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August 27, 2005
Some words for August
Walt Disney Concert Hall, the new home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Starchitect – the prime example being this guy.
Marmoleum - a type of flooring made primarily of natural materials (yet it sounds totally fake!)
Woot (and also w00t) – origins of this infectious exclamation can be found here. Personally, I like how my cousin breaks it down; woot stands for “Woohoo Loot!”. It's part Homer Simpson, part half-yearly sale at Nordstrom. Then she introduced me to this.
Chillax - a.k.a. my summer montra. When I find myself getting anxious over all the roomers I take a deep cleansing breadth and say, "Chillax, Lisa. MV will be back for all of season 5... Chillax, Lisa. MV will be back for ALL of season 5!
Posted by lk at 07:24 PM | Comments (5)
August 25, 2005
Bonus tracks
two additions to Mondays list:
Songha alone, from Winter In America (2005) by Hank Willis Thomas and Kambui Olujimi
Hank Willis Thomas will have work in Frequency, at the SMH. Oh, and try not to think of this show as Freestyle II (even though that's what it is).
Got a Crush on you, Butter Gun. Our own Rebecca Campbell emerges from the studio for her solo show at Louver. Yay! Yay!
Berto, profile (from Winter in America)
I meant to include Frequency on my list the other day but I thought I would hold off until I knew which artists would be included. I still don't have a whole lot of background on this show but I just found out that Hank Willis Thomas would probably have video and photographic work on view. Photography has never been that central to Thelma Golden's exhibition program at the SMH but I'm glad to see that Thomas' work will be a part of this show.
I have been looking at, and thinking about, Thomas' images since I got back from SF last month. "Winter in America" (2005), the stop-motion animation video and photographs he created in collaboration with artist and curator Kambui Olujimi, is a searing commentary on gun violence. Thomas created the work in response to his cousin Songha's murder in 2000. To dramatize the night of the shooting, Thomas uses the same action figures that he and his cousin played with as children. Simply put: it's one of the most haunting works I've seen this year.
"Winter" premiered at the "Bay Area Now 4" triennial, presented by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (on view till Nov 6th). A large blow up of Thomas' iconic color photograph "Priceless", hangs over the Mission Street entrance to the Yerba Buena Center and serves as a kind of banner announcing the exhibition. Carla has an interesting post on the lack of context for this piece and the reaction that it's getting on the street. You can read about it here.
Thomas is a skilled image-maker. All of his works are technically polished and often blend slick style with social commentary. Ironic appropriation of corporate symbols and strong graphic design are combined to create pointed responses to consumer culture. His photographs and prints provoke discussion of the myriad forces at work in determining black male identity in America. I saw some of this work at Artist Space last year in a group show called “Salad Days”. For this show, Thomas created photographs, silk-screened T-shirts and baseball caps and curator Isolde Brielmaier presented this work in a section of the gallery made to look something like a corporate lobby mixed with a gift shop. The combination of corporate iconography with slave era images of ships and lynching resulted in eye catching, if familiar political statement.
Technically, these works were well executed, clearly presented and easily understood. But it's the works that are more closely tied to the loss of his cousin that have stayed with me, playing again and again in my mind. The video along with his observant color photographs of family members morning their loss are at once an indictment of our violent culture and a deeply felt memorial. The balance of social statement and human emotion is pitch perfect and the echo of those moments still reverberates in my mind's eye.
I look forward to seeing more of Thomas' work in this vein.
Posted by lk at 09:12 AM | Comments (1)
August 22, 2005
top 5 shows
Cardiff and Central Park, perfect together...
Top 5 shows I want to see this fall:
1. Directions-Janet Cardiff, Words drawn in water - at the Hirshhorn
I experienced Cardiff’s “Her Long Black Hair” last summer and it was amazing. Loved it. Made me think A LOT. Plus her “tour” gave me a perspective on Central Park that I had never had before. And here I thought I knew the west side like the back of my hand. I guess others liked it too because they brought it back this summer. So check it out if you’re in NYC or if you make it to DC and do this new walk, please email me!
2. MASTERS of American Comics - The Hammer Museum and The Museum of Contemporary Art (oh, and Phoebe Washburn’s lobby installation sounds like fun, too)
Maybe it’s just the phantom pain from not going to ComiCon this year but I think this could be fun.
3. Scene of the Crime: Photo by Weegee – At the G.
Come on! It’s WEEGEE. Do I even need to say more?
4. Mavericks of Color Photography from the Collection – In Philly
My love affair with 70s photography continues. Yeah, I know this show isn’t all about Eggleston but it’s the main reason I’d go to see it.
5. Robert Adams: Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration – SFMOMA
Rephotographics meets New Topographics, I’m in. This show also happens to be located in the city that’s fast becoming my second home. I might even get to go to Aziza this time. BTW, Happy Birthday K!)
