Drinking Problems

Well we’ve all heard about the dangers of drinking and driving. Then this summer one of my friends fractured his skull on a drunken bike ride, which he’d taken to avoid driving. Well it turns out that even riding the subway poses risks, as I found out Sat. night when I woke up at the end of the line, somewhere way out in the Bronx at 3am. The lucky thing is that when I woke up the second time, on the way back, I had only missed my stop by one station!

It’s getting pretty cold here in New York recently, though today’s ok, but I’m finding myself less attracted to sitting in Bryant Park to do my blogging. Have been trying to save money, but I will probably have to use the Tapas bar in future.

Pace-Wildenstein

Friday went to Pace Wildenstein, since MOMA turned out to be free only in the evening and P-W’s right around the corner. Their stable of artists reads like a list of many of my favorites, from Dubuffet to Sol Lewitt to Elizabeth Murray and Keith Tyson. Rauschenberg had a handsome show that just opened, also Robert Mangold upstairs which I really liked. Mangold divided the paper into symmetrical grid sections with a few straight lines. Using the intersection points, he’s drawn curves; in turn, the intersections of these curves form interesting asymmetrical shapes. Also allowed to look around at their stuff in storage- amazing. Not allowed to post any pic.s, unfortunately- but maybe they won’t sue me if I just show you some racks full of very famous and expensive artists’ work.

Dominos

This is one of my favorite moments here on the street, and is so strange and from another time, it seems like it should have occurred in Savannah. What you see here is, between a UPS van and a car on a busy Midtown street, the UPS man and several others sat around a small table playing dominos! I have to say (and I’m glad his back is turned here) the Hasid looking on longingly is pretty good to. This was truly a Kodak moment.

EFA Open Sudios

Ok, let’s get back to that EFA open studios. I wasn’t feeling well and for some reason feel like that’s a good enough excuse for not having lots of pictures (I think there were over 80 artists involved). Definitely a well-attended event, due partly to the fact that it is held over 3 days, which must be kind of hard on the artists. My immediate studio neighbor, Salli Taylor (hopefully I will get a pic sometime) is a Buddhist and gave me an idea with her “Mandala” paintings, which look a little like circles that contain an area in relief that is burned out, but there are these sort of germinations budding out of these voids. I also met Noah Klerfeld, another floor-mate, who hasn’t been to Savannah, but showed his vid.s at SCAD and knows Michael Scoggins from Skowhegan! Small world sometimes. The pictures I do have are from another floor-mate’s side project, called “Little Switzerland.” Dan Levenson has noticed that a lot of European artists have a lot of promotional materials, including entire books of their work, due to the more readily available sponsorship of their governments. He started a group called “Little Switzerland,” where he represents non-existent Swiss artists down to the exhibition invitations. I asked Dan how quickly he came clean when visitors inquired. He said right away, because he doesn’t want to just upset people.

Vehicles and nice-trip-metaphors, slipping into mental gear-grinding and masochism:

