Observations on Art 5.24

This. This just fascinates me.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei released this video for the song "Dumbass" on his website Wednesday morning and I've watched it a few times since then. The video, which is blocked in China, is meant to represent the artist's 81 day detention in 2011. Ai Weiwei said the video shows an exact recreation of the cell in which he was held down to the wallpaper. "Music is a kind of self-therapy and at the same time helps the public to see. Even conditions like these can still turn into a positive effort," he told The Guardian. The song will be released on an album titled Divina Commedia on June 22^nd which is also the anniversary of his release from prison. Ai Weiwei wrote all the lyrics and does all the singing on the album which he says was inspired by the public support Elton John gave him.

The New York Times thought the lyrics too vulgar to print but I don't have their constraints so here they are:

"When you're ready to strike, he mumbles about non-violence.
When you pinch his ear, he says it's no cure for diarrhea.
You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.
You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.
Fuck forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life's invincible.
Fuck forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life's invincible.
Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass! Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass!
Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass! Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass!
Lalalalala, lalalalala Lalalalala, lalalalala
Lalalalala, lalalalala Lalalalala, lalalalala

Stand on the frontline like a dumbass, in a country that puts out like a hooker.
The field's full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.
The field's full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.
Fuck forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life's invincible.
You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.
You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.
The field is full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.
The field's full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere."

link

Ai Weiwei
Published on May 21, 2013
Music video for Dumbass by Ai Weiwei. Song by Ai Weiwei with music by Zuoxiao Zuzhou. Cinematography by Christopher Doyle.
© 2013 Ai Weiwei.

Observations on Art 5.22

There are a few reasons I studied art history and didn't get a fine arts degree. The one I've always mentioned is that I think there are too many rules when you study fine arts. This video shows another. Maybe Hyperallergic is right and perhaps "we've been had, and this is some high-concept work masquerading as viral fodder." If that is the case we can debate whether or not the video itself is art. Whatever the video's authenticity I can relate because I've been known react to criticism in much the same way. However with me the criticism is usually my own and I could never bring myself to use the dreaded 'fashion designer' line.

A slight warning is called for, you may want to turn down the volume.

link
via Hyperallergic

This Is Water

Sometimes a school is very lucky and this year a magnet high school in Nashville had Michelle Obama as its commencement speaker. Some graduate in the winter and have the dean of the Penn State College of Health and Human Development as their speaker. This year's speakers run the gamut from Oprah at Harvard University to the very lucky University of Virginia with Stephen Colbert. President Barack Obama spoke at Ohio State University and Morehouse College and will speak at the United States Naval Academy.

David Foster Wallace

Some commencement speeches are more memorable than others and one of the more memorable is a speech David Foster Wallace gave to Kenyon College in 2005. Known today by the final line the speech is a discussion of issues that literally consumed Wallace and at times reads like some macabre suicide letter. This is the first and last paragraph of the speech, a link to the full text follows. Three years after he gave this speech Wallace hung himself at the age of 46.

"There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, "Morning, boys, how's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What the hell is water?"

I know that this stuff probably doesn't sound fun and breezy or grandly inspirational. What it is, so far as I can see, is the truth with a whole lot of rhetorical bullshit pared away. Obviously, you can think of it whatever you wish. But please don't dismiss it as some finger-wagging Dr Laura sermon. None of this is about morality, or religion, or dogma, or big fancy questions of life after death. The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head. It is about simple awareness - awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over: "This is water, this is water.""

"This Is Water" by David Foster Wallace, text and video of full speech.

I first heard the speech years ago but recently a video interpretation of it went viral. The video, by audio-visual marketer The Glossary, only uses half of the speech and makes no note of Wallace's death. It just seems somehow wrong.

Observations on Penn State 5.19

If you happen to follow my twitter you might have seen my tweet that said Sports Illustrated could go to hell with no explanation for why I was saying that. On their website SI ran a preview of a special investigative report called "Do athletics still have too much power at Penn State?" It's about changes to the medical staff of the athletic department and suggests medical care of the players was somehow compromised.

