~VIKING INVASION/DENNIS McNETT
not to mention, SHAMANS !!
FILE UNDER: WONDER WHAT MATTHEW DAY JACKSON, THINKS BOUT THIS.
last week to catch: DENNIS McNETT’S FLAT-OUT, ALL-OUT, NO-STOPS – ART WORLD TAKE-DOWN !!
DENNIS McNETT – ‘REAPING WAVES AND VITAL VESSELS: THE PASSING OF THE WOLFBATS’
up through SAT JAN 22, 2011
JOSHUA LINER GALLERY – 548 W.28th ST – 3rd FLOOR
DENNIS McNETT – installation shot. carved wood, wood cut prints & screens, 2010
DENNIS McNETT – detail. talking bout: PATTERN, URBAN CODE.TAGS. INFORMATION – ENCAPSULATED.
PHOTOS BY: BROCK FETCH/COURTESY: DENNIS McNETT FLICKR PHOTOSTREAM
yeah, go back & check out: those FLICKR pix !! amazing production !!
the show kicked off with a huge charade of a parade . . . hard-core street spectacle – viking style !!
we’re gonna have to start calling New York City – HOME OF THE NEW CENTURY – SHAMANS !!
I dare you to really, really think on that – for a moment.
watch the DENNIS McNETT – VIKING – PARADE on YouTube !!
from the gallery press release:
“JOSHUA LINER GALLERY, in collaboration with gallery artist DENNIS McNETT, is thrilled to present a first-ever, spectacular event in the streets of West Chelsea: ‘The Passing of the Wolfbats’.
Part art parade, part shaman uprising, ‘The Passing of the Wolfbats’ will gather art enthusiasts and neighborhood residents for a celebratory procession through the heart of the New York art world. The purpose ? To wake up the city’s sleeping spirits of creativity, expression, and personal soulfulness . .
Led by a Viking ship, drummers, marchers with banners and battleaxes, and a flock of Wolfbats – McNett’s signature symbol of transformation – the procession will feature many elements from the artist’s work, including mythological figures and folklore, animal and skeleton forms, and masks and costumes, all emblazoned with McNett’s distinctive linocut imagery . . . ”
yep, read more !!
on the left: DENNIS McNETT, beside him MIKE HOUSTON of CANNONBALL PRESS
AHA/AD HOC ART – ‘BROOKLYN BLOCK PARTY/LINO CUTTERS’ – OPENING. BROOKLYN DEC 12, 2008
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
DENNIS McNETT – WOODBLOCK PRINT DETAIL – ‘BROOKLYN BLOCK PARTY’
yeah, his work blew me away . . . . check out the full post – in our archives !!
MATTHEW DAY JACKSON – with his ‘Viking Burial Ship’ – FEIGEN CONTEMPORARY, AUG 11, 2004
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
I say MATTHEW DAY JACKSON – because his big art world break-out happened when he exhibited his viking ship !! in 2004.
see: artnet/ART LOVERS NEW YORK – PEOPLE SECTION/11-17-2004
MATTHEW DAY JACKSON – ‘Viking Burial Ship’.
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
SHAMANS have been on my mind for awhile now – shamans, codes, art magic. keys. dreams.
started with pictograms – and the complexity of their simple but powerful universal code – codes !! plural – their encoded information. how simple graphics – resonate – with a trove of information & data. started with catching those ‘frontier’ breaking hi-definition digital photographs of huge lost civilization mountain range pictograms in South America – on TV – picked up by overhead orbiter cameras, in outer space. continued through – internet guru turned painter – JOSH HARRIS . . . and I guess, can be found throughout human history.
the oldest cave art: simple codes, a bison painting, a human hand palm print. cave paintings the oldest graphics – encapsulating human experience. holding a record of human history – we were here – that speaks to us, helps us unravel out very beginnings – even today. and for sure, at the time – was not just a sign of existence for future history seekers – but in real time – encapsulated graphic information – were n visual notes as in messages – keys of information – enablers. holders of shaman visions, dreams and record of moment, i.e. primitive internet – WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – caveman style – for our human ancestors – to help them with deal with the passing of time, and as well – a visual holding ‘tank’ – a code – a pictogram – containing and passing on to the person, or shaman who could grasp the message – and ‘write’/’tag’ the new ones. primitive pictorial record keeping: history keeping & making . . . .before there was written language – and even after, urban name tag sticker bombing ? – because of course, there always things that cannot be expressed by words.
pictorial ‘keys’ – in a nano-phrase: creativity.
taking the ‘humans’ past the Neanderthals – in the survival race – and the resulting ‘civilization’.
in other words – shamans, pictograms, codes – the mother-lode of a planetary shake-down !!
pattern. knowledge . . .
and warfare and territory expansion & early sea exploration – – the VIKINGS sowed the seeds.
yeah, this show – pretty much says – it all.