The seventh British Art Show is subtitled ‘In the Days of the Comet’, an appropriate description for this collection of the best of British art from the past five years. The show opened Saturday and is now playing at three Nottingham locations: the New Art Exchange, the Nottingham Contemporary and Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery.
British art in this case includes work that is produced in the U.K. or by British artists living abroad, a programme that allows a certain amount of flexibility. One of the most engrossing works is by an American artist living in London, Christian Marclay.
It’s titled “The Clock” and is made up of thousands of snippets from films, each featuring a timepiece of some sort, and you can set your watch by it in any time zone. Adrian Searle was quoted in The Guardian as calling it “unmissable but unwatchable”, as it continues through an entire 24-hour cycle.
Contemporary art, as depicted in this year’s British Art Show, is often quite incomprehensible on first glance, but the display put on in Nottingham packs a wallop.
Artists such as Nathaniel Mellor, with his animatronic head puking into a bucket, or Sarah Lucas with her Nuds sculptures made of stuffed women’s tights are just two examples of the 39 artists included in the show.
Some are already well known to the British public, and some are making a debut, but all are impressive and well worth the mind-bending that may be necessary to absorb their message.
Since the first British Art Show in 1979 there has been another one every five years up to now. With the current economic situation and expected funding cuts to the artistic community, big shows like this one may have an iffy future, so catch it in Nottingham or when the show goes on tour to London, Glasgow and Plymouth.
The Frieze Art Fair in London has attracted more galleries and artists than ever before. Collectors have shelled out record amounts to own original pieces and the reputation of the festival has grown well beyond what organisers could ever have imagined. With all of this success, it is important to consider the art itself.
The works themselves seem more reflective and considerate than in previous years. There is far less of the garish and grotesque on display. The outdoor sculpture display is a bit disheartening with its feature of trashy work by Kaj Aune and Wolfgang Gantner. Mostly, it seems passé.
Stephen Freidman has a gallery exhibit that seems much more on point with the rest of the festival, with work devoted to the humour of David Shrigley.
The Work Place gallery is featuring the art of Marcus Coates, who believes himself capable of communicating with the animal world through trances. His devotion to his otherworldliness is apparent in themes like his sculpture of himself performing ritualistic shamanism as a horse headed man wearing sunglasses.
The bizarre was also represented by a hair-covered urn created by Fos, whose art was the prominent exhibit at Andersen’s Contemporary Gallery.
Further strangeness could be found throughout various points in the festival where artist Simon Fujiwara had created mock archaeological digs displaying mock skeletons and fake mosaics in signification of some ancient city buried beneath the festivities of the Art Festival.
Although, as stated earlier in this piece, there was less of the macabre and full out gruesome there were still bits like a huge Cookie Monster sculpture that appeared as if it had been constructed by a four year-old fan.
The floor of Tate’s Turbine Hall has 100 million seeds made of porcelain spread on it. No one is trying to grow tiles; it is a new exhibit by Ai Weiwei, the renowned Chinese artist.
Visitors have been encouraged to crunch the seeds underfoot for the experience. However, it appears that after such suggestion there is concern that some patrons might actually be tempted to take a seed or two home. That could be a problem for the museum, which would be putting on an ever-shrinking exhibit of 1000 square metres.
Museum spokespeople say that this exhibit is a complete work. The idea is to get the total effect of seeing 100 million seeds. The artist himself is concerned that people mistake the seeds for the real item and try to eat them. He has said that this would be a real problem for the museum; they could get sued over something like that. That it is a plausible safety issue.
Banksy, the British street artist has done an opener for the Simpsons in which he tags Springfield. The episode, which was titled, Money Bart, is said to have stirred controversy with some members in animation after Banksy storyboarded it for an extended opening.
The graffiti artist is, of course, no stranger to controversy and the content of the episode had plenty of controversy ii it as well. Part of it featured a masked Bart tagging his classroom with his blackboard line that he must not write on the walls.
Further on, Asian sweatshop workers are shown creating animation cells for the start of the show and stuffing is made for Bart dolls using ground up kittens. All the while, an endangered Panda struggles to pull a cart full of Simpsons merchandise.
