C-MONSTER.net » The Digest

The Digest. 03.30.11.

c-monster — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:00:25 +0000

Shinjuku, 6:43, by Joseph O. Holmes — to benefit the Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund. (Image courtesy of Holmes and 20×200.)

Things that are brilliant: Hennessy Youngman — explaining relational aesthetics, and how to be a successful black artist.
Even more: Youngman interviewed in Art in America — showing a keen understanding of what it means to be an art writer: “Like you as an arts writer, you gotta feel the same way, dedicating yourself to elevating the critical understanding of art, but getting paid crap and busting ass to make ends meet. Meanwhile Rachel Harrison can fart in a jar and make Scrooge McDuck scrilla.”
From the Department of Crazy Border Politics: An essay on the Erez Crossing, by Richard Moore.
Plastic: The diet of sea turtles. (Cool Green Science.)
Parsing the summary judgment in the Patrick Cariou versus Richard Prince copyright case: Art Fag City, Photo District News, New York Times. But, if you really want to dig deep on this, check out this post by Greg Allen. He’s combed through all of the available legal materials, including interviews, and organized them into a book. Should come in handy during the appeal…
Artists versus Gugg Abu Dhabi: Artists threaten boycott over working conditions at museum site. The museum fires back, saying they’ve made substantial progress in assuring workers’ rights. See the Guggenheim’s full statement here.
This is sooooo rad: LACMA has created an image database of unrestricted works from their collection. Digital nerds, have at it!!
Things that are ?!?!??!?!?!?!?: Maine governor wants to remove a mural from the state’s Department of Labor because it reflects labor history.
“Jeff Koons Must Die!!!”
From Russia with Love: The photographs of Andreas Neumann.
How role-playing games have permeated the world of art. (@jomc.)
From the Department of Me, Me, Me: I’m interviewed on the Dead Hare Radio Hour and talk way too much. Best to fast forward to the second half of the show, to listen to Duncan McKenzie from Bad at Sports, who is all kinds of funny.
A Disneyland fashion spread. Not sure which piece I love more: the embroidered sweater-vest paired with the Bertha Mae steamboat or the turban with Sleeping Beauty’s castle. (Dinosaurs & Robots.)
A fascinating piece by critic Jeet Heer on race and racism in vintage comics, in one and two parts.
Maps that turn in on themselves.
C-Monster Est: Ancient Graffiti in Context. This story is amazing. And I would loooove to see this book. Too bad it’s $95. For the Kindle version. NUTS. (Thank you, Robin, for the heads up.)
Today’s Graff: Crin’s knotty tags in Berlin.
“A mauve zone of pseudo-familiarity.” The world of airport carpets. (@nicolatwilley.)
Fascinating piece by Justin Davidson on New York’s relationship to its waterfront.
“We are an insatiable oasis of Gullivers in a shrinking, Lilliputian world of technology.” William Shatner explains microprocessors, circa 1976.

The Digest. 03.23.11.

c-monster — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:00:28 +0000

Eero Saarinen’s TWA Terminal at JFK. Now slated to become a boutique hotel. (Photo by C-M.)

A hack that allows you to play Katamari Damacy with any website. Duuuude. (@starwarsmodern.)
Akira Kurosawa on earthquakes. Plus: Studio 360 has a great segment on Japan’s artistic legacy of destruction and rebirth. Worth a listen.
The caretaker of Chernobyl’s sarcophagus. (BLDGBLOG.)
Striking photos of the Libyan uprising by Gabriele Micalizzi.
This Janet Malcolm piece about Sarah Palin’s TV show is pretty dang rad. Related: Palin hates the NEA.
The neuroscience of art — and whether humans are hardwired to have an appreciation for Henry Moore. Seriously. (@mrjohnflowers.)
Choose your favorite masterpiece from among a lengthy, unimaginative list of white guys from the U.S. and Western Europe. Two Coats of Paint responds here.
The Good, the Bad, and the Colen: William Powhida’s guide to New York art critics. I made the list and just wanna know if there’s some sorta Kaplan program I can do to improve my “criticality” score.
Stephen Colbert’s art-on. Co-starring Simon de Pury.
No Grupo, a Mexican conceptual group that patented the act of appreciating the taco. All I have to say is: Yes.
Ben Davis on the aesthetics of “bling conceptualism” and Terence Koh’s on-his-knees performance art piece at Mary Boone.
Speaking of bling: curator Dan Cameron defends friend-of-Miuccia-Prada Francesco Vezzoli. In case you want to take a walk down memory lane: San Suzie’s coverage of Vezzoli’s ridonkulous cologne show in Rome in 2009 — a piece that is now part of the permanent collection at MoCA in L.A. Is it possible to snort-laugh and gag at the same time? (Art Fag City.)
Jean-Michel Basquiat once smoked pot in Eli Broad’s bathroom. Plus: Broad thinks La Cicciolina is “rather unusual.” He also thinks he’s spent up to $400 million on art (more than the GDP of Tonga).
On Lynd Ward’s 1930s woodcut comics.
David Lynch’s hair as guide to art history. Handy. (Eyeteeth.)
Kyle Chayka’s piece on video games and abstraction in Kill Screen makes me think Malevich shoulda made video games.
Sorta related: Malevich as inspiration for contemporary Barcelona street art.
Today’s Train Graff: Super cuteness by Lunar in Kosovo.
The art of Argentinean bus and truck paintings. Love how rococo this is. (Thanks, Ries!)
I’d be so gangsta if I had a Volkswagenball.

The Digest. 03.14.11.

c-monster — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:00:10 +0000

What My Mother Doesn’t Know, a painting by Hector Hernández, spotted at Curbs & Stoops in Brooklyn. (Photo by C-M.)

