Tracey Baran Ivy 2001
UPDATE: The silent auction for the SVA Tracey Baran Memorial grant has been extended through Friday, October 2nd, for all unsold lots. The fine works which remain are being offered with reduced reserve prices, and can be seen here.
It’s a celebration, not a retrospective, but it’s enough to show how much we will miss her, and of course her remarkable art.
Leslie Tonkonow is currently hosting an installation of the late artist Tracey Baran‘s work. It supports the only slightly ambiguous title, “Pictures of Tracey“. But there’s so much more that couldn’t possibly be fitted into one space, in one show; I’m sure it’s not going to disappear.
Roughly concurrent with the exhibition, the School of Visual Arts is hosting a benefit auction for an annual grant given in Tracey’s name. The silent auction, of works donated by other artists, except for one painfully-beautiful photograph by Baran herself, will continue through September 30th on iGavel.com. Proceeds will fund the grant, which is open to emerging female photographers from the United States.
[image from Leslie Tonkonow]
Franklin Evans at Sue Scott Gallery
Lately Franklin Evans has, as the Sue Scott Gallery press release says, “used his studio as his primary subject”, wowing any visitors lucky enough to have been able to stop by. Fortunately for many more, he had weeks to install his current show, “2008/2009 < 2009/2010“, since it meant he could extend and enlarge what has become a spectacular studio practice, one which employs watercolor, wallboard, paper, tape, bubble wrap, thread, Mylar, press releases, parts of the gallery (inside and out), the occasional found object, and art monographs.
sign outside the gallery [am I reading a flag?]
[detail]
Obama addresses UN; we watch “Save the Green Planet”
spotted as I left MoMA yesterday afternoon: the Presidential truck speeding east on 53rd Street with the Obama party securely ensconced, heading back to the Waldorf from the David Letterman taping
At the UN climate summit today, Obama told the General Assembly that the U.S. is “determined to act” on climate change. Last night at home, in an unplanned salute to the summit, Barry and I watched “Save the Green Planet“.
Right now I’m thinking that while we were enjoying that film we probably contributed as much toward toward averting the worst fate of the earth as anything promised by our President.
That just doesn’t make me feel so good, so I hope I’m wrong.
We’ve been on a Korean film binge lately, all knockouts, and most by the director Bong Joon-ho. Although we were unprepared for the violence in Joon-Hwan Jang’s hybrid comedy/drama/horror/sci-fi/thriller, we ended up watching most of the DVD’s long list of extra features and I still have “Jigureul jikyeora!” rolling around inside my head.
Jason Hanasik at +Kris Graves: “He Opened Up”
Jason Hanasik Steven Two-Faced 2007 digital C-print
Jason Hanasik Steven’s self-portrait #2 2008 digital C-print
Jason Hanasik Steven’s photograph of a man carrying two bottles of piss 2008 digital C-print
Jason Hanasik Patrick (Welcome) 2005 digital C-print
Jason Hanasik Steven (turn) 2008 digital C-print
I think it’s about the fact that guys often have trouble functioning as full human beings, but sometimes they’re offered an opportunity and they grab it; and then sometimes they lose it. I’d say this is true of both hets and homos.
The artist himself describes his project as
.
. . a photography, video, and installation project which engages image making as a platform to intervene inside Western culture’s traditions and expectations as they relate to masculinity, sexuality, and class.
We, the men of these images and me, might not sit at an equal distance from the center, but we all have a complicated relationship to what is considered normal — to our benefit and our destruction.
Jason Hanasik‘s show at +Kris Graves in DUMBO, with the (not quite) enigmatic title, “He Opened Up Somewhere Along the Eastern Shore”, is an extremely moving exercise in storytelling with photographs, mostly the artist’s own and some (not quite) “found”.
Nine images are hung along one wall of the gallery and two more hang on a section of another wall to the left, with a final object, a hand-written letter reproduced as an inkjet print, at the near edge of a third wall on the right. Most of the photographs are dominated by the figure of a young male; some of the subjects appear several times. They are all marines.
