So we received this email yesterday: UNEMPLOYED ARTIST USES REMAINING CASH AS MEDIUM FOR ECONOMIC STATEMENT April 15, 2009: A casualty of the 2008 economic crisis, unemployed conceptual artist Brian Rushton Phillips, has chosen to use his remaining cash to create a response to the current downturn and his own financial uncertainty. Rushton Phillips, Financial Security (Blanket), 2009. Image:rushtonphillips.com Admittedly,
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The Milan furniture fair opens this month from April 22 to 27, and one project by Dutch conceptual design legends Droog intrigues us. At first glance, the point of this House of Furniture Parts isn’t clear, but the underlying idea of function (slightly) over form is a good one. Design can – should – solve problems. According to the press
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The Swiss architect (and VoCA favorite) Peter Zumthor has won the Pritzker Prize for excellence in “talent, vision and commitment” by a living architect. Zumthor’s stunning Therme Spa in Graubünden. Image: mimoa.eu Read the full article HERE
We’ve written a lot about the excellent public performance group Improv Everywhere HERE, and about one of our favorite films, the Spanish mock-umentary Noviembre HERE, in which street theatre performers tread a dangerous line between reality and fiction (In once case, a performer feigns collapse and the unknowing public calls an ambulance in desperation). This past weekend, we received THIS
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Is the economic shakedown the best thing that could have happened to the art world? It seems that amid the upheaval and uncertainty, survivors will emerge and we reckon they will be old masters, mid-century and contemporary masters, as well as lesser-known, high quality works. Works that were representative of certain turns in the history of art, despite having fallen
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There’s an interesting piece in the Guardian on the future of theatre criticism, HERE. The role of the (art) critic is on our mind quite often (naturally) and one of the comments on the article – reproduced below – raises some good questions: Putting the purpose, form and teaching of theatre criticism under the microscope is absolutely vital, but before
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We’ve mentioned Cameron Sinclair, the guy behind Architecture for Humanity, before (HERE) when gave a brilliant talk at OCAD in January 2008. Architecture for Humanity’s Pallet House, a low-cost shelter for victims who lost their homes in natural disasters or war. Image: metropolismag.com Here’s a reposting of Cameron Sinclair’s brilliant TED Talk on how design can change the world. It’s
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Rumour has it that video artist extraordinaire Bill Viola will be part of a three-person exhibition coming to the Royal Ontario Museum in June 2009! Bill Viola, Five Angels for the Millennium [detail] Departing Angel, 2001. Video/sound installation. Image: Kira Perov/tokyoartbeat.com The exhibition will, apparently, be mounted by the ICC at the ROM in response to the upcoming exhibition of
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..Long Live Chinese Art! Recent news articles have told of the Chinese art market suffering, falling from the dizzying heights of just a few years ago. It’s an interesting thing to witness from a truly hyped art scene where much work was awkward, and not all that great, even as it reflected political issues and the rise of the new
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Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...