If the storm within gets too loud, I take a glass too much to stun myself.
— Vincent van Gogh

If you are vain it is vain to sign your pictures and vain not to sign them. If you are not vain it is not vain to sign them and not vain not to sign them.
— Fairfield Porter

Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.
— George Sand

Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe.
— Kurt Vonnegut




Current Hallwalls Exhibitions
on view thru April 5
Tues to Fri 11am to 6pm, Sat 1 to 4pm


Christina West: Shadows and Fog


Here is the Artvoice cover story on Christina West by Lucy Yau.
Christina West Website


Tommy Becker: Tape Number One


Here is Lucy's review of Tommy Becker.
Tommy Becker Website

John Bacon Ensemble

Friday, March 28 @ 8 pm

$10 general admission, $6 members/students/seniors

Eyes and Ears: Sound Needs Image Part II

Sat. April 5 @ 8pm $8 / $6
Live performance of video and film scores, co-curated by Joanna Raczynska and Will Redman. The evening features commissioned moving image works by artists Bruce Checefsky. Sara Hornbacher, Caroline Koebel. Hollie Lavenstein, Stephanie Maxwell, and Zach Poff with performances by the Open Music Ensemble and special guests. Made possible by a major grant from The New York State Music Fund. Open Music Ensemble: Otto Muller, Josh DeScherer, Chris Reba, Will Redman, Steve Baczkowski, JT Rinker, Todd Whitman, Bill Sack�
Hallwalls Media Arts


Opening Elsewhere
• Mark Lavatelli at Insite opening Fri, Mar 28, 7-9pm (thru Apr 20)
• TRIMANIA Sat night at the Tri-Main
• James and Catherine Koenig at Meibohm Fine Arts (East Aurora) opening Fri, Mar 28, 6-9pm (thru April 26)
• Jonathan Rogers at Gateway Studio (141 Elmwood), Fri, Mar 28, 8pm
• Sam Francis at UB Anderson Gallery, opening Sat, Mar 29, 6-9pm (thru May 25)
• Tim Raymond, Elizabeth Davis closing reception at College Street Gallery, Sun, Mar 30, 2-5pm
• Robert Swain at Nina Freudenhem opening Sat, Mar 29, 6pm (thru May 14)


Walter Ungerer Retrospective @ Squeaky Wheel

Friday, March 28, 7pm(artist reception) 8pm(screening)
Squeaky Wheel, 712 Main Street $6/$4 members
(artist reception free!)


James Paulson: Corrupted Affinites

Closing Reception TONIGHT Fri, Mar 28, 8—11pm


Dennis Dehart

Opening Fri, Mar 28, 5-7pm @ Studio Hart (thru May 9)


Continuing Elsewhere
• Everyday Splendor at the Carnegie thru April 5
• Eric Jensen at NIchols School thru May 5
• Jennifer Steinkamp at the Albright thru June 29
• Peter Fowler at Kepa3 thru Apr 5
• Edollia at Quaker Bonnet thru Mar 31
• Diane Baker at Globe Market thru May 31
• Elizabeth Leader at CG Jung Center thru May 23
• Chris Stangler at Insite thru April 20 Buff News Dabkowski review
• Women's 2008 Spring National Exhibition at Impact Artists Gallery thru Mar 29
• The Myriad Manifestations of Mail Art curated by Becky Moda at NCCC thru Apr 18
• Douglas Repetto Colin Dabkowski review Artvoice Albert Chaoand Shadi Nazarian at Ub Art Gallery thru May 17
• Art Dialogue Annual Juried Members Exhibition thru Apr 25
• Queen City Gallery First Anniversary Party with New Work by Michael Mulley thru Apr 30
• Dave Buck, Thomas Kegler at the Kenan Center thru Apr 23
• Junjie Yoo At UB Dept of Visual Studies thru April 10
Roberley Bell: Becoming Blurred at Pentimenti (Philadelphia) thru April 12
• Tim Raymond at College Street Gallery thru March 30
• Kurt Treeby at the Castellani thru April 20
• William Cooper at Starlight Studio & Gallery thr Apr 25
• Autistic Services Emphasis on the Arts at B. West (141B Elmwood) thru Mar 30
• Jeffrey Swalnik at the JCC (787 Delaware) thru Apr 23
• Courtney Grim at Olean Public Library thru Mar 29
• MIchael Rogers and Jack Wax at the RoCo thru Apr 6
• Bruce Jackson at CDS/Duke University thru April 6
• Diane Baker at The Mansion on Delaware (indefinitely)


