The State Itself Becomes A Super Whatnot

Two heavyweights at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York 2011:

Liam Gillick:

Runa Islam:

Underground 150

Since all art venues were closed on Boxing Day, I took a rare opportunity to roam some busy streets of central London.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the world's oldest underground train, Transport for London's Art on the Underground invited 15 artists to participate in the 15 For 150 project.  The limited edition prints I saw at Piccadilly Circus station yesterday include ...

Wolfgang Tillmans:

Idris Khan:

Runa Islam:

TfL's ongoing Tube Map projects have also continued to draw big names this year to design their map covers.  Earlier this year, there was Mona Hatoum (the May 2013 edition):

The most recent is Imran Qureshi's December 2013 edition:

Some more pictures I took yesterday are available at my newly created Twitter site.

Magical Consciousness*

First day in New York ... I spent the entire afternoon at the MoMA.  Since I had only(!) three hours, I had to pick and choose.  I chose to see its collection from after the 1960s.  That's actually what I like most.  Not only was I happily bombarded by the rich imagery, I was surprised to see an exhibition of Runa Islam's recent films.  I have really missed her films since the 2008 Turner Prize exhibition at Tate Britain.  As always, Islam's films were very beautifully shot, with her distinctive minimal poetic style.

*Magical Consciousness is the title of one of Islam's four films currently on view at MoMA.