I consider it useless and tedious to represent what exists, because nothing that exists satisfies me. Nature is ugly, and I prefer the monsters of my fancy to what is positively trivial. — Charles Baudelaire
There's a certain kind of conversation you have from time to time at parties in New York about a new book. The word "banal" sometimes rears its by-now banal head; you say "underedited," I say "derivative." The conversation goes around and around various literary criticisms, and by the time it moves on one thing is clear: No one read the book; we just read the reviews. — Anna Quindlen
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. — Albert Einstein
Julio César MoralesThe Year of the Diamond Dogs a Hallwalls Artist in Residence Project continuing through December 15 gallery hours: Tues to Fri 11am to 6pm, Sat 1 to 4pm
Read an interview with Susie in today's Buffalo News here.
You Want Candy Orkan Telhan presents: Vendmaster 4000 Sat, Dec 1, 6pm @ HW "Please join us for the public inauguration of Vendmaster 4000, a special model candy dispenser designed as a language game between machines and people. Come and deposit your 25 cents and choose one of our very special flavors ("Korean Skittles", "German Mike and Ike" and "Indian Hot Tamales")... Now, all you need to do is to convince the machine that you can speak well to get your candy. Didn't work? Here is your money back... Play it again please! "...While we are in the midst of developing new intelligences in the form of companion agents, military robots, smart housekeepers or kitchen utensils, we are often not aware of the fact that a new kind of 'other', a stranger is emerging from this machine culture. This is a mute other, a stranger that does not speak, look or behave like the rest of us, but someone who gains more and more presence every day. While most machines embody their prescribed roles in the labor economy, some alter form and function and become alien subjects that remind us the lives and conditions of human others, the immigrants, in their encounter and struggle with their others- the locals, or residents of native cultures..." — Carolyn Tennant, HW Media Arts Curator Orkan Telhan Website
Opening Elsewhere • Thomas Annear, Priscilla Bowe, Robert John Holland, Georgia Trimper, Pragna Hathi Wood opening at Studio Hart Fri Nov 30, 5-9pm • Angela McCormack at College St Gallery opening Fri, Nov 30, 7-9pm (thru Dec) • Moses and Pals at Cosmolpolitan Gallery opening Sat Dec 1, 8pm (thru Jan 5) • Image of the Beholder CLOSING RECEPTION Fri, Nov 30, 8pm • Coni Minneci at Mary & Ralph Wilson Jr. Counseling Center (Cheektowaga) opening Fri, Nov 30, 3-5pm • NCCC Visual Arts Students at NCCC opening Tues, Dec 4, 12:30am—2pm (thru Dec 17) • Alida Fish, Jeannie Pierce, Start Rome at Nina Freudenheim opening Sat Dec 1, 6-8pm (thru Jan 15) • Monica Angleat Nichols School Gallery opening reception Sat Dec 15 2-4pm, exhibition Nov 9 thru Jan 18 • Shelly Niro at UB Art Gallery opening Thurs Nov 29 5-7pm (thru jan 27) • Fall National Exhibition juried by Chris Stangler at Impact Artists Gallery opening Sat Nov 17, 1-4pm • Jackie Felix at CG Jung Center (408 Franklin) opening Fri Jan 18/09, 7-9 pm
Starlight Studio Small Works & Gift Sale
Squeaky Channels @ MAFAC • FREE Sat, Dec1, at 12 noon at the Market Arcade, 639 MAIN STREET • FREE CHANNELS—STORIES FROM THE NIAGARA FRONTIER is Squeaky Wheel’s new production program which matches documentary filmmakers with grass roots initiatives and groups to collaboratively create documentary films about issues that are vital to this community. Squeaky Wheel
Sonic Squeaky
Andrew Hershey at Big Orbit Insatiable or The Wearing Out of the World opening Sat Dec 1, 8—11pm (thru Jan 19)
Artspace Open Studios Nov 30, 5-9pm • Dec 1, 11am-6pm Dec 21, 1am-6pm 2nd Floor: #209: Kate Bae 5th Floor: Brian A. Kavanaugh • Lukia Costello • DNA Jewelry Designs • Thomas Stender Design • Kristin Renee Brandt
Holiday Open Studios and Galleries Fri, Nov 30, 5—9pm Sat, Dec 1, 11am—6pm Sun, Dec 2, 11am—6pm For map and artists' lists, go here.
