In 1967, Bruce Nauman made his ten-minute, 16mm film Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square. Using a Sony Portapak camera borrowed from the gallerist Leo Castelli, Nauman recorded himself slowly traversing lines of masking tape tacked to the floor of his studio.
When she talks about her practice, Hilary Lloyd is always quick to point out that she is 'not a filmmaker'. And yet, video footage always makes its way into her works, shot in her singular style and identifiable for its repetitive movements, jump cuts and sweeps. It's a frenetic rhythm that's been related to the restlessness of the contemporary...
The chair sculptures are comprised of a steel frame that has been painted black with the seat and back upholstered with woven, text-adorned polyester straps. The writing on the chairs ranges from 'WHO IS GOING TO GRAB MY BOOTY?' to 'ACID WEED XANAX MUSHROOMS MDMA COKE K' and 'STOP PROTECTING YOURSELF.'
Matthew Barney 's Redoubt is attuned to the grandiose and the spectacular. With its sweeping aerial shots of vast landscapes, homages to mythic narrative, and use of broad archetypes in place of three-dimensional characters, the film suggests something George Lucas might produce if he ever got tired of having the script explain his films'...
But the beauty of the imagery, and the specificity of what we are shown–the precision with which Diana measures her gunpowder, the care with which Engraver sets up a tripod and easel in the snow, the quiet joy with which Electroplater mixes the chemicals of the baths into which she submerges etched plates–build an emotional power that's unusual in...
'Yeah, like the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, the original version and the Disney version. He’s hot. You know it and she knows it too. And the tragedy of that film is when he reverts back to being just a white, blonde dude. It’s a thing of huge sorrow to me still. When I was a child and I would watch it, I would be very distressed by that...
'The closer you get to the real thing, the stronger the pull of the opposite force becomes. It feels like they are trying to kill you.'
The inaugural issue of Garvey!: SEX, LOVE, NURTURING, FAMALAY (2019) borrows its glossy paged, image-centric layout style from the now defunct African-American teen magazines Word Up! and Right On. In a similar editorial fashion, Garvey! features a letter from the editor quoting the rapper 2Pac, an interview with Lauren Du Graf and a...
Matthew Barney ventures deep into the mountains of the American West in his solemn new film Redoubt, now playing at New York's Film Forum, which retells the ancient legend of Diana and Acteon as a contemporary ballet with wolves and weapons in the snow. As tactile as his earlier works, and structured as a series of hunts at high elevation, the...
Everyone knows Raymond Pettibon. Even if you don't recognise the name, his inky cross-hatched lines and confident handwriting have probably swirled around your eyes at some point—interconnecting webs of history, baseball stats, freight trains, surfers, musical announcements, and scathing critique in words and images—getting stuck...
In real life one isn’t allowed to linger to look at someone for a long time, to direct the gaze wherever one feels. Most people don’t really notice what their best friends look like. If I’m making a painting after another artist’s, it’s often that there’s something I want to learn from the original work. But it’s also just to make it for myself....
'I grew up loving drawing, loving making. I used to draw at every moment and people around me knew me as 'the kid who could draw.' Often I was the go-to for anything creative. Somewhere around high school and getting an education and life (I was a horrible student in high school, never went to class, partied a lot), I lost my way and I found...
Both Oscar Murillo and Alvaro Barrington are proof that even major art market players can still keep it real. Colombian-born Murillo is known for working with his immigrant family and communities that have nothing to do with art, and in the weeks leading up to his current exhibition at Carlos/Ishikawa, he installed a working kitchen in the...
Artist Matthew Barney returns to film this fall with his new feature Redoubt. It's smaller in scale than the cinematic work for which he's most known, such as the five-part Cremaster Cycle or the six-hour River of Fundament, but no less ambitious.
The painter John Currin 's studio is on the top floor of a loftlike building in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, just a few blocks from the Gramercy Park town house he shares with his wife, artist Rachel Feinstein, and their two sons and daughter. The studio is a cavernous space that could easily house a three-bedroom apartment, but...
'It is a privileged position. The practice of an artist would be laughable to a lot of other members of society who have to account for their labour. We allow ourselves to spend long hours philosophising and playing with our little props. This is why we as artists—and there I use the first person plural—we have a responsibility to pay...
'Anyway, he sent over 20 boxes of Playboy to my studio one day. They just showed up. There were from 1968 to 1980... Then they had these amazing photographs of this man shopping for the kids, and the woman who's with him is completely in awe, and then the other women 15 feet away are also all looking at him, just thinking he's great. I thought it...
'Monster Chetwynd’s Gorgon’s Head Playground is inspired by the heads of Medusa that were discovered in the city’s sixth-century Basilica Cistern,' a project statement says. Slides modelled on snakes will form part of the new playground. The ambitious children’s project, made in collaboration with local artists, will also pay 'tribute to the...
'I don't think I'm a painter of male power,' Currin said. 'I think when I paint men, it's in order to make a beautiful painting of weakness.' He has a point. Because I mean, have you seen John Currin's men? They are nubby. They are nobby. They are old and they look stupid. In his 'Jackass' series, based on images from vintage Playboy magazines...
Monster Chetwynd’s imagination takes over Villa Arson in an outpouring of creativity on the walls, ceilings or floor. A sound atmosphere and colourful lighting support this punk and humorous production. The artist adds an ecological claim through a strong relationship with poor, light, easily transportable materials.
OK, my friends. The subject of today’s Art Talk is the provocative and explicit art of British artist Sarah Lucas, currently on display at Hammer Museum. The tongue-in- cheek title of the exhibition, Au Naturel, is a French phrase meaning 'in the nude.' And nudity–plenty of nudity–fills the many museum galleries in the form of sculptures...
As a motivation for making art, sometimes enough is enough. That seems to be one motor driving Sarah Lucas, the cheeky British Conceptual artist whose always smart, often deliriously funny retrospective exhibition is at the UCLA Hammer Museum. More than 130 works in sculpture, photography, collage and video made over the last three decades are...
As women, the world infiltrates us with an obscene amount of signs and signifiers, which, in turn, overwhelmingly inform how we relate to our bodies. Playing with the concepts of objectification and vulnerability of the female body, Sarah Lucas, in her new show at the Hammer Museum, Au Naturel, critiques, but also empowers. Whether through casts...
The survey of the British artist’s work includes collage, photography, sculpture, video and installations, many of which humorously juxtapose everyday objects in a way that challenges assumptions about gender, sexuality, religion and power. One standout piece is Two Fried Eggs and a Kebab (1992), which features, well, two real fried eggs and a...
