tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19902849581482375192024-03-13T18:37:26.895-07:00Positive InnovationIn art can lead the way to change in a broader sense.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-30262655240971213122011-11-12T13:27:00.000-08:002011-11-12T13:35:10.089-08:00Performance art<b><span style="color:rgb(0, 112, 192);font-size:16pt;" ><a title="http://vimeo.com/31158841" href="http://vimeo.com/31158841" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0, 112, 192)">http://vimeo.com/31158841</span></a></span></b>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-90205735991777994942011-06-08T21:49:00.001-07:002011-06-08T21:51:20.151-07:00Venice Illuminated<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyVyzTCdHkAI54n5SQSOQqfMu8EdbWW3gwiXat_BrjAKACUZ-7yIqK2T8n5zvmUpCAurHuFfpd5ZDsvlVccj5FCdqiportuKjBiWSKzt4lDSLMI9ezifes3Y2YwhELWef1fNGGduPYzHI/s1600/Amalia+Pica+Venn+diagrams+under+the+spotlight+2011++.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 348px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyVyzTCdHkAI54n5SQSOQqfMu8EdbWW3gwiXat_BrjAKACUZ-7yIqK2T8n5zvmUpCAurHuFfpd5ZDsvlVccj5FCdqiportuKjBiWSKzt4lDSLMI9ezifes3Y2YwhELWef1fNGGduPYzHI/s400/Amalia+Pica+Venn+diagrams+under+the+spotlight+2011++.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5616077741667263058" border="0" /></a><br />Amalia Pica<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Venn Diagrams (under the spotlight), </span>2011<br /><br />Fabulous!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-35528696335953150942011-04-22T14:01:00.000-07:002011-04-22T15:45:50.106-07:00Influence...or anxiety?I keep coming across wonderful light work I didn't know about. When I first saw Eliasson's work in 2007 I was crushed. I was finally moving from representing light to using light as medium and I wondered how I would continue when this fabulous work was already out there. Just thinking about all the differences possible in the use of paint or pencil ought to have set me straight, but it took a moment to absorb and fine tune.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZk7TpKsUkQ3Q9IzHHsDf4d-7mJwmJxct3zRr1ET9OGaiPsMF-rQ59yw1zl8yFA766xtAqe8PILVg-2_y8ahvZqsncTZlO4Evsb7te3CX4SydXt7uu_ST65lt2W73JfdZSCzLTv6h2bxk/s1600/Diane+Landry+flying+school+2005+.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 238px; height: 182px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZk7TpKsUkQ3Q9IzHHsDf4d-7mJwmJxct3zRr1ET9OGaiPsMF-rQ59yw1zl8yFA766xtAqe8PILVg-2_y8ahvZqsncTZlO4Evsb7te3CX4SydXt7uu_ST65lt2W73JfdZSCzLTv6h2bxk/s400/Diane+Landry+flying+school+2005+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5598517404433017666" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 255, 255);"><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 255);">Diane Landry </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(204, 204, 255);">Flying School</span><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 255);">, 2005</span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 255);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 255);font-size:78%;" >(on show at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, NC 2005 - 2006)</span><br />This photo quality is not good, but you can just see the real effect is up on the ceiling above.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho7h_gzu71gRJWnjqpCJq-RWfPMd6BoBOhYt_169oU5b1Ckg60n6jXeob5uHRpXsPGVp-hwRzb8EVqQ_pmAnapJwPlfQvsfsrhiJ3Ra1aYlXjhJuVj3Ezozz0A1-O0SOn9JAOrhJmlgH4/s1600/Alexander+Gutke+shattered+2007+.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho7h_gzu71gRJWnjqpCJq-RWfPMd6BoBOhYt_169oU5b1Ckg60n6jXeob5uHRpXsPGVp-hwRzb8EVqQ_pmAnapJwPlfQvsfsrhiJ3Ra1aYlXjhJuVj3Ezozz0A1-O0SOn9JAOrhJmlgH4/s400/Alexander+Gutke+shattered+2007+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5598517402490475762" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 255);font-size:78%;" ><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 204, 255);">Alexander Gutke, <span style="font-style: italic;">Shattered</span>, 2001 - 2007</span></span><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 255);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 255);font-size:78%;" >(Sies + Hoke Gallery, Dusseldorf)</span><br />Simple and beautiful.<br /><br />In this respect it was enlightening to visit "SLASH : Paper under the knife" in NYC last year. To see all the work being made of paper - a lot of it cut paper - highlighted the multiple approaches possible within the same medium.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNrHJ805NPdNijYSrXpO9oUMEPkKiWkI6qQFSQUxLbm5ds9F8HNtSQgH6IyknnZP0W9AgA1Vrpk7QJ5U2s607LOwJTp2Gy66AXuUzgWMyIdM-3_0b1Ks1v_JqgO4x5d2QuoMuIruM2Wh4/s1600/Mona+Hatoum+untitled+cut+out+11+2009+.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 398px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNrHJ805NPdNijYSrXpO9oUMEPkKiWkI6qQFSQUxLbm5ds9F8HNtSQgH6IyknnZP0W9AgA1Vrpk7QJ5U2s607LOwJTp2Gy66AXuUzgWMyIdM-3_0b1Ks1v_JqgO4x5d2QuoMuIruM2Wh4/s400/Mona+Hatoum+untitled+cut+out+11+2009+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5598524154710542066" border="0" /></a><br /><br />There was some beautiful work in the Paper exhibition, but to me the pieces with a strong conceptual approach really shone. I'm including this image as it is similar to one she had in that show.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-57209780981510255912011-04-05T20:50:00.000-07:002011-04-22T13:57:38.300-07:00More Light work<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqPRYzwIPZR1kQq8KLpqGPzAgFnRfifQGhxszFHISQ4yFsTX7Np_QOlAF7OT6w5pxUmqYextOTwbTZsYqopTGJ6LLRjFss6InOFRRKege15kb0f8QY-_D1pegFuO68KWLiDgP8Ayj4_to/s1600/julieta+aranda%252C+there+is+a+happy+lend+.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 255px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqPRYzwIPZR1kQq8KLpqGPzAgFnRfifQGhxszFHISQ4yFsTX7Np_QOlAF7OT6w5pxUmqYextOTwbTZsYqopTGJ6LLRjFss6InOFRRKege15kb0f8QY-_D1pegFuO68KWLiDgP8Ayj4_to/s400/julieta+aranda%252C+there+is+a+happy+lend+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592313201292996530" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Julieta Aranda "There is a heppy lend - fur, fur awa-a-ay", 2011</span></span><br /><br />This would be great to see in the flesh. Luminous paint is quite magical - and elusive. National Geographic shop had a luminous paint and flash gun set that made shadow "paintings" at home ... so luscious but never lasting long enough. Like fireworks, you can watch the magic over and over again. Good that this installation gives viewers the chance to experience that, presumably (there's a timer included in the materials list). Haven't had time to investigate Aranda's work but do remember seeing this one a couple of years ago and being very intrigued.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZIsGHVt6B1Y8RtTEOMdenbRMF1OYfFCLlMFju3bdDrO1TB1cgWj8aP8MVq1Siys5FzMOyjBSqV6yuXbK7OekausdqLqAfmKtNYsKMUN4TDSAmIO4TuKxVL-lZb_ZfmiBdzFHxW5rXMWY/s1600/Julieta+aranda+1+.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 333px; height: 350px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZIsGHVt6B1Y8RtTEOMdenbRMF1OYfFCLlMFju3bdDrO1TB1cgWj8aP8MVq1Siys5FzMOyjBSqV6yuXbK7OekausdqLqAfmKtNYsKMUN4TDSAmIO4TuKxVL-lZb_ZfmiBdzFHxW5rXMWY/s400/Julieta+aranda+1+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592317876191525458" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUlPFCl5k6KKuOsVHF6Ru-2tBJgDlZyEBtX_LBPt_B2iW_eupAhlDo0LNNqBVfA0Z_wa3EaAZlWbN79ZVz63XKi5pDl4Ur_XryvW7H3li46QYuA5QkIPps85A0FSt-cIFwPxAL2RKrMk/s1600/julieta+aranda+partially+untitled+.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 169px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUlPFCl5k6KKuOsVHF6Ru-2tBJgDlZyEBtX_LBPt_B2iW_eupAhlDo0LNNqBVfA0Z_wa3EaAZlWbN79ZVz63XKi5pDl4Ur_XryvW7H3li46QYuA5QkIPps85A0FSt-cIFwPxAL2RKrMk/s400/julieta+aranda+partially+untitled+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592317876607896418" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Julieta Aranda, <span style="font-style: italic;">Partially untitled (tell me if I am wrong), 2009</span></span> at the Guggenheim, </span>NY<br /><br />Wonderfully mysterious and dark, a feeling of Magritte's Black Flag in a sort of a way, though not a danger from machines but the unknowable qualities of time, the inexorable end point. And the beautiful if temporary experience meantime.