summer reading

It's summer and I have been amped about getting through a ton of books if possible. Not having worked since April, I've plunged into studio life but also some 'home-schooling" of my own. In short, finishing the myriad books I've had my nose in for months - if not years :(

So here's my report on where I am so far at the mid-summer point.

Books finished:

• Storm World - Chris Mooney
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
• Seeing is Forgetting The Name of the Thing One Sees (Robert Irwin) - Lawrence Weschler
• The Aesthetics of Decay - Dylan Trigg
• A Theory of Cloud/Toward a History of Painting - Hubert Damisch
• The Emigrants - W.G. Sebald
• The Rings of Saturn - W.G. Sebald
• The Emergence of Memory, Conversations with W.G. Sebald - Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Books currently trying to finish:

• Austerlitz - W.G. Sebald
• Searching for Sebald, Photography after W.G.Sebald - The Institute of Cultural Inquiry
• The Fate of Place - Edward Casey
• The Accursed Share - Georges Bataille
• Confessions of Nat Turner - William Styron
• Francis Bacon - Gilles Deleuze
• Holy Terror - Terry Eagleton
• Sticky Sublime - Bill Beckley
• What Painting Is - James Elkins

Books I hope to at least get started on by fall:

Feeling and Form - Susanne Langer (owned this for years and never cracked it)
Pictures and Tear: A History of People who have Cried in Front of Paintings - James Elkins
On the Road ( The Original Scroll) - Jack Kerouac ( a re-read of sorts)
The Purple Cloud - M.P. Shiel
Archeologies of the Future - Frederic Jameson
Presence of the Past - Rupert Sheldrake

It's a tall order for sure and I don't expect to get through all of these texts but I really want to. I'm not a particularly fast reader, I'm prone to underlining and re-reading pages. Still it seems doable despite my own reading idiosyncrasies. Of course, new things always come your way so this list is at best an ambling walk through the thicket

anatomy of a painting [1]

So for the first time, I'm going to attempt to be disciplined enough to chronicle a new work from start to finish. not every interval of change but enough to witness the lifespan of a painting.
This is the new "blank" canvas. Actually stretched linen, measuring 48 square. This piece has been in existence for roughly 6 months so it isn't exactly new but having done a few ground layers and some earlier tinkering on a composition, I decided to black it out and start over.

Typically, this is how it will begin. Me in a chair staring at the thing and then taping some preconceived ideas onto the surface. These range from photos, to color copies - or more evolved collages done by hand or in photoshop or both. I have a new sunlit room for the first time in years and I am already seeing the results on my mood and ability to feel the paintings out more. I'm excited to get into something decently sized as this. Already the kernel of the idea present in the xerox on the canvas has been discarded by my fickle intuitions :)

David Lynch and iphone

Too Weird for the Wire - Kevin Carey

I tried to come up with a title but the real title is perfect so there you go. This issue of The Washington Monthly has an incredible piece about how arcane white supremacist legal theories are showing up in Baltimore courtrooms - out of the mouths of African-American drug dealers.

No kidding and after reading this, you realize how spot on the The Wire is about streets of Baltimore. But the story goes way past anything Simon could write for the show. This is something that could only surface in America. I mean it is nuts and then nuts some more.

Here's an excerpt::

Judge Davis ordered the three defendants to be removed from the court, and turned to Gardner, who had, until then, remained quiet. But Gardner, too, intoned the same strange speech. "I am Shawn Earl Gardner, live man, flesh and blood," he proclaimed. Every time the judge referred to him as "the defendant" or "Mr. Gardner," Gardner automatically interrupted: "My name is Shawn Earl Gardner, sir." Davis tried to explain to Gardner that his behavior was putting his chances of acquittal or leniency at risk. "Don't throw your life away," Davis pleaded. But Gardner wouldn't stop. Judge Davis concluded the hearing, determined to find out what was going on.

As it turned out, he wasn't alone. In the previous year, nearly twenty defendants in other Baltimore cases had begun adopting what lawyers in the federal courthouse came to call "the flesh-and-blood defense." The defense, such as it is, boils down to this: As officers of the court, all defense lawyers are really on the government's side, having sworn an oath to uphold a vast, century-old conspiracy to conceal the fact that most aspects of the federal government are illegitimate, including the courts, which have no constitutional authority to bring people to trial. The defendants also believed that a legal distinction could be drawn between their name as written on their indictment and their true identity as a "flesh and blood man."

Read the full story by Kevin Carey here.

50% of NY's new voting machines flawed ?

Wired has another chilling piece on voting machine flaws that are just on time for the upcoming elections in September and November(Presidential).

Douglas Kellner, co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections, expressed frustration with the vendor, saying it appeared that Sequoia was using the state's acceptance testing process to find problems with its machines in lieu of a sound quality-control process.

But Sequoia isn't the only problem, according to counties who have reported receiving problematic machines from the state Board of Elections after the board was supposed to have tested and certified the machines. The Board of Elections is examining all of the new machines before sending them out to counties.

In Nassau County alone, the largest voting district outside of New York City, officials found problems with 85 percent of the 240 ImageCast machines it received so far -- problems that the county characterized in a letter as "substantial operational flaws that render them unusable or that require major repairs."

The county rejected 48 machines right at delivery, due to physical damage. Another 58 machines exhibited problems during testing, according to William Biamonte, the Democratic elections commissioner for Nassau County. [New York counties have two election directors -- one each from the Democratic and Republican parties -- to avoid charges of unfair elections.] Some of the latter machines, he said, shook dramatically when they were running and workers either had to shut them down or the machines shut themselves down from the vibration. Other machines had dead batteries or batteries that wouldn't hold a two-hour charge, as they were required to do.

