Natalie and Me

JASON FOX: Eating Symbols

2012-02-12T17:47:00.000-05:00

Happy Sunday! Wouldn't a nice way to celebrate the day be to take a look at some GOOD painting? Oh, wait.. I found some, just for you. I found this show on artcards.cc and made my way over to check out the symbology. I was lucky enough to be welcomed by a variety of vivid and well executed paintings. These paintings killed it.

Let's talk about why I think these paintings are great. The short answer, is because there is a lot going on. This show was big and it was curated well. There were four separate rooms, the first on the right was filled with works on paper, the second filled with paintings, the third space in the back filled with what I like to call the "headlining" paintings, and a side room with more smaller works on paper and a tree. The paintings mostly grew larger as you walked deeper into the show, but the progression also translated to the work.

In the first room you had a lot of works on paper that really felt like studies for the paintings, in the second room, that's where Fox's techniques made themselves clear.

There were paintings that were mostly geometric, with oils that floated across the surface of his canvas like watercolor. The colors were gorgeous and triangles did what they do, being referential to so many things, while keeping things simple.

Then you had paintings like these, full body color, great gestural mark making, and believe it or not, tin foil. That's right, that tin foil looks fantastic. A bearded man who reminds you of many bearded men: Lennon, Jesus, or your token hipster. ( Yes I did just think of John Lennon before I thought of Jesus, maybe this is an indication of my priorities...? ) Then there is this wonderful wobbly peace symbol which befits perfectly notions of bearded men.

More paintings that were painted like this. OKAY, now this ladies and gentlemen is what GESTURE looks like. Alright, so I know like 2 people who will understand that reference, oh well! This is a dog, a red gestural, messy, rapidly painted dog. Also note, that white area, it's not white paint, hello primed canvas! Nice to see you.

In that third room things got serious. He mixed all three techniques, solid washes of color, recognizable figures and foil, and fantastic brushwork. This last painting was fantastic, the yellow in the top left corner was so delicate, the red so hot, and overall these works felt brave. I mean, maybe I took a picture of nearly every painting, but it's great, I know this painter is one to remember.

Oh! But there was that side room. Here are some photos of that. I'm not sure how I felt about that tree, it felt symbolic, so it felt like it fit within the themes of the show. Perhaps I would have liked it better if each room had some subtle sculpture. Having just one of anything makes me nervous. Here is a great painting show, and then here is one tree. Just one, with plastic flags on it. I MEAN, I did like the tree, more tree, that's all I'm saying. Also - the works on paper in this room did not feel like studies, in fact, they felt like they were done after all the large paintings in the show.

What a Foxy group of... wait, okay/// I won't torture with such a cheesy line, but you know cheese and rice, these paintings really impressed me!!

OH! The internship is going well, to say I would be learning a lot would be the understatement of a life time. I've always been a proponent of learning by doing, and there is a lot of doing doing doing.

PARTICIPATION: Félix Guattari / Björk / Matthew Barney

2012-02-06T13:03:00.001-05:00

"The poetics of the 'open' work tends to encourage 'acts of freedom' on the part of the performer and place him at the focal point of a network of limitless interrelations"

-Henry Pousseur

Reading theory can be like walking through snow, you're definitely not sprinting through it, but(!), I am almost and so very close to being finished with this weighty first section. Because I'm not arrogant enough to believe I can pair down the theory behind most of these essays into a few sentences, I'm going to save and dissect the golden nuggets for you. Today's golden nuggets brought to you by:

Félix Guattari
Choasmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm//1992

As I mentioned in the last post about PARTICIPATION, this editor gives us a little set up to better understand the context of each essay. Awesome. Let's look at that first.

"Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm (1992) is the last book written by French psychoanalyst and philosopher Félix Guattari. In it he turns to aesthetics as the model for a new and ethical behaviour opposed to capitalist rationality. For Guattari, art is a process of 'becoming': a fluid and partially autonomous zone of activity that works against disciplinary boundaries, yet which is inseperable from its integration in the social field."

Guattari begins this quote by stating that aesthetics is a model for new and ethical behavior that opposes capitalist rationality. This is a great sentence because aesthetics is a single term with a very broad meaning, in it's most simplified sense, it's a branch of philosophy that critically reflects on art, culture and nature. There are many different kinds of aesthetics that serve a variety of purposes, for Guattari to give all of aesthetics the purpose of opposing capitalist rationality is a bold statement-one that gives great power to that which we understand and perceive as art. We're off to a great start. This excerpt begins with Guattari stating that cartographies are vital to collective subjectivity and that art is self sustaining. Guattari speaks about the relationship between artist, work of art, and consumer of art,

"In short, it is a matter of rarefying an enunciation which has too great a tendency to become entangled in an identificatory seriality which infantilizes and annihilates it. The work of art, for those who use it, is an activity of unframing, of rupturing sense, of baroque proliferation or extreme impoverishment, which leads to a recreation and a reinvention of the subject itself."

What Guattari is stating first, is that a work of art should have a rare and clear voice. It is without this that works become prone to fall into categories which are easily identifiable and are one of multiple works in the same category. It this identificatory seriality that belittles and destroys a work of art. Because a work of art is an act of unframing and rupturing your senses, it will propel you into proliferation or impoverishment, and ends up recreating and reinventing art itself. If art is continually made, then it will continually be reinvented. He goes on to say that the growth in artistic consumption in recent years should be placed in relation to the increasing uniformity of the life of individuals in an urban context. Saying this, he acknowledges a need for works of art that negate this uniformity. He speaks of the dilemma every artist must confront,

" 'to go with the flow', as advocated, for example, by the Transavantgarde and the apostles of postmodernism, or to work for the renewal of aesthetic practices relayed by other innovative segments of the Socius, at the risk of encountering incomprehension and of being isolated by the majority of people."

Guattari speaks about the daily and continual struggle that the artist must go through. To continue as expected by the rules of the current and accepted notions of art, or work towards recreating art alongside others with the same goal, but at the terrifying risk of not only being misunderstood but being isolated by the majority of people. Guattari continues on, saying that products of science, technology, and social relations will drift towards aesthetic paradigms. I've heard this idea a lot lately, that it's not necessarily artists that we need more of, so much as we need to bring aesthetics/art/creativity to other fields. To emphasize his point, he states, "How do you make a class a work of art?" It's an interesting idea to consider. He continues on discussing systematic rejections of subjectivity and the future of contemporary subjectivity... of which I will save for you later.

Okay, but let's bring this small discussed portion back to earth. Which artists without a doubt would fall into this category of reinventing art? I suppose that depends on who you're asking and what they're understanding of art is,, I'll pick a couple, of course from my perspective. BESIDES,, I have yet to talk about this power couple:

Björk & Matthew Barney! (Applause)

I watched this great clip last night,, one that I think really captures Björk's persona, as well as her desire to create music that people can have a real and tangible connection with. I suppose I attribute reinvention of art with your ability to take risks, and she has.

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bjork
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

And Matthew, it's sort of a joke how unique his work is. I'll let you watch this trailer for his Cremaster Cycle series and decide for yourself.

I mean,, I'm not really showing you something you haven't already seen, but when enjoying art, sometimes you like revisiting, and for this post they seemed perfect. Like you. You're perfect too. :)

DAMIEN HIRST...

2012-02-03T17:01:00.000-05:00

Gagosian has this rule where you can't take pictures of the artwork unless you are in the picture, so here I am! This enormous space on 10th ave and 24th st in Chelsea had two large rooms and one enormous room filled with spot paintings. The only thing more dizzying than the paintings were how well they were branded, spot painting store in all. I spot DH. I guess.

I enjoyed the spectacle, the paintings were well made, but, I think I enjoyed this video better:

There are tons of reviews, where all the same arguments about Damien Hirst get discussed all over again. I'm a little apathetic to it all really, Damien is fine, the paintings were fine, I'm not altogether that excited, I mean those were some really BIG spots..

TONIGHT Fisk and I are going to see Linotype: The Film. Should be good!!

PARTICIPATION: INTRODUCTION & SITUATIONISTS

2012-01-30T13:13:00.001-05:00

Holy smokes. It’s the end of January already, this is a little bit insane, but let’s keep this positive momentum going. PARTICIPATION. The MIT Press Documents of Contemporary Art series so far has been little too helpful in relating many of the theoretical essays to the work of the artists that are being discussed. Perhaps because relational aesthetics is so based in theory, the need was finally felt for a bit of explanation, which you know, was appreciated. Participation is split into 3 categories. Theoretical Frameworks//Artists’ Writings//& Critical and Curatorial Positions.

The way this book is split up explains a lot about the process of experiencing work, as does the introduction by Claire Bishop. I’ll be honest, historically, I have not read much about relational aesthetics, which means all the more reason to gain a better understanding of what it is that I am or am not experiencing. Bishop helps me out in her introduction by really setting up a context from which one should begin;

“The idea of constructed situations remains an important point of reference for contemporary artists working with live events and people as privileged materials. It is, for example, frequently cited by Nicolas Bourriaud in his Relational Aesthetics (1998), a collection of theoretical essays that has catalyzed much debate around the status of contemporary participation. In parallel with this debate, and perhaps addressing the sense of unrealized political potential in the work that Bourriaud describes, a subsequent generation of artists have begun to engage more directly with specific social constituencies, and to intervene critically in participatory forms of mass media entertainment. The texts in this reader have been selected with the development of this work in mind. The aim has been to provide a historical and theoretical lineage for recent socially-collaborative art, presenting a variety of positions that will allow students and researchers to think more widely about the claims and implications of the artistic injunction to participate.”

