me, and my R.I.P. artist / collector / art dealer hubby . . SIMON CERIGO,
we lived on Rivington and the Bowery . . from 1987 – 1996.
most of the time, about 9 yrs / rent free – thanks to landlord / tenant court.
where we raised our 2 young kids, Kate & Theo . . in a storefront.
it was pretty raw, but big / it had a great backyard garden / & no complaints about the rent, non-existent.
thanks to RICHARD HAMBLETON aka ‘The Shadowman’, from whom we had sublet the place / who took our money, $600 a month for the entire floor / but didn’t pay the landlord, hence the journey . . . into the court system.
Jean-Michel Basquiat lived around the corner – we chatted him up in the local deli / so did Keith Haring who we ran into at the Red Bar all the time, but of course our fav & dearest neighbor – was DAN ASHER !!
195 Chrystie Ave . . . Lower East Side, today.
at one point, me & Simon, we were in the money, and had a good sized studio, on the 2nd floor of this building,
on the left / a chic gentrified storefront, where the Agnes B. ‘Snap Cardigan Photography’ show is currently taking place.
back then it was dark, and very gritty. it was a big hub for cheap drug addict prostitution.
in fact, RICHARD HAMBLETON used to pimp out his red-haired run-down & addicted Canadian girlfriend, Bonnie out there.
you’d see her out there in torn black fishnet stockings, early in the morning, and late at night.
the streets were lined with dirty needles. the ‘park’ in the center of the avenue, where that row of large trees is . .
was a war zone.
enter at your own (very) real . . risk.
our studio was on the 2nd floor, something like that.
the building was so distressed at the time, CHARLIE FINCH / the notorious early 2000s artnet scribe, almost had an asthma attack when he came to visit / though he did buy a watercolor from me.
we lived just down the block, heading south on Chrystie / on Rivington St.
of course, those are still the original 5 story ‘tenement’ buildings,
now . . very very expensive apartments.
that now super chic, cheery bar/bistro on the corner, used to be a super religious Kosher meat packing plant !!
great slabs of raw beef arrived there daily, that’s how grubby the area was.
I think they made . . smoked meat there ?
because it had a huge smokestack, emitting huge dense plumes of spicy steam, that coated the block with pungent greasy fog.
every now and then, a stranger to the area would call the firemen, who would show up with many trucks & ladders to put out the ‘fire’/ that was only . . smoked meat, cooking.
turning right, at the corner of Chrystie & Rivington, heading west to the Bowery a short block away /
on the south side of the street, where a chic up-scale Japanese lifestyle & plant shop, GREEN FINGERS MARKET, now stands . . was our storefront !!
5 Rivington St. the East Storefront.
very early on, when we first moved in / the west storefront was the original . . Spiritual America gallery.
although the current landlords appear to have have painted over the large white hand-painted ‘5’ / that used to proclaim it’s identity above the entrance to the apartments above / the original steel ‘door’ buzzer from the 80s, still remains / caked with dirt, recalling the grit of the old neighborhood / and . . it’s history !!
you can still make out: RICHARD HAMBLETON … APT 1 !!!!!!!
I guess if he had been less of a douchebag, and more like ANDY WARHOL, or even BASQUIAT, there might be a plaque there, now / stating that:
RICHARD HAMBLETON . . once lived here / and set in motion the court case that allowed artists . . . NANCY SMITH & SIMON CERIGO .. to live here, rent free (!!!!!) in the heart of the most happening place on the face-of-the-earth at the time / for almost 10 years, and then were handed over a $90,000 cash settlement to finally vacate the storefront / & get the hell out / when the area had gentrified enough.
NANCY SMITH & SIMON CERIGO, with our young kids, Kate & Theo . . outside our storefront at 5 Rivington St.
ca. 1988
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH / except the family portrait which is c/o SCOTTIE HARRISON
NANCY SMITH, just before I left Montreal for NYC, ca. 1981.
see: an interview with me / NOAH BECKER of WHITEHOT MAGAZINE – published last year, 2019.
