Sludge

I've been thinking about dictionaries lately.

2011-01-20T00:21:00.000-08:00

Working myself up for when I do my 'performance' of reading the entire dictionary outloud until I lose my voice. Wonder what word I will stop on...

It's Wintertime.

2011-01-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

You know what that means.

Red & Black & White & Beige

Eliminating the clutter

2010-12-23T00:04:00.000-08:00

Some of these things have been sitting on my desktop for a month and they are beginning to weigh me down. I'm extricating these things here.

Hussein Chalayan's recent video, where strange men follow models and slightly flutter their garments behind them.

I think that Dana might have put this here and I think it might be her cat but I"m not entirely sure. But it makes me feel nice so here it is.

This is what happens when you type bad words into google.

It's been hard to think about anything stimulating lately, when I've just been staring at retail all day and when it's raining 24/7. When people shop they barely even think. It is frightening. They just have these vacant expressions on their faces and float around. I am constantly bumping into people that simply aren't paying attention. Are they fantasizing about all of the future that they could have with the objects in front of them? About how it will improve their quality of live forever? This photograph by Brian Ulrich looks as if it has to be staged, but I know that it is not. People constantly have this exact expression upon their faces when inside of a store.

This picture exemplifies the less fantastic reality of what the person is looking at. How can an environment like this possibly be pleasant? It obviously must be for someone or else it would'nt work as well as it does.

Here is what I've spent most of my time looking at, as opposed to art. Hopefully after this season I will get to see something a bit nicer.

Back to basics

2010-11-09T10:42:00.000-08:00

Robert Rauchenburg's Erased De Kooning

John Baldessari

On this vein of thought, here is some phrases that Bart wrote on the blackboard in the intro to random Simpsons episodes:

THIS PUNISHMENT IS NOT BORING AND POINTLESS
I WILL NOT FAKE MY WAY THROUGH LIFE
I WILL NOT SLEEP THROUGH MY EDUCATION
I WILL NOT EXPOSE THE IGNORANCE OF THE FACULTY
I WILL NOT YELL "SHE'S DEAD" DURING ROLL CALL
I WILL NOT CELEBRATE MEANINGLESS MILESTONES
BEANS ARE NEITHER FRUIT NOR MUSICAL
"BAGMAN" IS NOT A LEGITIMATE CAREER CHOICE
I WILL NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE SOLUTION WHEN I HEAR IT
I DID NOT LEARN EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW IN KINDERGARTEN
SHOOTING PAINTBALLS IS NOT AN ART FORM
GRAMMAR IS NOT A TIME OF WASTE
IT DOES NOT SUCK TO BE YOU
"NON-FLAMMABLE" IS NOT A CHALLENGE
GENETICS IS NOT AN EXCUSE
I AM NOT CHARLIE BROWN ON ACID
VAMPIRE IS NOT A CAREER CHOICE
FISH DO NOT LIKE COFFEE
SPONGEBOB IS NOT A CONTRACEPTIVE
I WILL NOT EAT THINGS FOR MONEY

And this is just a result of the internet being it's strange animal.

Aluminum Plant Leaks in Hungary

2010-10-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

At least they seem to be prepared for another one...

Matthew Barney / Interpol Sucks

2010-09-24T03:05:00.000-07:00

Hurray for insomnia.

I've been wanting to make short films that involve really elaborate but seemingly pointless rituals for a while now, which is something that Matthew Barney is really good at. I know that his movies, to him, and thick and rich and a messy symbolic SOUP and it shows this thought. But I have always just enjoyed them at face value, I simply enjoy the activities that are happening and feel no real need to connect them. He simply lets the viewer be, as if you are an infant seeing something totally unrelatable. The full cremaster cycle is coming to Portland soon and I am tempted to shell out the $20 bucks to see all five of them. [Not really a bad deal at all.] I've only seen the order and Drawing Restraint 9, thanks to the MICA screening. Did you know that the legit cremaster is only an edition of 10 copies? That is nuts.

Drawing Restraint 9 is also awesome thanks to the fact that the music is ballin, thanks to the fine lady that is Ms. Bjork.

That Interpol video was trying to pull some Matthew Barney shit, but it did'nt work because Interpol stopped making good albums three records ago, the costumes are not an 80th as cool, and Ian Curtis is dead. I won't lie though the first time I watched it I thought it was kind of pretty. I'm a sucker for weird exchanges involving viscous matter. What can I say.

And why this made me think of the star, I have no idea. But here is that. Pulled from here.

