Temporariness
By max mulhern | April 28, 2010 | 1 Comment
The Centre Pompidou, located in the heart of Paris, was originally conceived as a temporary structure in 1977. Though it has become a permanent and thriving cultural hub the Pompidou’s original temporary identity remains intact as witnessed by the current installation of cardboard – based works by the Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata on the centre’s [...]
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Hunting Trophies
By max mulhern | April 7, 2010 | 1 Comment
“Le Zoo de Vincent” by Vincent Who at Substance in Paris stopped me in my tracks like a deer caught in headlights. Traffic signs, small logs, branches and rubber are assembled with great wit to create representations of stuffed heads from the antler class of mammal. What tickles is the transformation of the work of [...]
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Cancelled–Alba Pistolesi and luck
By max mulhern | February 5, 2010 | 1 Comment
As luck would have it I went to see the work of a young French artist named Alba Pistolesi. Alba is , in her words, obsessed with cancelling the usefulness of objects as well as with table legs and their standard 72cm length. A week earlier she had shown me a large wooden die and a [...]
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Chris Ofili at the Tate Britain
By max mulhern | January 29, 2010 | 2 Comments
The Chris Ofili mid career survey at the Tate Britain reveals a sexually charged and scatalogical body of work reminiscent of Gilbert and George’s The Naked Shit Pictures. This survey contains overlooked sensations and under-exploited materials. The energies driving the early works have been tamed and the latest works are in an amorphous state of disarray. [...]
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Boltanski People
By max mulhern | January 16, 2010 | 3 Comments
Christian Boltanski’s installation at the Grand Palais in Paris entitled “Personnes” is a monumental culmination of the artist’s lifetime of work. Situated with perfect harmony in the giant, airy, steel and glass structure in the heart of Paris, Boltanski’s show offers a lean view of “homo-industrialis” and his output in the face of history.
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Bridge over philosophical waters
By max mulhern | January 6, 2010 | 2 Comments
The small village of Vals has provided itself with another powerful architectural work in the form of a stone clad concrete bridge. While its striking appearance is compounded by its large size and heft in relation to its surroundings, it is crossing the bridge by foot that one experiences its most remarkable features.
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Why Buildings Fall Down
By max mulhern | September 22, 2009 | 1 Comment
It is probably because I am in the market for a flat that I was drawn through the glass door to the Gallery Jean Fournier in the Rue de Bac in Paris (France). The show on view is entitled “Emmenagement” or ”Moving House”. This is a show dedicated to those who liked where they lived. [...]
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Spart
By max mulhern | May 5, 2009 | 1 Comment
The international space station should look like this, the McLaren racing headquarters/factory in Woking, England pictured below. Modelled on a race track the eye glides everywhere with ease. Lines are lost around bends only to reappear from behind us. At the entrance we catch a glimpse of a Tony Cragg in someone’s office. Then we enter the Elysian Fields of [...]
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ART LUBE
By max mulhern | April 28, 2009 | 2 Comments
“Liquid Modernity” by the Russian artist Andrei Molodkin opened in the spectacular new Orel Art gallery in London last week. Redolent of a wedding ceremony we witnessed a juxtaposition of two different closed circuit energy states corsetted in tubes configured to reproduce two Russian prison cells. Light was wearing her neon chiffon which produced a wonderful [...]
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The Belly Of The Artist
By max mulhern | April 11, 2009 | 0 Comments
Juliana Cerqueira Leite’s show “UP DOWN IN OUT” at the Trolley Gallery in London is a welcome addition to the current crop of artists who are measuring the world using themselves as the yardstick. Whether it be Marlene Dumas spreading her arms to measure the length of her grave or Antti Laitinen digging tunnels or bucking watery currents [...]
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