Art as Authority

JULIEN COLOMBIER

Spun by Art as Authority at 07:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anne Ellaway, Sally Macintyre and Xavier Bonnefoy may not be household names to you and me, and you’re not likely to know what they do as a profession – Ellaway and Macintyre are the Senior researcher and Director of the MRC Social and Public Health Services Unit, at the University of Glasgow and Bonnefoy is the Regional adviser for WHO European Centre for Environment and Health in Bonn, Germany. However, they just might know what leads to obesity in adults, other than the classic reason which is the imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure, but you add to that the newest factor they have surmised is tipping the balance and you get - GRAFFITI ! Yep, you read it here first folks.

The co-authors findings were published in 2005 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. which is part of the BMA or British Medical Association. The authors hypothesized that “areas which are pleasant with lots of greenery and few incivilities might encourage people to take exercise and thereby influence levels of obesity.”
(BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.38575.664549.F7)

Those “incivilities” they’re referring to would be in short, litter, graffiti and dog shit. Most of the data that they based their study on came from the LARES study (Large Analysis of European Housing and Health Status) realized in 2002-3 and conducted in eight European countries “varying in their wealth, culture, and history.” The eight cities and countries were Angers, France; Bonn, Germany; Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; Ferreira do Alentejo, Portugal; Forli, Italy; Geneva, Switzerland and Vilnius, Lithuania.

Without going into the painstaking details of the study and its conclusions, I’ll leave the summarization to Sean Banville whose book entitled, 1000 Ideas & Activities for Language Teachers from BreakingNewsEnglish.com used the study as a lesson in English reading comprehension. The idea is that English teachers use the current headlines or breaking news in the media as a learning tool and forum of discussion with their students. Banville summed up the obesity report entitled “Graffiti, greenery, and obesity in adults: secondary analysis of European cross sectional survey” thusly, “People who live in more pleasant and attractive environments, which in our study was assessed by levels of greenery, are much more likely to be physically active and not to be overweight or obese. Conversely, in less attractive areas, those with lots of graffiti, litter and dog mess, people are more likely to be overweight or obese and to take less exercise.” The team suggested that: “the likelihood of being more physically active is about 50 per cent less, and the likelihood of being overweight or obese is about 50 per cent higher” in poorer neighborhoods. They concluded: “In efforts to promote physical activity and reduce weight…attention should be paid to environmental facilitators and barriers as well as individual factors.”

Surprised? I know it all seems a wee bit convoluted at this point graffiti, obesity and BreakingNewsEnglish.com but the point I’m desiring to make is this: One, the study is if you truly think about it, utterly ridiculous even if it is trying to “draw” some conclusions about what may contribute to obesity. The fact of the matter is how about all the other social factors that lead to poor neighborhoods, lack of jobs, poor education, unemployment, poor health care, language, culture, income, lack of exercise, Super Size Me menus, sugar, American “culture” ad naseum – gee, I wonder if all those things combined doesn’t account for a certain apathy? A certain laissez-faire? A certain lack of motivation? It certainly makes me want to go out and run a couple of miles in my new Nikes while dodging all the drive-by shootings, dog shit and syringes. I wonder if there are not larger issues to be dealt with within our inner city neighborhoods to make life a little bit easier for everyone or should we just bus everyone out to the suburbs and let them run in the parks? Second, graffiti has been a scapegoat for too long now and has been held responsible for all the social ills and insecurity in American and European cities – this perception has got to stop. Yes I know, guns don’t kill people, people kill people but one thing’s for sure, guns don’t make you fat. Look, the only thing that makes anyone anywhere feel insecure when they’re looking at a very nice piece on the wall is freedom. The freedom they recognize in the act and how little control they have over their lives. Thirdly, a total misunderstanding and lack of comprehension about what graffiti is, what it does, the purpose it serves and most importantly, how it relates to its writers. Graffiti is far from being an indicator of a poor quality of life for anyone anywhere. A clear example of this is Art as Authority’s good fortune to have one of the finest graffiti writers out on the streets and on this blog. KAI1 has positioned himself in a very short time as one of the most lucid and clear thinkers in the graffiti world today. KAI has been posting here regularly and has been giving us all some very invaluable lessons. It would behoove you to check out what he has to say.

