arts / cultures / etc / Notes

The Invisible Movie

admin — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:20:26 +0000

In the Netherlands, there is a raging debate about a movie nobody ever saw. It seems that images have become so powerful, we don’t even need them anymore to scare the hell out of us.

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Originally from NextNature.net - Nature changes along with us. by Hendrik-Jan Grievink reBlogged on Mar 4, 2008, 1:15PM

Green Roofs for Living

admin — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:20:06 +0000

This impression shows the ambitions of the city of Rotterdam for the coming decade. The city is supposed to have an image problem concerning its greenlife; as a big industrial harbour city in The Netherlands, there are almost no parks in the center. So where space in citycenters is generally built to the max, the roofs should be taking the city’s ecology to the next level. According to environmental psychologist Sjerp de Vries, it is a proven fact that the more green people see, the less stress they experience. Hence they will feel more at home, social contacts improve as well as the air quality. Green roofs improve the quality of life.

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biopolitics, Hypernature, manufactured landscapes, Officegarden, Soft architecture, The map is the territory, utopian suburbia

Originally from NextNature.net - Nature changes along with us. by =A= reBlogged on Mar 5, 2008, 7:52PM

“Mr. Ray”

admin — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:33:24 +0000

"Mr. Ray" [4.8 MB .mp3]

An exploration of the sonata form. A main (allegro) theme, a slower theme, a dance, and return to the allegro. The initial four-note motif is a Reaktor preset and the rest is me. Sonatas are supposed to have some kind of tonal center but this is all timbral and rhythmic. It is a "twelve tone" piece, I suppose, too, at least the fast synthesized string parts. The sound quality is pretty harsh--it's not very generous in terms of tunes or a groove anyone could sink into. It's something I had to do and I will now return to mellifluous Tin Pan Alley tunesmithing.

Originally from tom moody by tom moody reBlogged on Jan 1, 1970, 12:59AM

Take Care…

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:51:37 +0000

Hello, my name is Randall Szott. I am the founder of Dilettante Ventures which was a collective comprised of other collectives - LeisureArts, placekraft, and Studiolo54. All of these collectives had blogs that served as repositories of some activities, but did not serve as complete documentation of their activities. All of the collectives were comprised by myself only with the exception of Studiolo54 which had one other member. Maybe now some of you can understand why most everything written on this blog employed the collective "we" when offering up commentary.

LeisureArts helped me clarify many of my thoughts concerning how art and other forms of creative engagement with the world could lead to "the good life." My life, for better or worse, has been geared towards thinking about and attempting to embody, a vision of said good life. This blog provided a useful articulation of the theoretical/conceptual underpinnings of this exploration.

It is now time to turn my attention toward living and away from discursive arguments. I am grateful to all those who have taken the time to read and even take seriously the things I've written for LeisureArts. Much of the material here is obscure and it is often contrarian, but it is sincere. It is probably obvious that the dramas, protocols, and restrictions of the art world (the professional market/academic one) are of little use to me. Art has never been a vocation for me and probably never will be. In a funny way, I take it much too seriously. To paraphrase Luc Ferry in writing about the Greek view of philosophy - I see it as a mode of life rather than mere discourse. I'll be around, but Dilettante Ventures, and thus, LeisureArts are no more. I've got too much living to do.

P.S. I mentioned before a new curatorial venture outside Chicago called "he said - she said" and my final post here will be an announcement of the launch of its web site you can bookmark it now or wait for the final post.

Originally from LeisureArts by Dilettante Ventures reBlogged

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admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:51:16 +0000

he said-she said is an exhibition and event series held in the home of Pamela Fraser and Randall Szott. They will take turns presenting what amounts to an ongoing conversation about art and culture - Ms. Fraser presenting art and artists, and Mr. Szott sharing the activities of people who work in other contexts. Together they hope to offer up a fun and thoughtful take on current ideas in art and life.

Originally from LeisureArts by Dilettante Ventures reBlogged

Good Porn for Good Girls?

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:49:41 +0000

What does it mean to work in the porn industry and what difference does it make if a women wrote the script and stands behind the camera? A panel discussion during the 2.Porn Filmfestival in Berlin with Erika Lust (Barcelona), Jennifer Lynn (Melbourne/Berlin), Julia Ostertag (Berlin), Ovidie (Paris), Petra Joy (Brighton) and Audacia Ray (New York).