Another 112 machines produced a "printer failure" error message. Biamonte says this was the result of a change Sequoia made to its firmware. He said that when he received his first batch of machines about a month ago, the machines had "horrific paper jams." To fix the problem, Sequoia loaded new firmware on the systems to speed up the printer, but in doing so disabled the USB port on machines, resulting in the "printer failure" error messages.

sports as the model world

German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk comments on the Tour de France in an interview with Spiegel.

SPIEGEL: The best-looking breasts, in general, are artificial. The strongest sexual performance is fueled by Viagra. Why are we getting so worked up about athletes doing the same thing?

Sloterdijk: There is an obvious reason: The relationship between sports and everyday life is like that between the holy and the mundane. It forms a model world, in which everything we know from the average world is intensified. The same values apply there as anywhere else, but in a more concentrated form. This is why the idea of pure performance is more important there than anywhere else. Fraud is normal in the gray zone of the normal, but in the model world it must be proscribed. This special world, framed by clear rules, is inherently designed as an artificial sphere of pure performance, which gives it a special mission. Our meritocratic society celebrates its contradictions within sports. For this reason it is, if you will, an innately transient zone. Athletes cannot be saints or priest, but they must at least live up to their reputation as heroes, and when they no longer can or want to, they become like everyone else -- and we can put them on welfare.

via Phronesisaical

your new FISA flow chart

Ok, so I'm still rather gripped by this legislation because frankly it scares me. Also because there continue to be excellent posts generated examining this bill. You do have to wonder, did Congressional staffs give this the same attention?

So for the latecomers to the issue or those simply confused/indifferent to it all , here is a handy flow chart examining and comparing the "old FISA" with the "new and improved FISA".

From Ketchup and Caviar:

The focus of change is the bolded red line marked “U.S. or non-U.S. Persons Located Inside or Outside the U.S.” Currently a warrant is required in this case. Notice the changes involving the bolded blue lines and text in the following chart:

continue reading Wes Alwan here and see if you can figure out how this new bill improves anything...

Seeing is Forgetting - Robert Irwin

One of the great pleasures so far this summer has been finally (after years) getting around to reading Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler. This may well be the best book about an artist and their working method and evolution that I have ever read. If you interested in abstraction, this is pretty much required reading. You'll also get a nice little history on the formation of the L.A. art scene from the 1950's on which for an east coast artist, was quite intriguing and it certainly filled some gaps for me. This is a fast read (and great biography actually) with a lot of big ideas and I think some very fruitful fodder on how to approach one's work within your own studio dynamic. My interest and admiration for Irwin has gone off the charts to say the least, it has left a true and at times profound impression. If you teach, I think you need to get a copy of it.

Here's an excerpt regarding Irwin's relationship with his studio practice during his "late lines" period(1962-1964):

In the beginning all of this was not very considered. It was done very intuitively. My concentration was not real good. It was mostly a question of just staying in the studio and simply not going out. Whether I did anything or didn't do anything, whether I was able to work or not, I simply would not let myself leave. But after awhile, if you don't let yourself leave, then everything else begins to leave, that is, all of your other reasons or ambitions in being there; and if you're very fortunate, you might then reach a point of being completely alone in an intimate dialogue with yourself as acted out in the realm of the painting.

headin out for the weekend

Ben Turnbull: Bring Me the Head of Saddam Hussein, 2008.

today's studio view

new FISA and the dismantling of the free press

Chris Hedges has an ominous opinion piece at the LA Times about the new FISA agreement. This will have a huge impact on how information is disseminated to the public - objective fact finding will severely be hindered. This isn't simple about the private citizen's right to privacy.

If the sweeping surveillance law signed by President Bush on Thursday -- giving the U.S. government nearly unchecked authority to eavesdrop on the phone calls and e-mails of innocent Americans -- is allowed to stand, we will have eroded one of the most important bulwarks to a free press and an open society.

The new FISA Amendments Act nearly eviscerates oversight of government surveillance. It allows the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to review only general procedures for spying rather than individual warrants. The court will not be told specifics about who will be wiretapped, which means the law provides woefully inadequate safeguards to protect innocent people whose communications are caught up in the government's dragnet surveillance program.

The law, passed under the guise of national security, ostensibly targets people outside the country. There is no question, however, that it will ensnare many communications between Americans and those overseas. Those communications can be stored indefinitely and disseminated, not just to the U.S. government but to other governments.

This law will cripple the work of those of us who as reporters communicate regularly with people overseas, especially those in the Middle East. It will intimidate dissidents, human rights activists and courageous officials who seek to expose the lies of our government or governments allied with ours. It will hang like the sword of Damocles over all who dare to defy the official versions of events. It leaves open the possibility of retribution and invites the potential for abuse by those whose concern is not with national security but with the consolidation of their own power.

total failure

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow asked: "What if Congress had responded to Watergate by immunizing the executive branch's lawbreakers and giving Richard Nixon sweeping new powers to snoop?

"Oh, wait! They just did! They just took thirty years or so to get around to it."

H.R. 6304, updating the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, was passed by the Senate and awaits a pleased President Bush's signature Wednesday. The bill grants the executive branch virtually unchecked power to monitor Americans' electronic communications originating, or terminating, overseas, and immunizes from civil lawsuits the telecommunications companies that agreed to help the NSA eavesdrop on such communications without obtaining the proper warrants through the FISA court.

