Art Fag City

Best Link Ever! Someone Still Cares About Fred Durst!

2009-11-06T21:04:22Z

POST BY KAREN ARCHEY

Image via fredandme.com

Did Fred Durst do it all for the nookie? We’re not entirely sure we care what the rapper’s career motivations are, but someone apparently does. This week’s Best Link Ever, fredandme.com offers documentation of the Limp Bizkit frontman’s various career stages via fan photos of the singer and ecstatic groupies. Notably, as of late Durst seems to have grown out of his alt-rapping garb, retiring his backwards baseball caps and soul patch-goatee combo for a more sensible, House MD-style full salt and pepper beard and cabbie hat. No, this isn’t news-worthy, but it is always funny to see what white rappers are doing a decade after their heyday.

Best Link Ever is a weekly column posted on Fridays culling the best gems of the Internet, maintained by AFC Associate Editor Karen Archey.

Fresh Links!

2009-11-06T16:31:18Z

Abroad - Scots Aim Lasers at Mount Rushmore and Other Landmarks - NYTimes.com

I’m not sure how I feel about this.

Fresh Links!

2009-11-06T16:24:10Z

Worst. Press. Release. Ever. Hanoi 9-1-1

Former senior editor of Modern Painters, Lyra Kilston takes the e-flux email service to task, citing Vietnam University of Fine Arts as a spinner of misguided curatorial pomp. Does she have no respect for ArtReview’s “Power” ranking for founders Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda? They did quite well for themselves, clocking in at number 8.

Fresh Links!

2009-11-06T14:35:15Z

25 Most Stylish Bostonians of 2009 — Joao Ribas - The Boston Globe

MIT curator Joao Ribas informs us that this article is a parody. Our favorite part of the interview is when he rationalizes his early childhood tie wearing. “I was a proper child. And then I discovered that all of my intellectual heroes also wore ties, so that was convenient.”

BREAKING! 18th Most Powerless Person in the Art World Spotted at LES Gallery Non-ironically Wearing Khakis!

2009-11-06T14:56:05Z

POST BY PADDY JOHNSON

Blogger Tom Moody takes a picture of the gallery/artist Reena Spaulings‘ buzzer, in the hopes of unlocking what some have named “the final mystery of the art world.” The final mystery of course being, why they are so famous.

Always on the prowl for the art worlders who made Hyperallergic’s list of the top 20 most powerless people in the art world, we snapped this picture yesterday of blogger Tom Moody, who snags their number 18 spot. Fullfilling their criteria for the position by non-ironically wearing Khakis at a lower east side gallery, Moody shoots the Reena Spaulings store front (a type written label underneath their buzzer). Coincidentally, while we where there, we learned what the most powerful people in the art world already know: Reena Spaulings is closed until December.

*You won’t find their new hours of operation on their website people — this news is brought to you exclusively by AFC.

Posting Notice: Michel de Broin Edition

2009-11-05T15:20:07Z

POST BY PADDY JOHNSON
Michel de Broin, Shared Propulsion Car (pulled over by Toronto Police), 2007

I have a lot of deadlines and art viewing to tend to today, so there won’t be too much posting here. In the meantime, I leave readers with a Canadian highlight from my trip to Madrid. Michel de Broin’s video Shared Propulsion Car (pulled over by Toronto Police), an inclusion in the show Auto currently on view at the Centro De Arte Dos de Mayo in Madrid, documents a gutted car propelled only through bicycle technology. As one might imagine, de Broin and his four car-cycling companions weren’t able to make the car go very fast, so it wasn’t long before they were pulled over by the police. We don’t have a transcript from the video, but our notes tell us the conversation proceeded roughly as follows:

Police officer: Do you have insurance?

de Broin: No.

Police officer: Do you have a drivers license?

de Broin: It’s coming tomorrow.

Some back and forth occurs about what charge might be laid. Ultimately the officer delivers his verdict.

Police officer: I’m concerned about the safety of the car.

Cue the toe truck!

Michel de Broin, Shared Propulsion Car (pulled over by Toronto Police), 2007

Fresh Links!

2009-11-05T04:24:58Z

Girls In Front Of Art

Just for the record, I think this site might be better titled “Girls in Front of Pictures”. Not Work Safe.

Damien Hirst’s Alcohol-Drenched Sausage in a Baby Bottle and Other Findings

2009-11-05T03:53:11Z

POST BY PADDY JOHNSON
Damien Hirst, Innocence Lost, 2009, 200 x 50 mm, Glass, sausage and alcohol

Is Damien Hirst’s editioned, alcohol-drenched sausage in a baby bottle a joke? The fact that it’s available at Other Criteria, a publishing founded by Damien Hirst, Hugh Allan and Frank Dunphy in 2005 suggests that it’s not, but it’s also not the only hysterically weird piece on the site. Pair this with a few absurdly art speak-y product descriptions and half of yesterday was wasted chuckling over what I thought was an ingenious lark.

