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Friday, May. 29, 09
Now at the Whitney: Photoconceptualism, 1966-1973
Whitney Museum building (from http://nymag.com)
There is a whole lot of awesome currently crammed into the Whitney Museum of American Art. “Photoconceptualism, 1966-1973” is third in a series of exhibitions that focuses on the photography collection amassed by the Whitney. This show, though tiny, is comprised of incredibly compelling conceptual photographs by artists such as Bruce Nauman, Ed Ruscha, Adrian Piper, and Mel Bochner, to name only a few. The images vary from tongue and cheek humor to the examination of human existence. Included in the show are pictures from Bruce Nauman’s “Eleven Color Photographs” (1970), which focuses on word play within classic one liners. The photographs are quick witted, especially in “Waxing Hot”, where hands are pictured polishing the letters H-O-T, or “Eating My Words”, where Nauman is literally eating letters cut out of bread, with a jar of jam nearby.
Waxing Hot, 1966-1967, from www.Whitney.org
Also included is Adrian Piper’s “Food For Spirit” (1971), which chronicles the summer she spent cut off from the rest of world, reading Kant, fasting and practicing yoga, rarely allowing herself to venture outside. The images are a result of a metaphysical crisis that occurred when she began to feel as though she no longer physically existed. She chose to photograph herself to make sure she was still present. The photographs, each taken in the same position with Piper nude in some and clothed in others, are beautifully unsettling.
Food For Spirit Image #11 from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, www.sfmoma.com.
Another current exhibit is Sadie Benning’s video installation, “Play Pause”. The piece consists of two channels, each projected on to a movie theater-sized screen, which play concurrently and occasionally combine to show one larger image. “Play Pause” features hand drawn images by Benning, which illustrate life in a city, both the urban environment and those who live in it. Benning’s drawings are charming and disarming, simply done in black and white with occasional blue and red washes. She explores sex, yearning, politics and more, all over an engaging soundtrack that varies from the whirr of insects and chattering birds to squealing tires and drinks being poured, fully immersing the viewer in her experience. Sadie Benning is one of the youngest people ever to be included in the Whitney Biennial, in 1993 at the tender age of 19. This video installation is more subtle than her earlier work but just as excellent.
Detail of a Drawing for Play
Pause, 2001-2006
www.whitney.org
But wait! That’s not all, folks. The Whitney is featuring an exhibit of Claes Oldenburg’s work, including his short films, drawings and sculpture. The space is actually divided into two exhibits, one of just Oldenburg’s work and another that is done in collaboration with Coosje van Bruggen.
Within “Claes Oldenburg: Early Sculpture, Drawings and Happening Films”, definitely check out his gigantic sculptures of softened cigarettes and the delightfully squishy-looking “Soft Toilet”. There is also “Ice Bag- Scale C (1971)”, a massive mechanical ice pack that fills up an entire room and inflates and deflates continuously with a mesmerizing hum. The “Happening Films” were scripted and performed by Oldenburg and feature casts composed of his fellow artists and friends. Each “Happening” was filmed in stark black and white by various filmmakers, in the late 60’s through the 70’s. This installation is the first time all seven of the films have been shown together and a rare treat indeed.
“Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen: The Music Room” features many of Oldenburg’s classic soft sculptures, this time tackling musical instruments as a subject. What emerges is fantastic.
Soft Viola, 2002 from http://newyorkkids.timeout.com
Get thee to the Whitney! “Play Pause” and “Photoconceptualism” are on view until September 20th and both of the Oldenburg exhibitions end on September 6th. For more information, check out www.whitney.org. The Whitney Museum of American Art is located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street and is open Wednesday through Sunday.
-Alyssa Bianca-Pavley
Thursday, May. 28, 09
Fanzine's Web Saviors
Untitled Karsten Krejcarek, pencil on paper, 2009
First off, wanna give some love back to our last bigtime savior, Karsten Krejcarek. Not only is Krejcarek one of the best, and one of my favorite fine artist working these days, but he also was the programming magician behind our last version of the website. Guess you can call it Fanzine 2.0. Ernesto Gonzales was the initial programer and he did a stunning job on short notice initially, but the distance eventually proved too much (like that great Malkmus line in Jenny & the ESS Dog), for subsequent fixes. E.G.'s kind of an XBOX addict and who can blame him? Now I'm sure he gets off the box for the bigger clients. Otherwise, he's a man of mystery, said mystery only to be outdone by our chief backend designer Douglas Savage, who I swear might be C.I.A. (I'm kidding right? What better cover than to say you are C.I.A.).
