Wednesday 28 January 2015

I love the smell of cauliflower in the morning

Oddity of the day: the napalm bursts from Apocalypse Now, recreated with a cauliflower and a light bulb. Why? Apparently Radu Zaciu was first inspired to start photographing illuminated fruit and veg because the German slang term for a light bulb is “glühbirne” (“glow pear").

It's been a good month for this sort of thing, what with Theaster Gates winning the Artes Mundi Prize for his installation, A Complicated Relationship Between Heaven And Earth, or When We Believe, which featured, among other things, a stuffed goat riding a tricycle round a circular track. Why? 'The installation contemplates how objects have been used as signifiers of power - and perhaps re-opens them, to be real instruments of accessing belief.'

No, me neither. At least I understood the light bulb thing.

Mind you, Theaster's probably wise to pitch his tricycling goat as some kind of Profound Artistic Insight Into Serious Stuff. If he didn't, the goats might think that humans were just taking the piss and, as we learnt last year, goats are not to be mocked with impunity.

But, never mind the artybollocks, Theaster does sound like a pretty good bloke who, as well as entertaining the rest of us with his eccentric art, generously chose to share his £40,000 prize money with his fellow nominees, so I'd be genuinely sad to see him set upon by a platoon of enraged goats.

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