Steve Aishman Photography

Aishmans get a Visa

2011-01-29T06:37:00.001-08:00

The Aishmans get a Chinese visa to visit Uncle Todd from The Aishmans on Vimeo.

Aishmans in Shanghai visit the House of Blues

2011-01-29T06:03:00.001-08:00

The Aishmans in Shanghai from The Aishmans on Vimeo.

Semi-Urban hiking

2011-01-29T06:01:00.000-08:00

Semi-Urban Hike with the Aishmans in DB from The Aishmans on Vimeo.

A Report from the PhantomZone: Hong Kong Movie Review

2010-08-01T09:58:00.001-07:00

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The Aishman's review a movie in Hong Kong

A Special Report from the Phantom Zone : Summer Movie Issue

2010-07-17T20:29:00.001-07:00

The Aishmans' Summer Movie Review

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Quicktime version

The Aishmans' review movies on a flight to Korea.

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2010-07-01T07:59:00.001-07:00

Confessions of an Art Nerd

Throughout my life I have been called a nerd.
This has always been fine for me because I am a nerd. In fact I am multiple types of nerd.

To make things a worse, I seem to live in a perpetual state of Nerd Rage.

Statements that have sent me into nerd rage:

"Greedo shoots first." (SW nerd)

"Selig should overturn Joyce's call to give Galarraga the perfect game." (Sports nerd: not considered a type of nerd by many, but should be classified with other nerds.)

"Mac servers are now more stable than UNIX servers." (Tech nerd)

"Dio didn't invent the "devil horns" hand gesture, it was Motley Crue."(Metal nerd)

"The 1969 Mustang's engine is as well built as the '69 Charger's." (Car Nerd: again, not considered a type of nerd by many, but should be classified with other nerds.)

"Tasha Yar died for no reason." (Star Trek nerd)

"Pine is fine for most furniture needs."( Carpentry nerd.)

"Gimli was just there for comic effect." (Middle Earth nerd)

"Granule fertilizer works as well as liquid fertilizer." (Gardening nerd.)

"The Silver Line can get you to the Airport as fast as the T."(Boston nerd)

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a pretty good movie." (X-nerd)

"Baldessari Sing's Lewitt" has proven to be more influential than "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art." (Art nerd)

For some reason, very few people admit to being art nerds. I once called someone and art nerd and she was truly offended.

"I'm not a nerd, I'm a curator." she replied.
"Yeah, I pretty sure that's just someone who is a paid to be an art nerd." I said.
I have witnessed far more nerd rage over art than Star Wars.

I have seen two people, both in thousand dollar Gucci shoes, yelling at each other at an opening that Damien Hirst is crap (the strange thing is that they agreed with each other, just the extent to which he is crap!) I have seen two art historians almost come to blows over whether or not Hill and Adamson's calotypes of the village of New Haven in 1843 should be considered documentary work.

An opening is nothing more than a meeting of art nerds.
The Venice Biennale is the art nerd version of Comic-Con.
Big Red is New England's art nerd forum.
If you have any example of art nerd rage, please list them in the comments below.

"Baldessari Sing's Lewitt"

Han shoots first

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2010-05-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

Some texts I or my friends have received during or after art openings.
In no particular order.

1)This work is so bad. This wine is so bad. So many reasons to puke tonight. I'm going to puke tonight. Just puked.

2)Opening's warming up, a tranny just got here...

3)Artist statement is hippie crap all "harnessing positive energy". Fuck positive energy. I choose drinking instead

4)is your mom at the gallery?

5)Ha. Yes. I ditched the openings. I'm at a strip club. I'm the barack obama of strip clubs

6)Why'd you bring her here? Your girlfriend is such a south jersey whore

7)I hate your face. I heard we made out

8) you never wrote back on my facebook wall

9) I quit. all artists suck. signing up for eharmony. Don't judge

10) Fucking hipsters really piss me off man. They are just such punk as bitches, all of them. Oh, and fuck Ed Hardy too.

11) That's just how i roll, and this dress she is wearing is dirty and needs to get pulled over her head.

12)Can't get out of the opening. Every time I try to leave, I have to say bye to someone else for like a 5 min. conversation.

13) yo i stole a wine glass from the party next door but i spilled wine on my hundo dolla shirt

14) this art is predicting the future and apparently in the future we'll all be gay

15)I mean a good dj is a huge turn on

16) your dad is the best wingman ever

17)you dirty dirty liar I like the way you twitter

18) we're facebook friends in real life

19) You'd love this place it's beautiful. Plus these people smell like garlic

20) Needless to say when I told my parents they loved me less

21) Homeslice needs to figure out he's so 2006

22) So I'm looking at this sculpture and some guy came up looks at my boots and goes, "you should've got the boots with the fur"

23) WTF is with this opening? We are surrounded by old people. Heavens waiting room for sure.

24) I'm so fucking centered right now

25) I'm gunna smoke cigs today. I feel like I'm in that powerful and gritty mood which requires them

26) she has a tiny mouth but huuuge vocal chords

27) I took shrooms and thc before coming out, but its okay i'm surrounded by freaks

28) I only want to know people that are dynamic intelligent and totally insane

29) Those kids are glorified dude-bros. It's banal.

30) More tranny stories later!

31) Why do girls always cry in front of galleries? Are they having an exestensial crisis at the gallery?

32) I wish I could punch you in the face.

33) if you dont talk to me in person you cant text me

34) You're mentally unstable and I would hate to be you

35) Ppl just aren't as funny as we are

36) the sham wow guy got arrested for beating up a hooker.

37) It's not a performance piece. Its a bunch of hippies dancing in front of a stobe light. For ten dollars I could have gone to the strip club and at least had a lap dance

38) Youre a pretentious asshole and im not sure who you think you are. Get the hell over yourself and the self righteous culture snob image because its pretty obnoxious.

39) This gallery smells like vodka and shame

40) remember facepaint boy? turns out it stains. aaaand i have it all over my face and neck.

41) i'm pretty confident that i watched a woman making love to a german shepherd.

42) Ha. No worries! So loud here &god I love drag queens! How does it happen, the congealing?

43) Real busy. everything is packed. thats why we ended up at the strip club

44) I'd rather drink alone in my closet than hang out with that artist

45) that chick doesn't look like she's put anything in her mouth for weeks other than his dick.

46) Cool, I just put that together. I didn't know if using a tie-died sub machinegun was too crazy

47) A big part of growing up is learning how to tastefully stare at women

48) No one appreciates an amoeba in a balloon hat.

49) I wish my penis had an off switch

50) I'm pounding a vodka drink as we speak to make her interesting

51) I hate you but I'm not in hate with you

52) Drawing on your hand and calling it art is crap!

53) Well I thought that next 8 ball would either kill us or turn us into Gods

54) she asked me if the dress made her look fat, i told her no - the fat made her look fat.

55) im ready to get crazy and take my wig off

56) Any chance you got 3000 bucks on you?

57) someone just threw a dead crab at me

58) it was nice. we just kind of hung out. she didnt even mention the farting incident.

59) Holy cold harsh reality of bad art batman

60) It really wasn't that bad. Well, it was pretty bad, but only in 3 second bursts.

See more texts from last night here

Do you have some texts from art openings that you'd like to share? Add them to the comment section:

The Sham Wow Guy:

A Brian Berman Furry Photo

A Report from the PhantomZone

2010-04-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

The Budget Biennial
By Steve Aishman April 25, 2010

JP Morgan is where Jesus saves. Sometimes
I buy RH Quaytman’s work and the rest
of the Whitney. It’s not for sale. No sound
to hear in this grab ass scene. Gary’s so broke
he buys pot by the pound. I’m Rihanna’s rebound.

That's not my gun? The Bruce High Quality
Foundation is not God’s own creation.
The Museum is broke! We’re shakin’
in shit! There’s no architecture to see
in Frecon. Hell, I eat paint like Bacon.

It was love at first sight, so I looked again.
Art is for shoppin’, we poppin’ champagne.
This show is a joke, this show is on crack.
When you spend more, you’ll earn more cashback.

Charles Ray is chokin’. It's intoxication!
Don’t give a damn ‘bout my bad reputation.
Francesco Bonami can’t find the new,
so when I drink, I drink Mtn Dew.

Suzan Frecon, embodiment of red (soforouge), 2009.

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2010-04-11T13:06:00.001-07:00

While on a hike in the deep woods of Brooklyn, I found some split open trash bags with paper pouring out. Covered in dried blood and with multiple missing pages, I saw it was a journal/tactical notebook/garbage. Here is some of the reconstructed text as far as I could assemble it:

Modernist Painting and the Undead Plague
By Dr. Hide and Mr. Greenberg
1960/2010

Modernism includes more than art, literature and zombies. By now it covers almost the whole of what is truly alive in our culture and with the recent resurgence of walking dead; most of what is undead in our culture as well. It happens, however, to be very much of a historical novelty as most of civilization is now in full decay due to the rapid speed at which the plague is spreading. Western civilization is not the first civilization to turn around and question its own foundations, but in a desperate attempt to understand how things could have gone so wrong, Western civilization is the one that has gone furthest in doing so. I identify Modernism with the intensification, almost the exacerbation, of this self-critical tendency that began with the philosopher Kant. Because he was the first to criticize the means itself of criticism, I conceive of Kant as, the first real Modernist and either the first zombie killer or in fact, as some have surmised, the patient zero of the zombie plague that currently threats all of civilization.

The essence of both Modernism and the solution to the zombie plague lies, as I see it, in the use of characteristic methods of undead extermination to criticize the discipline of zombie killing itself, not in order to subvert it but in order to entrench it more firmly in its area of death dealing competence. Kant used logic to establish the limits of logic, and while he withdrew much from its old jurisdiction, logic was left all the more secure in what there remained to it. However, history has now shown that Kant himself was blissfully unaware of the true power his incantations held and only generations later when Kant’s words were twisted and perverted by mystics like Schopenhauer and Sorcerer Supreme Nietzsche did the undead throngs begin to erupt in numbers to great to be stopped.

How can we forget “The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of the Undead” were Nietzsche wrote:

“The extraordinary courage and wisdom of Kant and Schopenhauer have succeeded in gaining the most difficult victory, the victory over the optimism concealed in the essence of logic—an optimism that is the basis of our culture.”

It was soon after Nietzsche’s declaration of the victory over optimism, the reports of walking dead in the local paper rose from a few occasional sightings that were frequently confused with people who were simply depressed or feeling ill; to the full blown plague of undead we now have to deal with on a daily basis. (Where they have come from is still not known, but the fact that their appearance so closely matches with the writings of Nietzsche who maintains a quasi-mystical control over the mindless zombies from beyond the grave, cannot be coincidental.)

The self-criticism of Modernism grows out of, but is not the same thing as, the criticism of the Enlightenment (The Enlightenment is the name historians have given to time directly preceding our Modern, zombie-plagued era when lycanthropes ruled the world through brutal, feral force. It was brave French revolutionaries who discovered that the only way to effectively kill the shape-shifting monarchy was to cut of their heads while they were in human form. Many revolutionaries fell before the claws of Louis XVI and his she-wolf bride Marie-Antoinette before the cursed family found their heads beneath the guillotine.) The Enlightenment criticized the ruling werewolf clans from the outside, the way criticism in its accepted sense does; Modernism has no choice but to criticize from the inside because most of society is now part of the zombie plague we are in fact trying to eradicate. It seems natural that this new kind of criticism should have appeared first in philosophy since most of the first zombies were philosophers who fell prey to their own dark magics, but as the 18th century wore on, it entered many other fields. A more rational justification had begun to be demanded of every formal social activity, and Kantian self-criticism began infecting and turning every other discipline.

[Pages too covered in blood to be read]

Zombie hunting in its latest phase has not abandoned the notion that zombies can be turned back into functioning human beings. What both Modernist painting and the art of zombie killing have abandoned in principle is the representation of the kind of space that recognizable objects or the undead can inhabit. To achieve autonomy, culling the undead has had above all to divest itself of everything it might share with normalized society that seeks to care for its sick and weak. The plague can not be turned back by trying to help those that have been turned and are now mindlessly undead, but must instead rely on the retrenching in the essence of the art of zombie killing set forth by those French that ended the age of “Enlightenment”: beheading. The undead are easily tricked, confused, trapped, hacked up, stabbed, lit on fire, and otherwise mangled, but only beheading truly represents the “pure” essence of zombie killing.

[Pages too shredded to be read]

Postscript (1978)

I want to take this chance to correct an error, one of interpretation and not of fact. Many readers, though by no means all, seem to have taken the 'rationale' of Modernist art outlined here as representing a position adopted by the writer himself that is, that what he describes he also advocates. This may be a fault of the writing or the rhetoric. Nevertheless, a close reading of what he writes will find nothing at all to indicate that he subscribes to, believes in, the things that he adumbrates. I in no way am implying that anyone’s head should be cut off. The writer is trying to account in part for how most of the very best art of zombie killing of the last hundred-odd years came about, but he's not implying that that's how it had to come about, much less that that's how the best art still has to come about. The philosopher or art historian who can envision me -- or anyone at all -- arriving at such violent judgments in this way reads shockingly more into himself or herself than into my article.

Jackson Pollock shortly before being eaten by a Zombie wedding party.

Blood splatters on paper

Jackson Pollock, Untitled (Green Silver), ca. 1949. on Paper

_________________________

Clement Greenberg's original "Modernist Painting" 1960 from which this was mashed up with zombie nonsense.

A Report from the Phantom Zone: Art Dubai

2010-03-27T10:38:00.000-07:00

It’s a 13-hour flight to Dubai.

Not the kind of travel to be taken lightly but worth it for the experience of Art Dubai. For visitors like me, Art Dubai represents more than the other fairs like the Armory Show or Miami Basel because the fair was the best excuse I could come up with to visit the Middle East. Like all art fairs, Art Dubai was primarily focused on sales, however, there was a consolidated effort by the fair to extend beyond the walls of the fair itself in order to become an entire art world event representing the region as a whole. Proof of this was in the number of the auxiliary programs, the many parallel events in the city that were directly supported by the fair, and the “Global Art Forum” lecture series that made the fair feel less like a sales driven event and more like an all encompassing cultural event. Art Dubai fully supported the Al Bastakiya Art Fair, the one official fringe art fair, by running a bus between the fairs and encouraging all visitors to spend time at both fairs. Art Dubai even ran programs in other cities like tours of the Sharjah Museum, or programs in Doha. The fair fully supported the START program, a Middle East based program that helps orphans, refugees and street children in the MENASA (Middle East North Africa South Asia) region, through creative development. While at the fair, I participated in one of START’s programs and helped introduce local autistic children to art-making and the fair itself.

While the fair is not in charge of what any individual gallery chooses to show, there were some excellent pieces on display. Some of the highlights included El Anatsui’s “In the World But Don't Know the World” piece at London’s October Gallery booth. El Anatsui’s metal sculpture made from tens of thousands of bottle-tops that evoked sublime awe at its sheer enormity while also provoking a dialog about the cultural, social and economic histories of West Africa.

By far, the most provoking and stimulating piece at Art Dubai was created by the winner of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize, Kader Attia and his curator Laurie Farrell. The Abraaj Capital Art Prize provides $1 million dollars in funding to three curator/artist pairs from MENASA to produce unique pieces for Art Dubai. Algerian born artist Kader Attia and curator Laurie Farrell produced “History of a Myth: Le Petit Dome du Rocher” which is an installation based in deep understanding of history and philosophy. In the piece, the viewer enters a darkened room to see a live camera feed projecting a sculpture of a bolt and nuts enlarged many times its size. The projection of the sculpture evokes the architecture of the Dome of the Rock and in so doing refers to Arab-Muslim history and all of the complexity of issues that surround representations of that history. The most amazing part of the installation is that it is an installation that cannot be accurately described in words, but a viewer must be in the room itself to feel the piece. Throughout the installation, there is a gentle breeze and sounds of nature that are subtly vibrating the sculpture and thus the projection as well. Kader Attia’s piece provides a peaceful space of contemplation where the viewer can mediate on the myriad of issues surrounding historical, architectural, political or aesthetic interpretations. The piece is simultaneously peaceful and provocative, troubling and soothing, pensive and visceral. Creating a piece that refuses to fit into any preconceived binary is definitely a piece that should not be missed.

Next year’s Art Dubai fair should be even bigger and more comprehensive than this years and is definitely worth 13 hour flight.

Kader Attia
History of a Myth: The Small Dome of the Rock, 2010
Video installation
© Photo: Alexzandra Chandler
Courtesy of Abraaj Capital Art Prize

El Anatsui
"In the World, But Don’t Know the World?”, 2009.
Aluminium and copper wire, 5.6 x 10 metres

Video of Steve Aishman at the VIP Patron's Preview of Art Dubai

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2010-03-13T14:56:00.000-08:00

Every hero becomes a bore at last.
-Emerson

I have never been able to throw. And I mean anything. I can’t throw a baseball, tennis ball, Frisbee, whatever. Don’t ask me to toss you a pen or a coin because you’re likely to have to spend more time reaching under the couch to try to find it than just asking me to walk it over to you. It’s also rather dangerous asking me to throw anything in your general direction because I could put your eye out, the eye of the person next to you or just break a lamp. I don’t even try to play sports where I have to throw because everyone just gets frustrated with me as they have to continually jump over fences or run across roads to retrieve my horribly targeted missiles. Dogs don’t even want to play catch with me because it is simply no fun.

However, I love to watch the Red Sox. I love watching Pedroia or Youkilis make perfect throw to first base and just beat out a runner by milliseconds. The problem is that now I have to apologize for enjoying watching someone make a great throw. I have to say something like, “I know it’s just a game, but I find it exciting and uplifting”. If I don't, someone will attack me. Someone will say something like, “That’s stupid.” “Baseball is a waste of time.” “If you like baseball then you’re clearly sexist.” Etc. Etc.

It used to be that enjoying something was a good thing. I remember when having a hero was something that was encouraged. Now if you say anyone is your hero, it opens up a floodgate of ridicule. A hero should be someone we can admire without apology, but most people have secret heroes. People we aspire to be like, but don’t dare tell anyone about.