I love this paragraph because Bishop is so succinct about explaining the context of participatory art. She begins by stating that constructed situations are especially relevant for artists who are working with actual events and people as their medium. She also emphasizes the debate around this idea and how that debate is discussed within Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics. Bishop goes on to say how Bourriaud feels there is political potential in participatory work and that new generations of artists have begun to deal with more specific social issues through participatory forms within mass media entertainment. This conclusion is pretty grand, because Bishop is asserting that artists are thinking outside of the gallery walls to create participatory pieces that encourage an understanding of political and social issues. These situations could take place anywhere, from a public city street, to the internet or televised public sphere. Bishops states that the texts in this book have this goal in mind - to make clear that participatory work fosters the understanding of broad and specific social and political circumstances. She also aims to give a historical context for this kind of recent socially-collaborative art, with the ultimate goal of presenting a wide array of positions that reflect the important social/political implications that are available to those who choose to participate.

There are things to be learned through participatory art, and the focus is on social and political implications. This book will focus on the theory behind much of the work, which will provide a context for us from which to understand. I’m looking forward to jumping into artist writings, because lately nothing seems to be making me happier then reading those. Lastly, we’ll consider the role of the curator and critic in regards to works of art that fall in the seemingly vast realm of relational aesthetics. BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE, if you read through all that. Great Job.

Oh! Duh, you know I would not give you an entire post without SOME kind of art to consider. Since we’re thinking about historical frameworks, how can we possibly consider participatory art work without looking back to the SITUATIONISTS. I’m sorry, I’ll stop writing things in all caps, I swear. ;) These guys founded their movement in 1957 and they advocated experiences for the fulfillment of human desires. They experimented with the “construction of situation,” and set up environments that would fulfill these desires through methods pulled from the arts. They also rejected all art that separated itself from politics. I’m greatly simplifying, here is some work by the primary members.

Asger Jorg

Constant Nieuwenhuys

Pinot Gallizio

Guy Debord

SPACE CRUISE //// INTERNSHIP////...

2012-01-27T21:43:00.000-05:00

Last night Fisk and I went on a space cruise at the American Museum of Natural History. Open bar, space music, space video games, planetarium, Moon travel, and you know, Mars.

Our celestial travel must have given me some positive moon dust because today I had an interview to intern for this space in Chelsea. Brenda Taylor was more than kind and now I'm an intern! I can't wait to get my feet wet, and then, you know, jump in the pool.. and then the ocean.. and then turn into a mermaid. Too far? Yea, I thought so too. ;)

RUBIN MUSEUM: TIBET

2012-01-23T13:04:00.000-05:00

Oh goodness. I had a Sunday off, so Fisk and I made the best of it by having a relaxing brunch at the Lodge and then we went to check out The Rubin Museum of Art. They have a great exhibition dedicated entirely to Himalayan art. We started with this great amalgamation of American comics that were centered around all notions regarding Tibet. Lamas & yetis, yes please.

The comic show had these great displays with old toys and authentic editions of comics that were very delicate and beautiful to see. There was also a great 3 minute video that summarized the relevancy of comics in Tibet. What was especially neat about this show was a long table with chairs that featured many old comics reprinted and ready to read. We sat for a while digging through these old comics, enjoying moments like these:

The walls also featured these large prints highlighting different themes. In the above, the Dalai Lama, and just below the White Lamas. This comic show was really great to see. All in all, comics are pretty underrated in American culture. It was great to see a show dedicated to their relevance, especially after Fisk introduced me to Fables - a fantastic comic series full of excellent story telling.

The museum also had three floors full of beautiful Tibetan sculpture and scrolls. There was also a wonderful shrine that really allowed you to experience a part of Tibetan culture. It's nothing short of wonderful the kind of artistry that is required to produce such symbolic work.

We were running out of time, so we ran through the top floor of the museum which had some really great modern paintings. Here are a few of my favorites.

Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009) The Diagonal, 1975

Krishna Shamrao Kulkarni (1916-1994) Untitled, 1958

K. Ramanujam (1940-1973) Untitled, ca. 1970

This was by far my favorite piece of work for the day. What a strange painting! The brushwork was fantastic, rapid and full of movement, and the characters bizarre but refreshing. I mostly love that the creature's hand comes up and touches the side of the frame, which really gives you the idea that these characters are literally outside your window. I think this painting really reflects the wonderful kind of match ups that are created when cross cultural ideas meet in one piece of artwork.

Great. Day.

I've also just begun reading PARTICIPATION published by The MIT Press. Posts about relational aesthetics are coming soon...

SWISS INSTITUTE: Jean-Frédéric Schnyder

2012-01-17T12:42:00.001-05:00

Jean-Frédéric Schnyder is no joke. ...wait, I mean, perhaps there is something comical about the paintings he has made. Actually, I think he falls right in that space between kitsch and poignancy. I checked out his latest show at the Swiss Institute last week and there was much to be seen and thought.

What first struck me about this show was the amount of space that this show had. I almost laughed when I saw all of these teeny tiny paintings in this gigantic room! It was great though that all the paintings had plenty of room to um, "breathe." Ha.

These paintings have that kitsch element that I mentioned. Here, let's paint some flowers growing out of the bottom of the painting. Pretty courageous and silly in the same work, I appreciate it. There was a house in just about every painting.

Oh and here are some swastikas. Mmm Hmm... Here's a quote from the artist regarding this. "I do not care which associations my paintings provoke. Swastika, crucifix and sugar cubes are just motives which are interesting to paint. To apply color - this is what painting is about, right? - is for me the common thread." Just. motives. which. are. interesting. to. paint. Um, it's funny how you can't get away with saying things like that in art school. OH WELL! Schnyder is not in art school, and anyway, I love that he said painting is about applying color. I would agree, yes, but there are so many more things painting is about!

These two are my favorite. Okay, upside down house with pink and purple trees. I like this. Oh and here are some daisies floating about some pretty clouds. Very sincere, kitsch, and pretty, um, happy.

This painting was hilarious to me. Okay, painting houses, let me paint a three dimensional house on this painting. I love how you can see how Schnyder tried so many different ways to paint this trope! Field of grass, miniature house. Done.

To be honest, I really loved this show, but I do think Schnyder downplays the relevancy of a lot of his images. I mean, these two especially I found to be very heavy with meaning. Is Schnyder's portrayal of swastikas encouraging a positive response to them, because his work is so likeable, is it helping us to be okay with these images? Is it giving power to the swastika? OR, because his work is so kitsch and silly at points, are his paintings working to take power away from this symbol? I don't know, but I like to give the benefit of the doubt, perhaps these works are making the swastika less serious, I can't really say. I do think that the use of symbols like these should be taken and used in a thoughtful manner, and I wish there was a little bit more information about his use of symbols, and how the artist would like the symbols to be interpreted. Great show none. the. less.

ARE YOU A FRANKENTHALER??

2012-01-12T14:44:00.000-05:00

This question was asked of me recently, to which I responded, no. Of course the context is relevant, I've been working working working. I like this word, because it can mean many things. Working at/on/with: _______ blank,, anything really. Let's fill in the blank.

I found this great Helen Frankenthaler catalogue from 1989 at the Strand. I bought it, a nice commemoration to a great painter. Hence the show and tell. Amalgam, 1988 7ft 1in x 9ft 5in

Sugar Blues, 1988 7ft 7in x 8ft 11in

Morpheus, 1988 9ft 6in x 7ft 5 in

A working girl means a happy studio! Paintings almost done in the background, new ones on the way, and a proper mess about the floor. Things are going well! Today I will check out a variety of art, in the flesh, and bring more posts soon soon soon.

FINAL SUBLIME: ALTERED STATES

2012-01-05T22:02:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure I will ever think about sublime in the same way again, there are so many different factors involved in the essence of what it means to experience the sublime. This final small chapter was one of my favorites in the entire book, a nice and sweet ending to all ideas involved. Not to unnecessarily stroke this artist's ego, but I can't help it, Abramovic's statement was my favorite of the chapter, though there were provocative others:

Beyond the Body - "The amplified body is no longer the container of it's rhythms. The humanoid form is transformed into the cuboid space. The body becomes hollow, resonating with its own echoes." Stelarc

HanD HearD/Liminal Objects - "There are works of art that require initiation. This does not mean that they require explanation, special consensus, or any other prescriptive bearing. It does mean that one must discover an appropriate mode of entry which is more than informational." George Quasha and Charles Stein

Marina Abramovic

Statements//1992

This was a very short statement, but I enjoyed it because it dealt with very human and magical ideas. Rationality vs. what we truly believe, and how the irrational has potential and much to offer for art and art practice.

