SanArt

Gelitin, Blind Sculpture [in progress], January 30, 2010. Mixed media, dimensions variable. Photos: 16 Miles [more]

Gelitin — the art collective best known for producing art works that looks like they were made out of Play-Doh and organizing performances that often involve remarkable obscenity (peeing on each other) — has arrived in New York. Through February 6, the group is working in Greene Naftali on a Blind Sculpture. The men appear each day sporting high heels, lingerie, and blindfolds; sometimes they forgo the cross-dressing for more traditional, naked exhibitionism. They have recruited artists ranging from Cecily Brown to Liam Gillick to Urs Fischer to guide them as they attempt to produce the sculpture without the use of sight. (There is a full schedule of guest artists available.)

January 30, 2010

Both times I’ve visited there have been some worrisome moments: the blindfolded artists bravely climb ladders and confidently wield power drills and hacksaws as they complete the project. No one seemed to be injured so far. In the span from the first to the third day (this past Thursday and Saturday), they had added quite a bit of material. After they unveil the work (to themselves), it will stay on display through February 26. Until then, there are far worse ways to spend a gallery tour or Chelsea coffee break. Benches have been constructed around the sculpture area, letting viewers relax and watch, as if the makeshift studio was a gladiatorial area.

Of course, not much happens in that arena. Greg Allen pretty much nails it on Art Fag City:

As for the art stars, it’s basically like weekly episodes of Love Boat. Even though it’s incredibly formulaic, the special guest stars add enough novelty to keep people interested week after week. And so it’s the formula–and the main characters, Gopher et al/Gelitin–who come out ahead.

It’s a funny conceit — “let’s make a sculpture while blindfolded” — stretched to a silly extreme. The life of an artist is slow, mundane, and monotonous, viewers learn.

But while it’s not a thrilling spectacle, as the piano player provides a running score to the show, the gallery becomes a nice place to hang out and chat; a warm safe-house above Chelsea’s frigid streets with a good view.

January 28, 2010

January 28, 2010

January 28, 2010

On the first evening, a puppy was present, gnawing here on a piece of carrot.

January 28, 2010

The supplies available to the artists filled one side of the installation area on the first evening of construction.

Gelitin, Blind Sculpture
Greene Naftali Gallery
508 West 26th Street, 8th Floor
New York, New York
Through February 26, 2010
Construction through February 6, 2010

Explicit views of women’s pudenda have never been in short supply in New York City but one found them on 42nd St. (before Disney arrived), not in established art galleries. Inspired by Eve Ensler’s Vagina Dialogues, Francis Naumann began collecting work for an exhibition and when it grew too large, enlisted David Nolan to join him; the exhibition, The Visible Vagina, continues at both galleries through March 20.  The results include the entire range of responses one might expect from women to their own most singular parts, and respectful, appreciative study by men of the most mysterious parts of women.  This is an important exhibition.

Mira Schor ‘Slit of Paint’ (1994) oil on canvas, 12 x 16"

Carolee Schneemann ‘Vulva’s Morphia’ (1995) wall installation 5 x 8', each panel 8 ½ x 11" ; installed with fans

I never shared Ensler’s discomfort with the word, vagina;  I was raised in a doctor’s family where all parts of the anatomy were fair game at the dinner table, as long as one used the correct term.  Speaking of which, while vagina has come to be popular shorthand, the word refers to the unseen part of the female sex organs (unless one has a speculum); the external portion is the vulva or pudenda.

Sarah Davis ‘Britney (Notorious)’ (2009) pastel on Somerset ‘velvet’ paper, 22 x 30"

The most striking thing about the more than one hundred artworks is how few of them objectify women or suggest a salacious use of the imagery, other than as humorous or ironic commentary; the most egregious exception is Mark Kostabi’s large close-up of a vulva in the pallate of Las Vegas at night.  The tone is rather searching, affectionate, wonderous, knowing, celebratory and humorous, with a fair number of nods to artistic precedents.  The obvious and most-cited of these are Courbet’s frankly-pornographic The Origin of the World, never intended to be seen in mixed or polite company, and Duchamp’s transgressive Étant donnés, which permanently brought the imagery into the art museum. Mira Schor’s Slit of Paint (1994, above) surely respond’s to Jasper Johns’ Painting with Two Balls and Cathy de Monchaux’s I saw the past splayed with the skin of my youth (2009) to Jay de Feo’s The Rose; Allyson Mitchell’s Hungry Purse; The Vagina Dentata in Late Capitalism (2006, below) pays homage both to Faith Wilding’s Crocheted Environment (aka Womb Room) at Womanhouse and Nikki de Saint Phalle’s Hon; and I suspect that Sarah Davis’ Britany (Notorious) (2009, above), based on a famous and revealing news photo of Britany Spears makes note of Richard Hamilton’s Swinging London, itself based on a news photo of Mick Jagger attempting to hide his face.