Fretting over things as usual last night…
1. Has occurred to me that subject matter and media are just a mode of transportation. Maybe subject matter is a car and the medium’s the gas. They enable the artists to get where they’re going, to the content. But when you’re viewing, it’s like you’re in the car or train or whatever, and you’re not sure where you’re going. You can get off at any number of undetermined places, but the end of the trip, the secret, predetermined destination that holds the whole, true meaning, is being led up to all the time. (and of course never completely reached) And you get out and you still don’t know where you are, but you see the landscape and it’s some kind of culmination of the whole trip.
2. I am always thinking about the differences between subject matter and content. Can they be the same thing? Yes, I think that is Formalism- the meaning is in how the object looks/the formal elements of the media. When it is different, I guess I might have a painting of The Last Supper where the dinner setting and people are subject matter and the content is…conviviality? Maybe that example is too literal- change the subject matter to 2 people in conversation and the content could be determined by the expressions- a lascivious look/an argument/etc. What is the artist saying about the conversation? With Pollock, let’s say the subject matter is paint splatters- at least that is what we see, but the subject matter must also be his process, because it’s about the paint, hence painting- that is what we talk about, and we “see” that too. So the content becomes the mystical conjuration of a feeling/atmosphere through paint and action. Then, in Conceptual Art, I think the distinction is usually much easier- as in Sol Lewitt’s open cubes, where the subject matter is obviously the open cube, but the content has to do with a finite, open system, possibilities therein, etc. Now here I have another sticking point, which is the categorization of conceptual artists and material/intuitionists. With Conceptualism, the content may be different than the subject matter, but also not signified by the form itself. But the open cubes and their documentation are the signifiers aren’t they? Perhaps it is meant to be in the formulaic ability for replication, that the form itself is almost irrelevant compared with the idea. BUT THEN HOW CAN WE GET RID OF THE WHOLE CREMASTER CYCLE AND STILL HAVE THE IDEA?! Matthew Barney is not a pure conceptualist, I think I just refuse to believe this. The new generation of conceptualists bastardize the thing, I think- even though through Barney’s sketchbooks, production qualities it need not be created by one artist’s hand…ok next point
3. Which leads to another question/ sticking point/ paradox: the double-edged subjectivity-objectivity sword. Go back to Pollock and his objectifying of the paint through manhandling the splatters around. It’s obviously not completely objective since he edited/cropped his canvases after painting, but how much more obviously could you just show the qualities of the paint than his splattering? And you would think that this would be purely self-referential in its object-hood, but it obviously isn’t because we get all sorts of other ideas from this! But consider also all the meanings of “objective”: pertaining to an object; impartial; a goal, goal-oriented. I always think that this variety of meaning is important. I’ve always thought, also that self-referentiality is impossible, and in it’s place a conceptualism reference starts to emerge. For instance, a reductionist, white square may physically only reference the shape of the canvas, the paint, but the question of why may lead the viewer back through the entire history of abstraction.
4. Art that frustrates me because it doesn’t immediately strike a note: I was embarassingly presumptuous in ranting about this the other day, sometimes I am not patient enough and realize that ultimately certain works may become more relevant to me in the future. But let’s be honest- there’s a lot of boring art (I should say uninteresting art, to make it clear that I am not equivocating art’s function with entertainment) or art made in bad taste (and by this I do not mean just sex and poo but the loud or obnoxious stuff and you know art that’s cliché “arty” now- like body painting and slashed canvases in most cases- but not Paul McCarthy, I like him), or art that is popular due to a market whim, or art that is imitating someone else or appropriating everything or simply “been done before” in a noticeable way or whatever. It took me a little while to understand and like Hendrix, jazz, and coffee, Shakespeare, and even olives- so really the whole Michelangelo/Kosuth ease of translation thing was probably me being full of crap. I like not understanding because it often draws me in, but I also like/have a right to be a discerning viewer. And sometimes I feel like conceptual art can be an excuse to not do much, as abstraction can be an excuse for sloppy painting- and sometimes that sucks, especially for the really great sloppy painters and brilliant people who don’t do much!

To sum up- maybe some of you have guessed that I get a little neurotic about these issues and like to sit the fence (hey I know I’m a student, but the pressure to sound like I know what I’m talking about in front of an anonymous public of “chastisers” is kinda scary).. it really does infatuate me and I tend to go back and forth between theories and positions till I am thoroughly dissociated from myself and at which point I actually manage to get some “real” work done. I get very frustrated with paradoxes and dichotomies, but they are also really The Spice of Life. I like them though they confuse me, and I like jumping from one side to another without feeling that either is any better, or that there is anything wrong with the jumping, but definitely call me out when I’m spewing crap, and t.y. to my various Chastisers (I can now see this blog becoming conceptually masochistic, so feel free to let me know if I’ve got something right too!).

