jameswagner – Page 63

“American Primary System Fails to Impress Europeans”

Duh.
Deutsche Welle, the English language on-line news site, reports that intelligent Europeans who study our political system essentially think the way we select candidates for office is, well, nuts.

National elections in Europe often last only six weeks and campaigns are publicly financed. That makes the details of the United States’ prolonged primary season, the winner-takes-all Electoral College and campaign financing groups particularly murky waters for Europeans.
“Quite frankly the American democratic system is atavistic,” said Frank Unger, an expert on US politics and a professor at the John F. Kennedy Institute, which is part of the Freie University in Berlin. “It’s outdated. It doesn’t really reflect democracy in a modern sense.”

I think he’s being kind.

[image from blog.kir]

Daniel Joseph at BUIA

Daniel Joseph It’s starting to rain acrylic, latex and collage on wood 96″ x 24″

[artist’s note mounted to right of painting, completing installation of “It’s starting to rain”]

Daniel Joseph I’ll forget eventually 2007 acrylic, latex, oil and collage on wood 96″ x 43″

[artist’s notes mounted to left of painting, completing installation of “I’ll forget eventually”]

[full view of “I’ll forget eventually” installation]

I did not know about this wonderful artist until two weeks ago. There were apparently any number of missed opportunities to do so, as I’ve learned about since visiting a group show, “Holiday!“, mounted by BUIA gallery last month, but somehow I had not come across the work of Daniel Joseph until then. The artist is known for painting, installation, performance, video, works on paper and music. Even now, of all those mediums, I’ve only seen his paintings first hand. These gorgeous pieces may represent the most traditional form of his expression, but apparently he couldn’t just do a painting; he had to make it an installation, leaving us little hand-written messages which bring his complex wood and paper constructions into the viewer’s own world.
But these particular works are also not just paintings. They’re actually more like painted collages. I’m sorry my photos don’t really show their full richness. I guess I was a bit too quickly distracted by our conversation with Vanessa about the artist while Barry and I were in her eponymous gallery. Although the show from which I snapped these images is now gone, I’m tempted to go back and ask if I might be permitted a stab at a detail shot or two.
Joseph had a solo show at the gallery last year. I missed it, but I’m not going to miss the next one.
In the the press release for the 2006 show, novelist/essayist/wit Mike Albo was quoted speaking about Joseph’s work:

I dont think Mr. Joseph believes in silent retreats. Instead of stripping things bare he would rather dive into the mess. His collages have a shredded beauty, made out of layers and layers, drizzled with symbols. He piles things on and leaves heavy footprints. He refuses to believe its too late for love or that it comes from somewhere above our heads in some kind of refined, expensive air. He wants us to scream and find to each other through the tatters and chatter.
Somewhere down here, deep in the mess, are fresh moments, orgasms, friendship and the lurching laugh-cry you used to get when you laid on the front lawn and looked at the sky. These pieces drag you through all the trash as if you were pulled along by a loving arm that wont let go. Here are Daniel Josephs buoys- swim to one and signal to someone else that you are in love.

the last of the old year’s (glorious, expiring) lillies

Flowers, like other objects of our affection – or lust – are usually sought out for their freshness and youth, and not for their spots and wrinkles. Anyone familiar with this site knows I love flowers, but I confess that more and more in recent years I myself seem to have so shared this attitude. It must be one of the reasons I have generally avoided purchasing cut flowers either for myself or for others.
Of course, since I have watched so many bouquets purchased from New York corner deli’s die within hours of their arrival, my preference for potted plants might be explained by something other than any special aversion to witnessing the natural sequence of maturation and death. There’s also that messy, complicating thought that a flower actually dies the moment it is cut.
Like their animal cousins flowers do not seem to lose beauty as they age as long as they are left in their natural environment. I’ve always loved looking at a landscape or garden, including those I’ve nurtured myself, late in the season when its flashier beauties start to fade and begin to shrivel and bend. Indoors I’ve thought I could only approach this phenomenon with a living, flowering plant in a pot.
Until this past week.
Thirteen days before I took the images at the top and bottom of this post I received as a birthday gift the magnificent vase of florist-arranged mixed white blossoms into which were tucked the buds of these now-fading lillies.
It lasted over a week as a bouquet (although, surprisingly, the roses left shortly before that, having never quite opened). These remaining stems, together with the Eucalyptus leaves which accompany them, have now been sitting by the window on our ancient table in this heavy old green glass “can” for many more days. They have Barry and I both great, silent pleasure while we read, write, talk, and listen to music, eat and drink.
Some time today, before midnight, I will respectfully dispose of them, but I’m going to remember the beautiful, graceful dignity of their aging.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO US ALL, WITH LILLIES FOR EVERYONE – OF EVERY AGE!

