Thursday, September 28, 2006

Renee Green ArtForum - Find Articles

From an article on one of my new favorite artists, Renee Green

Renee Green ArtForum - Find Articles: "In the form of an 'idiosyncratic cross-referencing system,' which was reinforced by the mazelike architecture of the space, the themes of travel and the notion of self as a transitory being were explored further in other 'chapters' of the exhibition. For example, in Green's video Some Chance Operations, 1998, people of different origins speak about their conceptions of or experiences in Nepal, while in Archaic Nostalgia, 1996, the On the Road mythology of the Beat generation (represented here by books) is confronted with Robert Frank's The Americans. And in the video that is part of the installation Partially Buried, 1997, Green follows the traces of political, artistic, and personal history at Kent State University, showing the site where Smithson executed his Partially Buried Woodshed in 1970, the commons where four students were shot and killed during a demonstration against the invasion of Cambodia, and the places where Green's mother studied. With this work the concentration shifted to reflections about home and how such a place - in this era of virtual mobility - an be understood, whether as a locality or an emotional state. At stake was the nature of memory. This was reflected on other levels in Some Chance Operations as well, in which Green set out on the traces of the Neapolitan silent film director Elvira Notart, whose once popular work has largely fallen into oblivion.

The question of what remains and who remembers is also interesting in relation to Smithson, whose work - as an antimonument to transitoriness - remains a key chapter in recent art history. From there, Green turns to the question of historiography, to the archiving and ordering system, as in the film stills she arranges on the wall according to her own invented categories, thereby alluding to Conceptual art practices. From this (and much more) Green creates a superabundance of interconnected paths of thought that the viewer no sooner enters than he pleasurably loses his way on the byways and detours of this hyperspace."

and another excerpt:

"Renee Green's installations are complex examinations of overlapping themes that are usually related to the exhibition site. Using an anthropological approach toward her subjects, she researches historical and cultural topics and then offers viewers the results of her studies in videos, texts, and sound elements..."

http://www.the-artists.org/ArtistView.cfm?id=8A01F516-BBCF-11D4-A93500D0B7069B40

and another:

"In the installation, Green deals with visual representations of the black female body, like the Hottentot Venus and Josephine Baker, which were prominently positioned at the center of Britain and France's popular exoticized gaze. Interestingly, Green's manipulation of the scale of the images, particularly of the small Hottentot Venus image, and the blurred focus of the Baker photographs precisely resists visual apprehension.

Green also concentrations on the fascination with the black female body as manifest discursively in nineteenth century travel literature and in critiques of Baker's performances. In contrast to the visual images the texts are blown up larger than life. One of the enlarged panels of the excerpts from a travel account reads: "The dance of the Negresses is incredibly indecent . . . she gets into positions so lascivious, so lubricious that it's impossible to describe them . . . It's true that the Negresses don't appear to have the depraved intentions which one would imagine; it's a very old custom, which continues innocently in this country; so much so that one sees children of six performing this dance, certainly without knowing what they're leading up to." The visual and discursive mediations on the black female both in the metropoles of Britain and France and in distant countries, as recorded by a traveler, are juxtaposed in the installation."

http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Revue1990.html

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Persuasion

Persuasion: "Lombard-Freid Fine Arts is pleased to present Persuasion, an exhibition addressing the provocative dialogue between contemporary artists and key avant-garde figures who have explored the intersections between art, politics and propaganda. The exhibition mainly focuses on three areas of inquiry: agitational propaganda of one-party regimes, concealed propaganda of Western democracies, and oppositional propaganda as stated by the individual artist.

Throughout the history of twentieth century, artists have concurrently conjured up and made critical use of propagandistic devices and visual codes established in the advertising industry to generate more openly assertive analyses of power. Presenting side by side contemporary art works with archival photographs, political posters, pioneering book covers and page layouts, this brief survey reflects the capacity of aesthetics to affect deep structures of social belief. The show considers such issues as the representation of human body in light of racist doctrines, the rapport between architecture and nationalist ideology, the heroization of labor and productivity during the first half of the century, and the exploitation of behavioral psychology in the current climate of consumerist culture.

Persuasion showcases works by Cristian Alexa, Steven Brower, Tseng Kwong Chi, Sue Coe, Jeremy Deller, Sylvie Fleury, Joy Garnett, Gregory Green, Renee Green, Group AES, Group Material, Wang Guangyi, Hans Haacke, Jenny Holzer, Timothy Hutchings, Robin Kahn, Komar and Melamid, Zofia Kulik, Via Lewandowsky, Zbigniew Libera, Antonio Muntadas, Shirin Neshat, NSK (Laibach, IRWIN, and New Collectivism), Daniel Pflumm, Andrea Robbins and Max Becher, Martha Rosler, Thomas Ruff, Tom Sachs, Paul Schambroom, Art Spiegelman, Mike Stevenson, Maciej Toporowicz, Carrie Mae Weems, and David Wojnarowicz.