Willard Boepple

Willard Boepple is one of the real long-time dedicated Triangle Board members. His opening was at Lori Bookstein. His sculptures varied between floor standing works which tended to be constructed of rectilineal pieces of painted wood and wall-hanging, translucent colored resin pieces, which included more circular light-switch/gear-like forms. Cool.

Duly Chastised

I didn't include the respondent's (below) threat of my being stuck in a lifetime of java servitude! But the short correspondence definitely makes sense, and I am glad to be reminded of these points. I do not want to be the gallery goer who whines "I don't get it," with conceptual art anymore than with abstract expressionism. And I definitely don't want to come off as being anti-anything, really... but when the viewer cannot identify with much of a given work, and it/its context of being made/the artist is not explained, that is just a difficult, frustrating situation. It is like the difference between Situationists and, say Fluxus, where one seems much more formal, regulated and explicable. Other work seems to throw the rules out the window or encrypt itself, or only really comes together as the sum of its parts. THis stuff is both more attractive to me than the Situationists (who I cannot help but feel are formulaic and start to bore me), but often very challenging. It also seems to present some problems for critical judgment- which is why I think there is so much over-wrought writing about this work. Anyway, sometimes I get a little wound up and blurt stuff out (re-reading that statement about Michelangelo-Kosuth seems pretty high-fallutin' now), so feel free to jump in anytime, readers, and remember that I did have a fever.;)

By the way, the Steven Claydon vid at White Columns, "Cluck, Cluck" with all the crystals and crazy British rantings was one of those great instances, in my opininion, of something taking us beyond language's descriptive means.

Dialogue

Some of you seem to email me, and that is fine, but I encourage those of you who would like question/ call to attention anything on this blog to comment. I am going to start posting perceptive comments, so that they do not get overlooked by general readers and to generate more of a dialogue. Here's the response I got from "Armchair Chastiser" on my complaints about obtuse conceptualism:
..as for your previous post, for such a visual dude you're sort of positing language as the supreme medium of meaning, yes? as in you seem to be assuming that a work of conceptual art is a partciular iteration of a preceding idea that is most purely (i.e. in a non-particular form) expressed in language. (Example: viewer sees fragments of frames stuck in wall and floor, thinks "ah yes, here in the 21st century we no longer have coherent or common frames through which to intepret our experiences." or something. whatever.)

so if conceptual art & imagery is always referring back to language, then yes, the issue of accessibility would be crucial: how easy should it be for the viewer to make the interpretive journey from the particular work in the gallery to the general idea that it represents, etc etc etc.

But why does the work have to be a stand-in for an idea expressed in language, any more than we think of an idea expressed in language as standing in for a work of art in a gallery somewhere? Certainly, in human experience visual meaning preceded linguistic meaning (cave dudes could see a tree and give invest it with meaning before we had any words for it, a mother's face means something to a baby even thought the baby can't even conceive of reading or talking).

and we also know that language is never pure either, but traps us in a partiular culture's (or sub-culture's) vehicles of thought, complete with blindspots. (Wittgenstien, blah blah blah).

point being the work of art should probably mean something on its own without reference back to an artist's statement. If you could fully express yourself in words, why make the art at all? You could just be a writer. methinks what's "necessary" in a work are those elements of it that go somewhere our language has yet to take us.

Funny

2 things I have thought are very funny on the radio recently:
NPR does a segment on Hamas, followed directly by one on hummus
A supposedly 126 yr. old Cuban man died, apparently his neighbors “remembered the man with the toothless grin as always having been old.”

Sick

So last week I was coming down with a cold and by this weekend I was sicker than I’ve been in years. Awful. I have to admit, I am a complete baby about it, but there is nothing like being coddled by your mother/significant other when ill. But I’m all alone. Yes, I know it’s a hard luck story but I can take care of myself mediocrely well, and I’m feeling a little better now. Gallons (and I mean gallons) of water has done the trick- coffee is just not the solution to everything. Managed to see some of the EFA Open Studios (more later), which was great, and forced myself out Sat. to Chelsea, where I visited White Columns, where a strange but entertaining video called “Cluck, Cluck” involving crystals, a ranting English-accent on crazy alchemical sci-fi theories, and some very strange space-noises disguised my fever before I headed home.

