untitled (parlor wall) 2005

I was sleepy and didn't feel much like moving, but I picked up the little camera as I lay on the couch late last night. This is roughly what I saw in the light available there.

Beeoff Tentacle TransatlanticReverb 2004-2005 installation detail

neuroTransmitter Offshore 2004-2005 installation detail

Mariam Ghani Kabul: Constitutions 2003-2005 installation detail

I was a little scared. Would I understand it? What would I say to those smart people? It seemed to be very much about technology, and I'm barely able to function as a basic blogger, even with my partner/webmaster's kind and regular ministrations. But Barry really thought we should go, and I have to admit I thought that even this klutz really shouldn't miss tonight's reception at EYEBEAM.

The event was described as an evening of tours and talks with the artists of their current installation, "Work In Process." It turned out to be great fun, and it really was a revelation. Maybe our first exposure to the six projects wouldn't have been so worthwhile without the extra help of the artists' guidance, but I know I'm going back, whether or not they'll be there next time. You don't really have to know much about what's going on behind the curtain.

The works were all beautiful, but if some were less so in what many would call a conventional sense there were great compensations in the success of some very original concepts.

Jenny Marketou uses a tiny spotter camera suspended from a red balloon to confound a world fettered by the machinery of surveillance. NeuroTransmitter investigates the history of extra-territorialism and its popular voices. The Swedish collaborative Beeoff creates tethered overhead sculptures lit beautifully from within by projectors which communicate with each other over the internet. Bec Stupak has installed her own beautiful and wacky three-dimensional concept of a DVD zine with the collaboration of more traditional paper zine artists; here technology is totally in the sevice of creative and exceptional individualities. KnoWear's attractive and very minimal installation was disturbing for its dramatization of the ineluctable personal impact of a corporate futureworld. The unfolding of a more elementally-human contemporary world, specifically the complex process of building a national constitution documented in Mariam Ghani's space brought tears of joy to my eyes; I found it almost impossible to step away from the wizardry which had recreated Kabul's 2003-2004 Loyal Jirga in a former garage on 21st Street last night.

For more information on the work of the six artists or collectives in residence who contribute to this show, see the exhibition link on the EYEBEAM site.

Gwon, O-Sang On the languishment of 340 pieces 2000 C-prints, mixed media 79" x 25.5" x 12"

Los Angeles's 4-F gallery (unfortunately the site hasn't been updated for quite a while) has opened a solo show, "Deodorant Type & The Flat," of work by Seoul-based artist Gwon, O-sang.

I originally knew nothing more than what the press release told me and I'm on the other side of the country (of the world?), but the image at the top of this post has haunted me since I first saw it one week ago. I don't know much more now, but the only other work I'd seen then definitely didn't discourage my interest. I've included it below.

Some clues from the gallery's scented statement:

[The show] will consist of floor-bound sculpture that embodies his notion of deodorizing photography's historical odor by filtering it through the third dimension, and large-scale photographs (jewelry, watches, cosmetics) taken from advertisements that have been collaged in real space and re-photographed to flatten the viewing field

There's a peek at his studio here, via crazyseoul.

Gwon, O-sang The Flat 6 2004 Lambda Print mounted on Sintra with UV laminate 71" x 90"

[images from 4-F]

This picture was taken from the quiet side of the apartment. It's a view of our Shadblow as seen early in the afternoon of the day after. And, I really hope it's not dead.

the corner of 23rd Street and 8th Avenue tonight at 7 o'clock

We were on our way to a gallery opening. The "impressionist" blur is the result of the slow shutter, but it's pretty close to what it looked like to those who were out there in the wind-driven snow (ten inches or so already) without goggles. Hey, Childe Hassam did this stuff with oils and nobody laughed. But I guess that was a hundred years ago, and there was a little more involved than pressing a button on a tiny box.

As I indicated he might, Barry has now done a post explaining what Luke Murphy actually does to create his computer art and enthusing about its wonderful painterly animation.

A lot of artists are working with technology and art, but I don't think that many of them pull off using the strengths of technology, such as writing a program which then generates the art (possibly in random ways like a high-tech bow to John Cage), rather than just using it as a useful animation or painting tool. I think Luke Murphy does pull off that feat. The works are engaging and beautiful, plus there is an intelligence to them that one can appreciate.

In a subsequent post he has some good words specifically addressed to the artist's very accessible web site.

I just spotted this reassuring headline in the "Reuters: Top Stories" section of the MY YAHOO! home page on my browser:

"Bush Freedom Speech Not Sign of Policy Shift - Aide"

Goodness! That's a relief. For a while there I was pretty nervous about the fact that Bush's inauguration address seemed to suggest he intended to go off in some wacky new direction during his second term.

I'm copying the first few paragraphs of the Reuters story here, but only for their entertainment value; they read something like a Saturday Night Live "Weekend Update" segment.

Bush Freedom Speech Not Sign of Policy Shift - Aide

By Caren Bohan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush's inaugural vow to spread freedom and stand with the oppressed against tyranny was not meant to signal a shift in U.S. foreign policy but to elaborate on a long-term goal, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday.

Bush's second inaugural address on Thursday raised questions around the world about what measures he might use to bring about his vision of freedom.

Some analysts wondered if it signaled a new, more aggressive policy toward countries like Iran and also if it would lead to strains with nondemocratic allies like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

"The speech builds upon our policy," said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It states very clearly the long-term goal we should always be working to achieve."

The official said there was a recognition not all countries would be ready to embrace freedom right away and that the means for trying to further the goal would in many cases involve quiet diplomacy.

[image of bumper sticker is from Irregular Goods; for text documentation see the Washington Post]

Sterling Ruby Geometric Study 2005 inkjet print with red pen on paper 13" x 19"

Sterling Ruby 90-Degree-Cryer 2004 Lambda print mounted with sintra and plexiglas 20" x 25"

I've seen Sterling Ruby's work in Foxy Production's rooms before, and it pulls me in every time. I can't explain why. Even once inside, there seem to be so many questions unanswered; in fact I think that includes most of the questions, but you can tell he's very serious about asking. While I admit his investigations are of a kind which wouldn't occur to me, or perhaps to most any viewer, they manage to give his unique aesthetic an extraordinary intensity just for their being posed.

Yeah, I really like them.

One caution: The two images above don't manage to do justice to the actual work, on view in the gallery as part of a very good small group show, "Geo," until February 12.

[both images from Foxy Production]

below the railroad viaduct called the High Line, "CONSERVING FOR TOMORROW"

the president, his tank, his guards, his people

Seems like we're just spitting in the wind now, as an activist friend said the day before the republic's formal obsequies. Still, it was good to see these noble souls lining the path of the funeral cortege yesterday.

Bless 'em. May we all live to fight another day.

[image from Reuters]