Art Rap SheetWelcome to a project in constant peripatetic progress. What follows shall be a purging exercise of all the bits and scraps of information I pick up in my meanderings though art magazines, journals, newspapers, books, conferences, lectures and heresay. Some of the bits and pieces will be properly annotated and some of them may not be. main page | news | visual art | artrap sheet | literary | links | purpose | esa projects | 2000
June 9, 2005
Two shows that you should really go see right now are OK/OKAY at the Swiss Institute and Grey Gallery at NYU and Matthew Buckingham/Joachim Koester's Sandra of the Tuliphouse or How to Live in a Free State at the Kitchen. I was lucky enough to have a personal tour of the OK/OKAY and its hard to say if it would have been as good without one. It was just nice to see good edgy art in Soho. The work is so heavy conceptually but a nice survey of young Europeans in the Duchamp tradition. Sandra of the Tulips is beautifully installed fake dcumentation of the famous squatters of Christiania in Copenhagen.
May 23, 2005
Yeah, its been a year I'll be the first to admit... So, because Meghan is just to slow putting up my first review on her site here it is as a special preview. After this one - you'll just have to figure out what mysterious website I am writing for under a pen name.
Not sure what I am doing here but I got a contract in the mail which I apparently “signed” with ********.net and my lawyer has told me that I am now beholden to fill you all in on my life as a bottom-feeder of the art world. So here goes… I woke up late in the afternoon somewhere in Midtown as people like me do on Sunday afternoon and headed out to get another glimpse of Tim Hawkinson’s Uberorgan at Madison and 56th (until 5/29/05). As if last night had not already been a parade of men and their big “projects” it seemed my Sunday afternoon would be so too. Anyway, Hawkinson’s Uberorgan is a delightful mess of cable ties, tinfoil and cookie jars suspended from the ceiling of what was once an ordinary Midtown Manhattan faux-outside atrium. The contraption looks like it might fall on everyone’s head at any moment and emits a barely audible low hum that sound much like the sound of a dustbuster seriously low on battery juice (as I have found many men with big “projects” by the way). Strangely, everyone else there seemed to be doing their best to ignore the behemoth breathing thing hanging over their heads. I loved it for all of the 15 precious moments of my hangover that I could spare and apparently not content with such male-prowess I headed uptown to catch Daniel Buren at the Guggenheim (until 6/8/05). I have to say the old Gugg never looked so good having been all but emptied out of art and tourists. Conceptual artist extraordinaire till the end Mr. Buren has sliced up the rotunda with a mirrored quarter and filled the rest with nothing but light and a few lovely pink stripes at the top. It all comes out looking like one big birthday-cake joke on a museum and I loved it! I especially admired the backside of the mirrored wall which resembles one of those uber-scary contraptions one has architecturally supporting a shattered limb after a car wreck.(see post-car wreck scene with James Spader in the beginning of the movie “Crash” which I had just watched the night before – talk about men and their projects!) I reckon both of these shows are over by the time you read this and I have been told that my contract includes corporate branding opportunities so next time I’ll try and get to bat well before the shows are over with a little something about Greater New York at PS1 and Make It Now at SculptureCenter – both up through the long lazy summer.
February 21, 2004
Run, don't walk, to Luhring Augustine to see Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller latest - especially the wonderful "Berlin Files." Went to Carl Andre's opening at Paula Cooper for some reason last night and saw the man himself in his trademark overalls. I couldn't help wondering if he really pushed Ana Mendieta to her death. Can't think of much to say about what he was showing - I never really liked his work all that much. Also, Alan Sarat at James Cohan is a convincing look at what I used to think of as just big piles of wire. Congrats to Thomas Eller on the soon to be launched German Artnet.com! Oh - and Michael Snow at Jack Shaiman just because he's one of the original art-film greats and Chris Burden at Gagosian just to ponder how someone gets from getting shot in the arm and crucified on a Volkswagen Beetle to building models of bridges...
January 12, 2004
Happy New Year! Lucky for you folks my resoulution is to write more.
The Good Stuff so far: Pierre Huyghe installation up at DIA Chelsea. First we watched the film from inside the pavillion and afterwards I watched the whole process from "the outside." Boy oh boy I loved watching unsuspecting visitors be coralled by those slow moving walls. they had the same perplexed and slightly frightened look the little doe in the film had. I liked the film but I must confess I appreciated the creepyness of those slowly sliding walls. Which of course is the feeling you get from the film - the creepyness of the slowly closing- in walls of suburban sprawl. My only question was why the disco treatment on the outside of the walls? Seemed like a flashy after thought. Don't know how I would have felt if the walls were white on the outside. A friend of mine was at the filming of this piece in upstate New York and said that the people in the film didn't seem to have any idea of what was going on which adds just another lovely veneer on the whole thing. It was nice to see something that wasn't heavy handed as art around Chelsea tends to be these days.
Other good things: Openings at Parker's Box and Roebling Hall. Seeing as I have gotten to know the folks who run these always interesting spaces I am not surprised that I feel so appreciative of the work they are showing and that I had such a great time hanging out even though I always claim to hate openings.. Nothing overwhelming to report but just a keen sense that they are smart and take the time to really look and present work of substance. Heaven knows I always mean to get the lead out on those First Fridays in Williamsburg perhaps 2004 is the year I make it more of a habit.