<br /><br />And, exactly the same, only different... the magical bedtime story. They've been around for a few years now. There is a better image out there b/c I have seen it. Can't find it right now.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmm-oMiSGBCGmrcVMasG3oYjqQdMs55qaySAhQBbQAJIQstbgswsIrUXcwsL91UIplYoxrrFdD-pmjM6Vk8WPUbTdjyC7nAhHPQI3vKIHn2Jm0NVFOW7BZ9WNWdXF-GG5_-EiWIib-tjg/s1600/shadow+book+zschock+.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 219px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmm-oMiSGBCGmrcVMasG3oYjqQdMs55qaySAhQBbQAJIQstbgswsIrUXcwsL91UIplYoxrrFdD-pmjM6Vk8WPUbTdjyC7nAhHPQI3vKIHn2Jm0NVFOW7BZ9WNWdXF-GG5_-EiWIib-tjg/s400/shadow+book+zschock+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5592321370194254146" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Heather Zschock <span style="font-style: italic;">Whoo's there? </span>2005</span>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-32316836607650556712010-07-31T06:00:00.000-07:002010-07-31T07:02:28.288-07:00light stuff<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieQ9f8PDiXA_WkA4w7XdWBgFy-ZJSfG0DnpLFwX4Ix5wEKeW2ojalreXhRiB21AmdjOBz5sbAaVhMPG0Rb9xqEK2aYfWh2GThduBae3yGgmWavQRgtHXVhPESH-sk30-eUsNFxlGRZR4M/s1600/Diane+Landry+Mandala+.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieQ9f8PDiXA_WkA4w7XdWBgFy-ZJSfG0DnpLFwX4Ix5wEKeW2ojalreXhRiB21AmdjOBz5sbAaVhMPG0Rb9xqEK2aYfWh2GThduBae3yGgmWavQRgtHXVhPESH-sk30-eUsNFxlGRZR4M/s400/Diane+Landry+Mandala+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500060819723323074" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Diane Landry, Mandala, 2002</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">at SECCA re-opening exhibition </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><br />Look Again</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> earlier this month</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:85%;">(image posted by SECCA on Flickr)</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><br />Saw this hugely powerful <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/secca/4809348545/in/set-72157624538394412/">light work</a> by Diane Landry at SECCA in Winston Salem recently (great show all round btw). The laundry basket (with clear plastic water bottles strapped round the top) and moving light source create a shadow that expands and contracts, dominating the space magnificently, like a sort of moving Rose window... It was AWESOME.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWUuMBFDcOXn4GIQ4ZJrHqwhyre6K0PSe6Kc12BSPVEXNBSLO9JTEW6RvRyPiuZI2l4i2reCJP1ZDr5dCgiEbFDilEnn1WmqN1M-PSrrziCJr7OFLzeFFyeuAy7imCzOBa3_pjKY-GoqM/s1600/Peter+Kogler+light+show+.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWUuMBFDcOXn4GIQ4ZJrHqwhyre6K0PSe6Kc12BSPVEXNBSLO9JTEW6RvRyPiuZI2l4i2reCJP1ZDr5dCgiEbFDilEnn1WmqN1M-PSrrziCJr7OFLzeFFyeuAy7imCzOBa3_pjKY-GoqM/s400/Peter+Kogler+light+show+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500054528623611378" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Peter Kogler, </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Untitled,</span> 2010,<br />Multiprojection, sound, loop<br />at<a href="http://www.schirn-kunsthalle.de/index.php?do=exhibitions_detail&id=101&lang=en"> Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt</a><br /></span> <span style="font-size:85%;">(news on E-Flux)</span><br /><br />Press release says it is a 360 degree multiprojection from 12 projectors, creating a "space of illusion that completely envelops the observer". The sound vibrations by sonic artist Franz Pomassl from home made devices and technological instruments helps dissolve the space, as "the ground disappears from under our feet." It looks seamless, love to be there!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnuG_LrLGYVLIpHbRfxehTxo_LUxj4Z5CYRIF9bi79PYAQBrQCQJitVc2SPsCeE4jgleXfCFOkhcF-3z8SIheAMWYeb6hsmMul5HhJHGHXtr1FTTWcg76LhU4ELaYgTxQQpm_o8YEbMmw/s1600/Jim+Campbell+madison+lights+.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 295px; height: 384px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnuG_LrLGYVLIpHbRfxehTxo_LUxj4Z5CYRIF9bi79PYAQBrQCQJitVc2SPsCeE4jgleXfCFOkhcF-3z8SIheAMWYeb6hsmMul5HhJHGHXtr1FTTWcg76LhU4ELaYgTxQQpm_o8YEbMmw/s400/Jim+Campbell+madison+lights+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500054526095509522" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Jim Campbell, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Scattered Light (2010),<br /></span><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Madison Square Park, NY</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-size:85%;">(art news daily)</span><br /></span><br />Almost 2000 LED lights in a 3D matrix, going on and off to animate shapes of figures walking across the space. The images (which obviously are conceived in 2D it seems) break up as you move away from the initial viewing point and "blurring the boundaries between image and object". Like to see this in the flesh. I loved the more luscious quality of his tiny <span style="font-style: italic;">Ambiguous Icon #1 (running falling)</span> from 2000 - LEDs embedded in 12 x 15 inch plexiglass.<br /><br />Well, ending outside the remit of art but in the spirit of this website and the right direction for the planet... This is an amazing book so far. Ray demonstrates that big business (the kind with US$700 million dollar <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmZf40sbNph3ogfM3w3BVzN9pSaw_ns4zIZpHJulchtCC5kdwYkppcXap_3mQfH_QJb6fprhFe4IhY5GPONpM2LJGuozUZAgc4nM9tOOCcT-bNJhnLW4I4cg_Uu0dmEJhnyGBYnTlODQU/s1600/Ray+Anderson+confessions+etc+industrialist+.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 85px; height: 138px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmZf40sbNph3ogfM3w3BVzN9pSaw_ns4zIZpHJulchtCC5kdwYkppcXap_3mQfH_QJb6fprhFe4IhY5GPONpM2LJGuozUZAgc4nM9tOOCcT-bNJhnLW4I4cg_Uu0dmEJhnyGBYnTlODQU/s400/Ray+Anderson+confessions+etc+industrialist+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500069048817627810" border="0" /></a>worldwide sales each year) CAN completely embrace green technology, and that Industrialists can be activists with enormous power and influence. He's a relentless salesman which can get a little grating but his actions are worth it, and the idea that green equals profits might just get other industries off their butts...<br /><br />I have the stirrings of ideas for art installations in this direction but they'll have to incubate for a while.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWUuMBFDcOXn4GIQ4ZJrHqwhyre6K0PSe6Kc12BSPVEXNBSLO9JTEW6RvRyPiuZI2l4i2reCJP1ZDr5dCgiEbFDilEnn1WmqN1M-PSrrziCJr7OFLzeFFyeuAy7imCzOBa3_pjKY-GoqM/s1600/Peter+Kogler+light+show+.jpg"> </a>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-46602305553356254452010-06-24T05:20:00.000-07:002010-06-24T08:29:03.181-07:00Vestiges of civilization<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcM3pewq5axBzWwHc7UOugMoXnFLX-TXlWiRzCCerbHykxK2Watow-d5HQ7aKvTdpU5uAVFlxD8NwIXgQaZQEX8AZpvM_StyFkXzFzqWhjHaCQACxKsdo2y7c0EPX31C8r6K51xMmZ_Nk/s1600/Richard+Slee+saws+.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcM3pewq5axBzWwHc7UOugMoXnFLX-TXlWiRzCCerbHykxK2Watow-d5HQ7aKvTdpU5uAVFlxD8NwIXgQaZQEX8AZpvM_StyFkXzFzqWhjHaCQACxKsdo2y7c0EPX31C8r6K51xMmZ_Nk/s400/Richard+Slee+saws+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486314264070526866" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidx84ht5XvW-TfHTkoi4ctXVXXmjwzdlmNg7-9jppDxUVinN3_2RuN5jG6sPIT33oxPjLlcFL3JgdxzkDP8urKetzO0qPs3vfi_HvJNIFX944t6RdVEDxEosUKwBDxjEplcwQz-CgcVSE/s1600/Richard+Slee+junior+hacksaw+.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidx84ht5XvW-TfHTkoi4ctXVXXmjwzdlmNg7-9jppDxUVinN3_2RuN5jG6sPIT33oxPjLlcFL3JgdxzkDP8urKetzO0qPs3vfi_HvJNIFX944t6RdVEDxEosUKwBDxjEplcwQz-CgcVSE/s400/Richard+Slee+junior+hacksaw+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486314261096576434" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I'm a long time admirer of Richard Slee - back when I had a production pottery even, or... especially... that's why I'm now a fine artist : production pottery is more slog than creativity when your body is the machinery. Italian dinnerware designers were having more fun designing new "rustic" lines for their factories. But back to the matter in hand...