12:19pm
Harrier and Jaguar are two recently decommissioned fighter planes that sit in the Duveen Galleries of Tate Britain, supported by Sotheby’s and devised by previous Turner Prize nominee Fiona Banner. One jet lies belly-up and the other suspended nose-down, demonstrating both their vulnerability and killer instincts, reminding us simultaneously of the birds of prey (and captivity) they imitate. However, the monumental size of the planes – this is Banner’s largest work to date – and the fact that they sit in one of the most prestigious museums of the UK, means you feel more like you’re inspecting their prehistoric ancestors,...
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5:47pm
As the term draws to an end, aspiring art students from far and wide poor into the ‘real world’ with a false sense of security provided by the free white walls, in-house ‘crits’ and ready-made network of the institution. The idea that they might have to apply for exhibitions, beg people to look at their work and market their own shows in future seemed a distant if even conscious concern of those I met last Tuesday night at the Royal College of Art Painting 2010 degree show. This cocky attitude, however, generated a sense of liberation and bravery that meant...
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11:46am
Steve McQueen has led a seven-year campaign commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to commemorate the British servicemen and women killed during the war in Iraq with official postage stamps bearing their portraits. Having been on tour at Manchester International Festival, the Imperial War Museum and the Barbican, Queen And Country is currently on view in room 37 of the National Portrait Gallery, where it remains until 18 July. The UK Royal Mail has yet to give the go-ahead to the project. McQueen’s frustration with his inability to gain proper film footage during his 6 days spent with British...
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2:16pm
The Rape of Africa, an exhibition of works by David LaChapelle (at Robilant+Voena, 27 April–23 June) has divided critics over how successfully the photographer has made the transition from fashion and celebrity pictures to fine art.
His new show is the London debut of LaChapelle as the ‘artist’, but his pictures still maintain the kitsch and gaudy, yet delectably captivating, visual style. Scenes of exploitation are meant to satirise the powerful – from the Pope sitting atop a mound of jewels and naked men (Thy Kingdom Come), to the titular The Rape of Africa featuring Naomi Campbell dressed as...
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1:22pm
On entering the exhibition dedicated (a little too late) to these two prominent female sculptors, almost tripping over Baghramian’s Türstopper (Door Stopper) is a good introduction. Though both artists work with seemingly contradictory materials and colour and have evidently opposing creative processes – one throws paint on crates and polystyrene whilst the other uses moulds and meticulously polished aluminium – their concern for carving up space and creating challenging new dialogues with rearrangements of art works seems something at the heart of both their practice.
Nairy Baghramian is an Iranian, Berlin based artist whose work sits on the...
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Now in its 30th year, the London Park Lane Arms Fair returns with its annual array of fine arms and armoury. Elsewhere in the capital, impressive surveys of Freud, Hirst and mid-century British art can be found.
George Gilbert Scott described the dome as ‘the noblest of all forms’, and it appears as a powerful symbol in secular and religious architecture throughout history. On the island of Malta, however, the craze for dome-building reached astonishing heights.
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