hat tip thekraken
March 2011
4 Seconds Ago
coming soon to a campus computer near you
Update: Originally this post consisted of two images. Thanks to You Are Mean Computer for the animated GIF version above, combining them--much better.
just chillin - not really
After the surf club experiments jstchillin seems retrograde. Several "gallery art" structures are imported to the web: (i) curators (whose names are constantly mentioned); (ii) a schedule of exhibitions (one week instead of a month); (iii) the curators control the schedule and who is invited. Reasserting authority in this manner after the comparative looseness of letting invitees post whenever and whatever they wanted isn't softened just because you call the site "just chilling." In fact, calling a site of such obvious structured workaholism "chillin" seems disingenuous, and colors how the viewer perceives the work. Some of the projects are laid-back goofs but others certainly aren't (caution: sign-in required). This is not to say there isn't interesting work on the site, only that the spin was never convincing.
"Spirit Surfers" has the same problem--every post is supposed to be a joke about New Age consciousness via web consumption. By contrast, "Nasty Nets" and "Dump.fm" work because they wed unpretentious names with unpretentious practices (which may in fact be quite laborious--they can sneak up on you).
read, write, post, paint
Above, painting by Tolga Taluy (and detail), featured in the "Read/Write" exhibition currently on view at 319 Scholes in Brooklyn, NY. (The painting is a white monochrome with text in black, caption in gray, username in blue, and "like" icon in green.)
The subject matter of Taluy's painting is a YouTube comment by "sleepyflip," removed from the surrounding chatter and floating on a white stretched canvas, approximately 18-20 inches wide. The comment asks if we can go back to the '90s (flannel shirts, Bill Clinton, dial-up modems) while the painting asks if we can go back to the '60s (Baldessari, Pop Art, Ryman). Careful but obvious hand-lettering doesn't exactly reverse time but certainly slows it.
"Read/Write" consists mostly of media-based work but does include a few paintings of internet content. Nowadays you have to ask who is actually doing the time-slowing. Is it the artist himself or herself, being contrary to the spirit of instant communication as a shamanistic gesture? Or are our shamans a group of artisan subcontractors from mainland China, meticulously rendering in oil on canvas whatever text or photo the artist sends them? The artisans will not die, suffer, or go crazy for our sins; they serve only to be used by the West for an ironic jape and/or cheap painting.
I am told that Taluy actually painted the above. If true, it's noteworthy not because of some cult of the hand or authenticity but simply to understand that the artist wanted "sleepyflip's" comment to be isolated, studied, and translated into a more durable material than LCD, and that Taluy cared enough to do the work.
No reason an artisan in China couldn't do it, but that would inject a "critique of outsourcing" element to the piece and we've been going down that road with Chinese contractors for years now--it's old.
Taluy's painting isn't groundbreaking but rather a simple heartfelt plea to stop the clock.
anticipation
A GIF I found/posted a while back is featured in a Flavorpill essay by Paddy Johnson, Watching the Pot Boil: Artists Who Use Anticipation in Their Work. Get-you-to-go-to-the-jump-page-type-teaser: it involves a baby and a hammer.