<br /><br />Here Slee shows some interesting objects ... Hales Gallery press release says "Slee renders the possibility of function as a distant memory, rather like the evolutionary remains of a tail."<br /><br />A pun on the Bauhaus "form follows function" right enough. A wry comment that in the age of mass production crafts have become merely decorative products. Trinkets to be embellished and displayed rather than used. The practice reminds me of something. Oh yeah. People hanging old guns and swords over the fireplace. Or trophy antelope heads or indeed nostalgic items, antiques of any kind. Relics of activities that used to be vital.<br /><br />Slee's references are bringing up a lot of thoughts for me about contemporary culture.<br /><br />Landscape paintings appeal because they show us fertile and productive land that our primitive brain sees as necessary to survival (or words to this effect). Crafts seem to appeal to people because of the mark of the hand, human input, and skill, somehow associated with "the good old days"... but it is all more complicated than that.<br /><br />In "The Meanings of Modern Design" Peter Dormer describes Marx describing a woman making bricks for a living (p 151) - craft industry at its most brutal (activities we are happy machines have taken over). Antelope hunting and guns above the fireplace refer to days we'd all rather not replicate in reality - having to catch and butcher our own dinners, or fight off our enemies personally. But there is something in there about human- ness that we cling to. Perhaps it is the idea of our power to accomplish all these things... when sometimes it might seem that we do nothing anymore, that we are not powerful. That's not true, of course, but if you watch the news you might start thinking that way.<br /><br />Hales' press release notes that Slee's work recognizes these issues. It challenges conventional notions of ceramics and transcends "its utilitarian roots whilst also sidestepping the self indulgent aspects of the studio tradition which became ubiquitous in the late twentieth century".<br /><br />Craft becomes art when it is aware of its own references and contradictions. Cool! Please explain that to the folk who are probably still painting bluebirds on the hand-polished agates they then make into clocks.<br /><br />My further thoughts about culture run on ... more appropriate on the blog about my own work, or explored in the sketch/note/book. They go hand in hand with reading "The Invention of Capitalism" et al and curiosity about what we can learn about ourselves by the interpretation of contemporary cultural artifacts. I feel there's a mother lode buried under these premises ... but I'm still nibbling at the edges.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.halesgallery.com/exhibitions/_29/">Richard Slee </a>at Hales Gallery, London, 4 Jun - 17 July, 2010Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-29318776905649741102010-05-16T07:17:00.000-07:002010-05-16T07:44:49.953-07:00Seizure<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzPFcrJVXZ0KCcmWXF9hu5x6-7ES7KfOuNz7P76YPVz-XJDaFp5vo8jH0rmtJX-XkXRsn6t0Ix7dRq1GWHxaS13OS0SP5keH49XhVFthkcUFG-DjN9f1yQxMXgUw36jyASn8k4Qs7ApTI/s1600/Roger+Hiorns+seizure+.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzPFcrJVXZ0KCcmWXF9hu5x6-7ES7KfOuNz7P76YPVz-XJDaFp5vo8jH0rmtJX-XkXRsn6t0Ix7dRq1GWHxaS13OS0SP5keH49XhVFthkcUFG-DjN9f1yQxMXgUw36jyASn8k4Qs7ApTI/s400/Roger+Hiorns+seizure+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471874073821540994" border="0" /></a>Artist Roger Hiorns is installing two aircraft engines (infused with brand name depression medications) on a terrace at the Art Institute of Chicago - I found this interesting...but not nearly as interesting as a previous work in London. In 2008 Hiorns filled a bed-sit (studio apartment to some of you) with boiling copper sulphate solution, let it cool and crystallize, then drained off the remaining liquid. Those modernist apartment blocks due for demolition may have been awful to live in but they are a boon to artists, right enough. The results are awesomely beautiful and unsettling.<br /><br />The result looks like pictures of the Titanic with its decades of decay and colonization visible in the softening and blurring - but you can walk into it in the middle of a city. It looks like the work of ages but it happened in a few days. It seems dirty and ruinous but it is breathtakingly spectacular at the same time. I wonder if its poisonous, and how on earth they'll clean it up... or will it go to the landfill with the demolished building. Surely not... what could all that copper sulphate have cost???<br /><br />Hiorns puts it well, saying something like it involved a lot of science but it wasn't a scientific project. I venture to say it is a microcosmic view of industry and technology laid bare for our consideration. Are there not parallels? The speed of it, the beauty and magic, the dirt and concern, the cost... the wondering what it is all FOR. Yet if we hear about a new advance in silicon chip manufacturing or evolution of factory processes it seems hardly noteworthy. Here, Hiorns the philosophical questions are encapsulated within the visible and factual.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-44725084619788964652010-03-04T08:31:00.001-08:002010-03-04T08:33:28.010-08:00Fellow exhibitor<object height="344" width="425">this is an installation by Hanna Von Goeler in the room next to mine at the Hunter College/Times Square gallery. Its great! <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Vo3KoyjBfpE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Vo3KoyjBfpE&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-58206933308986363932010-01-26T06:53:00.000-08:002010-01-26T07:28:12.439-08:00Nina Canell<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvyLN99u195HFWZZ0KCWB_2yfjr90vZz3y-mtyJfJwQHJxHF_U833YIhYpgMyc2oVyd1FzV6V5Vg7LXVwUw0bzesiPi46cT4wS5wJ8zjYVz2rKE4XeO0mwgu5LNep-JcU3gj4p6XihsU/s1600-h/nina+canell+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 231px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvyLN99u195HFWZZ0KCWB_2yfjr90vZz3y-mtyJfJwQHJxHF_U833YIhYpgMyc2oVyd1FzV6V5Vg7LXVwUw0bzesiPi46cT4wS5wJ8zjYVz2rKE4XeO0mwgu5LNep-JcU3gj4p6XihsU/s400/nina+canell+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431061859612483010" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Nina Canell, "Temporary Encampment (Five Blue Solids)" (Detail), 2009. Showing in "The Inner Life of Things" at <a href="http://www.fkv.de/">Frankfurter Kunstverein</a>, Germany<br /><br />Powerful image! A suggestion of craft (the multiple plinths) and industry (the plinths look like wooden crates) with constructivist and modernist overlay in the lush abstraction and the whole thing's sort of idealistic glow.<br /><br />Canell's work apparently "stems from a basic interest in the convertibility of materials and conditions". She "combines everyday items and found objects - objects shaped by everyday processes, features and nature and transformed into carriers of new information - into walk-in, spatial installations with visually, audibly and intellectually experienceable, process-oriented arrangements". (that's from <a href="http://www.projects-artandtheory.de/pages/projekte/2009/en_canell_aus.html">"Projects in Art and Theory"</a> space, Cologne).<br /><br />Whew. Well, that may be translated from German, as she is Swedish, and based in Berlin. The installation materials are "Elektromagnetische Gerate, Gipsplatte, Plastik" .... hm. Figured it had to be some kind of magnetism keeping those balls in the air. Interesting avenue to explore!<br /><br />The other work of hers that I found was less visually powerful, more minimalist conceptual. Sound works, boiling things, cement sacks and neon tubes seemingly draped over rods or branches. I kind of like the new look with the floating balls.