Over the past couple of weeks all sorts of things have appeared in my inbox which could be the subject of a post. Instead, I am going to present them as a ‘grazing table of art world opportunities’ which you might want to sample. Let’s start with a whimsical, funny and imaginative artwork created by the British artist Phil Shaw. Thank you to Elizabeth Tulloh for sending this to me.
If you read the titles of the ‘arranged’ books you will discover: “The English patient had caught it on the beach. I should have stayed at home she said. Now she was in quarantine in the dark house of splendid isolation. Still … hope springs eternal. With a little bit of luck, common sense, and personal hygiene, the Corona book of horror stories must end soon. Always remember, clean hands save lives: and, when in doubt, don’t go out!”
Shaw is a digital-printmaker who creates hyperreal images. His distinctive ‘bookshelf’ prints examine the place of the printed word in a digital age with the juxtaposition of titles creating unexpected connections and new dynamics. Awarded his doctorate in ink technology, Shaw studied printmaking at the Royal College of Art and currently teaches at Middlesex University.
Shaw’s bringing together of ‘scavenged objects’ reminded me of Patrick Pound. If you are interested in a review of his current exhibition ‘The Museum of There, Not There’ then have a read of what Anna Parlane (lecturer in art history and theory at Monash University) thought about it in Memo Review. This Melbourne-based website publishes reviews of a broad variety of art exhibitions (including public, commercial and artist-run spaces) on a weekly basis. It is free, interesting and worth subscribing to. The review of Patrick’s exhibition can be found at: https://memoreview.net/blog/patrick-pound-the-museum-of-there-not-there-by-anna-parlane
Guides involved in the Haring/Basquiat exhibition will have come across the photographer and performance artist Tseng Kwong Chi who documented much of Haring’s career (Tseng took more than 20,000 photographs of Haring and his art). Haring met the photographer in 1979 and they remained close friends until they both died from HIV/AIDS related illnesses, passing away within a month of each other. Tseng’s documentation of Haring has meant that his own artistic practice has been overlooked. However, Tseng created several bodies of beautifully crafted images that focussed on ‘otherness’, identity, performance and the symbolism behind national monuments. To acquaint yourself with Tseng’s ‘radical art’ photos, take a look at ‘Appreciating Tseng Kwong Chi’s Radical Art, beyond his photos of Keith Haring’ by Harry Wong at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-appreciating-tseng-kwong-chis-radical-art-photos-keith-haring
Many of us have struggled with the ‘appetite’ that there is for artists’ merchandise and collectible editions. I am still trying to understand the queues that formed to purchase the editioned objects by KAWS as soon as his exhibition opened at the NGV. Fortunately, I have been helped by ‘KAWS, Murakami, and the Myriad Ways Merchandise Affects an Artist’s Market’ by Justin Kamp. If you are interested in exploring this area further, have a read: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-kaws-murakami-myriad-ways-merchandise-artists-market?utm_medium=email&utm_source=20202266-newsletter-editorial-daily-05-02-20&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_content=st-V
The website ‘Literary Hub’ has an interesting article on ‘The Writers Vincent van Gogh Loved, From Charles Dickens to Harriet Beecher Stowe’. Subtitled as ‘6 Books Essential to Our Understanding of the Artist’, Mariella Guzzoni (a scholar and art curator from Bergamo, Italy) has recently published ‘Vincent’s Books’ which describes Van Gogh’s insatiable reading and how the books that he encountered defined and guided his world view and influenced his art. See: http://: https://lithub.com/the-writers-vincent-van-gogh-loved-from-dickens-to-beecher-stowe/
Riddles that have no answers, 2004 Polixeni PAPAPETROU (R)
NGV Collection
This week it is 155 years since Alice in Wonderland was published. It was released on May 4th 1865 which was Alice Liddell’s 13th birthday. The day was chosen by Lewis Carroll to acknowledge Alice and her sisters who had ‘prompted’ him to write down the stories he had been telling them. As our lives have been ‘curiouser and curiouser’ this year, it is interesting to look at how Alice’s adventures have been depicted by artists since the book’s publication. The website ‘Literary Hub’ has a number of examples ranging from John Tenniel to Arthur Rackham to Max Ernst to Mervyn Peake to Salvador Dali to Yayoi Kusama and many more. We are, of course, very familiar with the versions by Australian artists – Charles Blackman and Polixeni Papapetrou. The images can be seen at: https://lithub.com/20-artists-visions-of-alice-in-wonderland-from-the-last-155-years/
Finally, there seems to be a retreat into the world of childhood imagination and storytelling. Perhaps this is not surprising as we first heard fairytales in the context of the security of being looked after. These stories also take us on a journey from innocence through adversity to a ‘happy ever after’ resolution – something that we are seeking today. I will finish with two imaginative works that connect with the current time.
The first is a poem by Lisel Mueller titled ‘Immortality’. Mueller was a German-born American poet, translator and academic. Her family fled Nazi Germany and arrived in America when Mueller was 15 years of age. Educated in America, Mueller worked as a literary critic and university academic. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1997, her poetry is often based on simple observations that reveal layers of both humour and sadness. Mueller died in February of this year aged 96. The poem ‘Immortality ‘ is read by Maria Popova and can be listened to here: https://soundcloud.com/brainpicker/lisel-mueller-immortality
The second piece is also poetry and is by the English spoken word poet, Tomos Roberts. In the guise of bedtime storytelling, Roberts has created a stirring video about how coronavirus has caused us to rethink our priorities and changes in society. I hope you enjoy ‘The Great Realisation’.
Note: I find inserting videos into blogs somewhat ‘hit and miss’. If you can’t see the video here, it can be found on youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw5KQMXDiM4