DANIEL RAPLEY: COVENANT

For the last 18 months the british artist Daniel Rapley has been really diligent - or should I say "obsessed": he has been busy writing down the complete King James Bible on ruled paper with a ballpoint pen. 3.116.480 characters - 66 books. He made a deal with himself - a covenant - to finish the book and then show it in a staple. Therefore, his work is about trust: As a viewer, one doesn't know whether the whole staple is filled out, or whether it is only the top page. In times where guys like David Hockney criticize Damien Hirst's factory-like work production, it is a very interesting contrast to see the conventions of artistic labour. The show opens on Thursday, the 26th of January from 6-8pm.

LONDON: CHELSEA MA FINE ART DEGREE SHOW PART II

Jonathan Morgan

Tobias Buckel

Bernard Cella,  curated by Michele Drascek (MA Curating)

Anita Delaney

Rasmus Nilausen

Hyungwook Lee

Thomas Griffiths

Over 70 MA Fine Art graduates from Chelsea College of Art and Design are currently showing their degree show-pieces. Additionally, and just as interesting, the graduates from Ma Curating, Ma Graphic Design, Ma Interior Design and Ma Textile Design exhibit their final works. Clicking on the artist's name underneath each picture or video should lead you directly to their websites (in case they have one). You can still see the show until this Thursday evening. It can be quite confusing to run through the building trying to see everything, so I'd advice you to get a hold of a map and - absolutely worth it - a catalogue (5-10 GBP). If you should be interested, you'll find pictures from the opening in the previous artfridge post.

DANIEL RAPLEY

Have you ever thought about reliving history and rewriting a whole bible as they did in the old days when printing and copying was a hard-to-grasp fantasy? Well, I know someone who actually makes a living out of it: With his project "Authorized" Daniel Rapley (*1979), a british artist who currently finishes his MA in Fine Arts at Chelsea College (UAL) in London, literally writes down the King James Version of the Bible by hand. So far he completed nearly 500,000 neatly written words of the Genesis on handwritten A4 sheets of ruled paper. The interesting aspect is not only that his handcraft becomes persistence and somehow questions the whole thing in itself, but also that once the project is displayed no one will be able to feel, or retrace what patience and neatness he had to keep up with. 
See also: danielrapley.co.uk