Telle mère tel fils, 2008 by Abdel Abdessemed at David Zwirner. (Photo by C-M.)
Airplane, 1980. Thank God it’s only a motion picture!
Archive for the 'Bizarre Coincidence' Category
Such a ‘k Hole: Urs Fischer’s You, 2007 at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise. (Image courtesy of Gavin Brown.)
In New York Magazine’s end-of-the-year wrap-up-of-everything-in-the-NYC-universe issue, critic Jerry Saltz wrote that seeing Urs Fischer’s giant hole-in-the-ground at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in Chelsea was “transforming and shocking.” He added:
Fischer had torn up a gallery, forcing us to look into his own “hole.” But presciently, it was just as much a precipice for us and for the art world, since this was going to be the state of the world for the year to come: We’d all be poised on the edge — politically, psychically, financially, and aesthetically. The stark gesture was simultaneously surreal, loving, violent, and audacious. Fischer shattered perceptual space, destabilized our relationship to art and art galleries, overturned ideas about the market, and made us understand that all that is solid melts into air, that something momentous was coming.
Last fall, in his original review of the piece, Saltz described it as “Herculean,” “splendid” and “brimming with meaning and mojo.” He added that this “bold act” would make the viewer “look at galleries in a new way.”
I gotta be honest: I wasn’t convinced then, and I’m not convinced now. But one thing’s for sure: Fischer’s hole felt a lot less prescient when I discovered that it has a predecessor. Last month, when I rolled up to L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art, I got to ogle a 2008 redo of Chris Burden’s 1986 installation, Exposing the Foundation of the Museum, a series of three holes in the museum floor that the MOCA lit describes as “a critical response to the institution of art itself.” Looks like Fischer was out-holed. By some dude in L.A. — 22 years ago.
Exposing the Foundation of the Museum, 1986/2008, by Chris Burden, at MOCA, as part of the Geffen Contemporary’s Index: Conceptualism in California from the Permanent Collection. Today’s the last day to see this piece, by the way, so get over there! (Image courtesy of MOCA.)
Here’s a story you’ll never see on C-Monster. And thank god.
If you’ve been reading C-Mon for the last 24 hours, you know that the L.A. Times just debuted a brand spankin’ new arts and architecture blog called Culture Monster, which needless to say, smarts. In thinking about the whole ridiculous situation this morning, I realised that either one of two things happened:
- The L.A. Times is trying to achieve some measure of blog credibility by coming up with a name that echoes my ridiculous online enterprise. If they were really smart, however, they woulda ripped off the names of blogs who have been doing this way longer and way better than me: AFC, Looking Around, MAN, Art to Go, Winkleman, to name but a few…
- The L.A. Times didn’t know that C-Monster.net existed when they decided it would be a good idea to have an arts blog. Which leads me to believe that finances are so bad at the Times that their reporters don’t have access to the Internet.
In the interest of helping the Times fix this terrible oversight, which I’m sure they will remedy very soon (as in any minute), I’m hoping that everyone can pitch in and help them come up with a new name for their blog. C-Monster.net Rome correspondent San Suzie has already come up with a couple of suggestions:
- LALApalooza
- Culture Impostor
My two cents: anything that doesn’t involve the letter “C” closely followed by the word “Monster.”
Post your ideas in the comments section below. I’ll make sure that my colleagues at the Times hear all about ‘em.
xox, C.
Culture Monster, the L.A. Times’s new blog.
Proving that there’s no such thing as an original idea, the L.A. Times recently debuted an arts and architecture blog called, ahem, Culture Monster. It’s been around for approximately five minutes.
I mean, really, people. I know you’re just hoping to ride C-Monster’s coattails out of dead-tree obscurity, but did you have to be such flagrant biters? I’ve been toiling for more than a year now. I’ve even covered stuff in your home turf. So, don’t even try to tell me that you didn’t know C-Monster.net didn’t exist. Besides, my Statcounter tells me that there’s someone over there at the Times who Googles “C-Monster” on a semi-regular basis and then reads the blog. And I’m sure it’s not the mail guy, because if you’re anything like the rest of print media, corporate has already fired them all.
All I know is that if this isn’t remedied somehow, I’m gonna go all Sarah Palin on your asses. And you guys are gonna be the moose.
xox, C.
Unfortunate discovery made via Modern Art Notes.
An upside down boutique in Milan by fashion designers Viktor & Rolf. (Image courtesy of Apartment Therapy.)
Wonderworks, an amusement center, in Orlando, Fla.
Posted by C-Monster.
Roebling/N. 5th by Frank Cole Jr, with scrawl by Erupto, Faro, Ninja Girl and a paste-up by Flower Face Killah. (Image courtesy of Frank Cole Jr.)
Last week I compiled a photo essay of examples of street art and graffiti in studio art. A friend was kind enough to forward along two examples I missed. Frank Cole Jr., above, is a painter specializing in urban landscape. Michael Anderson, below, is collagist represented by the Marlborough Gallery.
Jack Da Vinci Johnson, 2006, a collage by Michael Anderson. At bottom left is an image of a flower print produced by Michael De Feo. (Image courtesy of the Marlborough Gallery.)
Posted by C-Monster.
A collage composed of found stickers, by Tom Fruin at the Buia Gallery in New York in February ‘08. A few of the street artists represented include: Royce Bannon, Over Consume and Ambusch. (Photos by C-M unless otherwise noted.)
For the purpose of this blog, I spend much of my spare time photographing just about everything the art industrial complex sees fit to churn out: paintings, sculpture, video, and totally weird breakfast buffets. In the past six months, I’ve noticed a small, but growing trend: studio artists (including the late Robert Rauschenberg) incorporating street and graffiti art into their work.
This takes various guises. There are painters who incorporate graffiti art into urban landscapes, assemblage artists who use elements of real-live street art in collages and sculptures, and art photographer types who go out and document all of the beautiful decay. It’s one of those interesting art world conundrums: on its own, most street art and graffiti isn’t thought to have much artistic or monetary value. But clearly there is some potency residing in this imagery if studio artists are remixing and reconfiguring it for the pristine walls of commercial galleries.
Click images to supersize. More after the jump.
Continue reading ‘It’s all about appropriation: Street art and graffiti in studio art.’
After reading an interview in which Murakami discussed the influence that Star Wars (and other sci fi) has had on his work, I thought a visual pairing might be of interest:
Tan Tan Bo, 2001 by Takashi Murakami.
A TIE fighter gets it from the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars.
Plus: A time lapse video of Murakami sculptures going up at the Brooklyn Museum. (This link will only be available for the duration of the show…because lord knows what could happen if people could access this sort of information once the pieces come down.)
Posted by C-Monster.
Borrowing your enemy’s arrows (1998) by Cai Guo-Qiang at the Guggenheim, NYC. March 2008.
Kcho at the Marlborough Gallery, NYC. January 2008.
Posted by C-Monster.
Jeff Koons-designed invite to BCAM opening.
Breakfast at the Rubell Collection during Art Basel ‘07.
BCAM Update: The L.A. Times has the lowdown on the Broad Contemporary Art Museum’s glitzy gala opening last night. Coverage includes a photo essay that, shows that, like, omigod, important art industry figures (???) such as Tom Cruise and Christina Aguilera (looking like a painting by John Currin) were there.
Posted by C-Monster, with reporting by far-flung correspondent San Suzie.
