tart notebooks

move

2006-05-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

tartnotebooks have moved to annecolvin.com

Spatial Poem No. 2

2006-05-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

Steven Wolf Fine Arts

Plug in City
A city for happening in
City is a network
HAPPEN
Move
Go

Suburban Runaways of the 1960’s
A sleeping bag full of stitches
hOlLywooD>...>....>...

Life, Love and Exile:

2006-04-29T19:57:00.000-07:00

frieze April

Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle, Jon Savage, Sue Tompkins, Jonas Mekas – a future TART show.

mistakes...

2006-04-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

My Mistake
Adam McEwan at Jack Hanley

Floor Plan Piece:

Bomber Harris
sing for your supper
your Supper
Dum Dum boys

Floor Plan Piece:

Skylab
love
mountain
town
hill
The king
Fabuloso
Love
Hasta la Vista
New York
Police
Maduro

small world

2006-04-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

David Adamo

Thomas Hirschhorn is hip

2006-04-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

:Tape, cardboard, not scrappy.....though green, red, dirty khakhi - fatigues, fatigue. Precise production, military precision, ex-military, swiss army knife

Camouflage, army training day.

ask Derrida - when did he become fashionable again, Scritti Politti did it first.

Media overload, tape, cardboard - taped. More, more, more of the same, can't think, don't need to, experience it

philosophy begins with the experience.

*///////////////Mass, assault, overload
It's all there, held together, everything over and over and again and again. Relentless/ consume, engage = impact.

Who's disguising who? He is fashionable, fashion, is he the art world's latest accessory, God no, too powerful.

RePEtiTioN..Mass....media. Hip and scholarly - good

Chaos - out of the chaos a sense of simplicity, it becomes clear, words don't register

.becoming is not historical

freedom ask Derrida > text, treatise, slogans. Later on the street spot Diesel's camouflage campaign.

^

Clean Hands, Pure Heart

2006-02-16T15:31:00.000-08:00

Graham Fagen at TART

Bootlegger

2006-02-01T14:17:00.000-08:00

Standing for three days outside the Santa Monica Auditorium in the not so cold SoCal climes, Eric Doeringer from New York displayed his bootlegged wares for the passing artLA crowd. Hirst, Pettibon, Sherman, Prince, Bochner and many more small knock-off pieces, each with a slight twist, were neatly laid out on a table. A nodd to Venice Beach perhaps? Over the three days he changed the product and mixed them up a bit. No hard sell just a quiet, contained presence.

It seemed after speaking to Eric that the art references were lost on large numbers of the punters - nothing more than "pretty pictures." However on recent art fair tours from Miami to Frieze in London the response was more informed.

Having just bought Dave Muller's book I asked if he had ever considered reproducing his work? But according to tongue-in-cheek Eric, his reputation didn't quite warrant it yet! Interestingly Muller himself had in fact contacted Eric through the internet and bought a Sam Durant bootleg.

It was good having Eric there over the course of the fair, going out and chatting to him from time to time was my equivalent of a cigarette break - a welcome distraction which took the edge off.

Prisoners of the Mind.

2006-01-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

Repetition: Artur Zmijewski
Wattis Institute

"In general it comes down to the same thing breaking the rules" - prisoner number 810.

Prisoner number 433 lifts himself up on the cell bars, groaning painfully as he attempts multiple lifts, setting the scene for the ensuing film which restages the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment.

Day 1-4, the prisoners and the guards (all unemployed Polish men) take on and work through their designated roles. The prisoners recite numbered regulations. Prisoner number 433 appears to have forgotten a rule and is accused of showing off. He is perceived as a trouble-maker or at least a good role player. Dinners come and go, interactions between the guards and the prisoners take on a predictable air and gradually the bad food, uncertain conditions and lack of anticipated outcome take their toll - prisoner number 433 quits on Day 5.

The ensuing interview explores his insecurities, irritations and most revealing, his annoyance with the guards who according to him seem to "lie around the whole time." He had expected them to at least observe more closely. Clearly what was at issue here was one of confused expectations. This marker re-frames the viewing experience and proffers a new perspective on the participants' state of minds.

Day 6, a new head shaving regulation is brought into force - a number of the prisoners refuse and a game of coercion plays out. The prisoners are made to stand until prisoner number 810 takes it upon himself to convince the two remaining rebels to conform. An atmosphere of collective responsibility takes hold.

