Make Your Own Life takes a look at the mythic proportions and art historical significance of the alternative scene based in Cologne in the late 80s and early 90s. Long an important city for art and commerce in Germany, during these years Cologne fostered a group of artists that bucked the establishment to raise important questions of artistic identity and institutional critique. For artists like Martin Kippenberger, Jutta Koether, Albert Oehlen, and Cosima von Bonin, art became a place to carve out their own terms of participation within the social, political, and economic constraints of the art world, where they could make their own lives the basis of their work, as Kippenberger exhorted.
Where: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, USA United States of America
I recently posted about the proposed development of the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia to exploit mining oppoortunities which would mean the destruction of priceless Aboriginal art. Thakfully, the WA government has seen the light and will no longer oppose the heritage listing of an area in the Dampier Archipelago, which will save some of the oldest art in the world on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia.
A proposed multi million dollar liquefied natural gas processing plant would have destroyed the thousands of aboriginal paintings and rock carvings throughout the region. The company that would have managed the plant (Woodside Petroleum) has now also dropped its opposition to the heritage listing, in return for a 6.8 square kilometer area to create a "gas precinct".
London - Two Italian Renaissance paintings worth a fortune and missing since the start of the 19th century have been found in Britain in the spare room of a house, The Times reported on Tuesday.
The two small portraits of saints in mediaeval clothing are the missing panels from the altarpiece of the church and convent of San Marco in Florence, central Italy, painted by the monk Fra Angelico in 1439.
Broken up during the Napoleonic wars, six of the eight paintings that surrounded the main panel had been found and the whereabouts of the last two was described as one of art's greatest mysteries, the newspaper said.
The missing paintings are expected to raise more than one million pounds at auction in March.
They were found at the home of retired academic Jean Preston in Oxford, southern England, hanging behind a door in a spare room.
How's that for a windfall.
I thought art thieves only existed in black and white movies. How wrong was I. Not only is Italy overrun with such scoundrels but it looks like they're bored with stealing priceless art from the country's countless museums. Italy's cultural heritage is now facing a new threat from thieves who are looting churches and selling their treasures on the black market, according to the head of the country's art theft squad.
The thieves have turned to plundering churches for religious artefacts since a clampdown on the pillaging of ancient sites. Accords reached with many international museums have seen the return to Italy of illegally exported antiquities and thieves are looking elsewhere to find items to sell to collectors, said General Ugo Zottin, the head of the carabinieri cultural heritage protection unit.
Some churches haven even been been considering asking tourists to pay a small fee to go towards protecting their contents while others restrict opening times and have volunteers present to keep an eye on visitors. Other churches, however, are against security measures in a religious setting.
The trend was revealed at the opening of a new show in Rome featuring stolen treasures recovered by the carabinieri art theft squad. The exhibition at the regional government's revamped headquarters in the 18th century Palazzo Incontro in Rome includes more than 100 artefacts.
Works including a painting of St Margaret of Antioch that went missing from the Church of St Peter in Chains in Rome were on display.
September 12th 2006 23:23
In the wake of the 9/11 five year anniversary I've been wondering once again what motivated the attacks. Conventionally, Islamic extremism is blamed, that is, the cause for the attack is found in competing and contrasting ideologies, Islamic religiosity versus Western capitalism. However, an interesting and unconventional account that I've come across recently provides a very different explanation. It's complex and I don't fully understand it yet but here's the best summation I've got presently.
In Jean Baudrillard's essay 'The Spirit of Terrorism' he characterises the attacks on the World Trade Centre as the 'absolute event.' He sought to understand them in terms of an (ab)reaction to the techno-political expansion of globalization, rather than in terms of a religious or civilization-based conflict. He termed the event and its consequences as follows (p. 11 in the 2002 version):
"This is not a clash of civilisations or religions, and it reaches far beyond Islam and America, on which efforts are being made to focus the conflict in order to create the delusion of a visible confrontation and a solution based upon force. There is indeed a fundamental antagonism here, but one that points past the spectre of America (which is perhaps the epicentre, but in no sense the sole embodiment, of globalisation) and the spectre of Islam (which is not the embodiment of terrorism either) to triumphant globalisation battling against itself."
Baudrillard thus placed the attacks - in a manner befitting his theoretical approach to society - firmly in the context of a symbolic reaction to the continued expansion of a world based solely upon commodity exchange.
More full explanation will be forthcoming
I was listening to ABC 576 'Radio National' the other night. I've forgotten what the name of the programme was, I think it was probably 'counterpoint'. Anyway, an American academic was being interviewed about why Americans, unlike the rest of the world, have not taken to soccer (football). The 'world game' as it's so often called is a global cultural phenomenon and appears to colonise whatever country it infiltrates, just look at the recent growth of the game in Australia leading up to and after the 2006 World Cup. The game is becoming increasingly popular at the grass roots level and is demanding more media coverage and comment.
The featured academic made what I thought was a god point. Whereas in contact sports (Rugby Union/League, AFL and American Football) and those sports that are distinctly American (Basketball, Baseball, Ice Hockey) there is usually a link between effort and reward. Basically, in these sports the logic is gladiatorial; the most well prepared, skilled and passionate team should (and usually does) grind done its opposition and carries the day.
The logic of effort and reward is fundamental to Capitalist work ethic, a logic that promises the more labor used the more profit gained. It is also central to the notion of the 'American Dream' (which would appear to have been pretty much co-opted in Australia); 'If you work hard enough you can achieve anything'.
Soccer's operational logic runs counter to these 'gladiatorial' sports. There is a high degree of randomness in Soccer for which no amount of training, passion and skill can account for. The apotheosis of this randomness is the penalty shoot out which often decides a match in the favour of what otherwise would have been considered the far weaker team on the day. The randomness of soccer also accounts for the why minnows such as Australia, fielding a team that is far less talented than those of other countries, can compete so 'evenly' on the world stage. The fact is that this evenness is created not by the equivalent skills and desire of the teams but is manufactured by the game itself in the form of corner kicks and penalty shoot outs.
Just some thoughts.
Earlier today I had the displeasure of having to make a trip to one of the countless skyscrapers that taint Sydney's skyline. This particular building, the name of which excapes me, has only recently been constructed, and in line with the typical 'skyscraper' style the exterior's all glass while the interior is sleek, modern, streamlined.
As I wandered through the corridors I was amazed by the amount of modern art around me. In each hall there were Pollock-esque paintings hanging on the walls whilst in open spaces such as reception foyers incongruous sculptural pieces were installed.
Why all the art I thought to myself as I caught the lift back to the ground floor - none of the bankers I had seen seemed overly struck by any of the work, as far as I could tell they all had their 'eyes on the prize' $$$. And anyway none of the bankers that I've ever met have been keen on art let alone modern art.
So if no one's interested in the art, what's it all doing in the building. Aesthetically, I guess the stuff is pleasing to have around, bringing a splash of colour into an otherwise dull work day, but this does not seem enough motivation - no one I could see was even looking at the works, just rushing past them on the way to meetings.conferences/moderations/arbitrations (depressing I know).
The idea that I came up with was that modern art prioritises certain things that the banking world, and contemporary culture in general, prioritises; impenetrable, seemless surfaces.
This conclusion may appear at bit oblique but I'll clarify what I mean in my next post
postscript: apologies for the lack of photos (I'm at work).
KC Hill
Dexter
Cibbuano
Paladin
Craig Hill
Oracle of Delphi
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