Nancy Grossman ‘Bride’ (1966) mixed media, 22 ½ “ diameter

The exhibition primarily covers recent work and the period from the late 1960s-1970s, when feminism encouraged women to look at their own and each other’s sex organs; workshops were arranged for the purpose.  This coincided with my own maturity and I can well-remember the frisson of transgression around such investigations.  Several works date from the period (by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Nancy Grossman, Barbara Hammer, Henri Maccheroni, Ana Mendieta, Hannah Wilke, Carolee Schneemann, Robert Watts and others) but perhaps none is more closely associated with the times than Judy Chicago’s Red Flag (1971): a photograph, slightly manipulated, so it takes a moment to recognize the subject as a woman removing a bloody tampon from her vagina.  Chicago’s in-your-face image of menstruation was produced against a background of ads for sanitary napkins that still showed ball-gowned women in grand settings, with the elliptical text: Modess…. because.

Peter Saul ‘Relax Sonny’ (2009) acrylic, colored pencil and marker on paper, 23 x 29"

The most striking sign of how far we’ve progressed is the fact that the exhibition was arranged by men and includes male artists.  Peter Saul’s drawing, Relax Sonny says it all concerning male anxiety about women’s bodies. Chuck Close’s Untitled Dauguerreotypes (2010), a diptych, is a loving study of what I assume to be the vulva of his beloved, and likely to raise no opposition. But I can’t help remembering the feminist objections (retrospective, I’d guess) to S0l LeWitt’s Muybridge I (1964), sequential photos of a nude woman as the facing camera moves closer and, focusing on her belly-button, includes ever closer views of her crotch. Is it just the times that make the Close acceptable, or is our tolerance based on the misconception that sixty year old men (Close or Picasso) can do nothing but look?

Beatrice Wood ‘Un peut d’eau dans du savon’ (1917, 1977 replica) Glazed earthenware and soap, 11 ¾ x 9 7/8 “

I’ve always been fascinated by what can and can’t be shown and The Visible Vagina raises the question again and again.  The earliest work is Beatrice Wood’s small clay relief, Un peut d’eau dans du savon (1917, shown in a replica of 1977), a woman’s body in the bath with a heart-shaped piece of carved soap functioning as a fig-leaf. I suspect that the charming image could appear on a Hallmark greeting card these days, but Naumann told me that when included in the 1917 exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists (which rejected Duchamp’s Fountain), it provoked a scandalized reaction and extensive press; Wood told of daily having to remove  calling-cards that men had left in the frame.

Allyson Mitchell ‘Hungry Purse; The Vagina Dentata in Late Capitalism’ (2006-7) view from within towards entrance

Each of the galleries includes and installation that visitors can enter. Allyson Mitchell’s wonderful and hilarious Hungry Purse; The Vagina Dentata in Late Capitalism at Nolan is a lair formed primarily of riotously-polychrome crochet of the sort recycled by Mike Kelly.  The large clitoris above the entry is discretely shielded as one enters by a fringed g-string and the throne opposite is decorated with owls — Athena’s, no doubt.  Pendant cages house chipmunks (squirrels?), one of which is visibly lactating.  At Naumann Carol Cole’s equally humorous Back into the Womb uses a pup-tent as armature for what reads as the skirt of a ball-gown of beige tulle over red satin, until the anatomical reference becomes clear.  Visitors can put their heads through the aperture where a handy flashlight is provided to illuminate the roof, decorated with baby pacifiers and nipples, and the floor, covered with red-sprayed egg-crate foam; certainly the most imaginative use of the material I know, although the referent was open for discussion.

