Cattelan..land

Frank and Jamie, 2002
Wax, clothes
Lifesize figures
Jamie: 182 x 63 x 45.5 cm
Frank: 191.5 x 63.5 x 52.5 cm
Photo by: Attilio Maranzano
Courtesy: Marian Goodman Gallery, New York



Wax figure, fabric
Figure: 150 cm
Hole: 60 x 40 cm
Installation, Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam
Photo by: Attilio Maranzano
Courtesy: Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
© Maurizio Cattelan



Portrait Photo: Pierpaolo Ferrar

Picasso is....

In 1998, Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan hired an actor to put on a Disney-mascot-sized Picasso head and the painter's signature striped shirt and then hang out, jingling a cup of coins, near the MoMA entrance. At the time he said he liked "the contradiction of Picasso begging," but offered little more on the subject. Notorious for his pranks, Cattelan doubtless had an intent that hovered somewhere between homage, critique, and a joke at the art world's expense.

In preparation for the Walker Art Center's June 16 opening of the Whitney-organized exhibition Picasso and American Art, I emailed Cattelan asking for his thoughts on Picasso's impact on art, either his own or in general. His emailed reply, a lengthy list of lines that began "Picasso is," appeared to be either the result of free association or of a Google search of the phrase. Here's an excerpt from that email:



picasso is dead
picasso is missing
picasso is a communist
picasso is an elderly cat with clipped ears
picasso is a docudrama and immortal beloved is a tragedy
picasso is not the sort of car that leaps to mind when you think 'road trip'
picasso is not the world
picasso is the only artist i know of that is mentioned in a devo song
picasso is 20th century art
picasso is one of the rare gold
picasso is being picky about eating and seems to be sulking
picasso is the greatest artist of the twentieth century
picasso is situated in the heart of historic paris
picasso is also equipped with a wealth of stowage space
picasso is much more controversial than Rembrandt
picasso is born in malaga in 1881 and died in the south of france in 1973
picasso is rather unique
picasso is a struggling artist
picasso is a feature film written and directed by stephen kijak with an ensemble cast including alexis arquette
picasso is a registered domain trade name of max corporation
picasso is not shown to have a remorseful bone in his body
picasso is known for his etchings
picasso is an interactive drawing tool in the style of unix idraw or macdraw
picasso is considered by most authorities as the greatest artist of the 20th century
picasso is soon to become a reality
picasso is the name of this ladybird
picasso is built in vigo
picasso is the greatest art genius of the twentieth century
picasso is a coloring book and creativity package for children
picasso is a womanizer
picasso is a 1994 westphalian gelding
picasso is interesting because everything about his life is related to his art
picasso is classified as a refined

Images courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery.
Post extracted from http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2007/05/man-in-picasso-suit.html

Maurizio Cattelan

Galleria Massimo De Carlo - Veduta mostra di Maurizio Cattelan - 1999
(Sede viale Corsica)
Courtesy Galleria Massimo De Carlo

Abstract Expressionism: Pollock

Pollock's painting are not abstract but nonrepresentational. Let's not argue the term this time..haha. The terminology of art has always evolved haphazardly and inconsistently as people grasped for terms to speak about what was new, as one would reach for the shadows on the wall in Plato's 'Allegory of the Cave'.



Here's a clip from a movie about Pollock directed by Ed Harris. If anyone is interested, I believe the opening score is a piece composed by Clint Mansell(born Clinton Darryl Mansell, 7 January 1963, in Coventry, England)

Blogged it...wait, is "blog" a verb?: Assignment #3

In art there are 'tools' or design principles that become almost instinctive (as discussed in Mark Getlein's, 'Living with Art'). One of which, is balance. There are two types of balance. These two types of balance are symmetrical and asymmetrical. Here are a couple of examples:

Tim Noble and Sue Webster 'Dirty White Trash [With Gulls]', Year(?)