Continuing Elsewhere (winding down/see em now) • Jax Deluca, John Drummer, Carianne Hendrickson, Paul Nicholson at the Burchfield thru Dec 2 • Carnegie Art Center Members Exhibition thru Dec 8 • Thomas Annear at Olean Public Library thru Dec 29 • Jay Carrier, AJ Fries, Kurt Von Voetsch at the Castellani thru Feb 24 • Art Dialogue Annual Artful Gifts thru Dec 29 • Sherwin Greenberg at the Burchfield thru Jan 6 • Rumsey Winner Exhibition at UB thru Dec 7 • Geraldine Liquidano at 21 Elm St. (E. Aurora) • Diane Baker at Peter and Mary Lou Vogt Gallery/Canisius College thru Dec 7 • Tammy Renee Brackett, Hans Gindlesberger, Wilka Roig at CEPA thru Dec 21 • Matthew Palmo at redFish (E. Aurora) thru Dec 1 • Julian Montague's Stray Shopping Carts at The Light Factory, North Carolina thru Feb 22 • Dave Derner at the Center for Inquiry, Amherst thru Dec 8 • Dorothy Fitzgerald at the Castellani thru Jan 13 • Val Dunne at Betty's thru Jan 6 • Bob Schulman at Globe Market, Chateau Buffalo, Brodo Buffalo Rising • Diane Baker at The Mansion on Delaware (indefinitely)
"How does one become an official sports artist? As in the commercial gallery world, sending in your slides is unlikely to lead to success." artnet I don't think it's me, I think this is actually pretty funny... Yahoo News
"Frank said I could carve in his studio when he wasn't there. But he told me that if he found me painting in his studio, he would cut off my hands..." LA Times
"In a business hungry for the larger than life, this extraordinary pianist, space-cadet musicologist, fluent philosopher, prized eccentric and subtle self-promoter remains catnip of considerable potency." NY Times
"...anticipation has been building. Writers have compared it to Stonehenge and the Mexican pyramids; in Interview magazine Ingrid Sischy once predicted that someday the work “could have more fans than Star Wars.” NY Times
"By my count, there are 400 works of art on these floors, 14 by women. That’s rock-steady at 3.5 percent, and includes the Bridget Riley again. Even if you give MoMA the benefit of the doubt and count only the number of artists on these floors, there are 137—11 of them women. That’s 8 percent." artnet Jerry Saltz
APPLY APPLY APPLY • DEADLINE DEC 1 MARK is the New York Foundation for the Arts’ new six month professional growth program for 80-100 visual artists throughout NY State. The MARK program focuses on providing artists the opportunity to expand their visibility through learning and then applying concrete professional practice skills. Through MARK, artists can expect the opportunity to strengthen their skills in presenting and packaging their art as well as create concrete goals and a personalized plan of action. • MARK is a program for visual artists who want a unique opportunity for individualized focus on the business side of their practice. • MARK runs from January to June 2008. • Four monthly seminars at partnering regional arts organizations across NY State. • MARK culminates in a weekend retreat for all artists in New York City. • Classes focus on strategies for expanding your visibility as an artist. • Curriculum emphasizes goal setting and includes portfolio presentation, grant and project applications and public speaking. • Between seminars, artists will be required to complete assignments related to their goals including email exchanges with MARK artists statewide. • Individual feedback given to all participants.Application deadline: December 1st, 2007. All materials due at NYFA by 5pmProgram Participation Fee: $150 per person There is a one-time fee of $150 per artist selected to participate. THIS IS NOT AN APPLICATION FEE; THERE IS NO APPLICATION FEE; APPLICATION IS FREE. The fee (payable only if you are accepted into the program) covers all seminars, as well as housing during the New York City retreat weekend. It does not cover the cost of travel to New York City for June retreat. MARK Partnering Art Organization Statewide:Please note there is not a New York City site for MARK. The program's focus is on artists who do not live in the 5 boroughs. Each of the four monthly seminars will be scheduled at the following locations. CAPITAL DISTRICT: Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy ROCHESTER: Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, Rochester CENTRAL NY: Central New York Community Arts Council, UticaCENTRAL NY: Chenango County Council of the Arts, Norwich HUDSON: Columbia County Council on the Arts, HudsonFINGER LAKES: Council Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County, IthacaWNY: Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo; WNY ARTISTS CALL 716-854-1694 FOR INFOLONG ISLAND: Huntington Arts Council, HuntingtonQuestions: Please contact Christa Blatchford at 212 366 6900 x 338 or cblatchford@nyfa.org.
