![\"arno_morland.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/arno_morland.jpg?resize=375%2C265\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Here’s a pic of one of Arno Morland’s large-scale sculptures, from his solo exhibition that opened at franchise<\/i> last night, machinations<\/i>; they’re meant to be playful (I noticed this from the CD-ROMs he was giving out, which showed children sitting in and around the art-as-monkey-bars). To me, when I got very close to this one, it felt a bit like a torture instrument, mixed with the daunting dread that may come before being forced to climb the rope in gym class, in front of everyone.<\/p>\n
OK. That was mean. The truth is, I liked the work, but I’m not sure why, and I’m always leery of things that are supposed to be too deep for me to understand. Perhaps it was just the scale? Perhaps it was the ambiguity of purpose (until I saw the children at play)? His statement says he is interested in “the relationship between the individual and the various social groups and formations with which he or she may be associated”. That makes more sense with the playful side, but why show in a gallery, then? And if you feel you must, why not documentation of people at play, or try to encourage some kind of play?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here’s a pic of one of Arno Morland’s large-scale sculptures, from his solo exhibition that opened at franchise last night, machinations; they’re meant to be playful (I noticed this from the CD-ROMs he was giving out, which showed children sitting in and around the art-as-monkey-bars). To me, when I got very close to this one, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-south-african-art"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9blZT-6r","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":409,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2004\/08\/22\/making-art\/","url_meta":{"origin":399,"position":0},"title":"making art, mocking artists","author":"nathaniel","date":"22 August 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Since last we spoke, I've mostly been working on editing some old video footage so that I can finally finish the odys series - started in 2001! This is to be part of my upcoming solo show at the JAG, but you can bet I'll put some clips online for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "me"","block_context":{"text":"me","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1188,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/05\/18\/humor-and-materials\/","url_meta":{"origin":399,"position":1},"title":"Humor and Materials","author":"nathaniel","date":"18 May 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"gordon froud, south african artist and gallerist, in his studioNewtown, Johannesburg, South Africa (Forgive the quality of this image - I broke my crap camera and will from now on be taking gallery pix on my even more crap phone...) Spent much of Monday with Gordon Froud and Franci Cronje,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":446,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2004\/09\/18\/statistic-series-signature\/","url_meta":{"origin":399,"position":2},"title":"Statistic, Series, Signature","author":"nathaniel","date":"18 September 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"And here's Kathryn Smith, sandwiched by James Sey and Jane Taylor, at a WSOA (Wits School of the Arts, University of the Witwatersrand) Research Seminar. James, our fearless leader, read a paper about the network of psychical relations that arises as the experience of time and space becomes statisticalised in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1075,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/14\/gordart-and-the-project-room\/","url_meta":{"origin":399,"position":3},"title":"Gordart and the Project Room","author":"nathaniel","date":"14 February 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"from Laure Djourado's Metaphysique du lienSo after my illness, my trip, and all my busy bees\u00a0 of bumbly beginnings in the new year, I'm finally starting to emerge again and cover artwork in Jozi a bit more. My guest bloggers, it seems, have mostly deserted me (I'm still, and always,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"from Laure Djourado, Metaphysique du lien","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/02\/laure-invite-for-web.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":423,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2004\/09\/02\/anton-karstel-wild-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":399,"position":4},"title":"surreal hatred: anton karstel’s wild thing","author":"nathaniel","date":"02 September 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"photo credit: Thomas Barry And on an art note, I hit the Anton Karstel opening at Franchise last night. His installation, Wild Thing, saw a kind of tiled, floor-based and flattened (steam-rolled?) photo-mosaic (reminded me a bit of those experimentations where young artists were making their own, large-scale, panoramas with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"karstel.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/karstel.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5681,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/04\/review-greg-martenss-out-from-the-darkness-at-grove-gallery\/","url_meta":{"origin":399,"position":5},"title":"Review: Greg Martens’s Out From the Darkness at Grove Gallery","author":"nathaniel","date":"04 November 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Greg Martens\u00c2\u00a0holds a very special place in my heart. He was a traveling salesman who dropped out of college and married the love of his life with whom he raised three children, eventually becoming a cobbler out in Wauwatosa, WI - where his whole family helped fix shoes in their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/column_001.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}