Sure, I really want an iPhone, but it can't mix a highball...
I challenge anyone to show me something they've purchased so far in 2008 that tops Ani Hoover's savvy acquisition of this consumer electronic/alcohol product with faux fireplace. No word on whether it came with a red velvet robe. As Hoover told me, "Clearly, this is one of the best purchases I have ever made..."



Your Guide To Aggressive Common Sense
For the next several weeks, we'll continue to work our way through the alphabet and consider some definitions extracted from The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense by John Ralston Saul. We're up to the letter G...

GOD
Either God is alive, in which case he'll deal with us as he sees fit. Or he is dead, in which case he was never alive, it being unlikely that he died of old age.

If God has always been a figment of our imagination, then, given organized society's distrust of the imagination, he must probably have been created for a reason. At best this figment was probably intended to provide us with a shared ethical relationship. At worst it was just an excuse for a small group of clerics to wield power in the name of an invisible person who could not interfere.

By acting as is he were dead without settling upon an existential alternative, we have invited a reign of negative confusion. This has encouraged charlatans and opportunists to propose complete replacements; that is, ideology.
The best way to avoid such confusion and the resulting exploitation is to ensure that God is replaced (if we are assuming that he never existed) not by a theory or a dialect or market forces or structure but by a generally agreed-upon ethical relationship.

That, interestingly enough, is the central purpose of democratic society. The citizen has trouble remembering this because the ideologues and specialists who win power keep telling us that ethics, although worthy, are naive. Who can blame them? Like all priests whey want to be God and failing that to speak for him without the interference of free-standing values.


"These works often resemble Home Depot displays, architectural fragments, customized found objects, ersatz modernist monuments, graphic design or magazine layouts."

artnet Saltz


"While many elements seem to arise from an instinctive, quasi-primitive intuition, other parts suggest a more intellectually sophisticated play with the codes of Modern painting."

NY Times Ken Johnson



"As a countermove, Estenger's sculptures made of sheetrock with sporadic cumshots of white spackle amount to a dry-humping of Judd from a same-sex perspective."

artnet Finch


“The sadism of that character, the fearful laugh, the skull showing through drawn skin, and the surely conscious evocation of a concentration-camp degenerate established Widmark as the most frightening person on the screen...”

NY Times


"In the late 1950’s, he brought another breakthrough to Latin music with descargas: late-night Havana jam sessions that merged Afro-Cuban rhythms, Cuban songs and the convolutions of jazz. The mixture of propulsion and exploration in those recordings has influenced salsa and jazz musicians ever since."

NY Times


Neil Aspinall 1942—2008

NY Times


Something I listened to this week....

Okay, I take no joy in telling you that Bob Dylan painted this suckass album cover for Self Portrait himself but that sorry fact aside, do not be dissuaded. This 1970 album, poorly received at the time (the vaunted Greil Marcus, proving that we're all prone to myopia, opened his Rolling Stone review with the words "What is this shit?"), is a gorgeous country record with original songs, as well as covers of songs by Gordon Lightfoot, Simon & Garfunkel, Elmore James, and Rogers & Hart. 24 songs in total and I can't find even one boner. Splendid singing on Dylan's part. Yes, a sea change from some of the material Dylan released just a few years earlier, but then again, that's another thing I love about it. Along with John Wesley Harding and his sublime soundtrack to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Self Portrait demonstrates that Dylan was ahead of the curve of the country vibe that would emerge in the early 70s. Smooth like hand-churned butter.





The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not.
— Eric Hoffer

If it adapts itself to what the majority of our society wants, art will be meaningless recreation.
— Albert Camus

The common practice of keeping up appearances with society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.
— John Ruskin

That's what I consider true generosity. You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.
— Simone de Beauvoir

It's not what you are, but what you don't become that hurts.
— Oscar Levant



Current Hallwalls Exhibitions
on view thru April 5
Tues to Fri 11am to 6pm, Sat 1 to 4pm

PLEASE NOTE: Hallwalls is closed for Easter.

