The Jesus of Generation OMG

[imomus]

The Generational: Younger Than Jesus is a group show at New York's elegant SANAA-designed New Museum, a triennial featuring fifty artists from 25 different countries. The show, which opened last week and continues until July (it'll be the first show I get to see at the New Museum; the place hadn't quite opened last time I was in New York), is a survey of artists under the age of 33, the year of Christ's death. Up there on the cross, Christ cried out "Oh my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And some (Jerry Saltz, for instance, taking his cue from a piece by Berlin-based artist Daniel Keller) are calling this "Generation OMG".

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The New Museum's video ad for the show features Post-It notes scribbled with buzz-phrases supposedly characteristic of the below 33 generation: idealistic, multiethnic, post-racial, recycler, Facebook generation, hipster, green, indie, atheist, drama queen, SMS, Harajuku Girls, soulless, stalker, nomadic, manic depressive, ADHD, patriot, fake, individualistic, target audience, peer-to-peer learner, No Logo...

James Kalm has done one of his video reports on the opening, and mentions that the New might be trying to steal some thunder from the Whitney Biennial in this new triennial, trying to harness some of the uptown institution's youthful energy. Like the Whitney, the New show has some artists crossing over from the musical counter-culture; a Brendan Fowler (aka BARR) piece references AIDS Wolf, for instance. And it's good to see my favourite Glaswegian art documentarist Luke Fowler's RD Laing film getting another airing.

Reviewers like Peter Schjeldahl in The New Yorker and Jerry Saltz in New York magazine seem pretty unanimous that the star of the show -- the Jesus of Generation OMG, if you like -- is gay, Philly-based, RISD-educated Ryan Trecartin.



Now, Ryan Trecartin had one of his insane, Paul McCarthy-ish, Warhol-films-ish YouTube-like (and YouTube-available) psychotic soap operas in the 2006 Whitney Biennial. Working there every day as the Unreliable Tour Guide, I soon noticed that the monitor featuring the work attracted a younger, cooler, more respectful crowd than anything else in the show, and there was nothing I could do to distract or amuse them. So I made a circle around it; Trecartin's fast-edited video with its queasily-impressive video effects and its clever scripting couldn't be satirized.

Saltz reports that Trecartin's two-room installation at the New "involves a jet-plane interior, hanging suitcases, and videos of crazy kids of indistinct gender talking about tourism, time shares, and the credit crunch. Seeing it is like being patched into all of the computers in the world at once. Trecartin’s ecstatic poetics of overload, color, and density promise to influence a generation of artists". Serious talk.

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Reviewing Trecartin's I-BE AREA (2007), a feature-length (and crazy-making) video available in its entirety (should you have nerves of steel) on Ubu.com, veteran New York Times art reviewer Holland Cotter emphasized the gay qualities of the work:

"We're in a house of many tight, messy rooms. In the suburbs? Cyberspace? Hard to say. Anyway, it's night. A door bangs open. A girl, who is also a boy, dashes in, talking, talking. Other people are already there, in gaudy attire, dire wigs and makeup like paint on de Koonings. Everyone moves in a jerky, speeded-up, look-at-me way and speaks superfast to one another, to the camera, into a cellphone. Phrases whiz by about cloning, family, same-sex adoption, the art world, the end of the world, identity, blogging, the future. Suddenly indoors turns into outdoors, night into day, and we're at a picnic, in dappled sunshine, with a baby. Then this all reverses, and we're indoors again. A goth band is pounding away in the kitchen. The house is under siege. Hysteria. Everyone runs through the walls."

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(The running-through-the-walls bit is particularly impressive, I have to agree.)

"For queer artists of Mr. Trecartin's generation," Cotter continues, "cross-dressing, cross-identifying and cross-thinking are part of a state of being, not statements of political position. Like the work of John Waters and Jack Smith, his art is about just saying no to life as we think we have seen it and saying yes to zanier, virtual-utopian possibilities."

I get a camp aggression towards normality from the films -- all the characters seem exaggeratedly obnoxious, the settings ugly, heightened from normality into a kind of farce-normality. And yet the pushing-into-garishness of normal suburban ugliness (which happens also formally, on the level of edits and video effects and dialogue) actually becomes weirdly compelling, and suggests a utopia of artificiality, a kind of peacockery of ugliness which becomes a new sort of beauty. I don't think you could really ask anything more of a 28 year-old artist. Hail the new Jesus of OMG!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Momus, what are your thoughts on the 1986 hit 'Digging Your Scene' by the Blow Monkeys?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I remember it being a bit of a guilty pleasure back in the day, caller. Any thoughts on Ryan Trecartin's psychotic psoaps?

Why the Blues couldn't be born in 2009

[(Anonymous)]

I think the under 33 generation is far too clued up about 'staying positive and positive things will happen', the sell-yourself philosophies of the 80s and 90s (born in the Warholian 60s, as previously discussed). From an early age, they are happy having a constructed front and no 'authentic' inner self. As a genre, dust-bowl blues would not be born today; I don't think people in West-East capitalist societies have the righteousness.