I construct a five-pointed star (made of wood and wood chips soaked in 100 litres of petrol). I set fire to the star. I walk around it. I cut my hair and throw the clumps into each point of the star. I cut my toe-nails and throw the clippings into each point of the star. I walk into the star and lie down on the empty surface. Lying down, I fail to notice that the flames have used up all the oxygen. I lose consciousness. The viewers do not notice, because I am supine. When a flame touches my leg and I still show no reaction, two viewers come into the star and carry me out of it. I am confronted with my physical limitations, the performance is cut short. Afterwards I wonder how I can use my body – conscious and otherwise – without disrupting the performance.

Marina Abramovic

Tale of A Tub

2010-09-22T03:00:00.000-07:00

This poem, by Sylvia Plath was my favorite in high school...I was just thinking about it and had to put it up. It still has maintained it's effectiveness.

The photographic chamber of the eye
records bare painted walls, while an electric light
lays the chromium nerves of plumbing raw;
such poverty assaults the ego; caught
naked in the merely actual room,
the stranger in the lavatory mirror
puts on a public grin, repeats our name
but scrupulously reflects the usual terror.

Just how guilty are we when the ceiling
reveals no cracks that can be decoded? when washbowl
maintains it has no more holy calling
than physical ablution, and the towel
dryly disclaims that fierce troll faces lurk
in its explicit folds? or when the window,
blind with steam, will not admit the dark
which shrouds our prospects in ambiguous shadow?

Twenty years ago, the familiar tub
bred an ample batch of omens; but now
water faucets spawn no danger; each crab
and octopus--scrabbling just beyond the view,
waiting for some accidental break
in ritual, to strike--is definitely gone;
the authentic sea denies them and will pluck
fantastic flesh down to the honest bone.

We take the plunge; under water our limbs
waver, faintly green, shuddering away
from the genuine color of skin; can our dreams
ever blur the intransigent lines which draw
the shape that shuts us in? absolute fact
intrudes even when the revolted eye
is closed; the tub exists behind our back;
its glittering surfaces are blank and true.

Yet always the ridiculous nude flanks urge
the fabrication of some cloth to cover
such starkness; accuracy must not stalk at large:
each day demands we create our whole world over,
disguising the constant horror in a coat
of many-colored fictions; we mask our past
in the green of eden, pretend future's shining fruit
can sprout from the navel of this present waste.
In this particular tub, two knees jut up
like icebergs, while minute brown hairs rise
on arms and legs in a fringe of kelp; green soap
navigates the tidal slosh of seas
breaking on legendary beaches; in faith
we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail
among sacred islands of the mad till death
shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real.

Fabric In A Can.

2010-09-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

Apparently this can be sprayed on, removed, then washed and reworn again?!?!

IChing/ Iturbide

2010-09-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

I am trying to read the I Ching, and while it is impressive and charming, I simply have no idea how to apply it to my life. I suppose I can't. It's really hard to continue reading something that is merely interesting but not useful. I typically can find a use for the most esoteric of texts, I am able to bridge some sort of connection to them, but I just can't figure this one out. I guess the only reason I thought I would give it a try is because of Lucy Lippard anyway.

This image by Graciela Iturbide was just on my mind.

The Yes Men

2010-09-07T17:19:00.000-07:00

Recently watched their documentary and it was kick-ass. I just received this image in the mail and it reminded me of it.

Survivaballs!

Their most epic stunt thus far:

Here is their website. If I ever become rich, I am going to give them half of my money because they will probably put it to better use than I ever will.

Danny Treacy

2010-09-07T01:14:00.000-07:00

Suprisingly there was something at first thursday this month that I enjoyed more than Nina Katchadourian's Sorted Books, which I expected to be much more exciting in person than they actually were. Don't get me wrong, the photographs were impeccable sharpness and quality, presented in an interesting way [bright red walls! gutsy!] but as soon as I saw some of the actual sculptures of the books it just flattened the expierence, ironically enough.

Anyway, what I loved were these enormous prints by Danny Treacy at Blue Sky. He finds discarded clothing from a site, then melds it together into these bodysuits that he photographs himself wearing. Some are more discordant than others, but they always cover the entire form. These nearly humorous polyglots of multiple textiles are displayed among less decayed objects, the latter of which hold much more eeriness. Although the prints were stunning, I found his performance of sewing and actually wearing these garments to me more intriguing. Each image is titled "Them" and his entire body is obscured in each image. Had he photographed the garments as lifeless sacks, the dynamic would've changed completely for me.

