The Digest. 06.17.08.
Die Stickerin, 2008, by Neo Rauch at David Zwirner in NYC, through June 21st. (Photo by C-M.)
- Q&As with Werner Herzog on Gothamist and Defamer. (Merci to Mlle. Connasse for the latter.)
- Midwest Flood Reports: There’s an informative flood round-up on MAN, as well as images of the waters reaching the low-lying University of Iowa’s art campus in one and two parts, and pix of the University’s Advanced Technology Building, designed by Frank Gehry. Also: Louis Sullivan’s bank in Cedar Rapids likely sustains damage and photos of water lapping at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport.
- Turning parking lots into solar energy stations. (Via architecture.mnp.)
- A video report on Ai Wei Wei, the Chinese artist who helped design the Bird’s Nest stadium, and who has now announced that he will boycott the Beijing Olympics. The writer of the blog post asks, “How are you going to take a commission and then talk shit later…?” It’s a little concept called free speech…
- Photos of Zaha Hadid’s Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion.
- A dead mall grows in China.
- Astro Boy made from recycled train tickets.
- Ladies: Learn how to tinkle while standing. (For the sake of propriety, I will not reveal the high-ranking art industry executive who sent this to me.)
- Graff of the Day: Ewok 5MH and Cope2.
- Video: The reverse graffiti of Paul ‘Moose’ Curtis.
- Cable news sucks so unbelievably hard.
- The Day in Petulant Artists. In a related story: A Brooklyn artist sues a fan for posting photos of his work online (via AJ).
- Australians debate the limits of free speech in the wake of the brouhaha over Bill Henson’s photographs of naked girls (via AJ). Germaine Greer gives her take.
- Art the Vote: Artists in Missouri to do get-out-the-vote billboards.
- AIDS in art.
- A story about New York City’s ghost bike memorials.
- Murakami and Cai Guo Qiang to travel to Guggenheim Bilbao.
- I heart high art ridiculousness.
- The Seventh Veil.
- Your moment of Adam and Eve.
Posted by C-Monster.
The bird’s nest video + comment isn’t a question of free speech – that man is complaining about a situation that he has contributed to by participating in the construction process and designing something complicated that was sure to put unprotected workers at risk.
Boycotting the Olympics is a BS way of protesting China’s human rights violations when you had the opportunity to TURN DOWN A PROJECT THERE.
on the point of accepting the commission, agreed, he coulda turned it down from the get-go. but my question is: does receiving a commission necessarily require compliance in matters of opinion?
besides, he accepted the commission in ’03 and has distanced himself only recently. surely he’s allowed to change his mind?
re Ai Wei Wei
I’m calling this as hypocrisy. He spent years in a Chinese labor camp, etc. so he had plenty of history and reason to refuse taking the gov’t's commission money for his role in the stadium. But he didn’t.
Bad analogy/cliche: People who buy stolen (luxury) goods, knowing they’re stolen, and then call the seller a thief don’t have room for indignity.
i don’t see the problem.
LOL!
i guess i’m defending the indefensible on this one. i just figured that anyone who was willing to talk trash about an authoritarian regime should be allowed to do so, no matter how bogus their motivations. (look ma, i’m on tv!)