Art, Twitter, and three Labour leaders
On a balmy spring Sunday morning in London yesterday, I walked from my home across three London parks to visit the Richard Hamilton show at the Serpentine Gallery.
I wondered how long it will be before someone digs up a few streets to create genuine green pedestrian corridors to allow London’s people to walk unmolested by traffic – her parks are an exhibition of their own – green, blossom strewn, pleasant lands.
Upon entering the exhibition past Margaret Thatcher playing on a TV screen above an NHS bed titled ‘treatment room’ one is very quickly struck between the eyes by ‘Shock and Awe’ – an absolutely startling full length gun slinging portrait of Tony Blair. Pistols on the hips.
It would make a terrific cover for his forthcoming memoirs. I see it comes from the artist’s own collection. It certainly ought to enter the public collection. The arresting technicoloured square portrait of Blair’s predecessor Hugh Gaitskell already belongs to us, via the Arts Council.
Hamilton pre-empts the era of photographic manipulation using the shocking images of the killing of students at Kent State University in the US during an anti Vietnam War protest; the ‘dirty’ protest in the Maze jail during the Northern Ireland troubles; and the hand cuffing of the Rolling Stones on suspected drug offences, as emblematic of the turbulent age that his art has spanned. You find yourself leaving the show wanting to see much more.
I pen this as I prepare to go north to interview Gordon Brown – not yet, so far as I know, depicted by Hamilton.
Last night, I tweeted for questions triggering a cascade of answers as vivid as the art show. Controlling the banks, sending post cards to cancer patients, vision, and the opportunity to work are interwoven with Snoopy and a persistent Twitter from a man who has lost his car keys and seems to want me to ask the prime minister where they are.
I am a one week old novice on Twitter. I confess I am intrigued by a platform I had tried very hard to eschew. But if you are a journalist and want a whiff of what people think, very quickly, it works.
Related posts:
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- Labour conference: flat as your hat
- Thatcher portrait for a world in crisis
- What's in a severed head?
- My Wimbledon debut
There are 18 comments on this post
Twitter seems to be an art itself.
Messages get mixed and take a meaning on all of themselves. Tweeters take the mick . We can’t see facial expressions, so really can’t say whether they are being obtuse or whether it is us?
It is one of those mediums which is exciting even though a lot of trash flies around.
I tweeted to a pleasant chap, who quickly slipped in the fact his wife was around.. its ok. am only tweeting , not proposing.
Full , feminine, lush imagery of London .Spring has definitely sprung.
There is a virus running around on facebook and i will not go on there again (not that i hardly did) but i suspect tweeting is wide open to viruses , so i will not even start
You’re probably more at risk from wikipedia – according to figures I’ve seen the single largest online source of malware infections globally. Many major sites suffer from malware uploads. The important thing is to keep your anti-virus up to date – this is what protects your computer, not your choice of website.
Don’t stop using sites you like on rumour.
Thank you for your image of London, it not only London that neeads to Grass over a few streets, Derby to name one, a real Disappointment to the Beauty around it, I see you talk of Ye Old Photo-Shoppe, we being still in Berlin (moveing back at end of week after 12 months here) we have not had any Brit Press, but we did see & with thanks to @guardiannews (who should move back to Manchester) a rear head shot of G Brown enshrouded in light at some meeting some where, pity Photographers havent stopped doing such common shots,
will also says this when we get back, will we see any of your face in the press, hope so or Election will be as dull as dishwater even though it a KANGAROO Election.
I just stick to skype, my blog and diehard hotmail. Call me old fashioned but facebook, twitter and my space are not for me.
With regards to the Hamilton show, I just hope it is still on in a couple of months as i’m currently out of London.
Photography is a definite art that captures moments, be they happy or sad, wrong or right, in a way still to be equaled.
With regards to TB’s gun slinger, well he needs to be investigated and charged, as do all those responsible for illegal war. We can now add Ratzinger to the “big” list. Not for war crimes or not as far as we know.
adzmundo The Venus Project & CND
As anyone who has ever tried to write will tell you, it is much harder to write a short piece that works than those where you have plenty of room to tell your story.
Does twitter mean that the country will produce better, more precise writers?
an alternative to the Ménage à trois = http://www.verygoodidea.co.uk
and it does seem like a good idea for those of us who cant face voting for the current lot
Re ‘walking unmolested by traffic’: can’t come soon enough, and not only for aesthetic and safety reasons. London’s air-quality is appalling, and worsening it seems. ‘Every breath you take’, 1 May 2009, is an important read from the Greater London Authority’s cross-party environment committee. The particulates in diesel, which fuels the capital’s bus and taxi fleet, can do serious damage to health, particularly of children (irreversible reduced lung capacity in same was shown following a 10-year study into the effect of (all) exhaust emissions). An Imperial College-advisor to the committee openly declared a ‘mistake’ the decision to use diesel in buses.