" Only among good friends can someone admit that he believes in dreams, telepathy, acts of providence, astrological prophesies, magical power or visions. Our rational way of thinking demands proof, evidence, but this is only one element in our perceptive capabilities. Things which we cannot explain rationally are eliminated from our lives, as if they were non-existent. We don't want to know anything about them. Art is a field in which the non-rational may sometimes be tolerated, where it is creatively employed. I want to introduce the non-rational into our society."

I love to fancy notions of magical power, dreams, prophecies, and telepathy, mostly because believing in these unrealities allows you hold onto and reach a part of yourself that most things/people in life tell you to ignore. In some ways, to believe asks you to access your own internal, to access a belief that is undoubtedly your very own. It feels as though it becomes that forever argument between you and your own rationality. What you perceive as fact and true, and what you perceive is actually happening. I like to believe it's a combination of both that propels us through our planes of existence.

"Artists today? They are couriers, they accompany people on the true adventure, a journey into the inner self. There are no firmly established religious structures any longer, the old structures have all been destroyed and new ones have not yet emerged. Artists accompany us on our search for a new order."

What I appreciate about this last quote is that Abramovic is not afraid to assert that artists have an authority and position of leadership in shaping the ideals and beliefs of the greater whole. Of course I agree, in a most honest and sincere way, though I do believe that collective mindset has yet to catch up. It takes time for a generation to understand the one that follows it, in a way that encourages and facilitates leaders to make changes that better living and life for everyone - and this is optimistic. I'll never forget a conversation that was had in my Contemporary Art Theory class with Mrs. Anne Marie Oliver, where the role of art of was discussed. Conclusions were made - that art is what an artist feels the world needs. An idea so broad and infinite, to try and suggest definition otherwise would be futile. So to imagine for a moment that collective world thought can perhaps be swayed by the notions of generations of artists is completely beautiful and absurd, and in the most considerate sense, nothing short of magical.

SUBLIME: THE UNCANNY

2012-01-02T12:52:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! This post is brought to you by a little lie, I apologize, this is not the last chapter of Sublime: it is the second to last chapter! This was just such a small chapter I previously overlooked its very existence! Perhaps the uncanny befits the beginnings of new years, a familiar yet equally foreign feeling about what may or may not transpire in the coming year. Gilles Ivain, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and A K Dolven all share space in this chapter, alongside Mike Kelley, about whom I will write today. To-day. 2 day.

Mike Kelley
In Conversation with Thomas McEvilley//1992

Reading over a published conversation is always interesting to me because I can never stop thinking about the editing that may or may not have happened. I like to imagine that most people can speak so fluidly and concisely, however untrue, it is still great to see an exchange between two minds in such a way. This conversation struck me especially because so many conclusions were made that not only made excellent points, but also left the doors open for interpretation and ideas. Here are a couple moments between the exchange. Critic McEvilley sets up the context of the conversation by stating Freud's opinion of what the uncanny is, "The uncanny belongs to all that is terrible, to all that arouses dread and creeping horror." Which Kelley then relates to Edmund Burke's notions of the sublime, anything so vast and 'other 'that it seems by its very existence to threaten the annihilation of the observing subject. McEvilley then then gives examples from Kant, mountain peaks, storms at sea, Milton's description of Hell, and infinity. We have an expected notion of the sublime and how the uncanny, because of it's relationship to terror and fear can be tied to it. After little more back and forth, McEvilley makes this point relating to the previous,

"For example, the experience of beholding an artwork or literary work which one basically doesn't like, and making an effort to appreciate it by getting into an alien point of view, might be a sublime act on this Kantian model."

In this quote we have both elements of uncanny, a foreign work of art that we do not like nor understand, but we become familiar in our forced interaction and consumption of the work. Mostly, this relates to Kant's proposed notion that ethical acts can be sublime. They require the denial of oneself in relation to some greater category, as said by McEvilley earlier. Art here being the greater category, and the consumption of the work being the ethical act. I also found this quote to be humorous in a way, perhaps because I could empathize with the idea of forcing oneself to try to understand that which is foreign and disliked. To imagine that in those moments of annoyance I was somehow channeling some sublime act makes me giggle. Other points are made about the terror and wonder of sublime through deliberate risk taking that goes beyond self congratulating before the excerpt ends with a summation made by Kelley.

"I see sublime as coming from the natural limitations of our knowledge; when we are confronted with something that's beyond our limits of acceptability, or that threatens to expose some repressed thing, then we have this feeling of the uncanny. So it's not about getting in touch with something greater than ourselves. It's about getting in touch with something we know and can't accept- something outside the boundaries of what we are willing to accept about ourselves."

I found this summation to be entirely moving, because Kelley is asserting that the sublime isn't some exterior experience so much as it is an internal epiphany of sorts where we suddenly become aware of that which we cannot comprehend, the feeling of the uncanny. Sublime exists as something that we do not want to accept about who we are.

Time to stretch&stretch.

MET Moments

2011-12-30T18:04:00.001-05:00

WHOA, the holidays are almost over. Will and I have been running around, checking out The Frick & The Met. Here are a few moments from our adventure in The Met!! There were so many paintings to see, and so many people who were looking at all of them.

Balthus

Picabia

Fragonard

In the style of Hieronymus Bosch

Pieter van Laer

Labille-Guiard

(Stunning!)

James Gilray

Puvis de Chavannes

It was so nice to see so many deliciously painted fabrics & Will enjoyed the many portraits of Italians currently on display. The Frick was great also! Will just sang this song, perhaps you can imagine the tune with these lyrics!

Little bunch of flowers,

didn't cost a dime,

picked them in the park,

in their prime.

SEE YOU IN 2012.

Brooklyn Art Museum: Sanford Biggers!

2011-12-25T12:43:00.000-05:00

UM, MERRY CHRISTMAS!! The last few days I've been running around with Fisk doing lots of merry merry things, one of which was going to the Brooklyn Art Museum. A bit of a journey, but worth the effort! This museum is well known for it's ownership of one Judy Chicago's The Dinner Table - which was amazing to see in person. I enjoyed this museum very much, the curation was a little odd in my opinion, paintings&sculptures were grouped based on subject matter and not based on art movement or historical location. It was mostly distracting, but then in some cases curious, like this photo above, courtesy of Fisk, where a beautiful white marble statue falls in front of an ominous wall piece in the back. Surely neither artist was intending for this sort of pairing, but this was unique none the less.

Here are some pics from Sanford Biggers' first big New York Introspection.

What I enjoyed most about this exhibition was the amount of space the works were given. The space really enhanced the many aspects of this show, utilizing the echoes of sound from the pianos, shadows that fall across empty walls, and light that shines across the room. I most enjoyed how these assemblages felt awkward and strange to walk around and look at, but also felt entirely thoughtful and strong. The piano in the tree also played itself, this for me can never really escape notions of haunting, which seemed relevant to other aspects of the show. Steps on the walls allows you to imagine the presence of feet moving and dancing along the ground, while literal graphic images of slaves ships leave a thick presence of life lost, emphasized by the emptiness of the white walls surrounding it. This show was eery and uncomfortably vacant for the amount of history and presence it was conjuring up.

A couple other pieces that struck my fancy!

A great painting by Glenn Ligon.

Laundry on the Floor no. 3, Sylvia Plimack Mangold. Those of you who know me will understand why I enjoy this piece, I mean come on, such great folds!

Everything is just grand. Oh! Will tomorrow, more museums to come & the final chapter of SUBLIME sooooooon (phew!)

SUBLIME: Terror

2011-12-20T13:49:00.001-05:00

Hello & Hello. There are two chapters left in this purple MIT press collection. This chapter takes us through different ideas of how the horrific can unleash sublime. ((I empathize with this notion because no doubt watching a good horror film does allow me to slip into a silent state of reverie,, Tokyo Gore Police anyone?))

I had a few favorites in this chapter:

Thomas Weiskel's, The Logic of Terror, 1979 - "This is a why a diffuse melancholy predisposes to the sublime. The melancholic is in need of 'narcissistic supplies'-self esteem- from his superego, in which an original deprivation is likely to have been institutionalized. The sublime appearance offers and overabundance of stimulation..."

Julia Kristeva's, Approaching Abjection, 1980 - "The abject is perverse because it neither gives up nor assumes a prohibition, a rule or law; but turns them aside, misleads, corrupts; uses them, take advantage of them, the better to deny them."

And of course, Okwui Enwezors's, The American Sublime and the Racial Self, 2006 - "...Fanon's work then was a double therapy, dealing with literal madness and colonial racism. Lorna Simpson's interrogation of race in her work has consistently attempted to unravel the underlying madness of the same: the racial sublime, a combination of desire and repression. The racial sublime operates on the prodigious multiplication of social signifiers along with the phantom forms of subjection in everyday life in America." Whoa,, there is a lot going on in this chapter! The essay I'm writing about what was not necessarily my favorite, but it gave me a lot of interesting ideas to chew on for a while, so here it is.

