Sigmar Polke

German painter 02/13/41-06/10/10.
RIP.

Louise Bourgeois

“My childhood has never lost its magic, it has never lost its mystery, and it has never lost its drama.”
-Louise Bourgeois

A maker for over six decades, Louise Bourgeois passed away May 31, 2010. My first experiences with Bourgeois’ work were mediated through interviews and essays, required readings for a sophomore art course. In 2007 the Tate Modern held a survey of her work, and I experienced a few rooms full of her drawings, prints, paintings, sculpture in varied materials; plaster, latex, bronze, marble. Her work was both dark and eerie, sometimes seemingly violent, and also full of beautiful, simple, quiet, minimal forms. Considered a pioneering feminist artist, Louise Beorgeois’ work has seemed to me, to be a bit less partial to any particular opinions, embracing an aesthetic that disregards agenda and utilizes autobiography, the mystery of making, and the object as a relic of memory. We’re grateful for her work, may she rest in peace.

In dreams, you’re mine… all the time. Forever

Dennis Hopper passed away last Saturday. He was one of my favorite actors. He will be missed.

If you havent seen David Lynch’s Film Blue Velvet make sure to do yourself a favor and check it out. It is very bizarre. Hopper plays Frank Booth in the film and he says this:

“Don’t be a good neighbor anymore to her. I’ll have to send you a love letter! Straight from my heart, fucker! You know what a love letter is? It’s a bullet from a fucking gun, fucker! You receive a love letter from me, and you’re fucked forever! You understand, fuck? I’ll send you straight to hell, fucker!… In dreams… I walk with you. In dreams… I talk to you. In dreams, you’re mine… all the time. Forever. ”

When ever i think of Dennis Hopper i think of Hopper as Frank Booth, specifically that scene.

Rest in Peace Dennis.

Basic

RECESS

Recess is a seminar series that seeks to connect individuals from
various fields with the public to facilitate learning, exchange and
creative action through conversation. Recess aims to provide an open
platform for play, agency and collective research outside the
classroom or institution. Ephemera from events, transcribed
conversations, and additional contributions will be made available
through a periodic PDF publication.

We invite you to join us for the first discussion of the seminar:

Recess 1: Built Relationships: Technology, Performance and Design
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
8pm
Art of This
3506 Nicollet Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55408-4558

Contributors:

Ceri Myers
Ceri Myers is a doctoral candidate in Art History at the University of
Minnesota, and this year has been an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellow
in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study. She earned her MA at
Bowling Green State University, where her thesis examined the work of
the French performance artist Orlan and its unique interaction with
the male gaze of Western art history. She is currently working on her
dissertation, “The Visible Posthuman: Envisioning Agency for the
Cybernetic Self in Digital Culture,” which examines works by artists
Orlan, Stelarc, Charlotte Davies, and Christa Sommerer and Laurent
Mignonneau. She uses these works of digital, bio-, and performance art
to trace interactions between art and science, organism and machine,
and self and other to explore the visual aspects of posthumanism.

Matt Olson
Matt Olson is co-founder of ROLU, rosenlof/lucas, ro/lu a design
studio located in Minneapolis that is focused on modern residential
landscape design and installation. Its practice also extends to
relational architectural projects, urban planning work and innovative
collaborative public art. Additionally, the studio is about to
release it’s first furniture projects. He also blogs about
architecture, art, design and culture at ROLU, keeps a photo blog of
the studio’s projects at ro/lu, and writes about art at the AIA-MN
blog Threshold. ROLU recently initiated an artist commission program
for contemporary artists and musicians.

Volkan Isler
Volkan Isler is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science
Department, and a resident fellow at the Institute on Environment at
the University of Minnesota. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor
at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a post-doctoral researcher at
CITRIS at UC Berkeley. He obtained his MSE and PhD degrees in Computer
and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania. While at
Penn, he was a member of the GRASP Lab and the Theory Group. He
obtained his BS degree in Computer Engineering from Bogazici
University, Istanbul, Turkey. In 2008, he received the National
Science Foundation’s Young Investigator Award, CAREER. He is currently
co-chairing IEEE Society of Robotics and Automation’s Technical
Committee on Networked Robots. His research interests are in robotics,
sensor networks and computer vision.

