Robert Blanchon book event

Visual AIDS has just published (distributed by D.A.P.) a lovely book about Robert Blanchon (1965-1999) and his work. Last night, there was a book event at Artists Space with a panel of an editor (Amy Sadao), the essayists (Sasha Archibald and Gregg Bordowitz), and Blanchon's executor (Mary Ellen Carroll). Below, my notes:

Archibald: he became "a sort of trickster"; sent out invitations to mailing list of Terra Museum about 21st year of Conceptualism, all a hoax but black tie event with nowhere to be; slides of several of his works including gum on the sidewalk (one version entitled "Untitled"; the other titled with the addresses of cruising spots in L.A.; reminded me of others who have given meaning to ordinary places by labeling them as cruising spots)

Bordowitz: his essay in the form of a prose poem
* guilt [but also envy], survivor's guilt
* names become reference points: all of the activists/artists were not just one happy crew who all knew each other
* Bordowitz didn't know Blanchon and wrote his prose poem to the work, but as a kind of love story [art makes me horny]
* missed opportunities
* inspired by James Schuyler and John Donne
* "we all have beds, Felix"
* works embody the pressure of their moment
* he made both "gay art" and "queer art"
* differences between artist, e.g., Wojnarowicz was a primitive, Moore was kitchy, Felix Gonzalez-Torres was conceptualist
* possibly knowing the artist through his work

Carroll: Blanchon diagnosed in 1983 so HIV positive throughout career; shared sense of tricksterism [Billy Trickster and all from Oregon trip]; architecture, like film, is something you can't do yourself [hence title main entry]; Carroll promised Blanchon she'd do book and international exhibition (book is beautiful and exhibition is on the way); art from perspective of artist/maker, not viewer

Q&A: formalist and not; engagement; easier to die from drug addiction than from AIDS; elevation of gossip to philosophy

https://visualaids.org/projects/robert-blanchon-monograph

art and circuses

As I said to Julie:
I got to Senior & Shopmaker on Saturday to see the Mary Miss show. They are good pieces: large multi-image photo panoramas. ... I had been fighting going to West Chelsea because it just isn't all that much fun anymore but I learned my lesson. I had a couple-three stops on the list and stopped at several others. As often happens, some of the random stops beat out the ones on the list. The Joseph Kosuth installation at Sean Kelly is good. When I was at Elga Wimmer talking to the artist [Daniel Blaufuks] who happened to be hanging out there, Ken Soehner walks in and it turns out that he and his wife know the artist pretty well (actually, Nathalie knows him well and Ken knows him because Nathalie does). The Chris Verene show at Alona Kagan was pretty interesting; his photos are very evocative.
http://www.skny.com/
http://www.danielblaufuks.com/

That was Saturday. On Sunday, I had Circus Amok on the calendar, along with working on the newsletter. Circus Amok was a good deal of fun, in spite or perhaps enhanced by the rain that caused a longer intermission than anyone really really wanted. One of the guys looked familiar and I think it's because he was all painted up in the report about the Art Parade on the Radical Faeries list. Festive. Mac was running errands and happened upon me and the circus. Maybe I'll run away which reminds me of that Woody Allen film in which the guy runs away from the circus.
http://www.circusamok.org/

inside the grid

Being in Oregon, with Tee and at Wolf Creek Sanctuary, was nourishing. Tee has been to the hospital and doesn't want to go back. She is ready to leave us, and looking forward to her next existence. I asked "what?" and she had heard that once you're a human, you can't go back, intriguing as it might be to be a banana or ant. It may have been the sanctuary influence. Part of me could really be a hippie communard: meandering about, talking about life and love, taking naked showers in the sunshine, watching the skunk poke around in the evening, watching the wild turkeys poke around in the morning. Another part of me would really miss the galleries, the sidewalks with their destinations. I was reading Rebecca Solnit's Wanderlust: a history of walking while I was in Oregon, and on the plane coming back. Lots of interesting observations, starting from walking but going to philosophy, literature, communication, social interaction, life, the whole gamut.

The sky was beautiful in Wolf Creek. You don't get big sky since there are mountains all around but the sun was glorious. The sunlight on the ridges was beautiful. The night sky with a full arc of stars was splendiferous. I love to be out under the night sky, probably a result of living in New York City where light pollution blocks viewing of all but the very brightest night sky objects.