Something I listened to this week... The coolest, hippest, baddest mac daddy of them all.
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight... — e.e. cummings
Friday, November 23, 2007
Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine. — Lord Byron I don't believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there's one thing that's dangerous for an artist, it's precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it. — Federico Fellini
In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning. — George Orwell
I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions. — Lillian Hellman, letter to the Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives, May 19, 1952
FYI....Yes, Hallwalls is open today til 6pm and yes, we'll be open tomorrow Nov 24 from 1-4 pm.
Julio César MoralesThe Year of the Diamond Dogs a Hallwalls Artist in Residence Project continuing through December 15 gallery hours: Tues to Fri 11am to 6pm, Sat 1 to 4pm
Jim Finn: La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo (The Shining Trench of Chairman Gonzalo) a Hallwalls Artists in Residence Project Thurs Nov 29 • 8pm @ HW Like a Maoist home movie from the 80's (shot in Hi-8 video in New Mexico) the film explores a day-in-the-life of a Shining Path women's prison cellblock in Peru. After capture, the Gang-of-Four Maoist revolutionaries basically ran their cellblocks as if they were training camps. It follows the inmates organizing classes, marches, criticism sessions, a dance party, and playing scenes from a Navajo-language Macbeth. Heavily researched, the film draws from many sources including video footage from the prisons and interviews with Shining Path militants and their leader Chairman Gonzalo, the former philosophy professor Abimael Guzman. "In a sense the film is a kind of socialist realism film or perhaps a failed propaganda film—one that didn't pass the Shining Path censors," writes Finn. "What has been created is a slightly stylized and fictionalized world based in fact. A women's prison movie without a shower scene, a Latin American guerrilla film without guns, and a Shakespearean drama without the dramatic ending. Though set in the late '80s, a movie about terrorist extremists locked away and forgotten in prison with nothing but their ideology has a relevance that doesn't seem to be fading any time soon." The Films of Jim Finn
Opening Elsewhere • Thomas Annear, Priscilla Bowe, Robert John Holland, Georgia Trimper, Pragna Hathi Wood opening at Studio Hart Fri Nov 30, 5-9pm • Monica Angleat Nichols School Gallery opening reception Sat Dec 15 2-4pm, exhibition Nov 9 thru Jan 18 • Art Dialogue Annual Artful Gifts opening Fri Nov 23 7:30-9pm (thru Dec 29) • 2nd annual Image of the Beholder Art and Film Show at Gallery 141B opening Sat Nov 24 5-9pm (thru Nov 30) • Shelly Niro at UB Art Gallery opening Thurs Nov 29 5-7pm (thru jan 27) • Fall National Exhibition juried by Chris Stangler at Impact Artists Gallery opening Sat Nov 17, 1-4pm • Jackie Felix at CG Jung Center (408 Franklin) opening Fri Jan 18/09, 7-9 pm
Continuing Elsewhere (winding down/see em now) • Jax Deluca, John Drummer, Carianne Hendrickson, Paul Nicholson at the Burchfield thru Dec 2 • Carnegie Art Center Members Exhibition thru Dec 8 • Thomas Annear at Olean Public Library thru Dec 29 • Jay Carrier, AJ Fries, Kurt Von Voetsch at the Castellani thru Feb 24 • Sherwin Greenberg at the Burchfield thru Jan 6 • Rumsey Winner Exhibition at UB thru Dec 7 • The Tapestry Show: Unseen Work from Spain at Kepa3 thru Nov 28• David Fiorello at College St Gallery thru Nov 25 • Prism: One Community, Many Perspectives at el Museo thru Nov 30 • Geraldine Liquidano at 21 Elm St. (E. Aurora) • Diane Baker at Peter and Mary Lou Vogt Gallery/Canisius College thru Dec 7 • Tammy Renee Brackett, Hans Gindlesberger, Wilka Roig at CEPA thru Dec 21 • Matthew Palmo at redFish (E. Aurora) thru Dec 1 • Amanda Wojick at Nina Freudenheim thru Nov 28 • Julian Montague's Stray Shopping Carts at The Light Factory, North Carolina thru Feb 22 • Dave Derner at the Center for Inquiry, Amherst thru Dec 8 • Dorothy Fitzgerald at the Castellani thru Jan 13 • Adele Cohen at Buffalo Big Print thru Nov 26 • Val Dunne at Betty's thru Jan 6 • Bob Schulman at Globe Market, Chateau Buffalo, Brodo Buffalo Rising • Diane Baker at The Mansion on Delaware (indefinitely)
Catching Up 1 Back in August 2006, my friend Lee Goreas had an exhibition of new work at Birch Libralato in Toronto. Lee loves drawing, golf, and absurdity—not necessarily in that order. I wanted to share a few of Lee's art-golf drawings (the exhibition was called Par For The Course)...