I promise to get back to art related posts soon, but I have been swept up in the drama of the Protect America Act/FISA over the last months and particularly the last weeks. The whole charade has depressed me deeply and is not without a dimension of fear. My support for the Obama candidacy has also been deeply compromised and the reality has set in that he is not ready for the enormous responsbilities of preisdent. There is an enormous legal cleanup job required after Bush's departure and it will take someone willing to fight tyranny. I'm not seeing it as he drifts closer and closer to the hypocrisy of the beltway elite.

I have to wonder how this will affect the online community and the alternative political narrative the web provides?

Here's how the whole day shook down:

Prior to final approval, the Senate, in the morning, rejected three separate amendments which would have improved the bill but which, the White House threatened, would have prompted a veto. With those amendments defeated, the Senate then passed the same bill passed last week by the House, which means it is that bill, in unchanged form, that will be signed into law -- just as the Bush administration demanded.

The first amendment, from Sens. Dodd, Feingold and Leahy, would have stripped from the bill the provision immunizing the telecoms. That amendment failed by a vote of 32-66, with all Republicans and 17 Democrats against (the roll call vote is here). The next amendment was offered by Sen. Arlen Specter, which would have merely required a court to determine the constitutionality of the NSA spying program and grant telecom immunity only upon a finding of constitutionality. Specter's amendment failed, 37-61 (roll call vote is here). The third amendment to fail was one sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, merely requiring that the Senate wait until the Inspector General audits of the NSA program are complete before immunizing the telecoms. The Bingaman amendment failed by a vote of 42-56 (roll call vote here). Both Obama and Clinton voted for all three failed amendments.

The Senators then voted for "cloture" on the underlying FISA bill -- the procedure that allows the Senate to overcome any filibusters -- and it passed by a vote of 72-26. Obama voted along with all Republicans for cloture. Hillary Clinton voted with 25 other Democrats against cloture (strangely, Clinton originally voted AYE on cloture, and then changed her vote to NAY; I'm trying to find out what explains that).

With cloture approved, the bill itself then proceeded to pass by a vote of 69-28 (roll call vote here), thereby immunizing telecoms and legalizing warrantless eavesdropping. Again, while Obama voted with all Republicans to pass the bill, Sen. Clinton voted against it.

Obama's vote in favor of cloture, in particular, cemented the complete betrayal of the commitment he made back in October when seeking the Democratic nomination. Back then, Obama's spokesman -- in response to demands for a clear statement of Obama's views on the spying controversy after he had previously given a vague and noncommittal statement -- issued this emphatic vow:

To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.
[read on at Glenn Greenwald]

Here is David Hutchins on why Democrats caved in - The MONEY Trail


image: the 110th Congress

Dodd-Feingold Amendment

Firedoglake is running the current voting tallies as the Congress debates for the final time on the approval of the Protect America Act and it's revision of FISA (and telecom immunity).

Call your rep today and check out where they stand here.

August 8, 1974 v. July 9, 2008

from Glenn Greenwald:

The votes in the Senate on various amendments to the FISA "compromise" bill and to the underlying bill itself were originally scheduled for today, but have been postponed until tomorrow (Wednesday, July 9) to enable Senators to attend the funeral of Jesse Helms. Rejection of the amendments -- including the Dodd-Feingold-Leahy amendment to strip telecom immunity from the bill -- is all but certain, and final passage of the bill (with the support of both presidential candidates) is guaranteed.

Once passed by the Senate, the FISA bill will then immediately be sent by the Democratic Congress to an eagerly awaiting and immensely pleased President Bush, who will sign it into law, thereby putting a permanent and happy end to the scandal that began when -- in December, 2005 -- he was caught spying on the communications of American citizens in violation of the law. The only real remaining questions are (a) whether Bush will host Steny Hoyer and Jay Rockefeller at a festive, bipartisan White House signing ceremony to celebrate the evisceration of the Fourth Amendment and the rule of law, and (b) whether Bush, when he signs the bill into law, will append a signing statement decreeing that even its minimal restraints on presidential spying are invalid.

If nothing else, as the Democratic-led Senate follows in the footsteps of the Democratic-led House this week by passing a bill demanded by George Bush and Dick Cheney to cover-up and retroactively legalize their surveillance crimes and protect the lawbreakers, there will be a clear record -- delivered to their front doors -- of what they're really doing, along with an accounting of the deceitful propaganda they are disseminating to mask and justify it.

continue reading here

Senator, get FISA right

Sorry for being offline, finally finally got the computer sorted and online. Anyway, if you are like me and have been deeply disappointed by Obama's position on the new FISA bill and telecom immunity from civil suits, you can pressure him via his campaign website

If you want to take further steps try these.

• Take 3 minutes to contact the Obama campaign office about the FISA bill.
• Call (866) 675 2008
• Press 6
• In your own (calm, coherent) words, tell them what you think. See here for suggestions on how to say it.
  

• Contact Barack Obama's Senate office and do the same.
• Phone: (202) 224-2854
• Fax: 202-228-4260
• Detailed contact information here
• In your own (calm, coherent) words, tell them what you think. See here for suggestions on how to say it.

• Use Cause Caller to contact both the Senate and Campaign Offices
• As an alternative to the above options, you can use the Cause Caller website to help you contact the Senator and his campaign by phone
• Click here for the Cause Caller page. The page provides a script of suggestions for things to mention on the phone, and an auto dialer for the campaign and senate offices.
• In your own (calm, coherent) words, tell them what you think. See here for suggestions on how to say it.

