Robin Rhode turns a corner: In his new show at Perry Rubenstein in New York, Berlin-based, South African artist Robin Rhode is adding to a repertoire that, up til now, focused mainly on performance pieces in which he interacted with two-dimensional drawings in public places and galleries. According to a fascinating New York Times review, Rhode (who made his US debut at the Walker’s 2000 exhibition How Latitudes Become Forms) is now doing 16mm films, video collaborations, and editioned sculptures, including a green bike cast in soap, a gold-plated spade, and a silver abalone shell filled with coins.

Commerical Art: You’ve probably seen Picasso‘s posthumous promotion of Macintosh computers in those “Think different” ads or Jackson Pollock in a Converse ad, but what about artists who appeared in commercials during their lifetimes? Here’s Salvador Dal in commercials for Alka Seltzer, chocolate, and booze, and Andy Warhol in a Braniff Airlines ad.

Worst movie scenes ever: You know that stunt where the guy on a motorcycle evades pursuers by laying the bike down flat and sliding under a semi-trailer? In this montage of (not entirely safe for work) worst movie clips, a guy in a movie from India does it… on a horse.

On my to-check-out list: The blog for the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco’s showing of Tezuka: The Marvel of Manga (more on this soon). A survey of Bauhaus architecture in Tel Aviv. The updated-daily blog showing what happens when Brazilian street artists Os Gemeos, Nina Pandolfo, and Nunca are invited to paint an entire castle in the countryside outside Glasgow.

Tate and the State: The Tate’s recently announced Turner Prize shortlist includes artists Zarina Bhimji, Nathan Coley, Mike Nelson and Mark Wallinger, but Wallinger has the distinction of making the list twice (he didn’t win in ’95) and is this year’s favorite. His State Britain, a painstaking reproduction of longtime anti-war protester Brian Haw’s encampment in London, explores free speech in times of terrorism and war. Haw’s accretion of banners, flags, and posters has grown outside Parliament since 2001, but in 2005 the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act was passed — some say specifically to remove Haw — prohibiting demonstrations within a kilometer of Parliament Square. Police dismantled much of Haw’s protest materials.

Walker makes TIME 100: Kara Walker, whose first major U.S. museum survey closes at the Walker on Sunday, is rubbing elbows with Queen Elizabeth and Justin Timberlake: she was recently named to The TIME 100, a list of “people who shape our world.” Artist Barbara Kruger writes of Walker, “She plays with stereotypes, turning them upside down, spread-eagle and inside out. She revels in cruelty and laughter. Platitudes sicken her. She is brave. Her silhouettes throw themselves against the wall and don’t blink.” The Walker’s Walker show is going on tour; next stop, a June 20 opening at ARC/Musee d’art moderne de la ville de Paris.

Banksy jumps the shark? For a street artist, is getting covered by high society magazines a version of “gettin’ up” or the kiss of death, cred-wise? Either way, kudos to Banksy for his coverage in the New Yorker.

Boldfaced Birthday: “Is there another font so stern, so severe – yet also so sensuous?” So blogs The Guardian‘s Andrew Dickson on the 50th birthday of the typeface Helvetica. Celebrate by ordering one of the few remaining tickets to our May 31 screenings of Helvetica, the movie.

OhMyione Granger! According to Clicked, Harry Potter’s sidekick Hermione went up a cup size or two in the IMAX version of the movie poster for the Order of the Phoenix.

The Hot Fuzz Connection (Or, Call me a Commie): Having not yet seen the movie Hot Fuzz, I’ll have to take Source Dorks‘ Gus at his word when he writes: “On display in the current [Walker] exhibition Paper Trail: A Decade of Acquisitions is a print by Fiona Banner called Break Point which reproduces, in red text, a description of one of the climactic action sequences in the movie Point Break. The same scene serves as the main pay off for the movie Hot Fuzz, which you must be some kind of communist to have not seen by now.”

Lynch goes deep: Utne Reader podcasts an interview with filmmaker David Lynch on the connection between painting (Lynch’s first love) and film; the origins of the title of his new book, Catching the Big Fish; and Transcendental Meditation, which he’s been practicing daily since “a Saturday morning, 10:30, July 1, 1973.”

Krushed: “The art blogs of the moment are eclipsing traditional forms of commentary, exploiting the boundlessness of cyberspace to diversify our notions of art and the art world,” writes Artkrush. So how come none of our blogs made the cut?