David Mabb

'What Keeps Mankind Alive?': the Eleventh International Istanbul Biennial. Once More on Aesthetics and Politics

Starting from the 2009 Istanbul Biennial, with its Brechtian curatorial theme, this essay considers the Left’s varying responses to art’s so-called ‘political turn’. Discussion ranges from the local and regional context of the Biennial’s function as part of Turkey’s bid to join the EU, through to a longer theoretical perspective on the critical debates over ‘art and life’, artistic autonomy and heteronomy, and the revival in avant-gardism. The authors propose that the standard accounts of the intimate connection between the commodity and art have become politically counterproductive. They suggest that Marxist analysis needs to develop a more complexly-articulated philosophical reflection on the relation between economy, politics, and art ‐ and between political and aesthetic praxes ‐ if it is to advance its longstanding contributions to considerations of ‘aesthetics and politics’.

William Morris and the atomic

A Provisional Memorial to Nuclear Disarmament was made in response to a visit to HMS Courageous, a decommissioned nuclear powered submarine furnished with William Morris ‘Rose’ fabrics. The Ministry of Defence commissioned the fabric for its nuclear submarines for over 30 years, from the 1960s through to the late 1990s, including the Vanguard Class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines that are armed with Trident nuclear-armed missiles. In the black and white photographs that follow, each of the fourteen works is represented twice, from the front and the back. The works consist of old projection screens in which the white screen fabric has been removed and replaced. The fronts of the screens are mostly painted black, with some Morris patterns. On the back of the screens William Morris patterned fabrics have been painted with anti-nuclear slogans and signs.

Notes on the Morris Kitsch Archive

Abstract This article was written in conjunction with my production of the Morris Kitsch Archive. The archive contains 530 images, largely drawn from the Internet, of commercial objects decorated with William Morris patterns. I excluded objects that been produced in multiples with different patterns, and objects that claim to be inspired or influenced by Morris but where a Morris design is not identifiable. The images are individually laminated in A4 sheets and hung thematically in a grid. Morris Kitsch Archive was first shown as part of Have Nothing in your Houses That You Do Not Know to Be Useful, or Believe to Be Beautiful at Leo Kamen Gallery, Toronto, February 21-March 21, 2009.