Contemporary Art Truck

#OccupyWallStreet

2011-10-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Iconic Brooklyn bridge. This is just after I climbed the fence to the pedestrian walkway of the Brooklyn Bridge to have a better view

I had no idea that everyone left of the road would be arrested, around 500 people

The first person to be arrested.

Police shoving us away from the side of the bridge. This made me think a lot about public space. When does an action become political? When does public space become no longer public? If this had been tourists photographing the manhattan skyline, there would be no pushing involved.

Cuffed with zip ties and waiting.

This is a shot of the accredited journalists photographing the event. they had one area where they were allowed to be. Apparently a Huffpost reporter was arrested.

Detained protesters being bused to jail in a NYC public bus. Thanks MTA. You are always late when I need you for work.

Officer Rudolph lost his cool and began shoving onlookers. Nobody was arrested, maybe because we were on public space and complying with the police.

Aaron Koblin: Artfully visualizing our humanity | Video on TED.com

2011-09-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

Aaron Koblin: Artfully visualizing our humanity | Video on TED.com

2011-09-28T17:17:00.000-07:00

Street With a View

One & Other- by artist Antony Gormley on the 4th plinth.

2011-09-28T06:05:00.001-07:00

2011-09-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

"Scientists Reconstruct Brains’ Visions Into Digital Video In Historic Experiment" here
We will soon be making appropriation movies of our dreams. literally.

What does it look like to fly over the Earth on a spaceship? find out, here

Clement Valla's online collaboration of tracing a line, pretty fantastic here

2011-09-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

World population: 6,775,235,700
Population of NYC: 8,364,000

If the entire world population migrated into large cities we could fit all of the world into 810 cities of NYC's population.

If all of those cities were the population density of Manila, at 111,576 people per square mile, then we could fit onto .09% of the entire Earth's land surface.

Imagine having only 810 airports to maintain, only 810 cities connected by high speed railroads, only 810 massive public transit projects, virtually no need for cars, and 99.9% of land untouched or farmland.

2011-09-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

Nato Thompson
Artists and Activists: Curating Socially Engaged Projects
the video at artlog. here
there is also a show, Living as Form, organized by creative time that is up in NYC until October 16th. looks good. here

2011-09-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

"What is Sunday Soup?

The Soup Grant is a grassroots model for funding small to medium sized creative projects through community meals. The basic formula is that a group of people come together to share a meal and that meal is sold for an affordable price. All the income from that meal is given as a grant to support a creative project. Grant applications are accepted up until the meal, everyone who purchases the meal gets one vote to determine who receives the grant. The grants are completely unrestricted and will be awarded at the discretion of the customers. Granting projects affiliated with Sunday Soup in different cities operate based on their own needs and context. The meals are more or less elaborate in different places and some people have presentations by potential grantees or past grantees as part of the event. Please check the individual profiles for more information.

Why do we do it?

The Soup grant generates independent funding and sparks dialogue about the availability and distribution of resources within the mainstream arts establishment. In an environment where governmental support for experimental art practice is minimal at best, and private support is dictated by the values and priorities of granting foundations, innovative and potentially controversial work is compromised in order to fit within categories deemed “fundable.” With Soup, community participation in the grant funding and selection process is key. Applying for a grant is intentionally simple and un-bureaucratic in order to encourage broad participation. This enables us to stimulate and promote experimental, critical and imaginative practices that may not be eligible for formal funding. The Soup grant, while raising money, also serves as a way to build a network of support and community that reaches beyond purely monetary assistance. We like to think of it as an open platform to discuss ongoing projects with new audiences, meet new collaborators, and share ways of working.We encourage others to organize their own alternative funding program. We see this project as adaptable and user-friendly to all sorts of different contexts. Any of the elements may be modified to fit your particular situation."

2011-09-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

Nato Thompson on "Socially Engaged Art Outside the Bounds of an Artistic Discipline"
http://vimeo.com/27289754

Parking Day

2011-09-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

"PARK(ing) Day is an annual, worldwide event where artists, activists, and citizens independently (but simultaneously) turn metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks and other spaces for people to enjoy. PARK(ing) Day is a non-commercial project, intended to promote creativity, civic engagement, critical thinking, unscripted social interactions, generosity and play."

more
image taken from here

2011-09-15T05:27:00.000-07:00

5% of Americans believe they suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity. The cell phone companies of course deny this as a disease but there are some studies coming out that suggest it could be real. FOOT NOTE NEEDED. A population of these sensitive citizens is growing in rural West Virginia where all wireless technology is a banned so as to not interfere with the radio telescopes in the region. This geopolitical hiccup now has turned into a safe haven for people with this alleged disease.

One resident was living in a Faraday Cage just to feel normal, now that she is living in the small wireless free town in west virginia she is free to walk around.

Collaborative Public Art-Money Tree

2011-09-12T05:25:00.000-07:00

"in several wooded areas around the UK, passersby have been stopping for decades (if not centuries), meticulously hammering small denomination coins intro trees." more

I think that to create collaborative works like these in the past you always needed a religious edge to turn it into a tradition or a ritual. I find the above practice very beautiful, and I feel public art works in today's cities are really lacking where this is succeeding. Our culture certainly doesn't embrace the sacred very well in a public sphere.

thanks Kbay. who has a sweet gimmebar which is a cool new everyone should check out. here

Pech Kucha NYC-“Dimensions of Urban Design”

2011-09-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

"As a preamble to New York City's first Urban Design week, the Institute for Urban Design and Pecha Kucha New York would like to invite you to “Dimensions of Urban Design”. Each speaker will describe one of the projects of the moment that will shape tomorrow through 20 slides at 20 seconds a slide. The Department of City Planning's Chief Urban Designer Alex Washburn will present a 6 minute and 40 second overview of the history of New York's City's urban design trends leading up to this moment. The program will begin at 6:30 pm on Monday September 12, 2011 at Le Poisson Rouge."
more

No Longer Empty

2011-09-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

No Longer Empty

"No Longer Empty embraces a fresh perspective on creating, presenting and experiencing art.

