Art blogging has gotten a lot of attention recently. Last week Kriston Capps and Ed Winkleman suggested interest in an on-blog survey of responses to questions posed in a recent discussion, published in Art in America. So here’s my go at it. Anyone else, please chime in with your perspectives, comments, gripes, etc. What are we doing here, anyway?
how to move on?
“If you come to a fork in the road, take it”, David recently quoting Yogi Berra.
How can I prepare for such a change in direction while avoiding mishaps? Friends of mine, relocating to new jobs, suffered minor strokes and a bout of pancreatitis. This is the advice offered in the current Yoga journal:
“Once you find your center, you can move in new directions”.
Chocolate saints and more – a gallery visit
Cosimo Cavallaro, ‘My Sweet Lord’, Chocolate, 72″ X 72″ X 24″
A while back we had a posting about a Jesus sculpture made of chocolate on this forum and the discussion that ensued was quite lively. Today is All Saints day and to commemorate the occasion Cosimo Cavallaro, (the artist behind the controversial Sweet Jesus) decided to build upon the original theme by adding a phalanx of chocolate Saints around a prone Jesus. I went by to look at the exhibit over at the Proposition yesterday. A delicious smell of chocolate pervaded the air in the gallery and if I were blindfolded, I might have guessed that I was in some kind of a Belgian chocolatier’s atelier. The atmosphere was almost church-like and had it not been for the fact that the chocolate Jesus sculpture was nude, this could pass for a religious tableau. The saints themselves were carved very intricately and were housed in little glass cases (the saints were fully clothed).
This show is very different from the first which consisted of a single sculpture of the nude Jesus. That seemed to incite more controversy than any critical dialogue. The setup in this exhibit is a bit more intriguing – eight saints on pedestals that are connected to each other with white nylon cord encircling a nude Jesus supine on an embroidered silken round table.
The nylon rope stumped me – was it meant to signify that the saints were in some kind of a ‘circle of trust’ or was it meant to keep curious onlookers from approaching too close to the prone Jesus…
Cosimo Cavallaro, ‘Saint Jude’, Chocolate, 6″ X 12″ X 6″, ed. 400
Also, I was not sure why Jesus was lying down as opposed to being shown in the crucified pose? Was the weight of controversy of the first so much that he is forced onto his back…? One does not know the answers to these questions, but the exhibit was surely an interesting one.
Of course, Cavallaro is best known for his quirky work with food as art: Efforts in the past include repainting a Manhattan hotel room in melted mozzarella, spraying five tons of pepper jack cheese on a Wyoming home, and laying about 300 pounds of processed ham on a four-poster bed.
I will be interested to know your take on this…
It’s about time
Sometimes, when you get hammered with something from all sides, it begins to sink in. Last week Susan Galassi (Curator at the Frick and Picasso scholar) discussed, among other things, Picasso’s concern with time, which was a new one for me. A few days later, while chatting with artist Glenn Bodish about his work, he told me that a major theme throughout his career has been time and the way it structures our experience through change and the opening and closing of possibilities (at least that’s how I read it; there was a lot of interesting stuff in there about quantum mechanics and chaos and four dimensions and Eastern philosophy). Then, the next time I had a camera in my hands, I was at a small waterfall seeing nothing of particular note — until I had the thought that a photograph there could be about time.
Uber Effeminatus
Title: Punica Malum
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 78×170 cm
Title: Profanum
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 60×45 cm
Where I Live: perceptions & preconceptions
I’m maundering around Robert Irwin and the concept of perception. It was the Oct 14 NY Times article on Irwin that got me thinking — again — about what and how and why we perceive.
Irwin, in one of his exhibits, made a small but significant change to a San Diego Museum room that overlooked a wide view of the Pacific ocean. His exhibit consisted of cutting three rectangles into the existing windows. The Times quotes Irwin, “At first I didn’t realize the glass was tinted….So not only did my holes let in air and sound, adding another dimension to the experience, but they made everything seen through them appear in greater focus.” The reporter adds that Irwin “opened the window, that age-old pictorial device, letting in a cool rush of reality.”
Alternatively, I think I spend much of my time in reality. So, to reverse Irwin, I’ve been painting “stuff” around my neighborhood base. No sweeping views of vales and rivers, of volcanoes and archaic structures. Instead, I’m trying to perceive, in a painterly fashion, the place I spend most of my time. As usual for me, it consists of much that is “natural,” that is, growing things.
As usual, it’s outside, where I can enjoy the sun (when it shines) and the air and light.
Volkswagen and Horse Chestnut tree, 12 x 16, Pleine aire
Depth versus breadth
When artists decide to pursue different specialties of an art form (like portraiture or landscapes or still life in the case of photography) or try their hands at disparate art forms (like sculpture, music, painting, photography etc), they may sometimes be admired for their versatility but more often be considered dilettantes – dipping their inks in one bottle and using the still-wet pen to delve to other pastures.
Some people believe that artists should aim for clarity, focus and depth in ones work rather than develop a host of talents none sufficiently honed.
What kind of an artist are you? Do you subscribe to the view that one must focus ones actions in a chosen, preferred form while sharpening and contributing to the same? Or – Are you the one who likes to dabble in multiple art forms because you would rather choose the best possible (expressive) mode that develops your idea to the fullest?
Sunil Gangadharan, ‘Untitled’, Charcoal, ink and ballpoint pen on Strathmore paper, 9″ X 12″
