ART
Self-Erasure: Banksy Hunting in Utah
Rob Tennant
02.25.10
As Salinger's recent death reminded us, a quest for invisibility magnifies a certain type of public fascination. During the lead-up to this year's Sundance Film Festival –– where Exit through the Gift Shop, a film by/about British graffiti artist Banksy was set to premiere –– there were rumors he would unveil his identity, and then works resembling his began to appear around Salt Lake City and adjacent areas. Rob Tennant tells the story with an eye for the role of new media as an archive of ephemeral street art and with the patience to psychoanalyze his hometown. Photos by the author.
Inspirational Critique: a conversation with Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade of My Barbarian
Jesi Khadivi
02.15.10
I first saw My Barbarian perform as the grand finale of Liz Glynn's "24-Hour Rome Reconstruction Project (or Building Rome in a Day)" at Machine Project here in Los Angeles. Compressing the 1200 year history of ancient Rome to 24 hours, participants built an impresive scale model of the city, from cardboard and hot glue until at the stroke of midnight My Barbarian arrived in the role of Visigoths to sing and perform while participants destroyed the replica they had spent all day creating. This is just one of the many historio-critical-performative-collaborative projects My Barbarian (Jade Gordon, Malik Gaines, Alexandro Segade) have been a part of. Jesi Khadivi, curator of Berlin's Golden Parachutes gallery, interviews. -BB
Paul Chan: Sade for Sade's Sake at Greene Naftali Gallery, NYC
Thom Donovan
12.10.09
There's long been a mantra of "art for art's sake," which sometimes unfortunately dumbs down the conversation or waves away dismissively the curious - but maybe less schooled in art theory - viewers or fans of art. For the most part the saying has its place. But now with someone like Paul Chan, an artist who is a flag bearer of this generation's politicized art, he knows when he makes work for a show to be called Sade for Sade's Sake that it's gonna provoke controversy, not only because of its subject matter (which always makes a stink with the right), but also for its title framing, toying with the old mantra, which simultaneously supports the playful bedroom side of the notion, but also prods at the the sadistic cynicism that pervades our culture beyond the art world, that which leaves Katrina victims waiting for Godot, and certain prisoners of the war on terror stacked naked like pyramids, barking like dogs. Thom Donovan reviews Chan's latest show at Greene Naftali in New York.
We Was Voodoo: a Conversation with Karsten Krejcarek
Matthew Ronay
11.23.09
Fanzine hosts a conversation between New York based artists Matthew Ronay and Karsten Krejcarek framed around the latest work of Krejcarek's - specifically a new video he's wrapping up that's a kind of personal spiritual cleansing, a revelatory fiery purging of heavily signified studio objets d'art turned detritus, such as a casket, in cathartic response to a ritual psychedelic experience in the jungles of Peru, and further exploration into the hallucinatory visions he had there. Sound heavy? Well maybe that's the point, but there's also good play to be had in this dialogue between two friends and contemporaries.
Interview with Justin Bartlett
Adam Ganderson
11.22.09
Justin Bartlett draws pictures that are both complicated and primitive at the same time. The imagery is detailed but taps into unsettling, basic primeval fears that are embedded in the human psyche. Which is probably why he’s becoming increasingly in demand for metal related album cover art and merchandise. It’s sort of reminiscent of wandering alone in the woods at night and then through the branches witnessing some ancient unspeakable act that can only be communicated visually. Either that or a twisted horror version of Maurice Sendak. After this interview, I sent him an email asking if Sendak was an influence and his response was: "No, not really, I never owned Where the Wild Things Are, but I was really into this page from Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham." —Adam Ganderson
if we were immortal: Slater Bradley at Team Gallery
Jon Leon
11.17.09
'Much has been written about New York artist Slater Bradley since his debut at Team Gallery ten years ago. Some have sung his praises, some his pitfalls. In some cases facileness is implied, in others, eminence. No matter what or how you call it, Bradley’s youthful obsessions are always engaging, never boring, and totally worth it,' Jon Leon writes about the artist's lastest show at Team, if we were immortal.
In the In Between: a Conversation with Galit Eilat and Chen Tamir about the Mobile Archive
Thom Donovan
10.10.09
The Mobile Archive holds roughly 1,000 videos by Middle-Eastern and Eastern European artists. It has travelled throughout Europe for the past three years and is now being exhibited at Art in General in NYC (September 24th through October 17th). Thom Donovan interviews two key curators for the Archive: Galit Eilat, who founded the M.A. through her work at the Israeli Center for Digital Art in Holon, Israel, and Chen Tamir, who has selected videos from the archive for the current Art in General show. The interview also discusses Eilat's Liminal Spaces - a collaborative project which researches spaces in between bureaucracies, mental and physical geographies, legal systems and what remains beyond the law in the more fluid realm of culture. Other topics discussed are the politics of curation, Israeli military strategy, and questions about the submergence of the "liminal" within popular American culture and intellectual discourse.
