Thursday, November 06, 2008
As journalists spread out through the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) galleries, previewing the The Art of Participation: 1950 to Now, a uniformed man led a group of guards through the exhibition. Stopping before a rubber net flopped open on the floor, he told them,"It's okay if they touch this, pick it up, wrap it around themselves, roll around in it, whatever." One young guard gave a quick coughing laugh, clearly picturing a besuited matron doing a spontaneous wrap and roll. Their guide continued his spiel, moving on to the participatory intricacies of works such as Ant Farm's Media Van v.08 (Time Capsule) and Janet Cardiff's The Telephone Call.. If the notion of guards watching carefully to make sure everyone participates in an approved way seems to contradict the spirit of the works, it also demonstrates the important questions that animate the show. Not everyone will like it, but everyone who cares about contemporary art and/or museum culture will be talking about it.
Image Credit: Lygia Clark, Rede de elástico [Elastic Net] (film still), 1973; rubber, dimensions variable; Clark Family Collection, Rio de Janeiro; photo: Eduardo Clark, courtesy "The World of Lygia Clark" Cultural Association; Copyright 2008 "The World of Lygia Clark" Cultural Association
– mt San Francisco [9:45 PM PST]
Thursday, October 23, 2008
On October 15, two Margaret Kilgallen pieces were stolen from Gallery 16. These paintings were included in the current Fifteenth Anniversary exhibition. The works were not for sale, but belonged to Griff Williams, owner and director of Gallery 16, and were given to him by Margaret back in the mid 90's. Needless to say they are of deep personal significance to him.
"Easy" was approximately 7" x 12", and the Untitled (profile) was approximately 17" x 12", both enamel on wood panel. There is very little of Margaret's original work out there for sale, if any, and so the gallery is asking that everyone please keep their eyes and ears open with respect to these two works. Should they resurface for sale, or should you see them in a private residence, they ask that you please contact them immediately 415.626.7495 or vanessa@gallery16.com. Any information would be much appreciated.
– cm [5:12 PM PST]
Monday, October 13, 2008
Virginia Kleker, (1977-2008)
Yes Virginia, the art world is no better than the dumbest reality TV which you sought to conquer. You taught me that. A student like you is the only reason a teacher bothers to get out of bed in morning.
Yes Virginia, I've been cataloging/archiving every micro-second that I was honored to work with you and I ache that I hadn't heard the extent of your misery.
Yes Virginia, your keen perception and examination of the vulgarities of pop life and the nonsense of the hopelessly inadequate alternatives still rings like a silver bell in our hearts. Your devilish, dark, mischievous sense of humor still hangs in the air like night blooming jasmine.
Could any of us saved you from your horrible intention?
Yes Virginia, I know you're in a better world because nothing could be worse than a world without you.
Please come back.
– Dale Hoyt [1:45 PM PST]
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
As the ship of state lurches from crisis to crisis, if you watch the markets & listen to Paulson and Bernanke, you may feel we're about to go under. Or a vague sense of nausea might be flowing over you, as a giant wave of it must be flowing over those in congress as they get yet another heaping load of spin spiked with hysterical urgency, making it hard for them to keep or maintain their sense of balance.
"We've approached the edge of the cliff," Leon Cooperman,65, who manages $6 billion at hedge fund Omega Advisors Inc., said at the Value Investing Congress in New York. "Do we go over the cliff or begin to recede? History says we recede, but there's no guarantee. This is the most difficult financial environment I've lived through."1 
Things are out of kilter and Luther Thie's Tilted Pole at Art Engine Gallery seems to mirror aspects of the situation. Old technology we still depend on has been eclipsed by new, and the infrastructure is left to decay. New untested security products turn out to be more hazardous than those created for safety after the depression, then jettisoned as if so much excess balast. An out of balance condition makes things more dangerous, as it brings hazards close to us, too close to be safe.
Walk around Tilted Pole and see if you agree with me. But don’t touch the transformer. Don’t those contain PCBs?