Partly because the size of the prints varies and because they are each mounted at a different height, they appear to dance in front of the visitor, but without a real beginning – or an end; this is not going to be a simple narrative.
The images in the photographs bounce around in time and in space, and touch many emotions as they do so, as does their “story” itself; it’s a story which could be written in many ways, and we can each find our own. Hanasik’s materials provide a documentation of some intense, probably under-expressed, male friendships. They remind us of the difficulty we all have in characterizing the more heartfelt qualities of these friendships, whether we are parties to them or only observers.
The men photographed by the artist are brothers. Jason Hanasik grew up in Virginia knowing both Steven and Patrick, but he became a very close friend of Patrick, the older (his BFF, in fact). Jason and Patrick played football together in High School. Jason at first hardly knew Steven, who had his own best friend. His name was Josh, and he does not appear in these images. Their relationships, especially that of Jason and Patrick, were made more complicated as they grew older and each of them gradually became aware of Jason’s homosexuality (including Jason himself), but Jason and Patrick’s friendship survived, survived even the nightmares of Iraq, from which Patrick described this affectionate daydream in a letter to Jason:
Jason Hanasik 11Mar04 2009 inkjet print 10″ x 8″
Jason was the only one of the four who did not join the marines and so was the only one who did not go to Iraq, where Steven was a part of a tragedy (the death in combat of his friend Josh on what had been the first “tour” for both of them) he was unable to share with his comrades. Then, on the first leg of an impulsive road trip with Steven something happened that changed Jason’s relationship to his best friend’s more taciturn sibling.
The title of the gallery exhibition refers to the catharsis Steven experienced while Jason and he were driving from Virginia to visit Patrick and his wife in upstate New York, Steven opened up, and it made possible a real friendship between the two for the first time. Like that shared by Jason and Patrick its emotional intimacy didn’t fit the simple antithetical forms we’re told are the only ones we can expect from male relationships.
Three of the photographs in the show were taken by the straight-identifying Steven while he was in Iraq. The two that are not self-portraits, in particular, are witness of just how inscrutable male emotions, and male sexuality, still remain to the understanding of all of us, male or female, straight or queer.
The installation also includes a video taken with a pocket camera or cellphone. It appears on the gallery wall as a smallish, faint, projected image, a short loop, and it shows two beautiful, smiling young marines dancing a tango, complete with dips, on the balcony of a barracks courtyard inside Baghdad. There is no sound.
Jason Hanasik In the Green Zone: November 2007 digital video 2008 [two stills]
The video too is by Steven.
I remember, but only as someone who was able to watch from a safe distance, the horror of Vietnam, and what it did to the men and women of my generation: And the silence; all kinds of silence. It’s excruciating to see it happening all over again.
After only a few minutes inside the gallery last week, I was already almost in tears, and at the time I had even less information than I am able to share in this post. Barry and I were fortunate to be able to hear more about the work in two conversations with the artist himself. Although at first I was somewhat reluctant to ask about the context of the project, Hanasik was generous in his replies.
I found that the images stand up either with or without much of a “background”. Having seen them on line before talking to Hanasik and before we visited the gallery I know they can pretty much speak for themselves. That’s why I had to get to the gallery: I wanted to hear them up close.
ADDENDUM: There is now a loop of the video, “In the Green Zone: November 2007” imbedded on the artist’s site here.
