January 18, 2005
A necessary pause
This site is on hiatus until further notice. I'm going to try and read The Magic Mountain and Moby-Dick, the new translation of Agamben's State of Exception and some old exhibition catalogs. I'm going to focus on a half-dozen or so pending freelance projects, which will hopefully beget a few more. I'm going to write about my upcoming trips to Berlin and Los Angeles. I'm sure I'll be back—I enjoy reading blogs and online journals too much not to have one of my own—but it may be a while.
One question before I go. Proust: CK Scott Moncrieff or Lydia Davis et al? Suggestions to the e-mail address listed under 'About this site.' Thanks.
See you upon my return.
Posted in Miscellaneous. Found always via this permanent link.
January 12, 2005
Miscellaneous
- The New York Times has made available William Gass's 1977 review of Susan Sontag's On Photography.
- I've been listening repeatedly to Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings' "This Land Is Your Land," the B-side to "What If We All Stopped Paying Taxes?" released last September on Brooklyn-based Daptone Records. Here's a description they offered to MP3 bloggers before the release date: "The A side 'What If We All Stopped Paying Taxes?' reflects our view on how the Bush administration is putting our hard earned tax money to no good. The B-side is a super heavy soul version of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land', with all the correct lyrics that are usually overlooked by most people who sing this song." And a quote from someone who named it the top record of 2004: "Imagine a hot, young, angry Nina Simone fronting the most badass Stax/Volt lineup ever, making perfectly conceived funky soul. Imagine Nina articulating a strong, slammin' melody to put across a strong, flaming mad political protest." I never thought I'd dance to "This Land Is Your Land," but it's inescapable.
- I just received a copy of Michaël Borremans: Drawings, the exhibition catalog accompanying a roughly fifty-work survey that debuted at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, opens early next month at SMAK, Ghent, and then travels to the Cleveland Museum of Art. I'm a fan of Borreman's cryptic works and this book is lovingly produced. Highly recommended.
- Artforum.com has posted my brief review of James Hyde's new exhibition at Brent Sikkema. ("Worth Seeing" in the right-hand column has more recommendations.)
Posted in Around the web. Found always via this permanent link.
January 8, 2005
Hesperus Press at Strand
London-based Hesperus Press has received a lot of favorable coverage on literary weblogs and major media outlets (including, among others, a recent brief mention at Bookslut, this mention on MaudNewton, this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, and this article in the Seattle Times), so I was happy to discover that a few titles have hit the shelves at Strand Books here in Manhattan. I picked up Marcel Proust's Pleasures and Days and immediately saw what all the fuss was about: The book is a little-known gem by a major author; it is inexpensive and attractively designed; and it features a forward by literary heavyweight A.N. Wilson and a fresh translation by Andrew Brown, who taught at Cambridge and has translated over two dozen books for the publisher to date. Any publisher who cares enough about authors to bring their "minor" works back in to print in such a loving manner deserves attention and applause. Now I'm off to bed with Proust's portraits of fin-de-siècle Parisian society.
Posted in Books. Found always via this permanent link.
January 6, 2005
Hans Schabus at the Kunsthaus Bregenz
Last night I came across mesmerizing installation views of Hans Schabus's current solo show at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, in western Austria. The artist first came to international attention at Manifesta IV in Frankfurt, where he presented an eleven-minute video showing him navigating a tiny sailboat through the elaborate tunnels underneath Vienna. He later had a well-received solo show at the Vienna Secession. The Bregenz installation seems to be the most complex to date. I'm extremely interested in the artist's work, which I don't think has hit US shores quite yet, and just wanted to share this page of gorgeous pictures from the show. I'm often a sucker for "explorer" types; artists who find a historical starting point and use it, like a stone dropped into the middle of a pond, as a generating force for successive (and successively more eccentric) artistic inquiries. Is Schabus a funnier Austrian version of Matthew Buckingham?
I'm consistently impressed by the willingness of the Bregenz museum's staff to let artists tamper with their Peter Zumthor-designed architectural jewel. They let Olafur Eliasson run rampant in 2001, and he came up with one of his boldest installations to date. Although I've yet to visit in person, I own several books documenting Zumthor's work and this building in particular. It's situated in the Voralberg region of western Austria, which I commented on briefly in a recent Artforum.com review of an architecture exhibition showcasing avant-garde work from the area.
