Being an election year, there’s little I can do to escape the barrage of marketing and campaigning. It leaves my brain feeling a bit like an egg left too long in the skillet. But where I find TV spots and rallies and endless hand-shaking to be tedious, I never tire of looking at politics through the lens of contemporary art. Art can bring a conflict to me from thousands of miles away and make it personally relevant for me, something that the ceaseless sensationalism of network TV never manages to do.
Anyway, I just came across this video by performance artist Julia Mandle and wanted to share. This left me feeling raw. Like a direct implication with the Iraq occupation or illegal interrogations, the swarm of vacant hoods dangles just within reach. The omitted bodies serve as a chilling reminder of our suspension of Habeas Corpus. The viewer (both in real-time and virtually) is left asking, “Is this a participatory performance? What is my role?”
I wonder what would happen if presidential debates were centered around responses to relevant artworks?
When I first moved to the Twin Cities, 11 years ago, the Artists’ Quarter housed the only semblance of life after 5 pm in Lowertown St. Paul (I had an apartment across from the Farmers’ Market). There was no smoking ban then, and no ventilation in the basement club in the McColl Building, yet I suffered through scorched eyes and choked lungs for any chance to catch Happy Apple. The trio still plays three or four weekends a year at the AQ (it moved several years ago to the basement beneath Great Waters Brewing) to overflowing crowds of college kids and unshaven thirtysomethings with fetishes for flannel and wool caps.
I now tip you to this review in today’s New York Times of Happy Apple’s set Tuesday at Joe’s Pub, in Lower Manhattan. Ben Ratliff, the Times reviewer, is a longtime follower of the band, so I’m a little amused his piece carries the tone of an introduction to the masses. Perhaps it’s a necessity — Apple Apple has defined avant garde jazz in the Twin Cities for close to a dozen years, yet even many jazz enthusiasts only know the band by name. Waves of attention have come from New York and France, and Happy Apple would likely have a larger profile in contemporary music (jazz and otherwise) if drummer Dave King (pictured, in this shot by Walker photographer Cameron Wittig) weren’t splitting his time in The Bad Plus (and eight other projects, at last count). The Walker presented Happy Apple and The Bad Plus in a 2005 tribute concert to Ornette Coleman.
I’ve been a little frustrated with an imbalance in Happy Apple’s recent music — songs have steered away from the more bombastic roundhouses to the soft jabs of melody and balladry — but in concert, there’s no more engaging, entertaining and ferocious band around, in any genre. And any time they’re at the AQ, I make it a point to park myself at the foot of the stage.
Nancy Holt, Robert Smithson’s widow, recently sent an email out detailing specific threats to Smithson’s masterpiece, Spiral Jetty. Please take action before 7 pm ET today.
Yesterday I received an urgent email from Lynn DeFreitas, Director of Friends of the Great Salt Lake, telling me of plans for drilling oil in the Salt Lake near Spiral Jetty. See Attachments. The deadline for protest is [today] Wednesday, at 5PM. Of course, DIA has been informed and are meeting about it today.
I have been told by Lynn that the oil wells will not be above the water, but that means some kind of industrial complex of pipes and pumps beneath the water and on the shore. The operation would require roads for oil tank trucks, cranes, pumps etc. which produce noise and will severely alter the wild, natural place.
If you want to send a letter of protest to save the beautiful, natural Utah environment around the Spiral Jetty from oil drilling, the emails or calls of protest go to Jonathan Jemming 801-537-9023 jjemming@utah.gov. Please refer to Application # 8853. Every letter makes a big difference, they do take a lot of notice and know that publicity may follow. Since the Spiral Jetty has global significance, emails from foreign countries would be of special value.
They try to slip these drilling contracts under the radar, thatıs why we found out so late, not through notification, but from a watchdog lawyer at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the group that alerted me to the land leasing for oil and gas near Sun Tunnels last May.
Thank you for your consideration of this serious environmental matter.
Our open call for video submissions to Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes was extended a week to allow would be video-makers extra time. And whew, was the extra week worth it! We added several new submissions. Even though I’m not judging them or curating them, I do have a favorite: West St. Paul, a music video about the suburb that exemplifies the river-skewed geography in the Twin Cities.
More on the exhibition as the opening approaches. Here’s all 31 submitted videos:
Frida Kahlo drew thousands for its closing weekend, and Walker technicians took the show down Monday and Tuesday without an audience. Take a peek at the final patch of work that went into this exhibition.
After reading this New York Times piece about people taking up their lunch hours (and beyond) by watching online video, it seemed to me life at the Walker would could make for a natural mid-day distraction for the masses. So today we launch Eavesdrop — each Webisode captures moments of time in a single day at the Walker, from the glitz of an exhibition’s opening night to the behind-the-scenes work of our framing and installation technicians to whatever schemes the Walker’s Teen Arts Council are hatching.
This debut, Eavesdrop 01.17.08, begins with the overflow Target Free Thursday Night crowd (it was the final cost-free opportunity to catch Frida Kahlo) and moves on to the after-show party from The TEAM’s Particularly in the Heartland (part of Out There 20). In short order, Eavesdrop will become a daily feature, online by 11 am every Monday through Friday. Let me know your thoughts.
• Barry McGee swindle:Swindle magazine interviews Barry McGee on surfing, his love of scooters, and how he got caught in 2004 for “painting a derogatory statement about our commander in chief.” (Here’s a glimpse of work McGee created for his ‘98 Walker show.)
• Moving images: For your online viewing pleasure, check out NewArtTV (a “new video magazine on contemporary art”), and the trailer for the forthcoming documentary based on the book Beautiful Losers.
• Googlegraphics: Ruth Kedar discusses her design for one of the world’s most ubiquitous marks, the Google logo as “subtle as to look almost non-designed, the reading effortless. The colors evoke memories of child play, but deftly stray from the color wheel strictures so as to hint to the inherent element of serendipity creeping into any search results page and the irreverance and boldness of the ‘I am feeling lucky’ link.”
• Modernist trailerpark? This excellent Flickr photo is tagged only “theater decor in Amsterdamse Bos.” Details anyone?
Alternative theater is a small, lonely world largely dependent upon festivals (Fringe), series (Out There), and other themed packages that are the spoonfuls of sugar to help the medicine go down. So it’s no surprise that New York City’s Under the Radar Festival, running through this weekend, features some of the same names seen on Walker stages.
Alternative theater is a small, lonely world largely dependent upon festivals (