SIMON CERIGO – last photo / PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
at the Carroll Dunham show, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Chelsea, NYC / Dec 2012.
see: SIMON CERIGO OBIT / THE OBSERVER
~Ghosts of the Lower East Side / Under the Volcano . . . 2020 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 13th, 2020, 11:51am
‘…PHOTOGRAPHERS … ARTISTS AND THE SNAP CARDIGAN’ / AGNES B. POP-UP
opened SAT FEB 8, 2020
& runs thru . . . MARCH 1, 2020
195 CHRYSTIE ST, L.E.S. / LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC
SOME PIX – FROM THE OPENING:
PHOTO by . . JUERGEN TELLER
in background,
PHOTO by . . BALARAMA HELLER
artist .. SELMA SELMAN in front.
detail,
PHOTO by . . MALIK NEJMI
in the background,
PHOTO by . . PABLO JOMARON
Hand-drawn checkerboard on a white snap cardigan / & PHOTO by . . JIM JOE
DRAWING / & PHOTO by . . JIM JOE
a view into the pop-up /
of course, some 40+ years since the days of the rebel underground / downtown legends . . .
both . . . known & unknown /
the Lower East Side . . is very, very chic.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~’… PHOTOGRAPHERS … ARTISTS AND THE SNAP CARDIGAN’ / AGNES B. / PIX FROM THE OPENING |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 12th, 2020, 11:40am
PETER SUTHERLAND . . has a beautiful, beautiful photo portrait of MAIA / MAIA RUTH LEE,
in a classic Agnes B. ‘Snap’ cardigan, with their young son . . NIMA !!
in the BIG !! PHOTO GROUP SHOW !! at the AGNES B. / pop-up opening today . . . 4 – 8 PM
‘PHOTOGRAPHERS … ARTISTS AND THE SNAP CARDIGAN’
OPENS SAT FEB 8 / 4 – 8 PM
and runs thru . . MARCH 1
AGNES B. / 195 CHRYSTIE ST, L.E.S. / LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC
PHOTO BY . . PETER SUTHERLAND
image via Instagram story @petersutherland
archival fun fact:
me, and SIMON CERIGO . . had a studio at 195 Chrystie back in the late 80s / early 90s,
when we lived just around the corner, in the east storefront of 5 Rivington St.
those were rough & wild days back then / the area was quite distressed & very hardcore.
gritty . . cannot be overstated. but, it was the center of the universe as far as we were concerned.
BASQUIAT, (d. 1988) & KEIH HARING, (d. 1990) . . lived around the corner.
Soho, and the broader L.E.S was the epicenter of the gallery scene.
in fact, speaking about GRITTY . . we sublet our storefront /
from the notorious ‘Shadowman’ . . RICHARD HAMBLETON.
~PETER SUTHERLAND . . ‘SNAP CARDIGAN’ PHOTO GROUP SHOW / AGNES B. / DOWNTOWN / 195 CHRYSTIE ST. / OPENING TODAY / SAT FEB 6 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 8th, 2020, 9:58am
‘CELLOPHANE’ . . . has been extended thru SUN FEB 9, 2020
see: M. DAVID & CO.
ALLIGATOR, ALLIGATOR . . on the wall,
who is the fairest of them . . ALL ?
MORE PHOTOS FROM THE OPENING – JAN 17, 2020
DANIEL GIORDANO, ‘Mon Calamari III’, 2016-2019
detail . . .
yes, that’s an alligator paw.
well, you can’t be squeamish when you come to face-to-face with Daniel Giordano, or . . his work.
it’s not that he challenges you, it’s that he is challenging you !!
animal parts, moldy food, urinal cakes. chain-saw wood carving, found metal, gooey melted plastics.
deep-fried batter, stainless steel. tennis balls. sparklers. dust.
face masks. pipe dreams. clementines. ceramics. resin. things . . both opaque, and shiny. skittery, and dense.
revolting, phosphorescent, and probably, no longer edible.
what’s acceptable, what isn’t / wasn’t, could be / can be.
transcending metaphor and meanings, of which plenty of each abound . .
the poetry, the dance, the grin . . the sheer force to be /
the creative impulse to ‘will’ into being, the crazy wild, even emotional . . imagination that runs through it all,
is like a river, with the heart of a rock.
these pieces don’t sit still, in any sense of the word / even this one,
though it might sit stationary on a block,
it’s base . . is a bowl.
a shiny reflective . . bowl. a big round half-shell of a bowl. a metal bowl cradling what amount to a ‘cultural’ . . explosion.
detail . . .
this is no longer the era of minimalism, or even brute. it’s not just arte povera, or even . . distressed.
and it’s certainly . . not: DIY. it might embrace craft, skills, and a subset of conceptional-ism . . .
but it is always more / and it’s just like breathing, to him.
it reminds me most of . . earth art.
