~the PATRICK GRIFFIN opening/the journal
. . . this town doesn’t stop for nobody – no more !! used to be, it’d be dead quiet in Summer, and then, for a while – at least dead quiet in August – but its like – its just revved up and keeps on going right thru the FALL.
. . . this show was not a “summer” show, (i.e. usually a more casual gallery round-up of the usual suspects), this opening was so electric and beyond the charts – that it just made me laugh at the New York Post’s recent statement – that the new SEPT 2008 VOGUE says Berlin is the art capital of the world !! yeah, right. I see this is artloversnewyork you’re checking for the latest edge on the scene – not EICH BIN BERLIN .. whatever.
I’ve been gone exactly 10 days – in the dead middle of August – and I come back to one missed gigantic rooftop blow-out at Redemption Center & immediately step into this – a super cool super edged opening with one of my favorite super-quiet-in-person guys – finally putting himself & his wares – up for public viewing – and he comes up – blow-out baby. brainiac. no words left to describe his 2 friends from A.R.E. Weapons – who played as t.v. baby at the opening. fast, furious, but mostly musicality to the 10th degree. kinda like, LOU REED on speed. (has that been said a million times, before). BERLIN: take your Techno and crawl away !! or at least tell VOGUE, to stick to reporting on dresses..
ok. ok. I’m going have to take a look at the article when it comes out. I guess. before I really start trashing it . . . or, at least conjecturing who PAID for it !!!
though for sure, they just got a big infusion of US of A cash over, there – when the OLAFUR ELIASSON crew, which works out of a Berlin home-based studio – scored 15 MILLION big bucks off the NYC scene – courtesy of the PUBLIC ART FUND – for those measly little scaffold-jerried Hudson River waterfalls. ok.ok. there is something cool about their jerry rigged-ness – but overall, if you ask any typical in-the-street New Yorker, their opinion – they’ll say there are a little bit better than those awful orange gates in central park – and anybody on the scene – at least that I cross paths with – will say: they are pretty underwhelming, in terms of what one might have expected – and the price tag was pretty damn annoying, if not completely suspicious.
WHAT THE HELL!! – Zora gets the last word.
(“Oh well, whatever goes over the Devil’s back, is got to come under his belly. Sometime or ruther, Sykes, like everybody else, is gointer reap his sowing.” – ZORA NEALE HURSTON – from ‘SWEAT’, in her collected short stories, published as: ‘SPUNK’.)
plus, we keep hearing how: the rents in Berlin are really cheap. though we categorically have never heard yet – that the art coming out of there – was collectively – any good. though, a thought to be (maybe) considered: – two of my most fave artists went there – like 5 years ago, and never came back – !! – DELIA GONZALES and GAVIN R. RUSSOM – They used to put on these amazing, tech & myth installations at DANIEL REICH – totally inventive, beautiful, visually pure shows. cutting edge thought & product – through and through – which brings me back to the show at hand. PATRICK GRIFFIN’S debut showing at the journal Gallery.
. . if, you missed this opening – ‘COUNT THY BUTTONS’ – you missed something really intense & special. maybe, you’d better, ‘COUNT THY BLESSINGS’.
(as in .. maybe you don’t have enough, art ones, anyways – if, you weren’t there !!)
‘COUNT THY BUTTONS’ – was/is possibly the best show/opening of the FALL 2008 season – just so dynamic & brain power-fueled – it jumped ahead of the pack and burst out of the gate, first !! – by about 2 weeks !!
here’s some pix from the opening – more to post – later this week in the PHOTO REPORT.
PATRICK GRIFFIN and KATHY GRAYSON at the opening of ‘Count Thy Buttons’.
LEIF RITCHEY – who scored some ‘ink’ – in this summer’s The New York Times Magazine (July 8, 2008) – article on – CocoRosie !!
super slicked back – and, lookin’ good – ERIK FOSS of Lit Bar & Fuse Gallery – who’s been surfing the waters off Long Island (Montauk !!)
BRAIN and MATT of t.v. baby !! ‘COUNT THY BLESSINGS’, indeed !! – you can’t hear them anyway else – except live, and pretty rare at that. go on, spike that art.
‘COUNT THY BUTTONS’ + the t.v. baby music – caught the whole range of life – in split seconds !! just like the BOBO show caught the vibe of Pixar’s ‘WALL-E’ – this burst of fierce brilliance – encapsulated in words, music & ‘dot.com’ format buttons – the whole range of 21st Century folklore – that is, LIFE !! as we are living it – now, in the exact moment. also known as – the cutting edge.
except this time, instead of cinematic props, as in ‘WALL-E’ – literary/folklore respects to NORA NEALE HURSTON – whose books are exploding my summer existence… to try and explain a world of thought – in a nutshell.
after the set – the musician and the artist.
also at the opening: photog CLAYTON PATTERSON. there’s a feature article on CLAYTON, as well as RZA & GAVIN BROWN !! in the newest ‘the journal’ art magazine – ENTRY 23 – !! just about to launch.
NYC documentary filmmakers: DAN LEVIN, at left, and BEN SOLOMON, flank CLAYTON PATTERSON at the PATRICK GRIFFIN ‘Count Thy Blessings’ opening. In fact – their brand new documentary, on CLAYTON PATTERSON, titled: ‘CAPTURED’ (2008) – will be featured as the first movie of the first night of the brand new FILM series at the NEW MUSEUM !!
the debut screening will take place – this upcoming FRIDAY, AUG 22, 2008 at 7:30PM – followed by a Q & A with the film’s Directors, and is part of the New Museum’s ‘Art on the Bowery’ program.
for more info, see: NEW MUSEUM/events !!
the journal’s MICHAEL NEVIN, at the opening of ‘COUNT THY BUTTONS’ – MICHAEL GRIFFIN. NY F*CKING CITY !!
see: MORE !! PIX !! FROM THE OPENING !!