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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
Digital Media Tree this blog's archive OVVLvverk Lorna Mills: Artworks / Persona Volare / contact Sally McKay: GIFS / cv and contact |
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Last weekend I posed the question, "What do you like better...screws or balloons?" Unlike most of my friends, who roll their eyes and ignore me when I pose an either/or, 2-year-old H. gives the question genuine consideration and responds with direct honesty, "Screws." I think its a good answer. Balloons are dumb. I feel incommensurate satisfaction at having recieved any answer at all.
The whole thing started about 20 years ago. Sophie's Choice had posited the cruel impossibility of binary options. My parents were separating. I had to decide whether to finish high school or flee the province. I chose flight which was easier than my brother's choice of which parent to live with. I pestered my poor brother relentlessly, "Who do you like better, Kate or Allie?" He never did answer me. To this day, when I slide the question into an otherwise convivial conversation, he responds with exasperated sighs and the occasional administration of physical pain (all people with brothers will know what I mean). But in that perverse opposite land that is sibling communication, this lopsided torture was, and is, an acknowledgement of respect for the horrid decision that he eventually faced, while I ducked out and never declared myself.
Binary choices are not in vogue, pre-rhizomatic dinosaurs from the old days before our eyes were opened to the falsity of polarity, the uncertainty principle, the tyrranical reign of cultural context over meaning of any kind. But we, of course, make them all the time regardless. There is content in choosing one thing over another, and there may even be consequences. Choice is risk, action, carpe diem!
I have a really hard time choosing between Kate and Allie. Kate was more fun, Allie was a wet blanket. Kate was cuter, but Allie was more entertaining. Also, Allie was Chip's mom, so there's a good chance you'd get him in the bargain and he was a creepy but fascinatingly weird little dude. If H. can choose screws, I can choose Allie. She makes me laugh.
Nearly every one of friends (thank you friends) sent me a link this morning to this article. That picture above represents the strange quark family from the quark gallery.
"Designer Jan-Henrik Andersen, in conjunction with particle physicists, developed a visual language that describes the interrelationships between the elementary particles, both known and hypothesized."
Another of my favourite Canadian artists is Bill Burns (earlier post). He has an unusual, oblique attitude to today's natural world. I also like that he maintains his performative stance, and stays in character at all levels of the project. Which probably means that the word "character" is wrong, even though the story is pseudo-fictional. The image above is titled Artist as a Boy, Anyhow, he has a show opening at the MOMA this weekend ... all you NYC readers, go see it! Here's the scoop:
for Immediate Release:
from Bill Burns, Director
Safety Gear for Small Animals in Safe: Design Takes On Risk at Museum of Modern Art in New York
When Safety Gear for Small Animals incorporated in 1993 our goals were twofold. Firstly, to protect animals from degraded habitats and slip shod scientific research and, secondly, to provide a decent living to our dedicated workers. Exhibiting our safety gear was never part of the plan. Be that as it may, I am surprised and delighted to have been invited to display our prototypes and models of safety, rescue and relocation equipment and supplies. Never, even in our most secret dreams, did we think that our project would be celebrated by curators and art museums all over the world. We are extremely proud to be showing twenty-four prototypes from our collection in Safe: Design Takes On Risk at The Museum of Modern Art in New York from October 16, 2005 to January 2, 2006. The exhibition of more than 300 objects is organized by Paola Antonelli, Curator, and Patricia Juncosa Vecchierini, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art.
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| Albrecht Altdorfer | Martin Sharp |
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| Mierle Laderman Ukeles | Louise Liliefeldt | Rebecca Belmore |
Louise Liliefeldt is performing in Toronto on Saturday at midnight... in her own home! Yikes! It will for sure be good, but I might be too scared to go. I have seen her perform before and its an intense experience. Here's a snippet I wrote for an exhibition catalogue about Liliefeldt's 2003 performance at York University’s Vari Hall:
When Louise Liliefeldt is performing, she cuts the air at a different angle from the rest of us. Dignified and dangerous, her actions are offered as a challenge and a gift. Through endurance and simple exertions, she objectifies herself, and we experience a shadow of the pain that dehumanization inflicts on the subjugated.All three of these women are favourites of mine - reading about Ukele in books got me all excited to be an artist in my youth. Liliefeldt and Belmore both have that in-the-moment charisma of great performers (the lack of which people like me try to make up for by talking too much and employing fanciful stage props).
RM Vaughan's play The Monster Trilogoy is now showing at Buddies in Bad Times. I love the play, but until last night I'd never seen it staged. RM has a taste for the dark side, and by writing a monologue for the infamous Susan Smith (among other characters) he tugs familiar sad demons into the light of day. If you are sick of people casting the monstrous asunder as if all bad things come from another planet go see this play. It's on until Sunday.