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Saturday, October 25, 2003

A surprise from Dietel

 
Fritz Dietel has done something unexpected (to me) in this latest show at Schmidt/Dean Gallery. He's added what Eva Hesse called "ick."

What's startling about this is that Dietel is a craftsman's craftsman, a poet in wood, whose work is so pristine, "ick" would likely not be an option.





But somehow, this time he has merged the two aesthetics, adding pigmented epoxy, colors straight from the crayola box--purple, orange, teal, yellow, etc.--to his wooden cocoon's and husks.

The epoxy in some of the pieces makes me think of pitch rubbed into the interior of baskets for waterproofing (see "Yellow Hive" left) and in some of the pieces it looks like globs of glue, as in the orange comet-like "Bivouac" (shown, made of oak and cedar), in which the epoxy in the baskety pouch is orangy globs gluing together the little chunks of wood.

In this shift to ick, I am reminded of the superb Martin Puryear, also a master of wood forms, who used tar, and went further in the degree of ickiness. But Puryear (his "Horn" shown here) is more about society and cultural issues, and tar had racial content.

In Dietel's work, we're in the land of baskets without weave or purpose; of sea creatures, insects, scorpions; of containers that do not really contain, with chinks, narrow mouths, often narrow exit openings; of the space inside and its relationship to the space outside; and of the pattern and poetry of the wood, including its colors and its historic uses.



permanent link  libby 8:05 PM
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Friday, October 24, 2003

Report from the fringe

 
There's more than one way for an artist to show work, and it doesn't have to be on a clothesline--but the tiny little cubby of a gallery, Well Fed Artists, on 3rd Street between Market and Arch, is pretty close to a clothesline.

The art there is hung "salon style," or not only next to but above and below. The place has pictures that you need to crane your neck to see.

And kind of like City Hall, it's a pay-to-play kind of place (oh, so are all galleries, but this one does it in a low-rent, honest kind of way). You pays your money and you gets a piece of wall three times a year.

I stopped by one chilly afternoon and found co-owner Jim O'Kane (the other owner is Maggie Hobson) sitting at the desk, surrounded by lots and lots of work, some of it his own.

O'Kane, like most artists, isn't quite comfortable describing himself as an artist because he does so many things--whatever crosses his mind, he said. For example, he's got a a claymation project for which he wrote the script. It's out there looking for a producer. What he doesn't do is repairs, he joked, when a doorknob came off in my hands.

Last First Friday, I mentioned some artwork I had seen in this gallery, but I didn't know who painted it. So here's the info: The pieces were by Faye Koplovitz, a 2002 graduate form Philadelphia University, who's painting while she wrestles with the job market.

The oily little paintings are really painting/collages. They've got pieces of screen embedded and embellished with paint; they've got bitty images cut from old magazines and decoupaged on; they've got thread embedded.

Over the phone, Koplovitz said she was interested in issues like ecology and and earth, but also in isolation. Her statement on the wall at the gallery also mentioned "poverty and the effects of technological advancements on Western Culture."

So even if this is an interim endeavor for her, Koplovitz is not to be taken lightly, and these paintings are juicy, textured and a bargain. If I hadn't spent my last penny (literally) on some batteries for my camera, I would have put my money down. "City at Dawn" (shown at top, about 16 inches) is $55. The smallest pieces, about 4 inches wide, like "One Bird" (shown left), are $9.

Just to give a sense of the range of stuff in this gallery, I also put up an image of some of Todd Marrone's cartoon figures, that go for $25.

Inbetween, there's all sorts of stuff, some not very good, some of interest. The artists have to pass a minimal jurying.

As a shopper, you take your taste in your hands when you go in there, but how much do you have to lose with prices like these?

And how much does an artist with no track record have to lose? Well, if you look at the gallery's website, you can see what the deal is. Then you do the math.

permanent link  libby 5:09 PM
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Thursday, October 23, 2003

Something to TalkAbout

 
While I'm mentioning calendar items, tonight is one of the Fleisher Challenge TalkAbouts, a discussion of what's on exhibit there, led by artist and critic Mary Murphy.

I've always liked the TalkAbouts, which start at 6:30 p.m., whether I liked the work on display or not, and Mary Murphy is consistently a good discussion leader. Besides, the crowd that shows up is usually pretty varied and unpredictable, and that, for me, is a reason to go.

This Fleisher Challenge features sculptor Warren Holzman ("Small Victory" shown above), painter Jennifer Macdonald, who also offers a video here (shown right), and photographer Ahmed Salvador. (I'm sorry I can't include an image of Salvador's work, but my picture came out with a huge flash circle dead center--my fault, silly me).