Savage was located in Barcelona along with Ernesto when we first launched the site at the CMYK Festival at MACBA in Barcelona. I stayed up for a week and never adjusted to the time change (was then from California) and about shit myself in my sleep after that was all over with. Had a moment where I woke up and wasn't breathing - not like an actual asthma attack where you are almost not breathing, but wheezing heavily - I was not breathing period and hadn't been and couldn't hardly start back, and my limbs were going numb. Had to drag myself up from the little yoga matt/mattress thing I was sleeping on and shake for a while till feeling came back and air came trickling back across the little hairs that filter a lung. This is not in the press package.
Savage is also an artist and a ladies man, a romantic okay? - that's better, he can't help it. How he juggles his time I have no idea, even though deep down I know he's as big a nerd as I, or more so. He is dead serious with finesse when he gets paid properly, and will take the early 4 hour commute to Hamburg from Berlin without complaint.
Finally, Tim Beynart, an old high school buddy came through when I couldn't get others. Tim would love to play XBOX all day too now, but he's super serious, with a new baby in the world, Tucker Belle. He's corporate, and that suits him just fine. Corporate needs the geniuses of a Neuromancer netherworlder to tell them where their asses are. I'd worry about typing that last line, but he's too invaluable. So whatever.
And that's that. Sort of. So many people have helped with Fanzine, will have to give another day to the interns. Emilie Jackson, now at Steling Lord, kudos, handling Dennis Cooper, et al. Timothy Murray, your last story 'The Jersey in Me' was brilliant. For now I am in Atlanta, sans intens, and it's tough. It's hard enough for me to write 800 words coherently without typos for a book review for someone else.
Try managing, or getting into a multitude of minds for periods of time. And writing yourself. How anyone does both....I wanna know. Ha.
-CM
Heller's Fanzine piece referenced in Freakonomics
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The "Roid Rave" keeps rumbling. Yes, Jordan Heller has made a stir with his Fanzine feature "Roid Rave: Steroids, They Do A Body Good?" Not only was his piece, that shows the other side of the steroid debate (the benefits, rather than the harm), referenced recently in Vanity Fair, but now has made the pages of the award winnning New York Times Freakonomics blog. Who says us art fags (jk) can't write real journalism? So young journalists (or seasoned or lightly seasoned or hell, well done) with good stories, pitch us, we want more on politics, science (like Heller's), and other pieces beyond our usual cultural critique spectrum.
And congrats Jordan, I see that piece referenced in quite a few other places as well as I googled along. Just posting this news post haste, as a Freakonomics fan myself. -CM
Ed Park on Comic Novels
Friday, May. 22, 09
The Rumpus - Whoah
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The Rumpus and Fanzine just discovered each other. We've been around a little while longer, but man these guys are like on meth cranking out the quality material, like the old beatnik Frisco days when everyone was on Benzedrine.
I'm joking, 'bout the speed, not the velocity or the quality.
And in response to your posting, yeah we are a little more southern fried and slow, but we pretty much germinated in your city, and then we were in NY for a while - what was it, 3 years? I'm back home in Georgia for a spell, saving dough (co-editor Michael Louie is still NY and people contribute from all over). Oh and speaking of dough, Fanzine needs one of those donate buttons too like Paste utilized and The Rumpus just mentioned.
It's a great thing to see more quality websites spring forth like The Rumpus and HTML Giant (I can't type those greater than or less than marks or my admin app will fuck up). The new literary web start ups need to band together and figure out how to loose the reigns of the old farts of publishing, or loose them of their their purses.
Writers need more resources, locations to publish in, in the way people used to write before the days of Gawker, etc. And oh sure we'll gawk sometimes too, whatever, but there is no reason we have to feel that writing is an artform left to rich men of letters, copywriters and gossip columnists.
As the old Nicholson joker once said, before Heath Ledger, RIP, what this town needs is an enema. As the excellent author and Rumpus au pair Stephen Elliot has said, they are doing it "because the web needs an editor." And I concur, or a few anyway!
I'd write more right now, but I should get ready for an art opening, another good one at Susan Bridges' whitespace tonight. The homiest and one of the bestest (sic, whatever I like that word) gallery in Atlanta.
So a big warm welcome - Rumpus readers meet the Fanzine, Fanzine readers meet the Rumpus, and let's keep a dialogue up. I need the right code for one of those buttons for starters...
Cheers,
Casey McKinney
P.S. - Try Dennis' blog, Stephen. He's very accessible and supportive there, it's a great comunity and resource of art and ideas. His book tours are gonna grab some time now, but he's always checking in and responding to practically every comment.
P.S.S. - I initiated this "Hey" back to The Rumpus with a comment on a good piece on Cat Power on The Rumpus this morning. Maybe made more sense then. I dunno, okay I'm out....
