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Daniel Campbell Blight the British writer and curator with a specific interest in the history and theory of photography, and cultural media studies, has published an article in the Guardian titled ‘Writing an artist statement? First ask yourself these four questions’. Blight states “…You can find preposterously complex, jargon-laden artist statements on the websites of galleries and pop-up project spaces all over the English-speaking world. If you don't believe me, join the e-flux mailing list. I regularly visit such exhibition spaces in London and beyond, and read – with total, dulling indifference – the often pompous ramblings of what Alix Rule and David Levine call International Art English. This is a dialect of the privileged; the elite university educated. If you can't write it effectively, you're not part of the art world. If you're already inside but don't understand it, you're not allowed to admit it, or ask for further explanation. This kind of rhetoric relies on everyone participating without question. To speak up would mean dissolving the space between inside and outside: quite literally, the growing boundary between the art world and the rest of society. …The funny thing is, the chat you actually hear at a gallery opening rarely uses this language. …The vocabulary of artspeak is not without meaning, but it has a specific place. Academia is only one part of the art world. My dislike is not for the language of artspeak, more the effect it has on the art industry in its ability to engage with a wider audience. Not to mention what such language does to the reputation of writing in the arts, as well as the wider practice of writing itself. Writing about your work should be an open and compelling activity, not a labyrinthine chore.”  Inspired by Daniel Blight, The Guardian ow.ly/kuGnt Image source Twitter ow.ly/kuFEd Complex jargon-laden artist statements (May 22 2013)

 

Daniel Campbell Blight the British writer and curator with a specific interest in the history and theory of photography, and cultural media studies, has published an article in the Guardian titled ‘Writing an artist statement? First ask yourself these four questions’. Blight states “…You can find preposterously complex, jargon-laden artist statements on the websites of galleries and pop-up project spaces all over the English-speaking world. If you don’t believe me, join the e-flux mailing list. I regularly visit such exhibition spaces in London and beyond, and read – with total, dulling indifference – the often pompous ramblings of what Alix Rule and David Levine call International Art English. This is a dialect of the privileged; the elite university educated. If you can’t write it effectively, you’re not part of the art world. If you’re already inside but don’t understand it, you’re not allowed to admit it, or ask for further explanation. This kind of rhetoric relies on everyone participating without question. To speak up would mean dissolving the space between inside and outside: quite literally, the growing boundary between the art world and the rest of society. …The funny thing is, the chat you actually hear at a gallery opening rarely uses this language. …The vocabulary of artspeak is not without meaning, but it has a specific place. Academia is only one part of the art world. My dislike is not for the language of artspeak, more the effect it has on the art industry in its ability to engage with a wider audience. Not to mention what such language does to the reputation of writing in the arts, as well as the wider practice of writing itself. Writing about your work should be an open and compelling activity, not a labyrinthine chore.”

 

Inspired by Daniel Blight, The Guardian ow.ly/kuGnt Image source Twitter ow.ly/kuFEd

Marcel Dzama the 39 year old Canadian contemporary artist working particularly in ink and watercolor drawings has been featured by Hermione Hoby in a Guardian article titled ‘Cult artist Marcel Dzama: 'I try not to censor myself'’ Hoby states “…If you took a quick glance at Marcel Dzama's watercolours, you'd probably think they were illustrations for children's books. Painted in carmines, olives and browns, they're peopled with elegantly wrought figures and filled with dreamlike pageantry (for a long time, Dzama kept a torch and pad by his bed so he could sketch whatever occurred to him in the night). Then you notice how oddly erotic and calmly macabre they are: there's the troupe of balletic, hooded women pirouetting with AK-47s in their hands; and the tableau of amputee cowboys, one fellating another. … he's a bit of a cult figure: he's designed album covers for Beck, been championed by Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze, and is collected by Brad Pitt and Gus Van Sant. Nonetheless, he still has the demeanour of a small, shy boy. His softly spoken sentences tend to peter off into a timid giggle… Dzama, whose first London show in five years is about to open at the David Zwirner gallery, grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, a remote town he describes as ghostly, particularly during the long winters when everything is silenced by three feet of snow. …[he] is dyslexic and had a rough time at school, where he sketched incessantly. Teachers, he says, were constantly snatching away his drawings in lessons. He went on to study art at the University of Manitoba, where he founded The Royal Art Lodge, a collective one member described as "a mysterious yet socially OK'd therapy group for mildly socially dysfunctional, highly imaginative people who liked to draw". “  Inspired by Hermione Hoby, The Guardian ow.ly/k4myh Image source Arrested Motion ow.ly/k4miU I try not to censor myself (May 5 2013)