On Conceptual Work

The problems I (and most others, I think) have with the heavily conceptual work that is so prevalent on the scene here is that it is totally inaccessible without any provided expanation. In most cases there is no sort of posted information, so the viewer is left to ponder arcane references and generally leaves the gallery frustrated and a little angry. How readily available should references be? How obvious should an artist make the idea? Way too much obfuscation in the name of “subtlety” I think. The best ideas translate easily- I think that has been constant from Michelangelo to Kosuth (with regards to Kosuth, some may beg to differ here, but I would say that they are expecting more than there is). More hints please, less defensiveness in revealing meaning, and less ridiculous rhetoric when there is some elucidation.
On the other hand, of course, is the terrible fallacy of artists who slap their paint around, insisting that each swooping brush-stroke is invested with sublime meaning. It is this approach that is panned as “decoration,” (to my mind one of the harshest criticisms to someone who asserts anything more than a visual veneer) which leads to the reductionist strategies of many artists seeking truth.


So.. all this leads me to my current problems, trying to decide what is necessary and what’s not… and then sometimes being dissatisfied that the result does not meet my aesthetic expectations. Also the sticking problem of being too literal- if I am trying to express an idea of something beyond detectability existing, it does not make a whole lot of sense to visualize this thing, because then it’s detectable! Hinting at the idea seems the only way; leading up to but not actually delineating the resolution. Tricky. And then I still want to work with certain materials. On top of all this there are some practicalities to take into account- for instance trying to use uv light in a room with regular light, and the issues I run into with infinite quantities that don’t translate well into real-world materials (at least in the studio). Infinitesimals are a little easier, but I am forced to use both.
Finally, I find myself questioning myself about who/what I am trying to emulate/ how do I really want my art to be. The second Triangle panel discussion involved the panelists rebuking students for looking at Chelsea artists (for example) and emulating them or those who are big on the international fair/biennale circuit. I think it is important to see what’s going on and to determine for yourself what’s quality work, and not to try to angle your perspective towards the market, but still, some of this seems inevitable and also necessary to be relevant or to pose a good counter-position.

Archival Materials

I know that the staff at SCAD will probably be disappointed in this revelation, but there does not seem to me to be any revolution (or reformation) going on in high end New York galleries as far as archival materials. I am not going to comment on whether or not I think this is a good thing, though it does seem to liberate many artists’ methods. Of course it is always surprising what some collectors will buy, and this includes art which may be neither particularly archival nor well done, nor sometimes even well thought out. This is not to say that quality, depth and permanence of art in New York is non-existent, but maybe becomes harder to find when asking for combinations of these characteristics. My overall impression is that the good stuff is, yes, really good, but there is plenty of room to compete, and seeing bad art can cease to be a disappointment when you consider that your own work stands a great chance against it. Except, one gets the impression that this is an insider’s game, and you need to have certain things on your resume to take part (or know the right people). Certainly I am convinced that the resume is more important than the work in determining “success”.

Delacroix's timeless thoughts

"If painters left nothing of themselves after their deaths, so that we were obliged to rank them as we do actors according to the judgment of their contemporaries, how different their reputations would be from what posterity has made them! How many forgotten names must have created a stir in their own day, thanks to the vagaries of fashion or to the bad taste of their contemporaries! But luckily, fragile though it is, painting (and failing this, engraving) does preserve the evidence for the verdict of posterity, and allows the reputation of an artist of real superiority to be reassessed, even though he may have been underestimated by the shallow judgments of contemporary public opinion, which is always attracted by the flashiness and a veneer of truth."
"A great number of talented artists had never done anything worth while because they surrounded themselves with a mass of prejudices, or had them thrust upon them by the fashion of the moment. It is the same with their famous word beauty which, everyone says, is the chief aim of the arts. But if beauty were the only aim, what would become of men like Rubens and Rembrandt... who prefer other qualities?"
How times have changed... or have they?