No Longer Empty works with internationally recognized curators to feature established artists alongside lesser known or new artists, using limited resources without sacrificing quality. The synthesis of area and site research drives each curatorial theme and the selection of artists. The curatorial premise and the physical realities of the location provide artists with an alternative to today’ s art world status quo allowing them to expand their practice through site commissioned work.

No Longer Empty presents art in environments that are free and accessible to all. Our multi-locational exhibitions engage directly with each community drawing on the resources and connections of community groups to provide meaningful programming. Utilizing vacated spaces in the urban context, we act as a catalyst for revitalization and economic opportunity for local business through the increased flow of visitors that these exhibitions attract.
At the heart of the experience is community engagement and benefit. Our presence in each neighborhood is focused on encouraging local participation and attracting new visitors to the neighborhood. We nourish and build relationships with the people that come to our exhibitions, the community around our activities and the artist community we form around us.

No Longer Empty redefines public art through temporary site -specific exhibitions that draw together the vitality of the contemporary art world and the values of building community.

Each exhibition site becomes a cultural/educational hub where a community of artists, educators, scholars and the public come together to create and experience art, free of market imperative and institutional constraints.

We offer a public service that involves, includes and inspires."

2011-09-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

bldgblog combines forces with columbia's studio x which is a global network of active spaces around the world that house lectures, shows, discussions, and more. I need to go to these. more

Steve Lambert Replaces Ads with Art

2011-08-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

Karina Smigla Bobinski

2011-08-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

more
thanks kb

THE FLEXIBLE/RELOCATABLE HOUSE BY MICHAEL JANTZEN

2011-08-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

THE FLEXIBLE/RELOCATABLE HOUSE BY MICHAEL JANTZEN. more
thanks kb

2011-08-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

Toba Khedoori, oil and wax on paper. MacArthur Fellow. more

Jonathan Zittrain: The Web as random acts of kindness | Video on TED.com

2011-08-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Zittrain: The Web as random acts of kindness | Video on TED.com

2011-08-13T07:26:00.001-07:00

Hyperallergic's curated kickstarter page. good way to find good things to fund. curated advertising. here

Canada's national multi-cultural program, Culture Days:
"Culture Days is a collaborative pan-Canadian volunteer movement to raise the awareness, accessibility,participation and engagement of all Canadians in the arts and cultural life of their communities." here

2011-08-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

Convert your front lawn into a garden with Fritz Haeg's Edible Estates. more

Terreform One. architectural design firm based out of brooklyn. more

Juan Enriquez shares mindboggling science | Video on TED.com

2011-08-11T05:45:00.000-07:00

Juan Enriquez shares mindboggling science | Video on TED.com

2011-08-08T05:10:00.000-07:00

Drain pipes repurposed into hotel rooms. slum architecture. more

Colin Stetson Take Away Show

2011-07-31T18:40:00.000-07:00

Citizens Contribute

2011-07-31T07:57:00.000-07:00

"WITNESS uses video to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. WITNESS empowers people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change.

WITNESS envisions a just and equitable world where all individuals and communities are able to defend and uphold their human rights."

Architecture for Humanity utilizes the ability of architects to solve real problems, by spreading architectural designs around the globe through Open Architecture Network, an open-source community of architects and designers working to confront real problems all over the world.

phone booth gallery

2011-07-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

more
thanks mom

...and to draw a bright white line with light

2011-07-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

Last week, I had the wonderful privilege of seeing Uta Barth's newest photography series at the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been my favorite photographer for some time, but this was the first opportunity I had to see her work in person. I was blown away by the crispness of her images, the streams of light that sometimes looked like washes of bright color, and the quiet meditative sensation of losing myself in her work.

In her newest series, "...and to draw a bright white line with light," Barth photographed the action of pulling her curtains to create undulating light forms that stream across the 15 large panels, hung slightly below the standard gallery height of 60". After staring at each of the images, my eyes slipped out of focus and saw the images not as window blinds and sunshine, but as rich texture that faded in and out of my view, and light that cascaded in the form of pure white streaks, rich against its darker shadows. If it weren't for the guard's nervous tapping on the door handle, I could have stayed in that room all day, with only the subtle humming of the lights and air conditioning, and the pure sensation of seeing light and texture in its most beautiful and elegant form.

- Jessica

David Bowen

2011-07-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

tele-present water from david bowen on Vimeo.

more by David Bowen

Lorena Turner

2011-07-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

Rubik's Cubes, 2008. Some really beautiful photographs by Lorena Turner:

It is not expected that as consumers we be concerned with the actual production of the items we purchase. In fact it makes us more effective consumers to maintain a perspective that is abstracted from that process. When we buy the basic goods we use on a daily basis, there is an assumption they are clean, untainted, absent of a history. Made in China asks us to reconsider that.

For this project, items made and packaged in China were purchased in US department stores and bodegas. They remained in their original packaging until they were dusted for fingerprints and then photographed under black lights. This process allowed for the evidence of another's touch, quite possibly the person involved in constructing and packaging the item, to be revealed.
Made in China highlights the human factor and invisible history in each object's production, and forces us to reconsider the relationship those who are leaving their fingerprints on each item may have with it.

Made in China is not intended to comment on the scale or absurdity of our consumptive practices, but to remind us that we are only one factor in that equation.

For more on this project, watch Michael Itkoff, Editor of Daylight Magazine, talk about it here.

Also, a review of the July 2011 exhibit in The Architect's News:
Made in China with a human touch

Be sure to check the rest of her work out. Here

Thanks Ira

One Day On Earth

2011-07-21T05:50:00.000-07:00

One Day on Earth - Motion Picture Trailer from One Day On Earth on Vimeo.

thanks Kbay

David Zwirner Announces Second Annual Summer Pop-Up Bookstore

2011-07-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

During this year's Chelsea Art Walk, on Thursday, July 28 from 5-8 pm, David Zwirner's pop-up bookstore will stay open late to sell rare and out-of-print books, signed artist catalogues and monographs, DVDs, posters, collectible show cards, and more.

