Gotta love this guy #10 (Planetarium museum)

Cool Hunting Video Presents: The Planetarium Projector Museum from Cool Hunting on Vimeo.

emptiness!

The emptiness!
A room without flowers
Or children.

frog

Happy frog!
From the drainpipe
An evening song.

rain!

Rain! fill my tanks,
The buttercups, 
And my sorrow too.

gotta love these guys! #9 (potholes)

STORYBOARD: A Day With New York City's Pothole Repair Crew from Tumblr on Vimeo.

pink

Tickled pink
The young tomato plants,
Evening breeze.

Milky Way

Milky Way!
Where I'll be buried
Someday.

Asia Pacific Triennial 2013, Brisbane

The other day I made a trip to the Asia Pacific triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane. I had seen the last two and looked forward to this outing with friend Dieter Neumann. Almost immediately, I sensed that it would be an underwhelming experience. Alas, yes,... but with one big exception in the work of Lorraine Connelly-Northey whose renditions of Aboriginal women's handbags hang on the long large wall of the top floor. They are fashioned out of old metal materials found in dumps everywhere; barbed wire, thin wire mesh, plumbing pipes, old wired bed frames and other bits and pieces. I am rarely spellbound by 'Contemporary' Sculpture but I find these simply beautiful; transcendental even, in that way that great things always are. To see just this work by her is worth the 2 hour drive from Byron Bay. To be fair, I am not seduced by so much 'Contemporary' work. (What does it mean to call something Contemporary anyway?) To me, its pretentious and invented for the masses by Dealers and otherwise ambitious young museum curators who graduated from University in the past 20 or so years. (sigh.. I won't go on with my obvious contempt for this academic drivel.) However, these kinds of shows are geared to our most infantile need to be entertained. (They are, by the way, a big hit with children under the age of 17) 

If we are not being entertained, we seem to be  banged over the head with social or economic issues which, I feel, are often better treated in a documentary film format, or Photographic journalism then under the banner of 'Art'. (Why the Art tag anyway?) There is a persistent didactical condescension which seems to ooze out of so much work these days that it gives me a headache. I believe it must have something to do with the Post-Modernist education to which many of these graduates adhere. 

But, if in Brisbane, do go see this show. There are things which will get your mind moving which I know is a good thing but, wouldn't it be nice to simply be moved by a work of art than entertained by it?

Go see the work of this very gifted artist Lorraine Connelly-Northey. 

fingertips

Fingertips of 
Uncertainty, 
The rain this night.

a - z

The ABC of Architects from fedelpeye on Vimeo.

punch!

A punch 
In the face-
The East wind.

heart

Under the ripe moon
This sweet mango
Of my bitter heart.

mangos

Sweet mangos, 
The tree
Just out of reach!

gotta love these kids #8

Surrey Square Primary School animation workshop from peter millard on Vimeo.

Happy New Year!

John Bokor

In the November 2012 issue of The Australian Art Review I discovered the work of John Bokor whose paintings surprised and pleased me. I am especially moved by the subtly of the image below (large golden field with the house and sea in the distance). He lives and works in Bulli on the central coast of  New South Wales.

Royal Spuds!

The Wiki Man - Film 2 from Moth on Vimeo.

Fake or Fortune

OK,,, I know its a set up, its television after all, and yet nonetheless, I find myself obsessed with the BBC program Fake or Fortune which I believe is in its second season. A seasoned BBC journalist Fiona Bruce, art dealer Philip Mould and Bendor Grosvenor make up this trio of cultured sleuths. To sum it up, each episode is devoted to the authentication of a particular painting which involves its provenance, its chemical makeup, and ultimately its aesthetic integrity. Its really a forensic adventure in Painting, a Reality show for Art lovers of which I gather there are still many in the world. (Thankfully)

I have seen only three thus far, but all were very engrossing despite all the bells and whistles of what is essentially an entertaining television show. 

They have proved thus far: a Degas, a Turner, and a Van Dyck. I am completely addicted.

Enjoy!

Mantegna, Christmas

Cashmere

Clouds of Cashmere,
Warm my cold heart
Before Christmas.

l'air de rien #169 (happy christmas)

l'air de rein #169 (happy christmas) from cloudsandsea on Vimeo.

Caruso panned!

Una Furtiva Lagrima from Carlo Vogele on Vimeo.

Yusoki Samiro

In April of this last year, I saw this poster in Osaka at the Municipal Museum. I was so taken aback by the image that I fainted and woke up in the Osaka Hospital 3 hours later. (ha ha, je plaisante!!) 

Actually, I really was overwhelmed by it and subsequently made arrangements to go see the show at the Museum of Modern Art at Kanagawa on my way back to Tokyo. To be honest, I was a little less amazed by much of the rest of the show except for these very small and poetic images, a dozen or so, of which this is but one example. They are collages made from scraps of cloth, created as if from nothing, but then, everything all at once. Those cheeky Japanese! This one (above) still surprises me every time I see it. It is strategically placed on my desktop to haunt me... taunt me.

The terrible, the beautiful, the pathos!...

stuff!

'STUFF & THINGS' from Mummu on Vimeo.

addendum

post script to Habeas Corpus:

Normally, I never criticize the artist, but as a practicing  painter, I look at the work itself, which is fair game. 

There are loads of Picasso's which I loath but many which I adore… ditto for Cezanne, and even Monet, but also other favorites of mine; Philip Guston and Ian Fairweather. Thus the conundrum when it comes to Abromovic:

How does one look at her work critically when her work is her person (elle-meme)? Which is which? What procedure is there? What is the protocol for taking a cool and objective look at what it is that she really does?

l'air de rien #168

l'air de rien #168 from cloudsandsea on Vimeo.

Habeas Corpus!

Of course its possible that I miss the point entirely but the meteoric rise of Marina Abramovic prompts a reflection: Has the Artist replaced the Art work? If so, is that OK? I mean; is that a reasonable form for this cultural evolution of ours to take? It would seem to be the premise of her recent mega show at MOMA in 2010 entitled The Artist is Present. (There is a documentary of the same title currently out)

Am I too old fashioned to accept that the personality of an artist codifies the content of the 'work'? Or even that the Artist is the Form of the work? One could pose the reasonable question: Is Performance Art inherently Form or Content? And, what does it mean? Or, more to the point: does this contribute to our cultural heritage or is it just a kind social filibuster? 

Andy Warhol was a prescient and key player in understanding this social evolution. He could be shuffling in his grave at the moment but meanwhile, I will stick to Matisse.

St Malo

I have no idea why but I found these houses on the Corniche in St Malo full of personality.