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The Sunday Video: Rudy

Sunday, February 7, 2010

I‘ve always been pretty apathetic towards sports generally. I never played any growing up and nearly every game I’ve ever watched made me feel like I was burning valuable time after about ten minutes.  But today being the day where it’s just plain wrong for an American not to watch football and since the big game is in Miami, I thought it would be appropriate to use today’s Sunday video to make a confession: I cry during sports movies. I don’t usually seek them out, but every one I’ve ever seen has had me holding back tears.  I know they’re catharsis intended for sports enthusiasts and that I shouldn’t fall victim to their formulaic structure- underdog protagonist (person or team) fighting to be the best and by the end becoming the best (enter violins). But I can’t help it. Once those violins start, I form a bad case of red eye. I usually try to wipe off the tears before anyone else notices.

For this week’s Sunday video I’ve selected the climax portion of the classic football movie, Rudy.  His whole life, the only thing Rudy ever wanted was to be a football player at Notre Dame.  He was not all that smart and really not built to be a player, but he worked hard and did it – just for the last few seconds of his last year at Notre Dame, but he did it (enter violins).

Rudy succeeds with sack – courtesy of mthompson93

Other Sports movies I’ve shed a tear over: Hoosiers, Rocky, Karate Kid, A League of Their Own, Lucas, Remember the Titans, The Rookie, The Greatest Game Ever Played, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Sea Biscuit, The Natural, and Field of Dreams.

This post was contributed by Bob Snead.

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Jet Set Saturday’s: aaron GM at ltd

Saturday, February 6, 2010

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Close-up capezio index. Image courtesy of the artist and ltd.

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. – Emily Dickinson

In a perfect world, everything would be white and blue and we would speak with native fluency a previously unlearned language. The blue would be Royal Blue, like the paint slathered on Yves Klein models just before they writhe around his canvases; the white a bright white like Miami cocaine or the fluorescent lights of a Berlin kunsthalle; and describing the faultless simplicity of this Santorini-esq environ, words that previously we either feared to utter or never knew existed would miraculously find their intelligible forms in our throats and mouths. At ltd with his exhibition entitled capezio, aaron GM (née Aaron Garber-Maikovska) has created a perfect world.

A plethora of wheat flour and performance-based methodology in the exhibit immediately bring to mind Vito Acconci’s 1970 Flour/Breath Piece film, where the artist was shown attempting to blow a thin layer of flour off his own nude body. capezio’s lo-fi videos find GM reiterating the vernacular of 60’s and 70’s video artists who recorded their own banal acts and gave otherwise inconsequential physical motions importance via the then nascent time-based art medium. Utilizing minimal editing techniques, repetition, and corporal action to engage the observer, GM uses his body, voice, minimal studio props, and a single lens to create a whimsical and compelling oeuvre. Summoning the pace of the 1971 I Will Not Make Any Boring Art video that sees John Baldessari repeatedly writing these lines on a chalkboard, or the 1972 Baldessari Sings Lewitt where one artist actually sings the other’s conceptual statements, the videos in this show are not tautological. More like watching the making of Tibetan sand mandalas, GM forces the viewer to decelerate and observe his capricious, soothing, and obliquely mannered technique.

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Installation view, from capezio index to Undulating Porous Arc. Image courtesy of the artist and ltd.

The installation is comprised of quotidian components: Royal blue painter’s tape and cotton fabric, white sacks of bleached flour and bright lighting, and walls lacking any sort of color-based adornment save the geometric forms and “words” made by the tape. GM creates a character in his video works whose age (with vocal intonations redolent of both a pre-schooler and an old man) is irrelevant and intelligence is nebulous. 2 computers, 2 projections, a video monitor, and 6 soundtracks on headphones that house the moving image and sound elements of the show juxtapose a ladder wrapped in blue tape and propped against the wall. The music (including the cheesy Sail Away by Enya and Telling Stories by Tracy Chapman) versus the objects in the show protracts the artist’s interest in divergent formal, sonic, and material textures. The bread scattered about capezio – signifying both the folding of dough and the kneading of meaning and language back into itself – becomes a baroque metaphor.

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donkey (2009) 00:01:44, video still. Image courtesy of the artist and ltd.

