gustav reyes

More here.

inside out project

JR's work is an example of how art can be activism. He describes himself in the street, pasting away, when someone walks up and asks, "What are you doing?" "Art," he says. Silence.

His works are beautiful, compelling, and specifically linked to local culture. When he leaves, the only way to find out about the project is by talking to the residents who were involved. He used the project featured above, to create a bridge between the people of Provencia and the media who had silenced them.

His newest project aims to involve everyone in the movement of using art to change the world, by offering an interested party to submit a portrait and an idea. If they are selected, he will send back a poster size version of the portrait for pasting in the proposed location.

how to smile

I told you to smile when you are feeling down.
However, there are steps you should know.

First you go to the mirror and smile to the mirror in anyway you can.
You probably will not feel any different.
Smile a few times that way.

If that is not enough, smile a few times every morning when you see the mirror.
That won't do much, either, right?
Because there is a way to smile and change not only your mood, but make your body healthy and young, and change your life for the better!

1) Smile just by twisting the ends of your mouth up.
That doesn't get you anywhere, I bet.
But that's a start.

2) Smile with your eyes and mouth.
That's better.
Your smile will make somebody feel good, maybe.

Add a little giggle, and they will either think you're crazy or like you for it.

3) If you really want to smile so it will make yourself feel good as well -
you have to smile from your heart and your lungs.

Don't worry, if you are ending the smile with a quiet sound like ummm.

4) The next step will make you feel still better.
Smile from your solar plexus.
This has an added benefit of making your solar plexus healthier, and active.

5) The next step is to smile right down from your stomach.
When you do this, make sure to breathe deeply and pull your stomach muscles in as you smile.

6) The next step - yes, there are more steps! - you should smile from your knees.
Again, ju st pull your knees in - as you pull your stomach in.
At the same time you use your lungs, heart and solar plexus.

You'll see that by then, you are smililng with your whole body.
You won't forget to smile with your eyes and mouth at the same time.
It will happen anyway.

That's how you will get the true benefit of smiling.
How about giving a smile to others?
Should we forget that?

Don't worry.
They'll notice your smile.
Only, this time, you'll feel good, too.
Very, very good!

I love you! yoko

Yoko Ono
24 July 2009
via smiling face film

fame

do this!

be more creative

this guy is cooler than me.

matt stuart

Matt Stuart is London-based a street photographer who goes through a couple of rolls of film at day. At that rate you're bound to come up with a couple of good photos, but never mind. He is quite good at capturing funny little moments and clever juxtapositions in ordinary situations. 

I enjoyed almost every single one of the photographs on his website. I highly recommend taking a look.

cute

Babies are living, and this was inspired by Chagall's La promenade. Justified. This woman is a clever ad lady, and for the record this one is my favorite.

the bubble

Maybe you've heard of this ambitious proposed-project at the hmsg? It involves the installation of an enormous structure that will rest in the center of the donut-shaped Bundshaft building, bulging out at the top and bottom. The bubble is soft and presents a unique challenge to the project as both designers and curators look for an adequate material in which to execute a stable, tension-based structure for two months out of the year.

In May and October the large structure would be inflated in order to play host to community events, meetings, art installations, debates, films, and anything else that you can think of. Some critics are weary of 'another dome on the mall,' but the balloon shape at the top of the building is executed to mirror Brancusi's Sleeping Muse - one of the collection highlights at the hmsg.

The project is still very much in the planning stage, yet the Director of the hmsg is pretty determined to make this a reality and he seems to get things done. I can say that I hear about it in the office quite a bit - they have people working on raising the funds, marketing, research. Personally, I think that this would be an excellent opportunity for the hmsg to assert its presence on the Mall and that its sheer physical presence would attract some much-deserved attention to the museum.

The structure is designed by Diller Scofidio & Renfro from New York.

rediscovered

Alma Thomas 1973 Red Rose Cantata

Thomas  was little-known until her work was suggested (by my boss!) to decorate the interior of the Obamas' living quarters in the White House. Now she's all the rage. This painting hangs in the NGA and another is situated prominently in the Philips. Oh, art market, how fickle you are.

Her work reminds me of Yayoi Kusama, of repetition, of a scarf that K owns... Her rectangles look like torn, delicate fragments, and I love how things begin to come apart when they are repeated over and over.

digesting the art

Tony Cragg 1991 Subcommittee

Subcommittee is a large outdoor sculpture in the area immediately surrounding the HMSG. When I first approached it I was reminded of wooden doll heads, but actually it is an enlarged rubber stamp set. The title conjures ideas of bureaucracy, hierarchy, and slow moving mechanisms: appropriate for the National Mall? It also reminds me of gossiping heads, huddled in a mass. I feel like the stamps have been forgotten in the bustle, as if to comment on the irrelevance of old systems, or the inevitability of younger generations replacing older ones.