Maureen Connor still from ‘Heads’ from ‘The Sixth Sense’ (1993) video

The installation at Nolan had a few delightful surprises: next to the entrance are two images by Mel Kendrick of bark on a tree, done in ink on Japanese paper.  The aperture on each is so subtle that one might believe he intended them as knots on the tree trunks.  In the second space the surprise is the pairing; I saw Judie Bamber’s astonishingly-lifelike, narrow close-up of a woman’s pudenda – surely a photograph, beside Beth B.’s delicate, pencil drawing of an equally-narrow view of pudenda and anus.  Or that’s what I thought I saw, for the Bamber is a tromp l’oel oil on panel, while Beth B.’ is a photo.  Close by is Maureen Connor’s wonderfully-deadpan video, Heads, from The Sixth Sense in which a woman’s thoughts are recorded on her forehead; as she puts on make up she fantasizes she’s Grace Kelly, then when she see’s a young Cary Grant and Paul Newman, she’s fingering her clitoris.

James Siena ‘Place’ (2008) ink on paper, 6 1/4 x 8"

The exhibition is accompanied by a 124 pg. catalog (The Visible Vagina, ISBN 978-0-98-00556-3-4) with extensive color photographs of many of the works on view and comparative material, and an essay by Anna C. Chave, ‘Is this good for Vulva?’; Female Genetalia in Contemporary Art.  Chave introduces the contemporary work with a history of pre-historic fertility figures that emphasize the vulva, and the man-made narrative that artistic generation is exclusive to men (human generation being unequivocally women’s work).  She traces the artistic emphasis on mother goddesses and generative forms during the early days of feminism  then looks at the dialectic of woman’s body as site of knowledge versus the concern that emphasizing the body is essentializing.  Chave situates the development of feminist art within changing social, legal and cultural currents and looks at several artists from backgrounds beyond the U.S. and Europe.  The catalog gives a unique presentation of several generations of women who use their most private anatomy as a subject for art.

All proceeds from the catalog sales will be donated to V-Day, the organization Eve Ensler founded to end violence against women.  It would make a wonderful Valentine’s Day gift!

The Visible Vagina coincides with another New York exhibition based upon vaginal imagery, Ida Applebroog; MONALISA at Hauser and Wirth, which will be the subject of my next post.

Magdalena Abakanowitz ‘Cercle Clair’ (1971) jute, 59" diameter

Desotorow Gallery is now accepting submissions for “Spoked”, a juried exhibition featuring work about the bicycle and/or cycling culture. This exhibit is open to national and international artists (professional, emerging, and student). Open to works of all genres and media. Submit up to three pieces for a non-refundable entry fee of $15. Submissions Due by 5pm EST on February 12, 2010. Exhibit runs February 26 – March 10, 2010. Download the prospectus at www.desotorow.org.

Feb 12 – Submissions Due by 5pm EST
Feb 15 – Notifications Emailed
Feb 24 – Accepted Work Due to Gallery
Feb 26 – Exhibit Opens
March 5- Opening Reception
March 10 – Exhibit Closes
March 12 – Return of Work Begins (Pick-up/Ship)
March 26 – Deadline for the Pick-Up of Work

Desotorow Gallery is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization located at 2427 De Soto Avenue in Savannah, GA. Please contact us at info@desotorow.org or 912-335-8204 with any questions.

Art Los Angeles Contemporary

UCLA MFA Open Studios

pics:tryharder
…and MOCA/Geffen – LAND and 30 Years of Collections
I might try and mix it up during the week to keep it interesting…oh yeah, and still have Kordansky to post too! whoah so much art!

PREFACE: I write to you from Sydney, Australia, my location for the next 6 months where I am trying my hand at a new adventure before pursuing my MA in Art History in the Fall. I am discovering a whole new art scene and deciphering a completely new national discourse. Below is my first Aussie review, a reflection on a show by Lynette Wallworth presented within the Sydney Festival. While both the exhibit and the festival are now over, Wallworth’s works were too good not to share. And the venue, CarriageWorks, will surely showcase some more intriguing and powerful work in the future.

Lynette Wallworth, Invisible by Night, 2004. Photo by Colin Davison. Courtesy of Sydney Festival, National Glass Centre and the artist.

