Bad and Just Plain Evil

I'm doing my London Fields Radio show more regularly again. In honour of Halloween, Vol 3 of the show's theme is Bad and Just Plain Evil. Enjoy...

Current Reading List

Has my brain melted post Frieze? As a break before I go to Turin to Artissima for the first time I have been diving into art-affiliated books with gusto. This is what I am currently reading:

Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher
Recommended by Charlie Woolley and probably one of the most delightful and spot on books I've read. Everyone should read this.

Digital Folklore ed by Olia Lialina and Dragan Espenschied
Great introduction by Cory Arcangel. There arent enough books on this vein of art... (something I hope to rectify).

Judgement and Contemporary Art Criticism ed by J Khonsary and M O'Brian
A series of essays about the purpose of people like me. There this strange flurry of focus on people who write about art at the moment. My judgement is currently being reserved on the point of it all.... still an interesting read in places

Where Art Belongs by Chris Kraus
the semiotext(e) books are so well designed that I get a bit excited just holding one of these. This is really a selection of writings on different art subjects. It isnt Bob Nickas' 'Theft Is Vision' but enjoying it anyway.

Collage Culture by Mandy Kahn, Aaron Rose and Brian Roettinger
I was lucky to do a really fascinating Q&A after a reading of the book in London. Too many ideas to mention here but the heart is an attack against a mindless regurgitation of art's past.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Parts 1 and 2 of this mammoth hardback have been devoured. Part 3 will be attacked soon. A fictional respite from all this non fiction.

Frieze Top Ten 2011

After seeing two different fairs, around 25 shows and some online art TV these are my highlights of Frieze 2011

1 LuckyPDF for Frieze Projects (a still of me karaoking away in Takeshi Shiomitsu's project above on day 2). Felt so fresh when you were there watching it happen, not like a fair at all.


2 Oliver Laric and On Value at Seventeen gallery

3 Structure and Absence at White Cube Bermondsey Street (esp for brilliant essay by Craig Burnett that accompanied it)

4 Marlene Dumas at Frith Street Gallery
(Image Marlene Dumas Forsaken 2011)

5 Phyllida Barlow at Hauser and Wirth Piccadilly (not strictly a Frieze opening but saw it that weekend and damn it was good)

6 Josephine Meckseper at Timothy Taylor Gallery

7 Des Hughes 'Angry Pins' at the Frieze Sculpture Garden

8 Adam Helms at Marianne Boesky's booth at Frieze

9 Sunday Fair - especially Christian Jankowski at Proyectos Monclova and Bianca Brunner at Boltelang

10 Raphael Zarka at Bishoff Weiss

And my prize for best booth goes to Ibid Projects booth at Frieze who ripped out the entire interior of their old gallery and rebuilt it in the fair!

Converse/Dazed with The Whitechapel about to emerge

The exhibition is up - and I think Freire Barnes did an incredible job on the install. For some glimpses of the show which is open until October 23 look here. I really support and admire all five artists in the shortlist (the winner will be announced tonight): Gabriele Beveridge, Ellie Harrison, Bruce Ingram, Sam Levack and Jennifer Lewandowski, Richard Parry (the latter whose image is above).

Berlin Signing In

Cecile B Evans (who did a performance in a sex kino in Berlin that I was very sad to miss last week) created this video piece which I think is amazing. This David Lynch style slow mo sign song is a cover of the song beneath it...... genius

Frieze Week ahoy

Frieze week is about to begin. Obviously there are tons of things on every single night and I'll write a round up at the end on my thoughts. However these are some open for all options to come to:

Sunday 9 - Thomas Dozol 'I Is Now' @ White Cubicle Toilet Gallery at The George and the Dragon 8-11pm

Thursday 13 - Seana Gavin 'Alternate Dimensions' @ B Store 630-830pm
(Image Seana Gavin 'Lost in Space' above)

Saturday 15 - Oliver Laric and On Value @ Seventeen Gallery 6-8pm

Also check out Paul Pieroni at Lucky pdf at Frieze itself on Thursday (or enjoy all online), Cory Arcangel at Lisson Gallery and definitely visit Sunday Art Fair.

Video of the Year

I went to the Printemps de Septembre in Toulouse last week. I liked Mark Leckey's installation so much that at one point I started having an almost drug-like reaction in front of the video. The video 'Out Demons Out' was at the heart of the project, though the sound felt very different in the space. For the rest of the layout you'll have to go see the show. The wall texts are below.