[images provided by the artist]
High Line grasses in the rain
I don’t know whether I was more struck by the fact that the High Line was almost deserted yesterday (on a Saturday!) or that it was suddenly looking very autumn-ish as we introduced it to some visitors yesterday. Of course it had been raining all day, and it is mid-September.
the real lie in Obama’s health care speech
Leonid Osipovic Pasternak The Night before the Exam 1935
let them finally offer care to everyone
I’m old enough to remember a little bit about the fuss over Harry Truman’s National Health Insurance initiative in the early post-war years, a part of what he called his “Fair Deal”. What would eventually become known as the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill (say it out loud, fast, but with respect) was first introduced in May, 1945. It was a proposal to expand the Social Security System into a full federal pension system and would have ultimately introduced single-payer health care. Universal health care had been a dream of progressives ever since the beginning of the century and more recently outlined in 1938 by an interdepartmental presidential committee formed in 1935 by FDR. While each of the exhausted European nations succeeded in enacting such programs shortly after 1945, it never went anywhere in the U.S., the only warring nation which had come out of the conflict stronger and wealthier than it had entered it.
All of which brings me to say that Obama did lie in his speech* last night, although not when he denied his plan would include health care for illegal immigrants [but what a crazy idea that would be, huh?].
Rather, he lied (okay he said something false) when he spoke about the public option, the last scrap remaining from a great and venerable reform movement, warning progressives not to insist on it:
It is only one part of my plan, and should not be used as a handy excuse for the usual Washington ideological battles. To my progressive friends, I would remind you that for decades, the driving idea behind reform has been to end insurance company abuses and make coverage affordable for those without it [my emphasis]. The public option is only a means to that end – and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal.
in fact, the “driving idea” was never about ending “insurance company abuses and making coverage affordable”. It was always about a single payer system providing health care for all. For the reality-based people it’s still about single payer, whether our President or our two corporationist parties like it or not.
*
I cannot lie: I actually never intended to watch Obama’s speech and in fact I did not; instead, while looking on line this morning, trying to find anyone who was not dazzled by its supposed brilliance and its putative success (what does “success” mean in this context?), I came upon this post by Cenk Uygur, where I found the segment from Obama’s delivery which I excerpted above.
[image from Bridgeman]
Bruce High Quality’s “L’eau De Vie” on X Initiative roof
three stills from the installation for the screening of Bruce High Quality’s “L’eau De Vie”
Barry and I had seen the film several years ago, through the good offices of Filip Noterdaeme, but last Thursday we both jumped at the chance of seeing “L’eau De Vie Un Film De Jean Luc Godard” again, especially since it meant lounging about on the roof of the X Initiative with other fans of The Bruce High Quality Foundation on a beautiful summer evening above the Hudson River.
It was even better than I had expected – both the film and the ambiance we found on the roof of the former Dia space on West 22nd Street. I think “L’eau” is a small masterpiece; well, maybe not so small. The soundtrack was really, really brilliant, and I think I noticed just how brilliant for the first time, thanks to the terrific rooftop sound system. I also appreciated the additional edge provided by the wavy, “silver screen” on which it was projected. No, really!
The video was shot in December, 2005 on location in Miami during the annual Art Basel tradeshow, on sound-synched black and white super 8. It’s an homage to Jean-Luc Godard, a cri de coeur for real community, and a paean to a simpler world before the invention of art fairs.
urban drive-in
Obama is a disaster for the hopes of real progressives
Roy Lichtenstein Hopeless 1963
Obama is a disaster, and I say that because his failure may mean that the kind of reform which could have saved America may never be possible again.
His time appears to have run out (I’m not sure he would be interested in doing anything with it even if he were given an extension). He has utterly failed to do what he said he would do, what his supporters voted for him to do. His election, following the disastrous failure of his predecessor, and coinciding with that of a Democratic House and Senate, created an extraordinary momentum and an extremely rare political opportunity for advancing a progressive agenda. It was an environment, a moment, which we’re unlikely ever to see again. In the six months since we’ve witnessed the shocking success of the scurvy machinations devised by a radical Right which had been reported displaced and in serious disarray. They’ve given us an indication of what to expect going forward.
Our politics are a complete fraud: Any principled engagement in politics has become an absolutely futile exercise and this will remain the case unless we are able to take the system out of the hands of the plutocrats and the corporations that own it. I see no possibility of that happening.
