Tag Archives: performance

Doris Salcedo inspiration

One of my art heroes who continues to inspire me…

“The act of sewing together each piece of cloth in an act of reparation, of knitting our own peace and is especially important at this time of uncertainty,” -Doris Salcedo

Participants in an artistic intervention by Doris Salcedo at the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá, Colombia, Oct 11, 2016 Photo: Leonardo Muñoz/EPA

Participants in an artistic intervention by Doris Salcedo at the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá, Colombia, Oct 11, 2016 Photo: Leonardo Muñoz/EPA

DORIS SALCEDO, has covered Bogotá’s central plaza in a massive white shroud.

In an act of protest against a civil conflict that has raged for more than 50 years, the plaza was covered in a massive white shroud bearing the names of the war’s many victims.

The public statement of mourning by artist Doris Salcedo was temporarily installed as the country grapples with the rejection of a peace deal with leftist Farc rebels that would have ended the war. [read more]

More on the intervention in an article on Hyperallergic

Watch this video for more on/by Doris Salcedo >>

And even more on this great artist on Art 21

And her Guggenheim exhibition is a great resource.

IS THERE LIFE ON MARS? GOODBYE TO DAVID BOWIE

Many posts on the great David Bowie and his impact on popular culture and the arts. He was fearless and one of my personal heroes “for [more than] one day.” His retrospective David Bowie is that I saw in Berlin was one of the most memorable exhibitions I have seen in recent years. He was fearless is his art, seemingly not afraid to fail by trying something new —  an inspiration.

IS THERE LIFE ON MARS? GOODBYE TO BOWIE BY JACK HALBERSTAM | Bully Bloggers
(One of best pieces I have read)

“…For me, as for so many, David Bowie represented a glittering, odd, unearthly reminder that life is about change, risk, madness and mayhem, and that while our domestic structures work hard to keep the madness at bay, we must be ready at all times to “turn and face the strange.”… “

And Bully Bloggers is a great blog to follow: “The Bully Bloggers are a queer word art group.  We write about everything queer, so, pretty much everything.  Politics, culture, etiquette, vampires, cartoons, the news, philosophy, utopia and revolution.  This blog is our Bully Pulpit; we preach to the converted, the unconverted and the indifferent.  We are very serious, but in a silly sort of way. ”

and here is a great slideshow of the many David Bowies.

And his goodbye..

Nao Bustamante’s Soldaderas, Real and Imagined

New Project from one of my favorite artists Nao Bustamente – women, history, identity, revolution, subversion, re-enactement, and archival research!

Nao Bustamante’s “Soldadera” is a “speculative reenactment” of women’s participation in The Mexican Revolution. ­­
>> Article from KCET
>> Article in LA Times

Source: Nao Bustamante’s Soldaderas, Real and Imagined | Los Angeles | Artbound | KCET

Document, Protest, Memorial: AIDS in the Art World

Document, Protest, Memorial: AIDS in the Art World
by Barbara Pollock, ARTnews

It’s been three decades since AIDS first made an impact on the New York art world, annihilating a community and activating one of the most highly effective artist-driven political movements of the 20th century. At that time, for every Keith Haring, David Wojnarowicz, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres lost to the disease, there were scores of lesser-known artists, such as Ray Navarro, Hugh Steers, and Robert Blanchon, who also left their mark with art that documented, protested, memorialized, and reinterpreted the devastation of the era. [read rest of article]

Yes Lab: Operation Second Thanks

Our heroes at the Yes Lab strike again calling for renewable energy:

Yes Men at Dept of Homeland Security

To a dance-ready crowd of security and defense contractors at the Homeland Security Congress in Washington, one “Benedict Waterman”—a crazy-haired, bespectacled official supposedly from the U.S. Department of Energy—announces a revolutionary new energy plan to convert the U.S. power grid to entirely renewable sources by the year 2030, and give ownership of the new power-generation facilities to those on whose land they’re built—from Native American nations (thus serving as reparations for genocide) to anyone who puts a solar panel on his or her roof. (See full press release here.)

The plan, “Waterman” announces, will give us independence from the fossil fuel companies who are leading us to ruin, and will additionally create millions of jobs, eventually save half a trillion per year on health care costs, result in lower energy costs and greater price stability, and—bonus!—give our civilization a chance of surviving well into the future. (One such plan is described in some detail here.) [read more]

Link to interview on the Democracy Now site

Mike Kelley @ PS1

MoMA PS1: Exhibitions: Mike Kelley
A show not be missed (until Feb 2, 2014).  I was very inspired by this show. Mike Kelley was an incredibly prolific artist that was not afraid to take risks—he did not hold back and followed his ideas and passions.

Mike Kelley @ PS1

From the PS1 website:
Born in Detroit, Kelley lived and worked in Los Angeles from the mid-1970s until his tragic death last year at the age of 57. Over his thirty-five year career, he worked in every conceivable medium—drawings on paper, sculpture, performances, music, video, photography, and painting. Speaking of his early work and artistic concerns at large, Kelley had said, “My entrance into the art world was through the counter-culture, where it was common practice to lift material from mass culture and ‘pervert’ it to reverse or alter its meaning… Mass culture is scrutinized to discover what is hidden, repressed, within it.” Through his art, Kelley explored themes as diverse as American class relations, sexuality, repressed memory, systems of religion and transcendence, and post-punk politics. He brought to these subjects both incisive critique and abundant, self-deprecating humor.

Kelley’s work did not develop along a purely linear trajectory. Instead, he returned time and again to certain underlying themes—the shapes lurking underneath the carpet, as it were—including repressed memories, disjunctions between selfhood and social structures as well as fault lines between the sacred and the profane. The work Kelley produced throughout his life was marked by his extraordinary powers of critical reflection, relentless self-examination, and a creative—and surprising—repurposing of ideas and materials.

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Reviews and More Info:
Official Mike Kelley Website
Mike Kelley at Art 21 (video interview and more)

Review by Holland Cotter in the New TImes
Review by Peter Schjeldahl in the New Yorker
Review by Ben Davis in Blouin ArtInfo

Forest Houses Residents Consider the Gramsci Monument

Interesting Read from Hyperallergic


In Their Own Words: Forest Houses Residents Consider the Gramsci Monument.
With the help of local residents, Thomas Hirschhorn built a public artwork called the Gramsci Monument in the Forest Houses in the Bronx this past summer. From July 1 to September 15, the monument brought a theater, a radio station, lectures, art and computer rooms, and more to the public housing complex.

In Their Own Words: Forest Houses Residents Consider the Gramsci Monument

Some reviews on the project:

NY Times
Arts Journal
Black Box