Gene Ray

Joseph Beuys and the After-Auschwitz Sublime//2001

This essay is all about Joseph Beuys and his relationship to the horror that was the Holocaust through the work that he made. A lot of this essay felt like speculation, but that didn't deter me from being interested in the connections that were being made. An initial quote from Beuys in 1980 at the beginning of this essay,

"Bueys acknowledged a deep personal shock which came with his first realization, after the end of the war, of the full extent of the genocide. That shock, he said, 'is my primary experience, my fundamental experience, which led me to begin really to go into art'."

Ray goes on to make the point that we cannot truly know how Beuys felt about the Holocaust, if his objects were intentionally coded with Holocaust references or not. Ray goes on to make this point about Beuys' intentionality,

"One does not need to be an uncritical Freudian (with respect to the unconscious) or a missionary Derridean (with respect to intention and iterability) to realize that Beuys' works could function at one level as objects and gestures of mourning with or without Beuys' clear intention or full apprehension."

This idea makes sense to me, Beuy's works function as statements of personal mourning and as art objects. The question becomes about whether or not Beuys was aware of this duality, even if he was aware of how they were functioning in relation to Auschwitz, perhaps he was not admitting it in order to save his work from falling into a category that would constrain it. Rays emphasizes this point,

"There would have been good reason to do so; the effects of the sublime depend in large part on a certain openness or vulnerability on the part of the spectator. The expectation that one was about to view 'Auschwitz art' would have functioned for many as a protective shield of barrier against the hit of the sublime."

I love this, because Ray makes an excellent point about the sublime, that it can only really be achieved or experienced with openness to endless possibility. A major downfall of categorization is it's ability to immediately cancel out many possibilities for understanding. But I shouldn't get started on the evils of definitive meaning... Ultimately Beuys didn't want his spectator to leave his work with a definitive idea of Auschwitz. Ray claims that the narrative of Auschwitz has remained on the sidelines of Beuys' art, which leads to a greater concern, the German's inability to mourn, and when confronted with mourning, threw themselves into a less painful labour of economic recovery. Ray quotes Zizek who makes an excellent point,

"that the weakness of the major discursive analyses of Nazism carried out by Frankfurt School and poststructuralist theorists is that their focus on the levels of imaginary and symbolic identification misses the deep, 'pre-symbolic enjoyment' which the Nazi fantasy activated."

Whoa again, Zizek, really. Zizek asserts that rational critiques are ineffective because they leave this deeper level of enjoyment untouched. It's clear that Zizek feels this deeper fantasy is what needs to be addressed. Ray ties this notion back to whether or not Beuys was aware of this deeper fantasy,

"Whether he knew it or not, Beuys found a way to evoke and avow the genocide by means of subtler strategies of indirection, opening up the way to what Zizek calls the 'traumatic kernel'. And as one nears the irreducible kernal of catastrophe, one is exposed to the sharp and disturbing punch of the sublime."

Rays elaborates saying that the risk of the sublime is that it is not always followed by an adequate interpretation. Once we experience the sublime, it's not as though we can exactly say what or why it was happening. Ray then states that the greatness of Beuys' work comes from it's simultaneous engagement of past and future. This is true, but I suppose I feel that most great art should have this engagement. Rays ends on a somewhat contextual historical note,

"As Beuys seems to have implied, it may have been too early, even in 1985, to 'talk about one's own country' directly, with clear words and place names. It may have been too early to make the more brutal linkages I have made here. One trusts it is not still so."

!!!!

REVEREND JEN'S TROLL MUSEUM

2011-12-13T11:24:00.000-05:00

My lovely sister Gina is in town and managed to get in touch with a great artist- Reverend Jen, who gave us a tour of her beautiful troll museum. I have no words for how incredible some of these trolls are.

Two headed troll!

A troll feeling hungry...

Ah! It was so great to meet Jen after reading her book! (Live Nude Elf, but she has many more) It was an exciting time, especially hearing about all of the unique stories behind the many trolls she owns. Even nicer! She came out to have a drink with us! Beautiful.

SUBLIME: Technology

2011-12-07T12:08:00.000-05:00

This short chapter described a variety of ways in which technology relates to the sublime, through the unpresentable, beauty, and the logic of late capitalism. All were relevant in describing how technology has developed in our lives, and how that development points you into a limitless direction that inspires sublime.

Roy Ascott
Is There Love in the Telematic Embrace?//1990

I was fond of this short essay for it's ability to present a cohesive flow of ideas that immediately inspired you to consider the role that technology plays in our spiritual lives. Ascott suggests the use of the personal computer opens the door to the interpersonal computer, where networks link memory bank to memory bank, intelligence to intelligence, creating a synthesis of modes that hypermediates networked sensibilities across global cultures. It would be impossible not to consider the internet after a statement like this. He goes on the further develop the computer as a device that deals invisibly with the invisible, organizing chaos that lies outside of our vision and perception, taking metaphorical existences - nonlinear, uncertain, layered and discontinuous - and re-describes them. He ends with a relevant quote about the computer,

"The technology of computerized media and telematic systems is no longer to be viewed simply as a set of rather complicated tools extending the range of painting and sculpture, performed music or published literature. It can now be seen to support a whole new field of creative endeavor that is as radically unlike each of those established artistic genres as they are unlike each other. A new vehicle of consciousness, of creativity and expression, has entered our repetoire of being..."

These ideas are hard to ignore, and absolutely relevant. It seems almost in vain for us to begin to try to use the computer solely as a tool to enhance already existing modes of art practice, but to begin to see it as a separate entity in and of itself. When thinking about the ability the computer has to cross cultures and genres, I can't help but think of Ryan Trecartin, whose videos not only rely heavily if not entirely on the computer, but whose narrative story telling bridges similar cultural mores.

All due respect, if you managed to watch that entire video, you deserve a hug. Clearly his work is about much more than it's obvious reliance on the computer and technology,,

You know, this essay also made me think of this internet gem.

http://cleverbot.com/

This computer was designed to remember (or store rather) all information that it is given, with the ability to regenerate information back when prompted. Essentially, a computer that communicates with you through it's ability to regenerate previous conversation to use appropriately. I'm getting a little off point, but this computer's ability to allow cross cultural dialogue is interesting, no doubt, Cleverbot has confessed it's love while later deciding to speak French. Seriously, go talk to it for a while. MOVING right along... The ability the computer has to show us and give us access to a limitless world creates a unique kind of sublime that exists less within the comfort of your own home or office than within the realm of the device itself. I have reservations about these ideas, but perhaps that's because I've always been a girl who loves and is interested in tangibility, no matter how wonderful and sublime imaginary spaces can become, ...call me old fashioned. ;)

Carsten Höller: Experience

2011-12-03T19:49:00.001-05:00

Yesterday my friend Marisa and I went to the New Museum to have an experience led by Carsten Höller. Thankfully, the show was photography friendly, so I'm here to share that experience with you! I had heard many things about this show, and had been anticipating it for a while, so I was more than glad to go.

The main floor had these amazing sculptures of shrooms. Alice and Wonderful with their growing shape and size. These sculptures prepare your mind for the sort of fantasy land that awaits you in the rest of the museum.

My preference in museums is to start from the top and work my way down. So up we went, first stop, this very slow moving swing carousel while birds tweeted in their cages above. Shows that require participation also require patience I think. Comments I over heard on the carousel, "This is going so slow" or "So this is it? What is it supposed to mean?" Clearly people are looking for immediate results. More than an immediate experience, I enjoyed the way the carousel brings you back to experiences you've already had. This entire show felt like a carnival, albeit, quiet and much more thoughtful.

There were various participatory pieces around, some of which worked, some of which didn't. This piece was a video of ourselves, looking at ourselves. Some people were disappointed, others seemed to have a great time seeing themselves projected onto the wall. They moved around in funny ways.

The floor where the slide ended was filled with these strange animal sculptures that were neon colors. I loved them and thought they were cute, some people seemed disgusted by them, which was interesting. There were flashing lights in this entire space, so capturing them was difficult, but I enjoyed that. Something about a flashing light disrupting your ability to really perceive your surroundings, it elevates you to a different kind of cognition.

Then I went back upstairs to wait in a long line for this two story slide. Like many carnivals, the line, and waiting, become a large part of this exhibition. Whether the artist thought about this aspect or not is unclear, either way, I didn't mind the wait. The really special part about this piece was the way people reacted when entering into the slide, immediately the years of adulthood vanished into the same nervous joy of entering into the abyss of childhood. Some people screamed, some laughed, some were scared and didn't end up going down. The employees went down numerous times a day, I felt strong pains of jealousy. After all, it's a TWO STORY slide we're talking about here. It was FUN.

Lastly, after coming down the slide I felt completely sold on this show, I wasn't really thinking about how relevant anything was or wasn't, just that it seemed necessary to participate. So I waited in line to enter the Giant Psycho Tank. Appropriately named because it is an interesting mental journey when you make the decision to take off all your clothes and lay naked in a pool of salt water with New York's finest. It was an individual experience, and there was a shower, but I still can't explain the strangeness of floating nude in a shallow pool of water. Anxiety at first, joy for the sake of being naked in a museum, and relief that it was over and no one managed to peek up at me while I was getting dressed.