What's up with the MET? That Guston show was a kicker. I loved the conversations going on around me: "Is this two different artists?" "Why did he go from making such beautiful stuff to these cigar chomping Klan heads, eyeballs and stick legs?" "Did he have a nervous breakdown?" I didn't bother to read any of the copious wall texts but instead put on my walkman and had some quality long looks at his amazing paintings. It was really incongruous to see that show in the context of the MET - I couldn't fathom going to look at the El Greco show after that but it was a mob scene in there anyway and I was beginning to be able to smell everyone else's breath.
Went out with great expectations to see the Kabakov installation at the Sculpture Center and was dissapointed by the Empty Museum. I think perhaps if I wasn't expecting something like "The Palace of Dreams" it wouldn't have felt so empty. Alas, it was a big empty space full of opening attendees - a beautifully installed empty space I might add. I am going to reserve my judgement until I can go back on a normal day and experience it in an emptier fashion.
December 21, 2003
Went to see the installation by Gregor Schneider at Barbara Gladstone the other night. I had been told by reliable sources that it was well worth seeing and I was glad to have gone over there at night after gallery hours. You see, the installation is a recreation (I don't even know how to put this) of the garage that was once what the Barbara Gladstone Gallery is today. Schneider has transformed a section of the current gallery space back into what it once was and if you didn't know any better you might have slipped under the half open garage door to have a quick pee or a spot of illicit sex. Much like Jerry Saltz when we walked in a shiver ran down my spine. I didn't want to like such a seemimgly wasteful and useless work of art but the shiver told me that it had something going for it. It was strangely the same cold shiver I experience watching a journalist climb inside Saddam Hussein's hideout on 60 minutes the other night. The crossover beteen reality/fiction these days is getting to be a bit much. I have to say that I was expecting a painted or 2 dimensional recreation of the garage space not a full on full scale reproduction. I didn't expect to be standing there wondering if the artist was shitting me (in every sense of the phrase.) Yes Jerry, the whole experience left me feeling a little anxious and out of sorts too. Still not quite sure what to make of it.
December 9, 2003
Okay - I'm gonna try and climb back up on the old art horse. Must see: Isaac Julian at Metropictures! "Baltimore" is just the best kind of video installation there is in my book - unpretentious, weird and funny. I like the way this guy sees things - looks at things and considers their facets - a guy who truly looks and thinks about what he sees. It was impossible for me to stay and watch the whole thing on my very short break but I left feeling all the better about this business I am in. Also stopped by PaceWildenstein to check out the Granddaddy of light works - James Turrell. Beside the strangeness of hired guards offering you paper booties the 2 works on display don't really stack up against the other works I have seen - including the PS1 beauty. It's kind of awkward and hard to appreciate his grandiosity in a commercial gallery which has been uncomfortably altered to accommodate his mysterious and ethereal light works. They are so much easier to enjoy in more contemplative environments. Anyway - there are two works - one of colored light almost imperceptibly shifting in a very dark room. Its when you realize that you aren't looking at a screen but at a hallowed out space behind the wall that you can appreciate what he reaches for - space, infinity and the unlimited potential of light. The other piece has you climb some stairs into a room with another infinite looking space bathed in light blue light. Again - really amazing conceptually but not so hotly executed or presented in the gallery. If you find yourself in Chelsea do take the time to take off your shoes and climb inside.
Kelly Pink & Charley's Art Recs…because sometimes they're recommendations, and sometimes they're just wrecks
March 2003 Our prediction: In like a lamb. The art we see for the beginning of March is soft, quiet...nothing roars too loudly. We suggest putting on some Hall & Oates ballads ("Abandoned Luncheonette"), a glass of cheap Shiraz (Yellowtail), and waiting for the Lion to usher in spring. xoxo, Kelly & Charley~~~~~~~
ARTIST: Rachel Whiteread SHOW: Recent Sculpture GALLERY: Luhring Augustine, 531 W. 24th Street, www.lurhringaugustine.com DRINK: Swiss Miss Diet Hot Cocoa--Yeah, it's cocoa, but what's the point? Ms. Whitehead's staircase and a metal floor--the latter was clearly her interpretation of Carl Andre's '25 Aluminum Squares" which, what timing?!, can currently be seen at Barbara Gladstone--place everyday architecture into heightened settings. Of course, if we're not actuallygoing to heaven on those white stairs or seeing the reflection of our souls at our feet, why bother? It may have just been a case of truly needing to (physically) interact with the sculpture, or the fact that the downpour-and-no-galoshes-Saturday had us down. Up through March 29th ~~~~~~~
ARTIST: Group showSHOW: SculptureGALLERY: Barbara Gladstone Gallery, 515 W. 24th Street, www.gladstonegallery.com DRINK: The only liquid you should imbibe here is the smoke rising off your bong water. Minimalist sculpture that examines "the possibility of cleansing art of all pretensions to illusionist representation, leaving only the self-evident and essential reality of the object." We say this sounds oddly like our Art Wrecks mission statement: Don't use fancy words when talking about art because if you have a drink in your hand, you’re already lubricated enough sound smart. Up through March 15th ~~~~~~~
