Iranian artist Atena Farghadani has been sentenced by a court in Tehran for a cartoon depicting the country’s politicians as monkeys, cows and goats – Amnesty International is calling for her release.
After two weeks to stew over the election result (a one which I sadly predicted) I cannot see the new Tory Government placing the ‘arts’ top of it’s agenda. In fact, I would doubt it is even on the footnotes of […]
Artworks encouraging people to vote in the general election will be appearing on billboards around the UK from this Thursday, 23 April, with a new work by first-time-voter Jordan Alex Smith joining those of the five already announced artists.
Brighton-based artist Joseph Young is presenting his Revolution #10 project to MPs and their guests at the House of Commons on 11 March. He explains the genesis of the project and what it’s like to stand around in the street dressed like a politician.
A new project encouraging people to vote launches across the UK in April, with a series of billboards featuring works by artists Bob & Roberta Smith, Fatima Begum, Janette Parris and Jeremy Deller. Plus a competition to find a fifth artwork created by a first-time voter is open for entries.
A new YouTube video from the street artist Banksy shows a series of new works in bomb-damaged Gaza.
Lars Vilks, the Swedish artist who was the target of a terrorist attack in Copenhagen on Saturday, has been speaking about the incident.
Our world seems to be full of hatred and misunderstanding; full of murder and atrocities. Last week a lot of time was given to the ‘Holocaust’. I would like to pause for thought for those victims, but also for all […]
This film has shocked me to the core, i knew politicians did not tell us the full story but this film exposes the trueth behind many a headline. It is a must watch for anyone interested in politics, society or […]
What a week of bickering! You would think there was an election looming or something of the sort. The question is; will our dear prime minister enter the ‘big house’ reality TV show or not? Mind you, I can fully […]
A House of Lords debate on government support for individual artists, led by the Earl of Clancarty, attracted contributions from the three main parties and crossbench peers.
My thoughts in this week’s blog go to all those who were killed in Paris last week in the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices. I pause for a moment. I would describe myself as a ‘pacifist anarchist’; I am […]
The Earl of Clancarty is to lead a debate in the House of Lords on government support for artists.
In the forthcoming 2015 general election, Gordon Shrigley is to stand as a prospective MP in his local Hackney South and Shoreditch constituency.
Twitter campaign defending free speech and expressing solidarity with murdered journalists at Charlie Hebdo grows, as Parisians plan rally and Salman Rushdie issues statement of support.
The artist Bob and Roberta Smith is to stand against former Education Secretary Michael Gove in his solidly Tory Surrey Heath constituency.
Returning to work full time as an artist after 17 years out of the ‘scene’… this mid fifties man’s weekly thoughts and experiences of how tough it is to get ‘back in’
Currently reading: Turn your trash into . . . Rubbish, art and politics. Richard Wentworth’s geographical imagination by Harriet Hawkins (University of Exeter), Social & Cultural Geography, Vol. 11, No. 8, December 2010 Introduction Hawkins introduces Wentworth’s practice focussing in […]
A challenging first mentoring session with Dave Beech. I was able to ask for clarification on some of the concepts we encountered in the Art & Politics reading group around the notions of counter-hegemony and the Philistine. The philistine is […]
The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents Claire Bishop An interesting chapter from Bishops’ book Artificial Hells, we discussed the problems that occur when art becomes instrumentalised by the state. Somewhere along the way (social policy under new labour)it became […]
My first mentoring session with Emma Cocker has been really productive. We had some important conversations and in the coming months I’m going to be reassessing my practice. One of things that came to the fore was that I use […]
The Critical Engineering Manifesto Julian Oliver, Gordan Savičić, Danja Vasiliev & On Friday Night Drinks, Workplace Affects in the Age of the Cubicle The Affect Theory Reader, Melissa Gregg The groups selected texts led to a long discussion around precarity […]
Performing Stillness Emma Cocker A hugely contrasting text to the first session, Performing Stillness was penetrable, but still challenging, and illustrated with plenty of real life examples. It proposed stillness as an act of resistance, in a contemporary world of […]
The Freee Art Collective Manifesto for a Counter-Hegemonic Art Dave Beech, Andy Hewitt, Mel Jordan Last night was the first meeting of the Art & Politics reading group – a project I am running alongside mentoring from Emma Cocker and […]
