Chris Hayes

I have two mentions in the current issue of @art_monthly_uk . First, my review of @_____81 at @gasworkslondon , which continues until 22 March (go see it!). And secondly, the editors call back to my essay about Ireland's Basic Income for Artists scheme.

Through the ages

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Had a few nice days in Madrid. Drank vermouth, ate tapas, walked a lot. Saw @atouitarek at @museothyssen ; Guernica; learned about Ramón María del Valle-Inclán; and talked about anti-fascism.

I was kindly invited to speak @rcawriting about what I've been doing the past few years, alongside the wonderful @amfq , @kole_fulmine and @hugohagger . Preparing the presentation reminded me that I'm bad at keeping track of my work, and I relied on a lot of old Instagram posts to jog my memory. So here's my recent-ish interview with Monster Chetwynd for @parnassmagazin . They were super generous to speak with and it's great seeing this beautiful spread in print now. Thanks to @emilylabarge and @obliques1000 for having me; and to @silvieaigner for the commission.

I wrote about going to the gym, the history of nutritional science and scaremongering, fitness apps, and the book Sweet and Dangerous. Here’s a snippet: ‘The culture of self tracking is quickly equated with other metric bound systems and their faults: the relentless call of the to-do list, the inhuman pace of capitalism, the cruel indifference of bureaucracy. Ultimately a food or fitness app introduces an element of gamification and impersonal guidance, adding direction to what can often feel like the seemingly impossible task of changing your body.’ And another: ‘The historical backdrop of consumption and efforts to control it invariably take on a semi-religious dimension: gluttony or vanity, your choice.’

V proud of my beautiful turkey

Paul Rudolph is arguably the US’s most ardent Modernist, and one of its most consistent defectors. He began his career at the epicentre of it all – studying at Harvard under Walter Gropius and other Bauhaus intellectuals who fled the Nazis – yet wrote little throughout his life, preferring instead to let his drawings speak for themselves. He believed in an idiosyncratic vision of urbanism above all else. Writing three years before he died, he argued, “Urbanism deals with the old and the new, the expanded and the contracted, the humdrum and the extraordinary. It brings people together. It separates people. It commemorates its history. It never lies, but portrays life three-dimensionally as it really is”. I wrote about Paul for @financialtimes . Thanks again to @hkatewilliams and @daisydawnay !

I had a nice time w/ @aileendowling

You can read my piece about the life and legacy of Marcel Breuer on @financialtimes today! Part of the property stories series. Ty for the commission and edits @hkatewilliams . 📸 The IBM Research Centre in Alpes Maritimes, southern France; An early residential project by Marcel Breuer, the Doldertal apartment building in Zurich (1936).

I recently interviewed @thomasjprice__ . The full conversation is available in print, in the spring issue of @parnassmagazin ; I was particularly struck by his discussion of his early performance piece, ‘Licked’. Intense, bodily and durational, the work is nothing like the aspects of his practice you may be familiar with. He licked the walls as a way to mark the invisible traces of presence; unexpectedly, his tongue began to bleed yet he continued with the performance. People were shocked and this garnered him some level of fame, or notoriety; a level of attention he was deeply uncomfortable with. I was speaking with Price ahead of a major touring exhibition of his work at the @kunsthalle.krems , and was quite surprised to hear about its inclusion, as he had previously distanced himself from the work. Now, many years later, he’s returned to the piece, and I think it opens a whole new way of thinking about his figurative work. He said: “Yes, it’s the first time. I only just dug out and digitised the tapes. You know, it brings up a lot of memories about that time. I think it was a great work. All I’ve done before is show it on slides during a talk, so people just assume that I'm a figurative sculptor. And I'm like, no, no, no… the figuration is a strategy. This is what the practice is about. So showing the actual footage for the first time is going to be pretty special.” 📸 1, @hauserwirth ; 2-3, Parnass. #art #writing

I wrote about the right to protest, Gaza and metaphors about the crowd. 'At home and abroad, violence abounds: authoritarian politicians promise to exert tremendous violence onto your neighbours, and curtain twitchers cheer; protestors who speak out are decried as a mob that hates democracy; the legacy of one atrocity is invoked to cause another one; if the world can’t be made better, then punishing someone else is offered as a substitute.' 📸 Ramon Casas i Carbó (1866–1932), The Charge, or Barcelona 1902 (1903), a painting that shows the early development of police tactics against protestors.