Also on view are historical works by Max Al’pert, Atelier Populaire, Lev Borodulin, Bob Fletcher, Stanislaw Gawlinski, John Heartfield, Gustav Klutsis, K�the Kollwitz, Boris Kudojarow, Valentina Kulagina, El Lissitzky, Sergey Loskutov, Charles Moore, NASA/Apollo 10, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Sergei Sen’kin, Anatolii Skurikhin, Varvara Stepanova, Marion Post Wolcott, Georgi Zelma, and Alexander Zhitomirsky."

ART IN REVIEW; Renee Green - New York Times

ART IN REVIEW; Renee Green - New York Times: "Included are ''Wavelinks,'' a two-monitor video-in-progress about electronic music in Spain whose documentary style contrasts with two impressionistic, elaborately spliced films projected (in alternation) on the wall. One is ''Some Chance Operations,'' which combines the story of a forgotten Neapolitan filmmaker with interviews with Austrians about Naples.

The other, ''Partially Buried Continued,'' moves between the artist's childhood as an Army brat in Korea; Robert Smithson's Earthwork ''Partially Buried,'' which he created at Kent State a few days before the 1970 shootings by the National Guard; and the 1980 student uprising in Kwangju, South Korea, which ended with the massacre of 288 demonstrators. In a particularly affecting passage, Ms. Green films a Korean photographer who pages through a book of her pictures of the event while she talks about how few people remember it or its victims. Elsewhere one can listen on earphones to the soundtracks of the two films, out of sync.

The darkened gallery becomes a surround of still and moving images, different sounds and languages and above all shifting mental spaces; entering them, one glimpses individuals contributing to, acting against and lost within the flux of history, both cultural and political. Ms. Green remains something of a harsh taskmaster, but both beauty and humor seem to be on the rise in her work and her thought-provoking latter-day Situationism has never seemed so user-friendly. ROBERTA SMITH "

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

The Detroit Institute of Arts

The Detroit Institute of Arts: "THE WAR TAPES

September 22 - September 24, 2006

(USA/2005) Directed by Deborah Scranton



The War Tapes is the result of an extraordinary experiment in filmmaking. In 2004, director Deborah Scranton gave compact digital video cameras to three members of the U.S. Army National Guard shortly before their deployment to Iraq. The experiences these young men recorded in combat over the subsequent year have been brilliantly edited into a riveting, heartbreaking and profoundly illuminating feature-length film that unblinkingly examines—in a way never before possible—some of the deepest human realities of this complex, terrifying and disorienting war. Described by Stephen Holden of The New York Times as “a compelling film that gives a stronger taste of the Iraq war experience than any film I can remember,” The War Tapes was the winner of Best Documentary at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. (96 min.) Fri. & Sat. at 7:00, Sun. at 4:00



“The first indispensable Iraq documentary.” —Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly"

The Hindu : Performance photography

here: a link to some fascinating work that i want to find out more about.

The Hindu : Performance photography: "Deconstructing these 'native types', the artists take off with the subversive wit so individual to Pushpamala's work. This results in a Ravi Varma heroine as a popular Amrita Sher-Gill figure. Or a gingham-clad Clare and her collaborator in sepia renditions sourced from a catalogue of oceanic photography. Or even the Toda woman astride a scooter.

En route, these conceptual artists interface with gender studies, art history, or sociology — including the women-only zenana studios of Kolkata and Hyderabad. Chuckling, Pushpamala describes the multi-layered show as 'a sister act, double bill or even a dasavatar'."

Friday, September 22, 2006

Carlos Trilnick

UCSD VisArts: Visiting Artists Program: "Wed. Mar. 1, 3:30 pm, CalIT2 Auditorium (directions)
In Collaboration with the UCSD Communications Department
Carlos Trilnick: Essays on the Image

Carlos Trilnick will be screening some of his recent work on the representation of social protest in Argentina. including an important activist project where he had people wear wireless networked head-mounted video cameras during a major historic protest in Buenos Air which involved police killing of a protester. In this online work, footage from these cameras is juxtaposed with images of the protests presented on major news networks. He will also discuss community-based projects he is involved with in collaboration with university students and youth producers, including a multi-year digital media project on Don Quixote, the Talmud, and cultural identity issues with students in a poor Jewish neighborhood.

