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Planteariummonetarium;monday 24-aug 2009 Peekskill

2009-08-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

On my way home

2009-08-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

This is a neat joke (it's a sticker over Brooklyn) but then with the wrong punchline;
It's Breukelen not Breuckelen.

movies seen in US these last 2 months

2009-08-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

I've been well entertained, but nothing amazing;
Haven't seen anything really special, but nice pass times;
The 6 movies I have seen the last 2 months in my top 6;

1-Sheraphine {france}
Well made movie about outsider woman artist around 1908
2-District 9 {south-Africa}
First hour is really good and worth your money.After that it's too much explosions etc
3-Thirst {south-Korea}
From the director of Oldboy; another smart vampire movie. But I'm done now, with the genre.
4-Inglorious Bastards {US, but quite euro}-
Has his great Tarantino moments.And 'Allo,allo' moments.I might rather watch 7 episodes of 'Allo,allo' then 2.52 min of this.
5-Whatever works(US)
Woody Allen + Larry Davies= Ok, but a typical little Allen Movie; it's still much better than anything else romantic comedy. Feels good.
6-In the Loop (GB);
Overacted british [power}play about Washington & Downingstreet on their way to Irak.

Governors Island {Creative times}

2009-08-23T07:54:00.000-07:00

I had never been to Governors Island. The ferry only goes there during the weekend. There is no traffic and nobody lives there anymore. Until not so long ago it was a military zone. But a very nice one; Residential; shops, hospital, churches even a old movie theatre.
This summer Creative Time has organized a big exhibition here.
With around 20 artists. So like in Venice, it's very nice to walk around the island without traffic and.. And then,oh, yeah,
almost forgot; look at the art

A piece I, kind of liked by Klaus Weber, until you read this;
oversized wind chime in tempered aluminum has been tuned to the mysterious diabolus in musica tritone, a musical interval that spans three whole tones, to dissonant and melancholic effect. It has been considered a "dangerous" sound since the Middle Ages, and was thought to arouse or summon the Devil. Some sources say it was outlawed for evoking sexual feelings in its listeners, while others believed that musicians could be excommunicated from the church for using it. Large Dark Wind Chime (Tritone Westy) is situated amongst rolling hills, houses of worship, Victorian buildings, and ornamental cannons, reminding us of the spirit of the age and uncertainty of our times, from global wars to economic recession and the battles that rage between good and evil..
JAaa, ja...off course;
it totally reminded me of the spirits of a uncertainty in our times, and the recession and the war.
And made me feel very very sexy.
(And really not at all at the thing my upstairs-neighbor has on her balcony)

Teresa Margolles.
Yes, these a real mexican bullit holes

So;
I didn't like the exhibition much; All the artist trying too hard to make a smarty, but not creative , statements on the history of Governors Island.
Most of text with the pieces where really-over-the-top.
°°°°°°°
Happy I didn't tried to hard to add dutch-history in my Peekskill piece. Off course it was friendly requested...
(tomorrow is the big installation day; I will post pictures)
There are inspirations from Holland, for example I went all the way to Franeker to visit the 17Century Eisenga Planetarium. (Something I think everybody should go, really one of the most amazing things in NL)

Anyway;

Next month the dutchies are taking over Governors Island for the big Amsterdam-NY 400 years celebration. There's things happeing allover NY state, but the centre will be Governors Island, where the PARADE will built up their fair.
It's quite a challenge because; ferry goes only every 30min. (But for free)..So it's not going to be huge...And if it rains during that weekend.....Well,,,,,
Let's be; American, not dutch; optimistic!

Dough & Mike Starn at Battery park subwaystation

2009-08-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

just opened.
The photos look like they are real photos casted in epoxy.

Carlos Roque at Forever & today

2009-08-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

Forever & today is a small artspace in Chinatown. Run by Ingrid Chu & Savannah Gorton. Small; I mean tiny, really small. Think the of size of shops where they sell belts & fake perfume on Canalstreet. They invite an artist to stay there for a few weeks and do a presentation during a weekend. Yesterday was my friend Carlos Roque. Carlos made a sound installation with different drones; the sound of a fan over a flying V-guitar. The sound of a handpainted golden record, all mixed together by a painting that is also a soundmixer. All individual pieces that are coming together in drone and image.
The great thing about NY is that tiny initiatives like these get lots of recognition and are taken seriously. Well, they also do a great program; They've been invited to participate in Nada, the artfair every hot new gallery wants to be in. And they will be part of the great biennal Performa festival in november. That is something that would not happen in a European town; In NY if your good & serious things go fast. I love it.

Carlos Roque plays his golden record

Davidians in brooklyn

2009-08-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the opening of the Victor Houteff religious-propaganda drawings at the CABINET magazine artspace.

Unfortunately I didn't had my camera. 11 drawings are on view, all from 1933 and explaining the whereabouts of Shepherd’s Rod Seventh-day Adventists. The drawings are in fact hand colored prints on banquets. It is very possible that he had someone else draw these for him.
They are quiet sensational. And reminded me a bit of old circus posters like these;

They all have wild animals,danger, globes & stars

This drawing is from the Davidians website (click to get a better view)

But then this is not to entertain you but to scare you a bit so you'll join their church.
It's a bit creepy when you know how this ended years later with Waco,Texas.
I was surprised to hear the church still exist , still in Texas. They even send more info to Cabinet m for the show.
This is their website (go to 'charts' if you want to see more of these weird circus drawings)

Victor Houteff, a Bulgarian immigrant to the United States, was running a hotel in the Midwest when, in 1918, he attended a tent meeting of a Seventh-day Adventist group. He joined the church, and in the late 1920s began teaching doctrines that eventually resulted in his expulsion from the Seventh-day Adventist church in Los Angeles, where he had relocated. Despite his ousting, Houteff continued to preach his message. He and his followers, now known as the “Shepherd’s Rod Seventh-day Adventists,” finally moved to Mount Carmel, Texas, on the outskirts of Waco, where the group changed its name to the “Davidian Seventh-day Adventists.” After Houteff’s death in 1955, numerous factions broke-off—the largest was led by Benjamin Roden, who named his congregation the “Branch Davidians.” In 1983, Vernon Wayne Howell, later to change his name to David Koresh, joined the Branch Davidians.

meteorite car

2009-08-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

in 1992 the car of lllan Langheinrich from Peekskill was struck by this meteorite

the car has a website now.

back in Peekskill

2009-08-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had to do a little presentation to members of the Peekskill townhall.
My piece will be installed for a year , on a popular spot where the community likes to sit on a bench and look over the wide river.
So it was important to makethe politicians of Peekskill happy with the idea. It's a small town and if people don't like it, they will go see there representative. So, everybody needs to be well informed
Job Koelewijn and another local dutch artist , Daan Levin will also have pieces here. It's a great spot near the train station (people (on their way to DIA-Beacon? (10min form here) can see it from the train).
8 representatives where sitting behind 8 laptops by a rectangular table. 2 fancy camera's where filming from two angels everything. This was all in a very small room; around 8x7 meter. Facing the townhall people where other people with presentations. And besides me, two people from the museum. It went all very smoothly and people seemed to be interested. There was also some local press. Earlier that day, the sheriff came visit me in the parking lot of the museum to look at my piece. He looked like a sheriff should look like (but without a hat) and really liked it.
In a small town so close to NY, they are very happy when something is happening in their community. Especially because it's a poor town in a very rich county Westchester ( in villages very close by live celebrities such as Keith Richards, Glenn Close and the Clintons)

dutch artbooks in Brooklyn

2009-08-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

in the centre; opa by paul de reus

I went to this very nice bookstore Spoonbill & Sugartown on hipster Bedfordavenue in Williamsburg. It's the perfect bookstore; not too big, for US standard it would be a small bookstore; secondhand , new and magazines. It's all about the selection; Very good. They do well; My old Amsterdam-upstairs-neighbor-moved-to-NY, Viv, self published a novel and it's a bestseller here. That is extremely difficult without a publisher, PR , agent etc,etc. I asked and to my joy heard they sold many copies of my drawings on writing
It's great to see so many books by people I know. Most from Holland; Melanie Bonajo, Saskia Jansen, Paul de Reus,Hendrik Gerritzen and more; all on display.
Not because these are famous artist in NY. No, just because these are really great books. I had never seen the Saskia Jansen book in Holland. (the magazine selection carries FOAM magazine, Butt (they sell that everywhere now, even in Pakistani runned news-paper stands) and Volume.)
It's a strange thought; but with no real art bookstore in Amsterdam; Do you have to go to Brooklyn to buy dutch art books?
I bought a great book I was looking for since a long time;

Heavenly Visions: Shaker Gift Drawings and Gift Songs.