Originally from V2V reBlogged on Dec 7, 2007, 10:07PM

Renaming machine - Suzana Milevska

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:49:18 +0000

Renaming Machine is a war concept that could be interpreted as a subtle but powerful strategy for erasing ethnic, cultural or gender identity without using any aggression or causing any direct material damage. It functions as a conceptual weapon of destruction, as a kind of wage war or a contest between the old and new identity layer. However, renaming simultaneously adds and multiplies a new layer of identity each time it erases one, because the names could be neither stolen nor completely erased: the best example of accumulation by dispossession in David Harvey’s terms. Moreover, according to Jacques Derrida giving names is also an act of love. RM attempts to point to the arbitrariness and contingency of representation that accompany the use of names and to raise the discussion about the invisible ideological patterns of “desiring renaming machine” standing behind the power regimes of representation while dispossessing and giving names. In my presentation I want to focus on the exploration of this clandestine ambivalence within the renaming as a juxtaposition of various identities. It is extremely important to reflect the complex entanglements of the political and cultural processes of renaming and the urgent need for questioning how these processes and patterns influenced the construction and destabilisation of national, cultural and personal identity during the last two decades within the Balkan region. I aim to encompass various art and cultural phenomena attached to renaming in order to explore the scale to which renaming affects visual culture and transgresses cultural identities and subjectivities in the Balkans. Renaming Machine was specifically motivated by the unique and absurd outwitting between Greece and Macedonia about the right to use the name “Macedonia.” This conflict resulted with exhausting processes of negotiations that still trouble the stability of the region. Regardless all paradoxes this “war of names” became an international precedent and the best example that names are overrated as identity insignia and “omen.”

Originally from V2V reBlogged on Jan 30, 2008, 11:25PM

Expanded (final) version..

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:48:04 +0000

Originally from B3ta reBlogged

Engage!

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:47:56 +0000

Originally from B3ta reBlogged

Subterranean Prittstick Blues

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:47:18 +0000

Originally from B3ta reBlogged

Oh dear

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:46:33 +0000

Originally from B3ta reBlogged

Car logos for the deaf.

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:46:11 +0000

*May contain baffling cobblers. (See filenames for solutions to the more obtuse efforts.)

Originally from B3ta reBlogged

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admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:40:32 +0000

“Torrpoolen” (The Drypool) by Markus Degerman.

Originally from VVORK by mail reBlogged on Feb 15, 2008, 9:04AM

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admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:38:58 +0000

“Gold and Ruby Skull” (2003) by Amy Sarkisian.

Originally from VVORK by mail reBlogged on Feb 21, 2008, 2:12AM

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admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:38:31 +0000

»Debris« (2008),

»Disappointment« (2008) by Carl Burgess.

Originally from VVORK by mail reBlogged on Feb 21, 2008, 5:47PM

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admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:37:59 +0000

»Uncle Tom«, 2003

»Homage to Chinua Achebe IV (Fela Kuti “Zombie”)«, 2004 by Rashid Johnson.

Originally from VVORK by mail reBlogged on Feb 25, 2008, 3:42PM

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admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:37:25 +0000

»The hairiness is black«, 2000,

»18 Days«, 2006, (production still from video). Remote control weapons navigated over boundary lines between China and neighbouring countries by Xu Zhen.

Originally from VVORK by mail reBlogged on Feb 26, 2008, 11:30PM

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admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:36:30 +0000

»Provisory Object«, 1997, 2000, 2004, by Edith Dekyndt. Video.

Originally from VVORK by mail reBlogged on Feb 28, 2008, 1:16PM

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admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:36:18 +0000

»Wait«, 2008,

»Traveling on a face of a gallery attendant«, 2008, by Wojciech Kosma.

Originally from VVORK by mail reBlogged on Feb 28, 2008, 10:13PM

[Untitled]

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:35:29 +0000

»Gymnasium« 1997, and »Can’t play, won’t play«, 1996, by Lucy Wood.

Originally from VVORK by mail reBlogged on Mar 1, 2008, 3:47PM

[Untitled]

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:34:47 +0000

»Taxpayer« and »Ice Cold Pussy« (2007) by Brent Owens.

Originally from VVORK by mail reBlogged on Mar 2, 2008, 8:14PM

[Untitled]

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:34:05 +0000

“The Fountain of Prosperity” (2007) by Michael Stevenson. “The Fountain of Prosperity” is a reconstruction of the “Moniac”, a machine designed in the late 1940s by New Zealand economist Bill Phillips to illustrate the concept of monetary flow in national economies. A fixed volume of red-dyed water, representing money, is pumped through a system of transparent tubes and sluices into clear chambers representing factors such as “surplus balances” and “International Monetary Funds”.