What they do tend to do is flit between the charm of infantilism, the silly, and morbidity. "You're so brashly colourful and childish and nothing but surface" is the accusation. "No, look - we talk about death! Self harm and Death!" is the reply, as if that infers instant depth. A cycle of mad kiddy and ghostly.

I'd even add jazz to the list of things that simply couldn't be born in 2009, at least cool jazz. Anything cool doesn't have the endless zing and self-advertisement required to survive on Planet MySpace.

Morally, I don't care.

The art = I'd like to visit. I think art colleges are scared to teach theory and even notions of quality these days. I saw some Tala Madani paintings recently and they looked very 'car boot sale'. Maybe I'm just not getting it, maan.

Re: Why the Blues couldn't be born in 2009

[imomus.livejournal.com]

as if that infers instant depth

You mean, of course, confers (sorry, editor's hat).

I'm not really convinced by the argument that jazz and the blues had authenticity and depth whereas Generation YouTube doesn't. What they both have is something generic, generational, spontaneously expressive. An emo blog entry isn't far from a blues song in formatting (shared template) and content (current mood: depressed).

Re: Why the Blues couldn't be born in 2009

[silenceinspades.livejournal.com]

the blues probably couldn't be invented in 2009.
the iphone definitely couldn't have been invented in the early 1900s.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

I've never really been a fan of the "anti-art" gay scene, like Duckie (http://www.duckie.co.uk/) here in London. Instead of Gay Pride, they hold Gay Shame and they host artists who put on bizarre/ironic performances. As another poster put it, it's all pretty much "Camp with a sinster edge". I remember going to a Gay Shame event years ago and they had a face painting booth that made you up to look like you'd been gay bashed.

Remember Divine David on Channel 4?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

There is a bit of similarity -- all Divine David really needs, if he wants to be the John the Baptist to Trecartin's Christ, is a few precocious brats, a hellish family, some smashed-up sets, and much, much faster editing.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I remember going to a Gay Shame event years ago and they had a face painting booth that made you up to look like you'd been gay bashed.

That's brilliant, actually.

You think it's Gay Shame? I think it's even more legitimate than what you call Gay Pride. After all, they're taking the hate and ugliness thrown at them and making beauty from it. That's the power of camp, daaahling.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Here's the thing: how do we parse out the differences and shared traits of Divine David:



...and a bisexual-to-straight appropriator of queer camp, Mr. Horsley?

[bugpowered.livejournal.com]

The New Museum's video ad for the show features Post-It notes scribbled with buzz-phrases supposedly characteristic of the below 33 generation: idealistic, multiethnic, post-racial, recycler, Facebook generation, hipster, green, indie, atheist, drama queen, SMS, Harajuku Girls, soulless, stalker, nomadic, manic depressive, ADHD, patriot, fake, individualistic, target audience, peer-to-peer learner, No Logo...

"Supposedly" is the key word here...

Fabricating Chaos

[me.jdcasten.info (from livejournal.com)]

I think I agree with the “camp aggression towards normality” comments—yet great for a “28 year-old artist.”

Kudos to Trecartin for sustaining the confusion to a feature length film—(not the crazy I know) but the lunacy of I-Be Area seems more like an “art-film” to the extreme—with its hard to follow plot if there is one, it presents a surface carnival psychedelic trip with no projection of a deep spiritual odyssey. I don’t see this as “theater of the absurd”—and hence not the “bedeviled nihilism” that Schjeldahl suggests.

I was curious about the curator’s choice—evidently many suggestions were taken for this exhibit, but ultimately chosen by the curators—really helping out the careers of these possible future art world stars. Yet… Tracartin isn’t getting as many YouTube hits as 14 year old (I think) Fred Figglehorn:

Re: Fabricating Chaos

[imomus.livejournal.com]

14 year old (I think) Fred Figglehorn

Remind me not to reproduce.

[krskrft.livejournal.com]

I think Cotter has John Waters wrong in that quote. Waters says "Yes, yes, yes!" to life as we think we've seen it, because it gives him fuel for his satires and parodies. I think Waters is far more nihilistic and fascinated-from-a-distance when it comes to society, not the gay guy with a simple subversive streak that many make him out to be.

By his own admission, he sees and basically loves every single movie that comes out in theaters. Doesn't sound like simple subversion to me.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I find Waters a very engaging interviewee, but I've yet to see a single one of his movies. I think I'd probably find them a bit tedious.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

My gay friends were doing weird, campy home movies similar to these back in the 80's.

Saw John do his traveling Christmas show in an Asbury Park bowling alley once.