At a time when technological innovations spring up more and more quickly and no one leaves home without their cell phone, some sort of android future seems imminent. There is hope, however, as there are a few select innovators, like Australian artist Lynette Wallworth, who mine technology for its humanizing qualities, using gadgets to enhance real sensual experiences. As part of Sydney Festival, Australia’s largest multi-disciplinary arts festival showcasing everything from music to dance to visual arts to theatre, three interactive video works by Lynette Wallworth were shown at CarriageWorks (a venue which is a work of art in itself, integrating modern spaces within an old railway factory). Within a pitch-black space, Wallworth has created immersive, interactive and intimate audio/visual environments that create profound experiential moments.

First, I came up and touched the screen of Invisible by Night (2004). My touch changed the pace of the video, the grief-stricken woman portrayed responded to my actions. I watched wondering what she would do next, fascinated. Created in response to the site of Melbourne’s first morgue, the video intends to comment on our neglect of ‘histories of site’ and our lack of acknowledgement of the grieving amongst us. I felt connected for a moment but, then, helpless, there was nothing I could do for this woman so full of emotion. She continued in her rhythm of mourning.

Lynette Wallworth, Invisible by Night, 2004. Photo by Colin Davison. Courtesy of Sydney Festival, National Glass Centre and the artist.

In the second work, The Evolution of Fearlessness (2006), I approached the screen and put my hand on the blue light. The figure of a woman emerged. She placed her hand on mine, stared at me a few moments and then retreated silently back into darkness. Each of the eleven women who appear is an immigrant to Australia who has experienced severe trauma in her life in another country (such as Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, etc.). A book alongside the exhibit tells each woman’s story of strength and survival (except one: “It is not safe to tell Shafiqa’s story at present”). The experience of the video thus gains a dimension: a simple gesture, a wordless interaction, the fragility and resilience of the human spirit. There is a simplicity and grace to Wallworth’s work that reflects its power and profundity.

Lynette Wallworth, Evolution of Fearlessness, 2006. Photo by Rocco Fasano. Courtesy of Sydney Festival, Forma and the artist

One person at a time can experience the final piece, Duality of Light (2009). Alone, I was more confused than unequivocally inspired. I walked down a corridor to see a negative portrayal of myself, a figure human in shape, but filled with an abstract pattern. The multiple sounds along the way created a new sensation of space, but I left bewildered. Perhaps I was confronted with an odd experience, a technology that did not encourage me to lose myself but forced me to reconsider my self, my humanity, my identity.

Lynette Wallworth, Duality of Light, 2009. Photo by Grant Hancock. Courtesy of Sydney Festival.

Witnessing Wallworth’s work, it is no wonder that she is gaining international exposure through recent features at festivals and exhibits in England, France, as well as in New York and at Sundance just last year. Her art exists on a cutting edge that probes the way we live, the way we connect, the way we interact. I only hope Wallworth will continue to show her work worldwide as her intimate technological experiences deliver a potent, relevant and contemporary message about connection and humanity.

Post by Barry Rosof

My brother Barry and his wife Louise have fled Edmonton for the winter (good move) and are lolling in warmer climes–well not exactly lolling. Louise has traveling feet, and Barry is a serious hiker who is happy to accompany her on adventures. Here’s Barry’s report on the challenges of touring Costa Rica: — Libby

I like to drive. Having a challenge is not necessarily bad. Driving in Costa Rica presents many challenges.

The roads have exceedingly sharp curves. The curves can follow one another without letup, for kilometers. That is the start.

Monteverde view

Roads are narrow and without shoulders. Most bridges are single lane. Exuberant vegetation growing out of the ditches, fallen trees, vehicles parked on the road, people, cows, and crumbling roadway further limit available width. All roads, paved and gravel, even the Pan American Highway, have potholes.

It is fun taking a curve, gently pressing on the accelerator as one rounds the bend. But here one never knows if a truck is coming, taking up more than its share of road. The vegetation and pot holes further limits ones room to maneuver. And, one is almost always turning. Mas despacio, slower, is called for. I let the Ticos, as the locals are called, pass me. Still, the driving, aside from the fog, is fun. The only down side is that I am unable to look as much as I would like at the great scenery.

There is an additional challenge, navigation. There are no route numbers. Signs are occasional, in an inconsistent format and when driving towards a town the distance given can increase from sign to sign. In many cases there is no sign or if one is present the directions given can be ambiguous. More than once, passing through a town we found ourselves at a sign less T intersection. Do we go right or left? Horror of horrors, on occasion our only recourse was to ask. Fortunamiente Louise habla español.