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga2IUldqMQNKk8ujdesjzf5BouUvpVfp0jcSHznaZJrtu7Y6hyujfmTeyWvn1zkzJRVCDEhoUZw0Vk1yxMUHZ8pFIoGcNlzY-wJFErrpkwMJlGZOqowhcEGPaMbp8-k1HcsBAIN8aCavw/s1600-h/Egill+Sebjornsson+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 264px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga2IUldqMQNKk8ujdesjzf5BouUvpVfp0jcSHznaZJrtu7Y6hyujfmTeyWvn1zkzJRVCDEhoUZw0Vk1yxMUHZ8pFIoGcNlzY-wJFErrpkwMJlGZOqowhcEGPaMbp8-k1HcsBAIN8aCavw/s400/Egill+Sebjornsson+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431066137292637362" border="0" /></a>Here is another image from the show. Egill Saebjornsson, "Grey Still Life II", 2009.<br /><br />Fascinating, but the site was only in German so couldn't really get the gist. Want to know if the diagonal is out of paint only, or if there's a board sticking out towards us. Either way - I like it. Reminds me of Dada mixed with foundation course work, but it hangs together and makes me curious.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-15745921637795020202010-01-05T09:25:00.000-08:002010-01-05T09:57:35.941-08:00Fabulous news photo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIOiEUNCyYQeKtWQWOpjRUaTPDJ2icoz03p9RSiivzRQXFsTBU-f3TW1KmRMvrjplu7Sv7Wu42DmB-cqhw-hzoKJZm7gPteoCaavy68YhyphenhyphenqGG4xzjDhWM0wLntlzt62tZs3J9AtrySbT0/s1600-h/Dubai+tallest+tower+photo+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIOiEUNCyYQeKtWQWOpjRUaTPDJ2icoz03p9RSiivzRQXFsTBU-f3TW1KmRMvrjplu7Sv7Wu42DmB-cqhw-hzoKJZm7gPteoCaavy68YhyphenhyphenqGG4xzjDhWM0wLntlzt62tZs3J9AtrySbT0/s400/Dubai+tallest+tower+photo+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423308371906821778" border="0" /></a>This is a press photo, by Ana Marin, c/o Reuters. Popped up on ArtDaily Newsletter. Shows fireworks exploding round the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest tower, at its opening ceremony.<br /><br />Fabulous photo! Great to see the rich darks and the intimate feeling given by the leaves attaching us to earth, while ahead there is this astounding fuzzy, ethereal pillar - like something from an undersea plankton documentary or a fiber optic fashion show - lighting up the sky above. What a moment, the old, the natural, and the new!<br /><br />I'm not entirely convinced of the value of the tower, nor care that it is the tallest. I haven't dwelled on the philosophical ramifications of the whole event - it may not be tied to positive change in any way - but as a documentation of human ingenuity and the ongoing aspirations of humankind, the photo does a pretty good job. Well, maybe the fact that we are using fireworks for show instead of destruction is a step in the right direction. What of the fact that oil has created new cities and extravagant expansion out of nothing? Commerce and material underpin the origin of all our cities so this follows the pattern of centuries. It is however interesting to see one that zooms through its evolution quite so quickly and flamboyantly.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-77735143712785506422009-11-01T08:53:00.000-08:002009-11-01T10:56:00.519-08:00plus ca change<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijciIT6aYPgs81kYUQny4jDqygM-_WxtotAIk9TastxJZ0dFK7CbuuI4qggzOGVgg_XCIh89xgSKuWGP-GW5VqDQQgXD8i5Y_RQvnAonqoGiBeLvvQM73JbPwH2mihs8Qp3N9Y1qmDS7Q/s1600-h/Bart+Dorsa+minutiae+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 154px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijciIT6aYPgs81kYUQny4jDqygM-_WxtotAIk9TastxJZ0dFK7CbuuI4qggzOGVgg_XCIh89xgSKuWGP-GW5VqDQQgXD8i5Y_RQvnAonqoGiBeLvvQM73JbPwH2mihs8Qp3N9Y1qmDS7Q/s400/Bart+Dorsa+minutiae+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399179589840183794" border="0" /></a>Ella minutia series # 1, 2009 (ambrotype, 19 x 24 cm) Bart Dorsa<br /><br />On show at the <a href="http://www.mmoma.ru/en/exhibitions/gogolevsky/deep_inside_my_dollhouse/">Moscow Museum of Modern Art</a> (MMoMA?) is an exhibition of some strangely beautiful photographs by Bart Dorsa called Deep Inside My Dollhouse...more interesting because they are not perfect. Dorsa uses wet plates, homemade, chancy. Funny, the early days of photography had artists being able to leave realist art behind because the camera captured it so wonderfully - with a struggle, in those days. That struggle became interesting in itself. Now we have effortless digital photography for all there has been a growing move to explore inexact or imperfect processes (old and new) of capturing images photographically - we can say mechanically - an interest of mine of course. I can think of many over the last 10 years at least - light sensitive emulsion on eggs, bricks, fabric etc. Catherine Yass, Walead Beshty, and Pinky Bass spring to mind.<br /><br />Rather like the way that Chris Markham's film La Jetee (made in black and white on a shoestring) captures some exciting drama to me as an artist (in a way that the Twelve Monkeys, however interesting an extrapolation, did not), so these primitive-feeling photographs do something that large scale perfection does not.<br /><br />Its not necessarily the content of many of the Deep Inside My Dollhouse images - that seems a little cliched in fact. The mysterious girl child of dark fantasy... um. But the visual presentation makes that unimportant - or part of it, or something. The story line of the Cabinet of Dr Caligari or Eraserhead isn't really the point, in a similar way. In fact they are two of the most fascinatingly boring films I have watched...closely followed by Zabriskie Point (but that was just boring, seen for the first time in the early 21st century). But they stick in my mind, they thrill me with their suggested potential, the thinking behind their artistic circumstances. Their simplicity, their home-made-ness, their willingness to play around with some imperfections and capture an idea. Pinky Bass's camera hidden in a bible at mountain ceremonies does the same thing. We see the hidden-ness, t<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQQVITB0pJC6G6uqdHNsLAM9uxxUK6F_kvf_NlInmLea_rdjzzXWAi56yuOCIvkyArfFNnOMgt3GN5O0tk7yUS1ghdWBDe1B8QuZ1fq45UBSlMwl3KAvUR7QmG9RO10LlOmlwIxLARA2M/s1600-h/Bart+Dorsa+marionnette+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 158px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQQVITB0pJC6G6uqdHNsLAM9uxxUK6F_kvf_NlInmLea_rdjzzXWAi56yuOCIvkyArfFNnOMgt3GN5O0tk7yUS1ghdWBDe1B8QuZ1fq45UBSlMwl3KAvUR7QmG9RO10LlOmlwIxLARA2M/s400/Bart+Dorsa+marionnette+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399203085417016898" border="0" /></a>he distance.<br /><br />Julia Marionette # 3, 2009, (ferrotype, 19 x 24 cm) Bart Dorsa<br /><br />The Minutia series on the other hand (top image) has no cliche in sight. It seems to have the most impact with its small image of a woman against a large black background. The image becomes archetypal, like an Indian temple sculpture, an Aztec drawing, a company logo...without surroundings to identify the era, the naked woman could be from any time in history. The black flattens. The fingerprints round the edges add to the idea of the image being seen, handled, an object of some intensity and accessibility. Interesting little gems.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-79068181115752584612009-10-01T10:58:00.000-07:002009-10-01T11:28:53.748-07:00Art and change<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEialpZROedSugXqWUDmp6Og-KIpHTEltmwkKCexVdKF8xoRl9mefA3qyhdL68KLh5bDa-YImbmN8IIpJmhjF8_c0o76LFa3e4-yVdbFTalU4MFiuzSCPYNg3cD4vVn6s99NF1xe89KRGHk/s1600-h/obantu+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEialpZROedSugXqWUDmp6Og-KIpHTEltmwkKCexVdKF8xoRl9mefA3qyhdL68KLh5bDa-YImbmN8IIpJmhjF8_c0o76LFa3e4-yVdbFTalU4MFiuzSCPYNg3cD4vVn6s99NF1xe89KRGHk/s400/obantu+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387693077302065714" border="0" /></a><br />This is one of a series of photographs taken by <a href="http://suejaye.com/">Sue Johnson</a> in the township of Khayelitsha, outside Cape Town in South Africa. I met Sue as she was teaching at a recent Creative Capital Professional Development Program Workshop.<br /><br />Following on from her work in Cape Town between 2004 -06, sales of Sue's photographs went on to fund a small not-for-profit photography group of township residents called <a href="http://www.ilisolabantu.org/">Iliso Labantu</a>, which means the eye of the people. Please do visit this site and see the work of people living on the edge, "marginalized by apartheid and its legacy of poverty and unemployment" (Sue Johnson) as they photograph their world. It is a wonderful site!