Jeremy Deller and Richard Wentworth no doubt have files of photos of structures used to save parking spaces. Those salt-of-the-earth assemblages of dustbins and planks that the common man makes when he wants to keep Cynthia in her black 4X4 off her doorstep so he can unload the patio slabs or whatever. The east end has had an outbreak of similar holding pages that work on both a physical and mental level. On top of bus stops from Mare Street to Hoxton spiky day-glow blobs squat. Half an idea - 'It's a interesting space and until I can think of something to do there I'll reserve it'. Well that's long enough buddy: either put something up worth looking at or get up and clear them off and give us our blank spaces back.
A number of artist page producers have got work out there at the moment. www.tank.tv is showing a selection of videos by Alex Heim including the excellent 'Grand Walk'. Ludovica Gioscia is presenting her new, large-scale work in Tiger Economy at The Agency (www.theagencygallery.co.uk) until 21 February and Nathan Bartlex has been sending out flyers inviting us to his exhibition with Samuel Fouracre at Christopher Crescent (www.christophercrescent.co.uk). Avoiding the cliché of using an image of the work on the invite, Nathan, Samuel and Christopher have elected to send out a snapshot of themselves. Well it works for me; I'll be down there on the 13 of February. It's about time we had a new wave of celebrity artists and these young bucks could be just the ticket.
Elsewhere X marks the Bökship has opened on Cambridge Heath Road (http://bokship.wordpress.com) and promises a poet in residence and a programme of events. Verity-Jane Keefe is in residence at The Giftshop in Whitechapel (www.thewhitechapelgiftshop.com) until the14th working with local stallholders. Down at the I.C.A. Sean Snyder's work investigates the marketers' forgotten demographic: über-villains. Which wristwatch is favoured by Bin Laden? Is he fashion-forward? What did Saddam eat in his hole? Does it have the makings of a fad diet?
Tony Hart died on 18 January and three generations of art practitioners mourned. 'Vision On', 'Take Hart' et al will be his legacy but what of his practice? I turned to that great homogeniser eBay to see what out there bares his name and what it/people hope it is worth.
A brief look at the completed shop section tells us a few things; He did a lot of cartoon animals, particularly tigers. Drawings of Morph sell for about £70, sometimes more if they both signed the picture. Twenty years ago he was giving work to a large number of charity auctions and nurseries around the country have started dipping into their Hart archive to liquidise their assets.
Amid the; 'country's best loved TV artist' and 'legendary artist and children's TV Presenter - who sadly passed away at the weekend', was this on a drawing of an owl, 'Tony Hart came and did this at our school. It's a large A2 drawing as you can see, and very nice memento, we have a few knocking about and decided to put this one on Ebay for someone who might like it....' straightforward and honest, and made 37 quid for some new crayons - Tony would be pleased.
So that of the man but what of the work? Surprising little out there for a practicing artist that recently died. A picture of a candle holder (x2) though is intriguing and suggests some interesting depth to his practice. Described thus: One hundred per cent original Tony Hart charcoal drawing purchased at Charity auction 20 years ago. The unusual thing about this drawing is he has drawn pictures on both sides and both are slightly different also he has signed on both sides as well. Nice.
In this issue of Artvehicle, we have reviews of the exhibitions 'Feierabend' at Kate MacGarry and the 'Tate Triennial: Altermodern' at Tate Britain, and the publication 'Out of Now — the lifeworks of Tehching Hsieh'. We also have an interview with artist Eric Fong and a postcard from Oxford, alongside comment piece 'An Eternity of Eno' and Ed Atkins' latest 'Aside', a musing on hoods.
Adrian Lee