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Variant
14 Winter 2001
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Editorial
The editorial ridicules the Scottish Arts Council Chairman, James
Boyle's many connections and recent 'sacking' of
the ex-director Tessa Jackson. It also touches upon the SAC's
blacklisting of Variant creating a picture of decline towards intolerance
and autocratic misrule.
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Variant
Forum
Occasional Documents: Towards Situation
Howard Slater
"In a culture still driven by commodity exchange and representation,
driven by the submergence of social relationships in the object,
the means of expression, as the vital component of creative activity,
is often overlooked. Yet, if there is to be a popular participation
in culture..."
Including participation details:
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Katherine
Dreier and the Société Anonyme
William Clark
A genuinely revealing history of an immensely influential and little
known figure in US modern art. Katherine Dreier's Society Anonyme
was New York's first museum of modern art bringing the work
of Marcel Duchamp, the Surrealists, Constructivists and much more
into the US for the first time. Obsessively modest, her contribution
has been suppressed and overlooked because of the politics of cold
war America and an anti-female bias.
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Learning
from history
Phil England interviews David Chandler
An in-depth interview with David Chandler the author of "Western
Intervention and the disintegration of Yugoslavia 89-99". He
was a Council of Europe election monitor in Kosovo and the interview
focuses on the nature of the 'puppet democracies' and
whose interests they serve.
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Searching
for Asylum
William Clark
An over-view of the Desmond Fernandes' report on the on-going
targeting and criminalisation of asylum seekers in the UK and Europe.
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Look
Out Kids!
D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus
Hermione Good
A documentary-like report on D. A. Pennebaker's talk at the
Edinburgh Film Festival. This appreciatively looks over Pennebaker
celebrated films (which have included iconic imagery of Bob Dylan,
Hendrix and Bowie) bringing the reader up to date on new projects
with Chris Hedegus.
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"You
like yoga ...we like speed"
Paul McCarthy interviewed
Graham Ramsay & John Beagles
"Bad Boy LA Artist" on the verge of his retrospective
show at the Tate Liverpool talks of his reception by the art world,
his obsession with tomato sauce, rock videos and giant rubber immovable
Michael Jacksons.
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Tales
from the Great Unwashed
Ian Brotherhood
Mousetrap, Buckaroo, wee green pellets and the last days of Primary
School form the vital components of another evocative tale in the
successful series.
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Labouring
under an illusion
Jason Walsh
An intelligent and fair assessment of the government's politicisation
of arts policy asks whether this is helpful or a hindrance to creative
expression. It finds similarities with the grotesque effects of
Stalinist 'Social realism.'
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The
Mark Thomas Interview
and
Campaign Succeeds as Balfour Beatty withdraws from ILISU!
Mark Thomas was greeted with genuine warmth and walked off to a
standing ovation from the audience in Glasgow where the interview
caught up with him as he toured the UK with his comedy act which
also campaigned against the Illisu Dam.
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The
Importance of Appearing Earnest
Ruth MacPherson
An expanded and personal essay uses a review of the book, 'Out
of the Bubble' to explore the claims made for (latest arts
buzz word) 'Contextual practice'.
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"Oh
gag me" An inclusive conversation with Suzanne Lacy
Alison Stirling & Anne Elliot
An intriguing conversation with Suzanne Lacy explores the American
artist's influential work in developing forms of social engagement
with the arts. The interview deals mostly with ideas such as collaboration,
public involvement and ends with attempts to relate Lacy's
ideas to the the work of Artlink Edinburgh in Scotland.
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