All works are foam, resin and pigment.
Some recent work by Gabriel Hartley
Election Day
Aphex Twin weighs in on US Election
Richard James, better known as Aphex Twin, is King of facial distortions, as his 1997 music video for Come to Daddy (directed by Chris Cunningham) attests. Now, in collaboration with UK based video designer Weirdcore, he’s turning his attention to the US elections to promote his first show in the States in over 8 years. The video includes distorted clips of the presidential debates, Trump supporters and the two candidates complete with chipmunk voices and perversely chopped up faces.
And if the nightmare above stresses you out too much, watch the video below for Aphex Twin’s CIRKLON3 instead. His first clip to be released in 17 years, it was in fact made by a 12 year old Irish boy. James discovered young Ryan Wyer’s YouTube channel earlier this year and gave him free reign to make the video, which looks like it’s been filmed using an early version of iMac Photobooth. I love this.
Pumped for Mike
Finally us Kelly fans get to see a bit of Mike here in Melbourne. Neon Parc (Brunswick) is presenting a series of the late artist’s banners from 1989 and key vids in what will be the first solo show of the artist’s work in Australia. Pansy Metal/Clovered Hoof opens tonight, on the artist’s birthday. And here’s Kelley above, getting frustrated by being branded a ‘bad boy’. So sad that he is not still around.
Tips from the Top
“You cannot be a contemporary art curator if you just spend your time looking at objects. You have got to engage deeply with artists, and sometimes you have to see yourself as an active co-conspirator with the artists you work with.”
The quote above is from Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City. It’s one of a series of tips offered by US Museum Directors in The Art Newspaper earlier this year. (Read the whole bunch here).
just DO!
“I have much confidence in you and even though you are tormenting yourself, the work you do is very good. Try to do some BAD work – the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell – you are not responsible for the world – you are only responsible for your work – so DO IT. And don’t think that your work has to conform to any preconceived form, idea or flavor. It can be anything you want it to be.”
Featuring wonderful advice for those who ever feel creatively blocked, the above is an excerpt from a rather lovely letter penned by Sol Lewitt to his friend and fellow artist Eva Hesse in 1965. You can read the whole thing here. And, if you’re a masochist/into theatre, watch Benedict Cumberbatch over-thesp the entire thing with a live reading at Letters Live in London last week.
Frida and Destiny
Hot Photo Friday – Tanu Gago
Introducing the Old Master emoji sticker pack
Artist Molly Young is obsessed with Old Master paintings, and one 16th century ‘Cremonese School’ painting in particular. It features an unusual child with a receding hairline (bottom right) that Young purchased following its unsuccessful auction at Sotheby’s in 2014. Since then, she’s been collecting images of curiously expressive characters in (usually inferior/lesser known) Flemish and Cremonese Old Master paintings. This digital collection has resulted in the Old Master emoji “sticker pack”, that allows you to communicate using an array of super expressive heads. The unimpressed dame on the top left would get a workout on LOL’s phone. It me.
Download them here.
Etel Adnan On Painting
“I think of my paintings as one surface after another, each calling for a new decision consistent with what’s actually there. I paint in a state that is half-awake and half-asleep, deeply engrossed within my own mind. Trusting your own instincts is key. You trust that what you’re doing is not just colors and shapes but the construction of something that transcends them. Painting, like music, is its own language, so you trust it and let go.”
Full interview with Dylan Kerr here.
Leg of Lamb 