Paradise Lost?
This piece was published in Piktogram in 2005. ♦ The Art of Home In 1956 a member of the British art police set up home. Jim Eade, a former curator at the Tate Gallery, decided to turn his picturesque house, Kettle’s Yard, in the university city of Cambridge into a gallery for the defence of … Continue reading
Sacrifice, Madness, Ruins and Other Polish Dreams
This essay was written for the catalogue accompanying The Power of Fantasy. Modern and Contemporary Art from Poland at BOZAR in Brussels, summer 2011. ♦ 46476243 The Spirit that Outlasts Matter On first inspection, Jakub Ziółkowski’s painting The Great Battle under the Table (Wielka bitwa pod stołem, 2006) combines the heroic and the domestic. The … Continue reading
Speaking about exhibitions
Last night I went to a talk – of sorts – at the RCA called ‘Spoken Exhibition’ which represents ‘historic’ and yet unbuilt buildings, unmade works of art and lost music scores in the form of a radio play or, perhaps, a spoken opera. It was performed with a script and minimal props – a … Continue reading
Electric Birdsong
The University of Brighton Gallery is currently hosting a retrospective exhibition of the work of German sound artist Peter Vogel. Spindly frames dressed with transistors and capped with speakers eschew monumentality or anything as straightforward as a message. They are like electronic pets which respond to the presence of people. When a viewer casts a … Continue reading
Unmonumental monuments
This text appeared in the catalogue for the Steirischer Herbst festival, Graz, 2010