Interesting Images from the Subway

"Hybrid Carnival for St. Exuperé #4,"

Karen Wilkin recently curated an exhibition at Wooster Art Space by an artist new to me, Phong Bui. He also runs a great arts publication (also new to me) called the Brooklyn Rail, and is sometimes known as the "Mayor of Williamsburg." His show was a really pleasurable surprise, a great mix of paintings, sculptures, and installation, which reminded me in parts of Calder, Klee, Schwitters, and Constructivism. Playful, but suggesting planetary/cosmic arrangements, primitive signs, maps, but maintaining that sort of spontaneity of expression.

Something in Return

Shot's from Poogy Bjerklie's exhibition at The Phatory (www.thephatory.com)




"The paint and the image and the memory mingle fluidly until, eventually a feeling surfaces that liberate an emotion that may produce a painting." Her work recalls the romantic ideals pursued by artists of the Hudson River School, whose idealized depictions of nature offer momentary respites from mankind’s reckless dance with modernity. Her multi-layered wall and framed paintings entice viewers to enter serene renditions of the Maine landscape that she is able to recall from childhood memories to quieting and ethereal affect.

Salon Blog III

Michael Schall:

Ricardo Rendon:




Richie Budd psychotically wielding his hot-glue gun

Salon Pt. II

Lucie Chaumont (FR):

Jack Holden is a video artist, whose films are simple and beautiful, if slightly unnerving. Unfortunately, my picture from inside his dark booth does not do his video of people watching gorillas in the Bronx Zoo any justice


John Rasimus (SWE):

Andras Bojti's "Heavenly" installation:

Salon Blog

Now to begin a rapid-fire look at finished work for the Open Day.
Mana Rouholamini (CAN):

Roberto Coromina (Spain)- many of these fragments migrated to the floor.

Gregory Forstner

Avani Patel

Samantha Donnelly

Ok, I talked with Samantha Donnelly, but somehow never really got round to discussing her work (though she had some great tips for using gold foil), so I am only speculating here. Being from the UK might explain her interest in the sheep skins that she used, along with her delicate line drawings they suggested a sort of melancholy absence or loss. The use of gold foil- I keep thinking has something to do with Jason and the Argonauts.... Samantha if you are reading please comment.

laura malado

A picture of Laura doing her final floor-cleaning and the work itself.




Malado Baldwin is a local painter, here's a pic. of her at work.

Amy and Hee Jung

Amy Croft (UK) was one of the artists who really used the time effectivelyn in experimenting with new materials and ideas.


Hee Jung Cho, a South Korean who now lives in NYC creates a type of collage suspended in many layers of celo-tape. One of her hanging works was HUGE, and heavy! I helped her hang it.

Allison, Edgar, Rosemary: Conceptuals

Allison Wiese and I had some great conversations, she has that sort of comprehensive knowledge of a lot of things that makes it easy for her to relate to other people. In previous work, she has made signs and billboards with pick-up lines, as well as using interactive features such as a theremin in a beach-oriented piece, and a tire swing here at Triangle.



Edgar Orlaineta (Mexico) drew upon his arcane knowledge of a designer to produce his installation, which features triangular and diamond patterns everywhere, which he originally found on an album cover!


Rosemary Williams' work involved the documentation of New York buildings and also a film of NY street performers.

Triangle Photographers

Nora Herting (USA) is a photographer who takes at some inspiration from her time working at the JC Penney's photo-department. Her work is pure Americana, from cheerleaders to high-school looking portraits. She even set up a little studio in her area to shoot models laying in a mock-up bed.

