Art

James already wrote about her show (now closed), but I thought I would add a few of my photos.

Somewhat related to the previous post, today’s New York Times has a special section on museums. My favorite part is the essay titled Leaving Room for the Troublemakers by Holland Carter. Here are some excerpts.

Now, as we approach the 20th anniversary of the stock-market plunge that brought the art market to its knees, money is again in truly fathomless supply. People think about it constantly, about how much there is of it, spilling out of pockets, oozing from hedge-fund accounts.

Curators find themselves enlisted as personal shoppers to the collectors who swarm through the art fairs. Museums hope these guided purchases will end up on their walls; collectors hope they will serve as tickets to higher ground on the art-world social terrain.

When the painter Brice Marden was interviewed in The New York Times before his recent MoMA retrospective, he talked primarily about real estate, about how many houses and how much land he had bought, or was buying thanks to his phenomenal sales. “What else am I going to do with all this money?” he asked.

…

In fact, the more successful a museum grows, the more elitist it tends to become. Social distinctions based on money and patronage can assume the intricate gradings of court protocol. At street level, admission prices climb, reinforcing existing socioeconomic barriers. Programming grows more cautious. If you’re laying out $20, you want to see “the best” art, which often means art that adheres to conventional versions of beauty, authority, “genius” (white and male) set in a reassuringly familiar context.

An extreme spin on museum populism came into vogue not too long ago, with exhibitions of “nonart” materials: motorcycles at the Guggenheim, hip-hop ephemera at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Critics surprised themselves by raving over the Guggenheim show. Custom-made bikes, it turned out, are High Design. On the other hand, the hip-hop material, most of it mass-produced, inexpensive and readily available, was dismissed as mere merchandise. What was it doing in an art museum?

It was illustrating, among other things, Andy WarholÂ’s canny prediction that all museums will become department stores, and vice versa. Sure enough, here we are and we have to ask the question: WhatÂ’s the difference between a top-of-the-line Harley, a Tupac poster and a Marden abstraction? Fundamentally, none. They are all brand-name items distinguished by different price tags. Populist or not, they are products of corporate marketing, of the money holders.

…

One thing it can do — that museums can do — is clear an alternative space in that culture, a zone of moral inquiry, intellectual contrariness, crazy beauty. In this space, artists can simultaneously hold a magnifying glass up to something called “America” and also train a telescope on it: probe its innards and view it from afar, see it as others see it. From these perspectives, they might come up with models of a cosmopolitan, leveled-out society for a country in solidarity with the world, in contrast to the provincial, hierarchical, self-isolating one that exists today.

The common wisdom of the moment, however, tells us that carving out such a zone is no longer possible. The market, that state of manipulated consensus called freedom of choice, is so omniscient, so all consuming, so universal that there is no alternative left, no margin; no outside, only inside.

I received this letter from Filip Noterdaeme & Madame Butterfly of the Homeless Museum last week.

Brooklyn, March 20, 2007

Dear friends and members of the Homeless Museum,

Madame Butterfly and I regret to inform you that we have decided to officially close HoMu BKLYN as of today.

As many of you know, I founded the Homeless Museum in 2003. It had its humble beginnings online and in a temporary exhibit in a painterÂ’s studio in Chelsea before I installed it in our rental apartment in Brooklyn in March 2005. I was always aware that this would be a temporary solution and am grateful for having been able to house the Museum in our home up until now. Sadly, my landlord has recently informed me that he would not tolerate any more openings on the premise unless I sign a commercial lease and carry my own liability insurance coverage, a financial burden I am not able to take on. After consulting with several lawyers, I had to resign myself to stop using my residence for openings, lest I run the risk of being evicted.

I want to thank all of you who came and supported HoMu BKLYN in those two wonderful years. Madame Butterfly and I will miss the magic of our monthly openings. I will forever cherish the memory of welcoming and getting to know you in the coziness of our Staff and Security Department. Madame Butterfly will never again be able to cook eggs and mussels without shedding a tear. As for Florence Coyote, she has vowed to not utter a single word until a new home has been found for the Museum.

Madame Butterfly and I are determined to continue our work as museum mavericks. HoMu BKLYN may be closed for now, but the Homeless Museum will prevail and re-emerge somewhere else. We are actively seeking to find a temporary exhibition space for its collection and welcome any help from you.

In the meantime, we will revamp HoMuÂ’s website (homelessmuseum.org) and post a virtual tour of the historic HoMu BKLYN online. In addition, we would like to invite all of you to submit comments, anecdotes, and recollections about your experience at HoMu BKLYN for the website. Kindly send your submissions to info@homelessmuseum.org by April 30.