The art world is a good example of this. Who would say that Damien Hirst is their art hero? He’s hugely successful and influential, but to say you want your career to be like his is an open invitation to being attacked. Marina Abramović’s show at MOMA just opened and it will feature a performance piece that will be the longest that she has performed a single solo piece. I would love to see the piece, but I would never say that a performance artist is a hero of mine because so many people hate performance art (usually without seeing it) and it takes too long to defend why I love performance art. This year’s Whitney Biennial is filled with great artists, but it is dangerous to say that you think of any of them as an art hero.

It’s possible that there are no more art heroes (or maybe heroes at all). No Michelangelos or Rodins who it is ok to call a hero in the art world. Someone to draw inspiration from … Someone to aspire to …

Is there someone you consider your art hero?
Someone you feel you don’t have to apologize for liking?

If so, please list them in the comment section.
(And if you’re really bold … leave your name!)

Marina Abramović

Damien Hirst

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2010-02-28T16:39:00.000-08:00

So I’m looking at Titian’s “Venus and the Lute Player” when I overhear a discussion being led by a teacher and some students:

Teacher - “What do you think this painting is about?”

Student A. – “It seems to be about whether beauty is better apprehended through sight or through sound.”

Student B. – “I think it’s just another example of pre-19th century art that assumes one single point of view of what beauty even can be. I mean seriously, another nude white woman as the object of beauty …”

Student A. – “I think you’re confusing social commentary with art. The piece is not supposed to be social commentary, it’s supposed to be beautiful. You can’t just substitute aesthetic beauty with irony and call it art the way a lot of artists try.”

Student B – “That may be true, but all standards of judgment are based at least in part in some kind of cultural bias. Beauty maybe the most biased of all and so without framing Titian’s biases we risk marginalizing and silencing virtually everyone else’s concept of beauty.”

Student A- “But it is too easy to just deconstruct the piece that way. Anyone who isn’t smart enough to build a building can spend their whole life simply burning them down. After deconstruction, there needs to be re-construction.”

Teacher –“So what can we do now to acknowledge the insight that all judgments are relative and context-dependant but still be able to move forward and appreciate this work of art?”

Student B –“ Why don’t we just use relative terms where the standards of judgment are not unilaterally applied as they were in the past, but explicitly stated and acknowledged to be immersed in the culture in which they arise.”

Student A –“ So we integral mode of criticism that includes context as an essential part of any judgment. Thus we can judge a piece based on the notion of beauty that exists in our culture. This allows me to make the judgment that Titian’s “Venus and the Lute Player” is more aesthetically beautiful than Duchamp’s “Fountain”. I can even go on to say that it is probably as provocative and controversial about notions of beauty because it does pose the question: Which is more beautiful, visual art or music?.”

Student B –“That sounds fine as long as everyone understands that the hierarchy you just created is inherently value free and that it is context driven. It has to be acknowledged that you are working with a continuum of sliding judgments and sliding contexts.”

Teacher – “Exactly, then we can move forward by understanding that we are no longer evaluating work based on one single standard, but there are some standards that have to be framed before the discussion can really begin.”

Titian’s “Venus and the Lute Player”

Duchamp’s “Fountain”.

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2010-02-14T10:37:00.000-08:00

“Art writing that attempts not to judge, and yet presents itself as criticism, is one of the fascinating paradoxes of the second half of the twentieth century." James Elkins

In 1970, Edmund Burke Feldman wrote a book called “Becoming Human Through Art” that proposed four elements of art criticism:
1. Description
2. Analysis
3. Interpretation
4. Judgment

The Feldman method of art criticism begins with description, where the art critic uses neutral language to describe 1. recognizable subjects, 2. visual elements and their qualities (form), and 3. technical qualities of a work of art. The second part of art criticism, analysis, consists of describing the relationship among the things that were previously listed. Interpretation is where the critic infers what the connections between various visual elements mean. Finally, judgment is where the art critic makes a statement about the value of a piece of work based on a stated context.

The central element of Feldman’s methodology of art criticism was the notion that clearly grounding criticism in a philosophy of art would allow the art critic to justify critical judgments.

Feldman used three types of art philosophy as examples of how to use his method of art criticism:

A. Feldman identified Formalism as an art philosophy that evaluates work based the importance of the formal qualities and the visual elements of art. Therefore, a formalist art critic will focus their criticism on the visual elements of a piece. The formalist art critic rejects interpretations that rely on symbols, subject matter, previous knowledge or viewer’s life experience and will judge the piece based on technical execution and visual organization.

B. Feldman identified Expressivism as an art philosophy that evaluates work based on how well it accomplishes the goal of communicating a specific set of ideas. Therefore, an expressivist critic would evaluate a piece based on its ability to arouse emotion.

C. Instrumentalism evaluates work based on the importance of the social intention of the work. Therefore, an instrumentalist critic will evaluate a piece based on how well it serves social institutions like the church, the state, business, politics, etc. and will reject art that develops from or depends on other art as inferior and self-serving.

Feldman’s goal in outlining his method of art criticism was fundamentally for educational purposes. Feldman once said, "what an art teacher does - whether in art appreciation or studio instruction - is essentially art criticism. That is, art teachers describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate works of art during the process of instruction." (Feldman, Some adventures in art criticism, Art Education : Journal of the National Art Education Association, p.24)

For most of the artists I know that occasionally write criticism as well, Feldman’s basic concept of art criticism as a part of education still holds true. Artists write about art in order to learn more about their own practice and to codify their ideas. The act of analyzing someone else’s exhibition forces artists/writers to look much longer and harder than they might otherwise and to form connections they might not have seen. To a large extent, Big, Red and Shiny was founded on the notion of artists writing about art in order to improve their own practice.

It seems the goal of art critics who are not also artists may have a host of other goals. Some of the goals I see expressed in other art critics include:

1. Art Criticism for Philosophers: The desire to pioneer and delineate a new art philosophy. In other words, the desire to expand from Feldman’s three basic examples to employ new philosophies. (Arthur C. Danto seems to be an example of this type of critic.)
2. Art Criticism as Literature: The desire to use a work of art as inspiration for developing well-crafted or innovative writing.
3. Art Criticism as Politics: The desire to make a political statement through art criticism.
4. Art Criticism for Money: Participating the written branch of the economics of the art world.
5. Art Criticism for Fame: Writing so people will recognize the writer.
6. Art Criticism as part of Advertising: Writing to increase viewer participation in an exhibition.

Of course this is not an exhaustive link and most art critics have multiple goals as well. There are a number of websites that explain how to write criticism like eHow and others. But none of them emphasize the fact that goal of the writer should be clear. Similarly, the art philosophy or philosophies that the critic is using should also be clear. It should also be clear to the critic who is writing that it is in the area of judgment and application of art philosophy where reader of the criticism will either choose to enter a dialog about competing art philosophies or the discussion will descend into name calling. Any perceived crisis of art criticism seems to rest in the pularistic notion that opposing art philosophies can both be grounded in the sound application of equally empirical philosophies to works of art. When two equally grounded philosophies attempt to engage, the result can frequently descend into a cacophony.

So, for anyone interested in writing art criticism for any reason, know this: If you write criticism without judgment, it’s not criticism. If you choose to judge, back it up with a sound philosophy of art. After you publish what you write, get ready for someone to hate you and try to keep your philosophy down by yelling louder.

If you can think of any other reasons for writing art criticism or any philosophies that extend beyond Feldman’s examples, please post them in the comment section.

Good luck,
Steve

Some Critics

Danto

Krauss

Hickey

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2010-01-24T15:45:00.000-08:00

Artists and giving to charitable causes seem to go well together. The biennial ARTcetera art auction is a great example where Boston’s visual arts community has donated artwork and time to support the AIDS Action Committee since 1985. There are, of course, numerous other examples of charity art auctions across the globe for virtually every type of charity event. Most art auctions are supported largely by artist or collector donations and while every art auction is different, the quality of art and artists represented can be world class. The (RED) auction in 2008 raised $42.6 million to fight AIDS in Africa by auctioning works from artists like Banksy, Julian Schnabel, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Whitechapel Gallery’s charity auction in 2006 raised $5.2 million by auctioning works donated by artists like Carl Andre, Christian Boltanski, Angela Bulloch, Sophie Calle and many others.

Unfortunately, art auctions can also be sub-par displays of works that collectors or artists are trying to get rid of.

The reason why art auctions are popular and frequently successful is primarily because people want to donate to a cause, but also want to take something tangible home with them. Over the next year, charity art auctions to help Haiti will probably begin to pop-up as people stop donating directly to emergency aid foundations. So far, I have only seen one art auction where any artist can easily donate work to aid Haiti at:
http://140hours.com/
I don’t know anything about this auction or the people who are running it, so I can not recommend that anyone participate with this particular auction in anyway, but I can support the idea of artists donating work to charity art auctions for Haiti as a whole.

However, if you are an artist or collector who is asked to participate in a charity auction for Haiti, please do not contribute sub-par work. If every artist or collector donated excellent work for charity auctions, then people will be much more like to participate in future auctions.

If you know of any charity art auctions for Haiti, please list them in comment section. (Of course I can not vouch for anything posted in the comment section; always beware of donating or working with any charity.)

Banksy/Hirst piece sold at the (RED) Auction for $1,870,000 USD

TAKASHI MURAKAMI piece sold at the (RED) Auction for $1,650,000 USD

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2010-01-03T15:48:00.000-08:00

Top Ten Bad New Years Resolutions for a Stereotypical Artist

10. Don't roll eyes at people who ask if all my clothes are black; just accept that they are jealous and move on.

9. Stop worrying if smoking is killing me; Europeans have always smoked and they're all hot and skinny.

8. Don't listen to my mother who keeps “worrying that I’ll always be poor”; realize that I’m a Bohemian - a nuanced class of poor.

7. Less showers and more deodorant will save money on water bill.

6. Try to get to most or all of my court appearances this year.

5. Don’t get fired from more than four jobs this year even if my boss is nothing more than a wage-slave to the capitalistic pigs that own the corporation.

4. Cut back on drinking to just lunch, dinner, after dinner and late night.

3. Try to have most of my artwork done at least by the opening of the exhibit.

2. Stop feeling bad when gallery owners say that I’m “hard to work with,” they secretly love the drama anyway.

1. Try to convince at least one person that I’m not elitist, no matter how stupid, provincial, uncultured, uneducated, ignorant or boring they are.

Happy New Decade!

A typical Bohemian

Pigs from "Animal Farm"

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-12-19T18:11:00.000-08:00

The Storm and the Sculpture

The snowman is the quintessential piece of vernacular sculpture. True, people who don’t consider themselves artists also make sandcastles, bonfires and even Christmas lights can be viewed as vernacular installation art, but the snowman seems to hold a special place in both sculpture and culture as a whole. How many other types of sculpture have their own fully developed mythology with movies, books, songs, sub-characters, spin-offs, etc.? No one has ever heard of Sandy the Sandcastle Queen, but everyone can hum along to Frosty’s theme song. The snowman sculptural phenomenon is easily attributed to marketing for the holiday season (especially since Frosty was originally a Rudolph spin-off, who everyone knows was a Montgomery Ward marketing ploy), but snowmen are far more complex than other elements of the holiday marketing push.

Snowmen appear to be vaguely figurative and can be anthropomorphized, but it is easy to argue that snowmen are their own concept that actually has little to do with being a representation of a human. Ever seen a realistic snowman? Hyper-realistic snowmen are no longer snowmen, but rather figurative sculpture that happens to be made out of snow. Snowmen follow their own sculptural tradition that is always paired with social ritual. Ever made a snowman and then not come in to have hot chocolate? It would border on sacrilegious. Snowmen also function best as a communal sculpture-making endeavor since making a snowman alone seems to miss one of the purposes of why snowmen exist. Making snowmen is a winter bonding ritual between friends and family. For some children, finally being old enough to be allowed to participate in making the annual family snowman is a rite of passage.

Maybe people hold a special place for snowmen because they directly evoke complex associations with our own mortality. All snowmen are made with the knowledge that they will melt. Paradoxically, if snowmen lasted forever, no one would make them. They are made to have temporary lives; to die at the end of the season and then be re-born the next year.

Such a simple sculpture holds unbelievable meaning in our society. One of the most relevant elements about snowmen is that they are fun! Not many pieces of artwork can hold so much meaning while also creating so much pure joy and pride, no matter what the outcome. Every snowman I have ever made has been a complete failure and I have loved every part of them. Every photo album I have has a picture of my sister and me next too a terrible snowman made mostly of dirt and sticks; both of us with huge grins of pride.

The storm hitting New England right now will spawn armies of snowmen and I know I am looking forward to driving around and seeing as many as I can.

If you make a snowman this year, please take a picture of it and post a link to the picture in the comment section.

Frosty

Figurative snow sculpture or snowman?

A snowman like the kind I make

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-11-15T19:18:00.001-08:00

Somewhere along the way, rules got a bad name.

People began to associate rules with authority and oppression of freedom.

Rules are now seen as antiquated obstacles to individualism and progress.

Artists in particular decided that following any rules meant total subordination of personal liberties to potentially dangerous social institutions. Artists now fear that if any rules are allowed to even be uttered without immediately being contradicted, that there will be a return to social domination like the infamous degenerate art exhibition of 1937 or Lenin’s Izo-Narkompros where totalitarian social institutions attempted to dictate the rules of art for everyone in society.

The notion that rules can function as efficient ways of passing knowledge that require judgment before following and not blind adherence seems to have withered as fear of totalitarianism has risen.

A total rejection of all rules is fueled by fear. Fear of loss of individuality, fear of loss of freedom, fear of loss of the notion of self, fear of loss of liberty, etc. Perhaps the fear is well founded, or perhaps there is nothing wrong with rules as long as the focus is on judgment, not adherence.

Rules are _not_ meant to be broken; they are meant to be guides that the informed can choose to follow or break depending on the situation, not just always broken.

Here are some rules that may evoke vehement objection or vigorous endorsement. Either way, they are not meant to apply to every situation all the time. They are meant (as all rules are) to give a framework for the application of judgment.
_______________

Be careful with irony in e-mails.

If someone is carrying a heavy package, hold the door.

Avoid gossip.

Don’t text while driving.

Don’t pose for a photo with a drink in your hand.

Facebook should not be used for a therapy session.

Keep e-mails short.

Let passengers off the train first before you get on.

Don’t forward hoaxes.

Re-size pictures before putting them in e-mails.

If people follow you on Twitter, it's polite to "follow" them back.

Don’t give your business card to just anyone.

Never ask someone if they are pregnant.

Have nothing to do with standing ovations unless a performance is actually close to a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Don’t hand out a postcard for your opening at someone else’s art opening.

Be on time.

Don’t walk into a gallery with your portfolio.

Replace your divots.

Don’t sabotage other’s efforts at creativity.

Be accountable for your actions.

Don’t send invitations to people who don’t know you.

Don’t be social in the bathroom.

Try to offer seats to those who you think need them.

What’s rude in life is rude on Twitter.

If you are in a store to use the free Wi-Fi, buy something.

Try to avoid interrupting conversations.

No matter how well trained your dog is, put your dog on a leash when near strangers.

Avoid profanity.

Don't spam.

Exit taxis on the sidewalk side only.

Always be kind to the wait staff, no matter what happens (and tip well).

Don’t buy purposely loud motor vehicles.

Don’t litter.

Don’t talk on your cell-phone in the checkout line.

The food at art openings is not a buffet.

__________________________
If you can think of any you want to add, please add them in the comment section.

Adolf Hitler and Adolf Ziegler visit the Degenerate Art exhibition, 1937.

Protesters outside the courthouse in 1990 protesting “Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment” exhibit in Cincinnati.

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-11-01T22:37:00.001-08:00

Information has evolved into a new species of garbage.

The entire concept of someone who is “informed” has changed and now fragmentary 140 character lines of text pass as communication. It is not that this new breed of information is false that is the issue, but rather it is an illusion of knowledge.

We are all watching as knowledge is drowning in a river of irrelevance. There is constant stream of data flowing from one communication device to the other without picking up value along the way.

Sci-fi novels of the 20th century did not anticipate this 21st century state of reading. Bradbury and Orwell taught us to fear totalitarian governments that wanted to burn books, but no one warned us about the general public expressing their freedom to write so much that nothing would be worth reading.

This century’s dystopia novels will be populated by people who read and write all day long, but somehow they know nothing. People who are continually informed and yet have no information. The heroes of these novels will be underground rebels who insist on writing and reading more than 3 lines of text. They can have clever names like Edmund Spenser or Milton Vyasa and these new logos-heros will insist on things like news outlets that pay for and conduct thorough research. Inevitably the next generation of dystopia novels will conclude with death by communal distraction.

This new species of information is worse than being deprived of information because information has become a plague. The more you read, the less you know.

Tyranny is no longer required for the ruin of a society; the freedom to pursue an infinite appetite for distractions can do the job more efficiently. Included in this is the distraction of continual creativity without rationality or analysis.

A 14 year old girl is reported to have sent 35,463 text messages, or about 1 text message a minute in the month of June 2008. “The Old Man and the Sea” only has 27,315 words. The texter in question has stated she texted that much in one month because she was at cheer camp. It seems safe to say that while she wrote more than a Hemmingway novel in one month, the level of valuable information transmitted was probably significantly lower.

The antidote to the venom of cultural distraction is to return to state where reading is considered a serious business. Where the goal of information transfer is no longer quantity, but quality.

It is now November; ticket buying season for Miami Basel even in a down economy. All of the fairs can be followed on Facebook or Twitter:
Pulse on Twitter
Pulse on Facebook
Art Miami on Twitter
Art Miami on Facebook
Miami Basel on Twitter
Miami Basel on Facebook
Aqua on Facebook
Etc.
Etc.

I take these modes of communication seriously. Why would I follow Miami Basel’s Twitter account? Because I want to see if the fairs will be worth an investment in a trip this year. I expect the information they post to actually be valuable. I expect to see exhibitor lists. I expect to see performance art schedules.

But I am already wrong.

One of the fair’s tweets already says, “See you out there!”
It was not worth reading.
It was information evolved into garbage and I was its garbage collector.
I have faith in a return to the seriousness of reading, but I expect it will be a while.

-Steve

Me in Miami Basel 2006

Morgan Pozgar, age 13, is officially the LG National Texting Champion

P.S.Follow me on Twitter or Facebook
OMG LOL

SCAD-Atlanta Photo Exhibition

2009-10-18T19:43:00.001-07:00

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-10-13T12:05:00.001-07:00

This is a news report and criticism:

On Sept. 29, Boing Boing blogger Xeni wrote a criticism of this Ad by Ralph Lauren:

stating,"Dude, her head's bigger than her pelvis."

