Urban Homestead Project
Housing being too expensive in San Diego, I set out to realize my lifelong dream of homeownership by approaching the problem as an art project.
Art as Authority
A contemporary, sometimes historical, art, social, political, blog in and around the art world and its artists. Poetry, litterature, commentary, images, music, books, life... Et aussi, un peu de la culture Française et ses artistes contemporains. A place to come to read, relax and contribute your ideas and projects.
avril 25, 2008
mars 18, 2008
"Childhood's End" - Arthur C. Clarke dies
Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.
-- Arthur C. Clarke
Image of Arthur C. Clarke by Charles Adams, Science &
Society Picture Library, London
There's definitely a part of my adolescence ending with the passing of Arthur C. Clarke today, a mere 90 years of age, such a great loss. I read "Childhood's End" by Clarke in high school, Soquel High (Santa Cruz), English 1B, a class obliged upon those of us who did not fair well enough on the english proficiency exam to be part of English 1A nor in the company of grand literature and scholars. I found myself in a class with other "literary dropouts" that had no desks and only beanbag chairs, a worn out couch and a whole wall of bookshelves heaving with nothing but Science Fiction on them. I thank the stars to this day, and often enough to realize that on that one percise moment in flunking english, I had the opportunity of a lifetime and a whole universe of discovery before me yearning to be read, written by Gods the likes of Clarke, Heinlen, Bradbury, Asimov, Herbert, Vonnegut and many many more for wanderlust mortals like myself. Thank you.
You will be missed.
février 20, 2008
Life in heaven
Microbes live in the clouds: growing, mating, traveling about the planet till they return to earth, riding the rain.
janvier 31, 2008
Towards a Theory of Art
Contemplating the ineffable sublime: the human mind as a virtually infinite state machine, with any given culture mapping only minuscule subsets of the full state space (but different-enough subsets to make anthropology an interesting proposition).
octobre 27, 2007
Architecture of Hope
One of the big surprises of the San Diego wildfires is the instant rise to international fame of Qualcomm Stadium as shelter, haven, and general beacon of humanity for tens of thousands of refugees. Photojournalists the world over descended on San Diego, and their collective photographer's eye discovered a little-known fact: Qualcomm Stadium is in fact a stunning and historically significant piece of mid-century modern architecture.
Tickled by the stadium's proto-Bilbao-esque forms, the photojournalists proceeded to invent a new genre of architectural disaster photography, equal parts Shulman and Salgado. The resulting images carry the story, and they look great.
The irony in this sequence of events is that ever since the city built the new Petco Park downtown, Qualcomm Stadium has been portrayed as a civic white elephant in need of extensive and architecturally fatal multi-use redevelopment. But now that the stadium has received (both in name and in image) an inestimable amount of solid gold international media exposure, any future efforts to bury the existing stadium beneath high-density housing and parking garages will likely be seen as the civic equivalent of tearing down the Statue of Liberty. It will make for interesting media coverage.
Photo credits, clockwise from top left: Robyn Beck (Agence France-Presse); Chris Park (Associated Press Photo); Stan Liu (Reuters); AP Photo.
octobre 17, 2007
Trolley Dancing
Trolley Dances is authentic homegrown San Diego culture: an annual event of site-specific dances linked together by the city's light rail system.
Like San Diego's other indigenous art forms — surfing, sailing, scuba — Trolley Dances is site-specific in a larger sense by happening mostly outdoors, and in environments far less organized and more dynamic than the typical performance hall. As a result, Trolley Dance viewers seeking to optimize their esthetic experience are obliged to work hard at siting themselves, at the risk of just plain missing the show.
At this level of commitment one does not attend Trolley Dances so much as surf it: the crowds are thick, the sight lines few and shifty. You have to plot strategy, keep your eyes open, and stay light on your feet.
octobre 10, 2007
Eye Candy
KAI1 has always known to put his art where his mouth is - many thanks! KF
septembre 21, 2007
Hardware Porn
Today's national news reports that a 19-year-old MIT student was arrested at Logan International Airport for wearing a circuit board with blinking LEDs on her sweatshirt. She told authorities it was an artwork.
