My friend has really been talking up this show at P.S. 1 featuring the illustrated manuscript of Henry Darger. There's quite a few references to Darger on the web. This one is quite informative. He died in 1972 at the age of 80 (or so.) But it wasn't until some time later that his "secret" manuscript was found by his landlord.
"His landlord was cleaning out his room after his death and came across a startling discovery: alone in his room, Darger had created a beautiful and violent fantasy world, primarily embodied in a 15,000 page epic narrative, 'The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.' Illustrated by several hundred large watercolors paintings as well as smaller drawings and collages, the Vivian Girls are seven preadolescent sisters, princesses, sometimes depicted as hermaphrodites, who fight against and ultimately prevail over evil deeds prepetrated by sadistic adults. They are aided in their battles by various Christian armies and also by Blengins, dragon-like animals, both fearsome and gentle, that are absolute protectors of children. The illustrations range from calm and pastoral to brutally violent."Looks interesting. I love the idea that someone would create a 15,000 page illustrated manuscript and then never show anyone. That's some dedication to your craft. Any of you art folks ever hear of this guy? Do you think it might be worth the trip?
next hot spot??!! and check out Alchemy Suite on side (no pictures yet:>(
Free dial-up internet connections in New York State. If anybody tries this, let us know what you think.
Can You Say ? (You Can See) :
'Poetry Plastique'
Marianne Boesky 535 West 22nd Street, Chelsea Through March 10
"Art and poetry: made for each other. So it has always been. Poets write about art; artists turn to poetry for ideas. Sometimes the two disciplines meet in collaboration; occasionally that collaboration is forged in the work of a single person. All these variables are aired in "Poetry Plastique," in which image and word are flexibly intertwined.
Organized by Jay Sanders, who is on the staff at Boesky, and the poet Charles Bernstein, the selection covers a stretch of recent historical ground. At the early end are scribbly, word-peppered Blakean pages by Robert Smithson from 1962 and a labyrinthine written piece by the arch-Fluxian Jackson Mac Low from 1975. The 1970's are well represented here, with work by Carl Andre, Wallace Berman and text- and-image collaborations by Arakawa and Madeline Gins.
Other work is new. Mr. Bernstein collaborates with Richard Tuttle on a witty sculpture made of plump, strung together 3-D letters, and with Susan Bee on a noirish painting in which Emily Dickinson and Mickey Spillane face off. Dickinson's attenuated handwriting finds an echo in Mira Schor's word paintings. The show enters the digital realm in a rich text-and-image work by Johanna Drucker and Brad Freeman, and in Tan Lin's computer-generated poetry pulsing away on three monitors.
The day after the show opened, the gallery was host to a series of related panel discussions and readings. Poets and artists participated. A big audience turned up. It was great. The buzz of voices and ideas made the art in the room — and Chelsea itself, for that matter — feel alive and interactive. Some of the pieces really need that charge; they look staid and hermetic without it. But others do fine on their own, and the cross-disciplinary concept behind the show is ripe for further exploration.
Perhaps Mr. Sanders and Mr. Bernstein already have further plans along these lines. Meanwhile, art and texts mutually ignite elsewhere in the city these days: in Cy Twombly's not-to-be-missed "Coronation of Sesostris" paintings, based on a poem by Patricia Waters, at Gagosian Gallery (980 Madison Avenue, at 76th Street, through tomorrow); in a collaboration between the painter Max Gimblett and the poet John Yau at Ethan Cohen Fine Art (37 Walker Street, SoHo, through March 10); in a series of collaborative prints by contemporary Puerto Rican artists and poets at El Taller Boricua (Lexington Avenue at 106th Street, through tomorrow); in an exhibition of contemporary text-based works, "A Way with Words," at the Whitney at Philip Morris (120 Park Avenue, at 42nd Street, through March 30); and in a jewel of an exhibition of artists' diaries, with bold little drawings and sonnet-size personal jottings, at the Archives of American Art (1285 Avenue of the Americas, at 51st Street, through May 31)."
- HOLLAND COTTER for NYT
'Poetry Plastique'
Marianne Boesky 535 West 22nd Street, Chelsea Through March 10
"Art and poetry: made for each other. So it has always been. Poets write about art; artists turn to poetry for ideas. Sometimes the two disciplines meet in collaboration; occasionally that collaboration is forged in the work of a single person. All these variables are aired in "Poetry Plastique," in which image and word are flexibly intertwined.
