[for the Telegraph, 8/2/19]
For all the drama of Calvi’s style, her technique is masterfully controlled. She can finesse her way up a pealing arpeggio, then crown it with a pure single note that snaps and stings.
on eric griffiths
[for Frieze, 5/2/19]
He was never wrong, only cruel.
andy warhol at the super bowl
[for the Telegraph, 4/2/19]
To his detractors, Warhol has always been vacuous in some specially irritating way… To me, he seems dangerously honest.
on not going to DAU, and being glad
[for the Telegraph, 25/1/19]
DAU didn’t open that evening, and it’s now been postponed again. I don’t know if it needs to open at all. Khrzhanovsky’s dream is an old one, and we’ve seen it happen before.
robert rauschenberg, 'spreads 1975-1983'
[for Frieze, 22/1/19]
The ‘Spreads’ can be seen as perpetual drafts, imaginary layouts with the luxury of never having to justify themselves to anyone else.
gordon matta-clark, 'works 1970-1978'
[for Artforum, 4/12/18]
This exhibition attests to the generosity of Matta-Clark’s practice; he treated the loss of space as a possibility, even a gift.
the controversial enigma of edgar degas's little dancer
[for the Telegraph, 2/12/18]
As Camille Laurens says, ‘The sculpture provides no answer. Degas provides no answer.’ But not answering, in its way, is an answer too; it’s a refusal to simplify.
artes mundi 8, shortlist exhibition
[for the Telegraph, 2/11/18]
Artes Mundi, the biennial £40,000 prize for international contemporary artists, believe deeply in the “human condition” … this is becoming a lesson in how helpful (or not) such earnest ideals can be.
bored to death: at a séance with martin eder
[for the Telegraph, 5/10/18]
“It is not like you see in Hollywood,” Eder said, walking around a central table on which he’d placed a glass jar, four black cones, and an antique book.
daisy johnson, 'everything under'
[for the Telegraph, 29/9/18]
This is an English novel attempting to be ancient and Greek; its intricacy becomes a little stifling as it strains to make more than one kind of sense.
alone together: on cécile b. evans, emotions, & video art
[for Frieze, 21/9/18]
Life online is like this: unpredictable, inconsistent, full of communicative gaps.
ben sledsens, 'two trees'
[for Artforum, 18/9/18]
Take Jaguar in the Jungle (2018). The cat controls the foreground, its body muscular and bright; but peer behind it, and the trees begin to jostle and glow.
renato cisneros, 'the distance between us'
[for The White Review, 4/9/18]
“My father, the general, would have strung them up. I hung medals around their necks.” It would be easy to say that the son was right. I think it’s a mark of Renato’s bravery, his honesty, that he won’t.
katharine kilalea, 'ok, mr field'
[for the Telegraph, 18/8/18]
When Kilalea began OK, Mr Field, she was trying to map an architectural dream against a human state of mind.
aki sasamoto, 'clothes line'
[for Frieze, 30/7/18]
The antics deserved a little more laughter; an educated spectator should know how silly most performance art, as human behaviour, can look.
sjón, 'codex 1962'
[for the Telegraph, 28/7/18]
CoDex 1962 is long, and self-indulgence is human.
the UFOs we want
[for the LRB Blog, 12/7/18]
UFOs haven’t changed much since the 1960s, defying physics and outrunning fighter jets.
lee bul, 'crashing'
[for Apollo, 10/7/18]
I prefer her recent turn to what she calls ‘failed’ or ‘unrealised’ utopias, structures wreathed with clacking lights and tendrils of glittering beads.
jesse ball, 'census'
[for the Telegraph, 7/7/18]
Words might confuse things, but confusion, for now, has given Ball’s pair something to share, and through that, a safe place to dwell.
vernon lee, 'the psychology of an art writer'
[for Frieze, 25/6/18]
Frequently in these diaries, Lee can’t get drawn into a picture: she’s often too bored, or narky, or filled with ‘unwillingness to look’. Aren’t we all?