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Scanner, Diva, 2004 (detail)
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Nobody likes the new guy. Especially when he has a weird name like Mobissimo.
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The Hedge-Fund Collectors
(Art & Auction, December)
A new generation of art collectors is rapidly changing the landscape of the art market. High-profile hedge-fund managers, such as Steven A. Cohen, who made a splash last year when he dropped $8 million on Damien Hirst's formaldehyde shark and $25 million on Andy Warhol's Superman, seem to be employing the buy-and-flip mentality of their trade as they acquire artworks at auction. This has resulted in unprecedented prices for young artists such as Elizabeth Peyton and Chris Ofili, but dealers worry that such tactics may harm the ultimate value of their artists.
Seattle's Art World Ascendancy
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 30)
Seattle's art scene thrived in 2005. The Frye Art Museum featured multimedia rock group Tracy + the Plastics, the Henry Art Gallery is showing works by Santiago Cucullu, and Sarah Sze's public artwork fills McCaw Hall. Art collective SuttonBeresCuller stopped traffic with their performance, The Island, in the middle of Lake Washington; and the Aqua Art Fair, organized by Seattle artists, crashed Art Basel Miami Beach. The Seattle Art Museum has been the early newsmaker in 2006, announcing its closure for renovations and firing two guards who threatened to walk out.
Riley to Head MAM
(Miami Herald, January 4)
Former Museum of Modern Art architecture and design curator Terence Riley has been announced as the new director of the Miami Art Museum. In his new position, Riley's architecture experience will be put to good use overseeing the construction of MAM's new home at Bicentennial Park. Local art leaders say his hiring lends added credence to Miami's developing status as an art hub. In related news, local developer Craig Robins, keen to build on the success of art fair Art Basel Miami Beach, plans to found a dedicated fine-arts school in the area.
Kapoor Named Tate Trustee
(Indian Express, December 23)
Indian-born sculptor Anish Kapoor has been named as a trustee of the Tate Gallery. The 1991 Turner Prize winner, appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair, will serve for four years. The past year was a tough one for the museum, rocked by ongoing scandal over the acquisition of work by one of its own trustees, Chris Ofili. A group of artists called the Stuckists has been central in directing media attention to possible improper procedure. The Tate also admitted paying £ 3.1 million to recover stolen Turner paintings.
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Leipzig museum faces uncertain legacy » more
Austrian artist's political fantasies result in diplomatic tensions » more
FBI estimates art theft is $5 billion business » more
Berlin art scene rallies around doomed exhibition space » more
Original WTC architect's landmark studio threatened by developers » more
Kansas mayor proposes International Dadaism Month » more
Thailand's tsunami memorial design shortlist announced » more
Mayor Bloomberg beefs up New York anti-graffiti laws » more
Holocaust Memorial Museum architect James Ingo Freed dies » more
British artist on hand-and-knees quest for love » more
Note: Some online publications require registration to access the articles. If you encounter a registration screen, try akreader1 as the username and password.
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[ Sound Art ] |
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Laurie Anderson / Sebastian Clough / Christian Marclay / Pamela Z
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Once as esoteric as any branch of conceptualism, sound art is now making waves in the mainstream of contemporary art, signaled partly by the installation of Bruce Nauman's sound project, Raw Materials, in the Turbine Hall of London's Tate Modern this past autumn. Occupying a niche between melodic music and environmental noise, the practice has a long history. Beginning with the Futurists, who imagined a new music from the sounds of industry, a multifaceted medium has evolved: from John Cage composing sonatas of silence and Laurie Anderson crooning to the tunes of her modified violins, to Annea Lockwood setting pianos aflame and burying their ashes. Christian Marclay is as adept at spinning club turntables as he is at composing sculptures for blue-chip galleries, setting the stage for other DJ-artists such as Scanner, whose aural collages of found conversation and rapid house beats expand the definition of electronic music.