Who Knows? Kiki and LB

2010-09-07T00:25:00.000-07:00

I am into these french movie background songs right now.

I saw this Kiki Smith exhibit at the Henry Art Gallery in seattle and the only part of it that I really got into was the books. There is this dialogue between sculpture and photography that has been going on for a while now, but the sort of dialogues that were taking place in many of these photographs seemed forced. In the enlargements especially. Smaller snapshots forming a barrier between the floor and the wall worked much better and felt really casual. There is something really raw and unfinished about Kiki that I can't help but like; although for some reason I can't help but continusly compare her to my beloved LB. Louise has a similar rawness but her approach melts together into a polished piece in the end. Kiki does not really do that for me yet.

Ok so I am in Portland Now

2010-09-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

And this is what happens when you search Portland art:

Oh no.

To help me cope, here are some images involving food.

Corin Hewitt

Marcus Gaab

Emily Keegin

And two sculptures involving blue blobs. I swear the next post will be more articulate.

Carl Ostendarp

Ernesto Neto

The Small Glass / Lynda Benglis / The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine

2010-07-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

I am not sure how I feel about this.

At one fourteen here OH MY GOODNESS that is some exciting vocals.

Blat by Lynda Benglis.

This girl was in my dream last night, it was really strange and specific, but it was definitely the naked girl in this video. Worse than even having one's finger and toe sliced in this manner would be the removal of that ductape later. Wow. Anyway, something about this video, for it's conscienceless, weirdness, and simplicity has it eroding my brain away.

...I don't usually edit but, I just found this and could'nt help but see the uhh...connection of weird things happening with razors? I am so bad at this blogging stuff! ahahaaaa.

And yes, idiot, it's a joke. And was the slog's lunchtime quickie. Oh, taking things out of context!

Tauba Auerbach

2010-07-10T20:55:00.001-07:00

These are acrylic on canvas paintings.

That's that

2010-06-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

Also on the topic of artists making stupid things for fashion companies

2010-06-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

Anish Kapoor's Mother as a Mountain (1985)

And the junk made for jewelery company Bulgari.

Colin Burke / Richard Prince / Be Stupid

2010-06-22T10:10:00.000-07:00

Cyanotype of a dress form.

Richard Prince has made a line of handbags for Louis Vuitton, which I think is ironic and completely appropriate for him. I love to think that a bunch of yuppies will walk around with them having no idea as to what their context is. I think that it's a weird new trend for big fashion companies to make fun of themselves through their product. Diesel's be stupid campaign highlights this pretty well also.

AHHHHHH AHHHHHH AEGNOEINGOWEGINRSUH AMAZING

2010-06-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

This is by Alfons Schilling. It is a camera obscura HAT. I attempted to make a camera obscura box that conformed to the body freshman year but since I was dumb, I never could figure out how to make the mechanics work properly. But making it into a hat it infinitely more hilarious. here is a link explaining it in a bit more detail. I am in love. Any way that you can combine old, b flat, cheap photography + absurd performance = bliss.

Sarah Palmer

2010-06-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

Here is ze website.

I feel like this type of photography is so big right now, this amalgamation of weird, specific, individualized spatial experiences. Half of me is really jealous and wishes that I could make work about things so specific, but the other half of me prefers work that is much more global and vast. Yet there is a hook that this sort of work has with me. It evokes intense feelings of fake deja vu; one feels like they must have encountered this situation before even though in reality I've probably never stuck an egg inside the secret compartment of a book. Another photographer that does this successfully for me in some images is Rebecca Sittler Schrock, whom I've posted about in a past entry. That doughnut [donut?] picture gets me every time.

Wait, why exactly can you spell donut in two different ways? That's kind of messed up, I don't like either spelling. I've never really thought about it before, but it's quite a bizarre word. I think this is a sign that I need to stop typing.

Galileo Sunspot Drawings, 1612

2010-06-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Vanishing Point by Bonsajo

2010-06-13T10:56:00.000-07:00

Vanishing Point from Bonsajo on Vimeo.

2010-06-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

Word of the day: Maximalist.

Bill Morrison's Decasia

2010-06-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

Can't do this quite the same in final cut...This is just a promo of excerpts.

Has this really been happening for almost 50 days?

2010-06-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

Yes it has.

Here are some images from Greenpeace.

Spencer Finch: Ag

2010-06-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just really appreciate a square and a good composition.

Sonic Youth's performance of George Macuinas's Piano Piece # 13 (for Nam June Paik). Anything can be improved with the addition of Sonic Youth. Just see this cover of Iggy Pop's I wanna be your dog.