ARTIST: Bill Feeney and Adia MilletSHOW: Story Time GALLERY: mixed greens, 601 W. 26th Street, 11th Floor, www.mixedgreens.com DRINK: Grappa--it's classic, yet always hip, and comes in a thimble-sized glass. Mixed Greens is our new favorite gallery. We also loved the space--hell, we want to work in this office. Great view, great space, great people, and, well, like, art everywhere! Speaking of the art all over the place.... In the era of downsizing, it's refreshing to see reduction in size beplayful. The working doorways and the photographs of the dollhouse interior made us just want to walk inside and see what was on that Cowboy's mind. Up through March 22nd ~~~~~~~
ARTIST: Frank Egloff SHOW: New WorkGALLERY: Brent Sikkema, 530 W. 22nd StreetDRINK: Highball--enough fizz to be refreshing and enough brandy to be serious Taking inspiration from vintage photos and film, Boston artist Frank Egloff uses photo-realism to express the moments that should truly be examined. Whether those moments are as a fighter's punch connects to a face, or if we should try looking at the world from a different construction, Mr. Egloff grabs the viewer's attention from across the room. So, hurry, go get grabbed! Up through March 15th ~~~~~~~
ARTIST: Jan StallerSHOW: Found SculptureGALLERY: klotz|sermon, 511 W. 25th Street, suite 701, www.klotzsirmon.com DRINK: Ragged Company (2 oz bourbon, ½ oz. each of sweet vermouth and Benedictine, 2 dashes bitters)--because if alcohol is just fancy truth serum, than the truth here is that there's something beautiful in the everyday. Mr. Staller's work builds on the landscape artists from thirty and forty years ago. His beautiful photos of construction sites, factories, and industrial landscapes often include the ragged land surrounding the sites. The works "Containers, Newark," and "String Field" seem elegantly staged, yet these are just everyday structures captured in the gorgeous of Magic Hour (with theassistance of some stadium lights). By ensuring the color is coolly vibrant, the viewer can then--like the artist--see these objects different from their everyday useful purposes. The image "Field of Boxes' looks so expansive and unending that the viewer must determine if these are actually wood crates or if this is just a strange elevated photo over the farmlands of America. The big sky gives the images a mythical feel. And more than myth, Mr. Staller creates visual poetry, especially in "Silage.' This piece of wrapped white fabric clearly references Christo, but by making it about the final captured image he removes the elements of nature's play. We see the fabric as a live, glowing, almost-illuminated image that is its own being, while Christo's pieces tend to be more about the interaction within nature. To add to the absolute beauty of this show, the images are showcased in frames designed by Mr. Staller. The frame's uniqueness, simplicity, strength, and industrial beauty heighten the desire to examine these daily nearly-forgotten-scenes-of-sculpture. Up through March 29th ~~~~~~~
December 4
Because I am too lazy to write about art these days I am gonna let Kelly and Charley step in - they have been circulating their fabulous news letter around town and will soon have their very own website - read on...
Kelly Pink & Charley's Art Recs…because sometimes they're recommendations, and sometimes they're just wrecks
December 2002
Happy Holidays and welcome to issue #2! This month we highlight George Condo's new work, Matt Wilson's "Brighton Pier," and William Kentridge's "Zeno Writing", plus an analysis of Thomas Hirschhorn's "Cavemanman." xoxo, Kelly & Charley ~~~~~~~
ARTIST: George Condo SHOW: new work; untitled GALLERY: Luhring Augustine, 531 W 24th Street www.luhringaugustine.com DRINK: 2000 Flushes (2 shots of Blue Curacao and a can of 7-Up)-because it's just absurd Condo continues his vision of absurdist portraiture, brought to life with a quirky palette. His cartoonish figures transcend sheer goofiness to display true emotion. For long-time fans, like us, it's great to see the artist's obsession and progression. Up through December 21 ~~~~~~~
ARTIST: Matt Wilson SHOW: Brighton Pier GALLERY: 31 Grand, 31 Grand Street, Williamsburg www.31grand.com DRINK: Stoli, chilled in a block of ice, preferably served in a juice glass Though neither of us is a fan of the digital photo print, we agree that in Mr. Wilson's case it works. In fact, these images are at their strongest when there's no sense of time or place, thus exhibiting a feeling or mood, rather than just an image. Kudos to the gallery for not hanging the photos from those annoying binder clips like everybody else is doing! Up through December 22. ~~~~~~
ARTIST: William Kentridge SHOW: Zeno Writing (2002) GALLERY: Marian Goodman, 24 West 57th Street www.mariangoodman.com DRINK: South African Hartenberg Shiraz 2000 (taste of cinnamon and crushed pepper, shrouded in oak-served in a smoky room) Based on Italo Svevo's 1923 novel "Confessions of Zeno," William Kentridge has created an elegant, moody, dark and romantic film exhibited with heartbreakingly lovely drawings used for the film. It may inspire you to read a book from the Zeno collection when done. A must see for Goth culturists and Edward Gorey fans. Up through January 4, 2003 ~~~~~~