Doug Aitken's Migration of Light
Zoey Mondt
09.28.09
“Draping a building in light and image" Doug Aitken "appropriates the architecture, transforms it into art, his art, and demands greater responsibility and participation from the viewer who in turn navigates their own perspective and experience" as Zoey Mondt writes, taking us through the plazas and grottoes of his wandering of light, migration, now at Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
The Fairy's Hole: Vincent Fecteau's Caveman Sculpture
Derek McCormack
09.11.09
Author Derek McCormack takes us down the fairy's hole, from the fairy grottoes of Georgian England on down through André's beauty parlor on The Flintstones, to the modern, colorfully garish, ponderously beautiful, holey fake forms of Vincent Fecteau, now on view at Matthew Marks in New York City.
The Invisible Dragon Redux: La Chanson de Dave
Gean Moreno
07.27.09
Been a long week off, and now over at mom's trying to catch up, but then Apocalypse Now (redux) comes on and delays the blurb, am thinking of the beauty of this film, each time seen, different elements unnoticed before twixt all the the dreamy smoke screens of colored flares, like little Roman Coppola reading Baudelaire at the French Plantation. Here, in this review by artist and critic Gean Moreno, we reexamine the meaning of beauty - Dave Hickey's take on it, in his redux version of a book released in 1993, The Invisible Dragon. 'To each his own chimera' - as Baudelaire would say? This book stirred controversy before and surely will again.
Provocateurs and Participants - a review of Acting Out: Social Experiments in Video at the ICA Boston
Julie Perini
06.17.09
Artist Julie Perini describes the current exhibition at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Acting Out: Social Experiments in Video as one “sidestepping the moral responsibility of academia,” as 5 international artists: Yael Bartana, Johanna Billing, Phil Collins, Javier Tellez, and Artur Zmijewski act as rogue sociologists who “freely borrow from the methods and conventions of fiction and documentary filmmaking while deploying their own hybrid strategies.” These works are complex aesthetically and tackle the politics of the body, both from the individual and global perspective. They beg not only physical engagement from their players, but intense attention from their viewers. If you are in New England this summer don’t miss it.
(HH) Hamlet House - A Play In Progress
Thom Donovan
06.07.09
Lilac Co and St. John’s Theater program have been engaging in a work in progress titled (HH) hamlet house that was performed last week at the Warsaw theater in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Thom Donovan was there and reviews here the play written and directed by Sean Lewis and featuring Lewis, Elisa Matula, Seth Powers, and John Morena. It's an inventive take on Shakespeare that has Hamlet played by two, doubling characters, an Ophelia forefronted, some merry prankstering and an invite for audience participation that is unique and welcomed. If you missed this showing, read up and then see the next one!
A Triennial is Born And It's Younger Than Jesus
Alyssa Bianca-Pavley
04.16.09
Yes there is a new '-ennial' out there. A triennial - at the New Museum in New York’s (re)burgeoning bowery art scene. On inception it’s being called The Generational: Younger Than Jesus, because everyone in the show is under 33. And we wonder if they are going to keep the same title ever year? 'Younger than Jesus' that is? I mean what if all the believers out there are right and Jesus happens to come back in the years in between? Guess the Priory of Sion is not in on this one. Alyssa Bianca-Pavley, quite younger than Jesus herself, gives us the run down in brief.
American Mirrored - Dan Graham: Beyond
Zoey Mondt
03.23.09
Dan Graham has been a working artist since the 1960’s, and is one of America’s foremost talents, carving paths in the conceptual field, in sculpture, architecture, performance art and video. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles is currently housing a retrospective of his work, Dan Graham: Beyond. Zoey Mondt glimpses through the myriad of mirrors that Graham holds up with a critical eye, reflecting who we are (in case we don't know).
Between The Ritz and the Gutter: Francis Bacon's Life in London
Amabel Barraclough
01.02.09
As a retrospective of Francis Bacon's work at Tate Britain winds down, Londoner Amabel Barraclough takes a moment to tell a bit of Bacon's more tasty history in the city the artist would call home for most of his life, while Danny Jock draws Bacon and his circle.
Entrance Wounds: Richard Foreman's Deep Trance Behavior in Potato Land
Thom Donovan
04.01.08
Richard Foreman's productions from his ontological hysterical theater are experiences of ideas, rather than psychodramas. Difficult to surmise (and harder to blurb), Foreman's most recent play Deep Trance Behavior in Potato Land delves further into the director's - of late - multimedia fancy. Orient yourself here with Thom Donovan's review, then if you can, go see the play (which has been extended til April 27th) where you can expect to be disoriented (orientalist pun?...sic).
Every Name in History is I: Catherine Sullivan & The Triangle of Need
Thom Donovan
03.08.08
Thom Donovan dissects the work of Chicago-based visual artist Catherine Sullivan, examining the recurrent themes of Nietzsche that appear throughout the narratives of her projects. Her films and live-action performances have been described widely as "anxiety-inducing" and "disorienting." Unsettling, to say the least, she forms much of her work as a critique of acceptable and ordinary behavior in modern society. Donovan examines three of her major works: Triangle of Need, The Chittendens, and D-Pattern. All images courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures.