<br /><br />What it actually means is that within the townships it is now possible in some small way to achieve individual empowerment, and a valuing/sharing of self and culture that is very new. The photographic exhibitions that are put on act as a catalyst for this, and a mixing of the so far fairly separate ethnic/economic populations in South Africa.<br /><br />Over 10 years ago I visited cousins living in Cape Town, who saw the townships as dangerous slums from their viewpoint behind all the"Armed Response" notices on the walls. So it feels like something pretty special to start changing that situation.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-18144452014550773702009-08-26T06:27:00.000-07:002009-08-26T07:14:21.053-07:00chronicling change<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja7uBBX6DrI7OdjE1fqtNC8E9NoHfEhW6X_3npAmejKYVAK6OncM6x0HeT0DQrR1wkzVMfLDpcBq98gMnUVUO7SIUcqpnldgfwgH_JfZoHlCGA2POdwnKGGm-rj5QhuXt8fk0J6XkfMik/s1600-h/Wilhelm+Sasnal,+Krakow+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 350px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja7uBBX6DrI7OdjE1fqtNC8E9NoHfEhW6X_3npAmejKYVAK6OncM6x0HeT0DQrR1wkzVMfLDpcBq98gMnUVUO7SIUcqpnldgfwgH_JfZoHlCGA2POdwnKGGm-rj5QhuXt8fk0J6XkfMik/s400/Wilhelm+Sasnal,+Krakow+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374264640529595410" border="0" /></a><br />Wilhelm Sasnal<br />Krakow, 2007<br />oil on canvas<br />40 x 40 cm<br /><br />at the <a href="http://www.kunstsammlung.de/en/exhibitions/2009.html">K21</a> Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany<br /><br /><br />Here's a guy I'd noticed recently for his style of painting elsewhere. Thought this image was Luc Tuymans at first - the casual insipidness - but see that it makes sense as Sasnal. I love it, and it comes as no surprise that, according to the press release...<br /><br />He "conceives of the painted image as reflecting themes and aspects of the present moment...... he rebelled against Krakow's academic tradition... his artistic activities are conditioned by an awareness that by virtue of the retarding effects of the Communist period in his country, he himself is a witness to a still unconcluded postwar era..."<br /><br />Interesting for him to be aware of this - "a consciousness that forms the subtle substrate of many images"<br /><br />His paintings are mostly based on photographs, and the "presentation is configured freely around the classical themes of portrait, landscape, still life, genre, and history painting, thereby exploring the larger historical context of the art of Wilhelm Sasnal".<br /><br />History in the making. History acute enough and different enough to be noticed maybe? Luckily, Sasnal's is an academic debate, a contemplative reflection on dark days of strife.<br /><br />What of the same considerations in America? I'm not feeling so positive after seeing the disinformation and hate, the polarization of opinions and the lack of openness stirred up by the current health reform debate. (Debate!?? Debate involves sensible discussion, not calling everyone jerks!) We thought the election was hard won! My instinct is to go for the positive... but based on the opinions put forward in this last year I wonder, could the largest, richest country in the world have an even bleaker, more backward and more malnourished culture than we can currently comprehend?Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-80178265195011572452009-07-31T05:16:00.000-07:002009-07-31T05:39:42.135-07:00Rejuvenation<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixXEHxGLCf85a6coYStU4YhFSls5X7FJbUTBpv7rVePJcf8QS0QClUEAUYm8xO-RoC9xYTFMoNPcK1hslc8LIxW0JLHRFNL5jc-fCjCniEkdNfF55HisMppb-wC-OU_F1FySe_ENa1QA8/s1600-h/Baltic+center+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 350px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixXEHxGLCf85a6coYStU4YhFSls5X7FJbUTBpv7rVePJcf8QS0QClUEAUYm8xO-RoC9xYTFMoNPcK1hslc8LIxW0JLHRFNL5jc-fCjCniEkdNfF55HisMppb-wC-OU_F1FySe_ENa1QA8/s400/Baltic+center+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364598352116196978" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5qXm_YHcdvupDp6J8kcWV-hdcV8tqRBZ8kVDtYDFzykeMIAaLAAXh0A08k1a6-CRgEdKMiS6N7ZI9UvUAS_HvzCUq9sOxvQsp9Bc9e6S90HcYiTSKinjXwoGtUmlUr-0GERzTevJf3Oo/s1600-h/Thomas+Putrih+and+MOS+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 264px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5qXm_YHcdvupDp6J8kcWV-hdcV8tqRBZ8kVDtYDFzykeMIAaLAAXh0A08k1a6-CRgEdKMiS6N7ZI9UvUAS_HvzCUq9sOxvQsp9Bc9e6S90HcYiTSKinjXwoGtUmlUr-0GERzTevJf3Oo/s400/Thomas+Putrih+and+MOS+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364597195702755570" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.balticmill.com/">Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK</a><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Concrete evidence of valuing the debate of contemporary art enough to fund it and nurture it ... seen here in the Baltic Center, a converted flour mill near Newcastle, England. Similar to the rejuvenation of areas of London and the Battersea Power Station that became the New Tate in London, Baltic is notable in that it is NOT in the capital. Newcastle/Gateshead was not too long ago considered to be a culturally barren area sinking deeper into the post industrial era without much hope. What has been done here - funded and encouraged by the city and government - is inspiring. <br /><br />This next picture shows an exhibition at BALTIC of a collaboration between Slovenian born and New York based artist Thomas Putrih and American architect and design company MOS.<br /><br />This installation shows styrofoam blocks and temporary materials such as cardboard, stacked to produce light weight structures that appear to be "on the verge of collapse".<br /><br />"Putrih's work exists between science, sculpture and architecture, his projects informed by improviation and often collaboration with others. [...] Embedded in his work are ideas that undermine and question the fixity of things we know."<br /><br />"This exhibition is presented at a time when a well-known modernist edifice in the center of Gateshead is in the process of being dismantled, piece by piece."<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-75935038219559921702009-06-19T06:28:00.000-07:002009-06-19T07:40:35.906-07:00freakin fabulous<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzblAK6KT7IDKVdtBL1sWLY4a0J6J8wKtFxiBeF15aFPjJ46EcF1c9Cn9nlMsazMKzH0u8nCurXk9-0TYSSDcZFTvDV6WAETkMYa4-TdD2MS7T4yB2ukBlukxRbXKlefllmMSqArCOsJI/s1600-h/dj+simpson+large+image+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 361px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzblAK6KT7IDKVdtBL1sWLY4a0J6J8wKtFxiBeF15aFPjJ46EcF1c9Cn9nlMsazMKzH0u8nCurXk9-0TYSSDcZFTvDV6WAETkMYa4-TdD2MS7T4yB2ukBlukxRbXKlefllmMSqArCOsJI/s400/dj+simpson+large+image+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349031689195117474" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk0fITclJWtURHvVfOl3vYbCJafliCb6iJTAJAdkMVbl6PA4Jsi5ASJT_yh1_a0iVXhkWNo5f8-31natKZKl8J5czFvsoDK9AvBzQWQCzojePyUc8wrtikPYoLLe5RQ0PTwFlbs9rlwUw/s1600-h/dj+simpson+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 205px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk0fITclJWtURHvVfOl3vYbCJafliCb6iJTAJAdkMVbl6PA4Jsi5ASJT_yh1_a0iVXhkWNo5f8-31natKZKl8J5czFvsoDK9AvBzQWQCzojePyUc8wrtikPYoLLe5RQ0PTwFlbs9rlwUw/s400/dj+simpson+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349030804910534530" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcPH23x1-uzUj1aPjQIQj5Rc64l4FXoH2nrXcwimK6kuOAuDpys0O5keWORAwmpI0Ho4ibYUq2sMY1ow1AoU-0i0aGHo0gIWV6aTJvystaWpnCOZzXWZTNK6nMQ1G6BBXpA_jW-r5Nhz4/s1600-h/dj+simpson+installation+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcPH23x1-uzUj1aPjQIQj5Rc64l4FXoH2nrXcwimK6kuOAuDpys0O5keWORAwmpI0Ho4ibYUq2sMY1ow1AoU-0i0aGHo0gIWV6aTJvystaWpnCOZzXWZTNK6nMQ1G6BBXpA_jW-r5Nhz4/s400/dj+simpson+installation+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349047452932394562" border="0" /></a> see more work by this artist <a href="http://www.gerhardhofland.com/artist-detail.php?artistid=8">DJ Simpson</a><br /><br />this is laminate or mirror laminate on plywood with trails cut by a router. It looks like rope (or sausages...) floating in space. It could come off as a gimmick, but he seems to be exploring its possibilities in interesting ways and aware of its brilliance. Brilliant idea - art historically, spatially, illusionistically speaking. Mechanically created imagery, and what's front is back. In the mirror one, what's front is back in several senses...