The article, full of the usual anonymous sources, probably has more to do with internal politics of the department than it does with the medical care of athletes and also quotes former players and alumni who are unhappy with some of the changes. When these same former players and alumni were unhappy with a certain coaching change SI was disgusted with them but now their outrage is used as the basis for the magazine's latest attack on Penn State.

The Penn State Athletic Department released a statement responding to the article which included this, "We provided Sports Illustrated with facts and data that demonstrate our commitment to our student-athletes and how we compare to other peer institutions. Instead, the article sensationalizes in order to insinuate lower standards and largely ignores statements from the Dean of the College of Medicine (Dr. Harold Paz)."

Here is a link to an Onward State article which compares football medical care at all the Big Ten schools. Sports Illustrated could have written an important article about the level of medical care in major college football programs or football in general but that would't have given them the attention grabbing headline for their cover.

This is the fourth time Penn State has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated since the Sandusky scandal first broke. Many at SI were loudly in favor of totally killing the Penn State football program and honestly I think some of them just can't stand that the program survived. As anybody following politics today knows even a fictitious scandal sells and sells well. This is something the Penn State community will just have to learn to live with.

The full article is titled "What Still Ails Penn State" and runs a full 8 pages in this week's issue.

Observations 5.17

It's been a long time since I mentioned my alter ego and totally fictitious long lost step sister Sara. I only bring her up now because along the way she seems to have dyed her hair blonde and found a new career. Girl is still wearing my jackets though.

link

Observations on the Art Market 5.15

Sometimes it seems as if the goal of every artist isn't to create art but to own a gallery to hang their still yet to be created art in. Jonathan Grossmalerman has said that artists today ask themselves what good an artist is without a gallery and the answer is always not much. He sarcastically added maybe the fact that no one wants to show your work is a sign.

I can't say the thought of owning a gallery has never crossed my mind but I always leaned towards dreams of curating in a museum of some sort. If I did open a gallery I know just the place to do it. Seoul, as in Korea. There is a total lack of galleries in Korea supporting local artists. Even the vaunted Larry Gagosian doesn't have a gallery In Korea and it seems every time I open an art mag he is opening a gallery in some dark alley somewhere. At a time when Asian markets are exploding (China, Hong Kong) Korea is the most isolated art market in the world. As an example Hwang Dal Seung is one of the largest gallery owners in Korea and the driving force behind the largest Korean art fair yet the Asian Hotel Art Fair is held in Hong Kong.

There are a few reasons for this. The first is the unique philosophy of many Korean artists. They are more interested in the creation of the art and the personal meaning it may have than any public reaction. It's unique in that it's not the prevailing philosophy today but it's something I totally understand because often I think the same way.

The other reasons have more to do with the traditions and legalities of the Korean art market, or maybe I should say lack of legalities. A few years ago it was found Shin Jeong-ah, an art professor and curator, had forged her academic record and embezzled gallery money for which she spent two years in prison. At the same time works by artists such as Kwon Ok-yeon and Do Sang-bok were put up at auction but than exposed as forgeries. The auctions were canceled at the last minute. These are just a few examples but there are many others.

Samsung, LG, and Hyundai and three of the largest corporate sponsors of art in the world but in Korea itself art transactions are very secretive. Until 2011 there were no taxes at all on works of art or art transactions, now any work over 60 million (approx. $50,000) is taxable but not if involves a Korean artist. At the same time the law also allows works of art to be regarded as corporate assets so in most cases individuals aren't responsible for the taxes the very same law levies. Korean art collectors don't release specific price or transaction information so I have no clue how taxes are going to be collected.

Traditionally art is a favorite form of bribe in Korea because there is so little oversight. One of the more prominent cases involved Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee who resigned in 2008 and was convicted of operating a bribery slush fund. He was later pardoned by the South Korean government and returned to his position at Samsung.

