THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES: REVIEWED BY NANCY SMITH. APRIL 22, 2013
if you saw THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, you might be in more of a mindset to better be able to ‘process’ the BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING TRAGEDY, of last week.
esp as it is playing out – with the younger bomber communicating from his hospital bed, after being reported to have fatally mowed-down his older brother, the mastermind, with a car during a gun battle. and the questions I would love to ask him about that. done to shut him up, spare him torture/imprisonment, or because he was finally mad at a him .. the mind boggles.
and the live breaking news interviews with his family and friends. amazing.
not that the film is about terrorists or bombing, though there are .. car mechanics ? ok, bike/motorcycle mechanics. and oh, I almost forgot: immigrants.
but it is . . about tragedy.
and families. sons. and twisted, intertwined .. fates.
and ultimately how easy it is, for a father to mess up a son, and esp how easy it is .. for a younger person to come under the bad influence of another.
both movie, and the real-life event, are very very intense. and move deeply to the dark side.
in the movie as in this Boston real-life story, the narrative centers on how .. just one family, i.e. each family – is .. in itself: is a cell.
a self-contained unit within society, and both fiction and non-fiction each demonstrate just how easy it is .. for everything to go south, really really quickly. with young boys at the heart of the storm.
south, for that family, and for society as a whole .. based on the particulars & history of that family: be it genetic characteristics and/or parental guidance, in this movie’s the main storyline is the lack of …
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES .. in a nutshell, it’s the ole nature vs. nuture game, staring some pretty great actors.
it’s a game that plays out bad on both sides of the typical American scenario: a struggling ethnic/immigrant family vs. a privileged upper class family . . and predictably, both sides take a dive.
and guess what?
this film says: a lot of that bad action – depends on the actions of .. the dads.
though I’m not sure, they mean dads as in bio ‘DNA gene pool’ dad, as in the Ryan Gosling ‘dumb-luck’ dad passing on the genetic dumb-luck potential for making bad choices .. to his son, who never knew him, but had a loving home.
or .. the ‘nuturing’ factor – as in the Bradley Cooper over-achieving but traumatized cop dad because he shot the Ryan bank robber dad, and his son, of course .. turns out rotten.
who knows: maybe they were trying to cover all bases ?
I guess subconsciously that’s what makes the movie so compelling.
it really does suck you up, into the drama.
either way you cut it: this film spells .. tragedy.
Ryan Gosling’s character, Luke, is .. a maladjusted gypsy-like ‘carnie’ figure. who seemed self-contained and alright until, Eva came back .. for just one last look.
He’s a little on the dumb side, served up with a gorgeous all-American face, and skills. he is a daredevil motorcyclist in a traveling circus. a hero to summer kids with circus tickets, but a way big loser . . in the bigger picture.
anyway this film – is NOT about religion, or immigration. it cuts closer to the bone.
it’s about the fathers. and their sons. and just how crucial, and how precarious the family unit, EACH FAMILY UNIT is, dad being central .. to the success and mellowness of the family, therefore to all of society, as a whole.
I mean who wants to be shot, dead .. on a minor expedition to empty the bank. yes Ryan’s character quickly morphs into a bank robber, motivated by wanting to take care of his new son.
fast forward, and I do mean FAST FORWARD !!
who wants their carefully raised and loved school kid, same Ryan’s son .. caught up in neglected rich kids’ drug-fuelled parties . . and being busted and put behind bars for like .. 5 to 15 years.
likewise back to real life: who wants to be blown up and maimed in a marathon. a celebration of inner resolve and new age positivity.
so consider that: ALL you people always looking for the b-i-g answer, the .. ‘motive’.
the black and white. the ‘why’?
tragedy, it seems is very complex: born of bad choices, certainly .. but also stemming from deep-rooted parental, if not downright genetic .. circumstance.
that’s the mind-set I was referring to.
in Boston, just like in this harrowing movie, it might just come down to .. the family. the dad. the mom. the genes. the instincts. the old world culture. the history.
this film is also about .. ‘losers’. a word that got taken away from the Boston event, too.
though ‘corruption’ also plays a part.
in fact the police corruption bit in the film . . is it’s weakest link. and the most boring part of the whole movie. RAY LIOTTA . . is way too obvious. I almost walked out, right then and there. lucky I didn’t, so just sit still when the movie wanes .. it most definite gets better.
‘losers’.
in this movie .. its about the spectrum, the different ways there are to be losers, on both sides of the coin .. rob a bank / shoot a robber too soon. and the way these bad choice actions in and of themselves produce a shared tragedy: produces the next generation of losers – the robber’s son is a loser for making wrong choices, but seems to come out ahead, while the cop’s son looks to be totally evil & unredeemed. the bad guy Ryan’s son is looking good, after taking a manipulated wrong turn, unlike his dad, he gets a second chance – by the very cop who did not give his dad a second chance. while his son – looks e.o.a. – evil on arrival, no going back, no good to come. and in that sense: dead. it’s kind of the classic – cross-over. it sounds a bit complicated as a soundbite – but as a movie – it rocks, and it ROLLS.
plus: it’s worth the time and ticket just to watch RYAN GOSLING .. duh.
do you feel for him, or what ? and he’s – the bad guy !!
or is it the cop, whose the bad guy. well, that a sense of how the movie plays the viewer, just like .. a damn violin.
but still, GOSLING.
is that guy some emotional straight-faced .. sweet-faced camera-magnet, or what !!
and when he dies, and his body leaves the screen, half-way through the movie no less, the young EMORY COHEN . . who plays BRADLEY COOPER’s privileged but neglected evil son, AJ .. takes up the camera-so- loves-him .. slack. big time.!
a young Marlon Brando, and I bet I’m not the first .. to say this.
c-h-a-r-i-s-m-a.
