tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40737892024-03-07T00:43:42.773-06:00Eyeteeth: Incisive ideasUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4569125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-78764365121344364952015-09-17T13:13:00.002-05:002016-10-11T15:56:28.583-05:00Signifer, Signed: Eyeteeth on BBC London"What's your favorite 'Paul Schmelzer,' Paul Schmelzer?" On Sunday, that's the question BBC London's Gaby Roslin posed to me on the air, in regards to my quest to get famous people to sign my name. <a href="https://soundcloud.com/paul-schmelzer/heterograph-project-interview-bbclondons-gaby-roslin-09-september-2105">Listen</a> to our conversation about <a href="http://signifier-signed.blogspot.com/"><i>Signifier/Signed</i></a>:<br />
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/223833002&color=ff5500" width="100%"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-82303201831220374622015-09-17T12:30:00.000-05:002015-09-17T13:39:43.957-05:00HOME: IMPEACH paints my garage<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebM8D9umDmNpY90_1Wg2C6dkJpoWCunWaluNDIOpPuhsE4YVU4nEUY7832_HA4Fx-6vIktSb9dz734QKttsgY7Qh8Yha0FCc6jwnxEcYO8fPO3GAwEftrWXndg_Tj_6b5ZPco2Q/s1600/DSCF7040.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebM8D9umDmNpY90_1Wg2C6dkJpoWCunWaluNDIOpPuhsE4YVU4nEUY7832_HA4Fx-6vIktSb9dz734QKttsgY7Qh8Yha0FCc6jwnxEcYO8fPO3GAwEftrWXndg_Tj_6b5ZPco2Q/s320/DSCF7040.JPG" width="410" /></a><br />
Over the course of six hours on Labor Day weekend, Twin Cities-based graffiti writer IMPEACH—subject of my recent <a href="https://medium.com/re-form/keeping-track-8835e6bb28c7">profile at Medium.com's <i>re:form</i></a>—created this commissioned mural on my family's south Minneapolis garage. It's an amazing piece of handwork, and so fitting for our growing family in our new home (new big brother Kai, below, approves). Take a look:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAC5U5COv1phQrfAltzpYzhP_SFp-AyYJfhz0Wqh6q8su1MvGgqPhbm6bxCswD7dULXCRAk-KJR4TWBqzSV6KV3nWfEvl2qIGSmuv8m_iKPQcIcA4L-t4W0X6BrfrD1NSai8LQA/s1600/DSCF7075.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAC5U5COv1phQrfAltzpYzhP_SFp-AyYJfhz0Wqh6q8su1MvGgqPhbm6bxCswD7dULXCRAk-KJR4TWBqzSV6KV3nWfEvl2qIGSmuv8m_iKPQcIcA4L-t4W0X6BrfrD1NSai8LQA/s640/DSCF7075.JPG" width="410" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdTQ_1agU6KhYJSwnbem7-5x90M4BStnACr0IyAwSwnn5CbKyKINZZwFGSxuMnbzm20XNKRXeT63OnAlUDZDYM2uEzAkGMAk6CVrhrrkBtsXQyBjCdYHr9jzDw_YKhq3wbnaCAjQ/s1600/DSCF7073.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdTQ_1agU6KhYJSwnbem7-5x90M4BStnACr0IyAwSwnn5CbKyKINZZwFGSxuMnbzm20XNKRXeT63OnAlUDZDYM2uEzAkGMAk6CVrhrrkBtsXQyBjCdYHr9jzDw_YKhq3wbnaCAjQ/s400/DSCF7073.jpg" width="410" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFIZVZbmdyaUl477jNaHA4lQEZBIK7oixGTWIE6wn8Tr5jJpX7XT9VZqNCKdn2PZIz9A_e59GmT6kSjBja3lr6c3sXk-7bXIcQYQD2rV2bT5HKJdLVvKtcYcYjMe5Nji6Qwf5mzQ/s1600/DSCF7078.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFIZVZbmdyaUl477jNaHA4lQEZBIK7oixGTWIE6wn8Tr5jJpX7XT9VZqNCKdn2PZIz9A_e59GmT6kSjBja3lr6c3sXk-7bXIcQYQD2rV2bT5HKJdLVvKtcYcYjMe5Nji6Qwf5mzQ/s640/DSCF7078.JPG" width="410" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-29741226911829026532015-03-19T17:08:00.001-05:002015-03-19T17:08:45.275-05:00New at re:form: "Keeping Track: The Political Railway Graffiti of IMPEACH"<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtadWHU4pa8wnnVvvUqR140iWQXZ2IP8d5xY9BonUtvhYB29va38FqOXNDWcPJPm6ys_haRiMo5jffwL7WLmpLdi80Hgeb3xjAha7aGDW-gy1bipXoKmdOEV098k4KmD_Ueqh2TA/s1600/1-_Yz2chBvnAIm1wrFBhH-pg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtadWHU4pa8wnnVvvUqR140iWQXZ2IP8d5xY9BonUtvhYB29va38FqOXNDWcPJPm6ys_haRiMo5jffwL7WLmpLdi80Hgeb3xjAha7aGDW-gy1bipXoKmdOEV098k4KmD_Ueqh2TA/s1600/1-_Yz2chBvnAIm1wrFBhH-pg.jpg" height="" width="410" /></a></div>
From "<a href="https://medium.com/re-form/keeping-track-8835e6bb28c7">Keeping Track: The Political Railway Graffiti of IMPEACH</a>," my new piece at <i>re:form</i>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“While most of us click away on keyboards and phones to spread news of the latest injustice on social media platforms only seen by people that we already know and [who] largely agree with us, IMPEACH grabs those same headlines and covers trains with them,” says [artist, curator, and Justseeds founder Josh] MacPhee. “He’s created an entirely new art form — behemoth metal broadsheets, tracking the news across North America.” </blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj70MHsISXV9DAO3VCXIr42xGwQleSYpEyt0FVTq4tkXRqBn-nwMOLTahn24Y4yIkO9RRxVqKgNAT_psuE4NN1oVrCYL3TZzfNdGm77GnbNbFMVCye0vuQT2c-RcINuXQ7VjWVuww/s1600/1*7fa9aeWXewR8UiHbIfQC0g.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj70MHsISXV9DAO3VCXIr42xGwQleSYpEyt0FVTq4tkXRqBn-nwMOLTahn24Y4yIkO9RRxVqKgNAT_psuE4NN1oVrCYL3TZzfNdGm77GnbNbFMVCye0vuQT2c-RcINuXQ7VjWVuww/s1600/1*7fa9aeWXewR8UiHbIfQC0g.jpeg" height="" width="410" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-64871745812766786382015-03-19T16:55:00.005-05:002015-03-19T16:55:52.714-05:00New Artist Op-Ed: Ron Athey on the "Post-AIDS" Body<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOCyZc_aydDwT_NdJtOmWGhpAInpesNYMVgBuc9JhmwDm_VNKV56op7rUR3As0jaUJm2mpoiE_aUYfwHx02N8xYpunDT8pnyclNVxg8BaIS38VDec63ox9lt73wPdLRyY5qELX7Q/s1600/rathey_halftone_ostracon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOCyZc_aydDwT_NdJtOmWGhpAInpesNYMVgBuc9JhmwDm_VNKV56op7rUR3As0jaUJm2mpoiE_aUYfwHx02N8xYpunDT8pnyclNVxg8BaIS38VDec63ox9lt73wPdLRyY5qELX7Q/s1600/rathey_halftone_ostracon.jpg" height="320" width="238" /></a></div>
For the fourth installment of the Walker Art Center's Artist <a href="http://www.walkerart.org/artist-op-eds">Op-Eds series</a>, I invited Ron Athey to share his perspective on the <a href="http://www.flynncenter.org/blog/2014/01/blood-sacrifice/">1994 Minneapolis performance</a> that all but blacklisted him at US art venues for a decade, his life with HIV, and the realization that the disease wouldn't kill him after all. The result, "<a href="http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2015/ron-athey-blood-polemic-post-aids-body">Polemic of Blood:</a><span class="quiet"><a href="http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2015/ron-athey-blood-polemic-post-aids-body"> Ron Athey on the 'Post-AIDS' Body</a>," marks the first time Athey has discussed the events of March 1994 on a Walker platform (and the most comprehesive addressing of it by the Walker to date), and he'll likely revisit some of these themes </span>next week during the weekend-long series of events <a href="https://events.umn.edu/040758">Culture Wars: Then & Now</a> here in Minneapolis. The essay comes out as Athey commemorates the 30th anniversary of his diagnosis with HIV and shares news of his return to Los Angeles after six years living overseas. It's a surprisingly poignant piece that sheds light on the life experiences and thinking that propel Athey's work. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-73290138809775948132014-10-10T14:17:00.001-05:002014-10-10T15:03:50.219-05:00Funding, Politics, and ArtPrize: Key Reactions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ulUKXsc1TcumvbaGDk0pYJ-4MiuqFw5H5u7boz1fBLTl8XnS-dzo4_pWnfMlIkyoblypq6lUWctFc9zIbpghK3x7ug8sJCEvUgIn8nxei6V0q8RY_pN1yvKD_LSd6FhYCllRqw/s1600/Capitalism-works-for-me-Lambert-785x523.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ulUKXsc1TcumvbaGDk0pYJ-4MiuqFw5H5u7boz1fBLTl8XnS-dzo4_pWnfMlIkyoblypq6lUWctFc9zIbpghK3x7ug8sJCEvUgIn8nxei6V0q8RY_pN1yvKD_LSd6FhYCllRqw/s1600/Capitalism-works-for-me-Lambert-785x523.jpg" height="" width="415" /></a></div>Just hours to go until ArtPrize reveals its winners for 2014, and there's been a flurry of response to <a href="http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2014/10/steve-lambert-why-ill-give-away-my.html">news</a> that finalist Steve Lambert will be <a href="http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2014/10/does-capitalism-work-for-steve-lambert.html">donating his winnings</a> to a Grand Rapids–based LGBT organization. The most noteworthy:<br />
<br />
Hrag Vartanian, an ArtPrize judge in Lambert's category and <i>Hyperallergic</i> founder/editor, applauds the move, but cautions against generalizing about an entire organization's character based on the actions of a funder. He also sees this as <a href="http://hyperallergic.com/154732/now-is-artprizes-chance-to-prove-it-deserves-an-art-world-spotlight/">a moment for ArtPrize to "prove it deserves an art world spotlight"</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">[I]f Grand Rapids is serious about embracing art and about the art world embracing them, they will have to prove that they’re committed to helping create an environment where art can flourish — one where all types of people, ideas, and identities are welcome to play, work, and live together. Until that happens, they shouldn’t be surprised if ArtPrize’s mission to be a “radically open” art community is never fully realized. Rick DeVos and ArtPrize, make a statement to demonstrate that your mission isn’t only an idea, but a commitment to something more.</blockquote>Likewise, <i>ArtFCity</i>'s Paddy Johnson, who was part of an <a href="http://artfcity.com/2014/10/07/we-didnt-like-it-watch-paddy-johnson-and-curators-discuss-the-artprize-finalists/">ArtPrize panel on Grand Rapids TV</a>, both celebrated Lambert's decision and expressed some discomfort over Lambert's "assumption that Rick DeVos necessarily holds all the views of his family or spends his money on the same causes." <a href="http://artfcity.com/2014/10/10/steve-lambert-pledges-to-donate-100-of-possible-artprize-winnings-to-the-lgbt-fund/">But she concludes</a>: "He’s not just asking his audience to think seriously about capitalism, he’s demanding that of himself. And that just makes me want to see Lambert’s piece win even more."<br />
<br />
ArtPrize, too, responded, with a blog post by Kevin Buist: "I<a href="http://www.artprize.org/blog/artprize-social-equity-and-what-to-do-with-the-money">n short, we think it’s great</a>." He includes this fact:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">...Another reason we welcome this development is Lambert’s choice of where he’ll donate the money. First of all, an artist who is not from West Michigan pledging to use potential winnings to give back to our community is a wonderful and generous thing. But it’s even better than that. <a href="http://www.grfoundation.org/">The Grand Rapids Community Foundation</a>, the organization behind the Our LGBT Fund, is an ArtPrize sponsor. Earlier this year we were proud to <a href="http://www.artprize.org/blog/artprize-reaches-a-wider-audience-thanks-to-grand-rapids-community-foundati">announce</a> the that Community Foundation awarded ArtPrize a $50,000 gift to work to ensure that everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability, or socioeconomic status, can join the conversation and have their voices heard at the world’s largest art competition. </blockquote><a href="http://www.artprize.org/events/detail/artprize-awards1">ArtPrize winners will be announced tonight</a>, with a live broadcast of the ceremony beginning at 7:45 Grand Rapids time. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-62881844121658993752014-10-10T07:39:00.001-05:002014-10-13T14:46:49.888-05:00Steve Lambert: Why I'll Give Away My ArtPrize Winnings<br />
ArtPrize 2014 finalist <a href="http://visitsteve.com/">Steve Lambert</a>, as I reported yesterday, has <a href="http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2014/10/does-capitalism-work-for-steve-lambert.html">vowed to give away his prize money</a>—either $20,000 or $200,000—should he win at tonight's awards ceremony. His interactive mobile billboard <i><a href="http://www.artprize.org/steve-lambert/2014/capitalism-works-for-me">Capitalism Works For Me! True/False</a> </i>is <a href="http://www.artprize.org/blog/2014-jurors-shortlist">shortlisted</a> in the "time-based" category (along with Mel Chin and others). His designated beneficiary: the LGBT Fund of the Grand Rapids Foundation. Here, in an email interview, he shares his rationale.<br />
<br />
<b>Paul Schmelzer: </b>Congratulations on being an ArtPrize finalist. Your artwork/billboard/voting booth <i>Capitalism Works for Me</i> could, well, work for you: you might take home anywhere from $20,000 to $200,000. It seems like the perfect venue for the work, as ArtPrize is largely based on a popular vote among attendees. But with 24 hours to go until the winner is revealed, you decided not to keep the money if you win. Why?<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLp8wZwft6Wk8KuARvwj2ZZ2vjN228X9u8Mb3M49rlhAHlcsxtpW_RpaXqHdtDE2KZyyGJgi6t8ut1FV2vO-i4rMt6HVfbMOSgz6LhYUC6Dq-OisUexEmfcpNm47VJGT2Drp6QHA/s1600/steve-lambert-2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLp8wZwft6Wk8KuARvwj2ZZ2vjN228X9u8Mb3M49rlhAHlcsxtpW_RpaXqHdtDE2KZyyGJgi6t8ut1FV2vO-i4rMt6HVfbMOSgz6LhYUC6Dq-OisUexEmfcpNm47VJGT2Drp6QHA/s1600/steve-lambert-2010.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a><b>Steve Lambert: </b>Thanks. It has not been easy. <br />
<br />
