“I first learned of Magnús Pálsson’s work while organizing a weekly community radio show during a residency in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland. While preparing an episode on sound poetry, I was searching for some Iceland-based artists, and the first name on every Icelander’s lips, when it came to that medium, was Magnús Pálsson. But for an English speaker whose Icelandic is limited to takk (thanks), it was nearly impossible to find any recordings or audio samples of Pálsson’s work, most of which was in Icelandic and distributed via physical media. I have my own personal fascinations with obscurity, and so this unavailability, intentional or unintentional, was intriguing to me.”
- Ben DuVall
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- Ben DuVall
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Robert Adams
Robert Adams, Basement for a tract house, Colorado Springs, 1969
“It is the responsibility of artists to pay attention to the world, pleasant or otherwise, and to help us live respectfully in it.”
- Robert Adams, Art Can Help, 2017
- Robert Adams, Art Can Help, 2017
“a nature-focused aesthetic became appealing precisely because it promised a break from cultural pressure, from the pressure to constantly navigate complex human-built environments. It wasn’t so much that the natural world was actually simple, but that it offered an experiential simplicity for human observers. Nature wasn’t saying anything in particular and didn’t demand anything in return. By offering compelling forms in isolation from human contexts, natural imagery tended to support the kind of attention Brian Eno had earlier highlighted as central to ambient music, the experience of perceiving something “as ignorable as it is interesting”
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Endre Tót
“The foundational strategy of (Endre) Tót's conceptual oeuvre is this statement "I am glad if...", first found in a 1971 postcard reading, as noted above, "I was glad to print this sentence," and then in his early series of photo and video performances, Joys. In Joys, the artist proclaims his gladness at enacting the mundane or absurd-"I am glad if I can take one step," or "I am glad if I can stare at a wall." In the context of 1970s Hungary, these Joys were subtly subversive-when Tót's first Joys video performances were screened in the presence of a state censor, the film was confiscated and destroyed for its tongue-in-cheek gladness.
excerpted from
Endre Tót, Gladness and Rain
excerpted from
Endre Tót, Gladness and Rain
From Dublin-based artist Hilary Woods’ upcoming Acts of Light. The video is, in Woods’ words, “from old newsreels of archive footage on film, (it) muses on the beauty of community and resilience. This music video is a visual love letter to the Dublin City I grew up in, to the spirit of familial roots and the extraordinary moments in ordinary life that leave their lasting impression."