GUANTANAMO DELENDA EST!

Out of sight and out of mind. Our concentration camp in Guantanamo is still off the chart (literally); missing from the Democratic Congressional agenda; “not present” in presidential campaign rhetoric; and, most frighteningly and damningly of all, it still appears to have completely escaped our national conscience.

[fabric color swatch, otherwise unrelated to Guantanamo, from froggtoggs]

the obscenity of organized hate under cover of religion

A girl, who was wounded in a bomb attack, receives treatment in a hospital in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, December 25, 2007. U.S. forces killed two gunmen and detained four others in operation near Baquba, the U.S. military said. Hours later, a suicide bomber killed four people and wounded 21 at the funeral of the two men who were killed by the Americans, police said.

I’m not feeling good about religion today, any religion, but nothing new there.
I’m listening to a magnificent recording of Handel’s “Messiah” (the music, the music). I’d just read the CD liner notes which refer to Handel’s beneficences to the children’s home, London’s Foundling Hospital, which has been associated with his oratorio since 1750. Then I opened my computer to the news stories on my home page. The lead item from Reuters cried out with the image and caption at the top of this post.
There are no words for this obscenity.

[image and caption from an unidentified stringer working with Reuters]

Ester Partegàs in Miami

Ester Partegàs Yes Collection 2007 resin, spray acrylic and enamel paint 12.25″ x 82.75″ x 59″ [installation view]

Barcelona’s Nogueras Blanchard gallery showed work by Ester Partegàs at NADA, including this over-size identification bracelet. I thought the gallery’s images of a room installation, “Invaders”, being put together at that moment in Madrid’s Reina Sofia were very impressive, but light reflections made them impossible to record.
The museum page includes a statement about Partegàs‘s work in general which is even more useful than its description of the current installation itself. Wish I could see it.

one of the huge sets of layered paintings on methacrylate, which surround a central sculpture in the Reina Sofia’s Producciones

[second image from the Spanish Ministry of Culture]

Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen at Basel

Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen The Artist’s Song 2007 video (16mm film transferred to DVD) [large detail of still from video]

Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen’s terrific rap take on the state/hotness of the current art scene was one of the most entertaining performances, live or recorded, I witnessed at the Miami art fairs. The video was presented by Copenhagen’s Kirkhoff gallery.
The gallery supplied this description in a statement which accompanied Rasmussen’s solo show this past spring:

In the film, “The Artist’s Song”, the artist sings about (in)famous works from the history of art which have influenced the concept of art, just like [her live performances at the March 10 opening]. The film also deals with an artist’s dream of fame and immortality as an incentive behind the works. The film shows the artist at the museum Glyptoteket in Copenhagen, dressed as a sculpture on a pedestal and surrounded by classicistic sculptures. Her descriptions of the competetive art scene, the various positions, the artist’s dreams and ambitions become both general and personal statements. The film is part of Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen’s work with identity, whether it is nationality, gender, religion or as in this exhibition – the identity as an artist.

I was already sorry that I missed the Brooklyn Museum show, “Global Feminisms”, also mounted this spring, but learning now that the artist was a part of it makes me want to kick myself.
To watch Rasmussen talking about her work, showing excerpts from some of her videos, click onto this image:

ADDENDUM: Rasmussen will have a solo show here in New York at the Renwick gallery in February. It will feature reenactments of performances, including “The Artist’s Song”. I wouldn’t miss it.

[second image/clip from Brooklyn Museum]

Ara Peterson at Miami Basel

four views of Ara Peterson‘s site-specific wall relief inside one of the most popular containers of “Art Positions” at Art Basel Miami Beach last week.

This installation, of hand-painted, laser-cut birch plywood, glass mirrors and space, was arranged by John Connelly Presents.
It’s my birthday, so although I already like Peterson’s work a lot, I have another good reason to put up these images today: It’s a very happy piece. I got some great flowers this morning, but no balloons; these colors and shapes will do very well instead.

traffic horse on West 27th

It was totally dark on far West 27th Street at 6:15 last night, except for the amber incandescent lights overhead, so this beast looks even more weird than it might normally.

Smart on 23rd Street

The first Smart of winter. The Mercedes Smart (yes, Mercedes) will finally be available in the U.S. by the end of January.
We spotted this little beauty (a cabriolet with manufacturer’s plates) parked across from our building as we headed out to Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy via several subway lines this afternoon. Sigh. I think I’m still hooked.