Lee Goreas, Beuys Hole, detail of drawing, 2007, photo courtesy the artist
Lee Goreas, Burden Hole, detail of drawing, 2007, photo courtesy the artist
Lee Goreas, Whiteread Hole, 2007, photo courtesy the artist
And here's the artist in 1994, when I exhibited a bunch of his multiple painting series. Behind him, splayed across the most embarrassingly hideous gallery wall in the world, you can see his series of Falling Anvils.
Catching Up 2 Pat McDermott, who exhibited at Hallwalls in 2001, emailed me some images of a recent installation called Tidal Mass in Kingston, Ontario by Don Maynard. Don's statement describes the work thusly: "Tidal Mass, the installation, is constructed of steel armatures and approximately 2,300 eight-foot long used fluorescent light bulbs. The piece is made up of 16 wave platforms varying in size from 8 x 12 feet to 8 x 14 feet. These platforms overlap each other and are illuminated from underneath by hundreds of compact fluorescent light bulbs. The piece occupies 2000 square feet. This massive field appears to float above the floor, filling the space like an illuminated ocean lapping against the walls and the room's support structures." More images from Don's show can be found at flickr.
In Their Solitude I wish i could go to Brussels because this exhibition that David Kramer emailed me about looks pretty good. I've shown David several times stretching back to 1997 and including 2001 at Hallwalls, but the show also includes Dominic McGill who, as part of Standard & Poor, was part of B-List: Brooklyn, Angst and Desire, an exhibition David and I co-curated for Hallwalls in 2003. Also included in this Brussels show are Zhou Xiahou, teen sex by Larry Clark, and early Hallwalls-era Cindy Sherman. In My Solitude
"All our identities are constructed as backward-glancing stories, and, in fundamental ways, we truly are different people at different stages of our lives." Artvoice Ted Pelton
"Perhaps this wasn’t quite what fans had hoped for, but it’s exactly what they had paid their $103.35 (including fees) for: a glimpse of something great." NY Times
"There were extensive conversations about the viability of renting a truck, filling it with rats and dumping them on the White House lawn. There was also an effort to remove all the Andy Williams songs from the Kennedy jukebox and replace them with Otis Redding." NY Times Joe Klein
Mary Walker Philips, Knitter of Art, 1924—2007 NY Times
Dick Wilson, Squeezer of Tissue, 1916—2007 NY Times
Peter Zinner, Cutter of Celluloid, 1919—2007 NY Times
APPLY APPLY APPLY • DEADLINE DEC 1 MARK is the New York Foundation for the Arts’ new six month professional growth program for 80-100 visual artists throughout NY State. The MARK program focuses on providing artists the opportunity to expand their visibility through learning and then applying concrete professional practice skills. Through MARK, artists can expect the opportunity to strengthen their skills in presenting and packaging their art as well as create concrete goals and a personalized plan of action. • MARK is a program for visual artists who want a unique opportunity for individualized focus on the business side of their practice. • MARK runs from January to June 2008. • Four monthly seminars at partnering regional arts organizations across NY State. • MARK culminates in a weekend retreat for all artists in New York City. • Classes focus on strategies for expanding your visibility as an artist. • Curriculum emphasizes goal setting and includes portfolio presentation, grant and project applications and public speaking. • Between seminars, artists will be required to complete assignments related to their goals including email exchanges with MARK artists statewide. • Individual feedback given to all participants.Application deadline: December 1st, 2007. All materials due at NYFA by 5pmProgram Participation Fee: $150 per person There is a one-time fee of $150 per artist selected to participate. THIS IS NOT AN APPLICATION FEE; THERE IS NO APPLICATION FEE; APPLICATION IS FREE. The fee (payable only if you are accepted into the program) covers all seminars, as well as housing during the New York City retreat weekend. It does not cover the cost of travel to New York City for June retreat. MARK Partnering Art Organization Statewide:Please note there is not a New York City site for MARK. The program's focus is on artists who do not live in the 5 boroughs. Each of the four monthly seminars will be scheduled at the following locations. CAPITAL DISTRICT: Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy ROCHESTER: Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, Rochester CENTRAL NY: Central New York Community Arts Council, UticaCENTRAL NY: Chenango County Council of the Arts, Norwich HUDSON: Columbia County Council on the Arts, HudsonFINGER LAKES: Council Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County, IthacaWNY: Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo; WNY ARTISTS CALL 716-854-1694 FOR INFOLONG ISLAND: Huntington Arts Council, HuntingtonQuestions: Please contact Christa Blatchford at 212 366 6900 x 338 or cblatchford@nyfa.org.
