On a recent August Saturday, I went to Governor's Island for an Art
Chakra Excursion hosted by Renee Riccardo and Anne-Françoise Potterat.
It was a small group which we chalked up to a very hot day.
Our group met near the visitor's center on Governors island to the
right of the ferry exit. The island seems like a small town, a time
capsule from the early sixties, just waiting for all who arrive to be
surprised
and amazed by the island itself and the Creative Time PLOT09
installations. We were on the island for the entire afternoon and we
only saw a few pieces. There just isn't enough time. It is a many
faceted experience and its great just to lie in the grass. The island
provides hammocks and people were sleeping in them right next to our
yoga class near the chimes.
Klaus Weber's "Large Dark Wind Chime (Tritone Westy)", an over-sized wind chime made with tempered aluminum, was our first stop. We arranged to have a yoga class there with Anne-Françoise teaching under a giant tree that must be at least 100 years old. We arranged ourselves in a circle and Anne-Francois began the chakra breathing segment of the class with our eyes closed. The sound of the chimes was overwhelming and because they were so loud, a little comical. They lent themselves to meditation, even though they play the "devil's music". In the middle ages one could be excommunicated for using those tritones in music. The Church was afraid the tones could be sexually arousing. The sounds mixed with the the chime of a nautical bell nearby. It was a cornucopia of sound; with children playing, all manner of conversations and helicopters overhead. With the breeze, the sun's heat, and the senses of the body magnified from closing our eyes the experience of the chimes was strong and inescapable. The chimes, considered 'the devil's music' and always to be avoided unless...well, I suppose we were mightily exposed to it.
After the yoga, Renee led us to Alexander McCall's installation, "Between You & I" in the St. Cornelius Chapel. It was a great way to follow
the yoga experience. It's a light sculpture:"The fields of light interact with one another, the visitors in the space.... like two human companions, they attempt to comprehend themselves in relation to one another". One needs to let the eyes adjust, it is a little like a fun house at first, and once that happens, it is spectacular. The next stop was the The Bruce High Quality Foundation's film "Isle of the Dead" which "tells the story of a decimated art world coming back to life in zombie form." It is screened in a movie theater that is in a small town Mayberry-like structure. The film is very amusing, it seems to relate in some way to generational uncertainty, rapid change with no crystal ball telling the future. Renee talked about her
experience as an extra in the film. In the film the zombies
eventually meet in the movie theater, (the one we were in) and sing a
song from the sixties, the name of which escapes me, as they follow the
bouncing ball. The zombies, and Renee was one, endured take after take.
In one of the Victorian houses was Edgar Arceneaux's "Sound Cannon Double Projection": an infrasound, a sound that is almost too low to be heard. There were warnings that some people can't tolerate it. Infrasound can cause "bizarre feelings such as anxiety, extreme sorrow, paranoia, or even the chills". There is a theory that the vibration can make a place feel haunted. It certainly did seem haunted but Governor's Island is like a time capsule, (maybe one house has to be haunted) that one hopes will be preserved. There are installations in house after house. Tercerunquinto's storyboard and video of an act of defacement on the island is notable as is AA Bronson and Peter Hobbes, Queer Spirits which invoked "historical, queer, and marginalized practices as a way to heal the past and acknowledge the present".
Mark Wallinger's "Goat and Sheep" piece divided us all on the ferry. Because I had a bicycle I couldn't go to the upper deck. The ferry takes a
few minutes but I waited for almost an hour both to board and waited to board on our return. It is great to ride a bike on the island. You can
rent them. As the curatorial statement remarks: "the Ferry is a reminder, rendered in playful terms, of the dualities that we mull over every day: good versus bad, right versus wrong, and us versus them."I was a sheep and I wish I had been a goat.
It was a long
afternoon, with still much to see and Renee provided just the right
amount information with genuine enthusiasm and engagement and she didn't overwhelm us. The tour would have been a little longer if it hadn't been so
hot. We all wanted to relax, Renee's and Anne-Françoise's flexibility and spontaneity is part of what made the excursion so enjoyable.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Letter From Paris
Our first major stop was Castle Vincennes. The castle was only a few Metro stops from our place near the Bastille. Sainte Chapelle at Vincennes' cornerstone was laid about 1320 and the chapel space was the site of an exhibition of Medieval Bulgarian Orthodox Icons. Although it seems obscure, the Byzantine imagery was quietly powerful. At Vincennes "A donjon tower, 52 meters high, served as a residence for the royal family, and its buildings are known to have once held the library and personal study of Charles V during the 100 Years War with the English". (courtesy Wikepedia). The Louvre, shown in this early fifteenth century illumination, was rebuilt during the reign of Charles V. His brother, Jean, Duke of Berry commissioned the manuscript, The Very Rich Hours of Jean du Berry, each page illustrating an astrological sign. Charles V's central residence was the Louvre and he had other residences as well. We had a tour of the castle, our guide was quite thorough and followed up each segment with a summary.
There was heat and plumbing and for centuries the castle keep was used to incarcerate aristocratic prisoners, read 'dungeon', (donjon, en français), with an interesting roster of inmates: Marquis de Sade, Denis Diderot were imprisoned there and members of French Resistance were shot by the Germans during WWII. Although NOT included in the information at the Castle, Mata-Hari was shot as a spy there during WWI. If only the walls could talk; prisoners generally were given paints and brushes to keep them occupied, and the walls still have traces of pictures and names carved in the limestone. The doors were extremely heavy. It always gives me a jolt to stand on a spot where so much has happened. The apartment we stayed in was close to the Bastille. I think the spot of Marie Antoinette's execution sits somewhere in the middle of a crosswalk.
