No 850

Martin Creed's new work for Tate Britain's Duveen Galleries - the latest in a series of sculpture commissions for the space - involves an athelete sprinting the length of the gallery every 30 seconds for the next four months.

The instructions to the volunteers taking part in No 850 are to "run as if their lives depended on it". The runners will have to negotiate visitors in the galleries, but visitors are not allowed to join in.

According to Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian, a person at the launch of the piece asked if it was pretentious. Creed replied: "No, it is not pretentious. No one is pretending." It reminded me of Rohan Weallan's reponse to a question from John Hurrell about the meaning of his work.

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Launch of Martin Creed's No 850 at the Tate. Image from the Guardian's photo gallery.

Wallace Art Awards finalists announced

It's that time again - the finalists for the 2007 Wallace Art Award have been announced.

The awards will be presented by the Governor General on 3 September at the Aotea Centre in Auckland, with the exhibition of winners and selected finalists opening to the public the following day. The show arrives at the New Dowse in Lower Hutt on 29 October, where it will be opened by Chris Finlayson, the National party's art spokesperson.

Finalists include:

Lee Cunliffe

Jacqueline Greenbank

Andre Hemer

Megan Jenkinson

Peter Madden

Miranda Parkes


Image: last year's winner: Rohan Weallans, Tingler, 2006. Image from the James Wallace Arts Trust website.

The what, John?

Sometimes artist's talks can be doubly revealing.

At the first public programme accompanying City Gallery Wellington's Telecom Prospect 2007 exhibition, Rohan Wealleans was talking about his work Cold Comfort, when John Hurrell (of Artbash) asked him whether he thought that using polystyrene in the work altered its meaning. Rohan , rather bemused, peered at John through his sunglasses and said "The what, John?".

Image: Rohan Wealleans, Cold Comfort, 2006. Acrylic on nylon, polystyrene, metal and wood.