Then there was the trip up to Monteverde.

Monteverde is famous for its cloud forest and infamous for the road into town. A cloud forest is a unique biome. As the name implies it is always cloudy. In this case not only cloudy but rainy, about 3 meters (10 feet) of rain a year. It must rain all the time. Everyone we ran into before and after our visit said that when they were at Monteverde it rained.

We left Volcan Arenal in the rain and headed towards Monteverde.

It is a four hour drive from Arenal to Monteverde. It is not that it is far, on a clear day you can see Arenal from our hotel in Monteverde, it is just that the infamous Costa Rican roads provide more than their share of challenges.

The first part of our drive was rather routine, rain, fog, wind, a few fallen trees on the road, an occasional pothole, a couple of do we bear right or left as we pass through a town. No big deal. It was the last 30+ km (18+ miles) that provided the real fun. The road is so bad, even by Costa Rican standards, that some rental companies will not allow you to take their cars to Monteverde. It is a dirt-gravel-rock road whose surface is etched by the rain. Potholes abound. The roadbed combined with the usual curves meant we made it up the last part of mountain at less than 25 kph (15 mph).

As we climbed we encountered something unusual, no rain. We had wonderful views of the lush countryside, ever changing as we rounded the bends.

Vegetation in the rain forest.

Entering town the directions provided by our tour agency, which had been very valuable in the past, called for the road to change to cement block. We were to then turn left at the bank, go another block to the T intersection and turn left again. Too bad the road was now paved, the bank had moved and the road was now one way the wrong way. With a half hour of map and people consultation we made it to our hotel. A great adventure and we were still talking to each other to boot.

Having arrived mid afternoon with nothing else on our schedule we booked a twilight forest tour. We had no idea what we would see other than trees. We know better than to believe brochures that claim that you might see an animal of one sort or other for example. “Might” is a great qualifier. “Hope to see” is a great incentive.

We were picked up at our hotel by a van and after the expected low speed bumpy ride arrived at an office at the edge of a forest. About eight of us were assigned a guide, and given flashlights. Off we went.

We had walked only a few feet when the guide pointed out a two-toed sloth sleeping in a tree. This provided the guide a good opportunity to tell us all about sloths, what they did when awake (after it became dark), their closest relatives, etc. It was fascinating. OK, the sloth comes down to the ground about once a week to defecate. Many million of years ago sloths were ground dwellers. For reasons that are not known, the only activity that they now carry out on the ground is defecation. Now, isn’t that fascinating. PS, they are related to the three toed sloth (surprise) and armadillos.

We went on to see katydids (two types, they are insects), a poisonous snake hanging in a tree, leaf cutter ants at work, a relative of the raccoon, a tarantula and several birds of one type or another (several of which were sleeping). It was great. (How often do you see sleeping birds?) Our expectations were exceeded. Oh yes, towards the end we saw another sloth, this one moving about. It was a two sloth night.

Part of what made the evening was the guide. He was enthusiastic as well as very knowledgeable. We were to find this same characteristic in all the guides we subsequently used.

Splendid quetzal viewed through a spotter.

The next morning we drove ourselves to the forest reserve at the top of the mountain for another forest tour. Irrespective of the rain and fog, this is the attraction that brings ‘em up the mountain. Here, according to the guide book and the only specific mentioned, the treat of treats is to catch a glimpse of the Splendid Quetzal, a rare and magnificent bird whose feathers were used in the headdress of Mayan nobility.

The reserve is in private hands and its principal activity is research. In order to protect the forest they admit only 100 tourists a day.

We had advance reservations for a guided tour that left at 7:30 in the morning. When we arrived it was not raining. I think of it as back time for being rained out at Volcanes Poas and Arenal.

Having been out in the forest the night before we wondered what else there was to see. Plenty it turned out. Costa Rica, though small, has more species of birds and snakes than in all of North America. It has many, perhaps more, mammal species, many of which have no North American relatives. (Maybe I should say no close North American relatives. We ran into a monkey crossing the road sign, for example, while driving down the Pan American highway. I’ve seen people crossing the road signs in North America. I believe the two are related, though not closely.) The cloud forest also has unique vegetation, both in types of plants and in how they grow.