I still have salt in my ears from the water.

There are significant positive themes of childhood, play, and amusement that surround most parts of this exhibition. Negative ones like waiting, impatience, and broken equipment. After it all, I couldn't help but want more. I mean, really, why aren't there slides connecting us to the bottom floor of our homes yet? Are we really that serious?

SUBLIME: Nature

2011-11-29T11:23:00.000-05:00

This short chapter is about the sublime that nature evokes. If you've ever stood on the edge of the world, looking out into the vastness of the pacific ocean, or been in any setting where nature does no less than belittle your existence, you'll need no convincing of the existence of sublime. Beginning with heaven and earth, taking you through the abstract sublime, through Frederick Law Olmsted, and lightning fields this section offers a broad yet concise overview of subliminal nature in art. While later chapters about earthworks fail to actually manifest a single sentence between the work and the sublime, it's alright, that's what our imaginations are for. This chapter ends with the essay I'm going to write about:

John Berger
Into the Woods// 2006

In the early 2000's Jitka Hanzlová took a series of photographs that featured scenes from the depths of the forest. Berger, to no surprise, wrote a beautiful essay about the affect and power this work has. I'll let you follow along a series of quotes that emphasize the ease with which this essay reads.

"A forest is what exists between it's trees, between its dense undergrowth and its clearings, between all its life cycles and their different timescales, ranging from solar energy to insects that live for a day. A forest is also a meeting place between those who enter it and something unnameable and attendant, waiting behind a tree or in the undergrowth. Something intangible and within touching distance. Neither silent nor audible."

Berger further establishes fundamental notions about the forest before placing his hand inside of the very core of photography, setting up a dual foundation to this short essay between photography and the forest.

"It's commonplace to say that photographs interrupt or arrest the flow of time. They do it, however, in thousands of different ways... ...What is strange about some of Jitka's forest photos - not her photos of other subjects - is that they appear to have stopped nothing. In a space without gravity there is no weight, and these pictures of hers are, as it were, weightless in terms of time. It is as if they have been taken between times, where there is none."

It seems that this particular series of photographs, in Berger's eyes, have captured not only the movement of time, but a lack of acknowledgement of time itself. Without seeing these photographs in person, I'm hesitant to come to such similar conclusions so easily, but stronger than my skepticism is a strong desire to really see these photos, in some sense these photos are already more successful than previously mentioned. Berger continues,

"To make sense of what I'm suggesting it is necessary to reject the notion of time that began in Europe during the eighteenth century and is closely linked with the positivism and linear accountability of modern capitalism: the notion that a single time, which is unilinear, regular, abstract and irreversible, carries everything. All other cultures have proposed a coexistence of various times surrounded in some way by the timeless."

For me to imagine a negation or acknowledgement of time makes me laugh, human beings have come so far, but have not gotten anywhere without at least the acknowledgment of forward movement. There is no forward without a linear idea of time, and I can't help but giggle at the thought that these photos point to a perhaps larger scale of things, a broader understanding of space that doesn't care to admit any linear direction at all.

BLUE PINK IMMATERIAL VOID: TRANSCENDENCE

2011-11-26T14:59:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I began reading the second chapter of SUBLIME and felt refreshed, instantly grateful that I read three novels before digging into more art theory. Transcendence is a pretty short chapter, so I'll focus on one essay that I loved. Probably because I love James Turrell and have secret fantasies of flying to Flagstaff Arizona to visit that beautiful crater in the desert. Mostly, this chapter is about that exact moment when our souls escape physicality and reach for the void of spiritual transcendence.

Lynn M. Herbert
Spirit and Light and the Immensity Within//1998

Leaving our physical realms behind, Herbert starts this essay by talking about light and its power to bring us to our knees. We take it for granted most of the time but, "Not only does it reveal what is around us, it also makes known that which is inside us." Herbert then continues by introducing Turrell whose sole medium has been light since the 1960's. She emphasizes Turrell's, "particular gift in affording us the opportunity to have a unique and intimate experience with light and to feel its transcendent power." Our experience with Turrell's work becomes extremely personal and for many, leads to thoughts about spirituality and religion. Not to get too caught up in religion, Herbert quotes a former priest who makes the point,"one doesn't get 'religion' in a church anymore than one gets 'education' at a university." I liked this point because it opens the door to suggest that spiritually is manifested in so many other places. Herbert gives a brief explanation of Turrell's upbringing and his constant relationship with light and brings us to the 60's where Turrell was able to work alongside arist Robert Irwin with scientist Dr. Edward Wortz. After this Turrell created immaterial pieces out of light that tied him to minimalism, yet referenced the color of artists like Mark Rothko. Turrell found Roden crater, an extinct volcano in north of Flagstaff Arizona, where you feel geological time and the sky is theatrical and vivid. "Sunrises and sunsets present ranges of color unimaginable to the uninitiated.." I have yet to forget the kind of intensity of color that exists in this part of the South West, hues are more saturated, and the lack of cloud cover allows the deepest of blue to penetrate the surrounding landscape in a heavy way. Herbert describes the work that Turrell has made at the crater,

"Emerging from tunnels and chambers to the rim of the crater, one will experience a phenomenon called 'celestial vaulting' in which the eye sees the sky as a dome rather than a flat expanse. With this vision of the heavens embracing one overhead, the feeling is very much as if one were standing on the edge of the earth, close to the sky."

Turrell speaks of the crater's ability to connect time in a vast way. He states that there are stars that are billions of years old, and there is starlight that is very recent, perhaps only 20 light years old, and that mixing this light of different ages speaks of its time. Herbert ends this essay on Turrell's ability to create a transcendent experience in the simplest of ways, that draws our attention to the immensity within ourselves. "He allows us to look at light in such a way that we can see into ourselves through to the universe beyond..."

CHROMOPHOBIA DETOUR

2011-11-18T00:50:00.000-05:00

Cheese and rice! Okay, I know I said I would finish SUBLIME before I read different things, but I couldn't help myself! I took one look in my bookcase and it was over, suddenly there were three books in my bag at all times. My favorite of which was Chromophobia by David Batchelor.

This book is a collection of 5 essays, and I've decided to give you a little taste of three, but only a taste because this book is not long, and too much would be, well too much!

Whitescapes//

This essay speaks of the significance of whiteness in relationship to darkness and color. Batchelor talks about Joseph Conrad, Francis Ford Coppola, and Herman,

"Melville works in something like the opposite direction: he begins with one great big white thing and, at certain points, begins to wonder whether the terrible whiteness of this thing could be generalized beyond it and infect his more homely conception of white. 'It was the whiteness of the whale that above all things appalled me', he admits, while at the same time noting that 'in many natural objects, whiteness refiningly enhances beauty, as if imparting some special virtue of its own.' He recognizes the gravity of the impasse and his confusion"

"Horrible electric white, implacable, murderous," delightful.

Chromophobia//

Sometimes we are scared of color, we discriminate against it in social/political ways, Aldous Huxley describes taking mescaline and sees intense color, Technicolor in cinema is used to emphasize a coming to reality, and so on...

"Falling or leaving: these two metaphors of colour are closely related. Their terminologies - of dreams, of joys, of uprootings or undoings of self - remain more or less the same. More than that, perhaps, the descent into colour often involves lateral as well as vertical displacement; it means being blown sideways at the same time as falling downwards."

Um, exactly.

Apocalypstick//

There is danger in color. Color is powerful, sexual, intense, aggressive, and that scares us too.

"Gradually, his conscious colour-delirium leads him to fall into a restless sleep and then into a colour-nightmare where the flowers transform into a woman and the woman in turn becomes flower-like: 'glowing colours lit up her eyes; her lips took on the fierce red of Anthuriums; the nipples of her bosom shone as brightly as two red peppers.' To his horror the woman embraces him fiercely and reveals 'the savage Nidularium blossoming between her uplifted thighs, with its swordblades gaping open to expose the bloody depths'."

Batchelor goes on to elaborate on how color can give life and death, and that color is a very peculiar other. Color is a scary sexual flower waiting to consume you.

There are two more chapters, but I will leave those for you. Batchelor's main points become about the implications of color beyond art and outside of art itself. He ends with a fantastic quote by Goethe from his Theory of Colours,

"...it is also worthy of remark, that savage nations, uneducated people, and children have a great predilection for vivid colors; that animals are excited to rage by certain colours; that people of refinement avoid vivid colours in their dress and the objects that are about them, and seem inclined to banish them altogether from their presence."

Grisaille, The Dwarves, The Forests

2011-11-09T12:03:00.000-05:00

Monday night I went to the upper east side to check out two shows, the first of which was called Grisaille, a word that generally refers to a painting that is made entirely in monochromotic greyscale. This show was split between many different colored rooms, which did their job to make all of the work active, and created cohesion between works from so many different artists. This show is Part II of Grisaille, Part I is residing in the Luxembourg & Dayan Gallery in London, maybe I should ask Will to go have a look for me.

This painting was probably my favorite, mostly because it was against a grey wall which created a nice constant to appreciate the grey in the work. Also because I enjoy how haunting and creepy this work is. By Rudolph Stingel, 2011, oil on canvas, 16 x 13 inches.

