artblog

Friday, August 08, 2003

Spector video dances on web

 

Coming soon to a website near you, “What is it?” (working title) a one minute, 15 second video by award-winning local filmmaker Wendy Weinberg and award-winning artist and galleryista Shelley Spector that’ll debut on Spector’s website at the end of August. I got a sneak peek the other day and --I'm hardly an unbiased viewer -- but it’s a sweetheart.

The short, colorful melange of images (excerpted from Weinberg’s 2002 documentary “The Art of Activism”) is set to a rhythm-heavy soundtrack and the whole thing bops along like a perky, upbeat show-and-tell. Except that there is no tell. This is not a talkie, this movie. Spector [in red sweater] gets to utter the first words...something about "What is it on the walls?" and after that you're off and boogie-ing. No words, just music and images.

In fact, the whole thing’s choreographed like a dance...which reminds you that the artist grew up as a dancer and has great reverence for movement. Check out the audio for the piece on the audblog below.
audblog audio post
permanent link  roberta 3:24 PM
Comments? Let us know. 

Another leave-taking

 
Christine Fillipone, executive director of the Print Center announced yesterday in an email that she was leaving to pursue a Ph.D in art history at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick. Fillipone, who’s been with the Center for five years, says the non-profit is actively searching for a new director. If you’re interested, check out the job bank posting on the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance website. Deadline for submissions is Aug. 30.

permanent link  roberta 2:51 PM
Comments? Let us know. 

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

More about objects and space

 
I agree with your points about object-making, Libby. Maybe the lack of object-making in installation art is its problem. Installation art is about space-making and not about object-making.

And space-making is not something sculpture does well --with the exception of works that are architectural (I would put Richard Serra, James Turrell and Mariko Mori [and her "Wave UFO"] in this category with Gehry, Calatrava etal).

I like that you bring up the world of painting, but I think paintings are objects, too, and they don’t have such an easy time of it. Paintings are windows and they have to compete on that level. If it’s a bad window, it’s a bad window. [image is NASA computer graphic of "lift off" accompanying a discussion about launch windows.
permanent link  roberta 10:00 AM
Comments? Let us know. 

Pause for news from Temple

 

Great points about sculpture, Libby. While we all regroup to think more sculpture thoughts (are there more to think?), here's a news-ette....

Temple Gallery Director Kevin Melchionne resigned recently for personal reasons. “Kevin decided to step down, and we decided to accept his resignation, and we wish him the best,” said Temple professor Hester Stinnett when I spoke with her yesterday.

Because Melchionne (like most curators) planned their exhibits well in advance, Temple’s 2003-4 exhibit schedule will not be affected. “Our fall schedule and spring schedule is in place,” said Stinnett.

Meanwhile the school is taking the opportunity to evaluate its big, two-location exhibition program which includes Temple Gallery Old City, on 2nd St., and Temple Gallery Elkins Park on the Tyler School of art campus.

“It’s hard for one person to do all that,” said Stinnett, continuing that they’d begin the search for gallery director mid-fall.

Anything else new up there? Stinnett said they were excited about a few new faculty members coming on board this fall --German-born, New York sculptor known for humor (speaking of sculpture) Olav Westphalen and Brooklyn-based artist and culture theorist Thomas Zummer. [image is Westphallen's "Extremely site-unspecific sculpture" for the Public Art Fund in New York] Both new hires will work with undergraduates and graduate students. Local theory guy and artblog contributor Gerard Brown will also be teaching a couple of classes at the art school.

permanent link  roberta 8:14 AM
Comments? Let us know. 

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

Hither sculpture

 

Well, Roberta, here's the heart of the matter for sculpture--it's making objects that have to compete in a world of objects. Unlike a painting, which differs from sculpture in its 2-dimensionality (its object-hood best discussed in some other context, not this one), sculpture is just another object. And often it's not nearly as wonderful as the real thing.

Take Carl Andre's checkerboard rug of metal plates (shown above), which is not nearly as sensual as a real rug (see heriz rug image).

And yet I wouldn't dismiss Andre, even though his rug is visually less interesting than the oriental rug, because Andre has plenty of ideas. I'm entranced by that false invitation to walk on a sculpture, and to make the precious sculpture look like serviceable kitchen tiles. The ideas compensate for the look, here.

On the other hand, this garden sculpture (shown right) may as well not be there. It disappears amidst nature's glories, as do so many outdoor sculptures.

But not all outdoor sculptures fail to dominate their spaces. Here I'm in agreement with you. The statues seem to hold their own a lot better than abstracts and shapes with industrial symmetry.

But for every rule I make up, I can come up with an example of something that breaks it, like the Richard Serra "Torqued Ellipses" (shown left). Their imposing size, weight and threat are quite unlike anything that's part of normal experience--or at least unlike my normal experience, since I don't normally stand under supertanker hulls in drydock.