Here, in this piece, Tim Noble and Sue Webster use an asymmetrical balance to balance the visual weights of the two human figures projected, by the light, onto the canvas or wall. Though one could argue that this was actually a 'relieved' symmetrical balance, based on what one considered the picture plane in this piece.




Edward Burtynsky, Manufacturing #17, Deda Chicken Processing Plant, Dehui City, Jilin Province, 2005

Edward Burtynsky, in this symmetrical piece or photograph, captures the massive, potential energy of the human will when coupled with focus. One could literally draw a sraight line down the center of the piece to observe how well the visual weight is balanced. One would also notice, from this one-pointed linear perspective, the human figures seem to become one with and vanish into the three-dimensional space in which they occupy.

Incurable, Virus Films (Philipp Virus)

Philipp Virus is one of the pioneers of the 90..ies generation of independent,digital filmmakers.He is the only german whose music videos are in the music-video archive of the Museum of Modern Arts in New York amongst the work of Spike Jonze and Chris Cunningham.Since 1993 he directed & produced over 40 music videos and a couple of short movies which received cult status and worldwide attention on numerous music stations and filmfestivals.


Alec Empire -On Fire (Video Directed by Philipp Virus)


In 2000 the london based Digital Hardcore Recordings released his work as a video compilation. Since a decade he worked with influencial bands such as Dinosaur Jr.,Atari Teenage Riot,Jon Spencer Blues Explosion,etc. .Filming for Gerd Conrad..s "Starbuck-Holger Meins" in 2002 about former RAF terrorist who died in hungerstrike-Virus captured claustrophobic pictures. The documentary of Miron Zownir :"Bruno S.-Estangement is death" was filmed and co-produced by Philipp Virus (Virus Films). January 2005 he founded with his partners the production office Gold which also accommodates Virus Films. Check out his new video section on myspace (click videos) CHECK OUT VIRUS VIDEOS AND SHORT FILMS AT (VIRUS PLAYER): www.virusfilms.com

The Beauty of Noise: Art for the Ears

Though music is not technically considered a 'visual' art form, the same elements and design principles, used in visual art, are employed to shape and manipulate space to form waves. The sound waves that are composed initiate a reaction in ones nervous system. If one's ears were eyes, one may visualize the same surreal imagery found in 'The Elephant Celebes' by Max Ernst

"If music was sex, Merzbow would be pornography."- Masami Akita(Merzbow)

In America, pornography is often viewed as vulgar and offensive-- especially to women. Are you implying that Merzbow is for men?

"No. I mean that pornography is the unconsciousness of sex. So, Noise is the unconsciousness of music."- Masami Akita(Merzbow)






by Chad Hensley
Merzbow was born in Tokyo in 1981, the bastard son of Masami Akita. Inspired by Dadaism and Surrealism, Akita took the name for his project from German artist Kurt Schwitters' pre-War architectural assemblage "The Cathedral of Erotic Misery" done in his "merz" style-- a confluence of the organic and the geometric. "Merzbau" referred to his houses. Just as Schwitters attacked the entrenched artistic traditions of his time with his revolutionary Avant-garde collages, so too would Akita challenge the contemporary concept of what is called music. Akita would draw further influence from the Futurist movement. Not only would he embrace the Futurists' love of technology and the machine civilization, but he would push their fondness for noise to the very boundaries of the extreme.

Working in his ZDF studio, Akita quickly gained notoriety as a purveyor of a musical genre composed solely of pure, unadulterated noise. Consequently, in 1982 Masami founded the first Noise label, Lowest Music and Arts. He would eventually coin the phrase "Noise Composition" as a description for his sound, and display his pre-
recorded Noise via live performances. These presentations have included Akita's electronics battling with traditional instruments like drums and guitar, as well as solitary shows with nothing more than the man standing before a table strewn with homemade equipment.



The full extent of Merzbow's discography is probably only known to Masami himself, but the unofficial count has now surpassed 170 releases on cassette, vinyl, and CD on a diverse array of labels worldwide. In addition to Merzbow, Akita has performed with other Noise entities including Masonna, Melt Banana, Discordance Axis, Gore Beyond Necropsy, and Cock ESP. Besides creating Noise, he's authored two books on extreme culture and is a freelance writer for Japanese pornography magazines. He has also scored Ian Kerkhof's film, Deadman 2.