Christina West: Shadows and Fog


Here is the Artvoice cover story on Christina West by Lucy Yau.
Christina West Website


Tommy Becker: Tape Number One


Here is Lucy's review of Tommy Becker.
Tommy Becker Website


Exiles Get Major Play

Anyone who saw our last exhibitions remembers this video piece by Kelly Richardson. It was only one of five works we exhibited, but it's invariably the piece that gets the most play. And continues to do so. This morning on the Times Arts page, the Hirshhorn Museum had two separate flash animation ads for their current exhibition The Cinema Effect, which includes this work, Exiles of the Shattered Star. The Hirshhorn also used it for their print advertising, and purchased it for their collection.

John Bacon Ensemble

Friday, March 28 @ 8 pm

$10 general admission, $6 members/students/seniors


Opening Elsewhere
• James and Catherine Koenig at Meibohm Fine Arts (East Aurora) opening Fri, Mar 28, 6-9pm (thru April 26)
• Art Dialogue Annual Juried Members Exhibition opening March 21, 7:30-9pm (thru Apr 25)
• Queen City Gallery First Anniversary Party with New Work by Michael Mulley, opening Fri, Mar 21, 5-8pm (thru Apr 30)
• Junjie Yoo At UB Dept of Visual Studies opening Thurs, Mar 27, 5-7pm (thru April 10)


Jennifer Steinkamp Artist Talk
@ the Albright Fri, Mar 14, 6pm

Buffalo News preview


Buck, Kegler, Kenan




Jeff Vincent: Modern Myth

Opening Sat, Mar 22, 7pm @ Hardware (thru Apr 18)


Dennis Dehart

Opening Fri, Mar 28, 5-7pm @ Studio Hart (thru May 9)


James Paulson: Corrupted Affinites

now on view at Big Orbit
Closing Reception Fri, Mar 28, 8—11pm


Exhibition Title of the Month!



Continuing Elsewhere
• Everyday Splendor at the Carnegie thru April 5
• Eric Jensen at NIchols School thru May 5
• Peter Fowler at Kepa3 thru Apr 5
• The Urban Artisans at the Arts Council (700 Main) thru Mar 21
• Edollia at Quaker Bonnet thru Mar 31
• Chris Stangler at Insite thru April 20 Buff News Dabkowski review
• Women's 2008 Spring National Exhibition at Impact Artists Gallery thru Mar 29
• The Myriad Manifestations of Mail Art curated by Becky Moda at NCCC thru Apr 18
• Douglas Repetto Colin Dabkowski review Artvoice Albert Chaoand Shadi Nazarian at Ub Art Gallery thru May 17
Roberley Bell: Becoming Blurred at Pentimenti (Philadelphia) thru April 12
• Tim Raymond at College Street Gallery thru March 30
• Kurt Treeby at the Castellani thru April 20
• William Cooper at Starlight Studio & Gallery thr Apr 25
• The Urban Artisans at the Arts Council thru Mar 21
• Autistic Services Emphasis on the Arts at B. West (141B Elmwood) thru Mar 30
• Jeffrey Swalnik at the JCC (787 Delaware) thru Apr 23
• Pop and Punk Art Show at Hardware thru Mar 21
• Courtney Grim at Olean Public Library thru Mar 29
• Toni Pepe at Buffalo Big Print thru March 21
• MIchael Rogers and Jack Wax at the RoCo thru Apr 6
• Bruce Jackson at CDS/Duke University thru April 6
• Diane Baker at The Mansion on Delaware (indefinitely)


Your Guide To Aggressive Common Sense
For the next several weeks, we'll continue to work our way through the alphabet and consider some definitions extracted from The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense by John Ralston Saul. We're up to the letter F...

FEAR
In light of our upcoming disappearance from the world, this is an endemic human condition. The exacerbation and manipulation of fear is used by dishonest people to gain or hold onto power.

