NO!

So , some things have changed!

I started work as the park ranger for the city of Richland, so there should be all sorts of odd pictures from here on out. & I FINISHED THE READINGS!

This was facilitated by a house-sitting.  Otherwise I know regular life would have interfered.  I don't know how the rest of y'all do it. 

Anyway, here's the concensus', very short-

THE BIG ONE (Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief 'Primitivism in 20th Century Art and the Museum of Modern Art' an argument between Thomas McEvilley, William Rubin, and Kirk Varnedos)

First off-  WHO THE HELL CARES!? 70 pages of people going back and forth on a Museum of Modern Art show from 1984 has about as much relevancy to me as the rocket that didn't go to the space station today. 2 antiquated views beating each other out on who can appear more tolerant of collected "tribal"stuff and interpret a bunch of about 100 year old modernist stuff made by mostly by frenchy white types.... Claptrap! Don't care!  Modernism is nice and all, but unless I'm looking at it... It doesn't matter to me as a "concept."

Histories of the Tribal & Modern  James Clifford.

I feel like eventually we need a coherent person talking about where tribal works come from, so here's Sir David Attenborough being his sweet civilized self. 

Anyway, the reading in question... Well, for one thing, read it before THE BIG ONE, because the 2 relate. And remember, just as Jazz was "cool" in the US, it was even cooler in Paris.  One thing that both these readings forget is that Artists can't always explain why they know something is hip.  Hip is hip because hip Is.  Africa as an idea, (as opposed to being a continent that Europe had been in contact with since Mesopotamia, and was made up of innumerable tribes as well as the oldest civilizations we have yet to find out about), was just plain cool. 

Josephine Baker wasn't African, and bananas are from South East Asia, but don't tell 1920's Parisians that. Couldn't we just have a class on Josephine Baker?  She's so much more fun to talk about than, well, just about any one.  The last time I took this class (same subject matter in undergrad, but with many more "first source" materials-less claptrap) she and the hottentot venus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Baartman) were virtually all we talked about.  Ok, and Heart Of Darkness, which I'm so glad we don't have to reread....

Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: An Introduction-Laura Chrisman and Patrick Williams.

Though I understand that Britain needs its hand slapped in the 19th and 20th century for being an evil imperial humdinger, I think it's odd to act as if it was the one and only country to take over a bunch of other countries and try to impose its will. I mean, this had happened to Britain itself a couple times- like, notably, the Romans and the Normans, who both, undoubtably, shaped what Britain is. No one talks about Britain as if it's post-Norman.  It's just plain Great Britain.  I find it annoying that the only way we ever get to talk about India is as if the most tragic, and therefore only important, thing that ever happened to it was Britain. (Do you have a flag? this one is short)

However, there is one really great (out of context quote) by Walter Benjamin "the always-new in the context of the ever-same"if that doesn't explain our present quagmire, I don't know what does. 

15- What is Post (-)colonialism? Vijay Mishra and Bob Hodge.

This is a book review of a book I will never read called "The Empire Writes Back."  (I honestly thought this was a joke for the first 2/3s of the paper) Some of us think that Colonialism was just a short, unfortunate thing that happened to vibrant cultures, and luckily didn't even come close to quashing them. But, personally, I believe culture works more often in generations than in epochs, and that as important as colonialism may have seemed in the 80's, really it's the culture that I'd prefer to study, and that is still relevant.  But don't worry, this paper doesn't really address either.  

New Encounters with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon: Gender, Race and the Origins of Cubism- Anna C Chave.

If I ever liked this painting, I hate it now. I like how people post-penicillin think that is was easy to identify syphilis from herpes from a goiter from... News Flash- people used to be covered in lumps and bumps, and some of them were prostitutes, and some of them were artists.  And I don't think Picasso knew a wart from a war mask, and I don't care. 

I recently got to see a retrospective on the old guy, and I have to say, the more I see the more I realize he was just incredibly productive.  What I don't understand is why we would rather talk about this ugly painting that was obviously done quickly and passing passionately, as opposed to Guernica.  My impression of Guernica (which I've only seen the work-ups for) is that this was the intellectual, exciting Picasso.  You want to see what the man "thought " about, as opposed to what he knocked out while possibly drunk and sexually frustrated, it seems like that's Guernica in spades.  I think images of revolting prostitutes were what Picasso fell back on when he was miserable, much in the way some of my illustration friends will fall back on drawing comicbook-style explosions and gushing severed heads when they get dumped for the 6th time by the same girlfriend. 

ok, next stop the tap house with wifi . to be continued...

