Monthly Archive for January, 2009

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The crunch of gravel: Sadegh Tirafkan at LACMA.

By c-monster on January 23, 2009 in Assemblage, C-Monster, Ivory Tower, Mixed Media and Vidalia. 7 Comments

Persepolis Part II by Sadegh Tirafkan at LACMA. (Photo by C-M.)

There is something about the crunch of boots on gravel that I find indescribably appealing. It’s something I associate with being a kid, when, every evening, I’d hear the sound of my dad’s pick-up pulling up outside our house, followed by the percussion of his boots all the way up our gravel driveway — and I knew that it was time to eat. (I was born hungry.) Which is why I was so excited to run into Sadegh Tirafkan‘s video piece, Persepolis Part II in the Ancient Iran galleries at the L.A. County Museum of Art.

The piece consists of two monitors, each with video of Tirafkan walking silently through the ruins of Persepolis, the ancient Persian capital. The video is rather dreamlike: the two images of the artist continually walk deliberately towards each other, but never meet. And all that is audible is the scraping sound of his feet on dry rock. It transforms the gallery, which is filled with lifeless shards of ancient pottery, into something more dynamic (if nostalgic).

If you happen to be popping into the museum to check out Art of Two Germanys, a detour to the Ahmanson building to check this out is totally worthwhile. The installation will be up through March.

In other news: I’ve got a lot going on workwise, so I’m cutting The Digest back to four days a week, Monday through Thursday. Thanks for reading, xox, C.

Tags: LACMA, persepolis part ii, sadegh tirafkan.

Calendar. 01.22.09.

By c-monster on January 22, 2009 in C-Monster, Calendar, Museums, New York and Painting. 1 Comment

Mud, Blood Tears, 2005 by Kirsten Nash at the Queens International 4. (Image courtesy of the Queens Museum of Art.)

In NYC: Queens International 4 at the Queens Museum of Art, opens Saturday.
In NYC: Peter Drake, Riders Quadriptych, at Aicon Gallery, opens tonight, for one night only, at 6 p.m.
In NYC: Robert Irwin: Red Drawing, White Drawing, Black Painting at Pace Wildenstein, 22nd Street, opens Friday.
In NYC: Mika Rottenberg at Nicole Klagsbrun, opens Friday.
In NYC: Alec Soth, The Last Days of W, at Gagosian Madison Ave., through Mar. 7.
In Chicago: Criteria at Columbia College, through Feb. 15. (Eyebeam reBlog.)
In Milwaukee: Sensory Overload: Light, Motion, Sound and the Optical in Art since 1945, at the Milwaukee Art Museum, opens Saturday [oh der] through Oct. 2009. (This looks like it will be seriously stonerrific.)
In L.A.: New Image Art celebrates 15 years with a group show featuring Swoon, Neckface, Barry McGee, Clare Rojas, Judith Supine, Os Gemeos, Lister and many others, opens Saturday.
In L.A.: Art LA opens at Barker Hanger, in Santa Monica, this Friday.
In L.A.: A book event to launch the revised edition of Everyday Urbanism, by Margaret Crawford, John Kaliski, and John Chase, at LACE, tonight at 7:30 p.m.

Tags: Kirsten Nash, QI4, Queens International 4, Queens Museum of Art.

The Digest. 01.22.09.

By c-monster on January 22, 2009 in C-Monster, New York, Street Art and The Digest. Closed

Broken egg. (Photo courtesy of The Old Gold.)

