A reader has complained that this site doesn’t feature enough sculpture. Conceptual art, yes, and music, quite a bit, but the sculpted arts have been shamefully neglected – apart from the odd appearance by some slightly indecent balloons. Keen as I am to please, and such is the richness of the sculptural world, I feel obliged to share with you the latest work by Chen Wenling. It’s over six metres tall, is made of fibreglass and paint, and, naturally, it’s a deep and devastating critique of global capitalism. The piece is called What You See Might Not Be Real, though some prefer a less cryptic title: The Big Golden Farting Bull.

The arts, they ennoble.

In the following BBC clip, lifted from today’s ephemera, the sculptor and artistic luminary Antony Gormley shares his wisdom on matters ecological. “Dispense with your socks,” says he. “This is a time of global warming. Through our feet we can begin to feel it.” This is no doubt because “our feet connect with our brains” and “engage with time.” And what’s more, “through our feet we can begin to be one people, standing through gravity on one Earth.” Yes, standing through gravity, united in our socklessness. Go barefoot for Gaia, people. It’s “an act of solidarity.”

Careful, dear readers. That’s the white heat of insight. It burns mortal flesh.

(h/t, Simen Thoresen.)

This is rather marvellous. A wearable papercraft self-portrait by Eric Testroete. Do click to embiggen.

Assembly instructions are included so you could always build your own. And then go shopping. See also: Bert Simons.

Readers may recall Phil Wolstenholme’s ongoing digital photography project Wide Area Network, in which Sheffield’s surrounding countryside is writ large in a series of enormous, eerily detailed prints. Aesthetes among you may be interested in Wolstenholme’s first book of photographic work, Networks, published by Heavy Everywhere. 92 colour plates in a deluxe hardcover volume.   

Josef Hoflehner’s wide-angle photos of low-flying aircraft at Princess Juliana International Airport.

The Caribbean airport has some interesting signage too.