Artwork: Paste-up by SONAC, Le Tigre de Sumatra, Grenoble, France, 2024
Love this! Street artist SONAC did this brilliant paste-up Le Tigre de Sumatra for the Grenoble Street Art Festival, at location Centre Commercial Neyrpic, 9 avenue Benoît Frachon, Saint Martin d'Hères.
Artwork: Kosei Komatsu, Dreams of the Forest, light installation, Taiwan, 20204
Japanese artist Kosei Komatsu’s recent installation Dreams of the Forest (2024-5) at the Dongxing Canal Light Art Festival in Taiwan shines a light in the dark. A small hut positioned outside on a bridge over a canal, a single light bulb swings back and forth casting shadows and illuminating the cut-out paper butterflies on the wall. It is surreal, intimate, stunning and simple. Komatsu’s art works with nature, the elements, movement, and light to create ethereal and exquisite installations. Komatsu wrote this about the Dreams of the Forest:
“This work was created during the Covid-19 pandemic. While in home-quarantine, we discovered that time suddenly felt abundant. The image of the small house brings back memories of visiting my mother’s old home in the mountain. As a child I would play in the forest. The lights danced on the ground. Everything was so beautiful.
Artwork: Kosei Komatsu, Dreams of the Forest, light installation, Taiwan, 20204 (internal view of little house)
Yet at night, the forest turned into a dark, terrible place. Staying indoors, I enjoyed watching the shadows of insects projected on the wall. These images awakened long-forgotten memories, bringing those moments back to life. I hope every viewer finds their own stories in the little house and the forest, rekindling the innocence and imagination of childhood.”
Photograph take by Emily Jacir, the sky and smoke above Bethlehem, 2024
Palestinian artist Emily Jacir (I wrote an art story for her work Memorial here) posted these words and a heartbreaking recording on IG today of a father and his children calling out to each other as they were being bombed: “They murdered their father. Day after day after day after day the world does absolutely nothing.”
It was a despairing lament thrown out to the world and it hit me as the words came to me, “We have not forgotten.” Even as the end of the year comes and Christmas is a few days away, this felt like a plea and reminder to not forget what is happening in Gaza. There is a reason why after the Holocaust in WWII the words “Never again.” and “Never forget.” were spoken and written and passed down through generations.
I wrote this poem a while ago, needing to say something, again using some of the words of a Palestinian man going through this horror:
forgive me, he wrote,
for interrupting your day
but we are being killed—
I cannot find the words
but those I read daily
and the images
I can never unsee
and they haunt
as they should—
forgive me
for interrupting—
of flames
of hands reaching out
of tents burning
and so many
trapped inside
of the screams
and cries
an unending sorrow
a grief
that can never
be assuaged—
forgive me—
will this never end?
Artwork: Wael Shawky, film still featuring dancing lions, Love Story, video installation, 2024
Egyptian artist Wael Shawky’s recent exhibition at Daegu Art Museum in Korea brings together the hallmarks of his practice such as film, performance and sculptural installations to explore the intertwining of mythology and the telling of history (especially the impact of colonialism), of memory and imagination, and how these elements shape cultural, national and religious identities in specific regions.
The three video installations featured include a new work made for this exhibition, Love Story (2024), and two previously shown works: Al Araba Al Madfuna I (2012), and I Am Hymns of the New Temples (2023). Mythology and storytelling are the common threads across these videos spanning the regions of Korea, Egypt, and the ancient Italian city of Pompeii, respectively. Shawky describes the current exhibition as an exploration of “how the metaphysical world is connected to our lives,” incorporating his ongoing interest in examining how concepts such as love, supernatural beings, and faith in gods are woven into modern life.
The new video installation Love Story reinterprets Korea’s oral folktales and traditional fairy tales through the three stories, Silkworm Princess, Gold Ax, Silver Ax, and The Rabbit’s Trial. Utilising the Korean pansori storytelling tradition—a form of musical storytelling with a singer and drummer—interacting with traditional lion dancing, Shawky illustrates how the opposing worlds of the material and non-material coexist within a single narrative, and how love as an abstract concept is made manifest in this world.
Artwork: Mural by Kenny Random, Padova, Italy 2024
Another poetic, nocturnal mural from Kenny Random (@kennyrandom) in Padova, Italy.
