ARTWORLD AWES AND AWKS

Now is it Art, or is it advertising? As put by the LA times, the celebrity and pop-culture infused art of Richard Phillips hasn't won him many fans amongst serious art critics. Yet his new installation, a collaboration with pop-pinnacle, Playboy is definitely a cut upon the landscape. But is the audacity of the piece - in itself - a creative form? Or is it merely an advertising eye-saw and one in which, as suggested by the Texas department of Transportation, is in fact illegal.

Richard Phillips: Playboy Art installation

At Manchester's Do it festival, visitors comply with instructions left for them by artists such as Ai Weiwei and Elaine Sturtevant. An example of audience participation in its most embryonic form, the absent artists have their followers: start a rumour, repent, maybe invite a stranger home for breakfast? Either way it looks like a lot of fun.

Manchester's Do it festival 2013

Turner prize winner Jeremy Deller, will transport Sacrilege, his blow up version of Stonehenge to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for the Open-East festival and as tribute to the one-year anniversary of London 2012.

Olympic Park to host Jeremy Deller's Stonehenge

Indian artist, Nikhil Chopra painted for an exasperating 65 hours to mark the opening of the biennial Manchester Interational Festival. His piece, Coal on Cotton, saw Chopra use charcoal to inscribe an intricate landscape onto one wall of the marquee. The piece was an exploration into Manchester's industrial and historical bonds with India.

Nikhil Chopra during his 65 hour performance: Coal on Cotton

So apparently Youtube has taken up art criticism... The photograph to your left is an extract from Justin Timberlake's new video Tunnel Vision. The video was briefly banned but is now allowed - because its Art. The photograph to your right is an extract from Robin Thicke's new video, Blurred Lines. It's been blacklisted, as it's not. 

Is it Art? Youtube says yes to one, no to the other.

Well, in the words of Andy Warhol, Art is anything you can get away with, right?

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