{art} – Page 609 – { feuilleton }

New things for August

A couple of updates to the site this month. Firstly there’s another interview with Eroom Nala focussing on life, art and (inevitably) my forthcoming Haunter of the Dark book.

And I’ve finally got round to expanding the line of CafePress products (T-shirts and a larger poster print) for my Kabbalah poster which seems to be my most popular work judging by sales there. This surprises me seeing as it was done on a whim in 2000 after a visit to London. Alan Moore later used it in an issue of Promethea but I don’t know whether the people interested in it are Promethea fans or some of the new breed of Kabbalists.

I’ll be adding more products for other lines, and some new things, as time permits over the next few weeks.

Update: CafePress have decided that my artwork may need “copyright clearance”. So don’t bother trying to buy anything just yet.

Update 2: CafePress tell me that “Transport for London provided us with a notice stating that the use of the London Underground Roundel infringes upon their intellectual property rights”. I presume this means now I’ll have to amend the artwork to remove the offending article. Copyright hell: it’s the wave of the future. Get used to it. See this Boing Boing post for a good example of London Transport’s dead hand.

Update 3: Products reworked with slightly amended artwork although for some reason the page is still showing the old items.

A few thousand science fiction covers

Seems that this has been around for a while but I’ve only just run across it. Jim Bumgardner has created a browsable “table-top” of thousands of sf magazine covers using minimal Flash and Perl scripting; unlike many Flash-oriented web toys you don’t have to waste valuable minutes watching a progress bar before it starts working. Rest your mouse anywhere on the picture and a cover lifts itself from the mass; double-click that cover and it grows larger. He also has a similar page for covers of Mad magazine and 1001 graphic novels and comics. And an explanation of how it all works.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The book covers archive

Atomix by Nike Savvas

Adventures with form in space, the 2006 Balnaves Foundation Sculpture Project, considers the richly inventive ways in which contemporary artists use form and colour in their sculptures. It draws together the work of eight Australian artists whose sculptures are essentially abstract, highly imaginative and explore many ideas.

In Nike Savvas’ huge room installation a shimmering haze of vibrating coloured balls suggests the very atoms that are the fundamental structural units of all things. This mesmerising work has an extraordinary optical effect as it oscillates within the gallery space, suggestive of a haze of colour over a hot landscape or an abstract painting that has exploded in the exhibition.

9th August to 17th September.
Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Update: More pictures and information about this exhibit here.

New Olafur Eliasson

left: The Weather Project,
Tate Modern, 2003.

Olafur Eliasson
Ikon, Birmingham

Alfred Hickling
Thursday August 3, 2006
The Guardian

The Danish artist Olafur Eliasson is best known in this country for the Weather Project, which had visitors to Tate Modern’s turbine hall convinced they were staring into the sun. His installation at Ikon, though smaller, similarly leaves you with spots before your eyes.

There has always been a quasi-scientific element to Eliasson’s work: here he teams up with Boris Oicherman of the University of Leeds to conduct an experiment in colour perception. It’s an old saw that the Inuit recognise over 30 different shades of white. But it’s also worth considering that Russians distinguish two different types of blue, while the English language is unique in having a word for pink. Eliasson’s installation is an intriguing demonstration that, as everyone’s retinas are distinct as their thumb-prints, no two people experience the same colour alike.

It begins with a rainbow frieze of coloured blocks demonstrating the spectrum visible to the human eye, painstakingly prepared by master colourists. You next enter a darkened room, where assistants guide you through the experiment. You peer down the eyepiece of an instrument which displays two differently coloured semicircles, and spin a dial until both appear to be a matching shade. It’s reminiscent of the test they made you take at school for colour-blindness; you half expect to be scrutinised by the nit-nurse afterwards.

The final room projects random results against the wall like a large, illuminated piece of op art. Fortunately these are anonymous, as the last thing you wish to have publicised as an art critic is that your colour perception is rubbish. It’s fascinating proof that some people have difficulty distinguishing lemon from lime. But, naturally, I like to believe that my own contribution was spot on.

• Until September 17, 2006.

Ikon Gallery
1 Oozells Square
Brindleyplace
Birmingham

Paris V: Details

Final Paris posting here, gathering up more of the better photos.

Walk down any residential street and you’ll see amazing doors like this that lead to the courtyards of apartment blocks. All the decorations are different, as are the brass door-handles emblazoned with human or animal heads. You could spend months photographing them.

Continue reading “Paris V: Details”