Ralph Lauren's law firm has now threatened to sue the ISP of the website for use of an "infringing image" and sent them a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice. Copyright law clearly outlines "fair use" as including work reproduced for "purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."

So here is the simple question, does copyright law give people the right to threaten critics? Even if Xeni is ultimately proven protected under copyright law, BoingBoing, the ISP and Xeni all have to pay a lawyer in order to respond to the take down notice which has a very clear and formal procedure of notice and counter notice (Chilling effects explains the procedure here). Of course this is Ralph Lauren ultimate strategy because in the future, critics will be less likely to criticize their brand because the cost is not worth it.

In fact, if Big Red and Shiny or anyone else that reproduce my blog, runs the image, they may receive a take down notice and have to hire a lawyer to reply to it, ultimately not making this report worth running.

What about galleries, museums or artists that don't want negative reviews of their work? They can all send take down notices and effectively grind all criticism to a halt. In theory, as both a critical and news reporting publication, Big Red should be able to take any image from anywhere and reproduce it in any critical or news reporting article that is about the image. But in reality, Big Red has to be very careful because some images are simply not worth the required response to a take down notice.

Everything Ralph Lauren is doing is legal, just as it is perfectly legal for me to reproduce the image for reporting purposes on my blog and on Big Red. I say if every blogger joins with Xeni and BoingBoing and reports on this image, Ralph Lauren will be the one who can not afford to pay their lawyers to send out take down notices to everyone. As an added bonus, more people will see how terrible their ads, products and corporation are for our society.

So please, write a story about this image on your own blog. You can even take this whole article and reproduce it if you want with your own comments or criticism. I don't care, and trust me, I will not threaten to sue you for copyright infringement.

If you are a lawyer from Ralph Lauren, please send the take down notice to: saishman@blogger.com

Thanks and I look forward to the lawsuit,
Steve Aishman

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-10-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

There once was an artist from Boston
Who searched all the way to Austin
“Where is the art?”
He said with a fart
“If this country had balls, we have lost them!”

-A limerick by Steve Aishman

2009-09-20T18:32:00.000-07:00

You shouldn’t be reading this in front of your computer.

People have a tendency to keep their computers in clean rooms like offices or on desks with flowers and potpourri.

This article should be read in your basement or in the archive section of the library.

Somewhere where dust mites thrive.

This article should be read somewhere that people try to avoid or cover up with a Glade plug-in.

Somewhere with history you can smell, but not nostalgia.

I’m not talking about nostalgia.

In the 19th century, nostalgia was considered a disease and its “symptoms” included despondency, melancholia, bouts of weeping, anorexia, and suicide attempts.

There is enough nostalgia and more than enough articles discussing how smell links us to the past.

I’m talking about a smell that snaps you into the present.

Like when you enter a room and you just know it is full of newspapers.

Or that it used to be a gym.

These are smells that make us hyperaware of our senses and more grounded in the present while simultaneously informing us about the past of a place.

Very few artists work with smell and I’m not sure why.

This weekend I saw Radcliffe Bailey’s piece “Storm at Sea, Chapter Three” at Solomon Projects in Atlanta. The piece is comprised of thousands of piano keys, a plaster bust, glitter, and silver candelabra. The problem in describing the piece on the Internet is that only a small part of the piece is visual. It’s easy to write about the intellectual elements of the piece like how the piano keys read as a link to jazz music while visually mimicking a wrecked ship in the gallery. It’s easy to write about how Radcliffe Bailey’s work is multi-layered examination of African American cultural history that reveals a deep understanding of how the past influences the present. What is hard is to evoke the visceral feeling of the piece that is only experienced when the piece is seen, smelled and heard.

Thousands of piano keys in a room have an overwhelming smell that is the grounding smell I am trying to describe. They also produce a palpable silence as the piano keys that were originally intended to make music, have been rendered eternally mute.
The smell of the gallery immediately makes the viewer’s senses hyper aware in the present, but the musty smell of the keys also speaks about the past. Radcliffe Bailey’s work is perfectly represented in this piece because his work deals with issues of African American history, but ultimately, the work is about providing an awareness of the present.

Because of the multi-sensory nature of the piece, it requires viewing in person. Hopefully, Radcliffe Bailey’s work will come to New England soon for more people to experience.

Radcliffe Bailey

Storm at Sea, Chapter Three (detail), 2009,
piano keys, plaster bust, glitter, silver candelabra

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-09-06T10:27:00.000-07:00

So the other day, I was at the Museum and I overheard two people talking about a Georgia O’Keefe.

“Oh they are clearly vaginas,” said one person.

“No, they’re just beautiful shapes and colors based on flowers, you’re imposing something that’s not there,” said the other.

“Well, flowers are sex organs, so work based on sex organs will always be suggestive, right?”

So I decided to try and find as many suggestive nature pictures as I could find on the Internet.

As usual with my column, I’m not sure if what I have compiled is an art piece made from appropriated materials, an editorial commentary, or just a form of pornography.

Enjoy.

(link to where I got this image)

(link to where I got this image)

(link to where I got this image)

(link to where I got this image)

(link to where I got this image)

(link to where I got this image)

(link to where I got this image)

(link to where I got this image)

(link to where I got this image)

(link to where I got this image)

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-08-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

I'm often reminded of artist George Vlosich's work.

You're not familiar with his work?

He's one of the most written about artists of our generation.
The You Tube video of him making his work has been viewed over 1,600,000 times.
His art work has been featured in national press reports on CNN, World News Tonight, BBC, etc.
He even got to meet President Clinton and VP Gore while they were in office.

George was also featured on Ripley's Believe It Or Not.
You see, George Vlosich makes celebrity and sports drawings with an Etch-A-Sketch.
The first time I saw his work I was at a party held at a friend-of-a-friend's house when a report on his work came on. Everyone stopped in amazement to watch him make an Etch-A-Sketch drawing of a basketball player. When it was over, someone said, "Now that's real art. You know, something that takes skill and hours of labor. I know I couldn't do that because I don't have the patience."

I think I evaluate George Vlosich's work as a balanced between the questions of "how hard was it to make" versus "how much of this is just media sensation"?

Here are some other pieces for your judgment:

1. Santiago Sierra's 21 huge blocks of human feces that were shown at Lisson Gallery in 2007.

2. World's largest photo

3. CNN report on a college student who used post-it notes to make a portrait of Ray Charles

4. Micro-sculptor Willard Wigan who made sculpted the Lloyd's Building so it fits on top of a pin.

5. Justin Gignac's New York City Garbage

6. César Saez' Banana Over Texas work.

7. Scott Wade's Dirty Car Art

8.Tim Knowles tree drawings.

9. Steven J. Backman's toothpick art.

10. and finally, George Vlosich's work.

Please feel free to post your opinion on any of these artist's works in the comment section:

Heidi Aishman at PEM

2009-08-12T09:46:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Heidi Aishman views her work at Peabody Essex Museum for the "Trash Menagerie" exhibtion

Interview with Jane Winchell

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-08-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

August is the cruellest month.

The doldrums of the art world where half of the galleries are closed or not showing new work. Most of the artists are at the beach. August is an annual promise of new life that is coming with September openings. A false hope to those who believe that the art world is like a battery that needs the sun soaked summer to recharge. I don’t see solar panels on the roofs of any museums, quietly trickle charging for a fall explosion of human creative endeavors that will draw crowds in out of the cold. I look at the MFA Boston’s calendar and see nothing opening in the fall. Damián Ortega opens at the ICA in mid-September, how eagerly should wait to see how he takes apart familiar consumer culture and suspends it? Samson Projects opens Michael Phelanin in September, so I guess I’m excited to see how he re-contextualizes mundane consumer culture. (It seems like September will mostly be going out to see what I already have, but arranged differently.) A few galleries will open shows that sound truly interesting like Howard Yezerski who will open Rona Pondick in September or the Mills Gallery who will open its 21st Drawing Show - always a treat. But for the most part, I don’t know what I’m supposed to be waiting for. August is a pregnant pause with no release. No wonder most wars begin in August. People are hot and edgy, waiting for fall, but with no guarantee that anything will pan out. Empty promises make people irritable.

What are you looking forward to for fall? Maybe a trip to MOMA to see “Monet's Water Lilies” that opens in Sept.? (I doubt anyone’s booking a flight.) But there must be something out there … anyone? A show they are looking forward to seeing? Please leave info in the comment section.

Claude Monet at MOMA

Michael Phelanin who will open at Samson

Damián Ortega at who will open at the ICA Boston

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-07-26T16:37:00.001-07:00

Dear movie industry liars,

Why have you decided that it is easier to make a bad movie with good advertising than to just make a good movie? You should hire the guys who make your ads to make your movies because they must be super-creative to make your crap look interesting. Almost everyone I know shows up at the movies early to watch the previews because they are actually exciting! Usually the movie is a huge disappointment where people leaving saying things like “all the good scenes were in the ads” or “that is not at all what the ads made it look like”.

(I should probably say spoiler-alter here, but you are probably well aware that all of your movies are more spoiled than Madonna’s baby in a Gap store. Ok I’ll say it any way.)

Spoiler Alert!

Take for example the ads for “Orphan” which make the movie look scary and they actually say it has a twist, well it turns out the movie is a comedy because a) the parents are named John and Kate (ha!) b) you can see a microphone boom in a number of shots and c) the adopted girl is a midget. (Seriously, that’s the twist! How funny is that!)

The “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” ads make it look like a new movie, but most of it was stolen from other movies. The temple scenes were from Indiana Jones, the Terminatrix was from Terminator 3, the scene in the Matrix where Smith implants Neo with a bug was just completely ripped off, the battle in the Smithsonian was like “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”, and even parts of “Team America” were put into the plot of the Transformers! Why are you stealing from bad movies! How can you not be creative enough to steal from good movies?

Recipe for Crap Cake:
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
* 2 teenage love triangles
* 1 hour of character development followed by nothing
* 22 year old actors trying to play 16
* the ability to do magic, but no action scenes
* a PG rating
Bake 2.5 hours, makes one “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” crap cake.

In order to help you tell the truth about your movies, we recommend developing a whole new rating system. Since most the previous rating systems like the PG scale, thumbs-up/thumbs-down or the “how many” stars system appear to be arbitrary, completely political, or have no meaning at all, we have developed a new system for you. Feel free to implement it as you see fit.

Our new movie rating system is based on the award winning 1980’s television series “The Golden Girls.” As everyone knows, the best part of the series was old women saying inappropriate things. So from now on, movie ads should not say things like “Movie of the decade – New York Times” or “A real popcorn flick – the Boston Globe” and instead they should quote from the “Golden Girls” like:

”Fasten your seatbelt, slut puppy. This ain't gonna be no cakewalk.”-Sophia
“I hope you like it, Dorothy said you would like something crotchless.”-Rose
“I'm not patronizing you I'm mocking you.” - Dorothy
“Eat dirt and die trash.“ –Blanche
“Funny, touching and with a surprise twist ending. I wonder if it was true. Damn that stroke.” - Sophia
“It looks like the road company of Cocoon.” - Dorothy
“I haven't seen that much face-eating since Silence of the Lambs.” - Sophia
“I thought since you look like Yoda you were also wise.” - Blanche
“Try kissing my behind. It's a real peach!” –Sophia

Using "Golden Girls" quotes in movie ads will be just about as accurate as current movie ads, but they will also be funny. Or you could try making good movies, but I doubt that will happen.

Concerned Citizens,
The Aishman

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-07-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

I pull over into a gas station that has a fruit stand set-up in the parking lot. You know, one of those stands under a tent with a huge hand painted sign that looks like a Walker Evans photo. Everything is the size of something else. Oranges the size of grapefruit. Grapefruit the size of watermelon.

“It’s all organic. 100% natural.” Says the teenage girl behind the counter without lifting her head to look at me. Bored. Hot. Tired. She looks like she’s been sitting in the Georgia sun all day. Rotting. Or maybe ripening …

“How can this food be organic? It’s unnaturally huge …” I ask.

“I dunno. I’m just supposed to say that or no one will buy it. Everything’s all organic, all natural, all the time at this market. I guess it’s just our culture now.” She replies. “You know that’s true for everything …” She looks off to the side and then back down, as if testing me. Seeing if I’ll take the bait.

So, I do.

“What do you mean?” I ask, knowing I’ve sprung the trap. She’s been waiting all day to talk to someone. Sitting at a boring job can either be mind numbing or time for contemplation. The difference between a roadside fruit stand and a monastery is attitude. I think I’m standing in front of a monk who is just pretending to be bored …

“See people don’t understand that this isn’t simply a “market”.” She says without looking up. ” This is our culture. It’s the culture of the 21st century where the economy dominates everything, particularly the way people think. For food, people want things to be “all natural”; the fact that nature makes the deadliest substances around does not seem to matter. I bet if I told some people who stop through here that arsenic or cyanide are 100% natural (which they are) they’d eat some! Our culture is the manifestation of the ideas that drive the economy. Like what do you do?”

“I’m an artist.” I reply.

“Well the art market is just like this stand. It’s not just a market, it is culture. People have a hard time understanding this because we have no distance from it. It’s easier to look back in time at artists like Michelangelo. The church was the culture of his time, so he painted the Sistine Chapel. Everyone seems to have forgotten that Mikey resented the commission, because his feelings and intentions are not important. All that is left the expression of the culture of the time. All that will be left of this time is the market, unless something changes, which it always does. So what type of artist are you? Do you make work for the market, about the market, or something else?”

“You speak like you’re an artist …” I dodge the question.

She smiles. “Everyone needs a summer job.” She still hasn’t made eye contact. I finally see why. She’s been looking down because she’s been drawing on a pad I could not see behind all of the huge fruit. She’s been drawing me since I walked up. There are stacks of journals and drawing pads behind the tables.

“Do you sell those?” I ask.

“I sell fruit.” She puts the pad down, stands up and makes eye contact. “So are you going to buy some or what?”

Looks like I failed the test. Everything else was all business after that. I ask if I can take a picture and she says no.

So, I buy some 100% natural, all organic apples the size of softballs and drive off.

I don’t know why I bought the apples.

I’m allergic to fruit.

Walker Evans, Roadside Stand near Birmingham,1936

Massive apples by a regular apple.

Mikey’s Chapel painting

A Report from the Phamtom Zone

2009-06-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

“Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either.” - Marshall McLuhan

For a lot of people, myself included, summer has always been a time of extracurricular study. This desire to learn in the summer seems to have developed when I was in grade school and my parents would send me to places like computer camp or wilderness “adventures” or twice to Space Camp. (That’s right I went twice.) What my parents instilled in me was that it did not matter what subject I was studying because all learning made my life richer. This desire to learn virtually any subject has continued into my adult life where I’ve spent my summer months learning how to rock climb, getting my pilot’s license, living in Argentina to speak Spanish, etc. Several years ago I decide to spend a summer in the south of France at cooking school. Like all of my endeavors, if I was going to make the investment to study cooking, I wasn’t going to waste my time, so I enrolled at a professional cooking school. I had no intention of becoming a professional chef, but then again, I had no intention of becoming a professional artist when I enrolled in art school either.

As a whole, the time I spent in France was a fantastic experience, but one instructor at the school nearly ruined the whole thing for me. The fact of the matter is that I am not a very good chef and this one instructor felt it was his job to inform me of this every day. He would constantly berate and belittle me, saying that I was wasting my money at cooking school because I would never become a professional chef. He would go on long tirades about how the school was a sham because it was just taking money from people who did not really have a chance at becoming a world-renowned chef. He would then turn on the other instructors, calling them hypocrites who were just there for a check because they would actually try to help the students improve their skills even though they knew that most of the students would not go on to be top chefs. Of course, the other instructors tried to speak calmly to him and explain that it was ridiculously arrogant for them to assume they understood the reasons why any one student was at school and it was equally impossible for them to ever really know what any student was getting out of the educational experience. They would try to explain that their job was not to just inform that students that they would be failures as professional chefs and then belittle them into quitting but rather their job as a teacher was to simply help students improve their skills no matter what. The problem was that this instructor was so arrogant that he could not see that sometimes people have different goals for their education that might not be the same as the reasons he had for going to school. He could not see that he was not being helpful and honest by "telling the truth"; he was just not smart enough to see that there can be many truths, all of which are equally valid.

Take my experience at cooking school, for example. Except for that one instructor, I got more than I expected from my experience at cooking school. I may not be a master chef employed at a top restaurant in Paris, but now I can taste the ingredients and skill put into a master level meal. My life is totally and completely enriched by the experience because the school has changed how I interact with every meal I eat (and I can cook a few meals really well.) But, according to that one instructor, I wasted my money and all of the instructors who helped me enrich my life were nothing but liars and hypocrites because they didn’t tell me over and over again that I was a failure. The notion that people can enrich their lives through the learning process was completely missed by that instructor and I see now how that was his limitation and his loss.

In fact, cooking school is one of the reasons that I decided I wanted to be a teacher. I saw how fulfilled the other instructors were with their jobs. Everyday, people would go to them and ask for help at making something and by the end of each class, everyone’s life was a little bit richer. I can’t think of a better job than one where people come to me for help making something. I love teaching art and I don’t care if my students go on to become top artists because that’s not my job.

I’m not sure what I will spend this summer learning, but I’m sure it will make my life richer and I’m reasonably sure that I will not going on to be a professional at it (but I’ve been wrong about that many times before.) I highly recommend that everyone take some time and study something this summer. If it’s art school, that’s great. Just don’t let anyone tell you that education is a waste of time if you don’t go on to be a professional. Education is always enriching.

If you are learning or doing something interesting this summer, please share it in the comments section.

I spent one whole week just making omelets.

My wife and I teaching photography in the “summer” to underprivileged students in the “Ciudad Oculta” or Hidden City of Buenos Aires.
For info on what my wife and I teach in the summers, click here.

