Matt Sardinia

I found out about Matt Sardinia while cruising the social news sites. Call the influences -- for me it looks like science fiction, robotics, movie posters --


Matt calls himself an artist and illustrator. Illustration now is such a broad field, and for me anyway, there's a lot of overlap with, in many cases, only the bogey of 'artist's intent' to discern if a work is 'fine art' or 'illustration'.

There's definitely been art in NYC galleries over the past decade that's highly influenced by illustration of various sorts-- magazine illustration from the 40's and 50's, science fiction paperback covers, sci-fi magazines from the mid-20th-century. We're doing a lot of ransacking of the past century. I think Matt's onto something. He's a young guy so he's got a lot of time to work out the kinks.


For some reason this one reminds me of Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion animation. Go figure.

See more at Matt Sardinia's website.

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Reid Stowe: The Oceanic Heart

Today was day 729 for Reid Stowe out in the vast Pacific. He shot me an email and I wanted to pass it along -- it's called the Oceanic Heart, and it's a drawing of a heart hundreds of miles across, made with his schooner and plotted by GPS and satellite. He refers to it as a 'gift to his loved ones and the world.'

Artworks like this intrigue me in a kind of ticklish way -- ticklish I suppose because they don't fit purely and easily into any category of art or art-making. They're largely conceptual, living in the mind pretty much like any emotion or memory. And yet the means for creating them is heavy, vulgar and material. See for example Jeremy Woods' GPS drawings -- Woods has been at it for quite a while and has made a real name for himself. You have to travel to make these things, and even if you're on foot, you've got to bring things along: equipment, food, water, clothing. Hence the materiality that must accompany the concept that functions as the main part of the piece.

Reid's Oceanic Heart drawing, like the Sea Turtle and Dolphin drawings before it: layers of complication make its creation all the more interesting to me. Instead of walking about or driving on dry land, he's got to deal with ocean currents and winds that might not always favor the path he wants to take. The main piece of equipment, the schooner-as-stylus, is subject to all sorts of breakdowns, each of which must be dealt with by hand and ingenuity, using whatever is available. And making all of this even more complicated is that he's working completely alone.

The Oceanic Heart combines Reid's almost ridiculous danger and solitude with the kind of cliche'd gesture usually made by young naive lovers, carved in trees along with the tacit or written suggestion of 'forever' that both know but won't admit is tongue-in-cheek. Funny thing is, I think Reid means it.

Here's the last part of his email to me -- see if you don't agree:

Humbly I proceed because the schooner is worn out and anything could break and the sea sweeps away the plans of many men. My plans could be swept away. Rather than keep it secret incase I fail, I am taking a chance and sharing so we can all create the Heart of the Ocean together.

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UConn's Undergraduate Student Government voted to move Randall Nelson's art to "a more non-public area."

Hard on the heels of my last post about Randall Nelson's controversial work and the treatment it's getting at a university comes an article by Katherine Smith in UConn's Daily Campus Online Edition, a large piece of which I'll excerpt here:

After a heated debate last night, the Undergraduate Student Government passed a position of statement regarding an art display in the Homer Babbidge Library some felt was controversial.

The statement called for an art showcase by Randall Nelson to be moved to a more non-public area. Nelson's art in question includes a caged brown bird hung from a noose with the phrase "some bird get what they deserve" etched in glass over the caged bird. The other piece is an obelisk soldier's monument with various homophobic slurs of graffiti across it.

The display was scheduled to be taken down at the end of the semester anyway.

Many senators were quick to agree with the resolution, claiming the pieces to be obscene and offensive.

"This isn't just offensive…if you walk through the library and you're gay and you see the word fag you're thinking that's an attack on my character," said Multicultural and Diversity Senator Mary Lorenz. "These aren't offensive…they're attacks."

According to the statement of position, USG senators felt the art was homophobic and racist.

"How would you like to be remembered as the school with the birds hanging from nooses?" said Mansfield Apartments Senator Donald Richard.

