Tuesday 16 February '10

A Perfect Excuse

Yeah, well it was less stylish than this

At the weekend I admonished a mountain biker who was urinating onto the wood stack I was in the process of moving, he explained that he thought it belonged to the National Trust.

He finally apologised and considered that that ended the matter, that no further discussion could be enterd into, (apology accepted or not). It seems to be a new fad to apologise quickly and then with the magic word 'the wrong is gone'. Politicians and public servants seem keen on the approach. So I would like to apologise in advance, I'm sorry', and that's an end of it.

Posted by Adam Sutherland on 16/02/10 at 07:44 6 Comments

Tuesday 19 January '10

A visitor cometh

Not Diggers but Adamites,

Just organizing for a visit from Californian academic Avery Gordon and found this interesting interview touching on the hypocrisies of the environmental movement as well as some of the high minded and historical precedents and ideals. Avery Gordon interview

Posted by Adam Sutherland on 19/01/10 at 16:32 1 Comment

Wednesday 13 January '10

Happy Christmas

Thanks to Mat for reminding us of Oscar Wilde's words, 'Its easy to be good in the country'. Although I think Oscar meant good as in not be naughty because there is nothing naughty to do, and I think Mat meant because there is no-one to get naughty with, but what it really means is there is no competition and whatever you do looks good.

Posted by Adam Sutherland on 13/01/10 at 19:28 1 Comment

Wednesday 6 January '10

Snow start to the New Year

Lawson Park is in there somewhere

Despite going back to work on Monday, I haven't made it in to the office yet. Someone dumped a load of snow on the Lake District and it's stopped working. If you are trying to phone us, try an email instead, looks like homeworking for a few more days yet...

Posted by Alistair Hudson on 06/01/10 at 11:39 0 Comments

Tuesday 22 December '09

Li Yuan Chia in Cumbria - BBC radio doc

Just in from David Gaffney:

Dear all,

You might like to listen to this programme about Chinese artist Li Yuan-Chia who lived in Cumbria for a time and set up a gallery.

When Taiwan's first abstract artist settled in a Cumbrian farmhouse, his life changed. Deriving inspiration from landscape and local people, he encouraged new British artists and anticipated the success of contemporary Chinese visual art.

Li Yuan Chia was one of the first significant Chinese abstract artists of the 20th century. This programme, presented by Sally Lai, the director of Manchester's Chinese Arts Centre, examines his career from the place he spent the last 28 years of his life: a stone farmhouse, built next to Hadrian's Wall in Cumbria.

Listen to the programme here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pcf5j

Li Yuan-Chia

Born in China in 1929, Li was educated in Taiwan. He worked and exhibited in Italy before moving toLondon in 1963. Here, Li's reputation was established with monochrome paintings and scrolls marked with a tiny, isolated dot.

But Li came to dislike the fashionable metropolitan art world of the mid-1960s. In 1968 he met Cumbrian painter Winifred Nicholson, who pursuaded Li to move away from the busy capital to a far more remote location, near her own home. With his own hands Li then set about converting a farm building, the Banks, at Brampton, where he built a gallery, library, theatre, printing press, children's art room and photographic darkroom, and opened it to the public. It became a popular attraction for local people, art afficianados and tourists walking Hadrian's Wall.

Over the next ten years over 300 artists exhibited at the Banks, which was also the base from which Li's organisation, the LYC Foundation, was able to commission work by young British artists, some of whom became very successful later, including sculptors and land artists Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash and Bill Woodrow.

Li's own work moved into abstract sculpture, using magnets, gold leaf, plastic discs suspended on plastic thread and additional text. The landscape also affected him, and he began to explore photography and environmental art. Always, he wrote poetry.

But after Arts Council funding became increasingly limited, (Is this right? That can't be right, DG) the LYC Foundation had to struggle to survive. Li continued to produce art, which became increasingly contemplative. He fell ill with cancer and died in 1994. Art historians now acknowledge Li Yuan Chia as having paved the way for the current expansion of Chinese contemporary art. But his former home in Cumbria is derelict.

http://www.lycfoundation.org/poems/

Posted by Karen Guthrie on 22/12/09 at 20:39 0 Comments

Friday 18 December '09

Seriously Compromised

Lawson park tree

architecturally and politically - Happy Christmas y'all

Posted by Adam Sutherland on 18/12/09 at 12:24 0 Comments

Monday 14 December '09

The Dictatorship of Art - a Jonathan Meese inspired discussion

Today we shot a lively discussion at the Lawson Park TV studio, on naughty German artist Jonathan Meese's work and idealogy...

Pictured left to right is GA's Alistair Hudson, critic and Meese-o-phile Robert Eikmeyer, academic and writer Charlie Gere and academic John Byrne.

The final film will be up and online in early 2010.

Posted by Karen Guthrie on 14/12/09 at 23:42 0 Comments

Topics: 'Jonathan Meese' 'Nazi' 'TV'

Thursday 10 December '09

The Art Handling Olympics

Liking this on Youtube...

Posted by Karen Guthrie on 10/12/09 at 09:29 3 Comments

Monday 7 December '09

St Peters (Glasgow not Rome)

Angus Farquhar of NVA in Glasgow recently invited Karen & Adam to share an inspirational but very wet (just like home then) tour of the unique St Peter's seminary just outside Glasgow. abandoned now but a rare example thereabouts of an architectural icon of the 1970's and now justly listed. NVA are bravely engaging in the battle to reclaim the building and surrounding landscape from the jaws of Nature - the grounds include an immense range of historic buildings from the 15th / 16th century onwards, and a landscape to match.

A good array of images of the incredible site can be seen on Flickr here, and you can read about Historic Scotland's detailed report on the building its significance and possible future here.

Posted by Karen Guthrie on 07/12/09 at 17:56 0 Comments

Topics: 'Glasgow' 'St Peter's seminary'

Friday 20 November '09

A welter of welts

The stream of irritating press releases that run through my mail has been particularly virrulent of late, must be the season. Heading the pack is surely the School of Saatchi, unbelievable that anyone would agree to do this, X factor for art, only from the starting point that art is a totally minority interest with an audience in the thousands. So Saatchi's idea that this will be the X factor for visual arts is mental. Actually I am remembering I was asked to do this a couple of years ago, a pilot version made in the north - They asked me to be on the panel, it was 3 days in Newcastle in a studio and then a couple of interviews, I initially said no, then they said they would pay me £10,000 and I said yes - soooo that's how it happens. I mean I thought I would use the money to support good projects, and maybe something interesting could be done with the show. I was naive back then about TV, I now know that you have absolutely no control or influence and that the TV production is unbelievable ruthless in getting its simple messages across.

Other favs include A Foundation's two Euro art tramps in conversation, very drawn out men in black talking about obvious stuff and giving it the full slavic gravitas - quite funny, listen to it as an audio work. The message is 'cun ve do art vat hiz uzeful, yeh zo maybe could be, umm I dont zay hef to. more here

The rest without going into detail, Campaign for Carlise to become city of culture, Abandon Normal Devices and blow minds by using film and video presentation, and so on.

Posted by Adam Sutherland on 20/11/09 at 12:04 0 Comments

Topics: 'school of saatchi'