ITSTOOMUCHTOTOUCH

I went, today, to MIT List Gallery's Sensorium pt. II.

Its not anywhere near as interesting as pt I, but there was one video piece definitly worth checking out.

"Christian Jankowski: Everything Fell Together"
The artist and his gf transcend distance and identity:
the premise of the the piece is such that the couple lives apart for 6 months and, because they are broke, only communicate through chat rooms.
the conversations are recorded, ripped out of context and reenacted by amature actors. the piece is split into six vignettes, with 'actors' of varying age range.

on top of this, a language barrier is in place since the artist is foreign. any remaining emotion brought to the plot by the actors is irrelevant because of the subtitles.

worth checking out

I loved the conceptual end of Kelly Sherman's wish lists, but i thought the presentation was terrible. eye level on two great-white-walls, black text, evenly spaced without frames. they want to be sculptural but they're flat.
there are 100 other ways for her to present the lists and she picked one that failed to engage me. content was great, and i especially love the eBay-chair-video.
reminds me of the "fair use" lecture on Jeff koons. interesting parallels.


here's some artists that work text+gallery

Lawrence Weiner laid the framework in early conceptual art.
His idea of Work not needing a permanent physical setting speaks to ephemeral art and performance/happening work.
"Language as sculpture"


On Kawara invests incredible amounts of time working through process for an end result that is cold and virtually inaccessible.
The work is beautiful in its apparent outer simplicity.

Glen Liagon has an AMAZING online book. Race and sexuality are dealt with via multimedia collage. he populates his work with intimate found photos.


Fluxus is "ant-art"/"do-it-yourself" aesthetic. simplicity, happenings, and collaborations were the name of the game. A large group of still realivant artists influenced fluxus while many matured through fluxus. Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Joseph Beuys, John Cage, Ray Johnson, to name a few.

"universal memories" places and things that relate to so many different people that common associations form.
wholeswome memories create a kitsch flood of associations. i may not have the same experiences as you, but im sure ive seen a movie close enough to the plot of your life where there wouldn't be too many surprises

In my sculpture class we talked about the idea of subject position, that is,
how an audience appoaches a piece coupled with what tools/experiences they
have to draw on for interpritation.

this is an idea i am obsessed with pursueing.

Crucial to the conceptual end of this display project will be pairing subject position with setting.
When i say setting, im referring to the type of space my installation will be mimicking.

so far ive brainstormed a list of settings that fit the same aesthethic scope.
the scope/theme is (in its early state still) SPECTACALE IN RELATION TO PRODUCT

parent night/ open night
garage sales
swap meets
thrift stores
craft bazaars
junk shops
art fairs
expos
wal-mart
surplus stores
costco

when you compile a list you see a spectrum based on scale shift.
the larger the scale gets the more "monumental" the spectacle.


its daunting

heres some things ive been looking at






items that create their own mythology (through packaging)

BEEN LOOKIN AT A TON OF DIFFERENT THINGS, BRAINSTORMING FOR MY MAIN PROJECT.
IM GOING FOR CLEAN CUT, IM GOING FOR SOMETHING IN THE TRADITION OF CLAUS OLDENBERG'S "STORE FRONT."

THE CLAYTON BROTHERS ARE ALWAYS PUMPING OUT EXCELLENT WORK.
IM A HUGE FAN OF THEIR CONSTRUCTIONS. FAUX-FUNCTIONALITY, PLUS HOW THEY TREAT TEXT AS IMAGE...PSEUDO GRAFFITTI, PSEUDO ICON.

"CLAYTONBROTHERS.COM"

IVE ALSO BEEN LOOKING AT A LOT OF MIKE KELLEY'S WORK. TEXT IS NOT A FACTOR IN HIS SCULPTURAL WORK BUT HIS 2-D WORK IS RAYMOND PETTIBON INK DRAWINGS ON SPEED.

IVE ALSO BEEN LOOKING AT MARK DION AND READING MIWON KWON FOR INSTALLATION INPIRATION. CONSIDERING SITE AND FRAMEWORK ARE TWO THINGS I NEED TO START THINKIN' MORE ABOUT.

NOT ALL OF IT IS TEXT BASED BUT THERE
IS STILL A WIDE RANGE OF NEW WORK
"WWW.VVORK.COM"