it’s lights out for: ASIAN SONG SOCIETY . . .
TERENCE KOH – TURNS OFF HIS GALLERY – ASIAN SONG SOCIETY, DOWNTOWN – WITH A DEATHLY PERFORMANCE . . . PHOTO BY: ADAM TYSON.
ADAM TYSON REPORTS:
The email sent to the Asian Song Society (Terence Koh’s gallery) list serve (last week) stated that the show would begin “88 minutes before midnight” — and that it would be his last show, as well as the very last show, in the space.
Around 10:20 PM there were about ten of us milling around out front. The metal gate to the gallery was shut . . .
11pm, still nothing.. Some of us left and went to another space to hang out.. We returned near midnight . . .
Gate shut. . . . A bunch of people there now. . .
A girl in a white dress emerged from the gallery door, slid the gate upwards, to reveal the glowing, misty inside of the gallery. We gazed through the big window at Terence lying on the floor in the distance..
You can’t see it in this photo – but there was a gaping hole in the ceiling (above the chunks of drywall scattered on the floor).
Just then, an NYPD paddy wagon with blinking lights rolled up and a cop told us through a loudspeaker to clear the sidewalk for pedestrians to pass.
After about eight minutes the girl slid the gate down and people went their ways.
see: ASS/ASIAN SONG SOCIETY
see: adamtyson.com
posted on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, NYC.
~TERENCE KOH/SWAN SONG . . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | September 7th, 2011, 9:16am
oh, yeah. file under: from dust to dust. and !! under water.
Hurricane Irene makes the scene . . . extreme weather, just like they projected. except happening faster than the projections, maybe ?
THRIFT SHOP VINTAGE – ‘DANISH ASSORTMENT’ COOKIE TIN, showing an OLD WOODEN COVERED BRIDGE – VALLEY BROOK FARMS, HAMMONTON, N.J.
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
IRENE, the hurricane turned tropical storm of this past weekend (AUG 27, 28, 29, 2011) really hit hard and wrecked havoc in the up-state rural NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY and VERMONT areas – where the early settlements and later villages – were founded along the waterways. one of the saddest losses are some the area’s prized historic wooden covered bridges. R.I.P. Many of them are now replicas, but many are, or were, the real deal.
artist, quilter, master crafter SCOTTIE HARRISON reports from PLAINFIELD, VERMONT that: “20 miles from Plainfield, MORETOWN, WATERBURY (!!) and SOUTHERN VERMONT as a whole have experienced much destruction, rivers into homes, homes washed away, bridges gone, fields of crops covered in mud.”
here in New York, up-state in the Catskills – writer, producer, (and artlovers film reviewer) JAN ALBERT reports that the villages of MARGARETVILLE, FLEISCHMANNS, and ARKVILLE – were devastated. her friends Justin & Barbara write of Margaretville: “OTHER VIDEO” – the town’s DVD rental store – on the main street entry right off the highway – is “kaput” – as is the CVS. (both built right on the bank of the town’s signature waterway). . . “but the BUN AND CONE diner seems to be okay”. Bruce’s BLACK BEAR MAINE FISH & LOBSTER joint, well-known by locals and out-of-towners alike is “inundated with water and rubbish from top to bottom.”
and continue: “the TRAILER CAMP on Pavilion Rd looks like it was strewn with IEDs that exploded.”
artist, quilter, master paper cutter WENDY BRACKMAN, also of the CATSKILLS region – reports that she just took a walk: “on Hanes Hollow Rd right before the first wooden covered bridge – and the bridge is missing. GONE !! with a 10 ft. drop from the road on the other side . . . ”
apparently the best way to catch the region’s local status is on: WATERSHED POST/CATSKILLS
. . . the ABC 7 local news hurricane up-date reports that “the 156 year-old hand-hewn wooden covered bridge that used to cross the SCHOHARIE CREEK in BLENHEIM, NEW YORK” – is sadly, no more.
they also have a lot of local photos, see: ABC 7 HURRICANE IRENE UP-DATE
including one of a boarded-up Manhattan building that reads: IRENE, DON’T MAKE A SCENE !!
there is also an extended report on the status of Vermont’s covered bridges, on the BURLINGTON FREE PRESS, but note that their ‘featured’ photo is a replica, still better than nothing – and probably the inevitable future – of the genre. they also give some historical background, noting that many of the original covered wooden bridges have stood for over 100 years, surviving many a huge snowstorm, but not faring so well in the wake of Irene’s rushing torrential waters.
see: BURLINGTON FREE PRESS/TERRI HALLENBECK REPORTING . . .