The chance to win a prize was not what compelled me to show at ArtPrize. I was curated into a show at the Kendall Museum <i>during</i> ArtPrize which I figured would make for a larger audience of everyday people. I'm excited to have <i>Capitalism Works For Me! True/False</i> shown around the world, especially when seen by non-art audiences—and especially to so many people in Grand Rapids. I believe in the work. And it turns out most of the people at ArtPrize liked the work also. That was great.<br />
<br />
Last week I was in Grand Rapids and learned I was on the juror's shortlist, then shortly after, I was also in the top 25 for the popular vote. While I appreciated the nod, as winning the prize became more real, I started to feel this knot in my stomach. I manage myself well, and I am far from a starving artist, but I still have bills to pay, new pieces I'm working to get funding for, I don't own a home, etc. In short, I could definitely use the money. Yet, at the same time, I couldn't imagine accepting the money.<br />
<br />
I see a lot of ways I can use the prize to help people in Western Michigan. You know, there's a lot of hostility in Western Michigan toward LGBTQ rights. Millions of dollars come from that area to fund homophobic campaigns around the country. That money could be helping foster an environment of love, compassion, growth, and support, but instead they fund homophobia, campaigns that hurt working people, and attack public schools. <br />
<br />
I won't have millions of dollars, but I have more than money. With the <a href="http://artisticactivism.org/">Center for Artistic Activism</a>, <a href="http://www.stephenduncombe.com/">Stephen Duncombe</a> and I have have helped those fighting for equal rights in Russia and the former Yugoslavia – some of the most homophobic places in the world – so we're prepared for Western Michigan. In that realm, I have something else I can offer.<br />
<br />
This award, even if it is the grand sum of $200,000, won't give me the same platform as any billionaire or millionaire funder, but it gives me another chance to join others and fight back. <br />
<br />
<b>PS:</b> A few days ago in an email to supporters you shared that you were<span class="im"> "conflicted" about accepting the prize money, should you win. <br />
<br />
"The DeVos family, who is behind ArtPrize, are the founders of Amway, have put</span> millions into anti-gay marriage efforts, attacking public schools and<span class="im"> teachers unions (I am a member of a teachers union), and support the ultraconservative Calvinist Christian Reformed Church," you wrote. "ArtPrize is basically the <i>least</i> offensive thing they do and it buffers some of the criticism of the rest of the work the family does." This reminds me of questions about sponsorship in the arts: are artists sullied when they show at venues supported by corporations they may detest? (<a href="http://liberatetate.wordpress.com/">Liberate Tate</a>, for instance, opposes BP's sponsorship of the Tate.)<br />
<br />
<b>SL: </b>This is a messy area and there are no clear-cut rules. Because of the lack of public funding for the arts, individual artists have to make these judgement calls every step of the way. It is not easy.<br />
<br />
My parents were in the church, but religion for them is teaching of love and acceptance. I was also raised to stand up for what you believe in and help those you see in need. I had to ask myself, how much worse would this have to be for me to say "no thank you." And the answer was "it's already pretty bad."<br />
<br />
Great art shifts our perspective on the world. Shows us another way to perceive things, broadens our thinking, and reveals other ways the world can be. It makes us more understanding and empathetic. This is why I am an artist. I want to use the prize money towards this end, and the DeVos's seem to use their money for the opposite.<br />
<br />
I hope I don't regret it, but right now I already feel better. As an artist, I am confident I will continue to be supported by people who believe in what I do, as long as I continue to believe in what I do.<br />
<br />
<b>PS:</b> Some say Rick DeVos's politics aren't as divisive as those of his parents.<br />
<br />
<b>SL: </b>I agree, it seems Rick DeVos's views are not as extreme as his parents', and especially his grandfather. However, if that's true, I wish him the courage to be just as outspoken as his family, but on the side of love and acceptance, fighting for working people, ending militarism, and the value of publicly funded education for all. It would be nice to hear from him on that.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, when these backward ideas about civil rights and unrestrained capital are over-funded and allowed to go unquestioned and unchallenged, within a family or within our society, it's unhealthy for our culture and our democracy. So again, if Rick DeVos is really so different, I hope he says something soon.<br />
<br />
<b>PS: </b>You tweeted that not only would you be donating your winnings, should you win, to the LGBT Fund, but you'll also be returning with colleagues from your Center for Artistic Activism to volunteer with them. Is this a critique of modern political "activism" in which we often allow money to stand in for action?<br />
<br />
<b>SL: </b>Ha! I didn't think about it that way, but just giving money didn't feel right, so I suppose so. <br />
<br />
<b>PS: </b>What are your thoughts on your decision in light of the themes of the work itself? Capitalism, we're often told, is amoral: money is morally neutral. But, for you, this money has <i>context</i>.<span class="im"></span><br />
<br />
<b>SL: </b>It certainly does. </span><br />
<span class="im"><br />
</span> <span class="im"><b>Update: </b>On his website, <a href="http://visitsteve.com/news/no-thanks-artprize/">Lambert offers further explanation</a>, writing (in part): "What bothers me the most is the DeVos family has, for generations, been on the wrong side of the fight for civil rights for LGBT people. And they back their opinions with millions in political money against civil rights. It’s a long story, but the end is: they haven’t changed."</span><br />
<br />
<span class="im"><b>Update: </b>Lambert was not a prizewinner at ArtPrize. <a href="http://www.artprize.org/blog/2014-artprize-awards-announcement">Here's who was</a>. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-16725849168138699892014-10-09T16:54:00.001-05:002014-10-10T07:40:22.269-05:00Does Capitalism Work for Steve? Lambert Vows to Give Away ArtPrize Winnings<div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonzDrJEm9G420Hhn2jL6tCY7npX5QLctd_o90Tr0hZJ-MCMPuSlgbGSwWscEJ0P3-s843_f90NAkHm_0Qqnmh-mfzR18RFbXYSDyzS2zVkZA7c7-HfHvUs4sDMP3qBOHFvqEwew/s1600/Capitalism-works-for-me-Lambert-785x523.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonzDrJEm9G420Hhn2jL6tCY7npX5QLctd_o90Tr0hZJ-MCMPuSlgbGSwWscEJ0P3-s843_f90NAkHm_0Qqnmh-mfzR18RFbXYSDyzS2zVkZA7c7-HfHvUs4sDMP3qBOHFvqEwew/s1600/Capitalism-works-for-me-Lambert-785x523.jpg" height="" width="415" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.artprize.org/">ArtPrize</a> seems like an apt venue for artist Steve Lambert's <a href="http://visitsteve.com/made/capitalism-works-for-me-truefalse/"><i>Capitalism Works for Me</i></a> project. Arguably the art world's most populist high-profile event, the annual Grand Rapids–based festival allows visitors to vote on their favorites works, with winners in both juried and public-vote categories taking home anywhere from <a href="http://www.artprize.org/about">$20,000 to $200,000</a>. Lambert's project, a mobile billboard/voting machine that invites passersby to weigh in—true or false—on the artwork's eponymous statement, is a finalist in both the juried and popular vote contests. And tomorrow could be Lambert's payday. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But today—the day before ArtPrize winners are revealed—<a href="https://twitter.com/SteveLambert">Lambert took to Twitter</a> to make a four-tweet announcement:</div>
<div>
<span id="goog_884638678"></span><span id="goog_884638679"></span><br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2gwxn0fvvujUyFJbIODS22ooSl8-Y_0yAfjulkepcADYiWxIZxh_BD0ayRAWfnetCKo1PGREeg2pAU2ZA9hRfJBNOC7mKxQOgmyOo8r2LpadBSj3YMLQLgWmeSuozewHdXepmKA/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-10-09+at+3.34.33+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2gwxn0fvvujUyFJbIODS22ooSl8-Y_0yAfjulkepcADYiWxIZxh_BD0ayRAWfnetCKo1PGREeg2pAU2ZA9hRfJBNOC7mKxQOgmyOo8r2LpadBSj3YMLQLgWmeSuozewHdXepmKA/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-10-09+at+3.34.33+PM.png" height="116" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv-kdl1Rb_tvKXvx9CNpXKQMrUQOuTWwoV5QI0_XTTmcK8CxeAq4bhj9kEad2_afDiLTWJTvJvcm2CLTAt4SJWuajxDWgIqtJk3MKvcSqT3AdscIkcFgEpL9Xl0pmRSHGknmtFng/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-10-09+at+3.34.40+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv-kdl1Rb_tvKXvx9CNpXKQMrUQOuTWwoV5QI0_XTTmcK8CxeAq4bhj9kEad2_afDiLTWJTvJvcm2CLTAt4SJWuajxDWgIqtJk3MKvcSqT3AdscIkcFgEpL9Xl0pmRSHGknmtFng/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-10-09+at+3.34.40+PM.png" height="95" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj-EmXS8V8Ul88O02Mm9EeMl-agv5kMmuJfzGT_PUzdM8x8razrYtsI1revAtK_E6PExr430Vk_RkyAXQ54Yn4mrEP7w1noArWcGr1RGZOA7SiZNEjUWB9gHgbCKr5h5pZ48FwQA/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-10-09+at+3.34.46+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj-EmXS8V8Ul88O02Mm9EeMl-agv5kMmuJfzGT_PUzdM8x8razrYtsI1revAtK_E6PExr430Vk_RkyAXQ54Yn4mrEP7w1noArWcGr1RGZOA7SiZNEjUWB9gHgbCKr5h5pZ48FwQA/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-10-09+at+3.34.46+PM.png" height="116" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfa6RqpLvxzOfVfsQBH8CCkRNblZAfWwNB5dgK9f10xW6r20xQDtZcHOTNdIQv-8N2WTh0jQOFvL-JUoQ29F24pIYs3-rfbo_k_YVXFFG3dfh2aBlJiZ4B3iVNloKFKspaKc9new/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-10-09+at+3.34.55+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfa6RqpLvxzOfVfsQBH8CCkRNblZAfWwNB5dgK9f10xW6r20xQDtZcHOTNdIQv-8N2WTh0jQOFvL-JUoQ29F24pIYs3-rfbo_k_YVXFFG3dfh2aBlJiZ4B3iVNloKFKspaKc9new/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-10-09+at+3.34.55+PM.png" height="115" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div>
<br />
To those who know Lambert, the agonizing shouldn't come as a surprise. Co-founder of the <a href="http://artisticactivism.org/">Center for Artistic Activism</a> (with Stephen Duncombe), he's more interested in art's role in making change than in making money.</div>
<div>
<br />
Lambert hasn't publicly elaborated on his decision yet—although he's agreed to answer my questions about it later tonight—but a clue to his rationale might reside in his choice of the <a href="http://www.grfoundation.org/lgbtfund/">Grand Rapids Foundation's LGBT Fund</a> as recipient of his potential winnings: ArtPrize is the brainchild of Rick DeVos, the grandson of Amway co-founder Rich DeVos, the multibillionare whose family has funded an array of political causes, and son of Amway former president (and Orlando Magic CEO) Dick DeVos and former Michigan Republican Party chair Betsy DeVos. As <a href="http://www.gq.com/entertainment/art-and-design/201209/artprize-rick-devos?printable=true&mc_cid=d502c4aa43&mc_eid=b54628bced">Matthew Power wrote for <i>GQ</i></a> in 2012, "the DeVoses have for decades quietly underwritten a mind-boggling array of free-market and evangelical-Christian causes. Pull back the curtain on a hot-button conservative issue, from anti-gay-marriage statutes to privatizing public education to the Citizens United case, and you'll find the extended DeVos family."<br />
<br />
It's unclear, as Power states, to what degree the younger DeVos shares his family's conservative values on social issues, and ArtPrize staffers I've discussed the issue with over the past few years say his politics are far milder. His parent's family foundation is listed an as ArtPrize sponsor, and news <a href="http://www.mlive.com/artprize/index.ssf/2013/10/artprize_2013_winner_is_sleeping_bear_dune_lakeshore_quilt_by_ann_loveless.html">reports</a> state that ArtPrize finalist prize money has come from the foundation as well. Only Lambert can state whether this link is the key factor in his decision to give away his potential ArtPrize winnings. <br />
<br />
<b>Update: </b><a href="http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2014/10/steve-lambert-why-ill-give-away-my.html">Here's my Q&A with Lambert about his decision</a>.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-26531497680688926582014-09-18T14:27:00.001-05:002014-09-18T14:27:39.657-05:00Back Alley Design Show: Erik Brandt's Ficciones Typografika at re:form<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpn06a1hKhbwjGMysIMwi_g_desDupsdbVrvXO-XEV27u1u6rMJxjLFHUWPiPgSZ4ELaPP6UA1JeWuvw0AZx-QzKKU48V9BDgcMsxmWEw8rUrM_vyZ17d_ZANwlyu8aXLdIvMlsQ/s1600/eb_ficciones_tattoos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpn06a1hKhbwjGMysIMwi_g_desDupsdbVrvXO-XEV27u1u6rMJxjLFHUWPiPgSZ4ELaPP6UA1JeWuvw0AZx-QzKKU48V9BDgcMsxmWEw8rUrM_vyZ17d_ZANwlyu8aXLdIvMlsQ/s1600/eb_ficciones_tattoos.jpg" height="" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: none;">Erik Brandt, <i>Ficciones Typografika</i>, 641–643 (72”x36”).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
“It’s a community of people who are — it sounds so corny — just
