Armless artist 'denied entry' to UK

A Kazakh artist who was born without arms says that he couldn't get permission to enter the UK  because he was unable to give fingerprints. File photo. Source: News Limited

AN artist who was born without arms says he was denied permission to travel to the United Kingdom because he couldn't give fingerprints.

BBC News reports Karipbek Kuyukov received a letter from the British Consulate in Istanbul saying his "biometrics were of poor quality" and asking him to resubmit his application.

The UK Home Office said his visa was not refused and it may have been the result of a "miscommunication".

Mr Kuyukov, 44, had planned to attend an anti-nuclear conference in Edinburgh but had to cancel his plans to travel.

"Maybe they did not understand that I am disabled or check the information provided," he said.

"But in my online visa application it was written that I am an artist and that I don't have hands. I paint by holding a brush in my mouth and between my toes."

Mr Kuyukov was born in Semipalatinsk, the former Soviet Union's main nuclear testing ground.

He is one of thousands of people born with disabilities during the nuclear test program.

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Artist decorates Louvre's pyramid

Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto's work decorates the Louvre museum's iconic glass pyramid. Picture: Jacques Brinon Source: AP

AN ITALIAN artist decorated the Louvre museum's glass pyramid Wednesday for the first time in the iconic monument's history, in a protest against capitalism.

The artwork, a huge three-looped infinity sign made of mirrors, faces due west onto France's business district, La Defense.

Michelangelo Pistoletto, one of the world's leading conceptual artists, covered one panel of the pyramid with the reflective symbol that's meant as a defiant political gesture: Politicians and society must look at follies of excess that led to the global financial crisis.

It had spectators gawping - some in awe, others in confusion.

"It's fantastic. It's like an eye looking out onto what Paris has become: finance, greed," one spectator, Fabrice Bing, said.

Another onlooker, Anthony Cuvillier, was less certain: "I don't know what it means, but it definitely looks cool."

Pistoletto, one of the main exponents of "Arte Povera," an influential movement that uses poor and everyday materials in art to protest against consumerism, has no doubt as to his art's message.

The three-looped infinity sign is an artistic gesture aimed to show politicians and society the follies of excess that led to the current financial crisis. Picture: Jacques Brinon

"Politicians should look at themselves in the mirror, and learn to take responsibility for this terrible mess and think of the infinite future ahead for humanity," he told The Associated Press.

Pistoletto is the first artist the Louvre has invited to work on the outside of the pyramid, the large glass and metal structure, designed by architect I. M. Pei, that was commissioned nearly 30 years ago - to great controversy - by former President Francois Mitterrand.

The installation continues deep inside the museum in more than a dozen separate works that the artist has "hidden" among the sprawling classical antiquities, made from mirrors and secondhand rags.

"It's a mystery. The public is asked to come on a treasure hunt," said curator Marie-Laure Bernadac, who agreed that the works will appeal to the many tourists who still come and see the pyramids because of the mysterious associations from Dan Brown's best-selling book The Da Vinci Code.

But the works also have their fair dose of humor.

One work near the Mona Lisa, consists of mirror with an image of a tourist taking a photo.

Italian conceptual artist Michelangelo Pistoletto at the Louvre Museum in Paris. It is the first time an artist has worked on the outside of the famed Pyramid, commissioned by former French President Francois Mitterrand nearly 30 years ago. Picture: Jacques Brinon

"I'm also poking fun ... I'm trying to say that people don't look with their eyes any more, they just consume and take photos of the Mona Lisa because it's famous. I'm trying to make people think," Pistoletto said.

One of the strongest works is a marble statue of Venus, being pushed back by a gargantuan heap of rags. Pistoletto said it was a metaphor for how all the refuse in the world has cluttered and polluted nature.

"They're secondhand rags, but they're all very well washed," he joked. "Don't forget, this is the Louvre."

Pistoletto's Year 1, Heaven on Earth will run until Sept. 2.
 

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Legendary artist exhibits in city

NEW DISPLAY: Cairns-based artist Ray Crooke, at 90, is one of Australia's most venerated artists. His colourful works have been likened to that of French artist Gauguin. Picture: Darren England Source: The Courier-Mail

HE'S been dubbed Australia's Gauguin, but Queensland artist Ray Crooke has lasted a lot longer than the famous Frenchman he's so often compared to.

The syphilitic Gauguin died in 1903 at the age of 54. Cairns-based Crooke is 90 and still producing his colourful canvases.

Some thought his 2005 Brisbane exhibition might have been his last, but he's back with Ray Crooke Paintings: 1958 to 2009, showing until April 13 at the Philip Bacon Galleries in Fortitude Valley.

Bacon describes the artist, famous for his scenes of daily life in the islands of the Torres Strait and Fiji, as "the last of his breed".

Crooke's works have sold for as much as $135,000, although critics now predict they could sell for more than a quarter of a million dollars.

The artist has outlasted friends and contemporaries including William Dobell, Russell Drysdale, Donald Friend and Margaret Olley. He puts his longevity down to relatively clean living.

"My lifestyle has certainly been different to Gauguin's," he says. "I've had a more temperate life."

