Art + Architecture + Design
Books
John O’Brien on Contemporary Art
Jan 18th
This is typically wonderful, as are most observations from O’Brien:
"I’ve been among those observing the fragmented trajectory of contemporary visual art as it clears the 20th-Century with great interest, and am heartened by the diversity I see–and worried about the stark relational contrasts. Of the many vectors emerging, there are a few common threads–like the timeless uniqueness of the art experience and the fascinating nonsense of art expenditure–as energy or acquisition, for example. But there is at once large group of conflicting and fundamentally different paradigms that appear to be without any convergence in either ideal or practical terms. Today the role of an art writer, consequentially, must be that of a thoughtful and conscientious observer of the flux of all these trajectories. Writing intelligently about the wonder and complexity of all contemporary art (with a touch of skepticism to acknowledge one’s own historical limits) is essential to understanding, delineating and deciphering the trends of the present. That is the only way to respect its sense of accruing critical mass given its current delicate state of imbalance.
"Critical Mass"? Sounds spooky, John…
via ARTSCENE
(pro)text @ Richard Hugo House, Seattle Independent Publishers Fair
Jan 17th
(pro)text: It’s a sit-in. A stand-up and shout. A chance to yell, “Look at me, dammit!” Meaning, we want you there to represent the counter-world (counter anything as long as it’s not counter-intelligence—the Bush Administration has that covered). This ain’t Book Fest or Bumbershoot. It’s a free-for-all. It’s a chance for small publishers to show off the work they’re doing and to get their texts (journals, magazines, books, zines) in the public eye. We’ll also have some swanky and provocative performances, including a reading by the poet Christian Hawkey (The Book of Funnels, Verse Press, 2004) and a panel on the ethics of literary contests at the end of the day (from 5-6 p.m.). The press fair is full! We have 37 small publishers displaying their work. The event is free to the public (and co-sponsored by Hugo House).
SAT> FEB>17, Noon to five.
Center for Land Use Interperetation; Overlook
Jan 16th
Be sure to pick up a copy of thier new book:
From BLDGBLG: "If you’re curious about CLUI’s work, consider purchasing their new book: Overlook: Exploring the Internal Fringes of America With the Center for Land Use Interpretation, or just stop by the Center at some point and say hello.
Bruce Yonemoto in Exile of the Imaginary, Generali Foundation, Austria
Jan 15th
L.A.’s Bruce Y–maverick photographer, filmmaker, and artist [and excellent studio critic/advisor]–is participating in an interesting exhibition at the Generali Foundation in Vienna. Curator Juli Carson [UC Irvine] examines the practice of a group of artists using "love" as a vehicle for examining the relationship between the personal and the political in their practice. Or something like that…
From the press release:
"The Lover’s Discourse" (1977) by French philosopher Roland Barthes offers a theoretical basis, and also lends the exhibition its title. The book confronts us with a montage of texts from the author and from world literature on the discourse of love.
Check out the panel discussion this Thursday at 7PM.
Generali Foundation
Wiedner Hauptstrasse 15
1040 Vienna, Austria
Phone + 43 1 504 98 80
Fax + 43 1 504 98 83
foundation@generali.at
http://foundation.generali.at
Flahiff in Free Press, Stockholm
Dec 19th
And now for some blatant self-promotion: Sal Randolph’s Free Press Project continues it’s viral life. Here are a few pics of the opening show at Roda Sten. The show has moved on to Stockholm for "Labyrinth" an international art-book show. My text is titled "The Program." It’s funny.
TEXTE ZUR KUNST – PORNO feat. Diedrich Diederichsen
Dec 14th
Looks like my favorite cultural/music critic and avant-tard extraordinaire, Herr Diederichsen, is at it again. [at a bar in Pasadena, mid-90s, he said to me, after noting my faded SUBPOP t-shirt, "That's great. You are wanting to make the ironic revival of grunge before it even dies..." Uh, yeah. Actually, I thought it was cool...]
can’t wait to read his latest!
TEXTE ZUR KUNST
December 2006 / Issue No. 64
in cooperation with Diedrich Diederichsen
http://www.textezurkunst.de
out now / featuring an English section of the main contributions
PORNO
[note: I just trolled their site and could not find the English translations yet. Dropped them an email and will let you know what's up.]
MOST LITERATE CITY IN AMERICA
Dec 13th
| Now if I could just get through that new Pynchon Novel… | |
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“Seattle is the USA’s most literate city for the second year in a row, according to an annual ranking called America’s Most Literate Cities.
The rankings, now in their fourth year, aim to rate the 70 largest U.S. cities not on whether their residents can read, but whether they do.
It considers several measures in six categories: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources.
Rankings have remained stable despite some minor reshuffling from year to year. Nine of the top 10 are in the top 10 again this year. Boston fell from seventh to 11th place. Stockton, Calif., and El Paso again come in last and next-to-last, respectively.”
via USA TODAY
LAB MAG NYC w/ VITO ACCONCI
Dec 8th
Don’t miss this!
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LAB ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF LAB MAG |
(The launch will include a series of panel-style presentations -beginning at 6:30PM- by architect Vito Acconci of Acconci Studio, experimental-poet Jena Osman, artist Adam Pendleton and designers David Reinfurt and Sarah Gephart of O-R-G)
TERRY EAGLETON TO THE RESCUE
Dec 6th
"Contrary to Said, Irwin reveals, the towering figures of Oriental scholarship tended to be unworldly, solitary figures, who, far from demonizing the Arab world or Islam, were sympathetic to it and were often regarded as suspiciously un-Christian by their contemporaries. Many were opposed to Western imperial designs on the Near East. Like scholars through the ages, they spent most of their time working diligently on often dry-as-dust textual or linguistic problems. They were also often slightly loony. The father of Orientalism, Guillaume de Postel (1510-1581), was, Irwin notes, "quite barmy": The "foremost expert on Arabic and Islam in Europe" also believed that a woman named Johanna was the angelic pope, the new Eve, the mater mundi who possessed X-ray vision that allowed her to "see Satan sitting at the center of the earth." Postel’s weird ideas led the Inquisition to investigate him, but the Holy Office, in a kinder, gentler moment, decided that he "was not a heretic, merely insane…
"Terry Eagleton argues that he does not, that Said was wrong about details but right about what really mattered. Eagleton mocks Irwin’s "gentle, ivory-tower" belief that Orientalism "is mostly a story of individual scholars" and derides what he claims is Irwin’s inability to comprehend Foucault’s ideas: "He gives the impression that he could recognise an ideological formation about as readily as he could identify Green Day’s greatest hits."
read the rest: http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2006/12/06/orientalism/index.html
As "Orientalism" was a foundational text at the school I attended in the 90s, I am glad to hear it is coming under some scrutiny, and even more glad that Eagleton is defending it still.
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