AMERICAN CRAFT: Hardcore Romance: Lola Brooks

ART PAPERS review

I reviewed a great painting show in ART PAPERS' January / Feb 2010 issue, featuring works by Liz Markus, Daniel Heidkamp, Kenny Scharf, Alicia Gibson, and others.

time signatures, heart rates and violence

Brendan Mullen, interviewed in Penelope Spheeris' The Decline of Western Civilization (1980) relates the BPM of punk and the adrenaline rush that results from the adjusted dance to increases in violence during shows. He also relates punk and folk music, both being protest genres.

"I think alot of the time that it gets out of hand is because of the speed of the music, which is way above the normal rythym of a dance. If you take a 4/4 disco time signature, which is comfortable, you can kind of dance easily to the disco rythym, which is, I understand, 126 to 132 heartbeats a minute.

Whereas the kind of music the Germs or the Black Flag is playing is playing is upwards of 250 or 300 beats per minute, which is not comfortable or normal to dance to. And this is why this dance that you'll see in the film, the pogo dance, which is jumping up and down and bouncing off walls and stuff, is kindof an abnormal level of adrenalin and sometimes some violence breaks out.

Nowadays I think the kids are more desperate or something or more bored. Some of the better of the punk bands developed into sort of like "folk music" I dont mean folk music as a traditional folk music but the allegory can be drawn in the sixties when the protesters used acoustic guitar. Now instead of acoustic guitars they have high speed three hundred beats a minute speed rock. Yelling about the same things. About how the air is poisoned out there. The air in utopia is poisoned. The final joke."

Matthew Brown

Matthew Brown,Untitled, 2006

Willem de Kooning, Woman V 1952-53

Matthew Brown of Vancouver rips stuffed animals apart, sews them together, photographs them, alters the photographs digitally, then repaints them.

variations on the 'S' curve

Ida Ekblad, Time is On Our Side

Wade Guyton, Untitled 2005

scanned from october # 130

Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Carrie Lambert-Beatty and Megan Sullivan in Conversation with Gabriel Orozco.

french theremin

Olivier Messiaen composed the Turangalia-Symphonie, the posthumous "Feuillets" inedits (unedited leaflets above), and several others with the ondes Martenot in mind.

l'argent de poche

at IFC until Monday Dec 14

Stuart Sherman

RINGED FINGER, RINGED MOON: POINTLESS POINTING

At NYU's and Participant Galleries right through Dec 20

Eric Wendel

The Cooking of the Juice, The Licking of the Thumbs, 2007

Untitled, 2009

Untitled, 2009

Content as a glimpse here in Wendel's paintings.

He has one up at the "Too Big To Fail" show right now (through Jan 2010).@395 Flatbush Avenue ext. Brooklyn.

Today

Chunklet has posted a 45 min. audio montage of Fugazi's onstage banter here.

Facetious questions to the audience ("what else can I do for you you little mtv-generation piece of shit?") are a highlight.

Slow Pans

Kenneth Anger's Mouse Heaven (2004), described as "a fantasy featuring the Birnkrant collection of extremely rare vintage Mickey Mouse toys" is just as erotic as his Scorpio Rising (1964). It's the cheesecake slow panning camera:

Allison Shulnik

Some of the most gunked-up paintings I've seen. Thicker than some in the abex warehouse at Christie's. Inches thick. And they look like Chaim Soutine still-lives. Video here.

Horse Dance of the False Virgin

Mike Kelley, Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #32, Act 11: Horse Dance of the False Virgin, at the Judson Church Nov 18 2009, New York, NY during Performa09. Choreography by Kate Foley, music by Mike Kelley and Scott Benzel. Scored by Devin McNulty.

Candice Breitz, Him (1968-2008) and Her (1978-2008)

At the Power Plant, Toronto

Roberta Smith interview

This spring, Irving Sandler asked Roberta Smith about what's fashionable in art today. I like her honest (as always) answer:

"Rail: ...What are your thoughts about what is considered the fashionable style at the moment?

Smith: Oy. There are probably several, with most of them involving some form of appropriation, whether the medium is abstract painting, or the juxtaposition of odd found objects. I think the notion that everything—whether materials or narrative—needs to be found, not made is a bit of an obsession. Another one is this reverence for the late 1960s and early 70s. It seems like a certain kind of early 70s conceptualism is considered a kind of antidote to the market and the corruption—I’m using scare quotes—of object-making. I find that kind of tiring, or perhaps a way of hiding from your own time. There’s also resurrection-for-resurrection’s sake: the rediscovery of forgotten artists just because they’re neglected. Some of these artists aren’t that interesting, but the mere fact of their having been overlooked makes them heroic in some people’s eyes."

I also like alot of other things she says in the full Brooklyn Rail interview here.

Not a Boring Post I Promise

Mick's ponytail and Steevie's sleeve match the spur of the "F" and the lower bowl of the last "s" in the album title, respectively.

Duchess Says....

S & M synth band Duchess Says (Montreal) play CMJ next week. Singer Annie-Claude Deschênes wears a hockey goalie mask while performing, barking like Stasi commander above a din of guitar shreds and deep synth. This song is the poppiest they get, but thanks to the video, their perversity shines through.

Nina Chanel Abney

Class of 2007, 2007

The Boardroom, 2008

Whoosh, as a friend says, so good. The earlier works are more Hurvin Anderson (link to my buddy Alex Taylor's article on him), with the deranged faces of Alice Neel. The newer works are flatter, mocking John Wesley.The first two here are already in the Rubells' collection.

Sister Corita Kent (1918-1986) at Zach Feuer

"Drawn to the power of the word, Sister Corita incorporated fragments of text, slogans and signs taken from billboards, street signs, advertising jingles, pop songs, poems, newspapers and magazines into her work. She sampled quotes by Martin Luther King Jr., Rainer Maria Rilke, Phillip Roth and the Psalms.... Corita's innovative use of loaded text...enhance the power of the quote to create unique revolutionary, spiritual and social statements. Sister Corita was not only an activist and Pop artist but also a teacher."

@ Zach Feuer from Oct 23-Nov 5.

Real Life Cartoons

An exerpt from the Baltimore Annex Theatre's production of The Point, written by Harry Nillson, is shown here. The original animated version had Ringo Starr narrating.

My First Glossy Mag

Syked for my article on the extremely talented, multi-faceted designer Dan Funderburgh in the Oct/November Issue of American Craft.

Teenie Url

Tiny blogger Tavi of Style Rookie rules the fashion world! Scrolling through her blog's archives (they start way back when she was 12 in 2008) it's amazing to watch how she refines her sense of style.

hoser.

my hose collection.

enjoy xxx

Nu-House

Even on the crappiest of computer speakers, TeenGirl Fantasy sound awesome. But a post on their official fan-site describes it best:

"Sometimes when I close my eyes I picture a club far away where there is free piña coladas. People are happy and no one can hurt me, not even myself. Suddenly a glitter ball light starts pulsating out of a cube that appeared out of the ocean. It slowly walked towards me and asked me to dance. I figured, why not? The night grew into a sunrise, I sat on a rooftop and cried while falling asleep, but with a glimmer of a smile on my face. It was possibly the most beautiful club I'd ever been to. The pulsating ball of light was called Teengirl Fantasy."
teengirlfantasy.angelfire.com/

today.

Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe has a Myspace blog.
It's terrifying...and fascinating.

today

monster skin wing-back chair by joshua ben longo

today

via here and here