• New! Use Blue America's Whip Count Call Tool to call your senators in support of an amendment to strip telecom immunity from the FISA bill.

• Click here so they can connect you to your senator. (If they connect you directly, the call is free.)
• The page has suggestions for things to say in support of the Dodd-Feingold-Leahy amendment.
• You can help track support for the Dodd-Feingold-Leahy amendment.
• In your own (calm, coherent) words, tell them what you think. See here for suggestions on how to say it.

• Contact your own senators by phone and tell them why this is important.
• Find their phone numbers. (Phone is a much better option than email or "snail mail". Why? See here.)
• In your own (calm, coherent) words, tell them what you think. See here for suggestions on how to say it.
• Want to know more about the best ways to contact Congress?

The Fourth amendment is at stake and with it a free society. This is a very dangerous and slippery slope towards opaque government and abuses that history reveals all too clearly.

From Glen Greenwald:

Just to get a flavor for how fundamental a reversal is Obama's FISA position, here is what Obama said back in February when accepting Chris Dodd's endorsement:

We know it's time to time to restore our Constitution and the rule of law. This is an issue that was at the heart of Senator Dodd's candidacy, and I share his passion for restoring the balance between the security we demand and the civil liberties that we cherish.

The American people must be able to trust that their president values principle over politics, and justice over unchecked power. I've been proud to stand with Senator Dodd in his fight against retroactive immunity for the telecommunications industry. Secrecy and special interests must not trump accountability. We must show our citizens -- and set an example to the world -- that laws cannot be ignored when it is inconvenient. Because in America –- no one is above the law.

Here is what he said back in January:

Ever since 9/11, this Administration has put forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand.

The FISA court works. The separation of power works. We can trace, track down and take out terrorists while ensuring that our actions are subject to vigorous oversight, and do not undermine the very laws and freedom that we are fighting to defend.

No one should get a free pass to violate the basic civil liberties of the American people -- not the President of the United States, and not the telecommunications companies that fell in line with his warrantless surveillance program. We have to make clear the lines that cannot be crossed. . . .

A grassroots movement of Americans has pushed this issue to the forefront. You have come together across this country. You have called upon our leaders to adhere to the Constitution. You have sent a message to the halls of power that the American people will not permit the abuse of power -- and demanded that we reclaim our core values by restoring the rule of law.

It's time for Washington to hear your voices, and to act. I share your commitment to this cause, and will stand with you in the fights to come.

And obviously, his vow last October to "support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies" can't be reconciled with his vow to "support" such a bill now.

The issue is not -- as one extremely confused Obama-cheering blogger put it -- that Obama has done "something contrary to what conventional wisdom as dictated by a small coterie of prominent bloggers agrees with," nor is it -- as an equally confused, Obama-cheering Ed Kilgore put it -- that Obama is "stray[ing] from Democratic Party orthodoxy or from strict down-the-line partisanship" by "expressing heretical thoughts on FISA" (incidentally, it's amazing how the rule of law, the Fourth Amendment and accountability for Bush lawbreaking have now -- in service of defending Obama -- all been instantaneously reduced to nothing more than quirky, self-absorbed, petty blogger "dictates," and Obama's disregarding of those core political values is a bold demonstration that he won't be held hostage to anyone's narrow partisan demands).

The issue is that Obama has repeatedly, over the course of the last year, made emphatic commitments and clear statements about his core political values that are completely irreconcilable with his support for the FISA bill. It's possible to recognize that someone is just a "politician" and still trust that they're telling you essentially the truth about what they think and what they'll do.

fisa/telco amnesty - the race to erase the past

There are a few prescient observations today on the never say die FISA bill and why it is detrimental not only to your privacy and the 4th amendment but our legal system as a whole. The entire bill looks and feels so Soviet that it depresses the hell out of me. If this passes, America becomes are very different kind of place. The enormous unchecked power acquired will have bad consequences for a lot of innocent people.

Firedoglake:

In short, the bill outlines a crazy process where the Attorney General will give secret information to the judge sitting on a pending telco case. The information will mostly consist of the AG certifying that the previous certifications by prior AGs were legal, and if the judge dismisses that case on the basis of this or other information given to him in secret by the AG, the judge cannot talk about it in his opinion (I suppose other than to say he is basing his decision on secret info from the AG).

So, if the judge made a mistake of fact in reaching his decision, no appeal because the plaintiffs won't know what that fact is. If the judge made a mistake in his analysis of the application of the law to the facts, no appeal because the plaintiffs don't know what that analysis is.

Further, no stare decisis, no using the decision in an earlier telco case to help figure out a later case. For a legal system built around case law precedents, this is a sea change. It could make briefwriters like me obsolete.

Telcom immunity means we will never find out what happened in the PAST. OK, that's bad. Cases that can't be used as precedent can, over a long period of time, erode the legal system as we know it. That's bad, too.

But changing the definition of who can be surveilled under a basket warrant to remove any requirement that the surveillance subject be a spy or a terroist or any kind of bad guy--that's way beyond bad.

David Kris /Balkinization:

It is interesting to compare the pending legislation to the TSP as it may have been implemented just prior to, and just after, the January 2007 FISA Court orders. There appear to be two main differences. First, the pending legislation applies only to targets located abroad, while the January 2007 orders may have allowed surveillance of targets in the U.S. (as long as they were making international calls). Second, more importantly, the pending legislation focuses only on the target’s location (or the government’s reasonable belief about his location) not his status or conduct as a terrorist or agent of a foreign power. In other words, there is no requirement that anyone – the FISA Court or the NSA – find probable cause that the target is a terrorist or a spy before (or after) commencing surveillance. [David Kris Post one and Post two - required reading]

Call your senators if you haven't already.

fisa fisa fisa

Our spineless peers in Congress just can't seem to roll over enough to destroy the 4th Amendment.
Here's Russ Feingold on why last week's House capitulation is bad for you. The objective is to strip immunity from the bill as it heads for the Senate.