FIRST CLASS
Should a plane crash, those seated at the front are almost guaranteed a clean death. Their passage to the next world is eased by a decent meal, unlimited alcohol and enough leg room to meet their end with dignity.
The middle classes sitting behind in full economy with their knees pressed neatly up against their throats know that they will have to wait longer to die. They may even be condemned to survive in some horribly maimed condition. As for the lumpenproletariat in the cheap seats at the back, they stand a reasonable chance of walking away from the wreckage in good health, thus being denied release from their vale of tears on earth.

FLORIDA
Former American state. Latin Americans are now locked in a long-term struggle with Canadians for control. The Latin Americans are driven by their need for financial and political stability, the Canadians by theirs for warmth and a place to die. The ultimate weapons of the Latin Americans are politically-based para-military groups and organized crime financed by drug money. The Canadians have set up a professional hockey team.

FOREIGNER
An individual who is considered either comic or sinister. When the victim of a disaster—preferably natural but sometimes political—the foreigner may also be pitied from a distance for a short period of time.

FREEDOM
An occupied space which must be reoccupied every day.


Plastic cups, Barbie dolls, 200,000 packs of cigarettes, 8 million toothpicks, aluminum cans, disposable Energizer batteries, 213,000 Vicodin pills, building blocks, and prison uniforms....sounds like a long weekend at AJ's studio...

Chris Jordan
via Jennifer Gottdiener


"It is still tourist heaven, of course, if you’re not paying in dollars. In political terms, though, it’s forever chasing its own tail. This winter the government, chronically geriatric, fell for the umpteenth time. Decades of festering indecision caused rotting garbage to pile up in the streets of Naples. But then there’s the contemporary art scene..."

NY Times Kimmelman


Well, it took a month for the Times to recognize Magda McHale's passing, but they finally did...

NY Times


Anthony Minghella 1954—2008

NY Times


“Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral...”

NY Times obit
An Appraisal


Philip Jones Griffiths 1936—2008

NY Times


Something I listened to this week...

Like one of his contemporaries, Rod Stewart, Ian Hunter has a gravelly sweet voice that still sounds terrific, in some respects even better as he's aged. Unlike Stewart, Ian Hunter remains cool. Rod traded in his cool somewhere around 1976. Some nice tracks here, particularly the title song, a piano-based ballad that plays into Hunter's greatest strengths as a singer. It's been close to 40 years since Mott the Hoople and, yikes, close to 30 years since I saw Hunter perform at Ryerson College in Toronto. The whole audience was mostly on their feet the whole show, with exception of one, lone guy who was sunk in his seat—a seat which happened to be front row, dead center. Hunter tried valiantly to rouse this guy from his stupor, to absolutely no avail. Eventually, I can recall Ian crouched over the fellow, giving him an emphatic finger.





Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.
— Thomas Jefferson

Change everything, except your passions.
— Voltaire

I don't want to produce a work of art that the public can sit and suck aesthetically... I want to give them a blow in the small of the back, to scorch their indifference, to startle them out of their complacency.
— Ingmar Bergman

Why do "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing? Why is the third hand on the watch called the second hand?
— George Carlin

Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.
— Will Rogers

above image: flickr.


Current Hallwalls Exhibitions
on view thru April 5
Tues to Fri 11am to 6pm, Sat 1 to 4pm

Christina West: Shadows and Fog


Here is the Artvoice cover story on Christina West by Lucy Yau.
Christina West Website

Tommy Becker: Tape Number One


Here is Lucy's review of Tommy Becker.
Tommy Becker Website


New Music for Soloist Champions!
Saturday, March 15 • 8 pm
Asbury Hall at Babeville

$18 general admission, $15 members/students/seniors
Meet the Composer celebrates soloists and composers collaborating to break new ground and traverse a broad musical terrain. This world premiere concert features eight remarkable new works from eight dynamic pairings, including flutist Margaret Lancaster with Joan La Barbara, trombonist Monique Buzzarté with Alice Shields, pipa virtuoso Min Xiao-Fen with Huang Ruo, pianist Lisa Moore with Don Byron, percussionist Dominic Donato with Ushio Torikai, soprano Mary Nessinger with Steven Burke, saxophonist Taimur Sullivan with Jason Eckardt and violinist Todd Reynolds with Michael Lowenstern.
Hallwalls Music
Artvoice Eight for the Vanguard

