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Through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me leave to do my utmost.
– Isak Dineson

On Wednesday night, Marna Chester was one of 200 artists and arts organizations to receive a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council. The funds will be used to build upon her Eat Better Now! project (as featured in my film, Fly on the Wall) and to extend outreach at the community level.

It was a fun evening at the historic Brooklyn Borough Hall. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz warmed up the crowd; award recipient La Troupe Makandal brought the music, while the LAVA dancers provided an acrobatic grand finale.

The best part was seeing the diverse projects awarded over $345,000 in grants, and meeting the passionate people behind them. To read more about the BAC 2010 grant recipients, click on the link below.

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Trigger: BAC 2010 Community Arts Regrant Program

October 8, 2009–October 18, 2009

Continuing its Filmmaker in Focus series, MoMA’s Department of Film presents the first-ever retrospective of Spike Jonze (b. 1969, Rockville, Maryland), celebrating his work as a director, producer, cinematographer, writer, actor, choreographer, and sometime stuntman.

Jonze’s reputation as one of the most imaginative, intelligent, and daring filmmakers working today was established early on with his legendary skateboard videos, music videos, and commercials, and has since been cemented by three features: Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Where the Wild Things Are (2009).

On October 8, Jonze, who came up with the exhibition’s wry title himself, participates in an opening-night discussion with Maurice Sendak and exhibition curator Joshua Siegel.
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The Spike Jonze that sticks out in my mind is the Pharcyde’s Drop (1995). The video was shot entirely in reverse- the rappers even learned how to say their lyrics backwards- and then played in reverse to appear to move forward. Such a simple effect that, 15 years later, still looks pretty sick.

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Trigger: Spike Jonze: The First 80 Years @ the MoMA

Golden Gate Park. Maybe the de Young Museum houses the finest modern art, and the revamped Academy of Sciences was made possible by contributions from the greatest scientific minds, but the true gentleman of San Francisco spends his time on the concourse in between. He makes wire sculptures of bathing Chinese women. And if you stop to take a picture of his work he will, quietly, take a picture of you taking a picture of his work.

 

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Trigger: Golden Gate Park

Back in the summer of 2005, Yasutaka Kageyama and Kenji Moriuchi designed and published 1,000 copies of Letter zine. The single issue is dear to me as editor and contributor– and because the entire project came together in our small apartment on Maujer Street.

Letter introduced the work of 16 artists and writers. One was Reona Ueda, a fine artist who recently returned to Japan after seven years studying and working in New York.

Reona is currently profiled on HITSPAPER, a Tokyo-based think tank about creative fields. The write-up includes an interview and an abbreviated flip through his multidimensional portfolio.

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Trigger: HITSPAPER and Reona’s website

New work by Juan Olalde combines metal art with loteria cards to celebrate Dia de los Muertos.

Graffiti in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Venezuelan artist El Hase imagines what would happen if religious icons went punk. His “La Santa Lucha” exhibition opens this Sunday in Brooklyn.

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Trigger: Alphabeta NYC

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Trigger: The SPACE

DROME magazine is pleased to announce the launch of

sideways
a smart art project

New York, March 19th 2008
9.00 p.m. - midnight

7 World Trade Center, 52nd floor, 250 Greenwich Street

smart chose DROME magazine as the only Italian magazine together with 10 other excellent cross-culture magazines from all over the world, to select the gifted artists of different ages, backgrounds and levels of fame of the sideways project, the sought-after art anthology book produced by Die Gestalten Verlag in conjunction with smart.

The recent ecology-inspired works recommended by DROME are by: Karin Andersen, Zaelia Bishop, Silvia Camporesi, casaluce-gegier, Rubens Lp, Native & ZenTwo, Christian Rainer, Sten and Fernanda Veron.

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Trigger: smart green marketing and Drome magazine

This is a story for those struggling to believe in the possibility of their dreams.

Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová fist introduced their music to the world as buskers, playing on the streets of Dublin for anyone who would listen. They made a film about their experience, and last night their song won an Academy Award.

Markéta Irglová’s acceptance speech:

“I just want to thank you so much. This is such a big deal, not only for us, but for all other independent musicians and artists that spend most of their time struggling, and this, the fact that we’re standing here tonight, the fact that we’re able to hold this, it’s just to prove no matter how far out your dreams are, it’s possible. And, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream and don’t give up. And this song was written from a perspective of hope, and hope at the end of the day connects us all, no matter how different we are. And so thank you so much, who helped us along the way. Thank you.”

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Trigger: “Falling Slowly” as featured in the film Once

Richard Prince’s “Spiritual America”: worst exhibition ever?

Maybe I just don’t get his work, but by the time I hit the second floor I found myself talking back to the free audio guide like a cranky old woman. It described Prince as a master of “re-photography”, or taking a photo of an already published photo, manipulating the dimensions, color, or context, and then calling it your own.

An example of this is the “Girlfriends” series where Prince used photographs from biker magazines of women draped over motorcyles. These were originally amateur snapshots submitted by readers who were looking for some babe and bike recognition. Prince re-photographed and enlarged a select few, and the resulting photos are credited to him.

I believe this technique has another name. It’s called plagiarism, and most who try it end up in court fighting a lawsuit, not honored with an exhibition at the Guggenheim.

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Trigger: Richard Prince: Spiritual America
Quote: “Prince’s technique involves appropriation; he pilfers freely from the vast image bank of popular culture to create works that simultaneously embrace and critique a quintessentially American sensibility [….]”

La Frileuse by Jean-Antoine Houdon, 1787

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A woman susceptible to the cold
Feels warmth in a way that others do not.
Her skin is thin
So her blood must run fast.
Her heartbeats are solid.

When the sun defies the winter
The sensation trickles through every part of her body.
A fever embraces her.
She devours it, dances in its arms, begs it never to leave her, and grieves when it must.

She is friends with her enemies,
Things that can both nourish or kill without warning.
Knowing this, she moves forward unafraid
That she will never be relieved from her pain.

A cowering, shivering woman looks beaten,
But she will survive until the bitter end.

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Trigger: Greek & Roman galleries and other works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Site: Flickr