The Dwarves, The Forests
McCarthy has been making work based on the theme of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves for a bit now, so having seen much of the imagery already, it was great to finally see it in person.

This sculpture was my favorite in the show. Mostly because it felt the most lewd, sexual, and precarious. I'm still unsure about how that sculpture isn't falling over, it's so top heavy, and you can definitely feel the presence of that weight when standing near underneath.

SUBLIME: The Unpresentable

2011-11-07T12:58:00.000-05:00

"After hiking miles into the wilderness and discovering my first real waterfall, I immediately began looking for the pumps and conduit that make it work" Fred Tomaselli, Interview with Siri Hustvedt, 2007

Things are dying down a bit and here I am back to reading consistently, yes. Though I think after I finish this, I will take every one's advice and find a different type of book to read. All these essays might be stirring my brain into a tizzy.

SUBLIME is broken up into 7 chapters, the first of which is this, The Unpresentable. I must admit that I've read little about the Sublime and it's relationship to art, so there will be a lot of learning going on. Here are the two essays I connected with from this chapter.

Barnett Newman
The Sublime is Now//1948

This essay opens with discussion regarding beauty and it's relationship with European art. Newman makes some key points about human nature's obsession with creating perfection, and how those notions of perfection are tied to the sublime. Of course he talks about Greek art, "there is no doubt that Greek art is an insistence that the sense of exaltation is to be found in perfect form," and then moves to mention a climax in the struggle between beauty and the sublime via the Renaissance. He makes a great statement about Michelangelo;

"It was no idle quip that moved Michelangelo to call himself a sculptor rather than a painter, for he knew that only in his sculpture could the desire for the grand statement of Christian sublimity be reached."

Illusion is one thing, but Michelangelo was correct in believing in the aura and presence behind a perfectly articulated human form completely imagined out of a giant piece of marble. Newman goes on to discuss how the impulse of modern art was a desire to destroy beauty. Newman reaches a climax in emphasizing the continuous presence of European culture in modern art.

"So strong is the grip of the rhetoric of exaltation as an attitude in the large context of the European culture pattern that the elements of sublimity in the revolution we know as modern art, exist in its effort and energy to escape the pattern rather than in the realization of a new experience. Picasso's effort may be sublime but there is no doubt that his work is a preoccupation with the question of what is the nature of beauty."

Newman is stating here that the sublime notions that live deep in the work of European art via their relationship to beauty are so strong, that the sublime continues to be a presence in modern art. That modern art escapes the pattern but fails to offer a new experience. He gives Picasso as example of a well celebrated artist who was completely obsessed with what is beautiful, regardless of this obsession, Picasso's works still came out sublime. Newman makes an excellent final point, that I will save for you to discover later, but what a wonderful and concise essay.

Barbara Claire Freeman
The Feminine Sublime//1995

In this essay Freeman talks about the relationship between the sublime and the history of masculine discourse that perpetuates "the material and psychological oppression of actual women." This essay was heavy in it's reference to many ideas that I had not actually considered before. Freeman identifies what she means by feminine sublime, and then goes on to discuss it's relevancy to politics. This sums up a great deal of what she is getting at,

"...the sublime is not the presentation of the unpresentable, but the presentation of the fact that the unpresentable exists. To invoke the nondemonstrable - not as a familiar feature of aesthetics but rather in the context of the incommensurable - is to situate the sublime as a site of resistance to aestheticism and also to underscore its political and ethical dimensions."

So here, Freeman is saying that the very nature of the sublime becomes a site of resistance to emphasize political and ethical dimensions, I'll make the jump and say, feminine political and ethical dimensions. She continues,

"Unlike the masculinist sublime that seeks to master, appropriate or colonize the other, I propose that the politics of the feminine sublime involves taking a position of respect in response to an incalculable otherness. A politics of the feminine sublime would ally receptivity and constant attention to that which makes meaning infinitely open and ungovernable."

I love this last point, to take a seat back and respect the otherness of the sublime for what it is, instead of trying to master and colonize it. Duly noted, oh, but art? Sometimes these books have really juicy essays that give artists many delicious things to think about without actually manifesting some critical point regarding art. That is not necessarily true for this essay however, because the way we create meaning and make visual associations has entirely to do with accepted patterns of masculine rhetoric.

This chapter also features interesting essays by Derrida and Zizek,, plenty to think about. On a side note, I'm not going to say how awfully annoyed I am to have missed Zizek speak 3 separate time here in New York City, (Occupy Wall Street, Columbia, and at a Brooklyn bookstore....) this place has a way of making it impossible to find the time to get to where you want to be. You know, it's that whole, full time job thing, that suspends infinitely availability.

Okay! Time to finish prepping my canvas and eat lunch. Painting later and Paul McCarthy opening tonight. I love days off.

Excuse me? No.

2011-11-01T11:07:00.000-04:00

It's November. So I've been here a little over 2 months and finally starting to feel settled in. My new job at the ACE is going well, I like it and it likes me.

A very respected friend came to New York this last weekend and I was happy that we both had time to catch up and chat amongst the wonderful de Kooning exhibition. I got in trouble for taking these during a previous visit. These two photos are hardly a glimpse of this retrospective. They indicate nothing of de Kooning's mastery of line, shape, color, and the figure.

The paragraph on the outside. This exhibition was good about informing you of the relevancy of each era without being overly explanatory. You easily moved through many rooms in chronological order. You could spend 3 hours in this exhibition without spending very much time with each work at all.

This work I really appreciated, simply because I used to paint backdrops for plays, so it was interesting to see how he went about dividing up the same space. The security guards were much more assertive this time around, probably because people like me assumed the outside of the galleries were okay places to photograph. A security woman to a viewer with a camera, "Excuse me? No."

Then we went to CANADA

We saw great little paintings by Lily Ludlow, that at first seemed a little comical but then honest and sincere. Colin said the art world is very interested in sincerity and authenticity these days. I thought of that when these works were described as such. I hope Colin is right.

I enjoyed how these works are about shape and color, and then after a moment it becomes clear how sensual and sexual they are. Very intimate.

I am still reading! Slowly, because I've been painting, and it's difficult to make decisions about work when reading about why other artists make decisions about their work. Many people have recommended that I read something that's not about art, I can't help it, I can't seem to motivate myself to read one of the many novels I have sitting around my room. I do think it's good advice though. There is still too much to see and not enough time.

Time to paint.

dngszjkdufiy bgxfjkglijkhtr kydjkhgdghjkd

2011-10-25T01:41:00.000-04:00

Urs Fischer and Cassandra MacLeod!

This was fun, and Colin and I climbed under the tables.

Everything is Happening

2011-10-13T23:35:00.000-04:00

It is! I'm amazed by how much
I've been doing. I love it.

Reading this is happening, with shorter
chapters I'll have some fun posts about this soon.

Working here has been happening.

I got a new job as a reservations agent here.
This takes up a lot of time, but hey, best job
I've had to date, so I'm elated.

Most importantly, this is happening!
Yes yes yes, I'm very pleased and excited.

As if all this wasn't enough at any given moment,
should you have a moment of freedom, there is this
amazing resource:
http://artcards.cc/
So there you go and here I am.

DUMBO arts festival

2011-09-26T09:26:00.001-04:00

Last night some friends and I roamed about the last moments of the Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass arts festival. Here are a couple of snap shots of pieces we liked.

Immersive surfaces,,
In a tunnel underneath the Manhattan bridge was an incredible video projection by a group of 15 international artists and curators. This made for a huge moving piece that floated across the landscape of the walls and surface of the bridge.

Video_Dumbo,,,
This space was dark, eery and filled with various films and video pieces, many of which were interactive.

About Looking

2011-09-22T20:42:00.000-04:00

Things are certainly starting to speed up around here. Jill, Monroe and I will be moving into our new home this next Saturday. This is great, but it also meant that I've been away from my books and art supplies for the last month which is really getting me down. BUT, the library is a great place to find other great things to read. Like, About Looking, essays by John Berger. I've read this before, but a re-read is always nice. Here are a couple of favorite essays from this little gem.

Photographs of Agony

This essay helps to facilitate one of the primary functions of the photograph. The function of photography has since become more complicated but I enjoy how this essay gives a basic premise.

"As we emerge from the photographed moment back into our lives, we do not realise this; we assume that the discontinuity is our responsibility. The truth is that any responce to that photographed moment is bound to be felt as inadequate. those who are there in the situation being photographed, those who hold the hand of the dying or staunch a wound, are not seeing the moment as we have and their responses are of an altogether different order."

A lot of the content that becomes photography has much to do with the dichotomy between what is being perceived from a gazing viewer and the reality of the experience of those in the photograph who are living that moment.

Francis Bacon and Walt Disney

This essay about Bacon discusses his relevancy as a British painter, his remarkable consistency, his extraordinary skill and how his work is in complete oppositions to many of the ideals within the work of Walt Disney.