John Bacon Ensemble

Friday, March 28 @ 8 pm

$10 general admission, $6 members/students/seniors



DEADLINE TODAY: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Unhinged

Artists and Models Affair
Saturday, May 31, 2008, 9pm to 2 am
Central Terminal, Buffalo, NY

In the past 20 incarnations of Hallwalls’ Artists & Models Affair, a multitude of Buffalo sites have served as the locus for temporary artistic expressions and controlled insanity: the Broadway Market, abandoned factories, warehouses, auto showrooms, roller rinks, deserted downtown malls and department stores, the Tri-Main Center, and the Buffalo Convention Center.

This year’s event—officially the 21st version of A&M—will return to the Central Terminal, architectural landmark, emblem of Buffalo’s glorious past and its phoenix future. Visible from miles away, the Central Terminal will, for one evening, become the hub for Unhinged—a location, a state of being, a condition, an apparition, a temporary psychosis, an inevitability.

Hallwalls is currently accepting proposals from artists for temporary, one-night installations and performances to be a featured element of Unhinged. Only a limited number of installations will be included so preference will be given to the dynamic, the compelling, the arresting, the creatively deranged, and the thematically apt. Keep in mind that, because this is an event-oriented exhibition, more subtle works better suited for a gallery or installations that require controlled environments for audio are less effective.

Participating artists will have approximately 5-7 days of installation time.
Participating artists will have a minimum of 5 days to create your installation.

Submission Tips:
• LARGE-SCALE is good for the Central Terminal
• PERFORMANCE is good
• VIDEO PROJECTION is good
• ROAMING performance is good
• AUDIENCE-PARTICIPATORY works are good

Your Unhinged Proposal should include:
1) your name, address, phone, email
2) a detailed description of your proposal (250 words), with accompanying images/sketches, if possible. (This is NOT an artist statement. It’s a description of not only what you envision but also how you plan to realize your project.)
3) an indication of your minimum space requirements 4) a list of your technical/equipment needs (if any) and your available resources.

Participating artists will receive a modest honorarium.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Friday, March 14, 2008

Email proposals to EACH of the following:
John Massier, Visual Arts Curator, john@hallwalls.org
Carolyn Tennant, Media Arts Director, carolyn@hallwalls.org
Polly Little, Development Director, polly@hallwalls.org

Call 716.854.1694 for more information.



Opening Elsewhere
• Eric Jensen at NIchols School opening Sun, Mar 16, 2-4pm (thru May 5)
• Peter Fowler at Kepa3 opening Fri, Mar 14, 6-9pm (thru Apr 5)
• The Urban Artisans at the Arts Council (700 Main) opening Fri, Mar 14, 5:30-7:30 (thru Mar 21)
• Edollia opening at Quaker Bonnet Fri, Mar 14, 7pm (thru Mar 31)
• Women's 2008 Spring National Exhibition at Impact Artists Gallery opening Sat, Mar 15, 6-7:30 pm (thru Mar 29)
• The Myriad Manifestations of Mail Art curated by Becky Moda at NCCC opening Tues, Mar 18, 5:30-8pm (thru Apr 18)


Jennifer Steinkamp opens at the Albright

Fri, Mar 14 during Gusto at the Gallery (3—10pm)
Jennifer Steinkamp Website


Megan Greene at Kinz, Tillou, Feigen in NY

Opening Fri, Mar 15, 4:30-6:30pm(thru April 26)


Buck, Kegler, Kenan




Jeff Vincent: Modern Myth

Opening Sat, Mar 22, 7pm @ Hardware (thru Apr 18)


Daniel Dehart

Opening Fri, Mar 28, 5-7pm @ Studio Hart (thru May 9)


