iconophilia » DIVERSIONS

holes burning in the 1% pockets

Nigel — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 21:17:10 +0000

Reading the latest sales news on ArtDaily is a form of…

visually similar images

Nigel — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 06:52:50 +0000

Have you seen what Uncle Google now can do? You can submit an image to find “visually similar images”! Drag and drop. With uncanny consequences…

Ai sees it this way…

Nigel — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:24:31 +0000

Design by Aram Bartholl for F.A.T. Free art and Technology: download your own here.

bubble theory

Nigel — Sun, 15 May 2011 08:14:21 +0000

tells you when there’s a lot of excess xxxx in circulation…

And here’s another: Earlier this year, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said the number of empty apartments had reached 64.5m – enough to house a third of China’s urban population apparently.

Now read this: Fred Scharmen in Architect.

And Peter Hitchens in Mail Online.

Or Abigail R. Esman, at Forbes.

bubblemania: caveat emptor

Nigel — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:52:50 +0000

Your iconophile can’t help but be transfixed by the news of rivers of Chinese money being poured into glitzy porcelain jars… see this latest thanks to ArtInfo.

psssst! wanna buy shares in a painting?

Nigel — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 04:08:21 +0000

It’s true! Art Info reports on the latest trend towards Art Exchanges in China, France, and elsewhere. Bubble, anyone?

Palin targets art: is anyone surprised?

Nigel — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 21:21:03 +0000

“…those kind of frivolous things that government shouldn’t be in the business of funding with tax dollars — those should all be on the chopping block…” – and there’s more here on Art Info’s The Daily Checklist.

auto fetishism: not exactly as you’d expect it

Nigel — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 07:08:09 +0000

TEHRAN.- A Mercedes-Benz 500K built in the mid-1930s is seen at the Museum of Historical Cars in Tehran. The museum opened in 2001 has a collection of rare antique cars belonging to the former royal families of Iran and private collections. REUTERS/Caren Firouz. From Art Daily.

summer madness: solving formalism’s problems

Nigel — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 23:43:47 +0000

If you have ever come to the realisation that the frame is the key problem for the appreciation of a sculptural work of art, you will have already realized there’s probably not much going on upstairs. Whether it’s the problem of the plinth, the problem of the floor, the problem of the white cube, the problem of the architecture, the problem of the garden setting, or the problem of the landscape, you can see that peripheral vision has a lot to do with the way you understand your engagement with the aesthetic object. Remember how radical it seemed to eliminate the plinth? Such weighty matters consumed the artists of the formalist era.

So here’s the octogenarian sculptor Marr Grounds, resplendent in his trademark gitmo outfit, attacking the problem with characteristic post-formalist gusto…

There are many kinds of sculptural objects in the grounds of Narra Bukulla, at Penders, on the south coast of New South Wales. So for the toolophile Marr Grounds, even the stump left by a house-threatening spotted gum posed a sculptural problem. And your Iconophile supplied this 60s-era angle grinder, a remnant of his misspent youth, as a readymade solution. The evil-smelling black jack completes Marr’s iconoclastic gesture.

P.S. And apropos the problem of the plinth, watch this video. Some artists carry their plinths everywhere they go…

the gods must be crazy

Nigel — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 19:11:45 +0000

Planning Christmas 2011 anybody? Should you be in a generous mood, this mobile anachronism is promoted by Morgan as an eco-friendly “alternative mode of transport” addressing “the two big issues, the conservation of precious resources and the protection of our beautiful natural environment. Downsizing and a philosophy of simplicity are ways of dealing with these problems.” Gosh. There’s a twelve month waiting list. Then again, it’s made by the only remaining British car company, which deserves some nostalgia respect. Neither motorbike nor car, apparently it will never be seen in Australia. P.S. Your loyal Iconophiliacs (Nigel, Pammy, Axel and Aki) will now be offline for a few weeks planning implementing Christmas 2010…