On a slightly less artsy note: Mark Brodzik's Woodshop Films (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=woodshopfilms&view=videos&sort=v) in Philly has been making documentary based videos. His pet project for a while was Darren, who is a friendly acquaintance. Darren is something of an eccentric: he lives with his family, fronted bands who work out with weights onstage or have worn frog outfits, etc. He's been an artist's model for years, a la Quentin Crisp.



My favorite of Mark's videos is the tour of this gentleman's West Chester home:



Leon's a lovely man.

[uberdionysus.livejournal.com]

That's what made Trecartin's piece so great (to me): that it looked like something that someone made in their basement; it also looked like it was vaguely part of a larger tradition of gay home video; yet it also looked like nothing else. It had elements of Waters, anime, camp, Nickelodeon, cartoons, crappy video effects used on public access shows, and lot of bad music videos, but it was more than any of that, and it was totally homemade.

And Momus, I wasn't so impressed with his gallery work. His later shows lost a bit of the craziness and inventiveness that I loved so much. It seemed more like "art." Do you know what I mean? The installation aspect seemed like a watered-down version of Jason Rhoades (who I never really liked), and the video seemed more controlled, more tame, more "art" like. But I always look forward to seeing his stuff; that first video was enough to make me a ten-year fan.

Thoughts inspired: how much MORE SEX would I have had, had I been born GAY?

[viceanglais.livejournal.com]

(number of partners) x 5?
(number of partners) x 10?
(number of partners) x 100?

Sitting in an internet cafe, the guy beside me has finished Gaydar and is off to hump, leaving me to consider the skull-crushingly tedious gulf between men and women. The misunderstandings, the fears, the boast, the territorialisation.

the layout

[sketchesfromexpain.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

hey nick--

longtime reader and appreciator of what you do on imomus here:

quick off-topic question: the layout of your blog is flushed to the right (looking at it). unless i am an idiot and messed up the default livejournal settings, i assume this is a deliberate design choice, with the wooden fence, etc.

since i really dig your thoughts on design in general, i'm puzzled as to why you did this. isn't it easier to read it flush left?

disregard if i'm being thicker than usual.

Re: the layout

[sketchesfromexpain.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

never mind--i *am* being thicker than usual. forgot about your eye thing. apologies.

[(Anonymous)]

Momus,

Somehow you're getting better at presenting art news on this blog. A year or two ago, this would've only gotten 9 comments.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Something definitely changed, not sure it's me, though. I think people actually got more, not less, interested in art in this recession.

[palux-negro.livejournal.com]

I was in the opening, I was amazed with the videos of trecartin

[(Anonymous)]

Thank goodness for your blog and its distracting articles..
You're helping me not go crazy from the stress of exams.

Here's a diagram I made of how muddied my mind is right now:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8KZBi1fmbro/SeUrFz3n5MI/AAAAAAAAALU/zw3Fx87Y_zM/s1600-h/fypstudent2+copy.jpg

:)
Ryan

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for highlighting mr Trecartin! Huge fan of his works (I camp out on UBU and watch them repeatedly - I find something gratifying in the chaos and badly formatted ideas (like they're intentionally post-gay coming out pre-teen film school -- as if Kenneth Anger was part of generation OMG, but obsessed with new media and the constant one-up-manship in chatrooms and personal avatars). Trecartin's initial works "A Family Finds Entertainment" is the stuff of internet legends: made and then posted on "Friendster" and thus got notoriety and eventually wound up at the Whitney.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

"There are so many things to be, Sally"

"I know, and I don't want to be ANY of them!"

Ryan Trecartin = Vaginal Davis Rip-Off?

[(Anonymous)]

[green-paint.livejournal.com]

I like your bit at the end "I don't think you could really ask anything more of a 28 year-old artist."

While I find his rabid videos fascinating experiences and comments on Today, I wonder about this art as time goes by. In twenty years, will these films still have lasting power, or will they become social documents of the oughts?

I myself prefer (and strive to create) not "generational specific" work that uses and subverts Today's consumertainment sphere, but more abstract applications of technique and metaphor that create lasting impressions on a level below that of linear, cognitive thought. I suppose a good example would be that I much prefer your song "Zanzibar" than, say, "Stefano Zarelli" or "Is it because I'm a Pirate," as neat as those two latter songs might be.

[green-paint.livejournal.com]

but to confess, unlike Trecartin, I am only 27 years old.

The New Museum

[(Anonymous)]

The New Museum is the only place where the art was soooo bad
that I actually asked ( and successfully ) for my money back.

-A

Providence RI

[(Anonymous)]

All of these movies are in a particular patois generated/native-to Providence RI. So methinks. RISD I guess. I've seen some really great underground homemade movies here, the demented acid trip Freudian knots patois running through some of them. Caustic but worthwhile. Don't see it as exclusively a gay thing. Mostly just caustic. Not even satire. Straight critique/analysis.

[zenmonkeykstop.livejournal.com]

Went to this today (and LOLed when I saw the OMG obelisk). It wasn't all great, there was a lot of dull self-obsessed filler, but the Trecartin video stuff was genius.