dreaming," says designer Erik Brandt of <a href="http://ficciones-typografika.tumblr.com/"><i>Ficciones Typografika</i></a>, the international design poster show he's been curating on his Minneapolis garage for the past 15 months. "People experimenting and doing something idiosyncratic, for no
other reason than that they want to do it.” With no rules, no deadlines, and no pay, the project has become a vibrant playground for a range of design innovators from around the world, from legendary names (Ed Fella, Reza Abedini, Anthony Burrill) to new-generation innovators (Sang Mun, Felix Pfäffli, Janneke Meekes). Following up last summer's <a href="http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2013/07/ficciones-typografika-erik-brandts.html"><i>Eyeteeth</i> interview with Brandt</a> just after the project got started, here's<a href="https://medium.com/re-form/back-alley-poster-show-102f87a95e0f"> my new feature on it for Medium's design site <i>re:form</i></a>. Enjoy!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-74703862711226002312013-10-01T09:54:00.001-05:002013-10-01T09:56:39.833-05:00Low starts a meme: #replacecongresswith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnL10sI2WtXpsViYJ-ihCdlGW6cw6gQkqx3ea99_yyShD87CydGqXkczxXYl3D1MgYeShsQ1FfaLhD2RUJlC5v6yTp4mGJ5xhkic8H4oDld2vWP6go4zrIB7ogyFZb6cmjRW2FA/s1600/Screen+shot+2013-10-01+at+9.49.21+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnL10sI2WtXpsViYJ-ihCdlGW6cw6gQkqx3ea99_yyShD87CydGqXkczxXYl3D1MgYeShsQ1FfaLhD2RUJlC5v6yTp4mGJ5xhkic8H4oDld2vWP6go4zrIB7ogyFZb6cmjRW2FA/s640/Screen+shot+2013-10-01+at+9.49.21+AM.png" width="425" /></a></div>
Duluth slowcore trio <a href="http://chairkickers.com/" target="_blank">Low</a> launched a <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23replacecongresswith&src=hash">pre-government-shutdown meme</a> on Twitter Monday, suggesting that Congress be replaced by a “nice grouping of cheese.” Since then, dozens of other ideas -- equally as absurd, but appropriate, given the irrationality of congressional tea partiers -- surfaced, from <a href="https://twitter.com/tomelko/status/384780314502889473" target="_blank">an ore boat</a> to a <a href="https://twitter.com/lowtheband/status/384777403521724418" target="_blank">biodegradable fork</a> to “<a href="https://twitter.com/slyasgar/status/384794624650248192" target="_blank">a lazy Boston terrier</a>.” Hashtag: <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23replacecongresswith&src=hash" target="_blank">#replacecongresswith</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-67425301887932418502013-09-24T13:25:00.003-05:002013-09-24T13:25:54.959-05:00Bits: Godspeed, Pussy Riot, and Me<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiERZssKTvic8V0x1f00HRtYaBnrc0lx3fk9nq5y3yx6Czsv3PAqcWuk-lTZFYjIfb6j4K3g69-QqNmT9XQ0pR12uZaXPNXO6OL2dHNeIkXdIRzXTYeQCa1U9A53X7CdJNWEZF3Vg/s1600/9466280089_610926f46e_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiERZssKTvic8V0x1f00HRtYaBnrc0lx3fk9nq5y3yx6Czsv3PAqcWuk-lTZFYjIfb6j4K3g69-QqNmT9XQ0pR12uZaXPNXO6OL2dHNeIkXdIRzXTYeQCa1U9A53X7CdJNWEZF3Vg/s400/9466280089_610926f46e_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Godspeed You ! Black Emperor. Photo T<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24400573@N03/9466280089/in/photolist-fqvagF-fqvai2-fqvagc-91NF1F-91RPnh-91NJgv-91NFR6-Uyds-Uydu-UyBM-UyBN-96LgvN-96LhrQ-96LhRS-96Heup-R63mq-fwcyDo-fvXijM-fwcyzw-9t6HVS-9pthBM-9jMfRG-9pthCv-8ZsyxH-9b8REy-e2RKVQ-9t3Hok-9pwiYb-4TMkFU-91qKGZ-91tVFL-91qMrX-fP3Moy-fP3MeW-fP3Nj7-9jtG4K-9jtFFv-9jtHc2-9jwLMy-9jtGDz-9jwMnY-9jtJ6v-9jtHEM-9kNS97-9kKNdr-9kNRbb-9kKNF2-9kKP6B-9kNSoU-9cSYyX-9cVXmQ">om Øverlie,NRK P3</a>, via Flickr</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
• The amazing (and reclusive) Montreal collective <a href="http://www.brainwashed.com/godspeed/main.html">Godspeed You ! Black Emperor</a> was <a href="http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/godspeed-you-black-emperor-win-polaris-music-prize-1.1467988">awarded the Polaris Music Prize</a> Monday night for their album<i> Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!</i> The band didn't show up to receive their jumbo-sized check, though. Instead, they sent a rep from their record label who announced they'd be using the $30,000 prize to buy musical instruments for inmates in Quebec prisons. Later they released a statement about the prize and accompanying soiree, noting three "quick bullet-points that almost anybody could agree on maybe": <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
-holding a gala during a time of austerity and normalized decline is a weird thing to do. <br />-organizing a gala just so musicians can compete against each other for a novelty-sized cheque doesn’t serve the cause of righteous music at all.<br />-asking the toyota motor company to help cover the tab for that gala, during a summer where the melting northern ice caps are live-streaming on the internet, IS FUCKING INSANE, and comes across as tone-deaf to the current horrifying malaise.</blockquote>
• With massive cuts at newspapers over the last decade, museums are turning into media organizations, a topic I was invited to discuss -- along with Sree Sreenivasan, the Met's new chief digital officer -- in this month's <a href="http://museopunks.org/06/"><i>Museopunks</i> podcast</a>.<br />
<br />
• Imprisoned Pussy Riot member <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/23/entertainment-us-russia-pussyriot-idUSBRE98M0FJ20130923">Nadezhda Tolokonnikova began a hunger strike Monday</a>, protesting inhumane conditions in the prison where she's held and claiming a senior jail official threatened her life. Sentenced to two years for her role in the August 2012 protest "punk prayer" in a Moscow cathedral, she says she'll contintue the strike "<span id="articleText">until the administration starts obeying the law and stops treating incarcerated women like cattle."</span><br />
<br />
<span id="articleText">• I recently interviewed Dia Art Foundation director <a href="http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2013/philippe-vergne-interview-hirschhorn-gramsci">Philippe Vergne about Thomas Hirschhorn's recently closed Gramsci Monument</a>, controversial Times critic Ken Johnson's opinion on the piece, and how Hirschhorn's monument to an Italian philosopher represents both Dia's future and the best of the art world. </span><br />
<br />
<span id="articleText">• I also <a href="http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2013/polyphonic-train-doug-aitken-station-station">previewed</a> Doug Aitken's cross-country art train Station to Station, and then <a href="http://blogs.walkerart.org/centerpoints/2013/09/13/station-to-station-patti-smith/">recapped its stop in St. Paul</a>. It was okay. </span> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-81922572865474653372013-08-28T11:44:00.003-05:002013-08-28T11:45:40.195-05:00Bits: Putin in Panties, Hurricane Perry<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi37zrBeVK-D1BSXTKVGr-XVWQM-mR-rMkWNLyncC1CPfCmn8JNb9WCkzB5n6pNC4QGC7zNTmq_4mXDI6No2dq0TnBjQ829JRhRFGcc-eQwerkupfLljU0C1nySAUBK9_GlIoLn9Q/s1600/A-visitor-takes-a-picture-of-the-artwork-entitled-Travesty-by-Konstantin-Altunin-2232389.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi37zrBeVK-D1BSXTKVGr-XVWQM-mR-rMkWNLyncC1CPfCmn8JNb9WCkzB5n6pNC4QGC7zNTmq_4mXDI6No2dq0TnBjQ829JRhRFGcc-eQwerkupfLljU0C1nySAUBK9_GlIoLn9Q/s640/A-visitor-takes-a-picture-of-the-artwork-entitled-Travesty-by-Konstantin-Altunin-2232389.jpg" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Konstantin Altunin's portrait of Medvedev and Putin in drag. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
• After <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/27/painting-vladimir-putin-underwear">police seized paintings</a> that, among other topics, depicted Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev in women's underwear, artist Konstantin Altunin has <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/28/putin-pants-art-russia-konstantin-altunin-moscow">fled Russia</a> and is reportedly seeking asylum in France. Also removed from view, a painting of lawmaker Vitaly Milonov titled <i>Rainbow Milonov.</i> It was <a href="http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130827/182994089/Police-Seize-Putin-in-Drag-Portrait.html">Milonov who made the complaint</a> that led to the confiscation of Altunin's art. His legislative claim to fame: he authored the bill, signed into law by Putin in June, that fines those who promote "sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism among minors” in St. Petersburg up to 500,000 rubles ($15,150). Russia, of course, will be spreading Olympic spirit in Sochi next winter by <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21584007-plight-gays-prompts-calls-boycott-sochi-olympics-grim-be-gay">prohibiting “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations”</a>--i.e. any expressions of homosexuality or displays of solidarity with LGBT people.<br />
<br />
• In case you missed it, here's a photo of <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/skarlan/tilda-swinton-held-a-rainbow-flag-in-front-of-the-kremlin">Tilda Swinton holding a Pride flag in front of the Kremlin last month</a>.<br />
<br />
• Artist <a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/1673299/an-artist-finds-government-censorship-in-google-earth#1">Mishka Henner</a> uses Google web tools like Street View and Google Earth to open up conversations on transparency, secrecy and surveillance.<br />
<br />
• Hurricane Rick Perry: <a href="http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/august/hurricane-petition">What if hurricanes were named after climate change deniers?</a><br />
<br />
• Yemen's <a href="http://www.designboom.com/art/12th-hour-yemen">12th Hour graffiti campaign</a> surfaces political issues on city walls.<br />
<br />
• Minneapolis security expert <a href="http://www.schneier.com/">Bruce Schneier</a> on why the UK government <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-interview-detention-heathrow">did what it did</a> to Glenn Greenwald's partner, David Miranda: <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/the-real-terrifying-reason-why-british-authorities-detained-david-miranda/278952/">"They're lashing out</a>: sending a message and demonstrating that they're not to be messed with -- that the normal rules of polite conduct don't apply to people who screw with them. That's probably the scariest explanation of all."<br />
<br />
• Your moment of: <a href="http://www.theawl.com/2013/08/10-amazing-folk-songs-about-the-nsa-and-edward-snowden">Edward Snowden folk songs</a>. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-34792446613277601712013-08-28T10:28:00.003-05:002021-12-31T10:41:58.948-06:00On Kawara tweets: I AM STILL ALIVE<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTmie9Ak71bZND1alpvpopyvQOO1ToyR-VUs99ancQEotJYXtP_DsJ4VuBnW_6ofVUsVlvFS3JTJEvNr5_b-Q6qjv6MxkdcRIZhhcWJALBvGVsqmDphAs3lM4RTJ36v_393DNv_Q/s1600/Screen+shot+2013-08-27+at+1.16.36+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTmie9Ak71bZND1alpvpopyvQOO1ToyR-VUs99ancQEotJYXtP_DsJ4VuBnW_6ofVUsVlvFS3JTJEvNr5_b-Q6qjv6MxkdcRIZhhcWJALBvGVsqmDphAs3lM4RTJ36v_393DNv_Q/s1600/Screen+shot+2013-08-27+at+1.16.36+PM.png" /></a>As you read this, there's a good chance that On Kawara is in the midst of painting today's date: Aug. 28, 2013. Just about every day since since January 4, 1966, he's done so—painted the date, which usually takes all day, on a small canvas, rendering the month in the language of the country this frequent traveler happens to be in—as a meditative act and an ongoing work of conceptual art. The rules: he must complete each "<a href="http://www.walkerart.org/collections/artists/on-kawara">date painting</a>" on the day he started it, and if he fails, he must destroy it. Fascinated by time, On Kawara also has been known to send <a href="http://images.artnet.com/images_US/magazine/reviews/robinson/robinson7-22-09-2.jpg">telegraphs</a> and postcards to friends with the reassuring words, "I am still alive."<br />
<br />
"He is like one of those peculiar, driven characters in a Paul Auster story, except On Kawara deserves a better fate than to be memorialised in Auster's overrated fiction," wrote Adrian Searle in 2002. "On Kawara creates his own memorial every day, in the eloquent silences of his works. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2002/dec/03/art.artsfeatures">He exists</a>, and his art is the proof of it."<br />
<br />
Via @<a href="https://twitter.com/museumnerd/status/372409702074032128">museumnerd</a>, we learn that On Kawara has been <a href="https://twitter.com/On_Kawara">using Twitter</a> since January 2009 to reiterate his existence. Just about every day he tweets "I AM STILL ALIVE #art" (occasionally he breaks form, like he did on <a href="https://twitter.com/On_Kawara/status/1650785703">April 29, 2009</a>, when he tweeted, "i might die soon ..."). It's a surprising medium, yet a perfect one for the artist. On one hand, the evidence of the artist's hand is missing, his painstaking day-long painting replaced by a few keystrokes on a computer (maybe even aided by cut-and-paste commands and Twitter's tweet-scheduling function). But on the other, it's an apt medium for those obsessed with time, as On Kawara is: beneath each tweet is its timestamp--both day and date—offering more evidence of a moment of living catalogued.<br />