Also, I eat my lunch here. 

I like to watch people interact with the sculpture, especially because this one in particular is not so abstract and people generally relate to it or at least finding it aesthetically pleasing. Today a precocious preteen approached me in the middle of my potato salad and asked me to take a picture of her and her friends as they 'like, just did some crazy pose or something.'

I am for an art...

I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.
I am for an art that grows up not knowing it is art at all, an art given the chance of having a staring point of zero.

Claes Oldenburg, 1961

look

Every single time we have looked at images together, my boss (senior curator at the hmsg) firmly reminds me to look at the art. Look for patterns. Look for visual comparisons. Make connections that cannot necessarily be made with words. One of my favorite things about the study of art is the ability to understand expression without language.

 

Shkolnik 1910s The Provinces

These images come from an exhibition of modern Russian art - they are images that were not available internationally under Stalin because they were considered too radical and they are often still mysterious and difficult to obtain. The catalog is organized so that viewers may visually understand the origins of Russian modernism and the connections between Russian folklife and Russia art.

hint: if you don't see it, look at the hats.

quote of the day

On Helter Skelter: LA art in the 90s:

It was worth it. It was one hell of a night. We had some very interesting people show up. We had some weird people show up. We even had a woman jumping out of a trash can every so often completely naked.

                    Richard Koshalek, HMSG Director

elephants

From 3 May to 4 July two-hundred painted elephants, roughly 140 pounds each, will storm the city. Eventually they will be corralled into Sotheby's for an auction to raise money for an endangered species of Asian elephant. Most sources are claiming that this will be London's biggest public art event on record. I love public art, but when the end of the line is an auction I have a hard time accepting it as art for art's sake. I do expect that these guys are going to brighten up the city, and of course they are a whimsical installation - but that doesn't change the fact that their priority, besides raising awareness, is making money. I like to at least believe that artists create objects for reasons other than economics...

london eye

Despite its general success nationally and as a tourist destination, when I first saw the London Eye I was admittedly a little disappointed. It was gray out and I felt that its profile was an awkward, spindly intrusion on the generally low skyline of the city. I have since revisited it, and I find that the more I am here, the more I like it. It pops out at you every so often as you are walking near the Thames like a hidden toy waiting to be discovered. Its especially beautiful at night.



I associate London with childhood stories like Marry Poppins and Peter Pan, and the Eye brings that whimsical sense of being to a most serious part of town. Can you imagine having a ferris wheel across from the White House?



It also makes for an excellent photo opportunity, in every sense of the phrase.

anni albers

Anni Albers, wife of Josef Albers, was a student of the Bauhaus in the weaving workshop. She studied ancient weaving techniques and is responsible for some of the most beautiful textiles of the twentieth century. By combining modern technology and materials with traditional weaving she helped to create a place for weaving in the fine arts. Like many of the bauhauslers she was interested in applying mass production to everyday objects in an effort to create affordable products for the masses.

In addition to her textiles she also created jewelry with mass-producible items. She used items like hair pins and washers to create an industrial look that is both affordable and accessible to everyone. Using objects like washers demonstrates the plasticity of objects so common at the Bauhaus - students constantly explored the essence of objects outside of their functional purpose.

Since washers have holes, why not string them on a ribbon to make a pretty necklace?

bauhaus

When I tell family members I am taking a class on the Bauhaus and I get the inevitable, 'huh?' I curse myself for taking a class on something so random and then quickly explain to them that it was a German school of design in the interwar period.


That is a gross oversimplification. The Bauhaus was officially an architectural school, but it influenced modern art and design so greatly that it is not easily classified.

After World War I, Germany was searching for an identity in the facing of rising economic crisis and political upheaval. Europe was grappling with many of the same issues, and people felt that industrialization and new technology were partly to blame for the devastation of WWI. A movement had begun before the war emphasizing the return of the handicraft to return the integrity of the object.

In this climate, and with many other international influences, Walter Gropius started the Bauhaus in Weimer.

This woodcut was designed by Lyonel Feininger and exemplified the unity of art and the handicraft.

