Art Dad Doesn't Like – Details, episodes & analysis

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s probably James Bond... Dive into the surreal with Art Dad Doesn't Like, as we dissect Rachel MacLean's deepfake film, 'Duck.' Submerging us in a green-tinted world drenched in mystery and deception, ‘Duck’ presents a reality where subterfuge and suspicion undermine one’s every belief.

MacLean resurrects cinematic icons Sean Connery and Marilyn Monroe, employing deepfake technology as a digital necromancer to summon spectres of the past. But this piece doesn't just look to the past, mimicking the trappings of '60s cinema; it examines the crumbling facades of truth and identity in our digital era.

While 'Duck' prompts us to consider deepfake technology’s societal ripples, it implicitly raises the moral quandaries of repurposing the likenesses of the departed. And in relaying a less existentially threatening anecdote, Dad teaches us that if something looks like a swan, it's probably not a swan… View excerpts from ‘Duck’ here!

Music from Uppbeat.

This episode, our father-daughter relationship is on the rocks as Dad grapples with Julien Berthier’s work, ‘L’invisible.’ A polystyrene and epoxy resin boulder mounted on a worn-out boat, L’invisible zips along the coast near Marseilles, disrupting serene Mediterranean views. But is it really a feat of engineering as the media claims? Are there hidden messages within this stony façade? And, since we’d be remiss as an art podcast not to talk about Walter Benjamin, does encountering this work online alter its aura? Join us as we navigate the choppy waters of contemporary art! See images here!

Music from Upbeat .

Time to blow out the candles! To celebrate Dad's birthday, this week he takes the reins and presents a mixed pack of artworks created by artists from vastly different schools and time periods (including Dad's infamous bête noire, Picasso). We discuss Dad's secret addiction, the French Revolution, hearing colours and the challenges of modernity. See images here!

Works discussed:

Composition 8, Wassily Kandinsky, 1923

Group X/Altarpiece, Hilma af Klint, 1915

Yellow - Red - Blue, Wassily Kandinsky, 1925

The Guitar Player, Pablo Picasso, 1910

The Old Guitarist, Pablo Picasso, 1903

Self-portrait in a Straw Hat, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1782

Girl in a Straw Hat, Rubens, c. 1625

Seven A.M., Edward Hopper, 1948

Nighthawks, Edward Hopper, 1942

Office in a Small City, Edward Hopper, 1953

Music from Uppbeat.

Can peeling a potato be a work of art? Planting a tree? Putting roses in bottles in a brutalist gallery space? This week we discuss Michael Sailstorfer's installation 'To the People' at the Penman Foundation in Tehran and the artist's claims that his work harkens back to the inimitable Joseph Beuys' concept of social sculpture. Are Sailstorfer's claims legitimate, or does the emperor simply have no clothes? We discuss Greek mythology, the language of flowers, and Dad's forays into landscaping to reveal the meaning(lessness?) of this work. See images here!

Music from Upbeat; license code: WCBAFRBTLK0C1KMI

A fractured sphere placed precariously on a porphyry disk, surrounded by spouts of water, 'The Sphere' (or 'Große Kugelkaryatide N.Y.') by renowned German artist Fritz König was the centrepiece of Austen J. Tobin Plaza. With the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center rising as monolithic symbols of the promise of achieving world peace through trade (and of course, American commercialism), The Sphere stood for three decades before falling victim to the 9/11 attacks. The only piece of art to survive the attacks mostly in tact, The Sphere is now located in Liberty Park, overlooking the 9/11 Memorial. In this second life, the Sphere has taken on new meaning as an object of remembrance. But what will Dad make of this weighty sculpture, and what impression (if any) did it make on him when he visited New York. Find out in this episode! See images here!

Agnes Martin is a titan of 20th century art; her peaceful paintings convey a sense of equilibrium born from mathematical harmony. Her grid paintings, painstakingly created, became world-renowned, while Martin herself retreated to the deserts of New Mexico. Painting "with her back to the world", Martin sought to encapsulate our innermost senses of joy and innocence. But can Dad get around her pale pastel canvases, which nearly fade to plain white when viewed from afar? Find out how far Dad has come in this episode! See images here!

With diametrically opposed aesthetics, 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' have gone head to head in the box office, and now also on 'Art Dad Doesn't Like!' This week, we pit two artistic representatives of the cinematic sensations against each other: Shōmei Tōmatsu's moving photograph Atom Bomb Damage: Wristwatch Stopped at 11:02, August 9, 1945, Nagasaki (1961) and Catherine Théry's Barbie-doll intervention in David's The Death of Marat. But which artwork will Dad prefer? A haunting artefact from the fallout of the bombing of Nagasaki, or a fantastic plastic reinvention of a classic artwork? Tune into this episode to find out! See images here!

We're back! After a short break, we're back with a special episode where we delve into political art of a special kind: art made by politicians. From a peanut-farming president, to an art professor prime minister, to the world's most (in)famous art school rejectee, we explore six politicians who have turned to away from canvassing and towards the canvas. See images here!

**We are now switching to a fortnightly format! See you in two weeks!**

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/jonny-boyle/tres-french

License code: WCBAFRBTLK0C1KMI

A round table undulates on the backs of 18 headless straw figures as a ball rolls around, approaching but never quite attaching itself to the beleaguered scarecrow-esque creatures. Does that sound like art Dad would like? With hidden political messages and metaphors for social dynamics, could Round Table by South Korean artist Choe U-Ram win Dad over? Listen to this episode to find out, as we talk about kinetic art, presidential scandals and whether Dad could become a dictator. See the artwork here!

This week we discuss German artist Sebastian Maas, whose contemporary takes on Rubens' Baroque masterpieces seek to interrogate gender and Orientalism. But will Dad think that his recreations of 'The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus' and 'The Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt' can really add anything to the works of a great master? Or will Dad criticise Rubens' own skills? Find out in this episode! See images here!