This event, taken together with the digital graffiti scare from earlier this year, firmly establishes digital circuitry as a symbol of terror in the American visual lexicon. Which is deeply ironic given that under their smooth plastic covers every cellphone and iPod in America carries the very same circuitry and blinking LEDs.
iPods are to Big Macs as bare naked electronics are to blood-spattered cow intestines: both cross-relations involve deep consumer ignorance and denial. So when one encounters the real thing in public, the response is likely fear.
août 29, 2007
Sergio Ramirez
Artist, illustrator, gentleman, finisher of the big course. Fare well.
août 09, 2007
juillet 15, 2007
SUBSTITUTION 2007
NOTE: below is the original posting of the SUBSTITUTION project I've been working on for several years. I published the results of 2006 here and didn't think much about doing a 2007 edition until now. One of the original artists who participated, Francis Bekemans from Gent/Gand Belgium, sent me his 2007 response spontaneously without me asking - thank you very much - that has since inspired me to lance a 2007 version. I encourage you all to participate, have fun and don't take it too seriously. You can leave your responses in the comment section at the bottom of this page. So, Instead of making art... what do you do?
I began a project several years ago entitled Substitution, which until now, was never completed. I asked several artists to complete the following sentence: “Instead of Making Art I ___” (Au lieu de faire de l'art je/j'ai ___ ) by filling in the blank. The idea was taken from a conceptual art project of the same name, by the artist Frederick Barthelme in the 1970's. He had at the time, sent the same question to artists and friends via letters and the beloved fax machine. By doing so, Barthelme cast his question in a bottle into a sea of responses. I've not seen many of the original answers he received in return and would hope that they're compiled somewhere in an anthology of conceptual art.
I’ve always had a great interest in this type of art, a soft spot for Dada & Surrealism, and word/text art in general. I liked the simplicity of Barthelme’s project and decided to do a "cover", so to speak, of his project by updating it by 21st century standards in using the communication technology of today – email. I emailed the artists participating the exact same question and encouraged them to use other technics such as digital images, animations, graphics etc. as a way of answering. The only rule (hardly) was that the responses remain virtual, no printed or hard copies were accepted.
I hope you'll discover a variety of responses that are surprising, that are often very candid, and often times are very funny but nonetheless worthy of further discussion and investigation into what artists do with their FREE time when not making art. If such a thing could be possible... I also encourage you to leave your own comments as to what you do or don't do, when not working as an artist. Enjoy!
juin 25, 2007
Recommended viewing - "Against the Wall"
aka Quality of Life
For more information and to order, go to http://www.qualityoflife-themovie.com/
Also available on Netflix under the title "Against the Wall"
mai 23, 2007
A Fair(y) Use Tale
If the traditional avant-garde suffered a fatal commoditization from the one-two-three punch of a taboo-free liberalized society, a cultural fetish for novelty, and advanced real-time marketing, then the neo-avant-garde thrives by simply flouting the law: specifically the victimless laws of defacement and theft: aka graffiti and copyright infringement.
The irony here is that the same radical advances in information technology that are rendering tagging an ever more problematic practice (due to the remote monitoring of private and public space) are simultaneously creating a golden age of infringement (due to the ready availability of technology for capturing, manipulating, and distributing digital information).
Expect these two neo-avant-garde practices to merge in the future, as taggers discover the virtual new worlds. And expect the most skilled and visionary practitioners to display legal virtuosity in skirting not flouting the law:
mai 10, 2007
Rothko as Meme
The Rothko in room 623 of the La Jolla Sheraton Hotel is in fact a second-order derivative: an oversized giclée print of a Rothko knockoff. Oversized here refers not to the knockoff - Rothko's paintings being even bigger - but rather to the size of the print in the hotel room: the effect being more Magritte than Ab-Ex.
The image is printed on an inkjet-friendly canvas which in turn is mounted on a stretcher bar to simulate the object-like quality of an actual painting. The canvas on the sides of the object is printed in black. The object is securely fastened to the wall - it cannot be moved or removed without the use of tools.