GM’s language-based explorations are silly and poignant, with tape on the walls simultaneously employed to designate space and spell out quirky acronym titles like A.Q.E.D (Always Quoting Emily Dickinson), and J.A.T.D. (Japanamation Across the Dashboard). And the collision/collusion of the low (tape and flour) and the cerebral (temporal manifestations and linguistic exercises) posture the works in a realm difficult to categorize.

AQED

AQED (2009) 00:00:48, video still. Image courtesy of the artist and ltd.

In the video called “donkey” GM does a disco-dance of sorts – choreographing his opposing hands to rub the blue ladder rungs in a somewhat masturbatory fashion while finding an off-kilter, sing-song rhythmic repetition of the words “driving a truck, feeding a donkey, playing with my soup…”– and the piece ends with the character redemptively “drinking some soup.”

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JATD (2009) 00:01:01, video still. Image courtesy of the artist and ltd.

Via formalist and performative maneuvers, GM’s capezio leads the viewer with elf-like nimbleness into a blue and white dreamland for a bit and then releases them — feeling a bit lighter and slightly confused — back into reality…where, in an unwelcome Los Angeles torrential downpour, the Dickinsonian quote, “The rain is wider than the sky” aptly makes the world seem a tad more perfect[.]

For more information please visit: www.ltdlosangeles.com

For the videos detailed above please visit: www.aarongm.com

This post was contributed by Annie Wharton.

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SeminArt: LegalArt Writing Workshop at Rubell Collection

Friday, February 5, 2010

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The Rubell Family Collection. Image credit.

Next Thursday, LegalArt, an organization in Miami that provides artists with affordable legal services, grants and educational opportunities is holding SeminArt, a writers workshop hosted by The Rubell Family Collection. The workshop, which aims to empower would-be writers with the skill set necessary to make it in the professional realm, promises to be a unique opportunity for emerging writers of all types to get the inside scoop on launching their careers. The workshop will be presented by literary agent Shannon O’Neill, and author Sandra Beasley.

“An experienced literary agent, Shannon will discuss how to find an agent, what agents do, and how to know if you have a good agent. She will also give tips on ensuring a successful meeting with an editor, such as what to include in a pitch and book proposal. Sandra will share her experience as an author who works in different genres, and provide advice on how to take advantage of the variety of opportunities open to writers who are versatile.”

About the presenters:

Shannon O’Neill is an editor and literary agent at The Sagalyn Agency, based in Washington DC. For over 20 years, The Sagalyn Agency has represented journalists, academics, business writers, and novelists, doing business primarily with the large New York houses and focusing on up market nonfiction, business books, and commercial fiction. Shannon also teaches writing and publishing workshops at The Writer’s Center in Washington and serves as a guest panelist at events such as the annual Conversations and Connections Writer’s Conference. Shannon has a
Master’s degree in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College.

Sandra Beasley is the author of two poetry collections: I Was the Jukebox (W.W. Norton, 2010) and Theories of Falling (New Issues, 2008). Her nonfiction has appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, and she is working on Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales From an Allergic Life
(Crown, 2011). She first studied literature as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, and holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from American University. Beasley lives in Washington, D.C., where she serves on the Board of the Writer’s Center; in 2010 she received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Thursday, February 11, 2010 7:00-9:00 pm

Rubell Family Collection, 95 NW 29th Street, Miami, FL 33127

Register now: provide the names of those attending to legalartprograms@gmail.com

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Viking Funeral interviewed by Nicolas Lobo

Monday, February 1, 2010

Square

Image courtesy of Viking Funeral.

Nicolas Lobo, a Miami based artist, interviews Viking Funeral, a Miami based duo (Carlos Ascurra and Juan González), who have operated in various ways over the past 2 years, transecting the local cultural landscape with a variety of strategies. Their output includes live noise shows, sound installations, video and other more arcane products.

Nicolas Lobo: So why Viking funeral and not Juan and Carlos?

Carlos: First I think it’s a really ridiculous name like a high school band name…. You know you think of band names in high school looking for the best one

NL: So Viking Funeral is the ultimate high school band name?

C: I don’t know about that but it is definitely a band name.

