animated GIF by Joe McKay.
McKay has also done some writing on this two wheeled device.
January 2008
More on Breasts in the Lobby
My post on the removal of artist Diana Kingsley's work from a curated show in the lobby of a 5th Avenue building ("Get those breasts out of the lobby, they're offending women") drew some lively online discussion: 1 2 3 4
I want to add that it is also being discussed on the blog "How's My Dealing?", where commenters anonymous and otherwise weigh in on art world power brokers (gallerists, critics, curators). The blogger, "Buck Naked," assigns a red X or a green O to the personage "based on your positive or negative feedback, and my sense of your sincerity. It's an imperfect system."
Currently curator Elisabeth Akkerman has a red X because of the Kingsley incident. She is a curator hired by arts patron and real estate businessman Francis Greenburger to organize exhibitions in his lobbies; she picked the Kingsley piece, named the show after it ("Blue Ribbon"), and then removed it after complaints. We don't know exactly who complained or what Greenburger's role was in vetting the work after it was installed.
An anonymous commenter on "How's My Dealing?" chides Buck Naked for his/her anonymity and says:
I would only hope that someone who chooses to host a blog on NYC dealers, curators and critics - and appoints him or herself judge, jury and executioner - has some serious creds. I'm very familiar with Akkerman, OMI, her boss, and the complex politics involved. Although it was very unfortunate that the piece was removed (I've had my own work censored in a public space before, know how it feels), blaming Akkerman is naive. [link to the Greenburger-endowed Art OMI added]
My reply in the comment thread:
What are these complex politics? Please share. Also, any particular reason you didn't mention Akkerman's boss by name? Lastly, how in the world can you have a beef with someone for posting anonymously when you do the same?
Hopefully we'll get more facts about the incident and who actually made the decision to remove the work. (Right.)
Perry House
I had slides of this Houston-based artist's work, which I shot back in the early '90s when I organized a show of his paintings, and felt like scanning them. Click on the lower two for enlarged views. The multipanel piece at the bottom was an older work, possibly dating from the '70s, that was rolled up in the artist's studio.
I like the combination of Di Chirico-esque mood and modern emptied-out-ness. The bottom image has a underground comix feel but is also classically surreal. At the risk of sounding like ad copy, no one in Houston (or anywhere) does work quite like this. Possibly some of the Chicago imagists but without their illustrator-y sense of polish.
The paintings are done in acrylic. House has a technique of layering washes of thinned out black over a finished image to give a kind of fractal scrim livening up the paint's inherent flat inertness. It's kind of an artificial aging patina but has nothing to do with making it look old--just more complex.
The imagery is a series of personal symbols that recur from painting to painting and are constantly mutating and being layered and violated by Modernist stripes, dots, etc. There is something cabalistic about it but House isn't a mystic or a new-ager. He talks about the symbols in an almost childlike way but his approach to assembling a picture is quintessentially grown up.
Beats Only Sketchbook
"SQP Memory Drum 100 bpm" [mp3 removed]
"SQP Beatslicer 120 bpm" [mp3 removed]
"Krypt 116-121 (100 bpm)" [mp3 removed]
"Krypt 112-115 (Beat Only - 100 bpm)" [mp3 removed]
I told someone recently that I was going to turn into the Net version of the guy out banging pots on the street (but not as loud). All these "sketches" were made in Reaktor. The SQP is a very basic piano roll midi sequencer; these are all my notes (no loops) but the Memory Drum and Beatslicer ROMplers have some modulation presets. Krypt has its own sequencer but again, these are my notes--not that it matters that much. "SQP Beatslicer" was used as background texture in "Slow and Fast Zombies"; "Krypt 112-115" was previously posted with an overlaid melody. "Krypt 116-121 (100 bpm)" comes the closest to being a complete piece to me. I can't figure out what else to do with it at the moment.
Lo-Fi Baroque
Just noticed from the MTAA blog that Michael Sarff (M.River) co-curated the "Lo-Fi Baroque" show in 1998 at Thread Waxing.
I saw that show and while I thought it was a mixed bag of work the conceptual Povera aesthetic it limned was influential on me personally and from the photos and descriptions I've seen of the New Museum's show "Unmonumental" (I'm actually seeing it this week) it appears to be a late riff on Sarff's ideas. Rachel Harrison is central to this style and is in both shows--Sarff's exhibit also included James Hyde, Gregory Green, Chris Hanson & Hendrika Sonnenberg, and Cary S. Leibowitz/Candyass who were all going strong in 1998 and probably still are but have been replaced in the smart assemblage canon with newer, hotter artists (Jim Lambie, Gedi Sibony, Sarah Lucas).
My own wrinkle (literally) was to apply the aesthetic to digital subject matter. This dropped me into a deep crack I'm still digging my way out of.