Carlos Trilnick is one of the founding members of the independent/activist video movement in South America and is a senior professor in the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urban Development at the University of Buenos Aires where he teaches in the faculty of Audio-visual Design, and the Programs of Image and Sound Design and Expressive Media. He is also co-director of the Media Laboratory at the Talpiot Institute of Buenos Aires (a primary and secondary school), and coordinator of the Audio/Visual media program “Vale la Pena” which curates programs of a broad range of contemporary work that engages social issues across the arts.Trilnick began artistic career as a photographer in the 1970s and produced his first video in 1980. His recent work has includes digital media installations and online projects, and he has played a formative role in presenting the works of others in this emerging field. His works have been exhibited extensively and he is widely recognized within the international film and media community.

Since 1980 Trilnick has produced an important body of photography, video, installation and digital art which has been exhibited internationally in museums, biennials and art galleries, including among others: Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement, Geneve, Suiza, Museo da Imagem e du Son (Sao Paulo), VIPER Int Film-und Videotage (Suiza), MEIAC (Badajoz), Museo de Arte Moderno (Bogot�), European Media Arts Festival (Osnabruck), Video Data Bank (Chicago), CICV (Monbeliard), American Film Istitute (USA), Museum of Modern Arts, Haifa, Israel, Medien Operativen (Berl�n), LA Freewaves. (Los Angeles), Instants Video (Francia), Museo Reina Sof�a (Madrid), The Museum of Modern Arts (NewYork), Bienal del Mercosur (Porto Alegre), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires), Par�s-Berl�n Interventions en espace public, Bienal de Video y Artes Electr�nicas (Chile), XI Festival Internacional de Arte Ele ctr�nica (San Pablo), VIPER Int Film-und Videotage (Suiza) y ARCO (Madrid).

His documentaries include 'Subte L�nea D' (1983), 'Alfredo Hlito obra pict�rica' (Alfredo Hlito pictorial work) (1987) and 'Ennio Iomi, no perder la memoria' (1993), as well as more experimental video works such as 'Five seconds' (1982), 'Nostalgias del presente' (Present-day nostalgias) (1991) and 'Una tarde' (One afternoon) (2000).

"Wed. Mar. 1, 3:30 pm, CalIT2 Auditorium (directions)
In Collaboration with the UCSD Communications Department
Carlos Trilnick: Essays on the Image

Carlos Trilnick will be screening some of his recent work on the representation of social protest in Argentina. including an important activist project where he had people wear wireless networked head-mounted video cameras during a major historic protest in Buenos Air which involved police killing of a protester. In this online work, footage from these cameras is juxtaposed with images of the protests presented on major news networks. He will also discuss community-based projects he is involved with in collaboration with university students and youth producers, including a multi-year digital media project on Don Quixote, the Talmud, and cultural identity issues with students in a poor Jewish neighborhood.

Carlos Trilnick is one of the founding members of the independent/activist video movement in South America and is a senior professor in the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urban Development at the University of Buenos Aires where he teaches in the faculty of Audio-visual Design, and the Programs of Image and Sound Design and Expressive Media. He is also co-director of the Media Laboratory at the Talpiot Institute of Buenos Aires (a primary and secondary school), and coordinator of the Audio/Visual media program “Vale la Pena” which curates programs of a broad range of contemporary work that engages social issues across the arts.Trilnick began artistic career as a photographer in the 1970s and produced his first video in 1980. His recent work has includes digital media installations and online projects, and he has played a formative role in presenting the works of others in this emerging field. His works have been exhibited extensively and he is widely recognized within the international film and media community.

Since 1980 Trilnick has produced an important body of photography, video, installation and digital art which has been exhibited internationally in museums, biennials and art galleries, including among others: Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement, Geneve, Suiza, Museo da Imagem e du Son (Sao Paulo), VIPER Int Film-und Videotage (Suiza), MEIAC (Badajoz), Museo de Arte Moderno (Bogotá), European Media Arts Festival (Osnabruck), Video Data Bank (Chicago), CICV (Monbeliard), American Film Istitute (USA), Museum of Modern Arts, Haifa, Israel, Medien Operativen (Berlín), LA Freewaves. (Los Angeles), Instants Video (Francia), Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), The Museum of Modern Arts (NewYork), Bienal del Mercosur (Porto Alegre), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires), París-Berlín Interventions en espace public, Bienal de Video y Artes Electrónicas (Chile), XI Festival Internacional de Arte Ele ctrónica (San Pablo), VIPER Int Film-und Videotage (Suiza) y ARCO (Madrid).

His documentaries include "Subte Línea D" (1983), "Alfredo Hlito obra pictórica" (Alfredo Hlito pictorial work) (1987) and "Ennio Iomi, no perder la memoria" (1993), as well as more experimental video works such as "Five seconds" (1982), "Nostalgias del presente" (Present-day nostalgias) (1991) and "Una tarde" (One afternoon) (2000).

Sunday, September 17, 2006

The New York Museum of Complaint