We stayed on the Rue Sedaine exchanging apartments once again with Leila Olivesi and Donald Kontomanou, both musicians. Leila composes music that is often based on her mother's poetry. Their CD is entitled L'étrange Fleur, very original and haunting music having a jazz base with many other influences, i.e. middle eastern and cuban jazz. June is the month for roses there, as well as in NYC, and it was a pleasure to find so many right in the city since NYC seems taken over by construction projects and it is nearly impossible to find anyplace for contemplation without a jackhammer bursting into sound. Being close to the Marais, we visited the Picasso Museum, which is under renovation. Also the the scene of a recent crime: a sketchbook was snatched out of an exhibition case. Daniel Buren's installation of mirrors is a great solution to the renovation problem. Picasso's work is overwhelmingly inventive, sadly there were lots of mirrrors, the mirrors are engaging but there is also less of Picasso's work to see.
elles@pompidou, an exhibtion of the Pompidou Center's collection of modern and contemporary art, created in order to show its commitment to women artists, attempts to place them them at the core of modern and contemporary art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Standouts for me are Sonia Delaunay, Joan Mitchell, almost always transporting for me; Lee Bontecou: her airplane themes, craftmanship, and persona; Eva Hesse, Marlene Dumas and Barbara Kruger. Barbara Kruger's Untitled,(What big muscles you have!), (1986) has a graphic quality that is both engaging and reinforces the verbal message shrewdly and unexpectedly. Kruger is a master of typography. I am not a fan of Dumas, but it is refreshing to see work that is engaged and realized. These artists all stand on their own without reference to being part an identified group. Women are woefully under-represented everywhere and it can be hard to name 10 important female writers or artists off the top of your head, simply because you don't see the names over and over again and so you don't remember them. That maybe part of the aim of Agnes Thurnauer's piece: Portraits Grandeur Nature, (2007-08) that feminizes famous male artists' names, it brings that notion to one's attention. It is sad that we still need pieces like that. The Guerilla Girls are still necessary after 20 years. My heart sank when I saw their poster because I realized that not enough has changed. I would like to be engaged in art that is involved in a deeper and more visual or structural way without the rhetoric. Lee Bontecou was obsessed with airplanes, and obsessions like that which fuel the art engage me. Sophie Calle is another who amazes me because her graphic and visual representation can't be separated from her message, although is about sexism. Her graphic sense is impeccable. As shown by Jerry Saltz's lively discussion on FaceBook, we need MOMA to follow suit. These shows are very important.
Eric Fischl's Sculpture Exhibition, Ten Breaths at Galerie Daniel Templon is a tremendously inventive show. It opened in November 2008 at Mary Boone and is traveling. The catalogue mentions that Fischl felt challenged by making sculpture It shows in the way he dealt with a different deck; three dimensional space offers another set of problems. The sculpture pieces embody the vulnerability of the figures in a way that his paintings don't. There are scale issues he is working with here that are challenging in three dimensions. The spatial interplay is different from that of his paintings. These formal issues become more engaged. The weight and gesture of a hand say a lot. Making sculpture must have forced him to rethink the possibilities of making figures in space that are more about interplay of figure to space. The gesture of the figures can say alot without a storyline. This can only serve to make his paintings more powerful. The tumbling figure is a tribute to WTC catastrophe; it is beautiful. I understand why the initial response to the piece was hugely negative here in New York City. The piece was in Rockefeller Center, a large public space, which gave it a context that didn't serve it well. It needs the intimacy of a room. For me, in the space at Daniel Templon it recalls the tombs in Pere Lachaise with beauty and grace.
The Air France plane went down just after we got there. Avion D'Air France disparu. I was walking to a yoga class on the Rue St. Jacques where I saw a huge crowd in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. It was solemn as solemn could be. I didn't connect the dots right away. It was a service for all the people who died in the crash. I heard the sermon and the choir over the loudspeaker. The choir, rapturous, could be heard for blocks. The plane crash was a national tragedy. I was moved by the levity and solemnity of the people in the crowd. I'll never forget it. The yoga class on the Rue St Jacques was really wonderful because the teacher's instructions sound so different in French. In English, the yoga instructor will say, breathe deeply. In French for instance, it is respirez profondément. I felt like I should be about to have a vision.
In Montmartre we ate at a resto on a hill with a view. The whole time we ate and drank there, there were drums approaching, making a fearful noise. The drums seemed to be getting closer and closer as the sound reverberated through the streets. I wanted to find the source of the noise. It was nowhere to to be seen. Later, at Sacre Coeur, the cathedral on the hill, the nuns were singing devotional prayers. It sounded like the Anonymous 4. it would be more correct to say that the Anonymous4 emulates the nuns. It brought tears to my eyes because prayers, poems and song in French are so expressive. The language seems to be closer to the emotions somehow. Later we went to have a crepe flambeé. It was exquisite, it was Paris in the Spring.
There was heat and plumbing and for centuries the castle keep was used to incarcerate aristocratic prisoners, read 'dungeon', (donjon, en français), with an interesting roster of inmates: Marquis de Sade, Denis Diderot were imprisoned there and members of French Resistance were shot by the Germans during WWII. Although NOT included in the information at the Castle, Mata-Hari was shot as a spy there during WWI. If only the walls could talk; prisoners generally were given paints and brushes to keep them occupied, and the walls still have traces of pictures and names carved in the limestone. The doors were extremely heavy. It always gives me a jolt to stand on a spot where so much has happened. The apartment we stayed in was close to the Bastille. I think the spot of Marie Antoinette's execution sits somewhere in the middle of a crosswalk.
