On Wednesday this week the 29 students of my Classical Mythology/Contemporary Art class had the pleasure of visiting the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library – the largest cartoon library on the planet and an amazing place for unique exhibitions, events and workshops as the epicentre for the Columbus cartooning community. It was here that Frank Santoro […]
While flicking through Martin Parr and Gerry Badger’s The Photobook: A History volume III (Phaidon 2014) – a great birthday gift from my Dad – I was transfixed by the following image: This photograph graces the cover of the book Billy Monk (Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2011) and it immediately made me want to know more, […]
There is no original text, no “right,” perfect, whole object; we only have a broken bit of ceramic, mediated by centuries. This is how Page duBois, in her book Sappho is Burning (complete with a Nancy Spero work on the cover), describes the potsherd that contains what we know of as Sappho fragment 2. Here […]
Three years ago I taught the first manifestation of a Classical Mythology Honors course here at Ohio State that explored the dynamic between Classical Myth and Contemporary Art. At that time, the students encountered a range of artworks using the (then recent) publication Defining Contemporary Art: 25 Years in 200 Pivotal Art Works (Phaidon 2012). […]
After an amazing year in Spain, I am now back home in Columbus, Ohio. It is taking some adjusting, especially to the constant driving and the quiet after the walking and noise of Madrid. A few days ago while driving along High Street a striking mural caught my eye, surreptitiously positioned next to Yoga On […]
Jeff Koons Popeye, 2003 Then I made me way into the tottering house itself and found it all in shambles. A clothesline freighted with frilly red underwear, not mine, and three pairs of long johns, not mine, stretched across the living room. The bathroom reeked of men’s after-shave and colognes – Brute – and was […]
SOCRATES But at this point I’m suffering an episode of brain fever, so to speak, and those who of their own free will go completely wrong in some way in fact seem to me to be more fitting persons than those who do so unwillingly. The blame for my present suffering I place on the […]
Opening this weekend is Paul Chan’s new exhibition Hippias Minor at the DESTE Foundation project space, the Slaughterhouse on the Greek island of Hydra. I have been honoured to have been a part of this exhibition in the form of the new book Hippias Minor or the Art of Cunning, published by DESTE and Chan’s […]
Jump to 1:05:05 in the video & then go click on any of the images below:
On hearing the sad news of the artist Chris Burden’s death, I wanted to dedicate a post to his work and, for obvious reasons, his monstrous 1990 sculpture Medusa’s Head seems to be the most fitting choice for Minus Plato. Chris Burden, Medusa’s Head, 1990. Plywood, steel, cement, rock, model railroad trains and tracks Margalit […]