CONTENTS February 2015
Issue No 383 www.artmonthly.co.uk
COVER Gail Pickering Near Real Time 2014 video
01 Features The Last Laugh Bob Dickinson on art and comedy 06 Brecht: Redux Sarah James on the use and abuse of Bertolt Brecht
12 Editorial letters
13 News artnotes obituaries SueArrowsmith DavidDye AL Rees
16 Profile Gail Pickering Sophie J Williamson
18 Reviews exhibitions Revolver 2 Chris Fite-Wassilak
19 Listening David Briers 20 Rie Nakajima: Fall Virginia Whiles 21 Art & Language: Nobody Spoke Peter Suchin 22 Beauty and Revolution: The Poetry andArt ofIan Hamilton Finlay Cherry Smyth 23 Reiner Ruthenbeck Marcus Verhagen 24 Emotional Resources Louisa Elderton 25 Idit Elia Nathan: Footnotes PlayingDead Deborah Schultz 26 Mark Neville: London/Pittsburgh Curt Riegelnegg 27 Irma Blank: Breath Paintings Amalia Pica: Switchboard Martin Holman 28 ConstructingWorlds: Photography andArchitecture in the ModernAge Walead Beshty: APartialDisassembling of anInventionWithout a Future Eleanor Clayton
30 TomDale: Terminal Blue Tim Dixon Stuart Middleton: Sad Sketches Saim Demircan 31 Morgan Fisher Lucy Stein and Shana Moulton: Retention Martin Herbert 32 Manchester Round-up: Cornerhouse • Castlefield Gallery •International 3 • Bureau Bob Dickinson 34 Shanghai Biennale: Social Factory Andrew J Stooke 35 books How toWriteAbout ContemporaryArt Jennifer Thatcher 36 TheArt ofWalking: AField Guide Nick Warner
37 Report Letter from Colombo Josephine Breese 38 Listings rt Monthly 4th Floor 28 Charing Cross Road London WC2H 0DB United Kingdom
020 7240 0389 info@artmonthly.co.uk twitter.com/artmonthly facebook.com/artmonthly
ISSN 0142 6702 Art Monthly is published 10 times a year
Subscriptions subs@artmonthly.co.uk Current rates online – digital subscriptions start at £8. Call or email with payment details, or buy online. www.artmonthly.co.uk/buy
Editor Patricia Bickers Associate Editor/Online Editor David Barrett Assistant Editor/ Production Manager Chris McCormack Listings Berry Patten listings@artmonthly.co.uk Advertising Matt Hale Berry Patten 020 7240 0418 ads@artmonthly.co.uk Subscription/Distribution Ashiya Eastwood subs@artmonthly.co.uk Proofreader Penny Williams Company Secretary and Managing Editor Letty Mooring Publisher Jack Wendler Design Beverley Jackson
Published by Britannia Art Publications Ltd. All editorial, advertising and subscription enquiries to Art Monthly, 4th Floor, 28 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0DB, T 020 7240 0389, info@artmonthly.co.uk. Printed in Great Britain by S&G Print Group, Goat Mill Rd, Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil. CF48 3TD. Bookshop/Gallery Retail and Newstrade Distribution: Central Books Ltd, 99 Wallis Rd, London E9 5LN, T 020 8986 4854, E orders@centralbooks.com. USA Distribution: Ubiquity Distributors, 607 Degraw Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217, USA, T 718 875 5491, E info@ubiquitymags.com. The views expressed in Art Monthly are not necessarily those of the publishers or editors.The electronic version of Art Monthly is available on the Art Index http://www.hwwilson.com. © No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced in any way without permission. Art Monthly has been set in Art Monthly Sans and Art Monthly Serif.