Sunday Theory

(This is an old post, I had it sitting as a draft. Figured I’d post for the sake of transparency. I am not sure if this is even interesting to me anymore. It certainly doesn’t seem very accurate.)

Is conceptual art, namely John Baldessari’s legendary, game changing (depending on your interpretation of the history of art but, for our use here, I am saying game changing) work ‘I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art’, more or less interesting because it is featured on the New Yorker’s home page in an advertisement for their new New Yorker iPad app? I am, of course, assuming that the title of the article refers to his work. Granted, answering this question depends somewhat on something alluded to in the first sentence – interpretation. But lets just say that Baldessari’s ouevre is both lauded and profoundly hated (because it is) and great and awful (because it is). Assume that you fall somewhere directly in the middle of these camps making you almost neutral and, therefore, almost negating the idea that you may even have an interest in considering this question but think about it regardless.

Consider context. Do not ignore the fact that the New Yorker app is not available on the iPhone yet (something that perturbed me to a healthy degree). Also, Baldessari is a caricature in the photo, a grandfatherly old soothsayer (which is kind of what he is in real life) who strangely, but maybe not accidentally, looks similar to how many people believe God to look. Ok enough.

“My Hood”

[2x]
Every time I do it I do it for my hood
And every time I do it I do it for yo hood
And every time I do it I do it for they hood
It’s understood I do it for the hood

The streets love jeezy and I love ‘em back
If I still had the work I’ll front you a sack
It’s all gravy still reaching wit my words
And make ‘em feel good on the first and the third
Take you back when I was sixteen wits a bankroll
Posted on a corner like a light pole
They used to call us track stars
Before they even stopped we ran to dem cars
And everybody on the block got the same agenda
Hustle from January til the end of December
Wasn’t smokin purple then it was more like bobby brown
On that hen straight dog got a nigga drinking brown (7/11 nigga you know)
You know 10 to 4 shake ‘em up talk shit get my drink and let ‘em go
Even when I’m on the road the gangstas stay in touch
Why you think they love me so much (ha ha!)

[Chorus]

I’m talking bout summertime cookouts and wintertime flights
It ain’t nothing we hearing shots all night
Ford Taurus pulls up everybody run
White boys jump out pointing wit they guns (5-0, 5-0)
Ford Taurus leave everybody came back
Hope dem boyz didn’t find my sack
Real recognize real I suppose
I guess that’s why the gangstas be at all my shows
Got the deal nothing changed but my clothes
Still catch me in the jects fuckin wit dem hoes (projects!)
Like coo-coo cal
Lord I wish mad Lou could see me now
Wish gold mouth was there wish mailman was free
A lot of niggaz crossing over dog no not me
Closest I been in the commercial’s when I watch TV
And everybody know I rep these streets faithfully

[Chorus]

Ford Taurus pull up everybody run
White boys jump out pointing wit they guns
Ford Taurus leave everybody came back
Hope dem boyz didn’t find my sack

[Chorus]
This will be a rather brief post in preparation for a longer exploration. Consider the lyrics above and, in your head, change ‘hood’ to ‘peers’ and words like ‘streets’ to ‘group of peers’ or ‘creative community’.

More soon.

I am reviving Sunday Theory!!

I needed some time off but I’m back!!

In an effort to write a bit more off the cuff in the midst of larger, edited down, re-sized, grammatically perfect endeavors, Sunday Theory shall be my Fort Knox. A bastion from which to launch critical grenades.

More soon…cheers!!!

P

I wrote about Jogging a few months ago. In short, they are a two person group using a Tumblr account as a kind of digital gallery space in which they post their own ‘work’, ‘art’, ‘sculpture’, ‘installation’, etc. I won’t waste time trying to quantify it now as it would take a great deal of time and thought that I just don’t have at the moment.

They just did something awesome after a month of little to no posting. Very worthwhile and strangely hypnotic…

News news news. So Google analytics (or whatever stat counting mechanism is built into WordPress) tells me that this page still receives views. What are you all doing? I haven’t posted in a month, if this was a relationship and I was paying this little attention, things would be over.

That said, I will make yet another weak hearted attempt at keeping Sunday Theory alive because I, and apparently some of you, kind of enjoy it. Lets cut right to the chase, J and I have decided to open a new gallery space out of our living room in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Some of you who have known us for longer than three years will remember that we have already ran small upstart spaces (a clean poorly lighted space in two different iterations), nothing amazing but something nonetheless. Our new venture is called Sadie/Halie and we are kicking things off by showing the work of a brilliant artist and great friend of ours, Darren Tesar. Darren is currently based in Glasgow, Scotland after earning his MFA from Glasgow School of Art. His work is quite interesting but I will spare you my as yet unformed opinions on it as I plan to do some heavy writing for the show. This is merely an announcement of the new space and to say that we are so so excited to get going. The show is tentatively slated for late October and there will be free drinks at the opening…do I need to give you more reason to come? Good.