In the photo above, the color on the right side of the object is washed out by reflected light. While this is partly a result of the camera flash, the effect is also distinctly visible in normal room lighting. This reflectivity is a product of the glossy ink and canvas used in the giclée process: it creates a subtle glass-like sheen on the surface of the image, effectively eliminating the illusion of atmospheric depth that is key to the visual power of a Rothko. The object thus fails as a Rothko imitation.
Careful study of the photo - in particular, of the gap between the ceiling molding and the top of the object - reveals that the object has been hung at a slight angle, with the left side being lower than the right. This is not a photographic artifact - it is distinctly visible to viewers in the room. Though not obvious in the photo, there is an apparent logic to this noncanonical orientation: the two horizontal bars in the image tilt slightly to the right, so by hanging the object itself to tilt slightly to the left, the bars achieve true horizontality relative to the room.
Rothko-esque imagery is a visual motif in the hotel: the second photograph is a detail of the paper card that guests leave on their bed to request new sheets.
Careful study of this photo reveals a decidedly nonRothko-esque pattern of spirals in the blue area of the image. Possible interpretations of this pattern include (but should not be limited to) allusions to textiles, or perhaps to the maritime component of the signature La Jolla sublime.
avril 24, 2007
Printable Cold Sores
Sometimes there's a need for words, and sometimes a need for action. From the Adventures in Geek Graffiti blog - Printable Cold Sores.
Nowhere in advertising is the gap between natural beauty and manufactured perfection more apparent than on subway posters. As we wait for transportation, we are unwillingly assaulted by larger-than-life representations of supposedly beautiful salespeople. The large scale of these ads and their extremely close proximity to the viewer offer up more than perceived intimacy, however... they give us the chance to see the mechanical flaws designed to correct their physical flaws.More...
avril 02, 2007
I really want to see you Really want to be with you Really want to see you lord But it takes so long, my lord My sweet lord...
More to come...
mars 20, 2007
Art and Oil: A Tragedy in 5 Parts
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)
mars 09, 2007
Yo! What Happened to Peace?
An Exhibition of Peace/Anti-War
/Anti-Occupation Posters
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
I DID IT FOR DADDY, 2004
Bill Pierce
Silkscreen serigraph, Edition of 200 - 19" x 25"
$40.00
février 28, 2007
Can you spot the differences?
The Iraq Series are powerful and obstreperous - new word I learned today - images from Forkscrew Graphics. Proof once again that if your honest in the making of your work as an artist, and you believe in your message, the appeal and recognition will be universal. Apple is trying to sell you an iPod, the government is trying to sell you a war - who is the more (dis)honest? The most interesting works of art have always been those who have reflected and transformed our view of the world. www.forkscrew.com
Forkscrew encourages you to "Download it. Propagate it. Get involved. And then do something else all your own. We don't give a fuck."
janvier 10, 2007
KAI1 - Lookin' good in Tucson
As the Santa Ana winds are burning up beach front property in Malibu, Arizona winds are stirring up (once again) controversy (won't they ever learn that graffiti is ART) by none other then our contributing writer to Art as Authority and good friend, KAI1. Damn we're proud! Check out more below. There's also a lexicon for you graffiti newbies. Article by Ashley Houk and the Tucson Weekly. KF
Tagging Tales
A night inside Tucson's street-art community
The sweet, acidic smell of spray paint surrounded us like a cloud. Two graffiti artists--"Kai" and "Exit" are their tag names--made letter outlines for their bombs, large names and graphics, in a 30-foot-wide wash under the midtown Padre Kino statue. More
Bomb: A bigger name or graphic, often with two or three colors of paint. More
Tucson Crews (so you know what that tag stands for) More
janvier 06, 2007
La Cage aux Ours - Bear cage
As you might recall, the gallery in Brussels was situated at the corner of a rond-point. In most cities in America and abroad, areas designated as parks or thoroughfares or even major intersections and the town square are typically named after some famous war hero, general, president or "illustre inconnu" - my rond-point was no exception. However, as you'll discover in the following article by Paul Simonetti, the rond-point once named after a rather famous Belgium painter, Eugène Verboeckhoven, and was nicknamed otherwise during a rather heated race between the incumbent mayor of Schaerbeek and his political foe. The paintings shown are by Eugène Verboeckhoven; no, Dumbo is not to be found anywhere in the work.
janvier 01, 2007
Adventures in Multimedia Spam
Last spring the unsolicited magazine gods began mailing me free monthly copies of Ranch & Coast, "San Diego's Luxury Lifestyle Magazine."
