Football into art... it's a beautiful thing

If you watch from about 1:45-2:15 there's a brilliantly surreal sequence the commentator calls "the faces of Wembley". Somehow I have to turn this into a project... but how?



I also think its important to know that the french version of Mr Bounce (from Mr Men) is called Monsieur Bing...

Interesting artist!

This is an artist who i had vaguely heard of before, Stelarc, but never researched properly or heard speak; this was found by pure coincidence on the guardian site. His work is not very... appertising... but quite thought provoking and interesting. In particular I like the ideas of suspension, balance and creation evoked through his work. I might try and intigrate this with the new project (I have the beginings of an idea...) although I need to be careful to finish some projects first. I hope you enjoy, its well worth your time!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2010/nov/16/performance-artist-stelarc

Article - "I was shrinkwrapped for art"

I found an interesting article on the Guardian website:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/oct/05/shrinkwrapped-shrink-lawrence-malstaff

The idea itself I find quite interesting, however, perhaps more revealing are the comments below; they make depressing, but through provoking reading. Is world-weary cynicism all that can be offered to something that, although far from the lofty heights of contemporary art, is in itself quite interesting? Why do we find it so easy to dismiss art yet so hard to define it? I feel like a weeping nine-year-old confronted with the uncomfortable realisation that his opinion is not so alone in the world as he assumed but still... how easy it seems to be to degrade achievement through the bitter lens of ignorance. Honestly, it does make very amusing, if also acutely discomforting, reading. Enjoy!

More stuff - another youtube clip

This is less art-related... but still brilliant :)

Youtube Clip

This is brilliant: :)

Guggenheim Art Visit

I managed to get to Bilbao and see the Guggenheim (again - I love it!) The building itself is always spectacular and the interior spaces, high ceilings and large rooms, show off the artworks very well indeed. I managed to stay about 3 hours (4 including lunch and arsing around) and saw exhibitions from Rousseau to Rauschenberg with Amish Kapoor in between.
It is the main Kapoor work that I want to talk about: it was called "Shooting into the Corner" and consisted of a cannon that fired synthetic meat into the corner of the room - it was very messy! Initially I thought the installment was really interesting - through the emotive use of the media and a senseation of abandonment, through the still but poised machinery, a powerful narrative drive was established. Images of characters seething in emotion and firing this "meat cannon" in a slaughterhouse (the room seemed to suggest such a setting) to release there emotion were easily established. It had a very physical and violent atmosphere, a blend of repulsive natrual elements and the harshness of man's industrialisation of carniverous instincts.
This violent repulsiveness and the tension that arose from the narrative drive (and therfore a sense of a character returning) lent the work a disquietening and uneasy tension - expectation infact. I did not realise that this expectation would be sated until the entrance of a performer - the cannon was to be fierd! As an audience now, instead of a collection of viewers we waited with bated breath; we were a roman mob waitng for the visceral entertainment in the Colloseum. The cannon was fired and the 'meat' slapped heartily against the wall, we, the audience applauded and laughed, ingnoring the repulsive nature of our entertainment.
However, I thought the performance was disapointing - it removed both the narrative drive, I now had no angst-ridden character to fire the cannon, but an emotionless mechanic and also destroyed the equilibrium of tension, curiosity and gut-renching visceral quality. In short it was too sensationalist, to crowd pleasing and not accademic or artistic enough - it passed from a manifestation of powerful emotion into a (albeit brutal and damning on the human condition) circus.

Anyways - I hope you like the video (i'm afraid I couldn't find a version from Bilbao but you get the idea) and pictures!

William Kentridge

This is William Kentridge, a South African film artist whose works deal principally with themes involving apartheid such as accepting responsibility (as a white South African). He also looks at our methods of comunication and the role they play in our lives. Most of the political references go over my head i'm afraid, although the History of the Main Complaint (see below) is more accessabel (for me).

I really like his draughtsmanship and the painstaking love and commitment inbvolved in the production of his works - i think that his charcoal drawing is really amazing! Apart from just being entrance by his work i am interested in the relationship between viewer and artwork/artist. In this case his use of narrative and symbolism in conveying his messages and ideas; unlike many contemporary film artists (ie Bill Viola and his ilk) his films are powerful just as stories and visual artowrks as well as conceptual peices involving powerful poitical and social messages. I hope you enjoy them!

For some reason i'm only allowed to upload one video so here's:

History of the Main Complaint:



but here are some links to other Kentridge films:

Weighing... and wanting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45rudITu8Zc

Stereoscope (i think this is the video directly from the worksheet)
http://www.ubu.com/film/kentridge_stereoscope.html