Culture

One of our works by Tracey is up at her show at The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. I can’t find an image of our work — probably too “explicit”, but I found an interview and some images.

This should be great tonight, but I also expect it to be a zoo. Who puts a big group show with lots of sexy people on the 10th floor of a building?!

I’m giving you the whole press release, since I can’t find a link that has all of the information.

John Connelly Presents:
K48-3: Teenage Rebel — The Bedroom Show
Curated by Scott Hug

526 W 26th Street, Suite 1023
New York, NY 10001

Exhibit Dates: December 3, 2002 – January 19, 2003
Opening: Tues, December 3, 6 – 9 pm
Gallery Hours: Tues – Sat, 11am – 6pm

“Teenage art is not an attempt to reclaim youth
after it has passed, but an effort to expose the
dishonesty of the domesticated adult experience,
which is best served by reviving the emotional and
psychological convictions of teenage-hood.”
â?? Excerpt from Rachel Howe’s Teenage Art Manifesto

K48 is proud to present their first gallery
installation, coinciding with the release of their
third issue, Teenage Rebel.

The Bedroom Show brings together over 50 artists,
fashion designers, musicians, and graphic designers
into the realm of Hug’s ultimate teenage hangout.
Some of the work in the show actually belongs to
Hug: “These are my friends, this is what inspires
me”.

Scott Hug created K48 as his thesis project for the
Graduate Design Department at Pratt Institute.
Launched in December of 2000, K48, named after a
generic form of aspirin, continues Hug’s interests
into information flux, allowing him to express
himself through the popular form of a magazine.
Collaborating with other artists, writers and
musicians, Scott designs, edits, and curates each
issue giving a personal touch to a medium, which in
today’s corporate mediascape, only wants to sell you
something.

“Magazines are dead,” claims Hug. “K48 is like my
traveling exhibit. I want to get art into the hands
of teenagers across America”.

The bedroom will feature customized wall paper by
Eli Sudbrack, a complete entertainment system
featuring The Kid America TV Show, Robert Melee’s
High School Wrestling and video games; music; and a
wall collage by the Providence, RI, collective
Dearraindrop. Artists include Lily van der Stokker,
Lucky Debellevue, Jesse Bransford, Sam Gordon, Tyson
Reeder, Ryan McGinley, Slava Mogutin, Michael Meads,
Lucien Samaha, Tracy Nakayama, Mike Pare, Debbie
Attias, David West, Keila Lopez, Amy Steiner,
Timothy Dowling, Aida Ruilova, Emily Sundblad and
many others.

The Bedroom Show is an interactive experience. Scott
is inviting people to hangout with him, play some
Atari, watch some videos or just read K48.

For more gallery information, contact:

John Connelly Presents
526 W 26th Street, Suite 1023
New York, NY 10001
T: 212-337-9563
F: 212-337-9613
C: 917-596-9341
E: jcpresents@cheapcream.com

For more information on K48 Magazine, contact:

Scott Hug
K48 Enterprises, Inc.
T: 718-302-9630
C: 917-225-4094
E: hugscott@hotmail.com
www.k48rules.com

Benjamin Tischer
K48 Enterprises, Inc.
T: 212-233-1673
E: ballball@mindspring.com

K48 is available in New York City at: St. Mark’s
Book Store, Other Music, Mondo Kim’s, Dia Center for
the Arts, Printed Matter, alife, New Museum, MOMA
Design Store, See Hear, Isa and many other fine
locations.

Run, do not walk, to Winterreise at John Jay. I’m too tired from fixing Jim’s computer to post more right now, but it was one of the best evenings of singing/dance/Gesamtkunstwerk I have ever seen, featuring Schubert’s Winterreise, Trisha Brown’s choreography, Jennifer Tipton’s lighting, Pedja Muzijevic’s accompaniment, and the singing (and dancing!) talents of Simon Keenlyside:

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Read James’s report too.

I mentioned the show a few days ago, and now the images are up. I really liked the paintings by Jackie Gendel, based on her comic book — see the first two images in the second row.

The photos by Sarah A. Martin are somewhat creepy once you read about them. They are the first two images in the fourth row.