The curriculum included an introductory course where students were encouraged to learn about the essence of material. After this course they would begin in a workshop which was conducted by a master of form and a master of art. The idea was that until there were people trained in both art and craft, there would need to be teachers for both.

Over time, the Bauhaus, a state-sponsored school, faced political pressure from the growing German right and shifted its focus to technology in order to bring in some revenue. The objects created were from everyday materials.



A new logo was adapted to represent the unity of art and technology.


The Wassily chair created by Marcel Breuer became an iconic figure from the Bauhaus. It was originally created from bent metal from a bicycle with the help of a plumber.


The idea was that it would be an affordable, ergonomic chair for the masses. Now, not so much. But we are surrounded by bent metal furniture, just look around.

I don't know if anything like it could ever exist again without becoming commercial, but the idealist in me has hope. The teachers changed the way that art is taught so that students were engaged with the materials rather than forced into a hierarchy - something that we now take for granted.

Even this long rant is an oversimplification. If you want to find out more check out the MoMA exhibit. I had a chance to visit earlier in the semester, and it is a very well designed exhibition. Herbert Bayer would be proud.

Finally, keep your eyes open for a Christmas Bauhaus dyi object. I've just got to get through this thing called finals.

sad art

Although the art world has been hit by the economy, it is certainly not as serious as some other markets. There are constantly people arguing that everything in the art world is fine. Maybe true, but the tone of the art has definitely gotten lower.

I would like to call your attention first to Carsten Holler's 2006 installment in the Unilever series. He turned the Turbine Hall into a playful, visually challenging space. Everyone can relate to a slide - it brings up associations with joy and childhood, nostalgia. And these slides are large enough that even as an adult, who could resist the temptation?


Now in comparison I would like to consider the most recent addition to the Unilever series - Miroslaw Balka's 'box of darkness.' It is a massive, interactive steel box that could be considered sculpture or architecture. Visitors can either enter the box and experience total darkness, or they can walk under it and listen the experiences of those above.


It must be a struggle as an artist commissioned to deal with this enormous space, to fill it up or change it. I think it is so interesting that in the past couple of years the art has gotten so much heavier. This piece is related to Polish history and immigration, but it is also a mode of self-reflection. To explore total darkness, visual silence, is to experience heightened input from the other senses in a way that you cannot do out in a city. The emptiness and cold of the steel reflect a different period for art and sculpture where excess and frivolity are replaced by inward contemplation.

better than treasure

I came across a Shepard Fairey in Harvard Square, and was immediately compelled to point, shout, examine, and photograph. A photo by Amelia:


Some interesting observations:

• a scribble exclaiming 'f u fairy' -was the misspelling purposely meant as an insult?
• the work was made of two general areas which looked as though they had been ripped and overlapped - combined with the actual rips and tears it created a wonderful effect
• someone had written 'sell out' on the forehead of the woman in this print
• someone else had crossed it out

I was shocked that so many people walked by without even a passing glance - perhaps because I was beside myself with excitement. How often is it that I can actually touch the works that I study? I love public art.

In my opinion, all art should be this close to people - for them to interact with and observe. Does anyone out there think that Fairey is a sellout? How does being a household name change his message?

cell tango

An exhibit called Cell Tango is currently on view at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley. From artists George Legrady and Angus Forbes, it is a computer program running in real time that takes photos submitted by email (to submit send the photo as an attachment with related tags in the title of the email to pix@celltango.org) from anywhere in the world and pairs them with other photos from the internet with similar tags. They appear in webs and clusters based on the key words.


George Legrady spoke about the project at the opening earlier in the semester. He talked about how he believed it was art because he had created the program that was executing his idea. He also brought up the point that the project is open to the whole world, but generally only people who are involved in the community in some way are interested in submitting their photos. Along those lines, there is no editing or censorship involved - pictures go up within about 2 minutes - and so far 'they've been lucky.'

As I sat there I saw many different clusters of photos rotate through the screen, but I found myself thinking how much more interesting the work would be if there were more photos. Then again it is such a small community that I was directly engaged with many of the images that appeared.

Although technically they are supposed to be photos taken from a cell phone, I decided to submit a couple of my own from last year:

tags: friends, party, high school throwback

tags: holidays, trees, friendship

The implications of this work are very important as our society leans more toward technology. At what point to we draw the line between technology and art? Is designing a computer program enough?

It is also a social experiment - after the opening talk I spoke with one of my professors about how we both had the urge to whip out cameras right there and take a picture of the artist talking about the work to submit to the project. It supports the idea of common associations and the shared human experience. And I love that it is always in flux.