Peekskill

2009-08-14T11:04:00.001-07:00

Nuclear power plant for NYC

this is where my piece will be installed.

The last few feet of the original 'yellow brick road'.
The Wizard of Oz was written by Frank Baum while he was in Peekskill

a sculpture on a empty lot....it's

Ab Lincoln in Peekskill.
Also the first black major of the USA was installed here, in 1984.

20.ooo people live here.

Great movietheater!
(saw Sheraphine there. Good movie)
Mel Gibson and Stanley Tucci where born here.
Abel Ferrara born in the bronx, raised in Peekskill

(The making of) Double Dutch in Peekskill

2009-08-11T13:35:00.001-07:00

This year is Hudson year. Henry Hudson was a Brit working for the dutch VOC. 400 years ago he 'discovered' this wide beautiful river going all the way up to Albany, the state capital.
All this will be celebrated this year with lots of activities. One of them being this exhibition of contemporary holland related artists at Hudson Valley Cultural Centre in Peekskill .
With Alon Levin, Marc Bijl, Job Koelewijn, Erik van Lieshout, Lara Schnitger, Guido van der Werve ,Martha Colburn and some more. So, I am one of them.
I'm making my second big outdoor piece (one year after Sonsbeek). It's a complicated piece with 13 kaleidoscopes that will be installed for the duration of the exhibition (1 year!) on the shores of the Hudson. I'm excited. This is going to be good, I think. It's really a great (private) museum.
Will be working very hard on it coming 10 days and thinking about it, so I can't show pictures of it yet. Showing a art piece under construction is extremely private;

But I can show a drawing of the piece.

and my studio-box.
The show only opens in a month, but already lots of activities here.
I will do more posts on this town coming days. It's a nice town.

Roman ondak in MoMa (2.5 million visitors a year)

2009-08-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I saw this Slovakian artist, Roman Ondak at some gallery in the Fiac; Around 15 very divers little drawings of paintings in a exhibition space.
He had asked a number of friends to make a drawing of his upcoming exhibition in the gallery. That's simple! So that was the show; how his friends imagined his exhibition should look like, exhibited in that very space. It was wonderful.
Now he's in the project space of moma with another simple , drawing related great piece;
Measuring the universe.

Everybody can leave his name, the date, and line above his head.
Like people do all around the world with growing children.
This will only work in a Museum like Moma with 2.5 million visitor a year.
Again; wonderful piece.

people lining to leave their line.

gay in PS1

2009-08-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

I've been told you can't say "that is so gay!" anymore. {'THAT is sooooooo gay!'}
Is offensive.
Not that I ever said it.
But when I saw the big Jonathan Horrowitz show at PS1, that was pretty much all that went through my head. Without really knowing what it means.
But these are the ingredients from horrowitz's show; Lots of Celebrities, brands, wit & humor, sparkles & glitter, aids-politics, Elisabeth Taylor, media gossip & the pope.
Let's say; it's good light entertainment.

Also gay, but more interesting and now with a first museum show in
US is the master of underground movie Kenneth Anger (wiki)

The whole show is wrapped in some red blood rubber like plastic.
Floor, walls and ceiling. Very hot & horny.
Looks quite amazing.

I don't think theirs more famous underground filmmakers then Kenneth Anger(1927). Famous & underground;Yes; he could have made the crossed over to art-house by now. Like john waters, Jarmush, etc. It's strange because his stuff is not that experimental. It's not Jonas Mekas or Stan Brakhage. Off course there's nothing wrong with this. But his stuff is so good & still so fresh, that it's a shame that people don't get to see it.
Some of his movies from 1946 (!!) look like they're made now for MTV
Was discovered by Jean Cocteau when he was 19. Worked then with a wide range of people such the likes as; Jean Genet, François Truffeau, Alfred Kinsey (wiki), Rolling stones, etc, etc
You don't have to go to Queens; There's a lot of his movies online..

visualizing sound at MoMa

2009-08-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

The fun about music record shows is that there's a big change you have some pieces that are in the show.
Last year I made a show like that with Maarten Hepp and Yannick Bouillis and the show looked great. It's quite easy to make such an exhibition, all you need is a few record collectors. Costs is nothing. We got very good responds (on museum wanted to take over the whole show (haven't heard from them since; But anyway; it's a big compliment)
So when Moma steals your idea (...) you expect something amazing!
Well; The show is quite disappointing. Some records on the wall with headphones, some 70/80 art and video. Not a very thoughtful smart exhibition.

Why two richard prince picture of Cindy Sherman in this show?
The most famous Nan Golding foto (the bedroom) is also in the show for some unclear reason.

Couldn't they get the original from this Basquiat drawing next to the cover, for example?

Aren't all Blondie record covers actually really bad?

And then the choices are all very, very 'correct' and NYC; Velvet underground, Sonic Youth, Talking heads, Television,Patti Smith, etc.
All great, ja, but all super 'good taste' arty-bands.

They have one little wall, that looks a bit like a teenager bedroom wall; poster , pictures and other paraphernalia.

This is the 45t Hey Joe/Piss Factory by Patti Smith.
According to Moma; THIS is the very first Punk record ever made........
When you listen to it; you hear patti sing, play piano and acoustic guitar.
That's not Punk!
That's folk music.
Maybe a bit angry folk, but damn! no punk.
This is my little punk-lecture;
Americans really think they invented punk nowadays.
(Mink de Ville who died today was according to the paper also punk..)
They like to call everything from around 1975 that is not disco, punk.
There where lots of amazing bands in NY that inspired the Brits to start punk, and they all had very different looks. Different from each other and different from how big rock band looked then. The brits invented Punk as a look, a way to be and yes, and a sound. You could say they made it into a trend, The idea; anybody can do it; That is brittish to me and that's the spirit. American so, called punk musicians, are in fact all much better musicians then the brits. That's a fact. Listen today to UK 77 punkbands like The damned, Chelsea, X-ray spex, Siouxie and the Banshees and you have to admit they are all pretty bad. The spirit is still OK, the music is outdated. But I still like t0 listen to Richard Hell, Television, Blondie, Talking heads, Feelies, Devo, Johnny Thunders, Suicide, etc

smells at Cabinet

2009-08-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

My favorite magazine; CABINET, opened since October last year a exhibition space and it happens to be right around the corner where I'm staying here in Parkslope (B'lyn). I was there on the last day of a exhibition. There was nothing to see.
It was a smellexhibition By smell-artist (smell collector?) Nadia Wagner. The keeper of the space handled me some very tiny pieces of paper that all had a very particular smell. Very delicate. One of them (forgot the name) quite strong and sweet has been developed especially to test gas masks. This smell lives around 15 minutes.
All other smells where more delicate , Oak moss and something that smelled a bit something between cantal cheese and shit. But light. Very good! This smell lives around 12 years.
I know so little about smell. The idea that a smell lives a certain time is so strange . How does that work? Sounds or images don't do that. Living thing do that!

I can wait to see the next exhibition;

Remember Waco, Texas? OK; The guy that David Koresh had succeeded was the man who started the cult. This was the Bulgarian inmigrant called Victor Houteff.
Jim Shaw (one of my favorite US artists) found a few years ago on a flea market in LA a big stack of his paintings......
More on this after the 20th, will try to make it to the opening.

Christophere Davison at nicelle beauchene

2009-08-05T21:48:00.000-07:00

A small gallery on Lower East Side has this very nice and delicate show of small drawings by Christophere Davison from Philadelphia;
The small drawings are a bit children's book creepy. Or you could say; School of Henry Darger. The most influential outsider artist from the last 25 years (well..since he got discovered)

Liked them a lot.
thinking about children's-book creepy; I was watching some TV tonight and to my surprise there is now a 24h kids channel.
Sponge bob at 3 in the morning... Great if you have kids and come home early in the morning, I guess. (or is it just for for the stoned Americans?)
I'm disturbed by the idea that little children are still in front of the TV at that time... I'm sure in Europe this will not be tolerated.
They don't show porn during the day. I understand;OK. But isn't this the flip side of it?
Children program and porn is booth fantasy; one would be the negative the other would be the positive.
(actually there is no "adult-entertainment" eighty on this cable)

Dan Graham & Rock & Roll

2009-08-02T07:38:00.000-07:00

All interesting shows at Whitney Museum at this moment; a new animation by Sadie Benning (who was also included in the Animated Painting show I am in at the moment in Tijuana,MX). A big Oldenburg/Van Bruggen drawings show and a retrospective of Dan Graham.
It took me a while to get into D.G. work. 10 years ago I thought it was just sublime-obsessive minimal art. But since I understand now that his work is at his best in a social context, I see it differently; It's very social. Without people using it,in it; it's not working.
It doesn't has much to do with Judd, Serra,LeWit, etc.
Might also help that I use myself spaces and mirrors,recently. And bands. So I have never been inspired by him, but now I see I could.

