Look at what San Suzie found: The above is a screen grab of the spa menu at a Miami hotel where it is possible to do yoga with your dog. We are in awe.
Archive for the 'Sublime ridiculosity' Category
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Artwork Ahead. Snapped in Sydney, Australia, by the highly attentive Chris Baron.
- Profile pictures, Slavic style. (It Really Makes You Think.)
- Today’s Political Must-Read: An eye-opening profile of the billionaire Koch brothers, and their behind-the-scenes funding of fishy “think” tanks. The Smithsonian should be pretty embarrassed about the bit on the last page. (Find the reference right after the drop cap).
- Go, Dick Cavett and Roger Ebert.
- When art doesn’t imitate life: Killing ants in the name of art.
- Ansel Adams trust sues over negatives.
- On shady art dealing practices. (Arts Journal.)
- Eli Broad’s private show palace to land in downtown L.A. Related: Christopher Knight on the history of private museums and Christopher Hawthorne on Diller Scofidio’s architectural design. If you’re gonna read one story about this, read Hawthorne.
- Thank the Lord of Overpriced Convention Center Catering: ‘wichcraft to take over Armory Show food contract. This doesn’t mean I will stop lobbying for a taco truck.
- Scientific evidence shows that ancient statues were pretty tacky. (An Xiao Mina.)
- Richard Prince and Takashi Murakami team up for Britney Spears magazine cover. Forget Work of Art. Surely this trifecta represents the end of civilization? (@streetartblog.)
- The photographs of Tema Stauffer.
- Have been enjoying Timothy Buckwalter’s image essays.
- Yayoi Kusama, baby approved. (@MattressFactory.)
- The first digital camera. Looks like it only weighed 30 lbs.
- Bruce Davidson and other photographers’ ‘80s subway pictures. (The Doree Chronicles.)
- The map as art.
- Not new, but interesting: Jonathan Lethem and Philip Lopate deconstruct Susan Sontag.
- Today’s Graff: Aryz in Barcelona.
- A totally weird stone house in Portugal.
- Minimalism in Legos. (@ARTnewsmag.)
The last time I was in L.A. I got an impromptu tour of L.A.’s trendiest tanning salon, an expansive, pseudo-industrial spot in the heart of Beverly Hills, where Posh and Becks and Jennifer Aniston and lots of names I don’t recognize, all pile in to get sprayed and get baked. (Not good baked. Baked baked — as in laying around inside light pods cultivating unnatural bronze sheens.)
Needless to say, I was rapt. I also stole a pile of packages filled with disposable tanning underwear. Which I’m wearing right now.
El Saltzino with Work of Art contestant Peregrine Honig’s nails, which read “Jerry Saltz.” Awesome. Click on the image to see it large. (Photo by C-M.)
As is customary, you can find my New York City Datebook over at WNYC. (Don’t miss the kissing skeletons.)
Plus, the Not at all Brief #workoFart Recap: Lordy, they saved the drama for last. Though maybe it all just seemed more intense because I was watching the whole mess in the Brooklyn Museum’s lobby, with the contestants running around getting schnockered in the background. Anyhow, onto the recapping business…
In the final episode of the season, Simon de Pury toured the country in a puffy parka visiting contestants. The three finalists toured “the world famous Brooklyn Museum” visiting art. (A friend commented after the show that the museum’s lawyers must have had a requirement in the contract that every episode contain at least ten uses of the phrase “world famous.”) Each finalist — Peregrine, Miles, Abdi — was given $5000 and three months to work on a show that would be shown at De Pury’s auction gallery. It was the most interesting episode out of the bunch, showing a less frantic, more personal process — and more of my new boyfriend Simon de Pury (Be Bold!). The gallery show at the end was all kinds of awesome, mainly because Sarah Jessica Parker ran around clutching her head as if it might fall off and groaning “wow” repeatedly. In the end, Abdi won.
El Saltzino has an extensive recap over at New York Magazine, in which he has some interesting things to say (towards the end) about how the show — for some viewers — may have pried the lid off of the insular, self-involved art world. While I think the program overall could have been waaaaay more interesting (the judging panel desperately needed an artist and the challenges needed to be a lot smarter), overall I’d have to agree.
Beyond that, I found Work of Art interesting because it was a reflection of the art industry in more ways than anyone would probably care to admit. First, it showed that being a socialite with connections is more important than being articulate about art (China). Two, that half the battle of art these days is being able to come up with a good story to go with it (Miles, Nicole). Three, performance artists are crazy (Nao). Lastly, it showed that the process of creating and showcasing art isn’t as pure as anyone would like to believe it is. There is a vast art world bureaucracy of art dealers, public relations specialists and art writers who create storylines around art and artists. And ultimately, it’s these storylines, not necessarily the art, that the vast majority of people are following.
This was a point that painter Richard Phillips made in a really smart way when I interviewed him for my article in Time. (Unfortunately, his quote ended up on the cutting room floor.) But he put it this way: “I’ve been to the Venice Biennale and there are always these huge displays where the artists seem like subcontractors to the celebrity curators in charge,” he explained. “Their work is being seen in this falsified synthetic world. What’s exciting about the show is that we are seeing this process in action.” And with that, I couldn’t agree more
Hasta pronto and see y’all at the world famous Brooklyn Museum…
This morning in the Digest, I said I really really really wanted a “Celestial Soul Portrait,” in which you can submit a photo to an artist and have your image celestialized. Thankfully, my good friend The Weary Gunfighter heard my pleas and produced this hallucinogenic soul portrait just for me. And all I gotta say is: Somebody call motherfucking Yanni, because I am now ready to rock the Acropolis.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Cash For Your Warhol, by Hargo (aka Geoff Hargadon).
I’ve organized a little online show for the folks behind the Add-Art Firefox plug-in that riffs on advertising and selling out. For the purpose of this digital gathering, I’ve teamed up with eight brand name vandals — Stikman, Skewville, infinity, Hargo, eko, Celso, Cake and Abe Lincoln Jr. – to replace all of those annoying web ads with something waaaay artier and entertaining. (Haven’t heard of the plug-in? You can read all about it here and download it here.)
In this post, find examples of each of the artists’ “campaigns.” To see the complete series of pieces that each artist created (along with an explanatory write-up of the show), visit Add-Art.org.
Special thanks to Hana Newman for pulling this together.
eko.
Abe Lincoln Jr.
Stikman.
infinity.
Celso.
Cake.
Skewville.
Spent last night at Secret Project Robot in Brooklyn watching some inter-gender lucha libre — complete with an intermission performance of the Mexican hat dance and a Pee Wee Herman-inspired rendition of Tequila. I also voted in the guacamole contest. A note to whomever made guacamole #1: Never, under any circumstances, or for any reason, must you put curry powder in guacamole. I believe that this is governed by the Geneva Convention. Look it up.
The group shot. Taken well before the kegstands got everyone crunky. (Image courtesy of Fluent Collab and Santiago Forero.)
Remember that conceptual art frat party I went to Austin? Well, the group shot is out — and we’re in it. (And I think my hair is bigger than my head. (Dang humidity.) Anyhow, it’s all pretty darn collegiate-looking if you ask me. And all I gotta say is that New York could use more stuff like this (aka free beer and chips and salsa in someone’s backyard). Larry Gagosian, please get on it.
Thanks to the folks at Test Site for the good times (and the photo).