"I felt so keen a longing for Mme de Guermantes that I could scarcely breathe; it was as though part of my breast had been cut out by a skilled anatomist and replaced by an equal part of immaterial suffering, by its equivalent in nostalgia and love. And however neatly the wound may have been stitched together, one lives rather uncomfortably when regret for the loss of another person is substituted for one's entrails; it seems to be occupying more room than they; one feels it perpetually; and besides, what a contradiction in terms to be obliged to think a part of one's body."
Marcel Proust - The Guermantes Way
Sunday, 29 March 2009
San Diego and the Origins of Conceptual Art in California
Allan Kaprow, How to Make a Happening, 1966
The Cardwell Jimmerson Contemporary Art Gallery is hosting an art show which shines a light on a blind spot in art history. The west coast often times get placed behind the east coast in the art world hierarchies, and in this Los Angeles is seen as the driving cultural force.
The artist's located in San Diego found themselves within academia, and this allowed their practice to exist within gallery spaces and classrooms. This engine of artistic progress and processes has yet to be explored thoroughly, and hopefully this show can be a starting point.
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Did you notice that I was afraid?
I thought I'd run out of things to say. Two more hours until today burns this away, and it starts all over again.
New Found Glory tonight at HOB.
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
DOOM BUNKER!
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Doom Bunker - Jack Jacobs and Stephen Moore | ||||
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In this scenario, we have a werewolf Congress. How freaked out would you be?
Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard
February 3, 2009–May 25, 2009The Howard Gilman Gallery
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Yet another photography exhibition I'd love to see. Being able to see Evans's personal collection of ~9,000 postcards along side his own experiments into the format would be quite the juxtaposition of artistic aims.
Evans strove for an unabashed realism (that could call into question the veracity of the scenes he captured: too staged to be considered real?) in his work. When placed alongside a postcard, we are struck with two different Americas.
It is odd that the MET refers to the picture postcard as representing "a powerful strain of indigenous American realism."
Unknown Artist, Tennesse Coal, Iron & RR Co.'s Steel Mills, Ensley Ala. 1920
This photograph seems to be a far cry from the idea of realism: a verdant pastoral setting with the industrial reality a mere afterthought in the background, hardly imposing itself on the landscape. To call this American realism is perhaps a social critique on what one would stereotypically call the American attitude.
Walker Evans, View of Ossining, New York 1930-31
Walker Evans, View of Ossining, New York 1930-31This is Evans's realism which contrasts sharply with the supposed realism of the American postcard. The postcard is a tool to sell an idea of a place, to try an encapsulate what we want a location to be. Evans images do try to sell us on place, but to a different end. His images are like Madonna's minus the child. They call to us to help them.
The work of Evans almost always posses that Barthesian punctum for me. I truly am wounded when my gaze fixes upon his work. They create a rupture point in which I pour myself out and the image enters me. This visual violence enacted in the distance between the image and myself opens up pathways into which I can explore the rays of light that are the photograph. The punctum is private, but Evans's work couldn't be any more public. The beauty of these tensions enhances the experience of his work.
The postcards are prime examples of Barthseian studium. We understand the images at once. They are uncomplicated and don't ask much, if anything, from our gaze. Any kind of punctum associated with these images would be less of a punctum, and more of an acute symptom of nostalgic reflection on Americana.
Evans turned the postcard on its head with his photojournalist style. I would really like to see the whole exhibition. 9,000 postcards is a lot and making my judgements based off of the handful on the MET's website is perhaps unfair, but I can only work with the visual information that MET chooses to display to those who are unable to make it to the exhibition.
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but you can only fit a fraction of that on a postcard.
The work of Evans almost always posses that Barthesian punctum for me. I truly am wounded when my gaze fixes upon his work. They create a rupture point in which I pour myself out and the image enters me. This visual violence enacted in the distance between the image and myself opens up pathways into which I can explore the rays of light that are the photograph. The punctum is private, but Evans's work couldn't be any more public. The beauty of these tensions enhances the experience of his work.
The postcards are prime examples of Barthseian studium. We understand the images at once. They are uncomplicated and don't ask much, if anything, from our gaze. Any kind of punctum associated with these images would be less of a punctum, and more of an acute symptom of nostalgic reflection on Americana.
Evans turned the postcard on its head with his photojournalist style. I would really like to see the whole exhibition. 9,000 postcards is a lot and making my judgements based off of the handful on the MET's website is perhaps unfair, but I can only work with the visual information that MET chooses to display to those who are unable to make it to the exhibition.
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but you can only fit a fraction of that on a postcard.
Cognitive Dissonance
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Bill O'Reilly's Right to Privacy | ||||
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Another example of Bill O'Reilly's double speak and the wonders of TV editing: calling the paparazzi "scum of the earth" and then employing the very same tactics for The O'Reilly Factor.
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Friday, 20 March 2009
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Monday, 16 March 2009
Sunday, 15 March 2009
I hope this letter finds you well
"The moments that we've shared could last a lifetime, and the faith I have in us will keep you near. Several hundred miles placed in between us means several hundred words be sent by mail."Dag Design Lab has created a sleek way to track the delivery time between postcard sender and recipient. We can now measure the physical distance between our written words: that space between seconds. We can place ourselves between these numbers, their sums and our memories.
When instant messages are our new reality, correspondence that exist for someone in the future refer back to when our words had to stand the test of elapsed time.
Saturday, 14 March 2009
You know sometimes circles run around you
You love to live to hate this town, and I hope and dream just like you do
Friday, 13 March 2009
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Monday, 9 March 2009
Paris, City of Photography 1920-1940
Sans titre (1929) - Marianne Breslauer
The Jeu de Paume in Paris is having an amazing photography show. Between this and the fashion photo shows last month, it seems as though the exhibitions of early to mid-20th century photography keep catching my eye. It is too bad that they are all so far away from California.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Monday, 2 March 2009
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