Holzman's sculptures are amusing and horrifying at the same time--a giant metal pacifier to stuff into the bawling baby's mouth, with weld seams left visible, the intestinal stroller surmounting a concrete hill, a giant baby's head resting peacefully on a pallet, it's neck sealed off with some kind of industrial fastener, again the weld seams left visible.

The work brought to mind a cross between Todd Noe's tiny household mechanical objects pumped up to giant size, crossed with Phoebe Adams' creepier organic pieces.

Macdonald's video, "The Lie and How We Told It," shows a young man eating and then un-eating strangely inert live birds, all in a rough cartoon style. My mind went from WIP's Wing Bowl to education to George Bush, all as my stomach heaved just as the young man dropped and turned into a green puddle. The paintings on mylar, mostly of disconnected house spaces and domestic patterns, proved a bit more puzzling, but the piggy paintings (one shown here) held an emotional undercurrent that worked for me.

Ahmed Salvador's C-prints are "manufactured views of the universe," said his artist's statement. Before I read that they were manufactured, I thought they were the real thing.

The faculty exhibit of small, buttery portraits by painter Stanley Beilen is worth a look. I was captured by the unselfconscious gazes from "Amelia," "Andrew" (shown), and "Joe Dugan."
permanent link  libby 12:01 PM
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Wednesday, October 22, 2003

TV alert

 
We just heard from videographer Wendy Weinberg that she just finished (literally) her video "Under New Management," on school reform in Philadelphia.

She wrote that she finished in the nick of time, because it will air tonight (Wednesday) at 8 p.m on WYBE, channel 35. "I'm not sure yet if they are going to show our latest, most polished version but would love it if you could tune in anyway."

I'm going to watch it for two reasons--the two things I've seen by Wendy (one we're in) were terrrific--interesting, creative, forceful--and I'm interested in the schools.

We met Wendy when she included us in "The Art of Activism," which also aired on WYBE as part of the Philadelphia Stories series.
permanent link  libby 12:10 PM
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El Greco/Velasquez/Manet

 

What a choice. I'm in New York for the weekend with Murray and friends. Not wanting to wear thin the patience of those who are not art fanatics, I must choose one show, preferably one they and I will enjoy.

One gallery show offers enough meat for too much travel and no guarantee of quality. I need to protect my relationships. Galleries are not an option, here.

The big choices are El Greco at the Met and James Rosenquist at the Guggenheim. Hmm.

Case for Rosenquist--still an influence; billboard art is still happening; merging of disparate images still everywhere but few mergers are as successful as JR; reviews mixed.

Case for El Greco--still an influence and Velasquez/Manet exhibition, good point of comparison, is still fresh in my mind; reviews mixed, but less so.

El Greco wins.

But going to a show in New York, to us outsiders, is never totally about the show. It's also about taking a bit out of the Big Apple lifestyle--the walk across Central Park, kicking leaves, the array of artists selling their own work outside the museum along Fifth Avenue. The weather is brisk and so is business.

The work outside tends toward the safe and familiar--photos of New York, prints that look like something you've seen before. But out there it all looks attractive, and the price is right for bits of wall candy.

Every once in a while, someone's work looks a little different, or if not different, especially beautiful (shown right, Joe Borg's prints and mixed media). Big gallery prices do not apply here. Some of the prints go for as little as $10 or $25.

Safe art is not the only approach. P. Robinson-Smith (shown left) has an unusual, crafty thing going with wire screening. With an amazing amount of control over a fractious material, he's making reliefs--mostly nudes and animals . Are people buying? He says , two or three a week--enough to bring him down from Vermont every other weekend. His prices? From $80 to $1,500.

Back to El Greco, born Domenikos Theotokopoulos in Crete in 1541. So, once again I faced up to my ignorance. It never occured to me that El Greco was called El Greco because he was a Greek painting in Spain.

For those of you who like to place people in time, he and Velasquez were painting during the Spanish Inquisition (it's your moment here to wonder at how avid religiosity and its evil twin coexisted), with Velasquez trailing by about 50 years.

While El Greco painted some god-awful paintings, the thing the show brought home to me is his brilliance and ambition. The daring compositions of the religious paintings undulate toward the sky.

He fearlessly realigned anatomy, nature and perspective to suit his compositional and conceptual purposes, and those decisions resonated 300 years later in the work of Paul Cezanne ("Bathers," left) who also fractured anatomical, natural and perspectival truth.

His portraits bring to mind the portraits in the MoMA show, Velasquez/Manet, and place Velasquez in less of a ground-breaking role than the MoMA show implied. The realism and psychological depth of Velasquez's faces, the dark, ambigous backgrounds, all made it into El Greco's work.