To conclude, what I even find more astonishing is Banville’s use of the study as a test and forum of discussion for a English class in which he finds himself an unwitting champion of word play, media spin and associations of graffiti=bad, negative, punishable, impoverished or any number of synonyms that “influence” the reader’s understanding of the truth or a truth as outlined in the study, while reinforcing all the negative views in general about graffiti. What are we supposed to learn from this, graffiti is bad and poverty is good? Am I missing something here?

I have since used part of Banville’s lesson in his own phraseology and turned it into a polling of questions out of simple curiosity, in order to see what others think about graffiti and what relation it has to their environment and/or well-being. Give me your opinion, I would like to know. Or to sum it up nicely, KAI said after being emailed the study, “this shit is really rad - I have a lot of fat friends.”

Spun by Art as Authority at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I HATE Traffic!!!
POOR AL

"I Hate Traffic" is a Poor Al solo show of new work, older unseen goodies, and collaborative work. (with John Michael Gill, Chris Coggan, Robert Bowen, Gustaf Rooth and Luiki.)

Opening Reception on Saturday April 7th. 4-8pm. Monkeyhouse Toys and Gallery. 1618 1/2 Silverlake Blvd. LA, CA 90026. 323-662-3437. Show runs from April 7th to April 18th.

www.monkeyhousetoys.com



Our 2 Year Anniversary & "The Birds & the Bees" Themed Group Art Show & Performances

HIVE SHOW!!: April 7th from 8PM to 12:30AM / suggested donation $7
729 S. Spring St. Los Angeles, CA 90014 between 7th and 8th street
Exhibit runs: April 7th - 29th (we are now open on Sudays 1-5PM)
www.thehivegallery.com

Featured Artist: Jeff McMillan
Featured Installation Artist: Ken Garduno and Tom Haubs
Tall Wall Artist: Thomas Broersma
Small Wall Artist:Geoffrey Tjakra

April "BIRDS and the BEES" Exhibit

Kenji Tanaka / Poor Al / Erik Abel / Seth Drenner/ Alex Aranda / Justin Odaffer / Patrick Dene / Kindred Gottleib / Corey Jackson / Brandt Marshall / L.Croskey / Ver Mar / Michele Waterman / Melissa Moss / Myna Sonou / Plasticgod / Nicole Bruckman / Jophen Stein / Gabe Felice / Chris Peters / Louie Metz / Brandt Marshall / Jenna Colby / Michael Hsiung / Josh Clay / Darren Le Gallo / Amy Shawley / Mike Ryan / Dan Flores / Down 6 / Josh Taylor / Andy Haynes / Bradley Platz / Justin Sloane / James Malone / Jarrod Eastman / Simon Garcia / Joseph Holt / Kim Tucker / Paul Torres / Cherub / Carl Lozada / 13:11 / Brent Doster / Dani Katz / Nathan Cartwright / Tom Haney / Amy Kollar Anderson / Padraic O'Reilly / Paul Whitehead / Adam Hawthorn / Melanie Waldman / J.Shea / Lucien Shapiro / Dion Macellari / Duncan Simcoe / Asylm / Sam Wellington / Preston Thomas / Peat Shaulis / P.Williams / Elizabeth Lopez / Eduardo Benedetto / Dan Bigelow / Renee Lawter / Randy Kono / Patrick Dene / Keith Wong / LD Grant / Kio Griffith / Tom Haubs / Carol Powell / Erick Rodriguez / Greg Gould / Ele Cold / Sensei / Max Grundy / Justin Angelos / Moti Scotti / Laura Levy/ Carl Lozada / Kari Jewell / Molly McGuire / Amik / Patrick Auletto / Marisa Silos / David Wyffels / Jonny Luczycki / Craig Cartwright / Laura Diamond / Chris Hall / London May / Lisa Moneypenny / Scott Belcastro / Lauren Gardiner / Nate Seubert / Treiops Treyfid / Slouchy / Heidi Calvert and Douglas Alvarez / Linda Alvarez / Elizabeth Marcel / MacSorro / Delphia and more!!

Performances by: ccxxii, Casey, Chris Varthalamus, Damion Wagner, Dr. Scott D. Mackie, Fire Bug, Hearts of Palm UK, Mecca and More!!

