Jake and Dinos Chapman
8.29.2009
8.28.2009
8.27.2009
8.26.2009
8.23.2009
"Homage to New York"
The piano began playing. Jean had reversed the belt for his big meta-matic painting machine which was the centre piece. The painting on the long roll of paper was supposed to spill out over the audience. I could very easily have reversed the belt, but he took my arm away and said "Don't touch, Billy." He had decided that whatever happened should happen. Some time later the weather balloon was supposed to blow up and explode but there was not enough gas in the gas tank we had bought, so it ended up hanging limply. The piano on the right side had a candle on the keyboard which in the third minute was lighted by an overheating resistor. Three minutes later a bucket of gasoline above the candle was tipped over and the piano began to burn gloriously while it was furiously playing away.A small bassinet had been filled with ammonia. When I closed the switch to start the machine, Robert Breer's task was to pour titanium tetrachloride into it. The combination of ammonia and titanium tetrachloride produces, as you all know, white... in this case white smoke, which poured out of the bassinet, until it finally engulfed the specially invited, elegantly dressed audience. It was all over in 27 minutes. The audience applauded and descended on the wreckage for souvenirs. Jean called the event "Homage to New York." Image: Tinguely, Jean (1960). Homage to New York. New York, USA: ArtMuseum.net []
Carnivals at night
Per Jacques Tati post: A response to the notion of conspicuous display. 
The installation, in its most basic form, might be construed as least formal or least conspicuous. 
The installation is lit by OBJECTS or FACETS.
Light is (of) the work, AND (for) the work.8.22.2009
"Les lignes géométriques ne rendent pas les gens aimables"
Mon Oncle is a movie by Jacques Tati that centers on Monsieur Hulot, the uncle of Gerard Arpel. Gerard is the son of materialistic parents who live in a geometric house where they are entrenched in a machine-like existance of work, fixed gender roles, and the acquisition of status through possessions and conspicuous display. Each element of Villa Arpel is representational rather than functional, an environment completely hostile to the comfort of its occupants. In choosing modern architecture to punctuate his satire, Tati once stated, "Les lignes géométriques ne rendent pas les gens aimables" ("modern architecture does not produce amiable inhabitants").[1]
references:
1 ^ Les Années Sauvages: Mon Oncle, ARTE Magazine, 20.45 Cinéma, 30 Decembre 2002, p. 2
American Graffiti
The George Lucas film, "American Graffiti" is poignant in several ways. Released August 11 1972, the film takes place in 1962, just before the Kennedy assassination and just before political crises polarized the country and the world. In developing the script, Lucas took his collection of 45's and wrote each scene according to the backdrop of a single. 75 songs made up the soundtrack which became the first film that contained such an extensive soundtrack of original rock'n roll recordings. Lucas also produced the film in Techniscope which was considered old technology at the time, but added the feeling of an "urban documentary style." Techniscope lended the benefits of 16mm and widescreen that Lucas felt set the boundaries between feature length and documentary films. Lucas used two camera operators and no cinematographers, instead relying on the consultation of his friend Haskell Wexler. Wexler used 1,000 - 2,000 watt bulbs in scene lighting and 12-volt bulbs inside cars to light the faces of characters. The resultant color, sound and lighting for this film is brilliant. And to think it was done with "old" technology shows the value of ingenuity over innovation.
8.21.2009
Unica Zurn
“All her life obsessed with faces, she draws faces. After an initial moment when the pen “swims” hesitantly on the white paper, she discovers the place assigned to the first eye. It is only when she is being watched from the depths of the paper that she begins to get her bearings and, effortlessly, one motif is added to another.” Unica Zürn, The Man of Jasmine (1967)
8.19.2009
Don't sleep with your shoes on.
Not sure Darger needs introduction. Henry Darger embodies the masochism that often couples with brilliance and the genius of desolation. For all of the brilliance that fills our museums, what has been missed or was never seen?DRUGGIST3.jpg
An initial internet search for druggist produced this image labeled druggist3.jpgI am reminded of a Current TV short film created by a young Black British woman who illustrates the major expense black women pay for hair care.
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