This week in (what's left of) magazines

[imomus]

I'm trying to explain stuff in art magazines to my rabbit. For me they're things you read, but Baker just keeps trying to eat them.



I'm reading the new ArtForum and the new 032c. ArtForum has Tacita Dean, Lucy McKenzie and Alain Badiou features. There's an amazing letter from some LA curator who ran away to Caracas to foment communist revolution because "cultural institutions (such as museums and ArtForum) are part of a deeply corrupt bourgeois representational context". Baker munches at the glossy pages the letter is printed on, demolishing it more effectively than Liam Gillick's reply.

"I claim, for the image, the humility and the powers of a madeleine." That's ArtForum quoting Chris Marker and applying it to Tacita Dean. For Baker, the whole page is a madeleine. He eats it.

Some people think animals have "Buddha nature" and, like boddisatvas, can lead us to enlightenment. I flip over to the Badiou interview. This is perhaps our greatest living philosopher. "What I call the "passion for the real" which I consider to have been the dominant passion of the twentieth century, is also a passion, precisely, for form," says Badiou. Baker problematizes the magazine's spine, questioning its pages.

I turn to 032c. It's the "post-heroic" issue. They show some lovely landscapes of Iran, interview the editor of Bidoun magazine, and run a Pynchon short story called "Entropy". Richard Hamilton is in there too, looking ludicrously, cheerfully horse-faced. He's 84. He's talking about being asked in the late 70s how it felt to be a father of postmodernism. "I didn't know what postmodernism was. I felt a bit stupid to be a father of something I'd never heard of -- like a donor to a sperm bank being confronted by a dysfunctional offspring on his doorstep."

Baker keeps consuming. Magazines, for him, are just paper objects. He's a boddisatva.

Comments

[222b.livejournal.com]

That's a cool pic of you. You look rather latterday Bowie-ish.

[cityramica.livejournal.com]

my kitten is the same way with art magazines. wall art as well. i let her do it. i'm pussy whipped.

i just arrived in nyc! horray! the woman on the 032c cover is lovely. &i agree that the photo of you looks good.

[peripherus-max.livejournal.com]

Because you move around so much, I often wonder if there is an Akashic Records of pomo culture that you've acquired in the form of magazines sitting in storage somewhere...

Or is Baker your new form of recycling? :)

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

My dog prefers library books. They're a bit more gamey. I tell him "you don't know where that's been". "Exactly", says he.

[jasonturner.livejournal.com]

For Halloween I wanted to dress up as a superhero explaining comic books to a dead cartoon rabbit. But I didn't quite have the energy to explain it all day.

[earnosethroat.livejournal.com]

"Entropy" is an excellent short story. It's in his book of early stories entitled Slow Learner. The book's ok, but "Entropy" is amazing.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi momis itm on a thinn cluenbut. Don't read magazines anymore too much paper

[xishimarux.livejournal.com]

The picture of your rabbit eating artforum needs to be printed and hung in a gallery. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Right. That's how I prefer my men0not quite sure where they were yesterday. Signed thin client on myspace

[(Anonymous)]

This hit shows up tonight an advertising billboard guy. I'm like can I tell me where all the dead billboards live. He says that's classified. Then he axya give me a blow job. I'm like I'm kinds busy right now. see I don't need a livejournal blog anymore will just out it all right here. Hello this is zzberlin recently of east oaklzabd

[(Anonymous)]

John law is on a bridge again

[(Anonymous)]

I am so ralthy. Got pizza. Good job. More alcohol than any human being besides my self could ever imagine drinking in one sitting. bet Dorothy Parker didn't stock up this much. Plus weed and good boyfriends. Am the wealthiest person on the planet rite now flynn

[(Anonymous)]

You think momis moves Around a lot. Haha I show up at Comcast today like hello can you pla turn it on on 6th ace. They're like honey yer residential history makes it difficult for is . Complicated PPI dog pondered

[(Anonymous)]

What does it mean. Out of every four clicks I go to your writing. Think that means I r. Important.0hello its zz again

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Atleast those pages eaten by Baker won't be contributing to the ever growing amount of trash in the world. Go Baker!

[(Anonymous)]

Wow everywhere I post today they're like helloo you r too wasted to post. But livejournal doesn't care if wasted. They let me post anyway. Giggle. Hi zz

[(Anonymous)]

I click on yer blog then I throw the handheld across the couch because I know it will take a couple seconds. I have no idea where I am right now. Danger

[rroland.livejournal.com]

can you share the secret of your follicular resurgence? i remember when you were living in NYC you were somewhat challenged in that realm.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I shaved it in New York. I am thinning, but I seem to have the world's slowest thinning hair. Thickening shampoo, upside-down blow-drying, cunning styles and careful photography all combine to make it look like I have quite a respectable head of hair. In fact, I'm thinking of growing it longer and covering up the thin bits with a top-knot. I don't want to go the barcode route.

[spin-the-blade.livejournal.com]

[uberdionysus.livejournal.com]

I despise equating creating and trafficking in art and visual imagery with direct political action.

There is overlap in everything, and certain pursuits are more nobel than others, but that does not mean that they equate.

Grr.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi its zz wishing 3 had a FAt client dangerps that a. So momus a
Shows

[(Anonymous)]

I wd lik to leave a comment but can't remember where I anm. Hello eastboakland

[freesurfboards.livejournal.com]

You may have heard this story, but if not . . .

a woman wrote in a letter to suzuki, the zen master
"I have a picture of the Buddha I keep on my fireplace. My little child keeps eating it! How do I teach him respect of the Buddha?"
and suzuki replies
"You can learn a lot from your child, you too should eat the buddha."

It's reprinted in one of suzukis books though I forget which one.