ARTIST: Thomas Hirschhorn SHOW: Cavemanman GALLERY: Barbara Gladstone, 515 West 24th Street www.gladstonegallery.com DRINK: Thunderbird in a bag-'cause you'll want to fly away To quote the 10-year-old we encountered as we entered the installation, "I just wanna get out of this crazy thing!" Artist Thomas Hirschhorn's "Cavemanman" labyrinth is a socio-political analysis of modern society. If you see this exhibit on a Saturday, be prepared to wait your turn to travel through the lairs. (While waiting, we suggest playing the "Guess How Many Rolls of Packaging Tape Hirschhorn Used?" game.) Upon entering, take the left fork, and you'll encounter the first room with lots of "people" (men, women, children) wrapped in foil and hooked by their 7th chakra to sticks of dynamite and books. The books, such as Obligations of Democracy and Foucoult's Ethics, supplement as a stick of dynamite, and are clearly volatile and ready to blow. On the left wall of this first room are clocks for many cities of the world. These clocks are set to the same time-10:09 and 30 seconds. Mr. Hirschhorn has stopped time at the final 30 seconds of humanity. Continuing on in this spelunking adventure, you see strewn garbage (byproduct of our consumerist culture): empty cans, idol posters (James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Leonardo Dicaprio), and more "thoughtful" books. Eventually you end up in the room where Mr. Hirshhorn's emotions release themselves as the cave ceiling is repeatedly spray painted "1 Man = 1 Man." The only problem with Mr. Hirschhorn's declaration is that he's saying it, without feeling it or doing it. There's a falseness that permeates this exhibit. It's clear that Mr. Hirschhorn is making his wacky statement about globalization with topics from biodiversity, capitalism, philosophy, and multiculturalism thrown in, but why? So what if he has created a cardboard and tape monstrosity? Obviously he is working out his issues with "modern society" and the effect of corporate culture in it. So why then does he contribute to consumerism with the ingredients used in the installation? The books connected to the bombs (and shelved throughout) are newly purchased for the exhibition. (Possibly a *really* large order on Amazon.com?) And what about all of the cans strewn about this messy cavemanman's lair? We would have found this piece a bit more commendable had the artist not gone on a Coca Cola® drinking binge (see new cans) to keep himself awake during his taping excursion. Finding these objects at a junkyard or using discarded books would have given this cave an ounce of redemption. This is not to say that we don't agree with the statement the artist is making, but we don't know that quitting his day job-the artist was a graphic designer, but started making installations to have a "greater political impact"-is creating an underground movement. Overwhelming crowds, overwhelming amount of data, overwhelming walking conditions, but an underwhelming experience. Up through December 21
November 10
Now that I work in Chelsea I see less art than ever. I am up to my neck in art and at the end of the day I just wanna run away from it all! Okay - I do go out of my way to see stuff like Alfredo Jaar at Galerie Lelong on 26th Street which is just intense. Very happy to see some art with a conscious in Chelsea. Next door is Fabian Marcaccio who's work eludes me aesthetically but I will say he is a very nice unpretentious chap. Both of these guys are from South America - combined with the Tellez show at White Box 26th Street was dominated by the men from down South - a refreshing change. <TRANS has opened their exhibition space and I am keen to get over there and have a look and see if their space stacks up against it's often good publication.
April 11
I am finding the "talkback" section of Artforum's site especially entertaining these days.
March 27, 2002
Cozy praise from me for the Whitney Biennial coming soon... in the meantime read this funny and smarty pants review over at Spaces.org.
February 6, 2002
I really like Art:21 the new PBS produced series about American artists. I remember hearing a lot of talk about it last summer, my interest especially piqued by Laurie Anderson's involvement. If Laurie says something is good I am inclined to give it a chance. Then September 11th came along and I forgot all about it. It popped back up on Channel Thirteen here in New York two weeks ago and after nearly 4 months of terrorism, war, anthrax and the unwelcome return of the sitcom to our TV sets, Art:21 is a blessed waft of fresh air.
The first episode, "Place" began with the sprite-like Anderson, atop a giant chair, beaming her goofy smile out of the TV set at me and I had to smile back. The featured artists in the "Place" episode were all interesting and articulate and I was happy to see Pepon Osorio, Margaret Kilgallen (who sadly passed away last summer) and her husband Barry McGee featured alongside the inimitable Richard Serra and Sally Mann. Sally Mann didn't seem to have much to say about "Place" but that's okay, and I also forgave her for dragging out her teenage kids to prove they were not damaged by her using them as her subjects when they were children. The production values of the show are spot-on, simple and sometimes contemplative, but most of the time just simply watching the artist at work.
Art in America's Eleanor Heartney reviewed the show in the February issue and I couldn't quite tell if she liked it or not. She seemed to be unhappy with the fact that the more controversial aspects of Richard Serra and Sally Mann's careers were not dealt with (the Tilted Arc debacle and photographs featuring her children respectively.) With the dearth of broadcast television about art out there, it is hardly helpful to complain about the series. Alright, we have EGG but, I mean come on - Sister Wendy? My only complaint is that the episodes are too short.
Art:21 is an accessible venue to let the artist present themselves and their work without all of the sometimes extraneous interpretation provided by the art world machine. I enjoyed getting a glimpse into the lives of artists who's work I am already familiar with and know that people with little or no knowledge about those artists also enjoyed it and have perhaps been inspired to watch out for their work in the future. As an educational tool and as an opportunity to introduce contemporary art to a larger audience Art:21 is to be praised. I would rather that millions of people watch this television program than stand on long lines to attend the blockbuster Van Gogh show at the Art Institute of Chicago.