"Bacon's art is, in effect, conformist. It is not with Goya or the early Einstein that he should be compared, but with Walt Disney. Both men make propositions about the alienated behavior of our societies; and both, in a different way, persuade the viewer to accept what is. Disney makes alienated behavior look funny and sentimental and, therefore, acceptable. Bacon interprets such behavior in terms of the worst possible having already happened, and so proposes that both refusal and hope are pointless."

Disney makes life's moments sentimental, and Bacon makes them pointless. I love that opposition.

Famous Artwork Day

2011-09-19T22:00:00.000-04:00

The last couple weeks have been busy. I’m a hostess for the John Dory Oyster Bar and am having a great time getting to know all the great people who work there. I’ve been going to openings, including Jenny Saville’s opening last week, of course no photography was allowed but I did get to see Chuck Close in the flesh. Anyway, the paintings were stunning, the only question we had for Saville was, why so many paintings of the same face? Four paintings of one little boy, 5 or 6 works of the same woman with children. Interesting. Today I went to the de Kooning retrospective at the MoMA, (Again, no photography allowed for this special exhibit.) I met many famous pieces of work, my mind was blown, and then my eyes fell out of my head. Here are some of them!

Paul Klee, Cat and Bird

Vasily Kandinsky

Marcel Duchamp

Robert Rauschenberg, Bed 1955

Louise Bourgeois, Little Girl 1968

Joseph Beuys, Eurasia Siberian Symphony 1963

James Lee Byars, Dress for Five Persons 1969

Daniel Buren

Paul Gauguin, Still Life with Three Puppies 1888

Cy Twombly, Leda and the Swan 1962

Andrew Wyeth, From Christina's World

Amedeo Modigliani, Anna Zborowska

Alberto Giacometti, The Chariot 1950

Dan Flavin, untitled (to the "innovator" of Wheeling Peachblow) 1968

FAILURE: Experiment and Process

2011-09-11T17:57:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to say that in the middle of finding a job and a place to live, I was able to finish the final section of this lovely little MIT Press collection of essays. GOOD NEWS, to have a job and a place to live! Will and I have been running around the city meeting and greeting and that has been wonderful. Not so wonderful was sending him on his way, he’ll be in London next week. The Slade is calling him and New York is calling me.

Sol Lewitt, Model for Brick Structure, 2003,painted form on board

Robert Smithson
Conversation with Dennis Wheeler//1969-70

Smithson is full of well meaning knowledge. The conversation begins with Smithson.
“My attitude towards conceptual art is that essentially that term was first used by Sol Lewitt in a personal way and then it established a certain kind of context, and out of it seems to have developed this whole neo-idealism, kind of an escape from physicality...I’m concerned with the physical properties of both language and material, and I don’t think that they are discrete. They are both physical entities, but they have different properties, and within these properties you have these mental experiences, and it’s not simply empirical facts.” Smithson talks about language and material in a way that makes them equal. I understand how this could have been controversial, giving conceptual ideas the same weight as materiality was a big claim at the time. However, I like to think about this equality in a very literal way. That the material is dependent on the concept, concept dependent on materiality, and there should be a harmonious or at least intentional relationship between the two.

Will Bradley
The Village//1997

I found this to be an excellent short tale of how a concentrated celebration of failure lead to the success of an artist. In the end his mentors see his rise to fame as uncompromising. Good to stay humble I think.“One by one they visited his studio, never letting slip that they were anything but honest, country folk. Subtly, over time, criticising his successes, encouraging his mistakes, applauding his failures, they destroyed the young man’s work.”

Yoshua Okon, Chocorrol, 1997

Eduardo Abaroa, Sam Durant, Gabriela Jauregui, Yoshua Okon, William Pope L.
Thoughts on Failure, Idealism and Art//2008

Each of these people made excellent points on the problems behind believing in the notion of progress of humanity. Yoshua Okon stated, “I think that we can let go of the modern myth of progress - the grandiose meta-narrative of humanity gradually marching towards a better world; ‘the progress of mankind’ - and maintain a relationship to failure, just as long as we don’t understand failure in the same absolute terms. In other words, we can maintain a relationship to failure just as long as ‘failure’ loses its negative connotations and is viewed as an integral (and inevitable) part of the process of being alive.” When you take big risks, you have a greater chance of failing miserably. Failure shouldn’t be so miserable.

Liam Gillick, Rescinded production, 2008

Liam Gillick
Transcript from Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario//2008

The final essay of this book didn’t fail to please. I like to imagine reading this in a very loud voice. “AS THE SNOW STARTED TO FALL. THREE PEOPLE WERE SEEN. THEY WALKED ONE BEHIND THE OTHER. IT HAS BEEN COLDER. TODAY THERE WAS THE SENSE THAT A THAW WAS COMING, IN THE DISTANCE WAS A LARGE BUILDING. LIGHT COULD BE SEEN FROM GAPS IN THE STRUCTURE. YOU COULDN’T DESCRIBE THE GAPS AS WINDOWS.” And so on until the end.

Fun@NYMOMA

2011-08-31T00:25:00.000-04:00

FAILURE: Error and Incompetence

2011-08-30T23:19:00.000-04:00

I’m moving right along this lovely book and this section has been my favorite so far.

Brian Dillon
Eternal Return//2003

This essay begins with repetition, how no experience can truly be replicated, and what subtle differences occur when repetition is attempted.
“Repetition, as Gilles Deleuze wrote, has both its tragic and its comic aspects: nothing is more appalling, and at the same time ludicrous, then the individual condemned to the same action over and over again. But repetition, says Deleuze, is also a kind of freedom: without its regular framing and punctuating insistence we would never be able to experience difference, to relish the new, at all. In the simple repetition of a clock’s ticking is already the possibility of movement, of a narrative ( we hear the actual and meaningless ‘tick, tick’ as ‘tick, tock’: a tiny story).”
This example of the narrative we create through the simple repetition of the second hand of a clock illustrates the potential for meaning when using repetition as a strategy for making art. I love how concise this notion is and the potential for especially subtle differences, though I’ve always been a fan of subtlety.
“Perhaps we only believe in repetition ( as something interesting, engaging, even moving) by claiming that it’s not repetition at all. Which is in turn a way of claiming that our lives - all our habits, routines, obsessions, mistakes unrecognized and pattens unbroken - are really, despite all evidence to the contrary, not repetitive. And so we watch, listen, read, and live, all the time intoning the same mantra. There is repetition. There is no repetition. Repeat to fade...”
If you know me, you know that I enjoy a good spectrum and this end to the essay paints a great one. To imagine painting the same image over and over, only to discover in your repetition that each time the terms are different. Your approach is different, your mood is different, the way you hold your brush is different. In repetition it becomes clear how unique each separate iteration is.

Julian Schnabel
Statement//1978

“I want my life to be embedded in my work, crushed into my painting like a pressed car. If it’s not, my work is just some stuff. When I’m away from it, I’m crippled. Without my relationship to what may seem like these inanimate objects, I am just an indulgent misfit. If the spirit of being isn’t present in the face of this work, it should be destroyed because it’s meaningless. I am not making some things. I am making a synonym for the truth with all its falsehoods, oblique as it is. I am making icons that present life in terms of our death. A bouquet of mistakes.”

Yes, and me too! Ha, but really, I enjoy how he talks about his relationship to the idea of making objects and am empathetic to the idea of feeling crippled without my work.

Fischli & Weiss
How to Work Better//1991

DO ONE THING AT A TIME

KNOW THE PROBLEM

LEARN TO LISTEN

LEARN TO ASK QUESTIONS

DISTINGUISH SENSE FROM NONSENSE

ACCEPT CHANGE AS INEVITABLE

ADMIT MISTAKES

SAY IT SIMPLE

BE CALM

SMILE

I can’t express how much good advice this is, really. Any great accomplishment is the product of a series of single small events that you do one by one. I also agree with the order in which this list is given.

Spending Time..

2011-08-26T17:07:00.000-04:00

My future roommate Jillian works at the International Center of Photography here in NY. Lucky me, I got to see Ruth Gruber and her amazing work.

I've also been sharing space with a lot of great gelatin silver prints and photos by Vik Muniz.

Fun! Hurricane Irene should be here by tomorrow night, and that is the opposite of fun. But who knows? Maybe a hurricane party will ensue... Time to go buy supplies! Since everything is shutting down...

FAILURE: Idealism and Doubt

2011-08-26T16:55:00.001-04:00

I’m happy to say that this post is brought to you from New York City. Here I am and there I go, looking for places to live, and reading on the subway...

So here are my picks from the second section of FAILURE: Documents of Contemporary Art.

Paul Watzlawick
On the Nonsense of Sense and the Sense of Nonsense//1995

This small excerpt accurately portrays a primary theme of Failure. That more is known, perceived, and gained from the absence of having a specific successful goal.
Ernst Von Glasersfeld writes in his introduction to Radical Constructivism:
“Somewhat more metaphorical would be the following analogy: the captain of a ship has to cross straits that he does not know and does not have a chart for nor navigational help such as a beacon, etc. on a stormy, dark night. In the circumstances only two things are possible: Either he sails into a cliff and loses his ship and his life; in the last moment of his life he realizes that the reality of the straits was not as he imagined and his course did not correspond with the actuality of the straits. Or he reaches the open sea; then he knows only that his course was accurate but no more. He does not know whether there could have been easier, shorter crossings than the one he blindly chose. And he does not know what the real condition of the strait was.”
Glasersfeld creates a metaphor that paints perfectly that it is impossible to know the true reality of the straits, to assume a single successful way through is impossible.
I like imagining art this way, that you sail through projects without a specific end in sight, that openness leads you to the open sea, making it clear how much more is gained from dropping a specific notion of success.