Improved, no?

Kafka's Castle

2010-06-05T16:16:00.000-07:00

This is the best book I've read that achieves nothing. It is impressive that someone can fill that many pages without going anywhere. Truly an accomplishment.

Sarah Pickering

2010-06-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

These are funny to me for some strange reason. Here is her website.

They also made me think of Ed Ruscha's Several Small Fires and a Glass of Spilled Milk. Which is something I think about fairly often. For some reason I love this book much more than any others of his. The swimming pools and LA apartments bore me, but that glass of milk is just so climactic.

Nora Fok

2010-06-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

Ben showed me this person two years ago or something, I was going through my favorites and rediscovered how awesome she was. I just went to the Druid Hill Botanical Garden today and kept thinking about these pieces. I like the idea of a wearable sculpture that still radically differs from the norm of jewelery. Here is her website. At the garden I literally saw agave that were this big!! It was amazing.

Also, in lieu of the late and phenomenal Louise Bourgeoise, I thought I would put up this picture of my favorite sculpture OF ALL TIME. I mean it. When I saw the retrospective at the hirshhorn I actually touched it when the security guard turned around. And it felt amazing.

Daniel Rozin /Marilyn Minter

2010-06-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

Time Ripples Mirror

Also, check out Marilyn Minter's Green Pink Caviar.

This would feel so amazing

2010-05-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

I had this idea 4 years ago to make a bed out of earplugs that humans could swim through...somehow I feel like this is an equivalent of sorts.

Erwin Wurm's One Minute Sculptures...except with Claudia Schiffer?

2010-05-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

I sort of thought this was a lame ripoff until I discovered that Erwin took the photos himself. Sweet.

These are my three favorite things lately

2010-05-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Werner Heisenberg. Somehow this semister I have found this perfect triangle of informational exchange between him, zen, and Rilke. So thank you, Heisenburg, Zen, and Rilke.

woahaha batch scanning

2010-04-28T17:56:00.000-07:00

This is great, right? I've always thought this idea was great.

This guy, Oscar Munoz, did screenprints on WATER using powdered charcoal. Now THAT is great.

Burger King Sandwich Wrapper Re-writes

2010-04-28T16:53:00.000-07:00

More.

Working Music

2010-04-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in...a century. I blame thesis! In the spirit of working a lot, I thought I'd post some of my favorite working music. It's very important to me and I think it influences the way that I print in the darkroom. Rhythm is crucial.

Tribe is and will always be the best hip hop group of all time. OF ALL TIME. From 91 and still the freshest thing out there.

HOLY FUCK-Milkshake
Uploaded by be_motion. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Holy Fuck is like the sound of soda being shaken in a can and waiting to erupt.

Enough said.

This song is hot shit.

Hahaha, sorry for the ridiculous video on this one. Selda is my girl though.

Richard Prince

2010-03-08T08:26:00.000-08:00

“When I first started exhibiting these photographs, the reaction was not very … welcoming. Very few people liked them. But it’s funny if I think about it now. People would say, “What do you mean it’s a photograph of a photograph? What are you talking about?” What gave them a problem, I think, was that they couldn’t understand what the actual object was. It wasn’t like a collage. The literalness of the actual, physical object was disorienting. And the thing was, it looked like a photograph because it was a photograph.”

What a smart guy.

August Stringberg's Celestographs

2010-03-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

From Cabinet Magazine. The phrase "chamical naturalism" really struck a chord with me.

The experiments involved quite simply placing his photographic plates on a window sill or perhaps directly on the ground (sometimes, he tells us, already lying in the developing bath) and letting them be exposed to the starry sky.

This sounds like very traditional idealistic symbolism. But what is remarkable, and what makes these images so "modern," is that they also concrete examples of a kind of chemical naturalism (as in the work of Polke, Kiefer, and many other recent artists). Strindberg insisted that art should try to "imitate […] nature's way of creating," and in these celestographs the image and the world have approached each other to the extent that they more or less merge. Whatever the coincidences were that created these pictures, the subject matter appears less as a photographic image than as a "work" by nature itself.

Henry Holmes Smith

2010-02-21T15:21:00.000-08:00

I believe this last image is a dye transfer print. I need to obtain more of these images but am having trouble finding many. Some of the work is cameraless images made during the bauhaus era that include corn syrup. Which is a really good idea.

Wal Mart Isen't Really All That American

2010-02-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

Pamela Rosenkranz

2010-02-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

Photogram of an asprin. More here.

