August 2009
I have yet another idea for a new term I would like to add to the artworld discourse. After CC (Consensus Correct), PoPoMo, Pintophobia, Feeble Painting and the others, I now suggest "Art Circus Fleas." This is a term for all those perennial members of every huge artworld spectaclist event: Maurizio Cattelan, Ugo Rondinone, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Wolfgang Tillmanns, etc. etc. etc. The top o' the pops "every show's gotta have em," well-trained purveyors of cute ideas for trendy consumption. The artworld's equivalent of a minor sideshow attraction asking for great attention. Feel free to add names of your choosing to the list of Art Circus Fleas!
A 16 minute video wherein I, (the artist Mark Staff Brandl), as an action figure, deliver a TV evangelistic "sermon" calling the artworld back to inspiration, away from hypocrisy and sophistry.
Above: Tirtza Even and Toby Millman @ Spoke
Palestine Revisited
August 7-22, 2009
119 N. Peoria #3D
Chicago, IL 60607
Saturdays 11am-5pm, or by appointment
"Tirtza Even and Toby Millman each translate their experiences of personal encounters in Palestine into 3-D animations and cut paper works, spanning moments between 1998 and 2008."
spokechicago.blogspot.com
Above: Public Works Group Show @ Andrew Rafacz Gallery
Public Works includes Chris Eichenseer, Justin Fines, Cody Hudson, Andy Mueller
July 31 - August 29, 2009
835 W. Washington Blvd.
Chicago IL 60607
Tuesday-Friday, 11-6; Saturday, 11-5
www.andrewrafacz.com
Steve Durland was famous many years ago for his wonderful and often biting postcards from God, which were just that, sent to many artworld people. He also served as Managing Editor of High Performance magazine from 1983 through 1985, became editor-in-chief in 1986 and remained in that position until the magazine folded in 1997. In 1994 High Performance won the Alternative Press Award for coverage of cultural issues. Linda Frye Burnham and Durland co-edited the book The Citizen Artist: 20 Years of art in the Public Arena, an anthology of 20 years of High Performance magazine that was published by Critical Press in 1998. In 1995 Linda Frye Burnham and he co-founded and currently co-direct Art in the Public Interest, an arts nonprofit that is currently producing the Community Arts Network.
On his website, he has a very amusing Art Buzzword Bingo. The directions:
Print out and take this bingo card with you to your next arts conference. Mark off the buzzwords as you hear them; the BINGO square is a free square. If you get five in a row (up, down, diagonally), stand up and shout "Bingo!" as loud as you can. You've won!
Go here for the card! (The page dynamically draws a new Bingo! card when loaded. You must enable you browser's JavaScript feature to see the card.)
D. A. Powell's books include Tea, Lunch and Cocktails; the latter a
finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. His
most recent collection is Chronic (Graywolf, 2009). By Myself: An
Autobiography was penned in collaboration with David Trinidad and
published by Turtle Point Press. The following interview with D.A. Powell was conducted by Aaron Delee.
Delee: I've heard many people, academics and ordinary readers, saying that the
market has been flooded over the past decade with memoirs and
autobiographies; in light of your new chapbook, By Myself: An
Autobiography, what is your take on this?
Powell: Oh, yes, it's true. I think that was part of our initial impulse: knowing that the plethora of memoirs was out there, we went in fully aware that the chapbook was in part an effort to parody the genre. But it was only after we started that we truly began to understand what the form of the genre was. Everybody had the same story: strong grandmother, poverty, sense of otherness, being passed over for the role of Cinderella in the Christmas pageant, a desire for fame, a struggle to be noticed, surprise upon being successful, a nomination for the Golden Globe, an addiction.