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES .. at the end of the day, you have to wonder seriously, about how e-a-s-y it is .. for some people to be totally TOTALLY dominated, totally twisted out by others .. so, I’m also thinking, Boston Marathon .. here, too.
in the film the bad domination comes from total, TOTAL strangers. what the hell guys, whatever happened to just say: NO ? but then there would be no story, this is the key to the action, in the PLACE BEYOND THE PINES.
the Ryan Gosling/dad is dominated to no good by a bank robbin’ mechanic he just happens to run into on the road; his son is likewise easily dominated by a drug-seeking high school macho moron who just arrived at the school, a total unknown, who happens to be Bradley the cop’s bad-to-the-bone son .. in the school cafeteria.
1. so is this a tragic genetic flaw that both Ryan and his son, share .. to be so easily undone by strangers. is this why you DO need your dad around to tell the bio son, look I got mislead, now don’t you be doing the same thing. we prob share a dumb domination gene.
file under: nature.
3. while the Bradley Cooper dad, though he’s successful and smart, and his kid looks to be smart enough too, manages to screw up his kid, big time, because he neglected him.
file under: nuture.
.
so I’m still thinking Boston. sons. fathers. family units. nature / nuture.
is it genetic.
a propensity for making bad choices. a propensity to be influenced. a propensity for not being able to channel disappointment, aggression, or faith.
is it nuture ?
could better family influence/guidance have helped with those ancient mountain fighter Chechen genes.
and finally, it’s a long, deep wide-sweeping movie !!
file under: AS IF !!
everybody should be born with .. a great, wise and powerful, rich is nice too, power lawyer dad – to get them out of jams. Bradley Cooper’s character’s – dad !!
at least, until we figure out how to modify .. all human DNA. and therefore families !!
down to a universal .. and, very m-e-l-l-o-w state. and, then we WILL not have any short-circuiting ole world crazy bros blowing-up .. new age runners.
but by then, we’ll probably all be clones.
let’s hope the guys look like Ryan . . and the girls, like Eva.
watch the trailer: The Place Beyond the Pines – official website
RYAN GOSLING in THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES / image credit
EMORY COHEN (AJ) and DANE DEHAAN (who plays the Ryan Gosling character, Luke’s son .. Jason) in THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES / image credit
~THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES/new edit |
Posted in Movie Reviews, The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 22nd, 2013, 1:30pm
IMAGE: AP via DAILY MAIL
wow, I bet that older brother Boston Marathon Bomber dude was . . ‘set off’ by that March 17, 2013 episode of FAMILY GUY that made fun of terrorists and trivialized mass destruction at the Boston Marathon. see: Fox pulls ‘Family Guy’ …
though he was going to wreak mayhem, eventually, no matter what.
so stop censoring our TV.
looks like he had a real short fuse . . and losing at Boxing .. did not help.
bet .. he also murdered his best friend and 2 others on Sept 11, 2011, and left them covered in marijuana bye the way .. news which is just beginning to make the headlines. guess his friends were wisecracking over 9-11 conspiracy theories, or what ?
maybe he blamed them .. for his smoking too much pot.
just saying because ALFREDO also has a short fuse too.
or is it just .. MY JOKES.
I once cracked a joke while we were working 24/7 to assemble a show back in the late 1990s and no, he didn’t slit my throat, or bomb my hood, but he did take a sharp little penknife and grabbed my ear and was about to slice it off. for real.
I had to think quick. to defuse the situation . . so I said something art world related, knowing that was about all he focused on. “Please don’t make me look like VINCENT VAN GOGH” – got me off the hook.
losers. losers. and more losers. a joke will always bring a loser to boil.
not saying Alfredo is a loser, but he skipped art school . . on the way to the pro games.
welcome to the art world.
go through a first year studio critique .. haha that will toughen you up.
come to the art world and show your stuff to a dealer .. haha, that will REALLY toughen you up. you think boxing is tough ?
you think rising to top in anything .. is easy ?
take a chill pill.
~can’t take a joke .. |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 22nd, 2013, 11:29am
RE: BOSTON MARATHON BOMB BLAST – TERROR ATTACK, MON MAY 15, 2013
ALFREDO MARTINEZ, ‘REPLICATE WEAPONS’, hand-built from found parts. life-size. NYC. 2001.
‘QUIET, GUNS & QUILTS – JOSH HARRIS, ALFREDO MARTINEZ & NANCY SMITH’
JUNE 28-JULY 20, 2001
SILVERSTEIN GALLERY, 520 West 21st St, NYC
of course, the other reason ALFREDO MARTINEZ came to mind was in a word: I.E.D. or IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICE.
these are the deadly hand-made bombs that usually terrorize other parts of the world like Afghanistan and Pakistan . . and whose construction are detailed online filed under catchy titles like: HOW TO MAKE BOMBS FROM YOUR MOTHER’S KITCHEN . . and which were also just set off in BOSTON, using common household pressure cookers as the main housing.
of course the big diff is . . ALFREDO’S were art.
they were made to be displayed on your wall, not blown up in your face. period.