Originally from VVORK by mail reBlogged on Mar 3, 2008, 1:50AM

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admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:33:49 +0000

“Gaussian Strip” by Samuel N. Ortiz-Payero.

Originally from VVORK by mail reBlogged on Mar 3, 2008, 1:54AM

Banging your head repeatedly against the brick wall of teachers’ stupidity helps increase blood flow to your frontal lobes

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:32:49 +0000

Ben Goldacre The Guardian, Saturday February 16 2008 As time passes, largely against my will, I have become a student of nonsense. More importantly, I’ve become interested in why some forms of nonsense can lucratively persist, where others quietly fail. Brain Gym continues to produce more email than almost any other subject: usually it is from teachers, eager [...]

Originally from Bad Science by Ben Goldacre reBlogged on Feb 16, 2008, 12:44AM

Magnificent torrent of canards in parliament from David Tredinnick MP

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:32:38 +0000

David Tredinnick is conservative MP for Bosworth (he was suspended without pay during the cash for questions scandal) and very keen on alternative therapies. Here is a fabulous speech from him in parliament yesterday. As you can see, he talks up the use of homeopathy as a treatment for HIV, malaria, and a whole [...]

Originally from Bad Science by Ben Goldacre reBlogged on Feb 20, 2008, 12:26PM

Coolest science toy ever

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:05:39 +0000

Phun is without question the greatest computer toy in the history of the universe, if this had been around when I was a kid I would be a frickin genius by now. You don’t need things any more. You can download the program for free here: www.acc.umu.se/~emilk/ It’s extremely easy to use. As a starter tip, turn gravity [...]

Originally from Bad Science by Ben Goldacre reBlogged on Mar 4, 2008, 12:57PM

Lectures, lectures (and talks) everywhere!

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:04:18 +0000

Happy almost Spring! Before the hot air blows for real come out and hear these Spring-time lecturers talk about their work. The events are free and open to the public but in some cases consider getting there early because rooms are small and crowds may be big. Thank you, Philly's art schools for rounding up the talent for us. No doubt I missed some things. Anything juicy...feel free to add it in the comments. PS. I cherry-picked what I'm interested in so if you want to see the whole lineup for each school be sure to click on the link to the college's website for more.

Vito Acconci, 'Adaptation Studies-Blindfolded Catching,' 1970. performance.

PENN DESIGN

Vito Acconci
Fri, 02/29/08
05:00 pm | B-1 Meyerson Hall
From Word to Action to Architecture more
Architecture, Department of Art History, Slought Foundation

(A related symposium, Vito Acconci: Public Nuisance will take place at the Slought Foundation on Saturday, March 1st. In addition, an exhibition featuring work by Acconci and the Acconci Studio, Power Fields: Explorations in the Work of Vito Acconci will be on display from February 15 - March 31, 2008. For complete information, please visit the Slought Foundation web site.)

Tom Nozkowski, Painter
Thu, 03/20/08
05:00 pm | Meyerson Hall, B 3
PennDesign Lecture Series
(Or...Catch him at Tyler March 19 -- see below)

Terry Adkins
Mon, 04/07/08
12:00 pm | The White Room, Morgan Building

Donald Kuspit, Art Critic
Mon, 04/14/08
5:00 pm | Meyerson Hall, B 1
Spiegel Lecture
PennDesign Lecture Series more
Spiegel Lecture

Jenny Saville

Jenny Saville, Painter
Mon, 04/21/08
05:00 pm | Meyerson Hall, B 1
PennDesign Lecture Series

University of the Arts

Duane Michals
Alice's Mirror
1974
sequence of 7 photos

Photographer Duane Michals (co-sponsored by the Equality Forum)
April 30 @ 2 p.m.
2008 Paradigm Lecture Series at The University of the Arts
Elaine C. Levitt Auditorium, Gershman Hall (401 S. Broad St.) Free and open to the public.

PAFA

Jonathan Wallis, Professor of Art History, Moore College of Art and Design, on
Mariko Mori: Art in Search of an Enlightened Future
APRIL 16
ART AT LUNCH
LOCATION: Historic Landmark Building, 118 N. Broad Street
Noon to 1 p.m. Free

Also at PAFA, in conjunction with Spot Check: Academy Contemporary, opening March 1, four first friday gallery talks with local contemporary artists featured in the show.