Resident Artists: Travis Morley, Chris Donham, Nathan Cartwright, Treiops Treyfid, Greg Gould, Marcella Lineiro, Rebecca Paul, Annie Teegardin, Sonik, Stevland Umana, Jimmy Bleyer, Sensei, Vladimir Sierra, Justin Odaffer, Randy Kono

Radioactive Future

4/5/2007 7-10PM
Art And Space Collide TNT (Thursday Night Thing)

Radioactive Future presents: "Make your own public statement"

Museum of Contemporary Art
1100 & 1001 Kettner Blvd. (between Broadway and B Street)
San Diego, CA 92101
858-454-3541
Participating artists: Tonya Van Parys, Bill Pierce, Dave Miles, Nuvia Crisol Guerra, Lara K. Tamalunas, Nicolaus McGuire, and Macoe Swett.
Radioactive Future

Spun by Art as Authority at 08:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

WHEN you’re really getting your shine on - the haters want nothing other than to dull you. However, you must always respect the haters because they gauge the success you obtain. The graffiti writer and the buff jerk are simply two sides of the same coin. Writers take great joy in their destruction while the buff jerk bubbles up with disdain as he scrubs a window with mineral spirits or triple coats the façade of a business with thick enamel paint. Just as the knucklehead kid loves to embellish the blank wall, the buff jerk wants to destroy the graffiti. The young goon with a hoodie pulled tight over his face laughs a deep belly laugh as he causes thousands of dollars in damage in seconds. The shop owner only thinks about dollars and cents. How will this ugly monstrosity on his storefront affect his business? It might even ruin him in the long run because potential customers are scared by the incomprehensible symbols. Fear is always the initial reaction to something unfamiliar. We’ve been so bombarded with graffiti imagery in the media that you think the masses would be used to it. The general populace has been slowly eased into the idea of soft bubble letters and intricate pieces on TV but if you start grilling in public just watch out for the angry mob that’s bound to form. Apparently the cats writing on walls are worse than the seas of crack heads and indigents loose on the streets.

My adrenaline soars walking out of the Greyhound station in Los Angeles directly into the slums. We had a three-hour layover so we decided to take the graffiti writer version of a sight seeing tour. We found the shittiest street possible and walked down it. Being in the true slums amongst dilapidation really gave me the itch to grill. Against my better judgment I whipped out a Silver Kiwi mop and started mashing shit. You know my steez. The crack heads were deep; we were two little white boys walking through multiple blocks of pure despair. We passed numerous soup kitchens and anti drug murals. Fools were posted up on every corner pumping crill and bums were asleep soundly in their cardboard mansions. They had intricate structures erected totally out of garbage. Do your thing. Do your thing. I hit up on a mural in front of a crack head and she freaked on us. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing motherfucker?” “Miss, he’s nothing nice.” Luckily she didn’t alert the hundreds of other crack heads and incite a lynching. We kept it moving and eventually made it downtown and got rescued out of the slums and swooped back to the bus station. The crack heads probably have the most viable voice to proclaim their disdain for graffiti. After all, the streets that graffiti exists in are truly the bums’ homes. But you can’t let a crack head phase you or stop you from doing your thing.

I do kind of feel bad for the old timers struggling to fight off this plague of graffiti though. They’re out there every day struggling. You might see five people standing around for hours to buff one storefront that took 10 seconds to deface. You can’t stop the destruction. Since when did these little mothafuckas start using acid to etch windows? What is the world coming to? Desperate times call for desperate measures. Old techniques are tossed aside for new ones that are far more savage. Destruction itself is an act of beauty and creation. My heart wells up with empathy for the poor lost souls on the hot streets every time I see a dilapidated building or a killed block.

I’m just trying to piece together why I’ve been wasting so much of my life doing this. I’m trying to find some reason for it all. There’s no logical answer, but something has me in its grips. I try to shake loose but boy it’s strong and I’m sure it’s nothing nice. The streets are ghoulish and uncertain. I’m afraid to step outside only to be swept away by a whirlwind. I crave and deeply fear that feeling of being totally out of control. It’s being at both the pinnacle of empowerment and destruction, wild in the streets with no regard for anything at all. It is really a liberating feeling when you’re looming over the edge. The intelligent part of my brain begs at me to use restraint and keep some semblance of will power. Don’t let it totally suck you in because you might not ever get out. Don’t fall through the looking glass. Stay at home, you can’t trust yourself out there. Can’t you find any real hobbies? Why don’t you like any real sports? Why are you obsessed with this thing that little kids do in washes and in bathroom stalls?