February 3, 2002
I was hustling down Greene Street in SoHo the other day to a meeting at Artist Space (a wonderful place by the way) and I was just thinking about the good old days in Soho - back when there was art in dem der windows. It is always disconcerting to lift one's eyes and see clothing and furniture pretending to be art - the shops are truly lit up like galleries and other merchandise presented like art. I was passing Helmut Lang's new shop and what did I spy? Why a giant Jenny Holzer scrolling LED poem smack in the middle of the store. A little stunned it took me a minute to figure out that it is indeed authentic. I am little late in noticing this and artnet.com has already commented on this - but by golly - when artists hit the big time they are really in these days - the whole world must open up to them. I wonder just how many of these things Holzer is cranking out for corporate and retail consumption? makes me queasy just to think about it.
Oh, and has anyone been talking about the Bill Viola piece on view at the Met? It's pretty damn good - but pretty damn weird to see it inside that gigantic place full of loot from all over the world!
January 27, 2002
Went to Chelsea this weekend and was underwhelmed by it's offerings. I have to say that the Dia continues to be the cleanest art museum in the world. I kept expecting to turn around and see someone with a Swifter following me wiping up my footprints. Work by Roni Horn and Alfred Jensen is especially good and demands some serious looking. Overall, an enjoyable afternoon at the Dia. Of course I couldn't leave the bookstore without having to make a choice between buying the latest issues of Trans> (which has a disc of a Janet Cardiff walk) and Cabinet. I have a serious art magazine problem, its true.
Oh, yeah - the Darger show at the new Museum of American Folk Art rocked - especially the audio transcripts of the "The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion." The contrast between the benign folk art upstairs and the Darger work was pretty crazy and I overheard one older woman looking at the Darger work "This isn't folk art!" I'm afraid she is right and the old outsider vs. folk art debate rears it's ugly head once again.
January 8, 2002
Man, I am so excited about the Museum of American Folk Art I can barely contain myself! Which reminds me, I have to give my favorite punching bag, The Guggenheim, a little credit for their Brazil show - there are some amazing bits of "folk art" in that show. I just might have to recommend that you check the show out for the carved wooden body parts alone. I'll also have to confess finding all of the creepy baroque woodcarvings of saints in the show strangely comforting if not slightly unnerving. Oh, and while I am confessing things - I enjoyed my day at PS1 the other day - if you don't mind watching video and film until your eye balls feel scorched there is plenty of good stuff to check out in their Animation show. I was happy to see Peggy Ahwesh's chopped up sequences of Lara Croft doing her quieter stuff. Especially happy maybe because I first ran into this piece at the DUMBO arts festival. So I am glad to see that either the festival attracts some high calibar stuff, or that there are roads that lead from DUMBO to PS1. Well, I might as well get it all out of my system - I also enjoyed a visit to the New Museum a couple of weeks ago - Tom Friedman was refreshingly simple and funny - and a master craftsman with asprins, toothpaste and his ability to stare at a piece of paper for many hours. The work from artists who were in residence at the World Trade Center was pretty OK - obviously it carried alot of emotional weight and is worth a look. If I were you, I would also try to check out Mr. Big Bad Richard Serra at Gagosian in Chelsea if it's still up. But I am not you - so do whatever the hell you want.
January 6, 2002
Janet Cardiff crawls into your head and alights on your nerve center at PS1.
Putting on a pair of headphones attached to a whirring CD player and going for a walk around PS1 with Janet Cardiff was pure delight. I have only had the pleasure of walking with Cardiff twice in my life, but after both experiences my heart was beating a little faster and I think I might have been panting lightly. Cardiff is well known for her audio works, recorded with some 3D gizmo sound thingy, in which she walks and talks about her surroundings while interjecting her own thoughts and associations. In the case of the walk through PS1, something about the old school building must have reminded her of her childhood as the walk was chock full of childhood memories, songs and sensations of being small again, probably about age 6. So I let Janet order me around PS1 for 11 minutes - up and down stairs, to small corners - she took me to parts of the building normally off limits which gave me that exciting feeling of childlike exploration. In a wonderful moment she took me into a bathroom where there is an installation of children's toys clumped together and hanging skewered, slowly turning under pink lights. What is normally a creepy installation anyway becomes even creepier with the sound of children singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as she asked me to look in the mirror to see myself surrounded by the toys - and I felt small and vunerable again. And then a toilet flushed and I nearly jumped out of my skin! Janet - you scared me!
But Janet keeps us moving so that we aren't feeling anything for too long. The walks are short but powerful. The sound quality of the recording is so good that it is difficult to tell what sounds are actually happening and which are on the CD which is so very disorienting. Her voice is so melodic and hushed that she becomes your thoughts easily. Having someone replace your thoughts with theirs, having a little artist-in-residence in your brain, makes the walk seem much longer than 11 minutes. It reminded me of dreaming and the idea of guided dreaming - and that dreams which seem crazy and lengthy are actually only a few minutes long. After the walk, when my own little head voice resurfaced and started up its relentless commentary again, I felt grateful for my old familiar friend and in awe of it's complexity. Janet made me notice how busy my little head voice is 24/7, digesting the world around me, dealing with memories that pop up, profiling strangers, monitoring my body for pain and yearning, thinking about dinner, worrying about the stain on my shirt, wondering if India and Pakistan will really try to blow each other to kingdom-come etc. etc. Thanks for the trip Janet - it was like a 11 minute vacation for my brain, like sensory immersion, like a waking dream, like revisiting my 6 year-old self.
