Peekskill

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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)