We stayed on the Rue Sedaine exchanging apartments once again with Leila Olivesi and Donald Kontomanou, both musicians. Leila composes music that is often based on her mother's poetry. Their CD is entitled L'étrange Fleur, very original and haunting music having a jazz base with many other influences, i.e. middle eastern and cuban jazz. June is the month for roses there, as well as in NYC, and it was a pleasure to find so many right in the city since NYC seems taken over by construction projects and it is nearly impossible to find anyplace for contemplation without a jackhammer bursting into sound. Being close to the Marais, we visited the Picasso Museum, which is under renovation. Also the the scene of a recent crime: a sketchbook was snatched out of an exhibition case. Daniel Buren's installation of mirrors is a great solution to the renovation problem. Picasso's work is overwhelmingly inventive, sadly there were lots of mirrrors, the mirrors are engaging but there is also less of Picasso's work to see.
elles@pompidou, an exhibtion of the Pompidou Center's collection of modern and contemporary art, created in order to show its commitment to women artists, attempts to place them them at the core of modern and contemporary art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Standouts for me are Sonia Delaunay, Joan Mitchell, almost always transporting for me; Lee Bontecou: her airplane themes, craftmanship, and persona; Eva Hesse, Marlene Dumas and Barbara Kruger. Barbara Kruger's Untitled,(What big muscles you have!), (1986) has a graphic quality that is both engaging and reinforces the verbal message shrewdly and unexpectedly. Kruger is a master of typography. I am not a fan of Dumas, but it is refreshing to see work that is engaged and realized. These artists all stand on their own without reference to being part an identified group. Women are woefully under-represented everywhere and it can be hard to name 10 important female writers or artists off the top of your head, simply because you don't see the names over and over again and so you don't remember them. That maybe part of the aim of Agnes Thurnauer's piece: Portraits Grandeur Nature, (2007-08) that feminizes famous male artists' names, it brings that notion to one's attention. It is sad that we still need pieces like that. The Guerilla Girls are still necessary after 20 years. My heart sank when I saw their poster because I realized that not enough has changed. I would like to be engaged in art that is involved in a deeper and more visual or structural way without the rhetoric. Lee Bontecou was obsessed with airplanes, and obsessions like that which fuel the art engage me. Sophie Calle is another who amazes me because her graphic and visual representation can't be separated from her message, although is about sexism. Her graphic sense is impeccable. As shown by Jerry Saltz's lively discussion on FaceBook, we need MOMA to follow suit. These shows are very important.
Eric Fischl's Sculpture Exhibition, Ten Breaths at Galerie Daniel Templon is a tremendously inventive show. It opened in November 2008 at Mary Boone and is traveling. The catalogue mentions that Fischl felt challenged by making sculpture It shows in the way he dealt with a different deck; three dimensional space offers another set of problems. The sculpture pieces embody the vulnerability of the figures in a way that his paintings don't. There are scale issues he is working with here that are challenging in three dimensions. The spatial interplay is different from that of his paintings. These formal issues become more engaged. The weight and gesture of a hand say a lot. Making sculpture must have forced him to rethink the possibilities of making figures in space that are more about interplay of figure to space. The gesture of the figures can say alot without a storyline. This can only serve to make his paintings more powerful. The tumbling figure is a tribute to WTC catastrophe; it is beautiful. I understand why the initial response to the piece was hugely negative here in New York City. The piece was in Rockefeller Center, a large public space, which gave it a context that didn't serve it well. It needs the intimacy of a room. For me, in the space at Daniel Templon it recalls the tombs in Pere Lachaise with beauty and grace.
The Air France plane went down just after we got there. Avion D'Air France disparu. I was walking to a yoga class on the Rue St. Jacques where I saw a huge crowd in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. It was solemn as solemn could be. I didn't connect the dots right away. It was a service for all the people who died in the crash. I heard the sermon and the choir over the loudspeaker. The choir, rapturous, could be heard for blocks. The plane crash was a national tragedy. I was moved by the levity and solemnity of the people in the crowd. I'll never forget it. The yoga class on the Rue St Jacques was really wonderful because the teacher's instructions sound so different in French. In English, the yoga instructor will say, breathe deeply. In French for instance, it is respirez profondément. I felt like I should be about to have a vision.
In Montmartre we ate at a resto on a hill with a view. The whole time we ate and drank there, there were drums approaching, making a fearful noise. The drums seemed to be getting closer and closer as the sound reverberated through the streets. I wanted to find the source of the noise. It was nowhere to to be seen. Later, at Sacre Coeur, the cathedral on the hill, the nuns were singing devotional prayers. It sounded like the Anonymous 4. it would be more correct to say that the Anonymous4 emulates the nuns. It brought tears to my eyes because prayers, poems and song in French are so expressive. The language seems to be closer to the emotions somehow. Later we went to have a crepe flambeé. It was exquisite, it was Paris in the Spring.
Recently I attended the opening reception for a group exhibition called "Dreamwork" that I am in at the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies. It was an open call and I have long had an interest in the subject of dreams and psychoanalysis. The curator Steven Poser is an artist whose paintings I know and like.
Based on that I trusted his judgment to put together an interesting show. I wasn't disappointed. The problem with openings, especially group shows, is that you never have time to look at the work. I kept wanting to look at a long book-like piece, "Blue History" by Ellen Wiener with loads of text and beautiful drawings and I couldn't find my glasses. I was very happy that it was there because any time I felt the least bit uncomfortable I could go look at it.
