After Australia's giant potato ended up looking like a piece of dino poop, we can say that today's news is not the first time a large turd has become a tourist attraction.
But in Switzerland a giant inflatable dog doo, which was part of an exhibition in Bern's Paul Klee Centre, has blown away and terrorized the city.
This art work, created by American Paul McCarthy, has the sophisticated name of "Complex Shit." Bringing down power lines and landing at some kind of orphanage is certainly complex behavior for a large turd--or a fantastic way to get the gallery some worldwide publicity.
A new "installation" at the Tate Britian is made up of groups of runners sprinting through the neoclassical galleries. Work No. 850, which will continue at the museum until November 16, is a non-stop relay race back and forth through the museum, with each 15-second dash accompanied by a 15-second pause.
Artist Martin Creed says the work was inspired by his attempt to see the catacombs in Palermo, Italy in just five minutes, but we immediately saw another muse. In Bertolucci's "The Dreamers," Isabelle, Théo and Matthew sprint through the Louvre in a moment of youthful jubilation and rebellion.
Of course, that too was an homage. The original museum runners were the trio from Godard's "Bande à Part" in 1964. We've got the clips after the click.
Spain's oldest town, Zaragoza, has been on the lookout for a tourism boost. And they're hoping to get it with the 2008 Expo which starts on Saturday and runs until September 14.
While the "water and sustainable development" theme doesn't sound too sexy to us, the 60 acres of exhibitions from 100 countries are meant to be focused on entertainment and education--only 20 percent of the space is allowed to be about selling stuff--and we're open to a bit of edu-tainment.
If you're one of the estimated 7 million visitors to Expo 2008, you'll get to see stuff like the multimedia iceberg show every night, the "air bound theater" of Hombre Vertiente and the midday Awakening of the Serpent parade. It's kinda like Disneyland with an environmental conscience.
Montreal isn't exactly known as a center of haute couture, but beginning May 29 all the fashionistas will be packing their all-black ensembles to attend a new retrospective on the career of French designer Yves Saint-Laurent at The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Saint-Laurent revolutionized fashion in his Paris studio by making pieces from his runway shows available pret-a-porter, or available for purchase without a custom order. The designer officially retired in 2002 but you can see over 100 of his fully accessorized outfits on display all summer long.
This show--and a copy of Alicia Drake's book The Beautiful Fall, about Saint-Laurent and competitor Karl Lagerfeld--ought to tide you over till Fashion Week.
We've always thought it'd be cool to travel around the art circuit--like writer David Amsden did last year--but it's always seemed too pricey. We'd hardly be able to afford all the champagne and cocktail dresses, let alone the actual work for sale. But the Affordable Art Fair coming to NYC may actually be worth a visit.
The event, started in London in 1999, aims to make contemporary art buying accessible, without the snobby atmosphere or astronomical prices. (At least, so they say.) At the stateside fair this year will be more than 70 galleries from 12 countries, and 75 percent of the art will be priced from $100-$5,000. Not exactly cheap, but certainly reasonable.
And even if you're not buying, it's still a good chance to see a bunch of art under one roof. There will also be printmaking and sculpture demos, so you can get your hands dirty if you get inspired. The fair runs June 12-15 and admission is $17.
Andy Warhol fans are in for a treat if they can get to the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia in the next few months. A major new exhibition featuring pieces from a number of galleries across the world will come together from January 4 to March 28, 2008.
Along with a bunch of Warhol artwork, including his famous Campbell's soup cans, the exhibition will include a Warhol Up Late program every Friday evening, an interactive activity for children and a freely downloadable Audio Guide to the Warhol exhibition on the gallery website.
We know he coined the phrase, but Warhol always seems to get much more than his fifteen minutes of fame.
Despite the fact that New York gets super crowded in the fall, it's one of the best times to visit because so much cultural stuff is happening. And The Metropolitan Museum of Art is leading the charge with a massive exhibit of Dutch paintings that starts today and runs until January 6.
Before you sniffle at the idea of catching a bunch of still life paintings of skulls, know that The Met has one of the largest collections of these paintings anywhere. And among them are 20 Rembrandts. The guy's famous for a reason.
Also interesting is the exhibit format: Instead of organizing the show by theme, the paintings will hang in the order in which the museum acquired them. So rather than walking through the development of Dutch art, the show is a snapshot of the museum's history. Not a bad way to spend a rainy fall day in the city.