And the society portraits of John Singer Sargent also seem to have El Greco as a forebear. If you get to the show, check out the brush work on the fur in this thoroughly modern woman (left, "A Lady in a Fur Wrap"), perhaps by El Greco. Well, perhaps enough to include it in the show.





El Greco's paintings are a record of a mind reaching ever further to create something new, to make his thinking concrete. And speaking of concrete, the clouds and skies call to mind plaster and concrete, giving a literal interpretation to the word firmament. And sometimes the skies go plain old abstract, taking on the materiality of the paint. I'd say that was influential.

I just have to get over some of the religious imagery, which is so ecstatic it verges on the gruesome. It's an achievement and an embarrassment all at once. If not for all the holy cards making these images familiar, I think some of them would be be conscripted to the bin of best-to-be-forgotten art history..
image copyright information

permanent link  libby 11:29 AM
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Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Trader Chris's

 
Greg Allen responds to Roberta's post of Oct. 19

Hey. First, congratulations on an excellent weblog. Second, thanks for reading my article. Chris [Hughes] and I worked for months on it, developing our ideas back and forth since he first contacted me last winter.

We were both wondering what the reaction'd be in the art world, but we both prepared to take a little heat in the interest of getting the word out about a growing, broader interest in video art that goes underserved/under-recognized by the current art market. I think Chris is a brave, passionate, sincere guy--a little naive, sure--and I've told him so. The Times wouldn't let me say so in the article, of course, but I've given him props on my site.

As for the article's impact on his trading activities and his site, the only actual change is the statement/disclaimer he added (the one you called "pathetic"). [actually, I called it “pitiful,” ed.] His site never had downloadable videos; it was only ever a catalog of the works he has on tape and dvd. He only trades tape for tape; he doesn't distribute his stuff any other way.

Since the article ran, he's been bombarded with tons of requests, mostly for Cremaster, from people who just want a copy for themselves and have nothing to trade. (image, top, is from Cremaster 1) This is probably a nuisance for him, but it's one he's faced before; until last year, he'd trade works on the honor system, spending hours and hours dubbing tapes for people who'd then renege on their end of the deal. Putting up the "you send first" statement on his site cut his request volume by 90%, but it left only the serious traders. But the publicity brought a wave of beggars to him again. The price of fame, I guess.

I should also mention that he's been working with a dealer in NYC to curate a show of his collection this winter, too. Fame has its upside as well.

I just got back from the Frieze art fair, where I met easily 20 people--collectors, artists, and dealer/gallery folks--who read the article and went to Hughes' site, and confessed to me what tapes THEY have "borrowed and never returned." One guy had just bought a William Kentridge video piece and joked that he'd trade a tape for some of the works I have. We'll see. (image above is from Kentridge's "Stereoscope" 1998)

In London, I met a couple of major video artists who I admire greatly, and I have to say, neither of them wants copies of their work circulating where it can be sampled, broadcast or sold in ways they don't approve of. Sure, other artists are stoked or amused by the practice, but there's no blanket statement you can make about artists being harmed or not by bootleg trading.

Personally, I think copying and trading is one way video art's influence will expand and grow, but that's still for the artists to realize and manage themselves. I never traded tapes with Chris because I talked to all the artists whose work I have, and none of them were keen on the idea.

And for artists who finally make a living from their work, or those for whom the sale of expensive editions is the only way to finance their productions, there can be a direct harm done when that market mechanism gets disrupted: they have a more difficult time making and selling their next work.

Sure, other options exist: museums and other institutions can sponsor work; the retail distribution model may generate some sales, but only after the artist makes a name for herself; they can make music videos along the way. (image above is from Chris Cunningham's music video for Bjork's "All is Full of Love" shown recently at the ICA) I saw the almost-completed New Museum set of DVD's I mentioned; they're great, but no artist could completely finance her work through it, much less her lifestyle.

Galleries et al aren't perfect, but none of these alternatives is perfect, either. Galleries serve a definite purpose for a certain type of work. (Now, whether we'd all be better off if Cremaster had never been made at all is a debate I'm not gonna touch; what is for sure, though, is that it owes its existence to funding from the gallery/edition system.) But I wouldn't want all artists to rely on this model, any more than I'd want all artists to create work under the political umbrella of some museum/non-profit institution.

Anyway, a lot to write. I had no idea. Thanks for bringing it all back to my mind. (bottom image is from Allen's short film,"Souvenir Jan. 2003")--Greg Allen, filmmaker and writer, covers art and filmmaking on his weblog greg.org

permanent link  roberta 8:59 AM
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Monday, October 20, 2003

Flea Circus!

