"Poetic license functions like a hiatus in the atrophy of a social, political, military or economic crisis. Through the gratuity or the absurdity of a poetic act, art provokes a moment of suspension of meaning, a brief sensation of senselessness that reveals the absurd of the situation and, through this act of transgression, makes you step back or step out and revise your prior assumptions about this reality. And when the poetic operation manages to provoke the sudden loss of self that itself allows a distancing from the immediate situation, then poetics might have the potential to open up a political thought."From the monograph Francis Alÿs, Phaidon Press, 2007
In 2005, Francis Alÿs walked through Jerusalem, recreating the original Green Line drawn on a map as as part of the armistice after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War"Walking, in particular drifting, or strolling, is already -- within the speed culture of our time -- a kind of resistance. Paradoxically it's also the last private space, space from the phone or email. But it also happens to be a very immediate method or unfolding stories. It's an easy, cheap act to perform or to invite others to perform. The walk is simultaneously the material out of which to produce art and the modus operandi of the artistic transaction. And the city always offers the perfect setting for accidents to happen.From the monograph Francis Alÿs, Phaidon Press, 2007
"There is no theory of walking, just a consciousness. But there can be a certain wisdom involved in the act of walking. It's more an attitude, and it is one that fits me all right. It's a state where you can be both alert to all that happens in your peripheral vision and hearing, and yet totally lost in your thought process..."
a) “Some” suspicious “looking onlookers with larger cameras,” b) the choice of location (from the window of your favorite cafes in the digital Bhoème St. Oberholz can see the intersection and blogging the event almost live), c) fact that “only” indelible paint was used, d) there was no outing of an artist, and e) the similar campaigns by Sony (Bravia) and BMW.While the Bravia ad does share similarities, the closer match is BMW's ad featuring artist Robin Rhode painting with a Z4. Photos by Loso.
Penelope Umbrico's Img Collection #6: Universal Remotes, via i heart photograph
ArtInfo is reporting that Walker Art Center curator Peter Eleey is leaving the Minneapolis contemporary art museum to head back to New York. Eleey's been at the Walker since spring 2007, when he was hired away from the public art organization Creative Time. I have an email into Eleey to confirm whether the news, from ArtInfo's Art+Auction gossip blog, is true.Eleey's The Talent Show is on view at the Walker through August 15.We hear that Peter Eleey, currently the visual arts curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, has been hired as a curator at New York’s P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. Eleey will join P.S. 1 director Klaus Biesenbach as the first full-time curatorial hire since P.S.1 founder Alanna Heiss’s retirement in 2007, after which the Long Island City institution — which has been affiliated with MoMA since 2000 — has operated on a curatorial advisory model...
It is striking that the history of the Downtown Eastside began in destruction and disappearance. In 1886, soon after the city was incorporated, the Great Vancouver Fire swept down on the neighbourhood and razed almost all of it to the ground. The video installation Fire with Fire recalls this troubled period of Vancouver’s history. It also alludes to the neighbourhood’s present conditions by reminding us that many lives have been consumed there, worn down by years of homelessness, drug use, street prostitution, and violence.
The artist, as director of the exhibiting gallery, Drik, released a statement that reads, in part: "The unfortunate event, which was broadcast worldwide, has tarnished the image of this democratically-elected government. We call upon the government to immediately remove the police encirclement, so that the exhibition can be opened for public viewing and Bangladesh's image as an independent democratic nation can be reinstated."The photography exhibit was a symbolic treatment of the wave of executions carried out by the Rapid Action Battalion, an anticrime squad whose many critics say that it engages in violent social cleansing.
Rather than document actual killings — something already done at great length by groups like Human Rights Watch — Mr. Alam created a series of large, moody prints that touched on aspects of actual cases...
...Although the killings have drawn international condemnation, they have continued, despite promises by the government to rein in the battalion. Mr. Alam, a photographer, writer and activist, had hoped that his track record and international reputation would offer the “Crossfire” show some protection.
There is a wall running along a street. The writing on it is fragmented and cannot quite be made sense of. The image was taken in the middle of the night and a yellow glare was allowed to invade the site, as the wall slipped away at an angle. A shadowy presence barely registered on the shot. This urban setting, one is tempted to say, could be nothing but the scene of a crime. The sinister, uneasy beauty of this work by Shahidul Alam informs other images that are part of his new series, again and again. Others are eerie, otherworldly; and others still, seem familiar yet are anguished, as if the common ground for existence was being subtracted from the picture altogether...Hat tip @Yumi_Goto
A sheet of stamps from Steve McQueen's Queen and Country
Photo from the new monograph Bird Watching by Minneapolis-based artist Paula McCartney, who photographs synthetic craft-store birds in natural settings
The Walker Art Center design blog
Alec Soth's Little Brown Mushroom Blog
Rooster, by Jennifer Davis
A bomb has been hidden, somewhere within this exhibition, set to explode at a time known to the artist alone. While it is not my intention to kill anyone, that risk does exist. I apologize in advance for any injuries, fatalities, damage or other inconvenience that my work, will cause. In this matter I have no choice, being as much a victim of the course of Art History and contemporary politics as those who are hurt in the process. I take consolation in the fact that chance will be entirely responsible for the final statistics.• Hrag on the New Museum's unofficial new ad campaign.