<br /><br />The scale of those large ones is amazing. Read somewhere that showing these in the purist gallery setting is like organizing a rave in a church. Awesome!<br /><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/ADMINI%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.jpg" alt="" />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-1926616597406618602009-05-26T19:48:00.000-07:002009-05-26T20:47:38.408-07:00Fearing fear itself?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibvry4l2uKPMFKvcBVXtj6xC-0B5mKkg8O7DJnCWdOQItUZHRe15yT-2kIVffMURBt-qyNl92pattz4XMZMKFlQfYBf-3O_9OHZOfwOQWBYSMgoAQXqArOVib15bPAsngH7gRycCz5Apw/s1600-h/Regina+jose+galindo+limpietta+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibvry4l2uKPMFKvcBVXtj6xC-0B5mKkg8O7DJnCWdOQItUZHRe15yT-2kIVffMURBt-qyNl92pattz4XMZMKFlQfYBf-3O_9OHZOfwOQWBYSMgoAQXqArOVib15bPAsngH7gRycCz5Apw/s400/Regina+jose+galindo+limpietta+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340330713194740946" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);">Regina Jose Galindo</span> - <span style="font-size:78%;">above</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 204, 255);">Lipieza Social</span>, <span style="font-size:78%;">below</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 204, 204);">Who can erase the traces? </span>2003 (Bloody footprints from the supreme court to the National Palace in Guatemala City).<br /><br />Despite a feeling that success with such weighted subject matter is rather like shooting fish in a barrel, and a personal unwillingness to dwell on fear, I am intrigued. It is powerful work.<br /><br />The Fear Society is host to Galindo and others at the Venice Biennale...doesn't seem constructive to re-live fearmongers' propaganda and results, but it makes it compelling viewing, as we know. Isn't part of the problem with fear-based propaganda (separate from the horror of the things really happening) the result that it spreads disempowerment? A disbelief that we can alter things? I'd be REALLY interested in work that addressed that aspect of the news content, and how to counteract it. I have still to check out the other artists in that show.<br /><br />Anyway, more of Galindo's work at <a href="http://www.artvehicle.com/postcard/30"> http://www.artvehicle.com/postcard/30</a>, and <a href="http://artipedia.org/artsnews/exhibitions/2009/05/24/the-fear-society-at-the-53rd-venice-biennale/">artipedia</a><br /><br />She's recently spent time with her husband and daughter in a jail cell/container rented for $6000 and transported to Artpace in San Antonio to protest at incarceration of immigrant families at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center. Info at <a href="http://www.artpace.org/aboutTheExhibition.php?axid=312&sort=artist">artpace</a> on that.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCLv2Efgy9lZZZuu50QL70OC9_5Czd39fJMlM6lZnDM5jnbgfhwspOtFr00j6UUS1_tQL3T2XHijAGoQCy0Zy61Z-rsGy_WNRfZIv_rLCa8pt3-c938pdl7LBkW1TO1vJKBiV25PwYxxc/s1600-h/regina+jose+galindo,+who+can+erase+the+traces+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCLv2Efgy9lZZZuu50QL70OC9_5Czd39fJMlM6lZnDM5jnbgfhwspOtFr00j6UUS1_tQL3T2XHijAGoQCy0Zy61Z-rsGy_WNRfZIv_rLCa8pt3-c938pdl7LBkW1TO1vJKBiV25PwYxxc/s400/regina+jose+galindo,+who+can+erase+the+traces+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340330708578199522" border="0" /></a>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-44222287746805719602009-05-08T05:59:00.000-07:002009-05-08T07:45:02.865-07:00Alex Hubbard<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXJVLNqJJ1vT9PbJ9niMak1sF1f2E5eiVwOOEo_t-O0E5LFnOx4NMIhJWdSi54KpxFFuzszo4YlHmYR6iMC8CSe-1CLpfBLD0kp7UlsSLCoGkBpVdRX5l7y7R74pr-KNAATcEEBrqcwX0/s1600-h/Alex+Hubbard+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 308px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXJVLNqJJ1vT9PbJ9niMak1sF1f2E5eiVwOOEo_t-O0E5LFnOx4NMIhJWdSi54KpxFFuzszo4YlHmYR6iMC8CSe-1CLpfBLD0kp7UlsSLCoGkBpVdRX5l7y7R74pr-KNAATcEEBrqcwX0/s400/Alex+Hubbard+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333439537123058930" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255); font-style: italic;">Untitled (SOP # 3), 2008 </span><span style="color: rgb(204, 255, 255);"><br />One shot sign paint and enamel on aluminum panel<br />62 x 47 x 1.125 inches<br /></span><br />This layering of opposites may be reminiscent of the table tops from so many of his earlier video works, but is more specifically conditioned by an interest in the opposition between fictive depth ("optical") and factual depth ("thickness") in painting and how this will allow for a collapse of the relationship between fore- and background. It also exposes a greater concern with Hubbard's production: the aim at constructing an index or the appearance of empirical research, while also clearly exposing his aim at tension through the construction of a structure of oppositions.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">That's an extract from Standard Oslo's website.<br /><br />Not sure what this does for positive change on a wider scale, but in terms of painting it is very interesting. His other work adds a different dimension to painting - the videos, C prints and altered screenprints take the paintings from academic dryness to irreverent and exciting new territory.<br /></span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></span></span></span>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-25424339022641791692009-03-03T06:38:00.000-08:002009-03-03T06:45:36.922-08:00Light wall<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIga3f6Da3iP6eKDgP3UkDduKe-dkbG4iJOrFkmh8HqOyuvGlcdP1cGuJSio34UAmgwPUh8HBrPGDpoGjTHEy8JX5Kaq1U2cq4_B5hbbMG0byMVqTMo5nmPTrOF8Yl3mvWI91AQviy6Q4/s1600-h/pixel+building+facade+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIga3f6Da3iP6eKDgP3UkDduKe-dkbG4iJOrFkmh8HqOyuvGlcdP1cGuJSio34UAmgwPUh8HBrPGDpoGjTHEy8JX5Kaq1U2cq4_B5hbbMG0byMVqTMo5nmPTrOF8Yl3mvWI91AQviy6Q4/s400/pixel+building+facade+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308971098163773266" border="0" /></a>This is pretty cool. Its a model for the front of a building in Spain, that acts as a low res, pixellated screen.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85_45xtr87colGW5Ip77Tdk5sixuRDcETwl9-4wjMu7t0jXA1C727-MqPHTd5DEYpsE7IXVfinAmfFz9NKe9nV7K_lsJRgFZLjS28y5u4TSfuwMkA-HTv40c5JvuYb-ssFG06fnVdytI/s1600-h/pixelated+building+wall+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 286px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85_45xtr87colGW5Ip77Tdk5sixuRDcETwl9-4wjMu7t0jXA1C727-MqPHTd5DEYpsE7IXVfinAmfFz9NKe9nV7K_lsJRgFZLjS28y5u4TSfuwMkA-HTv40c5JvuYb-ssFG06fnVdytI/s400/pixelated+building+wall+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308972258386860258" border="0" /></a><br />Check out more images<a href="http://www.enlighter.org/exhibition/c4-realitiesunited"> here </a>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-82819501211914959732009-02-01T11:59:00.001-08:002009-02-01T13:02:43.583-08:00Review of Village in ART PAPERSCame across a review of Village in the latest ART PAPERS magazine. Interestingly the reviewer (Mari Dumett) mentions the emptiness of the dollhouses. What you see inside is untended dilapidation - peeling wallpaper, carpets curling up, dust and spider webs, highlighting this emptiness. After initially appearing to indicate human presence (my interest in electric lights) the lights in this installation emphasize abandonment which introduces "a subtle foreboding of collective trauma and loss". Dumett lists some of the stories that the artwork suggests - "rural exodus, urban migration, social class and industry-dependent communities" - all reasons for homes being empty, or, in fact, not functioning as homes. Dumett also links this absence with the negative space usually described by Whiteread's work. Great insight into an installation for those of us who didn't see it.