Rough Version

Fatima A Qadiri

2012-01-27T15:02:00.004Z

I've discovered Fatima A Qadiri today and her inventive internet plundering. I heard her alter ego track 'WARN-U' by Ayshay above out and about a couple of weeks ago and then today drifted to 'Hip Hop Spa' below - which crossed the neo-web, hip hop, weird line beautifully. Love the hardcore art text accompaniment when you see video on YouTube. Its all very DIS Magazine (where she has a column) but nowt wrong with that.

Fact mix available here and Muslim Trance on here (though the word trance always makes me want to tear my skin out)

Born to Curate

2012-01-24T10:48:00.002Z

I'm taking part in a funny sounding performance game show on Thursday - Born to Curate - connected to the current show at Nettie Horn. Free but RSVP.

Picks from the past last week

2012-01-21T09:30:00.007Z

Hex and Xeroxlore at SPACE Studios

Ilja Karilampi's Hoodumentary at Wilkinson Gallery

Philip Lai at Stuart Shave Modern Art

An invite of sheer genius

2012-01-15T19:32:00.002Z

Bubblebyte + The Sunday Painter + LuckyPDF. One word. Excited.

LuckyPDF ñ BubbleByte from LuckyPDF TV on Vimeo.

Flashback

2012-01-14T09:27:00.003Z

I have been doing way too much research on rave and acid house as background for an upcoming exhibition, resulting in a feeling that time is disintegrating and I dont know what decade it is. Here's a flashback from the post-modern blur of music in my psyche. Dirty party records! (with a beautiful bit of ghetto house from Cajmere above)

Maybe Its Because I'm a...

2012-01-13T09:32:00.007Z

Whenever people come to London they ask me for recommendations and I realise the list I put up here years back needs some updating. So if you're in town for three days this is where I'd shove you:

Galleries
- Maureen Paley, 21 Herald Street, London E2
- SPACE Studios, 129—131 Mare St, London E8

- Ibid Projects, 35 Hoxton Square, London N1
- Seventeen Gallery, 17 Kingsland Rd, London E2
- Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Rd, London NW3

- Whitecube Bermondsey (for the insane building if nothing else), 144-152 Bermondsey St, London SE1

Coffee

- Flat White, 17 Berwick St, London W1

- Wiltons, 61 Wilton Way, London E8 (where I do my occasional London Fields Radio show)

- Daquise, 20 Thurloe Street London SW7 (in afternoons only for apple strudel and a taste of 60s poland)

- Sensory Lab, 75 Wigmore St, London W1

Food
- Dean Street Townhouse, 69 Dean St, London W1 (art, amaretto sours)
- Polpo, 41 Beak St, London W1 (or Polpetto above the French House)
- Bar Bruno, 101 Wardour St, London W1
- St John (the bar area), 26 St John St, London EC1 and the bar at St John Hotel
- The Wolseley, 160 Piccadilly, London W1
- Pizza East, 56 Shoreditch High St, London E1
- Rochelle Canteen (lunch only mon-fri), Arnold Circus, London E2 (recommend booking 02077295677)

Drink
- The French House, 49 Dean St, London W1
- The Royal Oak, 73 Columbia Rd, London E2
- The Holly Bush, 22 Holly Mount, London NW3
- Cecconi's, 5a Burlington Gardens, London W1 (prosecco on tap at the bar)

Shop
- Compton News, 48 Old Compton Street, London W1
- Fopp for 3 quid DVDs and CDs, 1 Earlham Street, London WC2
- Music and Video Exchange shops (esp the Book one 14 Pembridge Road, and Soul and Dance, 42 Notting Hill Gate).
- Fenwicks, 63 New Bond St, London W1
- The Top Shop concession in Selfridges; APC and Acne on Dover St; The B Store on Kingly St for shoes; Fred Perry on Newburgh St etc

Tourist Stuff

Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln Inn Fields, London WC1

Walk up Primrose Hill in general or swim in Hampstead Heath ponds in summer

London Books

JG Ballard 'High-Rise'

Graham Greene 'Ministry of Fear'

Anything by Iain Sinclair

Tonight

2012-01-12T16:31:00.008Z

There are many things opening in London tonight but these are my highlights

1 Benedict Drew @ 176 (image above)

2 Forbidden Planet @ Jacob's Island

3 Matt Lipps @ Josh Lilley (who features in the latest issue of Twin)

4 A Plea for Tenderness curated by David Raymond Conroy @ Seventeen Gallery

Best in Show: 2011

2011-12-21T10:39:00.023Z

This is my third annual round up of the best art shows of the year (see 2010 and 2009).

1 Mark Leckey at Printemps de Septembre

2 Friedrich Kunath at Whitecube Hoxton Square

3 Christoph Buchel's Piccadilly Community Centre

4 Thomas Hirschorn at the Swiss Pavillion at the Venice Biennale

5 Wolfgang Tilmans at Andrea Rosen (chosen by Beatrix Ruf)

6 The launch of French Riviera gallery culminating in the brilliant Les Televisions

7 Without Sanctuary (thought this was far more than exhibition and shouldnt really be judged in these confines)

8 Ostalgia at the New Museum (glimpse of Michael Schmidt U-NI-TY installationbelow)

9 Il Labirinto di Cristallo at Bubblebyte.org

10 The New Psychedelica at MU (I know I curated this but I was so pleased with the outcome and it was so important to me it would be ridiculous not to choose it. Still from Carlos Laszlo's film below)

AWOL

2011-12-20T13:28:00.008Z

I've been MIA the past month... drowning in work, conceiving two exciting new shows for 2012, installing art collections, watching Black Mirror religiously, reading my favourite book of the year (designed by my new favourite designer Brian Roettinger) 'The Secret War Between Uploading and Downloading', and playing music for drunk women (see the bottom of this post)...

I have seen a few highly recommended shows though. A great solo show 'focal-plane' from Yuri Pattison at SON Gallery in Peckham which played around with the architectural arse-end of technology showing brilliantly presented films within ageing vitrines, and large photographic prints taped to the wall from odd locations Pattison had found on his world travels. The focal plane tumblr site to accompany it was a brilliant offshoot where you can get a feel of the works.

Paul Noble's mammoth show at Gagosian Gallery was completely different - a sea of super intense drawings from his fantasy city Nobson that you could stare at for years and not see every detail. There were some great giant pink marble faeces sculptures too.

After that dose of culture here are the top ten tracks that have feature in my music for drunk women sets... I say that proudly as I think this demographic has the best taste.

1 Pony by Ginuwine

2 Erotic City by Prince

3 Heads High by Mr Vegas

4 Gucci Gucci by Kreayshawn

5 Still Dre by Dr Dre

6 Orange Juice by EarlWolf

7 Ignition (remix) by R Kelly

8 Me Ting Deh by Lady Saw

9 (Not Just) Knee Deep by Funkadelic

10 Somebody Else's Guy by Jocelyn Brown

The Anti-Library

2011-12-03T17:40:00.006Z

I went to SPACE Studios yesterdays and saw a show that made me laugh a lot. It was a project that I was asked to take part in - an Anti-Library. The starting point was this quote by essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb: "... a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones..."

On the specially created shelving space are book (not read by artists and writers including Jamie Shovlin, Aleksandra Domanovic, Tom Morton, Oliver Laric, Cally Spooner, Tom Ellis, Mark Essen, Yuri Pattison and many others. Each book had the name of the donor inserted accompanied by a text explaining why it had been donated in the giver's own works. Some of them were bloody hilarious and it was a very interesting insight into everyone's bookshelves (who doesnt like rummaging around bookshelves??)

Particularly entertaining choices included Harry Burden donated tome on castration, Dave Hoyland of Seventeen Gallery's self help book on friends of alcoholics and Julie Verhoeven's copy of Erica Jong's Fear of Flying with the cover ripped off. My personal choice was a dusty 60s copy of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (ug so dull, that whole rich teen girl depression thing. As I wrote when I was younger I wanted to be Anais Nin not Plath).

The show is open under Dec 17 and I really recommend having a rummage.

