CONFERENCE PAPER | Art + text

Art + text : deconstructing the language barrier in art museums
by Jennifer Blunden
Editor, Art Gallery of New South Wales

Paper delivered at the recent Museums Australia Conference in Brisbane.

For non-arty people, the language of art is not just a bit heavy going; it can be utterly impenetrable. Why? Is it the words – too many ‘isms’, too much jargon? Is it the grammar and syntax – the way the sentences are put together? Is it the content? And when a text does seem make a meaningful connection even with the art layperson, how did that happen?

Read/download the entire paper online at:
http://www.museumsaustralia.org.au/dbdoc/Conf%2006%20Blunden%20Concurrent.pdf

ARTICLE | Matthew Colling

My life as a sitting duck
by Matthew Collings
Source: The Times Online

For a long time I’ve led a double life. I’ve been an art critic and an artist. I’ve been writing for nearly 30 years, but during that time I’ve kept up a studio and been in exhibitions. Last week an exhibition of abstract paintings opened at a gallery in Bond Street. My name is on the window. Most of the work sold very quickly, so there’s obviously something there that’s working. How can this be? Can one really be both critic and artist, and do the skills of one inform or undermine the other?

Read the entire article online at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,585-2223228,00.html

OPPORTUNITY | Situations - Writing Bursaries, UK

Situations (research and commissioning programme led by the University of the West of England, Bristol)is inviting applications from writers based in the South West of England for two writing bursaries. Each bursary offers the opportunity to visit one or more Situations events in the next year, two mentoring sessions with an established critic or art historian in London and the chance to publish the resulting text as part of Situations Papers. An award of £750 is offered for each bursary to cover travel and publishing fee. The selection of the two recipients will be made by Situations and the place research centre at the University of the West of England, Bristol.To apply, email a CV, a sample of writing (up to 500 words) and a letter detailing why you would like the bursary and what interests you about the Situations programme (up to 500 words) to: writing@situations.org.uk

Deadline: 12pm on Monday 26 June 2006.

Info:
http://www.situations.org.uk

NEWS | Michael Joyce

Michael Joyce has emailed to let me know about a couple of things. He has also been collaborating with painter Alexandra Grant. Her one-woman show scheduled for April 7-July 7, 2007 at LA MOCA, will feature paintings based on his texts.
http://www.alexandragrant.com/collaborations.html

Michael's new novel/la/ette, Was: annales nomadique /A novel of internet will be published by FC2 to coincide with Alexandra's show. The book is obviously deeply indebted to my familiars: the real Joyce, Pound, Olson, Cage, Cixous, Maso as well as other pre-post modernist creolizers and collagists not to mention Google.

Michael has written a poetic text to accompany the exhibition, Off the Shelf: New Forms in Contemporary Artists' Books (info as follows).

Off the Shelf: New Forms in Contemporary Artists' Books
October 6 - December 17, 2006
Prints and Drawings Galleries

Over the course of the last ten years artists have expanded the terrain of the artist's book, taking the format to new limits. Artists such as Jonathan Callan, Paul Noble, and Brian Belott manipulate found books to invent new objects that have been transformed by the artists' hand and imagination. Beatriz Milhazes, Francesca Gabbiani, and Russell Crotty craft new books that illustrate texts that they find meaningful, from poems and songs to the artists' own musings. Simon Evans' framed works are harvested directly from his sketchbooks and show evidence of his obsessive process that involves scotch tape, correction fluid, and numerous layers of words and images.

This exhibition includes work by approximately fifteen artists working today who create books alongside their other output including painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture. The artists' books included here represent a diverse range of expression, yet they share a remarkable consideration for the craft of making an art object in the form of a book, with a focus on craftsmanship and the attention to detail. Many of the books incorporate layered collage or hand-drawn, hand-painted, or hand-cut pages, resulting in unique objects and very small editions. Books by the following artists will be included: Brian Belott, Jonathan Callan, Russell Crotty, Miriam Dym, Simon Evans, Francesca Gabbiani, Carlos Garaicoa, David Hammons, Beatriz Milhazes, Takashi Murakami, Paul Noble, Monique van Genderen, and Martin Wilner.

Organized by Mary-Kay Lombino for the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, the exhibition and its brochure are sponsored by the Friends of the Frances Lehman Loeb Exhibition Fund.

Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Vassar College, Box 703
124 Raymond Avenue
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604-070

PUBLICATION | frieze - 100th issue

frieze celebrates its 100th issue and 15th anniversary with a summer issue devoted to the role of the art magazine and the state of criticism. What criteria do we use to judge art? What writing has most influenced the way we think about art? In a special survey, writers, artists and curators reveal the, often surprising influences that have shaped their thinking and writing.

Eugenia Bell and Emily King look back at the history and design of the art magazine since its humble beginnings almost 200 years ago, and take a closer look at some of the most influential publications from The Yellow Book to Charley via Interfunktionen and Avalanche amongst others.

frieze also revisits a survey of art magazines conducted by the British art journal Studio International in 1976, to see what could be revealed about the inner workings of contemporary art publishing thirty years on.

Michael Bracewell talks to Tom Wolfe in Paris about art and intellectual fashion; Chrissie Iles meets dancer, choreographer, filmmaker and artist Yvonne Rainer; Ian White discusses time, text and travel with David Lamelas, and Tom Morton catches up with Pierre Huyghe on the eve of his first UK solo show at Tate Modern.

frieze magazine is launching an art writer’s prize to discover and promote new art critics. Entrants must submit one 700 word review of a recent contemporary art exhibition before 3rd July 2006. The winning entrant will be commissioned to write a review for the October issue of frieze and be awarded £2000 at an event during Frieze Art Fair 2006.

For full details see http://www.frieze.com.