I really only read about 3 words. It is an interesting show and I need to go back and really look at it.
The artist's reception experience or opening as its called can be daunting. Once I had a solo show in a huge non-profit space and a fever and earache to boot and it was a huge space that felt empty even with a lot of people in it. I began to panic when my old friend Lincoln (who has since died, RIP and bless him, I miss him) brought a couple of his pals, and one of them had long dreadlocks and was making a video upside-down. I didn't remember inviting that guy. I love the unexpected at times. Although the unexpected can be scary too. One time I had a reception with another person and we thought someone was going to take care of everything and she didn't do anything and there was no food, nothing to drink for free and one of my guests complained.
Another time at a reception I invited an old friend who came and got really bent out of shape because I told her I couldn't go to her birthday party in a another state in the middle of January. Then she asked the gallery about buying someone else's work and not mine. In the future I decided to be careful about inviting too many old friends who I haven't seen for a while.
Back to the Dreamwork reception. I was uneasy about it an hour beforehand because, I didn't know what to expect, didn't know the space and was afraid of getting creeped out by too many psychoanalysts. I was worried that it would be creepy. It was NOT creepy and I have been in psychoanalysis with a very non-creepy analyst so who knows why I was worried?
The show was beautifully hung in a light blue room with oriental rugs and chandeliers, just what I prefer for the painting I had in the show because I like to see that painting called "Dream" as an extension of the room, and that is easier to visualize in a space that feels warmer than the standard gallery space. The second part of the anxiety concerns the people who come. I 'm always afraid that people will come right on the dot at the start and stick to me like glue the whole time.
I was too busy to think about that and every time I tried to make my way over to look at the long book-like piece "Blue History" somebody grabbed me. I met the curator, who is a practicing psychoanalyst as well as a painter (I feel that my painting is in good company indeed). He introduced me to a rather elderly gentleman Francis V.O'Connor an Art Historian who wrote several books on Jackson Pollack's work. For some reason I thought I was being introduced to a poet (Pollack, poet who knows?) so I started talking about poetry and he actually was a poet as well, but we had a laugh about the confusion. One of my old art school teachers, Paul Napoleon, came with his wife Carlene because he was town for his 50th reunion at Cooper Union. That was fantastic. It brought back great memories and was a blast. I was talking to somebody about "The Bad Seed", the movie in which Patty McCormick tries to murder someone to get the penmanship medal she covets but she gets struck by lightning and dies. I don't know why we were talking about that, but it was a pretty good conversation overall considering I didn't have any wine. It was a beautiful gallery and they had lovely balcony. A good time was had by all. A great day in the Springtime.
Based on that I trusted his judgment to put together an interesting show. I wasn't disappointed. The problem with openings, especially group shows, is that you never have time to look at the work. I kept wanting to look at a long book-like piece, "Blue History" by Ellen Wiener with loads of text and beautiful drawings and I couldn't find my glasses. I was very happy that it was there because any time I felt the least bit uncomfortable I could go look at it.
I really only read about 3 words. It is an interesting show and I need to go back and really look at it.
The artist's reception experience or opening as its called can be daunting. Once I had a solo show in a huge non-profit space and a fever and earache to boot and it was a huge space that felt empty even with a lot of people in it. I began to panic when my old friend Lincoln (who has since died, RIP and bless him, I miss him) brought a couple of his pals, and one of them had long dreadlocks and was making a video upside-down. I didn't remember inviting that guy. I love the unexpected at times. Although the unexpected can be scary too. One time I had a reception with another person and we thought someone was going to take care of everything and she didn't do anything and there was no food, nothing to drink for free and one of my guests complained.
Another time at a reception I invited an old friend who came and got really bent out of shape because I told her I couldn't go to her birthday party in a another state in the middle of January. Then she asked the gallery about buying someone else's work and not mine. In the future I decided to be careful about inviting too many old friends who I haven't seen for a while.
Back to the Dreamwork reception. I was uneasy about it an hour beforehand because, I didn't know what to expect, didn't know the space and was afraid of getting creeped out by too many psychoanalysts. I was worried that it would be creepy. It was NOT creepy and I have been in psychoanalysis with a very non-creepy analyst so who knows why I was worried?
The show was beautifully hung in a light blue room with oriental rugs and chandeliers, just what I prefer for the painting I had in the show because I like to see that painting called "Dream" as an extension of the room, and that is easier to visualize in a space that feels warmer than the standard gallery space. The second part of the anxiety concerns the people who come. I 'm always afraid that people will come right on the dot at the start and stick to me like glue the whole time.
I was too busy to think about that and every time I tried to make my way over to look at the long book-like piece "Blue History" somebody grabbed me. I met the curator, who is a practicing psychoanalyst as well as a painter (I feel that my painting is in good company indeed). He introduced me to a rather elderly gentleman Francis V.O'Connor an Art Historian who wrote several books on Jackson Pollack's work. For some reason I thought I was being introduced to a poet (Pollack, poet who knows?) so I started talking about poetry and he actually was a poet as well, but we had a laugh about the confusion. One of my old art school teachers, Paul Napoleon, came with his wife Carlene because he was town for his 50th reunion at Cooper Union. That was fantastic. It brought back great memories and was a blast. I was talking to somebody about "The Bad Seed", the movie in which Patty McCormick tries to murder someone to get the penmanship medal she covets but she gets struck by lightning and dies. I don't know why we were talking about that, but it was a pretty good conversation overall considering I didn't have any wine. It was a beautiful gallery and they had lovely balcony. A good time was had by all. A great day in the Springtime.