what I’m trying to say is . . though I’d rather just take the photos, post them, and leave it at that any day .. is what was so uncanny, auspicious, provocative, and so art-meaningful about Alfredo’s work was that was such a great & bonafide s-i-g-n-i-f-i-e-r . . for what was to come.
circa 2001 – 2013 and counting.
art pioneers and visionaries never strike twice the same way .. but just as surely as ANDY WARHOL delivered us up an advance ticket to the pop imagery and multi-media art forms to follow, and saturate our society, and just as JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT in turn foretold primal chaos and no holds-barred disturbo .. in the face of increasing mass computerism, facebook & digital photoshop . . . as they are fond of saying, “make no mistake” . . Alfredo served up the next decade, starting with the first fizzled-out World Trade Center bombing of 1993, and then the grand daddy, 9-11. going on to targeted mass destruction episodes in Europe and drenching the Mid-East in an on-going blood bath.
and now, Boston.
except in Alfredo’s case, for a number of personal reasons, as well as the collapse of the hard-core art scene into some kind of trust fund baby holding pattern .. and as well the very unconventional non-art, obviously edgy/aggressive content .. there was NO grand art world entry ($$) party. at least on the same upwardly mobile, ascent as followed Warhol and Basquiat.
in retrospect .. looks like extreme times, and its ‘unconventional’ army of extremist/individualistic radicalized warfare .. called out for extreme home-made ordinance. i.e. weapons, and Alfredo nailed it.
art. life. it’s a fine line . . . esp when you are walking on the edge.
in a nutshell: it’s an unknown but compulsive auto-response from the heart and the mind, the seer’s eye looking out .. that produces the bleeding, cutting .. edge.
maybe it’s part of our in-born shamanistic wiring, which in turn enables our ‘artists’ to prepare the tribe for the mind-set . . necessary to deal with, process .. events to come.
at any rate, Alfredo had an innate ability to build weapons. his earliest works were actual working replicas, i.e. guns that worked, that could be fired. they were (DIY) artisinal to the max. they took a long time to produce and as he revved up to fulfill the various gallery exhibits that trickled in, he had to cross quickly over into quicker production, and he started to produced cheaper, truly improvised non-working ‘weapons’ made more from, and for .. the imagination. hot glue held together pipes and tins .. culled from really found parts, as opposed to real .. ‘spare’ parts.
he also started drawing, and his work continued on a purely more poetic .. more formal, traditional art-like path.
he never really blew anything up, ok a small failed explosive device set off on a beach in the Hamptons one summer – singed his face for a while, and there was talk of a few bullets that bounced off target walls, but stopped just this .. short of doing any actual harm.
when the stupidity and elitism of the art world got to him, he turned to ‘art’, as opposed to weapons, to play out his frustration and .. pay the bills. He put out a couple of phony Basquiats .. turned out he was also pretty good at this, too. the ‘caper’ landed him in jail for a couple of years. but the worms did come out of the can, big time and haven’t stopped.
artist estates and letters of authenticity, ha.ha.ha.
ALFREDO MARTINEZ, ‘GUN’, JAN 2011. JOSH HARRIS STUDIO, WILLIAMSBURG. BROOKLYN, NYC.
approx 2 ft x 4-1/2 ft. chalk on canvas painted black.
some of his drawings are more technical. all have a primal ‘charm’. this one veers towards ‘caricature’, and is reminiscent of Keith Haring ‘subway’ chalk drawings.
ALFREDO MARTINEZ, ‘Ordinance’, JAN 2011. white drawing on an actual ironing board painted black.
JOSH HARRIS STUDIO, BROOKLYN, NYC.
actually the fuller title would be … ‘JOSH HARRIS-ordered ‘ordinance’ for Nancy, … cause you owe her . . big guy. big time’.
COLLECTION: NANCY SMITH
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
continues …
~ALFREDO MARTINEZ .. I.E.D. |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 21st, 2013, 9:43am
ALFREDO MARTINEZ – MEMORIAL ‘CARD’ – BY MATT ENGER. NYC, APRIL 2013.
actually not so funny, esp since the guys behind this wanted me to post an obit – like it was for real. they weren’t really being mean, they just wanted to, I’m guessing .. pump up the price of the artwork and get the money flow started ?
as if . . .
I think what I really responded to was the poetic text .. living on thru flowers.
that was the good part.
and that the deep dark edge .. of black humor, even in the face of real-time tragedy, still lives on in the deepest, darkest reaches of the NYC underground .. art scene.
just saying, as opposed to Sagmeister’s ‘NOW is BETTER’ package.
which is worse ?
if you even want to follow, I know .. it’s a s-t-r-e-t-c-h.
too many ghosts and too much violence. the human condition is pretty s-a-d.
we’re just so damn b-i-o. what do we expect. literally .. we are just blood and guts.
and top of it all. if it’s not for being totally messed up. psycho. faulty wiring, bad genes. then it’s for being competitive. greedy. territorial. and lost. and then accidents kick in too. fate ? how come nobody talks about ‘fate’, anymore.
if we weren’t bio – and totally lived on as ciphers, avatars .. then what ?
what if they could just put your brain on a hard drive, and into another test tube matched body. would you opt to be a drone .. to escape tragedy.
a world without tragedy, I mean isn’t that the ultimate future shock .. nightmare.