More recently art has become the favored way to launder money* in South Korea. This has become a world wide problem, The New York Times ran an article on it just days ago, but South Korea's tradition of secrecy aggravates the problem.

So upon further review maybe my Seoul gallery is a bad idea.

*A non-Korean example happened in New York last month when charges were filed against the New York dealer Helly Nahmad charging that he worked "to launder tens of millions of dollars on behalf of the illegal gambling business." Also there is a book being published this month on this subject, "Money Laundering Through Art: A Criminal Justice Perspective" by Fausto Martin De Sanctis. De Sanctis has a Doctorate in Criminal Law from the University of São Paulo’s School of Law and is currently on a Brazilian court specializing in money laundering.

Observations on Art 5.13

I don't think I've ever seen a video quite like this before. I've seen music videos done to art and art videos with soundtracks but this is a classic format music video that was painted. Canadian artist Carine Khalife created the landscape by painting on glass while an overhead camera captured the changing images of flowing oil. The images were than transferred to her computer where she edited them with Stop Motion Pro. Khalife explained the process on her website.


BLOWN MINDED from Carine Khalife on Vimeo.

'Blown Minded' is from the album SHAPESHIFTING,
by YOUNG GALAXY on Paper Bag Records!
Produced, directed, animated and editited by Carine Khalife.
Carine Khalife
Young Galaxy
Paper Bag Records
Paint on glass animated short film

Happy Mother's Day

It's time for my Mother's Day post again and if you've been reading for any length of time you've seen it before. As I said last year it's was what I felt when I first wrote it, what I felt every year since than, and what I feel now. It just seems to get a little longer every year. Last year I added a quote from Mitch Albom's novel "For One More Day," the story of a man and his mother and how one might spend one more day with a lost relative. "But there's a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard and heartbreaking. But behind all your stories is always your mother's story, because hers is where yours begin."

This year I'm going to add this quote from John Lennon which I think explains so many of today's problems. "When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life."

Here is my original Mother's Day post from 2010.

"I was reading a Mother's Day blog post today that had me thinking. As you all know by now thinking is not always a good thing for me to be doing. But I could so relate to this girl because her mom had died of cancer at a young age.

I owe my mom so much. She was the first one to see something special behind my dark eyes. She would drag me around Philadelphia museums when I was barely old enough to walk. She was the first one to stick my fingers in paint, which was something that ended in quite a mess if I remember it correctly. And the first one to take me to wander the streets of New York and to visit MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) which was one of her favorite places in the world. She always praised my art but was also never afraid to criticize it.

When, as a teenager, I suddenly informed my parents I was gay she just hugged me and went about her business like I hadn’t just changed her life forever. From than on I knew I would be fine. She was the one who, in my rebellious high school years, kept me grounded when things could have gone so wrong.

She was always there for me until one day she wasn't.

Everything I’ll ever be as an artist I owe to my mom and every time I look at a painting I wonder what she would have thought of it. Every day I wish I could thank her somehow.

I’ll leave you with a very fitting quote from the blog I read.

'This mother’s day be sure to tell them how much you care for all they have done for you, for you may never get another chance. Learn about their lives and you may learn something about yourself.'"

Happy Mother's Day

Observations from the Coffee Shop 5.10

I tend save way too many links to articles I want to read later, sometimes I do read them and sometimes they just clutter Chrome until I delete them. The coffee shop is where I do most of my catching up so for the hell of it here is a selection from this week.

There was an article in New York Magazine about NYU Abu Dhabi, a satellite campus that opened in 2008. Their website says it was built because of "a common belief in the value of a liberal arts education" which isn't exactly something that comes to mind when I think of Middle Eastern states. It might have more to do with the $50 million NYU Chancellor Sexton pried from the UAE, a major reason Sexton is known as the Emir of NYU at it's New York City campus. What intrigues me is the new campus they are building on Saadiyat Island, a satellite of a satellite if you will, which is scheduled to open in 2014 and will be located next to the Louvre and Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi of course.

