George Pendle

14/09/11

• 1

  Shock of the New by Michael Bracewell

  Issue 100, June-July-August 2006

  Michael Bracewell in conversation with Tom Wolfe. 'The gloves are on and buttoned as dandy tussles with dandy and words are spilled like blood. It’s always a pleasure to read Bracewell on Wolfe. Having them face-to-face is akin to looking at an infinite reflection.'

• 2

  The Glass Menagerie by Alex Farquharson

  Issue 56, January-February 2001

  'A wonderful piece on the Blashchkas, a father-and-son team of glass-blowers who specialized in glass eyes, until they discovered the similarity between their ovular creations and the creatures of the deep. The result was the creation of a fragile, transparent world of glass sea anemones and jellyfish.'

• 3

  Another Fine Mess: Nine Theses on Slapstick by Brian Dillon

  Issue 110, October 2007

  'Dillon brilliantly dissects slapstick, peeling away the layers that underlie its seeming simplicity like a man peeling a banana.'

• 4

  Picture piece (not online, but coming soon) by Philip Hoare

  Issue 70, October 2002

  'The photograph of a jail cell floating in the air (it was all that was left of the demolished Great Marlborough Street Magistrates’ Court) has a weird power that no words can quite capture.'

• 5

  Always Crashing in the Same Car by Jennifer Higgie

  Issue 73, March 2003

  'Discovering the car-crash photography of Arnold Odermatt, the Swiss traffic policeman, was a great revelation. Perhaps only the formality of a Swiss could turn speeding burned metal into such tranquil pictures.'

• 6

  This is Planet Earth by Brian W. Aldiss

  Issue 108, June-July-August 2007

  'Having Brian Aldiss write on global catastrophe is a bit like having God dash something off on monotheism.'

• 7

  The Wrong Words by Tom Morton

  Issue 124, June-July-August 2009

  When wall texts in museums and galleries are meant to elucidate and educate, why are most of them badly written, full of jargon, and painfully reductive? 'It’s always nice to have pet peeve articulated, argued and thoroughly dealt with.'

• 8

  Puzzlin' Evidence by Charles LaBelle

  Issue 54, March 2001

  The Center for Land Use Interpretation. 'Where would we not be without it?'

• 9

  On Making Pictures by Alasdair Gray

  Issue 119, November-December 2008

  'One of those people whose accomplishments make you feel small and insignificant. In a good way.'

• 10

  Believe it or Not by Dan Fox

  Issue 135, November-December 2010

  'If Fox was a deity his unforced authority and almost kabbalistic frame of reference would make him very hard to disbelieve. Effortlessly picking apart art's euphemistic shading of religion into spirituality, Fox shows how the gallery has replaced the church as a place of Sunday pilgrimage while laying bare the hypocrisy of the image-maker's claims to rationalism.'

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