If you can't make it during the art walk, the bookstore will also be open July 25-August 5 from 10-6 at 525 West 19th St. I'll be sure to check this out during my trip to New York.

- Jessica

JR and Inside Out

2011-07-20T05:39:00.000-07:00

JR, known for his huge portraits pasted all over the world has started this collaborative project. Replacing the faces of rulers and famous people with portraits of you and me. more and more

Hennesy Youngman and Beauty

2011-07-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

Hennesy Youngman is the man. This video on beauty is one of his best. here

Robert Montgomery

2011-07-15T07:18:00.000-07:00

two works by Robert Montgomery. I saw these on booooooom blog. Someone commented saying that he should write poetry... I thought that was interesting, because I think that the top work could easily be considered installation poetry, or poetry+ as I commented... I am glad he uses his voice by replacing advertising space, instead them for a book. I would definitely enjoy running across one of these works.
Another comment caught my attention, saying that people should donate money to replace advertising around them with art like this. I wonder if there is a way to do this? The audience for billboards could easily pool together money and 'curate' their block, with images and text they want to see. Maybe images that will make you feel content and beautiful instead of ugly and needing...

image taken from here

This of course reminds me of Felix Gonzalez-Torres. One of my favorite ideas of his was his images that the gallery or museum curator would place on billboards around a city. These simple, wordless, photographs would give unexpected aesthetic consideration to a common location. Nice. Yet, the museum is still funding and curating, isn't there a way to crowd-source this? I think so.

Clay Shirky's Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age

2011-07-13T18:55:00.000-07:00

Clay Shirky's talk about his book: Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age
In this video he mentions crisis mapping which I had only heard of, but sounds really revolutionary, more about that here. I don't know if this process, which started in 2007 in Kenya, has spread to Syria, Egypt, Libya, and all the other countries that could really benefit, but I hope it has. I also was really taken by Shirky's mention of lolcats, by saying that there were pornographic novels printed before scientific journals. We are just scratching the surface of the internet's potential, it makes sense that we see a rise in a lowest common denominator, like porn or lolcats, so it is really exciting to see tools like crisis mapping begin to emerge...

more books you should read if you are interested in the future of technology here

Sherry Turkle and Robots

2011-07-13T17:08:00.000-07:00

here

Alexander McQueen

2011-07-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

(gets interesting 37 seconds in...)
I was just given a private tour of the McQueen show at the Met, here, and it was absolutely amazing. I was expecting to see weird fashion that nobody could afford, instead I saw amazing art and performative objects... that nobody can afford. I guess fashion and art are more related than I thought.

MEGAPOST: New interpretations of the photograph

2011-07-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

While photography seems to be a concrete medium with dependable kinds of outcomes, many artists today are exploring the possibilities of the camera through radical materials and manipulations, and sometimes without using a camera at all. Contemporary photography is anything but consistent, and every bit as exciting, unpredictable, and challenging as any other medium.

Johan Berggren prints his images on non-traditional surfaces. Above, Shelf R-S, printed on cardboard, and Untitled #2 (Burn Out series) printed on a silk scarf. Like modernist painters who abandoned the traditional canvas, Berggren alters the surface of his print as if to ask, "When is a photograph no longer a photograph?" I especially love the silk scarf because it's so unassuming and looks like something you could find in a nice boutique. But your association with the scarf would surely change once you saw it in a gallery setting and understood that the original image was a photograph.

Another photographer who recalls modernist and post-modernist painting is Pia Howell. She uses a cameraless process that is still mind-boggling to me: in the darkroom, she filters raw colored light through stencils and patterns to create these images directly on the paper. These look nothing like photographs, and yet they're made in the tradition of the photogram, which was one of the earliest cameraless methods of creating photographs in the darkroom. These genre-bending images also remind me of work by painter Tauba Auerbach.

Although motion-blurred portraits are not necessarily a novel idea, the process behind this series absolutely is. Vanessa Ban and Andrea Fam collaborated on this series, This is not the Body; this is an image of the Body, in which they turned the power of the photographer over to their subjects. The nude subject is left alone with the camera for 25 seconds, during which time they are allowed to alter the manipulation with the movement of their own bodies, and can do so independently of the photographer's wishes or expectations. The photographers, then, are the ones who are treated with a surprise at the end of the project.

- Jessica

Steve Lambert

2011-07-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

Steve Lambert has both poignant social criticism and aesthetically engaging art, a rare mix. He now is asking for your help to create this capitalism truck, which we here at contemporary art truck fully appreciate, more at his website here and hyperallergic here.

Clark Stoeckley: Artivist

2011-07-10T18:41:00.000-07:00

Clark Stoeckley has organized some hilarious protests (above) and has taken the contemporary art truck idea to wikileaks (below) More here

Read some articles about the WikiLeaks truck at Gothamist, Wikileaks Movie, Art of the Prank

The Yes Men

2011-07-06T05:39:00.000-07:00

In an article about the top ten Art-Hacks in the past 100 years, I was really impressed by the Yes Men's satirical video attacking Dow Chemical for Bhopal. This is a work of art that resulted in a $12 million dollar loss! I've never heard of an artwork as effective... watch the Yes Men's trailer here. Here is what was said:

Dow Chemical “Help” Announcement by The Yes Men (2004)

The Bhopal disaster might be one of history’s worst industrial catastrophes, caused by a leak of methyl isocyanate on December 3, 1984 at an Indian pesticide plant owned by Dow Chemical—death estimates range between 3,700-11,000 with over 120,000 permanently injured. For the incident’s twentieth anniversary, culture jamming activists The Yes Men created a fake Dow Chemical website boasting that “[a]s a publicly owned corporation, Dow is unable, due to share-price concerns, to accept any responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe." This led to widespread press backlash, culminating in Dow Chemical spokesman Jude Finisterra announcing on BBC World that Dow planned to liquidate its India assets for a $12 billion campaign to provide medical care and victim compensation. Dow Chemical scrambled to discredit the report, but not before its stock declined in value by $2 billion.

more here at the creators project.