Marcel Dzama the 39 year old Canadian contemporary artist working particularly in ink and watercolor drawings has been featured by Hermione Hoby in a Guardian article titled ‘Cult artist Marcel Dzama: ‘I try not to censor myself’’ Hoby states “…If you took a quick glance at Marcel Dzama’s watercolours, you’d probably think they were illustrations for children’s books. Painted in carmines, olives and browns, they’re peopled with elegantly wrought figures and filled with dreamlike pageantry (for a long time, Dzama kept a torch and pad by his bed so he could sketch whatever occurred to him in the night). Then you notice how oddly erotic and calmly macabre they are: there’s the troupe of balletic, hooded women pirouetting with AK-47s in their hands; and the tableau of amputee cowboys, one fellating another. … he’s a bit of a cult figure: he’s designed album covers for Beck, been championed by Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze, and is collected by Brad Pitt and Gus Van Sant. Nonetheless, he still has the demeanour of a small, shy boy. His softly spoken sentences tend to peter off into a timid giggle… Dzama, whose first London show in five years is about to open at the David Zwirner gallery, grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, a remote town he describes as ghostly, particularly during the long winters when everything is silenced by three feet of snow. …[he] is dyslexic and had a rough time at school, where he sketched incessantly. Teachers, he says, were constantly snatching away his drawings in lessons. He went on to study art at the University of Manitoba, where he founded The Royal Art Lodge, a collective one member described as “a mysterious yet socially OK’d therapy group for mildly socially dysfunctional, highly imaginative people who liked to draw”. “

 

Inspired by Hermione Hoby, The Guardian ow.ly/k4myh Image source Arrested Motion ow.ly/k4miU

Michael H Posner the 62 year old American lawyer, the current Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) of the United States, is the subject of an article published in the Guardian by Glen Greenwald who states “…accountability for high-level government officials is inconceivable in the US, highlighting its culture of impunity. A US State Department official  "expressed concern" about what he called "a 'climate of impunity' over abuses by police and security forces" - in Egypt. The official, Michael Posner, warned that failure to investigate Egyptian state agents responsible for "cruel treatment of those in their custody" - including torture - creates "a lack of meaningful accountability for these actions". …statements that are so drowning in obvious, glaring irony that the officials uttering them simply must have been mischievously cackling to themselves when they created them," and this American denunciation of Egypt's "climate of impunity" almost certainly goes to the top of the list. After all, Michael Posner works for the very same administration that not only refused to prosecute or even investigate US officials who tortured, kidnapped and illegally eavesdropped, but actively shielded them all from all forms of accountability: criminal, civil or investigative. Indeed, Posner works for the very same State Department that actively impeded efforts by countries whose citizens were subjected to those abuses - such as Spain and Germany - to investigate them. Being lectured by the US State Department about a "culture of impunity" is like being lectured by David Cameron about supporting Arab dictators. …We also see here, yet again, how monumentally important leaks are. Almost everything we know about the conduct of the US government … comes from diplomatic cables published by WikiLeak …For exactly that reason, it is no mystery why the US government is so eager to punish so severely those responsible for leaks generally and these disclosures specifically: precisely because nothing sheds light on their bad acts the way whistleblowing does.”  Inspired by Glen Greenwald, The Guardian ow.ly/i3iwV Image source US Govt ow.ly/i3ite A climate of impunity over abuses (March 16 2013)

 