The streets are always calling. I try to do it only for shits and giggles. I try to paint only when it’s fun but when you’re off on a bender shit is like a full time job. Your mind is obsessed and your bones hurt. Shit is hard, it’s like trying to smoke crack in moderation or be a social heroin user. Nothing has ever really interested me more or captivated me for longer. Letters are constantly falling out of space and time and sometimes I wish they would stop so that I can get some sleep. You feel the most alive when you are on the edge. You can really taste life in the back of your throat when you’re getting chased by an angry mob of people or are lying down in shrubbery with the police few feet away from you creeping by.

The buffers allow the cycle to continue. If they were to let the streets run with graffiti the novelty would wear off and graffiti would eventually die out and fade away from our consciousness. The act of trying to eliminate and censor graffiti is what makes graffiti thrive. Pure old time subversion mixed with a little new school style and egomania. If the angry shop owners and poor little old ladies with toothbrushes weren’t scrubbing it out during the day we wouldn’t have to come back again and smack it up during the night.

The dance continues, but the censors have an unfair advantage. Every large city has a buff squad that is funded by tax dollars and paints over graffiti. In this society information can only be disseminated if you pay for it, public space is a hot commodity. Someone can easily hand out pamphlets in the streets to disseminate their opinions but their thoughts would, for the most part, be destined for use as birdcage liner or shit tickets for bums. If you write something on the front of a house the residents can’t help but to take notice.

Graffiti is, in theory, an open ended system. If you hade multiple lifetimes and a vast squad of goons you could saturate every surface available with markings. But in reality it’s all about what spots you hit and if you have enough respect not to get your spots ragged out and enough luck and skill to get a few that can escape the eye of the buff squad. Every writer has had something of theirs buffed before they could even see it the next day. Other people have stuff that runs for decades until the sun gets it. The key to getting over in graffiti includes foresight in scouting and also the ability not to think at all and run on pure instinct alone. Instinct is never 100 percent though. You just gotta do what you do.

We ended up getting in to San Francisco early in the morning and wandering down to Lower Haight where the streets were pretty killed. We were all gassed from no sleep and the Greyhound blues and started doing some day tagging when we smelled the familiar smell of Krylon Ultra Flat Black. At first we thought some fools were getting gully and doing paint tags in the street during the height of the day. Really it was an older guy in his fifties who was walking the streets painting over any graffiti on black surfaces with his can of paint. He had no permission from the storeowners and was greeted by only smiles from the same passersby who had been giving us sour looks all day. He carried a digital camera to document the before and after and, I assume, to take pictures of any vandals caught in action. We yelled at him to stop and told him that what he was doing was a crime. He just laughed it off because he knew he was in the ideological majority and offered to take a picture of us. We obliged but covered our faces. This had him a little pissed but we still forced him into our own photo op. I also got a picture of the dude’s license plate and if I had any bit of snitch in me I would send it to the cops. But I guess I can’t be mad. We each have our own side of the coin to hold down. Who says there’s no honor in combat anymore?

KAI1

Spun by Art as Authority at 07:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The following posting germinated out of a forwarded email to Richard Gleaves, fellow Art as Authority contributor, that I received from Mark Vallen's weblog: www.art-for-a-change.com/blog concerning BP's (British Petroleum) recent $25 million dollar donation to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The museum according to Vallen's article, "plans to dedicate a new entry gate and pavilion to the energy Goliath. To be christened the 'BP Grand Entrance', the construction is nothing more than an edifice to big oil and the clearest example yet of the increasing corporatization of the arts in America." Vallen continues by noting, "historically, the largesse of wealthy benefactors has always played a role in the arts, with the names of well-heeled patrons gracing museum wings and collections. But there is something unseemly about naming part of an art museum after a transnational oil conglomerate - especially when considering the increasingly toxic role of oil companies in today’s world. President of BP America, Bob Malone, said the donation represents the energy giant’s 'commitment to the arts' - but scrutiny of the oil-smeared endowment reveals a public relations campaign designed to erase public memory of BP’s dirty doings."

Those "dirty doings" according to Vallen's fact findings, are being settled and paid out in millions of dollars of legal settlements and fees nationwide due to pollution from leaking gasoline storage tanks, smog forming chemicals, a Texas refinery explosion, OSHA violations, pipeline leaks whilst millions of dollars more are being made worldwide through "production-sharing agreements with the host governments, neo-colonial contracts that bypass respective national environmental and social laws and place the overwhelming majority of profits in the hands of BP and its partners" from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to the the Ocensa pipeline in Colombia to present day Iraq.