As Randall has explained, the bird 'got what it deserved' because it's an invasive species from England, and was responsible for the displacement of many native Connecticut species. This obvious metaphor for the displacement of Native Americans, and the guilt of those who did the displacing, was clearly lost on the student government, whose members instead preferred a much more simplistic interpretation: that the artwork represents the murder of a brown human because the bird's feathers are brown.

In my opinion, such a simplistic approach to art is really not worthy of university students. But all that aside, let's suppose for a moment that the USG is somehow correct, and Randall Nelson is showing us a metaphor for an African-American becoming the victim of racism. Haven't similar subject come up in other works of art -- literature, music, theater, cinema?

When Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn, was he trying to further racism against African-Americans? Was Steven Spielberg promoting anti-semitism in producing Schindler's List?

In these works hatred and intolerance are presented in sometimes gruesome detail. But the context and structure of literature and cinema make it plain that Twain and Spielberg aren't siding with the evil they portray.

Just to be clear, what I'm pointing out is the fact that the presence of an ugly act in an artwork of any kind is by no means an indication of the author's approval of that ugly act.

Visual art is often more challenging than literature or cinema, because it doesn't tell you through its dimensions -- book thickness, movie duration -- how long it takes to get the full message.

In a sculpture or painting the dimensions of character arc and story development must be dissected, compressed. They only unfold with time, consideration, and most importantly of all, openness.

In literature we talk about the willing suspension of disbelief, which is predicated on a kind of trust the reader gives the author at the outset that resolution will be provided by the last page, no matter what mayhem ensues. A similar suspension and a similar trust -- a similar openness -- is also required to appreciate visual art, particularly if the work in question is challenging.

Here's an example:

Winslow Homer's 1899 painting The Gulf Stream: is this painting...

a. confirmation that Homer was a racist because of its clear and obvious depiction of a black man mere moments away from being torn apart by a school of sharks?

b. a dramatic depiction of a terrifying situation that Homer wouldn't have approved or wished on anyone, but which was known to sometimes occur?

Ms. Smith's article continues:

"Sometimes artists cross the line but Babbidge isn't the Met or the MoMA [Museum of Modern Art]," said Commuter Senator Jason Abbott. "There are better places [for Nelson's art], it doesn't need to be in such a public place."

"This is the most controversial issue we've ever had to deal with," said College of Agricultural and Natural Resources Senator John Hogan.

Free speech is sometimes challenging. That's the point. In a free-speech environment all ideas are up for examination. Free speech in all its aspects was partly responsible for making America a world leader in the arts and sciences.

Of what use is free speech if it's only permitted in major art institutions?

It seems a shame to me that in the context of an American university -- and Connecticut's flagship university, no less -- the student body designed to provide experience in leadership and governance chose to restrict free speech, not based on an actual, clear and present offense to liberty or the well-being of others, but on the basis of a perceived offense arising from a rather obvious misinterpretation.

Perhaps these conscientious students will give Randall Nelson a chance to explain his work to them in person, prior to any movement of his exhibition. They may find good reason to reconsider their position statement.

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"Monoprints of Surgical Scars" by Ted Meyer -- May 4 – June 30, NYU Langone Medical Center

Ted Meyer sent me the email below about his monoprints of surgical scars, which will be on view at NYU Langone Medical Center.

For all three of my regular readers, you'll recall I'd mentioned in a previous post that I thought the concept of monoprints from physical scars *might* trivialize the experience of trauma associated with deep physical scarring, and hoped for feedback from people who had seen the work in person. No one really took me up on it, but instead what I got were in some cases ten hits a day of people looking up information on the show.

It's clear to me that Ted's tapped into something that resonates with people. I'm hoping to see the exhibition below in mid-June. Check it out yourself if you're in the city. Like the saying says, "Fifty million Elvis fans can't be wrong."

Good luck, Ted!

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I will be showing a smaller selection (12 pieces) of this scar work at NYU Medical School Gallery.