As for the rest of the installations and her collaborations with George Bures Miller they were all beautifully conceived and produced. The ideas are simple, like a choir of voices recorded individually and re-played over 40 speakers in a large room in a piece entitled "Forty-Part Motet". The installation "The Dark Pool" from 1995 is a real surprise because of the chaos of a room full of what appears to be junk, old clothes, furniture, books and bits and pieces. But everything pulls together and becomes a successful sort of non-linear narrative and it's sensor operated audio tracks are impeccably installed. Some of Cardiff's other walks are available at a listening station - and although its wonderful to hear Janet's voice in your head again, the walks aren't as powerful out of context. I checked out two of them and found I wasn't as crazy about her newer walks which are more complex and make use of a camcorder so that the participant listens, watches a tiny screen and negotiates their surroundings all at the same time which seems a bit overwhelming. I feel like diddling with a camcorder while walking might be a little distracting. But then I haven't done a walk with the camcorder so I am unwilling to write off the idea - I would take the opportunity to try one in a second. The beauty of the audio walks is how simple they are to experience with maybe only the sensation of panic when you think you might have strayed from Cardiff's path - panic that you are lost, that Janet has left you behind! Please don't ever leave me behind again Janet!
August 10, 2001
I still think the new Gehry Guggenheim for New York looks like a giant exploded wedding gift.
Our pal Jeff Koons has a new book coming out and here is what the publisher has to say: "For his recent series of work entitled EasyFun-Ethereal, Jeff Koons employs new computer technology to merge populist icons into desktop collages, which he then transforms into traditional oil paintings rendered with photorealist precision. Drawn from glossy magazines and advertisements, the imagry includes smiley-faced sandwiches, spiraling roller coasters, succulent lips, and abstract juice splashes. These hybrids of fun and fantasy simultaneously celebrate childhood pleasures and adult sexual desire: in keeping with Koons's stated intention to 'communicate with the masses,' the cheerful works are accessible to all." Oh Jeff how you make me laugh and cry at the very same time!
August 9, 2001
What’s bothering Esa Now?“Warm Up 2001, the critically acclaimed and highly popular festival has established a vital multidisciplinary forum where audiences can interact with new trends in the arts.” - PS1 website
"But on summer Saturdays, the demographic compass skews dramatically as the artsy crowds from the East Village and Williamsburg are drawn to Jackson Avenue in droves. Their dress is retro chic, and their accessories might include a vintage airline bag stuffed with sunblock and towel, or a classic Vespa scooter." New York Times, August 5th 2001
I have this friend who really likes the Warm-up events at PS1 on Saturdays during the summer. To wit; “I get to eat red meat, drink beer, listen to some tunes, smoke, look at butts and then pop inside the museum and see some good art.” He points out that “they have everything you need there” sex, booze, music and art, and now, thanks to the MOMA franchise, you can even get a free ride over from midtown Manhattan in a pleasure cruiser. And, as if you couldn’t possibly ask for more – the art installed includes hammocks, wading pools and water spraying misters.
Alas, this is all heresay because I have not yet been this summer. In fact, after this glowing report I may just never go to Warm-up again. Its not because there is a line wrapped around the corner to get in and not because I’d have to overhear countless cell-phone conversations or because I am a bitter aging hipster. I can’t go because the very popular and perhaps lucrative intersection of art and social lubrication is a bit disturbing to me. I am all for fun mind you, I like fun and I even like fun art and I don’t want to get into a situation where I am deciding what is and what is not art here – hell no! The ball-pool from a Chucky-cheese could be installed at PS1 and I would be happy to consider it art – in that ironic knowing way.
So we have PS1/MOMA’s Warm-up, Creative Time’s Music programming at the Anchorage, the MET’s rooftop cocktails on Friday and Saturday evenings and Brooklyn Museum of Art’s First Saturday. (And let me just say here I love Creative Time – you guys rock!) Sometimes these events are explained as “increasing access” or “developing audiences” or “programming” and sometimes the lovable fuzzy “education” option. Or is this some sort new way of generating revenue in the age of slashed arts budgets at municipal and national levels? The age of “butts on seats” translating into corporate marketing dollars has now officially arrived. Head counts and demographics are the best tools available to institutional arts venues. Demographics which indicate up and coming consumers and white collar characteristics are particular favorites of Philip Morris, Hagen Daaz and Bombay Sapphire Gin. “Did you happen to notice the sponsors of the exhibition/event on your way in?”
These mighty institutions of art must scratch their heads in wonderment over the contrast between their empty galleries during regular days and the packed out event days. They probably had no idea what would happen if they sold beer, brought in djs and attracted the attention of hipster army. Or they probably did know but had been afraid to admit it. In the gallery world it has always been an accepted fact that more people will come out for an opening and the opportunity to sip cheap wine and socialize than will come out during the entire run of a show. So why not turn the “opening” into a revenue generating event?
To me it is all just art as consumerism, art as entertainment. And PS1 Warm-up is one big arty party. A summer playground created for mild, non-intrusive truths and artwork that is more aspirational than inspirational. Everyone and everything about the whole scene sort of gets under my skin - like alot events in Manhattan- - with the quiet desperation for coolosity. Who is the hippest first – the first hipster there wins!