 

So here’s a novel idea. Kait Midgett of Project Room has put out a call for entries to a one-day show, "Bling, Bling," Sat., Oct. 25, at an exotic location, the Tacony Palmyra Flea Market.

The idea is to render unto Tacony what is Tacony's...in the form of flea market art. Make your entry from a flea (or a thrift shop) find and transform it... Or don't transform it. Whatever your post-modern mind desires. Bring your piece to Project Room by 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, and Kait will transport it to Tacony on Saturday where it will appear in the one day exhibit between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. (Rain date is Sunday, Oct. 26.) All the art will be for sale at the price originally paid for the thrift/flea object plus the cost you incur (if any) to upgrade the piece. If your piece sells, you'll get the money. (Or you could donate the proceeds to Project Room.)

I hear this flea is one of the best around for the depth of its inventory. And check this out, they have a website with directions and a map. Tacony has given people a lot of art in its day. Time to sell the art back.

No entries accepted the day of the show. That means you must take your piece to Project Room on Friday, not up to Tacony on Saturday.

For more information contact kait@projectroom.org.




permanent link  roberta 7:52 AM
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Sunday, October 19, 2003

Free video, take 2

 

It’s interesting living with someone who’s an information junkie and a pack-rat to boot. In addition to the piles of books, journals and magazines you manage on a daily, weekly ...and lifetime basis, you’re likely to get something time-warpy thrown at you occasionally that gets you all excited -- until you chase it down and find out the information’s so old it’s wrong...and big disappointment ensues. (image top is from Shirin Neshat's "Soliloquy," 1999)

Take last week, for example. My husband, Steve says “Here, this is for you to read but I want it back.” He then plops down on the kitchen table a two-month-old NY times Arts and Leisure section (Aug. 17, 2003) opened to page 5 which had his designated story of interest. The article was about some filmed versions of classic plays like “A Delicate Balance” that are now available on dvd. We’re always looking for non-Hollywood fare to watch and this is great news.

I’d not seen the Aug. 17 Times so flipped to the art page and found something even more exciting. There, in a story by Greg Allen who runs greg.org, I read about the benevolent bootlegging of video art by artist and self-taught video expert, Chris Hughes, who was single-handedly doing for video art what Napster did for music -- making it free and available via his website. Apparently, not only did the earnest and young Hughes have high quality videos that he was making available in a gesture of sharing and public spiritedness, but he had a deep catalog of 1,500 works that included early pieces by Vito Acconci and Yoko Ono as well as new stuff by Pierre Huyge and Gillian Wearing and, stop the presses, Matthew Barney. (image above is from Pierre Huyghe's "L'Elipse," 1998)

This was such thrilling subversion of the marketplace that I was stunned. How could this kid get away with it?

Well, the answer is that he couldn’t, not after Aug 17, 2003 when the story ran and presumably some lawyers got involved.

I never saw Hughes’s website before Aug 17, but, when I went to the site, I found that all sharing of videos had ground to a halt on Aug. 18, 2003.

Nothing was accessible except the list of 1,500 titles, a bunch of links to websites where you could purchase videos -- and a pitiful plea by Hughes that you go to the websites and purchase videos as a way of supporting the art form. I went to a couple of the distribution sights like light cone operating out of Paris and while the site was navigable and bi-lingual and prices were listed (in euros or French francs), I didn't know anything about the artists or the videos, there were no samples to view and so I was kind of at sea. (image left is from Pipilotti Rist's "Sip My Ocean," 1996)

Hughes explained his motivation to Allen saying that video art’s roots were in the "free trading of experimental material" and, by gum, he was going to carry that tradition forward. “Video art specifically arose out of a desire to create an immediately accessible, infinitely reproducible art form...The viral quality [my emphasis] of video is essential to the nature of its artistic use,” Hughes told Allen.

I have to think that Hughes's free distribution system, which was indeed viral, was nevertheless harmless to the artists and was actually helpful in getting video out there to an audience which, in spite of all the brouhaha about a few big name video artists, is still pretty small. Hughes's system of downloading, thus could be a form of art education.

Not that I’m bitter but I’d like to know why Greg Allen outed this kid. Who benefits? Not the public, certainly.

I gave Steve back his newspaper. We'll probably go buy some of those filmed plays. At $24.95 at kultur.com we can afford it.

Steve Jobs found a way to overcome the legal/copyright issues for music with iTunes, making songs available online for a buck a song. I wonder if he’d consider an iVideo venture that would work the same way with video art. I’d buy.
permanent link  roberta 6:46 AM
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