Something I listened to this week...
He who learns must suffer, and, even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. — Aeschylus
Friday, November 16, 2007
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. — Anatole France
There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. — George Washington
Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was. — Margaret Mitchell
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next. — Ursula K. LeGuin
Julio César MoralesThe Year of the Diamond Dogs a Hallwalls Artist in Residence Project continuing through December 15 gallery hours: Tues to Fri 11am to 6pm, Sat 1 to 4pm Thanks to Patty Jablonski and Buffalo Beverage for supplying most of the roughly 2,700 bottles that were lovingly washed and crushed by interns Cori, Chung-Yu and Kerry for the greater glory of art.
Thanks to Ellen Ryan and the Carnegie Art Center for the video projector loan.
"The darker tones in The Year of the Diamond Dogs are continually disabled by multiple formal elements that introduce more optimistic textures to Morales’ environment. In this respect, his mining of a key album from the era of Glam Rock is an inspired affectation. Glitter, reflective surfaces, and electric imagery all impart a determined humanist tone, the brash, gleeful voice that will not—or cannot be—ultimately silenced...."
Ras Moshe Quartet Sat Nov 17, 8pm @ HW MySpace Opening Elsewhere • Monica Angleat Nichols School Gallery opening reception Sat Dec 15 2-4pm, exhibition Nov 9 thru Jan 18 • Wyatt Design Holiday Open House Sat/Sun Nov 17/18, noon to 9pm and noon to 6pm (301 Parkside) • Don Keller at Hardware thru Nov 22 • David Fiorello at College St Gallery opening Mon Nov 19 7pm (thru Nov 25) • Prism: One Community, Many Perspectives at el Museo opening Fri Nov 16, 7pm (thru Nov 30) • Fall National Exhibition juried by Chris Stangler at Impact Artists Gallery opening Sat Nov 17, 1-4pm • The Tapestry Show: Unseen Work from Spain at Kepa3 opening Fri Nov 16, 6-9pm (thru Nov 28) • Julian Montague's Stray Shopping Carts at The Light Factory, North Carolina opening thurs Nov 15 (thru Feb 22) • Jackie Felix at CG Jung Center (408 Franklin) opening Fri Jan 18/09, 7-9 pm
I'm always a sucker for the work of Dan Flava Flavin... The Panza Collection: An Experience of Light and Color opening Fri Nov 16, 3—10pm (thru Feb 24/08) Now I See: A Conversation with Artists from the Panza Collection with AK Senior Curator Doug Dreishpoon and catalogue essayist David Bonettiu in the AK auditorium at 7:30 pm Buffalo News
C&C Art Factory at Big Orbit
Inklings of Curtis Curtis Erlinger @ Villa Maria CollegeOpening Fri, Nov 16 • 7-9 pm (thru Dec 14)
The Art of the City: Photographs by Michael Mulley Opening Fri Nov 16, 6pm (thru Jan 2) @ Horisons Gallery, Lower Terrace, WNED, 140 Lower Terrace across from Adam's Mark Hotel
Buffalo Arts Studio Annual Artist Exhibit and Sale opening Sat Nov 17 • 7-10pm (thru Dec 29) including work by Artists featured: Dennis Bertram, Dave Buck, William Y. Cooper, James Cooper, Kara Daving, Betty Pitts-Foster, Ani Hoover, Rob Lynch, Nathan Naetzker, Lila Mandzyk, Devora Primack, Sarah Everett Prochownik, Thomas Rojek, Jennifer Russo, Nancy E. Smith, Rosemarie Sroka, Kurt Treeby, Milton Weiser, Kathleen Sherin, Valerie Dunne, Jo Ann Brenner, Brett Coppins, Bryan Hopkins, Munetaka Ichikawa, Isabelle Pelissier, Amy Robinson Gendrou, Kathi Roussel, Deborah Stewart, Nancy Thayer, Kathi Roussel, Scott Bye, Roberto Pacheco, Adrienne Lynch, William Koch, and Joanna Angie