For persons outside the target demographic, R&C makes for fierce entertainment: it's glossy, beautifully designed, and filled with ads and articles broadcasting the obsessions of the nouveau riche: real estate, travel, fine dining, kids, fashion, fast cars, and above all, all possible means -- whether surgical, physical, or spiritual -- of attempting to regain one's lost youth.
In short: a good read, with the occasional delicious tilt into sublime moments of absurdist horror.
After receiving a few issues I decided to reciprocate the publisher's generosity by deriving simple (i.e., uni- or dual-element) digital collages from the pages of each issue, and emailing them to the R&C editor. Artwork as payment: a time-honored barter.
Some of the less easily identifiable collage sources include a Corvette review, a high-tech leakproof silicone breast implant, a blonde bouffant hairdo with dark roots, a computer-spell-checked article showcasing a fifteen-acre ranch estate, a New Year's-in-Rio panorama, Breakfast With Shamu, and an article on teeth-whitening.
décembre 17, 2006
Window Talking
"Carmen is in Paradise" (my Mom, Carmen, had passed away several months before)
The gallery in Brussels was located in a predominately residential neighborhood and located at the corner of a "rond-point" or roundabout, basically a rather busy intersection where many folks would take the tram or bus to go downtown. I'm not quite sure how it got started, I believe my friend and writer Paul Simonetti, suggested one day that we start writing phrases on the window of the gallery that faced and ran parallel with the tram tracks. We quickly realized that we literally had a captive audience, since the tram almost always slowed down when navigating the roundabout. Here are just a few excerpts from a month long - we changed the slogans daily, installation of basic communication.
"Another fuschia that has disappeared" (I had a terrible time keeping plants of any kind planted before they grew legs - it didn't help)
décembre 09, 2006
Mindshare
novembre 14, 2006
The Death of Contemporary Art
While awaiting the opening of a new space for the exhibition of American and European artists, after just moving to Paris in 1994 and the closure of my gallery in Chicago (the Abel Joseph Gallery), I started a transatlantic journal of art - sort of like your modern day blog - that would allow me to continue to work with and expose the artists I had been working with in Chicago, and to find new ones in France and Europe.The name of the journal was La Lettre d'Abel - litterally "Abel's Letter" which was entirely typed, designed and photocopied by hand with each issue featuring a guest artist cover. Each issue was limited to 50 copies. It was an enormous amount of work, a true labor of love, that produced some interesting results. La Lettre d'Abel is no longer in production, perhaps it will someday see another edition run, but for the time being here is a sample of an essay written by Ron DeLegge - formally of Skokie, Illinois who now lives in my neck of the woods in Carlsbad, CA. The essay was written in 1998 as an insert to the fifth edition of La Lettre d'Abel (cover by Illinois artist Susie Brandt), modeled after the popular "Series Noires" of crime novels, mysteries and who dunnits in France. I will from time to time, post excerpts from the various letters for you're reading and visual pleasure.
octobre 19, 2006
Graffiti - the Incurable Disease (thankfully)
KAI1, young graffiti artist, U.S. made joins the editorial staff at Art as Authority (we just keep getting better and better) with his first essay on the present state of graffiti and its incurable future. We welcome KAI and look forward to a long and painted journey with him. KF
Graffiti has infected hearts and minds throughout the world, whether you love it or hate it we cannot turn back now. Wherever there is a blank wall and a kid (or adult) with a can of paint graffiti will emerge. Graffiti is a manifestation of the build up of feelings and oppressions brewing inside of all human beings. The participants on the illegal side of the graffiti contest bridge all barriers including race, class, age and gender. The people who are cleaning up graffiti are not as varied – they are usually middle aged folks who don’t understand why the kids keep writing on their walls. But the real actors in the game of graffiti can be anyone.