Graham, not a musician himself but always on top of the scene and very involved,in the NY 80 music scene (Kim Gordon quote; "Without Dan Graham Sonic Youth would not have existed") So this exhibition comes with a music program. Last Friday I saw 2 young guitar band playing; These are powers (great video) and the Vivian Girls. I liked the first one a lot. Very fresh and with a group of boys & girls dancing in silver costumes. Unfortunately the band did not play in any of his pavilion, but downstairs in the cafetaria.

But by sitting outside, backstage I created my own Dan Graham-experience, while looking through the large window.

They often have bands and performances there.(all the museums have so much night activities going on, that's something Amsterdam really misses...)
It's not so much a suitable place but it really gives the building, a great energy. It's strange; I used to dislike going to the Whitney because of the building. It's a bit clumsy and heavy. But now, I like it much better. Maybe I am fed up with the oh,so elegant white musea.

It's a bit a odd combination heavy metal/punkband like Minor Threat on a video in the same room with his glass pavilions. I understand he likes that music, the aggression and energy of it.
But, isn't all that urban aggression also generated by frustration from living in a steel, glass & concrete jungle?
There is a lot of friction in this show, that that is probably why it's a good show.
The exhibition catalogue is also great; With a funny manga-biografy about the live of Dan Graham.

2 mediocer shows at Deitch

2009-08-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

I'm back in NY and that feels good.
Have to say; there is so much happening here, even in august.
Lets start with 2 bad shows at Deitch projects in Soho.

Dash Snow died last month at the age of 27. For some reason this junky is a star;
And today an icon. Media loves a dead arty junky. And some of the artworld is not much better.
So there's a quick memorial exhibition at Deitch.
In Amsterdam (drugs capital of the world?) for some funny reason; it is really not done to be a junky artist. I mean; I really have to go back a long time to find real artists junkies in Ams.
But in the US they still love it. In France and Britain as well.
Just look at the French black-ELLE; Purplemagazine or the morbid obsession with junky popstars in the UK. Glamour & drugs.
The exhibition is a bit like a shrine, like the ones you see everywhere after a celebrity has died; people put flowers,foto's, little notes, candles and off course; teddybears!
But now all this on a gallery wall. The visitors are invited to hang their grief on the wall
(Yes;this is your chance to be in a Deitch show!!!).
So, who is this kid anyway?
A pretty blond white boy from a very wealthy and powerful art related family.The De Menil family, (one of the best private museums in the world (Houston,TX).
Ok, but so what? Does he has anything to say? What is his talent?
Off course there are many talented artists who are addicts.
He made a lot of polaroids of himself , his buddies and chicks being stoned, drinking, shouting, having a good & dirty time. And;
showing they're genitals (WOoooooW!)

Purplemagazine lovvvvvessss that stuff!
-
The show in the big space is a total Christoph Büchel rip off by two artists named Justin Lowe and Jonah Freeman. Even when you read the pressrelease you think; Christoph Büchel!
··°°°o0O
-Deitch is a weird place.....

fallen fruit in LA

2009-07-31T20:22:00.000-07:00

if you ever come to LA , in hip neighborehood Echo Park; This map will come in very handy;

Check out this art groupfrom LA all about fruit fallen from tree.
They're plan is to have fallenfruit maps from all around the world. (Thinking very hard now if I know spots in Amsterdam..)

their manifesto;

A SPECTER is haunting our cities: barren landscapes with foliage and flowers, but nothing to eat. Fruit can grow almost anywhere, and can be harvested by everyone. Our cities are planted with frivolous and ugly landscaping, sad shrubs and neglected trees, whereas they should burst with ripe produce. Great sums of money are spent on young trees, water and maintenance. While these trees are beautiful, they could be healthy, fruitful and beautiful.

WE ASK all of you to petition your cities and towns to support community gardens and only plant fruit-bearing trees in public parks. Let our streets be lined with apples and pears! Demand that all parking lots be landscaped with fruit trees which provide shade, clean the air and feed the people.

FALLEN FRUIT is a mapping and manifesto for all the free fruit we can find. Every day there is food somewhere going to waste. We encourage you to find it, tend and harvest it. If you own property, plant food on your perimeter. Share with the world and the world will share with you. Barter, don't buy! Give things away! You have nothing to lose but your hunger!

Reminds me a lot of the Agnes Varda masterpiece; Les glaneurs et la glaneuse.

Ann Goldstein's choice at MOCA

2009-07-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

Stanley Brown

What a great chance to see the last 10 years of acquisition (and many donations) from upcoming Stedelijk Museum director (and her staff) and now still Moca curator here in LA.

First of all;I get a good feeling about it.
The dutch press said her taste is german (?) But I wouldn't say that.
There is a strong US mythological pop thing going on here.
Think Paul Thek, Mike Kelley; it's all quite edgy, dirty.
It doesn't mean it she will bring all that to Holland. This is very LA.
Very different from the more delicate NY art scene.
Only one terrible Albert Oelhen painting and a interesting photo work by Hanne Darboven.
Anyway; check it out;
(sorry for the bad pictures and some misspelled names)

Matthew Monahan

(??forgot the name of the artist-gift of Mike Kelley)

John Bock

Olof Falstrøm (? ) (The other Rio sweed)
(the other one is Jonas Ohlsson)

Jimmy Durham

Rachel Weinstein (...)

Forgot the name; but like it .
(it's not Kenny Sharf, but made me think about it)

Christian Marclay (A very good sound-video installation)
She should do a big show with him in SM. Think that would really go well in Amsterdam.
I think it's still a under estimated artist.

Weird erotic thiftstore-style painting by John Altoon (1925-1969). Gift of Mike Kelley

Robert Smithson (...) strange drawings...

Barbara Kruger + Mike Kelley

Albert Oelhen.

Sergey Jensen

Yurt in LA

2009-07-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

After 9 days of traveling; From Tijuana I drove to San Fransico and from there with a camper across Nevada, Utah & Arizona. A distance like from Stockholm to Napoli and back, but with only a few villages in between.
Grumpy europeans like to say americans don't know what happens outside of their country and have no clue about the rest of the world. True or not; traveling across the overwhelming american landscape, it is quite refreshing and revealing for a euromind like mine; how Americans see things. Big off course.
But the bigness of the landscape is not man made. The wide perspective is a optimistic view. It is not romantic at all.
There is a lot of wilderness in this country. This wilderness means real danger.
Cellphones don't work in the dessert, for 4 days my cellphone didn't recieved any signal. This may sound ironic and silly; But when you see a sign ;next gas station 187 miles (250km). You better make a U-turn and fill up your tank. Something we europeans have no clue about. Holland is off course the contra-pole of the US landscape. 100% man made; No accidents, no danger, no problem.
I still need some time to digest all these landscapes.

And that's what I am doing now in a Yurt in LA.
I am staying in a yurt in the very mexican neighborehood Lincoln Heights. My friends have a house with a wonderful garden,yuccas, grapefruittrees, many pepertree's.
(these a californian peper tree's; it's not normal peper, but looks and smells like red peper ).
It's a small paradise, like there are so many in LA but you will only see them if you know people. Amazing view over the downtown area, and a small modern yurt. (If you don't know people here; it's difficult, not to say hostile)

I've stayed in a yurt in Holland before; but now it is strange to stay in one, and looking at the sealing and realize how much it looks like my piece in Tijuana;
Normally the inspiration comes before, not after.
How do you call that? When you (an artist) sees all kind of things that reminds you of something you've made.

Life under a big stone

2009-07-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

I came across these strange navajo little houses in the Arizona dessert; By constructing a little wall around a corner of a big rock, the Navajo indians used the shadow being created by these massive stones. A bit like the insect habitats under rocks

Tijuana;kids & danger-paintings

2009-07-14T17:40:00.000-07:00

On a previous trip to Mexico, I found in a friendly shop on a beach, postcards of little kids posing with dead bloody sharks.
I was a little shocked....
I thought about those images when I looked at these paintings in my Hotel lobby.
Innocent child posing with dangerous animal.

They're pretty obsessed with danger in this culture.
It's interesting to see how much hotel-lobby art tells you about its culture.