By Day 8 the roles have worn in and the behaviours reach a new level of authenticity.Things start to break down; prisoner number 810 pisses into a bowl of food and splashes a bucket of urine over the the yard. Outside the warden is interviewed by the artist and expresses his feelings of powerlessness and concern over loss of control. He wants direction from him, he feels lost. A meeting is called between the prisoners and the guards, talk of dignity, institutions and what it means to be human are brought up and discussed. Eventually they all decide to withdraw themselves from the project and in a poignant moment introduce themselves by name to each other. The power struggle is over.

What comes of this repeated experiment, apart from the obvious 'power brings out the worst in people' is an insight into the fear of the psychological unknown. Ironically the chief warden was given the most freedom but in the end felt utterly powerless. The prisoners had their freedom taken away and all they could do was try to subvert the rules. In this unchartered territory what the participants feared most and in particular the chief warden, was themselves. How far would and could they go.

In the end the question to be asked is when does freedom become a regulation.

TART LA

2006-01-11T18:48:00.000-08:00

artLA

Round and round

2006-01-02T17:39:00.000-08:00

Steve MacQueen 1999 Turner Prize Winner
SFMOMA

Steve MacQueen's visceral oil Drum roll takes you on an endless tumbling cycle on the streets of New York. The three channel video installation is huge enough to make you feel part of it. Cars, people, buildings and voice fragments come together in a psychedelic mix, rolling round and round in a pulsating groove. Sometimes recognisable a world of glimpses rushes by.

The pacing is urgent until over time the loop almost comes to a standstill, a jolt back to reality and a moment to take stock until it starts all over again just like a giant tumble dryer. This abrupt punctuation mark seems to come as a welcome surprise.

The constant motion raises questions about urban life and the desire for movement. We are left wondering if indeed this is how we navigate our daily lives, going round and round in circles, not really looking but vaguely aware of sensations and conversations.

ATTENTION

2005-12-20T13:55:00.000-08:00

Wang Du: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Step onto Wang Du's Gulliveresque set and be prepared to be dictated to....

Parade 2000 lines up missiles, bits of machinery, planes, gun-wielding Chinese soldiers and truncated figures; all made from polyester, resin and acrylic. Papers from Chinese magazines spew out all over the place - more missiles, rockets - piling up, foot print smudged, worn into the floor.

Chinese military music plays relentlessly for this social realist march, evoking memories of words like strident and jingoistic. Interspersed are crumpled metal pieces, newspaper extracts. Three monstrous figures extrapolated from a Japanese porn site hover over the proceedings, bombastic and sinister, their presence ambigous but somehow essential.

Wang Du thinks state, thinks terror, thinks pomposity - it all adds up, there's nowhere left to hide.

Meanwhile next door Cornelia Parker's works hang, too precious, too quiet.

Hershmanlandia

2005-11-29T17:25:00.000-08:00

Lynn Hershman Leeson
Gallery Paule Anglim

This is a modest show offering a selection of media works on paper spanning a 35 year period. The prints are presented in a very matter of fact manner, hung on the wall either framed or mounted on aluminum. A series of photo montages from the 70's are stark in their reminder of the feminist body politic not only in content but in execution style. The 80's film stills seem very fresh and in sync with the current trend for found footage images. The "agent" digital prints only whisper with faint echoes of Barbara Kruger.

The most intriguing work is The Roberta Breitmore Project, 1974 when Hershman created a fictional character called Roberta and placed ads in the local paper for a room mate. Much more should have been made of this, it could have drawn in the other works and illuminated her practice in a more considered manner.

Had the overall exhibition installation been more imaginative and spoken to the power of the media Hershman worked with, a more dynamic experience would have emerged. The one digital media installation seemed like an after thought, positioned too close to the exit. However, an exhibition like this is framed by its art historical context. Consideration of the role of artists like Hershman, who worked with technology at a time when few artists let alone women were engaging with new media, is important. This show and the touring retrospective opening at Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington is a salute to her career as artist, film-maker and pioneer.

Mental

2005-11-22T14:40:00.000-08:00

Sam Gordon: The Twinkie Defense
Ratio 3

Sam Gordon's 'art maps' lead you slowly up the stairs; art show posters, New York happenings and his own alluring psychokinetic photographs. This is in itself an interesting exercise in making connections between artists, galleries and places, never quite sure where it is actually leading you. Allowing this to gently prod and nudge, you slip into the epicenter of Gordon's domain, his mental space.

The completely covered walls create a crazy yet strangely contained wallpaper of notes, symbols, sketches and thoughts - the cumulative efforts of ten years worth of sketchbook entries. The scans are simply pinned to the walls, some bow, others curl creating an entity that almost breathes. Four paintings of ink, ballpoint pen, acrylic, enamel, spray paints, studio sweepings and gold & silver leaf on canvas are strategically placed on opposite sides of the room. These mystical marks serve as contemplative zones, taking you to another metaphysical level. Crossing and reflecting they pull you into Gordon's psychic mid-point.