Now you know and it doesn't change anything., 2011, oil on canvas, 72 x 60 inches

Jennifer Higgie
The Embarrassing Truth: Matthew Brannon//1995

I really enjoyed the style of this essay. Higgie focuses on how Brannon’s non sequiturs play a unique role in his work. “Brannon also mines non sequiturs within an inch of their baffling lives: for example, the words ‘Steak dinner’ underline an image of bananas, while another picture of what appears to be a pot of fish is captioned “Compliance & Resentment’. A silhouette of a blackbird, some pencils, an ipod, paper clips and a coffee stain is accompanied by the words ‘Pigs Like Amazing what they found. Among the arugula, watercress, blue fin tuna, age dried steak. There it is. Your heart. And Look... a bunch of razor blades. Little Light bulbs. Cocaine. Little travel bottles. Anti-depressants. Your old untouched job application’. Fun right?

FAILURE: Documents of Contemporary Art

2011-08-19T14:17:00.000-04:00

This collection of essays is broken into parts. Dissatisfaction and rejection, idealism and doubt, error and incompetence, and experiment and progress. Clearly there are many facets to failure. Here are a couple essays from the first section that caught my eye.

Marcus Verhagen
There’s No Success Like Failure:
Martin Kippenberger//2006
"...a vastly restive and energetic figure who tipped everything he touched into a bilge of crude sentiment and doubtful humour, never missing a chance to rubbish a lofty view and always preferring the infantile to the measured and the pointless to the productive. He has chutzpah even in his self-doubt, in his endless parade of comically abject self-images. His work was a counterpoint to the Neo-Expressionist grandstanding of older German artists like Kiefer and Georg Baselitz, its trashy quality serving as a way of recognizing that various artistic projects, including painting and self portraiture, had reached a point of possibly terminal crisis while still using them as vehicles for passages of hammy, delinquent brilliance."

Emma Dexter
Authenticity and Forgery: Luc Tuymans//2004
"We need to view Tuymans' entire oeuvre as an act of remembrance, flitting as it does in its subject matter from the significant and collective to the incidental and absurd. And somehow because of this heterodox, over-arching schema, each painting becomes a space for remembering, while the space outside the painting, the empty gap between the canvases, represents all the stuff of the world that Tuymans does not depict, so becoming the space of forgetting or oblivion."

I would be happy to elaborate my enjoyment for these essays, but I'm on vacation in Florida, which means that high speed internet (if any) is difficult to find. I'll be driving back up the east coast to Connecticut and finally making my way to NY. More frequent posts to come when I've returned from tanning and collecting postcard worthy photos of scenery.

PAINTING: Documents of Contemporary Art

2011-08-06T14:33:00.001-04:00

Magdalena, Marlene Dumas 1996

"Painting doesn't freeze time. It circulates and recycles time like a wheel that turns. Those who were first might well be last."-Marlene Dumas, Woman and Painting, 1993

This book is one of reading and re-reading. Some essays stand out more than others, and all bring something relevant for every painter to consider. Painting begins in 1981 with "The End of Painting" by Douglas Crimp and concludes in 2009 with "Painting Beside Itself" by David Joselit. I'll elaborate on some of my favorites.

Michael Corris and Robert Nickas
Punishment and Decoration: Art in the Age of Militant Superficiality//1993
This conversation is about the relationship between ‘figure’ and ‘ground’ and the harm in reading a work in complete formal terms. Corris makes the point, “A painting of quality is a picture that uses abuse, embellishment, degradation and decoration to generate complex visual malapropisms out of erasure, cancellation, acts of outright destruction of the surface of the picture, the scotomization of vision, unabashed scenarios of seductive plasticity, patterning and colour, or outright displays of incompetence - intended and otherwise. The picture/surface dialectic is not the same frame of reference as the figure/ground opposition.” Duly noted.
If I forgot to mention earlier, PAINTING is full of 5 dollar words. Like Malapropism (The grotesque or inappropriate use of a word) and scotomization (The development of figurative blind spots resulting in the suppression of certain items of information and knowledge).

Seismographic Negligee, Nancy Haynes 1992

Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe
Cabbages, Raspberries and Video’s Thin Brightness//1996
I’ll give you one guess to what this is about and a quote to make it obvious. “Video cannot ever be matte; it is bright and shiny, like a varnished painting where depth is in part achieved by glazing. Glazing means colour suspended in varnish, pigment magnified by oxidized and clarified oil, glowing from within like a television.” Gilbert-Rolfe discusses matte after analyzing Nancy Haynes painting as “protracted instantaneity, a surface organized less around incident than around formlessness.”

Yoshitomo Nara

Midori Matsui
New Openings in Japanese Painting: Three Faces of Minor-ity//2001
This essay is incredibly helpful in understanding contemporary Japanese painting through the discussion of the history of Japanese painting, Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, and Hiroshi Sugito & Tam Ochiai. “The peripheral relationship to modernity and modernism that once afflicted Japanese painters now provides them with the resources of cultural hybridity: neither conforming to historically sanctioned styles of modernist invention, nor forming a tight-knit group, these artists pursue their individual paths of innovation.” The longest essay in the book, but well worth the time.

Ulrike Groos
On Paul McCarthy: Painter (1995)//2003
About the relationship between artist (the painter) and those working around him/her in the art world, Groos states clearly: “The video sketches a stereotype of the artist genius as a backward, behaviourally-disturbed, infantile eccentric incapable of normal human interaction, who disregards norms and rules since his only means of expression is in the obsessive, impulsive pursuit of his art. However, even the gallery owner fails to take him seriously as a human being, to say nothing of the collectors, who take advantage of his ‘wildness’ to amuse themselves at his expense.” Again, incredibly interesting ideas to consider.

After it all, I can't help but agree with Marlene Dumas' idea about time and painting. Art and painting do not exist to make work that is better than the last, but work that continually reiterates definitions of existence.

Florida tomorrow.

The Phillips

2011-08-02T21:46:00.000-04:00

Today Will and I went to The Phillips Collection. Headlining exhibitions featured work by Wassily Kandinsky and Frank Stella which were very enjoyable.

These wall sculptures, by A. Balasubramaniam, were in the Phillips Project space. I really enjoyed how well these pieces were crafted into the wall. So subtle yet prominent.

Of course I spent some quiet time with the Rothko room, which got me in the mood for this painting:
By Helen Frankenthaler, 1928. Great shapes and color, so little paint. Which then reminded me of this artist (also very little paint):

Michael Krebber!

So then I was in an Abstract Expressionist mood (Though Krebber is not exactly AbEx...) and took some time at a local coffee shop to read about the contemporary Ab-Ex trend in Artforum.
"Such a re-rereading of Abstract Expressionism finds its echoes in work that pulls the gesture, the painted mark, and the viewing of images into performances or sprawling installations that upend ideas of agency and presence." —Michelle Kuo

Interesting day! Then we came home and Will and I made mac&cheese (sharp white cheddar & gruyere), sauteed mushrooms with pearl onions, and watermelon honeydew blackberry salad with sugar and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Kill me, dinner was too good.

Murl Barthold

2011-07-31T18:02:00.001-04:00

Today Will and I went on a walk that took us through a beautiful park, to the locally famous Ben's Chili Bowl (delicious), and ended at an antique store that was going out of business. When Will and I lived in Portland we were fortunate to find a photo of an anthropomorphic dog climbing a fence and a print of a terribly painted white cat floating over an oddly dimensioned rug, both of which I loved for their strange and earnest characteristics. When moving away from Portland I had no room for the floating cat, and it was left behind. I had since been on the look out for another beautifully strange cat to hang in my (non existent yet) New York apartment.

Today was my lucky day.

Vampire Cat Licking Paw (my title, there was none on the original work of art)
By Murl Barthold, Graphite on Paper, Date: 1900

I can't find any information about the artist Murl Barthold. This work was made 3 years after Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was published. I like to imagine that this Victorian artist was influenced by the growing vampire trend when creating this fanged cat.

I also found an old butterfly: Euphaedra eberti Africa.

Happiness.

Bits and Pieces, Here and There...

2011-07-28T21:18:00.000-04:00

Will and I have been having a busy time running around DC looking at art from various museums and galleries. Yesterday we explored the Hirshhorn, while today we walked through the Freer. I also insisted on checking out the Smithsonian Castle and the Air and Space museum. DC is full of amazing things to see for free.

The fabric in this unfinished Whistler piece is lovely.

I enjoy how abstract the design on this vase becomes. Also by Whistler.

I found some beautiful gold space foil.

Today was a visual success. I am almost finished with my painting book, a post about that once I'm through. Hopefully, more things to see tomorrow.