Jason Lazarus

2010-02-06T16:37:00.000-08:00

I realize that it's so not cool to upload things that were literally JUST posted on I Heart Photograph. But these are amazing. They are photographs of the late Robert Heineken's ashes. What a great idea! I need to make sure that my remains are utilized in a photographic process. Someone needs to promise me this much. here.

Book Videos!

2010-02-05T06:54:00.000-08:00

We are in a wonderful world where you can find video tutorials for just about anything online!

Rethink Scholarship at Langara 2010 Call for Entries from Rory O'Sullivan and Simon Bruyn on Vimeo.

Basic Zine

Here is Kyle Van Horn's website from his zine class at mica, which includes downloadable templates for making the same basic zines that we made for the first week of class. The readings are all great too, if you're interested.

Pamphlet Stitch

how to make a book. from jtgualtieri on Vimeo.

Japanese Stab Binding

DIY Japanese Stab Stitch Binding from CuriousDoodles on Vimeo.

This video shows a more advanced structure than you were taught in class. it enables you to tie the knot on the inside of the book so that it is not showing on the outside.

Japanese Stab Binding 4-hole from Rose Newton on Vimeo.

This one is same as the one above but only showing the binding part of the process itself.

Sewing Signatures Together/Kettle Stitch

Fastforward to about three minutes into this one, she is just rambling forever in the beginning.

Coptic Binding

Perfect Binding

Book Binding: How To Perfect Bind from Andy Hirsch on Vimeo.

How to make your own book cloth

Make your own book cloth from Anna Hawthorne on Vimeo.

I had forgotton that I finally found a suitable title for my body of work

2010-02-04T06:31:00.000-08:00

Planck Scale

Kiki of Montparnasse in Man Ray’s 1926 silent film “Emak-Bakia”

2010-02-03T19:32:00.001-08:00

You Are All I Need

2010-01-24T07:43:00.000-08:00

I just watched Burtynsky's Manufactured Landscapes and could not but help think of this video...

As a very clear and direct example of how we are really connected directly to these lifestyles that are so vastly different; and that exist as they do because of human demand. I like how Burtynsky is open about his own involvement within this cycle within the documentary, as he mentions that even the film itself that he is using probably utilized silver from one of the mines that he was photographing. I noted the contradiction typing my proposal for the investigation of chinese production of american products as I was typing it on a laptop that was, more than likely, manufactured under similar yet horrible conditions. This website, although it is strange looking, can offer great insight about these issues. Here is Burtynsky's TED talk that will serve as a good introduction to his work.

Grant WIlling

2010-01-21T08:13:00.000-08:00

Website.

Gifs can be cool

2010-01-19T04:02:00.000-08:00

It's not just a ghetto way of pronouncing "gift". I promise.

I'd post a link, but I'm a little too ill and a little too awake at 7 am for no reason with a huge craving for bad frozen pizza to find it. They were from fffound, if that helps.

Good old fungus

2009-12-27T19:35:00.000-08:00

More.

Frank Stella Explaining Himself

2009-12-18T08:26:00.000-08:00

How wonderfully articulated.

Every Breath You Take

2009-12-15T19:52:00.000-08:00

Keetra Dean Dixon

Mark Tobey

2009-12-15T18:48:00.000-08:00

He's famous enough to not include a link, I feel.

Maegan Hill-Carroll

2009-12-06T21:55:00.000-08:00

From the series From Commonplace to Outer Space.

Edward Burtynsky

2009-12-06T21:43:00.000-08:00

See the ted talk here.

Terry Evans

2009-12-06T19:25:00.000-08:00

More.

Elizabeth Flemming

2009-12-06T14:43:00.000-08:00

more.

Micheal Wolf

2009-12-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

Images of his up at the Aperature foundation now. See more.

Clyfford Still

2009-12-02T17:54:00.000-08:00

Museum in Denver, Colorado. I wish I could go!

Steiglitz's Equivalents

2009-12-02T17:40:00.000-08:00

I was thinking so hard today to find a piece to compare with the radiance of Vik Muniz's hair gel photographs, and then all of a sudden it hit me: Steiglitz's equivalents series. Steiglitz photographed these clouds because he was sick of people saying that it was his subjects that held the power that radiated through his images, which made him furious with the implication that he is merely a documenter of what is in front of him. [Quite possibly the worst insult one could give to a photographer.] These images hold up so strongly, and look quite similar to the work I am doing in palladium currently. How relevent these images remain even after all this time.

