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Published in The Guardian, November, 2011
The most introspective, serious and moving of all these posters has to be Fiona Banner’s design for the Paralympics, a painted prose poem about the wonder of human, or superhuman, achievement.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/nov/04/london-2012-olympic-posters-britart
Published in Evening Standard, September 2011
It is set to be one of the must-do experiences of 2012, the chance to spend an exclusive night in a designer hotel with a panoramic view of London stretching from Big Ben to St Paul’s.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/article-23984186-a-room-for-london-londons-view-with-a-room.do
Published in Living Architecture & Artangel, September 2011
Perched high above the city, this beautifully crafted space offers a unique and playful
perspective on an area of London more commonly seen from river level. With an en-suite
double bedroom, kitchenette, library and viewing deck, guests are invited to rest and
reflect upon what they see and hear during their one night stay; logging their thoughts,
observing cloud patterns, the character of the river and deeper undercurrents.
David Kohn Architects and artist Fiona Banner drew inspiration from the riverboat captained by Joseph Conrad whilst in the Congo in 1890, a journey echoed in his most famous work, ‘Heart of Darkness’.
http://www.living-architecture.co.uk/the-houses/aroomforlondon/overview/
Published in The Independent, November 2010
Banner’s art has always concerned itself with systems, and this new work is no exception. In particular, it is about the separation of words and images. “Ut pictura poesis,” said Horace – roughly, let writing and pictures be the same – and yet they are seen as different, in some way inimical to each other. Not so to Banner.
She has, in the past, blown up Times New Roman commas into waist-high bronze sculptures. Upstairs at her new show, a piece called 1066 re-enacts the Bayeux Tapestry in words: “The guy’s down on the ground, arrow in the side of his face. Another takes one in the hand, cries like a beast as he pulls it out.” Banner’s mural both describes the Battle of Hastings and depicts it, one army of words overprinting the other. History, as Orwell said, is written by winners. Words may be pictorial, they may even be beautiful, but they can never be neutral.
Related Exhibitions: Fiona Banner: The Naked Ear
Published in The Independent, July 2010
Published in Art Monthly , July 2010
Published in The Guardian , June 2010
Banner’s Harrier and Jaguar has upped the ante both of her own art, and of the Duveens commissions. This is more than a familiar transposition of two readymade objects from the hangar or the war zone into Tate Britain’s neoclassical galleries. It is a timely and well-placed work, which enters into a dialogue not just with the decorum of its architecture, but also with space.
Published in The Guardian , June 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/jun/21/fiona-banner-interview
Published in Tate ETC., June 2010
Published in Twin , October 2009
Forget words. Fiona Banner turns punctuation into art. She explores the problems and possibilities of written language. For Banner, it’s all about the space between words, the urge and failure of communication. The British artist’s public artworks have included bronze casts of giant full stops, to be used as seats or to lean against. They’re objects to pause against just as we pause in conversation.
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