. . . crew members aboard the INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION captured this video of TROPICAL STORM IRENE on Sunday August 28, 2011 as it moved over the (eastern) coast of the UNITED STATES. SCREENGRAB/NASA on YouTUBE
of course, as well as looking back with sadness – at lost icons of bygone times – you can also look, forward – at state-of-the-art digital photography from outer space, as in . . . filmed from above the earth !! and live-streamed back down: from the INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION – COURTESY OF NASA
wow. what a difference – a hundred or so years makes, or what !!
~HURRICANE IRENE HITS ON OLD WOODEN BRIDGES |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 31st, 2011, 6:16pm
VOLCOM STONES – WILD IN THE PARKS
HILLTOP SKATE PARK – PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY / SAT – AUG 20, 2011
~VOLCOM STONES/WILD IN THE PARKS |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 20th, 2011, 1:46am
‘CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS’ – DIRECTED BY WERNER HERZOG
REVIEWED BY NANCY SMITH, AUGUST 20, 2011.
ONE OF TWO ALBINO ALLIGATOR DELIVERED TO A CROCODILE FARM IN CENTRAL-EASTERN FRANCE – EXPORTED FROM THEIR NATIVE LOUISIANA (USA !!)
PHOTO: PHILIPE DESMAZES/AFP/Getty Images. FEB 04, 2010. COURTESY/LIFE
cute when they are young, aren’t they. wait til you see them all grown-up !!
nasty mothers, evil yellow eyes floating on the water horizon.
don’t even get me started on this one.
I swear WERNER HERZOG just used the ‘filming of the world’s first ever cave man drawings’ in Central France – (ancient) dead men talking, get it ? – as a ruse to expose France’s dirty little secret. I mean clearly, even he cannot believe he has scored the footage . . . of what must be a top secret project. France is raising, as Werner calls them – radioactive mutated albino alligators – just on the other side of the ridge of the now famous recently discovered cave housing the earliest known human drawings – in a man-made artificial jungle made from the hijacked heat and over-flow waste waters – !! – of France’s biggest nuclear power plant !!
NOT. . .
apparently according to a post by EDWARD DAVIS to INDIE WIRE – which includes a live clip of WERNER HERZOG on STEPHEN COLBERT – the albino alligator tale is: “a wild post-script, it’s a wild science-fiction sort of fantasy …”
see: WERNER HERZOG confesses/posted JUNE 7, 2011
“. . . of course it’s fictitious and that’s not a spoiler, Herzog has maintained for several years – that while some charge it to be irresponsible fabrication – that his films contain “an ecstatic truth” rather than the “accountant’s truth” . . . damn. is he senile. or did the French threaten to take him out, or what.
damn. I still say, no wonder McQueen wanted out. I’m thinking there still must be some kind of alligator farm out there, otherwise what’s with the LIFE photo ?
I mean it was way more fun to think JURASSIC PARK – was alive and well, and for real. in central-eastern France. STEVEN SPIELBERG – where are ya ?
than to learn, what probably everyone else already knows, that – WERNER HERZOG – is a kind of a fraud. . . for messing with the word: documentary and making it stupid . . . and I was thinking, wow – they gonna be mass producing haute couture albino alligator bags . . . in France, soon !!