Can someone please tell me what the point of this is

2009-12-02T16:42:00.000-08:00

You can buy this useless thing here.

Lip Frosting

2009-11-24T18:58:00.001-08:00

So we had to make a visual response to something, anything that we got out of our masculinity class. While staring at my Lip Smacker collection, I came upon an idea that was too grotesque to resist. Here is the result.

Lip Frosting from Heather Goad on Vimeo.

Johnathan Monagham

2009-11-24T18:29:00.000-08:00

French Penguin from Jonathan Monaghan on Vimeo.

French Penguin. I had the pleasure of seeing the creator speak at the experimental new media series here at MICA. He won a big prize for this one, I believe. I don't know if I like it or not but it definitely is doing something strange to the viewer. The one thing I like about this piece if that it genuinely does not remind me of anything.

Dean Kessmann

2009-11-16T18:16:00.000-08:00

On his "Transubstantiation" series:

But why do we need, or at least strongly desire to have the spiritual aspects of our lives undeniably confirmed? Relying on our faith alone is rarely enough. We want proof, or to be even more specific, visual proof. The photographic and digital processes used to capture these images--like science, art, and religion--do not always provide reliable information. Its vision, like ours, is limited. Seeing is not always believing, just as believing should not always require seeing.

This work will not definitively answer any questions of faith. Not knowing their source, one might assume that these images are a series of celestial (heavenly) bodies, extreme magnification of cells, and raw, bloody flesh. Obviously, by making these images of holy wafers saturated in wine, I have not turned them into the body and blood of Christ, nor am I making any such claim. However, a dramatic transformation has taken place. These substances have become something other than what they once were. These are objects for contemplation. They will not provide any undeniable proof, but if given time, they just might help us to answer that which they initially had refused to reveal.

Dean Kessmann

I really love the look of his installation...it is sort of similar to how I want my thesis work to look, a scattering of various sizes of circular prints. [I am getting really sick of edges, why do all photographers work with squares and rectangles when images are naturally projected as circles anyway? It seems silly to me.]

Margriet Smulders

2009-11-14T07:39:00.000-08:00

From her "Get Drunk" series. here.

Roberto Matta

2009-11-13T16:34:00.000-08:00

"Endless Nudes" 1942

"Beauty and the Brain: A Neural Approach to Aesthetics"

2009-11-13T16:15:00.000-08:00

John's Hopkins and the Walters are doing a collaboration which explores our neural responses to certain aesthetic forms. The only confirmed works for the show are some Jean Arp sculptures. Read more here.

Jean Arp - Human Concretion (1933)

[I don't know if this is going to be one of the pieces or not.]

Girl, where'd you get your lipgloss from, because I must admit, that bubble gum is poppin

2009-11-12T18:43:00.001-08:00

So I think I have to do enlargements of every flavor of lip frosting. How amazing and grotesque is the concept of lip frosting. I am currently wearing the strawberry kind, and am very inspired. Thank you Bonnie Bell. It's strange how this feeling of my lip skin turning into plastic is an acute and powerful reminder of my childhood.

Matthew Brandt

2009-11-11T07:45:00.000-08:00

I discovered this person a few years ago, but since forgotten his name and recently rediscovered it! These are all c-prints of lakes which have been soaked in the lake that is depicted in the photograph.

Adam Thompson

2009-11-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

Ahhh I have always been attracted to tall, narrow images so this is just like overload to me. See his website.

Untitled (Phylliidae)
2009
Aluminum tube, inkjet print
8.41 m tall x 0.22 m Diameter

Bas Jan Ader

2009-11-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

Broken Fall [Geometric]

In this video Ader is simultaneously breaking a natural and an artificial barrier. The tense process of falling over sideways [which I feel, is even stranger than falling forwards or backwards] makes the viewer really uneasy. The sheer pointlessness of this action and the potential pain caused by it is what gives it it's power. The awkward displacement of the figure in space relocates the line of vision. I'd like to believe that he is falling through the form next to him, not on top of it. The willpower to fall over sideways shows a strange form of multidimensional trust, as well as an acknowledgment for the form's insignificance to the situation as a whole. This piece breaks down multiple systems into very simple elements that build one brief, decisive action.

See the beautifully designed Bas Jan Ader website chronicling his sadly short career here.

Allison Schulnik

2009-11-08T06:49:00.000-08:00

This new Grizzly Bear video is pretty sludgy. By Allison Schulnik. Lovely visuals and song. I think the thing I love about Grizzly Bear videos is that I never picture the song looking anything like them, but afterwards the visuals always still make sense.