I've been told that all these kids have the same father. He is the owner of this hotel-casino where the museum has me staying. And he has his private zoo with elephants, tigers,etc.
All here in Tijuana!
This man was the previous mayor of Tijuana and has 23 kids (with 5 different wives).His name is

Hank Rhon.
But since he hasn't been re-elected two years ago, things have been getting really nasty in Tijuana; Drugs wars between the cartels.
A murder rate of 1021 last year. (Tijuana has 1.2 million inhabitants.)
Meaning that when he was in power he had control over the cartels. He had the power to keep it 'clean'.
(Amsterdam that is just a little smaller then Tijuana and Holland's murder city nr 1; 32 murders in 2008)

Mexican Sounds

2009-07-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

A interesting band from Tijuana;
Nortec Pantoptica Orchestra

http://www.myspace.com/panopticaorchestra

and Mexican instituted of sounds; very popular, also on the other side (US)
http://www.myspace.com/mexicaninstituteofsound

Animated painting-Tijuana El Cubo

2009-07-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I was invited by San Diego Museum for the show Animated Painting. Now this big show is in Tijuana.
The fysical distance between these two towns is around 50km. But the physological distance is enormous. Mexico is a second world country.
The US -Mexican border is a very big gap. So it makes sense.
The museum is a federal building that hosts everything cultural in Tijuana. Theater, library, imax theater and contemporary art. Mexico, like the US, is very state minded. Each of the 32 states has a lot of power. So this is not a state museum but a govermental institution. Mexico city dropped a big cultural institution called CECUT in Tijuana.
There is one well known art organization here called insite05.
Who has been doing great art-project related to the mexican/US border since 1992 . And invited artists like Arnoud Mik, Francis Alys, Amorales and many many others. A great institution that has set up very good projects. The curator who started this up is Carmen Cuenca.
Until a month she was the Director of the new wing to this museum. She just got fired before the opening of the show.
But Betti-Sue Hertz was the actual curator of this show that also includes;The Barnstormers, Sadie Benning, Jeremy Blake, Sebastián Díaz Morales, Kota Ezawa, Ruth Gómez, William Kentridge, Magali Lara, Ann Lislegaard, Takeshi Murata, Julian Opie, Qiu Anxiong y Robin Rhode.

Not one mouth cap against the mexican flew. Just a sombrero

julian Opie

Ann Lissegard

Sadie Benning

Robin Rhoad

Serge Onnen (better images here)

The Mexelent museum staff girls

pharmacy-paradise

2009-07-11T00:09:00.001-07:00

Tijuana is a paradise for sick people. There are pharmacies on every street corner.
Not only the sizes of a MacDonald.
They even look like them.
From the inside they look like a Damien Hirst-discount store.

The reason of their existence is that most Americans don't have insurance and when you don't have insurance you pay full price for drugs.
Making it worth the trip to Mexico to buy medicine.
They load up their pick-up truck with cheap painkillers, viagra, etc.

But now, with the mexican flue & the cartel wars......
The gringos don't come no more.
Not even the sick gringos.
Sad for the sick gringo's sad for the mexicans.

There are also many dentists and plastic surgery-clinics.

summer art-stroll in NY

2009-07-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

Went with jet-leg on the day of my arrival to the last day of Younger then Jesus at the New Museum. The new museum has been open for almost a year now and this is their big "young hot artist show" The NW wants very much to be Young & Hot.
A bit too much.
After having seen 3 big shows since they've opened, I am not very enthousiast.
First of all; the building; like many young and hot things; It looks great from the outside, but inside it's not that a interesting building.
It's just 4 gallery-boxes one on top of each other ; that's it.
It misses a challenging space, like the Guggenheim is or Whitney, PS1 or Moma have. It has a great view, OK, but there you go again; that's the outside.
To move from floor to floor you have to use or the elevator like in the Whitney or the staircase that feels very much like a fire-exit. Not very comfortable. I have seen so many amazing shows there 10, 12 years ago when they where on Broadway.

Nowadays you can just go to Chelsea to see that kind of quality shows. Especially the summer shows now in several galleries are very good.
Chelsea is not dead.
Ok; 3 great galleries closed again this month; Bellwether, Features Inc. and Caren Golden (where I did a show 2 years ago).
It's sad but these mid-galleries that don't represent at least one super famous artists, but have nice ground floor spaces (Very very high rent) have the hardest time.
A big gallery can become a little smaller and a very small gallery doesn't have very high overhead costs. The ones in the middle are the first ones to go down.

Big galleries can even still afford to make exhibitions where nothing is for sale (officially).

Two examples of great drawing shows now on view; 15 years drawings by John Currin at Andrea Rosen (all drawings from private collections) and Basil Wolverton at Gladstone (all drawings from one private collection).
I remember when Cokkie Snoei had a few drawings of Currin 15 or something years ago on the kunst rai. I liked them and asked the price. Was like 600 guilder. I thought about it..but a bit Too much..
(Argggggghhhhh!!! ).
I still like them and now I could have been a rich man.
In Europe he's not very popular. He paints extremely well, in a Courbet/Watteau style but his images look like 40/50ties playboy magazines images. It's irony , it's funny but very well made and sometimes he goes all over the top like, as it seems sometimes,only Americans dare to go.

Anybody ever heard of Basil Wolverton? (1909- 1978)

I didn't. He was a artist working for MAD magazine and has now a big survey of his work at Barbara Galdstone (gallery of Jan Dibbets, Anish Kapoor, Shirin Nesat, Gary Hill, etc all artist that never worked with MadMagazine)
I was never a fan of Mad Magazine. Too american for my very french taste in those days. But over the years I have to admit it's a important cultural-institution.
Mad Magazine stands really for a certain attitude that I can not quite find the right words for. It's not punk, or "fuck you" , its harmless and silly. Very adolesent such as it's readers. No drugs,sex, etc. It's not underground or cool. Silly.
Suprising to see this in a super fancy gallery like this.
Basil is a amazing draftman and if you look at the work of Peter Saul; Well, now you will know exactly where it comes from. So it's a great idea to do this show.

I read a great Klaus Kinsky quote; "the only fascinating landscape on this earth is the human face

So two funny exhibition but also one super groupshow at James Cohan Gallery called
White Noise.
It's not laziness , but I just paste the press release. A very inspiring, museum standard, divers exhibition in a gallery space.

No matter what you do, you're always hearing something. – George Brecht

A group exhibition featuring works that exist at the intersection of visual art, music and sound by artists of different generations. In the exhibition, there will be sounds to be looked at and objects to be heard. It will explore how sound can obliterate as well as elevate; how silence can involve both absence and presence.

Music and sound have been important influences on the visual arts since the cultural and social upheavals of the early 1960s. With the advent of performance art by Fluxus artists such as John Cage and Nam June Paik (who were both trained composers), expanded notions of music brought new elements to the creation of visual art. Additional influences such as rock and roll and the counterculture movement combined to create a revolutionary moment in which the boundaries of artistic disciplines were broken down.

Anchoring the exhibition are two iconic works from the 1960's: Robert Morris' Box with the Sound of Its Own Making (1961), a seminal piece from early process-based art and Joseph Beuys' multiple Ja ja ja ja ja nee nee nee nee nee (1969), a stack of felt with an audio tape in its center that plays Beuys chanting the German words for "yes and no," thereby muffling the potential for discourse.

Themes represented in White Noise are as diverse as the group of artists; Christian Marclay's painting, Brown Silence (The Electric Chair), 2006, takes off from Warhol's electric chair paintings by drawing a parallel between the "silence" sign over the doorway of an execution room and the "applause" sign in television studios; Louise Lawler's audio piece, Birdcalls (1972), employs the artist's voice to express conceptual musings on gender; Lucas Ajemian's and Jason Ajemian's Untitled (2006), is a video piece that rearranges the Black Sabbath's song, "Into the Void" in a musical experiment that references spirituality and the occult; and Laurie Anderson's In the House. In the Fire (2009) is a sculptural work that presents a meditation on sounds in the world around us.

The wide-range of works in the exhibition are represented by a variety of media including sculpture, film, recordings, installations, photographs, paintings and works on paper by artists Lucas Ajemian and Jason Ajemian, Laurie Anderson, Ronnie Bass, Joseph Beuys, Nick Cave, Anne Collier, Moyra Davey, Tacita Dean, Simon Evans, Brendan Fowler, Rodney Graham, Chris Hanson and Hendrika Sonnenberg, Jay King and Mario Diaz de León, Jacob Kirkegaard, Jutta Koether, Jim Lambie, Louise Lawler, Christian Marclay, David Moreno, Robert Morris, Yoko Ono, Raymond Pettibon, Jack Pierson, Jamie Shovlin, Robert Smithson, Meredyth Sparks, Reena Spaulings, Emily Sundblad, and

Fred Tomaselli.

