[3] Hudson's books are diverse in subject matter, but united by their approach which incorporates elements of history, travel writing, cultural criticism and personal participation.
[4] As a journalist Hudson has written extensively about African music and culture, and two of his books are set in Africa.
There’s no sense of energy or struggle in this work, either with the surrounding cultural environment or within the art itself.”[11] British Art Show 8, was for him “the product of an art scene in which the curator, rather than the artist, is the dominant figure,” resulting in art with “a numbing narrowness of tone and concern…like bright student work that hasn’t had to stick its head over the art world parapet to face the variously grim, banal and insane realities the rest of us are living through.”[12] For Hudson, the artist of today is “an oddly colourless creature who seems intent on writing him or herself out of the picture – in every sense,” a figure typified by the 2018 Turner Prize-winner Charlotte Prodger, whose films are “at once unapologetically difficult – with their long takes and rambling narration – and strangely self-effacing.
Like something one might post on Facebook, they seem to espouse, perhaps not entirely deliberately, the social media ethos that everyone's experiences are equally valid.”[13] Hudson was, however, positive about the official exhibition at the 2019 Venice Biennale, May You Live In Interesting Times, dominated by artists from Asia and Latin America.
But there's a formidable sense of energy, the feeling that art in our globalised, digitally emancipated times has gained a momentum that will power it forward whatever the fates of individuals or nations.”[14] Books Discography