Paul Chan: Sade for Sade’s Sake at Greene Naftali Gallery, NYC
Thom Donovan12.10.09
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.
Book: Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, The Indie Label That Got Big And Stayed Small
The Fanzine12.07.09
After 20 years of hard work, dedication, and a lot of pogoing to powerpop ballads (the cover of this book appropriately just shows Mac McCaughan and…
Art: Joseph Beuys: The Multiples at LACMA
The Fanzine12.07.09
At the heart of Joseph Beuys’s practice was a European form of multiples, two- and three-dimensional objects issued in editions. LACMA’s new…
Art: Tim Burton at MOMA – NYC
Alyssa Bianca-Pavley12.07.09
Tim Burton got his start at Walt Disney studios, where he worked for several years as an animator before jumping to live-action directing with the…
First as Tragedy, Then as Farce by Slavoj Zizek
Jesi Khadivi12.06.09
In his review of Disney’s High School Musical, Fanzine contributor Kevin Killian wrote of the film’s male lead, "Ryan’s outfits are maybe one or two sizes too small, so that he seems to bulge in unseemly places all over. I think of that as the intellectual look. You know who has it, that kind of stuffed sausage sexiness? Slavoj Zizek of course. I could eat them both with a spoon." In her review of Zizek’s approachably sized new work on the economic crisis, Jesi Khadivi, curator of Berlin’s Golden Parachutes gallery, will instead leave you with images of the Slovenian philosopher’s tendency to over-salivate.
Forever Green
The Fanzine12.05.09
Seems every fest right now is December 3rd through the 6th. Well maybe that’s just my Miami beer, sun or…wait – art goggles; there, that’s the…
Art: Dotty Attie, What Would Mother Say
Alyssa Bianca-Pavley11.30.09
Dottie Attie’s show at PPOW is a compelling installation, exploring gender ambiguity and the way words can completely change an image. Her…
Art: The Early Work of Edward Kienholz at LACMA
The Fanzine11.23.09
In Southern California in the 1960s Edward Kienholz started creating assemblages which were often scathing narratives of social and political…