1 Elizabeth Stanton and Eric Martin, Bloomberg.com, October 7, 2008, U.S. Stocks Drop; S&P 500, Dow Post Worst Retreats Since 1937
Installation at
Art Engine Gallery by Luther Thie
San Francisco, September 5 - October 18, 2008
– cm [5:00 PM PST]
Thursday, September 18, 2008
You think you've seen everything don't you? Well you haven't seen Euphoria!, Oddball Films' contribution to the film section of Bay Area Now 5. Steve Parr belongs to a breed of auteur/archvist/artists like Rick Prelinger, Craig Baldwin, Janice Allen and of course St. Bruce Conner, that find the sublime in the strangest archival footage. I recommend this in the strongest possible terms. A great date movie, especially if your date is Squeaky Fromme. Oddball Films: Euphoria! at YBCA Sept. 25th.
– Dale Hoyt [12:23 PM PST]
Sunday, September 14, 2008
There have to be Broadway lights in the future for the cast, crew and Geyser!, a scintillating play by Kevin Killian and Wayne Smith, which premiered at Small Press Traffic Friday night.
Killian and Smith have collaborated on their fourth piece, and the writing has attained a sophisticated level of zany humor, pathos, and well-timed, quizzically amusing observations. The playwrights’ usual elements of a beefcake leading man, has-been celebrities, and obscure societal cultures mixed with a white bread American sensibility lead to a comfort zone in which favorite theatrical gambits like verbal cues in advance of stage action, writing that seems to occasionally surprise the actors, and malfunctioning technical effects create a frisson of ludicrousness.
With a cast of mostly artists performing the roles, there were stretches of surprisingly good acting punctuated by occasional bad delivery and uninflected lines, scripts in hand. The play begins as the new fans created by the release of the DVD of an old TV series “Geyser!” set in the small town come for a meeting of the dweebie worldwide fan club.
Wayne Smith himself played the butler with extremely funny white hair (I won’t tell you if he did it,) producing a character so nuanced one is amazed that Smith considers himself a visual and sound artist first and foremost.
And then there were clowns... who called in the clowns? Simultaneously valorizing and taking the piss out of artists and/or the counterculture, the playwrights created a radical clown collective living on the outskirts of town that stole the show. As a comedian, Cliff Hengst (Bobo) is congenitally incapable of anything less than commanding the action and eliciting unrestrained laughter from an audience. Pushing the envelope on the clown code of ethics, the clowns provide a safety valve for the existence of those in Geyser who don’t quite fit into the standard social scene, while maintaining a close connection with those in power.
Anne McGuire, Rex Ray, Cliff Hengst, Colter Jacobsen
Every cast member sensitively performed a role with funny lines well tailored for them: Karla Milosevich as Kitty Potter, host of “Kitty Corner”, Rex Ray as Rick Penny, host of “Rick Penny Among the Many”, Wayne Smith as Crimmins, the butler of a great star, Kevin Killian as Marjorie Cantrell, first lady of the American theater, Gerald Corbin as Maurice Anton, Celebrity Stylist, Craig Goodman as Jared Oriole of Sherman Oaks, Tanya Hollis as Anouk, Jared’s fiancée from Brittany, Mac McGinnes, as Wilford Hall, town clerk, Jocelyn Saidenberg as Klanglar Gunnarsdottir, from Iceland, Laurie Reid as Mayor Constance Strode, Colter Jacobsen as Charlie Strode, the mayor’s son, now a clown known as “Buttons”, Glen Helfand as Michael Carson, a local fan and owner of a bed ‘n’ breakfast place, David Brazil as Lindsay Wagner, a dangerously deluded fan, Margaret Tedesco as Donna Mangiafranni, a fan from Florida, Stephen Boyer as Teddy French, life partner of Michael Carson, Suzanne Stein as Molly Martin, a Twin Cities fan, Taylor Brady as Gypsy Kincaide, a truck driving fan, Cliff Hengst as Bobo the clown leader, Anne McGuire, as the clown Buttercup, and Scott Hewicker as Dennis Quaid.
– cm [8:48 PM PST]
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Big fun this evening at SFMOMA as thirty finalists in Tony Labat's I Want You Live Art competition each took stage to deliver their one-minute performance/monologue "I Want You" demand. Look for the five winners, selected tonight by audience ballot, in posters around the city as the presidential election nears and in Labat's new video project I Want You at SFMOMA this November.
IMAGE: I Want You winners Kali Eichen, Hazel White, Nicole Mills-Nova, Sadie Lune, and Tara Jepsen+Beth Lisick
– dhl, San Francisco [11:35 PM PST]