There’s a controversy going on in Vancouver over an art exhibit made from scavenged/stolen street signs. To me this sounds like a lot of fuss over not particularly good art, although perhaps I shouldn’t judge without seeing the “strong holistic spectacle” (no longer quite so holistic).
Last night I went to the opening of Paranoia, the new show at Leeds City Art Gallery (which will subsequently transfer to Focal Point Gallery in Southend and the Freud Museum in London prior to an international tour).
At least, I intended to go to the opening. Unfortunately, as ever I got delayed by one thing and another, so didn’t leave the house until nearly 5.30pm. Got to Sheffield Station in time for the 6.08 train, which ought to get me to Leeds with about half an hour to spare to look around the show. Ah well, better than nothing.
Unfortunately (again) my train broke down as it got into Castleford. I had to sit around for about 20 minutes twiddling my thumbs before finally the train started chugging, very slowly, backwards, to Leeds. Got to the station at about ten-to-eight, ran to the art gallery, and arrived just as the bottles of free wine were going back into boxes (damn!) with about two minutes to try and dash around the whole show.
I didn’t manage it, nowhere near, and I was so flustered that I didn’t really get a chance to take in any of the work, which was a huge shame as this looked to be one of the most fascinating art shows I’ve visited in a long time. There was a diverse and engaging body of work from many international artists in every medium imaginable. Some large metallic photographic prints (which I subsequently discovered were by Martin Effert) caught my attention, and once again made me realise how bad the Tom Hunter work at Sheffield’s Graves Gallery really is. In the centre of one room was an Arab in a cage (yes, a real live Arab in a cage), Doug Fishbone’s “Performance with an Arab”, which was both attention-grabbing and poignant. As I arrived, I had obviously 
just missed another performance relating to a woman’s paranoia about her appearance: a bare-footed woman in a white dress walked away from one of the gallery’s permanent statues (a classical female nude) which was encircled with hundreds of discarded cotton wool pads, womens’ magazines and assorted beauty products. Next door another woman, in Middle-Eastern dress, sat with her daughter, surrounded by bread and cotton wool. Obviously the aftermath of Rana Bishara’s “Bread for Palestine” performance.
There was just so much going on, and so much to see, I wanted to let it all sink in. But before I could the curators came around, sweeping everyone out of the room. I was left on the steps outside, alone. Not wanting my trip to Leeds to be entirely wasted, I found a very good Japanese restaurant where I ate smoked eel teriyaki and got very drunk, before hopping on the late-night train back to Sheffield.
Something rather unusual happened to me this morning. I was attacked by a police dog.
I was walking my dog Gizmo in the park, as I do most mornings at about this time. Ahead of me, I could see a large alsatian snuffling around in the undergrowth and a man who was mostly hidden by the trees ahead of me. As we got closer, the alsatian turned, saw Gizmo, and set off after him. Now, Gizmo loves getting other dogs to chase him, because he knows that none of them will ever catch him, so I wasn’t too concerned.
By this stage the man had come into view and I could see that he was wearing full police uniform. He called his dog back, and ordered me to stand still, which I did. His dog turned back as soon as it was called, but instead of going back to the owner it lunged at my hand as it passed, and latched on with full force. I was completely shocked. It hurt. A lot.
The policeman ordered his dog off and thankfully it responded to his command. When I took my hand out, it was oozing thick blood. The sight of it made me feel weak. There was a large puncture on the middle finger of my right hand, a hole splayed open at the edges inside which I could see a big loose vein and other bits and pieces of gore. Up the side of my index finger was a raking cut, again fairly deep and with little bits of mincemeat hanging out. The policeman brushed it off as “not a very bad one”, and took me back to his van where he gave the cuts a quick wipe and put a dressing on my middle finger, while two plain-clothed detectives hovered in the background. He told me that they’d been searching for a purse which was stolen and probably dumped around there. Only a couple of months before I’d found a rucksack dumped in exactly the same spot, which I’d taken to the police station. Not long before that, I found a mobile nearby and got to hear a part the sad story of what happened to its owner. I’m starting to have my worries about walking home late at night in this area.
Subsequently I had to go to my GP’s for a tetanus jab, then to the hospital to have the wound checked over, sellotaped up (it needs stitches but they apparently don’t stitch animal bites in case they seal in any infection), and pick up some antibiotics. And now, I’m finding it very hard to type, and to take photographs.
Anyway, Mark wanted me to show these photos which Gill took for me. Are they art? A depiction of the artist’s suffering, perhaps?
Austin’s Scott Wade uses paint-brushes and his fingers to paint incredibly detailed art-scenes in the dust that accumulates on the windows of his Mini Cooper. The Austin American-Statesman has a small gallery of his finest work — I love this dogs playing poker repro. My takeaway: anything that looks good in black velvet also works well in windshield dust. Link (via Neatorama)
Went out last Thursday kinda all on my own except for Mitch, Jim was ill Kirsten was tired and Wayne seems to off given up.
However had one of my best nights ever saw lots of work and eneded up at a secret gig at some big shop in Shoreditch.
Started off at the tea rooms which had two galleries showing work , Rocket and Andrew Mummery.
At Rocket was Michelle Grabner who hials from Chicago , Really
not my thing they had ‘paintings’ from ten yerars of her work sorry for the pun but nothing grabbed me.
The we stopped at The Foundry and I really liked this sign..