Eraser as Art?

2011-07-05T20:21:00.000-07:00

While walking through the MoMA's gift shop, the Endangered Species Eraser, specifically the gorilla, struck me as being a very successful interactive art piece. As you go through you menial-daily tasks, you will slowly force this gorilla into dust, serving as a constant reminder of how your actions effect the world... Call me the product of hippy parents, but this is one good eraser.

Freedom and the Internet

2011-07-05T20:07:00.000-07:00

We are all familiar with Ashton Kutcher's over-zealous support of Twitter's power, which I scoffed at until recently. Freedom of speech is one of the bedrocks of democracy, it seems linear that global instantaneous communication would be an immensely powerful tool for freedom. Could Kutcher be right? Nicholas Thompson at the New Yorker cautiously agrees that the internet is changing democracy all over the world, here. During the revolutions in northern Africa that I began considering these technologies more seriously. See huff post article about Facebook and Cairo here. (also the above image source)

Surveillance technology was associated with oppressive regimes, and used to quell protests and radicals. Yet, now that this technology is so pervasive and accessible (if you live in an area with internet and have a cell phone, which is a big if) you can turn the powers of surveillance back onto the oppressor. There are certainly more humans in the world who don't want to be beaten by police, raped by militia, left to starve by their governments, than there are officials who are supporting those actions. Collectively, the people, now have equal tools.

I felt that my suspicions around the power of the web were confirmed after reading James Glanz and John Markoff's (where I stole the above photo) fascinating article HERE about liberation-technology and the United States' involvement with supplying internet to the dissidents of oppressive governments like in Afghanistan. (I first saw this story on BLDGBLG, here(scroll to the third point))

I think that these technologies are interesting because, unlike the guns we gave to middle-eastern soldiers to fight the soviets which are now being used against us, accessible internet can really only open up communication and spread ideas and information, which seems inherently good. (Wait, maybe computer viruses could do more damage with these technologies... hmmm.)

I wonder if the problem now will become a matter of filtering. We are inundated with videos of police beatings, photos of deadly conflicts, news broadcasts of nuclear meltdowns/earthquakes/tornados, and the list goes on. How many of you Do anything about these stories? I hate to admit it, but I sure as hell don't do anything; I get a little sad and stop reading the international section of the news... I feel overwhelmed by the world's mess that I simply choose to bury my head in the contemporary art world. I know I am not alone.

PLUS, we are using the internet for videos of cute fuzzy kittens, not spreading democracy. The most viewed youtube video of all time is a Justin Bieber and Ludacris video, with 579,715,348 views, that is larger than the population of NORTH AMERICA. Is this some weird by-product of late-capitalism? Do you need to be both poor and oppressed to use the internet in any meaningful way? this coming from someone with a blog...
Im ranting so, hope this was some food for thought.

Photography books online

2011-07-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

Books online is a new website that showcases photographs by contemporary artists in an online book format that lets you flip through the pages like a real book. The best part? The books are completely free for your viewing pleasure.

Paul Paper, "Blur is Beautiful"

Jennilee Marigomen, "Change of Course"

Ali Bosworth, "Atlantic"

- Jessica

What's right/wrong with the art world

2011-07-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

What's right:

What's wrong:

According to William Powhida. Do you agree?

- Jessica

Risking Death for Photography and Wikileaks

2011-07-01T11:42:00.000-07:00

photo by Adam Dean
an article at the Guardian about war photography here. (warning: some really disturbing photos...)
In terms of cultural relevance and commitment to the human race, are these photographers more important than any artist? I don't think we need artists risking their lives, but if artists are proposing alternatives to capitalism, confronting tyranny, promoting socialism, like many social practice/relational aesthetic artists claim, wouldn't they be better servicing society by being photo journalists, politicians, or social workers? just thinking online here.

Must read article by Ben Davis about an interview between Hans Ulrich Obrist and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange over at artinfo here.

How does the internet change your life? It makes you live in the present tense. Joanne McNeil at Rhizome, here.

Also: Check out these incredible tattoos by Amanda Wachob. I am really impressed by the abstract ones. thanks Lenny

Agustina Woodgate

2011-06-29T05:23:00.001-07:00

more here.

N SKY C

2011-06-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

My perpetual wanderlust makes me constantly wonder what's happening in other cities around the world. Now, I can at least visualize the sky in New York while I'm stuck in the Midwest. N SKY C is a website that displays the average color of the NYC sky, updated every 5 minutes.

This reminds me of so many pieces by another New York-based artist, Spencer Finch.

- Jessica

Art of the Sun

2011-06-27T05:22:00.000-07:00

Markus Kayser - Solar Sinter Project from Markus Kayser on Vimeo.

3D printer using sand and the sun!?!
More at Markus Kayser's website, here.
Thanks Vanessa

Also, please check out another work of equal ingenuity yet more beauty, William Lamson's, A Line Describing the Sun.

New York Legalizes Same Sex Marriage!

2011-06-25T05:57:00.000-07:00

about time.

Don't forget the areas that led the way: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,Vermont, plus Washington, D.C. and the Coquille Indian Tribe in Oregon.

Combat Paper Project

2011-06-24T20:11:00.001-07:00

Solace by Margaret Mahan, 2010 here.

Combat Paper Project states:

The Combat Paper Project utilizes art making workshops to assist veterans in reconciling and sharing their personal experiences as well as broadening the traditional narrative surrounding service and the military culture.

Through papermaking workshops veterans use their uniforms worn in combat to create cathartic works of art. The uniforms are cut up, beaten into a pulp and formed into sheets of paper. Veterans use the transformative process of papermaking to reclaim their uniform as art and begin to embrace their experiences in the military.

Through ongoing participation in the papermaking process, combat papermakers are attempting to progress from creating works specific to their military experiences to expressing a broader vision on militarism and society. The work reflects both the anger of the past and hope for the future. Through this collaboration between civilians and veterans, a much-needed conversation is generated regarding our responsibilities to the returned veteran and an understanding of the dehumanizing effects of warfare.

