Xavier Deshoulieres Saint Georges 2006 oil on canvas 51″ x 77″ [installation view]
[detail]
Virgil de Voldere is showing new work by gallery artist Xavier Deshoulieres. This French painter working in Cologne has developed a stunning technique which may well be unique to him. Deshoulieres paints on both sides of the canvas with his hands and his tools. Ultimately however his subjects and the images with which he chooses to represent them must also be credited for the work striking both the eye and the head of the observer.
These are, literally, painfully beautiful canvases.
“Saint Georges” describes the Beirut site of the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Saint Georges was a legendary hotel during the golden age of Lebanon prior to the 1970’s civil war. Saint George was born in Beirut, according to Christian Lebanese myth. Obviously the dragons were not eliminated altogether.
Category: Culture
Brooklyn College MFA “Plan B Prevails”
WHEN DOES A PHALLUS DESERVE RESPECT?*
Robert Mapplethorpe Louise Bourgeois 1982 [image of Bourgeois holding her “Fillette”]
Now it’s official. Er, maybe I should write “anti-official”: The Brooklyn College 2006 MFA thesis show is re-opening, mostly. It was shut down by the City of New York for not being “appropriate for families” on May 6, the day after it opened. Shortly after that everything was hauled away by the school which sponsored it, and in the process some of the work was damaged or lost. Tomorrow night the exhibition is finally going to re-open in DUMBO – this time on private property. The opening reception is from 6 to 9 pm and it will include a live performance.
The reassembled and necessarily reworked show will include new pieces made in response to the censorship and thuggish trashing of the original installation. The students, who re-gained posession of their work only four days ago, are calling the new exhibition, “Plan B Prevails“.
*
One of the works included in the original MFA show was a sculpture by Augusto Marin which included a representation of a phallus.
THE SHOW DETAILS:
The artists are: Carla Aspenberg, Jill Auckenthaler, John Avelluto, Zoe Cohen, David Davron, Susan C. Dessel, Carl James Ferrero, Carrie Fucile, Pamela Gordon, Yejin Jun, Diane Kosup, Marni Kotak, Augusto Marin, Akiko Mori, Christopher Moss, Sarah Phillips, Megan Piontkowski and Tamas Veszi. The show will occupy 6,000 square feet of space donated by Two Trees Development.
Plan B Prevails is located at 70 Washington Street, Brooklyn, in 6,000 square feet of space donated by Two Trees Development. The entrance is located on Front Street. The exhibit is free to the public and is open Wednesday through Sunday from May 24 to June 16, 2006 from 12 to 6 pm or by appointment at Brooklynmfa@gmail.com. Take the F to York Street or the A/C to High Street.
[image from Georgetown]
UPDATE: In a comment which appears below Chris Moss points out that Louise Bourgeois used to teach at Brooklyn College herself! No, I can’t pretend I knew just how appropriate the image was!
postponed: Brooklyn College MFA students press conference
I’ve just gotten word that the Brooklyn College MFA Press Conference originally scheduled for 1 pm today has been POSTPONED. Details to follow.
I’m not going to speculate here, but I find this last-minute change very interesting.
On a related note, I’ve attended at least dozens of press conferences involving civil rights issues in New York, many of them enjoying the participation of Norman Siegel. They are very often if not usually held on the steps of City Hall, and not [never?] inside a law office. Even though access to the people’s house in New York is not free, and even if groups sometimes have to take a number to reserve a spot, those columns make a good visual if you can get in and the media knows exactly where you’ll be.
My understanding is that this particular conference relates to a civil rights suit against the City of New York as one of the defendents. Any reason why City Hall might be off-limits this time? Perhaps someone should ask the Mayor’s office.
Jack Pierson at Cheim & Read
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Jack Pierson Roses Roses Roses 2005 metal, plastic, wood, found letters, as floor piece 30″ x 87″ x 70″ [view of installation]
Maybe I’m just feeling competitive, Barry having uploaded such a great image of a great piece two days ago, but I also really like Jack Pierson’s work. So here’s another shot from the show at Cheim & Read which closed May 6.
Douglas Kelly as proper political pundit
and I also have a bridge you can buy
Gee willikers, Uncle Sam! It’s as if up to now we’ve only had to worry about the civil rights of our native Al Qaedans!
Why is it we don’t hardly hear a peep from our politicians or our media, even from the few progressive elements that remain on the outskirts, about the real reason for this administration’s interest in our converstions and our associations? I’m talking about our government’s five-year-plus orgy of domestic wiretapping and the tracing of tens of millions of phone records. Hint: It’s not because the Bushies are just nosy, and it’s certainly not because they’re trying to protect us from anything.
This evening Douglas Kelly breaks the media silence with a note which precedes his visual arts newsletter, the the “Douglas Kelley Show List”. I’m copying the note’s entire text, but it’s the last paragraph [with my italics] that shatters the let’s-just-continue-to-play-nice game:
May 18th, 2006, NEW YORK- Years ago during the Reagan era when the late Senator Daniel P. Moynihan quit as head of the Senate Select Committee on Foreign Intelligence he said to the effect, “Why should I waste my time, they only they only come here and lie over and over again, what is the point?” The ability to sincerely lie to Congress and the American people on national TV has been a career qualification for head of C.I.A. since I’ve been watching and on the basis of what I’ve heard so far, he’s qualified, I don’t believe a word he said.