“Former French President Chirac hospitalized after being mauled by his clinically depressed poodle.” Sounds like somebody needs the Dog Whisperer… Just saying. (Thank you, Todd.)
New L.A. ordinance wants to treat murals as commercial signage. Isn’t this supposed to be arts month in L.A.? What the hell is this?
Palestinian-born artist gets unusual wall-text at SFMOMA.
Culture Grrl thoughtfully opines against the idea of a culture czar in one and two parts. I gotta say, I’m with her. It may seem like a good idea now, especially since everyone is wearing their Barack-colored glasses, but what will it mean if another George W. Bush-type figure comes into power? Spooky.
Wired has a great profile of MDM Props, the London company that makes product for famous artsy types such as the Chapman Bros., Damien Hirst and Anish Kapoor.
When art falls apart. (Arts Journal.)
More babies in art.
Christie’s buyout packages offer an extra week’s pay to executives that agree to not work for Sotheby’s for a year. An extra week? GMAFB.
Advice from Jim Jarmusch. (Eyebeam reBlog.)
Yes Pecan! A new flavor from Ben & Jerry’s.
Rebooting the White House. What will it take for Obama to rewire the gummint?
Today’s Graff: Pose, Revok and Rime. (What You Write.)
Speaking of Thom Mayne and Morphosis, here are shots of his Cooper Union building, coming together in NYC.
Pre-fab paper house weighs 1,700 pounds and costs $5,000. (Eyebeam reBlog.)
One museum expansion that seems to be, miracle of miracles, moving ahead: Toyo Ito’s Berkeley Art Museum.
Architectural pancakes.
If Barack Obama were a building, what building would he be? You can answer the question here.
Your moment of cock crowing. (laurel43.)

Tags: broken egg, the old gold.

School of Rock: Thom Mayne’s Diamond Ranch High School.

By c-monster on January 21, 2009 in Architecture, C-Monster and Los Angeles. 2 Comments

The school’s central walkway, known in Diamond Ranch parlance as “The Panther Path.” (Photos by C-M.)

Looking like the San Andreas fault in the wake of the Big One, the principal walkway through Thom Mayne‘s Diamond Ranch High School makes its way through buildings that resemble craggy canyons of rock. Set on a sloping, hillside in Diamond Bar, Calif., about 30 miles east of downtown L.A., the structures are now a decade old. The design remains starkly beautiful (the metal exteriors shimmer, like a mirage, in direct sunlight), but like the surrounding desert environment, they are also quite forbidding. Diamond Ranch is serious testosterone architecture. There’s an abundance of corrugated metal, sharp angles and long, dim corridors that frame the outdoors in ways reminiscent of miner’s tunnels. And then there’s the relentless concrete, which is rarely interrupted by nature, even though the school’s principal public spaces all reside outdoors.

The vice principal who led us around the school — and who had been there since they first opened — said that while he enjoyed the shapes of the buildings, they did present plenty of challenges in terms of policing the campus. Odd angles, obscured staircases and dark passages provide plenty of places to smoke and suck face. On an aesthetic level, the combined greys of the concrete and metal leave many parts of the campus feeling frigid. Some classrooms had spectacular valley views, while others made do with indirect light and the sight of steel trusses. The students we spoke with, however, generally dug the structures. Reared on a lifetime of Star Trek and Star Wars and lots of other star stuff, they felt that the futuristic car-commercial look was kinda cool — and set their school apart from the bland concrete lumps elsewhere in the county.

I didn’t love everything about the school — the barren interior courtyards couldn’t be bleaker — but I totally respect it’s aggressive virility. Diamond Ranch is the Daniel Craig of architecture: hard and edgy, with a rugged sex appeal — the type of structures that can take a rope to the nuts and still say, “Come and get me motherfuckers.” And I gotta confess, I find that kinda hot.

Click on images to supersize. Many more after the jump.

Continue reading ‘School of Rock: Thom Mayne’s Diamond Ranch High School.’

Tags: Diamond Bar, Diamond Ranch High School, morphosis, thom mayne.

The Digest. 01.21.09.

By c-monster on January 21, 2009 in C-Monster, Photography and The Digest. 3 Comments

Peter Cooper Village, by Nina Young. (Image courtesy of the Humble Arts Foundation.)

Congrats to Pete in NYC for winning the first C-Mon Giveaway Extravaganza of the new year. He claims that he will use it to draw things “on work time.” Send us an image when you’re ready, Pete, and we’ll publish it here.