Everyone is welcome to come to the opening

Monoprints of Surgical Scars
by Ted Meyer
May 4 – June 30, 2009
NYU Langone Medical Center
550 First Avenue
Smilow Gallery, adjacent to Ehrman Medical Library
Please join us for artist’s lecture and
opening reception on Wednesday, May13
6:00 – 7:30pm
sponsored by Ehrman Medical Library For more information:
http://library.med.nyu.edu/library/libinfo/events

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Landfill Art

My good friend Robin Croft sent me this link along with some notes:

Bill,

Thought you might be interested in this. I participated and one of my "wattle walls" is on the site. I made it clear to Ken Marquis, a very kind and well meaning gentleman, businessman, frameshop/gallery owner in Wilkes Barre, that my work has almost nothing to do with environmental concerns, though made from mostly recycled materials. He was inviting anyway, and I need to find meaningful exposure somewhere. Your latest "sculptural" efforts might find an outlet with this. Just passing it along.

--Robin

Here's the email Robin forwarded from Ken Marquis -- check it out and if you're interested, get involved:

Hello Landfill Artists,

As a result of the global art community embracing the Landfillart Project, my life is totally consumed. I am not complaining...I am exuberant about the project and find myself going to sleep and waking up thinking about it!!

There are now almost 500 artists involved covering all fifty states of the United States & forty-six countries. Artists from Switzerland, Suriname, Azerbaijan, Tunisia, Chile and Serbia have recently signed on.

A number of artists have mentioned that they are particularly proud to be a part of the largest artist initiative ever!! Over 1,000 artists worldwide will have worked on this project of re-claiming, re-cycling and re-purposing.

"Our" website is updated at least twice weekly to add the latest completed Landfillart Projects.

If you know of a fellow professional artist that you feel could enrich and embrace our project, please feel free to pass along the website www.landfillart.org and have them contact me. Please have them mention your name for immediate credibility!

A sincere "thank you" for your participation!

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Connecticut Wilderness: Sculpture and Mixed Media Installations by Randall Nelson at Homer Babbidge Library Stevens Gallery and West Alcove

My good friend Randall Nelson called late this afternoon to direct my attention to his exhibition currently at UConn's Homer Babbidge Library.

You may recall Randall's earlier experiences that developed from the response to sculptures he made that featured road-killed birds. Ridiculous as that response was, and as hot as the water was that Randall was forced to cook in with a veritable alphabet soup of government agencies, well -- any ordinary rational artist would have gone into painting duck stamps or whittling tribal flutes. But Randall is no ordinary artist, and maybe he's not rational, either.

Or maybe he is rational; in fact he certainly possesses greater sense than the legislators who authored and passed inane laws that say it's OK for an ordinary Connecticut citizen to kill starlings and sparrows, but it's a criminal offense to pick a dead starling up off the road, or for a pest control company to transfer ownership of exterminated birds.

Regardless, things are a-cooking at UConn, thanks to Connecticut's controversial avian cadaver colorer. But before I get into that, here's Randall's statement about the show, as pulled from UConn's website:

“Connecticut Wilderness,” says Randall Nelson, “is an oxymoron that refers to the sense of confusion and ambiguity that prevails in our lives, and that I try to portray in my artwork through multi-layered meanings and unusual visual imagery.”

Ten of the fifteen pieces in this show are recent. “In some ways,” Randall says, “these new pieces are more difficult to create than my carved pieces. Many of them deal with abstract or social concepts--world hunger, morality, family obligations, guilt and personal responsibility--that would be almost impossible to do as woodcarvings.”

There's a dry humor that threads its way through those snippets of thought, a humor that was abundant in our conversation. And, let's face it, what sane adult can work with dead birds without laughing at least a little?

Some of the controversy now brewing over his work at UConn seems to stem from the college culture. Here are some notes from an email Randall sent me this evening.

"...it seems like anyone who walks in the door there is able to have input into which pieces can go into the show, and where they can be sited. The Vice-Provost for Student Affairs rejected one of the pieces, called Choices, because she said it is illegal to offer "unsupervised food" anywhere on campus, since it could be tampered with, then a student could decide to eat some of the art and get sick and the University would be in trouble."

You can't write gags this funny. Here's the sculpture in question, which is pulled from UConn's website:

So what the Vice-Provost for Student Affairs wants you to believe is that someone will walk up to this piece in the context of an art exhibit, pop off one of those translucent lids and eat the sculpture.