As for the primitive cave drawings, they are very sophisticated and for the most part look to be done by one set of hands ?
the depicted animals are all graceful, with gentle faces. mostly bison. they do say: sustainable protein abounds in these parts – back in the day. way back. when humans survived and the Neanderthals did not.
these first human drawings are more ‘connect-the-dots’ than ‘think outside the box’. it’s clear someone – saw the animal profiles – in 3D – in the lines and crooks and nooks – of the natural rock cave walls – and they just followed the lines. much like the early Greeks traced the ‘animated’ constellations in the stars of the night sky. much like many sculptors (throughout the ages) tell ya, the stone speaks to them.
were the images just there for the taking, at random – or did a greater force lay down the blue print ? that’s the bigger question.
but do they sustain a botched-up documentary – not.
talk about the downward arc of civilization. Werner Herzog: zero. Anslem Kiefer: 10. (outta 10).
see: ‘CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS’/OFFICIAL WEBSITE
~NANCY SMITH REVIEWS: ‘CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS’/WERNER HERZOG |
Posted in Movie Reviews, The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 20th, 2011, 12:37am
it may be ashes to ashes, dust to dust . . . in mainland Germany and France.
but a little further north, on a small sea-bound island – it was visions of a way watery future,
that made Brit Alexander McQueen . . . cut out, quit, and split – the worldly dance.
PRESS PHOTO BY JOSH HANER/THE NEW YORK TIMES/SUNDAY, JULY 31, 2011
maybe it’s time to sneak in a brief and final good-bye.
the MET was incredibly locked down – no photos permitted – so it was stunning to see this one installation shot (above) recently published in the New York Times. This was also one of my favorite rooms – it housed the McQueen tartan-based “Scottish Rape” series on the left. absolutely wearable – strikingly ingenious in design – and terrifyingly fierce in historical context. when McQueen is quoted at the beginning of the exhibit as saying, in quite straightforward a manner: “I am a shaman” – everyone got it. All his work was imbued with a passion, an intensity – that transcended mere talent – and resonated with deeper meaning, usually messages of an historical or global – tribal – social – or ecological – nature. his work was imbued with vision. everybody got that.
as well, you can get a sense of the dramatic production and ace design of the show. here we have matte gold panels that grid off, against the focused light of golden wall sconces. it was goth, but it was chic. you can see the next room on, is completely different, but just as compelling. talk about detail, and sensuousness – some of the entry ways between rooms, even had simulated panels of – charred black burnt wood.
as for the holograms. well one was as large as a room. literally it was a room – and the scene that unfolded was cinematic – and dramatic. the trip into (real) inner beauty . . . the other hologram was as tiny as a cupcake – and featured Kate Moss twirling around.
the captions and text were sublime. moving is the only word that comes to mind. truly, the essence of the man – delivered clearly in few, yet poignant words. yes, it was emotional. in this New York Times article, penned by ERIC WILSON – it states how sad McQueen was not to have had a wider audience for his work in his lifetime – well, in this show – he crossed over. and the huddled masses found him.
see: McQueen’s Final Showstopper/New York Times
of course the most stunning heart-stopping section, was the very last wall – with his very last collection – his ‘Atlantis’ collection. a kind of futuristic waterworks print-dominated body hugging series – that was glimpsed on several high profile models throughout the past year – at different red carpet events. if you were paying attention, you caught it.
a kind of scary Star Wars Jar Jar meets moss green tie-dye.
apparently in Britain, it is a northern island after all – a small body of land surrounded by ocean waters – it’s not a dusty apocalypse, but the whole island and its civilization as we know it, going under, water . . . everything, great cities and all, disappearing under the huge deluge of water – that will be released by global warming – and the resultant, inevitable melting of the polar ice caps . . . that spooks the nation.
Apparently McQueen watched one too many digital renderings of the future – and it really got to him. SARAH BURTON the new creative director of ALEXANDER McQUEEN, is quoted as saying: “It was the idea of a sort of the reversal of evolution, how life would evolve back into the water if the ice caps melted and we were being reclaimed by nature.”
see: McQueen Plato’s Dress/THE MET
McQueen himself, is quoted as saying something like: only those who evolve for life under water would survive. I guess he saw it coming pretty quick – and he didn’t want to stick around. kind of like suicide by digital futuristic modeling ?
I’m thinking he felt the inevitability – as close to him – as real-time / day-to-day reality.
his creative force, the visions that were “channeled” through him – his words – had burnt through him, and he was done.
at age 40.
McQueen is also quoted as saying that death is good . . . as it allows the next generation, the next creative voice, the new shaman – to speak out.
