artintelligence

One of the more interesting works on view in the Neue Nationalgalerie was Mine, Ours, Everywhere II, 2008, by Isabel Lima. This consisted of a small square canvas (click image left) that carried various dirt marks on its surface which tied in extremely well with Thea Djordjadze’s enormous dirty window, which was one of the highpoints of the Neue Nationalgalerie aspect of the Berlin Biennial. One of the rather odd things about Mine, Ours, Everywhere II was that it was accompanied by a label. This was strange because none of the other works in the exhibition had labels. (more…)

I found Manon De Boer’s contribution to the 5th Berlin Biennial Two Times 4′33″, 2007-8 significant not because I liked it—I thought it was tedious—but because it is an especially clear sign of the degeneration of conceptual art into pretentiousness, self-absorption, and repetition. This was not a work of art at all, it was a non-musical, non-performance with a banal attempt at art tacked on at the end. (more…)

The 1960s was the period in which deconstructive art came into ascendency and painting lost its grip as the principal medium of fine art. But we can trace the evolution of this development further back. Certain individuals pursued the deconstructive turn in the 1950s, notably Robert Rauschenberg and Yves Klein. And, as always, we can trace the genealogy back further into early twentieth century art; specifically, to Cubist collage, Kurt Schwitters’ trash paintings, Dada’s philosophy of “anti-art”, the Dada and Surrealist concepts of chance, automatism, and montage, as well as the Duchampian Readymade. But, perhaps, the first icon for the mythic “end of painting” was created in 1915 when Kasimir Malevich produced his Black Square painting. (more…)

Tom Friedman’s work has the ability to fascinate due to its conflation of simplicity with complexity, the mundane with the metaphysical. This aspect of his work is particularly evident in Untitled (Total), 2000, which was made by cutting up nine identical cereal packets into small squares which where then matched up against each other as if one were putting together nine identical jigsaw puzzles, but in three dimensions, creating a considerable spatial problem. In an interview Friedman noted: “It took me a while to figure out how to do this, but it’s based on matrices.” (in Cooper 2001: 27). This statement is informative because it indicates a significant understanding of mathematics, in particular the application of matrices to geometric transformations.

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Ceal Floyer’s work takes the Readymade aesthetic to its logical conclusion. For Nail Biting Performance, 2001, she walked onto the stage at Birmingham Symphony Hall immediately prior to the beginning of a concert and bit off her fingernails into the microphone. This performance was hosted by the Ikon Gallery Birmingham (England) and an Ikon Gallery text reports: “Her ‘nail biting performance’ took stage-fright as its subject, the artist, bit her fingernails into a microphone for five minutes. The sight of her alone amongst the musicians’ empty chairs, accompanied by the amplified sound of nervousness, was affecting and tense.” (Ikon). (more…)

This post is a critical analysis of an Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (England) publication  From Arkhipov to Zittel: Selected Ikon Off-Site Projects 2000 — 2001. I think that it is a particularly interesting document because it cites numerous instances that operate at the edge of art, and some that, in my opinion, teeter over the brink into the oblivion of non-art.

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In another post I referred to the “Documenta 12 effect” which refers to the manner in which the artistic director of Documenta 12, Roger Buergel, attempted a transvaluation of fine art by focusing on work that was visually uninteresting. The pieces exhibited by Alejandra Riera and Ueinzz at Documenta 12 fit into this category. Yet they are of great value because they point to a possible end to the erosion of category “art” initiated by the viral impact of the Duchampian Readymade; due to the fact that they indicate a point at which we can justifiably state “this is not art”. (more…)

Annette Wehrmann’s contribution to Munster Sculpture Project 07, Aaspa: Wellness am See (AaSpa Wellness by the Lake) consisted of a simulated building site. Her work can be understood as a symptom of a more general aesthetic zeitgeist in which artists express a desire to be socially useful and immediately deconstruct this outrageous yearning. (more…)

Nairy Baghramian’s contribution to the Munster Sculpture Project was a little disappointing. (more…)

Whereas Nairy Baghramian, Annette Wehrmann and Mark Wallinger indulged in yet more variations on the interminable Readymade theme Hans-Peter Feldman went past such superficial interpretations of deconstructive art and tackled the deeper, underlying issue which is the reconciliation of art with life (more…)

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917

It would not be exaggerated to assert that Marcel Duchamp’s, Fountain, 1917 is the most influential work of art of the twentieth century. The fact that a male urinal of the kind found in public conveniences could aspire to such heights seems absurd, but that is precisely the anti-aesthetic point, or part of the point. (more…)

Maria Eichhorn, Acquisition of a Plot of Land, Tibusstrasse, Corner of Breul, installation sculpture , Muenster Sculpture Project, 1997.

Maria Eichhorn’s contribution to the Münster Sculpture Project 1997 on the topic ‘Sculpture in the Public Domain’ was a piece in which she addresses land ownership in the city of Munster. Eichhorn explores one of the basic require-ments of art in the public space, questioning land ownership in the city. Her contribution to Münster 1997 consisted of purchasing a piece of property in the inner city, and documenting the transference of ownership in the land register (Art Content 1997). (more…)