BACK....!

2009-07-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

After a more then half a year, I'm picking up this blog again. Didn't felt like it before I left from Amsterdam , but now I've seen already quite some things I fell like reflecting on.

PS1 radio ; conversation with Joao Ribas & Frank Prattel; now online

2009-01-09T00:29:00.000-08:00

Drawings on Writing is the new dynamite book organized by Amsterdam based artist Serge Onnen. Onnen investigates the fascinating breakdown of words as they become drawings and the fickle line as they approach the netherworld of meaning/meaninglessness.

The book includes samples of one of the most ecclectic mixes I have ever seen: Sherlock Holmes, the CIA, Napoleon Bonaparte, Gustave Flaubert, Earle Brown, the Shakers, Trisha Brown, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and even Roland Barthes makes a cameo.

Also, Joao Ribas, the curator of The Drawing Center, sits in and gives his witty and intelligent commentary about the book, life, and all the things in between.

A must listen!

the end/the begining

2008-12-29T11:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday finally went to Moma for the first time since I got here. Didn't felt like going. The place is a bit like a airport. Too crowded, too big. But the food is amazing!! It's really the best museum cafetaria I've ever been. You have to wait, but the reward is big and the price small.
There are 2 great shows at the moment. Vik Muniz curated groupshow's (read NYTimes about it) The best groupshow I have seen in a long time. Not only art; also a brown paperbag, a piece of bubblewrap, some known artworks and some unknown.
A bit like my book.
The Marlene Dumas show is fantastic.
The Van Gogh show was sold out.
And next year Moma will open a big Amsterdam -show!

last stroll chelsea

2008-12-29T11:26:00.000-08:00

These are two shows I saw a week ago in Chelsea. Michelangelo Pistolleto with prostitutes printed on large mirrors.

And Nathalie Djurberg and Zach Feure with a very nice installation of ceramics, stop motion animation and dirty curtains.A great show..

soupkitchen at opensource

2008-12-23T12:27:00.000-08:00

The idea was free food for the homeless. But after a 2 weeks of having artist cook for free, 99% of the time delicious meals, Monika & Gary who run Open source ( a new small artplace in Park Slope (b'lyn) had to admit that they had mainly fed other artists. Giving away food for free is not that easy. Free=suspicious!

Soupmaster Amanda Alic & Soupdistributor Ethan Crenson

micro-artbook fair on melanie flood's kitchentable

2008-12-17T19:51:00.000-08:00

Melanie Flood is a photographer and former Zingmagazine editor who started recently organizing events in her house. Like this micro-book fair on a Wednesday night in Brooklyn.
All you need is a table, some people who make smallpress, some drinks & you'll have a perfect bookparty

Alfred Kubin at neue Gallery

2008-12-15T19:44:00.000-08:00

I discovered a new really nice little museum. Neue Gallery New york , by central park, very german, with a conditorei where they serve a very nice apfelstoedel and swartzerwaldkuche. Classy german, friendly priced. Old Jewish german couples reading Die Zeit while nipping their mozart kugeln.

Alfred Kubin is a famous obscure artist. Very dark, very Austrian,1877- 1959. I have known his work for years, without really seeing it. It's one of those artists writers and other dark artists like. I was into that kind of stuff when I was 22-25 years; 19Century, symbolism, the devilish woman. etc.
He illustrate Poe and other dark matter..
But very likely I might never have seen his work for real.
Every drawing is tiny and looks like a etching. A etching someone has been working on for weeks by candle light. In the cold.
The images are sometimes really scary and horrible.
The show is great, but my verdict is that Kubin is not a very good artist. It's interesting, but not really good. First of all, it feels very dated to me. I don't get that feeling when I look at Goya, Redon, Rops, Bellmer, Ensor (he fits in this range but in their shadow) He's very scared with using colors. He does it in a few drawings and those are very nice. But it's a typical petit maitre. Does one thing good and doesn't dare to leave that. I don't feel a madness in his work. I think I often have this problem with these dark artists. Music, literature, etc. I seldom really truly
believe it.

One artists that can be rediscovred soon, here in NY, is Unica Zurn. Hans Bellmer's wife. Very good and at the drawing centre begining next year.

2 Financial crisis victims

2008-12-14T11:19:00.000-08:00

The people who used to eat lobster all day, just because they could, can't anymore.
The prices have dropped to nothing.
I bought these two one pound lobsters in Chinatown for only 15$.
Would have been normally around 80$.
Hope the same thing will happen with all fancy condo's they're building everywhere. It's crazy; there's so much construction going on everywhere. Only luxury apartments. And I can't help myself from thinking; These under construction fancy apartment buildings; Are something of the past, not the future. Nobody's going to buy.
Even in Queens & Harlem they building apartments with swimingpools and full service.
Who's going to live there?
Maybe these lobsters can live in these swimming pools everywhere waiting for better times.

DRAWINGS ON WRITING J&L-booklaunch at HousingWorks

2008-12-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

Caroline Copland dancing Kellon Tomlinson

Ethan Crenson writing in 3D

Serge Onnen writing Jason Fulford writing

Guy Richards Smit singing over Graham Gilmore

Debbie Nathan writing shorthand-Gregg a Robert Walser story read by Jason Fulford

Leanne Shapton interviews Debbie Nathan about the odd relationship between shorthand & sex in the US

the Kass-Johnson brothers

Jeff Perkins collaborating with the CIA

{all the above pictures by Yuki Deborah Altgilbers}

Serge translates a Xu Bin drawing in the back, someone writes a letter in the front

Ethan Crenson writes in metal, Agnes Bailey writes a letter

Jason Fulford finishing, Leanne Shapton watching
{All the above pics by Amanda Alic}

The New York Version of my drawings on writing booklaunch at HousingWorks.
Some acts where canceled the very last moment. Making us to improvise more. All went well.

Matt Mullican at the Drawing Centre

2008-12-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

First time I see a floor to ceiling PACKED show that remains very calm. Impressive...

Samuel Vriezen in Good Sheperd Church (just one block from LincolnCentre..........)

2008-12-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

Dutch Composer, poet, organizer of events, oorbeek-boardmember,Friend, etc,etc
was in town; one of his new compositions was being performed twice this week, by Lost Dog New music ensemble. (together with a couple of mostly american young composers, all people connected to this blog; sequenza 21.
I hadn't heard Vriezen's music being performed in a while. This new piece for Violin and piano called 2 suites, was very good. Simple, strong, and also funny in a way. (it's strange to describe music as funny. But we do.)
This is the second time Samuel's music is being picked by a new music ensemble in NY. That's already quite expectational. (They do these concert 3-4x a year).

In a week when the dutch newspapers are very excited about the good reviews Ivo van Hove received in NY for opening night at BAM. That very same NYTimes also included a review about Samuel's piece!
(& to continue this list; Three artists doing something now in MoMa live in Amsterdam; Marlene Dumas, Lonnie van Brummelen & Yael Bartana.
And the big Pipiloti Rist video, also in Moma, was shot by Rob van der Ven.
in a dutch tulip field!
Pride of Amsterdam!

the art of BABAR by Jean de Brunhoff

2008-12-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

I grew up with it, so was excited to see some original work.
But; unfortunately; Quite disappointing..A few pencil sketches where more or less interesting. It's not the first time I see the original being less interesting then the final; The book.

Sol le witt at Mass. MoCa

2008-12-05T14:40:00.000-08:00

Just opened and will close in 2033. 25 years to go to Massachusette If you like Sol.
I'm not really sure if I like that. It is so death.
Would be more interesting to see something really transform slowly over such a long periode as 25 years.
A exhibition of food, plants, animals... See life.
Something by Mark Dion, Dieter Roth or what the hell; Damien Hirst!
There's something very agressive about a show that will last 25 years.
In NY there's a few DIA spaces where they have these long term installations;
Dan Flavin, Walter de Maria, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson.......
.......always male, american, white, minimal artists......
It's the sublime supremacy.
The protestant ruling idea that art should be eternal, pure and sublime.

'la pureté est une invention de la police' to quote Roland Topor again...
(purity is a invention of the police)

J&L night at Aperture Gallery

2008-12-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

Kaleisdoscopecyclope

Melvin van Peebles at MoMa Film

2008-12-01T20:28:00.000-08:00

Tonight two really great screenings at MoMa cinema. In one space Thurston Moore was introducing early David Bowie video's (bowie just donated his archive to moma)
While in the other space Melvin van Peebles showed one of his first movies and his last one.
I could only see one event.