Musical Mornings After

2011-12-01T18:08:00.006Z

Les Televisions opening at French Riviera rocked last night... Highlights from the brilliantly installed wall of screens included Jon Nash's brilliant Casablanca drift, Sebastian Brucker's acid flash animation, Hannah Perry's trio of cut and paste mini films, Leslie Kulesh's disturbing bump and grind avatar - basically the whole thing was good and brilliantly presented. I ended up playing way too long at the Marquis of Cornwallis across the road afterwards (as Yuri Pattison's snap above proves...). God knows what the super white regulars thought of my set of dancehall, r'n'b and old soul...

As I'm obviously too exhausted to think about art I'm just going to post three songs I played at the pub that I really liked each dedicated to some of my friends there. Or you could listen to my latest London Fields Radio show on mixcloud here

For Emily LaBarge:

For Stephen Dunne:

For Leslie Kulesh:

Video-o-o

2011-11-24T17:17:00.008Z

This is obviously the week of videos. I went to the ICA for Bloomberg New Contemporaries (and almost vomited from a performance where people were drenched in perfume wandered around the gallery space. There was no escape from the reek). Savinder Bual's Train loop video, which was basically a glorified gif as well as a smart comment on the history of cinema, was a favourite for me.

French Riviera's next show opening on Wednesday is going to sate my current obsession with moving image for a while. A temporary TV wall will feature work from people like Hannah Perry, Jon Nash, Leslie Kulesh, Sebastiaan Schlicher, Kris Emmerson etc. I may even play a few records at the end of the night...

And for a more informative video Recreative's well made films about the Converse/Dazed Emerging Artists Award include a short interview of me blabbing away looking a bit hungover.

All Fall Down

2011-11-20T21:54:00.011Z

Went to Berlin last week and was completely blown away by a video installation in an exhibition about terrorism and c/o. It was called Xanadu by Robert Boyd. It consisted of an onslaught of images of war, terrorism, violence, rioting, extremism. While surrounded by the images you stand under a pink disco ball and let your barriers down to a disco soundtrack of a remix of Madonna singing 'Dont Cry For Me Argentina' and Olivia Newton John 'Xanadu'. It was one of the best things I've ever seen. My hair stood on end watching it. My sister burst into tears. I couldnt stop repeating Xanadu for 24 hours. I think it might have been one of the most powerful artworks I have ever seen.

Sadly there isnt a good example of the film online so instead here's a second runner up from the same show. Michael Kosakowski's distubring film Just Like The Movies which splices together all the times the twin towers were featured in 80s and 90s TV and film clips. In the exhibition it was shown on a simple TV screen but here it is with live piano accompaniment.

Nicolas Provost

2011-11-13T08:57:00.005Z

I went to Artissima for the first time on Nov 4 (my fuller review is online at anothermag.com soon). One work I saw there that I really want to flag up is Belgian artist Nicholas Provost's silent piece 'Storyteller'. He had a show at Haunch a year ago I missed (oops) but here's a clip of why the work is so good - as brilliant 3D floating flipped out piece of genius.

Bad and Just Plain Evil

2011-10-31T13:43:00.003Z

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

2011-10-30T21:56:00.004Z

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

2011-10-15T12:55:00.020Z

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

2011-10-15T12:24:00.009Z

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

2011-10-10T09:21:00.004Z

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

2011-10-09T08:20:00.004Z

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

2011-10-01T15:23:00.006Z

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.

Open Sesame, Open Source

2011-09-28T08:05:00.006Z

I did a talk last night for Its Nice That magazine on open source art projects, alongside amazing graphic designer Ken Garland. Its was really enjoyable and enlightening (and I'm never going to look at political graphics in the same way again).

In hommage to the open source sense of collaboration and information access here is a list of all the links and subjects I discussed:

Roland Barthes ‘The Death of the Author’ 1968

Hennessey Youngman on Relational Aesthetics

Introduction to net.art (1994-1999) by Natalie Bookchin and Alexei Shulgin

Olia Lialina 'My Boyfriend Came Back From The War' 1996

Douglas Davis' The World's First Collaborative Sentence' 1994

Natalie Bookchin 'Mass Ornament' 2009

Graffiti Research Lab at Ars Electronica, Linz (complete with a dose of Alicia Keyes)

Hackteria www.hackteria.org

Oliver Laric 'Missile Variations' 2009

Aleksandra Domanovic 'Nineteen Thirty'

If I wasn't here I'd be there

2011-09-15T09:44:00.006Z

If I was in Geneva I'd go to HARD HAT to see this HR Giger show.

If I was in New York, I would go to Maccarone to see this Bjarne Melgaard show with work by William L Pope etc which opens Saturday night. (I have a big thing for Shelley Duvall post childhood)

3 things in London this week

2011-09-12T18:25:00.005Z

1) Mike Kelley at Gagosian Britannia Street
(Photo of Kandor 10B (Exploded Fortress of Solitude) (interior view), 2011, by Fredrik Nilsen above)

2) Paul McDevitt at Stephen Friedman
(La Ligne Claire, 2011)

3) Rhododendron at SPACE studios

Niall O'Brien

2011-09-10T22:33:00.003Z

Niall O'Brien and I collaborated on a four postcard art project for Abe's Penny which is just beginning to be circulated. Subscribers to the project get a postcard a week in the mail (though they are also archived online which I'll collate here). Niall's brilliant work is on show in NYC at No 10 Gallery (it opens Tuesday Sept 13).

Top 10: Editions

2011-08-29T16:38:00.016Z

I spend way too long online daydreaming about editions to buy... so just to make things even more difficult I thought I'd share my top ten reasonable online art purchases (£60 even), in no particular order. I know there's a lot of monochrome...

1 Jack Strange 'Boneless' for the Zabludowicz Collection above.

2 Jake and Dinos Chapman 'I do not recall distinctly when it began, but it was months ago I' from Counter Editions

3 Marlene Dumas 'Faceless' for ICA

4 Matthew Chambers 'Untitled (Kane)' at 2nd Cannons

5 Brion Nuda Rosch 'Mask on Mask' for Artspace

6 Paulina Olowska 'Rosellini Edition' from Camden Arts Centre

7 David Noonan 'Untitled' for Chisenhale Gallery

8 Boo Saville 'Ghost' for Other Criteria

9 Mike Nelson ' Towards A Non-Denominational Altar' for Tate

10 Rachel Harrison 'Chanel No 82' for the Whitechapel Gallery

Happy 100

2011-08-21T22:14:00.008Z

The book launch at b store went brilliantly - and the small show in the window featuring Lilah Fowler and Sam Griffin will be up for a while.

You can read me talking about the book here online here:

Dazed

AnOther

Twin

images: Eli Cortinas above. Below: Andro Wekua, Gott Ist Tit Aber Das Madchen Nicht, 2008; Rashid Johnson, Cosmic Topology, 2009

I love hotdogs

2011-08-15T03:40:00.003Z

I am so so honoured to have been included in one of my favourite blogs - i love hotdogs. The best film blog on the internet. Shannon Maldonado has the best eye for stills I've ever seen. Read my top ten films 'The Perfect Ten' there.

100 New Artists Launching

2011-08-09T23:32:00.008Z

My new book finally launches next week! Friday Aug 19 at the b store.

(From top Graham Hudson, Lilah Fowler, Sam Griffin)

Eyes in New York

2011-07-30T13:43:00.006Z

1 The highlight of my two week research trip to NYC is Ostalgia, the Massimiliano Gioni curated show at New Museum about post-Soviet Eastern Europe is sheer genius. Especially look out for the fall of Berlin photos by Michael Schmidt... (Sergey Zarva's painting above)

2 Cory Arcangel Pro Tools at the Whitney (and pick up the beautifully designed free show brochure)

3) Thomas Demand curated show La Carte d'apres Nature at Matthew Marks with some amazing old Sigmar Polke photos, Magritte paintings, and pieces by Luigi Ghirri (as above)

Things I like this week

2011-07-14T18:11:00.005Z

1) This stupidly good list of artists at Tanya Leighton in Berlin

2) The current issue of Kaleidoscope with 3 pieces and a project by Mark Leckey, an interview with Rashid Johnson, piece on Steven Shearer, and stupidly long list of other interesting pieces

3) Read about Seana Gavin on i-D's revamped website

4) See Alex Hubbard's 'Make Your Movie' (2010) at The Art of Narration Changes Time at Spruth Magers in Berlin

Without Sanctuary

2011-07-13T20:43:00.007Z

There is a shocking underrated exhibition on in London that charts one hundred years and 5000 (recorded) deaths, with some of the most violent upsetting images you will ever see. Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America is an exhibition that turns your stomach. Even blogging it feels strange - how can you make an aesthetic choice about something so sick? The point of the show was how these photographic images taken as souvenirs removed even the sanctuary of death from these murdered individuals. The violence was palpable.