In the Film "Guest of Cindy Sherman" which I wrote about here two weeks ago, John Waters is asked about what he thinks of 'Art for the masses'. He replies (to paraphrase), " I can't think of anything worse. I love elitism". He is just as snide and devilishly funny in this exhibition entitled "Rear Projection" at the Marianne Boesky Gallery.
The signature piece for the show, above, (aside from the title piece "Rear Projection),
says it all.
The show opened at the beginning of April, there is only a day or two left to see it.The tone of the show is not completely outrageous like the films are, (especially the earlyones), because it is so neatly presented, matted and framed (by the James Pierce Frameshop) in Baltimore. Most of the images are picture sequences, like stills or a flip book: "Lezzie" is a piece in which the word becomes whole flip book or film clip style.
Like his films, the show is clever, knowing and funny.
Rear Projection, the title, refers to green-screening in film. That is when the actors are filmed in front of a screen and the scenery is projected behind them, often used in driving scenes. He makes a pun of rear ends being projected behind in the piece "Rear Projection".
My favorite piece dealing with the rear projection idea is "Look Out". These are my very favorite drama queens of the silver screen: Joannie, Bette and Lana, all shown in sequential car crashes. The spedometer is the the first clip and the overturned car the last. Bette's maniacal face the second and Joannie bringing up the rear with a 180 degree spin. This is brilliant in what it selects, how its put together and the way it shores up the concept of the exhibition. For me, it also recalls
Andy Warhol's Car Crash Disaster Print Series:
Some of the pieces may make more sense if the viewer is knowledgeable about the history of film. "Rope" and the "Penmark Collection" both consist of stills depicting framed pictures that are on the wall in the film, perhaps at the scene of the crimes. Some I assume are from Hitchcock's "Rope", the other includes pictures that were on the wall in the film "The Bad Seed" with Patty McCormick. What a movie! The ultimate respectable middle class mother's nightmare of a child. This theme ties in a little with "Girls Beware" which reminds me of those old Catholic salvos like "don't wear patent leather shoes' because boys will be able to see your underwear's reflection in them. It also recalls "Serial Mom" where Kathleen Turner murders those who trangress to wear white shoes after Labor Day. He likes to tweak the noses of the powers that be with the threat of transgression. Patty McCormack plays the kid who murders about 5 people just because they try to make her obey.
Catholic Sin is an actual reproduction of an illustration from the Baltimore Catechism, the indoctrination manual for Catholic children that was created in 50's and 60's in Baltimore because it is still the seat of the Catholic Church in the U.S.. I was a product of the very same culture. My Baltimore source said they approached the church there and there were no copies to be found for John Waters to include in his exhibition. My guess is, maybe they did have them because they had to know who he is, and also knew that he wouldn't flatter them. On his FaceBook fan page* he claims that he is a great admirer of the Catholic Church before the Reformation*. In his exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art (2004), he exhibited his collection of Catholic literature which is extensive. He also created a piece from the Catholic Review rated movies with the code: A, okay, B, might be a sin, and C condemned, no Catholic should ever see this or else!
Of course his movies were all C, that is, if the Church even knew "Pink Flamingos" or "Desperate Living" existed. The Maryland Censor Board certainly did. Every time I ever saw a Waters film in Baltimore the Maryland, Board of Censors approval notice was shown upside down before the film. He had to get past the censors.
"Catholic Sin" is an actual reproduction from the 'handbook', a milk bottle appears to be stand in for the soul. That's pretty ironic.
He is still thumbing his nose-true to form.
**There is no official facebook page for John Waters. My source says they are trying to make the person who made the page -or the facebook authorities -- take the page down. It's bogus. (added May 5)
The signature piece for the show, above, (aside from the title piece "Rear Projection),
says it all.
The show opened at the beginning of April, there is only a day or two left to see it.The tone of the show is not completely outrageous like the films are, (especially the earlyones), because it is so neatly presented, matted and framed (by the James Pierce Frameshop) in Baltimore. Most of the images are picture sequences, like stills or a flip book: "Lezzie" is a piece in which the word becomes whole flip book or film clip style.
Like his films, the show is clever, knowing and funny.
Rear Projection, the title, refers to green-screening in film. That is when the actors are filmed in front of a screen and the scenery is projected behind them, often used in driving scenes. He makes a pun of rear ends being projected behind in the piece "Rear Projection".
My favorite piece dealing with the rear projection idea is "Look Out". These are my very favorite drama queens of the silver screen: Joannie, Bette and Lana, all shown in sequential car crashes. The spedometer is the the first clip and the overturned car the last. Bette's maniacal face the second and Joannie bringing up the rear with a 180 degree spin. This is brilliant in what it selects, how its put together and the way it shores up the concept of the exhibition. For me, it also recalls
Andy Warhol's Car Crash Disaster Print Series:
Some of the pieces may make more sense if the viewer is knowledgeable about the history of film. "Rope" and the "Penmark Collection" both consist of stills depicting framed pictures that are on the wall in the film, perhaps at the scene of the crimes. Some I assume are from Hitchcock's "Rope", the other includes pictures that were on the wall in the film "The Bad Seed" with Patty McCormick. What a movie! The ultimate respectable middle class mother's nightmare of a child. This theme ties in a little with "Girls Beware" which reminds me of those old Catholic salvos like "don't wear patent leather shoes' because boys will be able to see your underwear's reflection in them. It also recalls "Serial Mom" where Kathleen Turner murders those who trangress to wear white shoes after Labor Day. He likes to tweak the noses of the powers that be with the threat of transgression. Patty McCormack plays the kid who murders about 5 people just because they try to make her obey.
