paintings + drawings

Through The Night Softly

In 1973 Chris Burden conceived "Through the Night Softly," a ten second performance spot to shown among the usual TV ads on late night.

I wouldn't mind catching this alongside a promo for Windex.

Peak Oil Versus Pop Music

from Overthinking It: "Many rock purists and music snobs (myself included) often lament the quality of most modern pop/rock music.  “Music these days is so trite and derivative,” they say.  “It’s just been downhill since the 60’s and 70’s.  Those were the days.”

A few years ago, Rolling Stone magazine added fuel to the music snobbery fire with its “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list.  Anyone casually paging through the list would notice that the bulk of the list was comprised of songs from the 60’s and 70’s, just like the music snobs always say.

I, however, wasn’t content with the casual analysis.  So I punched the list into Excel, crunched some numbers, and found an interesting parallel between the decline of rock music quality and, of all things, the decline in US oil discovery and production

Nitrate Kisses

Barbara Hammer, 1992.

Shameless Self-Promotion

..."it works for me on just the most basic level..."

That's me babbling like a brook about Franz Kline's Lehigh V Span for SFMOMA's Oral History Project. It's part of "Dispatches From The Archives."

You should definitely stop in and check it out (because I have more face time than seen here) and, of course, listen to everyone else who is included, since they are way more interesting.

On Gesture

" An age that has lost its gestures is, for this reason, obsessed by them. For human beings who have lost every sense of naturalness, each single gesture becomes a destiny."

from Means Without End, Giorgio Agamben, 1996.

Get Out Of Here, You Shameless Vixen

MOMA Tweets Rejection

MOMA and Letters of Note have recently posted a copy of Alfred Barr's missive to Warhol, a brush off of the artist's attempt at donating an early work to the museum.

The dismissal has been getting some recent play on the internet, even though the note has been around awhile -- as swag.

Happy Halloween

The top ten ghost written books.

Marina Abramovic Institute, Huh

I've been suffering through a recent rash of press releases that say next to nothing.

Below is my favorite. Please RSVP to an event which is not described in the least.

What will Koh do with his butt this time? Does Marina know about her namesake? Why can't I enter Igor Josifov's website? Why isn't there even a website for the Institute? Dunno, no answer is provided. 

Google maps does offer this bit of helpful information -- looks like the future home of the Institute is also the trash receptacle for the neighborhood, and suspiciously close to the Art Academy. Go at your own risk.