Last Sunday the Daily Mail ran a Piers Morgan interview with Lindsay Lohan. Normally I wouldn't have cared at all but the headline caught my eye so I saved it and ended up reading it. When I finished I quite literally pitied Lohan because the girl has absolutely no clue. In it she says she only did cocaine ‘four or five’ times, that rehab is a joke, and that she doesn't consider herself a heavy drinker. The interview than ran with copies of her six mugshots including the two for DUI. Morgan notes that the interview was done a few weeks before Lohan was scheduled to begin a new court ordered stay in rehab which will be at least her fifth visit in the past six years. Lohan also takes Adderall which, in my un-professional opinion, explains so much..

Also last Sunday The New York Times ran a story on the U.S. Supreme Court and how the Roberts' court could be remembered more for its pro-business decisions than upcoming social ones. It mentions a report in The Minnesota Law Review which ranked all the 36 SCOTUS justices since 1946 for their pro-business votes and found five of the current court's were in the top ten. It has all been very hush hush so you may not have noticed.

Along the same lines comes a column from The Huffington Post about warehouse workers who are suing Amazon over unpaid time, up to an hour, that they spend in security checkpoint lines at the end of their shifts. I love Amazon but maybe if they paid their workers a little bit more they wouldn't have to stop and frisk them on the way out. Amazon reported profits of $621 million in 2011, they reported an actual loss in 2012 but that was due to investing in new product lines.

So you see sometimes my thinking goes off in weirdly differing tangents. I didn't even mention that the Pulse Art Fair began yesterday or that the Frieze begins today.

Observations on Art 5.7

Madame Jeanne Lanvin, 1937

You might begin to wonder why a post about a fragrance gets the art heading. One reason is I have never had a fashion heading and I'm not about to start now. The other is that there is a bit of a history lesson ahead. I could even argue that fragrance is as much an art as any other just art for the sense of smell instead of sight but I'm not going to. Artists tend to agree that anything an artist calls art is in fact art but art historians get picky about it, I fall in between the two, but that's a totally different thought.

The fragrance is called Me and was created by the artistic director and head designer of Lanvin in Paris, Moroccan born Alber Elbaz. For years I've had a habit of wearing a men's cologne from Ralph Lauren so it take something special to intrigue me. In this case it was the main tone (highly technical term) which in Me comes from the zest of sparkling blueberries.

The history lesson comes in when you start to look at Lanvin itself. Founded by Madame Jeanne Lanvin in 1889 Lanvin is the oldest fashion house in Paris. Madame Lanvin was heavily influenced by art and the walls of her Paris apartment were covered with works by Edgar Degas, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Eugène Boudin, and Edouard Vuillard.

During a trip to Florence, Italy Lanvin saw a fresco by Fra Angelico, an Early Italian Renaissance painter, in which he used the shade of blue now known as quattrocento. The word quattrocento comes from the Italian word for 1400 and refers to the art and culture of 15^th century Italy. Lanvin developed her own variation of quattrocento blue, now known as Lanvin Blue, that became the signature color of her fashion house and the Coke of color. To this day Lanvin blue's formula is secret and since 1923 has only been manufactured in Lanvin's own dye factories in France.

In the review the designer Alber Elbaz describes the woman he thinks would wear his fragrance. "She is, or would like to be, a Parisian, because our house is so evocative of France's capital and because the city is so synonymous with sensuality and elegance."

Blueberries and Paris,  yes I was intrigued and maybe now you understand why.

*There is a good selection of quattrocento art work on The Metropolitan Museum of Art's art history timeline. Also the Met's Costume Institute has a large collection of vintage Lanvin designs. And some trivia, in January 2010 the French postal system, Le Post, issued limited edition Lanvin stamps.