Now, I realize that not all UConn students are terribly bright. They're not all bound for stellar careers in the medical, dental or legal professions. Perhaps the VProvost is thinking of the UConn students that set fire to cars, or kill people while driving drunk, when he or she expresses a concern that some UConn students might like to eat the artworks.

But, people, if we base our entire world on the lowest, most slack-jawed, knuckle-dragging contingent, then art doesn't even come into the equation. In that lowest-possible-denominator world there's no time or inclination for intellectual engagements. There's only the dogged pursuit of the next idiotic entertainment, the next excuse to get drunk or high, the next morsel of flesh to pound one way or another to alleviate the groaning animal desires.

If the Vice-Provost really believes UConn is a microcosmic Idiocracy, maybe he or she is in the wrong job at the wrong place and time. Or, maybe UConn really is a much more animalistic place than I'd ever imagined.

Randall's emailed notes continue:

Most of the concerns are of this nature, silly complaints that are all based on the possibilities of lawsuits or insurance problems. Even the security guards have been able to demand changes in my displays.

Security guards calling the shots on artwork. Who'da thunk it?

There are other controversies going on with this work, but unlike some controversial work, its value lies in the fact that it's rich, challenging and compelling -- not to mention well worth your time.


Connecticut Wilderness: Sculpture and Mixed Media Installations by Randall Nelson
March 16 - May 15, 2009
Homer Babbidge Library Stevens Gallery and West Alcove
369 Fairfield Way
Storrs, CT 06269
(860) 486-2518
See the hours they're open here.

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The Idea of North -- Cyrilla Mozenter and Michael Brennan at 210 Gallery opening April 18

My friend and former professor Cyrilla Mozenter just shot me an email about this upcoming show with Michael Brennan at 210 Gallery in Brooklyn. Check it out and see if you can make the opening -- it sounds awesome! Photo above from Cyrilla's show More Saints Seen at the Aldrich Museum.
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The Idea of North

Michael Brennan - Painting
Cyrilla Mozenter - Sculpture

210 Gallery
210 24th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11232
718.499.6056

Opening Reception: Saturday April 18 3-7

Hours: Fri-Sun 12-6 or by appointment
R Train to 25th Street, Brooklyn

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Sholem Krishtalka at Jack the Pelican Presents

My friend Helene DuMenil is pushing the vision now over at Jack the Pelican -- congratulations on the cool gig, Helene! Check out this email she sent me about Sholem Krishtalka's show that opens next Friday, April 17, and hit the opening if you can.

-----------------------------

Hello Bill,

I wanted to let you know of our next show with Sholem Krishtalka which will open on Friday April 17th. I am including his artist statement to this email, I hope you enjoy it and that you might join us for the opening.

Artist Statement:

The title of my current series of paintings is An Opera for Drella (after Lou Reed’s Songs for Drella). It is based on a bit of gossip that I came across concerning Andy Warhol: that Warhol wanted to befriend Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg (who were dating at the time). He wondered why the pair were so stand-offish with him, and he asked the documentary filmmaker Emile De Antonio (known affectionately to the Factory crowd as Dee), who told him the awful truth: that Warhol was too gay, and the closeted art power couple feared that proximity to Warhol’s swishiness would ‘give them away,’ reveal their homosexuality to their milieu of dealers and collectors. I have created an opera out of this bit of gossip, a cycle of narrative paintings whose story of unrequited love unfolds as a series of tableaux and vignettes. It is an opera of looking but not touching, wanting but not having.