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-06-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

I don’t know a single artist who if you ask them why they make art will say that their primary goal is for people to say nice things about them and their work. Artists, of course, have a wide range of motivations for making work that usually change from day to day and project to project. Some typical motivations for making art that I have heard recently include self-expression, need to make political commentary, desire to contribute to culture, etc. As we all learned when we were children, the reasons for making art are virtually endless and are entirely based on the individual. Regardless of motivation, it appears that art making is a relatively safe venture and the worst thing that can happen is that someone might say something mean spirited about a piece or perhaps even write a nasty article that misrepresents the work or artist. Strangely though, I have noticed that many artists become disproportionately caught up in what other people say about them or their practice. One bad review or spiteful comment and an artist’s practice can be severely derailed, even though exterior validation was never a primary goal for making work in the first place. Well, things have been placed in perspective for me recently as two of my close friends have become sick from making art. Suddenly, caring if someone else makes an offhanded or malicious comment about a piece of art seems ridiculous. One of my friends may die and that’s not a joke.

I’m sure all artists have heard anecdotal stories about artists who have been injured while making art, like Karl Zerbe. Zerbe was an artist in the 1940’s who fled the Nazi’s, had his work destroyed as “degenerative” art, became the head of the Department of Painting at the SMFA, but then had to stop painting because the toxic fumes from his encaustic paintings were killing him. I also know many photographers who have developed severe reactions to darkroom chemistry and can no longer be around the chemistry, but I don’t know anyone who has died. It was shocking to me that one of my friends has developed cancer from paint fumes and another is permanently injured. One of my friends, artist Michael David, is bravely open about how toxic gases released while he was painting have destroyed 70% of the nerves in his feet and 30% of the nerves in his right hand. Painting nearly killed him. Do you think he cares what someone says about him or his work any more?

My other friend who has just had surgery to remove the cancer caused by paint fumes would prefer to remain anonymous, but not because she is afraid of what people will think. In fact, she has entered a phase of art making that I believe most artists would be jealous of. She truly does not care what other people think about her or her work. She continues to make artwork because it adds meaning to her own life and part of that meaning is allowing other people to share in her life by displaying the work. If someone else likes it or doesn’t like it, she doesn’t care. It’s not for them; it’s for her.

She is in the place where I want to be when I make work. Whether it’s artwork or writing or anything else in my life, I want to be in a place where people are welcome to say whatever they want because I don’t care. From now on, every time I make something that I allow other people to participate in, I will think of my friend and her unbelievably positive and wholly freeing attitude of not caring what anyone else thinks. Well, I guess that’s not quite true. I wrote this article in particular because I know my friend with cancer will read it and I hope she’ll know that I have nothing but love, respect and support for her. Anyone else can comment whatever they want about me, my writing, my artwork, whatever. Believe me, I don’t care. A snide comment is not the worst thing that can happen.

Michael David, “Atlantic”, 2001-2002, Oil and wax on wood, 30”x26”
Michael David’s work is available through Lowe Gallery

Karl Zerbe, “Portrait of the Artist’s Wife”, 1945, Encaustic on Canvas, 47”x36”
Karl Zerbe’s work is available at Mercury Galllery

There is an article on how to safely use encaustics here.

Interview with Julian Cox about Richard Misrach

2009-06-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Richard Misrach’s “On the Beach” opens at the High Museum tonight and runs through August 23.

Heidi Aishman

2009-05-25T11:24:00.001-07:00

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Heidi Aishman making work for the Peabody Essex Museum exhibition "Trash Menagerie"

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-05-20T20:22:00.001-07:00

The recent economic slow down has hit the entire global arts community extremely hard, but strangely, I have not seen many artists using the current state of affairs as the central dialog of their work. This could be because the changes in our economy occurred so recently and quickly, but in general it seems that making art about crisis is one of the fastest and most fundamental ways that people process and respond to any set of circumstances. I have even heard of an artist who collected pieces of debris and was making sculpture while in the Superdome in 2005. The American Red Cross reports that some 275,000 homes were lost during Katrina, and, rightfully, that loss has become the nexus of thousands of artists work. Same with 9/11, same with the wars, or any other large cultural crisis. Artists usually take pride in being cultural first responders that help society gain perspective and work through a crisis through the act of making art. Many estimates expect unemployment to top 30,000,000 by the end of 2009. By the end of 2009, RealtyTrac estimates there will be some 2,000,000 families who have their homes in foreclosure. And that’s just in the US. Where’s the work on those losses?

One installation I saw at the Contemporary in Atlanta had an installation by Detroit native and conceptual sculptor Mark Wentzel called “Morale Hazard”. Wentzel’s installation deals directly with the current economic climate and the traumatic loss felt over the transformation of the auto industry. For his installation, Wentzel has suspended a 1965 Ford Mustang (a classic Detroit muscle car) from the ceiling of the Contemporary in front of a wall drawing of a mustang running head long off of a cliff/graph of economic indicators. Crawling away from the hanging Mustang is an anthropomorphized V-8 engine that appears to have evolved its’ own legs and corporate necktie as if the engine itself is desperately trying to abandon the discarded husk of the previous generation’s concept of the automobile for something new, organic and unknown. Wentzel’s work is able to provoke conceptual questions about our teetering auto industry while simultaneously producing visceral awe at seeing a 3000 pound machine hanging from the ceiling. His work challenges icons of masculinity, freedom, and independence while raising questions about our dependence on the previous century’s social and financial structures. Mark Wentzel’s installation is a fascinating example of work that has multiple modes of entry and directions for interpretation. Subsequently, his gallery talk was filled with people who had hugely diverse interests, like people who were interested in art, people who only wanted to talk about the economy and some people who were just interested muscles cars.
If you have a chance and are Atlanta, go to the Contemporary and check it out. If you see any interesting art about the current economic crisis, please leave a link to it in the comments section.

Installation shot of Mark Wentzel's "Morale Hazard"

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Preview discussion with Mark Wentzel before his gallery talk at the Contemporary in Atlanta, May 23, 2009

Interview by: Steve Aishman

Printology Atlanta 2009

2009-05-19T11:50:00.001-07:00

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Printology Atlanta 2009

Steve Aishman

Mattress Factory Open Studios 2009

2009-05-18T13:50:00.001-07:00

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Mattress Factory Open Studios 2009

Atlanta, GA

Interviews by: Steve Aishman

YouTube version

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-05-10T08:43:00.001-07:00

A Report from the Phantom Zone:
Why I love abstract art and think it is getting better.

“The eye is the natural master of pattern recognition. The eye demands satisfaction by invoking in us strong feelings of puzzlement.”
- John Whitney (IBM’s first Artist in Residence in 1966)

As a science, pattern recognition seems like a simple to understand statistical model of machine learning where raw data is observed and then classified. However, there are some fascinating philosophical implications to pattern recognition as the science is applied to human cognition. Most people are taught that perception functions like Johannes Mueller's notion that nerves telegraph messages to the brain where perception occurs. Others like J. J. Gibson propose different models like ecological psychology where Gibson writes, “The very idea of a retinal pattern-sensation that can be impressed on the neural tissue of the brain is a misconception, for the neural pattern never even existed in the retinal mosaic.”(1) Essentially, Gibson promoted Thomas Reid’s concept of direct realism and rejected the notion that all of perception is in the mind. Gibson’s concepts had a large influence on designers like Donald Norman who wrote "Things That Make Us Smart”, which talks about how humans create visual tools like diagrams to "overcome the limitations of brainpower."

As an artist, this is where things get very interesting. The Flynn Effect seems to document that average IQ points seem to be rising about 3 points a decade. While this may not mean that people are getting more intelligent, it certainly means more people are able to achieve higher scores on a test that fundamentally times people on various types of pattern recognition. Have you ever seen an IQ test? How many questions are of the form “Which these best completes the following sequence?” or something conceptually similar like analogy questions, etc.? Our society defines intelligence as pattern recognition. The implications of this are massive and simple at the same time.

Artist throughout history have used pattern recognition in their work for centuries, but perhaps none more than abstract artists like Kandinsky who developed his aesthetic using a specific geometric vocabulary. Kandinsky famously said, "There is only one road to follow, that of analysis of the basic elements in order to arrive ultimately at an adequate graphic expression." But what happens when the viewer’s vocabulary of geometry has changed? Kandinsky’s abstract images are fundamentally constructed out of a vocabulary of lines and basic shapes such as triangles and circles. Today’s viewing public has a much more extensive geometric vocabulary and has become used to seeing and identifying geometric objects that Kandinsky had never heard of, like fractals or patterns from chaos theory. On a fundamental level, the Flynn Effect illustrates that viewers today are much better at pattern recognition and can recognize far more complex patterns than people in the 1940’s.

This has two interesting effects. 1. Visiting a museum is a very different viewing experience for 21st century viewers of abstract art than it was for early 20th century viewers. So, the next time you go to a museum and see a Kandinsky, try to look at it with more complex eyes and see what happens. 2. Contemporary abstract art is continuing to get more and more complex in fascinating ways that many people dismiss because the concepts have been around for over a century.

An examples of this is Yoon Lee who just had work at Pierogi in March. Where Kandinsky’s painting had squares and circles, Lee’s images contain Lorenz attractors and Mandelbrot sets. (While the term “Lorenz attractor” might sound complex, they appear in the graphics shown on the Weather Channel constantly. They are representations of the apparent chaos of a storm that for centuries was thought to be unpredictable, but contemporary scientists can predict the final outcome of storm using chaos theory. Human understanding of math has changed so dramatically over the last 100 years that what used to be viewed as images of abstract and unpredictable storms swirling are now considered useful scientific data.)
I’m very excited by the prospects of more abstract art and how abstract art actually reflects and supports the complexities of our society’s abilities to recognize patterns. In many ways, we can see how abstract art fits in with Donald Norman’s concept of how humans make visual representations to make us smarter. So go look at more abstract art. It will make you smarter.

(1) J. J. Gibson (1966) The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. P. 263

Kandisky
"Composition 8"

Yoon Lee

The Machete @ Aurora Cafe

2009-05-03T17:01:00.001-07:00

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The Machete @ Aurora Cafe Interview by Steve Aishman

A Report from the Phantom Zone: Southern Double Feature

2009-04-25T20:00:00.001-07:00

A Report from the Phantom Zone: Southern Double Feature
First: Artist and Media Theorist, Serene Al-Kawas and I have a dialog about the exhibition:
Atatürk
by Mike Mandel and Chantal Zakari at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.

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iPod Version

Next, I interview Craig Drennen at his exhibition "Mistresses, Apemantus and Flattering Lords" at Gallery Stokes in Atlanta.

Warning!
* This exhibition contains adult language and imagery that may not be suitable for children or sensitive viewers.*

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iPod Version

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-04-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

So, this is the problem with language.
I went to a party the other day where I really only knew the host, everyone else was a stranger. This is how my conversation with the first person went:
“Hi, I’m Steve”
“Hi, I’m John. What do you do?”
“I’m a photographer.”
“Oh! Do you do family portraits, because my family could use a new one …”
“No, I’m a fine art photographer. I make photos for display in museums.”
“You mean you take pictures of art for the museum?”
“No, I make pictures that hang in the museum.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that was a job …”
This was followed by John looking at me like I was an idiot.

This is how my second conversation went:
“Hi, I’m Jill.”
“Hi, I’m Steve. What do you do?”
“I’m a painter.”
“Oh cool, I’m an artist too. What do you paint?”
“I paint houses.”
“You mean you make paintings of houses?”
“No, I work for a house painting company. I paint houses …”
“Oh …”
This was followed by Jill looking at me like I was an idiot.

This is how my third conversation went:
“Hi, I’m Steve”
“Hi, I’m Jack. What do you do?”
“I’m an artist.”
“Oh really, me too!”
“Cool, what do you do?”
“I’m a sandwich artist at the Subway downtown.”
“You mean the Subway restaurant?”
“Yah, I’m a sandwich artist there.”
“Oh …”
This was followed by Jack looking at me like I was an idiot.

This how my whole afternoon went and I could not seem to stop it. It was like I was using a different language no matter what I told people I did. What I realized is that our society no longer has any vocabulary for artists because most people simultaneously hate us, want to be us and appreciate us. This means that all of the terms for being an “artist” have been co-opted so that everyone can apply the terms to their own lives on some level. Somehow, everyone is an artist and everything everyone does is an art form. I have no problem with decentering concepts of art, but now when I say I am an artist, it has no meaning.

Perhaps more importantly, it also implies that what I do has no value.

I don’t have a solution for this, but I believe it is a problem that our community needs to address on some level. Artists are undervalued in our society partly because we refuse to define what we do in a meaningful and distinct way to other people. If we have trouble defining what we do, how can we expect other people to respect our place in society?

One obvious solution is for us to stop using the word “art” or “artist”. As a community, we should admit that we have lost those words forever because they no longer accurately define what we do to the rest of society. It seems logical that we should make up new terms, but when we have tried that in the past it has failed. Terms like “cultural creator” or “image maker” sound Marxist and most of society is afraid of Marx. Saying things like “I make work for museums” just alienates most people because most people have a love/hate relationship with museums.

I don’t have a solution, but I think one of the best parts of Big Red is that it is an artist community where we can bring issues and solutions to light for everyone. So I say we pool our resources and see what we all think about this problem:

What do you say when you meet some? Do you have the same problems articulating what you do? Do you have a solution to this problem?

If so, please leave a comment.

My favorite subway sandwich maker

My Subway Sandwich

Painters working

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-03-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

A collection of art news from around the globe over the past few years:

1. In 2008, Paul McCarthy’s “Complex Shit”, a giant inflatable dog turd, broke free, destroyed some power lines, and then crashed into a children’s home in Switzerland.

2. In January of 2009, a tattoo artist found a way to tattoo the white part of your eyes. State senators in Oklahoma have already pre-emptively banned the practice.

3. Since I’m writing about eyeballs, artist Xiang Chen paints by holding the brush with his eyeball.

4. In July of 2007, a woman was arrested for kissing a Cy Twombly painting that was worth about $2 million.

The 3x2m (9x6-foot) painting by US artist Cy Twombly is valued at more than $2m (£970,000).

5. In fashion news in 2008, a Swedish clothing company started making two-piece bikinis for girls as young as 2 months old.

6. In 2008, a horse named Cholla entered one of her paintings into a juried exhibition for a galley in Venice and was accepted without the judges knowing she was a horse. Cholla will have her work exhibited at Gallery Giudecca 795 in Venice, Italy in May of this year.

Cholla painting

But for me, the weirdest thing I have heard about this year is that Salander-O’Reilly Galleries was using art as the central commodity in their $88 million Ponzi scheme. Apparently, people like John McEnroe would give Lawrence Salander money to buy art for them and then immediately re-sell it at a higher price. While I realize that art is a commodity that functions in the capital market like most other commodities, art just does not seem like the best choice of commodity to use for a Ponzi scheme. The main reason why it does not seem like the best choice is that art is not a very liquid asset and Ponzi schemes usually thrive on short-term profits that usually need a fast turnaround. Also, most of the pieces of artwork he was using in his Ponzi scheme were unique pieces of physical art, but he was able to sell the same paintings to multiple people. I honestly had no idea that people bought and sold art so quickly that it was possible for the art dealer to actually sell the same painting to two people and neither of them know about it! Apparently, Salander also regularly sold artwork that did not belong to him. I assumed that when someone bought a piece of art at some point they would actually take possession of the art, put it somewhere and look at it. But obviously I’m wrong because none of his clients seemed to catch on even after he would “sell” them a painting for a few million dollars and then “sell” the same painting to someone else and then never deliver the painting to either person. As an artist, this use of art as a Ponzi scheme commodity is truly fascinating and clearly highlights how much weirder the world of art is than I could have ever expected.

Gorky’s “Pirate I” which Salander allegedly sold to multiple people.

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-03-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

When I travel, one of my favorite things to do is to visit smaller, less well-known museums. The reason why I love to visit smaller museums is that I can really enjoy visiting them without any expectations. When I visit MOMA or the Guggenheim, the work had better be good. In fact, the quality of work had better be fantastic if they are going to claim that they are two of the high water marks of exhibiting art in the world. With regional museums, I have absolutely no expectations and that is actually quite freeing. Most regional institutions don’t claim to exhibit the best quality work in the world because they usually exist to support a small community and sometimes they try to positively display local collections or artists. A great example of this is the DeCordova Museum whose mission statement even says that they focus primarily on the art of the New England region. This is not to say that the DeCordova doesn’t show world-class art, but when I visit the DeCordova, I expect them to take more risks and exhibit regional artists whose work may not be as well known outside of New England. By taking on more risk and showing less well known artists, the DeCordova is free to present work that is not as resolved, but that is the best part of the Museum. Regional institutions are able to highlight interesting and valuable work without worrying if they are showing the best quality work in the world because they serve a different function.

Here are a few of my favorite smaller or more regional museums in the Northeast that all show great work and take high risks by showing regional work:

The DeCordova
The Portland Museum of Art
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
The Phillips Collection
Currier Museum of Art
Peabody Essex Museum
The Newark Museum

While I love to visit regional museums that are dedicated to the history or art of a small community, my favorite thing to visit is a museum that is dedicated to exhibiting one niche item. For example, the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto is a huge museum that is dedicated to exhibiting shoes and even has a monthly Podcast about shoes from the assistant curator! The Center for Puppetry Arts, The Computer History Museum and the National Cowboy Museum are all really amazing museums that have active scholarly research while simultaneously seeking to preserve and display important elements of our culture. These are all serious museums, not roadside attractions that are definitely worth visiting and again, the best part is that you can visit them with no expectations because they are museums that are not even trying to compete with the quality of work being shown at large international art museums.

I also love visiting museums that have unusual collections. The Currier Museum in Manchester New Hampshire is a fantastic museum that shows some of the best in contemporary and modern art for a local audience, but they also house the Henry Melville Fuller Paperweight Collection with over 330 glass paperweights. I went to the Currier to see their latest show, the Vergobbi collection, but the fact that they also house a huge paperweight collection proved almost as fascinating as the Modernist collection on display. However, if you live near Boston, then one of the best and most unique museums in the world is housed in Dedham, just outside of the men’s room of the Dedham Community Theatre.

I love the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) because it is exactly what it advertises to be. It does not say that it is competing with MOMA for exhibiting the finest quality work in the world, but the exact opposite. One of the things MOBA has done that MOMA has not is allowed all viewers to see their collection for free. So, if you go, you can’t be that disappointed because it cost you nothing! The MOBA is a great place to visit because it can be viewed so many ways. For me, I think that the existence of the Museum raises fundamental questions about art and museology. It seems to me that unlike most other institutions, MOBA does not to re-enforce previously and arbitrarily created notions of good and bad art, but it challenges the binary itself. What does it mean when a museum validates a piece of art as good or bad? What does it mean when a museum fulfils its mission statement, but that mission statement exists outside of a hierarchy that people are used to? Also, the work on display directly indicts the viewer. Who am I to say if a piece is good or bad? What gives me the right to blatantly laugh at someone else’s work? Why do I feel entitled to judge? I love the museum because while I’m there I am very aware of my own aesthetic prejudices as well as those around me.