Wednesday, May. 13, 09
Jordan Heller's 'Roid Rave' story cited in Vanity Fair
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About a month ago Jordan Heller wrote a controversial story for Fanzine showing the other side of the steroids debate - that they can actually have wonderful benefits for the right candidates when used properly - Vanity Fair cited his article recently in a steroid piece of their own. Michael Hogan asks should baseball just go ahead and allow steroids in America's hallowed game that's been made much less holy (that is - besides the pincushions players have made of their bodies) the past few decades?
Friday, May. 8, 09
Off For a Day or 2 For Some Improvements, So...read UP
Enjoy the weekend, take the dog to the park, and catch up on some articles in the Fanzine archive. Expect a new blog, easier ways to share articles from Fanzine to some of your favorite sites like Facebook, Digg, Reddit, etc, etc on Monday. So read some of the old Talk Shows in the columns sections for instance. We are almost to a milestone, numero 25, which will have Brian Evenson and others. Exciting.
In other news, we will start covering events in Atlanta next week and are testing doing London events soon. We are also looking to start filling some of the gaps of topics we cover, but have had less material in, like fiction, science, and some investigative reporting. So if you have ideas, stories, pitch!
Look for a surprise collab in poetry soon as well. So...hey, May is looking good. But don't be surprised if it comes down to the final stretch like Calvin Borel with a big upset and a flood of stories.
Sunday, May. 3, 09
Bombs Away Borel at 50:1: The Derby Post Mortum
"It's all in the hands!", not sure what was better, the race or Borel after. If you read Pete Hausler's preview before the Derby, you know he was dead right on betting wild on this one, though how could he know his picks were a tad conservative? A 50-1 longshot did come in, as Calvin Borel does it again... Pete just sent this postmortum on the event in late last night...
Shortly after the race, I received an email from Casey, the editor here at the Fanzine Sports Desk, with the subject line: Holy Shit. Which were my sentiments exactly. I watched the race with my 6-year-old daughter, and fear I was screaming the same as the horses came down the stretch, as it became clear that a stupendous, monumental upset was happening: The 50-1 long shot Mine That Bird skimmed up the rail, exploded into the clear, and won going away, leaving behind mud clots, torn tickets, and three other colts to fight it out for title of second-best of their generation.
I have to admit: I didn’t see this one coming. A smallish horse who was lights-out as a two-year-old in Canada (Canada!), Mine That Bird won four of six races up north, moved WAY south to prep and train in New Mexico when the calendar flipped to 2009, and was 0 for 2 in two ungraded stakes races at Sunland Park, “Where the Winners Play.” (And yes, I had to look up where exactly Sunland Park, NM is, because it ain’t exactly on the main highway to Kentucky Derby fame. Talk about your roads less traveled.)
This lightly-regarded and vastly-overlooked bay gelding, who was originally purchased for $9,500, annihilated a field that most described as the strongest in years, a field that had handicappers and turf-writers scratching their collective heads about which much-touted colt or live long shot would take the Roses.
I am part of a superfecta syndicate, where five or six fellow handicappers get together every year, kick in a hundred each, and put together a superfecta ticket. So, this year, at our meeting, we said exactly one thing, count em, ONE thing about Mine That Bird: we joked about how MTB’s jockey, Calvin Borel, would steal one, ride in his inimitable way up the rail like he always does.
But let me be perfectly clear: we were joking. Because there was no way that this horse could win. So he was our punchline the entire night, when things got contentious or when it seemed we were going in circles about who to pick for our third spot, someone would say Mine That Bird, and we’d all have a good chuckle.
He looked like the classic case of a 2-year-old on fire, then the rest of the class caught up when they turned three. He had weak Beyer speed numbers compared to the rest of the field. Let me rephrase that: he had the WORST highest-Beyer of this 19-horse field. His highest was 80, all other entries had at least one in the 90s, and you like to see at least one triple-digit Beyer in any Derby horse you back. So going in, he appeared a step behind his competition.
The only other thing you might have liked about Mine That Bird is his sire, Birdstone, who had that indispensable, elusive quality I like to call stick-to-itive-ness. An early favorite to win the 2004 Kentucky Derby, over the four months on the Derby Trail, Birdstone was surpassed in the depth chart by numerous of his compatriots. When Derby day rolled around, he was an unfancied long shot, whose best days seemed behind him. He finished up the track in the Derby, but his connections thought he had more good races in him. Five weeks after the Derby, Birdstone shocked bettors by taking the Belmont Stakes at 35-1, not only beating Smarty Jones in an exciting stretch duel, but also ending Smarty Jones’s Triple Crown bid.
But the old “his sire was dogged” angle is a tough sell, even if you are sentimental, even if you believe in blood handicapping. So, when a horse like this wins, and beats you as a bettor, you shrug, send some happy-time mojo to his connections, and look ahead to the Preakness. You start to wonder how to bet, for or against, in the second leg of the Triple Crown.
-Pete Hausler