Alexander McQueen (British, 1969-2010)
Dress
‘Plato’s Atlantis’, spring/summer 2010 – silk jacguard in a snake pattern embroidered with yellow enamel paillettes in a honeycomb pattern/courtesy of Alexander McQueen. PHOTOGRAPH COPYRIGHT SOLVE SUNDSBO/Art + Commerce
~AlEXANDER McQUEEN/Savage Beauty/famous last words |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 19th, 2011, 8:40pm
the 50 ft wide – “EDGE Of HARKNESS” – on East 75th St – new home to LARRY GAGOSIAN . . .
PHOTO BY JIM ALCORN – C/O NEW YORK POST
speaking of GOGO – I guess there’s gold in them thar ashes to ashes, dust to dust hills. well man-made ruins, is maybe the better word.
the NEW YORK POST’S JENNIFER GOULD KEIL reported yesterday that the mega dealer just blew $36.5 million on a Manhattan townhouse, make that mansion – that was originally owned by the HARKNESS family . . .
see: ART OF THE DEAL/GIMME SHELTER . . . NEW YORK POST/AUGUST 18, 2011
either that, and / or maybe – selling DAMIEN HIRST DOT paintings – is like having your very own currency – printing press !!
according to CAROL VOGEL, of the NEW YORK TIMES, DAMIEN and GOGO – will be presenting a gigantic simultaneous global ‘wave’ exhibition of some 300 DAMIEN HIRST dot paintings – around the world – or better put – in each of the 11 international Gagosian locations, including the three in our very own NYC. this despite a prior Hirst announcement that: “. . . his production of dead animals and spot paintings would be drastically reduced”. “Not exactly”, Vogel goes on to relate: . . . “reminded of that statement in a recent telephone interview, he chuckled and said: ‘I keep trying to end them. But then I get these crazy ideas, and I can’t stop.'”
Har-de-har-har.
in 2008 – Hirst staged a 2 day auction at Sotheby’s in London – where 223 examples of his work – totaled $200.7 million in sales. that’s when he made the above quoted ‘promised’ reduction of dead animal and dot paintings . . . as part of his sales pitch.
hey man, try dying. . . that will really put a bankable production limit – on the work.
(just joking, dudes. calm down . . . )
see: CAROL VOGEL … talks dots/NEW YORK TIMES/scroll down that post !!
guess they are banking on – all those dots – no matter how many there are ? – adding up – to a lot of zeros.
well at least, unlike the dead animals, and even the still-life ob-gyn offices – in over-size aquariums !! – you don’t need to employ an in-house haz mat team – to keep the thing, up and running. or – does that give you additional bragging rights ?
PHOTO BY BILLIE SCHEEPERS/DAMIEN HIRST & SCIENCE LTD/COURTESY: NEW YORK TIMES
~ashed to ashes, dust to dots . . . ? LARRY & DAMIEN business, as usual |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 19th, 2011, 8:23am
ANSLEM KIEFER/PRESS PHOTO
SOPHIE FIENNES ON LOCATION/PRESS PHOTO BY REMCO SCHORR
‘OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROW’ – A FILM BY SOPHIE FIENNES ABOUT ANSELM KIEFER
REVIEWED BY JAN ALBERT. AUGUST 17, 2011
If you have had it with superheroes, lame rom coms, and the rest of the half-hearted movies Hollywood is peddling this summer, I recommend ‘OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROW’ at the Film Forum. It is an immersive, unique experience that will fill your head with the visions of artist – with a capital A – Anselm Kiefer. It’s stunning and you want to see it on a big screen.
Unusual – even for a film about an artist!, it is an almost wordless experience. It opens with long pans that glide through dark tunnels dug out of earth, then moves on to half-built concrete bunkers, filled with broken glass and lit by single bare light bulbs. Gradually, the camera reveals cracks of natural light through doorways. We are somewhere in the woods.
With no narration to guide us through these labyrinthian ruins, just momentous creepy music, and since the director (Sophie Fiennes – yes, she is the sister of “Lord Voldemort”, himself – Ralph Fiennes) is in no rush to get on with things, my mind started to race with connections and possible scenarios.
I felt like WALL-E, searching for signs of life and adding to his collection of artifacts from a bygone culture.
There were sheaves of paper and massive books, solidified into rocks . . .
An occasional child’s dress, covered with soot, hanging from a lone hanger . . .
