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June 30th, 2009Uncategorized
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June 29th, 2009UncategorizedThe young WRO Center, devoted to new/media art, is hosting one of the first serious exhibitions of Nam June Paik's work since the artist's death in 2006.
This is not the largest exhibition, and fans of his complex multi-media installations might be disappointed - few of those are present here.
But if the budget did not allow to bring the lasers, projections, and intricate video circuits, the taste and knowledge of the organizers allows for a fascinating and multi-faceted look into Paik's creation.
Here is an example - Self-Portrait-Head, created in 1982.
On the TV screen, a young Nam June Paik stands facing the camera. His eyes are closed. Very slowly, his hand moves through the surface of his face, up and down. He is feeling his own face. The movement is slow and delicate, and after a while we realize he is not touching the face. The hand seems to know the face so well, this becomes a movement of recognition, as in, re-calling one's face. This is me. This heat emanating from the surface of my face, this is my boundary.
Facing the TV set is another face.
This one is a sculpture. A metal cast of the artist's face, made many years later. He is an older man now, and it takes some imagination to become convinced this is the same person. His eyes are closed, and the gesture is similar to the one on the recording.
They are looking at each other with their eyes shut. They are feeling each other - as they are the very same. Time has gone by, and yet stands still, trapped in the matter, the reproduction, the loop.
They/he are/is having a conversation with them/him selves/self.
The young man is moving, as if unable to realize his movement is still. The old man is cast, he is immobile, he is the return of the sculpture, the mimetic power of art, the noble texture of statue. He is the deathmask of the other, his self. And yet, he is life-size, he is freed of the flatness and squareness, he is a real fragment, as if ripped away off the face, a witness. And yet, he is facing the TV, as if watching it, or feeling it with his unmoving gesture.
It is clear, here, that the Narcissus' myth got it all wrong. The reflection is not a risk - it is a reality we may wish to ignore, but that will remain nonetheless, echoing our past in a loop that designs the warm and uncertain borders of identity.
Watching this installation reminds me of a curious definition of art: art works, to the extent to which it is the opening of poetry.
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June 28th, 2009Uncategorized
In next week's magazine, New York's Emily Nussbaum chronicles her trips to this week's network upfronts: "With buyers still shaken by the economy, this is the first upfront season in which it’s become impossible to ignore the troubles that riddle the television industry — financial, technological, creative. Automobile ads have dissolved. Cable is ascendant. And none of the default settings are holding." But, hey — free shrimp!
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June 27th, 2009Uncategorized
According to WWD, an increasing number of men are shopping unabashedly in ladies' departments. Mostly because they can't find pants made for men that are tight enough. Andrew Bolton, curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute argues Hedi Slimane sparked the tight-pants movement by promoting the slimmer body type. “It’s this idea of the heroin-chic body — very thin and pale and underfed. That’s a very hipster look at the moment and exacerbated by wearing women’s clothes, which are tighter.” You know, the look favored by rock stars. But men in very-tight pants have been around for a few years now. Bystanders probably wouldn't bat an eye if they saw a dude on the subway in jeggings. So is it not time for the trend to evolve? For there exists a rock star ripe to pioneer the next wave of tightly clothed men: Adam Lambert
Lambert has pranced around on American Idol in tight pants ranging in materials from acid wash to distressed leather, embellished to plain. He pairs these with equally tight tops and eye-catching extras like handcuffs on his belt loops, cages on his shoulders, and platform boots. He is the male version of Lady Gaga. “Just as now Lady GaGa is bringing back real glam rock for women, Adam is opening that door up for men," Barneys' Simon Doonan tells WWD. "You can wear the python boots and the shiny jacket.” And the fingerless gloves, and the black nail polish, and the deep V-neck shirts, and the pants that may or may not connect to your boots. It is time. The years of tight pants have primed the general populace. Now, men, it's time to go all out. And maybe put some meat on those bones.
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June 26th, 2009Uncategorized
Samantha Pynn of HGTVs Pure Design team created a beautiful space
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June 25th, 2009Uncategorized
We really want to step on this to test how well it holds weight. We really hope so, because this Ribbon Staircase is such a simple, lovely, and elegant example of modernist design it amazing we haven’t seen this before. -
June 24th, 2009Uncategorized
A funny dollhouse I spotted at Todds Farm. -
June 23rd, 2009UncategorizedApparently Barack Obama has a similar view to mine on what could be developed in the [art] world. He has just created a new post of Chief Performance Officer. From what the papers say, Nancy Killefer, who was assigned this function, will have, among others, the task of helping "set performance standards". The expectations run high, although we have to be prepared for the standard performative desillusion when it comes to watching them do it for real, onstage.
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June 22nd, 2009Uncategorized
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June 21st, 2009Uncategorized
Young B.Dot is in the MIA toweling off with Da Snowman's newest promo item. Thug Motivation 103 album coming sooner than you think.