Els van den Meersch (Belgium), on the other hand, shoot beautifully dark imagery of neglected architecture and dank places. She has a wonderful feel for composition and somehow finds those great run-down buildings which are sort of neo-Romantically preserved in her photos.

Intense frustration

Ok I have all these pictures backed up, and a little free time, but I've now spent over an hour trying to upload to no avail. This is a fairly common occurrence with the public wireless areas and I can't do anything but say hopefully I'll be able to get some stuff up tomorrow, because I am not sitting in Bryant Park anymore tonight! Good night everybody. Aagh.

Ketchup and Blog

Well, doesn’t that sound tasty. I’ve got a lot of pictures, and you guys are probably just going to have to bear with me as I don’t think one day will be enough to get them all up. As you should know if you’ve been a regular visitor, Saturday was Triangle’s Open Studios, which was an extremely well-attended event, partly due to coinciding with the Dumbo Arts Festival Weekend. I would like to thank my friends from college who showed up, as well as my friend Felicia from high school in VA, who brought her family and a friend. It is interesting for me to hear my friends’ opinions, which are unsnobbified by their respective professions outside the Art-World. The resounding favourite of the lay-peoples was Rodrigo Bruna, and his toast-image (which turns out to be a copy of the supposed first photograph ever taken- burned onto a metal plate). People actually were eating the popcorn that spewed out of Richie Budd’s sculpture and most of us got a lil tipsy afterwards so I think it was a great success. Today Ben (the other studio-tech, whose skills, enthusiasm and patience have made him the ideal work-mate), David (the “Hands” on the Triangle Board), and I have been disassembling everything in a state of mild depression. This week I would like to thank the SCAD Financial Aid department for finally getting me my money, the State of Georgia for agreeing that my truck (still in GA) IS actually road-worthy, and Allison Wiese (Triangle artist) for pointing out that you are not technically supposed to put two spaces after a period (note to sefl: am stuck in my ways, though I realize I could probably save about 5 minutes a year just on this blog- if I hadn’t had complaints already, I might just leave punctuation out completely). Please stay posted for pics from Poogy Bjerklie’s exhibition at the Phatory, the Karen Wilkin-curated Phong Bui exhibition, and some other stuff I’ll figure out later. Please don’t be shy, leave me some comments! Also!!!: potential visitors please be aware that EFA’s open studios will be open Thurs, Sat, Sun, but I will probably not be taking part because of a shady technical problem involving membership- so look forward to November when I will have my “solo show” and if you aren’t familiar with Zeno’s paradox or Aasimov’s “The Last Question” you have time to marinate on that now.

Half Lives

More pix of my models in progress:

Updates

So, the other day a Triangle resdient told me that he/she had just returned from a meeting and sounds like they will probably be accepted into a major international Biennale. I am not just starting rumors…but you guys can begin the speculation.
Don’t want to say told you so, but you can see that David Webb’s’s imagery is getting simpler (below)! Yup, soon it’ll be just white squares. TWANG!
It’s great to see a French graffiti-influenced painter (Guillaume) coming to the home of modern graffiti and getting to legally “bomb” a wall (below).
Low down on the toast: Finally got to have a conversation with Rodrigo. He’s a great character, very soft spoken, but I was taken aback to hear him mingling Deustch and English words together in the same sentences, with a German accent, when he’s supposedto be from Chile! Turns out he lived in Dusseldorf a few years, aber kennt nur ein bischien von beider Spracher. Glucklich dass ich auch nur wenige Deutsch spreche. Anyway, he’s using the toast because of the visual similarities he sees between the value diffusion in the toasted bits and photographic development. (FYI he actually blow-torches his toast!) Interesting to see his portfolio of more conceptual installation work and hear that he feels “more free” with the materiality of the bread.

Laura Belem

Laura has been painstakingly taking the dirt out of the floor in her area. After several different attempted methods with conventional sweeping and mopping apparati, she has had to resort to belt-sanding the whole section. It is now quite noticeably cleaner than anywhere else in the Workshop.