Jon Nash

2011-07-06T09:11:00.005Z

Jon Nash's debut solo show opens tonight at French Riviera - Levack and Lewandowski's great space on Bethnal Green Road. The show's my one to watch this week and is up til July 31.

The Fall of Man

2011-07-01T22:26:00.006Z

I recently fell over quite dramatically... which inspired this trio of darker images of the Fall of Man (better known as when God chucked Eve and Adam out of the garden of Eden). From the top Michelangelo, Durer and Masaccio.

Three Things in London

2011-06-24T11:57:00.005Z

Tobias Madison at new space Pyramid.biz

Watch Me Move at the Barbican for The Fleisher Brothers (which made me laugh out loud), Len Lye and Brackage abstract pieces and jawdroppingly the actual Jan Svankmajer's Alice doll in her own strange room.

Crawl around Christoph Buchel's surprisingly empty genius work Piccadilly Community Centre (be sure to open doors marked private and climb to the roof)

Heaven, Hell and Everywhere In Between

2011-06-17T13:44:00.006Z

My sister Seana Gavin opened her first solo show last night which runs until August. Proud is an understatement. The work rocks Heaven, Hell and Everywhere In Between and will be available for sale online from this week from 3939shop.com
12-8pm Tue- Fri, 2-8pm Sat, 3939shop Gallery, 2-4 Old Street, (the basement) London. EC1V 9AA

Top Ten: Venice Biennale 2011

2011-06-11T08:09:00.022Z

1 Ho Tzu Nyen - Singapore Pavillion
The cloud of the unknowing was the most exhilerating, beautifully shot moment of total cinema I have ever experienced.

2 Thomas Hirschhorn - Swizterland Pavillion
Cuetips, mobile phones, tinfoil, crystals, videos of politics and revolution on ipads, masking tape - overwhelming in every sense.

3 Mike Nelson - British Pavillion
A Turkish ghetto created immaculately within the pavillion. Less over the top that his best known work but equally as emotive.

4 Pippilotti Rist
A trio of kitsch as hell video collage pieces fusing stock footage, psych colours and Canaletto prints - all in tacky gold frames.

5 Sharon Haynes at Danish Pavillion
A history of political records and speeches in the 20th century stood out in a fascinating show on the freedom of speech.

6 Haiti Pavillion
Who knew there was so much good talent here? Really inventive use of foam, nails and any materials going. And of course a touch of voodoo.

7 Cashpoint at US Pavillion
As your put your card in music plays from the giant organ attached. Even better was at first noone knew the Allora and Calzadilla piece was interactive. (Great Hugo Boss party to celebrate too).

8 Anish Kapoor's Ascension
A surprisingly sprititual tornedo of smoke in an empty basilica.

9 Loris Greaud at Pinault's Palazzo Grassi
A fat round moon at night with a wood of black fake trees.

10 Palazzo Fortuny
3rd year of sheer and utter genius. Veervordt scores a hattrick.

and obviously Christian Marclay's The Clock - which is so great and iconic that it surpasses placement in any top ten. And I cant believe i was lucky enough to be one of the first people to see some of these when I interviewed him in his studio for AnOther.

Venice parties in the style of ArtForum's Scene and Heard

2011-06-07T17:31:00.013Z

We kicked off with the Palazzo Grassi for Pinault's latest collection unveil. Bumping into Interview's Alex Gartenfeld on the way we swept around the space (garnering a handshake from Monsieur Pinault himself) enjoying the Loris Greaud, Fredrich Kunath and Joana Vasconcelos works and not enjoying the sea of press photographers who kept ambushing us to pose as interested viewers. TimeOut's Ossian Ward and Bon's Freire Barnes legged it to the Giardini while we hit the Grassi brunch in the most beautiful garden in Venice. Took a Pinault taxi to Punta Della Dogana to pay hommage to Ed Keinholz' Roxy's before passing by the Bauer where we found Dave Dorrell in search of John Giorno. We had our first bellinis with him on the terrasse (alongside Yorgo Tloupas and Alex Duve) before heading to the Michael Somoroff and August Sander show off San Marco (followed but a delicious dinner at the Danieli). A sweaty dance to Theophilus London at the Flash Art party was followed by a relatively low key Bauer night with Matthew Stone DJing. Chatted to Terence Koh about the week ahead and headed for bed before prosecco took control.

Ran to Giardini in the am - I could go on about how great Thomas Hirschhorn's health and safety nightmare for Switzerland was, or Mike Nelson's toast to Turkey, or Denmark's freedom of speech group show but where's the gossip in that? The main pavillion was pretty dull bar Cyprien Gaillard's postcard-beer label collages, Haroon Mirza's sound works and especially Pippilotti Rist's genius psychedelic kitsch video collages in tacky gold frames. Post disco nap we headed to the party of the week - Francois Pinault's dinner on San Giorgio Maggiore. Joined Geoff 'In Venice' Dyer and Rebecca Wilson for Aperol Spritz on the private shuttle Vaparetto and queued up for a swift entry with Jeff Koons, Sophie Calle, Salma Hayek, Francois Mitterand and few small names I forget. 'The most beautiful party ever created in the world' (officially) was spent eating cheese and drinking Rustica Prosecco with the beyond lovely Michael Stipe and Thomas Dozol amongst 600 candles in a monastic garden. We left to try to the so-so Whitecube party where Jefferson Hack, a Serbian prince and the usual suspects from London were drinking in honour of Christian Marclay. The Bauer seemed a better option and overpriced glasses of prosecco were consumed with a dapper Cyprien Gaillard, supercool Jack from Salem and Jamie Shovlin until 5am...

Refusing exhaustion, as June 2 was the big day. Orientale and Modernikon in the day, grab a random pizza with Jefferson, enforced disco-napping and then on to the Palazzo Fortuny before the crowds to see the exhibition as artwork that never fails to please. Garance Dore, Alexandra Senes, Jefferson Hack and Seana Gavin join to the Fondazione Prada (missing Peggy Gugg's which was a sad loss as usually so lovely). 1200 people were squeezing into the 200 capacity venue. My fashion-connected compadres squeezed to the front where a frightening 50-something in a denim hat decides to scream at me for no obvious reason shouting 'stronza' at the top of her lungs which I responded with a calm zen like loving responses which probably annoyed the lunatic Milanese gallerist even more. Health hath no fury like a badly dressed menopausal woman... The art was impossible to see so we headed to Hugo Boss's stunning garden party for Allora and Calzadilla, dropped into Kemel Mennour'sparty in honour of Siglit Landau representing Israel in the Scuola di Rocca (newly named the School of Rock) before ending up dancing to someone from 2 Many DJS and Lucky PDF til 3am at the Anton Ginzburg/Grandlife hotel party with Gary Baseman's dolls. End by heading past Gavin Brown's piccolo mondo party to the dregs of the Bauer for Commerical Break to see friends from POST do their thing (with a touch of help from Dasha Zhukova and Neville Wakefield) but decide not to bother with the door nazis.