However, I am still bitter that when I went to see them this summer at the 9:30 club there were these obnoxious high kids making ALL KINDS OF NOISE during this song and I wanted to explode. Thankfully there are things like music videos which recreate optimal song listening experience.

Lucas Blalock

2009-11-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

I don't like all of these images. But the one below is rather stimulating.

Art Axis Alley Walk Show

2009-11-04T19:07:00.001-08:00

I have been meaning to post these images for a while, it's a little bit late. I always forget to upload things from my cell phone camera...those things are tricky. Here is the blog with more images and information. Here is the basic project overview quoted from the website:

“Axis Alley seeks through creative engagement to utilize the backyards of vacant properties and vacant lots as a canvas for creative works that transform, activate and revitalize the overlooked, under-attended areas of Baltimore’s back alleys. In neighborhoods where the vacancy rate of properties runs high, the alley seems to become the indicator of urban difficulties: trash, rats, homeless people, prostitution and drugs. These somewhat forbidding alleys (dark and unlit at night), while speaking of endemic problems in the city, possess a certain toxic beauty and provide a fascinating possibility of urban intervention and creative gesture.”

This brick piece was my favorite, it had such a beautiful rhythm to it, although the material is so stiff.

This last one is very Baltimore appropriate!

Martian Dust Devils

2009-10-28T05:47:00.000-07:00

Via the slog.

Typically lasting only a few minutes, dust devils become visible as they pick up loose red-colored dust leaving the darker and heavier sand beneath intact. Ironically, dust devils have been credited with unexpectedly cleaning the solar panels of the Mars rovers.

I'm going to a TED conference!

2009-10-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

Look at all the cool speakers!. If you don't know about ted, you are silly, and should go here immediately.

Joan Fontcuberta

2009-10-26T17:04:00.000-07:00

More here. I believe that these are all either enlargements or contact prints of blood...I have no idea what the scale is, which is quite frustrating. Anyone have any idea?

Melting Chemical Glaciers oh no!

2009-10-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

From >bldg bldg.

As the world's glaciers melt, they've begun to release an archive of banned industrial substances back into the environment, chemicals that have been locked, frozen, inside the glacial ice for up to thirty years.

According to Discovery, "many persistent pollutants, including PCBs, dioxins and several chlorine-containing pesticides [such as] DDT" have begun to leach out from melting glaciers in places like Switzerland.

The idea of a poisonous atmospheric archive being unintentionally released—on a global scale—makes me wonder what sorts of news reports we might read in several thousand years' time, when carbon tombs start to leak their quarantined contents back into the atmosphere. The buried skies of an industrial era, put to pharaonic rest beneath the earth's surface, will make their operatic reappearance in future human history.

Jaap Schreen

2009-10-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

More.

Noel Rodo-Vankeulen

2009-10-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

From his aura series.

Karla Black

2009-10-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

Karla Black makes sculptures with the same vein of materials that I am interested in. The glossy, the ephemeral, and the hyper-processed. This is why I am intrigued. Lots of images of her work at the Mary Mary gallery.

Platonic Solid (detail) 2009
Plaster powder, powder paint, sugar paper, chalk, lipstick

Made To Wait 2009
Cellophane, sellotape, paint, toothpaste, hair gel, nail varnish, moisturising cream

Don’t Adapt, Detach 2009
Cellophane, paint, sellotape, spray deodorant, athlete’s foot spray, glitter eyeliner, hair gel

[Installation view, this title describes the floor piece. I am unsure about the one above it.]
Surplus Is A Given 2009
Petroleum jelly, paint, body moisturising creams

John Eric Hawkins

2009-10-18T07:05:00.001-07:00

Most of this work I do not like. However, I feel like this medium has so much potential...

Jan Staller

2009-10-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

Coming to speak at MICA next friday!

Beautiful. I am really excited.

Sarah Hobbes

2009-10-09T18:46:00.001-07:00

More.

New David Maisel stuff!

2009-10-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

Or at least, it's new to me. X-rays of artwork in museums. Enjoy.

More here.

Gerhard Richter

2009-10-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

Mario Peruccheti

2009-10-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

Website here.

Jack Wilgus!

2009-09-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

Had to put this here just because it is so exciting. He is having a retrospective at MICA that starts October 15th, I believe. These are cibachrome images that he made by photographing crystals he grew himself with microscope. [yes that's right, microscope] lenses. I am so envious.