I mean, just that ‘will’ / to PUT . . FORWARD / a ‘stop-in-your-tracks’ sign / held up against the usual suspects,
the usual landscape. the usual landmarks, and the comfort zone . . beacons.
DANIEL, born into full-blooded Italian ancestor / immigrant family genes . . questions the whole status quo of western art history, & comes full circle . . from marble and chiselled realism /
zooms past minimalist & earth art theory, but still holds onto the ‘ego’ creator part, and then re-fired in the newly re-gentrified folk art & craft pathways, comes up:
born in the Hudson Valley, which in itself was birthed & skilled in the manufacturing ‘arts’ of the long gone Industrial era / short-coded here as ‘Vicki’ / the family aunt who most recently ran the business / as a . . post millennial (!!)
who grew up, I’m betting strange and wild, despite his parents’ greatest efforts, when the area re-gentrified big time & exploded with art, and both artists / craftspeople.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say / though it may sound a contradiction . . .
that the ‘heroic’ / ground-breaking abstract, minimal, and even ‘earth art’ of the nearby DIA Foundation had a lot to do with this upstate native son’s powerful . . but loving, cultural – upheaval.
note: the tiny bit of hand-crocheted lace.
Daniel told me, he did it himself . . and, it was “f-cking hard”.
welcome to the crafts world, Daniel !!
bet you won’t find any hand-crochet in the DIA. probably, not even a quilt.
my, how the cultural winds blow, and . . scatter.
which is exactly – how it should be.
it takes layers & layers of thought, and skill . . to explain the drive of our DNA / humanity.
DANIEL GIORDANO, ‘Mon Calamari III’, 2016-2019.
Glazed ceramic, aluminum, alligator, stainless steel bowls, deep-fried batter, tennis balls, gravel, iron ore, sparklers, tennis racket string, dental floss, thread, garment factory dust, epoxy, Tang drink mix, Tiger Balm, medicated itch powder, phosphorescent acrylic, bison.
38-1/2 x 15 x 14-1/2 in.
Collection: Theo Cerigo
(NFS)
note: Calimari translates both as to a squid, a yummy food delicacy*, and squid liquid . . which stains indelibly / and is therefore a verbal pathway to . . ink / and writing instrument.
“The word calamari was borrowed into English from 17th-century Italian, where it functioned as the plural of “calamaro” or “calamaio”. The Italian word, in turn, comes from the Medieval Latin noun calamarium, meaning “ink pot”, or “pen case”, and can be ultimately traced back to to Latin calamus, meaming // “reed pen”.
~Merriam-Webster
*battered & deep-fried (!!)
re: reed / ink pen . . those must be the thin, waver-y, once-were ‘sparklers’ . . that poke out from different points on the piece, but esp at the top.
re: layers, metaphors, and . . symbolism.
/ in a word: human history.
NICHOLAS STEINDORF . . gets it. it’s both serious & . . celebratory !!
btw:
NICHOLAS STEINDORF . . .
will be participating in a panel discussion on interactive art & artist collaborations / titled, ‘Dynamic Collaborations’
with HEIDI HOWARD and LIZ PHILLIPS, NICHOLAS STEINDORF repping his collab with Paris-based VIRTUAL DREAM CENTER (Jean-Baptiste LENGLET),
and . . GABY COLLINS-FERNANDEZ of PRECOG Magazine,
not this Sunday, but next.
mark your calendars . . .
SUNDAY, FEB 16, 2020 / 3 PM . . at THE QUEENS MUSEUM / QUEENS, NEW YORK
HEIDI HOWARD & LIZ PHILLIPS, who have an interactive / collab exhibit, ‘Relative Fields in a Garden’,
at THE QUEENS MUSEUM, will sponsor the panel discussion /
to mark the closing of their show . . Sun Feb 16, 2020 / 3 PM
see: ‘Relative Fields in a Garden’ / The Queens Museum
FAMILY !!!
in a mind-set / full-on / creative sense . . kind of way.