<br />
<b>Update 8.28.13: </b>After all that typing, turns out I've been had. Sort of. The On Kawara Twitter account is the <a href="http://rhizome.org/discuss/view/42463/">work of Pall Thayer</a>, who way back in 2009 revealed this, which is pretty awesome:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span face="'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">On Kawara on twitter is a Perl script that gets automatically run once a day on a server in a cabinet in my living room. I haven't done anything to publicize his activities on twitter. All he does is announce, "I AM STILL ALIVE" once a day. He doesn't follow anyone. Yet, somehow, it seeped out into the twitter community. The "Perl Net::Twitter" client name should be a dead give away.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;" />
<span face="'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">The interesting thing about this (and my original reason for launching it) is that it blatantly negates the whole idea behind On Kawara's "I AM STILL ALIVE" messages. Whereas those did indeed confirm that he was still alive, this doesn't. It's an automated process that he doesn't even control. Were he to die, he would continue to announce "I AM STILL ALIVE", everday, on twitter. So it really does two things; by falsely confirming that he is alive, it casts doubt on the issue but it also keeps the notion of him actively announcing that he is alive, alive.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;" />
<span face="'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">So what may sound like a simple prank is actually pretty complex and gets more complex the more you think about it.</span></blockquote>
Thanks, <a href="http://www.yukiokumura.com/">Yuki Okumura</a>, for pointing it out. <br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-10695565445912374102013-08-16T15:00:00.001-05:002013-08-16T15:00:05.896-05:00Bits: Žižek, YACHT, Questlove, Drones<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXsz4LkIk9VIt0xHvrKnutRD_TkPH6dcFgAFmn_-nCjZC0GCOmmtGyhWAP4K5gKKgn6DBCc09lwLKU8QXRX3Ya1Yx-xCuu_gieP_1TAOWO9imjX22HF2vfvblgZvtgGPn__LQILw/s1600/trayvonmartin01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXsz4LkIk9VIt0xHvrKnutRD_TkPH6dcFgAFmn_-nCjZC0GCOmmtGyhWAP4K5gKKgn6DBCc09lwLKU8QXRX3Ya1Yx-xCuu_gieP_1TAOWO9imjX22HF2vfvblgZvtgGPn__LQILw/s640/trayvonmartin01.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://creativetimereports.org/2013/08/05/trayvon-martin-imagine-by-adrian-piper/">Adrian Piper, <i>Imagine [Trayvon Martin]</i></a>, 2013</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
• <a href="http://inthesetimes.com/article/15451/freedom_in_the_cloud"> Žižek</a>: "Assange, Manning, Snowden… these are our new heroes, exemplary cases of the new ethics that befits our era of digitalized control. They are no longer just whistle-blowers who denounce illegal practices of private companies (banks, tobacco and oil firms) to the public authorities; <i>they denounce these public authorities themselves when they engage in 'private use of reason.'"</i><br />
<br />
<i>• </i>The music duo<i> </i><a href="http://teamyacht.com/">YACHT</a><i> </i>(Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans) has put out the protest dance song "<a href="http://partyatthensa.com/">Party at the NSA</a>," available for free download, along with a limited-edition <a href="http://shop.nothingmajor.com/products/nsa">shirt</a> (with art by Tim Lahan and designer <a href="http://www.sang-mun.com/">Sang Mun</a>'s <a href="http://blogs.walkerart.org/design/2013/06/20/sang-mun-defiant-typeface-nsa-privacy/">OCR-thwarting ZXX typeface</a>), with process supporting <a href="https://www.eff.org/">EFF</a>. They tell <i>Nothing Major</i> <a href="http://nothingmajor.com/features/76-yacht-party-at-the-nsa/">why they made the song a protest "party jam"</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It evokes the classic punk-rock satires we grew up loving, like the Dead Kennedys's "Holiday in Cambodia," or the Descendents' "Suburban Home." To have fun at the NSA's expense while simultaneously doing something active, raising money, to fight against it—in our minds, this is a combination that works. A lot of people are subconsciously deterred from involvement in these kinds of issues because the very thought of what is actually happening in this country makes them anxious, and they'd rather ignore it. We want to reframe that impulse, giving people an engaging, spontaneous, expressive context for protest. Poetic terrorism, if you will. </blockquote>
• Questlove from The Roots spoke about racial profiling, stop-and-frisk, and Trayvon Martin on <i>Democracy Now</i> this week. <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/14/questlove_on_police_racial_profiling_stop">Must-watch.</a> Earlier: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ahmir.thompson/posts/10151491382337051">Questlove's Facebook post that went viral</a>. On the George Zimmerman ruling: "i dont know how to not internalize the overall message this whole trayvon case has taught me: you aint shit."<br />
<br />
• From <i>Gizmodo</i>, here's what they're hawking at the <a href="http://gizmodo.com/highlights-from-the-worlds-largest-drone-fair-1148524525">world's largest drone fair</a>. <br />
<br />
• Also, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/08/16/why-drone-makers-have-declared-war-on-the-word-drone/">don't call them drones</a>, says the drone industry. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-52109546873298231582013-08-15T10:34:00.000-05:002013-08-15T10:34:07.007-05:00Bits: Art Smackdown, Drone Speedtrap, Lego Architecture<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzevddBER5zYHqkNwkBhAHS9rda-iXpqWlg9EICfQHtkLHzDSPm55bULFkdvMeO4VWOm5nnBkPpob-Wqb1mUM8LNwZIjspubQFllCMxH-s0hHgw1F_xa6sRoKoJlljZtJU_JWYXw/s1600/drones.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzevddBER5zYHqkNwkBhAHS9rda-iXpqWlg9EICfQHtkLHzDSPm55bULFkdvMeO4VWOm5nnBkPpob-Wqb1mUM8LNwZIjspubQFllCMxH-s0hHgw1F_xa6sRoKoJlljZtJU_JWYXw/s400/drones.png" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://stephenwhisler.net/Sculpture/Pages/Speed_Enforced_by_Drones.html#6"><i>Speed Enforced by Drones</i></a>, a guerrilla sign project by Stephen Whisler</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
• <a href="http://williampowhida.com/wordpress/" target="_blank">William Powhida</a> and <a href="http://jadetownsend.net/index.html" target="_blank">Jade Townsend</a>'s newest collaboration--on view through Sept. 7 at New York's <a href="http://www.freightandvolume.com/exhibitions/2013-07-11_the-decline-and-fall-of-the-art-world-part-i-the-one-percenters/">Freight + Volume</a> gallery --illustrates in <a href="http://www.artnews.com/2013/08/15/powhida-townsend-art-world-as-battleground/">Boschian detail the various art-world feuds</a> going on today. <a href="http://zoom.it/tt2H"><i>Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes </i></a>features an apocalyptic landscape of burning Artnet offices, a ruined Relational Aesthetishop, and a Hennessey Youngman tank. Look for Nato Thompson, a King Robbo graffito, Jerry Saltz, and archers disguised as as Warhol and Picasso. So good.<br />
<br />
• During yesterday's <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20130813/ENT05/308130119/Detroit-Institute-of-Arts-Tyler-Green-Bankruptcy-a-day-for-detroit">Day for Detroit</a>--which included art blogs and museums (including <a href="http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-day-for-detroit.html"><i>Eyeteeth</i></a> and <a href="http://blogs.walkerart.org/centerpoints/2013/08/14/a-day-for-detroit-walker-favorites-from-the-dia-collection/">the Walker</a>) posting favorite shots of works from the Detroit Institute of Arts' colleciton that could be threatened if the city moves to sell art to settle civic debts--included a <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20130814/ENT05/308140144/Jerry-Vile-Detroit-Bankruptcy-Sale">guerrilla action</a>: artist <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/detroit-museum-seeks-meeting-auction-house-19964459">Jerry Vile slapped a "for sale" sign on Rodin's <i>The Thinker</i></a> and other sculptures at the DIA. Staff quickly took it down. <br />
<br />
• Architecture Studio, <a href="http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Studio-21050#shopxlink">a new set from Lego</a>, "comes with 1,210 white and translucent bricks. More notable is <a href="http://www.wired.com/design/2013/08/a-lego-set-with-no-instructions-for-budding-architects/">what it lacks</a>: namely, instructions for any single thing you’re supposed to build with it. Instead, the kit is accompanied by a thick, 277-page guidebook filled with architectural concepts and building techniques alongside real world insights from prominent architecture studios from around the globe."<br />
<br />
• ArtPrize's <a href="https://www.artprize.org/blog/interview-with-anne-pasternak-artprize-2013-grand-prize-juror">Kevin Buist interviews Creative Time's Anne Pasternak</a>.<br />
<br />
• Artist <a href="http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2012/gardening-halfway-between-hope-and-doom-fritz">Fritz Haeg</a> and author Michael Pollan talk <a href="http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2013/michael-pollan-fritz-haeg-interview">ethical clothing, specialization, folk microbiology, and reviving the domestic</a>.<br />
<br />
• And here's a <a href="http://www.walkerart.org/channel/2013/fritz-haeg-at-home-in-the-city">new video on Fritz's yearlong residency</a> at the Walker Art Center. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-61661345882875232312013-08-14T10:57:00.000-05:002013-08-14T13:28:03.308-05:00A Day for Detroit<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpeFBR3IqOzysuo2pO9GyhRYhPVsGehiZN4jlxEhhTYjW7qU_G_v73R5UbW7Cz4WdSbCrtSZ8ZLdx-r9wVbsacEXlymVNXDvbwmuTCZJrc5SlsepsHQylL6d5lP0AUldLDAg0hKg/s1600/photorelief.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpeFBR3IqOzysuo2pO9GyhRYhPVsGehiZN4jlxEhhTYjW7qU_G_v73R5UbW7Cz4WdSbCrtSZ8ZLdx-r9wVbsacEXlymVNXDvbwmuTCZJrc5SlsepsHQylL6d5lP0AUldLDAg0hKg/s400/photorelief.png" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marcel Duchamp, <a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/3a2f30c4-0158-4eed-963c-285a363d865f.aspx?position=8"><i>Photorelief</i></a>, 1935 (printed 1953)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Those who view art in the <a href="http://www.dia.org/">Detroit Institute of Art</a>'s collection with dollar signs in their eyes -- and the city's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, who announced Monday he's<a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130805/METRO01/308050088"> hired Christie's</a> to appraise some of DIA's art for potential sale, may be among them -- seem to miss a key point: that the arts can, and likely will, play a key role in the economic revival of post-bankruptcy Detroit. Selling off masterworks by Van Gogh, Rivera, and van Eyck would effectively scatter a collection built with intention, reducing access for Detroit residents. <br />
<br />
To highlight the DIA's amazing, diverse collection and showcase artworks that may be threatened should such a sale take place, I'm joining with <a href="http://blogs.artinfo.com/modernartnotes/2013/08/a-day-for-detroit-i/"><i>Modern Art Notes</i></a> and more than a dozen other art sites to observe <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130814/METRO01/308140036/DIA-says-would-sue-protect-art-from-sell-off-Detroit-bankruptcy">A Day for Detroit</a>, in which we'll all be sharing our favorite works from the Institute's collection. Here's a list of <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20130813/ENT05/308130119/Detroit-Institute-of-Arts-Tyler-Green-Bankruptcy-a-day-for-detroit">all the sites that will be participating today</a>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8-mM-PScTLoi1JyjN9XYEVgGYNZCVEty8s1Zqoss6muhC3vgkutyQPInSh6GPcOk21JI5x1j_upQ40LQfpZqLQVpAjusYZbQJ4vwRDm9zIAt8dGO39OqGHW3nEp4t46Z5nm8wvA/s1600/oldenburg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8-mM-PScTLoi1JyjN9XYEVgGYNZCVEty8s1Zqoss6muhC3vgkutyQPInSh6GPcOk21JI5x1j_upQ40LQfpZqLQVpAjusYZbQJ4vwRDm9zIAt8dGO39OqGHW3nEp4t46Z5nm8wvA/s400/oldenburg.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Claes Oldenburg,<i> <a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/3f6245af-da3c-4a79-87e3-fb6ca5272263.aspx?position=1">Inverted Q</a></i>, 1976</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxiEbhmmIYXOcM1jGGt5pJ-aoPQwk-TAr8t4TEtMTG_z03GDlO-8YPECo3fMY7dsYGiFjgcl-MCnJEnpGvODFoI3nqsQLmtWVA9piST3uKNSDczsPAjYJS62rx3Bt9NQN6hta83w/s1600/louis.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxiEbhmmIYXOcM1jGGt5pJ-aoPQwk-TAr8t4TEtMTG_z03GDlO-8YPECo3fMY7dsYGiFjgcl-MCnJEnpGvODFoI3nqsQLmtWVA9piST3uKNSDczsPAjYJS62rx3Bt9NQN6hta83w/s400/louis.png" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morris Louis, <i><a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/b7020fc1-332c-472b-9c9e-a42b79dab1dc.aspx?position=90">Number 205</a></i>, 1961</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_lA7yCTDJ1UXrAEt-MtioGWtB7egIhRFgfGJzErPl0EUZuZWTssAcPSzmDmGkJ7prnIIPeBf3lt8yKDd315x1iGitu81LgjQZdP03TLwa5jJ50i1dd7sjxrugaJKdBVfzAzGuHw/s1600/lange.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_lA7yCTDJ1UXrAEt-MtioGWtB7egIhRFgfGJzErPl0EUZuZWTssAcPSzmDmGkJ7prnIIPeBf3lt8yKDd315x1iGitu81LgjQZdP03TLwa5jJ50i1dd7sjxrugaJKdBVfzAzGuHw/s400/lange.png" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dorothea Lange, <a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/f8ab5ff8-6615-428d-90a6-1e1ab17ff26e.aspx?position=52"><i>Migrant Mother, Nipomo</i></a>, California, 1936</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX79fUWqOJt0Slh0fiUMbXml0f8KDozGdvCv0Srbooi0DTEhB1PBcJUpJSfT18wivRRyfe_FH3bcr75rQfsIWE802Sg_zl8a1U1w49mG_yRPCrGWYCy0xk-KwMdVGVgKNd28QuJw/s1600/eames.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX79fUWqOJt0Slh0fiUMbXml0f8KDozGdvCv0Srbooi0DTEhB1PBcJUpJSfT18wivRRyfe_FH3bcr75rQfsIWE802Sg_zl8a1U1w49mG_yRPCrGWYCy0xk-KwMdVGVgKNd28QuJw/s400/eames.png" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles Eames,<i> <a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/f3147302-f39f-44dd-a050-f9fe4126a7c5.aspx?position=64">Side Chair</a></i>, 1951<i><br />