Stay tuned for continued HoMu actions, performances, and exhibitions, and remember: Homelessness begins at home.

Warm regards,

Filip Noterdaeme & Madame Butterfly

Photo by Andreas Brunglinghaus

 

I snapped this a couple of weekends ago in the courtyard at PS1. Since it was outside, I could get away with taking a photo. Given the state of the sidewalks around the museum that day, I didn’t feel any guilt.

I did find a number of shows quite interesting on our visit, including Emergency Room, Silicone Valley, and Not for Sale.

Image by Takeshi Murata

 

James and I are on the Honorary Committee for Rhizome‘s benefit this year. Join us to raise some money for this important organization dedicated to new media art!

Rhizome presents a Benefit Concert
Featuring Gang Gang Dance, Professor Murder and YACHT
April 16, 2007

At the Hiro Ballroom in the Maritime Hotel, 371 West 16th Street
A,C,E,L,1,2,3,9 to 14th Street
Doors at 8pm / VIP admission 7:30pm
Tickets: $25 – Rhizome Member/ $35 – General public/ $75 – VIP
To purchase tickets: rhizome.org/benefit

Rhizome, a 10-year old organization whose mission is to serve contemporary art that utilizes emerging technology, presents a Benefit Concert featuring three genre-bending bands: Gang Gang Dance, Professor Murder and YACHT. Each band integrates a wide range of musical influences and instrumentation to create innovative sounds and style. This line-up of new music will celebrate RhizomeÂ’s commitment to emerging forms of art, across sound, video and digital technologies. The evening will be introduced and mc-ed by computer artist Cory Arcangel, and will also include a silent auction with work by artists, such as Kristin Lucas and Alex Galloway, who work with the Internet.

ABOUT THE BANDS:

Melding rock with 80s electronics, Gang Gang Dance have been described as “a musical vehicle without brakes, constantly innovating and dropping material out the rear” (Fusetron). The quartet, composed of Brian DeGraw, Liz Bougatsos, Josh Diamond and Tim Dewitt, alchemizes stylistic elements of Asian, Middle Eastern, Ethiopian, hip-hop, rock, experimental & electronic music into a new kind of msuic, that is empowered by their improvisational and powerful live performances.

Professor Murder produce a rhythm-heavy dance sound inflected by hip-hop, reggae and funk. Comprised of Brooklyn artists Jesse Cohen, Michael Bell-Smith, Andy Craven and Tony Plunkett, the bandÂ’s goal is to create a sound that distills the different soundtracks to their lives in New York.

Powered by Portland musician Jona Bechtolt (also of the Blow) and a rotating cast of collaborators and friends, YACHT self-describes as “an amalgamation of self-taught dance moves and anthemic electro-power jams all played backwards and covered in cherry cola.” On tour now with his new album “I Believe Your Magic is Real,” YACHT will open the evening with a danceable set that also includes video and Bechtolt’s own narration.

ABOUT THE MC:

Cory Arcangel is a computer artist, performer, and curator who lives and works in Brooklyn. His work centers on his love of personal computers and the Internet. His work has shown recently in the Whitney Biennial of American Art; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Team and Deitch Galleries in New York. Aside from being seen installed in galleries and museums, most of his projects can be downloaded with source code from his Internet Web log at www.beigerecords.com/cory/.

ABOUT RHIZOME:

Rhizome is leading new media art organization affiliated with the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. Our programs, including commissions, exhibitions, education and preservation, all serve to support contemporary art that engages new technologies in significant ways.

BENEFIT SPONSORED BY REFLEXIONES DATA AND WIRED MAGAZINE

Carlos de Villasante, Red Self Portrait, 2005
Acrylic on paper
19 × 13 inches
Courtesy of Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts, New York

 

The Brooklyn Academy of Music has a quite impressive lineup of works for its online art auction, which ends this Sunday.

Among the works which caught my eye (most of these artists are already in the Hoggard Wagner Collection):

• Jennifer Dalton
• Carlos de Villasante
• Joy Garnett
• Eric Heist
• Dan Rushton
• John F. Simon, Jr.
• Stanley Whitney

James recently wrote about Jesse Lambert. He is in a show with eyewash @ Supreme Trading, and his work and that of Don Voisine are my favorite works in the show.

 

Don Voisine, Sea Level

 

Jesse Lambert, Tropical Shale Shatter #2

 

Here is a work on paper I photographed during a studio visit with Jesse in December.

While I seem to be in video mode, here are two videos by Abraham Ferraro. He wrote to me a while ago, but I just now got around to watching some videos.

 

 

Go here for more of his videos.

Check out Art Fag City‘s new digs!