Based in Marylebone, London, the website’s About Page informs users on their various awards and mentions in essays by such superstars as Hans Ulrich Obrist, Gordon Burn, J.G. Ballard, and Jeremy Miller. Maybe one these guys can explain the sausage in a baby bottle, Cindy Sherman’s boobalicious tea-set and tax disc holders by artists such as Gavin Turk, Sarah Lucas, and Gary Hume. Our highlights with commentary after the jump. Hat tip: @nuarto9

Kehinde Whiley and Elizabeth Peyton, Bath Towel, 2007
1778 x 1524 mm
100% cotton
Limited edition, 25 available through Other Criteria

The number of artists who have made a limited edition towel available only through this site seems absurd. Is it possible that this site inspired the infamously dubbed Julian Schnabel towel “Schnowel”? Either way, I’m excited to self-reflectively lie on the beach, while the eyes of the towel engage my back.

From the website:

The gaze is the subject of these artist-designed beach towels, four individual designs of which are available through Other Criteria. Alluding to the self-reflexive and self-conscious nature of the beach towel on which we lie, each design uses either the artist’s portrait or the eyes of one of their subjects as a way in which to make contact with the viewer, the beach-goer or the picnic-maker.

The oversized towels are 100% cotton and machine washable.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk, Gary Hume

Michael Pretty Taxing tax disc - Artist’s Limited Edition

Printed on archival quality 100% cotton rag Somerset paper
Edition of 500

Is there anything on this so-called fake tax disc or is it just a blank CD? If it’s the latter, we’re not talking about something all that interesting, but if it’s the former, I’m not sure what we’re talking about as no details are given. The write up suggests using the piece to brighten your windscreen, which I suspect is British slang for something other than a driver’s windshield. UPDATE: This is a disc-shaped certificate displayed on your car’s windshield that proves you paid your taxes. Thanks Greg!

The text below:

Pretty Taxing produces a range of exclusively commissioned tax disc holder designs from top artists and designers to brighten your windscreen. Each design is an edition of 500 and comes with a fake tax disc to be replaced by your own or added to a collection on your windscreen. Gavin Turk’s ‘Blue Heritage Plaque’, while still a collectible artwork, is sold as an unlimited edition at the artist’s request.

The edition comprises of a certificate of authenticity and a circular artwork which are both hand numbered with their edition number. The specially designed packaging is also hand numbered on the outside and the circular artwork comes inserted into the Pretty Taxing plastic tax disc holder along with the fake tax disc.

Pretty Taxing will launch new editions of tax disc holders by leading artists and designers on a regular basis so that customers can build their own in-car art collection.

The certificate and circular artwork are printed onto the highest grade, archival quality 100% cotton rag Somerset art paper using light fast, high density inks to ensure a vibrant and lasting reproduction.

To view all Pretty Taxing tax discs in the Artist’s Collection, click here.

Cindy Sherman, Madame de Pompadour (née Poisson), 1990
Dimensions vary
21-piece porcelain Tea Service: 1 teapot, 1 sugar bowl, 1 creamer, 6 cups, 6 saucers, 6 dessert plates
Edition of 75 in each of four colour options

Who wants a Tea Set with Cindy Sherman’s boobs as Madame de Pompadour? The sets are offered in blue, pink, yellow, and green. To those looking to sink £4,000 into the plates, we recommend the Royal Blue. It’s simply more tasteful.

In commemoration of Madame de Pompadour (nee Poisson) – famous courtesan and mistress of King Louis XV of France – Cindy Sherman has cast herself in the role of Pompadour in this exquisite 21-piece tea set. Made from Limoges porcelain, after the original design commissioned by Pompadour in 1756, creative chameleon Sherman challenges the idea of identity and ownership, utilising a complex photo-silkscreen process to replace the courtesan’s portrait with her own.

Signed and numbered by the artist, the tea set is available in a range of colours: apple green, rose, royal blue, and yellow. Each colour has been produced in a limited edition of 75.

Kiki Smith, Cat, 1999
82.6 x 82.6 x 95.3 mm
High-fired porcelain with glazed interior
Edition of 150

In the same way that every cat evokes anything from the Sphinx to Jelly molds, so does Kiki Smith’s mug. I rather like the way the ears support the body of this cup, but I’m not convinced I need it for my home. There’re not enough hieroglyphics on this kitty for me, I guess.

Departing from her lifetime’s commitment to print, Kiki Smith has created an edition of 150 high-fired porcelain cat’s head objects, 3 of which are for sale through Other Criteria.

