Well, I never got around to reporting this months ago, but I am sharing a studio with two other artists at the Millennium Arts Center now. It's been a bit rocky, I've never enough time to go over there and I am still not really all the way moved in which makes it hard to work. I have taken slides-thought I still need to edit and dupe them. Taking this space was a huge step, but it's criminal the way time flies.
I feel a victim of myself, I have kind of let all my blogs slide, I update the calendar on groupiegirldc, then don't write anything, because I am lucky to get to one show a month for lack of money or time. There are a number of new bands and new to me bands I would like to go see, yet my energy wanes. The other groupiegirls and myself all see the correlation as when you stop going to shows and energy does wane and it puts us in foul moods and them we have to battle back at ourselves and hit the music. If only I hope things turn around soon, I miss the night and the clubs and the new people and NEW MUSIC!
Likewise with The Big Eye Blog, it gets hits, especially in the Summer when the press release came out that Steinhilber got Directions and again now that the show is open. I would love to be able to write something insightful about it. I'm quite pleased with the art banter and the shows of the last few months, I want those that have put in a lot of hard work to know they should keep it up. I've made a point to keep up with many of the shows that Steinhilber has been in DC. I missed my chance to meet him at the Transparent opening, having thrown my back out pretty bad that week (post 6 flags, doih), but can you just see it...Me, the Ducksauce Detractor, crawling into the slickee clean Numark like Quasimodo, being like, "Hi, Dan. I know I wrote this crappy little screed about a few of your pieces but I only did it because I care. I think your work is really sublime-I just think there were some bad choices made in showing certain pieces-it could have been a curators/gallery owners fault, but rarely does the blame fall to them."
Anyway, the other thin I don't want to forget about is the similarly crappy City Paper feature on why Fugazi is to blame for DC being uninteresting-I can't find an archive link though it was a feature in October '03. His observations on going to a club in DC and the denizens and dilettantes in them was right on the bobbing-no-dancing and strict grunge prep thing, etc. etc., but what that has to do with Fugazi is a long shot. If your talking to me, it all fits into the book idea - the 60's & 70's f'd this town & the people in it up.
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Monday, July 07, 2003
Wow, It's been a long time since I've written anything, I've been a bit distracted. Doing tours at the Phillips Collection undoubtedly enriches my thinking about art, but it takes an awful lot of time that I do not have. There was Margaret Bourke White, who I never liked-however I had fun with the tours-as the show only covered the first decade or so of her work, the information was audacious yet to the point. And I did not know about her being the first journalist in Russia (or the 'new' USSR in the late 20's ( trips in '29-'30 &'31, I think). Just goes to show that there is a six degrees of separation when it comes to research and celebrities too-look into something more that one or two layers and you'll find someway to apply it to yourself.
Now there is the Marsden Hartley show. Refreshing my reading on him is making me resent doing the tours, which I find funny. Talking about photographer exhibits or mishmash shows, things like 'Surrealist Still Lives of the Rich and Famous', has become second nature, easy to puke up the predigested on the tourist (though to toot my own horn a little, I often include subversive comments about conceptual art and it's modernist roots that occasionally get me in trouble with the tourists ) Now, when I have to talk about an exhibition on one specific painter, I start identifying and sympathizing with the artist and start resenting doing the tours BIG TIME. On a personal note I should teach, I really really really should. Doing this Hartley research has opened up new information about his early work done in Europe,and the Berlin work and the abstract portraits. Hartley was a "Big Eye" striving to observe his present-I've always liked his work and have now read quotes from his letters where he says things like he's got "No use for making his thoughts apparent in painting, but instead wants to show a true intuitive observing of the present." He loathes artists that are always explaining their work with theory and expect him too. He catches on early, from the 1913 trip to Paris and throughout his life, that there are a lot of artist's commodifiying their work. I can't help but think about the present state of affairs and the direction I am headed in exactly that-a-way, commodifying my skills, selling myself to sell my work-it's scary. I am going to have to create a thought puzzle about this, who are our contemporary Steigliz's & Hartley's
On a personal note when it comes to my work, I was reminded of all the PAINTINGS I've got laying around from back in the day, I've been moving away from them (the paintings) at semi-breakneck speed doing sculptures, finding quotes left and right from living artists about wanting to make 'things' that inspire other people to want to make things. It's all very stream of consciousness, not about money, very 'game-theory' economics, to win sometimes you don't destroy other people but protect and inspire them, even if it means you starve.
