Art Dad Doesn't Like

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s probably James Bond... Dive into the surreal with Art Dad Doesn't Like, as we dissect Rachel MacLean's deepfake film, 'Duck.' Submerging us in a green-tinted world drenched in mystery and deception, ‘Duck’ presents a reality where subterfuge and suspicion undermine one’s every belief. MacLean resurrects cinematic icons Sean Conn...

This episode, our father-daughter relationship is on the rocks as Dad grapples with Julien Berthier’s work, ‘L’invisible.’ A polystyrene and epoxy resin boulder mounted on a worn-out boat, L’invisible zips along the coast near Marseilles, disrupting serene Mediterranean views. But is it really a feat of engineering as the media claims? Are there hidden messages within this stony façade? And, since...

Playing the guitar in a dirndl, balancing wine glasses on your arms, smoking a cigarette, dressing up in a toilet paper dress – all things you used to be able to do (and maybe still can?) when having your passport photo taken. In this week's episode, we thumb through Namibian-German artist Max Siedentopf's zany portfolio of "could-be" passport pictures. Usually governed by strict...

If choosing one song to listen to for eternity sounds daunting, fear not—John Cage has you covered with his avant-garde epic, Organ2/ASLSP ('As Slow As Possible'). It's the ultimate "hold my beer" in the music world, stretching a single composition over 639 years. That's right, this tune hopes to outlive us all. Join us as we dive deep into this glacial-paced masterpiece,...

Ageing autocrats and decrepit dictators take the wheel in this rollicking episode, where we dive into Sun Yuan and Peng Yu's 2007 installation, 'Old People's Home'. Picture this: titans of 20th-century global politics—think Muammar Gaddafi, Yasser Arafat, and Leonid Brezhnev—dozing off in wheelchairs, gripping landmines and whips, while they apathetically bump into each other. This...

Potty training and learning to crawl - two significant events when raising a child... and in art history? This week we discuss the late William Pope, also known as Pope. L. Painstakingly dragging himself along the streets of 1970s New York, and slowly (literally) chewing over the news as presented by the Wall Street Journal while sitting on a precariously situated toilet, Pope. L's work turned...

Merry Christmas from Art Dad Doesn't Like! This year we once again exchange artistic gifts, eliciting startlingly different reactions. From undead Welsh Christmas horses to Palestinian protest art, this year's Christmas Special uncovers various facets of the holiday season from around the world. But the key question is, will Dad's gifting of the Krampus artwork from last year be avenge...

How often do you think about the Roman Empire? It's the question taking over TikTok at the moment, but one that hardly needs to be posed to Dad. This week, we're talking about Čiurlionis Gym , an installation by Lithuanian artist Augustas Serapinas that was presented at this year's Art Basel. How do we gender gyms and academic disciplines? What similarities are there between Ancient Ro...

'Writhing' (as Dad says) around in a pocket of shrink-wrap, participants in Belgian artist Lawrence Malstaf's 'Shrink!' move from a foetal position to a pose reminiscent of cruxifiction. Focussing on immersive, interactive artworks, Malstaf draws on his work as a scenographer for theatre and dance performances to create unique experiences for his audience - including being vacu...

This episode we dive into art nouveau designer Daisy Makeig-Jones' world of whimsy and magic as we look at the many manifestations of Wedgwood. The creators of a wide range of products, from Josiah Wedgwood's iconic neoclassical jasperware to a Web3 digitisation of the Portland Vase, Wedgwood has consistently drawn inspiration from the past to fuel commercially successful collections. We d...

Time to blow out the candles! To celebrate Dad's birthday, this week he takes the reins and presents a mixed pack of artworks created by artists from vastly different schools and time periods (including Dad's infamous bête noire, Picasso). We discuss Dad's secret addiction, the French Revolution, hearing colours and the challenges of modernity. See images here ! Works discussed: Compos...

Can peeling a potato be a work of art? Planting a tree? Putting roses in bottles in a brutalist gallery space? This week we discuss Michael Sailstorfer's installation 'To the People' at the Penman Foundation in Tehran and the artist's claims that his work harkens back to the inimitable Joseph Beuys' concept of social sculpture. Are Sailstorfer's claims legitimate, or does t...