Melvin is a legend; the real godfather of independent cinema in the US. He's a amazing figure. Biggest inspiration for all independent black or white filmmakers in this country. He moved to Paris because he couldn't have his films made in Hollywood. A Black man directing a movie in Hollywood at that time was not possible.
In France, Van Peebles learned the language and was hired to translate Mad magazine into French and then, with a his willpower, he started writing novels in french and did this incredible movie in 1968; story of a 3 day pass. (in french La Permission;
wiki quote;
In 1959 he went to Europe and worked for the Dutch National Theater before being invited to During this time in Paris he wrote a number of novels and made another short film, Cinq cent balles (1965). It was here that he made his first feature length film, The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1968), which caught the attention of Hollywood producers who mistook him for a French auteur. It was after the resulting bad experience directing The Watermelon Man (1970) for Columbia Pictures that Van Peebles became determined to have complete control over his next production, which became the groundbreaking Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), privately funded out of his own pocket and in part by a $50k loan from Bill Crosby Van Peebles not only directed, scripted, and edited the film, but wrote the score and directed the marketing campaign. The film, which ended up grossing $10 million, was, among many others, acclaimed by the Black Panthers for its political resonance with the black struggle.

So he worked in Holland as well....amazing. He speaks Dutch!
Too bad he didn't made a movie there.
Filmmuseum, Dutch film industry....Wake up!

This movie is super. It's really a American inspired by his generation of Truffaut/Godard. Has the same wit as those guys but from the point of view of a young black american. Amazing soundtrack by himself, great editing, great acting. Smart, funny, very political. Even has a very weird cameo of Topor, Cabu, Reiser,etc in it (The whole Charlie Hebdo gang )
I'm a fan now.

Jack Chick

2008-11-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

Jack Chick makes comics.
It's underground stuff, but religious right underground. I guess its his real name. Because it's just too weird.
If your lucky you can find them in public transportation. They're very small, people leave them around in the hope you will become a Jack Chick/Jesus Christ-follower.
I'm a Chick-follower.
They're good. Great drawings, a bit old fashioned but really funny and well drawn. And now also as a nice slide show;

Closing Night Joao Simoes's Emily Harvey event

2008-11-29T18:41:00.000-08:00

Wednesdaynight at Emily Harvey Foundation.
Jeff Perkins showed Shout, a Yoko Ono movie he made in 1965 with her and here former husband Anthony cox.

lot's of analog noises.

Some guys did mean this to electric guitars,

a guy had made a device to make analog CD's, that he played on a record player.

One of my kaleidoscopes went like a joint from eye to eye. Bad wine came out of large bottles, Ann Craven showed a short video with a cat on a couch.
Needless to say; We had a lot of fun.

DEATH BY SHOPPING

2008-11-29T11:13:00.000-08:00

The first death of the economic crisis yesterday
(black Friday is the day after thanksgiving where millions of people go shopping. Shops open at 4 and 6 in the morning. The walmart employee was at the right place on the wrong time.
A typical friendly fire casualty.
Read all about it here in the NY-Times who got great pictures of a SHOPPING GUERNICA

Dexter Sinister at The Kitchen

2008-11-26T07:10:00.000-08:00

Stuart Bailey / Dexter Sinister organized a evening at the kitchen under the name; True Mirror Microchip. A interesting choreographed mix of lectures, fading in fading out lectures, lecture over the phone, stereo lecture-lecture, powerpoint, etc, etc. High-infotainment. (or infotainment with a big i!)

There was also a guy who had a amazing machine; it's like a edison waxcylinder recorder. (circa 1870) but here the needles records not on wax rolls but on a simple plastic-cups. And then by changing the needle you can play the cup! (Forgot to get the guys name, would have been perfect for oorbeek).

After the show this brit comes to me and says; 'Hey Miguel there's your double again!' pointing out at me. (They where also at the Jeff Perkins lecture). (I have to admit, I did noticed that Miguel Abreu looks a bit like me. ) But when someone starts shouting around that I'm his double; Little embarrassing. But funny on a evening where there was a lot on mirrors, stereo, etc.
Ok, we did made a picture;

A few hours later, I'm on the subway, heading home when a tall black homeless/can-collector guy comes and sit next to me. He's very friendly. And offers me a heineken.
His name is Lemmy and he asks what my name is.
'Oh, Serge.. Yeah, I know a guy called Serge. He kills people."
.......'oh. interesting....'

analoge NY2

2008-11-25T15:02:00.000-08:00

Old printing techniques die, when there's no demand for it anymore.
But in a city this big, small things can survive.
Survival of the fittest is different for objects then for animals.
The card for this event is being printed at Soho lettrepress. A super messy, very nice, but quiet printing house. Quiet becauce It's all hand press, so no noise.
Crazy to see 25 of these machines that no one uses any more, in full action. (Well maybe in Africa or india). Makes a really nice exclusive looking job. That's why they have this upscale clients like; Sotheby's, Christies, Michael Werner Gallery, Prada, etc!
But for us, Anna the boss, made a very, very nice price.

analoge NY1

2008-11-25T10:34:00.000-08:00

How did the world looked like before image-google?
Things, where named.
With words.

words!..languages!..confusion!..ChAOS!

Except in a corner of the 3th floor of the New York Public Library at Bryant Park. In this little corner you will find the picture gallery. Real cardboard files with real paper images. Every image cut out from books, magazines, advertising and nicely put into categories.
I love this place very much. Every time I go there I am so scared they've closed it. But there's always people there at the big table surrounded with image-files.

this is the file "manholes"

Harvey Milk-soho

2008-11-23T22:16:00.000-08:00

While I was signing in for a petition about gay rights on grand street in Soho and the young activist took my address, SOMEONE with dark sunglasses, a bass-ball cap, and a little moustache passed us by. I told the guy who was taking my notes, with a low voice. 'you should ask that guy..' ' 'why?' He just made a movie about the most famous US gay activist, I told him. By that time it was too late.
It was Sean Penn.
What is this silly excitement you feel when you see a celebrity?
I saw Sean & had a wonderful day.

Nikki S. Lee at Sikkema, Jenkins & Co (stroll3 Fotospecial!)

2008-11-23T20:59:00.000-08:00

Nikki S. Lee is a Korean artist who became media-famous with one great project. By media famous, I mean; She was more or less in every magazine anywhere. Fashion, art, urbanism, photography, etc, etc. It was the perfect fit for any printed media. But not many museums or galleries. What is often the case with fotografy. Is it important to have seen the real print? Well, in 90% of the cases I wouldn't think so.
What she simply did was blending in. A urban tribe -research project. Very interesting to look how a young Asian girl can be black-girl, a puerto rican girl, a yuppy girl, a lesbian-girl, a punk-girl etc, etc. Off course woman can do this better then man. And maybe Asian woman do it better then other woman.

OK, now the hype is over. So what's next? Well it's less media-sexy. The show is called Layers. Nikki S. Lee traveled to different cities around the world, from Bangkok to Madrid, and in each city asked three separate street artists to draw her portrait on translucent paper she provided. Back at her studio she layered the drawings from each separate city one on top of the other, using a light box to bring out details from the underlying drawings, and then photographed the image. There's a bunch of small sizes photographs of these drawings in the front space. So so.
But the same images blown up big to Thomas Ruff-size in the back are very good. Blowing up a drawing in photograpy in black & white, lot's of things happeing here........not-a-bad-idea!

But I don't really love photography. So I wouldn't do it.
Nevertheless, there are 2 more amazing photography shows at the moment in Chelsea.
This show by Sugimoto at Gagosian is mind blowing & minimal. The mindblowing part is how the whole show is installed in this huge space. The light, the frames, the details, it's pervert/perfect! A threat. The whole production of these 14 B&W foto's must have cost at least 1 million $. The minimal part, is the images; very long exposure of the sea. 7 days/7 nights. C'est tout. When you go to the 3 gagosian-spaces in NY (9 in the whole world), it's allways overwhelming.
There must also be a enormous love for art behind all the money & power play. I mean, anybody can walk in any time, cost nothing and think what he or she feels like. And that is great. Moma tickets are 20$ but here you just walk in and see a museum size show.
This show by Richard Avedon at Pace gallery; same thing. This gallery has a staff of 200 people.

