'2006 Problems' by John Kørner, Victoria Miro Gallery, London

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'There are plenty of known knowns in what John Kørner has recently painted: ships and trees, men and women, crocodiles and birds, town and country—and most apparently in'2006 Problems', factories and bicycles. These are modern things that we know we know. And as this commandeered logic continues, we know there are some things we do not know (known unknowns), and still others we don't yet know we don't know (unknown unknowns). It's the known unknown phenomena that belong to the realm of Kørner's sustained symptomatology of problems. Visible in paint as coloured blot marks shaped like elongated eggs or dropped-in droppings, problems often line up in Kørner's works as if notes on a musical stave or blobs of clay on wobbly shelves, latent undifferentiated tissue that's waiting to become more specific. Of course how to paint a problem must have been in itself a problem. We may presently be dealing with the problems of this year, or equally, it could be that there is a host of two thousand and six of these quandaries. Kørner makes paintings and painted ceramics, while, as he insists, he is not really a 'proper' painter. His often vast canvases are foremost a way of communicating through a very direct means and are only paintings later, almost by coincidence. All of this is, needless to say, problematic.'

Edited extract taken from the catalogue essay '2006 Problems: John Kørner' by Max Andrews.

Peter Piller

Peter Piller's show Arrows at ProjecteSD, Barcelona, has been extended until 5 January. "The installation brings together 37 pictures of different formats, colour and black & white, all showing “arrows”. Arrows are symbols commonly seen on local German newspapers used by editors to underline supposedly interesting features on the image illustrating the news."

Tue Greenfort's 'Rococo Eco', Max Wigram, London

IMAGES ABOVE: 'Fur No Fur', 2006. Installation of 4 elements: Mirrors (175 x 145 x 36 cm); Galvanised steel mink trap (23.7 x 83 x 7.5 cm); Two furs (each, approx. 120 x 53 x 21 cm); Aluminium clothes rail (145 x 120 x 50 cm). Courtesy the artist and Max Wigram Gallery, London.

For his first solo exhibition in the UK, Greenfort’s new works in this exhibition respond to the businesses that run the length of New Bond Street. They query the function of luxury accessories, looking at how the notion of luxury has historically changed from the roots of capitalism to neo-liberalism. They also question the meaning of wealth and who benefits from its consumption.

The installation 'Fur No Fur' (2006) makes reference to the former function of the gallery as a fur shop. Placing on a clothes rail a silver fox and mink fur stitched together for visitors to try them on in front of a fragmented mirror, Greenfort has graphically visualised the economic transaction taking place between those who give up a coat to the international charitable organisation P.E.T.A. (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) to receive in exchange tax-exemption. He has also included a mink trap to address how the institutionalisation of anti-fur movements in the UK and the ban on mink farming has led to the industry moving to places like China where animal rights activism doesn’t exist. As a consequence, this shift has produced a disequilibrium in the bio-diverse ecosystem of the English countryside as, for the last two decades, minks have been endangering smaller rodents like water voles.

LAND, ART links

LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook goes on press this Wednesday. Meanwhile here are some previews from the RSA, the excellent worldchanging.com, the e-flux announcement and Cornerhouse's web, worldwide distributor of the book.

http://www.rsa.org.uk/journal/storydetails.asp?articleID=859

http://www.rsa.org.uk/journal/article.asp?articleID=837

http://worldchanging.com/archives/004385.html

Emirates Research Trip

Here are some photos from Latitudes research trip last week to the United Arab Emirates in connection with the upcoming Sharjah Biennial, April-June 2007. We are working on the symposium for SB8 in collaboration with RSA Arts & Ecology.

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DAY

Here's an interview with Jordan Wolfson, in which he talks about DAY.