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A bit slow in getting around to this, but please listen to the marvelous "Rodchenko in My Bauhaus," by Candy Chang [5.6 MB .mp3 - download is from the Red Antenna site which handles Chang's music]. This lascivious come-on set to a slinky electro beat abounds with visual art and design references, and is possibly the only song you will ever hear that rhymes "Moholy-Nagy" with "love collage," or entices the listener to "put your function in my form." You can check out other music by Chang at her website; songs are available for download from her Typography EP (the instrumentals "Bravo Futura" and "Telegram 41"), and the Impulse Sealer 12" ("My Radio Is So Casual"). I first learned about Chang hearing "Rodchenko" on Red Antenna's New Electric Policy 2 CD (which I play a lot), one of the last things I bought at Throb before it crashed and burned.
It must be said, I don't want New York electro to be over, because it's a great contribution to the world and a quantum leap over the old synthpop and new wave dance music, in that the technology is so much better now, and 20 years' knowledge of how to push amplified sound around makes all the difference. Anyway, sorry for that rant, be sure to check out those Chang instrumentals.
I cut another minute out of "Blues for DG" [mp3 removed], and it's better now, I think. Also, the piano version of "Reel for Omniverters" ain't half bad for a guy playing with three arms: [mp3 removed]. The synth version is here, possibly to be revised with better synths.
moody + jimpunk + rosenquist = cubism, large bits, violence
I received the following email about Jude Tallichet's upcoming show at Sara Meltzer and it's so brilliantly concise I present it intact:
Dear Friends,In the past Tallichet has done perfectly crafted models of historically resonant architecture--such as knee-high versions of the main Brasilia buildings painted jet black--with her own electronic music playing inside of them. For this show, the email above rather gets it across: Ezra Pound couldn't have done a better job of conjuring an art experience with a few well chosen words (on second thought, Donald Judd's straightforward descriptions are probably more on point). Linguists talk of "performatives," which, according to wikipedia are expressions such as 'I nominate John to be President', 'I sentence you to ten years imprisonment' or 'I promise to pay you back,' where the action the sentence describes is performed by the sentence itself. The paragraphs above almost transparently "perform" the art because you can see and hear it so clearly. Now to measure the show against the words.
January 20, a day that will live in infamy (2nd inauguration of youknowwho), also happens to be the opening date of my exhibition "Hiding in Plain Sight" at the Sara Meltzer Gallery. 516 West 20th Street, from 6-8pm. The show will run until February 19.
"Hiding in Plain Sight" will occupy Room 01, Room 02 and the Video Wall, and will feature four sculptures: a bear rug cast in aluminum, a bale of hay cast in bronze, a wagon wheel made of mirrors, and a campfire made of neon lights and plastic. I have also composed a sound track featuring the merged sounds of auctions and gregorian chants, and a video wall featuring "westerns" shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey during the early 20th century by Thomas Edison.
I hope you can see the show!
UPDATE, Jan. 20: Tallichet's art is carefully made and impressive to behold, so as well as you can visualize the above description, that's what the show looks like. We are somewhat in Koonsian scuba tank territory here, only with a theme of ersatz Americana perfectly timed for the swearing-in of an ersatz President. The essential fraud of westerns filmed in New Jersey combines with the PT Barnum curio in a series of deadpan surrealist audio, video, and sculptural works. Through the visual rhetoric of late Minimalism (in the exhibit's spare presentation and determined craftmanship), the art world is also implicated in this scheme of bogus experience. Excellent, thoughtful show.