Jordan Wolfson wants us to feel more. His latest work ventures into “emotional mechanics” – a two metre puppet connected by chains to a moving gantry. “It is difficult not to feel something, and just as difficult to think that such feeling is pointless. Isn’t this kind of emotional response and lingering fascination one of the things we desire most from art?” A video (5 min) is here.
New Brighton is a beach resort in England with faded prospects. Photography of its decline has been controversial. Parr, the first to show the seismic changes occurring in this part of Thatcher’s Britain, was accused of “defeating” the town. Others have trodden more carefully, perhaps at the cost of self-censorship. Ironically, some locals hope to regenerate the area through the arts.
A London show claims to examine Michael Jackson’s influence on contemporary art. Does it do that or is it just a summer crowd-pleaser? The writer’s assurance that the show “isn’t all wall-to-wall kitsch” doesn’t dispel the skepticism. Few works pay attention to the contradictions and darker corners of the pop star’s life. “Transparently a fan’s show”, is the conclusion.
Bawden doesn’t fit the usual categories. He ranged across commercial and fine art as a master printmaker, illustrator, watercolourist and designer. Describing his work as “charming”, says the writer, is an unwarranted put-down of someone so widely imitated. He had “formal brilliance [and] a tender, amused feeling for the value of all life” A background video is here.