Juan: And it has angst in it.

NL: But you guys are only %40 band right? Because the meat of it is the installations and the stages?

J: Well we play as a band also, we play at Churchill’s, we do noise shows, stuff like that…. I’d say its about 50/50

NL: So are you trying to make moves in the music world as well as the art world?

C: I don’t think we’re making any moves, I think we’re just playing and then we’re also making art. You know?

NL: So you guys are basically riding both sides of the fence.

J: Pretty much.

Alcuni_di_Morte

Image courtesy of Viking Funeral.

NL: OK. For me, on the surface, your work has this super goth dark veneer, but then there is other stuff that goes on afterward. I’m not going to bring up the Nirvana T-shirt thing at all…

C: Cool.

N: …but I’ve only seen maybe 4 things you guys have done…

J: Man we’ve only done like 6 things total so that’s pretty good!

C: You are one of our biggest fans probably!

J: The way it works is we send a proposal out and then it gets picked up and then we do a piece, site specific or something like that.

NL: So the first thing was at The Freedom Tower or was there something before that?

C: No, we made a piece before that where we tried to imitate different sounds and do it in surround sound.

J: It was called The Forest of Echoes, we did it really haphazard, like a traditional sound work, but with homemade speakers in a circle – really cheap looking. Not your usual 30 point speaker setup that you might see.

NL: So do you guys feel it worked out?

J: Well with a first piece you always feel you could have done better… once you get more experience. But we were pretty happy with it at the time.

C: I think it worked out for what it was. Later on you just want to rework everything.

J: But then you already did it so you have to move on; you can’t dwell on it.

BLK Widow

Image courtesy of Viking Funeral.

NL: So, coming back to the show at The Freedom Tower that Gean Moreno put together two years ago: I think very few people had heard of you at that time, but there you were smack bang in the middle of a show about making a scene…

J: That’s all thanks to Gean, I guess we were kind of like his little bomb to drop.

NL: That was good, but it was also different from the other things I’ve seen since. That first work was pretty Rock-ish, but now the newer stuff has nothing to do with Rock really.

C: When you say Rock you mean music?

NL: I mean it like Rock with the capital R, like the aesthetic.

J: Yeah like the rock band drum set, a bunch of guitars, the fliers.

NL: The next thing I saw was the Locust Projects installation…

Viking Funeral(2)

Image courtesy of Locust Projects.

J: Well everything we do is related to the idea of music.

NL: Sure, but the whole Rock thing is very separate.

J: Definitely, it changed from a rock band thing to a concrete thing with homemade instruments.

NL: It was also much more immersive and art oriented at Locust Projects, like a dark tropicalia.

C: Well when someone sees an acoustic guitar the may think Funk and when they see an electric guitar the may think Rock, but they can’t see it as an instrument, as an object that creates a certain type of tone.

NL: Fine, but you have to admit that the project for The Freedom Tower was an all out Rock aesthetic, the photocopied fliers the drum kit…

C: Yeah OK.

NL: And what about the Moore space project where I came in and you guys said “get out, we are busy!”

C: Well we were having internal problems at that point so it had noting to do with you. You just showed up at the wrong time when we were having issues with the Spanish people.

NL: I just saw drinks and thought I’d have one and then they didn’t have a mixing spoon so I went back to the studio and made a wooden spoon.

J: Nothing personal, really.

Myr Hind

Image courtesy of Viking Funeral.

NL: OK, is ibett yanez your manager, is she part of the group or what?

J: Well, you know there is always a fifth Beatle…

C: We can’t help but ask all our friends, people we know, what they think about things we are working on and Ibett is a close friend so how could she not play a part. Were always working on things.

NL: Do you think if you start to get successful-ish things will start to break apart? Like most collectives do?

J: It would be nice to become so successful that we become dickheads and we can’t talk to each other. Rich you know to the point were we can only communicate by E-mail.

C: Yes looking out over a beautiful view wishing we could still be in some stinky van together.

NL: The thing about Viking Funeral is the name sounds like a kind of music that’s already past, there is some nostalgia there, I don’t know what to call it, but that thing that happened in Sweden in the early 90’s.