Bringing together "all this content" as Chris Perez describes it is a result of mindful editing and knowing when to stop, a process which Perez and Gordon collaborated on. It's solid and cohesive and never overwhelms. These are not incoherent ramblings but play out as repetitions and imaginings borne of an obsessive mind.

The Lords, Notes on Vision

2005-11-18T13:35:00.000-08:00

at TART

a trip

2005-11-17T08:32:00.000-08:00

ECSTACY
In and about Altered States
The Geffen Contemporary LA.

This is a big flamboyant show in true LA fashion. With an impressive roster of international artists it is a real treat. The works are split between representations of altered states as experienced by the artists themselves and simulated experiences as immersive environments. Just because of the sheer size and the trippy nature these tend to make the most impact and do transport you somewhere. Olafur Eliasson in Your strange certainty still kept combines drops of water and strobes to create a disorientating photographic illusion. Others choreograph with pulsating lights and rows and rows of LEDs to great effect. Carsten Holler plays it for laughs in his Upside Down Mushroom Room which is always a bit disconcerting especially as it seemed to appeal to a group of giggling high school students - too kid friendly for my tastes.

A few of the works in the show are a bit too obvious and high on production values like Sylve Fleury's twinkling outer space capsule. After being told I could sit inside by the attendant I really did feel like I was on a school trip. But Roxy Paine's field of miniature mushrooms, Tom Friedman's capsule arena and Fred Tomaselli's intricate collages are so wonderfully in your face they are a joy to behold.

As far as "asking us to expand on notions of reality" Pierre Huyghe's gorgeous Light Box did it; an ethereal, awe - inspiring miniature light show, fog and all. Caught by surprise almost by the very nature of the installation, I became in and of the moment and floated out the room...

Sarcastic Hippies

2005-11-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

The Zine UnBound: Kults, Werewolves and Sarcastic Hippies

In the spirit of zine collaboration, K48's installation made the most sense - a project that a group of artists had worked on together. The overall impression was one of a kids' play date! Unfortunately all that camping and nature and 'big bad wolf' didn't leave any mental space for Werewolf Expresses wolf-themed room - over kill. There was one exception though, Folkert de Jong's crazy polystyrene wolf figure, one of the highlights of the show.

Crust and Dirt packed a punch with their wild kaleidoscope - eyed bird in the Hot and Cold section. The rest was kind of lacklustre with individual framed works lining a corridor, a wall of Hot and Cold ephemera and some other bits and pieces.

I wanted more of the wild zine stuff and where were those sarcastic hippies?

Look and See

2005-11-06T09:10:00.000-08:00

Final week:

Jim Hodges, Look and See, The Ritz-Carlton New York, Battery Park (Southwest tip of Manhattan, Two West Street @ Battery Place)

Look and See, Jim Hodges' powerful sculpture commissioned for Creative Time's Art on the Plaza, marks a major new direction for the artist. Working with steel for the first time (9 tons of it), he created an artwork that beautifully transforms the experience of Lower Manhattan. The seductive form entices visitors to physically engage with it and see their own warped reflections combined with the competing images of the urban skyscrapers and nature in Battery Park.

A Curatorial Crossing

2005-11-01T15:06:00.000-08:00

DRESS

2005-10-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

Dress: Clothing As Art
Richmond Art Center
ends Sunday October 30th, closing party.

A cross between a jumble sale - the British equivalent of a yard sale but cosier - and an abandoned playroom. Stuff spills out all over the place and hangs in the oddest way. A rather melancholy sound track can just about be heard emanating from Robin Lasser and Adrienne Pao's spectacular Picnic Dress Tent. This lends the show an unexpected dimension given that a lot of the works are soft and fluffy in a "crafty conceptual" sort of way. Some of the installations such as Darshan Amrit's sewing machine project really need to be activated in order to be complete however the absent air seems to work adding to the "Miss Haversham" effect.

That said this show is a lot of fun, you can't beat Lisa Kokin and Lia Roozendaal's dog outfits for that or Elizabeth Jameson's ever expanding red wool dress. A playful and colorful assemblage curated by the new Exhibitions Director, Anu Vikram.

Here is always somewhere else

2005-10-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

Part of PERFORMA 05
Bas Jan Ader - Wednesday 16 November
BAS JAN ADER FILMS at Anthology Film Archives

This screening is the first major New York presentation of Ader's films. Much more written about than seen, this is an incredibly rare chance to see this important artist's works firsthand.