Visiting Western Austria next week? I recommend stopping by the Kunsthaus Bregenz. Then, of course, let me know what you think.
UPDATE (01/07): Reader Dean Geleynse helpfully points out that Schabus has shown in New York. He was included in James Cohan Gallery's 2002 summer group show.
Posted in Art. Found always via this permanent link.
January 5, 2005
A clarification (and David Musgrave)
Several comments sent by e-mail—and one voiced on an arts blog—brought to my attention the need to clarify a sentence used to describe the process of writing an essay on Rachel Harrison's work. A few days ago I wrote: "Rarely do I feel so defeated by the artworks' complexities as I did while writing this piece." That fact, in and of itself, is not what makes Harrison's work pique my interest. I find her sculptures odd, funny, awkward, perhaps at times too smart for their own good, and for those reasons endearing—all qualities I find attractive in people, as a matter of fact—and said as much (with different adjectives) in the draft I excerpted here. Perhaps I should avoid confessing fallibilities in public, but the difficulties I encountered arose from the gaps between the visual and the written word. With each idea laid out in words, no matter how felicitous or well-chosen, a thought would creep into the back of my mind: I bet Harrison has already traversed this territory; she is likely a better artist than I am a writer. I felt like I was playing catch-up to a wildly inventive and art historically aware oeuvre. Has that ever happened to you?
The responses sent me back to the text which, upon rereading, doesn't seem particularly dense. I admit to indulging in a few flights of art historical speculation, but given the audience (the essay is for the biannual journal Afterall), I don't think I was stretching things. I often wonder about critics—and readers—who frequently voice antagonisms toward "intellectual" criticism. Is there such a thing as "reverse condescension"? I understand the need to make thought accessible, but a balance can be struck between potentially revelatory insight and rote description (which, I know, can offer revelatory insights of its own). I don't think of myself as a particularly intellectual critic—more like a fairly smart guy who casts his net wide enough to see and read more than the average art viewer (or, based on conversations I've had with others in the profession, even the average critic). I have to work hard to understand the October crowd. But a little effort goes a long way, and my grappling has been rewarded. Do others feel the same way?
And anyway, I think it's partly a matter of audience. One can maintain a consistent voice while varying its tone to match your reader. Those who read Afterall have a certain knowledge that those reading Vitamin D, a forthcoming book to which I am contributing a dozen short introductory essays, most likely will not. So I altered my tone. Below the jump is a draft of a Vitamin D essay on David Musgrave, an artist whose work is as challenging as Rachel Harrison's. However I think those of you who commented on an inability to follow my words before may not feel the same way about this. Again, bear in mind that this is an unedited draft:
Continue reading "A clarification (and David Musgrave)"Posted in Art. Found always via this permanent link.
January 2, 2005
Steven Parrino, 1958-2005
I just learned that Steven Parrino, an artist, musician, and writer of significant talent and uncompromising integrity whose recent New York solo show was vastly underappreciated, died in a motorcycle accident at 2a.m. Saturday morning. Agnes Martin, Tom Wesselman, Anne Truitt, Gretchen Bender, Susan Sontag, and now Parrino, who I had the fortune to meet (albeit briefly) and who touched the lives of several of my friends, have all passed away in a month that has been a rather inauspicious end to a long year.
UPDATE (1/03): Click here for Roberta Smith's obituary published in today's New York Times. More information, including details of a memorial service and an informal gathering of friends, can be found here on the Team Gallery website.
UPDATE (1/08): The aforementioned informal gathering will take place at the Swiss Institute on the evening of Thursday, January 20.
Posted in Art. Found always via this permanent link.
Allen on Flavin
Greg Allen's 2005 gets off to a flying start with a feature article in today's Times on the difficulties of honoring Dan Flavin's intentions as time takes its toll on his light fixtures. Greg also shows an inherent value of blogs by publishing on Greg.org two interviews—with Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Stephen Flavin—conducted after the article went to press. Kudos.