If such a possibility were moral, or even real, I would be tempted to adopt a status of “inner emigration”*. I can say at least that I no longer argue with any American who says they don’t vote; a decision not to go through the motions which might help legitimize a fake democracy appears to be pretty reasonable in the circumstances of the present.
Although I had started to worry about the future of Obama’s “change” myth as early as late last November (see this entry), I held off publishing a more definitive list of complaints until now, finally deciding to pull it out of the “drawer” where I keep my drafts, because I just couldn’t stand looking at the subject line any longer.
In a post written only days after the election I expressed my reservations about whether Obama would be able to pull off the revolution that it would take to undue the damage which Bush administration had done, but I concluded that I believed he really would pull it off.
I was wrong. While I could turn out to be wrong again and would welcome it, today I feel certain that he won’t be able to pull off any reform and, looking at what David Sirota has called his Team of Corporate Zombies and checking off the list of the things he has done and the things he has not done, I have some real doubts about whether he ever intended to.**
For months I’ve been talking to friends about my despair over Obama’s administration, challenging anyone to point to anything which it has actually accomplished. At first most people seemed shocked by my criticism, but if they gave me any argument it would usually only be a comment about something Obama has said he would do. I’ve not been registering any shocked responses in recent weeks, and I’m hearing no arguments, so while this post’s downbeat argument might have really stood out earlier, maybe its novelty has been overtaken by events.
But I still think it’s worth taking stock of what we have lost, so here’s a partial list:
1. The Patriot Act remains almost intact
2. “State secrets” remain state secrets, and the administration argues that the privilege is rooted in the Constitution
3. The prisoners in Guantanamo, even if it the concentration camp is decommissioned, will remain prisoners; they and anyone our government rounds up in the future can be “detained” indefinitely, without charge or trial
3. The administration refuses to release prisoner abuse photos from years ago
4. The policy of rendition will continue
5. We now have an accelerated war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and our troops remain in Iraq
6. The administration shows no interest in addressing ENDA
7. Obama’s Justice Department has argued that the state has an interest in defending marriage as meaning a contract between a man and a woman
8. The administration shows no interest in addressing “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” (service people are still being discharged for being gay)
9. Addressing climate change appears to be a low priority (and coal is still being extracted through mountain-top removal)
10. Universal health care is off the table, opening the way for even more complicated for-profit systems which won’t even address rising costs
11. Recognition of needle exchange programs is going nowhere
12. Financial regulatory reform, where it is alive, has been put in the hands of Wall Street insiders
13. The measures used to address the economic meltdown and bank failures, the stimulus and the bailout, were designed by and for the individuals and banks who were responsible for the Great Recession in the first place, and have neglected foreclosures, loss of home equity value, and unemployment (and underemployment)
14. No back-to-work program which might be aimed at greening American technology
15. Continued neglect of the infrastructure
16. Continued neglect of meaningful public transit programs
17. The ill-conceived and obscenely wasteful “Clunkers” program and the distraction from real, constructive change which it presented
18. Failure to reinstate the ban on assault weapons
19. “Flexibility” on the call for a halt to the illegal Israeli settlements on the Left Bank
20. Maintaining Bush-era procedures allowing the government to search (without suspicion of wrongdoing) traveler’s laptops, cellphones, or other electronic devices
21. Obama’s vaunted “Transparency” has become a joke
22. Maintaining the FISA spying-on-citizens protocols
23. Extending a free pass to Bush, Cheney and Rice for their clear violations of the Geneva Conventions
24. Expanding both the scope and power of the “faith-based” initiatives introduced by the Bush White House [added to the list Sept. 8]
ADDENDA (post-publication):
25 And now (revealed September 15) asking Congress to in fact extend three key provisions of the Patriot Act, which would otherwise expire at the end of the year
26. Unlike the last four presidents, Obama has not replaced the prior administration’s district attorneys wholesale, but has instead left in place “the majority of the Bush administration DA’s who had survived Rove’s purges intended to make sure they were loyal Republican apparatchiks” [quoted from Ian Welsh], an alarming realization for anyone whose politics are to the Left of Attila the Hun
27. [the words of Ian Welsh once again:] “Obama has not cleaned out the administration in general of Bush-era appointees and plants; indeed he has filled less spots than either Clinton or Bush II had by this point in their terms–and no, it’s not because the Senate won’t confirm them.”