</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkor3Sj1tNWqbe4x2aYC0Qfe1VpNpRzJ3Pz87Ljw8GOPhjJiYIrQyE9nKNCXyIuaZE8AXv1Hq7U4ohuUVpL8-b9q5PBrMme_Zcu7GI7vE9Nwo6EPH9zGKU4i-4wFyMfltKeuJw4A/s1600/kusama.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkor3Sj1tNWqbe4x2aYC0Qfe1VpNpRzJ3Pz87Ljw8GOPhjJiYIrQyE9nKNCXyIuaZE8AXv1Hq7U4ohuUVpL8-b9q5PBrMme_Zcu7GI7vE9Nwo6EPH9zGKU4i-4wFyMfltKeuJw4A/s400/kusama.png" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yayoi Kusama, <i><a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/776d6749-d997-418b-a1d7-86d35e21e130.aspx?position=63">Silver Shoes (23 objects)</a></i>, 1976/1977</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPECuwVlKdCR0E2dC7B4nVFmOkrGwszRegNwMiKiUVZxrzvYk2cdRYYP9L0Mii27TMvqMePlLEFnvOf9h4E57lP_ZMlAWYRusydBMvVDJFcL5ZRfC9uBVovmJ4O6ks4834yk9Kaw/s1600/durer.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPECuwVlKdCR0E2dC7B4nVFmOkrGwszRegNwMiKiUVZxrzvYk2cdRYYP9L0Mii27TMvqMePlLEFnvOf9h4E57lP_ZMlAWYRusydBMvVDJFcL5ZRfC9uBVovmJ4O6ks4834yk9Kaw/s400/durer.png" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/257a6e17-2d0d-4ea9-b1f3-86d685b63027.aspx?position=8">Albrecht Durer, </a><i><a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/257a6e17-2d0d-4ea9-b1f3-86d685b63027.aspx?position=8">The Four Horsemen</a>, </i>1497/1498</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Update: </b>Some of my colleagues at the Walker Art Center <a href="http://blogs.walkerart.org/centerpoints/2013/08/14/a-day-for-detroit-walker-favorites-from-the-dia-collection/">share their favorites from the DIA collection</a> for A Day for Detroit. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-75575170237802264612013-08-13T07:00:00.000-05:002013-08-13T07:09:52.698-05:00Bits: Trickle-Down Art, Fast's Drones, Sekula<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH4iGJAmaoLdL39yi9UHnnpy8TS3IN-m-bSTgkE47GQEKCYIsa2PPWvn0lYCRddYFgcs4y-BHFFNgMnoWvaGM0JD8wnH016VXqcgKs7AN9frdZLVVtCv1YxUodauqQQ-JqysTeMA/s1600/omerfast.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH4iGJAmaoLdL39yi9UHnnpy8TS3IN-m-bSTgkE47GQEKCYIsa2PPWvn0lYCRddYFgcs4y-BHFFNgMnoWvaGM0JD8wnH016VXqcgKs7AN9frdZLVVtCv1YxUodauqQQ-JqysTeMA/s640/omerfast.png" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still from Omer Fast's <i>5,000 Feet is the Best, </i>2011</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
• Trickle-down theory--aka "Reaganomics," once derided as "voodoo economics" by George H.W. Bush--is what's behind the notion of selling off part of the Detroit Institute of Art's collection, writes Christopher Knight:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The claim of such a plan goes like this: Privatize a great art collection owned by the public, and the benefits will trickle down to the people... Will we fall for it again in Detroit? Supplying art masterpieces to a booming luxury-goods market will supposedly mean ponies and party hats for pensioners. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-selling-detroit-institute-museum-art-20130809,0,7730273.story">Fat chance.</a></blockquote>
• For its <a href="http://www.iwm.org.uk/exhibitions/iwm-london/iwm-contemporary-omer-fast">inaugural exhibition</a>, the Imperial War Museum's new IWM Contemporary program presents Omer Fast's 30-minute video <i>5,000 Feet is the Best</i>. On view through Sept. 29, the piece draws its name from an interview the artist did with a Las Vegas-based Predator drone operator, who (under condition of anonymity) shared what he believes to be the optimal altitude for the unmanned aerial vehicles. "It is a lot like playing a video game," <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/28/life-us-drone-operator-artist">he told Fast</a>. "But playing the same video game four years straight on the same level." GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham says <a href="http://blogs.cfr.org/zenko/2013/02/20/how-many-terrorists-have-been-killed-by-drones/">the US has killed 4,700 people</a> using these video-game-like weapons. Commonwealth Projects shares a <a href="https://vimeo.com/34050994">9-minute excerpt</a> from the video, which blends interview footage with actor dramatizations, while <i>The Guardian</i> offers <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/video/2013/jul/25/drone-iwm-contemporary-omer-fast-art-video">another</a>. <br />
<br />
• With the launch of its <a href="http://www.getty.edu/about/opencontent.html">Open Content Program</a>, the Getty is "making roughly <a href="http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/open-content-an-idea-whose-time-has-come/">4,600 high-resolution images of the Museum’s collection</a> free to use, modify, and publish for any purpose." <br />
<br />
• Your moment of private escape--a book read on your Kindle or Nook--<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/11/digital-reading-privacy-problems">isn't so private</a>, writes <a href="http://shorttermmemoryloss.com/">James Bridle</a>. According to EFF's most recent <a href="https://www.eff.org/pages/reader-privacy-chart-2012">E-Reader Privacy Chart</a>, "almost every service tracks searches for books, meaning not just what you read, but what you're interested in, is stored" for corporations to use and/or sell.<br />
<br />
• Speaking of Bridle, here he is <a href="https://vimeo.com/70482146">discussing</a> his <i><a href="https://vimeo.com/68387154">Balloon Infrastructures</a></i> workshop with Fabrica. <br />
<br />
• RIP <a href="http://www.fandor.com/blog/daily-allan-sekula-1951-2013">Allan Sekula</a>, artist, photographer, educator, writer. <br />
<br />
• Your moment of: <a href="http://beautifuldecay.com/2013/08/12/photographs-of-bullets-cut-in-half-show-you-ammo-like-youve-never-seen-before/">bullet cross-sections</a>. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-91258644802319669392013-08-12T15:58:00.003-05:002013-08-13T09:40:30.437-05:00Punks v. Hippies: A Graffiti Call-and-ResponseGraffiti reading "Kill the hippies," which appeared on a wall in Minneapolis' diverse (and admittedly lefty) Powderhorn Park neighborhood last month, recently got buffed and re-tagged. Here's the exchange: <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_fXA9lndbcEUPVbpmKQequpxhyphenhyphenh4QhupMOXKv60HrAVA3giNGcEnALkg0B6S_G76uWuhLSyZDSQ30kH3_Yk__40AyGoPgcNqpfUf5uhzIDD2Q5qiX880jYUWJXcrh6V1StZfIUw/s1600/hippies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_fXA9lndbcEUPVbpmKQequpxhyphenhyphenh4QhupMOXKv60HrAVA3giNGcEnALkg0B6S_G76uWuhLSyZDSQ30kH3_Yk__40AyGoPgcNqpfUf5uhzIDD2Q5qiX880jYUWJXcrh6V1StZfIUw/s640/hippies.jpg" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">July 2013</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_aXh6ppZ2gBK3ZSti7tI7J62fHckvvjKwM4qzOY_ktXuuhEpnJJQ7LkvdqujwrCkTGUkM5l70Y6SwayMHDaG2lClmjR5E_RplZ3gXoNu39-I3U8dQ7PJQYz66mt7im-vM6Fvdeg/s1600/punks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_aXh6ppZ2gBK3ZSti7tI7J62fHckvvjKwM4qzOY_ktXuuhEpnJJQ7LkvdqujwrCkTGUkM5l70Y6SwayMHDaG2lClmjR5E_RplZ3gXoNu39-I3U8dQ7PJQYz66mt7im-vM6Fvdeg/s640/punks.jpg" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">August 2013</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-55876001492479890532013-08-09T12:47:00.001-05:002013-08-13T07:10:12.653-05:00Bits: Bromides, Tasered for Graffiti, Herzog's PSA• Miami Beach police <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/07/v-fullstory/3548779/graffiti-artist-dies-after-tasering.html">tasered to death</a> 18-year-old artist and graffiti writer Israel Hernández-Llach early Tuesday morning. His crime: <a href="http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2013/08/here_is_the_graffito_that_got.php">writing an R</a> -- that's as far as he got in writing his tag, "Reefa" -- on the side of a shuttered McDonalds. “The officers were forced to use the Taser to avoid a physical incident," said the chief of police.<br />
<br />
• <a href="http://www.wernerherzog.com/">Werner Herzog</a> takes the dreaded driver-safety PSA into new territory with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BqFkRwdFZ0"><i>From One Minute to the Next</i></a>, a new 35-minute documentary, which offers an unflinching and distinctly Herzogian cautionary tale about texting while driving. He forgoes the genre's usual scare tactics, instead opting for humane portraiture of both victims and perpetrators. It's every bit as engrossing as <i>Grizzly Man</i> or <i>Into the Abyss</i>, making the haunting case that any one of us could find ourselves an unintended killer for checking the iPhone one more time. <br />
<br />
• <a href="http://www.winkleman.com/">Edward Winkelman</a> posted <a href="http://www.dia.org/object-info/94dc6427-32a4-4cfa-afb2-fc57b018a56a.aspx?position=5">this remarkable story</a> on Facebook: a Russian man, displeased by the terms of an unsolicited credit card offer he received in the mail, scanned and modified the agreement -- to include terms like a 0% APR and no fees -- and mailed a signed copy back. The back approved a card, apparently without reading the fine print. Long story short, it's now two years later and he's suing the back for $727,000 for breach of contract. <br />
<div style="color: black; font: 10pt sans-serif; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-transform: none; width: 1px;">
<br />
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/07/v-fullstory/3548779/graffiti-artist-dies-after-tasering.html#storylink=cpy</div>
<br />
• PJ Harvey's new single "<a href="http://www.pjharvey.net/news.asp?newsid=1049&year=2013">Shaker Aemer</a>" -- available as a free download -- draws attention to the plight of the last British resident in Guantánamo: Held without charge or trial and cleared of any wrongdoing in 2007, Aamer has been locked up for 11 years. The song recounts the 46-year-old's <a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/cases/shakeraamer/">four-month hunger strike</a> and forced feedings. <br />
<br />
• Of its <a href="http://www.complex.com/music/2013/08/jay-z-taylor-swift-picasso-baby-video">Jay Z/Taylor Swift "Picasso Baby" mashup</a>, <i>Pop Culture Pirate</i> <a href="http://www.popculturepirate.com/picasso-baby-im-22/">writes</a>, "I love that both artists use their status as outsiders to connect with audiences despite being very much ‘insiders.' I think that dichotomy resonates with the art world attendees as well."<br />
<br />
• Painter <a href="http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2009/03/landescape-rich-barlows-covers.html">Rich Barlow</a> tells <i>MN Daily</i> about his <a href="http://www.mndaily.com/ae/art/2013/08/07/richard-barlow-goes-postal">"Daily Bromides,"</a> a series of watercolor postcards he sends out anonymously -- one a day for a month to a random recipient -- depicting <span class="text">William Henry Fox Talbot's <i>Reflected Trees</i>, one of the first photographs ever made. </span><br />
<br />
• Apparently, today is <a href="http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/08/08/guns-and-coffee-bearing-arms-to-starbucks/">go-armed-to-Starbucks day</a>. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-8737320062256856712013-08-01T17:03:00.000-05:002013-08-01T17:07:25.110-05:00Bits: León Ferrari, Trayvon's Hoodie, Youssef Abdelke<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgup9T370D35xI3ARMyZ7Ff_gkdwAU1uPubFuKWHR6NeVsUbuylIaIUgSO6Nd4BZuMxTHt1IQRSRMJnPXmlO-qPp6DMaogk9ucrt5Yo68zkfNzG5K7tI61sVIiVNEI2QrzuwP_88A/s1600/DavidHammons_IntheHood.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgup9T370D35xI3ARMyZ7Ff_gkdwAU1uPubFuKWHR6NeVsUbuylIaIUgSO6Nd4BZuMxTHt1IQRSRMJnPXmlO-qPp6DMaogk9ucrt5Yo68zkfNzG5K7tI61sVIiVNEI2QrzuwP_88A/s640/DavidHammons_IntheHood.jpg" width="" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">David Hammons, <a href="http://artsy.net/artwork/david-hammons-in-the-hood"><i>In the Hood</i></a>, 199</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
