Darren Bader

(click to expand and enlarge image)

Not to be confused with Daren Bader, Darren Bader is a criminally overlooked artist on my part who just so happens to be in Phaidon's Younger Than Jesus publication. Seeing as i've browsed that book obsessively i'm not sure how I missed him, but miss him I did. In this article I hope to rectify that. The images above are taken from two of his exhibitions, the first pair of his installation Cat (2004) and the second pair from as = poaching the poachers (2007) shown at the Rivington Arms.

Its hard to quantify what it is I like about these accumulations of objects. Perhaps its because he uses some surprisingly under-used materials such as DVD packaging (see third image) or kitchen utensils unimbued with iconographic art history or context. Perhaps its his seeminglu totally unrestrained love of appropiation and his method of arranging it to suggest a totally open narrative. Theres no way you can look at his installations in full. To do so only gives a vague sensation of conmnectivity, or perhaps a place, outside the conventions of public or private use. Speaking of the private/public these arrangements don't seem to be aiming to provoke or push their viewers. It melds familiarity with the illogical and gently invites dialogue. The rooms exhibiting his work seem to have potential beyond their function of storing art. They look as though they could of been decorated and adapted by an individual half conciously without needing to consider the aesthetic qualities. This unknown inhabitant might lack furniture or refinement but he or she puts it to good use. Surrealist interior design perhaps? :p

An Introduction to Fallen Over

Damon Zucconi

Olympic (Snow)
From Black to Blue

Polar Inertia

'At' Asserting its Object Status (Found Sculpture)

Today I flicked to the very last entry in Phaidon's Younger Than Jesus book and found this nice young mans work. Straddling cautiously somewhere between appropiation and new media Damon has produced some neat trickery on his website - including found animated GIFs 'asserting' themselves as art objects, heavily manipulated and/or reactive videos of people dancing or soundtracked by trance, rave and techno music, as well as the more standard browser visual experimentation one would expect from a new media artist. His work gently and undogmatically hints at a believable future for art where physical objects and even places/installations are considered old hat. I've provided a few links in addition to the normal 4 images of my favorite Zucconi browser works.

http://damonzucconi.com/

An Introduction to Fallen Over

An Introduction to Fallen Over

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my humble blog. Here you find nothing more than the ramblings and findings of a working class kid inappropiately obsessed with modern art. I decided to start a blog for 2 reasons. 1) I felt like jumping on the independant art fans blogging bandwagon - and 2) Because I have (rather shockingly) a point to make about my favorite branch of post-modern art practice. That of appropiation and found art.

Have you noticed how we still try and give reasons for displaying otherwise ordinary objects in galleries and art establishments? Artists, curators and writers still seem to be quick to defend the genre/practice/whatchamicallit' etc via complex and academic philosophical contexts that (if we're honest) only a limited group will genuinely understand. However i've found the very reason I love this sort of art so much is purely because of how 'ordinary' it is. The artists ideas and the arrangement has made it extraordinary, not forgetting the beholders interpretation of course. This makes the objects +ordinary.

Surely we are at the point (or near enough) to accept that objects can trascend that mysterious 'art' barrier without icing them up with lengthy and dry systems of critical pardoning. Appropiation art doesn't need an excuse anymore. As much as I can appreciate and enjoy a beautiful, crafted, hierarchically tasteful art work as much as the average Daily Mail* reader I personally my preferences lie towards the broken winged. I like it when things look as though they've gone wrong - as if someone visiting the Garman Ryan collection had backed up to admire a Jacob Epstein sketch only to bump into and trip over one of his busts. The resulting mess of which would be my sort of art.

This won't be updated to strict timetable. But I aim to update at least once or twice a week. Thanks again for bothering to read this at all. Stick around and be amazed as I go ahead and contradict this first post many times over. I'll try to stick to art and news in a suitably Fallen Over canon. If you are an artist or know of a good artist please post any and all suggestions to my email at abzhog@hotmail.co.uk and i'll take a look-see. I'll at the very least consider your input.

Ben Harris


* Thats not very nice I know. I'll be good, honest...

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[DISCLAIMER : I haven't asked for permission to use any of the images on show. I hope you'll understand that if i've appropiated any images from your site that my aim was to praise and promote your work for the sheer love of it. However if you would like me to remove any of your imagery please don't hesitate to email me at abzhog@hotmail.co.uk and i'll edit all offending entries]