So I love smaller or regional institutions because they exist outside of the hierarchy of larger institutions. Places like MOMA and the Tate should be competing against each other for larger global relevancy, but other museums are equally important and frequently, they can bring issues to the table that larger institutions can’t. The real key to enjoying smaller institutions is to remember that not everything should be compared using the same criteria. If smaller institutions are evaluated for their own merits, then they can be really enjoyed for what they are: regional and unique.

Do you know of a good regional or unique museum?
Then please add it in the comment section so that I can go visit too!

The inside of the Peabody Essex Museum

My favorite piece from the Museum of Bad Art
Lucy In the Field With Flowers
Oil on canvas by Unknown
24" x 30"
Acquired from trash in Boston

Amy Freeman @ Gallery Stokes

2009-03-04T07:42:00.001-08:00

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Amy Freeman

Gallery Stokes

"Wide Awake"

Interview by Steve Aishman

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-03-01T16:00:00.000-08:00

"In a creative argument both parties are more interested in finding the truth or solving the problem than in being right. "
Michael A. Gilbert

In philosophy, an argument is a claim that is backed by reason and should be sharply contrasted against a fight. A fight is a struggle for dominance and actually has more to do with power/ego relationships while an argument is concerned more with the creative development of ideas. When entering into a dialog, some people confuse an argument with a fight because it may seem logical that you can force people to believe your ideas by establishing dominance over them. Hence, we can see how bullies develop the notion that you can win an argument by transforming it into a fight and then attempting to crush the other person’s ego. The strange thing is that if you ask someone who frequently instigates fights why they do it, they will reply that they don’t and that they are in fact intelligently arguing.

It’s like bullies don’t know that they are bullies.

So, here are some signs that you are actually more interested in fighting than developing a creative argument:
1. If you make personal insults, then you are not presenting an argument, you are picking a fight.
2. If you attack the way someone presents their argument rather than presenting your own reasoning, then you are picking a fight.
3. If you are simply stating or re-stating a claim without providing your own reasoning, then you are fighting.
4. If you are attacking a side issue rather than presenting reasoning about a central claim, then you are not participating in the argument.
5. If you present circular arguments, then you are not arguing.
6. If you are more concerned with the labels or semantics that someone is using rather then the reasoning they are using, then you are not participating in the argument.
7. If you constantly try to change the subject to something you want to talk about, then you are not participating in the argument.
8. If you constantly try to argue from popularity (e.g. Everyone steals office pens. or Everyone bribes customs officials. or Everyone smokes marijuana., etc.), then you are not presenting reasons, you are presenting rationalizations.

A Good Argument:
1. Shows what position a person holds.
2. Allows others to present their point of view.
3. Helps arguers reach and understand new views and reasons for those views.
4. Does not stomp on people.

With that said, I am interested in this column becoming a place of creative argument. So I’ll present a claim and then my reasoning behind the claim:

Jonathan Field’s latest exhibition at “Trois Gallery” in Atlanta deals with the intersection of entropy, politics and the tradition of history painting. The tradition of history painting seems to have disappeared since the advent of newer technologies that have been designed to capture history as it happens. It made some historical sense in 1840 for Delacroix to paint “Crusaders Entering Constantinople” because there was no visual record of the event, but why paint the capture Baghdad when we have photos and videos? Field’s work encapsulates this question both visually and conceptually through the notion of Maxwell’s demon.

Maxwell’s demon is a thought experiment that asks if it is possible to violate the Second Law of thermodynamics (an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy where entropy can be thought of as a measure of microscopic disorder). In the thought experiment, Maxwell proposes the existence of a demon that can follow the course of every molecule in a system and release just the ones he wants, there by violating the Second Law by decreasing the entropy of a system.

While this may sound like esoteric physics, it actually explains why we can’t predict the future. As time increases, the universe will always become more disordered. If the arrow of time was symmetrical, you could predict the future by looking at the past, but the Second Law implies that time is asymmetrical with respect to the amount of order in an isolated system. The only way to violate this is if you have a demon with enough information so that he can control where all of the particles in a system go …

Enter Jonathan Field (our demon of the moment). Jonathan has taken thousands of pins and recreated scenes from the New York Times as well as the favorite paintings of George Bush and Obama. As a visual artist, Field has used the pins so they begin to look like molecules and of course, he is the demon ordering them into a pattern. The patterns, by definition, are not random, but are reflections of the energy of our time. In this case, the political energy.

Because our world is now inundated with people capturing events as they occur, the question arises as to what will be remembered from our time. What is the role of a historian when everything is constantly being recorded, but with no conscious order? The historian is no longer the recorder, holding on to events for future generations. The historian has become the editor, selecting from the chaotic pool of recorded data to form a clear picture.

The historian has become Maxwell’s demon, desperately trying to create order out of disorder, but knowing full well that it is a loosing battle.
And so, Field has resurrected the concept of the history painter. Why should we continue to paint historical events rather than relying on the history recording technology that is now at our disposal? For the same reason that we should continue to write history rather than just allow all of the news reports of our time to represent the cumulative history of our time. It allows history to be more than just data; it becomes knowledge. Field has re-invented history painting so that is relevant for our time. Field places himself in the position of Maxwell’s demon that self-consciously produces images about the flow of information from the present into history. He is an artist, he is an historian and his work questions the role of the artist and the historian all at the same time.

But that’s just my argument about the work, here’s a video of him talking about the work and if you get a chance, go see the work in person:

Jonathan Field, "Maxwell's Demon [ind 011003]", steel pins and rubber on board, 45"x32", 2004

Eugène Delacroix. The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople. 1840. Oil on canvas. Louvre, Paris, France

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2009-02-09T12:15:00.000-08:00

So I've almost stopped reading articles.
In print, on-line ... whatever.

All I look for is how many comments have been made.
The comment section of an article says far more about an event and the ideas that surround it than any article can ever articulate.

The best example I have seen of this recently is Shepard Fairey's arrest that has made for something I did not expect, more people commenting about art than I've ever seen.
Boston.com's article had 173 comments in one day, all about the nature of art in our society!

Here are some of the comments about Fairey's arrest that I have shamelessly appropriated, reordered, de-contextualized and edited:
______________________________
This street artist is a fascist nazi.
Posted by Jeff from Boston

Oh, I see how it works: You start by defacing buildings and make us all live with ugliness and then proceed to make art and become famous because you are a media darling. Hmmm, guess I flunked out for not being the son of a wealthy doctor/lawyer, etc. What a strange time to be living in. The strangest of all is the fact that so many of these sociopaths flourish now.
Posted by Peter

He's a petty criminal. Why he's celebrated is known only to airhead liberals. I take that back - they have no idea why they do what they do. They're willing to accept a cult of personality around Obama, and Fairey's posters have been a key political propaganda tool. His style reminds me of the heroic style popular in the Stalinist USSR. Try googling "soviet heroic art obama" We don't need a Dems version of Castro, but we're stuck with him for 4 years at least. We'll see "socialism from above" and we can thank Fairey and his ilk for promoting a Democratic Party version of an authoritative regime in our country.
Posted by Chuckjones

HANG EM!
Posted by Hang Up And Drive

Interesting that the artist gets arrested and Madoff is still at large in his luxury digs after absconding with $50 bil.
Posted by Samantha

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not surprised another liberal Obama supporter has done something illegal! Is there ONE, just one, liberal that obeys the law? I don't think so!
Posted by Keith

Typical Obamma supporter. Trying to make/steal money off other people's hard work and, to boot, has been arrested 14 times. Yup, you'd know he was an Obamma supporter even if you didn't know what his latest art theft was. If only he cheated on his taxes, he'd be up for a cabinet position.
Posted by sympathy

Does it surprise anyone???? Anyone connecated with BO is a crook, liar, tax evader, fraudlent, etc etc.
Posted by Bridgett

Street art does not necessarily mean spray paint or vandalism. Ask yourself why you tolerate the invasion of advertisements on every public surface just to sell you things you don't need or even want.
Street art is free art. Remember this the next time you safely fork over $17 at the MFA, if you even bother to consume culture at all.
Posted by Elsie

Seriously - to all of the people siding with Fairey, GET OVER YOURSELVES.. as a practicing artist and professional in the design world I find him EMBARRASSING... he doesn't even deserve to call himself an artist.. especially ripping of the work of others.. kudos to the BPD for arresting him
Posted by kim

Use the law as written to prosecute if the case is valid. If it is proven he committed the crime, he should receive the maximum sentence as it would act as a deterrant to help reduce the spread of this public crime that he advocates.
Posted by darren

No matter how old he is, black or white he should have the DEATH PENALTY or at least LIFE behind for bars for his acts. He knew what he was doing was wrong ! HANG HIM !
Posted by Polkin
_____________________________

And these are just a few of the tamer comments people made!

I don't think I could have fabricated a better piece about how people view politics or art than than the dialog occurring in the comment section of boston.com.

So check it out and leave a comment for yourself.

The article

Shepard Fairey's vandalism after being vandalized.

Shepard Fairey speaking at the ICA

A Report From the Phantom Zone

2009-01-31T08:42:00.000-08:00

“It's easy to make contemporary art sound stupid— just describe it literally.” – Bill Arning

Bill Arning is right about most things and in this case, you can apply the same logic to Bill’s job as the curator of the List Visual Arts Center. If you describe the job of a curator literally, it can sound stupid. The primary function of a curator is to oversee the care and exhibition of a collection. It sounds so simple. It sounds so easy. All a curator has to do is display objects that other people have made. How hard could that be? The thing is, describing curating literally is like describing magic literally; it misses the point. To say that all a curator does is oversee the exhibition of a collection is like saying that all a magician has to do is make a dove appear out of thin air. Well, for the past nine years, Bill Arning has been doing magic in Boston, and now he’s off to a great future as the director of Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum. Just like seeing any other friend get a great job in another city, I don’t want him to leave, but I’m excited for him. Bill established a great track record of curating exhibitions at the List, but Bill did far more than that as well. He brought positive energy to the whole community by being so excited for ideas.

So here’s the thing, there is no way that Houston can really know what a great curator and important member of our community they are getting unless we tell them. I want Houston to know how lucky they are. They should be drooling with anticipation.

The Houston Chronicle has chosen to quote Boston Magazine and again called Bill the “cowboy curator of cutting-edge, contemporary art” in their article this week announcing Bill’s move from Boston to Houston. I’m not sure what a “cowboy curator” is, but I’m glad people are talking about him in Houston already. In fact, the more talk the better. All history begins with gossip, so the more buzz there is about Bill the better for him to be remembered here in Boston and eagerly anticipated in Houston.

So here are some rumors about Bill that will help get people talking and whet Houston’s appetite:

People already know that he played the punk rock band The Student Teachers that opened for Blondie. Everyone knows that he does not have a driver's license. But only a few people will know that he once made a guest appearance on the game show “Art Showdown”.

Some other things to tell Houston would include any humorous anecdotes we have about Bill. For example, I’m a mumbler. I remember walking with Bill through the List Center and mumbling something, but Bill is really tall, like 6’6”, so he didn’t hear me. He said, “What?” So I said it again, but once again he didn’t hear me, so he said politely, “I’m sorry, Steve, I still didn’t catch that.” At this point he must have thought I had something important to say about the exhibition, but really I was just mumbling. So suddenly I was yelling, “I’m kind of hungry!” Everyone turned and looked. Bill looked down at me and said, “Ah … ok.”

Bill is a great guy and he has left a very positive impression on Boston. If you know some interesting facts about Bill or have a humorous anecdote, please leave it in the comment section. In the spirit of all of the positive energy Bill has given our community over the years, I would like this to be a positive tribute to Bill, so please don’t write negative comments.

Just be cool, if you don’t have something nice to say about Bill, please don't say anything at all.

But otherwise, the funnier the better!

The Student Teachers
Photo by Steve Lombardi
Guess which one is Bill ...

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
Where Bill will be the new Director

Solution to the crossword puzzle from two week ago.

A Report From the Phantom Zone

2009-01-17T20:39:00.001-08:00

A crossword puzzle for some of the Boston Art scene.
Click on it and then print it.
Most of the answers can be found using Google.
The solution will be available on Feb. 1.

Spruill Art Gallery "Go Figure"

2009-01-17T18:37:00.001-08:00

Click to Play
iPod Version
You Tube Version"

Spruill Art Gallery "Go Figure"
Featuring Brett Osborn

Beep Beep Popaganda 2009

2009-01-14T15:03:00.001-08:00

Click to Play
iPod Version
YouTube Version
Participating artists include Evereman, Rene Arriagada aka Transmit Device, Sat Kirpal Khalsa, Ben Goldman, Travis Dodd aka Machete, Bryan Westberry, Kerri Boles, Kim Feigenbaum,Charstarr, Stenvik Mostrom, Baxter Crane, Bean Summers, J.R. Schulz, Reed Elliot and more. Video by: Steve Aishman Interview: Jason Parker Art Relish 2009

A Report from the Pantom Zone: Comic Store as Art Gallery

2008-12-31T09:51:00.001-08:00

When I was little, I remember watching "The Terminator" with my father and saying "Wow, that guy was really strong." My father replied, "Well, that's one type of strength. There are many different types of strength and one sign of wisdom is the ability to see less obvious, more subtle strength in those around you."

Ever since then, I've done my best to see the less obvious, less showy displays of strength, beauty, wisdom, etc. all around me. I think a lot of artists, critics, and magazine publishers share the same point of view.

So today, I'm going to review the comic store the same way I'd review a gallery. Just like reviewing a gallery, I'm going to speak mostly about the comics that I do like, because by definition I feel that the comics that I don't like are not worth spending much time on.

If you have a comic line that you particularly like, please, mention it in the comment section along with a little reason why you like it.

Thanks,
Steve

P.S. Special thanks to Pat Quinn, a comic genius.

Click to Play

Comic Store as Art Gallery

Steve Aishman

10 Penny

2008-12-31T09:50:00.001-08:00

Click to Play

Savannah College of Art and Design Presents
TEN PENNY
Ten Penny is a group photography show consisting of ten graduate students from the Savannah College of Art and Design's photo department. All artist's are pursuing their Master's degree and the work shown will represent a portion of each artists thesis work in-progress.

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2008-12-14T08:31:00.000-08:00

So I was giving a talk other day and when I was done, I heard someone in the audience say under their breath:
“ That’s not the way a real artist talks …”

So here are some of the ways real artists talk about their work.
Enjoy and feel free to steal the lines or add more in the comments section:

“My work primarily deals with beauty.”
“I love color.”
“My artwork defies categorization.”
“I was born to be a painter. I can’t conceive of doing anything.”
“Most of the imagery in my work comes to me in my dreams.”
“For me, art is all about mark making.”
“I pursue the authentic. The real. The truth.”
“My work is heavily influenced by hip hop and jazz, but mostly street culture.”
“Passion always informs my work.”
“My current work is an exploration of how form is determined by, and conversely determines, space.”
“I just love light.”
“Painting is such a display of vulnerability; the more I paint the more I feel exposed.”
“The turmoil of my inner psychology manifests itself through my art.”
“My work references the figure/ground relationship.”
“I’m really interested in seeing.”
“My work reflects the values of the small town I grew up in.”
“When I first started painting, I looked and saw that along with the paint, my soul had appeared on the canvas.”
“My art is all about working with materials.”
“I like the simplicity of form and color.”
“My work is really visual poetry and metaphor.”
“I think artists are born and not made.”
“My drawings are about the quality of line and form.”
“It's what happens in the negative space that fascinates me.”
“I feel that I always gravitate toward organic shapes.”
“My work celebrates our human condition.”
“I seek to blur the line between the artist and the art work.”
“People have said of my work that it is the "inside out, rather than the outside in".”
“I’m fascinated by consumerism.”
“My art practice is filled with complexity.”
“The job of the contemporary artists is to contextualize technological and philosophical shifts.”
“I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in conceptual art. It means nothing to me.”
“My work resonates with the nostalgia of my youth.”
“In textbook terms, my work would best be described as Post-Neo-expressionism.”
“I try to find poetry in banality.”
“The influence of Van Gogh in my work is both apparent and deliberate.”
“My art is about the attempt to immortalize a moment.”
“My work is all about process.”
“The hand of the artist is apparent in everything I make.”
“My art practice is really is an exploration of the subconscious.”
“If I had to label my paintings I’d rather label them as Realist.”
“My work oscillates between the tangible and the intangible.”
“My paintings are about paint on canvas.”
“My work speaks for itself.”

If you'd like some more phrases to talk about art in a way that is more like the art speak that is taught at graduate school, try:
The Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator.

Me giving a lecture at Solomon Projects in Atlanta

Please feel free to add your own lines in the comment section below.

Yana Dimitrova @ Art House

2008-11-20T16:18:00.001-08:00

iPod Version

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2008-11-16T20:23:00.000-08:00

Our toys were our first art collections.

I still have all of my Star Wars figures, lined-up in their “Action Display Stand” just the way I liked to show them when I was 8 years old. They are now and always have been more than just toys, they were sculptures and even today I talk with my friends about the quality of the toys that are manufactured today. Have you seen Todd McFarlane's line of Spawn figures? They are nothing short of awesome toys/sculptures.

My toys were the first things I ever collected, but I as my taste in art collecting expanded, I quickly went from collecting sculpture to collecting works on paper.
You know - comics. I still have my comic collection, tagged and bagged. Ready for future generations to enjoy. I guess …

Like all collectors, I don’t really know why I have a comic collection or what I plan on doing with it. I just love it and have no intention of ever getting rid of it.

It’s strange that we all start off with an art collection that we love; yet art collectors seem to be a rare group of people. Art collectors are the coveted sales demographic of most galleries and the people that museums hope will eventually donate their collections. Why are there so few of them and why do they collect? I have no idea, but most artists don’t even seem to know who the major art collectors are. Here’s a quick list of some people who collect in Boston:

Barbara and Ted Alfond gave the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston $10 million dollars and they have an extensive collection of American art.

