#256: The Future

#255: You are your own experience

#252: Black Dog Ideas I and II: Black dog's a-coming tonight and His Black Dog

Black Dog I: Black dog's a-coming tonight

Oil on canvas.  A painting of a man who is frozen still, his eyes shut tight.  A recording of a dog running and painting, getting nearer and nearer, can be heard.

Black Dog II: His Black Dog

Oil on canvas.  A painting divided into four panels in the style of Man with a Newspaper by René Magritte.  A man is seen sitting in an easy chair positioned in a living room in each panel, in the same pose each time.  Only his face shows any change in the man.  The room itself is seen from slightly different perspectives in each panel.

In the first panel, we see the man only, sitting passively, looking out at the viewer.  In the second, we see the man, his eyes looking to the window, his face concerned.  In the third, we see the man, again sitting passively and looking straight out at the viewer but now a black dog is present, standing on its hind legs behind the man, its front paws on his shoulders.  In the fourth panel, the man is sitting, serenely, the black dog lying at his feet.

#251: I am a work in progress

A TV screen mounted in a portrait/mobile phone orientation.  A photo of the artist taken that day appears on the screen and is changed for a new one at least once a day.

Post-death, a second screen is added and, in due course, becomes two works: I was a work in progress and I am no longer a work in progress (with appropriate numbers).  The former re-shows all the photos collected for the original piece in a one-a-day loop while the latter shows a daily photo of the artist's grave or memorial for as long as people can be bothered.

#250: If you can’t stand up for people in life don’t do it in death

Quotes from articles and obituaries about Sinead O’Connor following her death that form the words No One Compares 2 U.

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See: Geraghty, Hollie (2023) Lily Allen “incensed” by “spineless” tributes to Sinéad O’Connor. Available at: https://www.nme.com/news/music/lily-allen-incensed-by-spineless-tributes-to-sinead-oconnor-3475673 (Accessed: 3rd August 2023).

#248: Real Surreal

A surrealist painting but your dreams are really humdrum.

#247: Anti-Racist Black Square

Oil on linen.  A black square with white border painted on a square canvas.  Etched into the black paint of the square are the words: “What we want is no one fighting in any place or at any time and we will take steps to ensure an anti-racist future, a future where discrimination does not exist.” 

And so what will I do next?

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Resource List:

Dunne, Carey (2016) Art Historians Find Racist Joke Hidden Under Malevich’s “Black Square”. Available at: https://hyperallergic.com/253361/art-historian-finds-racist-joke-hidden-under-malevichs-black-square/. 

Grovier, Kelly (2018) The racist message hidden in a masterpiece. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180312-the-racist-message-hidden-in-a-masterpiece (Accessed: 1st April 2023).

Shatskikh, Aleksandra (2017) Inscribed Vandalism: The Black Square at One Hundred. Available at: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/85/155475/inscribed-vandalism-the-black-square-at-one-hundred/ (Accessed: 30th March 2023).

Spira, Andrew (2022) Precedents of the Unprecedented: Black Squares Before Malevich. Available at: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/black-squares-before-malevich/ (Accessed: 31st March 2023).

Tolstaya, Tatyana (2015) The Square. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-square (Accessed: 21st February 2024).

Vakar, Irina (2019) New Information Concerning The Black Square in Lodder, Christina (2019) Celebrating Suprematism : New Approaches to the Art of Kazimir Malevich. Available at: https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzE5MjM5ODRfX0FO0?sid=06827ef3-d2a0-45f7-a118-ea34aa1fcade@redis&vid=5&format=EB&lpid=lp_11&rid=0 (Accessed: 31st March 2023).

von Zinnenburg Carroll, Khadija and Gusejnova, Dina (2017) Malevich’s Black Square under X-ray: A dialogue on race, revolution and art history. Available at: http://www.thirdtext.org/malevich-blacksquare (Accessed: 30th March 2023).

Wikipedia page before Pencil inscriptions section was removed: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_Square&oldid=1218618957 (Accessed: 15th July 2024).