Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side.
Creative Council did a gallery hop on Saturday afternoon led by one of Creative Time's new curator's Nato Thompson. Thank goodness. I felt like
the luckiest guy on the Lower East Side. I have to admit to being really limited in my knowledge of LES galleries. Now I have no excuses.
Renee Green's overwhelming show at
Participant, Inc. was a great way to start the afternoon. Overload, baby. Crushing and not quite gone.
Creative Council member
Zoe Chan getting comfortable at Participant, Inc.
The next stop was
Cuchifritos where Yoko Inoue's collaboration with Bennington students was equal parts confusion and beauty. I bought art for 25 cents. It was in a gumball machine. Life was good.
The top of
Stephanie Caplan's head and the art above it.
We made a little side trip. Incoming. That's all I'll say.
I had a spatial deja vu when we walked into
Orchard. I later figured out that it was in the space that used to house the much-missed THROB Records. Orchard is against. Somebody has to be. Their show, On The Collective for Living Cinema, surveys a delicious and painful tipping point in cinematic history. Essential viewing.
Last stop . . .
Dexter Sinister! Damn. The best 3 shelf art book store on the planet. Crucial. When you walk in just give them your wallet and be done with it.
How To Rock.
I'm a regular visitor to New York Social Diary (Who isn't? DPC totally RULES!), so I'm not sure how I missed Charlie Scheips'
interview with Creative Time board member Joanne Cassullo. How wonderful is she?
Photo of Joanne Cassullo and Charlie Scheips from NYSD.
Creative Time In America.
The new
Creative Time April issue of
Art in America is on the newstands now. Eve Sussman's
The Rape of the Sabine Women is the cover story. There's also a piece on Doug Aitken's
Sleepwalkers. Last, but not least, is an insightful article on Michael Rakowitz's
Return by Brian Boucher that had me all wet-eyed on the train.
I never really said anything here about
Return. It was almost too much to take in, and it's path through me was a crooked one. I wasn't quite in the mood for conceptual art the first time I saw Rakowitz's store on Atlantic Avenue, but I know better so I went back a number of times and with every return it gained steam. Sadly, part of the reason it did so was because of how perfectly the piece--in ways that the artist might or might not have anticipated--mirrored the historic damage we've inflicted on Iraq and its people. (Read the details on the project's blog
here.) The AiA article also talks about Rakowitz's amazing show at Lombard-Freid that dealt with all of the art and culture that's been lost in this
premeditated preemptive lunacy. It was an unbearably sad affair somehow balanced by a sense of the absurd. Smoke on the water is right. Fuck.
Good Advices.
NY Arts posted the Creative Time staff's
top ten favorite websites. Follow the fun. Big ups to the CT crew for turning me onto
Frank Haine's blog. I'm down with anybody who references Diane DiPrima, Kevin Drumm, and Klaus Schulze. That's all kinds of Hell Yeah. Plus, it's where I found the above photo.
Blue Lines.
"Once something is done, it cannot be undone."
--
Sol LeWitt (1928-2007)
I found this quote regarding his wall drawings on Creative Time's
Plain of Heaven site, the 2005 exhibition to which LeWitt contributed one of his board clearing wall drawings. It was one more generous work in a lifetime of generous works. In fact, I don't think that I've ever had a conversation with someone who knew LeWitt personally where the word "generous" didn't make an appearance. Although, when the word was used it was always in reference to his qualities as a person. The generosity in the work was a given. His work and his life are done now, but neither will be easily undone. His line. It goes on.
Below. The scarf that Sol Lewitt donated to Creative Time as an art prize in Coney Island for the Dreamland Artist Club
Art Star.
What a nice surprise when, on my regular visit to
Artforum Diary, I came across this photo of Creative Time's own Maureen Sullivan (right) with
MoMA's Cara Starke (left). We always knew that she was cool and socially significant, but now it's official. This is just the beginning for what will be--without a doubt--"The Year of Maureen." She will rock you.