iPhone and iSteal

This is what happens when the goons go hi-tech.

“They used an iPhone-style mobile to film valuable treasures in a retired vicar’s home in Co Armagh – while an art expert on the end of the line told them what to steal.”

“The owner, a retired vicar, was beaten, bound and gagged by the armed pair who stole-to-order near-priceless paintings including Canalettos painted in the mid-1700s.

The robbers, who had Irish accents, also took valuable antique furniture and other collectables. Before fleeing they smashed up anything left behind with a hatchet.”

The Art in Anarchy

Voina Explains Why Firebombing a Police Tank Is a "Piece of Art"

“In their most recent action, called “Cops Auto da Fe” or “Fucking Prometheus,” Voina used Molotov cocktails to light a tank-like police transport vehicle used to relocate prisoners.”

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“If an activist secretly burns a cop truck at night, it won’t be art. It will be the revenge of an activist,” Plutser-Sarno wrote. “But to burn it openly and proclaim to the entire country: ‘I am an artist. I burned down your prison, symbol of totalitarianism. This autodafe is our art action,’ then it becomes a piece of art. We made people discuss it as an artistic action.”

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If this is art, we are really going downhill.

I’m having particular trouble understanding this line – ““According to Voina, the difference between performance art and political activism is art’s public nature and the importance of laying claim to your work.”

Yeah? So, let’s see, by this logic, if a bunch of terrorists bomb a public area and take credit, they can now proudly label themselves artists?

If you are a War Criminal……

……Hang on to your Modigliani.

How Modigliani Helped Capture the Last Serbian War Criminal

Painting courtesy whistlepunch via Flickr via Artinfo.com

Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic was arrested after he tried to sell a Modigliani painting that he probably stole during the Croatian war in the 1990s.

Bullshitting The Bullshitters

Artist Statement by Charlotte Young

I'm always awed and amazed by the ‘profound thoughts’  people claim to have regarding their art. Indeed, they are so profound sometimes that the explanations need to be explained and then they don’t come across as sounding particularly deep. Just daft and, frankly, dishonest.

Or, hang on, perhaps, just very, very creative. I think  'the art statement' should in itself be turned into an art genre. The artists are already outdoing each other in it as it is.

You can have a go too here at the Arty Bollocks Generator - 
http://www.artybollocks.com/

Billy Bang

Billy Bang Quintent–Live at the Knitting Factory

Billy Bang–Tunnet Rat

Billy Bang, Jazz Violinist And Vietnam Veteran, Dies At 63

This is fantastic music. 

Raag Bhairavi- Indian Violin- Raginder Singh

Raag Bhairavi- Indian Violin- Raginder Singh

Raginder Singh is just brilliant!

Here’s information about the raga he is playing -

Bhairavi – ITC Sangeet Research Academy

A nice explanation and a selection of music videos of Raga Bhairavi from Chandrakantha Courtney. She’s marvelously talented herself, by the way.

The Bombed-Out Car of Baghdad

Photo Source – Guardian/Anthony Devlin/PA

More photographs can be seen at The art of war: Jeremy Deller's Baghdad car bomb installation

I propose another bright art idea – take the art savants on tour to Iraq – I mean, the whole bloody place is a piece of art by now.