June 2008 Archives

"All modern art begins to appear comprehensible. . . when it is interpreted as an attempt to instill youthfulness into an ancient world," José Ortega y Gasset wrote in The Dehumanization of Art, adding that "Europe is entering upon an era of youthfulness."(1)

This was written over three-quarters of a century ago. A century before that, in the "Squibs" section of his Intimate Journals, Baudelaire wrote that "nowadays. . . youth itself is a priesthood -- at least according to the young."(2) The cult of youth, even of childhood -- what might be called the regressive search for the original freshness of being, for the innocent spontaneity and playfulness of the child -- is a constant of the avant-garde outlook.

All text from The Center for Biological Diversity

A relative of the Greater Roadrunner, the Yellow-billed cuckoo is also called the Raincrow or Stormcrow because its call heralds the coming of summer rains.

Hadara Bar-Nadav's book of poetry A Glass of Milk to Kiss Goodnight (MARGIE IntuiT House, 2007) was chosen by Kim Addonizio as the winner of the 2005 MARGIE Book Prize. Recent publications appear or are forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Chelsea, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, The Journal, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly, Verse, and other journals. Born in New York, she currently is an Assistant Professor of Poetry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She lives in Kansas City, MO with her husband, the furniture designer Scott George Beattie.

Loosening the House

The typewriter is feminine in French.
I grow larger every day.

A Bad at Sports Basel Art Fair Overdose!

The intro and outro are extra creepy this week. Highlights(?) include Duncan talking about some fantasy involving wearing tight short shorts and Teena McClelland!!! Tom Burtonwood interrupts the recording by shooting rubber bands. Chaos!

After Richard and Duncan are done making a mess of things, the real pros come in and present a fantastic report from Basel.

Lamis El Farra, emerging artist, and the EuroShark Mark Staff Brandl, seemingly perennially emerging black sheep artist, traverse and discuss the entirety of the King of Art Fairs, Art Basel. Yes: the Fair Itself, Art Statements, Art Unlimited, Scope, and the Solo Project. They only missed Liste and Print Basel. Sorry, but all the rest was already enough. Of course they were at the VIP opening (ahem) and managed to talk to more people than you can shake a stick at: artists, gallerists, museum directors, curators, critics, art magazine editors, fair organizers, all the hangers-on, ...er..., important elements of the international artworld.

Link to the podcast on BaS.

A show of 40+ photographs opens Friday, June 13 at Medicine Park (Chicago Avenue at Washtenaw) and runs through July 9. Friday's opening reception begins at 8 with dj Lauri Apple spinning. Details and a sample below...

Music video from Chicago's The Handcuffs, whose songs you've heard on MTV's "Laguna Beach," "The Hills" and "8th & Ocean;" A&E's "Rollergirls;" the soundtrack of the Sundance Award winning documentary "The Education of Shelby Knox" and more. The song for this video, "Can't Get the Girl (Without the Good Stuff, Baby)" appears on the band's debut CD "Model for a Revolution."

This Week on Bad at Sports Duncan and Amanda talk to Rachel and Ed "Edmar" Marszewski about Proximity Magazine. A wonderful interview about a great project. With Sharkforum, Bad at Sports, The Art Letter and now Proximity (and some other blogs too), we just might get some appreciation for the depth of the real Chicago artscene going.

The show also features a short segment on the interesting Spudnik printmaking location.

Listen here.

Continue reading We All Know The Shark Likes Anything Having To Do With War....

In a great post on his blog, photographer Dawoud Bey raises some very Sharkpack-like questions about how to circumvent the decided lack of appropriate institutional support:

"Within the past week here in Chicago there have been no less than two panel discussions on race and art production. More specifically these panel discussions (with vocal audience exchanges) looked at black art and black art production, or as yesterday's panel at the University of Chicago (in conjunction with the exhibition Black Is/Black Ain't) was entitled, "Post Black: There and Back Again." Thursday night's program at the Experimental Station, which was organized by Theaster Gates as part of the "Representations" series on culture, politics, and aesthetics, was entitled "Black Enough?"

Both of these gatherings were lively, engaging, and variously informative, and provided a much needed forum for the airing of ideas that usually take place away from the light of public discourse."