Continue reading "Graffiti - the Incurable Disease (thankfully)" »
octobre 05, 2006
The Greatest Show on Earth
Ryan Campbell
"The Greatest Show on Earth," 2006 - mixed media
septembre 11, 2006
"We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth" - John F. Kennedy
*in case we do
°°° °°° °°°
In the lobby of 7 World Trade Center: David M. Childs, left, the architect; Larry A. Silverstein, the developer, with his wife, Klara; and Jenny Holzer. Photo: Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
I found an interesting article in the New York Times today, while I googled "artworks destroyed by 911", about contemporary artist Jenny Holzer who has recently installed in the lobby of the new 7 World Trade Center, a moving wall of words.
Already, thousands of moving, ghostly-white words of text have been programmed by Ms. Holzer evoking the history of New York; they will scroll across a glowing, 65-foot-wide, 14-foot-high wall in the lobby of 7 World Trade Center. ... The artwork — a continuing stream of poetry and prose written by dozens of different authors, from Elizabeth Bishop and Allen Ginsberg to Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman — will move along a screen made of acid-etched, diffused, translucent glass illuminated by whitish light.
septembre 09, 2006
W. Haase Wojtyla: A Coincidence of Paintings @ Oceanside Museum of Art
According to the exhibition catalog, W. Haase Wojtyla was born in Chicago in 1933. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1952 to 1954, left Chicago for New York in the mid-1950's, and earned his M.A. from the University of Cincinnati in the early 1960's before returning to New York in 1967. He moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico with his wife and child in 1970, left Mexico in 1973 for San Diego, CA where he has been living and painting for the last 30 years. Wojtyla was included in several prestigious shows while in Chicago, notably the Exhibition of Chicago and Vicinity in 1956 and the Momentum Exhibition of the same year, an alternative exhibit in reaction to what was thought to be unfair politics and exclusion of those students desiring to participate in the Vicinity show. Wojtyla was also part of Art in America's New Talent in the U.S. survey of 1957 which included the likes of Helen Frankenthaler and Ellsworth Kelly. The current exhibit at the Oceanside Museum of Art, Ca is the largest retrospective of Wojtyla's paintings in over ten years.
Continue reading "W. Haase Wojtyla: A Coincidence of Paintings @ Oceanside Museum of Art" »
juillet 04, 2006
Metacomedies of similarity
Figure 1: Electrical resistance (110 volts)
Figure 2: Gravitational acceleration (60 feet)
Figure 3: Irradiation (10 minutes, with control)
Figure 4: Combustion (sequence)
Figure 5: Immersion (2 days, with control)
Figure 6: Liquefaction (sequence)
To interpret a work is to be committed to a historical interpretation of the work.
-- Danto, Beyond the Brillo Box
Source imagery: The Twinkies Project
juin 25, 2006
Abstraction and anti-abstraction
Abstraction in art traditionally refers to nonrepresentational art. But in informatics it refers to a more generalized process of complexity reduction which is used in all domains of art and life.
juin 12, 2006
The Designated Voyeur
Richard Gleaves joins the editorial staff at Art as Authority. This is his first essay. We wish him "bon vent" and many articles to come. KF
The following images are commercial advertisements from recent mainstream publications (both print and online). The three exceptions - a 16th-century painting, vintage comic strip panel, and contemporary pornograph - are from art/performance web sites and John Berger's classic book Ways of Seeing.
The images share a common image schema, and the schema itself begs several questions regarding its apparent absurd meaning, its function, and above all its cultural persistence. For lack of a better term, the schema is called The Designated Voyeur.
juin 01, 2006
Working Together
I was up in Costa Mesa, California the other night for the opening of Collabro at the Subject Matter Gallery. I took the hour long ride or so up there with my good friend Ryan from The Art of Framing gallery here in San Diego. Subject Matter is not really a "gallery" in the strict sense of the word or what comes to mind when we think of a gallery.
mai 04, 2006
OH WHERE, OH WHERE HAVE THE GALLERIES GONE (PORTRAIT OF A STRUGGLING ARTIST IN SAN DIEGO)
Question#1: Where is the most obvious place for a family to move after enduring numerous years of depressing cold and rainy weather?