Rusted metal, staircases to nowhere.
Could be a war zone, what with those pillar-like outposts, like the ones left standing after the apocalypse in ‘THE ROAD’.
For me, it was evocative of so many things –
being lost and confused in the virtual world of MYST . . .
the remains of Pompei or the World Trade Center . . .
the kind of place kids play in and bad things happen in horror films . . .
a settlement after an Indian attack or New Orleans after the flood.
It brought to mind the royal crematorium I saw in Rajasthan, India, with branches piled up for the next funeral. Also, a town in Mexico, half-swallowed by a volcano.
It had the mark of ritualistic human creation, like OPUS 40, a magical place near Woodstock, carved by one man out of a rock quarry.
It could be an abandoned construction site or a bombed-out storage facility of some kind.
Who built it ?
Turns out Anselm Kiefer did. In 1992, the artist bought a town in the South of France near Avignon, called Barjack, and over the next 16 years, he transformed a derelict silk factory and the hundreds of acres surrounding it into an art factory and an enormous site-specific art piece.
Although this opening sequence goes on for what seems like 15 minutes, it’s far from boring. It casts it’s spell, then introduces the sorcerer who cast it.
We move from the forest inside to a factory space where the artist and his crew of assistants are focused on mixing concrete, smelting lead, and moving giant things with cranes. A cat looks askance at the whole enterprise, especially the noise, which is considerable.
Now, at last, just when you expect the director to launch into an interview with the creator or to explain what’s going on, she confounds the viewer again. Although there are moments when Kiefer speaks about his art, they are few and far between. Throughout the rest of the film , we are flies on the wall, watching Kiefer make this world and it is disturbing, exciting, confounding, and incredible – just like great art.
Anselm Kiefer is introduced in an amazing sequence where he is finishing a large landscape painting of the woods we just traveled through. His assistant dumps a cloud of ash all over the canvas, then we watch in real time as the excess crap drops off onto the floor, and the surviving scene seems to emerge through a cloud of gun smoke or a forest fire.
We see Kiefer directing his helpers to place a huge ship on an even vaster canvas of the ocean until they get it “just so” and we are lost at sea.
We follow the crew as Kiefer orchestrates a bulldozer to cut paths through the bunkers and pillars we saw outside. Then, the heavy machinery helps them lift huge blocks of stone one on top of another to assemble a series of dream-like towers in a clearing. They teeter, but somehow remain standing.
The workers break dishes, smash great sheets of glass, start fires and toast books lie marshmallows, until the artist declares them perfectly ruined.
Anselm Kiefer was born at the close of WWII and grew up in the ruins of postwar Germany. He played with bricks from the destroyed houses in his neighborhood instead of building blocks. He has spent his whole life as an artist, digging through those ashes; confronting the not so distant past and future, calling upon poets, Gods, mystics, geography and humanity to frame his work. Seeing this visionary in the throes of his own creation-destruction cycle is Sophie Fiennes’ great gift to us. You don’t have to understand it to be impressed, amazed, and moved.
Near the end, we hear Kiefer quote a passage from the Book of Isaiah about Lilith inhabiting an abandoned city. It gives the film it’s title, ‘OVER YOUR CITIES, GRASS WILL GROW’.
In 2008, Kiefer moved to Paris and left this mysterious and provocative ruin behind for man and nature to build on or destroy.
Thanks to Sophie Fiennes’ sensitive film record, it will never disappear completely.
AT THE FILM FORUM THROUGH TUESDAY, AUGUST 23rd, 2011.
oh yeah, most def, ya gotta see: ‘OVER YOUR CITIES, GRASS WILL GROW’/THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE – for the TOTALLY AMAZING !! – film clips !!
ok, this how much I mean that:
go to: CLIP 1 – and watch: ‘RAISING THE THE PAINTING’, and then on that page’s dashboard – click on CLIP 2-‘THE TOWERS’, CLIP 3-‘MELTING LEAD’, and CLIP 4-‘AMPHITHEATRE’ !!
SCREEN GRAB – FROM THE CLIP – ‘RAISING THE PAINTING’.
oh yeah, images speak louder than words . . . in this almost silent, but most magic film.
