Bits: 05.08.10

An image from Bryan Schutmaat's "Western Frieze" series, via Doobybrain.

• As the creator of a Justin Bieber t-shirt copying Raymond Pettibon's iconic Black Flag logo gets a cease-and-desist letter from SST records, ANIMAL NY notes some irony: Roy Lichtenstein's estate sent a nastygram to the band Elsinore from appropriating the artist's Kiss V -- which itself was lifted from a comic artist's work -- for its album cover.

• In open letter to Margaret Atwood, Art Threat says the author's trip to Tel Aviv to accept a literary prize would "legitimize Israeli colonial policies" against Palestine because of the sponsoring university's "active support of these policies." The letter calls on Atwood "to support the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the Israel." Earlier: In 2009, Haruki Murakami accepted the Jerusalem Prize in Israel, where he gave a powerful speech (which I often mention), intoning, "Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg."

• Trailer: The Mystery of the Flying Kicks, featuring Shoefiti.com founder and Eyeteeth pal Ed Kohler.

• Mark Bradford on why he and his assistants don uniforms to remove outdoor ads used in his art: "It’s quasi-illegal for these advertising companies to paste the posters on the plywood barricades, and its quasi-illegal for me to take them down, so my actions exist in a real grey area... I appropriate the role of a city worker and I perform their job for them, and this way I don’t have any problems. I have gone to multi-million dollar buildings during the middle of the day and they assume that I’m on a certain side of the law."

• Critic Jerry Saltz calls the New Museum's exhibition Skin Fruit: Selections from the Dakis Joannou Collection "a shapeless amalgam of big names, big dicks and big price tags, crowded into too little space," stating that the museum's "thin credibility [is] stretched to the breaking point" with the show.

• Paula at MyBeesWax points out a nifty review of the new Banksy film, which is playing at Minneapolis' Uptown Theatre for a few more days.

• Congratulations to Artforum senior editor Michele Kuo, who'll be replacing Artforum editor Tim Griffin as he steps down after seven years "to devote more energy to writing and teaching."

• Tattfoo tracks down examples of mobile gardens.

• Calling all Twin Cities–based chainsaw sculptors!