NEWS>ARTNOTES

P&O that will involve Tate experts lecturing on art to passengers cruising the Mediterranean or the Baltic in a leisurely fashion. Nice work if you can get it, and profitable, too, according to Will Gompertz, Tate’s director of media. One of the benefits will be the development of new audiences, once code for reaching the poorer, culturally deprived sectors of the community, but now a policy clearly targeted at the wealthier end of the market where future patrons and potential might be found. And talking of cruising, Tate’s Damien Hirst decorated river cruiser, which plies its way between Tates Britain and Modern, has been upstaged by Greek construction tycoon Dakis Joannou’s art-covered 114ft yacht launched earlier this year at a glittering event to which a select group of 100 guests, drawn from the international art world, was invited. Among them was Sir Nicholas Serota, recently crowned lifetime director of Tate, and dealers Marian Goodman and Larry Gagosian. Named Guilty, the pleasure boat has been decorated by Hirst’s friend and rival Jeff Koons and is packed to the gunwales with contemporary art by Ashley Bickerton and other regulars from the Dakis Joannou Collection who were also featured in the accompanying exhibition at the Deste Foundation, curated by Joannou’s longtime art consultant, Jeffrey Deitch. The highlight of the exhibition, if that is the word, was provided by art shock jock Maurizio Cattelan. It comprised a row of grey bodybags fashioned out of marble and laid out on the floor. Titled All, it was pronounced a ‘masterwork’ by one of those present who must have been recovering from a bad case of mal de mer. ❚

LONDON LINE-UP

Butcher’s is a new project set up by curators Ben Borthwick and Cylena Simonds. The duo, who are currently presenting work from a shop window in Camden, aim to provide a platform for artists, designers and producers to develop projects and practices using the economic model of bartering. The projects

are initially open-ended in how they materialise, with the first exhibition by Tim Etchells consisting of a neon sign Wait Here, I’ve gone to get help, visible from the street 24 hours a day. Butcher’s aims to exhibit established international artists who have previously been unknown in the UK, with forthcoming projects including an exhibition of video work by Brazilian artist Marcos Chaves (October 12-November 15). Borthwick, assistant curator at Tate Modern, and Simonds, a freelance curator, writer and international guest curator at the David Roberts Art Foundation, are both in the process of securing the longer-term use of the building. www.butchersprojects.org Trustees of the John Latham Foundation have announced the opening of Flat Time House (FTHo), the home and studio of the late artist in Peckham. Elisa Kay has devised a 10-month programme of exhibitions and events with the opening exhibition, ‘Distress of a Dictionary’, surveying the artists’ relation to language and humour. The venue itself illustrates Latham’s concept of a ‘living sculpture’, the artist commonly attributing anthropomorphic properties to his house, the archive being the brain, and the studio becoming the hand. Forthcoming exhibitions will present younger artists responding to Latham’s legacy and his concepts of time and space. www.flattimeho.org.uk Yinka Shonibare has opened his studio space off Mare Street in Hackney for a series of exhibitions. Guest selectors curate the exhibitions at Three by Three every month. Current selectors Doug Fishbone, Mandy Lee Jandrell and Jane Thurley have selected, among others, Sarah Baker, Marcus Coates, Melanie Stidolph, Mark Titchner and Neil Zakiewicz (October 2-26). Future selectors include Ruth Beale and JJ Charlesworth. threebythreee8@googlemail.com This month Sebastian & Barquet will open a gallery dedicated to presenting modernist design. The inaugural exhibition will feature on American modernist design focusing on the

period from the 40s to the 60s (October 8November 15). www.sebastianbarquet london.com A few exhibition spaces momentarily pop up this month in time for the extra international body count drawn together for London’s art fairs. The Wharf Road Project presents itself as a large-scale exhibition, ‘not an art fair’, principally set up by V22 gallery (October 4-19). Galleries and projects are allocated spaces across the five-floor venue situated near Victoria Miro’s gallery. Galleries that will ‘curate’ an area include Carter Presents and David Risley Gallery, with artist-run venues such as The Hex and Parade Space (www.v22london.com.) Other venues opening this month in time for the fair include Old Marylebone Library (October 17-19) and the Old Truman Brewery’s Kounter Kulture exhibition (October 15-19). The ICA has dropped its daily admission charge. The venue, located along The Mall, was previously unable to offer free entry due to restrictions with licensing laws imposed by the enigmatic sounding Board of the Green Cloth. The switch to Westminster City Council has granted free entry until 11pm. www.ica.org.uk ❚

BOULDER

This summer John Frankland unveiled a large dual-site permanent public work for Hackney parks. Two pieces of solid granite, each weighing up to 100 tonnes and over 4m high, have been situated in Shoreditch Park and Mabley Green. Frankland has left the granite as found, making visible the traces of the blast the rocks underwent when being mined from the quarry. The artist also intends the boulders to be climbed upon, with climbing competitions and classes for young people planned over the autumn months. The photographer and filmmaker Chris Dorley-Brown has worked with John Frankland, documenting the complex engineering involved in transporting the work to the site. The film will be on display at Peer until October 11. www.peeruk.org ❚

Talking Art Interviews with artists since 1976 Edited by Patricia Bickers and Andrew Wilson

A must-have book for every library

Since it was founded in 1976 Art Monthly has consistently published interviews with leading contemporary artists. The 64 interviews offer unique insights into the thought processes and working practices of artists.

From Russian Constructivists of the 1920s to Turner Prize winners, this collection of interviews constitutes an entertaining and alternative history of 20th-century art.

Essential reading!

Co-published by Ridinghouse and Art Monthly 2007, 608pp, pb, £19.95, 978-1-905464-04-3. www.artmonthly.co.uk/book

Orders from Cornerhouse Telephone: +44 (0) 161 200 1501 Email: publications@cornerhouse.org www.cornerhouse.org

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