Organized by Jay Sanders, who is on the staff at Boesky, and the poet Charles Bernstein, the selection covers a stretch of recent historical ground. At the early end are scribbly, word-peppered Blakean pages by Robert Smithson from 1962 and a labyrinthine written piece by the arch-Fluxian Jackson Mac Low from 1975. The 1970's are well represented here, with work by Carl Andre, Wallace Berman and text- and-image collaborations by Arakawa and Madeline Gins.
Other work is new. Mr. Bernstein collaborates with Richard Tuttle on a witty sculpture made of plump, strung together 3-D letters, and with Susan Bee on a noirish painting in which Emily Dickinson and Mickey Spillane face off. Dickinson's attenuated handwriting finds an echo in Mira Schor's word paintings. The show enters the digital realm in a rich text-and-image work by Johanna Drucker and Brad Freeman, and in Tan Lin's computer-generated poetry pulsing away on three monitors.
The day after the show opened, the gallery was host to a series of related panel discussions and readings. Poets and artists participated. A big audience turned up. It was great. The buzz of voices and ideas made the art in the room — and Chelsea itself, for that matter — feel alive and interactive. Some of the pieces really need that charge; they look staid and hermetic without it. But others do fine on their own, and the cross-disciplinary concept behind the show is ripe for further exploration.
Perhaps Mr. Sanders and Mr. Bernstein already have further plans along these lines. Meanwhile, art and texts mutually ignite elsewhere in the city these days: in Cy Twombly's not-to-be-missed "Coronation of Sesostris" paintings, based on a poem by Patricia Waters, at Gagosian Gallery (980 Madison Avenue, at 76th Street, through tomorrow); in a collaboration between the painter Max Gimblett and the poet John Yau at Ethan Cohen Fine Art (37 Walker Street, SoHo, through March 10); in a series of collaborative prints by contemporary Puerto Rican artists and poets at El Taller Boricua (Lexington Avenue at 106th Street, through tomorrow); in an exhibition of contemporary text-based works, "A Way with Words," at the Whitney at Philip Morris (120 Park Avenue, at 42nd Street, through March 30); and in a jewel of an exhibition of artists' diaries, with bold little drawings and sonnet-size personal jottings, at the Archives of American Art (1285 Avenue of the Americas, at 51st Street, through May 31)."
- HOLLAND COTTER for NYT
Saw "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" last night. I get the feeling I'm the only person in the world who can't stand the Cohen Bro's. This one is even worse than "Fargo" One more big ethnic slur. These guys just love a good stereotype. I chuckled at the jokes at times and enjoyed a scene which was nearly identical to a frightning vision I had years ago on a mushroom trip. In this case it wasn't frightning or psychedelic, but it was cute. All their stuff is cute, I'll give them that. And they are usually decent craftsmen (yawn) but this time they don't even have that going for them. For what it's worth, I found this one to be another big stinker.
February 22, 2001
GUITAR INNOVATOR JOHN FAHEY DIES AT 61
"Guitarist John Fahey, whose eccentric acoustic stylings influenced a generation of musicians, died this morning at Salem Hospital in Salem, OR after undergoing a sextuple bypass operation 48 hours previously.
John Fahey was born on February 28, 1939 in Takoma Park, MD. His father played popular songs on the piano and Irish harp, and his mother was also a pianist. John spent his youth raising wood turtles and fishing in the Susquehawa River and upper Chesapeake Bay. On Sundays the family went to the New River Ranch in nearby Rising Sun, MD where they heard the top country and hillbilly groups of the day, like Bill Monroe and The Stanley Brothers. On a fishing trip in 1952 John met a black singer and guitarist named Frank Hovington, whose fingerpicking style so intrigued John that he bought his first guitar soon thereafter, a Sears Roebuck model that cost him $17.00, and started teaching himself to play.
After getting a B.A. in Philosophy and Religion from American University, Fahey moved to Berkeley, CA in 1963, where he established his own label, Takoma Records, and began his long recording career. The following year he moved to Los Angeles, got an M.A. in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA, and was instrumental in the rediscovery of blues artists Skip James and Bukka White. He expanded the Takoma label to include fellow guitarists Leo Kottke and Peter Lang, among many others, and New Age pioneer George Winston was another whose early career was nourished by the quirky innovator. In recent years the Takoma catalog has been purchased by Fantasy Records of Berkeley, CA, and Fahey's Takoma LPs are now being systematically reissued on CD. Fantasy Records executive Bill Belmont called Fahey "a true American musical genius."