The morning after the numerous nights before discover my friend has been put in prison for stealing a gondola - and stayed there for 36 hours. Something that gave the next few days a slight touch of stress to say the least.... but we still manage to fit in art while attempting to contact international consulates. Haunch of Venison's brunch involved serious laughter over dirty dirty stories from Jamie Shovlin and Jon Nash. Lisson's beautiful brunch that followed was amazing. Christian Jankowski enthused over his forthcoming baby with Pinchuk Prize nominee Jorinde Voigt. Haroon Mirza had yet to hear he had won the silver lion prize and was in relaxed mode. Alex Logsdail was in fine form and the salmon tartare was mouthwatering. Did the Arsenale (highlights Rashid Johnson, Christian Marclay's ever addictive Clock, Urs Fisher, Elad Lassry and Haroon Mirza's installation) did the Interview party (Venice has obviously become a mecca for all publication parties) and look at Cyp's photos of Mark Gonzales skating the streets of Venice earlier that day. Drink the Bauer dry before 5 mins at the Le Baron party, where Olympia Le Tan thought it was sexy to look like a toddler with her dress tucked into her underwear...

Head to the police to break my friend out of jail (to no avail though it did make the cover of the Venice Times) and give up and head for the beach (where we hear of my friend's overdue release). That night was the surprise party of the week for 'one of a thousand ways to defeat entropy' a collateral show co-curated by Nadim Samman and Alexander Ponomarev. It felt like the best Russian wedding in the world - and we were the bridesmaids. Those au fait with Russian Hello! may have a clue re the couture clad clientele. We race through the streets - one of our party swinging her bag above her head like a banshee and overhear passer by say 'Oh. Is it the biennale?' 'No' their friend responds. 'Thats just how the English enjoy themselves'...

Converse/Dazed Artist Award 2011

2011-05-28T22:19:00.001Z

It's that time of year again. The second installment of the Converse/Dazed Art Award, this year with The Whitechapel Gallery!

Got a great selection of judges alongside me Eva Rothschild, Kirsty Ogg from The Whitechapel, Darren Flook from Hotel, Sadie Coles, SPACE curator Paul Pieroni and myself. Apply here

Mark Leckey

2011-05-27T13:56:00.009Z

I went to Mark Leckey's performance last night at his rather awesome Serpentine show. Two recorded sound performances booming out of a soundsystem sculpture which faces a mammoth sculpture by Henry Moore and one live 6 voice shouting staccato number. It felt like he was trying to persuade the piece to come to life - bombarding it with stimulus. It was an interesting take on history and performance. A guy at the back even fainted...

I'm a massive fan of Leckey and always have been. I first interviewed him years ago for a Barbican Curve show about the relationship between club culture and art where he was showing a piece called 'Londinium' I think. There's been crazy response to Jonathan Jones' review of his Serpentine show on The Guardian (and an interesting response by Isobel Harbison on Frieze.com)

He shared his Top 5 YouTube videos with me in the current issue of Dazed which included wendyvainity and Crysis Barrels but you'll have to read the mag to see the lot and ready why. His top 5 objects are going on DazedDigital soon.

Images - Mark Blower installation view above, exhibition trailer below.

Hard Copy

2011-05-22T20:58:00.006Z

I contributed to this project curated by Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel and Raoul Zöllner at PMGalerie in Berlin.
The one night only "exhibition as image-based on-site production-performance" is on Wednesday May 25 7-10pm at Selchower str 12.
I have no idea what this is going to look like but wish I was there. All the images I submitted were based around the idea of overloading.

"Hard Copy is a a propaganda project constituted around futuristic forms of disastrous mistranslation, tremendous cultish mannerism and friendly speculation on pre-fabricated life in post-industrial contexts... Initiated by Aurélia Defrance, Julie Grosche and Aude Pariset, Bcc is a series of exhibitions based on the concept of curators materializing digital files sent by invited artists... Artist and self-publishing-collective Larry´s will convert them into an edition of mess-produced spam-sculptures and a print on demand issue."

Best in Show: New York

2011-05-20T15:23:00.010Z

After a week in NYC having the best time with Blake Mawson, Thomas Dozol (image above) and Jeremy Shaw these are my art highlights:

1) The SSION gig at PS1

2) Night Vision (Image by Robert Frank below) at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

3) Wolfgang Tilmans work chosen by Beatrix Ruf at Andrea Rosen

4) Pair of Kara Walker shows at Sikkema Jenkins + Co and Lehmann Maupin

Dance Dance Dance

2011-05-08T21:28:00.006Z

And there's always Leroy......

New Psychedelica Editions

2011-05-03T09:24:00.006Z

The limited edition prints by Paul B Davis (the top image which says Critical Space when you cross your eyes) and Yoshi Sodeoka are both now for sale on the MU website .

Its hard to see the detail on the site but both are beautifully produced numbers at a bargain price. Yoshi's image above is from the same film but the print is of a different still. Just wanted to give you the sensation.

Berlin highlights

2011-05-01T07:24:00.007Z

Highlights from Berlin so far this week

1 Alex Hubbard's basement video at Tanya Leighton group show The Confidence Man (still above)

2 The pryamid style black maze by David Adajaye that led to Noble and Webster's golden heads at Blain Southern's huge space

3 Buying Friedrich Kunath's Rising vs Setting catalogue at Konig Books.

4 Raymond Pettibon's work at CFA

5 Aaron Moulton's latest show at Autocenter - particularly the mesmerising flashing installation by Constant Dullaart which you can see below. This is an artist I think I'll be looking at a lot more...

Celibrate, Calibrate, a live GIF from Constant Dullaart on Vimeo.

A Race Through Gallery Weekend

2011-04-27T06:38:00.010Z

I'm here for the week (arrived and the Reisling has already killed me...). Here are my recommendations:

Wednesday
Bel Etage is putting on outdoor group show including Roman Signer and Sven Johne; Followed by 36 Girls show at Bar Babbette, Karl Marx Allee 36 (which starts at 8pm but noone will get til 10)

Thursday
Gastalten Space is opening a massive collage show, Luxus Loft Studio show slash party at Friedenstr. 16, 10249 Berlin from 7pm; John Kleckner showing work among others at Laced 95 Torstrasse.

Friday
Is the big day of all the openings - mostly between 4 and 9pm.
Up in Wedding Albert Oehlen at Max Hetzler and Andreas Hofer at Guido Baudach. Elsewhere Helen Marten at Johann Konig, Claudia Weiser at Ben Kaufmann, John Bock at Klosterfelde, while Raymond Pettibon and Anselm Reyle at CFA.

There's a whole English vibe: Noble and Webster are opening Blain Southern's new Berlin space 6-8pm - in the same building as the temporary frieze d/e bar on Potsdamer Str. 77/79, launching their German edition. Fiona Banner at Barbara Thumm is near by as is Le Gun are in town with an opening 6-9pm Bourouina Gallery

Dean Sameshima 5 - 7PM at Peres's Mitte space followed by Peres Projects BBQ and Pete Wheeler opening at their Kreuzberg place 7-10pm.
End of the night only one place to go Picknick Club with Oliver Laric and Daniel Keller and Nik Kosmas from Aids3D DJing among others.

The galleries will be rammed on the weekend but still may see a thing here and there missed from above.

MU TV

2011-04-20T22:47:00.001Z

The New Psychedelica from stichting MU on Vimeo.

The New Psychedelica opening and me. For those who like TV.

Why didn't I know I'm in with love Friedrich Kunath?

2011-04-15T18:08:00.010Z

I stumbled through Hoxton Square today and came across Friedrich Kunath's first solo show in London which opened last night . Its a perfect amalgam of psychedelic references, strange sculptures, paintings, junk lighting - all put together in a weird room installation. Best solo show I've seen this year so far. All the invigilators stood in dark corners reading books so you couldnt tell if they were part of the work or not. These teeny pics from the Whitecube site above by Ben Westoby were all I could find online. There's a catalogue out mid May. Some more tasters from past shows at Andrea Rosen below.

A to Z of The New Psychedelica

2011-04-13T07:54:00.010Z

For background on the show which opened at MU in Eindhoven last weekend, here is an A to Z of The New Pyschedelica

A Altered States (1980) directed by Ken Russell

B BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer): byobworldwide.com

C Cassette Playa clothing: http://www.cassetteplaya.com/blog/

D Downloading.