Astrid Bowlby
7.10.07 (Variegated spirals)
2007
ink on paper
22 x 18 inches

March 7: Rob Matthews
6 pm, PAFA, Morris Gallery (historic landmark building)

April 4: Astrid Bowlby
6 pm, PAFA, Morris Gallery (historic landmark building)

May 2: Joy Feasley
6 pm, PAFA, Morris Gallery (historic landmark building)

June 6: Jane Irish
6 pm, PAFA, Morris Gallery (historic landmark building)

TYLER

Public Lecture, every Wednesday at 11:00a.m.
President’s Hall
Tyler School of Art
Elkins Park

Thomas Nozkowski
Untitled (7-122), 1999. oil on linen on panel.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19TH – THOMAS NOZKOWSKI
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26TH – LESLIE WAYNE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2ND – OLU OGUIBE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9TH – PETER ROSTOVSKY
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16TH – JAMES HYDE

James Hyde, mixed media painting

Originally from artblog by roberta reBlogged

Superhero pots from Doug Herren

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:04:09 +0000

Vase Form with Green Stand, by Doug Herren, ceramic and mixed media; all pictures in this post taken by the artist and courtesy of Kelly & Weber Fine Arts

Here's a funny pair of shows for you: The Japanese Yixing teapots at the Clay Studio (post here on these from one of the students from Colette Copeland's class) and Doug Herren's exhibit, Industria, at Kelly & Weber's 201 Gallery.

Green Teapot, Doug Herren

Herren until now was an ordinary tea pot and clay vessel maker. But suddenly his work has gone industrial strength, bringing muscle and rivets to giant vessel shapes that suggest steel girders and torsos and I-beams and fireplugs.

Compressor, by Doug Herren, on Seafoam Legged Stand

The finishes on these pieces, layers of sign-painter's paint in intense Pop colors, get sanded down to reveal the under-colors--a technique used by Ken Price to quite a different effect. Here, the objects are robust to establish a physical presence that challenges personal space.

Blast Horn, by Doug Herren

And harking back to the Popeye era, the pieces bring up pre-electronics imagery like the Ben Franklin Bridge, the Empire State Building, or old-fashioned fire engines and distilleries. The monumental scale and style suggest the power of human labor, with the heroism of a Diego Rivera mural.

Doug Herren, Pressure Cooker on Pink Legged Stand

The exhibit includes 12 vesseks in all, not counting the bases, which are objects in their own right.

This is work not to be missed--and if you have the kind of space that can handle sizable pieces, this would be the time to buy.

We already mentioned the video of the artist talking about his work on Studioscopic, but here's the link again.

Also, if you missed the sidebar on Melissa Dribben's story about Philadelphia's jumping art world, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, it's here.

Originally from artblog by libby reBlogged

Mueck’s big people at the Warhol Museum

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:02:51 +0000

Stella, Steve and I visited the Warhol Museum earlier this month to see the Ron Mueck sculptures, seven of the figurative sculpture master's works on view throughout the museum's galleries. I asked Rick Armstrong of the Warhol if the show was the same as the one Libby saw at the Brooklyn Museum in 2006 and he said it had some overlap but wasn't the same show. See Libby's post for more on the Brooklyn show.

Ron Mueck
In Bed, 2006
Mixed Media
63 ¾” x 256 ⅞” x 155 ½”
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia

We were told to start at the top of the museum and work our way down Guggenheim-style so we got the elevator to 7 which is where four of the Muecks were. The top floor has a big gallery with a grid of large skylights. Unfortunately there was a condensation leak in a skylight over In Bed, and the clear plastic sheeting that was put up to cover the skylight and protect the piece was draped in such a way as to obstruct the view of the piece except from one angle up close. Armstrong said in a recent email that the plastic tarp is gone and they're testing to see what can be done to correct the leakage problem. I'm glad to hear it because it was disappointing to see the piece that way.

Wild Man, photo by Shannon McClean.

Beyond the In Bed disappointment, the rest of the Muecks were marvelous -- and marvelously sited. The Wild Man (seen in Shannon McClean's photo) was across the space from the lady in bed. He towers over you, nude, alert and glaring, and his power is not only his size and nudity but also the knowledge that real humans behaving badly often look gentler than him. In fact there's something ambiguous in the piece and I could have as easily believed he was "Scared Man." In this time of post-Abu Ghraib it's easy to think that this man is wild with fear.