Although Fahey preferred to be known as an American primitivist, he was widely acknowledged as the "godfather of the New Age guitar movement," and his recordings (over thirty albums for a wide variety of labels) showcased his ongoing musical explorations. Several were sonic explorations in the alternative music vein, and all had exotic titles (a 19-minute excursion was called "On the Death and Disembowelment of the New Age," while another was called "Old Girlfriends and Other Disasters." At the same time, he never lost his early love for traditional and roots music forms, and during the early 1990s he formed another record label, Revenant, to reissue classic recordings of early blues and old time music. At the time of his death he was working on a new album, "Summertime and Other Sultry Songs."
For further information ,contact Mary Katherine Aldin or Mitch Greenhill via email at info@folkloreproductions.com or by phone at (310) 451-0767."
GUITAR INNOVATOR JOHN FAHEY DIES AT 61
"Guitarist John Fahey, whose eccentric acoustic stylings influenced a generation of musicians, died this morning at Salem Hospital in Salem, OR after undergoing a sextuple bypass operation 48 hours previously.
John Fahey was born on February 28, 1939 in Takoma Park, MD. His father played popular songs on the piano and Irish harp, and his mother was also a pianist. John spent his youth raising wood turtles and fishing in the Susquehawa River and upper Chesapeake Bay. On Sundays the family went to the New River Ranch in nearby Rising Sun, MD where they heard the top country and hillbilly groups of the day, like Bill Monroe and The Stanley Brothers. On a fishing trip in 1952 John met a black singer and guitarist named Frank Hovington, whose fingerpicking style so intrigued John that he bought his first guitar soon thereafter, a Sears Roebuck model that cost him $17.00, and started teaching himself to play.
After getting a B.A. in Philosophy and Religion from American University, Fahey moved to Berkeley, CA in 1963, where he established his own label, Takoma Records, and began his long recording career. The following year he moved to Los Angeles, got an M.A. in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA, and was instrumental in the rediscovery of blues artists Skip James and Bukka White. He expanded the Takoma label to include fellow guitarists Leo Kottke and Peter Lang, among many others, and New Age pioneer George Winston was another whose early career was nourished by the quirky innovator. In recent years the Takoma catalog has been purchased by Fantasy Records of Berkeley, CA, and Fahey's Takoma LPs are now being systematically reissued on CD. Fantasy Records executive Bill Belmont called Fahey "a true American musical genius."
Although Fahey preferred to be known as an American primitivist, he was widely acknowledged as the "godfather of the New Age guitar movement," and his recordings (over thirty albums for a wide variety of labels) showcased his ongoing musical explorations. Several were sonic explorations in the alternative music vein, and all had exotic titles (a 19-minute excursion was called "On the Death and Disembowelment of the New Age," while another was called "Old Girlfriends and Other Disasters." At the same time, he never lost his early love for traditional and roots music forms, and during the early 1990s he formed another record label, Revenant, to reissue classic recordings of early blues and old time music. At the time of his death he was working on a new album, "Summertime and Other Sultry Songs."
For further information ,contact Mary Katherine Aldin or Mitch Greenhill via email at info@folkloreproductions.com or by phone at (310) 451-0767."
fyi, there is a special identification day tomorrow at the museum of natural history...bring in Dave, bugs, natural objects that you need id'd....
Looking for input from any and all, but the current plan has me and Bill (at least) meeting for drinks after work tomorrow (Friday) at around 5:30, at the Local. Join us. (No, I don't mean fasten us together. No I don't mean enter our cult. You know what I mean. OK, I do mean join our cult, but really, no pressure...)
Big Grey pack of lies :
Sure it's all lies, but burried somewhere in the paper there is usually a truely weird article. A while back I tore this article out and now I want it back but dont want to pay for it (sample from archive for $) :
Kentucky Doctors Warn Against a Regional Dish: Squirrels' Brains
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE
Doctors in Kentucky have issued a warning that people should not eat squirrel brains, a regional delicacy, because squirrels may carry a variant of mad cow disease that can be transmitted to humans and is fatal. Although no squirrels have been tested ...
