http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html en-us Nucleus CMS v3.31 Art-Switch Exchange Limited Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html/nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=162 Jeremy Willett and provides an insight into the way he works, his influences and what he intends to achieve with his work. Jeremy's work fuses sculpture and painting, finding an exciting juxtaposition between the two techniques. He uses a range of mediums that span from Wood to Canvas to Jesmonite and mixes them with a colour pallet that includes a mix of both pastel and bold, bright colours.

We've already got the next interview lined up, so check back regularly to catch the next video and also to get a round up of what's happening in the art world through our blog. If you haven't seen the first installment of our interview series then click here to view the interview with Alice White.

Click read more to see parts 2 & 3 of the interview.



]]> General http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=162 Tue, 26 May 2009 15:36:37 +0100 http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=160 Rose Art Museum is facing an uncertain future that could result in the selling of its 8000+ work art collection. The museum was founded in 1961 and holds some early works by great American artists such as Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg. It's also held some pretty renowned, important exhibitions by artists Joseph Cornell and Dana Schutz including others. It is the universities debt, however, not the museums that is forcing The Rose into an uncertain future. The university is considering the drastic action of closing the museum completely and auctioning off the collection in order to cover the potential $79m debt facing the university. After a public outcry of criticism for the plans to close the Museum, the university changed its plans of closing the building completely into changing its purpose into an education centre with studio and exhibition space. The university is now considering other ways for the debt to be recovered from donors and through fundraising after the art world showed is disapproval of the closure of the museum. The future is as uncertain now as ever, while the university statement says that the museum will be open and staffed throughout the summer, it is trying to take legal action in order for them to be able to sell off the collection.]]> General http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=160 Thu, 7 May 2009 17:45:16 +0100 http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=159


Roger Hiorn's is one of the four nominated artists

The four shortlisted artists were announced for one of the biggest art prizes of the year have been announced this week and are as follows: Enrico David, Roger Hiorns, Lucy Skaer and Richard Wright. The prize is held annually and open awards 'a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding'. The Turner Prize has been running since 1984 and has seen the likes of Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread, Anthony Gormley, Grayson Perry and Anish Kapoor take home the prize money. This year the £40,000 prize fund will be split into £25,000 for the overall winner and £5000 for the other shortlisted artists.You can read more about the projects that the artists were nominated for by clicking here. Take particular notice to the scale of Roger Hiorns Seizure project in which the artist transformed a derelict flat into a crystal covered cave. The winner will be announced in December 2009.]]> General http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=159 Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:27:44 +0100 http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=156
"I've always thought that museums are for dead artists and I kind of was afraid of that. But I think because in Ukraine the audience is so new ... to contemporary art at least ... that makes it exciting, that makes me want to do it." - Damien HirstThis move sees Hirst considering an audience reaction to the content of his work more than the market value. Last year his £138million auction grabbed headlines only because of the prices of the work during an economic downturn, the work itself was almost overlooked. One of Hirsts newer paintings 'Requiem' provides the title for the exhibition.]]> General http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=156 Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:20:58 +0100 http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=154


120 Artists works decorate the 'East Side Gallery'

Paintings that adorned the East side of the Berlin wall are to be restored in a scheme to breathe a new life into the dilapidated wall that now serves as one of Berlins main tourist attraction. After the wall was torn down, a group of eastern Berlin artists called the East Side Gallery recognised the wall as the 'worlds largest open-air gallery' and decorated the wall with a series of murals to breathe life into the structure that once split their city in two. The paintings were political remembrances to the purpose of the wall as it stood dividing Berlin's citizens because of political beliefs.However, some artists are refusing to re-create the original murals seeing the recreation of the original works as a money spinner to bring more tourism and defeating the point of the original paintings. Russian artist Dmitri Vrubel whose original painting is one of the most iconic images to embellish the wall is refusing to recreate his work that portrays East German leader Erich Honecker kissing Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev. The image has been replicated into souvenirs for tourists visiting the wall and the artist sees this as a betrayal of his copyrights as an artist. 'I cannot simply paint a new picture like making a sandwich!' says Vrubel. So far 86 out of 120 artists have agreed to the restoration of their works. ]]> General http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=154 Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:30:49 +0100 http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=148 the Art-Switch library.

There are more interviews in the pipeline, so keep checking back to see more interviews with different artists working in different mediums. The video has been split up into handy bite sized clips to enjoy at your convenience.

Be sure to click read more to see parts 2 and 3 of the interview.




]]> General http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=148 Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:00:13 +0100 http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=146


The Diana Memorial, Hyde Park. But what could have filled the space instead?
The Henry Moore Foundation was set up by famous British sculptor Henry Moore to promote visual art, especially sculpture across two settings, one in Leeds and another in Hetfordshire. Moore himself is famous for his monumental public sculptures that are dotted all around the world so it's fitting that the forthcoming exhibition at the Leeds foundation is going to showcase a range of public art proposals but with a twist: none of them were ever made. The collection has been attained from the Public Art Development Trust which deals with proposals for public art and runs competitions for artists to propose ideas for situations; one of the most notable is the Princess Dianna memorial in Hyde Park. The new exhibition will show other proposals that could be in place of the memorial fountain, including British artist Julian Opie's proposal of a series of three big screens showing rippling water and figurative line drawing animations that would stand in Hyde Park overlooking the Serpentine.

