New blog!
September 23, 2010 by johnpaulholden
I’ve started a new blog, The Bibliophile, which you can access here. Happy reading!…
New photos
December 17, 2009 by johnpaulholden
A thought at year’s end…
December 17, 2009 by johnpaulholden
On December 6, Richard Wright, the Glasgow-based artist, won this year’s Turner Prize for work which includes the gold leaf fresco shown above (see the featured video for more info). As The Guardian’s Charlotte Higgins reported, the piece began with a cartoon that was pierced with holes through which chalk was rubbed. This “ghost” outline - applied directly to a wall at the Tate Britain gallery - was then overlaid with adhesive and gold leaf. The technique dates back to the Renaissance and is extremely toilsome. Yet, once the Turner exhibition is finished, the fresco will be painted over and lost forever. For Wright, this knowledge heightens the experience of engagement in both artist and viewer. “To see a work knowing that it will not last,” he says, “emphasises that moment of its existence”. So: more involvement, less distraction and, ultimately, the possibility of coming away with more - all thanks to living in the present; approaching something with an awareness that it could be about to disappear or pass away. Definitely one of my NY resolutions for 2010…
Infographics
December 16, 2009 by johnpaulholden
I’ve just come across Information is Beautiful - an amazing blog by journalist/designer David McCandless which more or less turns news and trivia into abstract art. And these ‘visualising’ designs aren’t just pretty – they also convey information far more compellingly and memorably than would be possible with text alone. Have a look at the billion dollar o-gram (above) to see what I mean. I’m certainly not about to forget the fact that internet porn is worth almost the same as global aid donations or that the money spent on the Iraq War is almost six times the annual amount required to shift the world to renewable energy! There’s a feed from McCandless’ site at the bottom of this page.
One nation?…
December 15, 2009 by johnpaulholden
Sadly not, it seems. A Scottish Government review published earlier this month has spoken of a
How many other cameras in Scotland are not doing their job - and how easy will it be to turn the current situation around when recession-hit public finances are so stretched? Has CCTV been nothing but an expensive – and invasive – waste of time for many of the people who need it most?