This isn’t the only time the show has taken a shot at Fox on air. They even have had Rupert Murdoch play himself depicted as an evil billionaire.
Monday the Tate Museum was host to another controversy on top of the standard controversy that always attends the museum’s Turner Prize competition. This one involved a face-off between the museum’s organizers and journalists who came to cover the first showing of this year’s entries. Members of the press were asked to sign a ‘standard’ document saying that they wouldn’t print anything that might result in bad publicity for the Tate or the exhibition.
It’s a tad ironic, since the Turner Prize was established (in 1984) as a way to get the British public involved in contemporary art by promoting the works of new and non-traditional British artists. It would seem that the whole idea was to create more publicity, not less. Since its conception, the Turner competition has certainly aroused its share of controversy, with reactions varying from delight to disgust, and everyone is free to form his or her own opinion. Past winners have generated both praise and outrage, but that’s human nature in action; you can’t please all of the folks all of the time.
This year’s shortlist of entries includes a painting by Dexter Dalwood, a film by the Otolith Group, a sculpture/installation by Angela de la Cruz and a sound-only presentation by Susan Phillipsz. None of them are ‘traditional’ in the accepted sense of the word, but they will certainly inspire plenty of comment from critics both amateur and professional.
Museum officials backed down after a couple of hours, journalists got their pictures and presumably the accompanying copy will be uncensored. The winner of the £25,000 Turner Prize will be announced December 6, and whoever gets it can look forward to a lot of ‘feedback’, probably more of it because of the effort to stifle any negative reviews.
The Tate Modern’s Gauguin exhibition in London is expected to be one of their best exhibitions ever, and maybe the last of its kind for some time, at least if the government’s proposed arts cuts are ratified. The exhibit, entitled, “Maker of Myth” comes at a time when government funding of the arts is in serious jeopardy.
Many arts aficionados fail to understand why the government would want to cut such a successful program by 25 to 35 per cent. They rightfully point out that the arts in the UK have proven to have positive diplomatic and financial effect on the country. The Tate Modern is a perfect example of the positive public relations the arts contribute to the perception of Britain.
With an initial investment of over 132 million pounds of private and public funds, it is now the most heralded museum of contemporary and modern art anywhere in the world. It is estimated that the Tate Modern, with its 5 million guests annually, contributes 105 million pounds in economic gains to London per year. With such numbers from the Tate Modern alone, it is difficult to understand why the government does not have a greater interest in supporting, rather than cutting, the arts funding.
A campaign supporting the arts is in full swing with a petition for signing and a video on the Internet. Support is being given by leading figures from the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, The National Theatre, Serpentine Gallery, South Bank Centre, and more than 100 prominent artists.
The proposed government cuts would be devastating and threaten to reduce an arts program that has taken the better part of 50 years to become the most renowned in the world. Reducing it so drastically amounts to reducing the image of the UK around the world, many contend.
The seventh British Art Show is subtitled ‘In the Days of the Comet’, an appropriate description for this collection of the best of British art from the past five years. The show opened Saturday and is now playing at three Nottingham locations: the New Art Exchange, the Nottingham Contemporary and Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery.
The Frieze Art Fair in London has attracted more galleries and artists than ever before. Collectors have shelled out record amounts to own original pieces and the reputation of the festival has grown well beyond what organisers could ever have imagined. With all of this success, it is important to consider the art itself.
The floor of Tate’s Turbine Hall has 100 million seeds made of porcelain spread on it. No one is trying to grow tiles; it is a new exhibit by Ai Weiwei, the renowned Chinese artist.
Banksy, the British street artist has done an opener for the Simpsons in which he tags Springfield. The episode, which was titled, Money Bart, is said to have stirred controversy with some members in animation after Banksy storyboarded it for an extended opening.
The Tate Modern’s Gauguin exhibition in London is expected to be one of their best exhibitions ever, and maybe the last of its kind for some time, at least if the government’s proposed arts cuts are ratified. The exhibit, entitled, “Maker of Myth” comes at a time when government funding of the arts is in serious jeopardy.