A fractured sphere placed precariously on a porphyry disk, surrounded by spouts of water, 'The Sphere' (or 'Große Kugelkaryatide N.Y.') by renowned German artist Fritz König was the centrepiece of Austen J. Tobin Plaza. With the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center rising as monolithic symbols of the promise of achieving world peace through trade (and of course, American commercia...

Agnes Martin is a titan of 20th century art; her peaceful paintings convey a sense of equilibrium born from mathematical harmony. Her grid paintings, painstakingly created, became world-renowned, while Martin herself retreated to the deserts of New Mexico. Painting "with her back to the world", Martin sought to encapsulate our innermost senses of joy and innocence. But can Dad get around...

With diametrically opposed aesthetics, 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' have gone head to head in the box office, and now also on 'Art Dad Doesn't Like!' This week, we pit two artistic representatives of the cinematic sensations against each other: Shōmei Tōmatsu's moving photograph Atom Bomb Damage: Wristwatch Stopped at 11:02, August 9, 1945, Nagasaki (1961) and Catheri...

We're back! After a short break, we're back with a special episode where we delve into political art of a special kind: art made by politicians. From a peanut-farming president, to an art professor prime minister, to the world's most (in)famous art school rejectee, we explore six politicians who have turned to away from canvassing and towards the canvas. See images here ! **We are now...

A round table undulates on the backs of 18 headless straw figures as a ball rolls around, approaching but never quite attaching itself to the beleaguered scarecrow-esque creatures. Does that sound like art Dad would like? With hidden political messages and metaphors for social dynamics, could Round Table by South Korean artist Choe U-Ram win Dad over? Listen to this episode to find out, as we talk...

This week we discuss German artist Sebastian Maas, whose contemporary takes on Rubens' Baroque masterpieces seek to interrogate gender and Orientalism. But will Dad think that his recreations of 'The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus' and 'The Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt' can really add anything to the works of a great master? Or will Dad criticise Rubens' own skills?...

Smog has long been the enemy of art - seeping into gallery spaces and threatening the masterpieces housed there, the omnipresence of smog even contributed to the National Gallery of London's move from Pall Mall to its current location in Trafalgar Square. But what if art itself could clean up our filthy air? This week we discuss Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde's 'Landscape of the Future&...

(Updated audio!) Bismarck is a towering figure in history, but you know what towers over him? A giraffe. This week we discuss the two sculptures at the centre of Julian von Bismarck's - German artist and relative of the inimitable Otto von Bismarck - exhibition at Berlinische Galerie, 'When Platitudes Become Form.' Featuring a giraffe (made using an actual giraffe pelt) and a recreatio...

When is a house not a home? For one thing, when it's an impenetrable concrete block. This week, we discuss an artwork that was both celebrated as winner of the Turner prize, and derided as the worst of British art: Rachel Whiteread's 'House'. Standing for only 11 weeks before it was demolished, Whiteread's work raises questions about memory, urban development and socio-economic...

(TW // SA) In a strong, dynamic pose, his jacket fluttering in the wind, Jacob Zuma is depicted as a prototypical, unassailable and vigorous leader... until you look down. South African artist Brett Murray's The Spear makes a mockery of the (now former) South African President, stripping him of his pants and the vestiges of his dignity. Zuma was a controversial President, beset by corruption c...

"Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to; Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you": This week, we're discussing the Battle of Waterloo, the subject of ABBA's 1974 Eurovision hit! While ABBA may be responsible for introducing Waterloo to many of us, they're not the first artists to use the battle as creative material. Between 1981 and 1983, John Brack depicted the bat...

Still life normally conjures images of vases lushly filled with flowers and bowls of fruit, or famous artworks from the Golden Age of Dutch art in the 1500s and 1600s. But could a Big Mac and a COVID test also be worthy of immortalisation on canvas? Still life painting wallowed at the bottom of the hierarchy of genres established by the  French Académie de peinture et de sculpture. With his love o...

'Strictly nothing else' is a common refrain when writing shopping lists or trying to faithfully and frugally follow them in the supermarket. This week, Dad and Lizzie discuss Australian ceramicist Kenny Pittock's '52 ceramic replicas of shipping lists found while working in a Melbourne supermarket' (2022). The work, currently on show at the NGV, leaves nothing to the imaginatio...