NICHOLAS STEINDORF meets up with DANIEL GIORDANO, at the opening.
behind them: ‘Colobonema’, 2020 by . . JUDY PFAFF
2 new wall works by .. JUDY PFAFF
from a different angle . .
JUDY PFAFF, ‘Colobonema’, 2020.
Melted plastics, acrylic, wire, bed springs, string lights, steel chair base.
28 x 26 x 32 in.
($15,000)
JUDY PFAFF, ‘Moon Jelly’, 2020.
Melted plastics, acrylic, expanded foam, roots, and motorized lighting.
36 x 0 x 30 in.
($15,000)
the show’s curator . . NICOLE CASTYALDO,
who is also Associate Director at the M. David & Co. gallery.
behind her a work by . . LEN BELLINGER.
LEN BELLINGER, ‘chisholm’, 2013-2015.
oil on canvas/wood / 56 x 40 x 5 in.
(7,800)
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~DANIEL GIORDANO & friends / more pix from the opening . . ‘CELLOPHANE’ / M. DAVID & CO. / with shout-out to: NICHOLAS STEINDORF / HEIDI HOWARD & LIZ PHILLIPS / THE QUEENS MUSEUM |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 6th, 2020, 2:23pm
GIVE ME A . . . . . ‘FETISH’ / yes yes yes !!!!!
over a ‘practice’ . . . any day !!!!!
‘CELLOPHANE’ . . a group show over in Bushwick, Brooklyn
at M. DAVID & CO. has been extended thru . . this SUN FEB 9.
HRS: FRI-SUN / 1-6 PM
see: ‘CELLOPHANE’ / M. DAVID & CO.
PHOTOS FROM THE OPENING – JAN 17, 2020
detail . . .
DANIEL GIORDANO, ‘Study For Brother with pet eel and in Vicki’s Stilettos’ / 2016-2019.
detail . . .
DANIEL GIORDANO, ‘Study For Brother . . .’
from phallic . . to chainsaw-carved rough, wooden stilettos,
can a giant foot fetish, be far behind ?
in a word: if you can’t take the heat / stay out . . of the kitchen.
DANIEL . . at center, in ‘autumn forest’ hunter / camo jacket.
DANIEL GIORDANO, ‘Study For Brother with pet eel and in Vicki’s stilettos’, 2016-2019.
Glazed ceramic, steel, wood, Amarelli liquorice, urinal cake, oversize tennis ball, eel, deep-fried batter, wire hanger, plastic wrap, tennis racket, string, Plasticine clay, duct tape, epoxy, Tiger Balm, artificial teeth.
75 x 37 x 29 in.
($8,000)
apart from the passion,
the piece did a wonderful dance between light and frothy, gluey and plastic / and . . strong and metal.
I forgot to ask . . what part the ‘eel’ was ??
my favorite part was how the metal infrastructure, worked as ‘hips’ and legs’ to connect the rough-hewed ‘stilettos’ . . . to the body.
grace . . in simple motion.
one smooth move. sculpture – at it’s most basic . . essence.
DANIEL . . on point.
DANIEL . . on the right.
stilettos that looked like . . clomping, friggin’ – boots.
chainsaw-carved from 2 blocks of wood, his dad had cleared from the family grounds, upstate.
talking . . about stiletto fetishes !!
not one pair to be found, in this Bushwick crowd.
yep / most def worth the trek.
go see this passion-hearted, no holds-barred ‘dance’ – in the round, and, in the . . WILD !!
for yourself.
you – just got another week.
ps: ‘WILD’ – as in ‘wildest of imaginations’.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~DANIEL GIORDANO . . ‘CELLOPHANE’ / M. DAVID & CO. / EXTENDED . . THRU SUN FEB 9 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 4th, 2020, 11:17am
YOU . . KNOW !!!
YOU . . WANT IT !!!
COME GET IT !!!
DANIEL GIORDANO . . . has some very dynamic new work in:
‘CELLOPHANE’ . . .
OPENING FRI JAN 17 / 6 – 9 PM
& RUNS THRU . . . FEB 2, 2020
THE GROUP SHOW WAS CURATED BY: NICOLE CASTALDO / M. DAVID Associate Gallery Director
M. DAVID & CO., 56 BOGART ST, BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN
HRS: FRI-SUN / 1-6 PM
READ MORE: ‘CELLOPHANE’ / M. DAVID & CO.