TOP TEN WAYS TO BUG – ALFREDO MARTINEZ
1. Start a false campaign announcing that he is dead.
2. Add 10 years to his actual age.
3. Invoke his dad Pedro’s name as the RSVP contact for the soon to-be-announced memorial.
4. Refuse to sell a phony Basquiat for him.
5. Get evicted from your tony Park Ave Apt for throwing loud, drug-fueled all-night parties .. so he has nowhere to crash.
6. Lose the farm .. so he has nowhere to crash.
7. Tell him CHINA .. is on the phone.
8. Tell him FEMA .. is on the phone regarding that little SHOOTING GALLERY GIG .. in WE LIVE IN PUBLIC.
9. No, just because Simon died, doesn’t mean you can move in.
10. and, yes the SENATE wants YOU – as poster boy for gun control.
ALFREDO MARTINEZ, ‘REPLICATE WEAPONS’, hand-built from found parts, 2001.
COLLECTION: ANDY MORRIS
first exhibited in …
‘QUIET, GUNS & QUILTS – JOSH HARRIS, ALFREDO MARTINEZ & NANCY SMITH’
JUNE 26 – JULY 20, 2001
SILVERSTEIN GALLERY, 520 West 21st St, Chelsea, NYC
on the left: ALFREDO MARTINEZ, ‘PIG MAN’, life size sculpture, found parts, 2001.
‘QUIET, GUNS & QUILTS’.
that’s SISSEL KARDEL, on the right.
ALFREDO MARTINEZ with ‘PIG MAN’ at the opening.
‘QUIET, GUNS & QUILTS’.
ALFREDO MARTINEZ with one of his home-made ‘Saturday Night Specials’. NYC.
OCT 30, 2001 .. yep a couple of weeks, after 9-11.
yes, that 9-11.
CHECK OUT: WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE
ALL PHOTO BY & COPYRIGHT: NANCY SMITH
~ALFREDO MARTINEZ .. DEAD or ALIVE |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 19th, 2013, 2:40am
NEEDLES & PENS, TBW BOOKS and TWIN PALMS PRESENT:
‘A PERIOD OF JUVENILE PROSPERITY’ by MIKE BRODIE
BOOK LAUNCH & SIGNING at NEEDLES & PENS – FRI APRIL 19, 2013 / 6-8 PM
NEEDLES & PENS – 3253 16th ST – SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
MIKE BRODIE, 2006. PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAUL SCHIEK – IMAGE C/O LOS ANGELES TIMES/PHOTOGRAPHY
CHECK OUT: reFramed: In conversation with MIKE BRODIE – posted by BARBARA DAVIDSON. APRIL 8, 2013 / LOS ANGELES TIMES
&
FOR DEFINITE SURE .. don’t miss the slide show – at the top of that post !!
CHECK OUT: TRAINS, PUNKS, PICTURES AND BOOKS YOU MAYBE SHOULDN’T READ – by CLAIRE O’NEILL. APRIL 12, 2013 / NPR
which begins
.. “before he discovered trains, BRODIE was bagging groceries in PENSACOLA, FLORIDA.”
he meets a girl, she takes him back home, “and that’s where, for the first time, he met a train-hopper, an 18-year-old Tennessee kid . . . ”
~MIKE BRODIE .. A PERIOD OF JUVENILE PROSPERITY |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 18th, 2013, 7:50am
wow, what a BUBBLE we do live in.
I only meant BLEEDING EDGE, as a metaphor, for cutting edge art .. I didn’t expect to see blood and gore and carnage all over the media and in the streets of Boston – just a day or so later.
thick and red .. on the streets.
SIX THINGS: SAGMEISTER & WALSH
MARCH 15 – AUGUST 4, 2013
THE JEWISH MUSEUM – 1109 FIFTH AVE, NYC
at any rate it shows you just how relevant art really is .. to the global conversation.
SAGMEISTER might not have it called it, exactly right .. but he asked the right questions.
so .. yes life is a slippery slope. (was it ever not ?)
so .. yes, maybe it was just the calm before the storm.
SO:
no, I don’t think it’s a BETTER time in human history – just a very different one. the implications and impact of diverse cultures colliding because of the web .. is just as ‘exponential’ in potential as any other impact digital technology .. is playing out.
this is the actual text that ran with the SAGMEISTER & WALSH project no. 6 – NOW IS BETTER / animated video.
(in collaboration with MATTHEW & ERIK HUBER.)
it reads:
“I’d much rather live now than in an other time in history. This is the first time that large parts of the world population can be in charge of their own destiny. The Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker shows that crime (Death by the hand of another man) actually decreased in every singe century over all the last 2000 years including the Twentieth Century that featured both world wars and the Holocaust.
NOW is BETTER.”
no, Now is different.
and a few, as opposed to hundreds of thousands, of terrible bloody mutilations .. arriving graphically, in your face and immediately .. around the world simultaneously .. does have an impact .. that cannot be denied.
it’s just different.
it’s also .. ironic that the mass universe of the web information today, makes smaller numbers – more lethal ?
it might not play out in the body bag count, but it takes a toll on all, and at all levels, not the least which is freedom of speech and .. whole generations not only growing up under threat, but living in downsized dreams and opportunities due to the vast sums of money & energy diverted to counter-terrorism & hi-level security.