Followed by:
Rene Daalder
HERE IS ALWAYS SOMEWHERE ELSE
2005, video.

World premiere of Rene Daalder's highly anticipated documentary on the life, death and lasting influence of Bas Jan Ader. Featuring the work of such artists as Charles Ray, Richard Serra, Tacita Dean, Marcel Broodthaers, Ger van Elk, Pipilotti Rist, Rodney Graham, and many others, along with never-before seen footage of Ader, interviews, and documentation, the film reveals a complex portrait of the trendsetting artist's work and his lasting legacy.

new arrivals

2005-10-22T11:44:00.001-07:00

10/21/05
the backroom

From October 21, contributions by Dennis Crompton (Archigram), Kota Ezawa, David Hatcher, Stephen Â Kaltenbach and Thomas Lawson are accessible. These include film footage from the Archigram archives that reveal the influence of the proliferation of technological advances, fairground culture and mass media imagery at a time of increasing social and political discontent in 1960s Great Britain; videos of anti-nuclear protests, the 1994 Intel World chess Grand Prix and a history of American Assassins; research into potential remixes of the history of photography; drawings by Wittgenstein, Schopenhauer and others sampled from printed pages of the philosophical canon; the unpublished manuscript of a pulp fiction novel; casts of hands; all the back issues of Real Life magazine (1979-94) and related correspondence, notes, unpublished texts and photographs.

A Perfect Day

2005-10-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

Maurizio Cattelan

The Homecoming

2005-10-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

Harold Pinter wins Nobel Prize for Literature -

Harold Pinter has written enigmatic plays such as The Birthday Party and The Homecoming and is also a well-known peace activist.

In plays like "The Birthday Party," "No Man's Land" and "The Homecoming," Mr. Pinter dispenses with the easy comforts of fluent speech; his characters speak in non-sequitors and sentence fragments; interrupt one another; fail to listen; fail to understand. He uses language to convey miscommunication and lack of understanding rather than shared comprehension.

- New York Times.

Raw and direct

2005-10-15T15:18:00.000-07:00

A Journey That Wasn't

2005-10-13T08:13:00.000-07:00

THE PUBLIC ART FUND AND THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART INVITE YOU TO TAKE PART IN A NEW FILM BY PIERRE HUYGHE: A JOURNEY THAT WASN'T

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2005 at 6:30PM WOLLMAN RINK in CENTRAL PARK

Join us at dusk for the presentation and filming of "A Journey That Wasn't" an orchestral musical in Central Park based on a journey to Antarctica. Using ice, atmosphere, light, and an original score, written by composer Joshua Cody and performed live by a symphonic orchestra with featured soloist Elliott Sharp. Pierre Huyghe will transform a newly discovered, distant island in Antarctica into musical form.

This event is both a show and a film shoot. Viewers will be invited to sit and watch the musical.

Think again

2005-10-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

I always come away from a Matthew Higgs's show feeling moved in unexpected ways, therein lies the power of the exhibitions he curates.

The "highlight" of General Ideas Rethinking Conceptual Art for me was Matthew Creed's Work No. 227: The lights going on and off working together with Ron Terad's Five Colored Words in Neon in the large empty space dedicated to the two works. It was one of those epiphanies when suddenly standing in the darkened room the neon words severe, high, elevated, guarded and low suggested different psychological states. I was excited and thrown slightly by this new connection, powerful stuff. Lights on, a shift in mood - an intense sort of channelling experience.

The rest of the exhibition goes without saying - lots of moments where you laugh, stop in your tracks, wonder and move on. A great way not only to re-think conceptual art but one's own state of mind.

liars

2005-10-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

Adam McEwen

Art on call

2005-10-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

The Walker Art Center really is impressive when it comes to incorporating social networking technologies into its programming. Each department has its own blog and I did a bit of research and found that the film/video blog is the most visited art blog on the internet. They have their own channel, Walker Channel which provides live webcasts of Walker lectures, readings, conversations, panel discussions and more. Podcast audio tours of the center and its exhibitions are also available.

Stay connected...

Echo 2

2005-10-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

walk the line

2005-09-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

I received this from Lee Walton today...

Dear Friends and Conspirators,

As part of the first installment of the new commissions program at Art inGeneral, I will be orchestrating a series of intimate "performance-based happenings" throughout New York City.

A published set of 25 postcards informing the schedule, locations and keys to each Experiential Project and Life/Theater Performances will be available free throughout the exhibition. Also, live performances will take place at Art in General every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 4-5pm.