Henry Flint lecture in Jeff Perkins's Kitchen

2008-11-21T06:45:00.000-08:00

Jeff invited me to a small lecture about the credit-crunch, recession, financial crisis, by Henry Flint in his kitchen. He has a nice messy loft at 100m from Ground Zero, where he lives and edits his films. Around 10 people came and sat around the table while Henry did his talk. Henry Flint is a interesting figure, but unfortunately didn't had that much interesting to say about the economical crisis. Talking about the economical crisis on a little higher level than everyone who reads the news is not so easy. My friend Ethan told me this Radio show is very, very good. Listen to this and turn a bit smarter in just 40 minutes ; NPR's this american live, economical crisis and

Signs of change at ExitArt

2008-11-19T11:27:00.000-08:00

Shows like this; historical political posters, mainly from sixties till today; you'll see them everywhere. Not to complicated to make; every university has a collection.
But the show that Exit art has put together is fantastic & huge. There's even a corner where you can print silkscreens. Amazing that a non-profit space like this can make a centre pompidou-size show.
ExitArt, is bit out of the loop but always very good.
I did missed one person in the show; Sister Corita.The LA nun turning anti-vietnam activist.
I asked one of the curators why she wasn't in and the answer was that she's had quite a lot exposure these few last years.

3 upcoming NY events

2008-11-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons why I'm here is to organize a similar event as I did last month in Amsterdam, with a New York cast.

But now I'll be in 2 other events.

And I'll do a little talk on my book on this event on nov 26 between 6-8 at Emily Harvey Foundation on Broadway

Tuesday, December 2, 2008 6:30pm sharp

J&L Variety Show

Performances by:
David Reinfurt
Amy O'Neill
Andrew Lampert
Harrell Fletcher
Serge Onnen
Jason Fulford
Michael Schmelling
Leanne Shapton
and others...

Aperture Gallery & Bookstore
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York

Tuesday, December 9, 2008 7pm sharp

Book Release for Drawings on Writing

The book asks you to consider handwriting as a kind of drawing.
The event will turn performance into shadow.

Performances by:
Serge Onnen
Guy Richard Smit
The Skeleton Equation
Nick Kass
Rob Giampietro- lecture on Shaker's gift-drawings
Jeff Perkins
Debbie Nathan -talk and presentation of Gregg-shorthand
The New York Baroque Dance Company
Phil Kennedy
and others...

Refreshments will be served.

at Housing Works Bookstore
126 Crosby Street
New York City

chelsea stroll 2

2008-11-17T07:38:00.000-08:00

A few shows I didn't liked;

Cindy Sherman, adding more Cindy Shermans

Irak's superstar Zaha Hadid making big, ugly shiny ornament-sculptures

Andreas Gursky, sorry for the terrible picture: a big gay-party crowed in a supersize architecturehorror night club. (Hadid?) Everybody's happy and sharp.
Anton Henning....
Eric Fischl! Still makes good paintings . But this?; please!

This was actually in Soho at Deitch. Kehinde Wiley's Super-xxxxl-size painting of horny black streetkids on a bed of daisys. I'm getting tired, really tired...
I like this painting by Barnaby Furnas

Thank You Fischli & Weiss! You saved my day.
Back to work.....

Kyrgyzstan, B'way, Bushwick

2008-11-14T22:45:00.000-08:00

Busy Fridaynight;went to a talk for PS1Radio by a curator from Kyrgyzstan at The Lower Manhatthan Cultural Centre ( Wallstreet). I have this CD with overtoonsinging/mouthharp music from Kyrgyzstan and it's been my favorite CD from the last 2 years. So I was curious about the art scene in Kyrgyzstan. (Who isn't!)
Kyrgyzstan is very, very remote, rural and empty. It's a crazy idea to me. Anyway the lady, who's invited to NY by the Swiss (http://www.swisscoop.kg/) Didn't showed anything and was a little mysterious. (little suspicious to me..) I can't really remember much from the whole talk, actually. Later I had a little chat with here and showed here this clip, from my favorite Kyrgyzstan-band; She had never heard of them! (I don't want to give the impression I know the Kyrgyzstan arts scene better then this lady, but..well)

(correction, I was all wrong; Read the comment below by the real expert Mark van Tongeren; )

Went to the Emily Harvey Foundation where my friend Joao organizes several events this month .
Tonight one of them was this by Alison Knowles. People taken from the audience had to sing together a different song. Then, they all tried to jump up in the air at the same time.
Always a great time with the fluxus spirit & people!

After that we (3) went to Bushwick at a new club called Bushwick Starr.I think my first time in this park of Brooklyn. Great place, cheap drinks , nice people; a cute girl asked mefor a dance .Quite some people smoking inside! ( obama? people not scared anymore??). Met 2 people from Amsterdam I know. Crazy how many people I walk into every time.

Synecdoche, New York

2008-11-13T20:03:00.000-08:00

Best Movie I've seen this year.

(It's been a while...this years wasn't that great, or did I missed something?). Charlie Kaufman ( Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Adaptation) takes the idea of art imitating life into many extrem forms. It's a whole aspect of the arts, but Kaufman takes it to an other level, without loosing it. Might be his best movie so far. It's packed & stuffed with ideas, big & small ones, that do fit well together. I need to see it a second time. Going from the dollhouse idea to SecondLife and from spying to translation. All these imitations of our lifes or other peoples lifes. It's also a depressing movie, but in a strange good way.
It's very very J-L Borges, and probably hundreds of other writers. But there's also a lot of things in it that reminded me of stuff happening in the visual arts at the moment.
Georg Schneider, Christopher Bücher and other hyperealistic sculptors.
What does the artist? Why, and why the artist keeps on failing, for ever and ever and ever.

YesMen spoof New York Times

2008-11-12T11:13:00.000-08:00

I have kept a few copies, from distributing . Email me if you want a copy.

"Early this morning, commuters nationwide were delighted to find out
that while they were sleeping, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had
come to an end.

If, that is, they happened to read a "special edition" of today's New
York Times.

In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million
papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged
pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass
them out on the street.

Articles in the paper announce dozens of new initiatives including the
establishment of national health care, the abolition of corporate
lobbying, a maximum wage for C.E.O.s, and, of course, the end of the
war.

The paper, an exact replica of The New York Times, includes
International, National, New York, and Business sections, as well as
editorials, corrections, and a number of advertisements, including a
recall notice for all cars that run on gasoline. There is also a
timeline describing the gains brought about by eight months of
progressive support and pressure, culminating in President Obama's "Yes
we REALLY can" speech. (The paper is post-dated July 4, 2009.)

"It's all about how at this point, we need to push harder than ever,"
said Bertha Suttner, one of the newspaper's writers. "We've got to make
sure Obama and all the other Democrats do what we elected them to do.
After eight, or maybe twenty-eight years of hell, we need to start
imagining heaven."

Not all readers reacted favorably. "The thing I disagree with is how
they did it," said Stuart Carlyle, who received a paper in Grand
Central Station while commuting to his Wall Street brokerage. "I'm all
for freedom of speech, but they should have started their own paper."

Emily Harvey Foundation & Guess Jeans

2008-11-10T20:21:00.000-08:00

A Long time ago a very nice lady Emily Harvey started a gallery for her Fluxus friends artists. She bought a old building in 1985 from French Fluxus Artist Jean Dupuy on Broadway and decided to show only Fluxus, mail art and performance art. People like;
Olga Adorno, Eric Andersen, Ay-o, Brian Buczak, Philip Corner, Jean Dupuy, Henry Flynt, Robert Filliou, Ken Friedman, Albert Fine, Geoffrey Hendricks, Christer Hennix, Dick Higgins, Ray Johnson, Joe Jones, Milan Knizak, Alison Knowles, George Maciunas, Jackson Mac Low, Larry Miller, Alain Arias-Misson, Charlotte Moorman, Nam June Paik, Ben Patterson, Takako Saito, Carolee Schneemann, Daniel Spoerri, Berty Skuber, Anne Tardos, Ben Vautier, Yoshi Wada, Bob Watts, Emmett Williams, Christian Xatrec, LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela.
Now Emily is dead. But the building is still here and curator Christian Xatrec works here in the spirit of fluxus. It has become a foundation, with also a space in Venice.
A few of these artists live in the building now. Nice old artists that did crazy stuff, but no money. And now the best part of this story; The ground floor space is being rented by Guess Jeans (the rent is probably between 30 and 40.000$ a month). Making not only these senior fluxus artists live for free, but also getting a allowance!

DREAMS by Jim Shaw

2008-11-10T19:45:00.000-08:00

Found the perfect bed reading book; This book was first published in 1995 and has now just been reprinted.
I saw a big show of Shaw a year ago at Metro Pictures and totally felt for his work.
He's been around for a long time, but not that well known. His work is very divers; always a slow career.
These dreams are from 87 - 95. But the drawings date from 93 - 95.
Like most dream art; To be taken in small doses.
3 or 4 Dali's I can enjoy. But a whole museum of Dali, becomes like a amusement Park. Makes me visual immune . That's also a bit my problem with the famous dutch dream drawer Paul Kleemann.
But here in this book, the simple texts by the artist guide you through his brain after-closing time. On the right side of the page the dream is written down in the very fragmented way dream are. On the other side of the page the visualisation of the dream in precise pencil.
A real joy to go from text to drawing and vise versa. Perfect artistbook. This book is cheap, rich , funny and thick.