~DANIEL GIORDANO / CELLOPHANE / M. DAVID & CO / BROOKLYN / OPENS FRI JAN 17 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | January 16th, 2020, 2:28pm
‘STRANGE LOOPS’ . . A GROUP SHOW CURATED BY JOHANNES DeYOUNG & FEDERICO SOLMI
UP THRU . . FEB 29, 2020
ARTSPACE NEW HAVEN
see: ‘STRANGE LOOPS’ / ARTSPACE NEW HAVEN
ceramic vase with light . . .
ILANA HARRIS-BABOU, ’18 Dysfunctional Ceramics from Reparation Hardware’ (edition of 4 + 1 AP), 2018.
dimensions variable
ceramic tools . . .
ILANA HARRIS-BABOU, ’18 Dysfunctional Ceramics from Reparation Hardware’.
ILANA HARRIS-BABOU, ‘Reparation Hardware’, 2018.
HD video, 4:05 minute loop
(self-portrait)
the ‘Strange Loops’ curators . . .
FEDERICO SOLMI & JOHANNES DeYOUNG
behind them: large painting by SAM MESSER
double page / in the excellent catalog that accompanies the show . . .
SAM MESSER, ‘Thin Realm’ (for Jake Berthot), 2016
oil on canvas / 54 x 170 in.
‘STRANGE LOOPS’ / catalog design by . . HENK VAN ASSEN of HVA Design
with essay by DAN CAMERON
Printer: GHP Media, West Haven, CT
ISBN: 978-0-578-60624-8
($20)
TEDDY MATHIAS, ‘Modern Fossils of the City’, 2019.
200 Clay Fossils / dimensions variable
TEDDY MATHIAS, ‘Modern Fossils of the City’.
TEDDY MATHIAS . . giving a brief talk on his project, at the opening.
JON KESSLER, ‘It Takes a Global Village Idiot’, 2018
Steel, aluminum, plastic dolls, fake hair, and Adidas tracksuit
52 x 52 x 112 in.
JON KESSLER, detail
JON KESSLER, detail
KYLE WILLIAMS, LISA & their young daughter, Greta.
Kyle co-produced the BLINN & LAMBERT slide projection: ‘Romantic Love’, with Nicholas Steindorf.
NICHOLAS STEINDORF, and GUILLAUME MARAIS.
Nicholas co-produced with Kyle Williams / the BLINN & LAMBERT slide project, ‘Romantic Love’.
MARIE SAVONA, and GUILLAUME MARAIS, recently relocated to NYC, from Paris.
they are friends with Nicholas Steindorf, and Paris-based JEAN-BAPTISTE LENGLET, creator of VDC / VIRTUAL DREAM CENTER, who also has an interactive / virtual reality project in the show, titled: ‘Strange Loops’.
SO . . .
the opening was quite fun / the show & it’s theme very engaging,
the projects – very diverse.
congrats !! to the curators JOHANNES DeYOUNG & FEDERICO SOLMI !!
it was def fun to get out of the city, for a night.
& we weren’t the only ones who felt that way – a lot of friends from NYC came up to show support.
so yeah . . . great NIGHT !!!!
the show is up thru . . . FEB 29, 2020.
PHOTOS: FROM THE OPENING DEC 14, 2019 / NANCY SMITH
~’STRANGE LOOPS’ . . ARTSPACE NEW HAVEN / PIX FROM THE OPENING |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | January 15th, 2020, 10:46am
BACK TO THE FUTURE /
BY THE LIGHT – OF THE MOON
‘STRANGE LOOPS’ . . A GROUP SHOW
CURATED BY JOHANNES DeYOUNG & FEDERICO SOLMI
ARTSPACE, NEW HAVEN – UP THRU . . . FEB 29, 2020
see: ‘STRANGE LOOPS’ / ARTSPACE, NEW HAVEN
VIRTUAL DREAM CENTER, ‘Strange Loops’, 2019
virtual reality experience
Director & Game Designer: JEAN-BAPTISTE LENGLET
Game & Level Designer: NICHOLAS STEINDORF
(‘Strange Loops’ lead) Graphic Designer: THOMAS ROCHON
“REALITY ..isn’t what it used to be. In the summer of 2019, it was hard to miss the semi-centennial celebrations
of the Apolllo 11 moon landing. Museum exhibits, cinematic features, daily news coverage, and social media buzz kept much of the American public occupied with swiping, tapping, and clicking gestures in commemoration of the emblematic moment.”
