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"I went to your show last Saturday at and/or [gallery in Dallas]. A very humble space.
Your work looked good, I want to see those animations on BIG
plasma flat screens hanging on the wall... acting like pseudo-paintings.
Was kinda hoping some of your molecular boxes might make the trip too."
My reply:
Humble is the new bombastic.
Actually, I'm very open to working big: If you want to buy the plasma screens and a G-5 and some high-end software to enlarge the animations, I'm into it.
Otherwise I'll keep working on a scale that doesn't make me feel like a pawn of the system.
Thanks for seeing the show. Oh, and they have a couple of product boxes
Best, Tom
Another detail from an Erika Somogyi drawing. Her show at Monya Rowe is up through Feb. 11. My previous post on the show is here.
Earth Splits Open, Spews Huge Jet of Magma into Space
Artforum Changes Small Black and White Images in Back-of-Mag Review Section to Color
But, seriously, let's talk about the reason for those little black and white photos. It was not because of some written-in-stone policy of general pretentiousness on the part of the journal (and I had a funny conversation with someone the other day who thought ex-editor Jack Bankowsky was a promoter of turgid writing, prompting me to explain that he was actually for English sentences after the impenetrable jargon excesses of the magazine's '70s and '80s).
No, the tiny image policy was meant as a gesture of respect to the artist and testament of belief in the power of the writer.
We have a tendency to see a photo reproduction and say, "Yeah, I saw that show." The bigger and more colorful the photo the more certain we think we are.
So, by making the images postage stamp-like, the magazine was saying, "Stop looking here, you idiot, listen to what the writer is telling you. And if that sounds interesting, go see the actual work next time."
I'm sure the pressure has been enormous on the part of the collectors to see color pictures of the work they're buying, made by their children.
Also, testaments to the power of the writer are no longer in vogue when increasingly the magazine asks museum professionals to do year end Top Tens (it was out of control last December). You know, the people who write catalog essays and wall labels reducing every work of art to some vaguely uplifting, socially relevant purpose.
[/rant]
"Sonar Death Ray" [mp3 removed]. Plucky minimal beats, with death ray.
Two videos from art is for the people (Ludwig Schwarz):
Untitled (Zombies), 2005. I can't stop laughing at this but I could never explain it.
Black Pepper, 2002 (watch it all the way to the end)
John Parker, "Man and Machine" [8.8 MB .mp4]
Originally produced for mutaforma's collective intelligence online project, which involved a lot of remixing of found materials. I like Parker's the best of the videos I saw. His was the only one that seemed to be thinking about the scale of the medium and grabbing the viewer/listener with some kind of strange, immediate emotional experience.
I posted the Parker and Schwarz vids because I like them, and because my Guitar Solo and Drum Machine videos are lonely and wanted a school to hang out with. I've been turning over a vain satirical post about the new Pollocks being artist/musician/video artists who work on a micro-scale.
Installation shots from my show with Saskia Jorda (who did the sculpture installation on the right in the top photo) at And/Or Gallery in Dallas. More here. Big ups to Paul Slocum and Lauren Gray for the installation, which included Paul's DVD bootlegs of my animated GIFs, shown very effectively on the TVs, I was told by eyewitnesses.
Supreme Court Update
You can follow the efforts to derail the "inevitable" appointment of Samuel Alito, the religious right's man, on this Kos thread. [Update: more recent developments here, but the first link has phone numbers, etc.] Please take a minute to look at the list and see where your Senators stand on this and who might be wavering and in need of a supportive call (the key words are "vote no on cloture"). Clinton and Schumer will vote "no"--meaning they want the nomination to stay open to debate. Menendez is wavering. His staff got an earful from me this morning. 202-224-4744. Keep hitting redial and you'll get through.
Update: A Kos commenter counts 67 for cloture and 22 against. Estimates on the ultimate vote (Alito's appointment as opposed to closing the debate) are 59 for Alito to 41 against, and since a simple majority carries it, that means we get an angry God Squadder on the Supreme Court. I think it's worth expressing your opinion right up until last minute, but that's just me, obviously.
Final tally on the cloture vote.
Just saw the Senate confirmed that pig. Knew it was coming but my stomach flipped over, slightly, at the news. Does anyone reading this blog give a shit? I know a lot of my progressive friends went all soft and cynical after the 2004 election.