Ron Mueck
A Girl, 2007
Mixed Media
43” x 198” x 53”
National Galleries of Scotland

In his best works Mueck suggests the vulnerability of flesh and the hardness of mind. Soft on the outside, and difficult -- almost unknowable -- on the inside. Girl -- sited in a room at the Warhol that has photos and works on the wall featuring nursing mothers -- already has her steely eye open and is sizing things up while apparently only moments old. This quizzical open eye seems to accuse all who look at it. Why am I here? What can you do to help me? She is not swaddled nor is she being nursed. She is raw new life on the floor and she's asking you to think about her--and about yourself and your neighbor and about your connection to others. It's the most powerful of the Mueck works and I can't stop thinking about it.

Unlike Duane Hansen, another hyper-realist sculptor, Mueck, Australian-born and London-based, is not smug or all-knowing. He seems to give birth to these individuals who are Everyman and Everywoman caught in a state of reverie and sadness. Like religious statuary the works are highly personal. They incite reveries about the human condition -- your own and that of others. I'd love to see them embraced as public art and installed in places where everyone could feast their eyes and minds on them.

Ron Mueck
Mask II, 2001-2002
Mixed Media
30” x 46 ½” x 33 ½”
Courtesy of the artist and Anthony d'Offay, London
Private Collection, on loan to the National Galleries
of Scotland, Edinburgh

Mueck's Mask II is what it says it is. The front is finished as if it's like his other sculptures. But the back is hollow. The idea is not new but the execution is superb.

The Warhol Museum

Julia Warhola drawings of cats, photo courtesy of the Warhola family website.

Descending to lower levels in the museum we enjoyed all the Warhol works -- the Jackie and Marilyns, the Brillo Boxes, the celebrity portraits, the memorabilia. I especially liked the animal-theme room in which Mama Julia Warhol's cat drawings held their weight with the drawings of her son. Julia's drawings -- with the word "purr" written in curlicue letters in sprightly sprays of pattern in the background -- were just the right amount of nutty.

Cecil the taxidermied dog at the Warhol Museum. Photo from the museum.

There was a huge dog -- a taxidermied Great Dane -- on display. The animal had beeb a show dog at one time and found its way to Warhol through a circuitous route involving an antique store. There is also a stuffed lion in one of the stairwells--but I didn't get the story about that. I loved seeing the animals--it showed just how very intertwined Warhol's life and his art were.

Music, Candy Says from The Velvet Underground

We all enjoyed the mylar silver pillow room in which the pillows seem to swim in the air like a school of sardines circling in the water. Whether it's a comment on humans or just fun and silvery, it's great fun to get in there and swim with the fish.

The Mueck works are at the Warhol through March 30. They're well worth the visit.

Originally from artblog by roberta reBlogged

calling Nicolas Bourriaud: be kind, rewind

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:01:40 +0000

A fascinating discussion of commercialization, and the kind of art critical analysis that I’d expect in Art Forum. That’s what I saw in Ken Johnson’s article Shoot It Yourself in the Times today.
I wonder what other readers thought about Mr. Johnson’s premise that Michel Gondry, writer-director of “Be Kind Rewind” (and director of Charlie Kauffman’s “…Spotless Mind”) wants to have his cake and eat it, too. The idea is that Gondry’s new show at Deitch invites people to make their own videos, a la his movie, as a way of commenting on our excess of passive consumption of commercial products. Johnson counters that most of what people are creating is crap and that Gondryl project benefits from good connections in the commercial world he is criticizing and that his movie’s version of self-made films only work because he’s such a talented filmmaker.

It’s summed up here:

Could moviemaking become such a socially transformative activity? Imagine a sequel to “Be Kind Rewind” in which guerrilla filmmaking groups sweep the nation, creating a grass-roots cinema by and for the people that raises the collective self-consciousness. That seems about as probable as community theater replacing Broadway.

So Mr. Gondry is trying to have it both ways. On the one hand he can enjoy being a celebrity auteur and a visionary conceptual artist; on the other, in theory at least, he can be seen as a populist champion.

It doesn’t add up. Mr. Gondry comes off seeming confused and conflicted — if not condescending, self-serving and intellectually slippery. Given how inventive an artist he has proven to be, it would be interesting to see him try to realize his fantasies outside the magic bubbles of high-end moviemaking and the high-brow art world.

Any thoughts?

Originally from Artists Unite Issue by Peter Ferko reBlogged on Feb 29, 2008, 6:22PM

open mic in Inwood

admin — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:01:35 +0000

WHCAP presents Open Mic Lounge at Cafe Espresso NY!

207 Street and Broadway

March 14 and 28 8PM

Originally from Artists Unite Issue by Peter Ferko reBlogged on Feb 26, 2008, 7:12PM