A glitz thing
Mar. 1st, 2006 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusAlthough for me being a songwriter, a journalist or a performance artist are all pretty much variants on the same basic activity -- storytelling -- they do involve working with different sets of people. They also involve different possibilities. For instance, in songs you have an opportunity to connect emotionally in quite a direct fashion with a lot of people, whereas in the art world (and it's in the art world that I'll be for the next three months, doing my unreliable tour guide act at the Whitney Biennial) you have the opportunity to be more free, original and experimental.
Last night the Whitney had its Biennial Preview Reception (the Opening Reception is tonight). It was my first chance to see the work I'll be making up stories about, the rooms I'll be working in for the next three months. It was also a chance to spot some stars of the art and music worlds. I'll certainly have more to say about the Biennial itself, but today I thought I'd just do a glitz thing about who was there last night.
DJ Spooky: I spent more time with Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky that subliminal kid, than anyone else. We both seemed to be there alone, so we decided to swing through the galleries together... or should I say "play the building like a giant record"? That's what Spooky intends to do when he DJs at the Guggenheim on (I think) March 10th, a fact he was very keen to impart to everyone we met. Now, I will admit that I've mocked Spooky online before for being "the world's most pretentious man", and there's no way around it, he is, easily beating me at my own game. The man talks like a book, and not just any book, a retro-1980s title from the semiotexte series. But it has to be said that he's very charming with it. I've decided that I like him very much.
Sonic Youth: Spooky also knows everybody on the New York art-music scene, so it wasn't long before we were in a huddle with Thurston and Kim. I smiled shyly (I'd never met them before) and let Paul do the talking. Thurston is very tall indeed, rather stooped and donnish in thick-rimmed glasses. Sonic Youth are down to a four-piece. The conversation was about what studios they'd been using recently. Ha, musicians!
Cecily Brown: Spooky introduced me to this British painter who's been in New York since 1996, and we mostly just talked about accents, and my tour guide schtick. But somewhere in the conversation we clicked. I'm not sure what it was, maybe she's just super-friendly, but the click was almost audible. Then she was gone. Later I found out that she's the daughter of one of Britain's most famous 20th century art critics, the late David Sylvester (why isn't she called Cecily Sylvester, then? Too much of a tongue-twister?), who famously duelled with John Berger over a theme close to Click Opera's heart, individualism-collectivism. Sylvester championed the individualism of Matisse and the American abstract expressionists, whereas Berger championed socialist realist artists and committed conceptualists. I'm firmly in the Berger camp in my attitudes and work, and Cecily is, unsurprisingly, in her father's: her work (it used to be about sex, but now it's more about landscape) is "painterly" and "expressive".
Others spotted: David Byrne was there, dramatic in a long white coat (he looks more and more like David Lynch's skinny younger brother). I didn't speak to him, but I wish I had, because we have mutual friends, and I like his journal a lot. Daniel Johnston posed serenely in front of his drawings, wearing a very clean tracksuit and white socks, his forward-teased hair making him look a bit like Paul Weller's pervy uncle. Kenneth Anger looked like a walking, talking deathmask of Marlon Brando. Klaus Biesenbach ignored me as he always does, despite the fact that I'm probably the only Berlin-based artist in this year's Biennial, and we've been introduced several times. (He's currently showing Wolfgang Tillmans at PS1.) Not many people seemed to know me as Momus, but one girl shouted out "I love 20 Vodka Jellies!" as she passed, ignoring Thurston and Kim. Oh, and I finally met a longstanding online sparring partner, Nitsuh Ebebe of Pitchfork (Nabisco is his online moniker), with whom I've recently crossed swords over the legacy of Betty Friedan and Bush's Middle East plans. I'm hoping we can do dinner soon, because our differences are very small ones.
Impressive though it was (it's a huge show, spread out over three floors), nothing in the Biennial touched me quite like the wonderful show currently on at the Drawing Center on Wooster Street in SoHo. Joëlle Tuerlinckx is a Belgian artist who works with the space of galleries, measuring them, controlling the light, making little peepholes and pockets between one room and another. Something about the way Tuerlinckx restricts her formal vocabulary to very limited shapes, yet uses so many techniques (little video projectors showing chalk lines being crumbled into paper, projected onto paper, partly-erased used car ads, vitrined letters and faxes, political stuff about Iraq, all displayed flat, on the wall, or in models) really appealed to me. Perhaps I'm incurably European.
Last night the Whitney had its Biennial Preview Reception (the Opening Reception is tonight). It was my first chance to see the work I'll be making up stories about, the rooms I'll be working in for the next three months. It was also a chance to spot some stars of the art and music worlds. I'll certainly have more to say about the Biennial itself, but today I thought I'd just do a glitz thing about who was there last night.
DJ Spooky: I spent more time with Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky that subliminal kid, than anyone else. We both seemed to be there alone, so we decided to swing through the galleries together... or should I say "play the building like a giant record"? That's what Spooky intends to do when he DJs at the Guggenheim on (I think) March 10th, a fact he was very keen to impart to everyone we met. Now, I will admit that I've mocked Spooky online before for being "the world's most pretentious man", and there's no way around it, he is, easily beating me at my own game. The man talks like a book, and not just any book, a retro-1980s title from the semiotexte series. But it has to be said that he's very charming with it. I've decided that I like him very much.
Sonic Youth: Spooky also knows everybody on the New York art-music scene, so it wasn't long before we were in a huddle with Thurston and Kim. I smiled shyly (I'd never met them before) and let Paul do the talking. Thurston is very tall indeed, rather stooped and donnish in thick-rimmed glasses. Sonic Youth are down to a four-piece. The conversation was about what studios they'd been using recently. Ha, musicians!