Of course in the a larger sense I am not going to starve and I wonder at these turn of the century artists who would go without food. In the contemporary U.S. I can't imagine starving, it's losing my health insurance that I live in fear of that keeps me tied to my pathetic job. I better stop writing now, I could whine about this more and I will.
Now there is the Marsden Hartley show. Refreshing my reading on him is making me resent doing the tours, which I find funny. Talking about photographer exhibits or mishmash shows, things like 'Surrealist Still Lives of the Rich and Famous', has become second nature, easy to puke up the predigested on the tourist (though to toot my own horn a little, I often include subversive comments about conceptual art and it's modernist roots that occasionally get me in trouble with the tourists ) Now, when I have to talk about an exhibition on one specific painter, I start identifying and sympathizing with the artist and start resenting doing the tours BIG TIME. On a personal note I should teach, I really really really should. Doing this Hartley research has opened up new information about his early work done in Europe,and the Berlin work and the abstract portraits. Hartley was a "Big Eye" striving to observe his present-I've always liked his work and have now read quotes from his letters where he says things like he's got "No use for making his thoughts apparent in painting, but instead wants to show a true intuitive observing of the present." He loathes artists that are always explaining their work with theory and expect him too. He catches on early, from the 1913 trip to Paris and throughout his life, that there are a lot of artist's commodifiying their work. I can't help but think about the present state of affairs and the direction I am headed in exactly that-a-way, commodifying my skills, selling myself to sell my work-it's scary. I am going to have to create a thought puzzle about this, who are our contemporary Steigliz's & Hartley's
On a personal note when it comes to my work, I was reminded of all the PAINTINGS I've got laying around from back in the day, I've been moving away from them (the paintings) at semi-breakneck speed doing sculptures, finding quotes left and right from living artists about wanting to make 'things' that inspire other people to want to make things. It's all very stream of consciousness, not about money, very 'game-theory' economics, to win sometimes you don't destroy other people but protect and inspire them, even if it means you starve.
Of course in the a larger sense I am not going to starve and I wonder at these turn of the century artists who would go without food. In the contemporary U.S. I can't imagine starving, it's losing my health insurance that I live in fear of that keeps me tied to my pathetic job. I better stop writing now, I could whine about this more and I will.
Friday, April 04, 2003
Mama Mia, I have been busy, but that's OK. woohoo. I have been working on (and continue to work individually on PR for) and installation at 14th & G Streets, NW in Downtown Washington, DC for The WPA/C (Washington Project for the Arts/Corcoran). The show is going be the name "WPA/C's CornerViews Gallery: To Be Determined". Here's a bunch of text and stuff that led up to my being in this "little do" with three other artists.
(and by the way, my piece is NOT titled do you want to play a game? anymore. Its called the longest march
.
THE LETTER
February 7, 2003
Dear Mr. Beers,
Please consider the following package proposal for the old Hahn Shoe store at the corner of 14th and G Streets, Northwest. It¡¦s been very exciting putting this together and I thank you and the WPA/C for the opportunity. The piece is entitled Do you want to play a game? and is intended to be very response to the space, the neighborhood and current events.
Please find enclosed my application to the WPA/C, the written proposal and two pages of drawings. I am prepared to meet all the requirements listed in the submission guidelines. I would hope to be notified by the 23rd of February in order that I could have all the materials assembled for the installation.
Thank you for your consideration.
THE PROPOSAL
Mixed Media Installation Proposal
For Old Hahn Shoe Store
Window Display at 14th & G Streets, NW
Spanning 3/23/03 to 5/17/03
Sick of working in a dead end job? Tired of repetitive day to day tasks that feed the bureaucracy? On autopilot? Feel like someone else it calling the shots?
Do you want to play a game?
This installation proposes to invigorate the conveyor belt like retail window space that wraps around the corners of fourteenth and G streets by presenting at least twenty four robots made of hand sewn crystal clear vinyl. They march in the same direction, blindly following each other.
The only differentiation one notices in these robots is that within their clear bodies, half of the robots have office implements and other objects of professional career climbers inside; business suits, neckties, and high heels, pens, staplers, newspapers, current periodicals, paper clips, staplers, disposable coffee cups and lunch containers. Each of the down-to-business robots is filled with a jumble of these items, looking like a typical office desk or back seat of a commuter¡¦s car. In contrast the other half of the robots are filled with toys, games, dolls, stuffed animals and children¡¦s drawings, like the typical wake and eddy of any child engaged in playtime.