NY Arts has a description:

Sarah Martin also found her photographic material close to home. The photo shoots Martin documented, which she describes as somewhere between soft porn and swimsuit issue, were conducted by young women with whom she attended church or Christian high school in Knoxville. All in their mid-twenties, the women swore an oath to remain virgins until they are married. Many now find themselves without college degrees, unmarried, and living at with their parents. MartinÂ’s interest in documenting the cliqueÂ’s semi-erotic photo sessions is not an ironic commentary on the situation, but rather an investigation of why the women seek to portray themselves in this manner.

On Monday night we saw two short opera by Bohuslav Martinu at Henry Street Chamber Opera. We’ve seen all of their productions, and I can’t recommend them enough. They do smart, well designed and directed operas with young casts that actually act — opera as theatre, not the semi-staged concerts that pass for productions at the Met. One was a Dada opera from 1928 Paris, which included things like a young girl who falls in loved with a hanged man. The other, written in the more grim historical moment of 1935 Prague, was more of a fairy tale set in the forest, and featured Kathleen Chalfant as a rather arch narrator. I would watch that woman read a phone book. She has a voice that makes one realize what a trained voice really is, rather than the wimpy voices of actors that are only interested in TV or film.

On the way to the Lower East Side on the subway, we both noticed a very hot guy standing near us with a great speaking voice. Once we saw him again in the lobby, I heard people talking to him and realized he was David Adam Moore who was an incredibly sexy Aeneas in their production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, complete with leather pants, a couple of tattoos, and a pierced nipple and belly button. Swoon.

We had a great dinner afterward, including a bottle of Alella, at AKA Cafe. Since it was the Monday before Thanksgiving, it was really quiet. The maitre d’ reminded me of James Urbaniak, and the whole staff was attractive and smart. A strange guy, after finishing his meal, told them they better do something about Monday nights, or they weren’t going to make it, since eventually every store on the block would be a restaurant. He described himself as an “impresario” who owned a restaurant in South Beach. It’s the first time I’ve heard a person actually use that word outside of a period film.

The LES certainly has changed. I remember my friends in a Target Margin production at Nada (on Ludlow) telling me about a shootout over drug turfs one night during a performance. I first went to the neighborhood in 1989, to go have dinner at El Sombrero. I had just moved here from Texas, and my friends and I were researching every decent Mexican restaurant in the city. I lived in Chelsea, which wasn’t exactly prosperous then (“excuse me sir/madam, but can I get in my building as soon as you’re finished”), but going to the LES felt very “edgy”.

Happy Happy Happy!

Soma FM has returned. My productivity can soar once again.

On Friday we had a studio visit with Fred Holland, an artist with the P.S.1 Studio Program. We had first seen his work, and met him, at the Momenta benefit. In his honor we had the curried onion fritters at Le Zinc afterward, spotting Michael Dvorkin having lunch.

This afternoon we were planning to see the “Time to Hope” exhibit at St. John the Divine — which includes works by Goya and El Greco — but the wait was too long, so we just spent some time looking at the cathedral instead, and walked north to see a less than exciting show at The Project. We then headed back downtown to see a show I highly recommend: “Regarding Gloria” at White Columns. I will add some links to some of my favorite works from the show once they put some up!

We also went to only two (unfortunately not more) programs at the Mix Festival.

Target Margin is reviving The Sandman, the opera they premiered this summer. If you buy tickets before 12/26, they’re only $15. It’s certainly worth $15!

If any of you out there would like to join me for The Civilians’ benefit on December 9 at The Cutting Room, you can now buy tickets online.

There’s a cash bar, so I promise to buy any of you who come at least one drink during the evening of entertainment. It’s hosted by Stephen DeRosa, currently The Baker in Into the Woods.

Hurry — it’s only through the weekend. Go see Three Birds at Gale Gates in DUMBO. The playwright is still in her 20s, and she has invented a brilliant language of her own, in a retelling of the myth of Tereus and Philomela. We had dinner afterward around the corner at Water Street Bar.

Earlier in the evening we went to A.R.T. to see J. Morrison’s show.