installation
Paul McCarthy: The King, The Island, The Train, The House, The Ship, Hauser & WirthFriday, 18 November 2011
Until recently, on YouTube, you could watch Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley’s Heidi (1992), one of the funniest and most transgressive videos ever made. In a Swiss chalet, the children Heidi and Peter are being “educated” by their abusive grandfather... Read more... |
Turner Prize 2011, Baltic, GatesheadFriday, 21 October 2011
The Turner Prize has headed to the North East. It’ll be back in London next year, thence to Derry for 2013. Tate Britain plan to host the prize biennially, with a regional public gallery presenting it in the years in-between. This must be hailed as... Read more... |
Pipilotti Rist: Eyeball Massage, Hayward GalleryTuesday, 04 October 2011
In 1997 the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist produced one of the most delightful videos ever made, and it won her the Biennale. Ever is Over All shows a young woman skipping down a city street gaily smashing car windows with a red-hot poker; and... Read more... |
Museum Show Part 1, ArnolfiniWednesday, 28 September 2011
A 50th birthday is a landmark occasion. One has plenty to look back on, whilst still having much to look forward to. Plus there’s all that life experience to draw on. What’s not to feel positive about? In the case of a gallery that’s built up a... Read more... |
Phyllida Barlow: RIG, Hauser & Wirth, LondonThursday, 08 September 2011
Every surface in my house is covered in plaster and brick dust, and wood, sand, cement, plaster and wire mesh are strewn all over the place. Furniture, carpets and pictures are covered in dust sheets and piled into two sealed rooms. You’ve guessed... Read more... |
Ryan Gander: Locked Room Scenario, Artangel in Hoxton, N1Wednesday, 07 September 2011
What are the most common responses to a work of contemporary art? I can think of two: “A six-year-old could have done that” (feel free to substitute “I” or “anyone”) and “But what does it actually mean?” Ryan Gander is an artist who is rather... Read more... |
theartsdesk in New York: A Rooftop Ramble in the High Line ParkSunday, 28 August 2011
The High Line Park on the far west side of Manhattan, built on an old elevated train track, is a unique combination of everything New Yorkers love - fabulous views, a piece of history, a traffic-free zone (no dogs, skateboards or bicycles), unusual... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Folkestone: Art Echoes by the SeasideWednesday, 29 June 2011
The locals are understandably proud of Folkestone; Everywhere Means Something to Someone is an idiosyncratic guidebook offering an insider’s view of the town that bears witness to the depth of people’s attachment to it. Put together for the ... Read more... |
Tessa Farmer, Danielle Arnaud Art Gallery/Crypt GallerySaturday, 28 May 2011
The world of artist and entomologist Tessa Farmer really is a world, wholly self-contained and free of human kind – unless you see her tiny warring fairies as symbolic of mankind’s conscience-free decimation of our planet’s environment and co-... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Paris: Inside Anish Kapoor's LeviathanSunday, 22 May 2011
All aboard! 4000 visitors a day are queuing up for a voyage in the belly of a whale. Anish Kapoor’s Leviathan, a commission for the Monumenta series at the Paris Grand Palais, is a runaway success, one of those Zeitgeist-attuned mega-installations... Read more... |
Christine Borland & Kerry Tribe, Camden Arts CentreMonday, 16 May 2011
“As a student at Glasgow School of Art I used to visit the amazing anatomy, zoology and ethnographic collections at Glasgow University,” says Christine Borland. “I couldn’t understand why I was so intrigued, except for the question of how something... Read more... |
Ai Weiwei, Lisson Gallery & Somerset HouseThursday, 12 May 2011
It is now 37 days since Ai Weiwei was detained at Beijing international airport by the Chinese authorities. His family and friends have heard nothing since. His lawyer, to whom under Chinese law he must have access, was arrested as well, and since... Read more... |
