There seems to be a relationship unfolding in my art and work life. When I’m actually engaged in what I’m doing/making I have absolutely nothing to write about. Hence, I haven’t updated this thing for awhile. At the moment, I am just reading and researching for my trip to Montreal next week. My reading list is topped off by books concerned with architecture/space/place/modernism-as-utopia. The question I’ve been asking myself this week: what exactly is my relationship with utopia? As a person that has grown up in the “post-utopian” age of postmodernism, is there any reason for me to be interested in lofty and impossible things like utopian thought?
According to Yi Fu Tuan in Space and Place “such places had to exist because they were key elements in complex systems of belief. To discard the idea of terrestrial paradise would have threatened a whole way of looking at the world.” It is my hope with the new series of photographs I am undertaking I will be able to better understand/visualize that “whole way of looking at the world”.
I know that I have probably posted about the work of Christopher Baker (http://christopherbaker.net) before, but I thought I’d take a second to do so again. Chris and I went to grad school together and his research continues to evolve and intrigue me. I believe at the moment he is living in Budapest during an artist-in-residence gig at The Kitchen Budapest (http://kitchenbudapest.hu/en).
During his time at Kitchen Budapest, he was introduced to the research team working on a really cool presentation tool that I had a chance to see (all too briefly) in action last night at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis. The software is called Prezi (http://prezi.com/) and it is a really innovated, spatial, and fun look at presenting information to audiences.
One of the great things about the post-MFA world is watching how far all of my colleagues have been able to travel in the last year. Printmaker, photographer, and friend David Stordahl has been living and working in Norway since January. Through him I have been introduced to the outstanding work of Asbjørn Hollerud. His portfolio site can be viewed HERE. (more…)
Colleague and photographer Colleen Mullins has turned me on to the work of photographer Chris Smiar. His series Hibernaculumis particularly engaging to me (or anyone that has to live in the public/private nether region of downtown Minneapolis). Hibernaculum, meaning a place chosen by an animal for shelter during winter hibernation is a concept captured elegantly in Smiar’s photographs. I am particularly drawn to the accurate representation of the strange intersection of public and private space that occurs in the MPLS skyway system.
Working in downtown Minneapolis is never particularly joyous. During the winter one rarely encounters another human being outdoors… and during the summer, when the sidewalks are passable, one still must look up to see the office drones passing above you in air-conditioned tubes. What I find most gripping about these photographs are the tiny traces of human presence he captures like smudges on what should be precisely maintained glass…
Anyway. The work is excellent and I highly recommend checking the other projects on his site.
My life is exceptionally simple. I think most people that are saddled with a lack of creativity and enormous student loans have similar arrangements with the world around them? While other people go to movies, go shopping, party, or enjoy being part of the social sphere, I wander.
During my wanderings I find amazing things. Tidbits of life that may or may not prove that other human beings exist, do things, ruin other people’s lives and so and and so forth… It is refreshing.
When I saw this on the ground it was just too good to pass up. I do not know what could possibly indicate that this young man, who cannot control his nearly forked tongue could be responsible for all those things scrawled in Crayola marker around his likeness.
Wow. That is an incredibly pompous way of saying I decided to go for a crazy long walk with Curtis yesterday to look at various buildings in the public sphere. We took off on foot… and proceeded to become tourists in our own city. If you have the means (feet) and the time (2hrs +) to do this… I can’t encourage it enough. I feel refreshed and interested… again.
This little adventure is starting to spark some actual art-based experimentation… finally. (more…)
Book: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Author: Tom Wolfe Publication Date: 1968
Just to make the morning I’m having a bit better… my friendly librarian, Steve Liska, has sent me a link to one of his blog projects. Steve meticulously catalogs the objects/images/things he finds inside of library books. Its beautiful. Fiendish even. I can’t seem to get enough of this blog… and… it just made me squeal!
I’m just plain giddy to make the connection to the artist Sophie Calle, who also documents human presence through observation and collection. Her series of images in which she posed as a hotel chambermaid in Venice to document the possessions of guests comes to mind. Here is a great interview with her…
I’m constantly trying to find evidence of human presence with my own work… and I think it has just made my day to take a look at this blog.
It almost slipped my mind! But in all my thinking of the world of everyday life… I forgot to mention how engaging I find the concept of knowing everyday life only indirectly. What does this mean? Well, if we can never actually experience everyday life as a discrete subject, we can only bear witness to its presence through the objects/forms/interactions that are secreted from it.
Connected with this thought… over at Colleen Mullins’ blog, Elysium, she has written a great post about excavating her family home, making art, and moving through the layers of personal history that become concrete after an everyday life has been lived. The materials she finds are amazing (I’ve seen a few… including some authentic, vintage books on Modernist architecture). Colleen is also examining what constitutes being a “Mid-Career Artist”.
I think just maybe, we are on the same page as artists… going back through the images we have produced in the past, sorting through the layers of history and finding unexpected depth and discovery. But then again… I could just be caffeine hallucinating.
During the avalanche of work yesterday, my friend in Los Angeles – Justin Lentz, sent me this great photograph from a photo shoot he was conducting. I’m excited to see the actual photographs that will emerge from his working process… but this iPhone image has me captivated right now. This little juicy tidbit reminds me of a recent blog post about photography as a lifestyle vs. photography as a strict, project based discipline. Personally, I love it when artists using photography are able to blend it into their practices as a human being… not simply running through the parameters of a project outline. (I will photograph X in X style until someone pays attention to how great thousands of images of X are)
It is only Wednesday and I feel completely drained. This week has been an energy vampire of unrivaled proportions. (Speaking of vampires, I find this article about fried blood on the menu in Chad really disturbing).
*****
On a separate note: I am finally going to break down and check out the “Quick and the Dead” exhibition at the Walker Art Center this weekend. Perhaps then, I will finally be able to see which ideas in conceptual art are officially DEAD and which ones the Walker has decided are ALIVE. Remember – ideas are just objects.
I am not the biggest Trekkie, but I found this image on Engadget this morning. Apparently I wasn’t the only person that thought product placement in the 23rd century was a bit ridiculous. I wonder, if Frederic Jameson, the author of Archeologies of the Future would have anything to say about this situation. Does the recent Star Trek movie further show the eroding of Utopian aspirations in our society? What ever happened to the future where it seemed people were no longer using the monetary system?
Hopefully soon there will be a big Toyota logo on the Enterprise’s warp core. Pepsi will sign an exclusive contract to be the only soft-drink that can be replicated in space.
But… ultimately… does this mean that we are now unable to see a future without our contemporary branding contining forever and ever?
