Jesse Hazelip: “The Belle of the Brawl” at 941Geary

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David Wojnarowicz Video Now Live on Vimeo

I just learned from @paddyjohnson Twitter feed that the controversial video by David Wojnarowicz is now live on Vimeo. Thanks to P.P.O.W. Gallery for publishing and standing up against censorship.

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New Style Curators Panel Discussion

An incredibly fascinating discussion is circulating around in the art world. As the presence of New Media art forms extend from the esoteric and rarely seen – in the case of Jst Chlln – into the light of the everyday, with online exhibitions presented on Youtube and the option of replacing Firefox ads with art, there comes into question the redefined role of the curator. Enter last month’s “New Style Curators” panel discussion at the New Museum featuring Paddy Johnson of Art Fag City, Ceci Moss of Rhizome at The New Museum, online media consultant Rex Sorgatz, and moderator Joanne McNeil of the Tomorrow Museum. In this influencial group’s attempt to answer the question of what online curating means, it only seems to stir up more questions – for them as much as for us. Do tweeters, re-tweeters, long-form bloggers, and folks with Tumblr accounts count as New Style Curators in their own right? They are, after all, selecting the images, words, and multimedia content that have special significance to them. What I’m curious to know, is what this means for the future of the traditional gallery space and the displaying of web-related art content? Will the “white space” be replaced with “no space”? I can’t wait to find out!

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Hide/Seek: A Curator’s Comment on the National Portrait Gallery’s Censorship of David Wojnarowicz

“Bottom line, if people don’t say what they believe, those ideas and feelings get lost. If they are lost often enough, those ideas and feelings never return.” – David Wojnarowicz

This quote is from the website of David Wojnarowicz; a posthumous warning that foreshadows the recent ethical plight between the National Portrait Gallery and “A Fire in My Belly”, a video by Wojnarowicz that was recently censored from the museum’s “Hide/Seek” exhibition. In the first major museum exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture, “Hide/Seek” considers such themes as the role of sexual difference in depicting modern America; how artists explored the fluidity of sexuality and gender; how major themes in modern art—especially abstraction—were influenced by social marginalization; and how art reflected society’s evolving and changing attitudes toward sexuality, desire, and romantic attachment. Wojnarowicz created his video piece “A Fire in My Belly” as a response to the “agony and suffering” of his partner who at the time was dying of AIDS. The piece includes some fairly grotesque imagery to comment on the fragility of flesh but it’s the scene in which a cross is covered in ants that caused the video piece to be removed from the exhibition at the behest of Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League who deemed the work “hate speech”.

In an act of solidarity, TRANSFORMER, an alternative art space in D.C., as well as the New Museum in NYC have decided to take a stand on the side of freedom of expression and are looping the Wojnarowicz video for all to see. Argot & Ochre supports the expressive creative projects of all voices and has invited MANIAC Gallery curator and art writer, Petra Royale Bibeau to share her comments on this topic.

(rebuttal for the removal of Wojnarowicz work from SEEK/FIND exhibition at the NPG)

WORSE THAN A CULTURE WAR, THE ABSENCE OF ONE.

By Petra Royale Bibeau

The censoring of the Wojnarowicz piece at the National Portrait Gallery due to claims of an “anti-Christian” sentiment has highlighted the importance of the nations alternative spaces. While the Catholic League For Religious and Civil Rights, an organization along side House Speaker John Boehner, behind the claim of the anti-Christian sentiment, boasts a mission to ‘protect religion and its freedom of speech’, citing the First Amendment, TRANSFORMER, a DC alternative space, has taken up the slack by hosting the video on loop in their storefront window.

With the National Portrait Gallery’s decision to remove Wojnarowicz’s work, the idea of freedom of speech has again become limited and exclusionary, removing the same right for others, and worse, without any acknowledgement of the major flaw in reasoning. Most concerning, is what Christopher Knight of the LA Times pointed out regarding Smithsonian’s Secretary G. Wayne Clough’s act of removing the Wojnarowicz piece from the exhibition: “Clough’s unfortunate decision gave tacit credence to their claim that the censored art is “anti-Christian.”

If it is called anti-Christian, it is so in the sense that the Church does not appreciate the legacy of their judgements during Wojnarowicz’s time viewed now through a contemporary context. Wojnarowicz’s ‘Fire In My Belly’ visually establishes a haunting account of both American governmental and (largely Christian) religious resistance of the epidemic during the height of the AIDS crisis in America by using larger/global iconographical reference. Specifically, the work addresses the harsh global realities, more so than personal commentary. The fact that Wojnarowicz’s use of a cross covered in ants as a symbol relaying the sickness of the sheer amount of people dying due to the rapid spread of AIDS coupled with the dismissal of the epidemic by the Church, is being called into question as anti-Christian precludes the real issue of historic relevance and integrity. Not only an integrity loss for the millions of people effected by this particular point in time, but also the integrity of a secular institution to successfully curate and develop full exhibitions historically and culturally relevant to an audience. The unfortunate removal of the work is an insult to LGBT community, as it goes without saying that this work is both historically accurate and relevant to the whole of the exhibition and is an important part of American art history.

Adding insult to injury, Clough’s decision of removal came across as apologetic as cited on the National Portrait Gallery’s website in a letter apologizing for offending anyone. Whereas Boehner and the Catholic League expressed no hesitation asserting a gross demand on the claim that a portion of Wojanrowicz’s piece is considered ‘anti-Christian’, The NPG, a secular institution gatekeeping cultural relevance in the public sector did not provide an appropriate context and/or rebuttal to this claim. This negligence alone begs the question: what is more insulting, the fact that the work was removed, or the fact that no one provided the appropriate context and insisted on its merit and worth for inclusion in “the first major museum exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture”?