I’m thinking .. and it’s just my PERSONAL take .. that as a ‘graphic’ designer, crossing the divide into no-holds barred design / content & then onto .. artist, by asking the BIG questions, and opening up a cross-cultural dialog .. that therefore, hopefully results meaningful thought and reflection, not to forget : HAPPINESS (!!) .. that SAGMEISTER comes off as a being in a BUBBLE .. with some of his conclusions, because he is a professional – ‘PACKAGER’.
he makes his living, bottomline – packaging goods, and services and websites, etc etc. and as such .. he is used to having a tidy & attractive .. wrap.
but consider .. SETH MacFARLANE & ‘THE FAMILY GUY’ . . .
it is SETH MacFARLANE’S job, and ART .. to make cutting edge .. comic book genre / humor that hits the ‘commentary’ button. i.e. more commonly termed: adult cartoon.
PHOTO: AP via DAILY MAIL
caption reads .. Pulled: Fox will not re-air an episode of the adult cartoon ‘Family Guy’ that depicts mass deaths at the BOSTON MARATHON
the episode, which first aired this past MARCH 17, 2013 and is becoming notorious through a souped-up edit going viral on Youtube .. (read the article ..) .. “features the show’s main character Peter Griffin, unwittingly befriending a terrorist who is planning to blow up a bridge and then accidentally detonating two bombs using a cell phone the friend gave him. In a separate and unrelated scene, the episode depicts Griffin reminiscing about how he won a former BOSTON MARATHON by mowing over runners in his car.”
surprise surprise .. some people don’t like being made fun of . . even if they deserve it (?)
and two: sticks and stones .. it’s only a cartoon.
though, I dunno, you know what they say: maybe the pen is mightier than the sword ?
I don’t think it’s a far stretch to say this episode might have triggered things, or given up a ‘tasty’ target . . considering the fact that ‘they’ say, in a nutshell, pressure cooker bombs .. can’t travel far, or they blow up prematurely. which I think might mean, they also can’t be built too far back .. before they are supposed to go off.
not that terrorists don’t have their own sense of humor. did you catch the name of the article that details how to make a homemade bomb like this .. that was put out by, I read this in a few sources .. Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch in 2010, in the 2010 issue of “Inspire” Magazine .. ( yes, this is for real !!) under the title:
“Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mother.”
well there’s the cultural diff in a nutshell, DIY bomb manuals vs gross American TV humor.
that’s also, further demonstration of what I mean .. by the insidious nature of this century’s war(s) .. and how everything is impacted by the information explosion.
case in point: (made you look !!) (see post below)
never mind, with the .. NOW IS BETTER.
BETTER WATCH it .. is more like it. or we are all gonna end up fat STUDIO GHIBLI characters .. speaking a new global language: blandspeak, yeah I’ve gone on about this before.
I did make a bad joke on APRIL FOOLS last year, inspired by that ridiculous two-ton all-steel life-size train engine that STUDIO JEFF KOONS was floating to hang from a crane .. over the Chelsea Highline. so I know from what, I speak.
next thing you know an internet ‘souvenir’ post card .. stating Al Qaeda is coming to New York pops up on the radar .. and it’s in the NEW YORK POST & being investigated by HOMELAND SECURITY, turns out it was .. just an ‘art’ student in Cairo ?
and I’m thinking damn. either artlovers has bonafide fans in Cairo, or the these guys .. really watch the web.
damn, it’s a complicated world. it’s a slippery slope.
the cutting edge .. really does, bleed.
funny .. how everybody thinks of technology as so .. non-bio.
oh for the faded days of the FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS breaking the art barriers .. depicting the newest dress styles on their mistresses (MET MUSEUM).
and apparently even .. the subject of mistresses wasn’t controversial ?
on which note: museums in Boston caned their admission fees this week – so people, I guess esp visitors from the marathon .. could have somewhere to go, to rest their weary heads.
1. well guess that takes the heat off TALLULAH (WILLIS) for smoking ‘weed’ (?) behind a dumpster.
2. and p.s. next thing you know, LENA DUNHAM will be blamed for setting off some 3rd party bomb, or does JUDD APATOW have it all – covered ?
and 3.
just wondering, since my daughter is 27 or so, and it’s no problemo (!!) .. just how old do you have to be .. for your mom to let you watch .. GIRLS ?
if I was 10, or even younger & I went to a kid-friendly (?) or maybe not, maybe just Artforum friendly .. Purim party .. I know I’d sure be CURIOUS, YES. about the guest of honor !!
BUT, you know what . . maybe that’s a … GOOD THING !! all things considered.
oh, the things that go in in your mom’s kitchen today, or what !!
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
~SIX THINGS: SAGMEISTER & WALSH .. NOW IS BETTER, after BOSTON is BOMBED .. ? ? |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 17th, 2013, 9:52am
SIX THINGS: SAGMEISTER & WALSH
MARCH 15, 2013 – AUGUST 4, 2013
THE JEWISH MUSEUM – 1109 FIFTH AVE, NYC
final set of PIX – FROM THE OPENING: MARCH 12, 2013
STEFAN SGAMEISTER . . .
b. Bregenz, Austria, 1962. established the design firm Sagmeister Inc, now SAGMEISTER & WALSH, in NEW YORK in 1993.
I remember reading somewhere that his father, or was it his grandfather .. was was a signmaker – back in the old country, and that he grew up around lots of old signs painted on wood, that is around lots of handpainted, handlettered .. calligraphy !!
anybody who is up to speed on contemporary art – knows the art of signmaking has entered a golden age. you can start with POP ART & ANDY WARHOL, continue with ED RUSCHA, and keep on going through STEVE POWERS aka ESPO, onto RETNA .. with innumerable stops, ok, such as .. SERF + MINT = MIRF .. in-between.
though Sagmeister’s forte seems to go beyond the ‘script’ itself, per se .. and into broader conceptual/thematic territory.
which is also an interesting ‘twist’ since unlike most of the purely ‘visual’ artists who explore and revel in ‘calligraphy’ he runs .. a commercial design firm.
go figure.
it’s hard/impossible to put a ‘defining’ number on creativity.
thank the lord, we really don’t live .. in boxes.
