a long term relationship

a life of fancy

archives endless archives

one of my favourite visual resources online

is when the archives of institutions (big national museums, public libraries, &c.)

have flickr accounts

so the next time you have hours and hours on your hands and are looking for some browsing,

for some optical candy, here are a few favourites

Nationaal Archief almost one thousand years and over two million photos in the Hague collection

New York Public Library including a series of cyanotypes of British algae? i love cyanotype

New Zealand National Library awesome awesome awesome awesome

Musée McCord i almost didn't post this until i realized i was staring at Montréal of the mid 19 c.

National Maritime Museum I will be back on the east coast in under two weeks

the National Media Museum you know, ghosts and stuff

birthday suit with scars and details

while I would love to save this to post on my own birthday, I do not have enough faith that I would actually remember,

so instead,

watch this video I love so much,

In honour of her birthday, Steele presents her naked body to the unblinking gaze of the camera. While the tape can be located within what Rosalind Krause has called 'the aesthetics of narcissism' that characterized the first decade of artist's video, it also provides an important counter-image to the emergent critique of the female body in narrative cinema. Catherine Russell

Lisa Steele, Birthday Suit with scars and defects, 1972

On the occasion of my 27th birthday I decided to do a tape that chronicled my passage through time. I have always been clumsy, tripping, dropping, falling with alarming regularity. This tape accepts the extent of the consequences. L.S.

bad art and how you can help

picture you as you

but instead of really being you, you're the type of you that might,

say,

have a website called goodart.org

and should you run goodart.org

you would (naturally) need a section on bad art as well

and this may be what you would have to say about good art and bad art,

I can't tell if this is serious but I think it probably isn't?

then again, maybe not

(also it is disappointing that to illustrate bad art they simply took major examples of major art movements of the past century. If you're gonna be a hater, I'd be charmed to see a little more verve and originality.)

on second look you should most definitely also check out the frequently asked questions page,

where you may find solutions to such age old questions as What makes good art good and bad and bad? and Why do so many people defend the bad stuff and attack the good stuff? What makes them do it? or at least What can we do to make things better?

when I posted Zimbell's photos the other day,

it reminded me of an old all time favourite

(((Zimbell left, Herzog right)

Fred Herzog was shooting mid 20th century street photography in Vancouver,

his photos offer stunning portraiture and documentation,

but they also offer me a peek into the first world my father knew

the German neighbourhoods of Vancouver post world war two, namely 50s and 60s

I like to picture my grandfather's stern gaze behind each shutter

the contrast of his grey flanel suit against the vibrancy of each kodachrome frame

comox valley artist kelly gough

i saw a magnificent show of hers roughly a year ago

beautiful exploration of copper and rubber

my friend paige sent me this awesome photo in response to the gordon matta-clark post

I suspect my love for black and white photography will never end,

I tried to choose just a couple images of George S. Zimbell's

but I had so many favourites you should probably just look through them all,

again and again, portraiture and street photography catch my fancy,

I took these photos at the met last fall,

west african masquerade

is an exhibition by phyllis galembo in which

Large-scale color photographs from 2005 to 2006 reflect the ritual adornment and spirituality of masquerade in Nigeria, Benin and Burkina Faso in West Africa. These portraits of masqueraders build on Galembo's work of the past twenty years photographing the rituals and religious culture in Nigeria, Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti, as well as the homegrown custom of Halloween in the United States. Organized by Ian Berry, Malloy Curator of the Tang Museum, in collaboration with the artist.

check out that stunning album and all the others, or browse this sampling

anarchitect

gordon matta-clark, born into the new york art scene and a rather astounding biography,

including his godmother being Marcel Duchamp's wife? (I didn't know he had a wife..)

he started out of architecture school at Cornell and ended up in the stunning deconstruction of buildings

you can also watch his video work on Ubu

i have memories of my father showing me these images when I was young,

i am relieved to realize that they have not become more tangible with age but

are still absolutely mind blowing

yesterday in drawn&quarterly I found a beautiful monograph for an artist I had nearly forgotten;

tara donovan does really ethereal sculpture and installation

often creating new landscapes, they always focus on amazing texture through materials like

plastic cups, straw, pins, steel wool, paper, wax

accross the pond

I will be in Glasgow this fall (which means hopefully I will make it to London at least once for a visit)

- which exciting for so many reasons including this one:

Ai Weiwei will be the current artist in the Turbine Hall

Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995

The Turbine Hall (a part of the Tate Modern) is the largest indoor exhibition space for sculpture

and here is an awesome summary of its lifespan - only 10 artists thus far

and an interview with the artist

mark lewis

vancouver gone londonite mark lewis,

who amazingly has a lot of his video work posted on his website

but wouldn't let me embed them

WATCH THIS ONE FIRST

the internet is a fantasy land

katie's response to a kijiji/craigslist post

a new writer looking for an experienced writer

a sad and dislocated side of the internet,

why ask when you can be answered anonymously

zhang huan

zhang huan is a prolific and bright artist out of China who employs some 100 assistants in his studio

I have always liked his work a lot, so I had to smile when the character of the novel I just read went off on a rant about this piece (Eli, the character, works in a gallery in Brooklyn and has some serious concerns regarding the fraudulence of contemporary art)

each of the following performances took place in/near Beijing, China,

To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain, 1995

To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond, 1997

I read an interview once where he talked about graduating from art school

and having no money or resources - only his body, so he did body art

performance, endurance, etc.

he also makes some great sculpture, and I really like this piece too