This is a simple and obvious issue of censorship that esteems to alter and erase history and to replace with an edited version by the same institution that the art was being made to address in an educated manner. The removal of this work seeks to destroy and discredit the very real struggle and public plight of the LGBT community specifically from the late 1970s onward in the face of gross negligence and superfluous public hate campaigns.This is no different than removing atrocities dealt to African-Americans during civil rights to appease a white majority and calling any reference to said atrocities anti-American, for example. The integrity of American intellect and history is at great risk with these types of decisions, most especially when responsibility is not taken for specific acts and reasoning that have shaped the American psyche for the past 30 years. This is not an acceptable decision, nor is it appropriate to censor a real expression from the point in time where this work was conceived under very real conditions, in response to very real attitudes that permeate our society to this very day.

In 2010, this issue is not as closely related to the 1990s culture wars as expected. This isn’t simply a question of conflicting cultural values, as this issue has only really been unilaterally dealt with, it gives the appearance as there are no real conflicts with the decision or consequence, or as Knight argues, the label itself. There has been little to no rebuttal from Clough or the Smithsonian, and it has largely gone (critically) unaddressed. As gatekeepers of culture, if that is in fact the position defined, it is their job to assure cultural relevance and historic accuracy for the public. Political and/or religious bargaining is not on the agenda. For now, if you wish to see the entire HIDE/SEEK exhibition, including Wojanarowicz’s piece, the missing video is being playing on loop in the storefront window of Transformer, an alternative space in DC.

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Interview With Glen E. Friedman x Shepard Fairey by Colin Day

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Quintetto by Quiet Ensemble

Quintetto is an installation by Quiet Ensemble based on the study of the casual movement of objects or living creatures used as input for the production of sounds. The basic concept is to reveal the “invisible concerts” of everyday life.

The vertical movements of the 5 fish in the aquariums is captured by a video camera that translates (through a computer software) their movements into digital sound signals.
 5 different musical instruments create a totally unexpected live concert. The installation was born with the collaboration of the Aesop studio
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Street Safari: Hunting Trophies of Dubai by Vincent Fichard

I don’t know much about Vincent Fichard, AKA Vincent Who, but I believe in the work he’s doing. From what I gather from his bio, he is thoughtful and heartfelt – two qualities that are indispensable to an artist who makes it his mission to enlighten through narrative and inspire with strong ideas. Vincent is a traveler. He’s lived in places that I can only dream of visiting – South Africa and the Middle East – and now lives and works in Paris, France. Where he’s lived is important to note because, unlike the average globetrotter who’s passport stamps and dusty collection of souvenirs are the only record of said travels, Vincent created bodies of work that reflect upon his experience and time spent in the places he visited. In 2007, he created the lovely short film “Go Around Twice if You’re Happy”, which has received over 1 Million hits on Youtube and is one of the most discussed short films on the site. Check it out:

Vincent Who’s latest project is this Street Safari series, inspired by his experience in Dubai. Rather than glorifying the superficiality of wealth and mega-tropolis trappings that Dubai embodies, Vincent reflects on the wasteful exuberance of a culture that is not considering its impact. These days, it’s difficult to make a political statement without scaring people away. I believe Vincent Who manages to hold his audience’s attention through clever story-telling and a non-judgemental depiction of the subject matter at hand. I really enjoyed this body of work and hope you do too. Continue reading for more images and info on the work in the artist’s own words.

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Giant Stinson Beach Bubbles (Shot with Canon 550D)

I could watch this video for hours. The fiery bursts of rainbow color, the textured ripples of air extending along the bubble’s surface as it drifts through the air like a satin sheet in the wind, and watching the bubble reach its elasticity threshold and disappear backwards, from tail to tip. Gorgeous.

 

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Banksy Simpsons Episode

UPDATE: Fox pulled The Simpsons Banksy intro from Youtube for copyright infringement but you can still see it here.

Everyone is talking about The Simpsons intro Banksy directed, and those of us here at Argot & Ochre are no different. The intro is brilliant: poignant without being too serious and a true act of covert politics, finding its way into the homes of hundreds of thousands of viewers. I have no idea why a mega corporation like Fox would have the guts to invite an artist like Banksy to direct The Simpsons intro in the first place, much less actually let said intro run. I’m hoping they stand behind Banksy’s message and aren’t just hungry for hits on a viral marketing campaign. But regardless of the reasons why they allowed such a dark message to run, I’m glad they did.

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Art and Taxi Cab Drivers

Film still from Transient

Art invades the streets via New York City cabs.

From September 9 through September 15, visual artist Amir Baradaran will debut TRANSIENT, a series of 40-second video installations infiltrating NYC taxicabs for one week. “TRANSIENT is intended as an ephemeral gift, foregrounding the possibilities of liminal states. Baradaran seeks to capture, challenge and transform the everyday modalities of NYC cab rides by interrupting Taxi TV’s regular programming flow in 6,300 taxicabs, to be viewed by approximately 1.5 million passengers. Using the technology against itself, TRANSIENT solicits focus in a space marked by dispersed attention and invisible human boundaries. Comprised of shots of a driver’s steady gaze in the rear-view mirror or through the grainy, often-stained plexiglass partitions, the incisive videos take the experiential disjuncture between the driver and passenger as their point of departure. ‘It was not my intention to make a humanist statement,’ says Baradaran, ‘but rather to create a space of introspection.'”

Read more.

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