JESSICA WALSH . . .
b. New York, 1986
on the right, SANTIAGO CARRASQUILLA, a young designer who works in the SAGMEISTER & WALSH studio.
he is listed as a collaborator on the FEEL OTHERS FEEL – floor-based bubble letter water ‘fountain’ ..
with him, a friend .. JANE MILLAN.
excerpt: gold-lettered script running along the board where the walls meet the floor in the exhibit.
from the press release:
“In addition, intrigued by a 2010-11 nationwide survey in which JEWS reported the highest levels of well-being of all religious groups, the studio has placed a text in the gallery that connects scientific data to the personal exploration of happiness.”
oh oh .. speaking of which, TROUBLE IN THE BUBBLE !!
I dunno, maybe it takes one – to know one, but . . . OY VEY !!
that’s so GOYESHE !!
and so is the ‘font’ – bye the way ?!!
I mean even JERRY SEINFELD will tell you, first off:
well-being does NOT EQUATE to HAPPINESS . . . or, as he puts it .. more or less, and is he is huge successful on every ‘scientific’ chart you could throw at him, career, family, wealth etc etc .. “LIFE SUCKS”.
“it might suck a little less for me, than you. but LIFE SUCKS”.
I mean Jews are famous, for being .. unhappy.
come on .. design maestros .. on the your Path to Happiness – don’t strip us of .. OURS !!
where’s LENA DUNHAM, when we REALLY need her. or even WOODY ALLEN, for god’s sake.
I mean everyone knows how fragile the connection between surveys and conclusions .. really are. it’s such basic science, even a hard-core artist .. knows every interpretation of a survey .. comes with a disclaimer.
and in this case, it is so .. off the mark .. it makes an off-color remark by JOAN RIVERS look .. good.
or is this the “small glimpse of humor” SAGMEISTER is quoted, in the press release .. on hoping, you’ll be finding in show. NOT.
I mean I really wouldn’t be so upset, and I wouldn’t in any want to take away from a show that brought me to my knees .. in appreciation and delight ..
but who let that tone deaf text – go by the curator’s final edit ?
and it’s not that I’m insulted religiously or ethically, au contaire, the reverse. major.
it’s that these very people, who he concludes are the most happy because they score so well on a well-being survey (?!!) i.e. the most religious/observant .. would be the VERY first to say his, Sagmeister’s, work had NO place in a JEWISH museum.
the issue of ‘Modesty’ .. aside.
these are also the very first people most likely, IN ALL CASES, to get in the way of creative expression, art .. and acting/thinking outside the box – on the most basic level .. across the board, and would object to this show, from the very first image: implied NUDITY, even if covered up by water balloons, never mind the stark naked old lady .. further on.
and forget the so-called ‘happy’ observant applauding .. this foray into the “cutting edge” aka “contemporary art” scene .. which is why I presume, and applaud – the Jewish Museum for putting on this show – in the first place .. I mean, if you read my first post on this show .. I did question, and not in JEST .. I KNOW MY PEOPLE (!!) the tribe .. and, the artists at hand !! .. just how much the museum was prepared “to bleed” . . in the name of wanting to step forward with a higher profile .. in this culturally .. dense city.
as for the fact that .. “SAGMEISTER & WALSH has been engaged to create a new graphic identity for the Jewish Museum” .. haha.
what til they get a whiff of the naked .. SAGMEISTER & WALSH calling card !!
YEAH, you MOST DEF !! want to check out: made you look !!
maybe a quote from BAL SHEM TOV .. would have sufficed ?
image from: SAGMEISTER & WALSH, NOW IS BETTER
in collaboration with: MATTHEW & ERIK HUBER
and yes, it’s a goldfish, and yes it says: NOW.
and yes. to nakedness. in-your-face and, hard-core creativity .. anyway,
but but esp .. over the losers of the world, and esp the so-called observant who would have you live life in a box .. and then, be the first to rob you blind.
apart from, you know .. just saying, piggy aunts parading as pillars of society .. who rob your inheritance, so-called mainstream, and alternative/hipster (even worse !!) ‘journalists’ who steal your ideas & copyrighted photos, all the way to .. fat little baby-face dictators with itchy trigger thumbs, and the war machines inherent in our own ‘machines’ , not to forget: greedy super fat cat art collectors who buy art based on your direction, and then claim, when someone tells you they have just put up 3 Rob Pruitts .. on their living room wall .. no it wasn’t your advice .. I heard it at a party !!
.. you know, the whole god damn sorry – human spectrum.