Here is some important information below...The Experiential Project, Art in General, Project Space October 1 - December 17, 2005 Opening Reception: Saturday October 1, 6-8 pm

Walk the line, Lee
Ps - if you want to perform please let me know. All you need to do is be yourself.

O

2005-09-28T08:38:00.000-07:00

opens tomorrow at TART

backroom

2005-09-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

This promises to be good, one of the curators is Kate Fowle independent curator and cochair of the MFA Curatorial Practice Program at the CCA in SF.

the backroom
September 1 - December 31 2005

The backroom is a new research-oriented project that is temporarily occupying a space in Culver City. Over four months, an evolving line-up of artists, filmmakers, writers and architects will present source materials that inform and support their practice, creating an expanding compilation of objects, videos, magazines, photographs, ephemera, data and written anecdotes.

Every two weeks more artists' source materials will be added to the backroom. Open weekly as an informal reading, meeting and viewing room, as well as hosting one-time events.

The Backroom is run by Magali Arriola, Kate Fowle and Renaud Proch.

Trust Me

2005-09-21T22:00:00.008-07:00

On the first day of Trust Me, Tony Labat at New Langton Arts, I was greeted by the new executive director, Sandra Percival - a pleasant surprise. Her appointment marks a fresh start as New Langton looks forward to the next 30 years of experimental programming. Some noticeable changes already - a knocked down wall on the first floor reveals a grid of windows transforming the space into an expansive exhibition arena. Downstairs the flier shelf has been removed allowing the area to become an integral part of the overall space. As for Tony Labat's videos, these have been incorporated into a new continual screenings program in the downstairs screening room.

A new Langton, new possibilities...

Trust Me represents a 30 year span of gestural works; a mix of video, installation and sculpture. Certain pieces seem to speak to the title and you get a sense of the artist's exploration of his identity as a man and as an immigrant. I imagine Tony is a person and a teacher you can trust.

Ma and Pa

2005-09-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

My parents are visiting from Scotland.

Graham Fagen from The Tatoo's of Bobby Shaftoe series.

Sartorial Choices

2005-09-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

Dress: Clothing as Art at The Richmond Art Center curated by Anuradha Vikram.

September 6 - October 30, 2005
Reception for artists with featured artists performance: Thursday, September 15, 6 - 8 pm

Dress: Clothing as Art presents a culturally diverse group of emerging and mid-career artists from the San Francisco Bay region. Informed by assemblage, sculpture and performance, each uses clothing as a medium to explore the interpenetration of art and life. Dress proposes many ways for gallery visitors to interact with and experience the works on view.

Info Retreat

2005-09-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

Dave Sherry who we have shown at TART has his first solo show in Begium.

Stuff and things

2005-09-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

Do You Like Stuff? opening at Swiss Institute (one of my favorite New York art spaces), includes Mark Orange who we showed at TART recently. The show investigates the exploding mass of information that inundates our current reality. From a paranoid desire to make order out of chaos or a brave embrace of entropy, this exhibition focuses on artists with inventive practices of collecting, cataloging and presenting masses of stuff.

Dirt in LA

2005-08-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Back from another brief visit to LA -

The Schindler House, the icon of California modernism, was an oasis of cool - physically, architecturally and visually. The serene rooms and Isaac Julian's lush shots of icescapes placed here and there seemed like a fitting juxtaposition. True North represents a new body of photographs from Julien's 2004 film shoot in Iceland. Another exercise in atmosphere came in the guise of Dirt which I came across by accident. Dirt Gallery is housed in a 1930's building in what was a residential hotel. I was so taken with the Chandleresque setting it was hard to focus on the work but I did with Rhonda Saboff's informed direction. The ecletic mix of mostly underground artists share three small rooms (single occupancy) and the hotel's only shower room. A quirky affair. Rhonda is a self-confessed old-school LA bohemian and it was great talking to her getting an insight into the LA art scene past and present. Finally, although I didn't get the chance to check out The Minded Swarm at Lace I did meet Andy Alexander one of the artists who is represented by China Art Objects. Also met Glenn Kaino who was in the 2004 Whitney Biennial and is represented by The Project, both interesting artists.

LA - laid-back artists, refreshing!

I like America

2005-08-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

....and America likes me.

Joseph Beuys, 1974

Border Crossing

2005-08-20T17:23:00.000-07:00

inSite_05
From 27 August to 13 November 2005, Tijuana and San Diego.

