on hot beverage froth design

there are 2 things that interest me about hot beverage froth design. sort of. the fact is i was presented with this hot chocolate recently and was mildly impressed. anyway, i like the attention to detail by the person pouring, who also knows their 'art' is about to vanish down a customers throat - but not before pleasing the punter with an attractive looking drink. it is about satisfaction. the cup was nice as well - charcoal coloured and japanese in style. the care for detail made the drink memorable, and that is what you want in anything really. a bit of love. 

on accidental installation #8

the green grass is the foil here to the brick and cement. it has begun to grow around the objects and that process has settled the piece. i was wondering if the placement has been changed by somebody walking past, curious to see if anything is of use. or if something has been removed because it was of use. hard rubbish collections are interactive like this. one persons shit is another ones gold. artists love them, and even the regular punter is prone to sifting through a pile. so the installation becomes permeable, changing shape via the curious mind. 

on accidental installation #7

what a combination this piece is. the grey and red, hard and soft textures play together beautifully. Its like Jasper Johns having a fight with Robert Smithson, and Mimi Dennett steps in to break it up.
the scarf bleeds from the bluestone in ornamental design, folding in and around itself without compromising the architecture of the rock. it resembles a letter or character that doesn't exist. the weathered nature of the piece tells a story of loss and time. was it a treasured item? is it more treasured now because its lost?
our sentimentality over items like the scarf adds emotional weight to the piece. there is a story - one that has continued via me taking the photograph..   

on Rothko

Rothko spoke about the 'accuracy of silence'. gazing into one of his fuzzy doors to the transcendent you get it. they allow you to drift untied from the confines of civilisation, and he  makes apparent 'the void'. we are forced to dive in, swim about, and find something out about ourselves.
he hung them close to the floor because "that's the way they were painted". but this idea engages us more, particularly with the big ones, because we feel we can step into them. the door is open.

they expand and contract. breathing with us.



In a letter to Clyfford Still, someone he greatly admired, Rothko said, " Any picture that does not provide the environment in which the breath of life can be drawn does not interest me". Stills' abstractions influenced Rothko deeply.

the optical flutter and the shattering of artistic assumptions.

Rothko hated labels - denying abstraction and colour-field for emotion. he remained a punk - the story of the 4 Seasons commissions is fantastic. he couldn't stomach the food nor the idea of his pictures being in such a "pretentious" atmosphere - so he returned their money and kept the paintings. 11 years later in 1970, some of those pictures arrived at the Tate in London the same day he opened up his wrists with a razor and bled to death.

on accidental installation #6 - industrialism

 the two pieces on the left are random as art but adhere to process. in both cases the labour involved had clear objectives for the end of the day - to secure the site, make it safe, and prepare it for ongoing work. the materials used are site and task specific. there is a practicality here, and even though the installers were not thinking aesthetically, there is a regard for space, which is thinking of aesthetics anyway i guess. ultimately, they had other people in mind.





the tones work beautifully, and both look like they could be in a 'gallery'. i'd feel pretty happy if they were. there is a fine balance of object and texture, placement and light. its raw and untamed by knowledge, unfettered by art idioms and theory, and it works.
by photographing them and putting them here, do they become ART? were they already?

Anthony Caro - below right - takes reference from industrial design and deconstructs it. i think it lacks the freedom and innocence that makes the accidental pieces likeable. its cold and detached - almost the opposite to the non-artists work, whose semi-permanence lends itself to life and transitory place.

even when industrial work has a permanent place - as in the device above, there is a warmth and playfulness in its absolute utility. it is uncompromising because it has a specific purpose and aesthetically must be spot on. and it shows. look at it, its great.

on accidental installation #5 - portraiture?

the fumadore has dropped the packet on the footpath and judging by the condition and discolouration of it, appears to have been there for some time, its installed. its disgusting and thats why it works. people will notice it and avoid it, step around it, maybe even smell it. it will take someone with rubber gloves to remove it. or maybe a rainstorm will wash it away.

the stained contents are reminiscent of a smokers lung, and the brown protruding filters are not unlike a bad set of top row teeth. in that sense the piece is self-referential, maybe even a portrait.

'my life as an ashtray' would be a good title.