Many sound artists claim that their work is distinguished by its ability to fully engage and activate a space, while others use sound to heighten auditory perception. Stephen Vitiello transforms elements of background noise into soothing sonic vistas that, like slow-motion images, allow us to pick up on sounds we might have otherwise missed. Broadcasting familiar melodies through public-address systems, Susan Philipsz aims to disrupt communal spaces with private song. Creating a kind of conceptual concert, ultra-minimalist Ryoji Ikeda orchestrates only the slightest wavelengths of sound, some too low or too high for the human ear to perceive.
Engaging technology or listeners with interactive elements is another hallmark of the genre. Pamela Z uses a BodySynth processor that translates human electrical (EMG) signals into musical passages every time she moves. With headset CD players, Janet Cardiff guides listeners on neighborhood tours that merge a fictional narrative with physical reality. Working in the traditional sound venue of broadcast, Sebastian Clough has created all of the programming (hours and hours of newscasts, weather reports, dj spots, etc.) for a fake radio station with his own voice and music.
Now in the age of pocket-sized recording studios, anyone can experiment with sound — found, programmed, or spontaneously generated — and those dabbling in ambient noise and sonic atmospherics can mix up their work with the best instruments from every decade: analog synthesizers, iPods, cassette recorders, digital audio tapes (DAT), and good old-fashioned pots and pans. (JK)
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Paul Henry Ramirez: Frothy. Flirty. Feely.
San Francisco
Rena Bransten Gallery
Now through January 14
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Paul Henry Ramirez's abstract paintings have a playful sensibility that is revealed through his careful compositions of unraveled spirographs, sensuously rounded pools of color, and delicate drizzles of acrylic paint. His canvases are cartographies of contained explosions — biomorphic factories connected by a meticulous, signature investment in line — that humorously rearticulate the human body. The swirled, modish, high-contrast acrylic medallions, named Paint Pours, provide the show's first look at Ramirez's altered, ambiguous universe, while his Frothy. Flirty. Feely. series comes across like surreal, cartoon topography. Ranging from small to large, and at one point dynamically merging with a painted wall, they are colorful confections of pure pleasure. (ML)
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James Siena: New Paintings and Gouaches
New York
PaceWildenstein
Now through January 28
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Although the obsessive patterns in James Siena's paintings and drawings might suggest cartography, biology, or circuitry, his sinuous compositions actually begin with a set of "visual algorithms." The results are like a woven cloth — crisscrossing networks of loops and lines; undulating parabolas; interlocking combs, keys, and crooks — structured yet full of warm irregularities. Siena's titles reference ancient mathematics and language systems, suggesting more of a connection to natural science than to computer science. With an eye to both Sol LeWitt and the golden mean, Siena's playful framework for investigating space and perception is saturated with optical delight. (LC)
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Zhang Huan: Seeds of Hamburg
Boston
Museum of Fine Arts
Now through January 16
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A member of the Beijing "East Village" community, performance artist Zhang Huan is known for his phyiscally challenging feats that, at times, could be mistaken for self-punishment. Zhang emerged as a major figure in the '90s, first achieving notice for his collaborations with artists such as Rong Rong and Ma Liuming. In Seeds of Hamburg (a 2002 performance that is documented here by 12 photographs), he entered a chicken-wire cage covered only in honey and sunflower seeds, and 28 doves pecked at the seeds on his naked body — afterwards he released one of the birds. The work alludes to the ritualistic practices of Ana Mendieta and Joseph Beuys, as well as Zhang's own 12 Square Meters (1994), in which flies swarmed over his fish sauce- and honey-slathered body. While Seeds may not be as sordid, Zhang is definitely not cleaning up his act. (CYL)
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Jeff Wall: Photographs 1978-2004
London
Tate Modern
October 21-January 8
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Although this survey of works from Canada's best-known photographer recently closed, the Tate Modern has created an extensive online exhibition displaying over 50 of his images along with room-by-room analysis and period overviews. As with the physical exhibit, the online incarnation gives an informative (and extensive) history of Wall's position as a pillar and pioneer of contemporary photography. Blending art-historical references and modern subject matter in works such as A Sudden Gust of Wind (After Hokusai) and The Storyteller, which borrows its composition from Edouard Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Wall maintains absolute control over the production of his images. His monumental color transparencies combine sculptural scale with cinematic presence, illuminating carefully staged constructions that belie their snapshot-like quality to merit a second look. (HV)
Note: The artist's complete body of work can also be viewed in Jeff Wall: Catalogue Raisonné 1978-2004, published by Steidl.