Answer: Sunny, Southern California.
Question#2: If you had to choose between smoggy, traffic congested LA or San Diego's cleaner, (if I didn't attach the "er", I'd be lying) get anywhere in roughly 15 minutes or less (well, most of the time) living, which city would you pick?
Answer: Almost 20 years ago, my answer was San Diego. And yes, I must admit, it was great raising a family here.
BUT,... what about ME, a struggling artist trying to establish myself in the art world? FAT CHANCE HERE, I say! I have seen art galleries come and go here like popsicles in the desert heat. Where are they when you REALLY need them? I can say from experience, you get your hopes up, envision your art on the cover of a future issue of Art In America when a fresh, new gallery takes you under their wings. "I have high hopes for you," they say. You get favorable reviews by the art critic. You have show after show. Even sell some art! "Wow", you say. Life is starting to look good. Wait a minute!.... I can feel the heat. The gallery is getting a FEVER. Oh, No! It DIED!! along with some unreturned even damaged paintings, owed $$$, and the high hopes of the many artists it stabled.
The above is a sad story for aspiring artists. But it is all too true here in San Diego. Galleries that showcased local emerging artists have closed, leaving just a very small handful of "closed door policy" (you know what I mean!) galleries left showing works by ONLY established artists.
What is going on here?? Can we bring back the galleries??? What does it take?? Who is collecting contemporary art here???? Are there ENOUGH sophisticated, cultured, and art-plugged people living in San Diego??? Do people here ONLY care about the Padres, retirement homes, or beach blanket bingo????? Will there be any feedback/comments on my story?????, I wonder.
In summary, 20 years later, my answer to Question#2: Neither.
And advice to young emergers.. Get your work out, out, out of San Diego, into cities that are "art friendlier". It's not difficult to do, if you have your he[art] in it.
avril 15, 2006
La Nouvelle Cuisine
avril 06, 2006
Library Opening in Duesseldorf
Dear Friends,
The Library, not unlike a museum, is a place full of history.
As we enter into such institutions we re-author our history with each visit. Everyone contributes to the interpretation of our culture whether it comes from a document, book, or painting. The discourse with history enables us to prevent its repetition.
Unfortunately many stories fall by the wayside. The mere fact of ignoring or forgetting past events is an invitation for them to rear their ugly heads again.
We have entered into such a phase again where past lessons could have prevented recent problems. In particular we are living in a time governed by fear. Fifty years ago we felt the same way. Bomb shelters were built books were burned and people were convicted for thinking differently. Presently we have all conformed to the new worries, with terrorism and loss of security being the protagonist. We patienty wait in line for our next security check. We offer no resistance as our lines of communication are being tapped. We resign to this state of paranoia as a coping mechanism to the daily dose of fear shoved into our life.
The Joe McCarthy Memorial Library is not a tribute to a celebrated life. It is a subtle reminder of the fears he sold and how we have fallen victim to them again. Explore the Library and its glow in the dark archives in person in Duesseldorf on April 21st at 8PM or on the World Wide Web @ www.e-sinom.com/mccarthy/mccarthy.htm
Thanks
James Renier
avril 02, 2006
Listen with both ears
James Renier has joined the editorial team at Art as Authority. This is his first contribution. Thank you James, we look forward to more.
Perhaps it is a good
idea to be politically engaged. We have many choices as fellow citizens. However, nothing seems to be more deliberately ignored than our right to be political. If it is taboo discussion at family gatherings, parties, church, therefore, where can we be political? Bus-stops? mail boxes? Billboards? Obviously our venues have become limited by our culture. Give up? or find another model.
I listened to Bruce
Nauman answer the question Why his work was not more political? After a long
drawn out pause he carefully answered all his work was political he simply
chose not to use the names Bush and Blair. I found the response perfect and
fitting but we are stuck again with the problem. Unfortunately, the journalist
asking the question did not get the fact that the work was political. On a second viewing/listening to the installation at the Tate Modern it became impossible to hear the work as anything but political.