But I digress...
What I wanted to point out about this is the glaring transition from art influencing society to society sort of dictating what it wants from its art. We want it to be well made (so we can’t say, “my little brother could have done that!” We want it to be moving, beeping or flashing in some way (so we can feel like we are really getting our $10 worth). We also want it to refer to things recognizable in Pop culture if possible (so we can feel like the work is relevant to us as an individual.) Ok – and if it is pretty or has beautiful naked women, or sex or in it or is just plain shocking that we might like it anyway. And we might just like it more if we can buy beer and listen to some groovy tunes after we have a cursory look around the galleries. In fact, what a perfect opportunity to gain all of the spiritual warm and fuzzy feelings granted by a visit to an art museum and be able to pick up cute boys/girls at the same time!But wait a minute Esa, art has almost always been about entertainment – what’s your problem? My problem here is that there are many many artists working today who’s art will never fall into the entertainment category. Who’s work comes through an artistic practice and investigation. Work that is contemplative, thoughtful, intelligent or just downright aesthetic pleasures. What of them? There is no art market which supports this kind of art making – and no general public there to consume it. When was the last time you even thought about buying an original piece of art? When was the last time you went to a show where nothing was moving? How many artists do you know personally who’s art work you have never seen? Have you heard that the new planned Guggenheim for New York City will have an ice-rink?
Wednesday, March 07, 2001
I recently read the funniest and most accurate piece of writing about the artworld that I have encountered in a long time - in a book called "The Eighties, A Reader" no less. The piece was by Tom Wolfe and its titled "The Worship of Art". It likens the 3,000 or so "taste makers" in the art world to a new clergy serving the rich and powerful who endow the arts the way they used to endow churches. He gets into public art and that is perhaps the funniest part. But this for now about the art market as the new clergy: "As you can imagine, this state of affairs has greatly magnified the influence of the art world. In size, that world has never been anything more than a village. (the art market as the Vatican?) In the United States fashions in art are determined by no more than 3,000 people, at least 2,950 of whom live in Manhattan. I can't think of a single influential critic today. 'The gallery-going public' has never had any influence at all - so we are left with certain dealers, curators, and artists. No longer do they have the servant-like role of catering to or glorifying the client. Their role today is to save him. They have become a form of clergy - or clerisy, to use an old word for secular souls who take on secular duties." The funniest part is when he gets into the value of public art -- to the social value of an abstract sculpture installed in a public place, especially the furor over the "Tilted Arc" by Richard Serra. Its funny, its wise and damn straight.
Thursday, January 18, 2001
So i was under the impression that one of the new museum's important points was that is was not a collecting museum - rather a showplace for the most contemporary and cutting edge art with a social twist or something like that. i got this impression from museum literature and perhaps from an interview i once had at the museum. so why then has Altoids "donated" their collection of "curious" and "strong" contemporary art to the new museum where it is currently on show for 2 and a half weeks? i don't get it? does the new museum get to turn around and auction off the collection for hunks of money or will they be serving up Altoids out of a big dish at the front door for all of perpetuity?Friday, January 12, 2001
remind me to tell you about how the new museum is "not a collecting museum"...Thursday, January 11, 2001
This from this month's issue of Print: "Jeff Koons, famous American artist and iconoclast, recently declared that the finest art in the U.S. today can be found on the back of cereal boxes. He wasn't being snide, he insisted. To Koons, grocery store aisles are more exhilarating than galleries in New York's Chelsea art district. He may have a point" Written by Richard Linnett. Part of a report on the rebranding of Raisin Bran - oh lordy! And hey, by the way, I wanna be an iconoclast who insists on not being snide.Sunday, January 07, 2001
Before I continue on with the Sherman show I have to relay what was by far the highlight of the day at Mary Boone's space. As soon as you walk in you are hit over the head with this enormous wall full of junk - a very beautifully organized wall of aged junk mind you. I don't even know who this artist is - no one seems to care. After admiring this piece and one meanders around the huge white space as one does in places like this you are drawn to a big Barbara Krueger on the back wall of the back room. The huge yellow sun flowers in the piece draw you over magnetically and the you see the words "TALK TO ME" and you stop in your tracks because you realize, as your eye goes down the work, that there is a skinny white man with wire frame glasses sitting a large glass desk in the room. As he looks up from his important and riviting gallery work you instantly step back look for something else to look at. No one dares step foot into the room with the man at the desk. Whoops. And then you turn to look again because the setup is so preposterous - him with his glass desk, in a suit on a Saturday afternoon, his black computer, his glass Evian bottle and paperless desk, the empty couch facing him awaiting the asses of some wealthly collectors, all sitting under "TALK TO ME". Everything is so mannered and so well placed. I thought "maybe it’s a piece, maybe he is supposed to be a chelsea shrink/furniture dealer/interior designer/architect, maybe it’s a big fat ironic statement about art dealers, it has to be, its so ridiculous!" I could have watched him all day from the far end of the room - like a lion in a cage except that I wouldn't have felt sorry for him. And then I got that creepy cold feeling you get when any stereotype has been fuffilled in front of your nose and you shudder because sometimes stereotypes are all too true - a little like the Sherman show.Went to chelsea to day to see Cindy Sherman's latest offering which is listed in Time out as "11 new color portraits of women on the seamy side of the beauty and entertainment industries." I thought this was a rather simplistic wrap up of the show when I read it but my impression was confirmed by the count of 11 portraits - there were actually 22. How is it that an important listings magazine like Time Out gets this very important information wrong? Isn't this just another sign of an