Michael H Posner the 62 year old American lawyer, the current Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) of the United States, is the subject of an article published in the Guardian by Glen Greenwald who states “…accountability for high-level government officials is inconceivable in the US, highlighting its culture of impunity. A US State Department official  “expressed concern” about what he called “a ‘climate of impunity’ over abuses by police and security forces” – in Egypt. The official, Michael Posner, warned that failure to investigate Egyptian state agents responsible for “cruel treatment of those in their custody” – including torture – creates “a lack of meaningful accountability for these actions”. …statements that are so drowning in obvious, glaring irony that the officials uttering them simply must have been mischievously cackling to themselves when they created them,” and this American denunciation of Egypt’s “climate of impunity” almost certainly goes to the top of the list. After all, Michael Posner works for the very same administration that not only refused to prosecute or even investigate US officials who tortured, kidnapped and illegally eavesdropped, but actively shielded them all from all forms of accountability: criminal, civil or investigative. Indeed, Posner works for the very same State Department that actively impeded efforts by countries whose citizens were subjected to those abuses – such as Spain and Germany – to investigate them. Being lectured by the US State Department about a “culture of impunity” is like being lectured by David Cameron about supporting Arab dictators. …We also see here, yet again, how monumentally important leaks are. Almost everything we know about the conduct of the US government … comes from diplomatic cables published by WikiLeak …For exactly that reason, it is no mystery why the US government is so eager to punish so severely those responsible for leaks generally and these disclosures specifically: precisely because nothing sheds light on their bad acts the way whistleblowing does.”

 

Inspired by Glen Greenwald, The Guardian ow.ly/i3iwV Image source US Govt ow.ly/i3ite

These will become subjects of the privileged (December 17 2012) These will become subjects of the privileged (December 17 2012)

Elizabeth Price the 46 year old British artist and former member of indie pop bands having been awarded the Turner Prize for her video trilogy, the first video artist to win for over a decade. The jury “admired the seductive and immersive qualities of Price’s video trilogy, which reflects the ambition that has characterised her work in recent years. They were impressed by the way Price creates a rhythmic and ritualistic experience through her film installations combining different materials and technical vocabularies from archival footage and popular music videos to advertising.” Charlotte Higgins in a Guardian article states “Were she starting out now, her career in art – one that has just been crowned by her winning this year’s Turner prize – would be impossible, Elizabeth Price has said. The artist, who was awarded the £25,000 prize on Monday, criticised the government’s introduction of the Ebacc qualification in schools. …Price, who attended a comprehensive school in Luton before studying art at the University of Oxford, where she also now teaches, criticised the withdrawal of state funding for humanities and arts at universities. The result, she said, is that “these will become the subjects of the privileged, and history-writing and novel-writing and art-making and poetry-writing will become homogenous in terms of class and social background”. Her career – making video art whose value in the commercial world is insufficient to support her – has been possible only because of publicly funded arts institutions, she said. “If you look at my CV, just about everything I have done has come through a publicly funded institution; it is a career entirely built on that sort of support.” It would never have happened without the “generous opportunities I’ve had through education and public funding”.

 

Inspired by Charlotte Higgins ow.ly/g205S image source deskarati ow.ly/g20A0

Hoard hidden from taxman by global elite (August 21 2012) Hoard hidden from taxman by global elite (August 21 2012)

Heather Stewart the British business and economics editor for the Observer has published an article in The Guardian titled ‘£13tn hoard hidden from taxman by global elite’ discussing how private banks help the wealthiest to move cash into havens. Stewart states “A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together – according to research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network. …[wealth] leaked out of scores of countries into secretive jurisdictions such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands with the help of private banks, which vie to attract the assets of so-called high net-worth individuals. …The detailed analysis in the report, compiled using data from a range of sources, including the Bank of International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund, suggests that for many developing countries the cumulative value of the capital that has flowed out of their economies since the 1970s would be more than enough to pay off their debts to the rest of the world. Oil-rich states with an internationally mobile elite have been especially prone to watching their wealth disappear into offshore bank accounts instead of being invested at home, the research suggests. Once the returns on investing the hidden assets is included, almost £500bn has left Russia since the early 1990s when its economy was opened up. Saudi Arabia has seen £197bn flood out since the mid-1970s, and Nigeria £196bn.”