Continuing Elsewhere
• Everyday Splendor at the Carnegie thru April 5
• Douglas Repetto Colin Dabkowski review and Shadi Nazarian at Ub Art Gallery thru May 17
Roberley Bell: Becoming Blurred at Pentimenti (Philadelphia) thru April 12
• Tim Raymond at College Street Gallery thru March 30
• Kurt Treeby at the Castellani thru April 20
• William Cooper at Starlight Studio & Gallery thr Apr 25
• The Urban Artisans at the Arts Council thru Mar 21
• 3rd Annual Staff Exhibition at Betty's thru May 4
• Autistic Services Emphasis on the Arts at B. West (141B Elmwood) thru Mar 30
• Jeffrey Swalnik at the JCC (787 Delaware) thru Apr 23
• Art Dialogue Members Exhibition thru Mar 14
• Pop and Punk Art Show at Hardware thru Mar 21
• Ani Hoover at Insite Gallery thru Mar 17
• Courtney Grim at Olean Public Library thru Mar 29
• CEPA Members Exhibition, Keith Johnson, and Colleen Cunningham thru Mar 15 Buffalo News
• Toni Pepe at Buffalo Big Print thru March 21
• Bingyi at Max Protech, NY thru Mar 15
• MIchael Rogers and Jack Wax at the RoCo thru Apr 6
• Bruce Jackson at CDS/Duke University thru April 6
• Diane Baker at The Mansion on Delaware (indefinitely)


Your Guide To Aggressive Common Sense
For the next several weeks, we'll continue to work our way through the alphabet and consider some definitions extracted from The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense by John Ralston Saul. We're up to the letter E...

ÉLITE
More common than a lumpenproletariat.
Every society has an élite. No society has ever been without one. There is therefore little to be gained by worrying a great deal about the creation or protection of an élite. They protect themselves and someone is always ready to take their place.
The thing élites most easily forget is that they make no sense as a group unless they have a healthy and productive relationship with the rest of citizenry. Questions of nationalism, ideology, and the filling of pockets aside, the principal function of an élite is to serve the interests of the whole. They may prosper far more than the average citizen in the process. They may have all sorts of advantages. These perks won't matter so long as the greater interests are also served. From their point of view, this is not a bad bargain. So it really is curious just how easily they forget and set about serving only themselves, even if it means that they or the society will self-destruct.


Deja Views
Last week, we linked to a Times review by Holland Cotter on the Whitney Biennial, which featured this 2008 work by Olaf Breuning entitled The Army:



The ever-perceptive LM left the following response: "...that piece by Olaf Breuning in the New York Times article looks a hell of a lot like Lisa Neighbour's Superpower from 1996." Does it? Well, here is Lisa Neighbour's Superpower:



Superpower first exhibited at the Red Head Gallery in Toronto in 1996. It showed at The Power Plant in 1997. Subsequent versions of the piece were then exhibited in Cambridge, Windsor, and Montreal—ALL before Olaf Breuning's piece in the Biennial. So what's going on? Thievery? Separated at birth? Well, in 1996, Breuning was in Switzerland, completing graduate studies in photography, though there's no way to be sure that he didn't holiday in Toronto or see the work some other way.

Anyone who knows the work of Lisa Neighbour knows that her entire oeuvre over the past twenty years has involved a universe of bulbs, fixtures, cords, and all related times of illumination and hardware. But is it an intellectual property issue or do artists just cross similar neural and conceptual paths all the time? Are we all consciously copying each other or just swimming in the same big incestuous cauldron of art-soup? I guess it depends whether you're the imitated or the imitator. While I can't claim that every artist is ethical to the core and pure as driven snow, it seems likely that most occurrences are merely compelling coincidences.

In 2005, for the first Beyond/In Western New York biennial, I curated the work of Carlo Cesta, Allan Topolski, and Alfonso Volo (hidden gem with no website) together into a single exhibition in our temporary venue at 700 Main Street. Here's an image with a Topolski sculpture in the foreground and a Cesta piece in the background:



Cesta's piece is called Insulated Shed and features a vertical aluminum wall (the design culled from the architectural symbol for insulation) supporting the horizontal plane of a garage door, whose squares have been adorned with different aluminum-taped drawings. It was a good show and a good week installing. The artists all enjoyed each other's work and Carlo and I spent most of the week talking drumming and minimalism. Halfway through the week we even went down the street to Shea's to see Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard, which was stupendous.