Barbara Lee’s Family Foundation supports all of contemporary art in Boston and has a renowned collection of contemporary art.

Scott Black’s collection has been shown at the MFA and he has given lots of advice on how other people can have art collections.

Graham and Ann Gund have collection of art that has also shown at the MFA and they funded the Graham Gund Gallery.

I’m sure there are others, but really, these few are some of the most prominent that have been included in Art News’ top 200 collectors.

So why aren’t there more? True, not everyone has millions of dollars to collect the most expensive pieces, but most art does not cost millions of dollars. Most art is well within the reach of many people, even in a depressed economy. So why are there so few collectors? It seems that people believe that collecting is something we only do as children. We are taught when we are in our early teens that we should stop collecting things and put all of our focus on social interactions, like who is dating who, etc. Why is idol gossip worth our time and money, but wanting a fantastic collection of art is so unusual?

I think as artists we should be interested in collectors not just because we want them to collect our work, but because having a collection is interesting and something we can all relate to, even if it is on a small scale. Artists currently don’t have a lot of opportunity to talk with collectors directly because of the gallery system that keeps us separated. This is probably with good reason, because most artists want collectors to buy their work and don’t show actual, respectful interest in the collector or their collection. They just start pitching their own work in a gauche manner that drives everyone away. Ironically, if everyone showed collectors the same honest interest they would show someone who has a collection of really great comics, maybe we would be allowed to meet more collectors!

I would love to meet more collectors and see their collection. Not to pitch my art, but because I love to look at art and would love to see what items other people consider worthy of adding to their collection. So if you are a collector, please leave a comment because I really would love to see your collection and talk to you about it. If you want I may even let you see my collection of comics, it’s modest, but I love it …

“Action Display Stand”

A McFarlane toy/sculpture

"Works on Paper" collection

Allison Shockley @ Mattress Factory Open Studios, Nov. 2008

2008-11-16T20:18:00.001-08:00

iPod version

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2008-10-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Halloween (1978)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Day of the Dead (1985)
Creepshow 2 (1987)
Monkey Shines (1988)
They Live (1988)
Village of the Damned (1995)
Land of the Dead (2005)

Etc.
Etc.
Etc.

My wife and I have an extensive collection of horror movies.
Horror movies are fantastic. And anyone who says they can’t be serious as well does not watch them.
The social commentary in the original Night of the Living Dead propels the zombie flick from more than just gory cult classic, to a staple of film studies classes across the US.

Literature has extolled the horror genre for centuries. Who didn’t read Edge Allen Poe or Mary Shelley in high school both for pleasure and intellectual development?

So how come there is no such thing as horror art?
If there were it would be a mockery.

The closest artists I could find were artists like Jane Benson who displayed a totem of latex masks pierced through, and held together by, a steel bar at Samson Projects or David Altmejd’s werewolves. But neither of these artists really inspires a deep feeling of horror … more like intellectual curiosity.

So why don’t we look for art to provide the same type of visceral reaction to horror the way we want to watch a movie or read a book? It seems to be a hold over from the notion that galleries and museum should be places of quite contemplation. How great would it be to show up at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and hear hundreds of people inside shrieking in terror?!

My real question is, “Why is art only supposed to inspire certain emotions”? Art that employs humor is rare, horror seems unacceptable, sexual arousal is considered pornography, hatred implies ignorance, ecstatic joy is only for church, etc. etc.

Well, on this Halloween, the one day of the year where horror is venerated for the powerful force that it is, consider how there is so little art that inspires horror that is shown in the US, and yet we still show so much horrible art.

Jane Benson
You and Me
2005
from Samson Projects exhibition "Off My Biscuit, Destroy Your District!"

David Altmejd
"The Glasswalker"

Happy Halloween!

A Report from the Phantom Zone: The reverence of looking

2008-10-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

The Zuni have used clay figures for thousands of years.
Buddhists; mandalas.
A clinical psychologists may suggest a candle.
Christians may use the cross.

Cultures from around the globe and throughout history have used objects as points of focus for beginning meditative or spiritual journeys. These objects sometimes end-up gaining there own religious or sacred value, but not always. Frequently, these objects are classified as art. In fact, even a quick walk through the Museum of Fine Arts shows that the vast majority of the art on display was probably originally created as objects of contemplation. So how come most of the art that is produced by our culture is not designed to be contemplated or even thought about at all? (Advertising makes the bulk of visual material produced by our culture. However, ads like “Drink Coca-Cola” are usually not interpreted for the Zen koans that they could be …)

What are the objects in our society that exist for long, quiet contemplation? Whatever they are, they are few and far between. Even worse, people seem to have abandoned the desire to spend time with art for its meditative qualities. When was the last time you asked someone what they did today and they replied, “Oh, I looked at a painting”?

The notion of purposely creating work that is quiet, meditative and can give the viewer a path to a different consciousness seems to have all but disappeared. The reasons for this include the fact that people spend less time with art now and much more time with decoration, the fact that art education has all but vanished, but mostly it is a change in human philosophy that no longer has a reverence for the pursuit of anything except the hyper-material.

So what does it mean that in today’s world, MIT has an entire Student Loan Art Collection where MIT students can borrow important artworks their living spaces for the academic year? This is incredible! Encouraging students to live with and take long looks at original pieces of artwork? Who would do this? MIT’s Student Loan Art Collection is important to everyone, not just MIT students because it represents a completely different philosophy; an older, wiser philosophy.

The most recent acquisitions to MIT’s Student Loan Art Collection are on display at the MIT LIST Visual Arts Center until Nov. 21 and everyone should go see the work. True, you will only be able to look at the work for a fleeting few moments, but it may inspire you to seek out your objects for contemplation for your walls. Even better, it may inspire to just go back and stare at one of the pieces of art that you already own and just look at it. For a long time.

Drink Coke

A Walk in the MFA

MIT’s Student Loan Art Collection

ACP 10 Portfolio Walk

2008-10-11T21:19:00.001-07:00

iPod Version

ACP Public Art Installation

2008-10-06T13:07:00.001-07:00

iPod Version

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2008-09-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

"History is more or less bunk." – Henry Ford

I lost my portable hard drive the other day.

The strange thing is, it really didn’t matter. Even a few years ago, if my hard drive had crashed, my world would have crashed with it. I used to store all of my pictures and important documents on hard drives that I was in possession of, but now, all of my important pictures have been uploaded either to Flickr or to an on-line printing service where they are stored. At some point, I had e-mailed most of my important documents to myself or I had FTP’d them up to my server. So nothing was lost.

Somehow, slowly, the story of my life is no longer stored with me. I’ve heard legends of people running into houses that were on fire to save family albums of photographs and safes of documents. I think if my house was on fire, I’d just leave because there is nothing that valuable to save. My personal history is no longer recorded on things that I possess.

We are living through a transformation of how humanity relates to its own records as most forms of record keeping completely loose their local tangibility. True, my information is still saved in a physical form on servers, but my point is that we are slowly no longer saving our personal life stories individually. We are collectively storing everything.

On first blush, this transformation might not seem that important. But if you believe that the way we conceive and disseminate history has an impact on the way we understand ourselves and our world, then the fact that people no longer personally store their own records is a vital transformation. For most of the history of the world, people’s lives were recorded on local physical items, like letters, journals and eventually photographs. For the last 200 years, photography has been the dominant method for representing and recording the world. Subsequently, a change in the way we fundamentally relate to photography has massive philosophical and cultural ramifications that effect every person and every discipline.

"It is the advent of the Photograph … which divides the history of the world."
- Roland Barthes

The long-term effects of this transformation are of course unknown, but the short-term effects are fascinating. One interesting effect is that the notion of the value of an individual’s personal history has never been more supported. Have you checked Facebook and seen a picture of you taken and tagged by someone else? Right now, there is a whole history of your life being recorded, sorted and stored indefinitely through all of your transactions and every time a picture is take of you. I’m not talking about the way history has been recorded where we have vague notions of the way whole classes of people have lived. I mean that there is an extensive record of your individual life, and you don’t have to record it or store it. In a way it is flattering because there will be a record of your life indefinitely, but on the other hand, it’s scary because you don’t have any control over it. Humanity has never lived this way before; where our system of recording history supports the notion that each individual life is worth recording, but no individual is in control of his or her own recordings.

"The illiterate of the future will be ignorant of the pen and the camera alike."
- László Moholy-Nagy

Another interesting philosophical transformation is that no one seems bothered that we are all participating in collectivized record keeping. The notion of socialism seems abhorrent to most Americans, yet as soon as we could, we all paid to store all of our histories together. In many ways this seems to be an extension of Benjamin’s notion of the loss of aura that occurs with mechanical reproduction. Photography has proven to be an unbelievable tool of Marxist thinking. Not only has photography dismantled the rituals and mystification that used to imbue the process of labeling something as art, it has proceeded to dismantle the rituals and mystification of the process of labeling something as history. Historical records are no longer what an authority figure deems as historical, historical records are now what we collectively store. The job of the historian has transformed from a record keeper to an information reducer and analyst. Subsequently, an image of yourself that you upload to Flickr is as much history as (and is probably more accessible for historical use than) the writings of the ancient Romans.

"Vulgas vult decepi" -Phaedrus

Today’s history is being recorded by everyone and I say we should formalize this process. Why not? We already have Wikipedia which is a collective knowledge base. Why not start a historical image archive that is filled with whatever anyone wants to include in their own personal history? Rather than tagging images to share with friends, this collective archive could be tagged so that the images would be easy to search for historical research. This way, our histories are not reduced to our banking statements and drunk pictures from holiday parties, but we will have some control over what record appears first. (Yes, eventually if someone in the future is researching your life all unpaid parking tickets and embarrassing pictures will appear, but at least they will require more effort to find!) However, even if a collective historical archive is never formally created, the transformation of personal life records is already under way and will continue to proceed. Hopefully, the transformation will continue to better our understanding of human existence.

MOMA's Facebook page

Whitney Museum's Flickr account

The Internet Archive

ACP 3rd Annual Photography Auction Gala Fundraiser

2008-09-26T23:19:00.001-07:00

iPod Version

Hello Liberty @ Agnes Scott featuring Suellen Parker

2008-09-26T20:00:00.001-07:00

iPod Version

Don't miss Suellen Parkers lecture in conjunction with ACP on Oct. 9 @ 7PM @ MOCA GA!

Gently

2008-09-24T08:38:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

"Gently" @ Kavarna
Sept. 20 2008

Trip Chicks @ Fine Line Gallery

2008-09-20T21:54:00.001-07:00

iPod Version

"Tripchicks," @ Fine Line Gallery through OCt. 11 features the work of Marty Maxwell, Kate Crosby, and Jennifer Boxley. Shown in conjunction with ACP 10.

SCAD @ Large

2008-09-20T19:21:00.001-07:00

Visit SCAD @ Large from 2 -7 PM Fridays and Saturdays from Sept. 19 - Oct. 5 at The Factory, 300 MLK Drive.

iPod Version

Thirteen students from the illustration, painting, photography and sculpture departments at SCAD are in the exhibition "SCAD@Large". Morgan Alexander, Yana Dimitrova, Harrison Fraley, Suzy Maier, Macy Moore, Charles Parham, Seana Reilly, Richard Robbins, Brandon Sadler, Whitney Stansell, Cynthia Taylor, Yukari Umekawa, Gyun Hur and Whitney Wood are participating in the show.

Michael David Murphy and Christopher Bucklow

2008-09-15T13:54:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Roller Review of the Atlanta Arts Festival 2008

2008-09-15T13:53:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

A Non-review from the Phantom Zone

2008-09-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

I have a question for you about child rearing:
What do you do about a child who is behaving badly just for the attention? You don’t want to acknowledge the behavior because that is exactly what the child wants, but at the same time, you want to correct the behavior.

So what do you do?

In this case, I have an art critic’s dilemma.
Should I write about work that I believe has, at least mostly, been created to gain as much negative attention as possible? Even if the work has other positive aspects (which it does) should I tacitly encourage other artists to make similar work just for attention?

In this specific case, an exhibition has just opening in New York and the artist I’m considering writing about has even said that he wanted to make “something that would provoke even me”(1). The artist goes on to say, “"My ego as an artist says I can make anything look good.”

So if I actually write about the work, I will expose you to iconoclastic work from an artist who admittedly makes work to garner attention and satisfy his ego.

I’m not saying I like the work or dislike the work; I’m just not sure that as a critic, I should acknowledge work that has been created mostly to gain attention.

So rather than write about the work, I’m going to try something different:
One of the best parts of the web is the democracy of criticism and since this is an on-line publication, I think we should use this power of the web.

Below is a link to the gallery showing the work.
Only if you want to, click on the link and check out the work.
Then leave your critique of the show in the comment section below.
Anything you have to say will be welcome.

I’m giving you full warning that the exhibit is purposely iconoclastic and of course, viewing the work on the web is not at all the same as viewing it in person.

Let’s see what happens:
http://www.yvon-lambert.com/index_ny.php

Some other iconoclastic images from history:

Statues in the Cathedral of Saint Martin, Utrecht, attacked in Reformation iconoclasm in the 16th century.

"Yo Mama's Last Supper" by Rene Cox was called anti-Catholic by Mayor Giuliani and was part of why the Brooklyn Museum was threatened with loosing its public funding.

(1-Quote from Lynn Yaeger's Village Voice Column, http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-08-27/columns/)

Kathryn Refi

2008-09-09T17:00:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Yellow Daisy Festival

2008-09-08T21:12:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Yellow Daisy Festival

Stone Mountain

Eric Hancock

2008-09-08T21:09:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Eric Hancock

Phantom Zone

2008-08-31T11:36:00.001-07:00

Visit the Phantom Zone's On-line Store

The Phantom Zone: A MOMA Novella

2008-08-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

Chapter 1: The Opening

They went to museum to have fun, but it turned out the museum completely sucked.

“Free tickets and the members only opening? How could it not be fun?” Matthew said to Sarah.

“Ooh, we can dress up and walk around before they let the riff-raff in!” she agreed.

So the date was set:
June 28, 2008. Manhattan. 53rd between Fifth and Sixth. 8 PM sharp. For the members only opening of:
“Dalí: Painting and Film”

(12 full hours before the riff-raff would be let in to see the exhibition.)

The brochure made the exhibition seem monumental. The kind of exhibit that if you missed, you would have missed more than just a piece of history, you would have missed a complete re-visioning of a great master’s work. Everyone has seen a Dali, who has seen Dali’s paintings displayed next to his films? For that matter, who even knew Dali made films? But as usual, MOMA has given American culture a gift.

But here is the thing the brochure left out:
The movies suck.

Walking around for hour, Matthew and Sarah came to the same conclusion:
“Wow. Surprise. Dali tried to make surreal films,” said Matthew.

Perhaps interesting in their time, most of Dali’s attempts at making surreal cinema now read like bad uses of Final Cut filters. The wall text gave high praise for Dali creating the dream sequence for Hitchock's “Spellbound” (1945); which is a big eye floating and a faceless man in a tuxedo.

“If I did a film with a faceless man in a tuxedo, no one would call me a genius. No one would even call me back …” said Sarah.

“Well, Dali did it, so it must be great.” replied Matthew.
“I’m not convinced that’s how it works …”
“How what works? Making art or exhibiting art at MOMA or just being a genius?”
“I don’t think that’s how any of it works … Let’s see what else this place has got …” said Sarah as they headed down the escalators to the lower floors where MOMA houses the permanent collections.

Chapter 2: The Lower Floors

The lower floors of MOMA were populated by families where one member was desperately trying to convince an older member that contemporary art was not “crap”. Children were whining about everything. Young couples were trying to impress each other with knowledge of who had painted what; usually after reading the wall text.

But mostly, the lower floors of MOMA were filled with fake awe. The kind of acted awe when someone sees something they have heard about and want to believe they feel real awe, but don’t. So they fake it. This effect can usually be seen in front of a Monet and it sounds like “Wow, it’s just so amazing …” Some people even fake cry. Which is just embarrassing for everyone. No one likes Monet that much.

But then something strange happened. Matthew and Sarah turned the corner into the Modern Art section and a man was standing in front of an Ellsworth Kelley.

“Why is he crying in front of a Kelley?” Sarah whispered to Matthew. “Kelley’s work is an intellectual exercise in geometry and color … no one cries in front of it, people go to Goya to cry …”

So they stood there and watched a man cry in front of Kelley. He was an older man, probably 50 or 60 years old. His clothes were neat and obviously put together. His balding grey hair still looked becoming, but would soon fall out and make him look old, not just older. He looked to old to cry in public, but not quite old enough to do whatever he wanted in public.

“Dude, you ok?” Matthew finally asked.

“Yeah … I just got a lot going on,” he replied.

“Why are you crying?” Sarah asked.

“It’s the painting. It just makes so much sense,” he replied, but he saw they didn’t get it.

“It’s like this. Ever have things get so complex that you forget that they don’t have to be? Rent, family, jobs, kids running off, the government, people in other countries dying, the environment, late bills, traffic tickets, retirement, illness, death, the weather, social status, and for me, divorce. It’s all so much. Everyday from when I wake up to when I go to sleep. If I can sleep. I came here to see the exhibit upstairs, but it was just people telling me things are more complicated than they seem. Reality is so complicated it is no longer real, my mind is more complicated than I can perceive, my life is more complicated than I can live.

Then there’s this painting. It’s just two blue lines. Rather than making things more complicated, it says that things can be reduced to something simpler. That simple is beautiful and that there can be wisdom in not over complicating things.

I don’t need to be told that world can be made to look surreal, that’s easy, just make it more and more complex until what is left is too hard to process. What’s more difficult to do is to show that reality is as simple as two blue lines. That’s real. And strangely enough, that gives me hope.

So I became overwhelmed by the emotion that everything will be ok. That’s why I was crying. Because for the first time in months, I know everything will be ok, if I just stop complicating things.”

And with that, he turned and walked away.

When Sarah and Matthew left the museum, they threw-out the Dali brochure.

“We don’t need one more brochure cluttering up what have.”

Ellsworth Kelly. (American, born 1923). Colored Paper Image V (Blue Curves)

From the Salvador Dali-designed dream sequence for Spellbound.

Installation at MOMA's "Dalí: Painting and Film"

The Phantom Zone

2008-08-04T18:47:00.000-07:00

A Report from the Phantom Zone: Watching the Alphas

2008-07-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

I watched a documentary on monkeys the other day.