I'd say that Donald Judd hit the nail on the head when he made a suite of metal office furniture (right) that looks a lot like his sculptures, which look a lot like office furniture to me. I can't help but view this work as an admission of failure--failure to rise above design and failure to make something that competes with the 3-D reality that surrounds us and assaults our eyes every day.

I don't think sculpture--or installation, for that matter--is in trouble. I just think there's a lot of boring sculpture out there. I'm thinking of so many of the pieces showing now at Third Street Gallery (see Aug. 3 post) that seem like pale imitations of reality and pale imitations of previous sculptors' work.

A decent sculpture is harder to make than a decent painting. It's got to work harder than a painting to differentiate itself from reality.
permanent link  libby 9:39 PM
Comments? Let us know. 

Sunday, August 03, 2003

All group shows on Friday

 

When the days are long and the streets emit steam, one-man shows cool off at the beach, and Philadelphia galleries are high and dry.

But First Friday still had a few highlights.

First I stopped at 222gallery's Neutra-boomerang-chair invitational--a display of six chairs (originally designed by architect Richard Neutra in 1942) decorated by six artists. My fave was Tim Biskup's pattern of retro blue rectangles covered with figures and squiggles bringing to mind Miro- and Klee-influenced whimsy.

Local artist Dave Delaney's approach to the chair was two heads rising up at floor level. Working against the retro chair design, Delaney gives us work that calls to mind high-contrast sports and advertising photos, a son of Alex Katz turning his attention to hardcore youth.

But Neutra or not Neutra, the chairs remained nothing but decorated chairs to me and left me feeling kind of neutral. But for moderne furniture aficionados, I would think these are way cool and affordable (Delaney's costs $1,600, Biskup's $3,000, for example), considering the combo of the chair and the art work. The birch version of the chair without art work is $850.

At ArtJaz, the work that made me want to stop and stare a while were a couple of monotypes(left) by Francine Strauss--layered, meandering images that suggested space and travel. Strauss has shown widely in the area, including at Rowen College, Spector Gallery and Borowsky Gallery.




The biggest turnout was at Third Street Gallery's "Vive l'Atelier," a group show of sculptors from the Johnson Atelier. I enjoyed turning the crank on David Carrow's dark, overbearing "Director" (shown right), thereby stirring a heavy iron ball. The assemblage of metals and objects stood out for its originality in a show heavy on imitative work. (Brancusi was the number one role model.)




Joanna Platt's St. Catherine (shown) and St. Apollina crusader helmet-like reliquary heads delivered a reminder that sainthood has its dark side. I don't get why the reliquary in St. Catherine's head holds severed fingers, and I'm not sure I want to find out. The head of Apollina, whose teeth were broken by an angry mob, has teeth and tooth X-rays. Both were suitably creepy, but I couldn't help but wonder why a 21st century American artist would be inspired by this. I want to know more.



permanent link  libby 9:40 PM
Comments? Let us know. 

Dog day Friday on the street.

 
Old City was just this side of forlorn this First Friday. All that saved it were the group shows--the art world's version of being on vacation--and the group fence hangers.

The thing about group shows is every member of the group gets to invite everyone they know, so lots of people show up.

The thing about the groups of artists clothespinning work up on the fence is they enliven the street and offer something almost everyone can afford. In fact, I was on my way to one of the group shows when I was waylaid by the outdoor art-on-the-fence.

Suzanne Francis (see above image) was selling her little Indian miniature-like illuminations of flora and insects for incredible prices--$7 to $10 for medium-size ones, $12 for large, and $15 for framed ones. Such a deal. Such a steal. She stole my heart with them--and the hearts of numerous others, milling around her work and buying, buying, buying. She also had original collages on postcards for a standard picture postcard price of $1.50 apiece.

Next to her were some silkscreens by her buddy Morgan FitzPatrick Andrews, with a sign, "Pay what you want." The second time I passed by, he had sold a number of the pieces.

Andrews and Francis really had another agenda besides selling art. They were advertising yesterday's puppet show at Space 1026. Their art was a come on to get you to take a flier on the puppets. "We're part of a movement," said Andrews, referring to a revival of interest in puppetry.

The other group were several members of the Philadelphia Photographers Initiative. Their products ranged from Chris Macan's pinhole nudes to Sal DiMarrco Jr.'s action shots (shown here). PPI member Glenn Travis said June was a good month for selling but August seemed quiet so far. (I must interject here that the pinhole approach to nudes brings to my mind a peeping tom.)

I was puzzled by the photos wrapped in wrinkled plastic that obscured the images (rain or no rain, get the wrinkles out, guys).



permanent link  libby 8:51 PM
Comments? Let us know.