The Unfair Fair: Haven't I seen you somewhere before?

Sunday, 24 February 2008

Haven't I seen you somewhere before?

ARTIST: Pernille Kapper Williams
TITLE: An homage to Marcel Broodthaers
DATE: 2006
MEDIA: Grey vinyl foil
DIMENSIONS: approx. 40.0 x 80.0 cm
Courtesy of Balice Hertling, Paris

In the catalogue Marcel Broodthaers, Walker Art Center, Rizzoli International Publications Inc., N.Y. 1989 one finds a reproduction of Broodthaers’ work Flower Ball/Décor (1975) which consists of dried flowers, ribbon and a printed card saying 'Décor'. On the cover of the later publication Décor: A Conquest by Marcel Broodthaers, XIXth and XXth Century, London 1975 Galerie Michael Werner, N.Y. 2007 the typeface of word 'Décor' might at first sight look very much the same, but if you compare it to the original work, it is obvious that the two typefaces differ slightly. It remains uncertain, if the particular typeface which Broodthaers used might have been a unique design, at least it seems to be no longer available. This was confirmed by a graphic designer, who I have asked to create a vinyl foil similar in appearance to Broodthaers’ printed card.
- Pernille Kapper Williams

ARTISTS: Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
TITLE: Far Gone and Out
DATE: 2007
MEDIA: Audio

Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard's 'Far gone and out' tentatively purses the psychological experiments they initiated in their 2005 work Silent Sound. It is a sonic limbo, bringing together recordings of each of the artists undergoing a personal session of Past Life Regression with clinical hypnotist Barry Cooper. Split across the left and right channels of the stereo mix, these fragments of subconscious narrative are entwined with a musical composition by The Late Cord, a collaboration between musicians John Mark Lapham and Micah P Hinson. The result is a compelling state of otherness.

www.iainandjane.com

About

This blog catalogues the inaugural UNFAIR FAIR, which took place in Rome from Friday 29 February to Monday 3 March 2008. The first UNFAIR FAIR project was a sort of event, situation, exhibition, intervention, action and infiltration timed to coincide with two new contemporary art fairs in Rome - ARTEcontemporaneamodernaROMA and ROMA (The ROAD TO CONTEMPORARY ART). The UNFAIR FAIR is in no way formally associated with these art fairs, though it does have a strategic relation to the mainstream economy they represent. Whereas the raison d'être of the contemporary art fair may be characterised by maximization and accumulation, the conditions of the UNFAIR FAIR relate more comfortably to the states of minimization and disintegration. The aim of the UNFAIR FAIR is to show the process of artistic production and transitional art works that index broader practices by each of the invited artists.
Click here for further information

The Principle of Equivalence - Well done, badly done, not done

In 1966, Robert Filliou proposed that the world economy no longer be considered from a political angle, but rather from a poetic point of view, so that work as pain would become work as play. From 1968, he developed his Principle of Equivalence - the principle of the equality in value of the Well Done, the Badly Done and the Not Done. Filliou proposed an unfinished work, by essence not done, but in the process of being done, realised in a state of "Permanent Creation" - "to decide nothing, to choose nothing, to want nothing, to possess nothing, fully awake, sitting quietly, doing nothing."

Going, going gone for ... how much?

The highest price ever paid for a Francis Bacon (£14 million), for a photograph (an Andreas Gursky, 1.7m)... all auction records were shattered in London last week. But who is buying art at these prices - and, frankly, is it worth it? Carole Cadwalladr went in search of the top bidders.

The Observer
Sunday February 11, 2007
Click here to read the article

Silly money

5 Dec 1766
Date of first sale held in Pall Mall, London by James Christie, founder of Christie's

$104.168,000
Record sale at a fine art auction: for Picasso's Garcon a la Pipe, May 2004, Sotheby's, New York

£186,645,960
Value of total sales realised last week at Sotheby's, London

40
Record number of days for an auction sale (for Duke of Buckingham's collection at Stowe House by Christie's in 1848)

£2.51bn
Total global arts sales by Christie's in 2006

85
Number of works sold for over £1m last week at Sotheby's and Christie's, London

£1.7m
The record price for a photograph sold at auction (Andreas Gursky's 99 Cents II, Diptychon sold last week at Sotheby's, London)

£70.4m
Total revenue from Christie's Post War and Contemporary Art Sale last Wednesday. This broke the record set by Sotheby's just 24 hours earlier for a contemporary art auction in Europe.