em@home

Mike Benedetto has put a nice slideshow of photos on his website, of a recent performance he did called Picket Fence. It was one of a number of performances which took place in metered parking spaces across Chicago simultaneously. Of course having paid for his spot no one could really make a fuss about his occupying it, but the police did threaten to charge him for building with out a permit. Ha! LOL.
www.mikeofillinois.com/work/picket-fence/

From Stephen Cornford’s website: “Dig your own hole, put your own head in it. Pack down soil gently. Wait for the apocalypse, or until you can’t breathe any more.” The video documenting this work is very nicely composed and ends perfectly (the suspense!), and the performance itself is well shot (i see the molehills, but what are those cement coloured cones?!!) and a good length. This webpage is well worth a visit!

www.scrawn.co.uk/perform_pages/spade.html

The insane (and ever increasing) amount of money that our Government is going to spend on the Olympics is going to mean that 35% of (the ever dwindling) Arts Council funding will be cut. This is going to impact our arts community in a massively detrimental way as I’m sure you would agree…

So here is a petition to the Prime Minister to Stop the Chancellor from using lottery money to fund the olympics in 2012 which I urge all UK residents to sign… If you think that signing petitions is pointless please consider this:

It has already gathered 1000 signatures and closes on 16 September 2007. If it gets to 40,000 signatures it would make it into the top 5 most popular petitions on the site! Currently, the petition in the number 4 spot is ‘Continue funding for the Royal Air Force Aerobatics Team’. Surely in the arts world we are able to gather a similar if, not larger number, of supporters? Also, very popular petitions seem to generate responses from the Prime Minister prior to the petition closing.

Please sign up and tell your friends and peers to do the same!

Christian Kuras (AKA North) has some art work on exhibition right now in a group show called The Adventurous Type at the Hyde Park Art Centre in Chicago. He made the piece in collaboration with Duncan MacKenzie, and it’s being shown alongside another of their pieces, The Vindicator. Happy Hydrogen Bomb is a 5ft rainbow coloured model of a hydrogen bomb explosion looming up out of the the centre of a city. I think it is pretty cool, if a little twisted! Take a look at the work in more detail on their website: http://bathosphere.org/kurasmackenzie/

I haven’t posted much in the last 2 months, so where did the end of this year go? Into further settling into a new home and taking in lots of art and food without telling y’all about it?! “Em(was_decidedly_NOT)@home” this autumn.

However, you can find me reviewing some art shows on the Bad at Sports podcast. (But better yet, check out Kerry James Marshall’s slot on the show).

By way of a summing up, I have changed my header image to a very happy memory moment from this year – midsummer with friends by the seaside: I’m already looking forward to the next time! LOL to everyone for christmas and the new year.

Discovering this artist’s work for the first time was the best thing for me at frieze art fair this year. See more of his beautiful A4 paper works here www.petercallesen.com/

Funny but serious at the same time, a brilliant art work spotted at the Frieze Art Fair. Erwin Wurm “[...] reemploy[s] the familiar symbol of the over-indulgent person/object to comment on the way contemporary art practice sometimes loses sight of its possibilities [...]” (Sebastian Truskolaski). Interesting article on this artist here www.contemporary-magazine.com

Take part in the world’s first remotely choreographed riot. Hackney Empire, Fri 21st and Sat 22nd July. Download the video choreography and find out more following the link below.
Riot Pilot

I am installing a brand new work Vine at this summer show and you must come check it out if you are in London. My installation of wallpaper will be in the stairwell of the studio building. The show is only on for 1 weekend so don’t miss it!
For more information and the flyer for the show visit stockwellstudios.org.uk

Dates: 30 June – 2 July (Fri 6 – 9pm, Sat 2 – 6pm, Sun 2 – 6pm)

Dzama has a show on at the Ikon gallery in Birmingham now which is almost tempting enough to make me want to make a trip to the city – the photo gallery on the Collective website is intriguing. “The violence of contemporary media and experience is distilled into such quiet fantastical forms.”
Read on here: BBC – collective – marcel dzama interview