Star Wars yoga. (Kottke.)
The Impossible Project is trying to restart production for Polaroid cameras in 2010.
“Giant step up for USA, giant misstep for poetry.” Agreed. That Elizabeth Alexander poem couldn’t have sucked harder. My colleague Yvonne’s commentary here. Plus: the Daily Show‘s take on the poem (towards the end of a very funny segment about the Inauguration.)
Babies in art. Or lack thereof. (Don’t forget Marlene Dumas’ freaky babies.)
A wish list for the Vatican’s presentation at the Venice Biennale.
Does the White House need an arts adviser?
A sculpture made out of one year’s worth of junk mail, in Austin, Tex. Apparently the Dallas Museum has already picked up one of the pieces for its collection.
How polarized light—as in the reflections created by all-glass buildings—screws up the way species see and behave. (Eyebeam reBlog.)
The landscape art of Roberto Burle Marx, in Brazil. Photo essay here.
The photographs of Tod Seelie.
A documentary about Julius Shulman. (ackackack.)
Video: Robert Williams talks about the birth of lowbrow. (Eyebeam reBlog.)
Today’s Graff: The Ololo Crew in Perth.
NPR talks to Shepard Fairey in a lengthy interview on Fresh Air.
Feeling blue: Jean Nouvel’s new Copenhagen concert hall. “The result is a beautifully resilient emotional sanctuary: a little corner of utopia in a world where walls are collapsing,” writes Nicolai Ourossoff.
Chicago’s influence on the architecture of the National Mall. Plus: How this public plaza was able to handle more than a million bodies at yesterday’s inauguration.
Floating walls.
Your moment of Mexican Superfriends.

Tags: humble arts foundation, Nina Young, peter cooper village.

Calendar. 01.20.09.

By c-monster on January 20, 2009 in C-Monster, Calendar, Museums and Painting. Closed

Totentanz (Dance of the Death), 1946, by Karl Hofer, in Art of Two Germanies, at LACMA. (Image courtesy of LACMA and the Berlinische Galerie.)

In L.A.: Art of Two Germanies/Cold War Cultures at LACMA, opens Sunday.
In S.F.: Binh Danh, In the Eclipse of Angkor: Tuol Sleng Choeung Ek and Khmer Temples: Daguerreotypes, at Haines Gallery, through Feb. 28.
In Denver: Nathan Abels at Rule Gallery, through Jan. 31.
In Houston: The Puppet Show at the Contemporary Arts Museum, through April 20th.
In NYC: Edward Steichen, In High Fashion: The Condé Nast Years, at ICP, through May 3. (NotCot.)
In NYC: Vik Muniz, Rebus, at MoMA, through Feb. 23.

Tags: art of two germanies, karl hofer, LACMA, Totentanz.

The Digest. 01.20.09.

By c-monster on January 20, 2009 in Architecture, C-Monster and The Digest. Closed

The day in hyper-secure government architecture: The Presidential Viewing Stand for today’s Inauguration. (Photo courtesy of the Presidential Inaugural Committee.)

Hey folks: C-Monster.net Paris Bureau Chieftess Yvonne Connasse and myself will be Tweeting odd links, informative stories, ridiculous photos and all kinds of other madness related to Inauguration Day. Please join us for the first-day-of-school fun. You can find me here and Yvonne here. In the meantime, here’s Lifehacker’s handy guide to watching the inauguration from anywhere. xox, C.

8, no 7, racist words you use everyday. (schmelzenfreude.)
Photographs of American teenagers, but Daniella Levitt.
Paul Chan drawing being raffled for $5.
The art of shopping carts.
Art market may take three to five years to recover, according to ArtTactic, a research company.
In related news: The downturn has not been good for aboriginal art. (Arts Journal.)
All about the Getty. (Arts Journal.)
As always, I’m running late… Last week woulda been Clement Greenberg’s 100th birthday.
Those paintings of monkeys with Carmen Miranda-esque floral headdresses I linked to the other day? Copies! …of other paintings of monkeys with Carmen Miranda-esque floral headdresses.
Paper art.
Then-and-now photos of NYC in one, two and three parts. (Flaming Pablum.)
Film footage of Moscow in 1908.
Today’s Graff: 0331c in Russia.
The Wreck Room’s graffiti bathrooms.
Shepard Fairey designed yesterday’s MLK Google logo. (jennydeluxe.)
A little bit on Henry Bacon, the architect behind the Lincoln Memorial.
Live long and prosper: San Francisco’s role in science fiction.
In Zurich: The anti-luxury hotel.
Your moment of boxing kangaroos.

Tags: Inauguration, Presidential Viewing Stand.

This is gonna be the speech to beat.