Tauromachine is Merzbow's latest collection of otological incendiaries. Released by America's own Relapse, tauromachine is the sound of machinery operating on full speed in a mad scientist's laboratory. The seven digital experiments presented run an aural gamut between hypnotic pulsations to violent dissordance. Each track offers the listener a disturbing journey into the deepest extremities of Noise with such 'songs' as "soft water rhinoceros", "heads of clouds", and "wounded cycad dub".

Some people claim to thoroughly enjoy Akita's orchestrated cacophonies. Rest assured, his Merzbow project is not for the weak-willed or faint-hearted; a listener must be able to savor hissing static, grinding feedback, and almost unending distortion. Noise can be difficult to digest even for those who are appreciative of musical extremes, but it all comes off with a sinister ambiance that attracts as it repels. Given his commitment to and consummate production of Noise, the sonic artwork of Masami Akita is sure to usher in the savage sounds of the next millennium.

Quotes taken from an article published in EsoTerra #8, 1999
http://merzbow.net/

Is art, art?

During my research on minimalist art I came across these two pieces. I must say these two, three-panel pieces, make me truly question the "nature" of art and ones ability to perceive it. What is art? Who needs lines anyway? (I hope this gets the marble rolling.)



"The work consisted of three panels, painted completely white. The artist insisted that the color white represented nothing at all. Is this art?"


Your can read the entire piece here: http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/upload/2007/06/art2high.php

"Another work, of similar size, displayed again over three panels. This time the work reprints a scientific paper in its entirety: "Interaction of stellar wind with diffuse nebulae," by S.B. Pikel'ner. If you click on the image you can actually read the whole paper. So is this art?"

Here's what one blogger had to say:
"I think the art lies in the two pieces taken together. To the average viewer, both pieces have about the same level of content. To a person who not an expert in the field, the science paper has about as much information as the completely blank 3 frames.

Now, with regards to the three white frames, that is actually quite a feat to do 3 completely blank frames and have no texture, no variation of colour, nothing but completely white. Now, I'm only looking at a picture so I cannot say much to it, but if he did that by hand I would be very impressed.

I think the second piece of art on it's own does not say much other than science is an impenetrable as art, however when taken in context with the first piece it really begins to show a theme for this artist. Basically the idea that even though there is something up on the wall, or there is text on that science page, it is still empty and thus represents nothing at all to the average viewer.

The interaction of stellar winds with nebulae is meaningless and will remain at least functionally meaningless for many centuries to come to the ordinary person on the street, and thus like the first piece. It means nothing at all, just like the 3 white frames."

Radical eYe

" The photographic work of Miron Zownir deals with the hidden realities on the so-called fringes of society. Although his approach is extremely unsparing and rude, the images it renders are often surprisingly poetic, and deeply appealing."

" Beyond all standards and aesthetic conventions Zownir’s photography discloses intimate situations and moments full of ecstasy, frenzy, intoxication, melancholy, tenderness and despair. The human body therein continually appears as a sort of final possession, like the shroud of a self-exposing soul; un-idealised in its beauty, or ugliness. "




Zownir's art(photography and video) has always stirred something in me. The bold imagery he captures with a lense and a shutter is utterly astonishing. Using the many values of light he is able to model the "hidden" beauty in the contrasts between the hues of light and shadow. An interesting concept indeed. His exploration of light and shadow seems almost allegorical in nature. His ability to communicate directly with the person or persons opposite his lens allows him to capture the violence, loneliness, false hope and obsession in a way that tends to appaul to appeal.



“If one has the strength to look at the things incessantly, more or less without ever closing the eyes, one sees much. But if one lessens the effort only once and closes the eyes, it all immediately vanishes into darkness.”- Miron Zownir
www.mironzownir.com