Our guide took seven of us out for nearly three hours of birding, animal watching and an introduction to the vegetation of the cloud forest. Look there, he would say, a flock of birds made up of individuals from several species. The reason they do that is… He pointed out another sleeping two towed sloth, a toucan, a giant hummingbird, a large poisonous snake and a monkey among other treats. He also told us that in the cloud forest the moss grows all around the tree (it only grows on one side of the tree elsewhere) and that there are many species of plants which grow in the ground elsewhere but which here are epiphytes, that is grow in trees. (When is an epiphyte not an epiphyte? When it is not in a cloud forest.) Finally, as if on cue, we spotted a Splendid Quetzal towards the end of our tour. It was terrific morning.

My guess is that because there is so much biological diversity one will always see something. Still, I cannot help but feel we were unusually lucky.

I went back to the reserve in the afternoon to take a hike. During two plus hours I spotted many birds and only one mammal. Couldn’t identify a single one. Guess I will not make it as a guide.

The visit to Monteverde was our great Costa Rican experience and it ranks with other great places we have visited elsewhere.

Accompanying are two pictures of the lush vegetation and a picture taken through the guide’s telescope of a Splendid Quetzal. None of them do justice to the subject or the experience.

Assistant/Associate Professor and Director — emerging media and digital arts.

The College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon is seeking to fill a unique position with a visionary individual who will serve as the director for a new center for emerging and new media, a growing interdisciplinary center teaching across the College. The position requires teaching courses in any of the relevant disciplines, and demonstration of commitment to collaboration, innovation, teaching excellence, and coherent, curricular and theoretical research in support of this developing center. Faculty assignment will include administration of the Center and a course load of up to two classes a quarter. PhD, MFA (or terminal degree in an appropriate area) required and a minimum of three to five years of professional experience in related area. College-level teaching experience with a focus on emerging media and design is required, as is a demonstrated expertise and knowledge of current and emerging technologies in interactive media. To apply please visit: http://www.sou.edu/hrs and provide a letter, CV, transcripts, a digital portfolio of your work posted online or on DVD, and names and contacts for three references. Contact for questions: Professor Miles Inada minada@sou.edu or Dennis Dunleavy DunleavD@sou.edu. For full consideration, materials should be submitted by March 1, 2010. SOU is an equal access AA/EOE committed to achieving a diverse work force and, as such, is an inclusive campus community dedicated to student success, intellectual growth, and responsible global citizenship.

For portfolio viewing offline please send any additional materials to:
Alissa J. Arp, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Southern Oregon University
1250 Siskiyou Boulevard
Ashland , OR 97520

pics:tryharder

USC Roski MFA Open Studios

An incomplete, biased and otherwise personal list of some of the events I hope to get to in the next two weeks:

Tuesday, Feb.  2, 6 pm YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, a Seoul based web-art group, will be speaking at Temple where their work is part of Philagrafika.

126 AUDITORIUM, Temple University Architecture building,  1947 North 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122
Free and open to the public

YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES

Who wouldn’t want to hear from artists who did a web piece called CUNNILINGUS IN N0RTH K0REA?  You can see it, and more of their work at their site.

Douglas Crimp. Photo Mathias Danbolt

Thursday, Feb.  4, 6:30 Courtesy of the ICA , Douglas Crimp, visual studies theorist and Aids activist will talk on Andy Warhol’s Paul Swan which will be screened following the talk.

International House,  3701 Chestnut Street

Free

"John Wayne" by Marisol, 1963, mixed media Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, Art © Marisol Escobar

Friday, Feb.  5-Sat., Feb.  6  Women and Pop Art Symposium is organized in conjunction with the “Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists 1958-1968″ exhibition at U Arts .

Terra Hall, Connelly Auditorium (8th floor), 211 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102

Free and open to the public

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. R.S.V.P.  to Kate Johnson, 215-717-6145 or kjohnson@uarts.edu

Then Next week I’m off to the College Art Association Annual Meeting in Chicago. Feb.  10-13.  For details, or to register, see CAA’s  site.

