Tuesday, July 29, 2008

hijacked--aussie project

Monday, July 28, 2008

gold

nirvana entry



Philipp introduced me to Nevermind in his bedroom in Vienna, Austria. He was my first boyfriend, and we were each other's first lover. Later he told me kept the bed sheets from our first time. He died a few years ago in a tragic motorcycle accident.

you have 3d glasses?

Thursday, July 24, 2008

flash art online reviews black is black ain't

Black Is, Black Ain’t
Michelle Menzies

April 20 – June 08, 2008

The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago

Hamza Walker’s show at the Renaissance Society is that rare thing, a curatorial intervention into a potentially over-coded genre — an exhibition about race — whose light touch infuses its fidelity to a tough subject with wit and a beguiling sense of humor. Chicago, like many American metropoles, suffers from an over-literal division of space, into bifurcated North and South Sides, with the Hyde Park community of the University of Chicago providing a somewhat more textured urban fabric as a backdrop.

Even so, given a topic that might seem irrevocably burdened with an a priori sense of determinism, Walker’s management of his material is nothing short of accomplished. Glenn Ligon’s Warm Broad Glow (2005) is a large neon sign that sets a tongue-in-cheek tone, welcoming one into the exhibition with the softly evocative promise of “negro sunshine.” Paul D’Amato’s 624 W. Division (2007) and Daniel Roth’s Cabrini Green Forest (Portal) (2004) treat the spatial topic with variations on a highly formalist vocabulary — D’Amato’s tight photographic representation of an architectural cross-section in Downtown Chicago is thick with visually compelling detail, the city’s iconic skyline lurking in the background; while the German artist Roth’s fantasy of a re-conceived Panoptican maps out an imaginary portal between here and there, Europe or America, the South Side and Downtown, through a series of intricate drawings and a delicately calibrated sculptural pool. Resistance to metaphor is a recurrent trope in this show, aptly conveyed in Rodney McMillian’s Chair (2003) which offers us a sawed-off, busted, broken-down armchair oozing foam — the thing itself, presented with an obdurate materialism. And something inexpressibly complex about the mode with which Walker and his artists navigate what can all too often seem like the hard contours of discussions of race in America is thoroughly captured by two standout video pieces: Elizabeth Axtman’s American Classics (2006), a humorous, sometimes jarring ventriloquizing of one-liners from a recognizable archive of Hollywood greats, and Thomas Johnson’s hilarious, nail-bitingly awkward confession of neurosis in What a Black Man Feels Like (2004). At the core of this exhibition’s thematic, however, sit two visually cool photographs, arranged to the side of the main galley in a subtle alcove-like configuration that one is tempted to read as an architectural crux. Demetrius Oliver’s Till (2004) and Jason Lazarus’s Standing at the Grave of Emmet Till, The Day of Exhumation, May 31st, (ALSIP, IL) (2005) both describe an event in American civil life that carries immediate visceral import. In Oliver’s image the classical proportions of a portrait head are overlaid with a dense layer of buttery, agglutinated painterly pigment, the subject’s features obfuscated by pure tone. Lazarus’s photograph, on the other hand, is merely observational — eschewing an obsessive perusal of photographic detail in favor of a flatly landscape-oriented, light-sensitive pictorial quality. A sophisticated handling of form amplifies the unmistakable gravitas of these two works, and indeed, it is precisely a sense of formal sophistication that one carries away from the show. Black Is, Black Ain’t manages to create a sense of activated potential for the genre of art exhibitions about social questions by deploying its art in ways that don’t attempt to legislate on the theme so much as dilate it, with skill, sensitivity and an exuberant willingness to be alternately celebratory, frank, silly and downright funny.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

courtesy of huffington post


McCain Makes Historic First Visit to Internet

In a daring bid to wrench attention from his Democratic rival in the 2008 presidential race, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today embarked on an historic first-ever visit to the Internet.

Given that the Arizona Republican had never logged onto the Internet before, advisors acknowledged that his first visit to the World Wide Web was fraught with risk.