Catholic Sin is an actual reproduction of an illustration from the Baltimore Catechism, the indoctrination manual for Catholic children that was created in 50's and 60's in Baltimore because it is still the seat of the Catholic Church in the U.S.. I was a product of the very same culture. My Baltimore source said they approached the church there and there were no copies to be found for John Waters to include in his exhibition. My guess is, maybe they did have them because they had to know who he is, and also knew that he wouldn't flatter them. On his FaceBook fan page* he claims that he is a great admirer of the Catholic Church before the Reformation*. In his exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art (2004), he exhibited his collection of Catholic literature which is extensive. He also created a piece from the Catholic Review rated movies with the code: A, okay, B, might be a sin, and C condemned, no Catholic should ever see this or else!
Of course his movies were all C, that is, if the Church even knew "Pink Flamingos" or "Desperate Living" existed. The Maryland Censor Board certainly did. Every time I ever saw a Waters film in Baltimore the Maryland, Board of Censors approval notice was shown upside down before the film. He had to get past the censors.
"Catholic Sin" is an actual reproduction from the 'handbook', a milk bottle appears to be stand in for the soul. That's pretty ironic.
He is still thumbing his nose-true to form.
**There is no official facebook page for John Waters. My source says they are trying to make the person who made the page -or the facebook authorities -- take the page down. It's bogus. (added May 5)
The documentary film, Guest of Cindy Sherman, is is about a lot of things: Cindy Sherman , her work, and how she started out in the 80's and made it big. It is also about the filmmaker himself, Paul H-O, his humble origins on cable access TV filming the show Gallery Beat in its many manifestations, and finally, his first interview with Cindy Sherman and their subsequent relationship. He gives an informative overview of her work and career. The film encompasses the rise and fall of their romance, the celebrity culture they inhabit, the art world, the changes in it over a decade and the photography's elevation as an art form. Whew! Yeah, its alot. Not to mention that trying to document a relationship is a very peculiar and difficult thing to do.
Paul H-O had that camera with him from the get-go, almost like a security blanket. The film begins with Paul H-O filming the break up of his first marriage. The film certainly has a kiss and tell aspect, but is more forgiving. He doesn't condemn Cindy Sherman but his outrage over being treated as a second class human being in the celebrity culture hierarchy comes across loud and clear. One can speculate that it was one of the only possible outcomes for him, the relationship not working. (I'd love to see this film with a group of therapists). He didn't have enough going on outside of their relationship. Someone in the film remarked that he was riding a wave, an interesting metaphor because Paul H-O is also a surfer. It seems next to impossible to have a long-term relationship with someone who is such a creative force unless he could make his own waves. He is trying to do that with this film, albeit with mixed motives and a mixed response.
Cindy Sherman creates a different character for each of her photographs, all told, her self portraits she must have 10,000 personas. Very interesting idea. She projects these different characters and is said to have a chameleon-like quality easily morphing from one character to the other. Her own identity is submerged in her photographs. Both of these people are exhibitionists. Cindy continually photographs herself and Paul H-O has an obsession with his video camera and documents his life as well as his place in the art world. This is a film about two people who spend their lives in front of their own cameras, with some very interesting results .He turns his camera on her. Up until then she had been fairly reclusive and had been through a series of relationships with men. His initial interview with her is astonishing because the sparks fly very naturally and unexpectedly. But as any good filmmaker should know there is a time for letting it all hang out and maybe a time to put the camera away. it feels a little like reading someone's diary. Surprisingly she lets him film her hanging out, working, photographing herself and she seems completely comfortable with his camera.
Paul H-O met her and kept the camera on through the high and low points of their relationship. which lasted over 5 years. We all have our good days and bad days, and the camera doesn't distinguish.He also filmed the art world and the there are clips of the many personnages some of which are quite unflattering. Guest of Cindy Sherman is an astonishing documentary film, not quite fair and balanced, but complex. The motives for making the film are obviously mixed. While she may not be happy about this type of exposure, the ex-boyfriend making a biased film about their life together, I have more respect for her and her work than ever.
Kim Foster Gallery-Feb 21-March 28. 529 W 20th St.
Louis Renzoni's exhibition at the Kim Foster Gallery is aptly entitled ”Opaque”. Vanitas, as defined by ArtLex, refers to a type of still life consisting of a collection of objects that symbolize death — the brevity of human life and the transience of earthly pleasures and achievements (e.g., a human skull, a mirror, and broken pottery). This idea, the still life, or nature morte, is the format for some of the encaustic paintings. In "Long Shadow" there is a dialogue between the translucent fruit and blinding light behind it and the varying opacities and color shifts in the long shadows. He is a painter of light, the varied translucencies are simultaneously delicate and full.
While the viewer’s initial engagement is with the grapes in the relatively large still life paintings, the broad color passages in the shadows are compelling in their subtlety.
In the still life paintings the grapes wither away with the picture as a window or simulacra as the fruit decays, “a meditation on death" and transitory nature of things. The show's title seems to refer to the color shifts in the shadows, the emphasis on darkness. All of the work has a strong interplay between dark and light. How much can be seen in a dark space with blinding light shooting in or intruding?
His inventiveness is at its best when there is a painterly dialogue. In “Vines” a figurative work, there are two heads: one looking up, the other down. One, at the viewer, the other away. It appears to be the same figure and the dual representation works as a visual comparison as one plays against the other by measuring and balancing.
In his last exhibition (Vicissitudes), voyeurism was a subject, (shades of Degas). It is possible to see how that could be mentioned in tandem with this; it is in the press release. However, is this a tableaux vivant for us to peer at from behind a curtain? No. The stage is set but these are paintings more about light and space, translucency and opacity.
It is all photography-based work. The vertical orientation and point of view, looking across and down over the objects brings to mind a photographic point of view. The high horizon and oblique angles is more in keeping with figurative work. Photography simplifies and allows for invention by flattening the planes and calling attention to the contrast between the bowl of fruit and the color passages in the long shadows.
For me the single figure compositions are problematic because I don't get
their raison d’etre. Is the woman a sex object in this gauzy atmosphere? These paintings, single figures of women, rely more on conventions in photography that are not particularly suited to making a compelling image. They remind me of advertising images. That could well be part of the artist's vocabulary, I may be missing something. This artist has a vision that is developing, continually growing and is exciting to see.
Julian Lethbridge
The Paula Cooper Gallery from March 5 – April 11, 2009 at 465 West 23rd Street.
At first glance the paintings seem easy: Oh, black and white grid paintings. But the more one looks, the more one sees.
The grid structure provides an armature for improvisation and the artist uses it to explore a unique vision.
Limiting his palette to black white and gray and building upon the grid format he is able to impart an individuality with each piece.
He doesn't repeat himself. The paintings are large, small, vertical, horizontal and with markings of various scaler all rcreating a world within.
Each painting has a grid surface which quickly breaks down as the different visual elements vie for dominance and create a visual rush of movement. Its not op art. He creates a depth and continuous vibration, rhythmic movement that undulates under the surface. Every painting is different. They have a vibration that comes from Lethbridge’s clever use of structures and gives each a framework that allows for invention and discovery.
Louis Renzoni's exhibition at the Kim Foster Gallery is aptly entitled ”Opaque”. Vanitas, as defined by ArtLex, refers to a type of still life consisting of a collection of objects that symbolize death — the brevity of human life and the transience of earthly pleasures and achievements (e.g., a human skull, a mirror, and broken pottery). This idea, the still life, or nature morte, is the format for some of the encaustic paintings. In "Long Shadow" there is a dialogue between the translucent fruit and blinding light behind it and the varying opacities and color shifts in the long shadows. He is a painter of light, the varied translucencies are simultaneously delicate and full.
While the viewer’s initial engagement is with the grapes in the relatively large still life paintings, the broad color passages in the shadows are compelling in their subtlety.
In the still life paintings the grapes wither away with the picture as a window or simulacra as the fruit decays, “a meditation on death" and transitory nature of things. The show's title seems to refer to the color shifts in the shadows, the emphasis on darkness. All of the work has a strong interplay between dark and light. How much can be seen in a dark space with blinding light shooting in or intruding?
His inventiveness is at its best when there is a painterly dialogue. In “Vines” a figurative work, there are two heads: one looking up, the other down. One, at the viewer, the other away. It appears to be the same figure and the dual representation works as a visual comparison as one plays against the other by measuring and balancing.
In his last exhibition (Vicissitudes), voyeurism was a subject, (shades of Degas). It is possible to see how that could be mentioned in tandem with this; it is in the press release. However, is this a tableaux vivant for us to peer at from behind a curtain? No. The stage is set but these are paintings more about light and space, translucency and opacity.
It is all photography-based work. The vertical orientation and point of view, looking across and down over the objects brings to mind a photographic point of view. The high horizon and oblique angles is more in keeping with figurative work. Photography simplifies and allows for invention by flattening the planes and calling attention to the contrast between the bowl of fruit and the color passages in the long shadows.
For me the single figure compositions are problematic because I don't get
their raison d’etre. Is the woman a sex object in this gauzy atmosphere? These paintings, single figures of women, rely more on conventions in photography that are not particularly suited to making a compelling image. They remind me of advertising images. That could well be part of the artist's vocabulary, I may be missing something. This artist has a vision that is developing, continually growing and is exciting to see.
Julian Lethbridge
The Paula Cooper Gallery from March 5 – April 11, 2009 at 465 West 23rd Street.
At first glance the paintings seem easy: Oh, black and white grid paintings. But the more one looks, the more one sees.
The grid structure provides an armature for improvisation and the artist uses it to explore a unique vision.
Limiting his palette to black white and gray and building upon the grid format he is able to impart an individuality with each piece.
He doesn't repeat himself. The paintings are large, small, vertical, horizontal and with markings of various scaler all rcreating a world within.
Each painting has a grid surface which quickly breaks down as the different visual elements vie for dominance and create a visual rush of movement. Its not op art. He creates a depth and continuous vibration, rhythmic movement that undulates under the surface. Every painting is different. They have a vibration that comes from Lethbridge’s clever use of structures and gives each a framework that allows for invention and discovery.
Although I missed the Armory show and spent the weekend downtown (mea culpa),
I think I can safely say that a painting of Bernard Madoff at the David Zwirner booth by the Chinese artist, Yan Pei-Ming, symbolizes quite a bit: exhorbitant prices and the usual suspects. Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, et al. were well represented. It was notable, according to the New York Times , that several galleries were not there.
I spent Friday Afternoon at Pulse on the pier at West Houston St.
On Friday it was fairly empty but I did see a few pieces of note. Photography by Beth Dow represented by Jen Bekman , all platinum-palladium prints in which the tonal range is astonishing and gives the imagery comprised of a spindly barren and winter landscape a texture and delicacy that is rare.