• The Smithsonian's <a href="http://nmaahc.si.edu/">National Museum of African American History and Culture</a>, now under construction in Washington and expected to open in 2015, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/what-will-become-of-trayvons-hoodie-the-latest-piece-of-iconic-trial-evidence/2013/07/30/0882de30-f951-11e2-afc1-c850c6ee5af8_story_2.html">hopes to acquire and present the hoodie worn by Trayvon Martin</a> the night he was killed. Director Lonnie Bunch -- who has gathered civil rights touchstones from handcuffs used to <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/harvard.html">restrain</a> Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in 2009 to a guard tower from Angola State Penitentiar -- says the hoodie became "the symbolic way to talk the Trayvon Martin case. It’s rare that you get one artifact that really becomes the symbol. Because it’s such a symbol, it would allow you to talk about race in the age of Obama.”<br />
<br />
• <i>Vice</i> reporter Tim Pool says his hacked Google Glass is <a href="http://www.fastcolabs.com/3015109/how-vice-hacked-google-glass-to-tell-crisis-stories#3">the biggest change to his reporting toolkit since the iPhone.</a> Pool--who with his organization The Other 99% started Occupy Wall Street's <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/theother99">livestream</a>--has used Glass to cover conflicts in Cairo, <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/tim-pool-live-streaming-from-istanbul">Istanbul</a>, and New York. “Glass allows me to keep my focus--When I'm running, having my hands free is particularly important," he says. "When things get intense with plastic bullets, I don't want to stare at a camera, I just hit record. It puts me more in the moment when I have a POV shot.”<br />
<br />
• Hours before he was arrested by Syrian regime forces July 18, artist Youssef Abdelke <a href="http://www.blogger.com/">signed</a> a pro-democracy petition that called for "the departure of Bashar al-Assad." <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Art/2013/Jul-31/225662-artists-gather-in-solidarity-with-abdelke.ashx#axzz2akjmRCLf">Petitions are appearing online calling for his release</a>, and artists in the region are rallying in solidarity. One, Syrian artist <a class="entityAnchor" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4073789">Houmam Alsaye, says, </a>“From the point of view of the regime, <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Art/2013/Jul-31/225662-artists-gather-in-solidarity-with-abdelke.ashx#axzz2akjmRCLf">Youssef is a weapon</a> – one that uses pen and paper.”<br />
<br />
• George Saunders gives a commencement speech: "Do all the other things, the ambitious things – travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim naked in wild jungle rivers (after first having it tested for monkey poop) – but as you do, to the extent that you can, <a href="http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/george-saunderss-advice-to-graduates/"><i>err in the direction of kindness</i></a>. Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial."<br />
<br />
• <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/arts/leon-ferrari-provocative-argentine-conceptual-artist-dies-at-92.html?partner=rss&emc=rss">RIP León Ferrari:</a> the Argentine political and conceptual <a href="http://www.leonferrari.com.ar/">artist</a> whose work tackled issues from human rights abuses by his government to the "barbarism of the West" has passed away at age 92. Best known for his sculpture showing a nearly-life-sized <a href="http://leonferrari.com.ar/files/la-civilizacion-occidental-y-cristiana-1965-plastico-oleo-y-yeso-200-x-120-x-60cm.jpg">Christ crucified on a Vietnam-era US fighter jet</a>, his work often used religious imagery. Highly critical of Argentina's military rulers, he left the county to live in exile in Brazil from 1976 to 1991. His son was taken by the military and is presumed dead. Of the political nature of his art, he once wrote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“The only thing I ask of art is that it helps me express what I think as clearly as possible, to invent visual and critical signs that let me condemn more efficiently the barbarism of the West. Someone could possibly prove to me that this is not art. I would have no problem with it, I would not change paths, I would simply change its name, crossing out art and calling it politics, corrosive criticism, anything at all, really.” </blockquote>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-75106043547841246752013-07-26T16:31:00.002-05:002013-07-26T16:33:45.915-05:00 Billboard correction: "To fight monsters, we created monsters"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5HqqVBlHWv7R7V1QvIFuaVxd23CD0YrxSjlJLvm8a5_-EX4bvt9dUtW2WBEJbxgVrSM5RXpfxpWdn91C4QPDPakKVIOCKosxLE4-keLTOOwWGN0V7Tpuk0GX5PkBrL5c2-Pxz3g/s1600/560.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5HqqVBlHWv7R7V1QvIFuaVxd23CD0YrxSjlJLvm8a5_-EX4bvt9dUtW2WBEJbxgVrSM5RXpfxpWdn91C4QPDPakKVIOCKosxLE4-keLTOOwWGN0V7Tpuk0GX5PkBrL5c2-Pxz3g/s400/560.jpg" width="415" /></a></div>Culturejammers the California Department of Corrections has modified a <i>Pacific Rim</i> movie billboard, putting a new twist on the film's tagline: "<a href="http://correctionsdepartment.org/media.html">To fight monsters, we created monsters: The National Security State.</a>" (Via <a href="http://animalnewyork.com/2013/pacific-rim-billboard-gets-an-nsa-themed-makeover/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+animalnewyork+%28ANIMAL%29"><i>AnimalNY</i></a>.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-27589243296879536622013-07-24T07:42:00.001-05:002013-07-24T07:42:32.845-05:00Bits: Lefty Hoarders, Pirate Utopias, Artist Pay<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF-K3XT-O5dzNKN-itm9l25uZw6sCg-FLZJsWNuHGohA9INUjhx6UfazlfsCyR-zDv6PFAzRst4NxLNlYb1YPYdjCSUGEtZUAfhHE0cfnI3Us-JY69L9OhVM_XsbyE1avsIiGOog/s1600/MG_9011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF-K3XT-O5dzNKN-itm9l25uZw6sCg-FLZJsWNuHGohA9INUjhx6UfazlfsCyR-zDv6PFAzRst4NxLNlYb1YPYdjCSUGEtZUAfhHE0cfnI3Us-JY69L9OhVM_XsbyE1avsIiGOog/s640/MG_9011.jpg" width="415" /></a></div>
<small>Docked raft at night. Photo: <a href="http://staging.todseelie.com/">Tod Seelie</a></small><br />
<br />
• In the spirit of the <a href="http://www.missrockaway.org/">Miss Rockaway Armada</a> and <a href="http://swimmingcities.org/">Swimming Cities of Serenissima</a>, Swoon and her band of DIY eco-art rafters are heading out on another excursion next month, accordint to crew photographer Tod Seelie--this time down the Willamette River in Portland. <i>Wired</i> looks at this <a href="http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2013/07/hobo-steampunk-boats-house-river-running-art-collective/#slideid-26531">"Burning Man Aquatic"</a> through Seelie's photos documenting these <a href="http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2006/08/pirate-utopia-miss-rockaway-in.html">"pirate utopias."</a><br />
<br />
• The <a href="http://interferencearchive.org/">Interference Archive</a>--begun as the personal collection of activist ephemera of "lefty hoarders" Josh MacPhee and his late wife Dara Greenwald--now houses some "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/nyregion/the-activism-files.html?pagewanted=all">12,000 posters, 7,500 books and 7,500 pamphlets, zines and other objects</a>" from radical social movements from modern American history. “Use is its own form of preservation,” MacPhee (of <a href="http://www.justseeds.org/">JustSeeds</a>) tells the New York Times of a collection that visitors to its Brooklyn location can handle without gloves. (Note to Josh: This non-New Yorker would donate to a crowd-funding campaign for digitization.)<br />
<br />
• Regardless of how well art institutions or art markets are doing, most artists aren't the beneficiaries. Alexis Clements writes for <i>Hyperallergic</i> about <a href="http://hyperallergic.com/75549/how-are-artists-getting-paid/">five models for change</a>, ranging from a renewal of artist labor unions to certification programs that ensure “ethical payment practices" (like the one W.A.G.E. <a href="http://www.wageforwork.com/certification/1/about-certification">proposes</a>) to going off the grid altogether. <br />
<br />
• For his show at the Natural History Museum in London, Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado is showing works that depict the “stunning mosaic of nature in all its unspoilt grandeur." Surprising then is the show's sponsor: mining company Vale, which is <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/the-natural-world-photographed-by-sebastio-salgado--sponsored-by-a-corporation-thats-despoiling-the-amazon-8714748.html">accused of despoiling the Amazon</a> and was dubbed company with the “<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/27/public-eye-awards-vale-barclays">most contempt for the environment and human rights</a>” in the world by the Public Eye in 2012.<br />
<br />
• <a href="http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2009/02/rage-on-rails-political-graffiti-on.html">Impeach</a> <a href="http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2011/04/newsworthy-train-graffiti-birthers.html">returns</a> with more boxcar graffiti: this time an <a href="http://www.justseeds.org/blog/2013/07/new_impeach_freightsgraf_10.html">obituary for the middle class</a>.<br />
<br />
• Your moment of stripes: Italian street artist Mimmo Rubino <a href="http://beautifuldecay.com/2013/07/22/clever-street-artist-uses-a-cement-trucks-spinning-mixer-to-create-striped-painting/">paints the rotating tank on a cement mixer.</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-87049068486222924292013-07-18T21:13:00.001-05:002013-07-18T21:22:04.707-05:00Bits: US Stasi, Trayvon, #occupygezi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ7-2KSZBo0ySQUvW9IJKMFBBWpCx43pCSATF-4ewShKrgO03lHDwiJPKb3OmzqItx_QyUAycIDQy8NRIsV7hEs1PSWiiq_hnF5MyMKKqQ9UFeAfMKtzngJmyW3AMJri27HpAQ9Q/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-07-18+at+2.59.58+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ7-2KSZBo0ySQUvW9IJKMFBBWpCx43pCSATF-4ewShKrgO03lHDwiJPKb3OmzqItx_QyUAycIDQy8NRIsV7hEs1PSWiiq_hnF5MyMKKqQ9UFeAfMKtzngJmyW3AMJri27HpAQ9Q/s640/Screen+Shot+2013-07-18+at+2.59.58+PM.png" width="415" /></a></div>
• Berlin police say they've <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/united-stasi-of-america-artist-wanted-by-berlin-police-a-910818.html">opened an investigation</a> following artist Oliver Bienkowski's protest over US spying Sunday night: he projected the phrase "United Stasi of America" on the exterior of the US embassy, which may violate a law against "insulting organs and representatives of foreign countries." The words were accompanied by the image of Kim Dotcom, the hacker icon and internet activist.<br />
<br />
• "I decided today that until the 'stand your ground' law is abolished in Florida, I will never perform there again," Stevie Wonder <a href="http://tlcnaptown.com/2124384/stevie-wonder-pledges-not-to-play-in-florida-until-stand-your-ground-law-is-abolished/">told</a> concertgoers in Quebec Sunday night following the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case. "As a matter of fact, wherever I find that law exists, I will not perform in that state or in that part of the world." His boycott, writes <i>Slate</i>'s Jack Hamilton, is "<a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/07/stevie_wonder_s_florida_boycott_his_zimmerman_verdict_protest_is_savvy_and.html">politically savvy, morally righteous, and it could be enormously important.</a>"<br />
<br />
• The latest installment of Erik Brandt's <i>Ficciones Typografika</i>--a <a href="http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2013/07/ficciones-typografika-erik-brandts.html">poster series by global designers rotating on his garage wall</a>--takes on a local political issue: an <a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/west/215670931.html">ICE investigation</a> into the Spanish daycare chain Jardin Magico that lead to the departures of some 60 teachers—40 percent of the staff. Designed by Brandt, the triptych features three languages stating "No human being is illegal." <a href="http://ficciones-typografika.tumblr.com/post/55788708165/erik-brandt-ficciones-typografika-031-033-2013">He writes</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">A set of three posters dedicated to the teachers and staff of Jardin Magico that lost their positions due to pressure from the Department of Homeland Security. Their dedication to educate children in a bilingual environment was exemplary, inspiring, and loving. This action does not make our country safer, indeed, it threatens our immediate future. No human being is illegal. These posters are the voice of my family. We demand amnesty for all immigrants and an immediate end to this betrayal of the promise of America. </span></blockquote>
• "Having suffered from military coups and oppressive regimes, our parents raised us to be as apolitical as possible," writes New York–based Turkish curator Ceren Erdem on the Walker Art Center homepage. "I am sorry — no, actually, pleased — to say that it didn’t work." She <a href="http://blogs.walkerart.org/visualarts/2013/07/17/istanbul-dispatch-ceren-erdem-on-the-gezi-uprising-and-beyond/">recounts her experiences at #occupygezi</a>, from the cooperation of disparate activist groups--including anti-capitalist Muslims, LGBTQ people, and women--and creative resistance that took many forms, from the famed Standing Man to "earth fast-breaking," a communal feast in the streets to mark the first meal of Ramadan.<br />
<br />