Artwork: Saad Qureshi, Quicken, 2011
British artist Saad Qureshi describes his sculpture Quicken (2011) as a turning point in his practice and wrote this about the artwork:
“Quicken addresses the sanctity of human life by confronting the self-destructive trajectory of our species, the misdeeds of man and society’s increasing alienation from our shared spirituality. I modelled it after a minaret, which I broke in sections as a demonstrative gesture of the discord wrought by man.
Originally inspired by reports of a suicide bombing at a mosque in Afghanistan, I see this work as a metaphor that speaks of greater things… a messenger of the failure of communication and the brutality which ensues. It declares a state of emergency for our earthly co-habitation, but not without hope for resilience.
Within the sculpture’s core, viewers will notice the faint beating of a heart. This recording, taken at the moment of a baby’s birth, leads the viewer away from the horror of modern warfare and returns him to the divine rhythm of life at its most innocent.”
You can read my art story of Qureshi’s amazing installation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Something About Paradise (2020), here.
Artwork: Mural by Millo, The Embrace, Limassol, Cyprus, 2024
Beautiful new mural by Millo titled The Embrace, painted in Limassol, Cyprus and part of a series of 8 murals Millo will be working on, in the next months. The aim is to create a unique public art square in the island of Cyprus, all murals will symbolically represent different moments of people’s lives, while also connecting with the native island flora and their significance.
Artwork: Yoshitomo Nara, Waiting For, drawing on paper bag, 2024
WAITING FOR…coming across this work by Yoshitomo Nara today was great because I was thinking I’m done waiting!!! Not waiting, doing!! And while there is a lot I’d love to see happen in the world, like the cessations of wars, large-scale events have their own timeframes, and there is a lot out of one’s control, so just get on with life. That’s what I was thinking and journaling and I kept writing, ENOUGH! Not waiting, doing. And see what turns up or happens…
In 2014 Christian Boltanski installed an artwork in the Atacama Desert in Chile, Animitas, the first in a series of iterations featuring 800 small Japanese bronze bells on individual stems of various heights, arranged to mirror the position of the stars on the night of Boltanski’s birth. Animitas in Chile is the name for the roadside shrines created to commemorate the departed. The Atacama Desert is a high-altitude location featuring international observatories, and in this desolate landscape, the bells chime in a cacophony of sounds Boltanski describes as “music of lost souls.” The site is also significant as Chileans who lost loved-ones under the Pinochet regime, come to this place believing their remains were buried here.
Animitas is poetic, elegiac, and features Boltanski’s characteristic use of simple and ephemeral materials that correspond to working with the themes of memory, loss, birth and death, the transience of human existence. Speaking about his creative process, Boltanski said, “‘What I try to do with my work is to ask questions, talk about philosophical things, not through stories with words, but stories through visual images. I talk about actually very simple things, common to all. I don’t talk about complicated things. What I’m trying to do is to remind people to forget that it’s art and think about it as life.”
Artwork: Behn Samareh, Temporary Memorial, Bombay Beach, California, United States, 2023-
Photograph: Kevin Key
It is difficult to write about what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank. I find myself using other people’s words, mostly the words of Palestinian children. Often, I am speechless and my heart aches and I am horrified. There are so many images I can never unsee. But I never look away, I bear witness, as countless are doing around the globe.
Californian artist Behn Samareh transformed his grief at what he was witnessing into a “temporary memorial” at Bombay Beach, California, for the Gazan children killed in the war this past year. It’s a memorial for all children who have suffered and died in this war, including the 36 Israeli children that were identified as killed on October 7 as a result of the Hamas attack. Samerah describes the project as, “Almost an act of desperation. I didn’t know what else to do.” It is an ephemeral installation comprising drilled shallow holes for graves dug into the dirt. It is an ongoing “renegade” project as it is on public land designated by the council for “dust mitigation,” and Samerah says he will continue to create it as long as the war lasts. When he began, the number of children killed was 8,000-9,000, and the number climbs with each passing day. Over 16,000 children have been killed, many are missing and unaccounted for; thousands of children no longer have parents or family, and many, their bodies are still under rubble. Samareh says he was trying to find a way to visualise the number, to bring it into a kind of reality, to represent each life with the means he had. The ephemerality of the memorial captures something of the quality of memory, how it morphs with time. Who will remember all these lives lost, of the children who barely had time to live? Once the people who do remember these children are no longer on this earth, the existence of these children ceases to be, as they leave nothing behind to mark their presence.