E Everythingisterrible.com

F From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Steward Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism by Fred Turner (2006)

G Game Music: vgmusic.com

H Hologram City http://hologramcity.blogspot.com/

I Is the Internet Changing The Way You Think? Edited by John Brockman (2011)

J JG Ballard’s Collected Short Stories

K Kaleidoscopes.

L The Long Tail performance lecture by Mark Leckey

M Glitch Studies Manifesto

N Neon.

O Information Overload:

P Post Internet Art

Q Quivering images

R Rave Culture

S Super Mario Bros

T TechGnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information by Erik Davis (1998)

U Uploading

V Videodrome (1983) directed by David Cronenberg.

W William Gibson ‘Pattern Recognition’ (2003)

X Ex-technology: oldcomputers.net

Y Yesterday’s internet culture: internetarchaeology.org

Z The Zeitgeist

(Images from top to bottom: Paul B Davis (Critical Space edition soon to be for sale at Mu.nl), Yoshi Sodeoka (video still) , Hey Hey Creative, Eric Mast (video still) )

The New Psychedelica opens April 8

2011-04-02T10:32:00.011Z

The New Psychedelica opens in Eindhoven next weekend! I'll be taking photos of the install and opening and after party (where Rodaidh McDonald from XL, Dave MacLean from Django Django and The Oscillation are playing) but here's a little more info behind the show - a Q and A I did for anothermag.com.You can read the full list of artists here.

The images above are from some of the artists in the show (from top to bottom);
Rosa Menkman – Into the Tulgey Woods, 2011 Video still
Yoshi Sodeoka – Violet Dark Spring of the Numinous Orb, 2011 Video still
Daniel Swan – Comp 1 (0.00.00.08), 2011
Jeremy Shaw – This Transition Will Never End, 2008 Single channel video (still)

Relational What?

2011-03-27T10:19:00.002Z

The video above is the latest from Hennessy Youngman aka Jayson Scott Musson who I showed at Syncopation in Berlin last October and who is one of the artists in my next book out in August. He's so bloody talented and this video is spot on.

Don't Forget Japan

2011-03-22T09:08:00.004Z

The online blogs and footage around what is going on in Tokyo deserve some serious attention.

When I went to Tokyo last January I had the luck of meeting Cameron McKean and his nice girlfriend Hannah through my good from Naoko Higashi. His blog Workingtowards.com shows how dramatic the earthquake has effected everyone out there. (I took the photo above from it)

Patrick Tsai's Talking Barnacles has a week long first person diary documenting the quake which I couldnt stop reading.

There are also a number of creative projects happening internationally to raise money for Japan. Magazine +81 is working on a creative project which I'm getting involved with - more info in future. In London 3939shop is doing an event and art auction for Japan which I'll put up details about soon. To make a donation to the Red Cross click here

Of all the footage I've watched this was one of the craziest

Tshe-Tsha Boys

2011-03-19T20:36:00.004Z

I forgot what it was like to see something that looks so fresh it blows you away.... Tshe-Tsha Boys and these Shangaan dancers deserve to be massive

N-Y-C-ya

2011-03-09T00:00:00.008Z

Just back from NYC - despite killer jetlag it was definitely the most fun i've had in the city.

Highlights of the week were the lunches for artists at Soho House I put on where I had the pleasure of hanging out with Lawrence Weiner, Nick Relph, Ken Miller, Agathe Snow, Ian Tweedy and Evan Gruzis among many others, my big brother Jose Parla's rammed opening, the crazy group show at CANADA gallery (which included work by Jim Drain one of the stars at my next show at MU), the White Columns party at China Chalet, Kathy Grayson's dinner for The Hole, doing a talk with Slater Bradley and fascinating cinematographer Ed Lachman, and some exceptionally nice times in the company of Jeremy Shaw and Blake Mawson.

After the hilarious amusement of being listed in Modern Painters top things to do during Armory (getting drunk with me is apparently a nighlife highlight) I got double blogged - Jonathan Yeo who I curate Soho House with did Vanity Fair's blog and the delightful Alexandre Stipanovich on Opening Ceremony's blog (where I nabbed the photo above).

Much more NYC to come in the coming months.

ABC

2011-02-17T11:35:00.009Z

Some of my work has burst out there today. Looking at this list no wonder I'm knackered...

* The press announcement about the show I'm curating at MU has gone out into the ether! It opens April 8 The New Psychadelica (Sample image above by Yoshi Sodeoka).

* I curated an art alphabet for AnOther magazine's 10th anniversary issue - I'm really proud we've got letters from Paul Noble, John Baldessari, Susan Hiller, Tal R, Marnie Weber etc. It's the biggest art project the magazine has ever done.

* Read some of my interview with Hedi Slimane here (another version is in the May issue of Dazed alongside a piece on Mike Nelson).

* I'm sitting on a panel you can buy tickets for about fashion and film for the Birds Eye Film Festival on March 9 at 6pm at the NFT1 (giving an art perspective).

* Dazed Live festival tickets go on sale (i'm curating the exhibitions in the show).

Blue

2011-02-06T20:25:00.008Z

I'm missing these exhibitions opening internationally in Feb... Feeling blue.

Highways Connect and Divide at Foxy Production with Tauba Auerbach, Cory Arcangel, Sterling Ruby and Jodi

Andro Wekua at the Kunsthalle Fridericianum and the Kunsthalle Vien

Sandy Plotnikoff at Paul Petro, Toronto

Reading List

2011-01-29T10:31:00.004Z

My favourite magazine shop in Berlin Do You Read Me? compiles these rather amazing reading lists online. Its something I've attempted in the past so I feel its time to update. Aside from my own books and Twin, Dazed, AnOther and where I scribble:

Theft is Vision
Bob Nickas

The Coming Insurrection
The Invisible Committee

Complete Short Stories
JG Ballard

House
Yu Ogata and Ichiro Ogata Ono

Forced Entries
Jim Carroll

Imperial Bedrooms
Bret Easton Ellis

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
John Le Carre

Ministry of Fear
Graham Greene

Apartamento
Magazine, Interiors

Acne Paper
Magazine, Culture

One Question Interview

2011-01-27T20:45:00.005Z

Rafael Rozendaal included me in his project One Question Interview.
I met Rafael in Tokyo last January and we went for dinner in a crazy high rise restaurant in Shinjuku with a bunch of people including a Flash evangelist (someone's actual job title...)

I'm in some rather lovely company in the project - Cory Arcangel (who's Barbican Curve show opens Feb 9), Oliver Laric, and Aids-3D.

Mini Creative Space

2011-01-17T19:20:00.004Z

A new mini edition of my last book Creative Space is out now. It is exceptionally cute and perfect for public transport perusal.

Nate Boyce

2011-01-15T23:39:00.012Z

Popped into a group show at Vilma Gold 'Extension' and saw Nate Boyce's work for the first time. Amazing videos that I cant recommend enough. You can watch an early one (not in the show) here. The still above are all from his videos. Interview below.

Post Internet

2011-01-13T00:35:00.006Z

I'm slightly in love with how well done I Heart Photograph is becoming. This essay by Artie Vierkant was very interesting.... and lead to me the blog Post Internet. Made me feel all excited again about how the internet is interacting with art again and revved up for the exhibition at MU i'm curating for April.....

(all images by Artie Vierkant)

Best in Show 2010

2010-12-28T21:00:00.017Z

After a spending a year on a plane between London, Berlin, Miami, New York, Tokyo, Basel, Paris and Shanghai - here's my top ten exhibitions:

1 Rashid Johnson at Guido W Baudach

2 Mike Nelson's Coral Reef (recreated) at Tate Britain

3 Videodrome curated by Aaron Moulton at Autocenter, Berlin

4 Wolfgang Tillmans at The Serpentine

5 The Island from Los Angeles Nomadic Division in Miami

6 Oliver Laric's curated basement with work by Aleksandra Domanovic, Seth Price and Samuel Beckett at Seventeen

7 Aids-3D at A Gentili Apri

8 Ben Sansbury at Space Studios

9 No New Thing Under the Sun curated by Gabriel Coxhead at the Royal Academy

10 High Society at the Wellcome Collection

Negredo

2010-12-18T19:22:00.005Z

Photographer, filmmaker and friend Jez Tozer got me on board to curate the art for a four part publication based around alchemical ideas. The first book in The Alchemy Series was titled Negredo and launched on Thursday to coincide with his new film for Showstudio.com The Raven.