J: When we came up with the name it was just funny that a Peruvian and a Puerto Rican would call themselves Vikings and go at the art aggressively.

C: Also I think if you think of yourself as a band instead of a collective then your approach changes too.

J: Yes artists always seem to have more of a stick in their ass than a musician would. So if you think like musicians maybe you’ll work out as artists.

DSC02720

Image courtesy of Thomas Hollingworth.

NL: You guys play at Churchill’s and there is this glow around Churchill’s, this scene… formed around a single bar. Do you guys feel part of that scene? Or are you playing there because it’s the only place that will let you play?

C: When we’ve played there it’s because we were asked to play there, to us its just a venue really. But I think a lot of people really hold something to it because…

J: Well its one of the only places you can go here in Miami without seeing an Ed Hardy shirt so its refreshing that way. Nobody has a sweater over their shoulders you know?

NL: So what are some other places you’d like to play besides Churchill’s?

J: Churchill’s and if not there then get noisy at galleries.

NL: How about Shuckers on 79th street?

J: Yeah Shuckers or the Alehouse might be kind of fun…

NL: What about The Ukelele bar on Biscayne?

C: Is that by Secrets?

NL: Yeah not far from Secrets.

J: We’re Hams, we’ll play anywhere.

NL: But you are not trying to manage yourselves…

J: We try to manage as much as possible, but as people who’ve never managed anything really… We try to do the best we can.

NL: So would you want a manager who could see what you are trying to accomplish and help you do it?

J: It would be nice to have someone with a set direction.

C: I think also Viking Funeral comes from a direction where… well, you’ve been using this word “Scene”, we ask, what is a scene really? Are you part of a scene? Am I part of a scene? Is anyone part of anything really? And so Viking Funeral has to do with that also. Just making your own thing, if Churchill’s lets you play, cool, play there. And if another place happens then great, play there too, and if five more become available to us? Sweet! We’ll do that also.

J: Yeah Goo was around for a hot minute.

NL: Who?

J: Goo, it was up the block from Churchill’s, and it was a venue. But it was so quick… That by the time we heard about it, it was already closing down.

NL: Yeah…

SKULL FKR

Image courtesy of Viking Funeral.

J: But we’re much more prone to playing anywhere than showing artwork anywhere.

NL: You wouldn’t show artwork anywhere? It’s funny because there seems to be a trend here in town of showing anywhere on purpose, anywhere with a capital “A”. It might even be called a strategy.

J: Yes but we can’t do what we do just anywhere.

NL: So no ArtFusion for you guys?

J: What is that?

NL: ArtFusion is the gallery which is part of the Bang Bros. Conglomerate who are the inventors of the pornography phenomenon the Bang Bus.

J: OK I’ve heard of that.

NL: So Bang Bus was a huge success and it spawned Bang Bros. that is an entertainment company and they do adult entertainment, but other things as well such as ArtFusion Gallery.

C: You know a lot about it have you shown there?

NL: Yes I would like to.

J: What do you want to show there?

NL: Ha Ha. That is a perfect example of ‘anywhere’ though.

C: I think we’re more interested in making our own space, not so loaded… we like empty spaces with not so much history usually. Which is different than going somewhere were people are banging in buses for example.

J: Which does not sound bad by the way. So yeah, basically we like to work in a site specific way.

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Image courtesy of Locust Projects.

NL: OK noted. What about the underground issue? Its such a reactionary polarized thing, you have the choice of The Opium Groups’ clubs or you can opt for the “Underground Scene”.

C: Of course, but lets not forget that “Underground” is here to sell too.

J: And what is “Underground” anyway?

C: Yes, what do you mean by “Underground”?

NL: That which we just spoke of, the “Underground” created to sell…

C: You mean like ArtFusion?

NL: No, they seem closer to the original meaning of “Underground” than the perversion we are talking about.

C: So which “Underground” are we talking about?

NL: The one in which Paramount makes an Indy film for example. The seller’s “Underground,” a kind of simulated black market. Whereas ArtFusion is just “Underground” because no one knows about it. (Its on the corner of North Miami Ave. and NE 40th St.)

J: Yeah but you figure; nice space, decent budget, good lighting. And they may not be so stressed about selling.