Some Philadelphia area participants are: Elisabeth Agro, Kathleen A. Foster, and Timothy Rub, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philip Glahn and Alicia Imperiale, Tyler School of Art,  Arthur J. Di Furia and Maureen Pelta, Moore College of Art and Design, Rachele Riley, University of the Arts, Christiane Hertel, Bryn Mawr College, Rachel Oberter, Haverford College, Jennifer Borland, Lisa Bourla, David Brownlee, Alison Chang, Andre Dombrowski, Ellery Foutch, Jane Irish, George Marcus, Larry Silver, Miya Tokumitsu, University of Pennsylvania, Anne Verplanck, independent scholar and Janine Mileaf, Swarthmore College
I expect to report on the meeting. 

Last week’’s episode: Lyon Biennale – Pedro Reyes.

Biennale of contemporary art in Lyon chose The Spectacle of the Everyday as its seemingly unglamorous theme.

Adel Abdessemed, Sept frères, 2006

As Curator Hou Hanru explained: In today’s world existing means being part of the spectacle – that’s the situation we’re in. Everything’s spectacle: any image in a magazine, any exhibition, etc. And in that same world there’s also what’s called the “everyday”: a living, shifting terrain on which people come up with all kinds of ways of resisting the implacable logic of consumption as embodied in the spectacle.

The idea for the Bienniale is to use the spectacle to spotlight this invisible world of the everyday and the ceaseless creation that goes on within it.

HeHe, Toy Emissions (My Friends all drive Porsches), 2007

The Spectacle of the Everyday celebrated contemporary artists who believe that art has to offer more than a spectacle, that it can reinvent itself through engagements with the challenges brought about by everyday life. I was surprised to read that the biennale had been panned by critics in France. The Spectacle of the Everyday was trying to give too many lessons. In a simplistic way and without much regard for form, they wrote. I’m not haughty enough to believe that none of us deserves to be reminded of a few unpleasant facts once in a while. While some of these lessons might not always be very subtle and well-articulated, they have at least the merit of trying and opening up a space for reflection.

The event was distributed into several venues in and around Lyon. Which is great if your idea of a fun time in Lyon involves spending hours inside buses, trams and metros.

The main exhibition venues is La Sucrière, a former sugar factory on the River at the edge of the city. La Sucrière showed the most compelling artworks, it also presented the most coherent and intelligent exhibition. It was down-to-earth, accessible to all audiences and didn’t feel the need to play the provocative card. In that respect, the exhibition reached quite competently its purpose to bring contemporary creation closer to everyday life. I doubt i’ll blog about the other venues though.

Eko Nugroho, cut the montain and let it fly, 2009. Photo : Blaise Adilon

One of the external walls of the exhibition space became the canvas for Eko Nugroho’s Cut the Mountain and Let It Fly , a 70 by 15 meter-long mural.

Rigo 23, Gauche Droite, 2009. Photo: Blaise Adilon

Meanwhile, the silos of the ex-sugar factory have been painted in black and white by Rigo 23. The letters say “Gauche” and “Droite” (“Left, right”). And that’s exactly the position of the silos if you raise your head while entering the exhibition space. “Unless,” say the exhibition guide, “you turn round, of course, in which case it’s the opposite. Turning round: the minimal experience that casts doubt on the strictly relative values of our certainties.” I’ll let you ponder on that.

Tsang Kinwah, Let us Build and Launch a Blue Rocket to his Heaven, 2009

Tsang Kinwah’s wallpapers cover the entrance hall. From afar, they look like delicate flowers in the decorative-art style of William Morris. Until you stop and realize they are patterns made of words that are at odds with the floral ornament: “Vive la France”, “The Glory of Human Beings”, “Il faudrait les supprimer”, “Where is God,” and “Fucking Heaven”.

All of the above makes me wonder why nowadays the only paintings deemed worthy to enter a biennale of contemporary art are site-specific paintings, wallpapers or graffiti.

Kin-Wah TSANG, The Second Seal – Every Being That Opposes Progress Shall Be Food For You, 2009. Photo: Blaise Adilon

Kinwah spread its magic again on the upper floor at La Sucrière. This time with an animated video version of his coloured texts. Both menacing and seducing, the sentences descend like lava on the walls the space, they bounce on the floor and gradually ignite the whole room. They talk of battle, purge, wretched land and the necessity to educate oneself. They utter haiku-like aphorisms “One race, one colour”, “The horse, the sword and the festival”, “The sun, the earth and red”, “one people, one country”. The title of the artwork doesn’t dispense more cheerfulness. The Second Seal – Every Being That Opposes Progress Shall Be Food For You refers to the Apocalypse of John. The Second Seal bringing about war and a soldier with a sword riding a Red Horse.