Watch Jon Turner, co-founder of the Combat Paper Project as well as Warrior Writers, talk here.

Organization

2011-06-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

Things Organized Neatly, a blog depicting, you guessed it, organized things. here

Reminds me of Tom Sachs' 10 Bullets video rule #8: Always be Knolling.
watch that hilarious video here. (jump to around the 15min area to see knolling section)

Teenage

2011-06-24T11:53:00.001-07:00

TEENAGE teaser from Teenage on Vimeo.

more

Ai Weiwei Released!

2011-06-22T09:48:00.001-07:00

Read it here.

- Jessica

Asia Society to Show Collection of Ai Weiwei's photos

2011-06-20T17:37:00.000-07:00

The exhibition, which opens June 29, will include photos that Weiwei took during the decade that he lived in New York. More information here.

Image and information on his New York photos here.

- Jessica

Long exposure airplanes

2011-06-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

This is slightly gimmicky, but beautiful and fascinating nonetheless: long exposure shots of airplanes flying into and out of San Francisco International Airport, shot by Terence Chang.

See more images here.

- Jessica

10,000 year clock

2011-06-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

Kevin Kelly, an amazing man and author of the incredible book, What Technology Wants, says about the project:

"Why would anyone build a Clock inside a mountain with the hope that it will ring for 10,000 years? Part of the answer: just so people will ask this question, and having asked it, prompt themselves to conjure with notions of generations and millennia. If you have a Clock ticking for 10,000 years what kinds of generational-scale questions and projects will it suggest? If a Clock can keep going for ten millennia, shouldn’t we make sure our civilization does as well? If the Clock keeps going after we are personally long dead, why not attempt other projects that require future generations to finish? The larger question is, as virologist Jonas Salk
once asked, “Are we being good ancestors?”

from laughing squid
thanks kaylee

Back from the land of dust and heat

2011-06-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

Bonnaroo was the strangest week of my life. Last Monday, we arrived to an open field full of dust, three days before the general public would come in. In those three days, we managed to raise "Urbarn," a dilapidated-looking barn built almost entirely out of reused pallet wood, with a tin roof that read "See Cities". Inside the barn, we let people screen print tshirts for free with one of the six screens that was designed specifically for the barn. Each screen had statistics on it, like "In 2008, for the first time in history, half of the world's population live in urban centers." On one side of the barn, we had a graffiti artist friend tag information about the barn, and gradually other graffiti artists became interested -- Mastro from Brooklyn put his tag up on the side of the barn too.

Mastro with the beginnings of his tag.

My friend Rita adding her tag

Raising the barn at night, when it's not as blazing hot outside

Our campsite with part of the tin roof

Inside the barn

Building the barn was a lot of hard work, but I learned a lot about the pallet industry and urban migration throughout the process, and got to teach visitors about it, too. I was surprised to learn how many pallets are used every year, and how many of them go to waste after they've met their end destination. Pallets are also made almost entirely out of hardwood, which makes their end waste even more detrimental.

The artist who designed this project, as well as another piece at Bonnaroo, is Jacob Stanley. Find out more about this project and his other work here.

- Jessica

Jeff Waldam and Swings

2011-06-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

Jeff Waldman
thanks kaylee

Protest and Posters

2011-06-16T05:36:00.000-07:00

Really great use of posters and public space. more at Dogwood Initiative, found at Tasty Treats.

Shea Hembrey- TED Talk

2011-06-14T19:21:00.000-07:00

I don't know what to say.

Jeff Wall

2011-06-14T05:34:00.000-07:00

Jeff Wall, After "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison, more at booooooom

Marjetica Potre

2011-06-14T05:21:00.000-07:00

Xapuri: Rural School

Building materials, energy and communication infrastructure, 2006
How to Live Together, 27th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil

This is a case study of a primary school that has been built in a remote area of the Amazonian forest in the Brazilian state of Acre. The construction of such schools represents a collaboration between local communities and the government. Typically, a school is equipped with extensive solar paneling and a satellite dish, in other words, a source of energy and the means for communication with the world.

from here

The Cook, the Farmer, His Wife and Their Neighbour

Building materials, energy infrastructure, vegetable garden, 2009
Stedelijk Goes West, Nieuw West, Amsterdam
Project by Marjetica Potrc and Wilde Westen (Lucia Babina, Reinder Bakker, Hester van Dijk, Sylvain Hartenberg, Merijn Oudenampsen, Eva Pfannes, Henriette Waal)
Supported by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Far West, Amsterdam; The Netherlands Architectural Fund, Rotterdam

The project is a community garden and community kitchen in the Nieuw West district of Amsterdam. A previously unused site at Lodewijk van Deysselstraat 61 becomes a community kitchen. The vegetable garden is located behind the kitchen in a former fenced-off 'look-only garden' (kijkgroen). The garden and the kitchen create bonds within the neighbourhood and become a catalyst for transforming not only the public space but also the community itself. The project is an example of 'redirective practice', with people from various disciplines and backgrounds working together to find new ways to build a shared community. The project is a case study for redesigning the modernist neighbourhood from below and redefining rural and urban coexistence. More information can be found on the project's blog.

from here

Julian Hoeber

2011-06-13T05:55:00.000-07:00

untitled, 2008. Bronze sculpture shot. creeepy cool, more at Blum & Poe here

Art and Social Practice

2011-06-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

Theaster Gates, Whitney Biennal performance/installation. Gates works to convert abandoned spaces into community spaces, like libraries and artist studios, although his website confuses me, he seems to be doing a lot of good while still being a professor at the University of Chicago. more at art:21

Jorge Rodriquez Gerada finds individuals who are important to a specific community and give them a giant portrait. more

Candy Chang, Looking for Love Again, interactive public art project confronting urban decay in Fairbanks Alaska. more definitely check out the rest of her work.

