Art Monthly 403: February 2017

Contents

David Claerbout Oil workers (from the Shell company of Nigeria) returning home from work, caught in the torrential rain 2013

Feature

Art and Accelerationism

Tim Dixon argues that the only way out of accelerationism is through it

In responding to the increased pace of capitalism, have artists who embrace overstimulation, such as Plastique Fantastique and Suzanne Treister, or slowness, such as David Claerbout and Yelena Popova, found a path to liberation?

Slowness must remain critical and avoid falling into a therapeutics that simply gives the viewer pause in order to return refreshed to the marketplace.

William Eggleston Untitled, 1974 (Walter Hopps)

Feature

Gonzo Curating

Andrew Hunt proposes an alternative model of the curator

With the tired curator-as-auteur model increasingly producing corporatised zombie exhibitions, is it time to revisit freewheeling curatorial practices that resist the deathly institutional embrace?

In terms of burgeoning fashions that attempt to address the traditional and continuing status of the museum as mausoleum and its exacerbation through corporate interest, a shift has emerged through alternative archives constructed by 'outsider collectors'.

Comment

Editorial

Hocus Potus

In this post-truth world of alternative facts it seems that life is increasingly imitating art – now is the time for artists to imagine alternative fictions so that reality can be bent into a better shape.

In a case of life imitating art, Trump's cynical populism, hucksterism and bogus 'America first' patriotism – one of his first acts as president was to sign a proclamation for a national day of patriotism – could have been taken straight from the pages of the novel It Couldn't Happen Here.

Artnotes

President Protest

Artists mobilise in protest against President Trump; Artists Space exhibitors are hospitalised by Trump supporters; protesters campaign against Bangor University's decision to close its Fine Art courses; Kirklees Council threatens to sell its Francis Bacon painting to plug the hole in its finances; the latest news on galleries, appointments, prizes and more.

Obituaries

Jean Fisher 1942-2016
Martin Naylor 1944-2016
John Berger 1926-2017
Mark Fisher 1968-2017
Reiner Ruthenbeck 1937-2016
Daan Van Golden 1936-2017

From the Back Catalogue Raising Hell and Telling Stories John Berger talks to Janine Burke

40th Anniversary

Wanted The Missing Issue Last Chance: 28 February Deadline

Readers with very long memories may remember – and the sharp-eyed among those who have accessed AM's back catalogue online may have noticed – that something is missing from the year 1978. A quick count would soon reveal that only nine issues were published that year instead of ten.

The missing magazine is for the month of April, which would have been issue 16. Instead, the number was carried over seamlessly to the May issue, which ran a fulsome apology and explanation from Peter Townsend and his co- editor and publisher, Jack Wendler: 'The fact is that we got behind on schedules and despaired and decided that the only way to pick up on schedules was to drop an issue.' The apology concludes with the words, 'We'll try not to let it happen again' – and it didn't.

To celebrate 40 years of continuous publication, AM is inviting readers to help create a virtual issue for April 1978 to complete the set, which will be published online in April next year. Contributors are invited to research or simply to imagine what might have been in the issue (for reference, the May 1978 issue can be viewed online). For further information, specifications and conditions check the AM website: www.artmonthly.co.uk/missing-issue

Simeon Barclay Winner Takes All 2016 detail

Profile

Simeon Barclay

Tom Emery on a London-based, northern artist who defies expectations in both his life and work.

The Spice Boys are an example of another thread running through the work: that of the tragic, Icarus-like figure, often an athlete, experiencing great success but also failure, apparently due to their own flamboyance.

Aki Sasamoto Memo Random 2015

Exhibitions

Movement of the People

Art Exchange, Colchester

Matthew Bowman

Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic 1945-1965

Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany

Axel Lapp

...Hounded by External Events...

Maureen Paley, London

Peter Suchin

Shanghai Biennale: Why Not Ask Again – Arguments, Counter-arguments and Stories

Power Station of Art

Andrew J Stooke

Kochi-Muziris Biennale: Forming in the pupil of an eye

various venues, Kerala, India

Rob La Frenais

No Such Thing As Gravity

FACT, Liverpool

Mike Pinnington

Amanda Beech: Covenant Transport Move or Die

Baltic, Gateshead

Jonathan P Watts

Lucy Raven: Edge of Tomorrow

Serpentine Gallery, London

Paul Carey-Kent

Dayanita Singh: Museum of Shedding

Frith Street Gallery, London

Deborah Schultz

Thinking Tantra

The Drawing Room, London

Cherry Smyth

Rehana Zaman

Tenderpixel, London

Isobel Harbison

City Sculpture Projects 1972

Henry Moore Institute, Leeds

Lara Eggleton

New York Round-up

Abrons Art Center • Anthology • Participant Inc • Petzel Gallery

Lizzie Homersham

Reviews

Books

Artist-Run Europe: Practice/Projects/Spaces

Jennifer Thatcher on a survey of independents

With spaces closing all the time (seven in Dublin alone since the start of the book project), Artist-Run Europe can only hope to provide a snapshot of this highly precarious scene.

Reports

Letter From Santa Fe

Layered Histories

Chris Fite-Wassilak experiences the small town's big art scene

Meow Wolf was packed, and touted as a success, marking the public emergence of an audience that wasn't recognised or catered for before, separate from the Native American pottery buffs and the visitors to Canyon Road.

Letter From Honshu

Asia-futurism

Jamie Sutcliffe finds the art in central Japan

Dawn Chan outlines the ways that a myth of an Asia hard-wired for futurity and underscored by images of 'cities in hyperdrive and sleep-deprived gamers' might filter back into Japanese conceptions of the self.

Conference

Idle Women: Shifting Loyalties – Feminism Today

Sara Jaspan catches the canal boat conference

Where and how do we begin to repair our crumbling society, and is it relevant to be worrying about feminism right now? From the discussions that came out of the weekend, it seems that the separation of these issues is part of what holds both back.

Artlaw

Contracts

Continuing Silence

Henry Lydiate bemoans the silence surrounding primary sales

Some collectors agree verbally to a buy-back condition, but refuse to include it in a written contract of sale; this may also be a deal-breaker for artists, because they do not want to risk such collectors reneging on their verbal promise in the future.

Listings

Events

Calendar

The updated events and exhibitions calendar can also be viewed online.

Exhibitions

Exhibition Listings

Art Monthly's exhibition listings can be viewed online.