Juxtaposing objects of childhood obsessions with the implements of adult workaday reality is intended to provide surprising visual stimuli that challenges passersby to reflect on how they feel about their life at the present moment. The see-thru, human-size, robots, once icons of a future filled with luxury, stand in line like drones, seeming like they are marching up and down the display platform in an endless circle. This is accomplished by suspending the robot receptacles from the walls and ceiling with fishing line, like marionettes. Individuals are free to enjoy their memories of childhood, embrace the installation as a metaphor for their own life, or challenge their opinion of the future they imagined for themselves. These are just a few of the many possible responses.
In the artists opinion the most that can be hoped for is to live life more creatively and purposely, less like a robot, more like a child. It gives a visual voice to everyone¡¦s artist within.
DISCLAIMER
This project is pretty much complete, I do not need any more stuff.
THE COLLECTION LETTER
Hello kind friends and art enthusiasts,
I am happy to announce that I had a proposal accepted the WPA/C for an art installation in the window of the old Hahn Shoe store at 14th & G Streets, NW. The piece¡¦ working title is Do you want to play a game? And is to be installed on March 23, 2003, less than two weeks from now, and will run until May 17, 2003.
I desperately need your help to make this project happen. You may be pleasantly surprised to know that I am looking to help get junk off you hands. I was informed late of my participation in this project. I have only a very short amount of time to construct and fill as many robots as I can. I will need a large amount of stuff to in order to fill up these lifesize robots. In addition, I am looking for items in two specific categories.
The following is a list of specific items that I need you donate or save for me. I will not be returning any items, but will make every attempt possible to reuse, recycle or donate to an appropriate charity everything that you give me.
Career Climbers
* Men¡¦s and women¡¦s business suits
(or parts there of, vests, jackets, pants)
* High heels and dress shoes
* Used makeup/cosmetics
* Non-functioning computer equipment (mice, external drives)
* Old office phones, cell phones, headsets
* Junk computer disks, cd-roms or software manuals
* Staplers, tape dispensers, pens, paper clips, rubber bands, file folders headed for the trash, no stealing
* Trade periodicals or promotional materials (like tote bags, desk clocks, lunch bags and esp. from the law, technology, banking & publishing sectors)
* Front page of the Washington Times, New York Times and Wall Street Journal , Newsweek or Time Magazine
* The disposable cup from your morning coffee and upscale deli/salad bar takeout containers (rinsed out please-no organic materials allowed)
* anything with the ¡§Whitehouse¡¨ on it
Children
* board games
* dolls
* action figures
* fast food children¡¦s meal toys
* stuffed animals
* children¡¦s drawings
* puzzles
* stray game pieces
* used crayons, markers and coloring books
* toy trucks & other vehicles
* pre-school toys like blocks and big books
* toy guns and soldiers
* toy jewelry and dress-up costumes
* child lunch boxes
DISCLAIMER
This project is pretty much complete, I do not need any more stuff.
(and by the way, my piece is NOT titled do you want to play a game? anymore. Its called the longest march
.
THE LETTER
February 7, 2003
Dear Mr. Beers,
Please consider the following package proposal for the old Hahn Shoe store at the corner of 14th and G Streets, Northwest. It¡¦s been very exciting putting this together and I thank you and the WPA/C for the opportunity. The piece is entitled Do you want to play a game? and is intended to be very response to the space, the neighborhood and current events.
Please find enclosed my application to the WPA/C, the written proposal and two pages of drawings. I am prepared to meet all the requirements listed in the submission guidelines. I would hope to be notified by the 23rd of February in order that I could have all the materials assembled for the installation.
Thank you for your consideration.
THE PROPOSAL
Mixed Media Installation Proposal
For Old Hahn Shoe Store
Window Display at 14th & G Streets, NW
Spanning 3/23/03 to 5/17/03
Sick of working in a dead end job? Tired of repetitive day to day tasks that feed the bureaucracy? On autopilot? Feel like someone else it calling the shots?
Do you want to play a game?
This installation proposes to invigorate the conveyor belt like retail window space that wraps around the corners of fourteenth and G streets by presenting at least twenty four robots made of hand sewn crystal clear vinyl. They march in the same direction, blindly following each other.