The Warhol in my paintings, as well as the Rauschenberg and the Johns (and the rest of the minor characters that make up my opera) have been cast from my friends. In addition to the surface narrative, these paintings are a mapping of my social circle, my community.
I avow the use of camp as the means and the end of my opera; camp provides a theoretical bridge between Warhol’s world and mine, a means to collapse and fold the iconic into my own personal vernacular, and also to project my persona onto larger public cosmologies. Generally speaking, my work is a deconstruction (or, perhaps more aptly, a reconstruction) of my own life; it is a document of my relationships, and an attempt to create a kind of philosophy of my queerness.
-Sholem Krishtalka

If I can answer any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Best,
Helene

Jack the Pelican Presents
487 Driggs Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 1121
718-782-0183
646-644-6756 (off-hours)
info@JackthePelicanPresents.com

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"The Rhizome 50,000 Dollar Webpage" -- Rhizome at the New Museum

My friend John Michael Boling over at Rhizome just sent me an email about an interesting project. What do you think?
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Dear Bill,

I wanted to contact you and let you know about "The Rhizome 50,000 Dollar Webpage" a new initiative that we have launched in homage to one of the web's great memes, "The Million Dollar Homepage". Equal parts fundraiser, art collaboration, billboard, classified ad and community builder "The Rhizome 50,000 Dollar Webpage" aims to raise 50,000 dollars for Rhizome by selling 1,000,000 pixels of webspace at 5 cents per pixel.

The Webpage builds upon Rhizome's 13-year history as a community website dedicated to internet art, while providing important funds to a non-profit organization at a crucial time. Participants are able to promote an idea or project--be it art, an organization, a band, a blog, a store, etc-- at a multitude of tax-deductible price points and, at the same time, contribute to a collaborative picture that will remain live on the web in perpetuity as part of Rhizome's archive.

As with the original Million Dollar Homepage, the success of The Rhizome 50,000 Dollar Webpage relies on the involvement of individuals from every corner of the web. It will endure as a snapshot of art, design and collaboration in 2009 and, pixel purchase permitting, help stabilize and sustain a non-profit organization in a challenging economic climate.

Pixels are available for purchase until May 28th 2009, the night of Rhizome’s annual Benefit. On this date, the page will be locked and presented at the Benefit which will be held at the New Museum in New York. To purchase pixels, or check in on the progress of the site please visit http://www.rhizome.org/50k

I sincerely hope you will take the time to visit the site, spread the word, or donate some money and receive some tax-deductible promotion for your exploits!

Best Wishes,
John Michael Boling
Associate Editor & Special Projects Manager,
Rhizome at the New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
212-219-1288 x 302
jm.boling@rhizome.org
http://www.rhizome.org

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Reid Stowe's still at it - day 712 and apparently going strong

He's been through some seriously hair-raising escapades on his now-solo voyage: running into a freighter, capsizing, repairs high up on a mast without a net, frequent storms and squalls. And he's sounding coherent and in-charge in his blog posts, although I still don't see the Mars simulator connection he recently returned to.

For me the 1000 Days project is much more interesting as a post-modern performance -- a strange, sometimes almost satirical echo of the savage, low-tech, man-versus-wild returning-to-the-primal feats of 20th-century explorers. Without the sexiness of highly visible new technologies or a celebrity at the helm, the 1000 Days voyage is incomprehensible to a highly materialistic world that's seen it all before and is far too wrapped up in its own problems to notice. What might have made front-page headlines in 1938 is relegated now to the occasional buried newspaper article and the cluttered corners of humanity's disgorged gossip gland, the Internet.

When people finally voyage to Mars, not much attention will be paid to the tedious, hair-raising dangers found in the hundreds of days of transfer, short of an Apollo 13-like scenario. One-billion-plus earthlings will be plastered to their televisions for the fifteen minutes it takes to live-broadcast a human first setting foot on Martian regolith. Many will return for a news story or two. And then everyone will go about their business and forget everything but the "what were you doing the day that happened" experience.

Perhaps one of the greatest take-aways from Reid's long journey will be the perspective it provides us on how much, and how little, America has changed as a culture over the past fifty years.

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MAYKR -- of art and artists in & around Beacon, NY

For about a year now I've been out of circulation re: other art blogs. Just no time to read and stay up to date what with other things that have started piling up: new job, working on MFA, ramped-up intensive studio schedule. My loss.

I just now became aware of MAYKR, a terrific blog out of the Beacon, NY area. Apparently when I met one of the bloggers for this site I made a joke about Dia: Beacon that sounded like I don't like the place. But I'm crazy about it.

Maybe I should leave the comedy to the experts. :P

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