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Wrong is right – the shock of the flaw
That old grade-school test question - Which of these does not belong? - offers a key to the aesthetics of the expressively hot, as opposed to the classically cool. The hint of crazy within the solid citizen, the blood in the water and the worm in the rose (mortal, guilty) move us in a way that visions of perfection rarely do. In honor of the flaw, a small survey of its recent, robust manifestations. Douglas Gordon Three Inches (Black) 1997 (image via) Susan Robb: Three from the last … [Read More...]
Recently in Seattle
If human history were underwater, Alwyn O'Brien's ceramic vessels could serve as the bleached bones of the Ancien Regime, the decorative drained and dead on a dark sea floor. 4 Descending Notes 2010 Manganese Clay and Glaze 9" x 7" x 5 1/2" Hand-rolled coils make her lacy vessels. Born past their prime, they are in their own weird way pristine. Story of Looking, 2010 Porcelain and glaze, Two Pieces 12 1/2" x 14" x 5" Following Thelonious Monk, she knows how to use the wrong … [Read More...]
Picasso’s flesh world
Collectors who hire experts to solve problems that don't exist till help arrives are responsible for the equivalent of bad face lifts on old masters. What the artists intended too frequently recedes under an abrasive cleaning or a deadening layer of varnish. Current practices discourage irreversible interventions. That means John Currin's work is a little safer than artists who preceded him, such as Picasso, although having the money to buy good advice doesn't guarantee it will be heeded. … [Read More...]
Welcome back, David Wojnarowicz
Nice to see David Wojnarowicz (wana-row-vitch) back in the news, making the monkeys dance. It's no surprise that the usual people want to use their deliberate misunderstanding of his work to rally their frightened base. It's also no surprise that the Smithsonian once again proves to be cowardly. Remember its Enola Gay exhibit from 1995? The examination of this country's use of the Atom Bomb started as scholarly and turned into a my-country-right-or-wrong cheering section, after suitable … [Read More...]
Image Transfer – Remix Culture at the Henry
Humans see, humans do: After the first horse drawn on the first cave and the first pot incised with a decorative line, everything became imitation. You don't need a weatherman to know which way that wind blows, or that in the contemporary period, it blows harder. In selecting the 12 artists featured in Image Transfer: Pictures in a Remix Culture, associate Henry curator Sara Krajewski looked for those whose engagements with image recycling make them visual mix masters of note, those who … [Read More...]
Give me a head with hair
Mequitta Ahuja Wriggle, oil on canvas, 41"X26" 2008. Could have been titled, Medusa takes a nap. Geoffrey Chadsey Welterweight, 2002 Watercolor pencil on rag vellum, tape 57" x 24" Another great Chadsey figure with flowing locks. (Not safe for work.) Lauren Grossman Behold 2003 Iron, wool, steel. 13"x21"x12" Rolls on casters. Mequitta Ahuja, again. Flowback, oil on canvas, 68"X51" 2008 … [Read More...]
Arbitrary Art Grant – You don’t have to be good to win
Artists for a Work Free America and Vital 5 Productions are offering a grant that mocks all others. The entry deadline is Friday. Because few people have entered, undoubtedly suspecting a joke, the chances of winning are pretty good. The Arbitrary Art Grant is a joke, but it comes with a real payout of $500.
Call it kidding on the square.
You have
54 days left to walk into a grocery store, construct a sculpture from the store’s inventory and email an image to: info@vital5productions.com.
All entries will be exhibited this summer at the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, and one random applicant will be awarded $500.00 USD.This grant is open to all people in all countries of all ages and backgrounds. The winner will be announced on May 30th along with the outline for our next Arbitrary Art Grant in Writing.
For more information, visit: www.vital5productions.com/currentevents
Brought to you by Artists for a Work Free America and Vital 5 Productions.
Here’s the romantic part.
We believe that no institution or individual holds the capacity to objectively judge who should, and who should not receive money to create art. We are all painters and writers, musicians and performers, and that through social conditioning we have been stripped of our natural desire to create and perform, and programmed to believe that art is for the gifted and privileged. If indeed all people are artists, and that the inherent nature of art is subjective; the current institutions disbursing public art grants are negative and isolating to the general art populous.
In 1993, Elizabeth Sisco, Louis Hock and David Avalos managed to ring the that-ain’t-art bell by giving away $10 bills to day laborers just north of the Mexican border. The NEA withdrew funding. God knows the NEA didn’t want to get caught doing anything for day laborers. (New York Times story here. Artist response to NYT story here.)
Back to this Arbitrary Art Grant, the latest in a string, none of which receive government funding (This one does). Even if you don’t win the money, you’re guaranteed to be part of the exhibit. I couldn’t find in the directions “one entry per person” but it’s there.
Finally, from Jen Graves’ excellent profile of Seattle dealer Scott Lawrimore (Lawrimore Project), an anecdote from his early days as gallery assistant:
When he was working for Seattle galleries, he instituted a program: the $150 studio visit. He’d go to artists’ studios but often would be unable to show their work for one reason or another, so he’d give them $150 in exchange for whatever they thought that was worth. “I always wanted them to, like, spit in a napkin and give it to me,” he said wistfully. “But they never did.”
