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

a procession of enchantments

the ghosts of a nocturnal luxury

child of the sun

it has been monsooning every now and then, of late

and so we strip bare - or nearly

and run through streets chortling and yelling and tripping over

minor rivers and great lakes

it's happening

Alan Kaprow, How to Make a Happening

read the whole thing here, but also read this lovely

excerpt right now if you don't have the time-time

Naked women eat giant bowls of Cheerios and milk atop a mountain of

used tires. Children disgorge barrels of whitewash over the mountain. A

hundred yards away, men and women swimmers in brightly colored

plastic pools continually leap out of the water to catch with their mouths

rubber gaskets festooned with lifesaver candies that hang from chains of

mens’ belts. The mountain is taken down tire by tire and moved into the

pools, and the water spills out. The children tie the adults together with the

belts, they pour whitewash over the now-still heaps of bodies. Then they

buckle dozens more of the belts around their necks, waists, and legs. They

take the remaining lifesavers to a factory-fresh tire shop and offer them for

sale in laughy voices.

hiaaaatus

my mom visited for five days,

I have a new apartment and again a new room within that apartment,

I got hired and unhired,

but I promise, I will have more to share very soon

the urban jungle

last fall I splurged on a quick little trip to New York (as my dad so succinctly put,

I don't know what it's like to live there, but no trip will ever be long enough, so just go,)

among every other amazing thing I saw and experienced there,

by some divine intervention, Roxy Paine's installation on the rooftop of the Metropolitan museum was extended by a month, meaning it was still open for my visit in early November,

Maelstrom, aside from being a phenomenal piece to experience, happened to be the work I spent

nearly a month of my summer researching/pondering for on for an art history essay,

and then I got to see it in person, by surprise (I didn't know it was extended,)

here are a few photos I took

if you touch the thin parts and push and pull the piece vibrates and hums with life,

I am most compelled to fall in love when I have something desperately beautiful I wish to share,

which reminds of something else I've always wanted to share:

years ago (maybe the fall after I left Engineering school?) I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery on my own one afternoon

one of the temporary exhibitions was on the work of Andrea Zittel, the first room was a wall full of vinyl lettering, with which I was so smitten (both vinyl lettering in general, and what this particular case had to say) that I sat and copied it painstakingly into my sketchbook

(I have since used google to recover it)

it is odd to go back to this now, I approach it so differently and am not entirely sure how I feel,

Andrea Zittel: These Things I Know For Sure

1. It is a human trait to want to organize things in categories. Inventing categories creates an illusion that there is an overriding rationale in the way that the world works.

2. Surfaces that are "easy to clean" also show dirt more. In reality a surface that camouflages dirt is much more practical than one that is easy to clean.

3. Maintenance takes time and energy that can sometimes impede other forms of progress such as learning about new things.

4. All materials ultimately deteriorate and show signs of wear. It is therefore important to create designs that will look better after years of distress.

5. A perfected filing system can sometimes decrease efficiency. For instance, when letters and bills are filled away too quickly, it is easy to forget to respond to them.

6. Many "progressive" designs actually hark back towards the lost idea of nature or a more "original form"

7. Ambiguity in visual design ultimately leads to a greater variety of functions than designs that are functionally fixed.

8. No matter how many options there are it is human nature to always narrow things down to two polar, though inextricably linked choices.

9. The creation of rules is more creative than the destruction of them. Creation demands a higher level of reasoning and draws connections between cause and effect. The best rules are never stable or permenant but evolve naturally according to context or need.

10. What makes us feel liberated is not living in total freedom, but rather living in a set of limitations that we have created and prescribed for ourselves.

11. Things we think are limiting can ultimately becoming restrictive, and things that we initially think are controlling can sometimes give us a sense of comfort and security.

12. Ideas seem to gestate the best in a void - when the void is filled it is more difficult to access them. In our consumption-driven society almost all voids are filled, blocking moments of greater clarity and creativity. Things that block voids are called "avoids".

13. Sometimes if you can’t change the situation, you just have to change the way you think about the situation.

14. People are most happy when they are moving towards something not yet attained. (I also wonder if this extends as well to the sensation of physical motion in space. I believe that I am happier when I am in a plane or car because I am moving towards an identifiable and attainable goals.)

what I meant the other day when I said that reminds me,

was "experiments"? that reminds me

reminds me that I want to post this:

john cage: some rules for students and teachers

rule one: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.

rule two: General duties of a student - pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your

fellow students.

rule three: General duties of a teacher - pull everything out of your students.

rule four: Consider everything an experiment.

rule five: be self-disciplined - this means fnding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow

them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better

way.

rule six: Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail, there's only make.

rule seven: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It's the people who do all of

the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

rule eight: Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes.

rule nine: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.

rule ten: "We're breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty

of room for X quantities." (John Cage)

hints: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get

your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything - it might come in handy later.