So, since it is often customary and necessary for several of Art as Authority's contributing editors to make "art runs" up to Los Angeles for a spot of culture and world class exhibitions (uhh .. what's wrong with San Diego? - insert sarcasm) I thought it only appropriate to warn Mr. Gleaves of an impending faux pas and potentially hazardous and sticky - avoiding if you will, a tarring with the same brush - situation. What I got in return was a lesson in perception. (image: John D. Rockefeller satirized in a 1901 Puck cartoon)

ART AND OIL: A TRAGEDY in 5 PARTS (a response to Mark Vallen)

1. The Artist as Hero

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has received $25 million from oil giant British Petroleum (BP), said to be one of the biggest corporate donations to any museum ever. The funds are earmarked for a new "BP Grand Entrance" to the remodeled museum.

But not everyone is jumping on the BP bandwagon. Calling the museum gift a PR maneuver, artist and blogger Mark Vallen reminds his readers that BP has paid out some $125 million in legal settlements for pollution and other environmental violations in California since 2002.

Source: http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/artnetnews/artnetnews3-16-07.asp



2. The Oil Museum

"The misconduct of BP and other oil companies is continually and determinedly exposed through art exhibits, educational forums and public protests mounted by the artist activists of Art Not Oil. It is unquestionably time to establish a similar organization in Los Angeles - either that or get used to calling LACMA 'The Oil Museum'."

Mark Vallen, Art for a Change

Source: http://art-for-a-change.com/blog/



3. A Brief History of Art Museums

- The Getty Museum exists solely because of J. Paul Getty and Getty Oil.

- The Hammer Museum exists solely because of Armand Hammer and Occidental Oil.

- The Gulbenkian Museum exists solely because of Calouste Gulbenkian and (among others) Royal Dutch/Shell Oil.

- The Museum of Modern Art exists in part (1/3 to be precise) because of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Standard Oil.

Source: http://www.google.com



4. The Oil Artist

Mark Vallen
Dia de los Muertos
(Day of the Dead)
2003
Oil on wood panel 11 x 14

Source: http://www.markvallen.com/gallery/vallen1.htm



5. A Koan

Once upon a time a genie appeared in a small village. He went to the village square, set up a table, and began selling bottles of magic potion. A village man approached the genie and asked, "What can this potion of yours do?" And the genie said, "Everything! It will light your lamps at night, power your carts, fertilize your crops. It can be woven into beautiful cloth, and baked into wonderful tools and medicines. Yes, this potion will change your life for the better!"

The villageman was impressed, so he bought two bottles and took them home. And in the following days and nights he discovered the genie was right: lo! the potion did indeed light his lamps, and power his carts, and fertilize his crops. And the villageman's wife used the potion to weave strong warm cloth, and she cooked with it, and made powerful medicines and remedies.

The villageman knew a good thing when he saw it, so he became a regular customer of the genie's, and -- as villagemen are wont to do -- told all the other villagers how his life had changed for the better. Soon the whole village was crowding around the genie's table, demanding as many bottles of potion as they could afford.

The genie grew rich and powerful, and the villagers prospered with him, all from the potion. But the genie soon had a problem: he bottled the potion from a magic spring, and the spring was running low. But because the genie was now rich and powerful, and smart to boot, he simply hired emissaries and sent them far and wide across the land, and soon enough the genie gained control over potion springs on the four corners of the earth.

But by now the world too knew of the magic potion and wanted it for themselves. This posed an even greater problem for the genie: he loved his wealth and power, but knew that if he couldn't keep delivering all the potion that everyone wanted, the people (not to mention the shareholders) would grow angry and rise up against him. So the genie began dealing with thugs, shady persons, and virtually anyone he could find who could help him procure a continuing and ever-greater supply of potion. And thus the genie -- without necessarily meaning to do so -- soon became as corrupt as he was wealthy, and each fed the other until soon the wealth and corruption were together more powerful than the genie himself.

After a few years the potion springs began drying up, and soon disappeared altogether. The villagers of the world, already furious at the genie for the ever-higher prices and limited supplies, stormed the genie's castle and killed him. Then they returned to their villages, where they starved by day and froze by night. Their world as they knew it was ending, and they blamed all their woes on the genie.

Mumon's comment:

Who is to blame: the monster, or the doctor that created it?



A couple of behind-the-scenes facts: ART AND OIL: A TRAGEDY in 5 PARTS (a response to Mark Vallen) was what I received in response to the email, of which the Koan, was part #5. I responded in turn to the question "Who's to blame?" by answering Jeff Koons.