I guess it would be optimal to see the film on a large screen – but even the small scale digital format of the clips – works pretty well – in getting across the film’s eloquence. Jan told me the film is amazing – and I believe it, and she said she didn’t even get into – “the bones and the teeth” !! ~ nancy.
from the artlovers archive . . .
see: photos from the ANSELM KIEFER exhibit – ‘NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM’, which ran NOVEMBER 6 – DECEMBER 18, 2010 at GAGOSIAN GALLERY on 24th St in NYC – a blockbuster installation – which meet much popular, and critical acclaim.
~JAN ALBERT REVIEWS: ‘OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROW’/ANSELM KIEFER |
Posted in Movie Reviews, The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 17th, 2011, 7:45am
and the GHOSTS OF NEW YORK CITY – PAST.
from left: SIMON CERIGO, DAN ASHER and NANCY SMITH. in NYC, circa 1984.
PHOTO BY: SHELDON MOSKOVICI
of course the other required beach read this summer – was the GLENN O’BRIEN interview – posted June 22, 2011 – on artinfo !!
in it he refers twice to DAN ASHER – a recent member of the DEAD ARTISTS CLUB . . . and a dear friend of mine and Simon’s . . . in which he, GLENN O’BRIEN that is, says: “I think humor in fine art is increasingly important, as the world is increasingly absurd. The jokes are more cosmic. . . Funny is the new serious.”
to which I say: right on, dude.
to the question, ‘What’s the weirdest thing you ever saw happen in a museum or gallery ?’ – he responds:
“I saw Dan Asher threatening to rip a work off the wall at Leo Castelli.” (!!)
to the question, ‘What under-appreciated artist, gallery or work do you think people should know about?’ – the answer is:
“The late Dan Asher. Non-Chinese artists.” (!!)
amen.
see: 26 Questions for Writer Glenn O’Brien/artinfo
watch: DAN ASHER sings KAREN DALTON’S every time I think of freedom !!
watch: DAN ASHER: NEAR LIFE EXPERIENCE – THE OPENING SEQUENCE to STEPHANIE SCHWAM’S DOCUMENTARY on DAN ASHER . . .
it’s interesting to note that this youTube offering – was posted by Dan, himself – on MARCH 11, 2010 !!
included in the footage – are wonderful shots of his diverse body of work, including his amazing and most pre-sentient iceberg photographs, his intense scribbly drawings, and of course – the way wild oil stick paintings !!
you also get to see a relaxed ANTHONY HADEN-GUEST riff on Dan . . . including a priceless voice-over, in a heavy female European accent – that sounds like ANNINA NOSEI saying: ” . . . if it weren’t for the presence of BASQUIAT and his own personality (!!) – DAN ASHER would have been the artist of the 80s !!”. . .
. . and yes indeedy, Anthony Haden-Guest says: “sad to say, but of course the minute he dies – he’s gonna become a great artist.” !!
hey man, famous last words, or what ??!!
that’s JEAN MICHEL (BASQUIAT) aka SAMO on the left, being interviewed by a super cute (and unintentionally funny) young GLENN O’BRIEN – on the right !!
watch: JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (SAMO) on TV PARTY – with GLENN O’BRIEN in 1979 !!
GHOSTING – PRICELESS !! – oh, yeah.
so, I hear Glenn holds a steamin’ mad grudge against me ?
I don’t know why – since it was me who showed this clip a few years back – and let a whole new generation know what a cool – smart – and cute !! – dude he was. unless it was when I reported his fall from grace at INTERVIEW. hey man, just the messenger, not the shooter. you’re way better off now anyways. and its not my fault – if I’m too damn smart and on cue – for your old boys club !! but, you the man.
bye the way, Simon and I were always jealous to know that Glenn scored some early big Jean Michel canvases, back in the day. but guess what, Simon has over 30 Dan Ashers !! – and some of them are canvas sized. so there.
eat your heart out, losers. the only art selling in this town – is dead men.
SIMON CERIGO – COLLAGE ON NEWSPAPER, 1984. mixed media with little toy airplanes. including the archival photo of himself, Dan Asher, and me, Nancy Smith.
hello, Ray Johnson.
better off dead, than alive – what the hell ? – the NYC art world – Summer of 2011.
