Hail Mary

I'm fresh back from a weekend in London and after visiting the usual suspects of haunts, I'm full of inspiration. I love the Tate Modern on the south bank of the Thames. While I was looking round, this piece really stood out.

Often the intention of a piece of art is to shock - I think this sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan ticks that box.

The blurb told me that the Italian's pieces are often "interventions" that create a "disruptive or unnerving effect" in a room. This piece was sited in the same room as a version of Rodin's 'Kiss' and a Picasso painting from his blue period.

A room of pre First World War art juxtaposed with the three Roman salutes that have "become synonymous with the authoritarian political movement" is designed to remind us of us of the horrors that were to come.

The title, 'Ave Maria' (translated as Hail Mary) is based on the biblical reference of Angel Gabriel' s salutation to Mary, and also plays on the double meaning of the word Hail.

Rankin Live

Rankin is THE portrait photographer to the stars but his latest project 'Rankin Live' turns the camera on the British public. He's photographing 1000 people and displaying the results at an exhibition on Brick Lane in London. The other twist is that the photographs are being printed and hung at the show within 15 minutes of being taken as well as being uploaded to the Rankin Live website at the end of each shoot. Rankin is looking for people "with a distinctive style, sense of British eccentricity and enthusiasm" but anyone can apply. At the moment he is just under half way through the project, having shot 476 of the 1000 portraits.

There's a strange parallel to Antony Gormley's piece of work that I wrote about last month in that the focus is on members of the public - maybe that's the theme for art in 2009. I like the website with its bizarre celebrity-adorned flash video intro that features Jarvis Cocker among others.

Welcome To Britain

'Welcome To Britain' is a book of photography by artists Jan Williams and Chris Teasdale who seem to have travelled the length and breadth of Britain, snapping anything that catches their eye. Their images take a look at what it means to be British with a big focus on eccentricity - the book could easily illustrate Kate Fox's 'Watching The English'! Many of the images capture the downright ugly rather than seeking the picturesque and the work's power often lies in the the couple's witty observations.

Williams and Teasdale don't display their work in conventional galleries but rather in their own mobile Caravan Gallery which seems fitting to me.

I love this ironic sign, it sums up not only the type of work that these artists do but also so much about the British - our cynicism, our eccentricity and our sense of humour.

Antony Gormley's One & Other

Antony Gormley is probably most famous for his sculpture 'The Angel Of The North', but he has been creating artwork for 25 years. Gormley's sculptures are often human figures. His last project was 'Event Horizon', when 31 of his figures were placed in prominent locations around London. His latest piece of work is called 'One & Other' and his idea is quite simple: for 100 days, 2400 members of the public will stand for one hour each in Trafalgar Square on top of 'The Fourth Plinth' - an empty statute stand built in 1841 that was never filled due to lack of funds. The whole thing is streamed live on a 24 hour webcam.

This is how the man himself explains it.

The project is 3 weeks in and I think this is a great piece of art. I like the collaborative nature of it - it can be whatever the British public make of it. So far people have have been doing some really interesting things for some very worthwhile causes - charity is often the main theme. I think this is something our country can be proud of.

The School Of Athens

Time for another Rome-with-Professor-Hann-link blog post. The facts... The School Of Athens is a fresco painted by Raphael in 1510 and is located inside a chapel in Vatican City. It depicts a lot of well known Greek philosophers. Plato stands in the middle, pointing to the sky. Next to him Aristotle holds a copy of his book Ethics. Pythagoras can be seen on the left teaching his mathematical theories. On the right Euclid (the so-called father of geometry) is drawing with a pair of compasses. I think this is the reason that professor Hann used to show us this painting nearly every lecture. I especially like how Raphael has painted himself into the scene over on the far right, looking out at us wearing a black beret. Another point of interest is Raphael's sound use of perspective. All the lines of the building converge to a vanishing point - a technique that was largely absent from artists' work before the Renaissance.

I was inspired by this painting because for a start I knew a bit about it already and seeing it in real life really made an impression on me. The painting must be a sort of personal tribute to Raphael's heroes - he was apparently well versed on Greek philosophy. It's also interesting that it is Pagan subject matter in a Christian chapel. I also love portraiture and this was some of the best I've ever seen.