But with his Democratic rival Barack Obama making headlines with his tour of the Middle East and Europe, the McCain campaign felt that they needed to "come up with something equally bold for John to do," according to one advisor.

McCain aides said that the senator's journey to the Internet will span five days and will take him to such far-flung sites as Amazon.com, eBay and Facebook.

With a press retinue watching, Sen. McCain logged onto the Internet at 9:00 AM Sunday, paying his first-ever visit ever to Mapquest.com.

"I can't get this [expletive] thing to work," Sen. McCain said as he struggled with his computer's mouse, causing his wife Cindy to prompt him to add that he was "just kidding."

Having pronounced his visit to Mapquest a success, Sen. McCain continued his tour by visiting Weather.com and Yahoo! Answers, where he inquired as to the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.

Sen. McCain said that he had embarked on his visit to the Internet to allay any fears that he is too out-of-touch to be president, adding that he plans to take additional steps to demonstrate that he is comfortable with today's technology: "In the days and weeks ahead, you will be seeing me rock out with my new Walkman."

ebay still works in austria



i just bought this autographed photograph of paul tibbets, pilot of enola gay who dropped the first atomic bomb, 'little boy,' on hiroshima...i will use it in a future artwork...more info below:

In September 1944, he was selected to command the project at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, that became the 509th Composite Group, in connection with the Manhattan Project's On August 5, 1945, Tibbets formally named B-29 serial number 44-86292 Enola Gay after his mother (she was named after the heroine, Enola, of a novel her father had liked). On August 6, the Enola Gay departed Tinian Island in the Marianas with Tibbets at the controls at 2:45 a.m. for Hiroshima, Japan. The atomic bomb, codenamed Little Boy, was dropped over Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. local time. Total casualties were in the range of 90,000-140,000 persons, due to the initial impact, injuries and subsequent radiation that came from the explosion. The film Above and Beyond (1952) depicted the World War II events involving Tibbets, with Robert Taylor starring as Tibbets and Eleanor Parker as his first wife Lucy. In 1980, a made-for-television movie aired, again telling a possibly more fictionalized version of the story of Tibbets and his men, with Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing from the CBS series Dallas) having played the part of Tibbets and Kim Darby as Lucy. The film was called, Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb. Tibbets was also portrayed in the films Day One and The Beginning or the End.

Tibbets' marriage, to the former Lucy Wingate ended in divorce in 1955;[3] a second wife was named Andrea. In 1959, he was promoted to Brigadier General. He retired from the U.S. Air Force on August 31, 1966.

Later life

In the 1960s, Tibbets was named military attaché in India, but this posting was rescinded after protests. After his retirement from the Air Force, he worked for Executive Jet Aviation, a Columbus, Ohio-based air taxi company now called NetJets. He retired from the firm in 1970 and returned to Miami, Florida. He later left Miami to return to Executive Jet Aviation, having sold his Miami home in 1974.[4] He was president of Executive Jet Aviation from 1976 until his retirement in 1987.

The U.S. government apologized to Japan in 1976 after Tibbets re-enacted the bombing in a restored B-29 at an air show in Texas, complete with mushroom cloud. Tibbets said that he had not meant for the reenactment to have been an insult to the Japanese.[5].

In 1995, he called a planned 50th anniversary exhibition of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Institution which attempted to present the bombing devoid of its context a "damn big insult"[5].

An interview of Paul Tibbets can be seen in the 1982 movie Atomic Cafe. He was also interviewed in the 1970s British documentary series The World at War.

His grandson Lieutenant Colonel Paul W. Tibbets IV, USAF (as of 2006) is commander of the 393rd Bomb Squadron at Whiteman AFB, Missouri and flies the B-2 Spirit. The 393rd is one of two operational squadrons under the same unit his grandfather commanded, the 509th Bomb Wing.

Tibbets was interviewed extensively by Mike Harden of the Columbus Dispatch, and profiles appeared in the newspaper on anniversaries of the first dropping of an atomic bomb.