The only differentiation one notices in these robots is that within their clear bodies, half of the robots have office implements and other objects of professional career climbers inside; business suits, neckties, and high heels, pens, staplers, newspapers, current periodicals, paper clips, staplers, disposable coffee cups and lunch containers. Each of the down-to-business robots is filled with a jumble of these items, looking like a typical office desk or back seat of a commuter¡¦s car. In contrast the other half of the robots are filled with toys, games, dolls, stuffed animals and children¡¦s drawings, like the typical wake and eddy of any child engaged in playtime.
Juxtaposing objects of childhood obsessions with the implements of adult workaday reality is intended to provide surprising visual stimuli that challenges passersby to reflect on how they feel about their life at the present moment. The see-thru, human-size, robots, once icons of a future filled with luxury, stand in line like drones, seeming like they are marching up and down the display platform in an endless circle. This is accomplished by suspending the robot receptacles from the walls and ceiling with fishing line, like marionettes. Individuals are free to enjoy their memories of childhood, embrace the installation as a metaphor for their own life, or challenge their opinion of the future they imagined for themselves. These are just a few of the many possible responses.
In the artists opinion the most that can be hoped for is to live life more creatively and purposely, less like a robot, more like a child. It gives a visual voice to everyone¡¦s artist within.
DISCLAIMER
This project is pretty much complete, I do not need any more stuff.
THE COLLECTION LETTER
Hello kind friends and art enthusiasts,
I am happy to announce that I had a proposal accepted the WPA/C for an art installation in the window of the old Hahn Shoe store at 14th & G Streets, NW. The piece¡¦ working title is Do you want to play a game? And is to be installed on March 23, 2003, less than two weeks from now, and will run until May 17, 2003.
I desperately need your help to make this project happen. You may be pleasantly surprised to know that I am looking to help get junk off you hands. I was informed late of my participation in this project. I have only a very short amount of time to construct and fill as many robots as I can. I will need a large amount of stuff to in order to fill up these lifesize robots. In addition, I am looking for items in two specific categories.
The following is a list of specific items that I need you donate or save for me. I will not be returning any items, but will make every attempt possible to reuse, recycle or donate to an appropriate charity everything that you give me.
Career Climbers
* Men¡¦s and women¡¦s business suits
(or parts there of, vests, jackets, pants)
* High heels and dress shoes
* Used makeup/cosmetics
* Non-functioning computer equipment (mice, external drives)
* Old office phones, cell phones, headsets
* Junk computer disks, cd-roms or software manuals
* Staplers, tape dispensers, pens, paper clips, rubber bands, file folders headed for the trash, no stealing
* Trade periodicals or promotional materials (like tote bags, desk clocks, lunch bags and esp. from the law, technology, banking & publishing sectors)
* Front page of the Washington Times, New York Times and Wall Street Journal , Newsweek or Time Magazine
* The disposable cup from your morning coffee and upscale deli/salad bar takeout containers (rinsed out please-no organic materials allowed)
* anything with the ¡§Whitehouse¡¨ on it
Children
* board games
* dolls
* action figures
* fast food children¡¦s meal toys
* stuffed animals
* children¡¦s drawings
* puzzles
* stray game pieces
* used crayons, markers and coloring books
* toy trucks & other vehicles
* pre-school toys like blocks and big books
* toy guns and soldiers
* toy jewelry and dress-up costumes
* child lunch boxes
DISCLAIMER
This project is pretty much complete, I do not need any more stuff.
Saturday, February 01, 2003
Ok, the City Paper printed an e-mail of mine in "The Mail" as follows:
Hi, for the most part, I have been pleasantly surprised by the increase in
your visual arts coverage over the past year and a half and use of many
new freelance reviewers.
Now it would be fantastic if some of those columns and reviews were
available online on a regular basis the week following their publish in
the paper. It would be a great resource.
If arts coverage were a race, I'd have to say the The City Paper has been
doing O.K. in getting reviews and coverage out on the more cutting edge
shows. For instance way back in the fall there was a lovely article on
Tony Feher's work at Numark Gallery (the Pickup Artist," 6/14/02). It would take the Washington Post until the
closing weekend of the show to "box" it in the Galleries column.
Again, I can't stress enough getting the arts columnists online. While I
live in the city and have for over a decade, I repeatedly hear complaints
from my artistically minded friends who for whatever reason live outside
the beltway and can't get the City Paper thereby missing a lot of the
great writing from the past year.
You've got a buzz going with a lot of these new writers. I'd run with it
if I were you.