Crooke and his wife June, who died recently, moved to Cairns in the lean years after World War II, and raised three children there.

Born in Melbourne, he fell in love with far north Queensland while serving in the army, including a stint on Thursday Island as an intelligence operative.

Head of Australian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Julie Ewington, describes the nonagenarian artist as "one of our most important painters".

"He established a vision of life in Queensland and the South Seas and while people latch onto the bright colours, there's more to him than that," Ewington says.

Crooke, who won the Archibald Prize in 1959, is represented at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra and in many other major collections here and overseas including the Vatican Collection in Rome.

He is best known, however, for those colourful paintings of islanders. After early years on Thursday Island, he began visiting Fiji and painting the people there in colourful garb, going about their daily work.

"Their lifestyle is so different to ours," Crooke says. "They make their own houses, grow their own food and spend days just sitting and weaving. 'They are perfect subjects for a painter."

The venerable artist was in Brisbane for the exhibition opening last night with his signature walking stick and a cardigan to ward off the relative cool of Brisbane.

He says he will continue to work but admits he is slowing down and can no longer stand for long hours painting.

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Public artist unveils his latest creation

PIPE DREAM: Christopher Trotter with his new work outside Cathedral of St Stephen in the Brisbane CBD. Source: The Courier-Mail

Trotter's  "City Roos" installation is in George St. Source: The Courier-Mail

Aquatica Botanica, at the intersection of Wynnum and Riding roads, Hawthorne, in Brisbane's east, is a 4.5m-tall recycled steel floral sculpture. Source: The Courier-Mail

Fish fossil made of metal in concrete. Source: The Courier-Mail

HE might be Queensland's favourite public artist but Christopher Trotter's latest work could confound his fans.

And if you think his scrap metal sculpture Listen to a Pipe Dreaming looks like something out of a Dr Seuss book - you'd be right.

It sprouts from a garden bed outside the Cathedral of St Stephen in Elizabeth St, in Brisbane's CBD, and is drawing the attention of passersby, who might note the literary connection.

"Lately, a lot of my work has tended towards looking like something weird and wonderful out of a Dr Seuss book," Trotter says. "All sorts of people will interpret it in different ways."

There's also a Dr Seuss look about his recent commission from Brisbane City Council - Aquatica Botanica, at the intersection of Wynnum and Riding roads, Hawthorne - a 4.5m-tall recycled steel floral sculpture.

His work peppers the city and suburbs. Well known pieces include Fish Fossil at Kangaroo Point Cliffs and Bio-Mechanical Pelicans by the river near the Queensland Maritime Museum.

He also has works at Geebung (Crazy Chook Machine), Corinda (Family Attitude), Acacia Ridge (Fossil) - all among his 35 completed commissions across Queensland.

Mucker Duck at Mt Isa is based on mining history and a 15-tonne, 4.5m-high seahorse fossil, embedded in concrete on the Millennium Boardwalk at Tannum Sands is another popular attraction.

Trotter, 45, is sponsored by Sims Metal Management, for obvious reasons. He has been working with and exhibiting his scrap metal work for 22 years and lives on Boonah acreage littered with old planes, boat parts, engines, rusting farming equipment and other industrial detritus he turns into art.

"Right now I'm working on a 5m-tall piece called the Blumbergville Clock for the Scenic Rim Regional Council," Trotter says. "It's basically a new town clock for Boonah."

Everyone's favourite Trotter remains his 1999 City Roos, four metal marsupials, one of which rests on a bench on George St in Brisbane's CBD.

"They are so popular the Federal Government borrowed them for World Expo 2012 in Shanghai, where they were displayed at the entry to the Australian pavilion," Trotter says.

Listen to a Pipe Dreaming is on loan to the Catholic Archdiocese to help publicise a March 16-18 art show, Restoring the Lost and the Broken, staged by the Cathedral of St. Stephen Art Group.

Trotter says his sculpture was inspired by ideas of "water, growth, life".

Dean of the Cathedral, Dr David Pascoe, says the work will "engage with the multitudes of people passing through and not just churchgoers".

"My first reaction was - I have no idea what it is but I'm excited about putting it into the precinct because people will react to it," Dr Pascoe says.

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WHAT THE PUNTERS SAY

Rebecca Matthews, 29, HR adviser, South Brisbane:

"I don't know if it suits the location. I like it and it is eye-catching but it may be too modern for the historical buildings around it."

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Adam Boevink, 28, environmental scientist, Aspley:

"I love his City Roos and I love the form of this one, especially the arcs and curves. It's a nice contrast to the square blocks and the stone of the cathedral. Even though it's made of steel it seems gentle."

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Melinda McConnell, 29, admin officer, Alexandra Hills:

"I'm no art critic but at first glance I don't think it's that attractive. I just don't know what it is. Is it a watering can of some sort? Art is not my bag but I do like his kangaroos."

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Richard Smit, 41, banker, from Veghel in the Netherlands:

"We just arrived and I have heard about his kangaroos already. I think this one looks like some sort of trumpet and I do like it. We have some public art in Holland but nothing like this."

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