iconophilia » AVERT YOUR EYES!

note to PM: for “governmental leaders who do not look to God”

Nigel — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 02:29:40 +0000

…it’s all been taken care of, thanks to Rep. Michelle Bachmann, seen here on Wonkette. Remember to keep breathing, and watch it all the way through!

ecclesiastical scatological scopophilical

Nigel — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:14:31 +0000

Puzzled by the necessity to post warnings against rampant ecclesiastics by the good burghers of Freiburg, I was directed to look again at das Freiburger Munster…

Good grief! What were they thinking? (What were they doing?) But don’t be deterred from risking a visit to see for yourself. It is indeed a miracle the Munster survived… If you missed it, see my previous panoramic view in which I remind you that the Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt once said that the church’s 116-meter tower “will forever remain the most beautiful spire on earth”.

Sotheby’s conducts courses in Art Handling

Nigel — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:34:03 +0000

Course Code: WOOPS 101. Essential equipment: white gloves and STDs (Steel Toed Docs). Details here on ArtDaily. Higher standards than Christies.

vomit bags ready?

Nigel — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:05:00 +0000

I nearly titled this post “dog p*rn”. And then I realized I’d be attracting the wrong kind of dog-lovers: if you’re brave, go here at the NYT.

shockingly ugly death trap

Nigel — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:42:02 +0000

would you vote for this on planet green? And would it pass the moose test?

iL.H.O.O.Q.

Nigel — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:01:56 +0000

environmental art – not

Nigel — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:10:32 +0000

When you paint an office building, you have to clean lots of rollers everyday. So you use the Dulux Envirowash System, don’t you? Gives a good impression, doesn’t it? Corporate responsibility at its best…

And then at the end of each day you empty about 100 litres of grey paint into Lake Burley Griffin, and then you hose down the evidence.

Positioning it over the stormwater drain opening should have given the game away…

White Australia Day – Others not invited…

Nigel — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:59:37 +0000

What the? Iconophilia wonders what set of smarts idiots thought that Fascist Realism would be the right style to stir up the annual jingoism around the Australia Day holiday? Yes, multiculturalism has slipped out of political fashion, but what other-than-Ayran ethnicities (with the exception of the designer boy-girl with olive complexion and well-plucked eyebrows) might feel included in this “celebration”? Indigenous? Indian? Anyone? Who is the Government Minister responsible for the creative genius on the Australia Day Committee who thought is was a good idea? At least some lowly layout designer at The Oz got it right: Think Again… And maybe patriotic Indigenous Australians like Maria (below “XOZX”) have another apology coming?

PS. We haven’t seen it since – perhaps its been pulled? Nothing on the official site… Or does this Australia Day advertisement mean Sam Kekovich has gone mainstream? Only The Punch seems to have noticed…

PPS. Ad agency CEO Russel Howcroft (George Patterson Y&R) takes the credit for it. See the comments below…

PPPS. Yesterday the blog for ad enthusiasts The Inspiration Room posted a story claiming it’s just great, and have reproduced better images, if you’re interested, and name all those who actually did the work: executive creative director Ben Coulson, copywriter Annie Egan, art director Ryan Fitzgerald, illustrator Mark Thomas and retoucher Hung Nguyen. Makes you wonder…

The anti-Christo

Nigel — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:10:51 +0000

Iconophilia invites you to make up your own minds which version of this Rick Amor sculpture on Childers St and University Avenue you prefer. Vote Christo or anti-Christo? It’s the latest instance of the ACT Government’s iconopathic spree on public art. Apparently we specialise in minor works by minor artists – Rick Amor was unknown to the world of three dimensional art until his unhappy black dog was unleashed on the unsuspecting art world as a (tongue-in-cheek, surely) farewell gift to the last NGA Director Brian Kennedy. And who decided this glowering feetless Relic would be a great symbol for the entryway to the Australian National University? Is the CM having a lend of the VC?

Or it it the Family Law Court it’s referencing? Abandon hope all ye who enter here… It seems the ACT Government’s public art fashion sense has shifted to beaky, lumpy, semi-figurative bronzes which evoke British art from the 1950s. And good lord! It (presumably another copy) won the McLelland Award in 2007!

And it’s been a sculpture ‘launch” a week for the Chief Minister’s publicity machine recently. Iconophilia bets this one is destined to sink without a ripple in the dark waters of art history… And let’s hope there’s an exit clause…

ACT Chief Minister’s Latino Aesthetic lives up to expectations

Nigel — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:20:19 +0000

Oh dear. It’s a fizzer. This “sculptural marker” for Canberra’s non-existent “Latin America Quarter” looks as gimcrack and temporary as the reports of its Sydney sojourn promised. Did the ACT Chief Minister really choose it himself? Maybe he only saw it in the dark… Either way, to elevate this tinny temporary effects $90,000 public artefact to the status of (permanent) “public art” is, I’m afraid, a bad joke all round… Plus there’s the budget for the “launch” – complete with marquee, portaloos, nibbles and drinkies. Incidentally, what the CT first reported as the “Latin American Quarter” is now the “Latin American Plaza”… And then in the CT’s breathless style the sculpture “took the artist three months to make” – well there’s an index of quality for you… one Phillips head screw every three days…

Seems designed to defeat drunken larrikins. A non-voting sector. Except those who vote with Phillips head screwdrivers. We’ll be watching it’s progress with interest. You have to wonder, is this the standard we’ll get for the Glassworks commission? How long before the etched gal rusts, and it’s dented and graffiti’d? C’mon Jon, get some better advice…