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Fabian Marcaccio: Paintant Stories
Zurich
Daros Exhibitions
Now through April 23
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Fabian Marcaccio's stunning 100-meter-long (328 ft.) installation is part of his ongoing Paintants series, in which paintings mutate across space and time to reveal a story. But history, as we know, is replete with contradictions and dual realities: In this piece macro expanses encompass micro details, representative imagery blurs with the abstract, order collides with chaos. On one panel the American flag flutters next to an ominous metallic machine, melding into a second panel that represents tactile greenery and human forms. Like the giant, coarsely woven net that takes over a vast expanse of this massive work, Marcaccio's storytelling ensnares us as it unravels. (MS)
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[ BARR ] |
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BARR/Brendan Fowler
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BARR, the acronym used by Los Angeles-based Brendan Fowler for his solo projects, has been likened to both a rapper and motivational speaker for members of today's independent art and music scenes. Speaking conversationally and hyper-emphatically over sparse, sometimes jazz-tinged drumbeats, he incants a frank inner monologue that might induce discomfort, embarrassment, and empathetic identification — all at once. "The point is to relate and have it relate-able, but at some point it is not about you," Fowler muses amid softly discordant piano strains on his newest album (released on 5RC and Doggpony). Indeed, his performances embody public exercises in self-referentiality aimed at building an inclusive, do-it-yourself creative community.
Playing a hodgepodge of venues from the Kitchen, where last October he was booked with Khaela Maricich (of K Records' the Blow), to LA punk club the Smell, Fowler is part of a growing set of young artists focused on the intricacies of communication itself, regardless of medium. His milieu includes Tracy + the Plastics, Providence-based Lucky Dragons, and Le Tigre's JD Samson, with whom he and Sarah Shapiro form the slightly more traditional musical ensemble New England Roses. Fowler also recently expanded into print, collaborating with Ed Templeton and Aaron Rose to launch ANP Quarterly, a free arts magazine featuring articles, photographs, and interviews with the likes of Ian MacKaye and Raymond Pettibon. As BARR remarks with characteristic candor on his new record, "Maybe a magazine is the best way to talk about people and shoes and problems — larger problems..." (SK)
BARR tours the US with Animal Collective in February and March, and then tours the UK in April. Check the artist's website for dates and venues.
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[ Stephen Vitiello ] |
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Stephen Vitiello
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Paul Laster interviews Stephen Vitiello, an artist and curator who works with sound as his primary medium.
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AK: What is sound art and how does it relate to or differ from music and performance art?
| SV: I was just watching a videotape of a lecture by a German curator who defined sound art as something that falls between music and visual art. I used to think that it was easy to define, but it seems to be a hotly contested issue when brought up with other artists in the field. For my own work, I make the distinction that the work I do as sound art is generally less concerned with time and more concerned with space. Sometimes I make work that has a visual component but not always. When I work on a CD I am very conscious of time as it connects to form. I am making a CD that is 62 minutes long, working on pieces that are "x" number of minutes and have a conscious connection to a linear form. With the work I do in galleries or museums, I try to work with a system that is more open. A visitor could come in for a few minutes or seconds or an hour and (hopefully) get something out of the experience.
| AK: Who are the most seminal artists working in the medium?
