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Variant 5 Spring 1998
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Letters
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Make me wanna holler throw up both my hands - John Beagles
Starting with Tracy Emin's drunken rant on TV after the Turner prize, Beagles shifts to question the clarity of the rest of the panel's thought. The article broadens out to encompass contemporary notions of gender and male elitism.
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Guaranteed Disappointment - Neil Mulholland
Heavily illustrated with album covers and related photographs, Mulholland offers a concise historical overview of the punk design using an exhibition at the Festival Hall, London as a basis.
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Megalomedia - William Clark
An in-depth investigation of the Scottish Media Group's monopolistic position in Scotland. The article also outlined the events surrounding the licensing of digital television focusing on the ITC. The article provided several revelations about the working of the large media combines.
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Ethnic Cleansing - Kumal Sangha
A short story on racism in the Police force.
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Forced Entertainment - Michelle McGuire
McGuire interviews one of the foremost experimental theatre companies.
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Tales of the Great Unwashed - Ian Brotherhood
A strange and enigmatic departure for the Great Unwashed, where, still retaining its characteristic humour, the narrative drifts effortlessly into a chilling story of the paranormal.
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Babes in Toyland - Leigh French
Beck's new contemporaries is reviewed at the CCA, Glasgow. The article focuses on the selection procedure and the underlying assumptions of the event.
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BLOCK Capitalism - Peter Suchin
Suchin reviews the BLOCK Reader in Visual Culture, an anthology of intellectual art criticism dating back to BLOCK's first appearance in 1979. The review also make some telling comparisons to recent similar publications.
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Red Rebel Song - R E Sammi
Poetry talking of issues of race, relationships and ancestry.
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Career Opportunities - David Burrows
Interviews with Matt Hale of City Racing, David Crawford of Beaconsfield and John Russell of Bank. Each interview is separate but builds up a detailed picture of artist-run spaces and projects in the late 80s and early 90s, exploring the shared influences and comparisons.
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Working with Children and the Snake - Marshall Anderson
Starting with the work of Stephen French whose influences are children's art, Anderson relates this to 'The Innocent Eye' by Jonathan Fineberg - a book which charts the history of the modern artist's relationship with child art. The focus of the article develops towards to the COBRA group and the Scottish artist William Gear - a member of COBRA but omitted by Fineberg.
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Articulate - Mick Wilson
This very thoughtful article reviews the 'Articulate' exhibition in Arthouse, Dublin which was a response to issues of rape and sexual abuse, and features the artists Hilary Gilligan and Lorna Healy.
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Marlborough Maze - Stewart Home
The review features Contemporary Labyrinths by Adrian Fisher and his maze project at Blenhiem palace - the Marlborough maze.
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Talking to Tom Leonard - Dan Stephen
An interview given in Bolder Colorado as part of his artist-in-residence. The interview has a lengthy introduction which outlines Leonard's career and influence to date. The interview proper, focuses on language and culture.
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Cynicism and Postmodernity - Ewan Morrison
A review of Timothy Bewes book - a critique of post modernism.
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Homage to J G Ballard - Ed Baxter
A satirical review of the over-kill of media hysteria surrounding the 'death of the century'. Baxter presents the events in Paris as an art review which doubly parodies art magazines themselves.
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These boots aren't made for walking - Adele Patrick
Patrick provides an overview of the idiosyncratic 'Style conference' describing the maze of postmodern affectation and perversity.
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Soundscape - Robert H King
King adds to his round-up of experimental CD releases with comments on the development of radio stations on the internet.

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