Where am I going with this? Well, when Carlo first arrived in town to install, he showed me a small Taschen book on Minimalism he'd picked up before he left Toronto. He brought it with him specifically to show me the Richard Serra piece illustrated at the beginning of the book:



Pretty close. The orientation is somewhat different, Serra's sculpture works with the corner rather than the flat of the wall, but the scale and proportions are almost identical. Carlo's no copycat and had never seen this particular Serra before. It just goes to show you that ideas truly have no masters and are perpetually wafting through the art-ether. Snatch 'em while you can, kids.

In 2002, I exhibited some work by Toronto artist Shary Boyle. Among a series of delicate and compelling sculptures was this piece(about 5 inches long):



In 2007, walking past a bulletin board at Syracuse University, I saw this posted:



I know, looks pretty egregious. But I'm sure Shary would never claim to have made up the notion of one body emerging from another. No doubt there's a wood carving from the 5th century that features this same configuration.


"I have spent my life studying the pictures and symbols of racism and slavery, and when I saw the Clinton ad’s central image—innocent sleeping children and a mother in the middle of the night at risk of mortal danger—it brought to my mind scenes from the past..."

NY Times Orlando Patterson



"While museum market research has been around for two decades, gathering data about visitors has never been as important, or as sophisticated, as it is now. As museums expand, they need more paying customers to cover ever-increasing costs. And they’re competing for those customers with local shopping malls, movie theaters, even grocery stores."

NY Times Carol Vogel



Recapturing an Eternal Frame

I don't know how I missed this NY Times article by Carol King in March, but it's a really interesting piece about the re-installation of Antfarm's seminal video The Eternal Frame at the Getty Museum in LA. If you follow the link above, you'll also find a great audio slide show about the installation. The Eternal Frame is, of course, the video made in 1975, in which the members of Antfarm shot their own version of the Zapruder film in Dealey Plaza.

In 2003, on the fortieth anniversary of the JFK assassination, Hallwalls presented Parallax Views: Art and the JFK Assassination, in which I included a new installation by Buffalo photographer Eric Jensen...



paintings by NY artist Wayne Gonzales...



and a repeating loop of The Eternal Frame...



Chip Lord of Antfarm (pictured in the first image above, on the left) had forwarded me all sorts of documents about the original installation and even some of his remaining memorabilia, including the JFK rug pictured above. Here is my intern Amy Purifoy posing with that rug:



We did our best to somewhat replicate the tone of the original installation and we had some good old furniture and some, ahem, funky wallpaper, but our budget didn't allow us to completely pimp out the back gallery with orange shag rug:







Alicia Ross has a new motherboard...

Alicia Ross Website



"We stopped on the west side of Broadway between 51st and 52nd Streets. It looked nondescript to me, with the usual fast food, souvenir shop, gym and drugstore....in 1926, roughly where the gym is now, a Jewish inventor from Siberia named Anatol Josepho (shortened from Josephewitz) opened a photo-booth concession, the first Photomaton in the world."

NY Times


"...it is axiomatic that art world mavens would follow the Devil into Hell just to have their toenails painted Ruby Red..."

artnet Finch


"But in the past few years, a new kind of refugee has landed on Hackney’s teeming streets. Artists, designers and young bohemians in ever-skinnier jeans are getting priced out of nearby Shoreditch, and opening bars, clubs and galleries in this gritty immigrant enclave. But since Hackney is already densely and vibrantly packed, these new establishments are often hidden below, above and even within existing storefronts."

NY Times Travel


Norman Smith 1923—2008

NY Times


Something I listened to this week...

From 1969 and subtitled John, The Wolf King of LA, this was a solo album by the skillful svengali behind The Mamas and the Papas. So, alas, no glorious Cass Elliot or Denny Doherty harmonizing, but Philips does himself a bit of a disservice by submerging his own lead vocals into the general mix. That said, the musicianship is top drawer, including much of Elvis Presley's band(and make no mistake, Elvis' bands were smokin' hot), especially guitarist James Burton, and the songwriting is really strong. I read that Denny Doherty felt that had this been recorded as a M&P album, it would have been remembered as one of their finest. My only caveat is that I listened to it while another foot of March snow was dumped on Buffalo and it left me pining to be listening to it on a warm patio in Topanga Canyon or Zuma Beach.






Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display qualities he does not possess, and to gain applause which he cannot keep.
— Samuel Johnson