Finally saw the biennial...

Finally got around to going over to the Whitney to see the biennial. overall, quite enjoyable. I went during a performance by Lars Jan and it was a free Friday so the place was packed. But I escaped the frenzied lobby and was greeted by James Casebere's sublime suburban landscapes. He photographed scale models of Duchess County, NY depicting them as almost uninhabitable, utopic, surreal American landscapes. I was transported right away.

A lot of video pieces.  I wasn't a huge fan of them all. but I did like Kate Gilmore's Standing Here, a performance video that shows her enclosed in a tiny closet like space and her subsequent violent attempts to escape. the film was taken from above, looking down at her, but was projected on to the wall in a room with the remains of her constructed closet, creating a wonderful sense of disoretation.

Also liked : Couch for a long time by Jessica Jackson Hutchins
-Newspaper clippings of Obama covering the TV receptical. Lumps of clay ready to be molded.

Also Aurel Schmidt's garbage Minotaur is amazing. check it out: http://www.whitney.org/Exhibitions/2010Biennial/AurelSchmidt

Wait I have to take it back, my FAVORITE PIECE was definitely Michael Asher's work to keep the Whitney "open to the public" (wait, dose that mean FREE?!?!) for 24 hrs for a whole week (they shortened it to 3 days, May 26th to May 28th.) I am so going at like 3 am!

Tom Petty - Zombie Zoo

  

After I heard this song once, it was stuck in my head for 2 weeks. still a great song through.

walmart poem

Public Art in Time square

Spring

Quick Weekend in Seattle

Oh Seattle! beautiful and tasty latte, croissant and the stranger. i miss you.

kkkoooky koons part du

So I just watch the art21 on Jeff Koons and had to recommend it. He is in the episode titled "Fantasy" in season 5 which you can get on netflix. He talks about his show at Versailles, which is insane. He literal mounted a bust of himself in one of the galleries. But his explanation is so rooted in a quest for legitimacy that I kinda get it. he seems very very connected to the historical. he own private collection is full of old masters. and this is how he is solidifying his legacy.

He also talked about his lobster hanging from the ceiling of another gallery, he equated it to some one burning at the stake. he said something like, to be in the spot light like that for so long meant inevitable persecution, which has a unique irony with Mr. Koons' current chill reception in the art world.

ALSO - my teacher pointed out Koons' photographs in the Sunday Times Magazine. He thought they were much more interesting then Koons' recent sculpture and I agree! (not only because they are sooo freakin cute!!) they seem to be more honest to Koon's declared intention of making everyone proud of their own personal cultural history (as stated in the art21 piece.)

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/magazine/04animals-t.html

By Jeff Koons, please don't sue me....

KOONS

"sausage fest" is a good description for it. The Village Voice used this phrase to describe "Skin Fruit," the Jeff Koons curated show of Dakis Joannou's art collection at the new museum. The preoccupation with shock/disgust/perversion and the ever present phallus felt inauthentic, unoriginal and just plan creepy. The Village Voice, the Times, along with the art community in general, have completely panned this blatant display of art speculating. The showing of a private collection in a museum (that plays an undeniable role in setting the canon) leverages the value of the collection and perpetuates the belligerent, bloated art market. although the idea of opening up the opaque world of contemporary art collecting is, in theory, a democratic concept, the reality is the value of Joannou's collection just doubled. also if making a private collection public was the intention, why can't I take pictures douchebag!

 Paul McCarthy's Boink fest

 Here are my notes:
-Absurd and Ironic to the point of nihilism, which is ok, but felt too worked/trying too hard/sad
-I don't like Chris Ofili, sorry, just don't
-Although the collection includes artist I like and admire, Richard Prince, Kiki Smith, Matthew Barney, Urs Fischer, Mike Kelley,  I found their pieces to be disappointing and for me, not their best works.
-I DID LIKE: Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, Tauba Auerbach, Tim Noble and Sue Webster's "Masters of the Universe," (the cave couple encircled by the art space, frozen mid stride) and Cady Noland's "Bluewald" (see below)

Its fairly impossible to say anything new about this show so here are some quote I find to be the most illuminating:

" "Skin Fruit" is totally the wrong show for our times in just about every possible way. An exhibition of million-dollar works curated by a celebrity artist inside a museum that was, until only recently, a haven for underdog art, the ensuing display can't help but look as mean (and irrelevant) as a rack of opera minks hung out under the Darfur sun."-village voice review

"With an ever-present warm smile and the comforting tones of a guidance counselor, he has spoken about how art 'lets you kind of control physiology and the secretions that take place within the body,' how his art operates in 'a morality theater trying to help the underdog,' how his balloon-based sculptures, at least sexually speaking, 'really try to address whatever your interests are.' "

- Randy Kennedy Times Article on Jeff Koons

"Depending on your point of view this exhibition may or may not have an air of complicity, but it definitely has the look of complacency." - Roberta Smith's times review