<br /><br />Though I resolutely focus on the positive there's an experience of absence in the USA that I haven't yet come to terms with. On the road between Newark Airport and NYC, for example, and a recent night trip to Tennessee I have felt a chill desolation. In the 80's I used to hitch-hike at night in the UK and I didn't feel this emptiness. Though I was in places that could be defined as similarly empty, I thrived on it. Perhaps I am different now.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-9167406751565868932009-01-28T11:29:00.000-08:002009-01-28T11:47:12.627-08:00Rachel Whiteread<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAo3geJip208pnPGppQiy3-h3OzG3wYBLtUlpBM1F8AAhnbchXqY1dB2n26bKLFXdoYi8vB6JbRUG2wPF7c2-dPBYEfEC1pfZYY2XV3TZQhqoimtZNXfRqFrw2t82Xycsx24WxOpOcNPU/s1600-h/rachel+whiteread+village+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 275px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAo3geJip208pnPGppQiy3-h3OzG3wYBLtUlpBM1F8AAhnbchXqY1dB2n26bKLFXdoYi8vB6JbRUG2wPF7c2-dPBYEfEC1pfZYY2XV3TZQhqoimtZNXfRqFrw2t82Xycsx24WxOpOcNPU/s400/rachel+whiteread+village+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296430554704635506" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Pairing up nicely with my own interests in light and human activity, this is an installation that was recently at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It is called <span style="font-style: italic;">Place (Village),</span> from 2006/8 and consists of 200 vintage hand-made dollhouses lit from inside. It also included 6 additional sculptures and 15 drawings by the artist, Rachel Whiteread. I've seen her cast works in various places and enjoyed them but have not seen this kind of work from her before. Electric light is definitely an indication of human presence...! I read the book "Devil in the White City" recently, to learn that the first time most ordinary people had ever seen (or heard of) incandescent electric light was at the world fair in Chicago in 1933. Now we take it utterly for granted - I'm glad about that but it makes you think. Wonder when these dollhouses were made... some of them constructed possibly by gaslight, or candle light.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-84652316061261463042008-12-06T17:18:00.000-08:002008-12-06T20:35:56.555-08:00kitty kraus<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOhsBuMly-5R9xXYeaR7m5B3wZ0_3TU7dFgm_L7AkCRcgki8xutLG1hB5OtpeIYgWe2zMYrMrTkQWUZ5xU7MvOCSGngRAqxMcWPnReiVah3kEEKBcimjBlPy8n73vIxasHWI5ISEipR9I/s1600-h/kitty+kraus+puddle+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 285px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOhsBuMly-5R9xXYeaR7m5B3wZ0_3TU7dFgm_L7AkCRcgki8xutLG1hB5OtpeIYgWe2zMYrMrTkQWUZ5xU7MvOCSGngRAqxMcWPnReiVah3kEEKBcimjBlPy8n73vIxasHWI5ISEipR9I/s400/kitty+kraus+puddle+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276851948472274386" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi7L6Dvc9MI7CF-QbVrthkaGhYg5Ml9FirGENfw6CtPVI2SDxltcMAjtezA6VvB08W8vCb6LwZIi4IYAhn9rKMMVNMZJJ-SlIo3seOnjRXGmmGeVI-lMCqdiIldBEjpWAGBGMlE126acU/s1600-h/kitty+kraus+light+boxes+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 285px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi7L6Dvc9MI7CF-QbVrthkaGhYg5Ml9FirGENfw6CtPVI2SDxltcMAjtezA6VvB08W8vCb6LwZIi4IYAhn9rKMMVNMZJJ-SlIo3seOnjRXGmmGeVI-lMCqdiIldBEjpWAGBGMlE126acU/s400/kitty+kraus+light+boxes+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276851949281326674" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">This Berlin-based artist is doing a kind of Eliasson, making things happen mechanically (also an interest of my own). These installations aren't providing second hand experiences - in other words, illusions of what someone saw or imagined - but exist as immediately experienced reality. Its a sort of abstract painter's version of performance art perhaps, or installation - genres which obviously provide numerous precedents for the idea, but not quite the form these two artists' work is taking.<br /><br />The upper picture shows the puddle left when a fluorescent light bulb (previously carefully frozen in a block of inky ice) has been activated in the gallery space, heating up the bulb and at some point exploding it.<br /><br />The lower picture shows panes of glass constructed into light boxes with simple tape joins, and light escaping from it in a kind of perspective/hall of mirrors pattern. (Some of them have 500 watt bulbs in them that get too hot and also explode).<br /><br />The wonderfully baroque puddle made itself, the light comes out from behind the glass to stupendous effect. It appears to be the ultimate "anti-aesthetic" decision, as far away from traditional art process as possible...but entirely linked in content. I like it.<br /><br />I've just read a critique of Eliasson's work in Art Papers that seems to question his lack of ethical direction, real belief in anything, noting his lack of alignment with "social polemics" that, in contrast, accompanied many of those powerful art movements of the 20th Century. I thought we'd given up on the master plan for utopia...<br /><br />My thoughts are that perhaps just setting out the possibility of something is enough. Let's get to the meaning slowly, individually. Maybe the fact that this art connects with the past but is achieved differently is message enough.<br /><br /></span>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-33383961302088125462008-11-28T19:06:00.000-08:002008-11-28T20:06:57.075-08:00inflatable street art<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn8hvwwIycHufBIg8Ai-j2Ur6vClajueHBOdsqnbXPObT0Px89Qkocpidd8Y0VQNpBGvnvdqjR1YpMor4I-OQwNPSIJakzicCNyav1C8gD4GjEy_DIMY0sm4k73zjtifhhKPX4TMLQOvM/s1600-h/inflatable+street+art+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn8hvwwIycHufBIg8Ai-j2Ur6vClajueHBOdsqnbXPObT0Px89Qkocpidd8Y0VQNpBGvnvdqjR1YpMor4I-OQwNPSIJakzicCNyav1C8gD4GjEy_DIMY0sm4k73zjtifhhKPX4TMLQOvM/s400/inflatable+street+art+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273911394400047986" border="0" /> </a><br /><br />this is just magical. Such a cool idea! It looks like trash, its animated into something curious, endearing, enjoyable by something that happens anyway. It is free, it surprises, delights. It is shared. Its positive and innovative - it brings a smile to people, like a gift. A reminder that good things are possible? To me, it seems that way. No matter it is not rocket science, and we understand how it works - it shows us a new way of using the materials and the situation. For friendly fun. Fab.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PH6xCT2aTSo&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PH6xCT2aTSo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/ADMINI%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg" alt="" />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-5109488073091602952008-11-20T19:18:00.001-08:002008-11-20T19:58:57.716-08:00something completely different<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIngSLUoAWdzCH-WNZ0RyCxlXfp2WfF1tZduBDz9Vnh1lLL3NLngiKE3kVF6BWW5Nq-9AoEP19U_IwTxp4kCulMw4E3eMAsCcCbIMicokk7CFYGuzu8hOrz5jFBWIVUBEqCk3e0OF2ciw/s1600-h/ep+watson+landlord+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 398px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIngSLUoAWdzCH-WNZ0RyCxlXfp2WfF1tZduBDz9Vnh1lLL3NLngiKE3kVF6BWW5Nq-9AoEP19U_IwTxp4kCulMw4E3eMAsCcCbIMicokk7CFYGuzu8hOrz5jFBWIVUBEqCk3e0OF2ciw/s400/ep+watson+landlord+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270945214041045010" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;">Esther Pearl Watson</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" ><br />Before the landlord finds us</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Acrylic, enamel & silver leaf on panel</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">48 x 48 inches</span><br /><br />This is a large painting, given its outsider flavor. It has blown me away. Why?<br /><br />It seems to connect with real life, and has a freedom about its expression that touches a chord in me. Esther Pearl has lived (apparently) life with an oddball family (Daddy built spaceships in the garage) and does not hesitate, riddled with doubt about her worthiness or worry about it being ridiculous to tell her story. There it is, in glorious home-made detail...but connecting a real sense of atmosphere and beauty (the sky is lavish, the fields stretch into the distant evening, and the dirt yard meltingly soft and beautiful) with the quirky childishness of folk art. Yet its about serious shit going on. I mean, running out on the rent...there is an urgency and a terribleness about it. Its not cosy, not safe, not pretty. We all understand the implications, and that is what gives this work its strength somehow. It is real, it connects to humans. On that note, I have to post another painting here...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijNCoAMQh5ksUa1Qmy-iSxi_hi1bzd0Cq2CPiJYYhwJxGK7UdaUFlKTRVBKSZ8TBFf3v3OGfyNPPviawLby-DJImnik-mC5UlAru_K2fIjF1tOlvgE5OlZ8QzWCr8kgie27oCzX1xFKgk/s1600-h/ep+watson+out+of+gas+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijNCoAMQh5ksUa1Qmy-iSxi_hi1bzd0Cq2CPiJYYhwJxGK7UdaUFlKTRVBKSZ8TBFf3v3OGfyNPPviawLby-DJImnik-mC5UlAru_K2fIjF1tOlvgE5OlZ8QzWCr8kgie27oCzX1xFKgk/s400/ep+watson+out+of+gas+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270947885400861986" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Out of gas</span><br />acrylic on panel<br />8 x 10 inches<br /><br />Here's (Dad?) racing across the highway with the (tiny) pint of gas that'll get them all out of there. The kids stand with their hair blowing as the cars whip by. Grit on the shoulder, exhaust, slip roads... and then that wonderful skyline and cloudscape. While all that is going on, someone (the artist - the artist in all of us) is looking around, seeing the world in all its fullness. It has the attention to seemingly irrelevant but telling detail that folk art has, and a lack of theorizing and paring down that in its directness, enriches the image. <br /><br />Way to go Esther.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-57882061511568062132008-11-05T15:30:00.000-08:002008-11-05T21:11:19.151-08:00chuck ramirez<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB6BN2w4sfKCe-HL95wv33lS1OIgoiGK4cinIA3_-kocH2QBzVb422QQVMcv3XgNKdwhyq5BNgFLuP8eKPnWzpZJyGjn-smgLMhmvAkbapBZkZvhA6FZJNO9cdFoxW_PKKiql6TkwcehM/s1600-h/Chuck+Ramirez+-+Godiva+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB6BN2w4sfKCe-HL95wv33lS1OIgoiGK4cinIA3_-kocH2QBzVb422QQVMcv3XgNKdwhyq5BNgFLuP8eKPnWzpZJyGjn-smgLMhmvAkbapBZkZvhA6FZJNO9cdFoxW_PKKiql6TkwcehM/s400/Chuck+Ramirez+-+Godiva+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265319940225339746" border="0" /></a>Chuck Ramirez<br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Godiva 2</span>, 2003<br />Photograph<br />inkjet print 30 x 38 inches<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Not exactly recent work, but interesting in the context of presentation. Trash that we usually throw away photographed and presented as an art object. Beautiful. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Footnotes to Duchamp, still? In a way. But I think there is more going on here. The urinal brought the pissoir into the gallery - low end brought high. Here we recognize that this object, though trash, exists/existed, was created, designed and manufactured to showcase a valuable product. Its golden rays suggesting a relationship to icons and religious paintings can't be coincidental. But it is trash. Why? Because we throw it away? Because it has no use? Because it is made of plastic? Because there are so many of them?<br /><br />The reality is that this could be called beautiful. Because of what we know (all of the above comments) we do not value it. What other things are we dismissing?</span>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990284958148237519.post-69110554927597267192008-10-26T10:49:00.000-07:002008-11-05T15:48:19.762-08:00thoughts on craft<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA2KNtLEcqdAmOT5HV1MV2AHyqQv4YnoBJsjenMMrruguHR905qXXh2Eb1vhUMdIKflJA20ZsErqR_ILSAS0-T7YsBaRi0LppuOHcjfxOgJrUdmcufBjLv7r4JrYcvnYaZIw5oNYrimR4/s1600-h/ulrika+jarl+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 398px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA2KNtLEcqdAmOT5HV1MV2AHyqQv4YnoBJsjenMMrruguHR905qXXh2Eb1vhUMdIKflJA20ZsErqR_ILSAS0-T7YsBaRi0LppuOHcjfxOgJrUdmcufBjLv7r4JrYcvnYaZIw5oNYrimR4/s400/ulrika+jarl+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261538429018883858" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Romanesco pendant, </span></span>polyester resin, fiberclass, LEDs, 30 x 30 cm, made to commission. Ulrika Jarl <a href="http://www.ulrikajarl.com/">www.ulrikajarl.com</a> (lights)<br /><br />I've mentioned craft a few times now in unflattering terms. What's my problem with craft? And what does this have to do with the "change in a wider sense" I mention on the header of this blog?</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />I'll share my history. My first art qualification was a 3 year diploma in studio ceramics obtained in 1984. After that I had a designer/maker ceramics business that did very well. I immersed myself in this particular section of the craft industry, the intersections of craft and industry, and all the reasons why craft survived in the age of factory production - along with how craft becomes a version of factory production. I saw a lot of craft work in all kinds of guises and situations. I enjoyed it, I bought it, I thought it often beautiful and intriguing but at some point it ceased to have much to offer me. I wanted more - what, I didn't know.<br /><br />Ultimately I closed down my business and went back to university to learn more about fine art, getting a BFA and an MFA in painting. I never wanted to see another piece of clay again... My interest in craft ran out. Though I was disillusioned in various ways that may color some of my comments, the main point is that I feel craft (in the strictest sense) to be limited by certain parameters, and to function mainly within arenas that I would rather question. So when I say William Pye's bronze wave deserves a booth at the local craft fair I mean that he is showing a lack of awareness of wider issues. He is not addressing concerns that I consider important.<br /><br />"Craft" refers to a skill, and craftwork often centers around these skills. A well-crafted novel MAY be rather dull conceptually. The craft of painting refers to how the painting is made, whether the layers will adhere, or the brushstrokes are well made or the face on the portrait is ... what? Neat? Suitable? Skilled? Professional? This has nothing to do with what art can accomplish by altering assumptions, opening up visions and ideas of things we hadn't thought of before. The visionary, intangible aspects that live on beyond the layers of varnish and nicely turned handles. My previous interest in craft and industry has become more conceptual, involving a contemplation of the cultural contexts and implications.<br /><br />My current manifesto is that technology (or "skill") is just a tool, and that re-defining the criteria used to direct technology (or skills) opens up the possibility of new outcomes. This process is the basis of human ingenuity and development, at the core of progress, responsible for all the technological innovations we currently enjoy, for better or for worse. And as such can be seen at the cutting edge of contemporary concerns, part of the way forward. This is where I see artists contributing to contemporary debate, imagining the unimagined - as opposed to providing palliative products, soothing and reassuring us... which is what the Kinkade cottages are all about, no? Pleasure and fun and reassurance are fine and worthy, but ART is one of the few cultural ...what, institutions?... that is able to deeply question the fabric of society and its assumptions, and propose incredible, fantastic, unimaginable alternatives. As such, my definition of art is that which engages that potential.<br /><br />Above is pictured an object for sale on an artist/designer's website, falling between craft, art, design and industry perhaps. Open for debate? There are huge crossovers between these areas - its not clear-cut, and all objects can function in different ways. That's my point about Alice Ballard's ceramics. It is a question of definition more than it is a value judgment. What is called craft can function as art, there is no doubt, but for an artwork (whatever other qualities it may have) to fall into the craft category is to conclude, for me, that it has not reached its full potential.<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784020290555622894noreply@blogger.com0