During the course of the documentary, scientists taped a group of monkeys interacting and noted the hierarchy that developed in their society. The scientists then classified each monkey according to their rank in the social hierarchy. So there were the alpha monkeys who were in charge, more submissive beta monkeys, monkeys that were ostracized, etc. The scientists would then separate an individual monkey and show them videos of the other monkeys.

A most fascinating behavior emerged:
Given the choice of eating their favorite foods or watching the alpha monkeys just going about their ordinary lives, the beta monkeys would always choose to sit and just watch the alpha monkeys. The scientists determined that it was not that the monkeys were analyzing the alphas in order to emulate them or to some how find a weakness to overthrow them and eventually become an alpha because the act of watching the alphas did not seem to alter the monkey’s behavior once they were returned to society.

The monkeys were just compelled to stare blankly at those who held a higher rank in society.

This behavior makes sense because if every member in a society was dedicated to trying to become an alpha, then there would be constant fighting and the society would loose the survival benefits of living in a group. Each member of a monkey society must understand their place and accept it without significant conflict while acknowledging the ones who hold highest rank in the society. So, staring makes it easy to determine who has the highest rank without conflict. The alphas are by definition; the ones that the most amount of members feel compelled to stare at.

This phenomenon of watching the alpha monkeys has given me a new perspective on a great deal of human behavior. Ever wonder why people seem so interested in just watching Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton go about her daily life? Maybe humans also have a compulsion to just stare at the alphas of our society in the same way as monkeys. No one looks at the magazines or “news” coverage of the alphas of our society in order to logically analyze how the alphas achieved their rank and then follow suit. No one wants to read about how J Lo became famous so that they can study how she did it, copy her path and eventually become an alpha as well; people just want to stare at a picture of her shopping. Usually the stare is filled with the volatile mixture of admiration and jealousy that the English language does not have a word for, but it should.

This last week I saw a lot of the alpha stare mixed with admiration and jealousy because my wife and I drove to the Hamptons to see the Scope Hamptons art fair.

There it is.
Just mentioning the word “Hamptons” evokes the subtle and sublime combination of admiration and jealousy in most Americans (including in those who frequent the Hamptons.)

A summer retreat for the most privileged of the New York elite, the Hamptons represents the place where the alphas get together to determine who is the most alpha of them all. The thing that a lot of artists don’t seem to understand is that you don’t have to be an alpha to go to the Hamptons. The Hamptons are not a gated community, so anyone can just go there! For $27, there is a bus that directly connects the Hamptons to New York City. The Scope Art fair is $15. So for about $45 and one days worth of time, anyone can have access to the exact same art that the alphas have access to. Don’t get me wrong, not everyone can afford to lose $45 and one day to see art, but my point is that you don’t need millions of dollars either.

The next thing that people don’t seem to understand is that the people working at the art fairs are the some of the nicest people in the art world. True, they are there to sell work, but at the end of the day, they are all involved in the arts because they love art and talking to people. Everyone I met at Scope Hamptons was friendly and eager to talk about the artists they had brought to the fair. The people from Eli Klein Fine Art spent a half an hour talking to me about their artist when they knew full well I wasn’t going to buy anything. They just love their artists’ work! What artist doesn’t want to go talk to a major gallery owner who just loves art? Same thing at Rhys Gallery and a dozen more galleries from all around the world that I visited.

Regardless if you are an alpha, are intimidated by alphas, hate alphas, or have that weird admiration/jealous for the alphas of our society, Scope Hamptons is a great place to visit and the fair is great, laid back venue that I recommend you visit next year.

Stare at the Lohan while she does nothing

Another alpha monkey for you to look at
(note resemblance)

The Hamptons

Inside a Hamptons "McMansion"
Buy it for $20 million
Rent it for $1 million for the summer season

Or just take this bus to the Hamptons:

The Phantom Zone: Failing @ Skowhegan

2008-07-13T15:36:00.000-07:00

I love eavesdropping at the gym.

There must be something about the testosterone or the endorphins at the gym that acts like truth serum. Suddenly, when pushed to a point of exhaustion, people give-up on social restraint and start saying what they really feel.

Interrogators don’t need to torture anyone; they just need to put people on the treadmill for an hour. I once heard the most macho guy at the gym blurt out that he really liked Miley Cyrus’s latest album while he was blatantly staring at his partner’s ass (all of this was while they were spotting each other during squats.)

I was at the gym the other day and there was this guy doing bicep curls with the rubber-coated weights that people usually use during aerobics classes. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it looked really easy for him. The gym’s trainer walked up and asked him why he was using such a low weight.

Then, the strangest thing happened; he answered with the truth:

“Yeah, I know I should be using more, but I really don’t like it when I set a goal for my self and can’t make it. So I use these weights because I know I will succeed and then when I leave the gym I feel really good about myself.”

“Well, if you’re not working the muscle to failure, then you’re not really doing anything. There’s really no point in coming to the gym at all …” the trainer replied.

“Ooooo, I really hate that word, ‘Failure’. I can’t stand failure. I don’t even like the word. So please, leave me alone. I’m not using the equipment in a way that will hurt me or anyone else, so please keep your advice to yourself. If you want to fail everyday, that’s fine, but I couldn’t live with myself. I’m a winner.”

What struck me as interesting about this is that I have heard so many artists say the same thing in one way or another, but they say it in their studio rather than the gym.

How many artists do you know who have been doing the same thing for years and won’t risk doing anything that might fail?

I think we should begin treating the studio like a gym.
If your not going to the studio to work yourself to a point of failure, then why are you there?

Risk is good.
Failure is good.

This weekend I visited the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, one of the world’s most prestigious artists residency programs. If your don’t know about Skowhegan, there is a lot of information on their website. One thing I did not know about the program is that it is a place that is both for artists and run by artists (much like Big Red and Shiny). My friends Steve Locke and Avantika Bawa were there as an administrator and a participant respectively and they both said that one of the best things about Skowhegan is that it is a place where people are encouraged to take risks and try something that may fail. Skowhegan is an artist residency that, unlike many other residencies, does not have an expectation for anyone there to produce work, none-the-less pressure to produce “good” work.

No wonder Skowhegan is such a sought after artist residency; it is a place where failure is allowed and in one sense, it is even encouraged.

Why aren’t there more places like Skowhegan?
Obviously, art school is not a place where a positive notion of failure is encouraged because at the end of the semester, everyone is evaluated in one form or another.

Failure at art school is rewarded with exactly that: Failure with a capital “F” written on a transcript.

I know for a fact that Big Red was started with the same sensibility as Skowhegan: A place for artists, by artists, where failure is encouraged.

If you have a chance to visit or attend Skowhegan, I encourage you to do so. It is filled with smart people and it will change your art practice. And if you’ve ever wanted to try writing for Big Red, but were afraid that you’d fail: Just write/do something and send it to the editors.

Failure is ok, that means your doing it right.
Just trust me.

Watch a video of our trip

Skowhegan Participants working in fresco in the Fresco Barn (photo by Katja Mater '06)

Steve Locke
"ask me again"
2005, oil on canvas, 60 inches square.
Private collection.

Avantika Bawa installation @ the Contemporary in Atlanta

Miley Cyrus

Some guys at the gym failing

A Report from the Phantom Zone: PEM

2008-06-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that a lot of Boston area artists are unaware that the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem is one of Boston’s great venues that is actively working on displaying contemporary artwork made by local artists. The latest exhibition to open in the Art and Nature Center at the PEM, “Polar Attractions” was curated by Jane Winchell and includes many local contemporary artists like Jane Marshing whose work you may have seen recently at the ICA and Nathalie Miebach whose work was in the Decordova Annual. Lindsay Erben, the Art and Nature Program Specialist at the PEM, has said that the Art and Nature Center has a definite focus on exhibiting living contemporary artists.

So how come more people aren’t going out there to see the great contemporary and historical artwork?

Well, here are the top ten reasons to go to the Peabody Essex:
1. It’s only 30 minutes away (16 miles)!
2. You can get there by the commuter rail. (Go to Salem on the Newbury-Rockport line.)
3. It’s the country’s oldest continuously-operating museum.
4. It has a photographic archive of more than one million rare and vintage prints that you have access to.
5. The museum always has activities (many of which include live animals, like snakes. Which is cool ...)
6. Their collections of artwork from around the world are first class and they have over 2.4 million pieces!
7. The staff is all well informed, friendly and helpful, which makes getting around the huge collection easy and fun.
8. The Moshe Safdie designed atrium is fantastic.
9. Once you get out to Salem there is an incredible amount to do, ranging from historical sites, dining, and shopping.
10. Witches.

The only reason not to go:
1. You’re lazy.

Other current exhibitions at the Peabody Essex include:
“Wedded Bliss” that explores the wedding as a source of inspiration for the creation of art in cultures around the world. On display, they have work ranging from Picasso to Vera Wang to Sandy Skogland.

“Body Politics, Maori Tattoo Today” that features photographs of Maori facial tattoos.

And the many permanent collections like the Native American, Indian, Japanese, and Korean collections, to name a few.

So go.

http://www.pem.org

Also, go to the newly launched "Polar Attractions" blog http://www.pem.org/polar where you can enter a competition and maybe have your work displayed in the Museum!

Iceberg,
2008,
Mary Edna Fraser

Antarctic Explorer � Darkness to Lightness,
2007,
Nathalie Miebach

Polar Attractions @ Peabody Essex Museum

2008-06-29T00:40:00.001-07:00

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A Report from the Phantom Zone: Allston Skirt

2008-06-14T17:07:00.000-07:00

This last First Friday in Boston had a different air about it. For me it was like watching a family member move to Beijing or having a last drink with a co-worker before they move on to a new, better job. It’s not like any one has died, but the feeling just sucks.
All anyone can say is a bunch of hollow semi-philosophical things:
“Things have to end.”
“People have to move on.“
“You’ll see each other again.”
You know the lines …

All of this is a little weird. After all, a gallery is a commercial business. Would I care if a different commercial business, like say my favorite Dunkin’ Donuts, closed? Probably not all that much. In fact, why does group of commercial businesses call themselves a “community” at all? Does a McDonald’s across the street from a Wendy’s call itself part of the “local fast food community”?

Well I do care.
And it’s not because some commercial businesses are closing.
It’s because Bernie’s gallery is closing.
And because Collin’s gallery is moving.
It’s because Beth and Randi’s gallery is closing.
And it sucks.

I could write extensively about Bernard Toale or Rhys Gallery ending their time in SoWa, but today, I want to write a tribute to Allston Skirt.

Allston Skirt has given us many great solo and two person exhibitions over the past 9 years. Allston Skirt was the first place I saw a number of my favorite artists. They were the first place I ever saw Danika Phelps, Amy Ross, Joe Wardwell and many other artists, for which I will always be grateful to Allston Skirt.

But the thing I enjoyed most about Allston Skirt was their group shows. Organizing a group show is an art form itself. All of the pieces have to work together, but at the same time, all of the pieces have to stand on their own.
Haven’t we all seen a group show that actually made all of the pieces look worse?
(If you haven’t seen a bad group show recently, just walk down Newbury and look in virtually any “gallery” you find ...)

“Gone Fishin’”
“Beat the Reaper”
“Honey Bunches”
“Don't Abandon the Ship”
“Five Easy Pieces”
“Strangefolks”
“Love Fest 08”
All of these group shows brought together a very specific aesthetic sensibility that made all of the work resonate together.

The ability to find powerful, provoking and playful work and then to be able to display it in a manner that strengthens the work is what I will miss about Allston Skirt.

But as I said, it’s not that bad.
I’m glad Beth and Randi are going on to better things.
But it still sucks.

Thanks for all the exhibitions at your gallery!
Steve

P.S.
Randi and Beth still rock!

Allston Skirt closing, from their website.

Randi Hopkins

Beth Kantrowitz

Jospeh Wardell, installation view of Heavy History, at Allston Skirt

A Report from the Phantom Zone

2008-05-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

“Our enormously productive economy… demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption… We need things consumed, burned up, replaced, and discarded at an ever accelerating rate.”
- Victor LeBeau, US retailing analyst, 1955

In the 1950’s, the US economy was radically transformed to become more consumer oriented as President Eisenhower implemented policies based in the belief that recessions could be avoided by ''millions of citizens making their purchases, having greater confidence.'' (1958) We obviously still live in a consumption driven economy as seen shortly after Sept. 11 when “Tony Blair asked people to go shopping and take holidays to prevent the economy going into recession yesterday after the terrorist attacks in the United States.” (Daily Telegraph, Sept. 2001) President Bush echoed this sentiment when he said that Americans should “Get down to Disney World in Florida” (Sept. 2001) in order to return confidence to the US airline industry.

One thing that has begun to interest me is how artwork usually defies the consumer culture we live in. A few weeks ago, I had a studio visit from a gallery owner and a large portion of the discussion revolved around the archivability of my work. Clearly, one of the implications of the discussion was that anyone who purchased my work would want it to exist for far longer than a human life span (like 200 or 300 years).

After the gallery owner left, an interior designer wandered into my studio (uninvited) and she stated how she had many clients who would be interested in the work. When I told her the price of the work and that the work would be sold out of the gallery at my next show, she looked shocked and said, “Well, you’ll never sell any art at those prices because people with real money redecorate their homes every year. What are they supposed to do once they’re bored of looking at your art? You should just sell prints that people can throw away ever year and then buy new ones to match the rest of their new decorations. You’ll make a lot more money that way …”

I suddenly channeled Lloyd Dobbler: “Look lady, as an artist I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. And I certainly don’t want to sell anything that is bought with obsolescence processed right in. Now get your patchouli stink out of my studio!”

The word “consumed” is applied equally well to either current economics or a devastating fire, so most artists do not fit in with a consumption economy because we do not make work that is meant to be consumed in either. We make work that we hope will have meaning and value long after we are gone.

The best example of an artist who is smart enough to create work both in and about our economy is Boston’s own Douglas Weathersby. On April 1, Weathersby performed a piece at the Beehive where the public was invited to bring in sensitive documents and he shredded them, creating an installation “nest” in the space. Weathersby’s work both challenges and participates in the work and consumer culture we live in by creating both his monetary living and a living space out of consumable products.

Weathersby’s work stands in sharp contrast to Dash Snow and Dan Colen's Nest at Deitch Gallery last summer. In many ways, as the grandson of Christophe De Menil who is one of the world’s largest collectors, Dash Snow represents the power of consumption in an art market that will apparently exhibit anyone if they know the right people. Dan Colen is perhaps best know for advertising one of his exhibitions in Berlin by putting up fliers showing him with a tallith (Jewish prayer shawl) hanging from his erect penis. Their “Nest” was made by shredding 2000 telephone books and then spray-painting the walls. You can watch a YouTube video of the work to get a feel for it. The book documenting the “Nest” will become available in July 2008. You can pre-order it now or if you send me $50 I will shred it and send it back to you.

I can’t relate to work like Dash Snow and Dan Colen’s that is meant to be vacuous, trite work in order to create legend, not meaning. There work is designed to exist like an awesome-raging high school party. I don’t know about you, but there are a host of reasons why I don’t hang out with high school kids. Why would I go to a gallery to see the detritus of their self-centered consumption?

Instead, I’m looking forward to more work from Weathersby. Watch his website, I’m sure more is coming …

Douglas Weathersby in his element

"Nest" at Deitch

Llody Dobbler from "Say Anything"

Ian from "High Fidelity"

Marcel Williams Finalist at the 2008 International Science and Engineering Fair

2008-05-16T16:30:00.001-07:00

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Marcel Williams Finalist at the 2008 International Science and Engineering Fair

Raul Gonzalez @ NEGLAA

2008-05-11T17:00:00.001-07:00

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Judith Larsen @ RHYS gallery

2008-05-11T16:29:00.001-07:00

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A Report from the Phantom Zone

2008-05-11T15:40:00.000-07:00

Some palindromes:

Live Evil
Ah, Satan sees Natasha
Drat Saddam, a mad dastard!
Cain: a maniac.
No devil lived on.
Not so, Boston.
Did Joe kill like O.J. did?
Evil did I dwell; lewd I did live.
Repel evil as a live leper.
Eve damned Eden, mad Eve.
Meet animals; laminate 'em.
Dammit, I'm mad!
Evil olive.
Stack cats.
Ten animals I slam in a net.
Dr. Awkward.
Trash Tim Smith's art.
Satire: Veritas.

There’s something about palindromes that is unnerving and deceptively complex. The author for all palindromes like “Dogma: I am God” is language itself; a person just happens to have discovered the phenomenon. Subsequently, palindromes feel like language is making its own meaning that has nothing to do with us even though we the primary users of language. Somehow, randomly arranged letters can end up saying something profound. However, unlike completely random letters, palindromes are the same forward or backward, so it’s like the letters are looking at their own mirror image. Palindromes become like an oracle. Our minds tell us “There is no way these words could have any meaning because no one is saying them.”
But then there it is.
The words : “Devil never even lived”

All we can do is to try and process what we have perceived. How is it possible that of all of the letter combinations in the universe, these stand out and speak both to themselves and to us?

Some people will say the words are meaningless while others will say they are oddly profound. The words become a test of faith and reason in a world that holds few oracles.

In the ancient world, people used to seek out tests of faith and works of art frequently served that exact purpose. The Met had an exhibit in 2000 called “Art and Oracle” that examined how people around the world for centuries have used art as part of a quest to transform and transcend the human experience. We now live in a world where more people have access to more art then ever before; especially through mediums of advertising and television. However, the art that is now bombarding people is designed to inform, but not to transform.

I know a lot of people who are waiting for the opening of James Turrell’s Roden Crater that is scheduled to open in 2011, just to have an experience where the viewer’s perceptions in the space are designed to be transformative in the same way ancient earthworks were designed. I have to admit, I am looking forward to it too because I don’t see a lot of other artists trying to create work that challenges me to acknowledge that maybe there is more to the universe than just my perceptions of it. In fact, most of what I see is the exact opposite.

For example, on view at the MFA Boston right now is an installation by Jim Lambie where he has transformed ordinary objects to create a space like listening to music. The space is designed so the viewer can enter “compelling environments where the edges disappear and the space he makes is for you.” This sounds to me like a Burger King commercial where I can “have it my way”. Lambie’s art is designed to re-enforce that my personal psychological space is all-important. Why go to the museum if when I get there I just go back inside my own head? Jim Lambie’s work serves the current model of commodified artwork where art is supposed serves the viewer’s immediate desires rather than transform the viewer in any profound way.