A bold schedule of activities designed around four major programs:

- Intervention
- Conversations
- Museum Exhibition/Farsites
- Scenarios

Our goal is to reveal, at least in part, the complex processes that artists, curators, and practitioners from a wide range of fields have undertaken for inSite_05

Downtown 81

2005-08-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a two day visit to LA. Saw Patty Chang's Shangri-La, Fiona Tan's Correction, interesting stuff and Stephen Shore's Biographical Landscape show at Hammer. Of particular interest is his early work from the time he was involved with Factory, very inspiring. Experienced an immersive world of Basquiat at MOCA, a selection of over 100 works and the low-budget film Downtown 81 which he starred in - kind of kitschy but great footage from 1980's Lower East Side - and a never before seen conversation with filmmaker Tamara Davis. The power of his impact and influence was keenly felt. Over at the Gallery at REDCAT in the first survey of her work, Margaret Kilgallen's tightly - knit pieces stand the test of time. The countless imitations pale by comparison. Her economy of gesture and emotional terseness do just enough to invite you into these quirky scenarios. A video taped interview with her and Barry McGee completed the picture.

Altered and Strange

2005-08-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

- an experiment in process and selection
- a silent podium for our comments and thoughts

Curated by Joyce Grimm and Matthew Boyko at Playpsace, CCA San Francisco.

it's back

2005-08-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

Douglas Gordon

What Comes After

2005-08-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

The Walk to Dover

2005-08-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

Lali Chatwynd The Walk to Dover
25 August - 3 September
A new off-site commission for Studio Voltaire

The project will involve a seven day expedition from London to Dover by a group of walkers in full costume, as well as a welcoming reception on the White Cliffs of Dover. Emulating the narrative from Charles Dicken's semi-autobiographical novel, David Copperfield, Chatwynd will lead the group retracing Copperfield's journey from a Blacking warehouse in London to Dover where he found sanctuary with his Aunt.

A Certain Ratio

2005-08-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

I remember Chris explaining the idea of Ratio 3 functioning like a record labeI and the more I get to know his space and program I have taken the metaphor one step further. Ratio 3 is a choice album with each show serving as a different track - you have your favorites, you come back to it from time to time and you can count on it.

Can't wait for the compilation!

Hot Sty

2005-08-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg reports that new entrants to the top ten best auction sellers include Lucian Freud.

Back in the day in London I used to go to a club in Soho called the Hot Sty run by Rose Boyt, one of Lucian Freud's daughters, who I knew. She used to DJ and the likes of Gareth Sager (Pop Group, Rip Rig and Panic), Jeanette Lee (Public Image manager) and Neneh Cherry were regulars. Old Lucian used to come every week and just stand in a corner and stare... Everyone knew who he was and left him alone.

Hey Old Friend

2005-08-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

Kevin Clarke gives local artists a small space in which to explore showing work. Mobile and hand-built, Small will set up tomorrow with Hey Old Friend: Kyle Mock on the sidewalk outside 49 Geary, San Francisco between 5.30-7.30pm.

Sadako's Flock

2005-08-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

Sadako's Flock
August 4 - 7, 2005 11-6 PM
Shipping containers located in Jack London Square parking lot in Oakland (East of Barnes & Nobles @ end of Webster along Embarcadero St).

An installation in observance of Peace Day that is commemorated in Japan and around the world as a reminder of the Hiroshima bombing in 1945. This year the event marks its 60th anniversary. Hiroshima will be re-enacted through real and fictional elements in a multimedia exhibition of sound, lighting, folded origami paper cranes and various documentary photographs - Horea.

Horea is an artist of Romanian origin who lives and works in Oakland.

Twelve

2005-08-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Cut/Film

2005-07-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

Cut/Film as Found Object in Contemporary Video
MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM MILWAUKEE

June 25 - September 11, 2005: Baker/Rowland and North Exhibition Galleries

With the idea of "postproduction" in the air, it's not hard to hear scholarly rumblings about how moving pictures provide artists with the newest form of readymade, just slice and dice cinematic masterpieces or the nightly news and re-present them on-screen to critical effect. But incisive exhibitions on this strategy of appropriation are still relatively few and far between. "Cut/Film as Found Object in Contemporary Video" promises to be among the first in the US, creating a new framework for pieces by Candice Breitz, Christian Marclay, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Paul Pfeiffer, Douglas Gordon, Pierre Huyghe, Omer Fast, and Michael Joaquin Grey - Tim Griffin, Artforum.

Get your kit off

2005-07-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

Laurel Nakadate seems to be part of a growing trend amongst young female video artists - taking their kit off for the camera - albeit their own. Nakadate does it with aplomb. There is something quite disturbing and disturbed about her work, currently in the group show Vicious at Jack Hanley. This however lends her practice its power. You realize this in the context of the other work in the show where the artists "act out" as opposed to Nakadate who appears to be "acting through." Like it or not she draws you into her world.