Reports of the newest FISA compromise indicate that, on telecom immunity, a federal court would be compelled to grant the telecoms immunity if there was substantial evidence that the Bush administration assured them that the warrantless surveillance program was legal. Doesn't that actually endorse and extend to private actors the Nixonian view that if the president says it's legal, it's legal, regardless of what the law says and the Constitution says? Wouldn't that set an awful precedent that an administration could get private actors to do whatever they wanted including breaking the law? [Laura Rozen]

Here's a call list:

SEN. Barack Obama
Phone: 312-819-2008 Toll Free: (866) 675-2008 FAX: 312-819-2088

Name	Phone	FAX
Bayh	(202) 224-5623	(202) 228-1377
Carper	(202) 224-2441	(202) 228-2190
Obama	(202) 224-2854	(202) 228-4260
Inouye	(202) 224-3934	(202) 224-6747
Johnson	(202) 224-5842	(202) 228 5765
Landrieu	(202)224-5824	(202) 224-9735
McCaskill	(202) 224-6154	(202) 228-6326
Mikulski	(202) 224-4654	(202) 224-8858
Nelson (FL)	(202) 224-5274	(202) 228-2183
Clinton	(202) 224-4451	(202) 228-0282
Nelson (NE)	(202) 224-6551	(202) 228-0012
Pryor	(202) 224-2353	(202) 228-0908
Salazar	(202) 224-5852	(202) 228-5036
Specter	(202) 224-4254	(202) 228-1229
Feinstein	(202) 224-3841	(202) 228-3954
Webb	(202) 224-4024	(202) 228-6363
Warner	(202) 224-2023	(202) 224-6295
Snowe	(202) 224-5344	(202) 224-1946
Collins	(202) 224-2523	(202) 224-2693
Sununu	(202) 224-2841	(202) 228-4131
Stevens	(202) 224-3004	(202) 224-2354
Byrd	(202) 224-3954	(202) 228-0002
Lincoln	(202)224-4843	(202)228-1371
Reid	(202) 224-3542	(202) 224-7327
Coleman	(202) 224-5641	(202) 224-1152
Durbin	(202) 224-2152	(202) 228-0400
Smith	(202) 224-3753	(202) 228-3997
Stabenow	(202) 224-4822	(202) 228-0325
Kohl	(202) 224-5653	(202) 224-9787
Leahy	(202) 224-4242	(202) 224-3479
Schumer	(202) 224-6542	(202) 228-3027

Enough already with lawless behavior!!


ad: Blue America PAC

the mall that wasn't there

What sets the South China Mall apart from [other dead malls], besides its mind-numbing size, is that it never went into decline. The tenants didn’t jump ship; they never even came on board. The mall entered the world pre-ruined, as if its developers had deliberately created an attraction for people with a taste for abandonment and decay. It is a spectacular real-estate failure – but it is also, as I saw when I spent two days exploring the site in May, a strangely beautiful monument to the big dreams that China inspires.

The big attraction of the South China Mall was supposed to be its “foreign” design. Learning from Las Vegas, where replicas of European monuments and New York landmarks draw throngs of tourists, the Dongguan mall modeled seven zones after various exotic world locations. Its rooftops reflect at least twenty different influences, from Czech town halls to Turkish mosques. - The National (Abu Dhabi)

continue reading at BLDBLG.

George Carlin is dead

smiling "up" at us....

GITMO gear for father's day?

You thought the McCain golf pack was enough but why not splurge a little more at the GITMO gift shop? Yes, the Gitmo Naval base actually sells t-shirts, caps and other souvenirs advertising its detainee operations. You may want to buy now since the Supremes may move to close this hallowed institution. Now if I can just locate that Blackwater beer coozy...

via: the Sleuth/WAPO

when art met punk

No-Wave meet coffee table....

Thurston Moore's new salute to New York's short lived but highly influential (of course) punk sub-genre of the late '70s. Actually looks quite good I think. Here's the Times review.

and now for some swell maps

the impact on artists working in the artworld

Winkleman has a new series of posts on Tuesday’s that you may know, which more or less look at topics from readers. Yesterday’s issue was the impact of the Day Job on artists, particularly those working in the arts, rather for galleries. This is a very real topic for many artists and it is essential I think to understand what biases are out there in the art biz towards individuals that find themselves on both sides of the art equation – practitioner/support.

anonymous registrartist wrote:
I'm an unrepresented artist working in a Chelsea gallery 40 hours a week and doing my studio thing nights and weekends. There are so many of us artworkers/artists, I wonder what the dealers think about us. Is it generally frowned upon when aspiring artists are known to work gallery day jobs?

Winkleman follows:

I think there can be biases working against you in this. Not insurmountable, and not concentrated in any one dealer, but spread throughout the industry, and there's no point in not talking about them openly, if only to dispel them.

The first bias was expressed by super-dealer Jeffrey Deitch at a panel lecture he participated in about 8 years ago now. I don't want to try to quote what he said because I can't recall the exact wording, but what I took away from his statement (and I'm fairly sure this is accurate) was essentially that he wouldn't even consider working with an artist who held a full-time job. He noted how a fulltime job (outside the studio, that is) implied the artist wasn't serious enough about their artwork.