RG: Gleaves responded:
Exactly - we have faced Jeff Koons, and he is us. After I sent the email I realized the Moral is more a Zen koan. The answer is "neither and both", since the monster made the doctor as much as the doctor made the monster.

Or to put it another way: (from Art Not Oil)

Art Not Oil is designed in part to paint a truer portrait of an oil company than the caring image manufactured by events such as the BP Portrait Award, The Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and other 'cultural activities' of the oil multinationals.

Will that be painted in oil? Or acrylic (an oil derivative)?

Or to put it yet another way: reducing complex system phenomena to binary schema will not effectively address the problem. My radical motto: avoid binary thought.

RG: Gleaves followed up with this:
In terms of things petroleum (oil ergo sum), I recalled reading an article in the NY Times a week ago which I think offers at least a glimmer of concrete evidence supporting my assertion of the need for a non-binary approach to the problem: namely, the Silicon Valley guys have been eyeing the oil company profits and thinking about how to do things their way, and for the most part they seem to get the "green" part of the equation.

They may be onto something since the oil guys have essentially built their business around the somewhat-dated practice of digging a hole in the ground, collecting the sticky shit that oozes out, and torching it. Given the right amount of direction and effort, it's possible that digital- and nanotech-based energy production may be able to obsolete this barbaric practice.

Here's the relevant quote from one of the Silicon Valley guys:

He said the entrenched oil, coal and gas companies could not ultimately compete with the more efficient and environmentally friendly concepts Silicon Valley envisions. "The idea of them turning a supertanker is an apt analogy," he said. "They cannot take us over, they can only try to resist."

But I know that even this will not suffice: Silicon Valley itself is notorious for generating a boatload of toxics as a byproduct of hi-tech manufacturing, so if they try to scale their own practices up to world energy production levels, a whole new set of Pandora-like problems will arise and in turn need addressing.

And finally at the top of all this, as firmly as I am embedded (as a comp sci major and employee) in current hi-technology corporate practice, I ultimately have grave reservations about capitalism itself, and wonder if it is ultimately (and unwittingly) designed to eat itself, and us with it.

But all that aside, if a solution can be found I believe/hope it will come from human knowledge and intelligence (not corrupt sociopath Republican war-criminal oilmen), and so am rooting for the Silicon Valley guys (some of whom are probably Republican), if just as a first step back to sustainable societal sanity.

KF: I responded with the following:
I guess I'm begging the question a bit in asking would we be just as happy (meaning LACMA) to get funding from the silicone guys as they would from the oil mongers? Money has no odor as they say? Should the arts always be dependant on wealthy fat balding men from the south to fund them? Can the arts become a "corporate identity"
within themselves? self-reliant and self-sufficient?

RG: And finally, again by Gleaves:
In an absurd sort of way this debate reminds me of the old classist distinction between old money and new money: old money of course being respectable, and new money unavoidably tacky.

To the best of my knowledge no one is making any fuss over these world-class art museums, and the only reason I can see why this is so is because they were founded with old oil not new.

Regarding your last question about the possibility of separating art from evil, during the art run Maura and I were talking about an interesting correlation:

-- The red-hot market for contemporary art the past few years (as exemplified by the art fairs)

-- The red-hot amount of wealth in the hands of the American economic elite (read: the art buyers) due to a) greatly-increased returns on their investment portfolios from petroleum and defense companies feeding off the estimated 400 billion dollars shoveled "into" Iraq (that's how the media always state it: that the money goes "into" the
war, without ever pointing out that almost all of that money comes right back into US corporate coffers and then out again as shareholder dividends; and b) the vast tax breaks acquired in the past 7 years from Bush Administration policy goals being codified as tax law changes.

And now, your thoughts to this discussion - leave a comment below.

For further details and an interesting perspective of oil for money for art please refer to Vallen's Art for a Change weblog and Art Not Oil.

Spun by Art as Authority at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Julien Colombier - Paris, France (friend Erik in photo) - www.myspace.com/mrjulien_c

Spun by Art as Authority at 09:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Armand Lestard lives and works in Paris.

Spun by Art as Authority at 08:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Paul Garon, member and contributor to the Surrealist Movement in the United States, wrote the Surrealist Occupational Index in Arsenal/Surrealist Subversion 2 (1973) which was an attempt to “exceed the colorless array of occupations with which Hatt and North provided their respondents.”