NOW IS BETTER – oh my god .. does this goldfish talk to you .. the way it talks to me ?
like a flicker of coppery shimmery life, art, thought .. but so s-l-i-p-p-e-r-y.
slippery is the road to happiness .. or what ?!!
sugar cube, sugar cube on the wall ..
in the light of suicide, lethal ‘self-medication’ and nuke ’em war threats from a pudgy bubble cartoon figure come to life, STUDIO GHIBLI & ‘UP’ do come top mind, (!!) .. HAPPINESS seems particularly relevant, and you know what .. so is asking the big questions.
the funny thing is, the text – that accompanies this animated clip, refers to the times we LIVE IN (!!) sic, and not to the zen .. behind it all.
who knows, maybe it’s just the .. calm before the storm (/) if these days are the best days .. our world can come up with .. as the Sagmeister team posits, because there is less personal crime (?) and the ‘holocaust’ is behind us ?
meanwhile .. the globe is totally (scientifically) degrading ?
and all my best friends .. are dead ?
my last thought:
if ‘designers’ want to step into ‘big’ concepts they ought to get some ‘editors’ or producers or whatever you call them, JUDD APATOW (/) aboard . . I mean, did you ever notice how many of these guys’ names .. run on the closing credits for .. GIRLS ?
ok, my second-to-last thought:
for a text .. that could have, more successfully .. run in gold along the museum’s floor, (you know put your money where your mouth is Nancy ..)
and it’s from .. ISSAC BASHEVIS SINGER !!
“KINDNESS, I’VE DISCOVERED, IS EVERYTHING .. IN LIFE.”
PHOTOS BY & COPYRIGHT: NANCY SMITH
~SIX THINGS: SAGMEISTER & WALSH .. NOW IS BETTER |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 13th, 2013, 9:55am
GALLERIST DANIEL REICH .. at the opening of ‘JACK EARLY/VIEW JACK EARLY’S EAR CANDY MACHINE’, DANIEL REICH GALLERY, 537A W. 23rd ST, NYC.
JAN 21, 2011.
PHOTO BY & COPYRIGHT: NANCY SMITH
wow, it’s been a sad year in the art world.
. . . a banner year for ghosts.
GOING SNOW-VIEWING
ONE BY ONE THE
WALKERS VANISH . . .
WHITELY FALLING VEILS – KATSURI
according to artinfo .. via Artforum, Daniel’s family just went public with the fact that Daniel committed suicide this past Dec 25, 2012.
the artinfo article doesn’t say much more, but it ends with an excellent quote of Daniel’s .. that is very telling and very true .. of his aspirations and actual accomplishment.
see: RIP Chelsea Dealer Daniel Reich, 1975-2012 / artinfo
~DANIEL REICH, RIP |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 10th, 2013, 7:53pm
SIX THINGS: SAGMEISTER & WALSH
MARCH 15 – AUGUST 4, 2013
THE JEWISH MUSEUM – 1109 FIFTH AVE, NYC
FEEL OTHERS FEEL, text & water fountain .. the water, quote: liquid .. is activated by a piped-in sound.
IN COLLABORATION WITH SANTIAGO CARRASQUILLA
SOUND DESIGN BY FRIENDLY GHOST
(yes, GHOST…)
the text reads:
“Sympathetic empathy is central to most people’s understanding of love and happiness. I feel I’m somehow not all that good at it.
Everything that happens to me is immediate, while everything that does not happen to me needs to be mediated: There tends to be a difference between the way I process my own experiences vs. those of someone else.
The typography contains liquid activated by sound waves connecting each letter to the other and each word to the first.”
what .. the first sign of TROUBLE ?
TROUBLE TROUBLE, in the BUBBLE BUBBLE ?
of HAPPINESS.
it’s also referred to as: alienation, and being an ‘outsider’. a common creative driving force – the experience of the self, vs. the experience/struggle of the other.
well, at least he’s honest. in his sign making.
I struggle with this too. no, not being honest. being alienated
always being .. the ‘outsider’.
the consummate insider/outsider, what could be worse ?
the ‘fountain’ was flat on the floor, bubbles of water .. that bubbled up and went quiet, contained by bubble .. letters.
it was quite beautiful, and serene. but it was also .. w-i-r-e-d !!
trouble in the bubble ?!!
I don’t think that was the intention .. but, I found disquiet in spite of the harmless play of shape, movement and sound.
I dunno. beauty really IS in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it.
maybe beauty REALLY isn’t the point of these ‘signs’. maybe thought/communication .. is ?
OR: maybe it’s because I ‘talk’ to so many strangers, reach out on the web with this ‘blog’ .. go round and round .. wired, but have a hard time being engaged by single walking talking living specimens ?
the text is important in this show.
the text – is just as important as the ‘fonts’.
you can just .. see the how the water ripples to the sound.
but the letter shape is ominous. out of context. bland. a dish. an “o”.
I wanted to lean over, and fall head-first right into it. do an .. Alice-in-Wonderland thing.
grow big. grow small.
I didn’t want to think about others. I didn’t even want to contemplate my OWN reflection, which was impossible anyways. technically. the water did not reflect.
I just wanted to fall in, head-first. impossible technically, too. (too small) (too shallow)
though a security guard did have to tell me .. to step back. (for real)
somehow .. it made me think of .. LENA DUNHAM ?
in shape, and substance ?
ok.
with all due respect: the water ripples .. look just like the cellulite on your ‘gorgeous’, lumpy thighs.
I dunno, maybe it was that ‘friendly ghost’ – that spooked me.
FRIENDLY GHOST, that be .. NATHAN RITHOLZ and ARY WARNAAR, did the sound.
they are friends of SANTIAGO CARRASQUILLA, who did that FRIENDLY GHOST card/logo for them .. and who works in the SAGMMEISTER & WALSH studio, and who collaborated on this piece,
YES !! SEE: FRIENDLY GHOST COMMENTARY/SANTIAGO CARRASQUILLA
yes !! check out: FRIENDLY GHOST – love how that image wavers, on their website.
the ‘marbled’ header on the FRIENDLY GHOST website is by .. Luck You Collective
yep, for sure you want to check out: LUCK YOU
all of a sudden .. it’s lookin’ good !!
the wires connected !!
the dots got connected .. a new world IS just around, the corner.
the golden age of sign making – is US !!
well, ok. maybe it’s the second golden age of sign making, ever since those monks illustrated & calligraphed those ancient illuminated pages, of course. how VASARI skipped that, I don’t know.