Desire in Syracuse: the 'Come On' Controversy
Yvonne Olivas
11.07.07
This piece shouldn’t require a subtitle with the word “controversy” in it; it should simply be about three talented artists’ work. But alas, the exhibition in Syracuse titled "Come On: Desire Under the Female Gaze" recently drew headlines when its curator Astria Suparak was fired following the show’s opening (and huge success). Yvonne Olivas talks to artists Juliet Jacobson, Rachel Rampleman, Jo-Anne Balcaen, and curator Astria Suparak about the art involved and what exactly happened in the wake of their recent exhibition.
Barry McGee: Mature Works
Zoey Mondt
10.12.07
Have this funny feeling we'll get some flak for this review. What with our magazine's seeming anarachic name and all that it implies. But what the hell, Ms. Mondt says what needs to be said here about Mr. McGee's 'Mature Works' and the art establishment that bottom feeds off so called Lowbrow or Street Art.
The Programmatic Prelinary Proud Difficulties with Richard Prince
Darren Bader
10.03.07
Darren Bader grapples with New York's Guggenheim exhibition of Richard Prince, Spiritual America. Is Prince the punk hero of appropriation art who has spiritually defined this country? Or just another Rauschenberg (et al) for Pete's sake?
John Russell Q & A
Gean Moreno
09.27.07
Gean Moreno corresponds with London artist/cum curator/cum publisher/cum jack of all trades mad man (in the best of ways) John Russell seeking to find an answer to the question what else can art do?
Diary of a Nobody at Art Basel 38
Kevin Killian
07.09.07
While we here at Fanzine would argue that Kevin Killian, rather than being a nobody, is quite the man, he does manage to shadow, ghostlike, the celebrities of the "Art World" at Art Basel 38 in Switzerland. This is Killian's first trip to Europe, and Twain-like, his Yankee perspective is insightful, if not a down right riot. Be sure to look for more on Killian in Fanzine in forthcoming articles this month.
Review: Carolee Schneemann at CEPA, Buffalo, NY
Julie Perini
05.05.07
Artist Carolee Schneeman has a retrospective at CEPA in Buffalo, NY. Julie Pereni visits and comments on this thematically arranged show and the artist who for 40 years has made work "that keeps one finger on the pulse of humanity, addressing the brutal reality of war, and another finger on the collective clitoris, emphasizing female agency and embodiment."
Robert Rauschenberg's Combines at MOCA Los Angeles
Zoey Mondt
09.18.06
Zoey Mondt wanted to title this piece My Boyfriend's Back: A Portrait of the Artist in Sweaters. Well that was a bit long... and while Rausch can strike a handsome pose when donning a sweater, this retrospective is about his groundbreaking Combines. Mondt takes some issue with the museum's handling of the exhibit.
God's Gaultier
Derek McCormack
09.01.06
Derek McCormack returns to Fanzine with more than a review of Dodie Bellamy's "Kathy Forest"; in no small way celebrating the life of writer / poet / performance artist Kathy Acker, who died of breast cancer in 1997.
An Interview with Marc Handelman
Paddy Johnson
07.13.06
Paddy Johnson brings us Marc Handelman, whose huge paintings are steeped in rich (perhaps ironic) color, nationalist icons and creeping doom.
Art in the Dark
Alan Gilbert
06.21.06
Alan Gilbert launches an appeal to the Whitney Biennial curators, lamenting the overlooked Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld for his prodigious obfuscating oratory. Critique, critique, critic. Gilbert reminisces on the 2006 Whitney Biennial. Cheers.
I Think You're Great: OVERUNDERSIDEWAYSDOWN
Kevin Killian
04.17.06
Kevin Killian's essay for the San Francisco group show at Queen's Nails Annex that includes work by David Hatcher, Mitzi Pederson and Wayne Smith.... Fruit Stripes, Blotter Paper, Doorskin, Surfing and Johnny Carson.
Devotional Materialisms: on Thomas Hirschhorn's Superficial Engagement...
Thom Donovan
03.28.06
We hardly ever see what really is going on in war, especially filtered intelligently through art. At a recent show at Barbara Gladstone's Gallery in New York, Thomas Hirschhorn came as close to any artist in recent memory to bringing home the horrors happening in the middle east currently. If you missed it, read Thom Donovan's insightful take.
Hacking Art: Interview with Cory Arcangel
Paddy Johnson
03.27.06
Paddy Johnson raps with new media artist Cory Arcangel about hacking video game cartridges, teaching people how to make bad websites, and muses about his constancy in fashion sense.
Interview with artist Matt Greene
Amelia Saul
02.02.06
Amelia Saul misses artist Matt Greene in Berlin, but catches his show there which left her brimming with questions. Greene, a nature lover was California dreamin' and skipped his own opening, anxious to get back to his favorite mushroom trails, girlfriend and dog. But that's okay, that's what email is for! An insightful interview on a myriad of subjects.
Sailing With Artist Charles Ray
Richard Parks
01.05.06
Richard Parks purposefully tacks off course in an intimate interview with artist Charles Ray, talking all sailing (and nothing about art), but then who's to say this isn't the best approach?