paintings + drawings

Electric parade.

I was a dj in high school -- spinning for school dances and parties -- when electro soul hit. Anything from the Jonzun Crew always got everyone on the floor (I think it was the sexy subtext). The same for Midnight Star. There were always a few kids who could pop or do the robot, but everyone mostly did some kind of stomp with hands waving in the air.

A few sounds in Wall-E threw me back to that time.

Here is a mini-retrospective:

Yellow Orchestra's "Tighten Up."

Herbie Hancock's "Rockit."

Soul Sonic Force's "Planet Rock."

Furious Five's "New York."

Jonzun Crew's "Space Cowboy."

Dazz Band's "Let It Whip."

Shannon's "Let The Music Play."

Midnight Star's "Freak-a-zoid."

R.I.P. Bruce Conner.

dead yesterday, age 74.

When I think of Bruce Conner I think of a truly prolific and experimental artist. The furry assemblages are great, the large abstract drawings as well. But the video he created for Devo's Mongoloid and the pictograms he made with Edmund Shea are always first in my mind when I think of his work.

From Kenneth Baker's obit in the Sf Chronicle: "Asked once by a critic to mention some artists who influenced him, Mr. Conner said, "I typed out about 250 names," and instructed the writer to add that "limited space prevents us from printing the remaining 50,003 names on Mr. Conner's list of influences."

Mr. Conner announced his own death erroneously on two occasions, once sending an obituary to a national art magazine, and later writing a self-description for the biographical encyclopedia Who Was Who in America." Rest is here.

Judi Collins calls out Fritz Haeg.

For the month of July, SFMOMA has brought Fritz Haeg to recreate his project Animal Estates. Debuting at this year's Whitney Biennial, Animal Estates creates model dwellings for animals that have been displaced by humans. Haeg, who has set up a tent-installation thinger in SFMOMA's Ed Center, is also leading a bunch of workshops.

It all seems like a big whatever to me - I mean, I couldn't care less, we learn about our mistakes (as a species or society) try a half-hearted remedy and walk away feeling alright about ourselves. It's another one of those ham fisted cross-media projects that do nothing but kill time and alleviate our guilty.

But Judi Collins, a commenter on SFMOMA's blog, is flippin' mad. She writes: "SERIOUSLY, this piece is so ridiculous! Art for the Whitney or 3rd grade art class?!?" I gotta say, she's right, in this case, what's the difference? Photo set from Sunday certainly helps prove her point.

She also offered links to these two videos, the second being a very strange parody of the first:

official Whitney promo video

remix.

Kurtis Blow vs. Tears for Fears.

If I Ruled The World.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World (live).

Better than you.

Today, I'm feeling some civic pride. So...

Attention SF hipsters and Berkeley hippies, we Albanians are here to kick your lazy un-PC butts. The Green Market Geography survey was released last week and yep, good old Albany is the greenest city in all of California.

Related: Putting stuff like this on the ballot is why Berkeley will always come in second.
Not really related, but amazing still: Albany, New York has a great collection of art.

And here is something else we've got that’s pretty cool.

Total drama island.

Hey, what's up with the slew of recent docs about anti-social, overly ambitious, status-seeking and sometimes lying artists?

Alice Neel.
Mapplethorpe in "Black White + Grey".
Chuck Connelly.
Small-town parents.

Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen In Love."

from TOTP 1978.

Three bits (here and there edition).

1. Artist and net philosopher/ethicist Chris Ashley offers some links related to this post: Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) and "Reductio ad Hitlerum."
2. Dean Smith is in “microwave, six” at Josée Bienvenu gallery. July 10 – September 13, 2008.
3. J. T. Kirkland has begun a new project, “Artists ‘Review” Artists.” Sign up here.
4. Kenneth Baker drives a stake into the heart of Dale Chihuley (at the de Young, of course). But likes Moose on YouTube.

You f*cking Nazi.

I'm sure you've been around someone who does this, compares someone they don't like to Hitler: "Being a truly advanced white person means being able to speak with authority about pretty much any field of conversation- especially politics. In order for white people to streamline the process of knowing everything, all human beings can be neatly filed into one of two categories: People I Agree With, and People Who are Just Like Adolf Hitler.

Comparing people to Hitler is an easy way for white people to get a strong point across to the less enlightened, or the insufficiently white. Everyone knows who Adolf Hitler was. And everyone knows that Hitler was very, very bad. Therefore, if a white person really, REALLY, doesn’t like something or someone, he or she may angrily say something to the effect of, “This is exactly the same kind of thing that Hitler used to do!” accompanied by varying levels of profanity based on blood-alcohol content. No matter what your gut reaction may be at that point, do not disagree with that white person. Otherwise, well, you love Hitler."

Rest is here.

Photo: Ping News.

Today's photo.

More on the conservation efforts for Modern Art.

On a recent edition of NPR's "Talk of the Nation," Timothy P. Whalen, director of the Getty Conservation Institute, and James Druzik, senior scientist at the Getty Conservation Institute, shed some more light on contemporary art preservation practices. (via Sharon Butler)

I bemoan the changing colors in SFMOMA's collection of Clyfford Still paintings here.

Photo: Chris Ashley.

I heart Roger Brown.

You do too? Then check out some images from his recent show at DC Moore, snapped by Martin Bromirski.

Today's playlist.

 

Feasting and Drinking Went on Far into the Night

Feasting and drinking went on far into the night
but in the end we went home alone to console
ourselves  which seems to be what so many things
are all about  like the branches of a tree just after
       the wind  stops blowing.

-Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt, Richard Brautigan 1970.