The north east's social arts network

All Blog Posts (6)

The dead and alive songs

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Added by Paul Stone on November 29, 2008 at 1:51pm — No Comments

Through dark glasses

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Added by Paul Stone on November 1, 2008 at 12:55pm — No Comments

Deporting Sebastian Horsley sets a disturbing precedent

The artist, writer and self-styled London dandy has been barred from entering America. If he's considered too dangerous, who's next? Sometimes it's almost too easy to take pot shots at the American obsession with "freedom" and "liberty". I mean just ask the many nations for whom diplomatic promises of "freedom" and "liberty" were just a prelude to the sound of dropping bombs. But today we have the news that the American immigration people stopped a dangerous undesirable from entering the count… Continue

Added by Andrew Fenwick on March 26, 2008 at 7:30pm — No Comments

Gormley v the fungus

Antony Gormley's iron men have triumphed over many things until now - a tiny fungus called the waxcap has ended their proposed summer outing in the grounds of Chatsworth House. Everything looked set for 100 of the life-size nudes based on Gormley's own body to be scattered round the mansion - all, intriguingly, standing at the same height above sea level. Now it's off. The problem is that 86 of the sculptures were earmarked for the Salisbury lawns, a fabulous sweep of classic "English" grass, w… Continue

Added by Andrew Fenwick on March 23, 2008 at 2:43pm — No Comments

Watercolours don't have to be frumpy

It doesn't all have to be about pretty pseudo-impressionistic landscapes. Some artists are doing amazing, experimental work with watery paint yet the medium still has the worst reputation when it comes to artistic media. Watercolour Challenge and its viewers fondly imagined as whimsical codgers staking a rickety easel in a windswept British landscape may be to blame. The paints are definitely connected to a sense of history. The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours' annual exhibition, wh… Continue

Added by Andrew Fenwick on March 23, 2008 at 2:34pm — 1 Comment

Art is no better than crafts

Now barriers between art, crafts and design are breaking down, it's impossible to say which is most important. It is a shame that Jonathan Jones spoils a good thesis on architecture with a gratuitous dig at craft - "visual artists fought for centuries to define themselves as more than mere craftsmen". In an age when a potter wins the Turner prize and over 90,000 makers are producing the broadest range of work in the UK, and when barriers are breaking down between art, craft and design, the atta… Continue

Added by Andrew Fenwick on March 23, 2008 at 1:00pm — No Comments