graphic pattern of wildly offset letters printed on wacky sculptures and every other surface of the gallery
metal mesh cages for beach vacationers
architecture gallery reproduced at a smaller scale inside architecture gallery--described as "a radical critique"
children are indoctrinated to white cube space
photos of the towns and countryside around chernobyl (excerpt)
water bottle pushed like lawn mower washes clothes
guys play tennis, work on farms, stay at Ritz as photodocumented conceptual art with stated prices
headless female mannequin, lights on tripods
wall painting (design) of compact car with machine gun on roof
parked cars transformed into cab and police car using paper overlays "without requesting the owners’ permission"
youtubes of red green and blue monochromes; press play on each and a chord sounds
feed of audio and video reduced to component wavelengths (supposedly) and reassembled/regurgitated as white light and white noise
slick photo of white bunny with rainbow patch--dye or reflected light?????
3D computer-constructed fluorescent light (looking like a Flavin at first glance) projected into a corner - fly buzzes in
yellow lettered IMAGE & POWER poster; patriotic ladies/pimply teen Photoshopped into Yin-Yang configuration
shaky objects blur in photo field of view: flags, photographers' backdrops behind plants
residents of high rises turn colored lights in apartment windows on and off to make pictures
windows opening and closing by themselves in public space freak people out
photodocumentation (supposedly) of "tree exchange"--primeval oak in Netherlands for young oak in Poland
manet luncheon on the grass as porn shoot with cheese about to be eaten off the models' vulvas
Video compilation of people glancing into the camera from their home-made porn
styrofoam product packaging carved in marble
spangly TREMOR RUMOUR HOOVER sign; various hotel and motel signs
2 years of VVORK. Thanks to all readers, artists, friends, critics, and twitter-narrators
Robert Barry’s Telepathic Piece (1969) distorted via various commercial translation services
more "translation" of american pop culture--this time Disney
A sound and video installation where a computer program continuously changes between the different vocal incarnations of Woody Allen
You Talkin to Me scene from Taxi Driver (I assume) translated into seven languages
pareto principle handwritten lists
Stripper pole coated with a description of a striptease scene encoded in Braille alphabet--no, I'm not kidding
animated gif of dude wanking in field
groovy photodocumentation of cheapo "goth" flavin
motorized exhaust-belching barrels inside shipping container
refugees photoshopped into ideal virtual spaces; almost-identical postcards from different times/places (supposedly)
Bottle inside bottle; female in nude sweaty 80s grace jones pose
April 2008
Glenn Rubsamen
Glenn Rubsamen's work at the Armory show. Photo from Oly's Musings. Olympia Lambert says this about the work:
In yet another example of color saturation, Glenn Rubsamen had a wall devoted to his cell phone towers that appear to be on first glance palm trees. Again, it's Southern California at its most decadent candy coated shallowness. The gradient skies seem to float amongst the bird nests attached to these manmade structures that are so foreign to the natural make up of the land. These are great references to Pop art at its finest. Seeing how corporate America continues to market to us an ever greater need for 24-7 communication, we are forced to disguise these very technologies in our communities. Sticking out like a sore thumb amidst an arrid landscape, the works are interesting in how they capture the nature of communication now. Regretably, it all comes down to 0's and 1's, but a sunset, dusk, or sunrise will always capture a moment that cannot be quanitified in a digital readout.
Rubsamen has been making very similar paintings for years--trees, lampposts, phone poles silhouetted against gradient skies, always immaculately painted. The cell phone towers are a new wrinkle but it seems like these creepy sentinels always belonged in his paintings. Not seeing these in person is one reason to regret not attending the Armory.
The Plan: More Bloodshed and Expense
The man known to some as General Betray-us and to others as a God who walks the earth is back in front of Congress this week. From Democracy Arsenal:
Petraeus and [Ambassador] Crocker have no problems projecting out the potential implications of leaving Iraq - but they refuse to make projections of what staying will look like. That double standard is absurd. Is there a strategic plan for our presence in Iraq? If so what? The answer is pretty clearly no. They have no end game. There is no exit strategy. The Bush/McCain/Petraeus/Crocker plan is simply to stay and to stay a very very long time in the hopes that things slowly get better.
Not Cheap, "Green"
Just received a press release from an established alternative space art gallery that has decided to go paperless--as in, no more printed announcements or PR. Instead of saying "we can't afford it anymore" they said they are "going green." The announcement comes in a PDF with green letters and a logo of yes, a leaf. Someone at the institution missed their calling--he or she should be doing public relations for one of the big corporations.
How else could it be spun?
"We have decided to stop paying money to the postal service, which is subsidized by a fascist regime in the US."
"We believe in AT&T and want to use its 'pipes' for all our communications."
"We believe more use of electrons will move the US closer to tapping its valuable coal resources and keeping industry local."
etc.
Evidently they are not reading Ed Halter at Rhizome and haven't learned about the rematerialization of art.
[This page apologized to Halter for trolling him on this issue but finds that's it's too rich a subject not to exploit. There are solid economic reasons why society is "dematerializing" by going paperless and moving former physical activities online. The reason for making physical objects, sending out cards on nice paper stock, and moving into a white cube display environment at this point has to be because you like it (or feel you have something to say that can't be said on a website), not because you are being compelled to by some inexplicable reverse zeitgeist or because you want to scratch the lotto card and be the one out of a million artists who "makes it." On the Rhizome thread* Halter says his word "rematerialization" is descriptive and shouldn't be taken as an endorsement of anything. But he made his argument for it rather well, ironically or not, and this page anticipates its embrace by those seeking to position new media art within a market. At the end of the thread Yves Bernard, one of the curators of "Holy Fire" (the show about selling new media work under discussion), says "Moreover, this immaterial -> material drift is much more than a side-effect: it is just a part of a much larger trend: software is driving the material world, now generating objects and atoms as well as processes, interactions and communications."]
See also: "Protocol" discussion.
*Update, 2011: The Rhizome link has been changed to http://rhizome.org/editorial/2008/apr/1/the-rematerialization-of-art/
today's question
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Large assortment of "what's new?" web-buttons at spiritsurfers.net, in case you need one.
Note how the buttons diminish in height towards the bottom.
(Whether the graphics appear in the boon or the wake is a matter of monastic doctrine.)
Obsessive comparison/collection of cheesy web graphics in blog posts is one of the funnier parts of Net Art 2.0 praxis.
This one is a definitive treatment of the theme [8 MB animated GIF] although not made by a net artist.
