Sculpture | Sarah Braman

Sculptor Sarah Braman creates sculptures that "are not about things, they are things. They don't exist as a reference, representation or metaphor, but as themselves." Maybe this video provides all the commentary that is needed. 

via VVORK

CBC Coverage of El Anatsui

CBC has recently published an interesting article with fantastic images on El Anatsui's exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum, which was just recently extended through February 2011. I first came across the piece on art historian Chika Okeke-Agulu's blog who pleas with commentators and journalists to stop referring to Anatsui's work as "fabric," "textile," or "wall hanging." He writes, with emphasis mine:

"I used to consider these descriptions of the artists' sculptures naughty or simply stupid. But now I believe it amounts to denial of the status of these works as Sculptures, and of the artists achievement in this genre, and I am having none of that. It makes me think of the days when African sculptors were described as 'carvers.'"

In past writings, I have referred to Anatsui's work as "not really sculptures, could be termed installation art, and safe-to-say wall hangings." While I said this as a way to describe  the complexity of the artist's work, I'm glad to have been called out on what might just be a flat out mischaracterization. Still, I would defend writings that refer to his pieces as installation art, as their visual impact really encompasses and surrounds the senses much in the spirit of installation.

"Left Right Left Right" | Karla Black

Left Right Left Right, Karla Black. 

Compost, top soil, red building sand, golden hoggin gravel, hairspray, polystrene, spray paint

image via VVORK

Turkey Day Things.

found at c-monster,

but courtesy of Smithsonian Archives of American Art

I adore this charming snapshot of Jackson Pollock, his mother, and Lee Krasner getting ready to carve the turkey. The Smithsonian Archives Blog has posted some nifty drawings of turkeys as well, and then, there is, of course, Turkzilla. Happy Thanksgiving to all readers out there!

Photography by Maia Flore

French photographer Maia Flore creates sublime photography that is somehow provocative but not pretentious.

 

via Beautiful Decay

"Distillation" | Roxy Paine

Throughout the gallery spaces and offices of James Cohan Gallery, Roxy Paine's large scale installation of "circulatory systems, arboreal forms, and industrial power-plants" is on view through December 11, 2010. All of the material is bent and soldered, and parts that are painted red or are highly polished are chosen carefully to recall blood vessels, tree branches, and technological weavings.

While this may seem too literal, the work is most engaging when the "metaphoric situations for processess" are fully expanded. It is interesting to see how our bodies weave in and out the space that Distillation occupies, just as nature is shown to bend to technological invention within the work.

images via Art Observed 

The Hippo Collection

image via BoingBoing

BoingBoing has a post that features the above image from the Hippo Room in the Mammalogy Department of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The author writes:

"Museums keep research collections like this tucked away in attics, basements and back rooms. In these quiet, little sanctuaries, touching is allowed. Getting access (albeit limited) to the collections at the University of Kansas' anthropology museum was one of the high points of my undergraduate experience...the AMNH even has a few secret corridors where it stashes treasures. Great stuff!"

I understand the general excitement of gaining access to objects and artifacts that a general public does not get to see, but at the same time, why is it that the majority of a museum's holdings are found in storage? With the 21st century museum gift shop and cafeteria, we are left with less art in our exhibition space, and fewer objects on display. We are left to ponder the secret life of study collections, the hidden alternative that only comes with restricted access. With little information on AMNH's shelf-life available to a general audience, the absence of objects speaks volumes on taste, notions of value, and matters of authenticity.

These are just hippo heads, so I think it is fine to just marvel. But what if they were art representative or made to stand in for, entire countries or cultures? Exhibitions and collections are being asked to do more for less, have knowledge or information serve as representational. There are several books that cover this phenomenon more deeply, but seeing this picture just made me want to rant a bit.

Sol LeWitt & Eva Hesse

With a week of work stress and not writing personal statements, it is rather serendipitous that I stumbled upon this letter that Sol LeWitt wrote to sculptor Eva Hesse while she was living in Germany in 1965. One of the most popular letters between artists in the second half of the 20th century, I just find concordance with the repeating "Just stop...grinding, grinding, grinding away at yourself."

via We Find Wildness

Jennifer Rubell's "Padded Cell" of Cotton Candy

This food installation by Jennifer Rubell  is called "Padded Cell" and consists of a giant wooden box with walls made out of cotton candy. Pink and sugary in all its glory, guests are (or maybe were?) encouraged to eat its walls. The piece was done for a fundraiser at Performa.

via 16 Miles of String 

As Sarah Douglas says eloquently on Artinfo, the piece also serves as a reminder "of the standard pink insulation material found in suburban homes." As a child, my house was constantly the subject of construction / do-it-yourself adventures, and my parents made it clear that the insulation would certainly make our skin crawl in irritation, or worse, just be flat out "bad for you." So I can only imagine the glee of guests/participants stuffing their faces with block shaped sugar made to suggest something toxic.

art egos

Art critic and writer Lindsay Pollock recently blogged on Jeff Koon's desire to "live larger than most hedge fund moguls and gazillonaires," in reference to the artist merging two of his upper east side apartments that were both purchased for above ten million dollars each. I thought the posted picture, created a la MS Paint, was pretty fantastic and a great summation of art-ego:

Work by Valerie Hegarty

Valerie Hegarty creates work that is as much about deconstruction as it is about construction. Objects are used as props to tell how the past relates to the current American socio-political  arena. The most successful pieces are the ones that explore the potential of alternating history's references behind well known art works:

Rothko Reflection, 2007

Rothko Sunset, 2007

Niagara Falls, 2007 

Unearthed, 2008

via ALMOST VELVET

"I am a Forest" | Alex Schulz

The best kind of stop-motion animation is the short and nifty kind, as in this piece by Alex Schulz:



via Changethethought

"Dead Drops" | Aram Bartholl

Artist Aram Bartholl has launched this fantastic public art intervention called "Dead Drops." It is an offline, peer to peer file sharing network in which pedestrians are invited to go to certain places to drop or find files. To create the project, Aram inserted USB flash drives into places ready accessible such as walls, buildings, and curbs. Each location, or "dead drop," contains a .txt file with directions explaining the project. These images are from a location next to the New Museum:

via today and tomorrow