 

Inspired by The Guardian ow.ly/d0EA6 image source Twitter ow.ly/d0Eob

Antonio Manfredi an Italian artist, curator and director of a Naples museum, the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum has set fire to a painting valued at €10,000 to protest the under-funding of arts in Italy. Before cameras, he set fire to a painting by French artist Séverine Bourguignon watching the spectacle via Skype. In an interview with John Hooper of the Guardian, Manfredi stated “There’s no money for upkeep. We were flooded recently. And there are tons of garbage mounting up outside. …This is a war. This is a revolution, an art war to prevent the destruction of culture, and in a revolution, there are winners and losers. …There are about 1,000 works, so this could go on for years, I tell you, it’s not nice setting light to works of art. It’s terrible. Each one has its own story. …You can’t …ask for money from companies in the area that are in the grip of the Camorra, some pay [the mobsters] protection money. Others are actually controlled by them. … in this area, if you don’t have backing from the authorities, you’re in serious danger. My fear is that they’ll let me go ahead and burn the lot.”

 

Inspired by John Hooper http://ow.ly/awOgA image source http://ow.ly/awOz3

William Woodard “Will” Self the 50 year old UK satirical novelist and short story writer renowned for his commentary on contemporary life in the UK is to become a Professor of contemporary thought at the Brunel University. In a Guardian article by Jeevan Vasagar, Self’s career is described as “…nothing if not diverse. He has swept streets, drawn cartoons and made cold calls; he has written as a maverick political journalist, a psycho-geographer, satirist and self-declared flâneur. … Self said his teaching would reflect preoccupations such as the relationship between people and geography “I do think there are interesting things to be said about the relationship between different modes of transport, including pedestrianisation, and perceptions of the way the city has grown up, the way we experience it, and the impact of new technologies on that … I just think that architects should be made to walk.” He added that Brunel attracted him for “psycho-geographical reasons… It’s very near to Heathrow, and there’s a big British Asian community that has grown up around Southall.”

 

Inspired by Jeevan Vasagar http://ow.ly/9tIU0 image source Facebook http://ow.ly/9tJmz

Simon David Jenkins the 68 year old UK newspaper columnist and author and chairman of the National Trust has published an article in the Guardian stating “Inflation is falling, debt is rising, growth is static and credit is edgy. All these are facts. There must be an economic equation that says what to do next. So where are the economists when we need them? As usual they have taken to the hills. You cannot get a straight answer for love nor money, even … from the Bank of England. … The failure to take economic management beyond the diktats of austerity has become the great intellectual treason of today. For three years it has trapped governments, economists, bankers and media in a collective miasma of panic about inflation. Thousands of citizens across Europe are having their lives ruined and their children’s prospects blighted because a financial elite, once burned, is too shy to think out of its box. It refuses to stimulate demand merely because that is not the done thing to do.”

 

Inspired by Simon Jenkins http://ow.ly/9maiy image source twitter http://ow.ly/9man0

Alain de Botton the 42 year old Swiss philosopher and television presenter in the UK who established a new educational enterprise in London called “The School of Life”, has released an article in the Guardian referencing the recent saying that “museums of art are our new churches”. de Botton implies that “…in a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.” And if so, “It’s an intriguing idea, part of the broader ambition that culture should replace scripture, but in practice art museums often abdicate much of their potential to function as new churches (places of consolation, meaning, sanctuary, redemption) through the way they handle the collections entrusted to them… The challenge is to rewrite the agendas for our art museums so that collections can begin to serve the needs of psychology as effectively as, for centuries, they served those of theology… Only then would museums be able to claim that they had properly fulfilled the excellent but as yet elusive ambition of in part becoming substitutes for churches in a rapidly secularising society.

