Firekites – AUTUMN STORY – chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber and Yanni Kronenberg.
My favorite part is the chalk accumulating on the board. And the simple, obvious, yet powerful ending.
How different is this from Blu? Maybe not too different. I would call it a tribute. The style, the dynamics. Yet the addition of the canvas, the frame, turns it into a slightly different game, a play with pictures, and with types of spaces. I only wish this latter element were slightly more present in the film, and we got more often to travel outside of the canvas.

(via)

Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning Drawing (1953)

It never stops being astonishing, the way the dynamics of a piece can outgrow the original input, the aesthetic conception, the initial conceptual framework.
I had heard a version where it was Rauschenberg asking De Koonig for a drawing that was dear to him. The story as told by Rauschenberg is so much more human, and impressive.

Oh were this the universe!
Were it but a combination of lines, a simple picture of perfection, were the universe a set of twigs and seeds with their mathematical omnipotence!
Oh were there nothing else, nothing but the point where everything meets, nothing but the shape it all embodies. And the shadow of the reflection of a shadow of the Work, just to outscore its very depth of space, just to give us the distance we need to be closer.
Oh were it all we need, the joyful meeting of vectors, the unswerving presence of fragility.

Oh were there no shadow in the top left corner, coming from elsewhere.

Both pictures are of sculptures by Christiane Löhr.

I’ve been very very busy with the opening of my video installation.
Today is the opening night
I won’t tell you much, and will leave you with the small text that accompanies it instead:

THE ACTORS
Part 1: RECONNAISSANCE

reconnaissance. or: finding oneself. or: recognition. the recognition of someone else. someone is recognized. or: recognizing. you are (this) someone. this is (this) someone. or: meeting again. discovering again something one knew already. electra’s paradox: electra knows, and does not know, that it is her brother standing before her.

reconnaissance. checking. how far. how far one can go. how far one needs to go to. where are the borders. when do i fall into something else. and whatwho is this something else.

i like knowing so little about them.
i like that they remain actors.
and that they are actors in a way no different from all the others.
i like what they’re able to do because of how we called them: actors.

The Actors opens (link in Polish) at the TR Warszawa in Poland.
Hopefuly I’ll be able to post a short excerpt of the video soon…

Apparently 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.

Before I start 2009 I thought I might have a quick look back at 2008 on Art News Blog. It’s not a comprehensive look at the art world happenings in 2008, it’s just a few posts that I found interesting throughout the year.