The second bias possibly working against you is the assumption that you might be too close to the business side of things (i.e., have inside information most artists are not privy to) to work well with a different gallery. This is much more subtle, and most dealers probably wouldn't even recognize it in themselves if challenged on it, but sensing it a bit in myself, I can't believe it's just me….

Perhaps the underlying anxiety, subtle as it is, stems from many dealers' fear that they're doing so much of their job poorly. There is no manual on how to run your business as a dealer, and trial-and-error is how most of us come to make decisions on the finer points of relationship management and other strategies. This, I can confirm, is felt by more dealers than just me.

There is a third potential bias at work here as well, but this one is even more difficult to describe, and, to be honest, I'm not so sure it stems from the galleries as much perhaps as it's merely a reflection of the artists working for galleries that the artists think they see in dealers (and perhaps because in the context of working for a gallery, they, as an employee, don't get the same star treatment that they see the dealer showing to his/her artists), but...the notion exists that only an artist with self-doubt about their art would work to support the careers of other artists. Again, I've never felt this myself, but I do sense it among some artists who work as art handlers or assistants or for galleries. And because I sense they feel it, perhaps I reflect it back to them merely by recognizing it.

I think Ed has mostly identified the basic biases – there are more but these seem to be mostly the broad strokes.

Firstly, the “Deitch” myth that a working artist is not as committed to their work is simply generalized garbage. It’s a myth that may as well come straight from a GOP talking point. When I hear this sort of slur, it reminds of sentiments that assume poor people are defective or lazy. This is likely no more than a glib position to hold that makes filtering easier for him and his clients. That being said, it is a generalization that does match up with the myth that a real artist sacrifices everything including their health for their art. Call it the starving artist myth which somehow has survived in a multi-billion dollar industry. It exposes the rampant classist attitude prevalent in today's art world. Ultimately a reflection of the times we live in.

I think Ed’s take that gallerists are insecure about there business practice also holds true. It is shocking on one hand but understandable that the sole proprietor could feel vulnerable, furthering proof that there is no accreditation process for becoming a dealer. As the industry becomes more standard perhaps more professional behavior will result and insecurities such as these will subside.

As to the third bias, (I do like Ed’s reflection observation because that is there) I think this is a very dangerous bias to hold. That a lack of confidence motivates one to work in the arts seems like an odd way to view things. To work in the art industry seems an obvious choice for artists as employment. For the majority, it is all they know as they have been educated almost exclusively in the arts. The “lack of confidence” shows more that they are afraid of other industries for employment. An art degree doesn’t exactly put you at the top of the recruiters list at Morgan Stanley - some exceptions of course. I think you also have to consider the psychological impulse of artists to not only make work but to be around the culture of art in general. Many artists that support other artists believe in the bigger picture that they are contributing to the cultural life at large. Not saying everyone is a martyr but many of these art workers consider this. It factors in to why they tolerate the low pay and perhaps the internal angst of watching others succeed in the field to which they are aspiring.

So what does an artist gain from working as support or admin. In the gallery game? This wasn’t really covered in Ed’s post or the comment thread but there are some skills and educational benefits.

1. You learn how a small business operates – and succeeds/fails.

2. Organizational skills that can be applied to your own practice – being an artist is also being your own business.

3. You get to see how relationships work – artist/dealer, dealer/collector, and so on. This can greatly enhance your understanding on how to present yourself and interact with those that will aid and augment your career.

4. Learning how to protect your self in business dealings and how the business works. Also, learning what it costs to do business – very important.

5. Depending on your role, you look at a lot of art. It does fill educational gaps you may have as an artist. Also learning who the people are that make the big art engine move, not just in NY but across the country and internationally is a big asset to an artist. This is especially so when you consider being an artist as a lifetime commitment.

The negatives of these jobs are obvious as the biases show. If you are lacking confidence in your work, you many want to reconsider. I’ve seen it kill many studio practices. If you believe though that your work matters, then the dreaded art job may be a boon to your understanding of the bigger picture. That being said, do not go into under the illusion that you will make tons of connections as an artist. You won’t, you’ll make a handful perhaps, but it needs to be approached with the understanding that this type of job is to pay bills and sharpen your game plan by becoming a less naïve artist in the market place.

I'll close with saying that the comment thread on Winkleman is quite the read so if the topic hits home, definitely check that out.

why a media anyway? Moyers on the media crisis

Bill Moyers addresses the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis, June 7, 2008:


via Juan Cole

2012: end of the internet???

This raises an eyebrow, but not a surprise if you are following the net neutrality struggle. Worth watching through the end - get involved.

a new suite of paintings

I've just completed these three works which were made concurrently and I guess form a trinity of event. Truthfully though, I think there will be a few more additions in this size (24 x 18 in.) with the same basic elements. I have to say working small like this provides for some real headaches but when you feel serial, you behave serially. Currently untitled, but I'm leaning towards some sort of allusion to Delillo's White Noise as part of the title, or sub-title.

a new work

just finished this work on paper - 30 x 22 in.

you've been left behind - but check your email

I'm guessing this is genius on some level - from Wired:

If millions of Christians suddenly disappear from the face of the Earth as the opening act for Armageddon, Threat Level thinks most nonbelievers will be too busy freaking the hell out to check their e-mail. But if they do log in, now they can be treated to some post-Rapture needling from their missing friends and loved ones, courtesy of web startup You've Been Left Behind.