Our new four-star chief spook looks like what members of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles must look like these days down at the Children’s Memorial Saturday Morning TV Retirement Home in Boca Raton Florida? General Turtle looks a little hungry, will somebody please put a leaf of lettuce in this guy’s cage?
Why would the N.S.A. go for everybody’s phone records in the U.S.A.? Great Caesar Nixon’s Ghost! What a stupid question? To go get after those pesky untrustworthy troublemakers; the press, the leakers, the whistle blowers, the protesters, the gays, women, mothers, Democrats, Lib-ber-rals, artists, any of those terror enablers who question an open ended war beyond the realm of oversight or accountability? (Besides the political intelligence from an analysis of such lists could be very helpful in the next election.) “Thank you General Bobble J. Turtle Head, sir! You’re doing a heck of a job!”
It’s not enough to control every branch of government; you gotta make sure it’s permanent, especially if your players would all be subject to criminal prosecution under any responsible Department of Justice and Congress.
Why doesn’t anyone seem to understand what’s going on? The stakes could not be higher, yet what passes for the opposition plays the game as if the other side had any interest in the rules.
Uncle Sam is leaving.
[image from Micah Wright]
Brooklyn College MFA students announce press conference
UPDATE: [noon, Friday, May 19] The Brooklyn College MFA Press Conference originally scheduled for 1 pm today has been POSTPONED. Details to follow.
FIGHTING THE CENSOR’S (ST)INK
Brooklyn College MFA students, members of the faculty and attorneys Norman Siegel and Steven Hyman will hold a press conference tomorrow afternoon announcing the filing of a lawsuit against the City of New York, the New York City Parks Department and Brooklyn College.
The location is the Law Offices of McLaughlin & Stern at 260 Madison Avenue (Betw. 38th and 39th) on the 20th Floor. The time is 1 pm.
I’ll be there.
For the background, see this blog and my six subsequent posts linked there at the bottom of the text.
Gedi Sibony at the House of Campari
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Gedi Sibony Untitled 2004 mixed media [installation view]
A group of overly-designed empty boutiques on West Broadway may not be the best space to show new work, unless perhaps that’s how the targeted shopper lives, but much of it the art Simon Watson and Craig Hensala brought to the Campari exhibition, “25 Bold Moves – An Exhibition of Contemporary Art”, managed to shine through the glitz of the spaces and the glamour of the opening night crowd. This smallish piece by Gedi Sibony, in spite of its great beauty, managed to look positively shy on the wall of one of the back alcoves.
Lately we’ve been doubting our diligence, but maybe we really do get out a lot. This show is billed as an exhibition of the work of 25 “emerging” visual artists, but the biggest surprise for us was that were no surprises there for us. Just rewards for the eyes.
The 24 other artists are:
Tim Barber, Carter, Yi Chen, Matt Connors, Chris Dorland, Bendix Harms, Valerie Hegarty, Matthew Day Jackson, Anthony James, Jennie C. Jones, Justin Lieberman, Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry, Wardell Milan, Wangechi Mutu, David Noonan, Os Gemeos, Adam Pendleton, Mika Rottenberg, Shinique Smith, Saeko Takagi, Scott Treleaven, Aya Uekawa, Helen Verhoeven, Zachary Wollard.
Olafur Eliasson at Tanya Bonakdar
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Olafur ELiasson The uncertain museum 2004 steel, projection foil, wave mechanism, HMI lamp, rubber, water, wood 9′ 8″ high x 14′ 7 ” diameter [exterior detail of installation]
Olafur ELiasson Inverted mirror sphere 2005 stainless steel, mirror, wire, cable, bulb, dimmer 63″ diameter [interior detail of installation]
Very beautiful and lots of fun, the four large, gently-kinetic sculptures Olafur ELiasson has installed at Tanya Bonakdar do not hide their magic: The visitor is invited to pay attention to the wizard behind the curtain.
Jennifer Coates at Feigen
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Jennifer Coates Grotto 2005 acrylic on canvas [detail from installation]
[full view]
Jennifer Coates is showing fanciful “landscapes” figured with extravagant abstractions in the front gallery at Feigen. Can an abstraction be surreal? Regardless of tags, they’re absolutely terrific.
Jenny Holzer at Cheim & Read and Yvon Lambert
Jenny Holzer WHITE 2006 Nichia white LED’s mounted on PCB with aluminum housing 192.25″ x 216.5″ x 5.25″ [capture from moving light of installation]
Jenny Holzer HAND yellow white 2006 oil on linen in eight panels 33″ x 25.5″ each panel [detail of installation]
Jenny Holzer BIG CONTAINER yellow white 2006 oil on linen triptych 103.5″ x 80″ each panel [detail of installation]
Jenny Holzer shows us what “freedom of information” looks like in a show at Cheim & Read. It’s not pretty, but its more compelling than a car wreck. The installation is part of a collaboration with Yvon Lambert, across 25th Street, where “Night Feed”, a series of very different text-based works has been installed.
From the Cheim & Read press release:
In her newest work, Holzer negotiates the political landscape after 9/11 and traces the debate over covert operations, ghost detainees, prisoner abuse, and war tragedies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay through the directives, emails, and testimonies of policy makers, soldiers, and prisoners. The documents, many of which were classified at the time they were written, originated in United States government and military agencies and have been made part of the public record through the landmark Freedom of Information Act.
It’s almost impossible to imagine how banal, or how horrible, are the parts which our government will not let us see.
Holzer’s art will not let us stop trying – to imagine, yes, but more importantly, to free the information.