Astoria Scum River Bridge from Jason Eppink on Vimeo.

more by Jason Eppink

Some art spaces to look into/visit:
Luggage Store-San Francisco
Curbs and Stoops-Brooklyn
Soap Factory- Minneapolis

Thanks to Jeffrey Pena, founder of Curbs and Stoops, for showing me much of this post, and Robin for Theaster.

Truck Stop

2011-06-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

Alberto Tadiello's E13 000625, 2010. This is a sound canon that hits the viewer with audio. more at bldgblog

Zimoun : Compilation Video V2.8 | Sound Sculptures & Installations from ZIMOUN VIDEO ARCHIVE on Vimeo.

Artist Zimoun, via bldgblog

I don't know how I missed the Watts Towers, an impressive architectural/sculptural undertaking by an outsider artist, but my dad just told me about them today, so check them out here. be sure to watch the movie here.

Royji Ikeda's show at the Park Armory, the Transfinite, was out of this world. read more at hyperallergic.
This was the best show I have seen all year.

Carolee Schneemann + Willow Smith

2011-06-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

Carolee Schneemann, Up To and Including Her Limits, 1973-76, her website here.

Willow Smith, Whip My Hair, video still from here

Just Sayin

Seaworthy at EFA, tonight

2011-06-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

Everyone in NYC must make it to at least some part of this huge exhibition. Artists include: Michael Arcega, Rachel Bacon, Jimbo Blachly & Lytle Shaw, Matt Bua, George Boorujy, Adriane Colburn, Heather Dewey-Hagborg & Thomas Dexter, Amze Emmons, Jason Gandy, Richard Haley, Haley Hughes, Sarah Julig, Jonathan Kaiser, Marie Lorenz, Orien McNeill, Ciarán Ó Dochartaigh, Anne Percoco, Natalia Porter, Duke Riley, Tod Seelie, Reid Stowe, Swimming Cities, and SWOON!

Part I: An Exhibition on view at EFA Project Space, June 10 – July 29, 2011.

Part II: Workshops at the Gowanus Studio Space. Ongoing: May - July, 2011.

Part III: Excursions brought to you by Flux Factory. Ongoing: July - September, 2011.

Check out more info here.

Check Me Out

2011-06-07T19:05:00.000-07:00

Check out my newest post for C-monster.net on the Human Figure in Film. here

Best Artists?

2011-06-07T05:33:00.000-07:00

Top ten most important artists today by Daily Beast. here

Tim Knowles

2011-06-05T12:38:00.000-07:00

Mk3 Postal Project, where Tim Knowles mailed this box/drawing machine through the postal service, documenting the passage. Pretty awesome.

Nightwalk, Knole Park, Sevenoaks, long exposure of of artist walking in night.

Definitely check out Knowles website here. I found his work by watching the Camille Utterback & Erica Sadun lecture at Rhizome, where artists and technologists gave lectures on their collaborations, here

BONNAROOOOOO

2011-06-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

I'm off to hot 'n sweaty Tennessee to help an art professor with two art installations that we'll display at this year's Bonnaroo music and art festival in Manchester. We're going a few days early to build the structures and have everything set up before the masses arrive. I'll be back in a week with lots of pictures and a report on the Bonnaroo arts scene -- after I take a much needed shower, of course.

- Jessica

Time Lapse of Manhattan

2011-06-05T08:09:00.001-07:00

Mindrelic - Manhattan in motion from Mindrelic on Vimeo.

Jason Varone

2011-06-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

There is a Revolution in My Ether, 2009 from Jason Varone on Vimeo.

Jason Varone, There is a Revolution in My Ether, using twitter feed of #IranElection. more

Protest Stencil Toolkit

2011-06-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

Book of pre-made protest stencils... super lame. here "funny, it's like they're marketing to the discontented, non-creative, lazy wanna-be rebel. " - my sister.

CAT Questionnaire

2011-06-03T16:33:00.001-07:00

Please fill out a couple of questions to help us at CAT better know who you are and what you want.
Here

Ellen Carey

2011-06-03T14:43:00.000-07:00

I've recently become fascinated by the work of abstract photographer Ellen Carey. I still don't totally understand her process, which is perhaps a large part of the intrigue. This interview with her is a great introduction to her work.

-Jessica

Bushwick Open Studios

2011-06-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

Anyone wanting to see what the Bushwick art scene is all about has to dedicate some serious time this weekend exploring the numerous venues of the Bushwick Open Studios. The map of the 390 spaces, here, is a little overwhelming and not the most helpful, but it is a start.

I will definitely be checking out Storefront, with a show curated by William Powhida.

I also am really excited to see the changes of Bushwick's newest art space, Curbs and Stoops

other galleries I will stop into are Centotto, English Kills, and Famous Accountants.

read Stephen Truax's article to get some more insider knowledge about this event. here

US Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

2011-06-03T06:40:00.000-07:00

Olympian performing on an airline seat

Mr. Olympian performs "Track and Field" Images from artinfo

The US Pavilion at the Venice Biennale features works by Allora & Calzadilla. The museum sponsoring the pavilion is the fabulous and amazing team at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, where I interned for a year. The show sounds really good, but let me refer you to artinfo's Andrew Goldstein for coverage. here.

Art + Science

2011-06-03T06:38:00.000-07:00

Artist Jo Berry combines microscopy and pharmacology with art. read the article here
thanks cady

Drowned photographs

2011-06-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've noticed a theme of photographers "drowning" their images in bodies of water that are relevant to the concept or the content of the image itself. I've done similar things in my own work, so I'm really interested in how these photographers tie together practice with concept.

The series "Drowned" by photographer Seba Kurtis explores the humanitarian issues in the Canary Islands. His website says, "Thousands of Africans have reached the Canary Islands in recent years, thousands more are believed to have drowned or died of thirst or exposure in the attempt. I drowned the boxes with the sheets of film off the shores of the same ocean that they crossed."

Some of the images look nearly untouched, while others have been erased of most information, leaving an empty color field in the aftermath of the drowning.

Find more images from this series and others at Seba Kurtis' website.