The nourishment of the sanctuary and visit are hard to sustain in the onslaught of the workplace. Gotta get inspired.

gl/q part 2 and tee

The seond part of "Art works" edited by Richard Meyer and David Román for GL/Q was at the Whitney when I was there on Saturday. There's an essay about early feminist art journals that includes quite a bit about Tee Corinne's contributions. Other good stuff too. Not that I've read it or anything.

The Whitney show -- 75 years -- was wonderful, full of the icons of the last few decades. Also the video of "The holy artwork" by Christian Jankowski was in the video gallery. And the Calder circus, which I haven't seriously looked at for years, was in the lobby gallery and looked fine.

Yesterday started out slow but I went up to the Cloisters and got some solace from the fine art and the fine views from the terraces and the park. I walked out to find Park Terrace West where two couples of friends have moved recently. There are some lovely tudorish houses on West 217th Street. Sueyoung and Dwight's building looked quite nice, and I'm not sure which building is Daniel and Gary's. Other gays on the street.

go metadata!

First we talked about digitization, cultural objects, and potato salad; then we took pictures of Diane's license plate.

Maybe we could add social tags to this picture and see where the folks go. Maria and I wondered if we should do some experiments in social tagging.

(photo by Maria Oldal, taken 3 August 2006 outside South Huntington Public Library, after 4th LILRC Symposium on Digitization)

art diets

It's been most of a month since the last entry. Last Saturday, I was feeling very starved for galleries after spending weekends at ARLIS/NA conference, preparing for CCO preconference at ALA, and similar stuff. Though I had to run off to Ridgewood (Queens) for a party, I ran up to Chelsea for an hour and a half of galleries and got a good snack. The Joe Fig show at PlusUltra on West 27th was interesting. The show a few doors down at Derek Eller was pretty compelling. Also had a good, long chat with Margaret Murray at Murray Guy. They have an installation of Francis Cape photos of New Orleans with wainscoating. Melancholy and lovely.

Since I've been reading "The fig eater" by Jody Shields, the serendipity of Joe Fig was amusing but doesn't really go anywhere.

Last night, I took the LIRR out to Hicksville to join my sister and her family at the Jericho Jewish Center where she received the "Woman of Achievement" from her temple sisterhood. Very glad I went. Interesting to be there so soon after receiving the Distinguished Service Award from ARLIS/NA. Very different ceremonies, settings.

henriette avram dies

Just read a notice that Henriette Avram died .... must have been the announcement from LC that they will no longer try to control series headings. We, of course, do it mostly for ourselves and other librarians, but it's been useful for that audience. It's probably not the end of the world or anything like that but it has been a trying time.

round-topped buildings

Lynda Bunting sent me a note about establishing the Mercato del pesce di Napoli (M.D.P.N.), on which she had a book of Thomas Ruff photos. It's a building so it has to be SAF, not NAF .... I guess. That also means that I need to find another source for the heading. I was having trouble but then saw a picture of the Ruff book. The M.D.P.N. is a rationalist building, 1929, designed by Luigi Cosenza, with a round top. I'm such a sucker for that profile. It probably goes back to falling in love with Ledoux in college but you can add Palladio's Basilica, Loos's Horner and Steiner houses, and even a house by Alexander Brodsky that I was looking at in Metropolis last night.

note to self

I started this blog because I had to register in order to respond to Tee's blog. It's been almost a month and I wondered if "shermaniac" would show up if I googled it. Damn. There's a SherManiac out there who is keen on things like Sherman Tanks and warmongering. That's not me!!

This stuff is all too interconnected. My brother put up some family pictures on his Facebook site so I had to sign on for that too. The profile there asked for a favorite quote so I picked:

He was not cut out to be a soldier, he thought, but neither were most of the young men of his class and acquaintance who went to fight. It was not wisdom which kept him away, he believed, but something closer to cowardice, and as he walked the cobbled streets of his new town, he almost thanked God for it. (Henry, the narrator, in The master, a novel based on the life of Henry James, by Colm Toibin)

condoleezza rice and music

The "arts and leisure" section of today's New York Times has a profile of Condoleezza Rice and her musical interests and piano playing. She is passionate about Brahms and others. She plays with a string quartet made up of others who have careers other than music. How can a person so moved by music be part of a warmongering administration?

There was an article in the front section about lymphatic filariasis which is caused by a worm that secretes stuff and your legs can fill up with water. If you're a man, it might cause your testicles to grow (the article said to the size of a basketball in the worst cases). One picture of a man with a swollen leg was horrifying. Don't turn the page though; it's an advert for some pretty dress or cosmetics or something. The contrast is terrible and typical.