Pee, Poop and other things that I don't like to see in galleries

Today in my seminar class we discussed our values as artists. We are forced to define these values when we look at work we don't like. This is a task that Ron is having me do for Painting. I found an artist, Dash Snow, whose work I don't like with the exception of a few Polaroids.

Snow creates installations called Hamster Nests. Shredded phonebooks seem to be the bulk of the nest. The installations have been created in hotel rooms and most recently at Deitch Projects in NYC. The nests are created by the artist with collaborative help from his friends. They shred the phonebooks, tag the walls and take drugs until they create an environment fit for hamsters. (the hamsters being artist and co.) This drug induced fantasyland, when created in a hotel room (paid for by Saatchi), is left for the staff of the property to clean up which I think is really lame. Other work I've seen include Polaroid photographs. Some of these I actually enjoyed, but seeing a man sniffing coke off an erect penis...I'll pass. The newspaper clippings of police brutality with the artist spoogie splattered all over it...again, not my cup of tea.

I could come up with the regular adjectives to describe work I don't find value in, such as: sensational (but not in a glittery kinda way), juvenile, insincere, sell-out (even though I rarely believe in this notion), blah blah blah....But then i wanted to really give reasons why I don't like the work. So I'm forced to produce my list of core artistic values...as of 2/26/08

Core Artistic Values:
#1. Ethics

Artwork with piss, poo and ejaculate matter are highly questionable. IF I find work with these "materials" that actually works...I'll be shocked, but not *OMG shocked!!!*

See Dash Snow for spoogie work, Andres Serrano for piss/corpse work and Piero Manzoni for poo work. As a side note: every artist listed above is collected/exhibited by major museums/galleries... so somebody likes it. Although, I wonder if Manzoni's work wasn't about making a mockery of the art world and the only people laughing are the gallerists and artist when they cash their $$$ from selling his shit in a can (I'd like to think it was little white turds made out of plaster of paris)

• The use of corpses in artwork makes me sad and is unethical. That goes for animals too.
• Mutilation and suicide...See Viennese Actionists

TO BE CONTINUED...

VIVA NOLA

My dear friend Takashi just emailed me and his installation, Social Dress New Olreans: 730 days after..., is going to be included in the first International Art Biennial in the US...Prospect .1. (yeaaahhh!!) Seventy five artists were chosen to participate. The event will be in New Olreans and its directed by Dan Cameron. When we were there this summer, the buzz about the show was just getting started. Actually, it was just a rumor at the time, but it's for real now. I'm booking my room already before the shit hits the fan. Already it's estimated that over 250,000 will visit the biennial. http://www.prospectneworleans.org/

I'm so proud of Takashi. It was a great experience working with him and everyone else who volunteered on the project. I'm glad our efforts to bring attention to NOLA are being recognized.

Takashi's blog:

http://socialdress-neworleans.blogspot.com/

My blog:

http://latexadventures.blogspot.com/

Brigitte Fontaine

I found a song by Brigitte Fontaine that was titled Conne. In the song she screams 'conne!' over and over again like she's pissed and it kinda sounded like my name. I liked it... but then translated it means 'bloody idiot'....

In Urdu, El Camino means 'idiot'. My friend who is Pakistani told me that they would make fun of the car calling it the 'idiot car'. It's too bad cause I've started to like el camino's again.

Blah blah blah...blah blah

Today was a shitty day for me and my video. My computer can't hang anymore with the big dogs...too slow, glitchy, makes weird noises in the night. I pretty much wasted 3 hours today trying to create a transparent quicktime animation in imageready and then importing it to premier. Sometimes it was all black, sometimes it was green with severe pixelation and the damn thing never was transparent like I created it in photoshop. AND, i know it can be done in a few steps in Final Cut. But I have Premier and i was determined to figure it out. At least I have everything to start putting my animation and video together.

I did get to see some pretty cool films today from microcinema international. the one with the apple keeps playing in my head.

I've been reading the Poetics of Space and it's the best book I've seen so far on the topic:

"Topoanalysis, then, would be the systematic psychological study of the sites of our intimate lives. " (Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard)

"O, mes chemins et leur cadence" - Jean Caubere, Deserts
(Oh, my roads and their cadence.)

Thoreau said that he had the map of his fields engraved in his soul.

Memory does not record concrete duration.

"Magical Little Places"

Someone said that to me today and I thought it was cool. But before that, I made this animation...

So then back to magical places...I started to think about it. I like the idea of creating little dioramas in boxes, but then I thought...where else can one create little magical places. The body as site has always interested me. I usually don't think about that place on my arm where blood gets drawn(that's a lie, i do think about it...ever since i read madame bovary in high school...) it's a very intimate place. The stomach's a good place too.

Writing on water

Today I saw a video by Penelope Speier. She's an artist who is featured at the Satellite Space for February. This is her first video installation and it is based on her experience visiting Japan. The video showed a paintbrush writing or painting along the surface of a flowing stream. Sounds of the water moving can be heard and a few fallen leaves can be seen clinging on a rock. Impermanence.

While visiting Japan, Penelope witnessed monks writing over and over again a certain prayer. She was inspired by this act. What I liked about the video was its simplicity. I liked the simplicity of the movement, the simplicity of the site and the simplicity of the sound. It was beautiful.

A few days ago I found a video animation that totally inspired me. It was a mixed collage of animation, photography and video. Layer upon layer of narration made the work complex that I had to watch it over again. http://www.spike.com/video/2916829 I still don't fully understand it. So I think I'll have to watch it again. It makes me want to work with more layers of narration and to play with video. I should write more, too.

Lately I've been drawn to work that falls into the ""less is more" team and the "super lush and seductive" team. I even saw a cooking show last night that had a fish dish from Veracruz with a shitload of ingredients tossed in. At first I thought, "that's too much!" but then I thought, "I bet that tastes sooo good..."

The Diving Bell and Miranda July

Wow. Sometimes I see things that are beautiful and they just leave me speechless. These moments can be subtle and by chance like hearing a baby laughing at the grocery store or sometimes they are created like a Beatriz Milhazes painting at the MoMA. A few days ago I saw The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a film directed by Julian Schnabel, and the beauty of that artwork has yet to leave me.

The perspective in the film is from the main character who awakes in a hospital to find that he has "locked-in syndrome", a condition which has left him without the ability to speak and without the movement of his body. One eye becomes his portal to the world around him and his only mode of communication.

The tragedy of his condition gives way the beauty of his observations. The glimps he gets when a breeze whisps his wifes skirt to reveal her inner thigh has a new meaning. A quiet moment of beauty to a man who no longer has the sense of touch or speech to express his desires, sexual and otherwise.

As I read Rachel Kushner's article about video artist Miranda July, I was reminded how July also pays attention to the subtle nuances in life. Pooping back and forth and such. ))<>((