Is this the solution?
Implant the idea via suggestion and make others begin to think things are
politically charged? Obviously this tactic has worked for getting the taboo
topic of SEX still integrated into the heads of every party goer.
Now, is there a benefit
when a larger public becomes politically involved?
mars 21, 2006
WAR, Part II
year anniversary of the war in Iraq, some prefer to see it as the three year anniversary of the Liberation of the Iraqi peuple, others still would prefer not to have seen it all – war that is. A civil war now in the making?, this apparently remains to be seen or announced officially, by the US government. With 30,000 Iraqi civilians (dead) since the liberation started in March of 2003 and 2,500 coalition forces (killed), it is indeed difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel and not the end of a long barrel pointed in your direction. Alas, this is war we’ve been told and lives we’ll be lost and sacrifices made. The President has promised to protect Americans at home and abroad [against terrorism], his number #1 priority and the thing that keeps him up at night. He has a plan and a strategy he says, otherwise he wouldn’t have put the troops in harms way. And so do we as artists, here at home and abroad, have a strategy? a plan of attack? to counter, to protest the spread of a Trojan Horse Democracy, put upon other foreign nations for the good and the ills of each country in the hopes of global peace and the end to terrorism?
mars 17, 2006
15 Minutes or Life Imitates Art
Well, I guess Andy is right afterall. Everyone does get a chance at 15 minutes of fame. I can say this with whole hearted conviction because it happened to me, except that I still have a credit for 14 minutes and 45 seconds coming to me. You might be wondering who this handsome fellow is pictured here, well this is Chris Daughtry from McLeansville, NC and also from American Idol fame. Does he remind you of anyone? No?, well he should. That's me !! Well, sort of, well it's not me really but it sure looks like me. Check it out. Not convinced? well, the other day in the gallery as I was going about my business I had a young couple with two kids say to me as they were heading out the door, "You know, you look a lot like that guy on American Idol". Luckily, I did know of whom they were speaking. I replied, "thank you" blushing a bit around the ears, shyly flustered and embarrassed by my new found (OUT) fame. They left and I was a STAR (rising). If only it had lasted longer, I just purchased a new Sharpie...
mars 13, 2006
WAR, what is it good for? Absolutely NOTHING!
After 300 pages of gallery ads and publicity in a 324 page art revue, it left enough pages for 4 articles of which one was about the “Peace Tower” of 1966. If you haven’t guessed yet which art magazine I’m referring to, I’ll give you a hint: ARTFORUM. $8.00 for an art magazine that is the size and weight of a year end fashion roundup by Vogue. The following is a resume of the article in the March 2006 issue of ARTFORUM entitled Peace Tower - Irving Petlin, Mark di Suvero, and Rirkrit Tiravanija revist The Artists' Tower of Protest, 1966 Introduction by Jeffrey Kastner Photo collage - Charles Brittin, Dan Budnik, Newsweek Magazine
In 1966 “The Artists’ Tower of Protest” – or commonly referred to then as the “Peace Tower” – was erected in a West Hollywood neighbourhood lot at the corner of La Cienega and Sunset Boulevard. According to its founding member, Irving Petlin and the subsequent activist coalition he formed – Artists’ Protest Committee (APC) – the tower was erected as a
galvanizing symbol of dissent aimed at a government whose constant use of force and irresponsible tactics, as an APC broadside charged, undermined the role of international bodies the US had itself helped create, while acting to weaken and make hypocritical our struggle for freedom at home. Jeffrey Kastner, ARTFORUM
The Peace Tower’s builder was Mark di Suvero, the time is the war in Vietnam.
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février 28, 2006
Happy Fat Tuesday - Joyeux Mardi Gras OR
my "LA" woman
Les Gilles de Binche - Belgique
Les Gilles de Binche - City of Binche, Belgium
Photo courtesy of Le carnaval de Binche vu par
30 photographes par 30 photographes et Patrick Haumont