In 1947, NORC (National Opinion Resource Center) conducted the first study of public attitudes regarding the prestige of 90 selected occupations. The study was known as the North-Hatt study.

Interestingly enough, SEI scores were originally calculated by Otis Dudley Duncan based on NORC's 1947 North-Hatt prestige study and the 1950 U.S. Census. Duncan regressed prestige scores for 45 occupational titles on education and income to produce weights that would predict prestige. This algorithm was then used to calculate SEI scores for all occupational categories employed in the 1950 Census classification of occupations. Similar procedures have been used to produce SEI scores based on later NORC prestige studies and censuses. (from the NORC at the University of Chicago website, http://www.norc.org/homepage.htm)

Paul Garon on the other hand, responded with the Surrealist Occupational Index which you'll find below in its entirety.

Surrealist Occupational Index

Twenty years ago, 3000 people rated the “prestige value” of ninety insipid occupations. A sample of the results (the Hatt-North Occupational Prestige Ratings) appears below at the left. One wintry evening we devised our own scale of occupational ratings, intending to exceed the colorless array of occupations with which Hatt and North provided their respondents. It should be noted that the Surrealist Occupational Index (below, at right) is only a fraction of the 200 jobs which we rated; space limitations alone kept toymaker, weight-lifter, bee-keeper and many others off the list.

Hatt-North Scale Surrealist Occupational Index
96 U.S. Supreme Court Justice 99 Copkiller 93 Physician 98 Werewolf 90 Mayor of large city 98 Assassin of Pope 89 College professor 95 Arsonist 89 Scientist 90 Headhunter 88 Banker 88 Bankrobber 87 County Judge 85 Blues-singer 87 Minister 76 Voodoo 86 Lawyer 73 Pirate 86 Priest 70 Hobo 83 Airline Pirate 69 Sword-swallower 82 Sociologist 66 Second-story man 81 Biologist 65 Ohio Hegelian 80 Novelist 64 Rain dancer 79 Economist 60 Pony Express rider 77 Railroad engineer 58 Lighthouse keeper 75 Radio announcer 54 Clown 73 Electrician 53 Snake charmer 72 Undertaker 50 Water-carrier for elephants 68 Insurance agent 48 Skyscraper window-washer 68 Tenant farmer 41 Goblin 67 Policeman 37 Tree-tapper 66 Mail carrier 29 Ventriloquist 65 Carpenter 23 Lemonade vendor 63 Plumber 20 Swineherd 59 Barber 19 Pickpocket 58 Clerk In store 14 Lawsonomist 54 Milkman 4 Ecologist 64 Truckdriver 2 Art critic 49 Coal miner 0 Cop, Priest 49 Taxi Driver 0 Gestalt therapist 48 Railroad Section Hand 0 Politician, Banker 47 Night Watchman 0 President of the U.S. 44 Bartender 0 Capitalist, Military Official 44 Janitor 0 Judge, Scientologist, Scab 40 Sharecropper -5 Pope 34 Street sweeper 33 Shoe Shiner

The inescapable conclusion is that most imaginative occupations, or those which partake ineluctably of the marvellous, are found today only in the circus or in the world of crime. The forces of desire can only rarely be satisfied even remotely by the activities classified as jobs. It is true that the Surrealist Occupational Index inevitably reflects the dominant strains of this epoch. Quite possibly, for example, in a future society, the Hatt North job of electrician would take on a new meaning and rise higher on the scale. On the other hand, such vocations as copkiller, cop or pope, will disappear from the scale as the jobs themselves become obsolete. Moreover, the entire notion of “occupation” is destined to be overthrown, or to wither away, as the proletariat reconstructs society on communist foundations, elaborating a social organization in accordance with the laws of Passional Attraction, announced by Fourier. Then it will be possible to be “cobbler in the morning, gardener in the afternoon, actor in the evening” (Karl Marx), and infinitely more. (from SURREALIST SUBVERSIONS Rants, Writings & Images by the Surrealist Movement in the United States, edittor Ron Sakolsky, published by Autonomedia 2002)



Doing a little bit more research on the prestige rating of occupations, I came across a report by Donald J. Treiman published by Academic Press in 1977 entitled Occupational Prestige in Comparative Perspective, which was a rating of averages between the United States and 60 other Countries in the world and their respective jobs – I think you’ll find this interesting.