• Eugenio Merino emails to share the results of last week's court ruling on <a href="http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2013/07/eugenio-merinos-response-to-franco.html">a lawsuit filed against him by the Franco Foundation over artwork it felt disparaged the late dictator</a>: "We have won! But the Franco Foundation is going to appeal ... and they are also going to sue me for the punching Franco work," a reference to a sculpture he made of a punching bag shaped like El Generalissimo's head.<i> Digital Journal</i> has <a href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354674">more</a>.<br />
<br />
• Artist Florentijn Hofman's outrage over a Chinese knockoff of his giant inflatable rubber duckie is "a curious reaction," <a href="http://hyperallergic.com/75107/how-pop-art-got-ripped-off/">writes <i>Hyperallergic</i>'s Alicia Eler</a>, "considering that Hofman himself created a work of pop art which is, in and of itself, already a copy of a copy of a copy, ad infinitum."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-10195321975181447222013-07-08T08:28:00.000-05:002014-08-23T14:34:36.229-05:00Ficciones Typografika: Erik Brandt's Neighborhood, Global, Back-Alley Design Show<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOugdE64Y_wjShsJnCFKaCbIZEvfQiEmaIQY_YWLjXWxfAXa_qJVIq5A9WUpnmrE1WKnxvchmTCo-08FUYtOQh1gcBHic9gJ9fAiQgCyW4e7Z04iTTb_mBz_F8KxcoDAX5JH3Dag/s1600/tumblr_mpf91dR1Qt1ssqfx1o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOugdE64Y_wjShsJnCFKaCbIZEvfQiEmaIQY_YWLjXWxfAXa_qJVIq5A9WUpnmrE1WKnxvchmTCo-08FUYtOQh1gcBHic9gJ9fAiQgCyW4e7Z04iTTb_mBz_F8KxcoDAX5JH3Dag/s640/tumblr_mpf91dR1Qt1ssqfx1o1_500.jpg" height="" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Dolence, Bryce Wilner, Zach Collins, <i>Ficciones Typografika 019-021</i>, installed 07.04.13. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Graphic designer and design <a href="http://geotypografika.com/">blogger</a> <a href="http://www.typografika.com/">Erik Brandt</a>'s work has been celebrated around the world. A <a href="http://mcad.edu/faculty/erik-brandt-0">design professor</a> at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design and a <a href="http://a-g-i.org/member-work/work/641">member</a> of the prestigious <a href="http://a-g-i.org/">AGI</a> (Alliance Graphique Internationale), his work has been featured in publications from Maurizio Cattelan's <i><a href="http://typografika.com/Beaver-College-Art-Gallery-Announcements">Charley</a></i> (Greece) and <i><a href="http://crackmagazine.net/art/erik-brandt/">CRACK</a></i> Magazine (UK) to <i><a href="http://www.designboom.com/design/erik-brandt-interview/">designboom</a></i> (US) and <i><a href="http://www.idpure.ch/fr/accueil.asp">IDPURE</a></i> (Switzerland), and his client work has been just as diverse, including, but not limited to, work for <a href="http://typografika.com/Domestic-Integrity-Fields">artists</a>, <a href="http://typografika.com/Vidtiger">videographers</a>, and <a href="http://typografika.com/Eyeo-Festival">festivals</a>. Given the international nature of his design practice (and residences: he's lived in Malawi, Cameroon, Japan, Germany, and Egypt, to name a few), his latest project stands out for an opposite characteristic: its intensely local nature. He's curating an ongoing poster show in his back alley in Minneapolis' Powderhorn Park neighborhood. But in typical Brandt fashion, <a href="http://ficciones-typografika.tumblr.com/"><i>Ficciones Typografika</i></a> offers a global lens: He's invited artists from around the world to contribute work to the 24" x 36" space on the side of his garage. A neighbor and friend, he agreed to share some of the thinking behind the project. <br />
<div class="p1">
</div>
<div class="p1">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdzfGil9CEneDlsgdai5FXfRpNrw6gDeNeYKn4uvO4gZYAdCniMXTyHCHNHgzpVVQ9SDMXpzD5z9tMkDQf61J5MQmar8OD3Z9Lcc1mbsaj2_JpgyECjN-divIJYi_98rSzk-XZTg/s1600/tumblr_mohochk1BQ1ssqfx1o1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdzfGil9CEneDlsgdai5FXfRpNrw6gDeNeYKn4uvO4gZYAdCniMXTyHCHNHgzpVVQ9SDMXpzD5z9tMkDQf61J5MQmar8OD3Z9Lcc1mbsaj2_JpgyECjN-divIJYi_98rSzk-XZTg/s640/tumblr_mohochk1BQ1ssqfx1o1_1280.jpg" height="" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Erik Brandt, <i>Ficciones Typografika 001-003</i>, installed 06.16.13.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="p1">
<b>The audience for artwork on the side of a garage in South Minneapolis is limited. What prompted you to do this, and do you also consider the online life of the project in addition to that in-person audience of neighborhood visitors?</b></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
This may sound funny, but I really believe in the intelligence and imagination of people. The poster was made for people, to be viewed at a human scale, intimately and also from a distance. It's a medium entirely devoted to life as a human, however distant that concept has become in our world. I used to do much more of this type of public projection in grad school, and this specific idea has been circulating in my head for some time, but it found momentum only recently. I had been invited to take part in round four of a similar project in Manchester, UK, called <i><a href="http://noflyposters.com/">No Fly Posters</a>.</i> The idea there was to use abandoned buildings as a ground for posters devoted to that theme -- the founder, Jon Bland, started it as a response to a property owner's rejection of some early fun with the space, then started inviting designers to create work that poked fun at his admonition, "No Fly Posters." I just decided that I wanted a medium that I could exploit at will and as often as I wanted, but also knew immediately that I would want to invite artists, poets, and designers from all over the world to join in.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br />
The <a href="http://ficciones-typografika.tumblr.com/">online life</a> of the project both documents and extends the project's reach, and it is especially satisfying to share images of wrinkled posters as opposed to digital versions. Once I have enough submissions, which will be sooner than later, thankfully, I'm also planning on printing a newspaper version of the posters at scale. I'm really looking forward to that; that medium will preserve the transparency, and each poster will interact with each other in a new way.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglphWczYBYyN5OxLDfcsUGxCeJpgskImq3AuP4Ne5Mk3L4xwCpfXPLG18YFMpJyLYyvAzlTgvKa93QRroYB6VbUhoG4DImtj2t5KAbBUVs6dNWMNtByM9iGFre3IVfq6hYfRojoA/s1600/tumblr_mpf91dR1Qt1ssqfx1o7_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglphWczYBYyN5OxLDfcsUGxCeJpgskImq3AuP4Ne5Mk3L4xwCpfXPLG18YFMpJyLYyvAzlTgvKa93QRroYB6VbUhoG4DImtj2t5KAbBUVs6dNWMNtByM9iGFre3IVfq6hYfRojoA/s640/tumblr_mpf91dR1Qt1ssqfx1o7_1280.jpg" height="" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of <i>Ficciones Typografika 019-021</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>The site for the works and the ephemeral nature of the medium suggest an affinity for street art or graffiti, but the subject matter and style aren't typical of those movements: abstract posters, experimental design. Do you make a connection to such street-based art? Or is there another medium you're referencing? </b></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I've been surprised by the conversations this has started with both neighbors and people stopping by. Most seem to feel it is art of some kind, and that is just fine. I can completely relate to street artists and hope this might be a way-station for that kind of activity. It's also a defense-mechanism of sorts: my garage has been tagged a few times, so if it happens again, it will only complement the work on display at the time.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3VnA68wMDohUQco10Y1XlLHOgVba2xkobn0aVIQsT5sFL5BucIRqTmuSYg_a0fXTWE9T-e1Hk4fT7XIJ9PwFQez5S5l6YtZDEkcior4Xmh8cUnXTMho6eSiX8SkmpV1ZYtRFPYQ/s1600/tumblr_mp2kedcFRT1ssqfx1o1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3VnA68wMDohUQco10Y1XlLHOgVba2xkobn0aVIQsT5sFL5BucIRqTmuSYg_a0fXTWE9T-e1Hk4fT7XIJ9PwFQez5S5l6YtZDEkcior4Xmh8cUnXTMho6eSiX8SkmpV1ZYtRFPYQ/s640/tumblr_mp2kedcFRT1ssqfx1o1_1280.jpg" height="" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Gladman, Travis Stearns, Huiqian Wu, <i>Ficciones Typografika 013-015, i</i>nstalled 06.27.13. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
But, yes, I really want to advocate for experimental design and non-specific explorations. A highly-regarded friend of mine recently asked why she should engage with the project. I said that if it felt like design for design's sake, so be it! The Be-Bop artists literally turned their backs on the audience, playing only for themselves, discovering new directions. I'd like to think this offers a similar potential, and I don't mean that to sound arrogant or pretentious. The irony is that it is public, after all, however limited. Indeed, the Internet life of the project will surely reach more eyes. I imagine it both as a place for experiment and projection, and I haven't defined content for anyone I've invited.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<b>Tell me about the title. Of course, Typografika is the name of your studio, and "ficciones" is Spanish, hearkening Borges' famed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficciones">anthology</a>?</b></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I've been using that term for many years with regard to both <a href="http://typografika.com/Ficciones-Typografika">my own work</a> as well as some advanced design seminars I've taught both here and abroad. It is entirely inspired by Borges, though "typografika" was actually a term to describe Czech typographic unions some time ago. My early studio name was ¡ü16.øäk! I started using Typografika around 2000 because it seemed simpler, though I still like the conglomerate nature of the early moniker. It references the languages I grew up speaking, and their identities.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjll0ZQ1mBQFDNwquQH-LedsamCo-f5VHzizrYKnZV4Kw7p3gaHR3QwDSRa2y4c7YRzAlc99lZrzptT_PJaY5R85PHGuFJOwIAr6C1BMK8pxIb-8-cl5heCgRbce544VVRcSSeNSQ/s1600/tumblr_mowkx1IdXd1ssqfx1o1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjll0ZQ1mBQFDNwquQH-LedsamCo-f5VHzizrYKnZV4Kw7p3gaHR3QwDSRa2y4c7YRzAlc99lZrzptT_PJaY5R85PHGuFJOwIAr6C1BMK8pxIb-8-cl5heCgRbce544VVRcSSeNSQ/s640/tumblr_mowkx1IdXd1ssqfx1o1_1280.jpg" height="" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hans-Ulrich Allemann, Cyrus Highsmith, Götz Gramlich,<i> Ficciones Typografika 010-012</i>, installed 06.24.13. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>You're featuring international designers in a hyperlocal setting. In that way, the project seems like a gift to Powderhorn, from you and from the contributing designers.</b></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I'm glad it comes across that way, it really is a hope of mine that people will enjoy it. So much of our activities are online and revolve around "hearts" and "likes." These get to be rained on and seen by chance, or on purpose. It might be hard to get them up in winter, but I am going to experiment with some heated wheat paste then.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<b>To what degree are the works site specific? I see one, Götz Gramlich's "My wall, your wall, our wall, no wall," which seems to be. Will there be others?</b></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
It's entirely up to the individual. I have encouraged people to work with their own native languages, so I hope Götz will submit a new one in German. I really want to share the vibrancy of language in all of it's forms. There will be submissions from Thailand, Iran, China, and beyond, I hope.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1AGcUMagGg0VhJ5xnMVX9PTMoxNBfD8DRSC2aZI3JfD1HB-sl2o4bR6UWC8ILS7uIYggLIBXlgbpWFwsVE7jYyY_hXDB5vZZeAb5CuQThWbrmSsFg6Gy_MH9DSyiCmAluA2BX_g/s1600/tumblr_monk71ZzhS1ssqfx1o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1AGcUMagGg0VhJ5xnMVX9PTMoxNBfD8DRSC2aZI3JfD1HB-sl2o4bR6UWC8ILS7uIYggLIBXlgbpWFwsVE7jYyY_hXDB5vZZeAb5CuQThWbrmSsFg6Gy_MH9DSyiCmAluA2BX_g/s640/tumblr_monk71ZzhS1ssqfx1o1_500.jpg" height="" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Erik Brandt, <i>Ficciones Typografika 007-009, </i>installed on 06.19.13. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Your predator drone "remote control" piece definitely has some currency as more artists take on the topic in their work. Is there a political message in the siting of the piece -- your alley -- in the way that James Bridle's large-scale <i><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stml/sets/72157631741955211/"><span class="s1">Drone Shadows</span></a> </i>brings drones down from the sky and reminds what few of us can see close up: surveillance or weapons-enabled aircrafts remote controlled by unseen government actors? </b></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