Bring back the 1960s – Tavares Strachan does the Boyles
In 1964, Scottish artists Mark Boyle and Joan Hills
began a project they called Journey to the Surface of the Earth. Within that category, many series followed, such as London Series, Tidal Series, Thaw Series, Japan Series and overall, the World Series. From their Web site:
Each
of these series has involved various random selection techniques to
isolate a rectangle of the Earth’s surface. In the case of the World
Series, 1000 random selections were made from a giant map of the world
by blindfolded visitors to the exhibition at London’s ICA in 1969.
The random selection serves several purposes: nothing is excluded as a
potential subject; the particular is chosen as a representative of the
whole & it reduces their subjective role as artists & creators
to that of “presenters”. To present a slice of reality as objectively
& truthfully as possible. They call this “motiveless appraisal”.
Once the random selection has been made, they recreate the site in a
fixed and permanent form as a painted fibreglass relief.
Mark Boyle died in 2005, but Hills and their two children, Sebastian and Georgia, continue as Boyle Family.
I can’t find a review of Tavares Strachan‘s Portal from Where We Are Is Always Miles Away that mentioned the Boyles, even though Strachan is singing a nonrandom version of their song. From Roberta Smith’s review,
you’d think Strachan was the first to pick up a piece of the earth and
replicate it, pound for pound, in Strachan’s case, the place where he
got a parking ticket.
And here we go again, Karen Rosenberg on Strachan in the NYT
on Sunday, no tip of the hat to Boyle Family. Milan Kundera called
history a thin thread of remembering stretched over an ocean of
forgetting. It is the job of everyone who writes about art to
strengthen that thread.
Nothing against Strachan. I think he’s terrific.
On fire but not consumed
Sign of god or symptom of hallucinogens, the object that lives inside its own burning is a theme beloved by painters but no longer limited to them. Starting in the 1970s and gaining ground in the new century, artists in a range of other media have made it their own.
Ryan Mrozowski, suggested by BeFruitful&Multiply:
Kevin Schmidt, suggested by dvnms
Lauren Grossman, Not Consumed, suggested by Billy Howard. (I should have thought of this one, since I reviewed the dang show.)
Ana Mendieta, suggested by Sharon Arnold
James Lavadour, suggested by Harold Hollingsworth
Charles Linder , suggested by IMALEADER
Richard Misrach 
Charles LaBelle
Cai again
Harrell Fletcher: consuming fire as relational aesthetics
Claude Zervas: His bears prevent forest fires by eating them
Alice Wheeler: motel sign as burning bush
Anybody else?
Moms at work and play – the visuals
Nathalie Djurberg, suggested by Gretchen
Monika Baer, suggested by BeFruitful&Multiply
Kaucyila Brooke, Tit for Twat
Elizabeth Sandvig, Swimming with Giant Green Turtles
Bob Zoell, Dead Mom Standing
Michael Mahalchick, Don’t Look at Me
Charles Ray, Family Romance
Dressing for war and work
Sam Durant – street signs
At Paula Cooper: End White Supremacy
How not to get a gallery
From Portland’s Scott Wayne Indiana at 39 Forks. When on a roll, he communicates in capital letters.
THE STORY
AS A NEWCOMER TO THE CITY, I WANTED TO INTRODUCE MYSELF TO ONE OF MY FAVORITE NY ART GALLERIES, Gavin Brown Enterprises.
I APPROPRIATED A DISCARDED DOMINO BOARD FROM THE SIDEWALK IN HARLEM. I TITLED THIS OBJECT, (the life and times of) HARLEM 1910 – 2010, AND SIGNED THE BACK WITH MY NAME.
I HAD A PROFESSIONAL CRATE MADE FOR THE PIECE. I DESIGNED LABELS FOR A FAKE COURIER COMPANY AND DELIVERED THE PACKAGE TO GAVIN BROWN FROM ANOTHER MANHATTAN GALLERY OWNER NAMED PAULA.
INSIDE THE CRATE WAS A LETTER FROM PAULA’S EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT:
GAVIN,
PAULA WANTED TO SEND THIS OVER AS PER YOUR CONVERSATION AWHILE BACK. WE LIKE THIS PIECE AND PAULA THOUGHT IT WOULD FIT NEATLY WITH THE LINEUP FOR THE GROUP SHOW. IT MIGHT BE A BIT OUT OF LEFT FIELD, SO IF THIS WON’T WORK, JUST LET US KNOW.
REGARDS,
ONA
A GALLERY WORKER NAMED SCOTT SIGNED FOR THE PACKAGE AND ASKED IF I WANTED SOME WATER (AS I HAD JUST CARRIED THE CRATE ACROSS MANHATTAN SO) APPARENTLY I LOOKED THIRSTY. BUT I DECLINED AND LEFT.
SINCE THE DELIVERY A FEW FRIENDS HAVE CONTACTED THE GALLERY INQUIRING ABOUT PURCHASING THE PIECE.
THEIR CALLS HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED.
CURRENTLY, THE WHEREABOUTS OF THIS ART PIECE ARE UNKNOWN.
Jean-Michel Arseneaux – the waste water treatment plant of his elevated practice
My disgust with art critics has been cleansed in what I can only
describe as the waste water treatment plant of an elevated artistic
practice.
I don’t want to offend the easily offended, but it looks to me like
he’s wasting the waste water. Maybe he could incorporate something like this:
On the other hand, go guy go. Name an accident, and it’s yours. The critic quoted in this interview, New York’s Jerry Kimmelman, does not exist, which suggests the artist might not exist either. I like him anyhow. Who says an artist has to be real to do real work?
(From 39 Forks)