In my curated project I brought together work by Boo Saville, Dennis Rudolph, James Aldridge, Stephen Dunne, Seana Gavin, Ilya Trushevsky, Harry Burden, Littlewhitehead, and BoChristian Larsson . Its really beautifully produced and worth searching out.

Postermat

2010-12-13T20:40:00.004Z

If you're in NYC December 18 go to The Hole for the opening of Postermat. Kathy Grayson has gotten together around 200 artists to contribute (and a few writers, curators et al including... me!)
Though I'm not actually an artist I gave it a go - as you can see above. My sister Seana Gavin has also submitted a collage piece.

A Gif for Christmas

2010-12-10T17:52:00.005Z

A bunch of screengrabs from the teaser for the Animated Gif Biennial. You can watch the piece in progress on the link. It reminds of when I was little and would try spend hours typing some binary programme I found in a magazine to create an animation for on my creaky BBC computer. My nerdishness astounds me...

Miami Top 5

2010-12-06T22:50:00.012Z

Jim Drain 'Saturday's Ransom' at Locust Projects (esp the sculptures not pictured here)

The Island - the one day exhibition on a small desert island in the bay, where I was stranded for 3 and half hours with Michael Genovese (whose work is pictured here), and artworks by Jack Pierson, Naomi Fisher and Scott Campbell.

Paul McCarthy supersized abandoned toy photographs at Hauser and Wirth

Matt Lipps

Thomas Zipp at Harris Lieberman (check him on drums here

Oi

2010-12-01T23:45:00.002Z

As much as I'm enjoying missing the snow, stumbling on this song reminded me how much I love London...

Missing in Action

2010-11-28T20:14:00.004Z

I'm off to Miami tomorrow for the week of Basel chaos... I'm going to write a run down for Anothermag.com of what's on.

But before I go, I have to enthuse about Mike Nelson whose person and work I'm slightly in love with. I finally went to see Coral Reef at the Tate Britain (a recreation of his 1999 installation at Matt's Gallery). Its one of the best physically arresting, emotionally effecting, brilliant works I've ever seen. It gave me goosebumps. (Also worth a look is the great Clunie Reid show next door). I also bought the unbelievably cheap Mike Nelson ltd ed print pictured above....

Twin in triplicate

2010-11-18T23:44:00.002Z

Issue 3 of Twin is out now! Includes a curated section by Hannah Barry, large Q&A with Mark Titchner, pieces on Sophie Calle, Gee Vaucher and other stuff. Its looking beautiful. You can buy it here

Five things to do in London

2010-11-16T00:11:00.009Z

Rallou Panagiotou opening at Ibid Projects on Saturday.

Lars Lauman opening at Maureen Paley on Friday

Sam Griffin opening at Gallery Vela on Nov 25

Mary Barnes at Space Studios until Dec 18.

High Society at the Wellcome Collection until Feb 27.

Interviewed by Interview

2010-11-13T23:21:00.003Z

Interview magazine interviewed me about Syncopation. My voice dropped when i was 21 not 10 but hey who's counting?

Three Things

2010-11-11T17:41:00.003Z

My Trash Humpers unique VHS tape

Salem

AMP's show opening tonight

Kandors

2010-11-10T19:07:00.003Z

I've waited three years for this catalogue and finally hurray its out. I saw this MIke Kelley at Jablonka 3 years ago and it blew me away. The hardback catalogue (which feels a bit like an oversized Tintin format) is out now. Picked up last week at my version of a crack den - Konig Books in Berlin.

Women on Top

2010-11-05T17:49:00.016Z

I've been going through gallery lists and I'm shocked how few women artists there are represented. As a writer i'm always struggling to find ones to cover. I'm no better - my favourite artists they're all bloody blokes. So to refocus here is a list of my current top ten female artists (even though I know that putting this as a female only list just reinforces their marginality but you get the intention.)

Amie Dicke

Sophie Calle

Marnie Weber

Aleksandra Domanovic

Marlene Dumas

Eva Rothschild

Eli Cortinas

Annette Messager

Sarah Lucas (esp past couple of years)

Agathe Snow

Solo show of the Year: Rashid Johnson

2010-11-02T08:24:00.009Z

Rashid Johnson's solo show at Guido Baudach has won the title - his solo show There Are Stranger Villages in Berlin blew me away. I could have sat and worshipped at the altar like pieces made of black tiles, visceral paint, shea butter, African Americana and a dose of pop for hours. I first discovered his work at 30 Americans at the Rubell Collection a couple of years ago and he keeps getting better. (I'm honoured that he's one of the artists in my next book out in April.)

Last Weekend of Syncopation

2010-10-29T16:56:00.004Z

Some pics from the opening of my show which is up til Sunday.

Its hard to get a feel for the whole show (or the lots of people there) but here are some glimpses from the top:
Levack and Lewandoski (left), Mark Titchner (right); Cory Arcangel and Frankie Martinl Oliver Laric; Jayson Scott Musson; Ajit Chauhan; Matt Stokes; Jen Lewandowski in front of the Jeremy Shaw

Set Me Free

2010-10-25T08:12:00.005Z

I'm sad I'm not in NYC to see Free at the New Museum. I really want to see the full installation of Aleksandra Domanovic's 1930 project. Thankfully the New Museum has created a website as a catalogue so I can get a good dose of content from the (dis)comfort of my favourite cafe in Berlin.
The show looks completely on my conceptual wavelength. I'll be expanding on my art-internet obsession for the next six months for the upcoming show at MU - and sort of extension of the show and tell talk I did to coincide with Mark Titchner's GSK Acid Test eventa couple of years back. In the spirit of free here are some images screenshot from the Free website. In order from the top Trevor Paglan, Alexandre Singh (who's in my next book out in April), Andrea Longacre-White, Lisa Oppenheim and Harm van den Dorpel.

Syncopated Melodies

2010-10-22T06:58:00.003Z

The opening of SYCNCOPATION at Grimmuseum in Berlin was so great last night - I'm immensely happy with how it turned out. The show runs until October 31 but there are some online hints and interviews here and there for those not in Germania to get a feel of the show.

Dazed Digital did an interview with Levack and Lewandowski

It got a little mention at my other alma mater Twin..

And Whitehot magazine did a rather personal interview with me about the basis of the show with a good selection of images.

Syncopation open Oct 21, Grimmuseum Berlin

2010-10-18T07:09:00.005Z

My exhibition in Berlin opens on Thursday - I'm doing a singing performance at 9pm. Jeremy Shaw (who's also in the show) is DJing at the after party. Honoured by the artists who agreed to be in the show.

SYNCOPATION
Curated by Francesca Gavin
Group exhibition with Cory Arcangel and Frankie Martin, Oliver Laric, Paolo Chiasera and DJ Shablo, Ajit Chauhan, Samuel Levack and Jennifer Lewandowski, Jayson Scott Musson, Jeremy Shaw, Matt Stokes and Mark Titchner

GRIMMUSEUM
Fichte Strasse 2 10967 Berlin
grimmuseum.com
21-31 October 2010
Open daily 14-19h

Private view Thursday 21 October 19h
Performance by Francesca Gavin 21h

+AfterParty
Bierhaus Urban from 23h
Urban Str 126 corner Graefe str
Djs Jeremy Shaw, Francesca Gavin

Ciao China

2010-10-13T06:41:00.006Z

Back from Shanghai. The expo is really odd. Someone called them 'architectural press releases' - buildings representing each country often not filled with much apart from tourist propoganda. The site was SO large. People would queue 4 to 6 hours to get into a single space.... I only really saw North Korea. Which had a fountain with multi coloured neon lights and naked cupids doing acrobatics. And they sold 'Kim Jong Il - The collected works'. Their space was situated next to Iran at the expo - a match made in heaven.