Dan Perjovschi, The Everyday Drawing 1, detail, 2009. Photo : Blaise Adilon

The now ubiquitous Dan Perjovschi graced 2 floors of the Sucrière with his white chalk on black wall drawings.

Everyday, the artist sent by email a drawing inspired by what made the headlines of the press. The Biennale staff then erased one of the drawings on the black board and dutifully copied the new one instead. Cynical, spot-on, the commentary responds to the latest news while addressing at the same time the -alas immutable- issues of our time: the distribution of wealth, globalisation, religion, migrations, the art market, global warming.

Michael Lin, What a Difference a Day Made, 2008. Photo : Blaise Adilon

Michael Lin, What a Difference a Day Made, 2008. Photo : Blaise Adilon

Michael Lin, What a Difference a Day Made, 2008. Photo : Blaise Adilon

Michael Lin bought the entire stock of a hardware store in Shanghai, cataloged all its content, had it shipped to Lyon and rearranged it, adding music, video and performance. The objects of “What a Difference a Day Made” are presented according to colour, shape and use into elegant wooden displays, as in a natural history museum. The installation reminds us that the modest everyday existence of an obscure shop is also part of our collective memory – and something maybe capable of becoming a work of art in its own right.

Société Réaliste, EU Green card lottery : the lagos file, 2006-2009. Photo : Blaise Adilon

Société Réaliste, EU Green card lottery : the lagos file, 2006-2009. Photo : Blaise Adilon

The Green Card can be won in a free lottery organised on the Internet by the American government. The project EU Green Card Lottery mirrors the program and suggests to Americans that they should reverse the immigration flow by demanding a green card to Europe. The moment Société Réaliste (“Realistic Society”) launched the website of the project, it was besieged by demands from Third World candidates unaware that it was a fake.

The installation at the Biennale invites visitors to take the point of view of the immigration officer who has to review myriads of identity data and portraits of candidates for the European Green Card.

As the artists explained in an interview for Provision Library, the project addresses immigration management in our ‘globalized,’ ‘cosmopolitan’ world: Whereas it is considered a primary right for citizens to choose where they want to live, as soon as it concerns a non-Western person, this right vanishes.

Xijing Men, I love Xijing-the Daily Life of Xijing President, 2009. Photo : Blaise Adilon

Xijing Men, I love Xijing-the Daily Life of Xijing President, 2009. Photo : Blaise Adilon

Beijing literally means “Capital of the North”; Nanjing “Capital of the South”; and Tokyo/Dongjing “Capital of the East”. Where is the Capital of the West then? The Xijing Men (3 citizens from nations that have experienced tense relationships through history: the Korean Gimhongsok, the Chinese Chen Shaoxiong, and the Japanese Tsuyoshi Ozawa) have decided to build it, little by little, for the city of Xijing (??, “West Capital”) does not yet exist on the maps.

Over the past few years the Xijing Men have embodied a city that moves with the exhibitions they take part in. Each of the performances and actions of the Xijing Men group brings them closer to their ultimate goal: the integration of a fictional place as a city in its own right into the virtual world of Google and interactive maps.

After their organization of rival Olympics for which they turned art galleries on the outskirts of Beijing into fitness centers and after the chance “discovery” of forged historical texts, the Xijing Men went a step further towards the creation of the western nation. This time they have “reconstructed” inside the Sucrière the apartment of the president of Xijing Land. The Xijing flag, heaps of sand, a few cactus, furniture, a stage and videos is all it took to both embrace and disgrace nationalist ideals.

Jiechang Yang, Underground Flowers, 1989-2009. Photo : Zacharie Roy

Yang Jiechang meticulously disposed 3,000 painted porcelain reproductions of human bones, inside wooden frames as if they were excavated artefacts. “Underground Flowers” is a consideration of the passing of time and the cruelty of political regimes. The artist left China at the age of thirty-three, at the time of the Tienanmen events. The dissolution of the Eastern Bloc, the end of the Cold War and the geopolitical reorganisation of the world date from this same period: they would shape Yang Jiechang’s life and inform his oeuvre. During the Biennale 991 bones were sold to the public – one only per visitor – in return for a minimum donation of 10 euros to Entretemps, an association which provides emergency accommodation in and around Lyon.