 

Inspired by Alain de Botton http://ow.ly/8JloO image source VeracityVoice http://ow.ly/8Jlxr

David Frederick Attenborough the 85 year old UK broadcaster and naturalist renowned as the face and voice of natural history programs on the BBC claims the future of our planet is at risk from the rapid urbanization of the past half century. In an article published by the Guardian, Attenborough states “We have a huge moral responsibility towards the rest of the planet. A hundred years ago people certainly had that … They were aware of the seasons and aware of what they were doing to the land and animals around them … So over 50% [living in towns and cities] is to some degree out of touch with the natural world and don’t even see an animal from one day to the next unless it’s a rat or a pigeon … That means that people are getting out of touch with the realities of the natural world, of which we are in fact a part”.

 

Inspired by Guardian http://ow.ly/89WW4 image source davidattenborough http://ow.ly/89X1O

 

Timothy David “Tim” Minchin the 36 year old British-Australian comedian singer describes in an article published in the Guardian, how in Texas he “came across my first proper religious nut”. Minchin is an atheist as well as a skeptic, and cannot understand how someone can call them self a skeptic and still be religious. “If you apply doubt to anything … the whole religion thing is obviously a fantasy.” In the article Minchin discloses an email from the company booked to supply him a piano: CANCEL !!!!!!!!!!. I need to decline after watching that insane Tim Minchin. What a God-hater. So sorry, please cancel the Entire Event In Dallas. Go back to Australia we do not appreciate Tim Minchin in TX. WE ARE NOT DELIVERING THE GRAND PIANO!!! NOT FOR 1 MILLION $ HA HA HA. You probably agree. Find a better comedian (not a demon). Love in Christ.

 

Inspired by Tim Minchin http://ow.ly/7G8Bh image source ticketupdates http://ow.ly/7G8HG

Luke Daniel Harding the 42 year old UK political journalist who had initially been refused entry into Russia, has been the subject of a brilliant article written with an interesting perspective by Edward Lucas. Harding in February 2011 became the first foreign journalist to be expelled from Russia since the end of the Cold War. Harding’s employer the Guardian linked his expulsion with his unflattering coverage of Russia and the Kremlin. Russia reversed the decision to expel him but granted only a short term visa. Harding did not further renew his visa and returned to the UK, alleging harassment during his Russian return, claiming the Federal Security Service were unhappy at the stories he wrote. Elsa Vidal of the media freedom watchdog, stated: “unprecedented since the Cold War … It’s an attempt to force correspondents working for foreign media in Moscow to engage in self-censorship.”

 

Inspired by Edward Lucas http://ow.ly/7deBo image source misterdann.com http://ow.ly/7dfmJ

Patrice Chéreau the 66 year old French theatre director who is currently in London rehearsing his first play in the UK has provided a comparative perspective on French and English productions in an interview with Stephen Moss of the Guardian. Chéreau stated in his interview that he enjoyed English actors for their very disciplined and open work ethic, whereas in France a lot of time is spent waiting for the arrival of inspiration. He argues that France is the country of directors, whereas England is the country of writers. Chéreau is renowned for upsetting theatre traditionalists with his personal tinkering of operatic productions, with audiences initially disliking his work, for which he did not seem to mind as in his words “it’s OK to be hated.” Inspired by Stephen Moss ow.ly/4KASu image source Nicolas Genin ow.ly/4KAOn It’s OK to be hated (May 7 2011)

Patrice Chéreau the 66 year old French theatre director who is currently in London rehearsing his first play in the UK has provided a comparative perspective on French and English productions in an interview with Stephen Moss of the Guardian. Chéreau stated in his interview that he enjoyed English actors for their very disciplined and open work ethic, whereas in France a lot of time is spent waiting for the arrival of inspiration. He argues that France is the country of directors, whereas England is the country of writers. Chéreau is renowned for upsetting theatre traditionalists with his personal tinkering of operatic productions, with audiences initially disliking his work, for which he did not seem to mind as in his words “it’s OK to be hated.”

 

Inspired by Stephen Moss ow.ly/4KASu image source Nicolas Genin ow.ly/4KAOn

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