August 29, 1997, Friday National Desk , 937 words
Sure it's all lies, but burried somewhere in the paper there is usually a truely weird article. A while back I tore this article out and now I want it back but dont want to pay for it (sample from archive for $) :
Kentucky Doctors Warn Against a Regional Dish: Squirrels' Brains
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE
Doctors in Kentucky have issued a warning that people should not eat squirrel brains, a regional delicacy, because squirrels may carry a variant of mad cow disease that can be transmitted to humans and is fatal. Although no squirrels have been tested ...
August 29, 1997, Friday National Desk , 937 words
ghenghis conned
another reasonably average mindlessly blissless day shot to hell by the specter of impending bad news. had a small horde of chinese businessmen and women circling my apartment like ravenous buzzards eyeing a choice decaying morsel. you know its trouble when theyve got the tape measure out. and now that we are leaseless, its just one word and we are gone. looks like its time to draft the plan of last resort before i start crying about having to move again. did i mention i hate people?
I wouldn't say that you've mentioned your misanthropy in so many words but it is an intuited part of your presented mindset. For the most part I would say many people are worthy of your hatred, but it seems to me it is this angst against humanity that is the better part of your essence and so I think you should happily (while being angry) roll with the specter of Chinese doom.
No doubt you are right about the meaning of tape measure. If they start upchucking cornices, you should be proactive, and flee.
another reasonably average mindlessly blissless day shot to hell by the specter of impending bad news. had a small horde of chinese businessmen and women circling my apartment like ravenous buzzards eyeing a choice decaying morsel. you know its trouble when theyve got the tape measure out. and now that we are leaseless, its just one word and we are gone. looks like its time to draft the plan of last resort before i start crying about having to move again. did i mention i hate people?
I wouldn't say that you've mentioned your misanthropy in so many words but it is an intuited part of your presented mindset. For the most part I would say many people are worthy of your hatred, but it seems to me it is this angst against humanity that is the better part of your essence and so I think you should happily (while being angry) roll with the specter of Chinese doom.
No doubt you are right about the meaning of tape measure. If they start upchucking cornices, you should be proactive, and flee.
Jim had mentioned he thought the tree was expanding (by two branches) but wouldn't tip his hand till he was sure.
Last week Steve (you know him, you love him) loaded in with his excellent product and it looks like, as of this a.m. my friend Tom Moody hopped on board as well. I met Tom through Mark (artist and dada-punk guitarist) and Laurie (demented playwrite), (M & L r both Marianne Nowottny's handlers). Tom is an artist now working in the digital medium, has curated major shows and his critical writings on art have been published by many of the top magazines in that field. He also is a techknow dj and infallible speller. please make him welcome or what ever....
who is this?
I still can't figure out what to do about Steve's page not registering in the new post tracker (because he's not really making new posts, he's just using 'edit this page' to add/change the links on the side bar.) This isn't a problem, per se, I just can't think of how to integrate this easily, and of course I want to know when he puts up more of those designs (especially without loading in the 100k+ page everytime I want to check.) Anyway, there's a new one. Check it out.
looks like they dug some big old bell out of the bowels of the building they are renovating nextdoor. i wish i could grab (or date) it but looks like its a couple hundred pounds. (imagine picture here)
a) Treehouse
b) Tree House
c) treehouse
d) tree house
b) Tree House
c) treehouse
d) tree house
I keep forgetting to mention that if any of you regulars want a digitalmediatree email, just let me know what name you want for your account.
Oh my. I'm pretty sure nobody's ever done that with an animated .gif before.
had lunch here recently for the first time in at least 5 years and it was so yummy that its time for a full blown special dinner
There's new stuff on steve's page. He's posting the links on the left and so the new post tracker isn't picking them up. I'll fix that in the morning. This one's really cool though and I think a few people are looking around. So enjoy....
A lot of Catholics here in New Orleans but if you were to ask any one of them why Carnival, which is tied to Catholic traditions, begins on a different day every year, sometimes weeks apart, they just shrug. Tonite's the first New Orleans parade (the suburbs have already had one or two), and its on the mid-city route, which the Rocheblave house is a block and a half from, so Ima go on over, check it out. I'll be pissed if someone is blocking my driveway, but it's highly possible so I should get over it, take a deep breath, before I go. Today I was spraying a primer coat on the sheetrock (yeah, its finished, I ended up hiring it out, mostly, had to sand it myself), and near the end I'm in the kitchen spraying away and I hear a grunt outside and I look out the broken glass of the screwed shut back door and I see near nekkidity of a dude and we have a conversation which is me yelling at him, and him saying he is sorry, but I know how it is when you really gotta go. Shovel work, get me? Later.