I went on the tube a rush hour and 400 people all moved with me like ants to change lines. It makes you feel very drone like. You rethink personal space. Not a lot of individualism here. Its also quite dirty, and um fragrant... with beacons of capitalistic consumption like a faux Tokyo. Found some old buildings here and there which I searched for, though large swathes of the city had been knocked down for progress. Which means less people were using the gutter and pavement as an extension of their kitchen surfaces..

Best bit was I read JG Ballard's autobiography there - which touches on his Empire of the Sun, 30s Shanghai days. I am growing increasingly obsessed by him...

Shanghai Expo

2010-10-04T22:15:00.004Z

So I'm on my way to Shanghai afternoon tomorrow do chair a panel discussion on art and the city for UN-HABITAT at the Shanghai Expo. It takes place on Saturday October 9 at 3pm for a couple of hours... Frantically preparing... if only my printer wasnt playing up on me....

Teeny Tiny Art

2010-10-04T09:28:00.002Z

In recent years I've banged on that big art is dead (and dead dull). That over the top giant canvas thing feels really dated and overblown and all about the money. How 2007. Edward Lucie-Smith is curating a show at Charlie Smith that is all about small art. He's written a surprisingly good text for the press release about the idea (though I'm not sure I'm going to like the small artists he's showing, but no one's perfect).

Polemically Small Curated by Edward Lucie-Smith
Oct 8-30 @ Charlie Smith London

"What’s the polemic? Why small? This exhibition, of small, sometimes very small, works of contemporary art is essentially a rant about the outmoded rhetoric of size that is still embraced by what likes to call itself the avant-garde. New cutting-edge artists have been painting small now for some time. It’s happening here in London; it’s happening in Germany, still the real centre for avant-garde activity in Europe; it is happening among a certain number of Italian artists. It may be happening elsewhere as well. The interest in small-scale art is inevitably starting to spread to other genres – sculpture, photography and video.

Huge art, in Modernist terms, was essentially an invention of America in the 1940s. Very big Abstract Expressionist paintings were the “barbaric yawp” (to quote Walt Whitman) that proclaimed the new cultural dominance of the United States. Before that the important Modernist painters had only occasionally painted on a very big scale, to suit a special occasion. Picasso’s Guernica is a good example.

Big abstract paintings made themselves at home in the lofts of South-of-Houston-Street New York, then being colonized by artists. These originally industrial spaces seemed to offer plenty of wall. Love it, live with it, if necessary trash it. New art, though big, was still cheap. Later, with the multiplication of new museums in America and elsewhere, big paintings seemed to have a logical purpose. Admiring critics wrote pieces about the way in which these overweening canvases offered a new experience in wraparound vision. Inevitably, however, the space available soon started to run out. How many Pollocks, de Koonings and Rothkos does it take to fill a vast gallery space to the point of bursting? Too many painters were producing big canvases, with the result that a lot of contemporary art, even art safely in the possession of museums, now spends most of its time in store. Where ambitious private collectors are concerned, we have become used to the term ‘warehouse art’. The proud possessors are known to own it. It’s also known that they don’t live with most of it. In a real sense, art that isn’t being looked at doesn’t exist. Warehouse art is non-art. An awful lot of ambitious but misguided artists are still producing it.

If we look at the art of the past, art earlier than Modernism, we find a mixture of big art and small art. The big art was almost invariably produced for absolutely specific purposes – never on spec. It adorned churches and palaces. It offered a focal point to a public square. Small scale art was sometimes produced without a patron in mind, simply for the market, as most art is produced today. Many of the great masterpieces of the past are disconcertingly small. Portraits by Van Eyck and Memling. Religious paintings by Antonello da Messina. Some, though not all, of Rembrandt’s self-portraits. Samuel Palmer’s landscapes of the Shoreham period. Even the Mona Lisa. They need to be looked at in a different way from wraparound art – slower, more contemplative – dare one say it? – more loving.

Today many young artists are forced, through economic necessity, to work in very small spaces. Collectors, even when prosperous, don’t have unlimited wall space. How many wraparound canvases can you house in a two-bedroom flat? There is an obvious disjuncture between what is being made and its supposed destination. An art market that produces solely for museums and warehouses surely isn’t in a healthy condition.

This exhibition is meant to do two rather ambitious things within a physically small space. First, to suggest that contemporary art is changing, and changing rather faster than usual. An important part of this change is the rebellion against huge size. Artists are making small work not because they are forced to (though in some cases that is increasingly true), but because they actually want to – because small art, in current conditions, is actually cutting edge, and delivers a new and dissident message. “Look at me in a different way,” it says. Secondly, linked to this, the show invites visitors to explore, on their own terms, how this different way of looking functions, and what it may possibly deliver."

Edward Lucie-Smith

As Fast As You Can

2010-09-28T23:31:00.004Z

I saw this amazing work by Omer Fast at Videodrome in Berlin (the show I keep banging on about). He's an interesting artist but this piece is something else.

Thinking of Masks

2010-09-26T21:52:00.006Z

Short and Sweet

2010-09-25T23:01:00.004Z

If you're around Wednesday 29 at 1pm Samuel Levack and Jennifer Lewandowski are putting on a performance (their first) for 12 minutes at Space.

'Normal Love' is an imagined cover of a found song, inspired by an unseen film. Layering live music and vocals on to previous sessions recorded at their studio and the Union Chapel in Islington, with visuals from their forthcoming film projected on to the performance.

Um I think I may be in the film and projections... dancing...

The piece is part of Charlie Woolley's Radio Show (which runs until Oct 16 to coincide with his solo show). Listen live here: http://radio.spacestudios.org.uk

2010-09-24T10:31:00.005Z

Back from Miami install of 150 works at Soho Beach House. Quite proud. Had a much better time than expected in the city. Obviously ill the minute I returned home and the adrenalin subsided.

Today I'm going to make a collage for Tjorg Douglas Beer of The Forgotten Bar who's putting on a show in Berlin during Art Forum. Gonna make something along the lines of this I put together ages ago. Its rare I make anything. Scissors and glue out in anticipation (as illustrated by Ellen Lanyon.

Cordelia Swann

2010-09-09T19:20:00.005Z

I saw a truly brilliant artwork last night. Cordelia Swann's Piece at Polytechnic at Raven Row. The sounds of Charlie Mingus' I X Love hit me when I entered the room. The music was the accompaniment to two photo projectors doing a slide show, taking turns to create fresh juxtapositions of images. 'The Mysteries of Berlin' (1979-82) was all about the Cold War, the dark truth within images, the rise of Communism. I spotted a still from Ashes and Diamonds. It was a bit like in Antonioni's Blow Up when David Hemmings keeps blowing up a photograph to look at a more intense detail and spot a murder. A kind of dialogue-less film. Basically its bloody great.

In the Pink

2010-09-06T08:48:00.005Z

Pink seems to be the colour of choice for exhibition invites this week. Polytechnic opens at Raven Row on Wednesday night and if the tube strike has abated I'm there (Mark Titchner opens at Vilma Gold the same time).

Two shows opening on September 9 - one in Paris and one in London - both seem to be claiming the Lower East side artists that were so big a couple of years ago. At Agnes B's space, Dash Snow, Ryan McGinley and Harmony Korine's films get an outing; while at Ritter/Zamet in London, Jonathan Ellis King has curated The Coke Factory bring together work by Agathe Snow (who I think is the best of the bunch), Dan Colen, Aurel Schmidt, Nate Lowman et al. He's aligning the work with NYC as a kind of 'factory' (the word Warhol hovers invisibly above the press release). It'll be interesting to see if the work stands up or if that crop feels strangely dated and out of step with now which I expect some of it will.

Art wakes up

2010-08-26T08:50:00.006Z

The art world is waking up this month - and these are some of the good things in London opening in the coming week.

Sept 1 Gregor Schnieder @ Sadie Coles

Sept 2 A MUST Charlie Woolley - Mysterious Cults @ SPACE Studios

Sept 3 Cameron Jamie event in Nottingham Free but book tickets online.