28. The despicable private army formerly known as Blackwater remains in Iraq today, and the Obama administration recently extended the company’s contract there indefinitely; the firm, whose owner has styled himself a Christian crusader, also has contracts in Aghanistan
29. Once again employing the argument of “National security”, the administration is trying to weaken the “media shield” bill, designed to protect reporters against being forced to testify, which is currently working its way through Congress
One wonders just what have they been doing since moving into the White House, besides worrying about how not to offend their political enemies. Did everyone else notice that Van Jones, the man Obama threw to the dogs late Saturday night (an interesting news-hour calculation for the announcement), was one of the only genuine progressives in the White House, a real community organizer (like POTUS, before he got religion) and not a political hack like everyone else, including, I now believe, the boss?
*
Innere Emigration describes the the choice of some intellectuals, certain artists and writers, to remain in Germany (and, after the 1938 Anschluss, in Austria) during the era of National Socialism, although they were in opposition to the Nazi regime. It assumed a complete withdrawal from public life.
**
I notice that last November I included a footnote saying that in the end his race had proved to be no barrier to Obama’s achievement of the White House; today, if I weren’t in despair of Obama’s competence or even his commitment, I could easily add a footnote about the fact that from the beginning race has however proven to be behind his opponents’ mindless campaigns against every policy he has proposed: It’s almost all about that uppity negro.
[image of Lichtenstein’s “Hopelesss” from theheretik]
Port Authority strews 9/11 junk around the country
Dennis Klingensmith of Prospect Hill Cemetery in York, Pa., prepares to haul away a beam that will become part of a memorial. Recipients of the wreckage pay for transporting it. – NYTimes caption
Ludicrous or baleful? The Port Authority is giving away WTC junk (in both senses) more or less in our name.
As the anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, approaches on Friday, pieces of the World Trade Center rubble from that day have never been more accessible. A new campaign is under way to speed up the process and increase the volume of giving away pieces of steel big and small from the debris.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the steel, will invite police and fire departments and mayors and other leaders of cities and towns throughout the country to ask for pieces for memorials.
When I looked at the article on the front page of the NYTimes this morning my first response was, “this is still going on? I’d thought we were over that, especially considering how well our response to 9/11 had gone.” I turned to Barry and said, “we’re going to have jingoistic shrines made of crushed ambulances and twisted steel columns in every town in the country – in perpetuity”, and he added, “to remind us that Saddam Hussein will not get away with it, and that the fight for cheap oil will never end”.
[image by Michael Nagle from The New York Times]
Jacques Vidal and Noel Anderson at the “Blood Drive”
Most of the art and the clinic equipment had been removed or pushed aside last Wednesday evening at Zach Feuer Gallery when Jacques Vidal and Noel Anderson began their performance in the now-darkened space of the show, “Blood Drive“; It was the end of the first day of a real two-day blood drive which the curator, the artist Kate Levant, had included as a part of the installation which was closing later that week.
The performance seemed to delight in its serious component of improvisation and it’s unpredictability managed to briefly frighten both the audience and at least one of the players/creators. Its oddness, and its odd power, seemed to have come out of the artists’ profoundly metaphysical understanding of love, friendship or community, so it wasn’t unrelated to Levant’s fundamental concept for the gallery show itself.
Vidal certainly hasn’t lost his edge, and Anderson was clearly a match for him in what appears to be the artist’s ongoing pursuit of a splendid new and perverse artistic form.