104.4fm

2005-07-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

Resonance 104.4fm is London's first radio art station. Currently broadcasting is a daily live radio drama from The Serpentine by Rikrit Tiravanija.

A loosely structured laboratory for artists of all kinds to reimagine what radio can be - Artforum

Less a radio station than a living art installation - Harpers & Queen

Kiss my soul

2005-07-21T19:51:00.000-07:00

Tracey Emin

Sofa Read

2005-07-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

>From Josh Berger at Plazm magazine

Just passing on some information about the CMYK Independent Magazine Culture Festival... Plazm is one of many publications from around the world to participate in this international festival dedicated to independent magazine culture.

CMYK 2005 will take place in Barcelona on July 21st, 22nd and 23rd at the CCCB - Contemporary Culture Centre of Barcelona. Click on "SOFA" for an excellent list of independent magazines from around the world with corresponding web site links...

-The complete Plazm catalog is now part of the permanent collection at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Queens Nails Annex

2005-07-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

An energetic visual and aural cacophony, a curatorial DJing of sorts - you get the sense that you are tapping into something bubbling away under the surface.

Queens' Nails Annex run by Bob Linder and Julio Morales presents two new shows and the second in an emerging Bay Area artists' series, opening on Friday July 22, 7-10pm. On until August 5th.

Scepter Quest is a solo installation by video artist Nate Boyce and For Landscape a grouping of Issac Lin, Bill Jenkins, Bryan Kaplan, Rie Miyake, Rebecca Millsop, David Toro, Charles Beronio, John Blanco and Kyle and Megan Mock.

Show and Tell

2005-07-13T10:54:00.000-07:00

The Independent School of Art presents:

Show and Tell Show

Date: July 16, 2005
Address: 580 Hayes St. /Hayes Street Market / Corner of Hayes and Laguna, San Francisco
Time: 7-10pm

This is not the Antique Road Show I remember! A funky outake on private obsessions, life-time projects and San Francisco eccentricities - can't put a price on that.

The Independent School of Art is a viable and experimental alternative to the institutional model of college-level art education. The school is run through a barter-based, nomadic system, where both students and teachers are collectively responsible for negotiating the school's existence in the world.The ISA is founded by Jon Rubin, and run this semester with the help of Bob Linder.

Transformations

2005-07-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

Stephen Sutcliffe

Red White Blue

2005-07-04T19:20:00.001-07:00

I have some work in a group show, Red White Blue at Spencer Brownstone Gallery in New York, opening on Thursday.

The exhibition provides a platform for an exploded view of nationalist symbolism, a celebration of the gloriously skewed 'old glory' that is art making and the contribution it makes to identity formation, nationalist or otherwise.

Space is the place

2005-06-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

Now this is a flier !

Drums and Drills

2005-06-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

"The Year of the Doppleganger", Slater Bradley at The Berkeley Art Museum, Matrix 216.

Picture this, Benjamin Brock (Slater Bradley's doppleganger) playing the drums in the CAL stadium while the football team do their practise drills. Whacky? not really. Slater Bradley seamlessley works this together so you just know it was meant to be. Apart from the obvious references to celebrity and sports stars there are moments when this work is a choreographer's delight; the players goose-stepping in time to the drum beat, arms akimbo. This is an unscripted performance at its best.

Continuing with the drum theme Slater is in Bridge Friezes before Road which just opened at Barbara Gladstone.

Bradley plays John Bonham to the beat of a different drum, a different era, a different stadium

Fuck

2005-06-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

Gilbert and George

Inventory

2005-06-20T18:49:00.000-07:00

This is a great project instigated by Matthew Higgs, the Director and Chief curator at White Columns.

June 17 - July 23

Other People's Projects is a new, occasional programming strand at White Columns in which our project space is offered to idiosyncratic organizations, collectives, publishers, etc. to introduce their activities to a wider audience.

The second project in this series is by Inventory. Inventory's installation at White Columns - their first in the United States - will bring together material from a number of earlier projects including: placards from a street action held in Central London in 1999; posters from the resulting publication "Smash This Puny Existence", 1999; the video "Sleepwalkers", 2003, which was filmed at an "Americana" festival in central England; and a display of the complete run of their journal "Inventory". Inventory are represented by The Approach, London and the journal is available from Cornerhouse Distribution.

Odd, Lost Souls

2005-06-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

Miranda July known for her performance art work and her collaboration with Harrell Fletcher on Learning To Love You More stars in, wrote and directed her first feature film Me and You and Everyone We Know which opens today in New York at the new IFC center.

