Art Monthly 388: Jul-Aug 2015

Contents

Amikam Toren Armchair Painting: Untitled (worship here) 2007

Interview

Re-Toren

Amikam Toren interviewed by Patricia Bickers

London-based artist Amikam Toren has been reconstituting painting through the ideas of Conceptual Art for more than four decades. Here he discusses 'tactile' thought, his 'upgrading' of other people's paintings, and the peculiarities of self-censorship and exclusion.

'The interesting thing to me about this process of reapproaching painting was that it enabled me to use representation (which itself is a very traditional form) as an axe with which to demolish painting and reinvent it.'

Jo Spence & Terry Dennett Victimisation: Remodelling Photohistory 1981-82

Feature

Re-representation

Francis Frascina on representing and being represented in art and politics

Does the austerity drive, which is dismantling UK support structures in a similar manner to that which was evident under 1980s Thatcherite ideology, have consequences for the politics of representation?

'"Something devastatingly basic has been made clear: that cultural practices – like any others – depend on a material basis, on concrete resources, and that access to these is a matter of politics and power ... what is at stake is the means to represent and be represented."'

Crib Notes event at Richard Tuttle's Whitechapel Gallery exhibition in 2014

Feature

Mother and Child Divided

Jennifer Thatcher on women in the arts

While official sources from the government to ACE make noises about equality, the reality is that support for women in arts is worsening. What can the art world do to reverse this trend?

'Now children are banned (in a clause that also includes the banning of dogs) from almost all areas of the college, so that parents must arrange childcare simply to pop into the library, for example.'

From the Back Catalogue
50/50 Women are still woefully under-represented in the art world argues Jennifer Thatcher

Comment

Editorial

Five More Years

As the chancellor prepares to fire the opening salvos in the threatened austerity+ emergency budget, the arts sector is bracing itself for the 'greater financial autonomy', code for 'cutting your legs off', that the Tory manifesto ominously pledged.

'In effect, the taxpayer is subsidising employers to the tune of £11bn a year through tax credits and extra benefit payments. The four big supermarkets alone are costing just under £1bn a year as the so-called "corporate welfare bill" soars.'

Letters

Response to the Maud Sulter review

Malcolm Dickson, director of Street Level Photoworks, takes issue with last issue's review of the 'Maud Sulter: Passion' exhibition.

Artnotes

The Tory schools minister equates the arts with Esperanto; sacked National Gallery union representative wins a preliminary judgment against the gallery; California's Roski School of Fine Art loses a whole year of students as they drop out en masse in protest; ACE chief Darren Henley promises an 'M62 Corridor of Culture'; Artists Union England publishes proposed rates of pay for artists; anti-oil sponsorship group Liberate Tate occupies Tate Modern overnight; the latest news on galleries, events, appointments, prizes and more.

Submissions: Send news items to artnotes@artmonthly.co.uk

Tania Candiani Flying Device. Besnier. 1978 (tested on a zero gravity flight) La Gravedad de los Asuntos 2015

Profile

Tania Candiani

Rob La Frenais on the Mexican artist

Tania Candiani, with her twin interests in literature and engineering, has recently moved from working in the dangerous terrain of Juarez to the Venice Biennale. How has she handled this shift from frontline to historical site?

'One of Candiani's main interests is engineering, and she has built an elaborate pumping device for draining the Venice Lagoon in significant quantities and recycling it through the Arsenale in a provocative act of reverse colonialism. She describes this action as "historical biopsy".'

Julie Dash Daughters of the Dust 1991

Exhibitions

LA Rebellion

Tate Modern, London

Morgan Quaintance

Martin Boyce

Kunstmuseum, Basel

Mark Prince

Susan Stenger: Sound Strata of Coastal Northumberland

The Gymnasium Gallery, Berwick-upon-Tweed

Christopher Townsend

Dan Holdsworth: Spatial Objects

Southampton City Art Gallery

Paul Carey-Kent

New Narrative and Reader

Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Gallery

Bob Dickinson

The heart is deceitful above all things

Home, Manchester

Eleanor Clayton

Samara Scott: Silks

Eastside Projects, Birmingham

Jamie Sutcliffe

Paul Carter: Hotel Workers

Exeter Phoenix

Lizzie Lloyd

Alex Frost: Property Guardian

Flat Time House, London

Lizzie Homersham

Unannounced Acts of Publicness

Central Saint Martins, London

Larne Abse Gogarty

London Round-up

Hauser & Wirth • Tate Britain • White Cube • Marian Goodman

Keren Goldberg

Belfast Round-up

MAC • Platform Arts • Catalyst Arts

Joanna Laws

Reviews

Books

Art Labor, Sex Politics

Maria Walsh on Siona Wilson's look back at British feminist art

'Wilson's use of the term "sex politics" rather than the "politics of sexual difference" allows her to incorporate all the historically fraught terms in debates about gender and subjectivity without adhering to any one camp as well as to read future terms such as "queerness" back into these debates, albeit with varying degrees of success.'

Summer Reading: Let Us Play

Peter Suchin gathers a selection of recent releases

'During the period covered, and for at least another ten years, attendance at Leeds Poly gave one access to an incredible force-field of practices, actions and ideas, with visiting staff including such influential figures as Art & Language, Gavin Bryars, Eric Mottram, Sally Potter, Carl Plackman, Griselda Pollock and many more.'

Reports

Conference

Fear of Missing Out

Morgan Quaintance encounters the internet anxiety industry

'Confident introductory speeches for "Fear of Missing Out", or FOMO in the web-speak acronym also used, set an auspicious if formal tone for the ICA's three- day event convened to explore post-digital anxieties and their attendant socio-cultural phenomena.'

Letter from Tel Aviv

Power Relations

Keren Goldberg visits an art scene caught in a political crossfire

'When it comes to Israel, the city, which is frequently portrayed as a bubble, looks snobbishly inwards, but when it comes to the international art scene, it stares obsessively outwards.'

Artlaw

Ways of Working

Conservation

Henry Lydiate on the legal obligations of the artist as manufacturer

'The marked paucity of laws and rules specific to art business worldwide means that contemporary art business is treated in most countries like sales of other goods: artworks should be of merchantable quality and fit for purpose, especially if they are sold as brand new – in which case laws place responsibilities to consumers on the retailer as well as the manufacturer.'

Listings

Events

London Art Calendar

The updated London events calendar can also be viewed online.

Exhibitions

Exhibition Listings

Art Monthly's exhibition listings can also be viewed online.