~DAN ASHER !! . . . sez GLENN O’BRIEN |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 14th, 2011, 9:34am
or: BEEN THERE, DONE THAT.
it seems the dead aren’t content to just communicate – from beyond the pale – they also want to be seen !!
as in: photo op.
long story short: BRICE MARDEN and his wife, artist HELEN MARDEN – you go girl – livened up the summer’s PAGE SIX offerings with a little marital tangle . . . hey, when you are married – shit happens. never mind after 32 (!!) years.
but, one: we call them groupies now, not muses.
and two: whatever goes down – it is way nasty to rub it in the wife’s face – on her territory. then it’s not about the helpless idiot guy – it’s all about taking down the wife.
so . . . where’s sweet dead Dash Snow figure in all this ?
when I went to see if I had any pix of the headlining couple – I found I did. at that great and early DASH SNOW opening – ‘Silence of the Only True Friend That Shall Never Betray You’ – (ha !!) – the inaugural opening of the short-lived RIVINGTON ARMS, the 2nd bigger gallery space – run by (co-founder) MIRABELLE MARDEN, daughter of Brice and Helen.
DASH SNOW opens ‘Silence of the Only Friend That Shall Never Betray You’, Rivington Arms, East Village, NYC.
SEPT 7, 2006
DASH !! – demanding and getting – face time – from the beyond . . . happy to oblige, dude.
also at the opening, back to us, foreground – artist MELIA MARDEN, (their other daughter) – with her parents: mom painter HELEN MARDEN, and dad, painter BRICE MARDEN . . . SEPT 7, 2006.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH.
(and that’s a damn good photo of Dash – even if I have say so, myself.)
read all about it – here: they even just posted a photo of the (sullen) ho !! (bottom – first link)
see: unamused by hubby’s muse . . PAGE SIX/AUGUST 9, 2011
see: affair wasn’t platonic: artist . . . PAGE SIX/AUGUST 10, 2011
and most def, see: the rest of the pix from the DASH SNOW OPENING, ‘Silence of the Only Friend That Shall Never Betray You’ !! you’ll even catch – another set of those out-size ruby red lips !!
~speaking of the devil . . . |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 12th, 2011, 10:47am
or: now that’s what I call – some otherworldly qreamin’ . . goin’ down.
DASH SNOW, ‘My Best Friend’, mixed media sculpture. 8 x 4 x 5 in.
in ‘RAY’S A LAUGH’, HALF GALLERY, NYC. AUGUST 1 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2011- CURATED BY LEO FITZPATRICK.
. . at the opening, the show’s curator Leo Fitzpatrick told me that Dash Snow was a big fan of Ray Johnson’s and that he had even bought several of his pieces . . . as well being generally inspired by Ray’s outlaw and low-fi philosophy . . . This found piece, a nice example of shell art, popular decades ago, and often found in thrift shops here and there for a buck or two . . . was accessorized by Dash – with the big red lips, the dangling ciggie, and, see that head full of wild hair ? Leo told me that was Dash’s pubic hair. oh, yes.
NANCY SMITH, found shell art doll. mixed media sculpture. 4-1/2 x 4 x 3 in.
yeah, I found this shell doll on top of somebodies garbage on the curb in Williamsburg several years ago. and though I couldn’t quite understand the attraction, damn if I didn’t hold onto it. despite many an urge to toss it back – from whence it came. I accessorized her with a tiny red beaded embroidery bow at the neck and bestowed a plastic (green !!) cocktail sword in her white pipe cleaner hand. you know, something like, the pen is mightier than the sword, except when it’s tiny, green and plastic !!
I always liked that the up-turned shell ‘basket’, painted nail polish red – that she already came with – in her other hand – looked more like a painter’s easel – than a basket of what ? 3 tiny seashell cookies ?
I think I’ll let Dash have the lock – on the public hair !!
funny, right.
me and Dash exchanging ‘found’ shell art, male & female, no less – through the (web) mail.
and between the worlds no less. the world of the dead. and the world of the living. well who’s to say the dead can’t communicate to the living. not I.
got qream ? I think so.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~Ray’s a laugh . . . but talking to the dead is priceless |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 11th, 2011, 2:46pm