Sept 4 MALE @ Maureen Paley

Sept 7 Hussein Chalayan at Lisson Gallery 6-8pm

Sept 11 Wysing festival
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I'm going to be chairing a talk on art and urban space at the Shanghai Expo in October for the UN for those in China.....

From London

2010-08-18T14:05:00.008Z

I'm always asked about my recommendations for other cities. So I thought I'd do the same for home.

Galleries
- Maureen Paley, 21 Herald Street, London E2
- SPACE Studios, 129—131 Mare St, London E8
- Seventeen Gallery (basement shows at the back). 17 Kingsland Rd, London E2
- Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Rd, London NW3
- Stuart Shave Modern Art, 23/25 Eastcastle St, London W1

Food, Coffee
- Dean Street Townhouse, 69 Dean St, London W1 (art, amaretto sours)
- Polpo, 41 Beak St, London W1
- Bar Bruno, 101 Wardour St, London W1
- St John (the bar area), 26 St John St, London EC1
- The Wolseley, 160 Piccadilly, London W1
- Flat White, 17 Berwick St, London W1
- Daquise, 20 Thurloe Street London SW7 (in afternoons for apple strudel and a taste of 60s poland),

Drink
- The French House, 49 Dean St, London W1
- The Royal Oak, 73 Columbia Rd, London E2
- The Holly Bush, 22 Holly Mount, London NW3
- Cecconi's, 5a Burlington Gardens, London W1 (prosecco on tap at the bar)

Shop
- Compton News, 48 Old Compton Street, London W1
- Fopp for 3 quid DVDs and CDs, 1 Earlham Street, London WC2
- Music and Video Exchange shops (esp the Book one 14 Pembridge Road, and Soul and Dance, 42 Notting Hill Gate).
- Fenwicks, 63 New Bond St, London W1
- The Top Shop concession in Selfridges; The B Store on Saville row for shoes; Fred Perry on Newburgh St; APC on Dover St etc

This Week

2010-08-16T17:30:00.003Z

Its the last week to catch the Converse/Dazed emerging Artist Award at Stephen Friedman Gallery.

Artist Leslie Kulesh and Emily LaBarge DJing at the George and the Dragon on Tuesday.

Le Gun are taking part in The Surreal House exhibition at the Barbican this thursday 7 til 10 pm. They are doing a big drawing of something architectural, showing a John Guttmann’s rarely-seen film on the Palais Idéal, artist Volker Eichelmann ’s film Follies and Grottoes (2005), and cult US artist Jeremy Blake’s psychedelic pseudo-documentary on the incredible Winchester Mystery House.

Benny Carruthers

2010-08-15T23:11:00.004Z

Benny Carruthers used to live with us when I was a child. He was the only person who could wash my hair without me screaming. He was so lovely. He was in Cassavetes' Shadows. Apparently he recorded this number too (which i never knew) and Jonas Mekas' film Guns of the Trees. I miss him.

Stay still

2010-08-09T23:32:00.007Z

I've forgotten to stay still I think... I need to be reminded.

From Ritual to Theatre

2010-08-06T09:52:00.004Z

Ancient and Modern have a screening programme on 3 Fridays this month - starting today. Curated by Ben Judd there's some amazing people involved: Jim Shaw, Matt Stokes, Bruce Nauman, Maya Deren, Marcus Coates, Kenneth Anger etc. All the work is about signs, codes, rituals. It is a very small space but worth cramming in to.

'from ritual to theatre': screened fridays 6, 13 & 20 august

Running schedule commencing 1.30 and 5.30pm:
1.30 / 5.30 Christine Sullivan and Rob Flint, Generator, 2004, 4:00 min
1.34 / 5.34 George Gurdjieff, Hidden Symmetry 2, date unknown, 4:31 min
1.39 / 5.39 Jim Shaw, Initiation Ritual of the 360o, 2002, 10:54 min
1.50 / 5.50 Matt Stokes, Long After Tonight, 2005, 6:40 min
1.57 / 5.57 Marcus Coates, Out of Season, 2000, 7:16 min
2.05 / 6.05 Alex Sanders, Fire Spirit Ritual, c.1970, 3:27 min
2.10 / 6.10 Bruce Nauman, Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the
Perimeter of a Square, 1967-68, 5:00 min extract
2.14 / 6.14 Magali Reus, Background, 2009, 7:25 min
2.23 / 6.23 Catherine Sullivan, Triangle of Need (Olympian and Doves),
2007, 7:00 min
2.29 / 6.29 Michael Curran, All My Little Ducks, 1995, 7:00 min
2.36 / 6.36 Kenneth Anger, Invocation Of My Demon Brother, 1969, 10:30 min
2.48 / 6.48 Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, 1947-55,
8:00 min
2.55 / 6.55 Sian Davies, Thebes, 2007, 7:52 min
3.03 / 7.03 Guy Sherwin, Man With Mirror, 1976/2006, 9:00 min
3.11 / 7.11 Breda Beban, Walk of Three Chairs, 2003, 10:00 min
3.21 / 7.21 Jim Shaw, The Whole: A Study in Oist Movement, 2009, 16:40 min

Curated by Ben Judd / Text compiled by Emma Cocker and Ben Judd
For more information please see the website www.ancientandmodern.org

today and soon

2010-08-03T00:50:00.005Z

Today I remembered how much I like Wes Lang (top) and had the pleasure of discovering John Copeland's drawings (Below). The Jane Hotel bar may beckon later...

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Back in London soon and will happily be there to hear Paul Pieroni wax lyrical about Systematic at 176. Cant wait. August 7 at 3pm.

Gruzis and Garfield

2010-08-01T23:05:00.004Z

Today was all about Madison Wisconsin. Met with two people who came from that neck of the woods my mate Geez and Evan Gruzis who kindly let me into his unnaturally tidy studio. We both remembered our childhood love of Garfield's 9 Lives. I was obsessed with this weird comic book when i was a child. It was pretty grown up stuff and quite strange. Worth spending a penny to see what I mean.

Comments at the ready

2010-07-31T12:05:00.005Z

Being slagged off on the internet is so strange. Cathedral of Shit is a rather bitchy art blog that I enjoy reading. The anonymous author found some random online piece I wrote the intro (not interview) for Dazed in 2009 I think for some sponsored section and proclaimed my crapness. To be honest I would never have imagined they knew of my existence.

This is not the first time this has happened to me - The Guardian online is my favourite location for public humiliation. I always wonder if people would actually be like this in real life. 'Hi nice to meet you. You're shit'. Charlie Brooker wrote about it all once.

The Cool School

2010-07-29T05:19:00.006Z

Speedy trip in Miami looking at Soho House site which I'm curating.... had the great pleasure of hanging out with Michael Genovese, Jim Drain and Diego Singh. Then off to NYC to The Standard where they have amazing art films on loops. The Cool School, a documentary about the Ferus Gallery in 50s/60s LA is on, and I cant stop watching! Even though its 1am and I so should sleep. Ed Keinholz (one of my favourite artists ever). Wallace Berman. John Altoon (who hung out with my parents back in the day). Barney's Beanery. Too bloody interesting!

In Transit

2010-07-24T10:01:00.010Z

BTW off to MIA and NYC tomorrow. The life in transit continues... Crammed a crop of exhibitions yesterday. Rebecca Horn's kinetic piano sculpture 'Concert for Anarchy' at Surreal House at the Barbican and Evan Holloway's totem of heads with flashing light noses at The Approach both of special note.

Thought I'd belatedly post this. When I was at Basel in June Juliette Blightman did a performance installation at Hotel Gallery - getting a local tarot reader to give reading of art punters referencing Jung's interest in the Tarot whilst based in the city. I was one of the first to get a reading and Ossian Ward amusingly wrote a little thing about it in the Art Newspaper the next day...

Bring Your Own Beamer

2010-07-23T08:46:00.003Z

I went to BYOB in an arch under a railway in Berlin to see a chaotic and fun group show co-organised by Rafael Rozendaal. It was a cool concept - artists just stumbling up with a projector and blasting stuff on the walls and ceiling.