I’ve studied many artworks that have the element of being memorials, mainly for the Holocaust. Works such as Rachel Whiteread’s Nameless Library. Rebecca Horn’s Concert in Reverse and Concert for Buchenwald. Anselm Kiefer’s earlier paintings such as Shulamith, inspired by Paul Celan’s incredible poem, Todesfuge (Death Fugue). Christian Boltanski’s series Lessons in Darkness. Boltanski’s project had that quality of ephemerality of memory, made of simple materials, the faces in the photographs ghostly and blurred, the candles and lights flickering in darkened spaces, the alignment of wires and images into altars, the feeling sombre and haunting. Memory is not fixed, and numbers alone can’t impress the enormity of loss and the depth of grief, or the trauma of the events that led to such a loss of life.
And yet these artists try, because forgetting is not an option.
Poem based on an encounter with a little girl in Gaza, carrying her sibling:
why are you carrying her?
she’s my sister
her leg is hurt,
aren’t you tired?
yes, I’ve been walking
for an hour
to get her leg treated
we have no car,
I’ll take you, come with me?
thank you
you love her very much?
yes
In 2011 a short film was released, This is My Dream, showcasing the creative process and inspirations of Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto. Directed by Theo Stanley, it documented Yamamoto’s working methods and daily life. Yamamoto said this in the film about what he’s trying to create: “I’m always thinking what is gorgeous for me. And finally for me, gorgeous means making gorgeous clothing. My gorgeous is creating. I’m always hungry, always hungry.”
Check out the trailer for the film.
Artwork: Elsa Guillaume exhibition, Royaume Pagures, La Patinoire Royale Bach in Belgium, 2024
French artist Elsa Guillaume’s current solo exhibition at La Patinoire Royale Bach in Belgium titled Royaume Pagures (Kingdom Pagures), brilliantly explores themes that run through her previous artwork of myth, storytelling, metamorphosis, imaginary creatures and worlds, sea exploration and voyages. Guillaume is fascinated by nature and the evolution of living beings. Working primarily with ceramics, watercolour and drawing, Royaume Pagures was inspired by Guillaume’s residency aboard the ship Marius travelling to places such as New Caledonia and Savannah in the United States. Royaume Pagures is a story of a potentially disappeared civilisation, a world before our world featuring crab-like creatures, when humans had not yet set foot on land. It is about sea voyages and explorations of the mysteries found in the oceans, with many of the sketchbooks and drawings featured in the exhibition having been created by Guillaume while travelling at sea. The collection of art works appear to be presented as ‘artefacts’ and evidence of this lost kingdom, a museum display giving a glimpse to the viewer of a time and beings long gone.
Artwork: Jean-Marie Appriou, Vessel of Time, Giza Plateau, Egypt, 2024
Currently on show in Cairo at the Giza Plateau is the 4th edition of Art D’Égypte’s exhibition Forever is Now. The aim of this project organised by the Egyptian art and heritage group Art D’Égypte is to juxtapose contemporary art with antiquities and heritage sites, creating opportunities for cultural interactions between artists from different parts of the world. The chief organiser and founder, Nadine Abdel-Ghaffar, said this about the project: "Every year we try to stay on top and address the whole world to bring all countries together in one place in this civilization, which all people know and are impressed by. This is a slogan for humanity. I always say that the pyramids have been there for over 4,500 years and they are still there, surviving all the wars and all the changes, and they will remain there forever."
Blending contemporary art with ancient history, this idea of the eternal in the present is evident in participating French artist Jean-Marie Appriou’s sculpture, Vessel of Time; an ancient Egyptian boat made of two tonnes Nile River clay with a bronze statue of an unclothed boy standing in the middle, representing the journey of childhood and humanity from life to death. The work is inspired by Khufu’s solar boat, found next to the Khufu pyramid. In ancient Egyptian mythology, boats were buried with the dead to transport their resurrected souls. The sculpture is also set at an east-west axis to embody the sun's movement from dawn to dusk. The theme of the boat, representing transitions between different states and times, has been central to Appriou’s previous work.