I guess it was just .. folk art, back then ?
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~SIX THINGS: SAGMEISTER & WALSH .. FEEL |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 7th, 2013, 9:37am
FILE UNDER: didn’t KIM JONG UN .. get the memo ?
SIX THINGS: SAGMEISTER & WALSH
MARCH 15 – AUGUST 4, 2013
THE JEWISH MUSEUM – 1109 FIFTH AVE, NYC
STEFAN SAGMEISTER, ‘Keeping a Diary’, 2006. HD video, 1 min.
in collaboration with MATTHIAS ERNSTBERGER and STEPHAN WALTER. copyright STEFAN SAGMEISTER
on the road to .. PERSONAL HAPPINESS.
KEEP A DIARY !!
I remembered this short film from when it was first screened to a large public .. at DEITCH PROJECTS back in JAN 2008. a big, bold blow-out show, and a first, or a rare … and a major hit, for a quote ‘graphic designer’ in the art world proper, it was a SAGMWEISTER sampler titled: ‘THINGS I HAVE LEARNED IN MY LIFE SO FAR’. it was designed to make waves; SAGMEISTER, you got your one big chance .. make that shot count !! and as such, this truly beautiful dream-like loop .. read like a fleeting afterthought. not that that is a bad thing, but it was up against a big big gallery chock full of bolder callers .. including being festooned with a huge live/living, and then degrading .. banana wall/quilt .. that spelled out: “Self-confidence produces fine results”, and a huge blow-up 2 story chimp on the gallery’s roof.
the one page title graphics .. of this project were so fine .. though, that I had kept them in my mental file, and how nice to see them again. they are still a beautiful, even meditative study in black and white, west meets east decoration/information composition/label.
and so was .. the poetic narrative .. esp how it unfolded.
what a pleasing, inviting and gentle way to say: get over it. get on it. WRITE.
like the ‘If I Don’t Ask I Won’t Get’ video that fronts the exhibit, this video, which comes to view, when you round the next corner .. projects large, almost life-size, and since the physical space allotted to the show, and this is NOT a bad thing .. is small, you have to view it in a shallow up-close and personal/personal space. which is a good thing. but also a kind of, gets you-off-your-comfort-zone shock, as it creates/forces immersion. it subconsciously attacks your habitual inner space and it gets you to ‘share’. experience and feel. not just view.
a rare plane for graphics . . . the least revered of all art genres, but apparently not for long, the way things have been shaping up.
VASARI, we love ya .. but come on .. get up to speed.
so a man appears, and he pulls a bamboo structure, and as it progresses forward it says: KEEP. KEEPING …
I do love how that initial black and white title page .. leads into such a rural pastoral landscape. it ‘twerks’ the senses, that for sure.
I just got the perfect metaphor: it’s the visual equivalent of an ironwork gate .. that opens, onto a garden.
KEEP. that’s a big thought, just all on its own.
as opposed to .. destroy ?
its also interesting to think on .. what it means, to go from expressing KEEP .. to KEEP-ING.
visually, a box-like font devised physically out of bamboo – that’s .. a big thought, too.
civilization, creativity .. in a nutshell.
and, all just – just in one man-made .. image.
now you know why graphic designer/artists, have dropped the ‘graphics’ part, and just call themselves ‘designers’ .. today.
SUPPORTS .. is a throw-back/celebration to the ‘host’ country, and its culture. new meets old, too.
PERSONAL.
it kinda strikes you .. ‘personal’, is such a banner word ?!!
plus it’s so .. well, FRAGILE.
it brings up; competition, survival. even the greasy rat who won the Chinese horoscope race. I’m meaning: ethics.
it’s also a feel for how quiet and dreamy, this little ditty of a lifestyle quest is.
I mean that could be, in another lifetime, in anothers hands .. shooting sparking fizzing whizzing blazing fireworks, no ?
or even, electric neon. but it’s wood. yes, I find that: significant.
DEVELOPMENT.
well, lookie here .. there are fireworks, but it’s more like .. being / on fire.
write a diary.
I write a diary, I keep a blog.
ugly word. damn those early computer geeks.
if only words could be modified .. like fonts.
BUT: diary to blog.
now .. that’s talking about .. setting BIG conceptual/fires.
ps: re those ancient terracotta warriors just visible in the background . . .
apart from the greater concepts of civilization, war and personal territory . .
clay pots and sculptures, are pretty much the only thing, esp man-made – that will survive fire.
I know some artists in NYC, whose dad was pretty high-up in the American chain of command in wartime Korea, as a matter of fact, just saying because .. if you go visit their studio, ok they were twins, you can see this amazing stash of ancient ancient Korean pottery that the GIs made off with, and took back home.
can’t help but think .. that kind of attitude might be coming back . to haunt us, now.
he who takes ancient pots, offends old ancestors ?
MORE PIX – FROM THE OPENING .. POST SOON.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~SIX THINGS: SAGMEISTER & WALSH .. WRITE |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | April 5th, 2013, 9:19am
