Modern Art

I actually really liked Nicole Wermers' work. Not a massive amount of depth to it but a well-developed concept. And as someone who is pretty dubious of archival-based work I did find Bonnie Camplin's one pretty interesting and absorbing too.

Assemble was utter guff. Unsurprised they won, so righteous, so right-on, YAWN.

Audrey Wollen

http://www.ravenrow.org/current/the_inoperative_community/

Went to this show at Raven Row over the weekend, it was great. Some of the works are shown on a timetable across the week which invites revisits, so I'm definitely going back to see more of Jean-Pierre Gorin's work.

Met the Eggheads last night (Eva & Adele)

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By closing down the gallery completely for the duration of the show and stipulating that no staff be available during this period, Eichhorn upsets notions surrounding time and labor connected with artistic production and capitalism.

"Chisenhale Gallery’s staff are required to carefully unravel their working structure and address important issues relating to responsibility, accountability and commitment"

Rich person still controls the leisure time of the workers, no? Or is that too simplistic a reading? The blurb doesn't say they're on holiday, it sounds like she's given them tasks to do.

At Eichhorn’s request, the gallery’s staff will then withdraw their labour for the remaining five weeks of the exhibition. None of Chisenhale’s employees will work during this period and the gallery and office will be closed, implementing leisure and ‘free time’ in the place of work. At the heart of the project is a belief in the importance of questioning work – of asking why, within our current political context, work is synonymous with production, and if, in fact, work can also consist of doing nothing. Eichhorn’s conceptual gesture is an implicit critique of institutional production and broader neo-liberal patterns of consumption, but it is also an artwork that deals with ideas of displacement of the artist’s labour and of the artwork as work.

In order to realise Eichhorn’s proposal and not compromise the ongoing operations of the organisation, Chisenhale Gallery’s staff are required to carefully unravel their working structure and address important issues relating to responsibility, accountability and commitment – from the financial security of the organisation to the distinction between ‘working’ and ‘personal’ lives within the artistic sphere. Eichhorn’s project is, ultimately, a consideration of how we assign value to time. She explores this by questioning how capital shapes life through labour, but also through a critique of the notion of free time and the binaries of work and leisure.

The work is constituted not in the empty gallery but in the time given to the staff and what they choose to do with it

Personally, given the binary of work and leisure, I'd bugger off for 5 weeks.

As long as you unravel your working structure and address important issues while you do.

I do that in my sleep.

In other news, Mark Bradford has been chosen to represent the USA at Venice Biennale 2017. There's a fucking awesome piece of his on show at Tate Modern at the moment.

lichtenstein - eclipse of the sun

Some good bbc4 doccos this week, Andre's equivalent 8 tonite

I thought the Carl Andre documentary was very good, but the conceptual one was wack.

This is mildly interesting - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-19/that-100-000-painting-bought-to-flip-yours-for-about-20-000

Hard to argue with the numbers but Simchowitz is a rent-a-gob. The guy that lazy journos turn to when everyone else declines to comment.

It went for $30,000 in the end. http://www.artnews.com/2016/09/20/new-now-sale-at-phillips-takes-in-2-8-m-amidst-a-slumping-market-for-past-auction-darlings/?platform=hootsuite

wasnt sure where to put this, Im helping out at a gallery and have been approached by "global Art traders' to set up a profile, i wondered if anyone here has used them, bought through them or even like me been asked by them to set up, just wondering if they are legit / any good.

these for some reason drew my attention in hackney wick

Sorry. Probably far too late too be of any help to you, but speaking as [......] ; don't waste your time on all these middle men services. I don't know the company you mention, but in general I am far too familiar with the shit blizzard of idiots who try to do something in the art world but always stop short of opening an actual gallery space.
Behind a glitzy but vacuous website you usually just find a couple of rich kids with no clear purpose or strategy.
(rant over)
Artnet and Artsy have some merit. Art consultancies and PR muppets should prove themselves by bringing you actual business before you let them waste your time with endless meetings etc.

Thanks for the reply, i never heard back ftom them and it had the smell of exactly what u said. 👍

Eubalaena Glacialis (Black Right Whale) Natural History Museum, London. Pencil on paper. Top Fact: If the skin of the right whale were laid out flat, it would cover an area roughly the size of whales

That Christo thing in the Serpentine looks great from a distance. Less good close up.

£150 for anything signed by Eine is a pretty good deal/investment.

https://printclublondon.com/shop/p/

Also picked up this strong Walala print, much gloss.

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Managed to grab a Matt Taylor this morning

Getting into these Mondo posters.
A couple of weeks ago I snagged a Tyler Stout from Australia.

It's Frieze time, fuck that.

Went to Sotheby's and Phillips yesterday, nothing super-amazing up for auction, but some decent stuff; Chris Ofili, Joan Mitchell. Lucy Dodd at Spruth Magers was worse than I hoped, and Kiki Smith at Timothy Taylor was better.

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