Carsten Nicolai

2009-09-17T09:18:00.000-07:00

The following information about this piece quoted from his website.

“for quite some time, chaos research has recognized entities called chaotic or odd attractors. what is an attractor? in every system in motion, regardless whether it is a pendulum, a planet or a fluid comprised of many discrete particles, the particles move in a time frame on a surface. in a linear non-chaotic system these surfaces are graphical. […] if a dynamic system follows a specific attractor it is predictable. as soon as the starting conditions are determined it is clear how the system will develop for all times. […] in 1963, edward n. lorenz of the massachusetts institute of technology discovered an odd attractor when he analyzed the behavior of fluids. this entity known as the lorenz attractor is a fractal. the consequence: by tracing the trajectories of a system consisting of many particles on the lorenz attractor it will soon become clear that initially very dense conditions are beginning to spread out more and more until they form a homogeneous surface. this is precisely the reason why meteorologists are able to predict the weather conditions in a limited area for a short period of time.”
peter müller in: jürgens, hartmut/peitgen, heinz-otto/saupe, dietmar: chaos und fraktale, heidelberg 1989

Man Ray : le retour à la raison

2009-09-06T06:09:00.000-07:00

I think I want to go back to some more old school stuff for a while. Funny how I feel like it's more relevant for getting fresh ideas. It's really great to see these Man Ray photos in action, and who has nicer bosoms than Kiki de Montparnasse. Nobody.

Rene Magritte - The Human Condition

2009-09-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

So ahead of his time.

Joel Tettamanti

2009-09-04T07:26:00.000-07:00

There's something I always loved about photographs of green plastic gloves. They are such a strange object visually. See his website with more industrial photography.

Caleb Charland

2009-09-04T07:15:00.000-07:00

Lots of "phenomena" photographed very beautifully here.

Rebecca Sittler Schrock

2009-08-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

I wish very frequently that I could make quiet photographs like these more often. It's a simple approach that broadens miniature sensations of what it is like to be inside of an enclosed area. I tried to do something similar ages ago with the appliances photographs, but I don't feel like I ever really succeeded. Rebecca here gives such a suggestive quality to the lamest objects, like a mattress pad and a feather duster. I absolutely love it. Her website is here. Discovered on I heart photograph.

30 seconds of pure heaven

2009-08-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

Here.

Vampires

2009-08-07T08:54:00.001-07:00

Photographs of people exiting one of the biggest computer programming gatherings of the year, dubbed campus party. [after, I am assumming, being indoors for extremely long periods of time] Dubbed "vampires" by the photographer, Roc Herms. What a wonderful transition to document. Hillarious, but scary at the same time.

Technology's self portraits.

2009-08-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

Photocopies of mirrors.

The lunar rover's self portrait upon first touching the surface of the moon.

José Parlá

2009-08-05T17:42:00.000-07:00

Because tagging dosen't have to be boring. Website.

Can't we talk about music a bit?

2009-08-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

I try to keep the music side of my life away from this blog, but it would be ridiculous of me to say that it dose not influence my art, because it probably does more so than anything visual. [It was listening to music that made me decide to be a visual artist in the first place.]

On the 3rd I saw Mogwai play that the 9:30 club in D.C., and I had the unique pleasure to see them perform their 30+ min opus My Father My King. It very nearly may be the most dramatic thing I have ever seen in my entire life. "Music to split the red sea to." As my friend said it perfectly.

This got me thinking about other records which have inspired me visually...there is quite a number of them. Here they are, not in any particular order.

[Air: Talkie Walkie; Radiohead: Kid A; Matmos: The Civil War; Johnny Greenwood: Bodysong; Mogwai: Happy Songs For Happy People; Bjork: Vesperitine; Holy Fuck: Holy Fuck; The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots; Rachel's: Systems/Layers]

edaeda...are these lit up or just inverted?

2009-08-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

Argh...I hate it when artists have really, really inadequate descriptions on their website! I'm assuming that they just document their sculptures and then invert them in photoshop, but I'd like to believe that they colored them blue and lit them from the inside.
...right. Either way, the original forms are pretty beautiful. See here.

Daniel Freytag

2009-08-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

...I particularly enjoy the sequence of these next two images.

And this following image reminds me of something I tried to do along time ago.

[but I feel like he did it better. my image regardless.]

I only with more information were available on his website. I love mostly all of the work, it has such a nice sensibility to mood and palette. But those first images particularly interest me as I see myself moving into that sort of a direction. [I have been thinking about circles!]