That poster was reworked from an <a href="http://typografika.com/Remote-Control">earlier version</a> I submitted to <i>Mut zur Wut </i>(<i>Courage to Anger</i>), the Heidelberg, Germany poster competition founded by my friend Götz. I like this version better, it's more direct in a sense, and the typographic experiment is subtle yet pointed. His competition invites people to take on subjects that "anger" them, and this one is related to the inaugural event, where I used type found in Minneapolis to determine the message that tried to capture early disillusionment with the <a href="http://typografika.com/Mut-zur-Wut-2010">promise of Obama</a>. The recent revelations of NSA surveillance of citizens worldwide has only compacted this feeling. We came so far, but at what cost? It is deeply disturbing to me. Travis Stearns and I share a similar viewpoint, and <a href="http://ficciones-typografika.tumblr.com/post/54041065138/ficciones-typografika-013-015-24-x36-very">his recent submission</a> echoes that same sense of foreboding.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8iixcRqoSSadLmK8poyDCfHzRZy17JXmn4KRHJN2z2hWQ5bcwpPf0DesOL37xKO-xkdQrH1U-i0VyKNt6XDdG-NrGtwqPcrCqErpFocVgRwofJWCbtM6f_is31PWoew3i2hY92A/s1600/tumblr_monk71ZzhS1ssqfx1o3_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8iixcRqoSSadLmK8poyDCfHzRZy17JXmn4KRHJN2z2hWQ5bcwpPf0DesOL37xKO-xkdQrH1U-i0VyKNt6XDdG-NrGtwqPcrCqErpFocVgRwofJWCbtM6f_is31PWoew3i2hY92A/s640/tumblr_monk71ZzhS1ssqfx1o3_500.jpg" height="" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail of <i>Ficciones Typografika 007-009</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>I love the DIY nature of this. You're an accomplished designer/artist with lots of client work and design accolades. What does this kind of project do for your process? Does it fill a need or scratch an itch that client work might not?</b></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Well, thank you for that compliment, sincerely. It fills a need to communicate and experiment, and it's especially satisfying to include others, both students and professionals, artists, poets, and designers. It's so simple, and so joyful. Armin Hoffman remarked once that posters expose the soul of a city. I am hoping to share the souls of the world.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEialHECdDyfCTNpsq8yjq5TcRz0354eIuHYtmE5YmmGMRGban2VsN6G7ySs58-eJFcpVKxacyvStYnFjZr_DURNEL2SB2xDI8H9-qunbMgFnAm7sve6MxPDvNmzk8-oHc-XGssDJQ/s1600/tumblr_mp813x4HNZ1ssqfx1o1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEialHECdDyfCTNpsq8yjq5TcRz0354eIuHYtmE5YmmGMRGban2VsN6G7ySs58-eJFcpVKxacyvStYnFjZr_DURNEL2SB2xDI8H9-qunbMgFnAm7sve6MxPDvNmzk8-oHc-XGssDJQ/s640/tumblr_mp813x4HNZ1ssqfx1o1_1280.jpg" height="" width="415" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ben Proell, <i>Ficciones Typografika 16-18, </i>installed 06.28.13. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="p2">
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-77142760717519351102013-07-03T14:05:00.005-05:002013-07-03T14:05:59.371-05:00Eugenio Merino's Response to a Franco Foundation Lawsuit: A Franco Punching Bag<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2JIIK6qG2VILWWEbfitzVZwxyiXRMe2CAPLL7Rv4cZ9_J6CeAhZHRk-N2QxnN84kZHLK7z-zcRj1rWBWJSFsI2SUj1Ohr0_fsm3Do80A3bgIdoHhLWmSPmAtkJk3kqS4H_Nd5LQ/s1170/always+Franco+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2JIIK6qG2VILWWEbfitzVZwxyiXRMe2CAPLL7Rv4cZ9_J6CeAhZHRk-N2QxnN84kZHLK7z-zcRj1rWBWJSFsI2SUj1Ohr0_fsm3Do80A3bgIdoHhLWmSPmAtkJk3kqS4H_Nd5LQ/s640/always+Franco+.jpg" width="410" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.eugeniomerino.com/">Eugenio Merino</a>'s response to a <a href="http://www.fnff.es/En_ARCO_se_mofan_del_Caudillo_253_c.htm">lawsuit</a> by the Francisco Franco National Foundation (FNFF), seeking €18,000 in damages for his sculpture of the late dictator preserved in a Coca-Cola refrigerator? A group art show--mounted just days before the trial is set to begin--of anti-fascist art, including the debut of Merino's own depiction of a <a href="http://web.eugeniomerino.com/?p=41">punching bag</a> shaped like El Generalísimo's head. <br />
<br />
On July 11, 2013, Merino will appear in civil court to discuss his presentation of the artwork <i>Always Franco</i> at the ARCO international art fair in 2011. FFNF--a group dedicated to "la difusión de la memoria y obra de Francisco Franco" ("dissemeninating the memory and work" of Franco)--is suing the artist and the fair for a work FNFF's vice president, Jaime Alonso, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jXOdtOANSdeUzkW8RbjH3ufdcCMg?docId=CNG.231a2fa61aa1a57857a4682b54569242.261">characterizes</a> as a "serious offence against the former head of state." The work, he told Spanishi media, "generates hate and confrontation" and turns the 40-year military ruler into "a caricature, a puppet." The July 11 proceeding is the third and final hearing on the case.<br />
<br />
But before it begins, Merino will show his never-before-exhibited <i>Punching Franco</i> as part of the three-day<i><a href="http://artistasantifascistas.org/en/"> Jornados Contra Franco</a></i>, July 5–7, 2013, mounted by <a href="http://artistasantifascistas.org/en/">Artistas Antifascistas</a> in Madrid. More than two dozen artists--including Alejandro Jodorowsky, Santiago Sierra, and Tania Bruguera--will exhibit works about censorship and fascism.<br />
<br />
For Merino, controversy about his art is nothing new. Known for an on-the-nose approach to hot-button issues from religion to politics to consumerism and poverty through satirical sculptures, his works often raise hackles. His hyperrealistic style has rendered a disco-dancing Osama, a machine gun–toting Dalai Lama, a George W. Bush punching bag, and a homeless man asleep under an Ikea box. And he's had his share of ARCO outrages prior to this one: In 2009, he showed a sculpture depicting artist Damien Hirst, entitled <i><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/feb/18/damien-hirst-suicide-sculpture-eugenio-moreno">4 the Love of Go(l)d</a>. </i>Riffing on the blue chip artist's<i> For the Love of God</i>, a £50m diamond-encrusted human skull, Merino sculpted Hirst's figure--presented in the British artist's trademark glass case--moments after his imagined suicide, a pistol still held to his bloody temple. "I thought that, given that he thinks so much about money, his next work could be that he shot himself. Like that the value of his work would increase dramatically," Merino said at the time. Another piece, <i>Stairway to Heaven</i>, stirred controversy at ARCO 2010. A totem pole of of sorts, it stacked a praying Muslim man, a Catholic priest, and a Rabbi, but with one twist: each held the holy book one of the other figure's faith. While reportedly purchased by a Jewish art collector in Belgium, the work was condemned by the Israeli Embassy in Madrid as "offensive to Judaism," although <a href="http://laurachiesa.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/stairway-to-heaven/">Merino says</a> he was exploring "the coexistence of the three religions, joint in a common effort to reach God, in a literally [sic] way."<br />
<br />
But despite the furor over his work, "Franco in the fridge," as he calls it, is the first time he's ever been sued for his art.<br />
<br />
"In Spain, anything is possible, even the existence of a foundation that supports a dictator," Merino said via email this week. "Yes, I was surprised because it seemed to be something stupid to make all of this fuss over an art work. Now I know that art may be really effective."<br />
<br />
<i>Always Franco</i> echoes the soft drink giant's ad campaign slogan "Always Coca-Cola," putting Franco in a refrigeration device that will keep the uniformed caudillo fresh. "I thought it reflected well the idea of the permanence of Franco even after his death -- a kind of immortality," says Merino, who was born in 1975, a few months before the 40-year dictator's passing. He notes that the fascist leader and his ideas <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/9444527/Francisco-Franco-stripped-of-honorary-title.html">continue</a> <a href="http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=20829">to make</a> <a href="http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2012/12/13/raising-the-issue-of-fascism-in-spain/">headlines</a> today.<br />
<br />
<div class="p1">
He lays out the issues the lawsuit represents: "First, there is a Franco Foundation that receives public subsidy. Second, they have the power to sue anyone who talks about the dictator. Third, art is global, so the world may notice that the dictatorship is still a big issue here, although our politicians look the other way. And fourth, they have power and they act in politics, arts, and society." Plus, he notes, "the actual government has never condemned the dictatorship in public." </div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioZaaSwOPWx2eSd1fqtQqZWOh9zbkIN8hZ8IQClpkHpHNtVvrF8-KCAfqJCdgWRzkN3xy-M7vRK-JJp54YgFnFLtcBr7xPrsRePWTL5zC5a8flWFZcDCu8slMH2E6m4-Eda3ugxQ/s1131/EugenioMERINO_Punching_Te%CC%81cnicaMixta_150x50cm_aprox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioZaaSwOPWx2eSd1fqtQqZWOh9zbkIN8hZ8IQClpkHpHNtVvrF8-KCAfqJCdgWRzkN3xy-M7vRK-JJp54YgFnFLtcBr7xPrsRePWTL5zC5a8flWFZcDCu8slMH2E6m4-Eda3ugxQ/s1600/EugenioMERINO_Punching_Te%CC%81cnicaMixta_150x50cm_aprox.jpg" /></a></div>
Merino's art gets mixed reviews from critics; one European curator I talked to used <a href="http://artsy.net/post/editorial-francesco-bonami-on-twenty-years-working-with">Francesco Bonami's recent words about Ai Weiwei's art</a> -- that he should be jailed for it, instead of for his dissidence, and that he "exploits his dissidence in favor of promoting his art" -- in sharing his thoughts on Merino's work. But regardless of one's opinion on Merino's aesthetic, the Franco Foundation's attempt to punish free expression is alarming. That point is echoed in the <a href="http://artistasantifascistas.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/manifesto-in-support-of-eugenio-merino-and-for-the-freedom-of-expression/">manifesto by Plataforma Artistas Antifascistas</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[I]t is striking that the foundation that protects the “legacy” of a dictator -- who harshly persecuted the exercise of liberties and was directly responsible for the suffering of hundreds of thousands of exiles and victims of reprisa -- is attempting to restrict freedom of speech, especially when the very existence of this organization and its systematic justification of the fascist legacy should shameful in a society that claims to defend liberties. Secondly, it seems inappropriate for a foundation of these characteristics to set itself up as judge of artistic expression, when the only aesthetic contribution of the Regime they vindicate was the destruction of all critical culture, accompanied by the cry of “Death to treacherous intellectuality." </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This situation makes us wonder if these lamentable events can only happen in a country like Spain, incapable of evaluating with distance the disastrous consequences of the military dictatorship that controlled the country for 40 years. It is hard to imagine an Adolf Hitler Foundation in Germany persecuting the work of Gerhard Richter, Maurizzio Cattelan and so many others for criticizing Nazism. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Therefore, we wish to express our firm support of Eugenio Merino, our desire to defend freedom of expression – in the visual arts but more importantly in any area of social life- against the increasing assaults by totalitarian attitudes, while clearly manifesting our profound rejection to the heirs of the dictatorial regime, who today represent the most abject values of Spain’s recent history. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Given the silence of the Spanish media stablishment, determined to maintain the amnesic silence with which the transition restricted any attempt at critical analysis of the Francoist past, we wish to denounce this perverse maneuver by the heirs of the dictatorship while urging every member of society to defend and expand our rights and freedoms.</blockquote>
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073789.post-69404143627429260672013-06-27T13:48:00.002-05:002013-06-27T13:48:52.167-05:00Bruce Schneier joins EFF board<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoXTJD3RKM4jRl8fMr6W9Y41Kllx61JnTaogCOnGCXkERdN-oLJZKr_xfFyq0UWV0mQ-wf1xorwOLfdusilwo0WUaYWWzWkDXHS6AvJquhh702b7STN5BfRKaUOl-Ff-UkDe1MHA/s214/Screen+shot+2013-06-27+at+1.48.20+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoXTJD3RKM4jRl8fMr6W9Y41Kllx61JnTaogCOnGCXkERdN-oLJZKr_xfFyq0UWV0mQ-wf1xorwOLfdusilwo0WUaYWWzWkDXHS6AvJquhh702b7STN5BfRKaUOl-Ff-UkDe1MHA/s200/Screen+shot+2013-06-27+at+1.48.20+PM.png" width="200" /></a></div>
Minneapolis-based cryptographer, blogger, and security expert Bruce Schneier has <a href="https://www.eff.org/press/releases/renowned-security-expert-bruce-schneier-joins-eff-board-directors">joined the board</a> of online civil rights group <a href="https://www.eff.org/">EFF</a>. Schneier, whose site <a href="http://www.schneier.com/"><i>Schneier on Security</i></a> is a must-read, says, "EFF is one of the leading organizations fighting the government's
unconstitutional spying, marshaling legal and technological expertise to
battle surveillance in the courtroom and in Congress. I'm excited to work together with the board and the staff as we learn
more about this spying and how we can shut it down."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0