Tibbets expressed no regret regarding the decision to drop the bomb. In a 1975 interview he said: "I'm proud that I was able to start with nothing, plan it, and have it work as perfectly as it did... I sleep clearly every night".[5] In March 2005, he stated, "If you give me the same circumstances, hell yeah, I'd do it again."

Death

Tibbets died in his Columbus, Ohio, home in 2007.[5][6][7] He had suffered small strokes and heart failure in his final years and had been in hospice care.[8][9] Tibbets specified in his will that there should be no funeral service after his death and no headstone because anti-nuclear demonstrators could make his resting place a pilgrimage site. Tibbets asked to be cremated and have his ashes dispersed into the waters of the English Channel.
Favorite moments from Led Zeppelin IV as interpreted by the I tunes visualizer

"Four Sticks (last vocal wail, song outro)"

musik 4 vienna



to be distributed soon all throughout vienna, austria...pix within a week...

spencer


(image from npr.org)


well, i got edited out of the four minute story, but it is good, and for good reason, spencer is the star:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92833535
by Chana Joffe-Walt

good luck after high school spencer!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

don't ask

The 'eight don't asks' of the Olympics

Posted by Tim Johnson
Tue Jul 22, 5:46 AM ET

Posters are appearing around Beijing guiding locals about how to interact with the (few) foreigners coming for the Summer Games.
ADVERTISEMENT

The posters instruct residents on the “eight don’t asks” when chatting with foreign guests. Here’s a rough translation, courtesy of the Peaceful Rise blog:

Don’t ask about income or expenses, don’t ask about age, don’t ask about love life or marriage, don’t ask about health, don’t ask about someone’s home or address, don’t ask about personal experience, don’t ask about religious beliefs or political views, don’t ask what someone does.

ok here it is...quick studio shot of piece-in-progress

explained in next post

plants/studio/artwork

so i can't post this studio pic right now, but i've got a set of plants illuminated by a plant-light that is set to the chicago sunrise/sunset cycle! it is dark in the apt but the plants are enjoying the chicago daytime (vicariously).

working on an exhibition that i will install here at das weisse haus on july 29th i think. the exhibit will not have an opening, as the space is closed all of august, but the exhibition will be 'enjoyable' 24/7 from the street. stay tuned...

Thursday, July 17, 2008

led zeppelin IV

series:
Favorite moment from each song on Led Zeppelin IV, as seen with the I-tunes visualizer

image below is "When the levee breaks (song intro)"



today i saw the exhibition Susan Hiller. Outlaw Cowgirl and other works at the bawag foundation, WOW! i loved it as recommended by visiting saic professor richard hull. i gave a lecture to his class and afterward we ate and 'did nightlife stuff'.

also, i found a great book: 'Romantic Conceptualism' !

just finished the led zeppelin series previewed above...that's been an idea for like 2 years. they will be small prints, mounted on wood, with a 'pour on' glaze over the top (still heeding lucas day's recommendation on the finish from many moons ago)

gnite!

tour of studio

a quick look at the apt/studio in vienna. it's hard to correctly aim the laptop camera!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

new work in vienna




i can post a pic now because i am 'plugged in' at vienna's public radio station, about to be interviewed by public radio's chana joffe-walt, an independent radio producer. may appear later as an all things considered piece abou the nirvana project.

miss you people! J

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

update:

sometimes my emails get bounced back repeatedly so i am using the blog as a way to just share some happenings from this past week. (lindsey, i've tried to email you like 20times! wtf gmail?)




ok! here goes:

first, i cannot add pix to my blog yet for some reason, so i wil figure this out instead of trying to send the same pix to many people...suspense!

all is good here. the apt is like a good size 1 bedroom with an open layout like a loft--no walls. wood floors, eat in kitchen with stove and fridge, windows in kitchen area and corner of living room, double bed, which is very big to me, bathroom has big tub for thinking and calming down fatigued much walking body. my fridge now has milch, kase, salame, pizza, yogurt, grapes, and blueberries. and chocolate in it. many small groceries nearby.