artworld that has it's priorities all wrong -- or at least the sort of casual and scatterbrained approach we get to experience all the damn time in this oh so lofty arts environment? I see I have gotten derailed here. The crowds were out on the last day -- all very nice looking hipster types who seemed initially entertained by Sherman's presentation of 22 "types" of women in all their eyebrow modified glory. They laughed nervously as if it were a joke - as if a woman with abnormally low hanging or surgically enhanced breasts were a joke - this is no joke kids. This collection of 22 portraits - amazingly all roles played as usual by the chameleon Cindy - seems to be the reality of contemporary womanhood to me -- the depressing and sometimes powerful reality of what it means to be a woman, and the lengths women go to to be women. I looked at all of these 22 women, looked again, and then caught myself wondering if I could do it. wondering if I could white out my eyebrows, draw new ones in and be a whole new woman? why not? magazines, TV and media of all ilks tell me it is possible -- that my face is a blank canvas -- that our bodies are piles of playdo we can manipulate accordingly - with a little sweat or, if we are lazy, a few pills. I see I have gotten derailed here again. the thing about this show - beside her obvious talent for disguise - is that Sherman presents some very terrorized women. with the exception of a few of the portraits in which her characters manage a modicum of grace, pride or comfort on her own skin -- they all seem loony. and people laughed. and people said, "oh she looks crazy!", "look at those teeth/lips/breasts/hair/eyebrows/fingernails/etc." after Sherman's series of horrific scenes of disjointed and obscene body parts this must have been a refreshing return to the days of the film stills. for me, this was just as horrific. My companion said to me as we slushed our way down 11th avenue - "don't take this the wrong way but, one of those photographs reminds me of your mother." I would have hauled off and punched his lights out right there if I hadn't been nearly run over by a uhaul van backing up. I see I have taken it the wrong way - but then he is a man and I take most of whatever any of them have to say the wrong way. I see I have gotten derailed here, again!. The show is good. Was good - its over now but see them if you can. I set out with this to list the 22 types of women in the show as I saw them and noted quickly, so here goes. They are out of order: 1. Well trained but failed Shakespearean actress 2. Neo-latina chick with halter top and tattoo 3. Total freak Carol Channing re-deux with yellow hair and silicon lips 4. Aging 70's of wife swapping days California house-wife with bleached teeth and sunburn 5. Aspiring "actress" from NJ with silicon breasts and hard nipples, most likely living in a house wired with cameras 6. "Performance artist" and proto-feminist theorist with short hair and silver gloves. And this kids is the first room. Stay tooned for the next two rooms….Friday, January 05, 2001
This just in from Tony Miller and his paper "The 'Black Eye on the Arts' Takes a Blow: US Cultural Policy in the 90's": ...the NEA's budget has never exceeded the amount the Defence (sic, he's austrailian) Department spends each year on military bands..." and "...in 1995 the NEA cost each taxpayer 64 cents; in 1996, 38 cents per person...." That is per year kids, just in case you wondered.Tuesday, December 12, 2000
I'll get to the conference, but first another little Guggenheim tidbit which come from Newsweek Magazine "Mega Museum, River Vu" by Cathleen MgGuigan (MgGuggenheim?) Anyway here it is under a lovely photo of Gehry's model: "The Guggenheim's ambitious director, Thomas Krens, has been lobbying to (my caps) RECREATE THE SUCCESS OF THE MUSEUM'S BRANCH IN BILBAO, Spain, with a Gehry building in New York... Gehry's preliminary design for the complex would make it 10 times the size of the famous Frank Lloyd Wright Guggenheim building, with two theatres, an outdoor skating rink and a public plaza in addition to galleries."Ack - this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Although I am sure the building would be spectacular, hasn't Mr. Krens' head gotten a bit to large to stay atop his body? I hope he isn't thinking that he might spark major urban revitalization near Wall Street akin to what has revived Bilbao? Sounds more like an "art and entertainment multiplex with some galleries" to me. Perhaps if they build it on the otherside of the East River in downtown Brooklyn their lofty Bilbao-redux ambitions of a culture led urban transformation would be a bit more plausible. Hurrah for Mr. Krens! I can't wait to see his plans for the new Guggenheim/Casino in Las Vegas.
At last museums and curators are getting a little poke in the press. Been reading alot of this kind of stuff lately.
The New York December 3 by Roberta Smith "... the Guggenheim with its overproduced, undercurated 'Armani' exhibition... was sponsored by In Style magazine, it coincides with a reported $15 million dollar donation - read rental fee -- from Mr. Armani, a gift the museum claims is completely unrelated."
"The design of the new Tate Modern is more subdued (than the Bilbao Museum), but the art suffers from excessive and
masturbatory curatorial intervention." Jeff Kopie in Issue 4."These days, curators seem to have all the fun. They're the frequent-flying freelancers and salaried professionals. They stay up late, drink together in hotel lobbies, and see one another's shows. Always talking, taking meetings, being on panels, or organizing exhibitions, curators are the art world's latest art stars, the power brokers and the precinct captains." Jerry Saltz in the Village Voice December 12.