How We Disassemble, Part 1

I started thinking about how the hell I'm going to ever get my dream residency, and finally have submitted to the force of documentary videos.   Shot with my Go Pro because my Canon was fritzing.  However, these lovely stills were shot by my mentor (Lesli Larson, archivalclothing. com, who sat in the shed and hung out with me for quite a while (2 hours? 3?)).

I set this up originally as a drinking type game (tie a knot, sling back some tasty White Bluffs IPA from the gallon jug), inside the shed that I was set to move on Saturday.  I am taking apart some patio chairs that had begun to break down a couple of years ago.  Originally the chairs belonged to my grandparents, so they reek of cigarette smoke.  In the first part of this series (over 8 hours of footage, I believe), I remove the woven areas that were already breaking, tying the bits together, and then winding them into a ball while sitting on the foot hassock (still intact) from the set.  Next will be the slicing and removing of the rest of the jute, and I have no idea where I will shoot that (since I would like it to stay this sort of spare color environment, so different from the rest of my works...).  After that it will be the removal of the little shiny nails and the hinge hardware.  And last will be the breaking apart of the frames. 

I have no idea what to do with any of this- it's just something to do, really.  I want the ball of jute as one of the many in a collection of "useless things made into balls" that I've been creating for years. But the nails, hinges, and wood?  no clue.

I've been thinking of these videos as being a series on Sisyphusian tasks, all resulting in different balls, or something.  Really, I haven't been analyzing the whole thing as much as I could.  Just making making making...

(or unmaking...)

Winging, winching

Hah!  I'm using the new version of blogspot, and it now loads the photos in the order you do!  Fancy! So, yeah, these are loaded in reverse...

Anyway, this is what I, and 3 of my neighbors, did on Saturday.  Pretty amazing, right?  Ok, not really, considering people move whole houses and things all the time, but to me it was really a revelation in engineering.  Now I want to build things and winch them onto the backs of trucks and TAKE OFF.

So, this shed had housed my supplies and such for the last 7 years, and my mother decided it was to be no more on our property. I had it stuffed TO THE GILLS, and so I'm still very impressed that I could even empty it let alone move it.  It became a set for the first in a series of films (featured next blog) that it going to be called "How we disassemble." 

I'm getting very excited about sets in general. I have no idea why- they just make more work, really... Oh, maybe that's why...

Eye on London

So, I spend a lot of time trying to articulate why I'm uncomfortable with the aspects of my work that put me, personally into some sort of spotlight. It's hard to understand (for me especially) why I'm developing a body of work that so heavily uses documentation and my own body, when I want to be as physically removed as possible...

Anyway, this weekend there was a wonderful article by A.A.Gill in the NY times titled "My London, and Welcome to it." And the 2nd to last paragraph struck a particular chord, especially when describing a city that has one truly magnificent Ferris Wheel called the "Eye"-

 "Now the Olympics has come and dragged us into the bright light, and a lot of attention is being given to London, and we're not used to it. We're not good at showing off. We're not a good time to be had by all, we're not an easy date. London isn't a party animal by nature, it doesn't join in or have a favorite karaoke song. It does, though, have a wicked, dry and often cruel sense of humor. It is clever, literate, and dramatic. It is private and taciturn, a bit of a bore, and surprisingly sentimental. And it doesn't make friends quickly, is awkward around visitors. We will be pleased when all the fuss and nosiness has gone away."

you do the math...

Another day, another measure! And We got continual film (this is a snippet of my mom (who you can see in my glasses at the beginning) using the measuring stick). Soon I will make a final edit... Also, here's the math for the measure- ((42 passes x 370 feet between goal posts) + 117 extra feet) .3048 meters in a foot... FINALLY!

locked in my deep sea diving suit...

So, I'm looking for scuba gear. Actually, any SCUBA gear will do, should anyone have a line on it. Specifically if it could go with this suit (NO BLACK)... I'm going for a found object collection on this one. This was one of my grandfather's 1950's suits. Unfortunately the jacket was eaten by left handed moths. Anyway- the call is out!

Another week, Another attempt

Ok, so I'm a sucker for cat pictures.

So, on Orthodox Easter I made another attempt at documenting and measuring the ball. And, once again, had malfunction issues. This is getting a little tedious. But, hey, at least the cat wanted to help! My mom and I are now fairly assured we know how to get the whole process to work, and on Sunday will attempt again, equipped with extra cards and card readers and sunscreen and and and...