A map of science fiction. (Roger Ebert’s Journal.)
Sort of related: The 10 Most Awesomely Terrible Sci-Fi/Fantasy Paperback Covers. (Thank you, @mrjohnflowers.)
On the ethics of displaying the dead. Interesting piece, though I would have loved to have seen the issue of displaying Egyptian and Andean mummies addressed.
Somehow, this had eluded me all of this time: Hunter Thompson’s epic 1971 essay on the Chicano Moratorium and Ruben Salazar’s death at the wrong end of an LAPD tear-gas canister. Thompson spells vato wrong, but otherwise an excellent piece. Consider this required reading if you live in Southern California.
Censorship at Austin’s Arthouse?
Italian government not so keen on restitutions that might require a work to leave Italy.
Gago is getting sued.
Trafficking in Digital Art: How does one sell or buy a GIF? Hyperallergic and Tom Moody (in one and two parts) discuss. (Art Fag City.)
A digital “poem” with endless clicks.
Cease and Desist: That sublime point where the art industry and the legal industry intersect.
Copying in the World of Art: It ain’t new.
Glad This Has Been Cleared Up: Study reveals that it is possible for people to tell the difference between an abstract expressionist work produced by a monkey and one produced by a human. (@MrJohnFlowers)
Streisand doing the Philly Museum. Gotta move!
Make your own Dan Flavin light sculpture. (Sort of.)
Flashback: Patti Astor’s Fun Gallery from the ‘80s. All kinds of groovy psychedelic.
Shane McAdams picks apart street art and Exit Through the Gift Shop at the Brooklyn Rail. (Hyperallergic.)
5 Pointz, the graffiti hub in Long Island City, Queens, may be going condo.
Today’s Street Art is all about paper: Laguna in Spain.
JR’s Ted Project: To have the world put up JR posters. What a spectacularly weak concept (and one that is unavailable to the two thirds of the planet that doesn’t have access to the internet).
Nice piece on the fading tradition of Chilean sign painting. The video is in Spanish, but the visuals are universal. (Thanks to Paty for the link.)
Best Mars Images from Orbiter’s first five years. (It’s Okay to Be Smart.)
Back to the future, in photos.

The Digest. 03.02.11.

c-monster — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 08:20:34 +0000

Martin Juarez, an absolutely stunning image given to me by my pal Least Wanted, aka Mark Michaelson. Buy his book.

Congrats (I think) to Moses Hawk for winning the C-Mon Giveaway Extravaganza, Jeff Koons doing it edition.

Awesome wedding cakes.
Joanne McNeil and her various online selves. Interesting story.
The Day in LOL Politicians: Queens Congressman wants to sell “sexist” work of public art on Craigslist.
Remember those historic hanging-by-a-thread Haitian murals my pal Rosa Lowinger wrote about for WNYC’s Gallerina last summer? They finally made the NYT. (Though the paper neglects to mention the conservators doing the actual work. Boo.)
An album inspired by Hieronymus Bosch.
Gary Panter on Jack Kirby. Plus: Panter’s advice to young artists.
What it’s like to have your painted mug featured in the New Yorker.
Lights.
Annie Philbin of the Hammer Museum guest DJs at KCRW.
Fake vintage Japanese ad mascots.
The CIA has a Flickr feed. And it’s pretty damn weird.
A Q&A with photographer Malick Sidibé.
Clemens Behr: The Merzbau meets street art in stonerrific ways. (IKilledJackJohnson.)
A graffiti analysis sculpture.
Things That Are Meta: Cleaning graffiti off graffiti.
Today’s Street Art, Chuck Norris edition.
“How can you criticize an artist who gets into the limelight by staying out of the limelight, has a healthy secondary market, has good politics — I think — and seems to be slamming both the art world, and casting doubts upon every other street artist in the universe?” Artopia on Exit Through the Gift Shop, making me rethink Banksy.
Paper dresses. I want the gold one.
A building with an integrated skate ramp. Smart.
Zaha Hadid’s new Guangzhou opera house. (kateopolis.)
The Best Picture on the Internet. (Art Fag City.)

The Digest. 02.18.11.

c-monster — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 08:20:20 +0000

Smells on a freight car. (Image courtesy of Smells.)

Sculpture you can shred on. (Eyeteeth.)
Atonement via smartphone app.
The five worst gallery websites.
The world needs more video interviews with Tracey Emin.
Jasper Johns to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom.
NEH and NEA likely to get hit with brutal budget cuts. In NYC, the Department of Cultural Affairs is about to get hit with some serious slashing, too.
Opponents of Barnes Foundation move are attempting to get the judge reopen the case. (@KnightLAT.)
Iowa Republicans really really really want to sell Jackson Pollock painting at the University of Iowa. I mean, like, really.
Crowd-sourced shows: Kyle Chayka is over them. So am I.
Groday: Wafaa Bilal’s body rejects camera implanted in his head.
‘Cuz They’re Old? Why Van Gogh’s sunflowers are turning brown. (Arts Journal.)
New York Times photographer criticized for taking award-winning pix with smartphone app. He responds.
The Day in Art Merch: The Damien Hirst bling skull hoodie. For when Ed Hardy is not douche enough.
Ruins Porn: Gary, Indiana edition.
Aerial shots of Germany. (Eyeteeth.)
Today’s Graff is all about being green: Mosone in Italy.
For sale: Subway station.
Eero Saarinen’s TWA terminal at JFK to serve as the entrance to a boutique hotel.
I want it big and brutal and with a lot of windows: Cosmic Communist Constructions.
What Eli Broad can learn about urban planning from The Grove.
From the Department of Holy Crap: The five strangest shows on Latin American television. The Peruvians take the prize for scary surrealism, while the Argentineans win for nasty sexual harassment. (@giovannigf.)