By c-monster on January 19, 2009 in C-Monster and Video. Closed

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

FDR, First inauguration.

Unfortunately, this is just a short clip. MNSNBC isn’t letting me embed the full video (which is really good). Check it out in the “Past inaugurals” section of their video feed. (Dear MSNBC: Next time, at least let people direct-link. This is bogus.)

Tags: fdr, Inauguration.

Monster Madness in Italy, 16th-century style.

By SanSuzie on January 19, 2009 in Italy, San Suzie, Sculpture and Travel. 2 Comments

Inside, no one can hear you scream: An orc in the Bomarzo Monsters Park, which lies just a couple of hours outside of Rome. (Photos by San-Suzie.)

To grieve the death of a loved one, there’s nothing quite like commissioning almost a couple dozen freaky stone statues and then laying them around the yard. In 1552, the broken-hearted Prince Pier Francesco Orsini, of the Italian province of Viterbo, did just that. To mourn the death of his beloved wife, Giulia Farnese, he created the Bomarzo Monsters Park.

The park was designed by architect Pirro Ligorio, known for overseeing construction on the mega-church of all mega-churches — St. Peter’s in the Vatican — as well as designing the formal Villa D’Este gardens, in Tivoli, a UNESCO world heritage site. (The fountains there put the Bellagio in Las Vegas to shame.) At Bomarzo, instead of going for imposing, Christian grandeur or super-duper water show, Ligorio went for all out Dungeons & Dragons nuttiness. The grounds are strewn with super-sized stone monoliths of dragons, a gaping-mouthed ogre, Hannibal’s elephant, and a nausea-inducing, leaning house that looks like the sort of thing Disneyland would shut down for safety reasons. Beats me how one’s bereavement is quelled by statues of giant turtles, but perhaps the answer lies between the gargantuan fins of a stone mermaid with a gaping hairy wishing well.

Click on images to supersize. Mermaid after the jump.

Continue reading ‘Monster Madness in Italy, 16th-century style.’

Tags: Bomarzo Monsters Garden, Italy, Pier Francesco Orsini, San Suzie.

The Digest. 01.19.09.

By c-monster on January 19, 2009 in C-Monster, Photography and The Digest. 1 Comment

Lunchtime, Hungary, 2002 by Monika Merva. (Photo courtesy of Monika Merva.)

Ricardo Montalbán, a fashion appreciation.
George Grosz as metaphor for our time.
Jerry Saltz gives Marlene Dumas the smackdown on Facebook. Cue the drama!
An interesting juxtaposition of Bush and Eggleston.
Jonathan Jones reviews Vladimir Putin’s paintings. And he says they’re not all bad.
The Art Newspaper does a round-up on art and the economy.
LACMA reins in expenses. Renovations on the Macy’s building have been put off.
A photo by Lee Friedlander of Madonna in the ‘80s (with her chacha hanging out) is up for sale next month at Christie’s.
Forget Williamsburg, it’s all about Sunset Park. (Art Observed.)
Obamart, elementary school edition. (mcoatney.)
“Radicals make the best posters.” The Economist on the subject of political posters in Lebanon. (Arts Journal.)
A map that replaces states in the U.S. with countries that have similar GDPs. Michigan is on par with Argentina, Texas with Canada, and Hawaii with Nigeria.
Last night I was hanging with a bunch of bloggas in Brooklyn who were talking utopia, so this Thomas More (My Bad!) Rem Koolhaas quote I found this morning seemed quite relevant.
Google has filed an amicus brief in support of several legal cases challenging Proposition 8. Their argument: Prop. 8 is bad for business. (Eyebeam.)
Today’s Graff: TEC in Argentina.
The Guardian profiles Poster Boy.
A 1961 Playboy article about the “Masters of Design,” on figures such as Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames: “Today design is more likely to reflect great good spirits than profound philosophies; to relish shapely contours rather than ‘honest’ structures; to pride itself more highly on elegance than earnestness.” (NotCot.)
The end of “The Bilbao Decade.” (ArchDaily.)
Trip and a half: A building in circles, by ARTechnic architects, in Japan. Channeling Brasilia at a more intimate scale.
Your moment of Ann Coulter.

Tags: monika merva.