#peter aspden

[egoschwank]

al things considered — when i post my masterpiece #1234

first posted in facebook october 30, 2023

michael rakowitz -- "the invisible enemy should not exist (northwest palace of nimrud" room n, panel n-14

[composed of arabic newspapers, food packaging, cardboard relief sculptures on wood panel, museum labels]

"'the invisible enemy should not exist (northwest palace of nimrud)' constructs reappearances of historically looted and recently destroyed relief sculptures that lined the walls of the ancient assyrian palace of nimrud (present day mosul, iraq)" … nimrud gallery

"[this is] part of an ongoing series called 'the invisible enemy should not exist', which, [rakowitz] says, is a reflection on 'the threat to cultural heritage in times of war'. its long-term aim is to reproduce, in some shape or form, the 7,000 cultural artefacts that have been reported as missing, either looted or destroyed, since the beginning of the iraq war in 2003" … peter aspden

"i am attracted to work that can make you feel really good and really bad at the same time and i think that there’s something redemptive in the reappearance of these artefacts, these ghosts of things that are lost" … michael rakowitz

"you think that you can create a history of what has been. present artifacts. a clutch of letters. a sachet in a dressing table drawer. but that's not what's at the heart of the tale. the problem is that what drives the tale will not survive the tale" … cormac mccarthy

"al things must pass" … al janik

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Peter Aspden: 

“In 1973, the BBC broadcast an episode of The Ascent of Man, a series on the history of science written and presented by the academic Jacob Bronowski, a short scene from which is commonly considered to be among the greatest moments of British, or any other, television. The episode concerns the quest of scientists for absolute knowledge, and it ends with Bronowski walking slowly in the grounds of Auschwitz. In a single, unrehearsed take lasting more than two minutes, he walks towards a pond of rainwater, delivering his devastating account of what can happen when humankind “aspires to the knowledge of gods”. He pauses at the edge of the pond, and then steps into it, in shoes that are demonstrably not fit for purpose. He bends down and picks up a handful of mud, representing the ashes of the millions who died in the camps. “We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act,” he says as the film goes into slow-motion, and then finally a freeze-frame. “We have to touch people.” 

I was reminded of the sequence watching the first episode of Simon Schama’s History of Now, as Schama stands on the Prague balcony where Václav Havel addressed the protesters of 1989’s Velvet Revolution. Not for any historical parallels, but for the way in which the presenter, visibly moved by his discussion of the subject, suddenly seems to go off-script and appears to improvise.

“Between us,” Schama says to the camera, no hint of irony, this really sounds like a private aside, “that is why I am so upset by what is happening right now with Ukraine.” He moves, as Bronowski does, from the particular to the general in his limpid conclusion: “We cannot afford the liquidation of democracy.” TV intellectuals are employed for the knowledge of their subject, and in an age of tin-pot posturing and huckster editorialising, that is welcome. But in both of these cases, it is the intellectual being moved by the very material that they are presenting that makes for such compelling viewing. Spontaneous outbursts of feeling are not uncommon in contemporary TV, but to see them come from those who have spent a lifetime on the measured accumulation of knowledge is rare, and riveting.

[thanks Scott Horton and FT]

[gagosiangallery]

Frieze art fair 2015 - FT Arts - Life & Arts Video - FT.com

At Frieze art fair, artist and filmmaker Francesco Vezzoli talks to FT arts writer Peter Aspden about his work, and the art world of today

[pelhamcommunications]

Art in Print | 16 October 2014

Our daily digest of art stories in the mainstream press

Art Exhibition | Germany: Memories of a Nation

The new exhibition at the British Museum Germany: Memories of a Nation, reveals cleverly chosen objects which each tell a complicated micro-history. The show includes paintings by Gerhard Richter, replica jewel encrusted crowns and demonstration banners.

via Financial Times

Art Auction | Beatles

Six unused prints for the Beatles famous Abbey Road album cover are set for auction at Bloomsbury Auctions for an estimate of £50,000 - £70,000. 

via The Guardian

Art Photography | Brighton Photo Biennial

Brighton Photo Biennial’s exhibition Amore E Piombo: The Photography of Extremes in 1970s Italy will run through to 2 November 2014 and will feature a range of documentary photographs as well as film footage.

via International New York Times

Art Frieze | Unknown Art

Among many of the masterpieces at Frieze Masters are works with no known authorship. One such piece, a hide painting dating from 1840, has been claimed by artist Julian Opie for $150,000.

via Financial Times

Art Gallery | Vincent Dubourg

Sculptor Vincent Dubourg has opened his solo show at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Paris which runs until 20 December 2014.

via International New York Times Special Report

[noisesoundsignal]

I BELIEVE IN DERELICT FILLING STATIONS (MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN THE TAJ MAHAL) ///

See the video at http://video.ft.com/3335471175001/Ruin-Lust-the-lure-of-urban-decay/Life-And-Arts

[j2parman]

Film opened the door of doubt between fiction and reality. Reason sets the boundaries far too narrowly for us and would have us accept only the known.

Nicolas Roeg, quoted by Peter Aspden in a review of Roeg's memoir, The World is Every Changing, Faber, 2013, in the Financial Times, 27-28 July 2013, "Life & Arts," page 8.

[thesmithian-blog]

...the report doesn’t quite see it like that. Its very subtitle—“Culture and the Race for Soft Power in the 21st Century”—implies a degree of competitiveness among nations for the world’s hearts and minds. Governments are waking up to soft power, and want to direct it more effectively...But we are fooled if we think that all is cuddly in the world of soft power. There are governments that are using culture to make some hard points...

Peter Aspden, at FT

[creatingcreativecommunities]

How can the complementary nature of arts bodies' activities be harnessed to produce a genuinely collaborative atmosphere: one that will enable them to steer through forthcoming financial hardship, and perhaps produce a new creative synergy?