July 2009

A Teaching Moment

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Hanging on the wall of the museum: a crudely drawn asterisk covering almost the entirety of a small piece of wood.
The curator stood next to it expectantly, eyes gleaming. "Well?" she said.
"You mean, what is the reference?" asked the museum visitor. "A reproduction of the first star drawn by the young Jackson Pollock, in kindergarten? The pictographic anus drawn by Kurt Vonnegut in Breakfast of Champions to commemorate his turning fifty?"
The curator got that look she got when "revealing" a piece of contemporary art to a plebe, trying not to appear condescending that the visitor didn't "get" what only she could have possibly known. This is what she lived for.
"No, none of those, but good guesses," she said. "In fact, it's a reproduction of the edit lines which cancelled page II-81 in the original manuscript of 'Lamia' by John Keats. The media are pine and India ink."
"Oh, my God. Well, it's very important that I be able to visualize that, it puts me more in touch with the barbaric nature of censorship. Thanks."
Completely missing the visitor's irony, the curator said, "I'm so glad you like it, I think it's an important piece. Don't you want to know what was canceled on that page of Keats' text?"
"Not really, no," said the visitor.

(jpeg of actual pretentious artwork seen on vvork)

"Wake Up Two"

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"Wake Up Two" [mp3 removed]

This has some of the same elements as "I Wake Up Sampling and Holding" but I added some parts to make it more of a song and less atmospheric. Those added riffs are a bit preset-y and might change. The final mix (which also may or may not be final) was done with Reaktor's "Flatblaster" mastering tool, a setting called "gold finalizer."

Last Dance at And/Or

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A show I will have some GIF animation work in, this Friday:

And/Or Gallery and The House of Dang Celebrate the Last Dance

This is it, Seniors. The last dance.

A final music installation and dance party to celebrate And/Or Gallery's move to NYC (Fall 2009), The House of Dang's relocation to a design studio in Oakcliff and their new clothing line to open with Launch, at the Galleria (Fall 2009).

In the gallery during this party, we're creating a replica of a rave, which you may notice is not dissimilar from shows we've put on before except for the volume. Video content will be provided by our artists: Kevin Bewersdorf, Paul Slocum, Guthrie Lonergan, Tom Moody, Marcin Ramocki, Kristin Lucas, Michael Bell-Smith, and Travis Hallenbeck. The music will be a mixture of house and rave-appropriate techno, selected by Paul Slocum. The playlist will include remixes and new material by Tree Wave. It's the LAST DANCE!

When: Friday July 24th from 7pm - til
Where: And/Or Gallery
4221 Bryan St. Suite B
Dallas, TX 75204

My show at And/Or with Saskia Jorda was the gallery's first exhibition, back in '06, and I'm proud to be involved with this closing event. Looking forward to artist and gallery director Paul Slocum's move to NY!

Attack of the Clones: Chewed Gum on Canvas

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Top: Dan Colen; Bottom: Adam McEwen

dan colen gum

adam mcewen gum

From an interview with Ella Searls, curator at the Kunstverein Schmulke, Cologne: "Of course it is possible to critique the differences between two artists making 'all-over' paintings with dried-out wads of masticated commercial chewing gum. Colen is a young New Yorker with 'street cred' who uses gum chewed by his friends in a kind of debased ritual of eating and sharing. McEwen is very British, very conceptualist, and pays people to chew the gum in a planned performative methodology. One senses the energy and urgency in Colen's placement of the gum on canvas, it's more risk taking. 'Just get it down,' he seems to be saying. Whereas McEwen is circumspect, slow, cautious, almost another Seurat considering the positioning of each wad by color and texture in the larger matrix. One would be tempted to call them the 'Picasso and Braque of gum,' but of course they are in separate worlds, communicating their intentions almost telepathically rather than through shared studio visits. In any case their gum works are important statements, addressing themes of the abject, the loss of the tactile, and the relationship of art to its immediate environment."