when i got here i hadn't heard from residency in a few days. i showed up at airport not knowing if they were gonna pick me up. tired and SWEATY off plane nobody had a jason lazarus sign. i had the address with me and took a taxi. i got here and again i didn't know what door to knock on. a local resident of the complex knew one of the residency girls and called her. she came and got me to my room. since then a bit of jet lag... the girls were busy with an opening here and so the first couple days i had to figure things out on my own, no phone or internet for 2 days drove me crazy. the first two days everything was frustrating

michael gumhold came over which was great and helped me get a train pass and some other things. i bought a french press and tea kettle. i have learned the neary area pretty well now and know where to go for groceries, art supplies, film developing, hardware store etc. this is good. i went to a flea market on sat and bought many old photos i have been making work with. today i visited an artist i met (one of the artists showing her now) and saw her studio and had lunch which was nice (no romantix, just a visit).

i have hung out with esther twice, once to go to the vienna secession (se shae she OWN) and see a thomas hirschhorn opening...last night we saw kino am dach, or theatre on the roof. basically, an outdoor screening of a katherine hepburn movie on the roof of the public llibrary which was nice with a group of people. fun!

i am being interviewed by npr tomorrow for a story on the nirvana project! they contacted me and i said i'm here and they said no problem! i think it will be a national show? channa joffe-wait is the reporter, i need to google her.

the residency exhibition space is closed in august but i will mount something in their streetside exhibition space that has all glass for pedestrian viewing...this way i can exhibit during their off month. i will also be in a show called confusion that opens sep 2nd, have to come up with something for that...it could be me many times a day here!

i will go to koln for a group show i am in at kaune, sudendorf on friday, july 11th and return here on the 14th.

aron comes on aug 5th. i think i will take him to amsterdam with me to do a photo there! i found out, when looking for a hotel, that the hilton amsterdam has a suite where the john lennon and yoko peace bed-in occured (basically their honeymoon consisted of inviting reporters to their room to discuss world peace in this suite). i called hoping to book the room but it is 2000 some euros! oh well. maybe if it was my honeymoon would i spend this much! it's so funny because a couple nights ago i downloaded a john lennon documentary to watch in bed before sleeping!

so, tomorrow radio interview. on wednesday i will go to a flea market ran by a red cross type organization. often i found out the photo collections from the recently deceased are available so i have my fingers crossed i find some nice stuff. friday to cologne!

i am also maybe gonna put a book together of these pix i found belonging to a mr theodor herz, apothecary. i will call it 'introducing theodor herz'!

i also bought spray paint and am working with it on postcards of the austrian landscape! a fun new direction!

also, today i bought a combo scanner/printer for the apt/studio

on july 16th richard hull is bringing his class from saic and i give a lecture to them, which will be a lot of fun.

tomorrow night a party at the leopold museum!

Sunday, July 06, 2008

no visuals

i can't attach images to my blog from over here...any ideas why bloggers?

spray paint in vienna = new works

i am in an upcoming show at kaune, sudendorf gallery opening on july 11th, will go there for 4 days starting on the 11th.

the das weisse haus set up for residents is nice...a 450 sq foot open 1 bedroom, very loft like. i bought a french press, tea kettle, alarm clock, tape, spray paint, hangers, cheese, yogurt, salame, and i am feeling set up ish...

i will have an open studio here on july 20th for the das weisse haus summer party. also, i will be included in a group show here that opens sep 2nd called confusion.

please write me or stop by! i love visitors and i will make you coffee, provide the finest cheeses, and play music for you. if you are lucky, some new and improved broken german.

miss you harold guys too! stay cool!

hey i forgot it was july 4th here until i logged onto yahoo.com and saw their special graphic.

ps: michael gumhold and esther stocker are still great after years gone by

pps: mom and dad: i am good, don't worry! miss you, love, J

Friday, July 04, 2008

vienna!

my number here is:
0043 68 03 04 27 67!


all for now, j