• Realities of Being an Artist – A sobering list of things that won’t happen for you as an artist.
• RED Auction Raises $40 Million – Damien Hirst learns that it’s good to give.
• Most Popular Art Museums – The Art Newspaper released a list of the most popular art museums around the world.
• PJ Harvey at the Sydney Opera House – I popped down to Sydney and saw PJ Harvey in concert.
• Gay Jesus Play Controversy – Sydney Christians were a little bothered by a gay Jesus on stage.
• Urban Art Auction – Bonhams creates a new auction category and cashes in on the urban art craze.
• Spam Cartoons – Janet Nelson uses penis spam for something useful and makes us giggle with her Innocent Spam series.
• Australian Aboriginal Paintings – I saw some impressive Aboriginal bark paintings in Sydney.
• What is Art? – An intelligent reply to a stupid question. Who cares what art is?!
• Bill Henson’s Nude Teen Photos – Australian photographer Bill Henson created a debate that quickly spread around the world.
• Lucian Freud’s Big Sue Painting – Freud’s “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping” sells for $33.6 million.
• List of Art Scammers – I started a list of internet scammers that target artists.
• Robert Rauschenberg Dies – I always find it sadder when artists die, like we’re more special than normal people (I call them normies..lol).
• Most Expensive Artists – From Jasper Johns, to Damien Hirst, to Jeff Koons, and Lucian Freud (I think he’s not only the most expensive living painter, but also the greatest living painter!)
• Knitted Poo – Corrine aka Jafabrit created some funny little poo invitations which I thought were great.
• Albert Herbert Dies – UK painter passes away.
• Pablo Picasso Comes to Australia – Pablo Picasso and friends came to Brisbane, Australia. I was most impressed by a Henri Matisse still life painting.
• I Love Painting – I started painting again after about 18 months.
• Imperial Clothing – Article by Donald Frazell (Donald likes to ruffle feathers)
• Banksy is Robin Gunningham – The mysterious Banksy is the middle class Robin Gunningham according to the Mail on Sunday.
• Marla Olmstead Documentary – I finally saw My Kid Could Paint That. The “child genius” Marla Olmstead creates a lot of debate with readers.
• Damien Hirst Auction – Damien Hirst’s Beautiful Inside My Head Forever auction was an amazing success.
• Ten Things I Hate About Having an Art Blog – Title is self explanatory.
• Ten Things I Love about having an Art Blog – Same as above, but more positive.
• Why Create Art? – Questioning myself and art.
• Hazel Dooney on Creating Art – Australian artist Hazel Dooney shares some of her journal.
• Vaginas – Artist makes art out of the vagina and offers a vagina molding service.
• Jesus Christ Art – Jesus was big in 2008.. so were skulls.
• $5 Jackson Pollock for $50 Million – I would like to offer the buyer a room full of Picassos and Van Goghs.. all genuine.. of course.
• Alexander Brener Shocking – Russian artist brings back the shock.
• Sarah Palin Inspires Artists – The scariest person I have ever seen inspires artists everywhere. Pricasso painted Palin nude and Bruce Elliot put his Nude Sarah Palin painting in his bar.
• Banksy Goes Animatronic – Graffiti artist Banksy created a freaky little pet shop in New York.
• Marc Quinn’s Gold Kate Moss – UK sculptor Marc Quinn unveils his solid gold sculpture of British model Kate Moss.
• Damien Hirst Employee Layoffs – The financial crisis hits the art world.
• Religion and Art – I offended an atheist by criticizing religion ..lol.
• American President Barack Obama – Phew! My opinion of mankind would have halved if Obama didn’t win.
• Art Books – I gave my credit card a workout at Amazon.com.

Happy new year! I can’t believe how quickly the year went.

Once again, Peter Fuss (remember his “For the Laugh of God“?) manages to poke the finger in the right spot.
His most recent work, exhibited at the Out Of Sth exhibition in Wroc?aw (Poland) (which also has blu’s animation on display) plays on our sense of reality.
What I like most about this work is something I didn’t notice at first. The first reading, to me, was simple: knowing the fate of the liberal Americans who came to positions of power, it is difficult not to think of the risk Obama is facing. This also might be seen as a cool and lucid way of looking at politics. Can any ideal manage to survive? Isn’t Obama, the Obama we know as fighting for “change”, somewhat dead, already? Who killed him?
But what I really like about this work is not this seemingly political message. It is the way it portraits us and our own patterns of looking at reality.

The problem is not that Obama may get killed. The problem is our thinking of it as a fact. It is not Fuss’s work that is cynical. We are.
Seeing the work on a billboard makes it even more obvious: we take it for granted that things are the way they are, and even if they aren’t, too bad for the facts. The billboard is there, so Obama is dead. Who killed him? Guess who.

update/ps: A couple of months ago an Israeli designer created a shirt with a similar text. I think the differences between the two projects prove my point. Having/seeing this on a T-shirt and seeing it on a billboard are two completely different experiences. (Not to mention the completely different level of design). And that’s what sets apart a good artpiece from a, well, another one. (Also notice the context – one is set in NY, the other- in Wroc?aw). Suffice it to say that already a few days after the opening of the exhibition two French tourists entered the gallery (you can see the entrance to the right on the second picture) saying they haven’t had the chance to follow the news and they were quite terrified. Now, just to add another level of artsy-fartsy commenting, the person attending them answered they weren’t to worry because it was “just an art installation”. Ouch, now that’s not what I would call effective art guidance. Or what she being ironic?