NL: I heard some of their actors show there which is really interesting.

C: Like photography? Or video work?

NL: No… I think you need to go to one of the openings.

NL: And then there is Adamar…

J: Well we would not be interested in showing in a place like that. But then again they probably wouldn’t be interested in showing us either.

NL: Probably not.

J: Yes.

NL: You don’t have to tell me anything specific about what your working on, but whats the general idea for the future?

C: Were trying not to make objects. That’s what the installations are trying to get to.

J: We also want to get back to typical stuff like music and cheap little pamphlets. Maybe some CD’s, EP’s, because, yeah, it has been feeling a bit too artsy. Back to the fortress of solitude.

NL: Will you be pressing a record?

J: We would love to but it does cost money.

NL: Not that much…

J: About a thousand bucks, I think all of our projects together amount to about a $1000.

C: Yeah we have this old photocopy machine that’s how we made all the fliers for the show with Gean anyway. We also invested in pens and Sotheby’s catalogs[.]

For more information please visit: www.thevikingfuneral.com

This post was contributed by Nicolas Lobo.

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The Sunday Video: Ghost Ride the Whip

Sunday, January 31, 2010

I was surprised to find out that many people, including our very own Thomas Hollingworth, have not been exposed to the phenomenon known as ghost riding the whip.  Sometimes referred to as goin’ Swayze or simply ghostin’, the art of ghost riding is done by placing a vehicle with an automatic transmission into drive, getting out of the car, and often dancing around or on top of the car while it moves.  Today’s Sunday Video features a prime example set to the required theme song for any ghostin’ flick that wants to be taken seriously.  Before trying this at home, I would recommend a wheel alignment and maybe an uphill path.

ghost ride the whip (put us on the news, WE jus go dummy)

This post was contributed by Bob Snead.

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“Sometimes I live in Aspen. I am all over the world”-Shari Appelbaum at Art Los Angeles Contemporary

Saturday, January 30, 2010

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12 Hang Art director Deborah-Jean Harmon and rock star friend. Photo by Allison Stewart allison-stewart.com

The last two weeks in January are all about the Los Angeles art fairs. The Fine Art Dealers Association’s 15th annual Los Angeles art fair kicked off the festivities on January 20th at the Los Angeles Convention Center with free champagne and Hana sushi. Celebrities and collectors on hand for the event included Rachel Griffiths, Eli Broad, Michael Gold, and Paris Hilton. The fashion accessory must have for the fair was a vintage fur, and this Jet Setter spotted a striking 1930’s gorilla wrap that seemed both chic and frightening, paralleling the aesthetic mish-mash that vast fairs like FADA always embody.

The international offerings this year were stronger than those from the US, especially a beautiful black and white booth presented by Arushi Arts from New Delhi, India. A gorgeous painting by Shobha Broota dominated the black side of the booth. A formal meditation on the dot and the beginning and end of all things both modern and ancient, Broota’s piece seemed to defy description in both its flawless presentation and touched quality.  In another area of the fair another Arushi artist Gigi Scaria’s video piece entitled Raise Your Hands Those Who Have Touched Him stunned an audience expecting to see overworked digital manipulation and random plot less narratives. Scaria’s piece is more akin to a documentary film, in which the elderly talk about their memories of interactions with Gandhi. The lenses of childhood create a wistful, sentimental image of Gandhi didactically serving as a classroom teacher figure. Also stunning was the Uruguay pavilion curated by Gustavo Tabares. The video piece Artadecer by Pablo Uribe was a fine stand out.  In the piece Uribe hired an actor to imitate the sounds of native animals in the forests of Uruguay. Mining the subjects of portraiture and landscape, Uribe generated a powerful meditation on reality and representation in art.