For just $40 a year, believers can arrange for up to 62 people to get a final message exactly six days after the Rapture, that day when -- according to Christian end times dogma -- Christians will be swept up to heaven, while doubters are left behind to suffer seven years of Tribulation under a global government headed by the Antichrist.

"You've Been Left Behind gives you one last opportunity to reach your lost family and friends for Christ," reads the website, which is purportedly run "by Christians, for Christians." The domain name is registered through an anonymous proxy service, presumably to protect the proprietors from the Forces of Darkness, and not because they're up to anything shady.

and you thought sub-prime predatory practices were sneaky...

nikki sudden and the jacobites

one of the greats..

working late tonight - some shocking pinks

pretty much my sound track this evening as I hit my 2nd of many coffees.....


then there is this version of pinks .....

Creative Insubordination

ok here's an opportunity for you all that is totally in line with Timothy Buckwalter's posts on artist's lists/writing as process from a few weeks back. For artists who can actually deal with language, this could be a great enterprise!

Issue VII, Creative Insubordination, Winter 2008 - Daily Constitutional, Richmond, VA

Deadline: June 15th, 2008

WANTED: Artist's Writing, Artists who Write, Text-Based Work, Manifestoes, "Classified Ads", Letters to the Editor, Comics, Jokes, Food, Issue Specific Proposals, Multi Issue Ideas, Rants, Raves, Gobbledygook and other STUFF.

Next Issue Theme: Creative Insubordination Description: Writings and submissions wanted for publication.

Daily Constitutional is an artist run project consisting of the publication of a magazine in themed issues, the first of which was released December 2005 at the Miami Art Fairs. Daily Constitutional is currently seeking submissions for the seventh Issue to be release in December 2008, as well as submissions that may span several issues. In addition Daily Constitutional is also accepting proposals for work made specifically for the publication. Proposals may be for a single issue or may span several issues utilizing any part of the publication.

Eligibility: Open to all national and international Visual and Performing Artists Outcome: Selected writings will be published along with relevant images. A short bio and contact info will be included on the contributor's pages. Descriptions of work and CV are only for reference purposes and will not be published. Additional issues will be released twice a year. Each contributor will receive a few free copies of the publication and the remaining copies will be distributed at the release event free of charge and available for purchase at art centers across the US and through

http://www.dailyconstitutional.org

Contact information and Submissions:

DailyConstitutional, Attn: Submissions PO Box 4683, Richmond, VA 23220

Mitja Tusek

Mitja Tusek is a new - old artist for me. I just discovered this work through a used book from Strand. Living in the belly of the hyper art-spin world, I'm getting real satisfaction from uncovering artists from the 80's and early 90's particularly Europeans that for whatever reason were outside of my educational sphere. So I present Slovenian artist Mitja Tusek who made these incredible wax pieces pictured above in the early 90's. A nice parallel to Richter, a strong commitment to the evidential nature of presence.

Here's some info on the artist circa 1994- but he is still quite active on the circuit as a quick google search reveals.



Image1 : Untitled (Wax no. 63), 1992
Image 2: Untitled, 1990

The Big Show 3

I've been so busy in the studio I haven't even plugged this group show I'm in out in the Hamptons.

The "Big Show 3" is at Silas Marder Gallery featuring 50 artists or so all working at a scale of 8 x 10 inches. I think I speak for everyone that this size is quite difficult! So if you are heading there be sure stop by the gallery. It's one of those big summer kick off type of things with lots to look at. Here are a few links of participating artists (i could find) and in some cases bloggers.

Karen Dow
Alexander Cheves
Eric Graham
Michael Lee
Carla Knopp
Mark Burckhardt
Mary Heilmann
Tad Wiley
...many more

The Big Show 3
50 artists were asked to make three 8” x 10” paintings especially for this show,
forming a collection of artwork that spans age, region, gender,
experience, education, style, and content.


MAY 17 - JUNE 22 Silas Marder Gallery
120 Snake Hollow Road, Bridgehampton
631.702.2306 info@silasmarder.com
www.silasmarder.com Wed. - Fri. - 12-5pm Sat. - 10am- 6 pm Sun. - 10am -4 pm

Top: my low quality image from the show

ufo sighting

Nice laser beam....



image via Phronesisaical

David Maisel interview [2006]

The commenter on the previous post (and the Headlands event) made me want to dig up this excellent interview from 2 years ago on Archinect. Geoff Managh of BLDBLG is the interviewer and I really consider this one of the best artist interviews I have ever read. If you don't know the artist this is a great place to start, if you are familiar this will enhance what you already know and like.

from the interview:

David Maisel (b. 1961) studied architecture, landscape architecture, and photography at both Princeton University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design - before leaving the latter to pursue his photographic career full-time. He now lives in the Bay Area, and exhibits internationally.

In his own words, David has a “fascination with the undoing of the landscape.”� He has become most widely known for his aerial work, which includes extended studies of North American mines, clear-cut forests, urban sprawl, evaporation ponds and other peripheral industries of the Great Salt Lake .

David has also produced a widely known photographic series of Owens Lake, California, with images taken from nosebleed-inducing heights as great as 13,000-feet. As cinephiles will no doubt know, Owens Lake was drained in the early 20th century to water the lawns of suburban Los Angeles (a notorious act of hydrological theft that found its way into American mythology through Roman Polanski's Chinatown). Owens Lake is now a Dantean wasteland, one of the most toxic sites in North America.

some highlights -

Managh:
It struck me while looking at your work, however, that even the word landscape is a bit inaccurate - the idea that you are a landscape photographer - because the sites you choose are more like events. Anthro-terrestrial events, so to speak. One could even argue that you are an event photographer, because you document abraded lake beds, forests being clear-cut, copper mines, and so on. What do you think of that? That a landscape itself could be an event, a process?