Posted by lk at 03:22 PM | Comments (1)
August 15, 2005
A calming view
Untitled (Ocean), 1969
A drawing by the amazing Vija Celmins.
Is everyone having a good Monday?
If not, maybe looking at some more art will ease things a bit...
"Concentric Bearings C," 1984(detail)
Aquatint, drypoint, and mezzotint etching
Night Sky 3, 2002
1 color photogravure/aquatint/drypoint
...And if that doesn't do it for you, try some cakes!
Wayne Thiebaud, Cakes, 1963
Posted by lk at 01:02 PM | Comments (1)
August 12, 2005
Friday Eye Candy
Works by Karen Davie.
Paintings that look good enough to eat.
Posted by lk at 09:25 AM | Comments (0)
August 09, 2005
Headline News... Tyler Green mentions Alias
OK, so I'm probably the only person in the world that thinks this is headline news, but it made me laugh. I look at Tyler's blog everyday and I also check in with Alias on TWoP, but I NEVER expect these two worlds to collide. Anyway, for those of you who read NEITHER site: TWoP is all about TV shows and it’s really funny, while Tyler Green only writes about art and the various art worlds on his blog, Modern Art Notes. It's a great blog - lots newsy bits about curators, museum directors, and IMO really good exhibition reviews. Today he skewers Charlie Finch for reviewing an exhibition he did not actually SEE. In the process he mentions a certain little TV show.
Karin Davie's "Pushed, Pulled, Depleted & Duplicated # 7"
is on view (for anyone who wants to go see it) at the Albright-Knox.
I probably won't be "shuffling off to Buffalo" to see this exhibition, either. And I probably will look at the catalog because the work seems interesting and I liked what Grachos was doing when he was Director at Site Santa Fe - but I will not be offering a review of said exhibition. That's just my own personal rule. Don't judge stuff until you've seen it, whether it's the Passion of The Christ or Nanny 911! (Which, I actually tried to watch once while I was waiting for 24 to start and I almost threw the TV out the window). I will, however, be offering a big fat Alias post soon, since (everyone knows) it's a show that I've actually seen.
This has nothing to do with anything. I just thought it was funny. Good charity, weird idea.
Posted by lk at 09:56 AM | Comments (2)
August 08, 2005
miss you, sophie kitty
Sophie (the original Toastkitten), Hard pettin' on a blanket
Posted by lk at 08:03 PM | Comments (1)
August 05, 2005
Murakanopoly
I’m kind of in a rush to get some actual work done toady. I'm also a little low on original thought (admittedly, a bad combination), so here is some "not so original content", stolen from greg.org....
I really like some of Murakami's characters but I'm not even going to try to defend his depiction of women/girls. I just don't have it in me to take on Japanese culture, the world of anime, and misogyny right at the moment. I do think this version of the ubiquitous, endlessly reinterpreted Parker Brother's game is pretty hilarious. So is greg's lengthy description of the game:
"The Mori Art Museum and its adjacent mall are full of Murakami goods, of course, dolls, t-shirts, towels, stickers, but nothing sums up the uncritical celebration of megalomania and the unholy confluence of conscience-free art, urban planning, and commerce better than this: Roppongi Hills Monopoly, featuring Takashi Murakami's characters."
That's quite a sentence!
Posted by lk at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)
August 04, 2005
Will I still be around in 2046? Ummmm, Let's just talk about the movie ...
I am so excited to see this movie! In The Mood For Love was so wonderful, the epitome of “gangsty chinema” ( that’s gorgeous-angsty cinema for the uninitiated) and this is supposed to be something of a sequel ... but not quite, I think. 2046 has been on the festival circuit for a bit but now it's finally showing somewhere I can actually get to. I have tried (for months now) to avoid reviews but I just looked at the LA Weekly online and happened to glance at the first paragraph. I fear I will have to break this week's budget and see it on Saturday. Hopefully a matinee price ticket won't sting too badly.
Posted by lk at 09:26 AM | Comments (1)
August 02, 2005
Time marches on ...
I really intended to post something last week but between work and a weekend trip up north, time just got away from me. Now all of a sudden IT’S AUGUST!!! I hope everyone has been having a fun and/or productive summer because, well, it's almost OVER! Not to be a pessimist but Jeeeeeeze. Did I even accomplish half of what I set out to do this summer? NO!
New late-summer resolution: Don't dwell on the past. Or better yet: Dwell on the past, but ONLY if you can focus on the parts that involved good food!
Some good eats were definitely had in SF this weekend. I will think about those as I microwave my "budget gourmet" for lunch today.
Ti-Couz
THE PORK STORE (Oh, Yea!)
Posted by lk at 09:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack