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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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Shimera by Tyler Clark Burke is better than Grizzly Man, in fact it is the best show about bear attacks I have ever seen. The protagonists are Standing Bear and Trepanation Man. Their tender narrative adventure is finely wrought, 3D, in a series of spinning glass blocks. Says the artist:
These miniature cubes have become the perfect avenue for my death obsession. I love the idea of fleeting energy locked into glass--blocks which capture phantasms forever. Their glass is my brain, with laser beams melting and displacing molecules to leave little scars as memories of heat.I have been puzzling about the cultural myth of bear attacks for most of my life. Am I the only person who finds it somehow comforting when I hear in the news that a human has been killed by a wild animal? And if it's only me then why do we consistenly put teddy bears in babies' cribs? Tyler Clark Burke is all over this myth with her own delicate death wish. The format may be souvenir kitsch but the story is transcendent. Shimera is deft and lovely, and it is on view at Katharine Mulherin Gallery (upstairs) until July 1st.
This conversation took place in an airport bar between an air marshal and a flight attendant. They had been friends for a while, even occasionally lovers, but on this day the conversation turns deadly serious.
Flight Attendant: I've got an idea for how we could make us some money.
Air Marshal: I've already got a job
F A: No, I mean real money. Money you could retire on.
A M: I'm listening
F A: Okay, first we find a woman who is an expert in airplane design.
A M: Should be doable (http://www.wai.org/)
F A: Who's American, but living in Europe. And has a daughter.
A M: Okay …
F A: Then we kill her husband by throwing him off the roof of their apartment building, making it look like suicide.
A M: And this makes us money how?
F A: Bear with me. She's going to have to fly back to the states right?
A M: I guess.
F A: That's when we pounce by kidnapping the daughter and convincing the already grief stricken mother that the daughter was never on the plane at all. That in fact she died with the husband.
A M: I think I see where you're going with this.
F A: Then, we tell the captain that the "crazy" lady has a bomb on the plane and wants a whole pile of cash or she's going to blow it up.
Oh I forgot, we put a bomb in the dead husband's coffin beforehand.
A M: Naturally.
F A: So when they bring the money you, as air marshal, will handle the exchange and steal the money.
A M: you've really put some thought into this. It's the perfect crime. The only way I see that it could fail is if the woman we pick is plucky and resilient and uses her extensive knowledge of airplane design to thwart us. But the odds of that happening are pretty small, I say we go for it.
Wait, how do we make sure that nobody else on the plane sees the daughter?
F A: Let's cross that bridge when we come to it.
The rest is movie making history.
