African Art

Two artistes whose work I'm not sure about have teamed up to raise money for HIV/AIDS medicine for africa. Together they invited top artists to donate work for a Valentine's Day auction. I've seen reports that they will raise between 25-40 million US dollars in the auction.

Sotheby's will be auctioning the works. It is themed [RED], tying into the campaign that has co-opted marketers like The Gap to donate a percentage of their profits to African Charitable causes.
Hirst has made some work for sale (and in a cool twist has co-opted Banksy to make a double entendre. Georg Baselitz is there. As are Antony Gormley, Subodh Gupta, Anish Kapoor and art rockstar Jeff Koons. The cash goes to the United Nations Foundation to support HIV/AIDS relief programmes in Africa.

Hirst, whose career was propelled by the patronage of Charles Saatchi once said:

"I remember when I couldn't give my art away, it wasn't long ago either," Hirst said in a statement.

Personally I can understand that. I can also see the value of celebrity. Not that sure I like U2 either. But I admire two geniuses of self promotion turning their attention to things that matter.

Hirst also said:

"For a relatively small amount of effort on each artist's part we can actually save many lives," Hirst continued. "It's great to be able to give something back and make a difference."

Which is a point well made.

Comments

Johnny Bunko competiton

The Great Johnny Bunko Challenge from DHP on Vimeo . There's a young chap in Indiana, one Alec Quig , who has written to me about creating a career based on a polymathic degree, from which he has recently graduated. He's an interesting young man and his concerns about going forward in life are the anxieties we all face at crossroads in our lives when we are forced to make choices. Dan Pink's latest book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need might help: "From a New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Washington Post bestselling author comes a first-of-its- kind career guide for a new generation of job seekers.There's never been a career guide like it.the fully illustrated story (ingeniously told in Manga form) of a young Everyman just out of college who lands his first job. Johnny Bunko is new to parachute company Boggs Corp., and he stumbles through his early days as a working stiff until a crisis prompts him to find a new job. St

Ze Frank thinks so you don't have to

Ze Frank appeared on my radar when I saw his presentation among the excellent TED Talks videos . This morning I was reading Russell Davies planning blog in which he referred to a clip by Ze Frank - Where do ideas come from. Here's the transcript: "...Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima [sic] writes, "Are you ever gonna break into song again? Are you running out of ideas?" Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima, that's a good question. I run out of ideas every day! Each day I live in mortal fear that I've used up the last idea that'll ever come to me. If you don't wanna run out of ideas the best thing to do is not to execute them. You can tell yourself that you don't have the time or resources to do 'em right. Then they stay around in your head like brain crack. No matter how bad things get, at least you have those good ideas that you'll get to later. Some people get addicted to that brain crack. And the longer they wait, the more they convince themse

Why billboards must go.

The problem with billboards and advertising in public places is they are an invasion of privacy. Unlike magazine, tv, radio (etc) advertising you cannot choose to turn it off or avoid it. Nor does it offer anything in return. It is a medium that offers no benefit or advantage to the person it is inflicted on. At least television ads subsidise the programming. Without doubt some billboards are entertaining - I thought the anti GE poster for short lived MADGE activist group was particularly good. But most are rubbish. Literally. Badly executed. Nothing important to say. The debate has led to a great deal of hysteria - mostly from people with a vested interest in perpetuating the deployment of hoardings. Perhaps the idea that the issue at stake is 'property rights' is the creepiest. If you own a building you have every right to plaster anything you like on its external surfaces. Is that an antisocial point of view? I think so. In the UK you could have an ASBO slapped on you for si

ThoughtSpurs

Search This Blog

African Art

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Johnny Bunko competiton

Ze Frank thinks so you don't have to

Why billboards must go.