Smith extends her fascination with the natural world and the relationships between animals and humans, anthropomorphizing her cat’s head as both a design object and functional container. The cat’s head, with glazed interior, stands upright and upside down, making for a curious and whimsical object and a drive to experiment beyond the two dimensions of print. Some of the qualities of print remain, however, in the raised linear surface of the creature’s fur.

In many ways, this intriguing object – at once surreal, comical and absurd – recalls Smith’s multiples of the 1970s and 80s, when she worked with Collaborative Projects, Inc. to create artist-made accessories. The network of fabricators with whom she collaborated in the past – glass blowers, metal-smiths and foundries – are all referenced here. Smith’s love of puppetry is evidently an influence, and in combining elements of artisanal kitsch and playful practicality, she produces something unique and unusual. Relics of other cultures and readings surface; the cat appears mythological, sphynx-like, totemic, an artefact of anthropology, and yet at the same time, recalls the jelly moulds and kitsch figurines of Western windowsills and kitchen displays.

Damien Hirst, Innocence Lost, 2009, sausage in a baby bottle with alcohol, 2009
200 x 50 mm
Glass, sausage and alcohol

And last but not least, Damien Hirst’s latest masterpiece — pork sausage and alcohol in a baby bottle. I’m not really sure what to say about this work that isn’t already obvious, except perhaps that were I a collector, I would insist on signing papers ensuring the artist’s replacement of the pork sausage in the event of inevitable conservation problems.

Innocence Lost, a glass baby’s bottle containing a pork sausage pickled in alcohol, makes foul, connotative paradoxes out of ideas of nourishment and nurture. Visually, the work is a reminder of Hirst’s formaldehyde pieces as well as the surreal performances of pantomime and Punch & Judy shows. It is at once humorous and disturbing.

The glass bottle is engraved with the edition number, Hirst logo and signature.

Art Fag City at the L Magazine: Brainy Art Is Not For Everyone

2009-11-04T18:03:42Z

POST BY PADDY JOHNSON
Spencer Finch, 366 (Emily Dickinson’s Miraculous Year), 2009, Image via: Postmasters

This week at The L Magazine I discuss new exhibits by Spencer Finch and William Cordova. The teaser below.

If it takes a gallery-goer several days of contemplation to figure out the meaning of an artwork, is it flawed? Both old master paintings and contemporary art pieces often unfold over the course of many years, but because so much new art makes durational demands of a viewer without looking like much, it’s hard to know what’s worth the time. As I finished walking through Chelsea the other day, Spencer Finch at Postmasters and William Cordova at Sikkema Jenkins had me wondering how much substantive value was gained through esoteric references.

Spencer Finch’s backroom installation Paper Moon, (Studio Wall at Night) at Postmasters was what set me off, though even the gallery describes its recreation of studio shadows as “very boring and clearly not for everyone.” The piece is little more than a room divider with a poorly cut out window and rickety train set running on one side of the wall. Initially, I dismissed it without much thought—the remnants of light aren’t actually that interesting to experience no matter whose studio it falls in—but after further contemplation, I began to doubt that first impression. Instead, I began to interpret its pathetic craft as a humorously self-deprecating statement on the skills needed to make art by the artist. It’s probable both takes are correct, which leaves one weighting the value of each.

Given the context of the show, I’m inclined to think the added interpretation doesn’t amount to much. After all, prior to making it to the back gallery, viewers are subjected to a giant kumbaya circle of colored candles and the grating exhibition title, The Brain—Is Wider Than The Sky. The quote comes from an Emily Dickinson poem and relates to the mostly melted candle piece, which is a memorial to the poet. As the press release informs the viewer, 366 candles burn, one per day, in homage to Dickinson’s massive 1862 production of the same number of poems. Each colored candle corresponds to a color mentioned in her poem, except when no color is mentioned (in which case natural wax is used). It’s an A+B=intellect-takes-you-to-heaven kind of piece, which made me hope I would never be damned to the dreary pretension of afterlife.

To read the full piece, click here.

No Trick-or-Taco for Starving Artists?

2009-11-04T17:07:34Z

POST BY MARINA GALPERINA
Agnes Varda, a still from The Gleaners and I (2002)

Last year’s World Series yielded some free grub when Jason Barlett stole third base and won free tacos for all of America via a Taco Bell giveaway. No such luck this year. We’ve got to say, we’re a little disappointed. What, no Trick-or-Taco? But not to fear — aside from the shameful alternatives of crashing a potluck or eating a few meals in advance at a cheap buffet, in New York, we can score a free meal just by buying alcohol. And to think, in Silver Lake, they’re picking free food straight from their neighbors’ fruit trees. Damn hippies.