- Jessica

Anish Kapoor at the Grand Palais

2011-05-31T05:41:00.000-07:00

Images from NYTimes blog article here
Everyone in Paris should see this, more info at the Grand Palais

Attendence and Twitter followers

2011-05-31T05:36:00.000-07:00

from @MuseumNerd

Lindsay Lohan

2011-05-30T05:11:00.000-07:00

Lindsay Lohan is going to be at the Venice Biennale, in a Richard Phillips video. here

James franco is going too, here

If we're lucky, maybe Lohan and James Franco will become a celebrity art couple and have highly attended albeit terrible shows at gagosian, while they trade out stints in rehab...

Mega Post- Trees

2011-05-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

Roxy Paine, Conjoined, 2007. Image from Wikipedia.

Charles Ray, Hinoki, 2007. Image from Artnet.
Ruben Ochoa, Zoned Out in the 90045, 2007. Image from Vielmetter.

Evan Holloway, Chromatic Branch, 2009. Image from Marc Foxx.

Fabienne Lasserre, Hair Tree, 2006.

Mel Chin, Revival Field, 1991. Image from here.

Maurizio Cattelan, Untitled, 1998. Image from here.

Joseph Beuys, 7,000 Oaks, 1982. Image from here.

Keith Edmier, Cycas Orogeny, 2004. Image from here, be sure to watch the video.

Mark Dion, Neukom Vivarium, 2006. Image from here.

Mega Post- Balloons

2011-05-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

Edith Dekyndt, Ground Control/Major Tom, 2009

Joel Tauber, The Flying Project, 2003, Video Still.

Martin Creed, Work No. 628: Half the air in a given space, 2007.

Tim Hawkinson, Balloon Self-Portrait, 1993. Image from here.

Hans Hemmert, German Panther, 2007

Yayoi Kusama, Dots Obsession-New Century, 2000. Image from here.

Takashi Murakami, Kaikai and Kiki, 2010. For the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade. Image from here.

Katharina Grosse, Atoms Inside Balloons, 2007. Image from here.

Andy Warhol, Silver Clouds, 1966. Image from here.

William Lamson, Intervention 11/14/07. Be sure to also watch some of his videos, here.

No, I did not forget Jeff Koons.

Dia Beacon

2011-05-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

I finally made a pilgrimage to Dia Beacon earlier this May, and I am already planning my next visit. It had been raining most of the week, but I got lucky and my visit was on a cool-spring day. The fog and the fresh air made traveling up the Hudson a great addition to the museum itself. The train ride from Grand Central station to Beacon is a $28 round trip, and drops you off within easy walking distance to the museum and to the town of Beacon; a town, from what I saw, which was populated with quaint shops, small restaurants, and pleasant people. After lunch, it was time for the museum. I walked through a blooming parking lot, and bought my ticket, hoping Dia Beacon would live up to it's name.

Michael Heizer, North, East, South, West, 1967/2002

Richard Serra, Torqued Ellipses

I had heard good things, but I was blown away by this beautiful space. The museum had an ability to perfectly complement the art it housed. Robert Irwin, who is responsible for the landscaping and many small interior aspects of Dia Beacon, truly outdid himself. When remembering the visit, some of the true megaliths of minimal art quickly come to mind. Immense works by Serra and Heizer were almost overwhelming to experience. Standing before these works reminded me of what Peter Schjeldahl said about Dia Beacon in the New Yorker on June 7, 2004:

An anti-church, it offers, in the place of religion, beneficent addiction. (The hits wear off quickly. You want more.) This may be the upward limit of what liberal culture can provide for the common soul. Perhaps it’s enough. Certainly Dia:Beacon stirs grateful awe. Look at what we humans can do!

The hit didn't wear off too quickly for me, especially when the museum also housed, and equally complemented more subtle works by Ryman, Sanback, and LeWitt. This is a museum that knew what space these work deserved, and then gave them a little more.

Every corner I turned in this museum I was nearly overwhelmed by the emmidiate physical presence of the pieces. After spending more time in Dia Beacon that day than I ever have in a museum's galleries, I took a break and wondered to the west garden to see Robert Irwin's famed landscaping. Instead, I was instantly struck, as I had been in all of the other galleries, by another piece of art. The piece was a sound installation by Louise Lawler entitled, Birdcalls, where there are loud bird-like sounds coming from the gardens. These birdcalls, which children in the gardens were loving, were in fact the names of famous male artists. This hilarious piece was a welcomed break from the extremely serious and intense works inside, and was a good introduction to the relaxing and beautiful gardens.

As I walked away from the train in Grand Central station, I was underground and smelled pee, and realized I still had 40 minutes of subway rides before I would be home, and I missed Dia Beacon dearly.

Dia Beacon's website here.

Urban Interventions

2011-05-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

I have owned this book for a while now, and it is always fun to look through. Even though I still haven't really gotten out of bed today, this book managed to make me laugh a couple of times. Urban Interventions presents a huge and wide variety of artists tackling the possibilities of contemporary art in public spaces. Although some of the work is predictable, most of it is extremely exciting and entertaining. I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the overlapping area between graffiti and contemporary art.
at amazon here

With that, I conclude my bedroom, sick day, posting about books within arm reach.
hope you enjoyed

Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser

2011-05-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

This book, written by Edward Glaeser in 2011, explains why the city is our greatest invention. As a new resident of New York City, hailing from a mid-western city of 30,000; this book offered great insight into myths I was brought up believing, and re-affirmed all the reasons why I came to NYC. This book is one interesting fact after another, a fast read, and will never let you think about cities in the same way. I recommend it to everyone.

Find it on amazon here

Olafur Eliasson & Hans Ulrich Obrist

2011-05-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

Number thirteen of the conversation series by Hans Ulrich Obrist features eight casual interviews between these two highly influential figures in the contemporary art world. book at amazon here

This book would be a good beginning point for someone interested in Olafur Eliasson's work and thinking. Yet for me it was a little too light. They begin to touch on really interesting ideas, yet fall short of truly exploring them.