Continuing Elsewhere (winding down/see em now) • Jax Deluca, John Drummer, Carianne Hendrickson, Paul Nicholson at the Burchfield thru Dec 2 • Carnegie Art Center Members Exhibition thru Dec 8 • Thomas Annear at Olean Public Library thru Dec 29 • Jay Carrier, AJ Fries, Kurt Von Voetsch at the Castellani thru Feb 24 • Sherwin Greenberg at the Burchfield thru Jan 6 • Rumsey Winner Exhibition at UB thru Dec 7 • Geraldine Liquidano at 21 Elm St. (E. Aurora) • Diane Baker at Peter and Mary Lou Vogt Gallery/Canisius College thru Dec 7 • Tammy Renee Brackett, Hans Gindlesberger, Wilka Roig at CEPA thru Dec 21 • Matthew Palmo at redFish (E. Aurora) thru Dec 1 • Amanda Wojick at Nina Freudenheim thru Nov 28 • Dave Derner at the Center for Inquiry, Amherst thru Dec 8 • Dorothy Fitzgerald at the Castellani thru Jan 13 • Don Keller at Hardware thru Nov 22 • Adele Cohen at Buffalo Big Print thru Nov 26 • Val Dunne at Betty's thru Jan 6 • Leah Rico at NCCC thru Nov 21 • Bodgan J. Fundalinski at Artsphere thru Nov 17 • 3rd Annual National Small Works Exhibition at Art Dialogue thru Nov 16 • Joan Linder: The Pink at Mixed Greens (NY) thru Nov 10 • Bob Schulman at Globe Market, Chateau Buffalo, Brodo Buffalo Rising • Diane Baker at The Mansion on Delaware (indefinitely)
"Competitive Bridge World in an Uproar" aka American Grotesque On the same day that I read the fairly important headline "FBI Says Guard Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause," I read a headline that included the phrase "Bridge World in An Uproar," which was just a little too surreal to resist. I had, until now, assumed that we had already sunk (multiple times since 2000) to the orwellian nadir of our desultory twentieth century reality, but you know what happens when you assume things: you get a dose of reality that comes pre-packaged as its own SNL skit. This image/moment gets my vote for the Self-Reflective Banality Award, which is—as I write this—being crafted by artisans into the shape of a warm, steaming turd.
I find this image disquieting. This is not dissent. It's shallow opportunism. Dissent would have been Colin Powell standing up at the United Nations and saying, "You know, this shit is whack. Let's all chill for a sec and think this through." A bunch of smiling bridge divas with blingy medals around their necks and holding up a bigass trophy while tsk-tsking the President, presuming that we care who they voted for...I'm trying to think of what's lamer than "lame." Maybe "comatose" or "unconscious" or "spending way too much time playing bridge."
Of course, I'm not taking into account all those swing voters who are thinking, "You know, I was on the fence about this whole Iraq thing, but if Bush has lost the bridge champions..." And I'm not even trying to be funny about it—I find it genuinely appalling. Touchy feeley liberalism at its absolute worst. We are staring into the abyss...and self-righteous card players are staring back. NY Times
"Driven by the joy of language and quite a bit of humor, Mr. Weiner’s ebullient work asks tough questions about who makes or owns art, where it can occur and how long it lasts. It reminds us that while art and money may have been inextricably entwined throughout most of history, art’s real value is not measured in strings of zeros, high-priced materials or bravura skill, but in communication, experience, economy of means (the true beauty) and, yes, the inspired disturbance of all status quos." NY Times
"I felt like a thunderbolt had hit the back of my head. This was an image of mad America. I was sickened, thrilled and terrified...." artnet/Jerry Saltz
Mail Art Exhibition deadline: Valentine's Day 2008 Mail Art
Something I listened to this week... Wasn't an album week, but an iPod shuffle week, so here's the shuffled music I heard: The Apples in Stereo, Battles, Bright Eyes, Built to Spill, Busdriver, David Bowie, The Dears, electric Six, The Four Corners, Handsome Furs, I'm From Barcelona, Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, The Killers, The Kinks, Lily Allen, MIA, Mew, Rilo Kiley, Slumber Party, Sonic Youth, Sunset Rubdown, Syd Barrett, White Rabbits, Wolf Parade, The Young Knives...
We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. — T.S. Eliot