“The moon landing on July 20, 1969 was as much a sign of human desire as it was a feat of scientific
& technical accomplishment.”
~JOHANNES DeYOUNG
my biggest take-away from this summer’s media coverage of the 1969 Apollo moon landing . .
was the incredible fact that . . the “iPhone in your pocket has over 100,000 times the processing power of the computer that landed men on the moon 50 years ago”.
~Real Clear Science
there were banks of screens / rows upon rows of men working screens . .
it was more of an ‘industrial’ era setting, than a digital one.
monitoring all aspects of the mission.
and I do mean: men /
though a handful of the top manager/supervisor/scientists . . were women.
notably: SUSAN FINLEY performed trajectory computations for the rocket launch, by hand.
MARGARET HAMILTON was the lead Apollo flight software designer.
DOROTHY VAUGHAN, “the first black section lead at Langley Research Center / she managed the all-black
West Area Computing Unit.”
source: Science Friday
I was struck by all the (skilled) 3-D – mock-ups !!
so retro !!
scientists were, or relied heavily upon . . armies of skilled draftsmen.
documentary commentator after commentator – paused to comment in awe, of the hands-on skills.
every aspect of the mission – required waves upon waves of individual man power.
NEIL ARMSTRONG . . first man on the moon.
ALL ARCHIVAL APOLLO 11 PHOTOS: via PBS
the installation lighting was just flat-out: INCREDIBLE.
the back rooms, comprising the BLINN & LAMBERT project / and the adjacent VIRTUAL DREAM CENTER interactive
presentation were absolutely enhanced by the lightning. more blue in the Blinn & Lambert room /
more opalescent ‘pearl’ in the Virtual Dream Center experience.
EMILY THELANDER & HAYLEY JOSEPHS . . bathed in the ‘moonlight’.
PHOTOS: FROM THE OPENING DEC 14, 2019 / NANCY SMITH
~VIRTUAL DREAM CENTER . . ‘STRANGE LOOPS’ |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | January 14th, 2020, 9:50am
BY THE LIGHT – OF THE MOON
‘STRANGE LOOPS’ . . A GROUP SHOW
CURATED BY JOHANNES DeYOUNG & FEDERICO SOLMI
ARTSPACE, NEW HAVEN – UP THRU . . . FEB 29, 2020
see: ‘STRANGE LOOPS’ / ARTSPACE, NEW HAVEN
a strange glow . . . embraces the viewer,
as the doors of perception & romance, tumble & turn – at play.
a once rigid grid . . .
softly billows and folds.
plaid with . . . gentle / spatial disobedience.
This show, which speaks to future ‘systems’, both technical & societal / somehow, manages in a very wondrous way,
to keep human desire . . still, very much in the ‘loop’.
BLINN & LAMBERT, ‘Romantic Love’, 2018
35mm slide projection on 2 projectors, with custom benches, and plinth
23 minute loop
144 x 96 in.
what a beautiful title, for a profoundly spatial, and conceptional piece.
“REALITY isn’t what it used to be.”
so begins the curatorial essay.
“The title of our exhibition, ‘Strange Loops’, takes it’s name from DOUGLAS HOFSTADTER’S seminal text,
‘I am a Strange Loop’, a book that explores self-referential systems as paradigms for better understanding human cognition and the emergence of ego.”
“As artists working within the trappings of Twenty First Century media culture, we share interest and concern in the social and psychological effects of media culture at large, so the paradigm of the self-referential loop feels like an especially relevant point of departure.”
~Johannes DeYoung
indeed, the curators’ . . mission statement gives new meaning to the ‘intertwining’ of many different threads of thought / well . . it is a complex world, we live in.
long live poetry, and long live science.