Glenn Ligon AMERICA

2011-05-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

C-monster was kind enough to give me one of her copies of this fantastic book, here. This large book which full of great images of the work and a few essays that I probably should read sometime, came out with Ligon's retrospective at the Whitney.

Hands, 1996. image from Luhring Augustine (accidental relationship to prior post)

Ligon's work impressed me with it's big impact which is carried down to the smallest of details. Thankfully this book includes many close-ups, allowing a better understanding of the works.

Luhring Augustine

2011-05-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

I'm sick today, so instead of getting out of bed, I plan on going through art books all day looking at pretty things.

I'll tell you what I find.

Firstly, I grabbed the Luhring Augustine 25year anniversary catalog, which they were handing out for free in the fall. Here are some of the amazing artists in the catalog.

Janine Antoni, Lick & Lather, 1993

Luisa Lambri, Untitled (Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, #11), 2008

Christopher Wool, She Smiles for the Camera I, 2005

Rachel Whiteread, untitled (library), 1999

Above images taken from Luhring Augustine website, here

Some artists that are not representing by the gallery but were in the catalog:

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled, 1991, Andrea Rosen gallery, here

Gerhard Richter, Working in the Garden I, 1966, here

Science + Art

2011-05-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

I'm always interested in seeing art intersect with other mediums or topics, like science. Because art is so open-ended and flexible, it's a suitable means to discuss a variety of issues through the use of aesthetics, shape, form, and content. Who ever said art is useless?

This segment, from NPR, explores where the realms of art and science collide. Listen to writer Cormac McCarthy, director Werner Herzog, and physicist Lawrence Krauss discuss science as inspiration for art.

- Jessica

Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art

2011-05-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

While I was walking to the post office today I noticed a billboard on Fulton St, between Grand and Franklin, that looked like an advertisement for a grocery store, yet all of the signs were slightly odd, like "Boneless Whole Chicken" or "Locally Grown Pineapples". This apparently is part of an old Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art exhibition. sounds like an interesting museum that I need to visit.

2011-05-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

Pook sitting in his ten year old living tree/chair. more
thanks hel

Clever advertising

2011-05-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

Imagine hearing Bach’s Cantata 147 also known as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desire” in the midst of a lush Japanese forest. But instead of an orchestra and a conductor, the sounds are made simply out of wood and a ball. For a clever advertisement, the mobile phone company TOUCH WOOD designed an enormous xylophone, where each dropping plunk of the ball forms the sounds of Bach's Cantata 147. The idea is simple, but the result is exquisite. If I lived in Japan, I'd certainly buy one of these cell phones.

-Jessica

Daniel Eatock

2011-05-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

Daniel Eatock, Wall Shelves Supported by the Objects they Bear. Objects are chosen to make the shelves equally spaced.
This work reminds me of an installation I have mentioned earlier by Pereda (below) where the contents become the structure.

A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines, 2010 by Alejandro Almanza Pereda

Large Hadron Collider

2011-05-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

The LHC has reportedly produced a new primordial substance, quark gluon plasma, "The unique material is 100,000 times hotter than the sun and denser than any known object other than a black hole." read the rest of the article here.

I'm certainly no physicist, but I am pretty excited by anything to do with the LHC, except of course Christian propoganda like Angels and Demons.

Robert Brown

2011-05-25T04:53:00.000-07:00

Billionaire's Monument, 2011.
A monument of living billionaires and their expected date of death. This is a pretty poetic concept; using a monument to remind us that billionaires are just people, and their money won't matter in the end.
Westminster, London
Robert Brown's website.

Contemporary Art Truck

#OccupyWallStreet

Aaron Koblin: Artfully visualizing our humanity | Video on TED.com

Parking Day

Collaborative Public Art-Money Tree

Pech Kucha NYC-“Dimensions of Urban Design”

No Longer Empty

Steve Lambert Replaces Ads with Art

Karina Smigla Bobinski

THE FLEXIBLE/RELOCATABLE HOUSE BY MICHAEL JANTZEN

Jonathan Zittrain: The Web as random acts of kindness | Video on TED.com

Juan Enriquez shares mindboggling science | Video on TED.com

Colin Stetson Take Away Show

Citizens Contribute

phone booth gallery

...and to draw a bright white line with light

David Bowen

Lorena Turner

One Day On Earth

David Zwirner Announces Second Annual Summer Pop-Up Bookstore

JR and Inside Out

Hennesy Youngman and Beauty

Robert Montgomery

Clay Shirky's Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age

Sherry Turkle and Robots

Alexander McQueen

MEGAPOST: New interpretations of the photograph

Steve Lambert

Clark Stoeckley: Artivist

The Yes Men

Eraser as Art?

Freedom and the Internet

Photography books online

What's right/wrong with the art world

Risking Death for Photography and Wikileaks

Agustina Woodgate

N SKY C

Art of the Sun

New York Legalizes Same Sex Marriage!

Combat Paper Project

Organization

Teenage

Ai Weiwei Released!

Asia Society to Show Collection of Ai Weiwei's photos

Long exposure airplanes

10,000 year clock

Back from the land of dust and heat

Jeff Waldam and Swings

Protest and Posters

Shea Hembrey- TED Talk

Jeff Wall

Marjetica Potre

Xapuri: Rural School

Building materials, energy and communication infrastructure, 2006How to Live Together, 27th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil

The Cook, the Farmer, His Wife and Their Neighbour

Julian Hoeber

Art and Social Practice

Truck Stop

Carolee Schneemann + Willow Smith

Seaworthy at EFA, tonight

Check Me Out

Best Artists?

Tim Knowles

BONNAROOOOOO

Time Lapse of Manhattan

Jason Varone

Protest Stencil Toolkit

CAT Questionnaire

Ellen Carey

Bushwick Open Studios

US Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

Art + Science

Drowned photographs

Anish Kapoor at the Grand Palais

Attendence and Twitter followers

Lindsay Lohan

Mega Post- Trees

Mega Post- Balloons

Dia Beacon

Urban Interventions

Building materials, energy and communication infrastructure, 2006
How to Live Together, 27th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil