Gallery Install

Install day one: Lots of driving. Lots of unloading. Lots of crossing our fingers that nothing has broken.

Also, seen from the car: Pigeon racing, (rightfully) spoiled New York City dogs and a dreary cool week of Spring.

We Have An Anchor That Keeps The Soul

After the premier of Jem Cohen's new piece, We Have An Anchor, all I wanted to do was sit in silence and take in the beauty I had just seen, tranced into a contemplative space of anthropological wonder. Jem's piece was a truly inspiring work (so much so two friends of mine in attendance have already replaced their old/lost cameras since the shows end!) built upon a base of simultaneous multiple projections of footage in various film formats from trips to Nova Scotia's Cape Breton over an extended period of time, mixed with poems, stories and cultivated text by writers hailing from the area all set to a compelling live soundtrack performed by an extraordinary group of musicians.

The footage, like most of Jem's work, was a deeply lush portrait of a place in time focusing on the otherwordly/unhinged dynamics of the landscape, those living within it and the culture created by it. Also, like most of Jem's work, there is a palpable intensity just on the edge of every moment, a small flash or color that sets his visions apart from others, like every real auteur. Oceans, people, domesticated animals, birds, detritus, decay are engulfed by Jem's historicism and intellect looking for the meaning in a gesture, the artifact in the seemingly mundane, allowing for the pictures he creates to take on a whole other language of existence that often goes unnoticed in the present of everyday life. He does all of this, and even more that I don't know how to begin to put into words, with his complex and gorgeous eye, carving out what it means to be today but keeping in mind the continuum of time, a serious feat that I truly think should be the basis and reason for the existence of all art! Way to go Jem!

Then there was the music of course....THE MUSIC! It is, as expected, hard to describe what happens when members of Fugazi, The Dirty Three, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Silver Mt. Zion and The Quavers get together to make music. I almost want to call it international punk: a pulsating vibrant yet spooky Scottish/tribal tonal palette on a bed of layered, softly crunchy feedback coming from multiple electric guitars, a pump organ, extreeeemly musical violinists (oh my goodness I've never seen anyone play like them before, a unit of two string players with the whole package- texture, harmony, melody, ease, heft- AMAZING!), a bed of pedals and amps and the sweeping, powerful, expansive drumming of Jim White. The stage was littered with so many effects pedals whose clicking on and off somehow added to the presence of the piece in this really weird, unexpected way. It was almost as if the actions of the band clicking their pedals highlighted the elements creating the sounds, a fusing of technology, humans and music (a thing that I think the venue, EMPAC, provides the perfect stage for) placed in front of the ethereal projection of the changing world, made the physicality of being there and hearing there and seeing the musicians a shared experience, further reinforcing the core values of the piece itself.

I know Jem Cohen is brilliant but this piece was above and beyond any expectations I could have had. Jem is an artist, an anthropologist, a thinker and a culture maker who sees the value in art and strives to produce work that is consistently important and relevant. He sees the world in his own particular way and, as evident in his work and the very medium he chooses to work in, this view is one that encompasses all of time into a moment, poetic documentary at its finest. I know he is often seen as an experimental filmmaker but Jem is much more than that: Jem is a genius, plain and simple! Each film a contemporary, breathtaking relic that we should all be proud will be in existence forever in time while also always being present in the moment. (Pictures of ephemera from We Have An Anchor: post show stage, Jem's self-labeled coffee cup, musician notes/cues)

Also, a special shout out to Jem's partner Megan Cump, a visual artist whose support has blossomed them into some sort of an image making power couple (Edit: Jem disapproved of previous phrase) that I am humbled to know! The beauty they put into the world, together and apart, is more than inspiring!

Experimental Spring

Lots of things are coming up in the Nervousfilms studio...! And lots of these things are in conjunction with my beloved EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center of Troy NY)! First up Jem Cohen, a filmmaker whose work I have long adored, is debuting a new film project up in Troy at the end of this week! It is titled We Have An Anchor and features footage from his trips to awe inspiring Nova Scotia. Accompanying this film will be a super group of live musicians including Jim White, Guy Picciotto, members of Montreal bands Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Silver Mt. Zion and Todd Griffin of the Brooklyn based The Quavers. We're going to this show and everyone else needs to go too! The preview (embedded directly below!) alone is making me full of joy!


Following this we are installing Brent's new film-within-a-sculpture, made in residency at EMPAC, at a gallery in NYC. The way this piece is constructed (layers of deconstructed lcd screens whose images interact on multiple planes visible through polarizer? make any sense at all?) means that the film won't be available in any other form so viewing possibilities are a bit on the limited side...meaning you should come see To Many Men Strange Fates Are Given!  And you should also come take a look at some of my new welding capabilities which will be on display as part of this piece!!!

Immediately following this installation Brent & I, along with members of our most recent touring band, will be heading back up to EMPAC to record a live version of our feature film Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then!!!!! This live edited version is part of a DVD series of performance art that the arts center is planning on releasing. Interspersed with clips from the film and video of the live improvised soundtrack we'll be recording while there, it will mark the only version (apart from the limited art editions of course!) available for viewing. The best part about this is that we can (finally) share the film in some form with a wider audience, so thrilled to be doing this! Especially with an organization that supports so much work I admire!

Then we hang out in Troy a little longer so Brent can give input on a student's final MFA project at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute-- aka the home of EMPAC! The student, Sena Clara Creston, makes magical mechanical sculptures that bring to mind sweet imaginary worlds of nostalgia! Tech art with heart, I love it! So, a very Experimental Performing Arts Spring has arrived here at Nervousfilms, along with all of the finishing welds of a long studio project! Speaking of which, here is a pic of a weld! And the table I made it on! And welders, please don't be too harsh on my novice welding, you seem to be an opinionated bunch who, according to many an antagonistic message board post/critique, have an inordinate amount of 5 year olds able to make better welds than most adults...? Hmmm...still glad to be among you...especially the nice ones, which there are also plenty of!

Pennsylvania Dutch

On a little break from the slightly arduous finishing touches for the upcoming gallery show (Brent is tweaking some animation frame by frame and I am a welding machine!) we spent an afternoon in nearby Kutztown, home of Kutztown University (which I talked about on here a little before!) and which is also the home of a great art school scene!

The current juried Senior Fine Arts show up at the Miller Gallery of Kutztown University is diverse to say the least...! The skill level, content and media were so wide ranging it was hard to pin down but broadly speaking there did seem to be an underlying nature element going on, sort of like what I saw around Penn State recently, a kind of nostalgia for the natural world and a hunger for the raw human spirit maybe...? Either way, there were a few things that I personally loved: the woodcut lightbox of Andrea Rincon (why don't more people make wood cut lightboxes?), the wispy texture of a chandelier adorned with coffee filter made monarch butterflies by Lauren Smucker, so-and so's (your name is blurred on my camera--so sorry!) hilarious drawing made to look like a page from a high school notebook, a lot of good photographic portraiture and some three dimensional abstract work, all stood out as things whose style was coherent while also holding some sort of substance or beauty.

After touring the gallery Brent & I met up with the gallery director, Karen Stanford, and artist/professor/arts writer Dan Talley, both of which came out to the barn during our Gravity set building days way back when! Lunch with them was wonderful, both thoughtful art people who grasp the many facets of being art people...so refreshing! Especially out here in the boonies! They are great! After lunch (which we had at a bad ass Mexican restaurant!!! An amazing rarity in the restaurant desert of rural PA!!!) Karen led us over to a student run, off campus gallery space called Eck House on the main drag of town.

The space was pretty damn perfect, an old linoleum floored storefront with zines, some art just taped up on display, the names of the work drawn in pencil on the layers of paint thickening the walls from decades of room color & semester lease changes. Like true college culture, Eck House also has a love for hardcore shows and noise violation tickets too! The art here was awesome, my favorite being this dude Shaun McNally's painting/collage of a surrealist scene (pictured above) that was just spooky, ethereal, colorful and dark enough- pretty! The other work was good too, skateboarding photos, stark black prints depicting garish news photos & pop music lyrics, cartoonish figures...lots of potential for bigger ideas and lots of artistic skill- another refreshing Kutztown space! YAY!

I hope the Kutztown kids appreciate what they have out here in the middle of nowhere! A great arts resource and a great place to grow...artistically and agriculturally for that matter- so many cow farms begging me to eat their local beef jerky and ice cream! Alright, now back to work...thanks for the break Kutztown!!!! O, and another Miller Gallery note for artists out there, they have a nice residency program that has brought a ton of seriously good contemporary art out here, the deadline for application is the end of June, check it out! And no, I am not just trying to lure you all to rural PA...well, maybe just a little...!

Contemporary Art. And My First Internet Meme.

Sitting in Millennium Park in Chicago recently, a place that is an overwhelming example of the city's intense push toward public art, I kept listening to families coming through on their cultural outings, many encountering art for the first time with their children. As I listened to them verbalize what they thought about the grand artistic works on display, I figured it out. I figured contemporary art out. I got down to the reasons I am so frustrated by it and even the reasons I sometimes like it.

Art is so vague and empty now because people want vague and empty. People want to project themselves onto whatever is in front of them. What is facebook but a highly curated mirror? Or maybe art has been taking a page from Hollywood lately as seats of theaters are filled with our fragile egos identifying with the onscreen protagonists? By leaving art open to interpretation and self identification audiences can put themselves in it, it becomes theirs and they are something they can relate to more than anything else. The amount of digital pictures taken in front of public sculptures I saw on this morning in Chicago was point in fact that the facebook generation isn't there to contemplate or experience much else than their own existence, even if it happens to be standing in front of exquisite pieces of art... and speaking of facebook, have you heard of this thing floating around called the "New Aesthetic?"

The New Aesthetic seems to take into account the look of technology in art, of how we as an audience of tech/media consumers take in images, process them through our human processor and use the digital tools around us to create something new, immediate, pixeled, personalized and, hopefully, informative. The exact definition of this term seems to be a bit scattered in its infancy, it might even disappear as a concept for all I know, but it does show a recognition of a new way of seeing that could lead to a more accessible artistic image language that focuses on the flattened technological landscape, of pixels as important conveyors of meaning and users as (potentially active) processors. Will the New Aesthetic make us think and act differently or reflectively? Will it provoke or instigate a positive cultural shift? Humanize us? Probably not. But the fact that people are recognizing that the facebook generation is communicating on a different visual plane leads me to think that maybe this style can lead to a better exchange of information and ideas, and not just end up the ad room buzzword it is aching to become...

Then there is the other confusing part of contemporary art that is inherent in this so-called New Aesthetic and that I have a love/hate relationship with: distance. I often get so mad at alienating art, art that is a slew of abstract shapes and colors (plenty of which is on view in Millennium Park and in the contemporary art mecca of Chelsea too) that makes you stand at an indifferent distance, that you can't interpret for lack of wanting to. But then, I was thinking about contemporary art I respond to and realized it is also distancing? The DIY movement that has been hanging around lately is all about revealing the process in order to distance the viewer to critically address the issues and politics behind the work. Distancing in non-DIY contemporary art though, of the austere shapes and colors persuasion, could create a thought provoking space but the lack of actual meaning in a lot of this type of work often falls short leaving the viewer cold, alone and thoughtless in a gallery...or behind a computer screen.

Most tech art is probably experienced in isolation too but the recent trend towards a kind of call and response in the digital art sphere is encouraging! The (this week's?) rash of those (damn) "What people think I do" internet memes, the constant linking (guilty) and liking of images, an immediate curation/organization of pictures through tumblr, all of these things are a weird kind of secluded conversation- we share in a digital exchange of ideas across a global technological gallery. But, then again, is the long distance "liking" and mimicry and collage another form of a spooky digital mirror? The making of a digi-scrapbook of what we, personally, like to look at alone in our rooms? Or could we possibly use the New Aesthetic for long distance cultural forward thinking and actual global conversation? Looking at ourselves critically through the distance of the internet?

I guess what I am getting at is: the art world right now is totally hung up on itself in a new wave of alienating self expression. Everyone wants a mirror (a good thing for the film-art/tech-art medium I bet!) and, to me, the successful artwork wants you to see in that mirror what caused those scars on your face and wonder if the war that caused them was worth it, while the unsuccessful artwork is just another ego stroking manifestation of our digital idea of self...and it also thinks you are hottt. Now, more importantly, how do we get out of this (terrible) mirror phase in art....?? Is the labeling of the New Aesthetic a potential way out? Or are we heading deeper into a virtual reality of self obsession without reflection on a global or communal scale? Or can we harness this concept for good somehow? Only time will tell I guess...! Or maybe this virtual magic 8 ball can tell us the future of contemporary art?????????? Or this magic virtual mirror? O alienating computer creativity! How I love thee!

OK. End rant. Here are a few images of some enormous public art pieces I encountered just walking around the city of Chicago, an old aesthetic in an ever changing contemporary art landscape: from the top Four Seasons, Marc Chagall mosaic 1974; Crown Fountain, Jaume Plensa, 2004 (image of worker repairing the sculpture!); A self made Jeff Koons meme...consider it a warning as to the possible future of contemporary art!; Cloud Gate, Anish Kappor, 2004; Nuclear Energy, Henry Moore, 1967, marks the location of the first controlled nuclear reaction (!); Louis Comfort Tiffany glass dome, 1897,  the largest Tiffany glass dome in the world, housed inside the Chicago Cultural Center, formerly the city's public library.

Penny Lane, Brian L. Frye, and Richard Nixon

Brent recently met the filmmaking duo Penny Lane and Brian L. Frye, who work in collaboration as Dipper Films but also work separately as well, at a Creative Capital event where old and new grantees talked about their experiences. After meeting them Brent came home and said, possibly with a little tear in his eye (?), "You have to watch this film called The Voyagers" (embedded directly below!). Now, Brent is rarely moved by art so I should have listened right away. But I didn't. It wasn't until this past Wednesday, on our trip to upstate New York to play with lasers for an afternoon, that I saw my first Dipper film in the form of a sneak preview of Penny & Brian's latest feature, Our Nixon. The film screened in raw form at the art department of Union College and, as it slowly unfolded before me, I too became completely enamored with these filmmakers and their stunning vision (said with a little tear in my eye)!

Mixing Super 8 home movies by three of Richard Nixon's White House aides (Chief of Staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, Chief Domestic Advisor John Ehrlichman and Special Assistant to the President Dwight Chapin) that were confiscated by the FBI upon the Watergate investigation and other archival elements (including 16mm film of White House documented events, tons of incredible recorded phone conversations, televised interviews etc.), this film tracks the confusing Nixon reign, humanizing the characters that led to such a disgraceful downfall, exploring the mindsets of those who loved and worked for their fearless leader.  

Our Nixon is a documentary portrait compiled of media, private and public, where the lines of actions & words and images & sounds intersect to form an understanding of the beginning of what it means to exist in an increasingly technological society. The phone conversations of Nixon after his televised addresses where he critiques his performance next to the very personal home movies of his aides shows the development of a media identified self, the first glimpse at a self awareness and consciousness that has become a silent part of our everyday lives (thanks social networking!). Watching this group of powerful people reveling in experiences, with an often blurred understanding of reality and filmed reality was a stark realization as to the power, dubiousness, and meaning that the changing media landscape brought about, and still brings about. As the film shows, the Nixon presidency began with walking on the moon but ended in wire tapped burglary, the polar opposites of technology's abilities, the polar opposites of man's abilities and perfect symbols of such an enigmatic era. O, and then there was the breathtaking filmmaking!



This was a rough cut of the film so things like the music and final film scans weren't complete, coarse elements that seemed to bug a few of the audience members but that didn't even effect me as I remained engrossed in the overall stylistic connectivity of the piece. A mix of perfect old cheesy Nixon/America anthems with some MC5, Carpenter's 60s/70s nostalgic flare, edits with just enough film leader to add texture and pause, even the intertitles were all supremely cool and vibrant combining seamlessly to make the entire film stylized to a particular aesthetic and not make it feel as disconnected as it could easily have been given the many sources it drew from.

According to the filmmakers, this film has been in the making for over twelve years. A labor of love that actually sparked a real life love in the process: Brian wooed Penny with his discovery of the Super 8 home movies when they first met, eventually leading to not only this beautiful collaboration but to their marriage as well (thinks of The Voyagers, sniffles again!). Despite how long Our Nixon has been in the making this film doesn't seem belabored at all, if anything the long, hard work makes it feel loved, respectfully portraying a group of people as people, not just as the villains they are historically known as. Since this is just the beginning of the finished film I don't know where you'll see it just yet but I highly recommend keeping an eye out for it...!!! And also, after spending some time with them, it is clear Penny & Brian are equally as amazing people as they are filmmakers...! I can only hope the best for this truly amazing film! Our Nixon NOW!

A Typical Day. With Lasers.

Usually I am completely against going to art school. But I finally think I found a reason it is a good idea...and it has something to do with lasers. I do think art school can be a valuable experience for some, giving time and space, access to minds, networking, but the one thing I rarely hear people inform their decision on, and that I think is suuuper important, is the facilities. If you really want to study print making, go to a school with a lot of amazing printing presses. Film? Do they have cameras you can use and, if so, facilities to process the film in (it is so expensive to process film it isn't even funny!). And then, what do they have that you might have never even thought of using? A stellar animation department? Take an animation class! A tech art department? Learn how to make a video game! I know it seems like common sense but the amount of people I don't see taking these things into account is surprising! I also hear again and again students say things like "Well, when I graduate I will focus on selling my ceramics pieces more..." but, also, when you graduate, you aren't going to have constant access to a state of art kiln; you're going to have to pay for that usage and I think it might be harder to get a kiln loan from a bank than a student one? Anyway...you might be wondering what got me thinking about this...on another little jaunt up to the monolithic thought emporium known as EMPAC, we were allowed into RPI's architecture shop.

You want to fabricate something? This is where you do it. A laser cutter (pictured at top- that bright light is a laser cutting the hell out of things!), a large 3d printer that prints out of a weird plaster/plastic like substance (now in color! pic of machine in middle!), mechanical routers that can fabricate your wildest dreams (exaggeration? NO!),  they have everything! Everything! So Brent & I, along with Eric & Ryan from EMPAC and Guillermo-the (very patient!) architecture-department-genius, went about fabricating our own version of viewing glasses for the completion of the sculpture we've been toiling away at! Coming up with polarized glasses was a hard task...vacillating between Harry Potter, Where's Waldo, John Lennon and eventually compromising with a Le Corbusier comparison, we drew versions of things that Guillermo translated into an electronic pattern, popped into a computer and then a laser (a serious LASER! It IS the future folks!) went about quickly cutting out our ideas!!! Now, this isn't an ad for RPI's MFA program but...imagine the artistic possibilities if you had access to a laser all day? Even I am thinking of getting my Masters right about now....LASERS!

The sculpture that we were making these glasses for, which premiered in it's infancy at Sundance 2012, is set to be completed at the end of this month where it will be on view at the Andrew Edlin Gallery in NYC (if anyone is interested holler over and I can send along some detailed info about the show!)...then you'll be able to not only see but wear the laser-cut, paper creations we made! Hurrah! Ok, now back to my grad-school app, just kidding, just kidding...!

4. Paddy Johnson: An Art Critic You Don't Want to Punch

Paddy Johnson is probably the single most influential art critic in the world today. I am totally intimidated to be writing an intro to an interview with her,  knowing that the brilliant mind behind the NY based art blog Art Fag City might possibly be reading my words. Her deceiving casual tone and distinct contemporary voice is backed up with an intense, expansive understanding of art, making her intelligence sit silently below the surface of what seems like a simple, one sided conversation. Apart from just plain skill, Johnson has her own thoughtful reasons on why art is important and, often, it feels like no other arts writers have even ever thought of the importance or meaning of art as an aspect of their job; others tend towards only comparing art to other art as opposed to holding art accountable to the world at large. So, without further ado (or my own sad attempts at writing) I present: Paddy Johnson! (Please note, pull quote boxes provide links to recent articles by Paddy Johnson that the quotes are taken from! Huzzah! Also, links within interview added by me after the fact.)

1. Blogging is such an accessible platform that there isn’t really an academic precedent for it and I often wonder how bloggers end up there, especially given the fact that is has become such a strong arena for female writers trying to break into a sustainable career. How did blogging come about for you? What did you study in school? (Side note: if the internet tells me right you attended Rutgers the State University of New Jersey! Woot- lifts up shirt like proper girl who also attended Rutgers!)

I did my BFA at Mount Allison University and my MFA in sound art and painting at Rutgers University, so my background isn’t in writing but studio art. I moved to New York with the dreams of any artist who moves here; to make their mark on the art world (and hopefully beyond). My studio was large and I shared it with many of my friends from grad school. The first five years here were miserable; I was making art, mostly in isolation. Working for galleries was something I found I didn’t have much aptitude for -- I couldn’t force myself to care about someone else’s business -- and as time went on it was increasingly difficult for me to do these jobs. I got fired from nearly all of them. Eventually, I wasn’t able to explain why I kept getting fired from these jobs in interviews and I had to find something else. For lack of anything else to do, I started a blog. 

2. Despite large followings and other validations it seems hard to navigate what space blogs occupy in the media, a lot of time Bloggers seem completely unaware of their impact.. I mean, at what point did you recognize an audience? Were you specifically writing to one from the beginning? Or were you just chronicaling your own navigation of the art world? I guess I find your voice to be so strong, accessible and personal, like many bloggers, that I wondered how it is you first approached writing on such a wide-open sea of internet users (how did you internet?) especially on a topic so seemingly chummy & self obsessed (neither of which you are of course!)?

I don’t know that this is something one should freely admit, but I took to blogging naturally because I craved an audience. I used to send out emails to everyone I mentioned letting them know I’d written about the work, and I watched my incoming links hawkishly. I thought people would read me because I would say what no one else would say, and leave behind all the bullshit academicism that plagued the field. Those thoughts were arguably a little naive -- I didn’t read enough criticism at the time to have any idea about what people were and weren’t talking about -- but that too was its own force. I wanted to make something I wanted to read. I slept 3-4 hours a night, teaching myself how to write and how to think.

A lot of people have described my critical voice as strong and opinionated, and while I strive for that in my writing, it’s also a quality I think is less unique than it might have once seemed. People will say pretty much anything if you give them a platform, and the hope that someone might listen to them. I try to distinguish myself by looking at objects longer and harder, and being as critical as I can. I’m not concerned with being nice so much as I am true to myself and others. It’s important to me that what I contribute to the world, reflects the kind of world I want to be in. 

3. In your writing you understand all of the complexities in the art world and in art history that are inherent in the work but you are also bringing a life to it distinctly from outside of it: you are critically addressing pieces not from an art standard alone. It seems you are inhabiting these spaces, critically taking in what is in front of you, and then taking everything else outside of gallery to your opinion of it, do you feel you approach things this way? Do you think most art critics do this? Do you think exclusionary art jargon helps anybody?
 
Truth be told, I am too much of an art nerd to have a general knowledge of virtually anything else. I make a point of having friends in other fields so I’m not a social cripple at parties outside the art world, and since I’d rather talk to more people than less, I try to make my writing relatively accessible. If you think you might have cared about an art work once in your life for two seconds, I want to talk to you about that.

I’d say e-flux Journal publishes its share of exclusionary art writing, but since most of what they produce is so smart, I’m happy they exist. I’m not happy about the ridiculous amount of art jargon that seems to coat the world of commercial galleries. No collector is going to read that shit and it only exists to make people feel good about themselves. There are better means to that end. Do some charity work, read a book, donate to a kickstarter campaign. 

4. I always find your criticisms of the art world progressive. The things you support or believe in have a purpose far beyond just technique or visual presence or trend. What is it that makes a work successful to you? What is it you want from art?

I like art that teaches me about the world in some way. It tells me something I didn’t know already, it shows me how to look in a way I hadn’t thought of. It opens my eyes a little wider. Good art is a rush you never grow accustomed to.

5. The more I think about it the more you’re kind of like a DIY cultural anthropologist more than a journalist- you just did this album (vinyl only!) fundraiser that compiled the sounds of different art spaces where kinetic sculptures & video art were on view (a soundscape of a contemporary art experience if I get the descriptions?) and you are constantly publishing art related content in all kinds of media and you lecture a ton and panel a ton and even curate sometimes. Do you think all critics should expand their scope in a similar way? Do you think the accessibility of media (on the journalistic side) has changed the New York art world?

I think my background as an artist has influenced my career as a critic in the sense that I rarely work in one medium, but I wouldn’t necessarily prescribe the quantity of things I do to anyone else. It sits well for me of course, but I work far more than most people would ever choose, and that isn’t something that’s right for everyone.

To answer your question about the accessibility of media, though, I think that has changed the New York art world, and I hope that will continue. There are too many ways it’s affected the professional world I know, but to cite one of the more interesting changes I’ve noticed recently has to do with video. Over the last two years, I’ve visited a lot of schools, and many of the teachers have been telling me that their photography students almost inevitably switch to video. I suspect that medium preference is the result of accessibility but it’s an exciting change because it means art will look very different 10 years from now. I’d guess that means that we’ll see narrative take a greater role in art, but it’s hard to say so early on.  

Ultimately, the hope is that all these new communication tools will result in better art making. Some days I couldn’t be more certain that it will. There are just as many days though, where I’m convinced it will just result in more facebook liking. 

Film Stills From Chicago

The other reason we were out in Chicago was to take place in the SAIC's Visiting Artist Program (VAP) lecture series. Brent, being the kind of guy he is, didn't want to just lecture...so we brought out some of our musician friends! And we screened some short films! And Brent goaded the audience, taking questions throughout! Demanding applause and repelling it when it came! Overall it was a bit of a blur, moving so fast it seemed to stop before we even got started, but the music was fantastic and the response from the students was  phenomenal- we're still getting e-mails from the audience! I do think we freaked out the teachers a little with Brent's general cuss-ladened storytelling but...it was so much fun!

Speaking of teachers..SAIC is home to some of the best animators and filmmakers in the world. No exaggeration. Before coming to Chicago I was lucky enough to watch an advanced copy of Chicago based animator/SAIC professor Chris Sullivan's epic feature film titled Consuming Spirits (which is set to premier at the Tribeca Film Festival in April! Film still directly above!). Seamlessly blending together hand drawn animation, 3d sets and expertly made paper puppets, Chris' film recounts a tragic tale of loss, easing you through the story with an Irish folk-rock score and keeping you engaged through biting humor, sadness and sheer animation skill! 14 years of painstaking hard work went into this weird fluid piece, focused on the entwined lives of a dystopian family, you must see it! End of story! I also met Jim Trainor whose work I am smitten with...both The Bats and The Moschops are drawn animations of a bittersweet first person account of natural history, simply beautiful and arresting in the matter of fact/Natural Geographic/placid tone set against the familiarity and closeness of the shaky hand drawn image and the personal stories the subjects tell- a delicate balance of information and feeling, of what it means to be a living thing! So good!

And then there was Melika Bass! Melika is one bad ass woman, whose work I had checked out before coming to the school and it is stunning- STUNNING! (still from her short film Songs From the Shed at very top) In an often sepia tinged American Gothic style, with a sloping eerieness edging along the periphery, and sweet folky lullaby soundtracks next to elegant foley, Melika's live-action work is amazing- I can only hope to see more of it since only her trailers are available online (Update: Brent was secretly gifted her dvds! Yay!)! I didn't get to see much student work while at SAIC but, after a studio visit Brent had with grad student Jeremiah David Jones I hunted him down so I could take a peek... His blog showcases his work in progress and those rabbits (film still directly above) are puppets Jeremiah uses in his animations, a hand crafted charm with an edge evident in the bleak title of his newest work We Are Going To Be Poor Forever...reaaalllly hope to see the finished project! Especially since Jeremiah is a sweetheart to boot! The pervasive lush, sweet, melancholy tone of SAIC's film department is definitely setting the standard in my opinion and, luckily, they are all wonderful people too! Now...how to get out of a Chicago induced film and meat coma....?

Chicago is a Film Town

Chicago is a film town. I don't really know how it started. Maybe it has something to do with Selig Polyscope (Click that link! Let's just say his life included Edison patent dodging, the production of the first Wizard of Oz film ever made and a nice bullet wound from the time someone tried to murder him!). Or maybe the film connection has something to do with the early establishment of film studios, encouraging a film culture even when people were slightly afraid of the new medium. Or maybe it is the ongoing film production/state incentives that sets them apart. Either way, Chicago is a film hub and my most recent visit there has just reinforced my love for this city and this city's love for film!

Part of the reason Brent & I were visiting was to be part of Conversations At The Edge (CATE) a program sponsored by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Film Department, in conjunction with the Video Data Bank and the SAIC's state of the art venue The Gene Siskel Center. CATE is a great program that features lectures, performances and screenings that are off the beaten path including things like an upcoming screening of Yvonne Rainer's first film along with a discussion with the filmmaker/writer/dancer/choreographer and a past screening of the program Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area a series I have heard only raves about in the film community. The CATE series just won an award too, the American Art Critics' Association gave them a prize for "Best Show Involving Digital Media, Video, Film or Performance" for their CATE event on the work of Yael Bartana. It was amazing to have a sold out screening of Gravity and another well attended, early morning, weekend screening with this program- so much love in the Gene Siskel Film Center!

O, yeah, the Gene Siskel Film Center! Yes, that Gene Siskel! Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! I have a secret love for Gene Siskel. Watching him argue about movies as a kid, hearing that he often dressed up like Batman and jumped out of trees during his time at Yale, even his intense love of basketball..there was something about him, and, in fact, Ebert too (whose blog I read now and then and whose truth about the state of culture and film is one of the few unafraid voices out there, even more amazing given his public position). The SAIC Film Center was one championed by Siskel for it's progressive programing, his public support of the place allowed for it to continually thrive and now bear his name.

In a weird coincidence....the mad-sweet genius behind the inner workings of the Siskel Center projector booths, the amazing projection wizard who brings films to the obscenely large outdoor film series in Chicago, and also the lovely man who runs a secret micro-cinema within the city limits is a friend of ours! James Bond! (His real name! I swear!) Not only has this man brought superior film projection to the City of Chicago, he runs projections all over the continent too with his business Full Aperture Systems. James has even set up the projections for such close-to-my-heart wonders as True/False Film Fest, the Bethlehem Steelstacks arts complex (nearby our PA home) and even the Indiana University Cinema in Bloomington which we performed in last year to a loving crowd! James is the nicest cinephile I know and if anyone knows where to get Hitchcock's Marnie, a personal favorite of mine, on actual film please let me know so I can share my love of this film with this devout film-only watcher!

Adding to the film vibe of this town are a ton of film fests. From CIMM Fest (a music & movies event which we played a little while back) to the Chicago International Film Festival (one of the longest running of it's kind) to the Chicago Underground Film Festival, to the EU Film Festival each one services a different community of interests while consistently servicing the film set at the same time. There are also other film notables too like Jonathan Rosenbaum (whom I met in an elevator in Poland and whose love [love/hate?] of The Turin Horse is probably unrivaled) and places like Earwax with a hidden video rental store under the dining hub bub (Earwax may or may not be still renting videos after it's reopening- either way at some point a clandestine videostore existed under the film hungry streets of Chicago!).

And lastly on my film tour of Chicago is the charming Mrs Holli McGinley, the wife of Gravity star Mike and also a brief but important camera operator on Gravity as well! Holli works mostly as an Assistant Director thanks to the constant stream of film projects brought to Chicago each year by the state's film production tax break program, a creative way to stimulate the local economy! Holli has done everything from escorting Batman (the actual Batman!) to the top of the Sears Tower  to making sure that the reality tv stars are dropped at the proper location to instigate a fight! I never get sick of hearing her stories of the raging director or the fragile actor, and I would like to publicly thank her for gifting us 15lbs of cheese from a cheese commercial shoot! I hope she keeps moving onwards & upwards, and gets the respect she most assuredly deserves in her film work pursuits! Is Chicago the secret L.A. of the Lake Michigan Coastline? YES!

Aquire, Exhibit, Educate

The more and more museums and art institutions I visit the more distinct, nuanced and thoughtful their mission statements distinguish themselves. Founded in 1879 on the rubble of the devastating Chicago fire, The Art Institute of Chicago's goal has been "to acquire and exhibit art of all kinds and to conduct programs of education." Being that this place is home to more amazing art than I could possibly relate while having one of the best ranked graduate art programs in the country, I think their mission couldn't be more alive & well from those early days.

The building itself is made up of an old and new wing- the old neo-classical style stone structure was made for and leftover from the world's fair (!!!) with bronze lions guarding the entrance and skulls etched into columns leading one to contemplatively hunker through the dark galleries, while The Modern Wing is a new, bright, airy, angular glass building, letting you breeze through the lit contemporary arena, both buildings making you feel like you are walking through a physical manifestation of art history. I hate giving you a list of what I saw and what was this or that so, given the intense nature of this place, I am going to give you my top 4 moments at The Art Institute of Chicago, moments that I now realize are all in synch with the museum's intentions...

1.  America Windows, Marc Chagall, 1977. (pictured in middle) In 1974 Marc Chagall made a huge public mosaic for the city of Chicago. He loved the school and cultural zeitgeist of the town so much he created and donated this piece to the Art Institute as a celebration of America's bicentennial. The story alone is precisely why the Chicago art environment is perfect: supporting artists who in turn want to engage with the community. I cannot describe the beauty of this piece. Stark shades of blue and colorful accents depicting American milestones and culture in the fractured pieces of glass, exquisite. It even makes an appearance, along with a lot of the museum's collection, in the legendary film Ferris Bueller's Day Off...not that I recommend seeing art this way but, the piece & the museum's cameo in this pop icon of a film really does extend to the larger context of art in Chicago. Art is a part of everyone's life in this city in some form or another whether they realize it or not!

2. Balthus. BALTHUS! How have I never heard of Balthus until now!? A controversial Polish painter, Balthus was friends with all of the great thinkers of his time Lacan, Rilke, Cocteau, Matisse etc. His paintings usually express the awkward sexuality of children, leading you in with beauty but creepily leaving you with a bad voyeuristic feeling, which lead to his slight obscurity...either way, these eerie portraits look like what Belle & Sebastian would sound like if they collaborated with David Lynch- AMAZING! (photo of Solitaire, 1943) at top

3. The Thorne Miniature Rooms. The wife of a rich American retail store founder, Mrs. James Ward Thorne, seemed to have made it her life's work to document the interior of architectural spaces in this dollhouse like form. The hand crafted replicas of intricate wood moldings! The tiny elaborate chandeliers! All at a 1inch to 1foot scale! At first I thought it was just a crazy rich lady's folly but I realized later that this kind of architectural history is somewhat important. Where else could I see the exact inner working of a Japanese tea room next to the common 30s California living room displayed in a way that makes known the geometries of living space and the lifestyle of whole eras? A strange artifact for sure but one that I think might be useful to design lovers and dollhouse playing children alike!

4. School Groups. In the design wing I came across one of my favorite pieces of art, one that I never thought I would see again, Stefan Sagmeister's Being Not Truthful Always Works Against Me. All of these tough seeming teenagers were huddled around at an apathetic distance, sort of looking at this projection of a spider web with the title phrase sewn in with elegant digital care. Having seen this work before, I knew it was motion activated so I jumped in front of it, movement becoming ensnared in the spider web picture projected on the wall. This sent the kids into a frenzy. Everybody started trying to make it move, trying to become engaged in the work. This moment, and many other moments of classes perched on folding stools in front of Pollocks and college kids discussing the (perfect!) photographs of Rineke Dijkstra, (picture at right from 1992 Beach Portraits series), is why art is important. Seeing all of these kids learning and experiencing art in all of it's forms is what this museum is for and seeing this with my own eyes almost makes me tear up a little...

Ok, so there is my sentimental journey through the Art Institute of Chicago! And, to make you understand the experience even more...they own American Gothic, Nighthawks, and more Picassos and Cornells and Richters than I have ever seen in one place! Acquiring, exhibiting and teaching- what a place!