The Lambie installation is only up until May 25, so I recommend you go see it soon. You can go for free on Wednesdays from 4-9:45 PM if you do not want to pay for art that is supposed to put you in a mental space that is like listening to music at home and is actually made from chairs like the ones you probably have at home. Then maybe in 2011, we can meet up at the Roden Crater and I can read you some more palindromes.

Oracle Figure (Kafigeledjo)
Senufo, Côte d'Ivoire
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
from "Art and Oracle" exhibition

Jim Lambie's installation at the MFA Boston

James Turell's Roden Crater
Photography by Florian Holzherr

Ka-Chunk @ Opal Gallery

2008-05-11T13:52:00.001-07:00

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Audrey Ward "Kissed & Bitten"

2008-05-11T09:08:00.001-07:00

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A Report from the Phantom Zone: Telling Jokes

2008-04-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

Ever try to explain a joke to someone?

Confucius say he who makes love in grass, gets piece on earth.
Confucius say war does not determine who's right, war determines who's left.
Confucius say it take many nails to build crib but one screw to fill it.

Explanation:
These jokes are based on double-meanings of words. Variations included puns, etc.

Problems with “Confucius say” jokes:
1) They are horribly racist.
2) They assume Confucius lacked the ability use good grammar.
3) Confucius never said any of them.

A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: "That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!" The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: "The driver just insulted me!" The man says: "You go right up there and tell him off – go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you."

Explanation:
The joke begins with a “set-up line” alerting the audience that there will be a short story and then an unexpected climax. Variations on this include “A man walks into a bar …” etc.

There once was a Polgar named Laszlo.
A long beard he decided to grow.
It grew 8 feet long,
Because he told Paul Truong,
He'd shave when the sisters stopped raising their ELO.

Explanation:
This is a chess limerick. It requires significant understanding of the world of professional chess where Laszlo Polgar, a famous chess teacher, is also the father of the “Polgar Sisters”, two sisters who raised their ELO chess ranking to the level of Grand Master by the time they were 15 years old.

The problem with explaining jokes to people is that anyone who hears the explanation may be able to intellectually understand the joke, but the joke will probably not have the correct effect. This is a fact that most people understand and thus most people do not try to explain jokes.

Most artists shy away from giving explanations of their art for the same reason that people instinctively do not explain jokes. What’s the point of explaining a piece of art to someone? Even if the listener intellectually understands the piece after the explanation, the point of the piece is usually lost.

The contemporary art world is obsessed with the production dialog. Subsequently, work that easily allows for an explanation is much more likely to be shown because people are expecting an explanation. Showing work that becomes diluted when explained has become virtually impossible. The art that people are most like to write about and discuss is work that exists primarily as an intellectual exercise. Artwork that can’t be explained (in the same way that a joke can’t be explained) ends up not being written about or by definition, ruined by the explanation.

Take, for example, art star Ryan McGinley whose latest exhibition at Team Galley has been extensively lauded. Team Gallery’s press release says that McGinley is a “serious artist with a rare gift for creating enduring color photographs — photographs that show us the best of youth.” The best of youth? Apparently, unless you are thin and white, you are ranked lower than “the best of youth”. (I hope that no one interprets McGinley’s images as somehow representing a fantasy of youth or of by-gone youth. If so, he has constructed a race exclusive fantasy that I want nothing to do with.)

Karen Rosenberg wrote in the New York Times that McGinley’s “photographs convey the idea, rather than the experience, of spontaneity” and that the only minor problem with the images is that few of them are too large. I guess that’s true, in the same way that ads for Abercrombie and Fitch convey the idea, rather than experience of spontaneity. But, why would I go to a gallery to see McGinley’s images when I can just go to the mall?

Ryan McGinley continues to get shown because his images let people look at naked hot young people and then, most importantly, his photos allow the viewer to explain away what they are doing as looking at the beauty of youth, or fantasy of youth, etc. His work also goes beyond just allowing for an explanation, it exists so that photographs of naked hot young people can be explained as art. However, as soon as someone starts explaining that his photos may be problematic because they re-enforce a hierarchy of beauty that defines anyone who does not look like him as not “the best of youth”; all of a sudden the work is not so beautiful, but a rather ugly view of youth.

McGinley’s latest work exists for explanation, but as soon as anyone starts really explaining the work beyond the superficial, it falls apart. Of course, like I said, it’s usually not the best idea to try to explain a joke.

*Note both Ryan McGinley and Abercrombie and Fitch are looking for models:
Here for Ryan and here for A+F if you are hot and want to be in photos.

Ryan McGinley
Highway
From Team Gallery’s website

Abercrombie and Fitch ad.

Ryan McGinley’s exhibition at Team Gallery
From Team Gallery’s website

Shinique Smith @ Saltworks in Atlanta

2008-04-20T10:43:00.001-07:00

Shinique Smith @ Saltworks in Atlanta
iPod Version
YouTube

Eli Klein Fine Art

2008-04-13T18:36:00.001-07:00

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Eli Klein Fine Art

Zhang Hui: Beijing Wawa

Liu Bolin : China Report 2007

A Report from the Phantom Zone: A dialog about "Jasper Johns: Gray"

2008-04-13T13:23:00.001-07:00

“Did you know that modern art has actually been used to torture prisoners?”
Said the guy standing next to me at the Jasper Johns' exhibit.

“Whatever, if you don’t like the painting, just don’t look at it …”
I replied.

“No, really. Just Google “modern art is torture” and you’ll see. During the Spanish Civil War, the republicans used modern art as a basis to build torture cells. The rooms were designed so that the prisoners could not sit or lay down. They had to stand at attention and stare at a wall that either had modern art designs like Kandinsky or an endless loop of the eyeball-slicing scene from Luis Buñuel's 1929 film ''Un Chien Andalou. Modern art is torture, and that's why I like it …''

“Why would I want to look at something that is literally torture?”

“Well that’s what modern art is. When viewing traditional artwork, the viewer is supposed to judge the art according to how much direct pleasure the aesthetics cause. For modern art, the work is supposed to cause pain. So much pain, in fact, that the work becomes sublime. It causes pleasure/pain. Modern art succeeds at causing pleasure precisely at its point of failure. Lots of people write about this stuff; Plato, Kant, Danto … look it up.”

“So what do you think of Jasper Johns?"

“Well, the problem with Johns is that the work no longer causes pain because people’s tastes have changed. Now, the work is just considered beautiful, in a traditional sense. That’s why it’s being shown at the Met. Just listen to how people are talking about the exhibit:”

“Gray in all its shades resists contextualization and emotion. It's an honest color …”- Sara Rose for Boston.com

"'Gray' is a powerful show because it allows you to see just how visceral, voluptuous, and vulnerable (Johns) has been all along.”- Jerry Saltz for New York Magazine

“But by bringing together so many dark-toned works, this exhibition allows us to see something that I, for one, had not quite realized about Johns's early paintings—that words like "melancholy" and "indifference" don't begin to describe their utter emotional desolation.”- Richard Dorment for the New York Review of Books

Compare Jerry Saltz talking about the work for New York Magazine
to
James Kalm’s unauthorized video

“No one talks about Jasper Johns' work as "being hard to look at" or difficult in any way. His work has become easy to digest. Most reviewers have discussed this Jasper Johns exhibit in terms of the emotions or intellectual dialog about paint that his work evokes.

Also, no critics seem willing to talk about the history of the exhibition. This Jasper Johns exhibit began at the Art Institute of Chicago because the Art Institute had just purchased “Near the Lagoon” and because in 2006, David Geffen sold “False Start” to Chicago hedge-fund manager, Kenneth C. Griffin, for $80 million. They needed this exhibition to show that the purchases were valid. Do people think it is chance that “False Start” is the first image in an exhibition titled “Jasper Johns: Gray” and it is not gray! Then the Met took the show to re-enforce validity of their purchases of Johns’ work like “White Flag” which it probably paid more than $20 million for. The only person who seems willing to talk about the economic reason why this exhibition is on display is Johns himself:”

“There seems to be something in the air that art is commerce itself. I haven’t really been a part of it, although I’m sure in some way I am.”– Jasper Johns

"Johns' work no longer functions in the way it used to. Of his peers, like Pollock or Rauschenberg, Johns' work used to be the most painful to look at because it was the hardest to categorize and digest. Even Clement Greenberg did not really know what to do with it. It seems to me that people want art to move from the challengingly sublime to the traditionally beautiful. Don't they realize that the best complement that you can give Johns' is simply to say that his work remains completely elusive? What's wrong with a critic saying "I have no idea what this is about."?
Instead, critics feel that they must provide some type of insight into the work and essentially rob the art of its sublime quality. Sometimes, there is no insight into a particular exhibition and that can be the best part of seeing the art."

“So, maybe everyone should have left Johns' work as sublimely elusive rather than trying to explain how it can be understood as traditionally beautiful?”

"Yup."

Jasper Johns
"False Start" (1959)
Image from the Met

Image of modernist torture cell, photo from AP.

Bridge Art Fair, NYC 2008

2008-04-02T15:13:00.003-07:00

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Bridge Art Fair, NYC 2008

Pulse Art Fair, NYC 2008

2008-04-02T15:13:00.001-07:00

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Pulse Art Fair, NYC 2008

SCOPE New York 2008

2008-04-02T15:10:00.001-07:00

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SCOPE New York 2008

A Report from the Phantom Zone: Whitney Biennial 2008

2008-03-30T14:59:00.000-07:00

I was standing in a gallery the other day when someone walked up to me and said I had to move. He seemed very excited, so I did.

He said, "No, no, no, no, ... you're doing it wrong. Look, you have to look at the painting and then move!"

So I did.

The painting was made of thin stripes of color on sheets of glass. The sheets of glass were stacked so that when the viewer changed their perspective, different stripes of color were either exposed or hidden.

"Don't you get it? Isn't that awesome? The painting is different depending on how you look at it and everyone who is looking at it is actually seeing a different painting! So right now, you are seeing one painting and I'm seeing a different one!"

Yes, I get it.

"No, no, no ... I don't think you do. This is awesome! Don't you Realize that this is awesome?"

I get it.

He walked away exacerbated.

I knew while he was speaking at me that the painting had allowed him to realize that everyone has a different perspective and that your own perspective constantly changes as you move. He just wanted to share that realization with me. The fact that I had realized this years before without the aid of this painting and was therefore not sharing in his excitement at that moment was what pissed him off.

Explaining a moment of realization to someone else is impossible. People have to realize things for themselves or else the moment just sounds trite. I once had a teacher try to explain to me that while eating lunch one day, he just suddenly realized that eventually, he was going to die. When I did not respond with the same reverent awe that he held for his moment of realization, he started to get pissed at me and asked, "Have you ever Realized anything?"

What was I supposed to say?
Yes, after dumping a can of coke into a fish tank, I once realized that fish don't really drink the way we do.

Once, after eating some bad shellfish, I realized that I am a prisoner inside my body.

So much of talking about art is trying to explain a moment of realization.
So, much of talking about art is destined to be a failure.

How can I explain to you that Ry Rocklen's found object art in this year's Whitney Biennial is actually better than any description I can give it?
One of his sculptures appears to be a found windsock in a sand armature.
It just sounds terribly trite when written.
Even a photograph doesn't accurately describe the piece, because you have to be there to see it.

Phoebe Washburn's installation has a Gatorade irrigation system!
How can I explain that moment of realization?

Simultaneously, how can I explain exactly what it felt like when I realized how boring Joe Bradley's work in the Biennial is?
Monochrome canvases with "intentional shoddiness."
Wow. Worse than awful.

One answer for helping people Realize something about a piece of art who have not seen it seems to be to put video on the web.
Even Jerry Saltz is now doing criticism with video:

But video on the web does not seem to hold the same respect that writing does. It seems too easy to just show someone what a piece of artwork looks like. Most importantly, while video can express a great deal about it is like to encounter a piece of artwork, it still feels like a hollow experience. Even more removed to me is the experience of watching a video of the videos installed at the Whitney that was produced by the Whitney.

The best video I have seen about the Whitney Biennial 2008 is of artist and critic James Kalm getting kicked out of the exhibition. Watch it here
His video actually shows what it is like to visit an institution.
While he is video-taping the videos installed at the Whitney, the guards were video-taping him and used their video to threaten him and throw him out.
It is more of this style of video that I want to see.

Maybe with videos like James Kalm's combined with critical writing about art, the sense of what it is really like to encounter contemporary art and have a moment of realization can be better articulated.

Phoebe Washburn's mixed-media installation, (Librado Romero/The New York Times)

Joe Bradley, Animal, 2007.

Extracted, Examined @ Studioplex

2008-03-13T19:55:00.001-07:00

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Extracted, Examined @ Studioplex

Nancy Floyd @ Solomon Projects

2008-03-10T14:59:00.001-07:00

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Nancy Floyd @ Solomon Projects

Interviewed by Susan Hadorn

Sally Mann @ Jackson Fine Art

2008-03-09T12:05:00.001-07:00

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Aliza Lelah @ Gallery Stokes

2008-02-26T09:11:00.001-08:00

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SCAD at the EDGE @ Vaknin Gallery Atlanta Feb. 2008

2008-02-25T17:58:00.001-08:00

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A Report from the Phantom Zone

2008-02-24T22:18:00.000-08:00

“The modernist age, of "one way, one truth, one city," is dead and gone. The postmodernist age of "anything goes" is on the way out. Reason can take us a long way, but it has limits. Let us embrace post-postmodernism—and pray for a better name.”
-Tom Turner, City as Landscape, 1986

Some people are not interested in finding out how things work. They go through life, and it never even occurs to them to wonder how their car works or how democracy works or anything else and that’s fine for them. I love learning how things work and not for any reason. I just love learning. And I have a feeling that if you are reading this; you love learning for no specific reason as well.

One thing I am interested in learning about is how I and other people in my culture perceive their own existence. So here is a brief and severely dumbed-down history of how philosophy has developed in the West over the past 200 years and a where I think it has brought us. If you already know this history, you can skip to the end:

In the 18th century, the Western world shifted philosophy and turned away from what was perceived as the superstitions and tyranny that defined the Middle Ages. During the Enlightenment, philosophers began to believe that individuals were rational, autonomous beings who were free to shape their own world. With this change in philosophy, came the rise of modern capitalism, contemporary notions of democracy, and many other social changes that were all based in the notion that humans are free and logical beings. Enlightened thinking, with its basis in rationality, is at the core of modernism and hence modern art.

After WWII, many people, like Adorno and Horkheimer, began to argue that the Enlightenment had been a failure as exemplified by the events leading to twentieth century totalitarianism. This opened the door for philosophers like Derrida and Lyotard to argue that some of the underlying assumptions made by the Enlightenment were incorrect. They argued that individuals are not inherently free, but are actually defined by societal forces. Other people (philosophers, linguists, artists, etc.) picked up the tools of analysis that post-structuralists were using (deconstruction, etc.) and applied them to their own critiques of the Enlightenment. In the art world, we call any critique of the basic assumptions of the Enlightenment "post-modernism".

Subsequently, there are many post-modernisms (such as feminism, post-colonialism, etc.) because by definition, anyone who did not adhere to modernist beliefs fell under the group classification of “post-modernist” regardless of their stance. The one thing that seems to unite all of the critiques of Enlightened thought is a rejection of what is perceive as the Enlightenment’s perversion of reason. In other words, post-modernisms do not abandon reason entirely, but rather, they complicate Enlightened thought by questioning the scope, meaning and application of reason.

This brings us to the state of philosophy today. The current dialog lacks a coherent name, but the basic idea is that the hierarchies of modernism were dangerous and we don’t want to return to them. However, post-modernism has framed the world as nothing more than a spectacle where the viewer is immobilized and never knows what is real, and where the pursuit of meaning is pointless.

To solve this philosophical problem, Mikhail Epstein discusses “Potentiation” that moves beyond deconstruction to finally get to the original point of deconstruction, which was to dismantle structures in order to be able to better assemble new structures. Some philosophers, Raoul Eshelman in particular, are currently assembling new structures like the notion of “Performatism” where individuals perform acts knowing full well they are limited in scope, but the act is no longer a sign that creates or generates meaning - the meaning is in the act itself.

Alan Kirby describes this new philosophy of the world by demonstrating the difference between a book like “A Tale of Two Cities” and cultural product like “American Idol”. “A Tale of Two Cities” exists materially whether or not someone reads it, but “American Idol” could not exist if no one called in to vote for contestants. This cultural effect can be seen in radio call-in shows, home shopping networks, news channels that run user submitted images, etc. In this next stage of philosophy, the viewer bears the responsibility for the meaning of the moment.

Thus, in many ways, there has been a return to the core concept of the Enlightenment: the power of the individual, but with a post-modern understanding that that power has exceptional responsibility and severe limitations.

Writing in 2006, Alan Kirby goes on to point out that this new philosophy has so far produced a cultural desert, but that this new philosophy should soon be used for meaningful artistic expression.

In the last issue of Big Red, I wanted to put this “Performatism” to the test and I put together a poll of what foods people like to have provided at art openings.

To a large extent, I did not write a column at all, nor did I try to. The column required individuals to perform the column for no rational reward.
I had 208 votes, which I find impressive because I had no idea that many people read my column.

The results can be seen if you click on the poll in the last issue, but here are the top votes:


Item            Votes       %
Beer             20        10%             
Wine in glasses  20        10%
Crackers         16        8%             
Water in bottles 16        8%

For write in votes I had:


is this seriously a fucking article?     
shots     
weed     
chocolate fondue fountain w/ fruit on sticks     
olives     
sex, drugs and rock'n'roll

Thanks to everyone who helped write my column last issue!
I hope you thought it was interesting (especially now that you know why I was doing it) and please add to this issue’s article by leaving a note in the comment section. In fact, please actively participate in the writing of all of the Big Red articles by leaving a comment.

To the person who took the time to read last month’s column, and then took the time to participate in writing the article by choosing “Other” and then typing in “is this seriously a fucking article?”:

Yes, it is.

Goya, "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" (1799)

How to vote for "American Idol"

SCAD FINE ARTS FACULTY EXHIBITION at STUDIOPLEX

2008-02-21T08:55:00.001-08:00

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