Occupation 60 Country Average US
University Professor or Dean 86 82.4 Physician 78 81.5 University Professor 78 78.3 Physicist 76 73.8 Member, Board of Directors 75 71.8 Lawyer 73 75.7 Architect 72 70.5 Dentist 70 73.5 Chemist 69 68.8 Sociologist 67 65 Airline pilot 66 70.1 High school teacher 64 63.1 Clergy member 60 70.5 Personnel director 58 57.8 Artist 57 57 Classical musician 56 55 Social Worker 56 52.4 Journalist 55 51.6 Professional nurse 54 61.5 Secretary 53 45.8 Actor or actress 52 55 Union official 50 41.2 Real estate agent 49 44 Professional athlete 48 51.4 Farmer 47 43.7 Motor vehicle mechanic 44 35.8 Policeman/woman 40 47.8 Railroad conductor 39 40.9 Telephone operator 38 40.4 Jazz musician 38 37.2 Carpenter 37 42.5 Dancing teacher 36 32.3 Firefighter 35 33.2 Sales clerk 34 27.1 Truck driver 33 31.3 File clerk 31 30.3 Assembly line worker 30 27.1 Construction worker 28 26.2 Gas station attendant 25 21.6 Waiter 23 20.3 Janitor 21 16.1 Farm worker 20 21.4 Garbage collector 13 12.6 Shoe shiner 12 9.3

Other facts the study found: OP ratings show that, globally, people agree that higher prestige jobs should be paid more. However, it is not clear whether higher prestige in an occupation causes higher pay, or whether higher pay causes people to rate jobs as having higher prestige. Parsons & the functionalists believe that higher prestige in an occupation causes higher pay. Marx & the conflict theorists believe that higher pay causes people to rate jobs as having higher prestige. Today the “classic” & oldest professions include: doctors, professors, lawyers, & accountants. Many occupations have risen in prestige & pay to be called semi professions, including firefighter, police, veterinarians, etc.
(from http://people.uvawise.edu/pww8y/Reviews/WO/WORev/02RevWOStudyingWorkplace.html#Table%206%20-%202:%20%20Occupational%20Prestige%20Ratings)

I was at least encouraged to see that artists, actors and musicians made it into the 1977 comparison ratings as bonafide occupations, that is from what I could tell from the Hatt-North study of course, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t somewhere down below the 33% mark. Any thoughts as to where artists as a profession rank today in 2007? Or feel free to add to the list or change it.

Spun by Art as Authority at 09:51 PM | Permalink

FEATURING HANDCRAFTED PRINTS BY: Joseph Ari Aloi/JK5, Chaz Bojorquez, Roger Bova, Glenn Brooks, Sean Brown, Buff Monster, John Carr, Robbie Conal, Jared Connor, Josh MacPhee/Counterproductive Industries, Ron Donovan/Firehouse, Doze, Eric Drooker, Dave Ellis, EMEK, Shepard Fairey/OBEY, Peter Claver Fine, Karen Fiorito, Forkscrew Graphics, Manena Frazier, Gary Houston/Voodoo Catbox, Man One, Poli Marichal, David Mashburn, Mear One, John Miner, Bill Pierce, Melina Rodrigo, Artemio Rodriguez, Favianna Rodriguez, Christopher Rubino, Davi Russo, Christopher Ryan, Winston Smith, Roger Spence/Graphonic, Chuck Sperry/Firehouse, Mark Vallen, Kiku Yamaguchi, Zara and more...

Where: House of Love and Dissent, Rome ITALY
When: 4/14/2007
www.loveanddissent.com

www.yowhathappenedtopeace.org

I DID IT FOR DADDY, 2004
Bill Pierce
Silkscreen serigraph, Edition of 200 - 19" x 25"
$40.00

Spun by Art as Authority at 09:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Régent Pellerin lives and works on Orcas Island, WA. These are a series of fashion magazines (complete) with their covers selectively erased, sandwiched under thick pieces of plexiglass and screwed to the wall.

Spun by Art as Authority at 09:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Michael Arata lives and works in Los Angeles.
This image was taken in the gallery in Brussels.

Spun by Art as Authority at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

David Russell Talbott & Dark Vomit aka Kelly Hutchison

Opening: March 10, 2007 - 5pm to 11pm
Fish Out of Water
Weirdo Art Gallery
2925 Lincoln Avenue - SD

Spun by Art as Authority at 10:23 AM | Permalink