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The golden Shari Appelbaum at ALAC. Photo by Allison Stewart allison-stewart.com

As far as stateside galleries go, the strongest New York gallery on hand was Morgan Lehman Gallery with a stunning installation piece entitled Yes by Paul Villinski. Notably absent were almost all of Los Angeles’ contemporary art galleries. The absence of LA galleries at FADA was not surprising with the advent of the Art Los Angeles Contemporary fair that opened January 28th at the Pacific Design Center. Most of the local contemporary art heavy hitters opted for the new fair because of its venue and singular focus. The Pacific Design Center plays a major role in the experience of looking at the ALAC offerings. The booths feel like rooms in a private Malibu or Palisades beach house, with exquisite lighting and glass facades. Among the Los Angeles galleries present this week are Karen Lovegrove, Solway Jones, David Kordansky, Crisp, Honor Fraser, Marc Foxx, China Art Objects Gallery, The Company (Artlurker West Coast editor Annie Wharton’s venue), Patrick Painter, LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), and  LA><ART.

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“Yes” by Paul Villinski at FADA. Courtesy Morgan Lehman Gallery. Photo by Allison Stewart allison-stewart.com

The ALAC fair is not about who is here, but rather who is not. The exhibitors were clearly screened for inclusion, keeping everything that might fall into the category of “hotel” art (unlike much of the work seen at FADA) out of the fair. Some of the biggest names in contemporary art such as Walead Beshty, Monique Van Genderen, Jim Shaw, John Miller, Jen DeNike, Wolfgang Tillmans, Lari Pittman, and Ruby Neri are all at ALAC.

There are fewer international galleries on hand at this fair than FADA. Striking pieces available at The Breeder, an Athenian gallery, chose to focus its entire booth on Mindy Shapero and created a gorgeous, textural aesthetic meditation. Starkwhite from New Zealand showed three sumptuous Peter Stitchbury portraits that can only be described as bizarrely Aryan via fetishistic white skin surfaces and gleaming blonde faces. And Kalfayana Galleries from Thessaloniki exhibited several ephemeral Antonis Donef drawings.

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Ezrha Jean Black in the Marc Foxx booth at ALAC. Photo by Allison Stewart allison-stewart.com

Among the important Los Angeles galleries, Patrick Painter focused on John Miller. The stunning gold piece Absorption seems to wryly comment on the vacant consumerism of the “collector” while maintaining its assertation that life is about collecting a kind of personal menagerie. Regen Projects sported a smart Kay Rosen entitled A Slice of Life. So witty and so now, Kay Rosen is one of those women whose work is always on the money. But Miami-based Charest Weinberg’s booth — with its odd combination of bad temple sculpture and bananas — left this Jet Setter wanting more.

There are some strong booths focused on photography.  Francois Ghebaly exhibited a number of Gina Osterloh photographs that seem to pick up where John Divola’s beach house photos ended. Osterloh spray paints and collages cardboard inside empty rooms photographing the results. The cardboard cut out forms stacked inside the photographic spaces create a kind of low-tech version of an acid trip. Osterloh is innovative in her use of spatial dynamics, pattern, and simple black and white contrast. Also impressive was the massive Anne Collier photo of a Judy Garland film still at Marc Foxx. The photo depicts pages of a monograph that are tabbed with Post-it notes. Collier’s image is less homage to the movie star and more a strange portrait of an anonymous character that pines for Garland.

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Francois Ghebaly exhibited a number of Gina Osterlach photos. Photo by Allison Stewart allison-stewart.com

On the subject of objects (i.e., sculptures), Franklin Parrasch gallery had a significant set of Peter Alexander resin sculptures from the sixties that are dreamy. Primarily known in Los Angeles as a painter, Alexander’s resin pieces seem to defy spatial dynamics and bring to mind Lucio Fontana’s cut pieces with their ability to play with surface tension in a minimalist way. Also admirable was Robert Lazzarini’s brass knuckles at Honor Fraser, which extends from the wall like a brass hanger for a whip, where the artist crafted a decadent piece that casts a soft cloudy shadow, creating its own cognitive dissonance.

Getting back to the subject, this Jet Setter is off to do a little shopping and a little nibbling hopefully scoring some better VIP food this weekend. Alas, the food and hospitality was much better at FADA. By contrast, the aesthetics at ALAC really raise the bar on the experience of fair viewing rather than lounging.  I suppose the myriad of hedonistic choices are why true jet-setters score VIP tickets to both FADA and ALAC. So here I am shopping, lounging, and viewing for two vivacious weeks of fun in the warm California sun.

This post was contributed by Mary Anna Pomonis

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