The Foundation is still unsure as to what they've acquired as the foundation's curators continue to unpack the crates containing the collection but you'll be able to see a selection at the Henry Moore Foundation in Leeds at the end of next month.]]> General http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=146 Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:39:22 +0100 http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=144


Robert Morris' sculptures often involve audience participation
38 years ago American artist Robert Morris' interactive installation Bodyspacemotionthings opened in the Tate Gallery's (now the Tate Britain) cavernous Duveen Sculpture gallery. Morris didn't consider the English audience ready to deal with such an artwork, branding it too 'rough and tumble' for the typical refined and genteel English citizen as it involved many large scale obstacles creating an assault course. 2500 visitors came to clamber over the climbing walls, Balance on wooden logs and slide down wooden structures resulting in the exhibition being closed down after it created 'pandemonium'. The structures became damaged and people were leaving with splinters after the raw materials used to build the installation became frayed and damaged.The installation is set to be recreated in May this year as part of the Tate's Long Weekend in the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall and the raw materials will be replaced by safer modern materials in order to adhere to strict modern health and safety guidelines. The general consensus at Tate is that after nearly 40 years, the Great British public has had enough time to come to terms with interactive art so that the 'pandemonium' of the original opening won't be mimicked at the new opening.

The Turbine itself has been no stranger to interactive installations since the opening in 2000. Most recently Carsten Holler's installation consisting of three slides. But the opening exhibition by Louise Bourgeois included three towers requiring the audience to participate by climbing to the summit and passing other viewers on the staircase forcing intimacy between the participants. Last year the Tate's Long Weekend attracted around 100,000 visitors, you can visit the project this year at the Tate Modern on 22nd-24th of May.]]> General http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=144 Thu, 9 Apr 2009 12:24:17 +0100 http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=138 “Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.” Pablo Picasso

Maxell advert
Over the weekend I read an article about every artist's worst nightmare. A website accused an artist of stealing copyrighted designs and sent him a bill for $18,000. The catch was that they were his own designs and to make matters worse, the website’s lawyers have started to call his clients to tell them. His clients are taking the accusations at face value and are furious. It seems a deliberate attempt to destroy his reputation.While this case seems to be more to do with bullying tactics and a lawyer working on contingency, it’s undeniable that copyright will always be a contentious issue. Where one person can earn a lot of money from an original design or idea, there will always be the temptation for another to try to cash in. To complicate matters further, some industries seem to feed off the creative output of others. For example advertisers have been copying ideas from artists for years.

Honda Advert

Remember the Honda advert that featured a Rube Goldberg machine that looked strangely familiar to “The Way Things Go” (1987) by the artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss?

Fischli and Weiss

One of the reasons for copyright is to give credit to the person or organisation that comes up with an original idea. But how do you distinguish between a coincidental similarity, a respectful homage, and a cynical rip-off?

And besides, I sometimes privately wonder if there is ever an original idea to defend. A good example of how ridiculous copyright can be was the case of Volkswagen blatantly ripping off Gillian Wearing's "Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say" (1992-1993).

Gillian Wearing "Signs"

If you remember, it was the one in which a businessman held up a sign that said "At weekends my name is Mandy". The problem for Wearing was that there were at least two very public, previous examples of the same idea: the Maxell advert and Bob Dylan's brilliant video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

Dylan "Subterranean Homesick Blues"

I think the point of the law should not be to defend an original idea, but to prevent loss of earnings; in the above example, the opportunity to use “Signs” commercially has been taken from Wearing. In this respect, the law should only be used in pursuit of a far more important goal: to encourage and reward innovative and creative thought and activities.

Whichever way you look at it, copyright is something we have to take very seriously at Art-Switch.]]> General http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=138 Mon, 6 Apr 2009 18:29:31 +0100 http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=134 A Dublin Guerilla artist provoked a police hunt after following in the steps of Banksy after a rogue hanging of two paintings in two of Dublin's major museums. The first appeared in the Royal Hibernian Academy which was followed by another painting popping up in the republican’s National Gallery. The first of the paintings depicted Irish Taoiseach (The country’s Prime Minister) Brian Cowen naked holding his y-fronts while the second, found in the National Gallery portrayed Cowen on the toilet.The paintings were reportedly only up for around 20 minutes, but one lady who saw the painting at the Royal Hibernian Academy offered to buy the painting. After years of troubles in Ireland, the museum is considering bringing in the Garda (the Irish police force) after the National gallery reported it to them and they started to investigate.

While the artist tried to remain anonymous, it emerged that a primary school teacher called Conor Casby was responsible for the artworks and is currently being interviewed by Irish police. The acto of political activism could cost Casby quite dearly, he is now facing the potential of either a hefty fine or even prison time for the act in this classic art vs vandalism case.
]]> General http://www.art-switch.com/ArtSwitch/blog.html?itemid=134 Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:24:45 +0000