Pie in the Sky When You Die
Thomas Miccelli at Hyperallergic magazine
Thomas Miccelli's article (linked above) proposes that performance works are more highly valued than art objects, as the embodied encounter of a performer and audience member carries more psychic weight/exchange value than the art object's presence. This is one of many issues raised in the article, the result of a recent survey of artists and their earnings conducted by artist William Powhida.
It's no myth artists make art for the pure love of it; that's what keeps an artist working. Yet, there is a perception that support wouldn't, or perhaps shouldn't matter, as the artist would keep working. It's also no myth that without support it does become more difficult for an artist to continue. This is where the day job comes in, or whatever strategies the artist adopts to survive. The issue of sustenance, from Rubens' business acumen to Van Gogh's reliance on his brother, proposes an interesting discussion on the value of art and artists now.
A Dangerous Method, Cronenberg's recent film on Freud and Jung, recaptures the modernist ideal of an individual practitioner (Freud) who passes the torch of tradition to his metaphoric son, Jung. Their analysands bore witness in a reciprocal, if uneven, relationship. Does the advent of technology--film, gaming, performance, collectives, with their democratic ability to engage large groups of people as participants, alter the value of privileged, one-on-one communication and art objects?
Enjoy the read!
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Walk With Me
Dorsch Gallery
Making paintings for Walk With Me, which opens May 11th, I ponder the fluctuating intake of an actual walk and what that's like, versus the speed of projected imagery. Painting is the way to slow images down. In the studio, a walk is reconstituted through the gesture, texture and color rhythms in painting. This may sound formal yet is anything but, as hours spent painting infuse the body with images and memories, like an extended stroll through time. Reducing a construction shed to the barest notational markings, or flipping perspective into a topographical view reconstitutes the spatial logic of landscape as the unfolding of experience through memory.
From the great poet Wang Wei:
"Seated alone by shadowy bamboos,
I strum my lyre and laugh aloud;
None know that I am here, deep in the woods;
Only the bright moon comes to shine on me."
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| iPhone image: acrylic on linen, 2012, 84 x 73 inches |
From the great poet Wang Wei:
"Seated alone by shadowy bamboos,
I strum my lyre and laugh aloud;
None know that I am here, deep in the woods;
Only the bright moon comes to shine on me."
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Nightclubs on the Brain?
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| Notes on a Landscape 33, 2012, 12 x 9 inches |
The writer Joan Wickersham suggested I make a list of nightclubs I used to frequent in LA since I talked about them so much. It got me thinking about the club years (the first foray was 1974 to Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco) and I am infusing this period of time into my work. Clearly, I am not alone--the link above, to the Museum of Art and Design, awards artists who enhance New York nightlife, a most worthy aim! and at Pulse Miami, 2011, Jane Hart had an exhibition of album cover collages from the 1960s and '70s at Available Space. Other artists are thinking about them too--who? And--does anyone have images from LA clubs between 1977 and 1981? Including pop-up clubs, like the Garage on Hope Street, before the museum was built?!
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