Edward Winkleman Gallery provided a spark in the atmosphere. They showed two Russian artists with a marked Soviet identity, Yevgenty Fiks dealing with Communism in America by painting simple portaits that were simple and charming of American Communists replete with an actual library of literature. That said, on the far wall was work by Joy Garnett , her lush and gregarious paintings deal with documenting the huge China Yangtse Three Gorges Dam.
Feeling somewhat alone, I came across the Henry Dargeresque pictures by Amy Wilson at Bravin Lee Programs . The figures are engaged in group activities with bubbles over their heads in which some very clever text appears. One of her characters speaks about Joseph Beuys' fondness for fat and felt, (which famously helped him survive after being shot down). The artist's writings are very knowing about Art but much of the text is also about feeling alienated, and at an Art Fair, well, it struck a chord. Julie Heffernan's lush and masterful paintings were well represented by the Catherine Clark Gallery.
Jochen Plogsties' (below) paintings are masterful expressionist textured layered pieces with childlike imagery showing through, at ASPN galerie booth. The gallery is in Leipzig.
At Scope I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I was in a junk heap.However the work by Chinese artist Luo Qing, at the Eli Klein Fine Ar t booth, stark expessionistic paintings of figures trapped among branches in black and white, was compelling. Okay Mountain gallery from Austin Texas showed an artist whose playfullness abounds in a cornocopia of wacky Polyethelyne totems.
I came way from Bridge feeling like I had seen alot more junk,
although there were two artists of note. Charlotta Janssen was representing herself. Her work is remiscent of WPA murals. She uses copper and other like materials to make a color through a chemical reaction. Another artist,Clintel Steed ( represented by Mark Borghi) seems taken with Cezanne and has reinvented the still life by painting laptop computers with subtle color representing the glow of screens while the keyboards become a vast landscape; monumental and slightly cubistic. The paintings are direct and raw, he builds the image through marks and splotches of color. His work shows an interesting confluence of imagery and influence.
Fountain is young, hip and edgy. Some of these artists, notably the ones represented byLeo Kesting may be interesting to watch. On a funky barge barely visible from the West Side highway, (the cab driver said there is nothing there!) Fountain also had the flavor of old maritime NYC. The whole thing was wonderfully offbeat.
All the fairs were full of cottons balls glued to the wall with strings attached representing God knows what. I certainly hope that people begin to grasp the notion that less is more, lest we drown in this . There is alot of new Art from Japan and China at all the fairs that stands out both for its intellectual engagement and use of materials. It something to think about.
I think I can safely say that a painting of Bernard Madoff at the David Zwirner booth by the Chinese artist, Yan Pei-Ming, symbolizes quite a bit: exhorbitant prices and the usual suspects. Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, et al. were well represented. It was notable, according to the New York Times , that several galleries were not there.
I spent Friday Afternoon at Pulse on the pier at West Houston St.
On Friday it was fairly empty but I did see a few pieces of note. Photography by Beth Dow represented by Jen Bekman , all platinum-palladium prints in which the tonal range is astonishing and gives the imagery comprised of a spindly barren and winter landscape a texture and delicacy that is rare.
Edward Winkleman Gallery provided a spark in the atmosphere. They showed two Russian artists with a marked Soviet identity, Yevgenty Fiks dealing with Communism in America by painting simple portaits that were simple and charming of American Communists replete with an actual library of literature. That said, on the far wall was work by Joy Garnett , her lush and gregarious paintings deal with documenting the huge China Yangtse Three Gorges Dam.
Feeling somewhat alone, I came across the Henry Dargeresque pictures by Amy Wilson at Bravin Lee Programs . The figures are engaged in group activities with bubbles over their heads in which some very clever text appears. One of her characters speaks about Joseph Beuys' fondness for fat and felt, (which famously helped him survive after being shot down). The artist's writings are very knowing about Art but much of the text is also about feeling alienated, and at an Art Fair, well, it struck a chord. Julie Heffernan's lush and masterful paintings were well represented by the Catherine Clark Gallery.
Jochen Plogsties' (below) paintings are masterful expressionist textured layered pieces with childlike imagery showing through, at ASPN galerie booth. The gallery is in Leipzig.
At Scope I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I was in a junk heap.However the work by Chinese artist Luo Qing, at the Eli Klein Fine Ar t booth, stark expessionistic paintings of figures trapped among branches in black and white, was compelling. Okay Mountain gallery from Austin Texas showed an artist whose playfullness abounds in a cornocopia of wacky Polyethelyne totems.
I came way from Bridge feeling like I had seen alot more junk,
although there were two artists of note. Charlotta Janssen was representing herself. Her work is remiscent of WPA murals. She uses copper and other like materials to make a color through a chemical reaction. Another artist,Clintel Steed ( represented by Mark Borghi) seems taken with Cezanne and has reinvented the still life by painting laptop computers with subtle color representing the glow of screens while the keyboards become a vast landscape; monumental and slightly cubistic. The paintings are direct and raw, he builds the image through marks and splotches of color. His work shows an interesting confluence of imagery and influence.
Fountain is young, hip and edgy. Some of these artists, notably the ones represented byLeo Kesting may be interesting to watch. On a funky barge barely visible from the West Side highway, (the cab driver said there is nothing there!) Fountain also had the flavor of old maritime NYC. The whole thing was wonderfully offbeat.
All the fairs were full of cottons balls glued to the wall with strings attached representing God knows what. I certainly hope that people begin to grasp the notion that less is more, lest we drown in this . There is alot of new Art from Japan and China at all the fairs that stands out both for its intellectual engagement and use of materials. It something to think about.
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