Monday 25 March 2024

#226: Proustian Window

A stained glass window in the shape of a madeleine.  The window depicts the triggers that would take you through and the memories you would discuss on the other side.

Monday 18 March 2024

#225: Happy black days, this here’s the summer (here's the summer)

Oil on canvas.

Scene of someone in a terrible state (their eyes dark, their skin pale and sallow, their hair long and bedraggled) exiting a building into bright sunlight.

Monday 4 March 2024

#223: Which boxes fit in you? (Or would you rather burn all the boxes and their labels?)

A room full of boxes.  The majority with genders, age ranges, nationalities, religions, professions, sexualities, generations, races, cultures, etc written on them - the sort of words used in surveys to build you in their eyes, or to pigeonhole someone.  

Factual, kind, hateful or nasty.  All you can think of are present.

Larger boxes in the centre of the room have You written on the side.  These are big enough to fit a number of the other boxes in, once flattened.

Also in the room: a stanley knife, lighter fluid, matches and an incinerator bin.


Monday 26 February 2024

#222: A note (What I’ve been thinking about today)

A blank postcard with the following typed on the picture side:

The mind transcends over all mediums

 - 

but something aesthetically or auditorily pleasing is best.

Monday 19 February 2024

#221: Scratch off the surface and there is nothing there

A run of mass produced scratchcards.  The cards themselves are black with a white area that can be scratched off.  Above this area are the words, in white, “Scratch off the surface and there is nothing there…”  Scratching off the white area reveals nothing but black underneath, extending the border to the centre.

The reverse has a white background with black text reading: 


scratch me how you like: 

obliterate or create, 

or just imagine.

Monday 12 February 2024

#220: The Current State of Things (Are there any absolutes in art?)

An artwork to be reproduced just inside the entrance of any gallery in the world, using their own collections in a potentially ever-changing display.

Six works of art hang on the wall in two rows of three with writing on the wall above the top row, below the final row and in between the rows.  (Or works and text are arranged in a way that suits the art being displayed).  None of the pieces are labelled in the traditional way, but instead with just one word that represents the current attitude to that work.

The text at the top reads:

David: "Is it all just… fashion? Are there any absolutes??" Mira: "Sure! In here…[she points to her chest]" Ollie: "Just not out there." from The Sculptor (2015) by Scott McCloud, p. 204 panels 1-2.

The three works of art in the top row are labelled, from left to right: Anti-fashion, In-fashion and Out of fashion.

The text across the middle reads: 

“God, it all seems… so shallow, though.  Like it’s all just about celebrity.  Not about the art at all.” The Sculptor (2015) by Scott McCloud, p.401, panel 7-8.

The three works of art in the bottom row are labelled, from left to right: Kitsch, Classic and Celebrity.

The text across the bottom reads: 

“Art is beyond taste. Leave your prejudices behind when you want to be uplifted.” from Kitsch art: love it or loathe it? (2013) by Jonathan Jones, published in The Guardian.