Category: visual

“To be sure, the inmates of these levitating dungeons believe they are being pampered. They have room to stretch, plenty to eat, and access to round-the-clock cable TV. But the psychological impact of life in such extreme conditions is hard to fathom. On sunny days, sunlight pounds blindingly through glass walls, ricocheting off white-oak floors and glossy white surfaces, and making the closets seem invitingly shaded. In gray weather, fog shrouds the living quarters, confronting residents with the blankness of a near-death experience.”

The 20-by-35-foot fabric work, titled Woman, was one of four that the National Gallery commissioned for its new extension in 1978. But not everyone loved it (certain critics in particular had harsh words for it), and it was replaced in 2003. But quite a few visitors were very fond of it, and one, a fledgling journalist, tried to find out where the piece went and why. Peggy McGlone writes about what her young colleague found.

In an apparently pre-planned attack following several suspicious phone calls, an individual wearing a hat, sunglasses and one glove entered the Opera Gallery, went right up to Christopher Wool’s Untitled 2004, cut it twice, and jogged out – all in about 15 seconds. (includes security video)

“A well-executed game farm photograph can be nearly indistinguishable from a real wildlife photo, one reason critics consider such images problematic. Traditional wildlife photographers can spend days researching conditions of the field environment before heading out to shoot. They may camp out for weeks, or return to the same spot many times over the years looking for the same animal before getting the shot of a lifetime. But game farms allow both pros and hobbyists to produce in a few hours what otherwise takes weeks to achieve in the wild.”

The town of Chester, UK, had a problem: An empty old Odeon movie theater, and a library that needed to move in order to save money. Then architects worked a miracle of a performance space that also incorporates a library (open from 8 am to 11 pm, just like the venue), restaurants and space that might “make connections between one use and another, such that someone coming for a show might leave with a book, or a school party visiting the library’s education rooms might also see some acting.”

Measuring 26 feet (eight metres) in diameter, the pool of water spins in a vortex that appears to collapse at its centre and descend into the ground. The artwork is surrounded by a railing, allowing viewers to peer down into the ominous whirlpool.

For years, Barlow explains, ‘I was battling with, “When is a work finished?”. So, my awareness that there is nothing permanent in the urban environment – in a sense, the work was already reflecting that. Its political content, if you like, is about the lack of permanence, the lack of consistency, the fragility of life.’

“Rather than offering viewers immediate access to information about the world or simply how some given portion of it looks, artists working in this mode see the techniques, conventions, and history of photography as an interpretive grid that makes some things harder to see and other things easier. They consider that their work can only reflect on the world by looping back on itself—by rendering visible its photographic character as a pre-interpretation of the world that it claims merely to show.”

Banksy has some feelings about Brexit, and the artist wants everyone to understand them. “The artwork emerged overnight on the Castle Amusements building near the ferry terminal, which connects the UK with mainland Europe.”