| SV: There are several histories that lead up to the work a number of artists and composers are now doing. From the more pure concepts of sound art there are many important figures coming out of the last 45 years — Max Neuhaus, Alvin Lucier, La Monte Young, David Tudor, Maryanne Amacher, Takehisa Kosugi. Europeans including Christina Kubisch, Rolf Julius, etc. When people write historic overviews they seem to always go back to Luigi Russolo's manifesto The Art of Noises, Marcel Duchamp's piece With Hidden Noise, and then from John Cage to Fluxus and on. There are conceptual and performative artists such as Bruce Nauman and Vito Acconci who have incorporated sound into their work, sometimes putting it front and center and sometimes more in the background. There are some good reading lists around, for example on Amazon.com, with references to recent books, monographs, catalogs... UbuWeb is also an invaluable site for finding otherwise impossible-to-hear historic recordings as well as texts and scores for sound art, concrete poetry, and experimental music.
| AK: How do you construct your work? Does it need a visual form to be collected as art?
| SV: I don't follow any one model. I make pieces that are sound played from a multichannel system in an otherwise empty room, but I also make more sculptural and photographic pieces. Sound is always the central concern even if the work is "silent." In the last two years I've done a number of pieces that are architecturally based with speakers suspended from the ceiling. The sound source is a very low bass frequency that is below our threshold of hearing but works in such a way that it makes the surface of the speakers move, flutter, and vibrate. I've created interactive works where the light in the gallery space is being translated into sound frequencies by solar cells. I try not to go out of my way to make work that fits into a "market" conception, but I do hope that there is some point of access for a certain percentage of people who might come in contact with the work. I'm working with the Project in New York as well as Galerie Almine Rech in Paris (and then Museum 52 in London next fall), and there is always some hope that pieces will sell, but when they do it is always a surprise. The Project has sold some of the more object-based pieces. From my show at Almine Rech last winter, the gallery sold the complete edition of a sound-only work but not the more "gallery-friendly" sculptures or photographs.
| AK: Who are some of your collaborators, and what have you created with them that you might not have made on your own?
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Janet Cardiff: The Walk Book
Janet Cardiff and Mirjam Schaub
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary in collaboration with Public Art Fund and Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König
Over the past decade, Janet Cardiff (working alone and in collaboration with George Bures Miller) has produced an impressive body of work in a variety of media — utilizing aspects of sound, video, radio drama, performance, installation, and sculpture. She is best known for her audio walks, which guide the viewer/listener through an environment with spoken words and binaural sounds, constructing an exquisite, multisensory experience. Rather than attempting to simply document or recreate Cardiff's past walks, The Walk Book is designed to recall these "lost experiences" through work notes, excerpts from scripts, diary entries, photographs, diagrams, and maps. Staying true to form, Cardiff constructs an audio tour of the book on the accompanying CD that takes the process of discovery to captivating new heights. (PL)
A survey of work by Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller is on view at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Bregenz, Austria, through January 15.
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Cover Art
Scanner
Diva, 2004
Installation in Phonorama exhibition at ZKM, Karlsruhe Germany
In collaboration with Katarina Matiasek
Courtesy the artist
All Rights Reserved
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Editors
Paul Laster
Andrew Maerkle
Shana Nys Dambrot
Allison Kave
Melissa Lo
Greg Zinman
Shiraz Randeria
Marlyne Sahakian
Nikki Columbus
Jocelyn K. Glei
Mark Mangan
Contributors
Naomi Beckwith
Yng-Ru Chen
Rachel Cook
Lisa Cooley
Annette Ferrara
Jules Gaffney
Leigh Goldstein
Sarah Kessler
Jessica Kraft
Christopher Y. Lew
Natasha Madov
Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts
Hannah Vaughan
Michelle Weinberg
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Production
Anjuli Ayer
Morgan Croney
Bryony Roberts
Mailer Design
Jessica Bauer-Greene
Mark Barry
Founders
Christopher Elam
Mark Barry
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