Then onto a group show at Andrew Mummery Again nothing very inspiring and when I got home and checked my photos wasnt sure what work was form this show, I think the pictures below are from it?? Also no Press releases info on artists just a price list £300-£11500 (actually now I have time to look at the photos quite like them!! remeber ned to spend more time looking)
After Andrew Mummery we set off for Free Range the graduate shows on Bricklane but before we got to them we stumbled open a group show at The Brick Lane Gallery (owned by artshole.co.uk) this show was great really liked it (pictures below ) also everyone is always really nice here.
After that we got to the freerange exhibitions they where great lots of photos even went to the textiles bit but didnt take any photos didnt really feel like it by then. But did spot this ‘graffiti’ which I really liked as well….
Finally we went to All Saints to watch a gig by Cazals.
IMT more details here
Andrew Mummery more details here
Rocket Gallery more details here
BrickLane Gallery more details here
Cazals
The Freeloaders Weekly (26.06.06 - 02.07.06)
Tuesday 27th June -
Art Central: Rokeby Gallery PV , 37 Store Street, 6.30-8.30pm. Prob some Cork st too.
Wednesday 28th June -
Kitson Kaleidopscope - A two hour collaborative performance beamed live via webcast from James Ford’s bedroom at 11 Kitson Road, Camberwell, London. Utilising Yahoo messenger I.D. kitsonkaleidoscope for live feed and chat: Brian Catling - C. Cred - Richard Dedominici - Sarah Doyle - James R Ford - Russell Herron - Katsunobu - Calum F Kerr - Sally O’Reilly - Simon Ould - Olivia Jane Ransley - Paula Roush - Carina Thorén and John Chantler - Contact
kitson@jamesrobertford.com to request login details for a Yahoo email account which can then be used to view the live performance.
Thursday 29th June
Art East: Opening at Between Bridges, Cambridge Heath Road, Wolfgang Tillmans Gallery - 6-8pm. Plus 6-10pm Fine Art openings at the Truman Brewery. Plus maybe pv at Fortesque Avenue, E8 - behind the Dolphin Pub (kind of).
Art Central: 1) ‘Thank you for the Music’, group show at Spruth Magers Lee 12 Berkley Square 6-8pm 2) pv with lots of well-known Russian Artists at White Space Gallery in St Peters Church, top of New Burlington St, cross Oxford St and straight ahead.
Art South: 1) PV at Clapham Art Gallery, 6.30-8.30pm 2) PV & Lecture at the Trade Apartment - 303 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton - 6-10pm, lecture 7.30 after Dj’s, etc.
Friday 30th June
Art East: 1) Transition, Regents Studio, 8 St Andrews Road, E8, PV 6-9pm.
Saturday 1st July
Art East: 1-4pm BBQ and drinks celebrating the launch of a floating barge island on the canal, 45 Vyner Street, E2.
Festival Way West: 10am-4pm Free Two Day festival (on Sunday too) in Kew Gardens probably too late to get free tickets here http://www.culturalco-operation.org/mv/mv_index.htm It is a festival of World Music in the historic Gardens. You save £11 on entry to the Gardens so hope you get em.
Sunday 2nd July:Festival East: 2-6pm Laburnum Street Festival 2-6pm
It’s all free, drinks not ALWAYS guaranteed
XFSGBXThe Freeloaders Society of Great Britain
Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller,The Secret Hotel
As if the coach loads of fans pouring into the German capital this summer for the World Cup weren’t making enough of a racket……..
Among the many summer festivals here in Berlin there are two that are particularly worth watching out for, the Berlin Music Festival and Sonambiente 2006.
Sonambiente Berlin 2006
All over central Berlin until July 16 is Sonambiente - the festival for sound Art. Notching up almost 75 projects from over 100 international artists, highlights include works from Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, and a new video installation by South African artist Candice Breitz called ‘Legend(A Portrait of Bob Marley)’.
The installations, objects and video works, take place in various venues - churches, cinemas, stations, banks, pumping stations, theatres, office buildings, in trees, hidden in old DDR hot dog stands. Atop a water tower in the Mitte district, Carsten Nicolai presents another new video installation ‘Fades’. Until July 7th, there will also be a public viewing sound art lounge at the Haus der Berliner Festpiele which will show live broadcasts of the football matches amidst the arts.
The Berlin Festival
The Berlin Festival takes place the last weekend in July. Echo and The Bunnymen headline, while The Sultans of Ping make a rare comeback appearance. However, it’s the young pretenders further down the bill that makes this ‘not your average indie festival line-up. Straight out of New Cross, Londoners The Klaxons warm up for their Reading and Leeds dates later this summer. Mixing Happy Hardcore, Pop, Rock, and Rave, with indie swagger. Canadian youngsters Islands make the trip all the way from Montreal. With impeccable indie scene credentials (the collective of seven includes ex Unicorns and Arcade Fire members), they have already supported Beck on tour, and make beautiful folky pop. 
Following somewhat in the footsteps of P J Harvey, female vocalist Trost is already making her mark in Berlin with her long legs, even longer hair and sweet and sour thrash pop. Also playing in their home town, experimental art-rockers The Aim of Design is to Define Space make intelligent music for the art school crowd, and even with songs about Martin Kippenberger, they still manage to get their rocks off.
Joseph Beuys in München/Munich
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