Virtual Contributor:

David Horvitz
David Horvitz is an artist whose work adopts a nomadic personality,
shifting seamlessly between the Internet and the printed page, the
West Coast, East Coast, and beyond. He uses various strategies from
Pay-Pal to snail mail to engage individuals in relationships of mutual
exchange, where viewers become active agents, collaborators or even
patrons. Born in Los Angeles and currently based in New York, Horvitz
attended UC Riverside and the Milton Avery Graduate School of the
Arts, at Bard College. Select exhibitions include: No Soul For Sale,
2010, a commission by Rhizome, New York and the Tate Modern; London;
Session_ 7_Words, 2009, Am Nuden Da, London; The World is Flat, 2009,
Rhizome, New York; I Will Send You a Photograph of the Sky for Every
Day, 2008, Galerie West, Den Haag, Netherlands; One Size Fits All,
2008 Printed Matter, New York.

http://recessproject.org/

Meat in Minneapolis

A list of just a few of the many many openings this weekend. Whirl it.

Nicholas Knutson, Art-a-Whirl 10
Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 7:00pm
Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 5:00pm
Gallery 13
811 Lasalle Avenue

Hoolie Fest @ Art-a-Whirl
Friday, May 14, 2010 at 5:00pm
Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 7:00pm
Shuga Records
165 13th Ave NE

LaCasse + Mahoney @ Art-a-Whirl
Friday, May 14, 2010 at 5:00pm
Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 5:00pm
Studio 502, California Building
2205 California Street Northeast

The Age of Aquarius Art-a-Whirl Party
Friday, May 14, 2010
6:00pm – 10:00pm
The Gallery @ Fox Tax
503 1st Ave NE

Flocked: A wall paper project
Friday, May 14, 2010 at 8:00pm
Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 5:00pm
Casket Arts Carriage House
Street:
1720 Madison St NE #203

Location-Volume 1: Isa Gagarin, Opening reception, book sale and signing.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
7:00pm – 10:00pm
1618 Central Ave NE, Suite 227

Beneath the Surface: Photos by Rhea Pappas
Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 8:00pm
Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 12:00am
Icebox Gallery
1500 Jackson St. NE #443

Homage

The following list contains excerpts from a journal kept during my recent travels to Brazil. The trip was inspired by the recordings of the Claude Levi-Strauss, referred to as the  father of modern anthropology, in his book, Tristes Tropiques in the 1930’s.  Indirectly, here is my response to his writings through my own experience roughly 80 years later:

1. The shark no longer held anything but pink, open flesh. A feast. A profit. Yet small corners of the incident still enjoyed ephemeral and independent life. She swam to kiss her own tomb, but instead stabbed it to death. The shark was dead.

 

2. Five minutes after the beast died, all the rays of sun were visible. The sky rained gold petals in honor of its mourning.

3. Hallowed be broad daylight. The sun punched the clock and I was safe.

4. I leave the gate open so that if I am eaten, they will know I went out the gate. wouldn’t ever find me, the tide has no match.

6. I am floating. Zero sense of location.

 

7. Go back in, come back out. Go back in, come back out.
“I didn’t know nobody, just like you.”

8. She swam to kiss her own tomb, but instead stabbed it to death. The shark was dead.

 

9. Her cold hand grabbed my forearm. Felt like waking up in the middle of the night to a stranger banging at your door.

10. Still higher in the sky, they were everywhere. Helicopters swaying like eggbeaters.

11. Let the ants eat it. Ants that like greens, sugar, meats. The really tiny ones.

12. I am tense as a drum; then he bit me. Full-mouthed and fervent.

13. Listening to the city from above. I am mystified by the combustion of noises– ringing roaring sounds from creatures that would wake the dead before daybreak.

5. The day was mid-career and I was all at sea in this city. Its outskirts rambled and laid spread-eagle with legs that went on for miles.

Walls and Fields

In the summer of 2005 I found an abandoned house in northern Vermont and it was my brief experience in this house that served as an impetus for the series of drawings shown at Dr. Brills left none of his children behind. I kept the following photos of the house and a few years later, have used the process of drawing to re-experience the space in Vermont. The drawings are loosely based off of architectural renderings, my memory of the space and the curious wallpaper involving the decorative use of red-coat soldier imagery.

Doctor Brills left none of his children behind.

Speaking of artists working outside their mediums

I’ve just now seen the most recent issue of Aperture Magazine, which supposedly for the first time ever features, not a photograph, but a drawing on the cover. The issue showcases drawings by the photographer William Eggleston. I remember a year or two ago seeing the movie William Eggleson In the Real World which is a documentary that consists primarily of a camera following Eggleston around as he makes photographs, plays music, talks with friends and family, and in one scene he scribbles on some paper while talking with a woman who I believe was a former mistress of his. Eggleston’s friend holds the drawing up to the camera. The narrator has nothing to say about the drawing, but I’ve been curious about Eggleston’s drawings ever since. I’m curious if anyone else has seen these drawings and what your thoughts might be.

link to aperture

link to William Eggleston in the Real World