Thanks,
Karen Topping
This has been a very weird week and this whole letter thing was quite amusing. Emailing people at work that you have never met is a hoot, especially when they work in places like newspapers and help organizations where they are paid to be responsive. What else is funny is that the City Paper makes no mention after the letter that they ARE preparing to put the arts columns online soon with back archives, thank god.
Truth told the chain of thought leading me up to writing the note is just kind of stupid. I noticed in a recent City Paper that a Chris Richards, or THE Chris Richards, or THE OTHER Chris Richards had written a letter talking about this famous, if that's possible, Glenn Dixon City Paper review of the Cecily Brown show at the Hirshhorn. Well even though I've been hoarding City Papers at work, creating a firehazzard, for some reason I do not have this issue and have not read this review. The Modern Art Notes crowd was all a twitter about it last month, or the beginning of this month, I have no conception of time anymore. I am very very curious abut this thing, but not curious enough to go down to the City Paper and pay cold hard cash for a copy of it, duh. I really should have written in June when the Feher was open and I was all up in arms. Oh well.
So I have not written anything here in a while and I am struck by my statement, "This is the real millennium". It's more like "Welcome, to the real millennium" It seems it got here a little late. There is really heavy stuff going on and everywhere I turn it is as though you can see peoples eyes opening up like they are one week old kittens. The time for Victorian parlor games are over and at least some people seem to be reconsidering all that they have been spoon fed in the past.
Before, I forget attending a lecture by Jim Wine at the National Building Museum in conjunction with the exhibit "Big and Green" really was like the cake topper this week, there was an intensity about taking about sustainable architecture in the terms of art and experience and quality of life that was really revolutionary. The dollars and cents of sustainability will prevail I think because it does make so much sense. The unqualified thing is the people in the equation and if they can center themselves enough to make the same life decisions to sustain rather than consume.
Hi, for the most part, I have been pleasantly surprised by the increase in
your visual arts coverage over the past year and a half and use of many
new freelance reviewers.
Now it would be fantastic if some of those columns and reviews were
available online on a regular basis the week following their publish in
the paper. It would be a great resource.
If arts coverage were a race, I'd have to say the The City Paper has been
doing O.K. in getting reviews and coverage out on the more cutting edge
shows. For instance way back in the fall there was a lovely article on
Tony Feher's work at Numark Gallery (the Pickup Artist," 6/14/02). It would take the Washington Post until the
closing weekend of the show to "box" it in the Galleries column.
Again, I can't stress enough getting the arts columnists online. While I
live in the city and have for over a decade, I repeatedly hear complaints
from my artistically minded friends who for whatever reason live outside
the beltway and can't get the City Paper thereby missing a lot of the
great writing from the past year.
You've got a buzz going with a lot of these new writers. I'd run with it
if I were you.
Thanks,
Karen Topping
This has been a very weird week and this whole letter thing was quite amusing. Emailing people at work that you have never met is a hoot, especially when they work in places like newspapers and help organizations where they are paid to be responsive. What else is funny is that the City Paper makes no mention after the letter that they ARE preparing to put the arts columns online soon with back archives, thank god.
Truth told the chain of thought leading me up to writing the note is just kind of stupid. I noticed in a recent City Paper that a Chris Richards, or THE Chris Richards, or THE OTHER Chris Richards had written a letter talking about this famous, if that's possible, Glenn Dixon City Paper review of the Cecily Brown show at the Hirshhorn. Well even though I've been hoarding City Papers at work, creating a firehazzard, for some reason I do not have this issue and have not read this review. The Modern Art Notes crowd was all a twitter about it last month, or the beginning of this month, I have no conception of time anymore. I am very very curious abut this thing, but not curious enough to go down to the City Paper and pay cold hard cash for a copy of it, duh. I really should have written in June when the Feher was open and I was all up in arms. Oh well.
So I have not written anything here in a while and I am struck by my statement, "This is the real millennium". It's more like "Welcome, to the real millennium" It seems it got here a little late. There is really heavy stuff going on and everywhere I turn it is as though you can see peoples eyes opening up like they are one week old kittens. The time for Victorian parlor games are over and at least some people seem to be reconsidering all that they have been spoon fed in the past.
Before, I forget attending a lecture by Jim Wine at the National Building Museum in conjunction with the exhibit "Big and Green" really was like the cake topper this week, there was an intensity about taking about sustainable architecture in the terms of art and experience and quality of life that was really revolutionary. The dollars and cents of sustainability will prevail I think because it does make so much sense. The unqualified thing is the people in the equation and if they can center themselves enough to make the same life decisions to sustain rather than consume.