Cecily Brown: Spooky introduced me to this British painter who's been in New York since 1996, and we mostly just talked about accents, and my tour guide schtick. But somewhere in the conversation we clicked. I'm not sure what it was, maybe she's just super-friendly, but the click was almost audible. Then she was gone. Later I found out that she's the daughter of one of Britain's most famous 20th century art critics, the late David Sylvester (why isn't she called Cecily Sylvester, then? Too much of a tongue-twister?), who famously duelled with John Berger over a theme close to Click Opera's heart, individualism-collectivism. Sylvester championed the individualism of Matisse and the American abstract expressionists, whereas Berger championed socialist realist artists and committed conceptualists. I'm firmly in the Berger camp in my attitudes and work, and Cecily is, unsurprisingly, in her father's: her work (it used to be about sex, but now it's more about landscape) is "painterly" and "expressive".Others spotted: David Byrne was there, dramatic in a long white coat (he looks more and more like David Lynch's skinny younger brother). I didn't speak to him, but I wish I had, because we have mutual friends, and I like his journal a lot. Daniel Johnston posed serenely in front of his drawings, wearing a very clean tracksuit and white socks, his forward-teased hair making him look a bit like Paul Weller's pervy uncle. Kenneth Anger looked like a walking, talking deathmask of Marlon Brando. Klaus Biesenbach ignored me as he always does, despite the fact that I'm probably the only Berlin-based artist in this year's Biennial, and we've been introduced several times. (He's currently showing Wolfgang Tillmans at PS1.) Not many people seemed to know me as Momus, but one girl shouted out "I love 20 Vodka Jellies!" as she passed, ignoring Thurston and Kim. Oh, and I finally met a longstanding online sparring partner, Nitsuh Ebebe of Pitchfork (Nabisco is his online moniker), with whom I've recently crossed swords over the legacy of Betty Friedan and Bush's Middle East plans. I'm hoping we can do dinner soon, because our differences are very small ones.
Impressive though it was (it's a huge show, spread out over three floors), nothing in the Biennial touched me quite like the wonderful show currently on at the Drawing Center on Wooster Street in SoHo. Joëlle Tuerlinckx is a Belgian artist who works with the space of galleries, measuring them, controlling the light, making little peepholes and pockets between one room and another. Something about the way Tuerlinckx restricts her formal vocabulary to very limited shapes, yet uses so many techniques (little video projectors showing chalk lines being crumbled into paper, projected onto paper, partly-erased used car ads, vitrined letters and faxes, political stuff about Iraq, all displayed flat, on the wall, or in models) really appealed to me. Perhaps I'm incurably European.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 03:57 pm (UTC)From the Observer, which answers your question about her name: "On neither of these occasions did Brown know that Sylvester was her father. She had grown up thinking that her mother's husband, Robin Brown, was her father and that Sylvester was a family friend. But Mackay and Sylvester had rekindled an old affair, the product of which was Cecily.
"Once she knew she wanted to be a painter, she and Sylvester started going to more exhibitions together and she began to refer to him as her best friend. This made him uncomfortable, so he and Mackay went to see an analyst for advice and told Cecily the truth when she was 21. Sylvester, who died four years ago, once said in an interview: 'I do most things wrong in my life but with regard to the timing of telling Cecily I think I did quite well.'"
Arty types, eh?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 03:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 03:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 04:04 pm (UTC)http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1504491,00.html
I rather equate the lives of Soho artists with the lives of the saints, I think. Kissed George Melly the other day. He has an eyepatch, too...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 04:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 04:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 04:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 04:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 05:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 05:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 05:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 05:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 05:23 pm (UTC)momus at whitney (when)?
Date: 2006-03-01 05:49 pm (UTC)by the way, did you see on gawker about the "cocaine kate" doormat that was snuck in and installed replete w/ wall tag? hurray for art hacks!
Tim
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 09:17 pm (UTC)Blendie (http://web.media.mit.edu/~monster/)
Banksy's nephew (http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2006-03-01-painting_x.htm)
baby punting (http://www.perverts.nl/files/jardin.mpeg)
edible gods (http://www.chocolatedeities.com/index.php)
law enforcement aids (http://www.suspectgoods.com/jacket.html)
Japanese erotic tattoo (http://flickr.com/photos/wyweiyao/tags/人体艺术/)
Bounce-ometer (http://www.shockabsorber.co.uk/bounceometer/shock.html)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 09:22 pm (UTC)The Hand Up Project (http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/13/demaray.php)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 09:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 10:50 pm (UTC)And although I dislike DJ Spooky's writings and although he does talk like a Semiotext(e) book from the late 80s, he's incredibly nice, which takes the fun out of disliking his writing.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 11:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 11:38 pm (UTC)pictures?
Date: 2006-03-01 11:43 pm (UTC)if you have time can you please share some pictures of the art work on view for those of us not able to attend.
thank you
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 11:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 11:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-01 11:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-02 12:20 am (UTC)Did you get Cecily's phone number?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-02 01:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-02 02:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-02 02:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-02 03:17 am (UTC)The Blendie video is quite good. I've seen some works by the same person at the 2004 ISEA, when passing through Helsinki.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-02 05:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-02 05:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-02 10:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-02 10:17 am (UTC)maybe, but then again ... maybe not!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-02 10:27 am (UTC)Thurston Moore is both very polite and friendly while being at the same time nonchalant and "out of reach". Not only because of his height but of the "legend aura" that the indie crew has given him.
Jim O'Rourke is not very approachable; he comes across as cocky and as if he wouldn't listen to anything you'd have to add to the conversation you're having with him.
These were my impressions when I spoke to these two gentlemen.
A Bakunin quotation for your thoughts.
Date: 2006-03-03 05:23 am (UTC)Thanks for the wonderfully entertaining and expressive entries.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-05 02:07 am (UTC)