Art + Architecture + Design
Photography
Beer, Babes and Butoh:The Bridge Motel Blowout, Seattle 9/15/07
Sep 17th
…For those of you who don’t already know, the Bridge Motel has been a Seattle icon of sorts for the last 50 years; needles in the sheets and no questions asked. A year ago DK Pan took over as manager with an eye to holding this event just before the motel was to be razed [I thought that was Pan in the picture on the left, holding the red umbrella on the roof of the motel, but it was probably either Sheri Brown or Diana Garcia-Snyder performing "Praying Walk", I think...]. The only stipulation for artists was to avoid the subject of drugs, prostitution, or other obvious cheap motel clichés.
We showed up around 7:30 and jumped right in, though we didn’t have the courage to open the door to ‘The Van’–Mike Min’s contribution to the festivities–at least not at first.
The event drew around 1200 people (according to the people who should know), though the small footprint of the motel and parking lot made it seem like twice that number. We found a place in the line and settled in.
Standing in the phenomenally long line, I thought I heard the sound of howling, and as the crowd parted, there it was, a perfectly preserved, young coyote–stuffed, mind you–sitting in a Red Flyer wagon, flanked by the curious and the confused…
read the rest HERE
Waiting; Roland Barthes
Sep 6th
I am waiting for an arrival, a return, a promised sign. This can be futile, or immensely pathetic; in Erwartung (Waiting), a woman waits for her lover, at night, in the forest; I am waiting for no more than a telephone call, but the anxiety is the same. Everything is solemn; I have no sense of proportions.(…)
Waiting is enchantment: I have received orders not to move. Waiting for a telephone call is thereby woven out of tiny unavowable interdictions to infinity: I forbid myself to leave the room, to go to the toilet, even to telephone (to keep the line from being busy); I suffer torments if someone else telephones me (for the same reason); I madden myself by the thought that at a certain (imminent) hour I shall have to leave, thereby running the risk of missing the healing call, the return of the Mother. All these diversions which solicit me are so many wasted moments for waiting, so many impurities of anxiety. For the anxiety of waiting, in its pure state, requires that I be sitting in a chair within reach of the telephone, without doing anything.(…)
The being I am waiting for is not real. Like the mother’s breast for the infant, “I create and re-create it over and over, starting from my capacity to love, starting from my need for it”: the other comes here where I am waiting, here where I have already created him/her. And if the other does not come, I hallucinate the other: waiting is a delirium…. (more)
via the incomparable wood s lot
“Moses Lake” by Anne Mathern @ Lawrimore Project, Seattle. Through Sept. 29/2007
Aug 23rd
We just updated our link to DAILYSERVING and while I was cruising their terrific site today, I ran across this post on one of our favorites; Anne Mathern. Looks like we missed the performance, but I will be sure to check out the show tomorrow.
Opening just yesterday at Lawrimore Project in Seattle is "Anne Mathern — Moses Lake," new photographs, film and a live installation. Along with the opening, Mathern presented a live installation and performance, featuring fantasy metal band DOOMHAWK. "Moses Lake" is the first solo exhibition at Lawrimore Project for the Seattle-based artist, and the show is centered on a cluster of small farm towns in Eastern Washington that have Greek and Hebrew-derived names but were originally inhabited and eventually stolen from Native Americans. The exhibition investigates the imposition of the cultural values embodied by one set of people upon another. Mathern received her BFA in photography from the University of Washington in 2004 and received several awards during her study, including the Marsh Scholarship and the UW Undergraduate Research Award for special projects. The artist also co-founded and currently acts as the managing director of Crawl Space, an artist-run gallery in Seattle. The artist has also exhibited with the King County Gallery 4 Culture in Seattle.
via DailyServing
Nancy Davenport Awarded DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art Grant
Aug 20th
This photograph made me immediately think of this email I found in my Inbox:
Les maçons désoeuvrés venaient par habitude tourner chaque jour autour des
chantiers. Les mains dans les poches, chaussés de lourds sabots, ils arrivaient
piane-piane…[The unemployed masons had the habit of coming, each day, to hang around the
work yards. Hands in the pockets, wearing heavy wooden clogs, they slowly
arrived...]–from "Mémoires de la Société d’agriculture, commerce, sciences et arts" by
Société d’agriculture, commerce, sciences et arts de la Marne
And big congrats to Nancy for getting this:
DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art is delighted to announce its very first production grant to New York based Canadian artist Nancy Davenport. The grant helps Nancy to complete a project titled Workers for the 2007 Istanbul Biennial. DHC/ART is committed to initiating and supporting the production of new work by Canadian artists in a variety of media through an annual commission or grant.
Workers is an ambitious media installation which laterally tackles the representation of labour and issues arising from globalisation by connecting Norwegian workers to their out-sourced Chinese counterparts in a seamless, multi-screen DVD environment. At the centre of this merged, moving frieze of animated portraits of both sets of workers is an image of a factory — itself subjected to digital enhancements where workers gather at the gates or rocket into outer space referencing film pioneers the Lumière brothers and
Georges Méliès.
Pixelgarten Rules!
Aug 13th
Pixelgarten is adrian nießler and catrin altenbrandt, designers from Germany. I love these photographs, particularly the sweatshirt. [though the crafty, yarn head is pretty funny too] And Iheartphotograph is my new favorite blog. Check it out HERE.
Lost America; Night Photography of Troy Paiva
Apr 30th
Sassy Pedro sent us this awesome link http://www.lostamerica.com/ which showcases the work of Bay Area photographer Troy Paiva. Not only are the photos amazing, but most of the effects are in-camera, as in no photoshop malarky folks. Here is a quote from the site:
"All the photographs on this site were shot at night with only a few exceptions (as noted below the images) shot at dusk.
The work shot up until 2005 was done on film. These images have no digital or darkroom manipulation except a little spotting and selective levels compensation done in Photoshop. These images looked just like this when they came out of the camera.
The images shot from 2005 onward were done with a Canon 20D DSLR. Some of these images have multi-exposure compositing, contrast and perspective adjustments and minor cloning of lens-flare, but as with the older film work, the lighting FX and color are all done in-camera. What you see is what I shot that night."
see the rest HERE
Muhmmad Ali turns 65! Guardian Photos
Jan 17th
Muhammad Ali turns 65 today. One of our all-time favorite personalities, check out these images on Guardian Unlimited from the champs heyday. [thanks, Wit]
link Guardian Unlimited
SCARED OF SANTA
Dec 5th
Hilarious pictures of Santa Claus portraits. My youngest never trusted that guy either. I mean, just look at those beady little eyes behind that mountain of white hair! It’s enough to give me the willies right now!
via Boing Boing
more here: http://www.southflorida.com/events/sfl-scaredsanta,0,2245506.photogallery?index=1
BRUCE NAUMAN VIDEO
Oct 23rd
Check this out if you haven’t seen Bruce Nauman Stamping in the Studio, 1968 (42.7 mb, MP4) you must check it out!
Stangely poigniant given the current political climate and its relation to post-68 art in America.
Long download, but worth it…
http://ubu.wfmu.org/video/Nauman-Bruce_Stamping_in_the_Studio_Bruce_Nauman_1968.mp4
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