Blinn & Lambert’s gently projected meandering plaid . . .
a nice enough metaphor for Romantic Love, as it is for abstracted reality, is also very much a metaphor for this exhibit’s dreamy, yet quite serious – meandering scientific curatorial essay, which begins with a time/place marker, the summer of 2019, and the many . . “semi-centennial celebrations of the Apollo 11 moon landing” / then proceeds to touch-tag this human, scientific achievement as ripe with justifiably implicit “human desire”, and continues onto . . musing about: “generations of poetic expression projected at the moon”, and yet, somehow also manages to touch base with that other colder, darker, indeed bleaker and very much moody side of the moon: “it’s metaphors for human aspiration, melancholy, and desire remain as relevant today as in the 18th & 19th centuries. Now more than ever we find heightened resonance for lunar poetics, especially when expressed in contrast to the calculated attention economies where desires . . never cease.”
~Johannes DeYoung
ah, the moon.
the cat and the spoon – played by the light of the moon.
upon which, held up like a mirror, the white-face painted Edo geisha, caught her ghostly reflection.
btw:
tomorrow Jan 10, 2020 is the Lunar Eclipse Full Moon, the blood moon. so, you know . . .
it’s nice when hard-minded art essays – collide with reality,
and still, something remains mysterious,
and vastly, poetic.
yes, the blown-apart perception of the ‘plaid’ grid, does holds close & dear – to the curators’ thesis.
yes, it is a very strange loop / who cares if it was once a shirt.
technology and poetry – are bedfellows / you can explain it away, or just let the dance begin.
it’s very telling, that the curators quote EMILE DURKHEIM:
“Irrespective of any external regulatory force,
our capacity for feeling is in itself an
insatiable and bottomless abyss.”
and go on to say, “perhaps this theme crystalizes in the work of BLINN & LAMBERT, whose digital slit-scan photography of a disembodied shirt folding and unfolding renders itself dislocated from quotidian meaning.”
or, as we like to say, bathed . . in the light of the moon.
KYLE WILLIAMS & NICHOLAS STEINDORF . . . aka BLINN & LAMBERT
but, we will give JOHANNES DeYOUNG, the last word:
“Our (moon-landing technological) tools are no longer perceived as mere voyage-enabling instruments, but rather as psychic extensions of the intrepid travelers themselves — black mirrors for self-reflection.”
PHOTOS: FROM THE OPENING DEC 14, 2019 / NANCY SMITH
~BLINN & LAMBERT . . ‘STRANGE LOOPS’ |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | January 9th, 2020, 9:44am
WHEN YOU’RE STRANGE . . .
& INFINITY IS A PLASTIC – REALITY.
BLINN & LAMBERT . . .
NICHOLAS STEINDORF & KYLE WILLIAMS / featured in:
‘STRANGE LOOPS’ – A MULTI-MEDIA GROUP EXHIBIT
CURATED BY: JOHANNES DeYOUNG & FEDERICO SOLMI
OPENS SAT DEC 14 / 5 – 8 PM
and, runs thru . . FEB 29, 2020
ARTSPACE, 50 Orange St., New Haven, Connecticut 06510
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
HRS: WED & THURS 12-6 / FRI & SAT 12-6
note: from 6 – 7 PM at the opening to-nite, there will be a talk with the curators.
‘STRANGE LOOPS’. . .
“A GROUP SHOW which explores . . . psychological affect & the human condition expressed thru instruments, systems, and objects of human design.” /
~ARTSPACE NEW HAVEN
featuring work by: SAM MESSER, SARAH OPPENHEIMER, JON KESSLER, ANA MARIA GOMEZ LOPEZ, BLINN & LAMBERT,
ILANA HARRIS-BABOU, TEDDY MATHIAS, & . . THE VIRTUAL DREAM CENTER
see more: ‘STRANGE LOOPS’ – ARTSPACE NEW HAVEN
BLINN & LAMBERT, ‘ROMANTIC LOVE’, 2018.
Dual 35 mm slide projection / 23 mins. / silent.
image via Instagram @blinn_and_lambert
so yeah:
WHEN YOU’RE STRANGE, & INFINITY IS A PLASTIC – REALITY.
MOJO – RISIN.
~BLINN & LAMBERT . . ‘STRANGE LOOPS’ / ARTSPACE NEW HAVEN, CT / OPENS SAT DEC 14 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | December 14th, 2019, 9:47am
