~PAT’S PIGEON CLUB . . ‘WE OUT HERE’ / slightly updated SUN SEPT 7
PATRICK McCARTHY – PAT’S PIGEON CLUB
ROOF SUPPLYS, FAN ZINES, BIRD TALK
AUG 11 – AUG 22, 2014
MUDDGUTS – 41 MONTROSE, BROOKLYN, N.Y.
in the 2014 summer of DEATH – it was nice to see something about . . LIFE.
the cherishing of nature, the keeping alive of traditions & skills. and I don’t mean just the pigeon keeping, it’s also a spin on ancient clay pottery, specifically porcelain.
and coop building, etc. and, of course the literal art of: communication.
check out the show’s title again: club, as in social, fan zines & BIRD TALK.
that’s also why people like Brooklyn so much, gifted SKILLED hands-on production . . mixes with & up-dates age-old tradition, and it’s a very hopeful, very beautiful, very positive vibe.
skills – and social dialog being . . the key words.
just sayin’ in case you didn’t realize that yes, cutting edge art is alive and multi-splendored.not at all academic, nor shallow – nor art market-oriented, well maybe art market HOPEFUL re: sales !! and why not – talent needs to eat, and most markedly of all – most of it does strongly resonate to what and where the global world is at.
see: ARTIST F. SCOTT HESS . . COMMENTS ON CONTEMPORARY ART / WALL STREET JOURNAL this am – via HUFF POST.
he basically says, re the status quo mainstream art world . . “The school system that births the Academic Art of today is the end product of the age old desire of artists to be more than artisans. DA VINCI, POUSSIN, WATTEAU, et al, shared a desire to elevate the mind above the hand, and to move up the social ladder as intellect equated with nobility, manual labor with the masses. The apotheosis of this tendency has come in the last decades as academia has removed skill of any kind as a quality necessary in the creation of art. As art has moved from being an organic function of society and into the hallowed halls of academia, it has shifted from being something that artists did to bring meaning to their communities, into self-reflective gestures aimed at a highly-specialized intellectual elite. In the process art has lost its relevance to the society from which it springs”.
I mean where was this guy when the whole street art scene erupted in the past decade. and even SHEPARD FAIREY went to RISD. (just being the most obvious – I can be.)
DUDE – DO YOUR HOMEWORK, and at the very least – get out of the trenches !!
where have you been ?
or as PATRICK McCARTHY says: “WE OUT HERE” – come and get us !!
and, all the CINDERS crew, incl the CHIPPENDALE free-form ‘warning’ & the MARK CROSS homeless ‘blanket’.
and . . esp the NYC native-born SEAN VEGEZZI & CREW aka 15 WARREN & 170 SUFFOLK.
and even . . WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – the underground grandaddy of them all, with its cutting edge experimental & 24/7 wired social commentary & profoundly correct & prophetic future vision.
in fact, I don’t even know why I’m quoting this guy, at all – except that it does point up 3 things:
1. ultimately, it’s NOT about academic or artisan anymore – if it ever was !!
it’s about the JUICE !! the beauty, the concept and the production . . SKILLS.
it’s NOT about MONDRIAN vs VAN GOGH.
2. but yes, what is drawing people to this statement, so much so that it was repeated in the WALL STREET JOURNAL – is that the mainstream art market is finally being perceived as over-blown and full of weak juice, if not outright artificial ingredients – trying to pass off as the real thing. and it’s beginning to become very obvious. but the wannabes are not just on the pseudo artist side of the coin – that art world ‘elite’ he refers to – are really the biggest losers in this equation – yep, those damn, buy like sheep – wannabe collectors.
3. all great art – is RELEVANT to “the society from which it springs” !! dude – art 101.
and, all great art goes to live on . . as relevant. sensuous, provocative, shamanistic, technical, beautiful, disturbing, etc. etc.
but most SPECIFICALLY, in the 21st C – the underground / alternative scene – is most definitely all about . . RELEVANCE.
inside MUDDGUTS, PATRICK McCARTHY had constructed a low-fi pigeon store and clubhouse.
and . . art exhibit.
Brooklyn-based PAT McCARTHY is 27 years old and grew up in rural Connecticut.
hotties . . !!
as well as his form-follows-function porcelain nesting bowls and hi-rise coop perches, see post below, PAT also exhibited several ceramic ‘tablets’ which acquire their zen-like dull coppery off-beat hue from the 92nd St Y’s gas fired kilns. they related obviously to his drive to acquire and share . . ‘info’.
which also resonates with breeding pigeons – those ‘retro’ carriers of . . messages.
it all spells: communication.
as opposed to destruction and entropy.
just in case you needed the back story.
PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘NEST BOWLIN TABLETS’, monochrome photocopy fired into porcelain. ($1,500)
we out here . . !!
we remaining,
and we . . . outta here / as in taking flight – both bird-wise and artistically.
PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘COOPS OF THE WORLD’, inkjet print, paper, marker. hand-made edition of 3. ($700)
the clean-cut exhibit also included a very interesting & informative wall of global coops.
nothing is as satisfying as the easy-going, yet speaks volumes – visual information of a photo. these were appropriated off the web. which also consciously or not, brings forward what is MOST wonderful about the computer age, the accessibility of huge amounts of information at a finger tap, and the equally easy low-fi technical ability to re-format that info – and distribute it further on to a specialized audience, i.e. the singular singularity of the collective wisdom of the web – and it’s traditionally called: communication.
Pigeon coops in SENEGAL.
so apparently pigeon keeping – is a global, and very much – living tradition.
EGYPT – you can reach back to biblical roots ?
MISSISSIPPI DELTA, so do pigeons sing . . the blues ?
NEW JERSEY.
go Jersey, I guess that’s why they are calling Jersey the next Brooklyn.
PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘MEDICINE CHEST’, mad bird medicine, vaccinations, and treatments for all ails, Coleman stove. ($2,000).
looks like keeping your flock pretty, happy & healthy is a detailed job – just like gardening.
just like . . give me a break – everything !!
there’s beauty and info, and it’s SCARY !! – in all them der bottles, fonts and labels.
PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘EGO FEEDER’, porcelain, bamboo, wire. ($1,500)
but my favorite pieces were still the porcelain, form-follows-function / with definite artist touch – ones.
though putting candy into a pigeon feeding station was a little bit of a turn-off. appetite-wise.
I didn’t think it needed that accessorizing touch.
though the colors and surface texture of the jelly beans were a nice visual contrast to the shiny white glaze. ok, they were a ‘doorway’ in. but if I owned one – I would keep it empty and pristine.
I mean the self-portrait on the roof – said it all, art-wise. plus the bamboo / shiny white clay combo – was super.
though I also feel compelled to say I thought the prices Patrick was asking were a little pricey for an underground type outfit, though then again the experience was . . priceless.
it’s always a hard call.
but definitely talent needs to be supported, and its a hard road to survive on the underground streets.
and those streets are real mean, too. as in slick, ripped off, etc etc.
the roof of the feeding station. very nice.
I liked this black & white photo reproduction & shiny white glaze – a lot. very charming.
nice 3-dimensional twist.
being borderline, but super hi-functioning so shut up !! sensory autistic – I do love love brightly colored cheap plastic trinkets, or what !!
apparently so does Patrick.
and esp small plastic trinkets, that can dangle freely from a brightly colored string. esp plastic trinkets that make sounds. esp plastic trinkets – whose simple form … follows function. esp dialog about . . mass produced plastic trinkets vs artisanal highly-skilled porcelain in the same breath – how fun. how informative / the contrast of surfaces, and the origins of production. the color contrasts.
one-of-a-kind hand-made ceramics vs cheap mass production – fascinating dialog. from such a simple . . gesture.
PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘WHISTLE ART SCULPTURE’, wire, whistle. ($400)
PATRICK McCARTHY, ‘GRIT’, grit minerals – $5 a scoop.
apparently pigeons need grit . . added to their feed.
yep, PAT’S PIGEON CLUB – was a small social experiment, a low-fi & hi-fi array of delight, dialog, and information. and thus: ART.
it was so summer 2014 NYC underground – in a nutshell: skills !! relevancy. life-affirming. communication-based. original voices.
so totally against-the grain of the prevailing art world market place, and . . therefore, full of GRIT.
as in . . self-determination.
existing on the ground with everybody else, what could be more basic than breeding pigeons and hand building clay . . but, flying right over all those stuffy status quo heads / alternative art and the alternative art scene do exist, esp in NYC – of course !!
the city of grit.
so, esp . . to the ones that don’t do their homework.
“WE OUT HERE”. come and get us.
though I do like the other take, too: we outta here – we off the charts, losers !!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, AUG 16, 2014. NYC.