, the Edinburgh Art Festival offers “something for everyone”. In this singular year for Scotland, the festival weaves together strands concerning the independence referendum, the Commonwealth and the centenery of the... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Basel: More than MinimalismSunday, 20 April 2014
In a near-perfect, outward-looking Swiss city sharing borders with France and Germany, on a series of cloudless April days that felt more like balmy June than capricious April, anything seemed possible. The doors of perception which had slammed, I... Read more... |
Zhang Enli/Alex Van Gelder, Hauser & WirthTuesday, 14 January 2014
In 1920, Man Ray, now better known for his solarized photographs, produced a sculpture made from found objects. L'Enigme d'Isidore Ducasse, named after the 19th-century French poet who used the pseudonym Comte de Lautréamont, is a sewing machine... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Dunkirk: The spirit of FRACWednesday, 27 November 2013
Those French and their grand projects! Not the least of them is the division of the country into 23 areas who acquire their own collections of international contemporary art, supplemented by a national loan collection, all under the rubric of FRAC,... Read more... |
Sonica, GlasgowSaturday, 23 November 2013
At first it looked like a joke. But, as each muscle spasm, set off by an electric shock, did appear to produce a pained expression in the performer and a subsequent note, one slowly had to accept that these four string quartet players were indeed... Read more... |
Adrián Villar Rojas, Sackler Serpentine GalleryFriday, 27 September 2013
A queue of artists, press and glitterati snaked its way through Kensington Gardens waiting to be let into the private view for the opening of the Serpentine’s new Sackler Gallery this week, housed in The Magazine, a former 1805 gunpowder store,... Read more... |
theartsdesk in the Hamptons: The $26 Million BarnWednesday, 28 August 2013
There’s never a good day for traffic in the Hamptons, and a Friday in August takes the biscuit. The Montauk Highway, also known as Route 27, was bumper to bumper on the way to the Parrish Art Museum, recently relocated from nearby Southampton... Read more... |