Work of art was crappy but entertaining. In lieu of an informed and extensive post to come…here are a few thoughts via a Facebook status update. Names of commenters have been redacted to protect the innocent:

(ME): Abdi’s work was the best. Miles was so weak and Peregrine’s looked like a ringmaster barfed…minus the giant photo. That was nice.
Lesser of three evils. Will be interesting to see what Philips DePury hocks at auction and for how much…

(FRIEND 1): yep I agree

(FRIEND 2): i wanted peregrine to win!

(ME): Yeah, I think she would have been my second choice…they were actually right on the show though, her work suffered miserably from lack of editing. It was a glittery, colorful semi-disaster veiled in sentimentality and nostalgia.

(FRIEND 3): i wanted peregrine to win also!

(FRIEND 4): I hated Peregrine’s work since day one. Don’t know how her shitty little illustrations got her so far.

(ME): …yes, she is a good illustrator. The barf drawings were mostly winners but otherwise, come on….wasn’t her flimsy explanation something like:
“I want people to think about how people act in public places like a fair or a circus…”
…Why do I need to think about that, you eat fried food and watch animals ride tiny bikes…and there are clowns.

(ME): For the record, Peregrine seems cool but that stuff was just uninteresting.

Also, here is a lovely GIF of China Chow nodding in approval (via:Rising Tensions) of all the badness.

The wiener.

I totally missed this, and regretfully so, but Rhizome seemingly had occult net art/tech/new media day yesterday. I don’t have a lot of time but this was a standout. Reviews on ‘Lush Life’ still to come.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, Chuck Klosterman will be reading and signing tonite at 7 in the Union Square Barnes and Noble. FYI for all you NY appreciators of funny, watered down cultural critique.

Okay, so this post is going to be a bit short and maybe even preemptive but I wanted to suggest (on absolutely no authority) the series of nine exhibitions under the title ‘Lush Life’ happening now in NYC. They are curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud and Franklin Evans and inspired by a Richard Price novel that shares the same name. You can find most of the details regarding the shows here. If nothing else, you are in the Lower East Side, it is summer, and Sugar Sweet Sunshine has mind-blowing pudding.

Rest assured, I am going to check out, at the very least, the Lehmann-Maupin incarnation of this series tomorrow over lunch as it is close to work. I will report back, possibly offer insight, and maybe explicitly tell you to avoid the shows at all costs. However, based on the reviews thus far and the overall conceptual promise, I doubt that the latter will be the case. I look forward to an exciting review.

In other news, all apologies for not keeping up with things on here (though I know the readership is not hanging on every word), but work has kept me extremely busy and stimulated. Check us out, Blacklist!

JOGGING PRANK PEPSI SPILL CAN ADHERED TO POSTER OF WOMAN IN MUD IN PINK BOOTS sculpture, 2010

Comprised of artists Brad Troemel and Lauren Christiansen, JOGGING is an entirely internet and image based art collective that disperses all their content through an active Tumblr account. Zip files of the Dirty Projectors ‘Temecula Sunrise’ to be listened to in Chipotle, (possibly) photoshopped imagery billed as sculpture, installation, and performance and a compelling nineteen page essay on the future of art, JOGGING is doing something interesting. I hesitate to say ‘new’ just yet because this type of work has been generating its own community of artists through surf clubs and organizations like Rhizome for some time now. The fascinating thing about JOGGING is their real interest in evaluative models for said work and also how that work is ‘displayed’. Make sure to read the linked essay ‘Free Art’ for elaborations on those ideas.

Sorry, it has been far too long since I have even thought about writing on here. I am out of Cranbrook now (finally) so the Sunday Theory thing is, as it has been the last month or so, on indefinite hiatus. I like the project so expect a possible bigger and more diverse and open return in the future.

In other news, we leave for New York on June 1st. By we I mean Jennie and I, a completely dynamic and hyper critical team. Hire us! I hope to use this blog as a platform for writing show reviews and continuing to be critical of everything I look at, so you all can thank me later when I tell you to skip this or that show because it sucks. Before New York, there are some minor things happening around the Menomonie/Minneapolis area. By minor I mean drinking beer that I haven’t been able to drink in a while (New Glarus, Summit, Surly) and eating fried fish on Fridays outside on a deck, looking at a lake, and drinking the aforementioned adult substances. In slightly more exciting news, I am in a show at The Soap Factory in Minneapolis called Workhorse. It is a night of performance art that happens on May 27th starting at 8PM. If you are in the area, be there!! The Soap Factory is a great space and I heard a rumor that there will be drinks!