Maisel:
The word landscape is an interesting one - it implies a viewer who is making a judgment call. A landscape is bounded by our own set of interests and values. I mean, the land exists without us; the landscape involves our own discernment. So I suppose that you're actually very accurate. It's that sense of turmoil, or finding some... Really, it's the sublime, right? It's the dislocation of the viewer that interests me. It gets back to the same issue as Ansel Adams. I mean, I think that his work at a particular moment in time probably had a different meaning than it does now - but I want to make work that has meaning now. And I think you really have to be decisive about what that is - as an artist. You have an obligation, in a way, to choose subject matter that has meaning.

Managh:
You say meaning, but your own writing tends to have a more poetic than political overtone. Not that your writing is apolitical but it doesn't seem to prescribe anything, or make judgments. Does your work have a specifically political - even ecological - message, or do you see it as purely aesthetic?

Maisel:
I think there is definitely an ecological message there. But the issues are actually quite complex. The more I learn the less I know. The more I see the less I know. I think these are issues in which finger-pointing is really an easy reaction. Yet what I do feel is that we are kind of at the edge of this abyss [laughter] - and I know I'm now falling back into poetic language - but that for me is the message that I want to tease out of these places. That's the continuity I think I bring from one area of subject matter to the next.

So we can drain as many lakes as we want, and we can pour cyanide solution over hundreds of thousands of acres of copper mine tailings - but we'll pay the price. I mean it's interesting, with The Lake Project, once the work was done and the book was out in the world, and there was a certain amount of attention paid to that work of mine, it was then that I met the head of the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District who really appreciated what I was doing. And he is the scientist and, sort of, activist, who organized a local group of citizens in the area of Owens Lake and became the David who slew Goliath in court. They sued the city of Los Angeles - and won. They're the ones who helped the court mandate this whole shallow flooding of the lake to keep down toxic dust storms.

So I have incredible respect for his work, and for his understanding of the complexity of Owens Lake. But he has an understanding; I don't, and I'm willing to say that I don't. I mean I could - I don't think it's an insurmountable lack of knowledge, or comprehension - but there are people who are better trained than I am, and who can make those calls. And I think, in a way, that the pictures aren't even necessarily suited to help make those decisions. They're using, for example, aerial photography now to survey the surface of Owens Lake in order to assess whether or not this shallow flooding is actually helping - and that's a different kind of aerial photography than I'm engaged in, completely! [laughs]

Full interview here.

image: David Maisel

Will Oldam and David Maisel at Headlands - 2night!

Ok - this makes me very jealous of anyone who can attend this event. If you do go, please send me a note on how it goes. Two very intense artists.

5/22/08 Apocalyptic Sublime:
Will Oldham & David Maisel

David Maisel, Library of Dust

Date: 5/22/2008 (Thursday)
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Headlands Center for the Arts

Ticket Info: FREE

For a real fish out of water experience, join us as one of America’s most influential songwriters calls to all music lovers. 2008 AIR Will Oldham composes songs that are by turns lilting and jarring. His lyrics and melodies capture the conflicted, painful and joyful nature of daily life. 2008 AIR David Maisel finds the aesthetic beauty in environmental and social devastation, photographing “Black Maps” that show the stunning colors and the patterns of polluted landscapes. His recent body of work, “Library of Dust,” visually depicts what remains of people who were abandoned to a forgotten place by their families and society.

Listen to Will's music here.

Please note that capacity for this event is limited to 120 PEOPLE. We will have a waitlist and an overflow room with a live simulcast. Thank you for your understanding.

a love letter to Japanese painting

I'm gradually getting back into the pace of NY after some time away - thanks to large doses of caffeine which are a poor substitute for the beach but you work with what you've got. I came across this great essay on Japanese art at 3Quarksdaily by Elatia Harris. This is a compelling personal account of a lifelong journey that begins with one woman's childhood reverie and the great tradition of Japanese art.

Harris:

Thanks to Elise Grilli, I was beginning to understand there were two long traditions in Japanese painting that occasionally inter-penetrated but were also separate. Very roughly, there was a tradition that overwhelmingly reflected the civilization-changing influence of China and Buddhism, and one that was Japan's unique contribution to world art, with each flaring into greater vitality at different times over almost 1500 years. Another distinction to look out for was that between art of a private, contemplative nature -- a scroll that is unfolded slowly in the hands, a poem card -- and art best understood as a large element in an entire surround, like the screens above. In the West, the same distinction might attach to the difference between drawing and painting, the former usually done by artists for themselves, the latter having a necessarily public intention. In the West, too, the same artist might excel -- that is, live equally -- in both drawing and painting, but in Japan, with staggering though very few exceptions, art that was contemplative would not issue from the mind or hands of a great decorator-painter.

Image: Trees in Fog, Hasegawa Tohaku, 16th century - Japan's "most-loved" painting.

...more Oahu

artist lists and process

Timothy Buckwalter has a good run of posts on process this week as well as the always present artist "list". You know you have one...

Artists profiled include Julie Mehretu, Kiki Smith, Robert Smithson, Mary Heilmann and more.


Image via Buckwalter - Philly based painter Doug Witmer's studio list

the pie is flat

This is a cheap post of course, but I love watching Friedman getting a well deserved moment of humiliation. It's as close to an apology as we'll get from the millionaire pundit. I'm always amazed at the effectiveness of this act, people really buckle. Now if someone could only pie Bill Kristol...