As Nadine Abdel-Ghaffar has stated, “The whole idea behind Art D’Égypte when it started was, really, to showcase the transcendence that Egyptian artists have with their heritage.” The project’s evolution since 2021 has expanded on this initial premise, showcasing a range of artists from different cultures and countries engaging with the Giza site and the wealth of Egyptian culture and history. Forever is Now is showing until November 16, 2024.
Artwork: Mural by Mantra, Where the miracle blooms (Wo das Wunder blüht), Wuppertal, Germany, September 2024
It’s spring in Melbourne and this mural by artist Mantra (@mantrarea) perfectly encapsulates the feeling of life blooming. Titled, Where miracles bloom (Wo das Wunder blüht), Mantra painted this mural freehand in Wuppertal, Germany (Sept 2024). Simply stunning.
Artwork: Paste-up by OAKOAK, Paris, 2024
French street artist OAKOAK declared October to be OAKTOBER and has been doing daily situational paste-ups that are brilliant, hilarious, whimsical and poetic. Here’s today’s work, a beam-me-up UFO body snatcher inspired artwork, one of a series of three in a row along the wall. Made me smile.
Artwork: Photograph by aldaalsaahmed (@ahmedaldaalsa), Gaza, 2024
Words of a woman fleeing for safety in Gaza—
we are not animals
we are not numbers
we are human beings
we are people
we love peace
we love life
we love to educate our children
we raised teachers, engineers
particle physicists
and all other walks of life
our history has been erased
our past has been erased
our present has been erased
and our future has been erased
and whatever life we have lived
has been erased
show us mercy!
Artwork: Kelly Akashi, Cultivator (Regeneration), 2024
A beautiful new work by Kelly Akashi that will be on view at Art Basel in Paris, titled Cultivator (Regeneration). Akashi wrote this about the piece: “The roses in my garden bloom in May, and I treasure their short-lived scent and many stages of beauty. This year, after I thought they had all been exhausted, I was surprised to see two new roses had emerged unexpectedly. This year has been full of surprises, difficult, enriching, and all of them humbling. I took these unexpected roses as a lesson, and made Cultivator (Regeneration) to hold and share their lesson: that new life can surprise us after loss.”
Artwork: Mural by GERA1, Persephone’s Emancipation, Eleusis, Greece, 2024
Amazing ground mural by GERA 1(@gera1_) titled Persephone’s Emancipation at a skatepark in the Municipality of Elefsina, Eleusis, Greece. GERA 1 wrote this about the piece:
“With this ground mural at Elefsina’s Arkopolis @skate_p_ark🛹I attempt to highlight the modern physiognomy of this great historical city while glimpsing at its rich and intense past✨
Drawing inspiration from Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s well-known baroque sculpture representing the abduction of Persephone by Pluto, I tried to reinterpret the well-known Greek myth, emphasizing the moment of Persephone’s intense struggle for deliverance and her desire to remain in the upper world of the living.
My Persephone can be any woman who fights for her freedom and is capable of bringing rebirth and a new joyful reality, as Eleusis’s etymology and myths has always manifested.”
Artwork: Trcaey Emin, I followed you to the end, 2024
As part of Tracey Emin’s most recent exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey in London (19 September – 10 November 2024) titled I followed you to the end, exploring themes of love, loss, mortality and rebirth embedded in her personal experiences, Emin spoke about art and its relationship to the public:
“Art is probably one of the only things left, the only true things left which exists for its own sake and nothing else. Because it’s a pure thing, art is a pure thing that comes from a realm that we’re not completely sure about. That’s why we like artists. That’s why we love art. That’s why we think it’s special. That’s why millions of people go and stare at the Mona Lisa every day, because they’re affected by the gaze of this special thing. The Turin Shroud wouldn’t be the Turin Shroud if people didn’t go and see it, and art is like that. It has an alchemy with those that take part in looking at it, at the gaze of it, and so if you’re going to be responsible for that as an artist, you have to be totally honest as well.”
Have to admit when I first heard British producer Aaron Hibell’s remix of Billie Eilish’s Chihiro I was blown away. Aaron posted the remix on SoundCloud (here) and YouTube, but was unable to release it as a track and wrote this to explain:
“I wanted to make this one a journey from start to finish. Unfortunately Billie's team said no to official remixes but they gave us permission to post on here. So I'm glad you can all enjoy it in full now. I'm very excited for this journey to continue and you all to be a part of it.”
Check it out!