The new government of the day must not neglect this issue. Horrifying to see two-tier buggies with the bottom one only inches above the pavement, ie at exhaust-emissions level. It took campaigners to force the issue of getting lead out of petrol as a matter of government policy. The same needs now be done re diesel, and petrol too, of course. What’s needed is fewer vehicles on the capital’s roads. There is no need to drive a car in London.
So let’s get the greening of our streets underway without delay.
I just stick to U tube – signed onto some others – but time and effort – and the point about viruses may well be accurate . That Exib is 3-25th I think. Photography is unique in that it captures the momnet – but now with digital – that unfortunately may not be true as a good photoshoopper can do almost anything with an image – which like most things is a 50/50 situation.I saw a newsapaoer headline yerday – Dawkins intends to do a citizens arrest on Ratzinger – that would be interesting . Many more could be added to that list top at moment of course are Blair and Bush . Here is sa link to a few of Richatd Hamiltons images at Sepentine . I think the one on Thatcher is brillant http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/9338/richard-hamilton-at-serpentine-gallery.html
Interesting!! I know in the world of trying to capture an audience to your business it seems as though FB and Twitter are essential elements. I for one feel that it has taken away so much of the intimacy of relationships and friendships. No one seems to send emails, letters, cards, or just call…they text instead. I fear that our children are losing the ability to relate on a personal level or how to communicate in normal conversation. I don’t like going to FB to see what my family is doing. I would appreciate a phone call instead..but it seems as though this is the IN Thing..but I still don’t have to like it.
Oh dear Jon, not you as well :0(
You may well turn into one of those really annoying luvvies (Stephen Fry et al) who wants to tell the what they think about everything all of the time. Is there no escape !!? A connected world 24/7, how utterly dispiriting.
“…and a persistent Twitter from a man who has lost his car keys…”
And, If you choose to play with kids toys then that’s the kind of nonsense you can expect, and more, and worse.
Save yourself, give it up.
It takes a while to get used to twitter. And, far from what many people believe, it’s not about telling people what you had for breakfast or following celebs.
But, once you get into it, it really can enrich your life in so many different ways. It has mine. Plus – YOU decide how you want to use it and what you want to make of it. See it as a technical tool to communicate – for whatever reason you wish to communicate.
My son introduced me to twitter 2 years ago. I quickly got hooked but he never uses it himself. For him – and his sister – it’s Facebook that counts.
You’re doing well on twitter, Jon. Part from the fact you’re not following me, that is! Yet.
)
Says @Britt_W
Much of what you read on Twitter is fatuous, but there are some interesting people to follow, e.g. your colleague alextomo, and now your good self. It’s quite surprising sometimes to note what’s “trending” – the Robin Hood tax took off like a rocket. Not exactly people power, but quite influential.
C4 News seem near taken over by this near meaningless Election – what about World News .Since no matter what Govt. is elected they will do what the USA tells it to do . Which brings an ineteresting point – unemploymet and those who have given up looking for work in US now amount to 30 Million- a staggering figure – and there are more and more calls in US for Roosavelt style Public works programmes – to get out of the Recession – which we are still all in . These calls are coming from unlikely sources – arch conservatives eg Governor of Missisipi and others .- so mybe there is hope for us all yet . And on this Holocust Remberance day – tomorrow the Israeli parlaiment implement a law allowing it to deport Palestinians from West Bank to Gaza – some human rights there ??. Are they trying to make Gaza into the Worlds biggest Prision – so forget about the cuff links and the near meaningless Brown and Cameron – what happens in US and Israel,. is IMO actually more Important . All Freedom is interlinked – the lower the US and Palestinian citizen go – the lower we go – so even for bare faced self interest !!!!!.
I havn’t seen the Richard Hamilton exhibition but very much hope to before it’s end. How apt that it should be on now before the election. Art can be so many things and the aesthetic can create so much more in us than just the action of looking. Through modern technology Richard Hamilton re-invents history painting and all of a sudden the power of the state versus the individual hits us through his images like a hammer to our heads. The institutional control, the political propaganda and the play of the media in feeding us with our never ending greed for these images that some of his work portrays remind me only to harshly of the bubble we are caught in.
How I would love to see Richard Hamilton create an image of Jon Snow – how would he portray a journalist providing us with our daily bread?! What a fantastic image it would be.
I’m still not convinced by Twitter – or blogs for that matter. I’ve only been reading blogs over the last couple of months (and a lot of these have been about climate change, so maybe not the best example?), but the overwhelming impression is of people shouting past one another rather than communicating. On twitter the shouts are shorter! Of course, I’m open to persuasion: can anyone provide an example where they have changed their opinion as a result of reading a blog?
I can not beleave that twitter is a weapon nowadays to uk politicians this year, but i have been following everything and their outrageous comments at http://www.politwecal.com
Dear mr snow, it appears that bp is behaving properly in regard to this terrible accident. Nobody has reminded the american president and several democratic congressmen about the union carbide accident and how they behaved perhaps our press needs to revisit this sad affair
kind regards, michael franses