A.O.Scott of the New York Times writes:

Though her movie has a clear narrative line, and might even be classified as romantic comedy, it is also a meticulously constructed visual artifact, diffidently introducing the playful, rebus-like qualities of installation art to the conventions of narrative cinema.

"Me, You and Everyone We Know" is resolutely small-scaled and observational, picking out odd details and savoring tiny jokes. But it also carries a surprisingly strong emotional undercurrent. Mr. Hawke's thin, crooked face and worried blue eyes register just how lost Richard has become, and Christine, who at first seems both appealingly nerdy and a little passive-aggressive, shares with Ms. July a deftly camouflaged determination to get what she wants.

Coney Island Baby

2005-06-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

Have fun in Coney Island USA this Saturday, June 18 and celebrate the opening of The Dreamland Artist Club 2005.

In 2004, Creative Time and artist Steve Powers initiated their shared vision to revitalize the rich visual culture of Coney Island via the contemporary reinvention of the tradition of colorful hand-painted signs and advertisements dating back more than a century in Coney Island. The next generation of this artistic and cultural endeavor, The Dreamland Artist Club 2005, revives and expands the project with a new group of established and emerging, gallery and street artists from New York, the U.S., and across the globe.

- Creative time

STOP

2005-06-12T17:06:00.000-07:00

Barbara Kruger

Forced Entertainment

2005-06-08T18:21:00.000-07:00

Forced Entertainment is one of the UK's most exciting experimental theatre groups; their work is raw and electric and a "Bloody Mess" to quote one of their pieces. I documented one of their performances many moons ago - it was a charged experience.

Their current project is based on a text by Sophie Calle.

Sophie Calle's exploration of pain and loss forms the basis of our newest theatre piece, also titled Exquisite Pain. Yes, that's right, after twenty one years of devising performances, it seems it's finally time for us to 'do' a text by someone else. It's inevitable perhaps that we are making this jump into exciting new territory not with a script from a playwright but with text from a visual artist renowned for her projects that explore the borders between art and life. Building on the approach of our 'documentary projects' like "Instructions for Forgetting" and "The Travels" we're aiming for a performance that can match the restrained, intimacy of Calle's extraordinary work.

Exquisite Pain will tour Europe over the next few months. Bloody Mess will visit LA and Seattle in December.

Slide over

2005-06-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

Murray Guy's shows are always interesting:

THIS SIDE TOWARD SCREEN May 31 – July 29, 2005

Kevin Arrow, Matthew Buckingham, Madeline Djerejian and Anibal Jorge Pella, Kota Ezawa, Corey McCorkle, Barbara Probst, Anita Witek

Murray Guy is pleased to present an exhibition of 35mm slide shows and projections.

Scots Wha Hae!

2005-06-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

The four Turner Prize nominees have been announced, two of whom are based in Glasgow - Jim Lambie and Simon Starling. Both are represented by the Modern Institute in Glasgow who also represent last year's winner Jeremy Deller and recent Beck's nominee Luke Fowler who we showed at TART. Both Jim and Simon represented Scotland at the 2003 Venice Biennale.

Scots Who Have!

Glasgow-born Jim Lambie, is known for his psychedelic floor pieces, and Simon Starling, who rode a moped across the desert in Andalucia which generated power using only compressed bottled hydrogen and oxygen from the desert air.

- The Independent

Small is Beautiful

2005-06-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

Richard Tuttle

A couple viewing Portrait of Marcia Tucker, 1976, Venice. (Time magazine)

North and South

2005-05-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

N Ireland will be represented for the first time at the Venice Biennale. Ireland returns with more artists than ever, so a good north and south presence. I remember being excited when Scotland first participated at the last Biennale.

.... provides an important opportunity to bring to the attention of the international art world the depth, vibrancy and strength of the visual arts currently being made in Ireland.

- Ireland at Venice 2005

White Star

2005-05-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

Victoria, great name for a theater company. Female names a trend? Love Mary, Mary an art gallery in Glasgow.

OPENING ON THURSDAY at Tramway, Glasgow.

Victoria (Belgium)
WHITE STAR
Only UK performances
Thu 26 - Sat 28 May 8pm

If, in 2002, you saw Victoria's üBUNG, then you'll know that they're a company whose work is startling, poignant and beautifully performed, "..unique, unforgettable theatre" - The Scotsman on üBUNG, November 2002, Tramway.

The text is cruel and hard. It's like a smash in the face. Its directness may shock some. Rather than softening the truth, or not revealing it, the reality is put on stage exactly as it is - this is not always a pretty sight.

- Tramway.