Scraps of burst tyre and a “sliced” Citroen have been installed at Tate Modern.
The installations are on show at the retrospective of Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco.
Mr Orozco’s new work, Chicotes, consists of the remnants of burst tyres which he collected from Mexican highways.
Tate Modern said: “The scraps of rubber are still imbued with a kind of movement-memory - the rotation of car wheels and the explosion which caused them to be discarded. In elevating debris to the status of sculpture, Orozco once again demands that his viewers reassess their aesthetic responses to humble everyday materials and situations.”
Mr Orozco was born in Xalapa, in Veracruz, Mexico, in 1962 and emerged as an artist during the 1990s. (PA)
‘Daft’ idea
A local authority has dumped a proposed “kiss and tell personnel” staff policy after criticism from unions.
Personnel bosses at Fenland District Council, based in March, Cambridgeshire, had put forward the scheme, under which “intimate behaviour during work time” could have been classed as gross misconduct and resulted in disciplinary action.
But council members unanimously rejected the idea, with one describing it as coming from the “database of daft ideas”. (PA)
Opposition suggests Putin travel ban
Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov urged the West yesterday to impose a travel ban on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his government allies for what he termed a crackdown on all forms of dissent.
Mr Nemtsov said the so-called “black list” should include not only Russia’s de facto leader but also his cohorts and stay in effect until the country’s small opposition was allowed to gather and speak through the media.
The 51-year-old Nemtsov was among 130 people detained in Moscow and Saint Petersburg on December 31 — the date of traditional end-of-month rallies in which Russians assert their constitutional right to gather in public places.
He called President Medvedev a “weak man” who plays second fiddle to Putin. (AFP)
Climate history
Ancient weather records, including details gleaned from monks’ diaries, are helping scientists work out how and why climates have changed over the past 500 years.
Researchers found the historic data, from the likes of weather station archives and harvest records, closely matched modern computer simulations of European climate patterns over the last five centuries.
Findings will lead to more accurate predictions and suggest greenhouse gas emissions will shape the climate in a “significant and visible” way. (PA)
Clarinets returned
A classical musician who was mugged on his way home from a concert has been reunited with two clarinets worth a total of £6,000.
Police officers arrested two people after a tip-off from a pawn shop where the suspects were trying to sell the instruments the day after the robbery.
Musician William Stafford, 25, was returning home from a concert at the Barbican in London at about 10.50 p.m. on December 29 when he was “forcibly searched” by three young men near Stratford station, the Metropolitan Police said. (PA)
Cricket score
A virus has killed millions of crickets raised to feed pet reptiles and others kept in zoos across the US.
The handful of producers have seen millions of their insects killed.
Some operations have gone bankrupt and others have closed indefinitely until they can get rid of the virus. (PA)
Hair today
One of Belgium’s most popular actors has called on his countrymen to grow beards in protest at a political stalemate that has left the country without a full government for seven months.
Benoit Poelvoorde said: “Let your beard grow to show solidarity.”
There has been a deadlock over enacting more self-rule for Dutch-speaking Flanders and Francophone Wallonia since elections last June. (PA)
Rained off
A self-professed African wizard who claimed he could make millions of dollars rain from the sky in exchange for a modest payment to genies has been jailed for three years in Dubai.
An undercover police officer testified that the man began a ceremony and asked for a “tip” of 200 dirham (£30) for genies to shower down 25 million dollars last year.
Rain is a major topic each winter in the United Arab Emirates, where farmers and others await the infrequent seasonal showers. (PA)