'Kunst ligt op straat' Lower East Side

2008-11-10T12:19:00.000-08:00

Homage to Peter Luining's Amsterdam blog..

obama-fatigue? Hell no!

2008-11-10T12:08:00.000-08:00

Michelle Obama by Elisabeth Payton (NY art scene-society art star) at The New Museum (painting is a few days old)
(sorry for the bad pic ; "NO PICTURES!!" a guard shouted at me)(anyway, the painting is not that great)
(I prefer the Sid Vicious looking like a cute, gay, fashion doll)
(more on this show soon..)

Some soundbites from todays NPR radio.
(the word Obama is heard at least once every 5 minutes)

'don't ask what Obama can do for you, but ask what... etc,etc'
"New progressive patriotism."

"copies of last wednesday's NYTimes go for 1000$ on ebay"

T-shirts, hats, jumpers, posters, etc, etc. Everybody adores him.
Even Bush & McCain love him. It's great.
He's the new Santa Claus

1th chelsea strole/3 great shows

2008-11-08T17:14:00.000-08:00

Richard Prince at Gagosian. (I was not allowed to take pictures; (this was the opening) ;I can tell you; the work is very good. Using collage & paint to make trashy Mademoiselles d'avigon's
(with exception of the car; that's pretty lame) (artists should never paint on cars)

Olaf Breuning at MetroPictures; Very silly, smart, overwhelming

Matthew Monahan at Anton Kern;

MonkeyTown & ISCP Williamsburg

2008-11-07T23:03:00.000-08:00

Went to ISCP openstudios. Nice & rough new location in Williamsburg. Much better then the terrible building where it used to be, and where I stayed when I was there. But quite disappointing on the presentations.
Seen one video I liked a lot. By a group from Bologna called zimmerfrei. Street theater like video. Simple, smart & beautiful.
After that we went to this bar Monkey Town that has a nice little theater in the back. Many places with nice little backspace for event here in W'burg.
Tonight there where 4 computer/video performances. More or less as boring as the everywhere. But with a greater variety of dullness that it was actually quite interesting. Earlier this year after I had visited the SonicAct festival in Amsterdam, I came with this short theory; A group of people are working in a cultural-niche. Can be anything. Everyone of them wants to be the best. One easy way, to get there is to go extremely radical. To go radical you exclude as many rules as possible, until you only have the essential left. Everybody wants to becomes radical. After a while being radical they all end up at exactly the same dead end (or full circle). At that moment radical-art has become folk-art with all its laws and rules again.
The laptop music scene is a perfect example of that. (As graffiti, painting, video, comics, movies, etc,etc,etc)
But to my surprise yesterday the visuals where much more divers and better then what I've seen over the years in Amsterdam. Especially Naval Cassidy, with analogue live stuff
and
Jeremy Slater with very dark road movie style simple footage.

Annie Gosfield/Roger Kleier at The Stone

2008-11-07T08:36:00.000-08:00

After Badiou lecture I went to my favorite music place The Stone. Hidden in a old corner shop on Avenue C. Sitting there I realized the place must be about the same size as my apartment without walls. There's like 25 chairs, no bar, no desk, no stage and the toilet is behind the stage. It's mainly Tzadik Zorn stuff playing here. Like yesterday I saw this; Was OK.
Roger Kleier (guitar) Annie Gosfield (keyboards) Trevor Dunn (bass) Ches Smith (drums, percussion)
Annie and Lauren Radnofsky perform "Four Roses" for cello and sampler, followed by El Pocho Loco, Roger Kleier's new quartet, with an emphasis on noisy guitar instrumentals and improvisation. The premiere of the group features Roger Kleier, Annie Gosfield (composer), Trevor Dunn and Ches Smith.

Jeff Perkins showing John Wayne

2008-11-06T23:18:00.000-08:00

My friend Jeff Perkins telling a story about the time he drove with Guy de Cointet through the desert and how they ended up at a John Ford movie set. He was allowed to take some pictures. And tonight, 20 something, years later, he hold them above his head at the Emily Harvey Foundation on Broadway

Alain Badiou in Lower East Side

2008-11-06T21:28:00.000-08:00

The Miguel Abreu gallery is well connected to the magazine Lacanian Ink . The owner Miguel, organizes a lot of lectures from Lacanian philosophers, such as Sizek and Badiou. Men who are quite popular in the US art scene, and also in Europe. This time Alain Badiou did a talk in a packed old community theater in a poor but very nice old jewish part of L.E.S.
' is the word 'communism' forever doomed?'In a month when kapitalist countries, nationalize banks a very interesting question.
Mr. Badiou was very fond on speaking about this , during these historic times, in NY. The declining Capital of capitalism. Good moment to start thinking and talking more about other systems of states. Capitalism has always treated other systems as criminal, as dangerous. But now, the dangers and crimes of capitalism are shown everywhere. A new dawn, but no alternative. The communistic-hypotheses like Badiou names it, should be inspiring now. But should start back from the book. Not USSR or China. He's not the first one to say this of course. I read somewhere that last month Marx was the best selling author.
About Obama, very careful; 'enjoy the symbolic, but don't trust the state'.
(that hurts!)
They love a good old pessimistic Frenchman who speaks very well, with a maximum accent. (Ze Communiste i-pod-these)
To solve the problems the world stands for, American democracy is too small, too embedded in the world dominating idea of capitalism; it's not a possibility anymore, but a necessity. And Capitalism is short therm thinking. 4 years is nothing.
After the lecture I bought the NYC historical communist touristguide. Interesting because, I'm also ready ' Howard Zinn's 'American people's history' and just read a chapter about the american labor movement. As a european, my vision was only the anti-communist history of the US and nothing about the time the labor movement really meant something here.

Partys and great joy & megaphone on Union Square NYC

2008-11-05T00:25:00.000-08:00

This pictures is actually taken at a Party where I was and also the ARTFORUM photografer
The following days at least 3 people; said very excited; 'oh!! your on the Artforum celeb. pics !!

UNION SQUARE

darkness in soho

2008-11-02T08:19:00.000-08:00

just arrived a day ago, going on a little strole in Soho and see three really intersting shows; There's not so much in Soho, but the quality is really high. Making it less excausting then Chelsea. At the drawing Centre was a show of Rirkrit Tiravanija's Demonstration Drawings. First time I see drawings of this artist. It's a interesting show; around a hundred small, fotografic pencil drawings from newspaper pictures of demonstrations around the world. Using drawing to make something anonymous and invisible, clear and sensitive; a crowed of people But the drawings where a bit to dull.It's well drawn, like a street-portraitist can draw well. When conceptual artist start to draw it often becomes so careful,dry.Or I didn't get it.

Around the corner on Grand; David Ratcliff at the uber-uber hip TEAM gallery.
They do have sometimes good stuff here, but also a lot of Purplemagazine-fashion-emptieness. I saw David Ratcliff's painting a few years ago on The Armoury,then it was the best thing I had seen.Very punky, but original. It's one of the rare cases that I get excited about contemporary painting.But never heard from him again till now;a couple of years later he's here with new paintings. It's made from the same dark, deathmetal brain as a lot of art now (not only in this gallery) but he doesn't do kids stuff like skulls, bats & devils (for god sake). This is a great painter.It's quite abstract, but really scary. Always using stencils and spray paint.
collector/museum/gallery;You should buy this now!

Saw this interesting looking book, about the history of the color black by Michel Pastoureau who also wrote historical studies about stripes and the color blue. Just came out.

Right across the street also lot's of dark matter, but not in black; Drawn with soft colorpencils. Over the top, but so well made that you get absorbed by it. at Deitch project space; Aurel Schmidt

1

2008-11-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

When I'm abroad I need to write.
Over the last few years I've been sending friends letters-emails and now for the first time I'll start this.
The advantage is I can do more short, light stuff. Things I've seen , heard, tasted, etc.
Not so much analyzing something for days and then write about it. Or maybe I will. On verra.
But being in NY in during such a important and historical week, with all the craziness of upcoming new administration and fear of upcoming big crises. I want to absorb it, be part of it. Taking notes, sketches,pictures;That's what it is. Making it public; still don't know if that's just vanity, stupidity, publicity or love?

Grandstreet soho; Obama sale