I’m Dreaming of a White President (2012, 15MB, 3:16 min)
Great bit of film-making to match a genius song.
But…but…
Of course you want Obama to win just
to wrongfoot the racists et. al. but you
can’t help wishing he’d actually done something
to merit the mad hostility of the rich, the bigots
and the terminally gullible.
Larissa Sansour: A Happy Days (2006, 13MB, 2:57 min)
Following on from the work we showed last week from the
excellent Subversions show, here’s another piece by
Larissa Sansour.
This is featured in the other UK show featuring work
from the Arabic speaking world, this time specifically
from artists with roots in Palestine, Navigations at
the Barbican in London.
There’s some tremendous work on show there, not least this
one – all the work Sansour I’ve so far seen has delighted me
by being much better than a verbal description might lead one
to expect. So with this one you might hear:
“To the tune of the theme from Happy Days Larissa Sansour
edits together stills of herself, a Palestinian woman,
in various locations in the occupied territories.”
And you might think:
“Ho-hum, seen it all, virtuous agit-prop, with the usual sledgehammer irony”
and you would be totally wrong.
Of course the irony is there, and anger, of course, but
there’s a lightness of treatment – the Sansour “character”,
the everyday found surrealism of some of the shots, the
little jokes (the titles: “The Palestinian”
– “The Israeli Army as…Itself” &c.)
which, without negating any political content, makes the
whole thing richly human and a pleasure to watch and watch again.
Navigations is definitely worth a visit – there is a great variety
of very engaging work.
Apart from the two Sansour pieces there’s a tremendous semi-documentary
work shot in a Miami auto paint and body shop by Shadi Habib Allah
Two complaints though – unlike the lovingly assembled and spacious show
in Manchester, Navigations feels like a somewhat cramped and token
footnote to the “proper business” of the Palestine Film Festival –
publicity for it only appears on the Barbicam website in this context.
(Better than a couple of weeks back when a search for “Navigations” on the Barbican
website yielded precisely – nothing.)
This is disrespectful to artist moving image work in general and
also, I think, to the artists concerned.
Secondly the fact that it sits, looking a tad temporary, on the
busy walk-through mezzanine on four small identical screens, with long
compilation times, gives it an anthropological rather than an art
exhibition character, whilst the (yawn!) Bauhaus blockbuster takes place
upstairs in the galleries proper. This is again disrespectful to
the artists and specifically to them as Palestinian artists:
footnotes, curiosities, on the margins.
Work of this strength and diversity would have made a great large scale
show – Cornerhouse show that it can be done and how to do it very well.
What a shame that the Barbican, with all its resources, doesn’t
seem to understand both why and how it should have attempted something
similar.
Nonetheless, if in London, you should go!
Wikipedia Art Intro (2011, 114MB, 2:29 min)
And, appropriately following on from yesterday’s post, a little intro
to the splendid Kildall/Stern Wikipedia Art project which is showing, as part
of a two person show at London’s Furtherfield gallery (formerly HTTP)
from this Friday.
(One individual piece by each artist too – promises to be a real treat)
Private view tonight 6:30 (Thurs.) – all welcome, maybe see you there.
This piece narrated in Stern’s breathless-puppy-dog-with-an-off-the-dial-IQ
trademark delivery with reassuringly measured interventions by the
no less smart & talented Kildall.
Edit by Foster Stilp, plus suitably keyed up and excited music by Stilp and
Kevin McGillivray, who together trade as Felixsofia
Relation in Space (1976, 2 MB, 26 sec.)
Expansion in Space (1977, 5 MB, 1:18 min.)
In “Relation in Space” (1976) Marina Abramovic & Ulay ran around the room – two
bodies repeatedly move past each other. They collide at great speed like two planets,
mixing male and female energy into a third component called
The Idea of Karen Blisset (2010, 77 MB, 1:13 min)
On the ever splendid Netbehaviour list there are all sorts of
interesting shenanigans as Karen Blisset, a fairly long time
contributor, offers to give her e mail log in to anyone who asks for it
in order to allow them to “be” her.
One of the interesting things about it is I’m not sure how
many people have actually taken up the offer ( and, of course, there’s
no way of telling)
(Go and join Netbehaviour to get the full works, it’s a warm and
welcoming place but one, nonetheless, with a tradition of robust
and interesting debate)
Anyway, one of this set of Karens contacts us
with a movie called ‘The Idea of Karen Blisset’.
I for one expected something quite fierce & in your
face but instead there’s this rather delicate & gentle &
lovely piece.
Very nice.
Interesting to see how it all unfolds…
PS 25th July
Since we posted this, another movie from ‘Karen Blisset’ appeared on the list:
I am Karen Blisset (2010, 17 MB, 38 secs)
and, later the same day, yet more…
Interview with Chen Chieh Jen (2008, 40 MB, 6:05 min)
Studio Banana TV interviews Taiwanese videoartist Chen Chieh Jen.
Chen
Pictures of Assholes (2006, 6.8MB 3.44Min.)
Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt takes on those pesky celebrity-hounding paparazzi
with a novel new approach, his own video camera (and an impressive amount of patience).
In doing so, he manages to turn the entire relationship on it’s head with true situationist flair.
I found it fascinating to experience this from his perspective, and then, I was kind of shocked
that more famous people don’t do things like this and then publish it online?
I mean, if they really want us normal people to feel sympathy for what their fame and our culture of celebrity worship does to their daily lives..
In any case, Levitt is clearly a cut above, go see whatever movies he’s in.
By Mica.
The Yes Men Fix The World (2009, 37 MB, 2:30 min)
Coming to theaters in October, The Yes Men – Fix The World.
They have an unusual hobby: posing as top executives
of corporations they hate. Armed with nothing but thrift-store suits,
the Yes Men lie their way into business conferences and parody their
corporate targets in ever more extreme ways – basically doing everything
that they can to wake up their audiences to the danger of letting greed run our world.
Truth or Consequences (2009, 90 MB, 10:03 min)
Very nicely made and engaging documentary, first of three,
all of which we hope to feature here, by Sebastian Hernandez,
amply fulfilling earlier promise.
Technically this work is even more assured.
I have to say personally I preferred the politics of his earlier work.
(Not that I assume Hernandez views are necessarily to be identified with
those of his subjects, so, to put it better, I preferred the folks
in the earlier movies)
There’s more context here.
Wal-Mart (2005, 9.4 MB, 2:48 min)
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price was the documentary film sensation
that’s changing the largest company on earth. The film features the
deeply personal stories and everyday lives of families and communities
struggling to survive in a Wal-Mart world.
It’s an emotional journey that will challenge the way you think, feel.. and shop.
Directed by Robert Greenwald.
Cut Piece (1965, 36.5MB, 9 min)
‘Ono had first done the performance in 1964, in Japan,
and again at Carnegie Hall, in New York, in 1965.
Ono sat motionless on the stage after inviting the audience
to come up and cut away her clothing, covering her breasts
at the moment of unbosoming.’
from Bedazzled .
Wikipedia Remix (2009, 34.7MB, 6:19 min)
Another Wikipedia Art remix, this time a splendidly accurate riff
on Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf from Sean Fletcher and Isabel Reichert
Wikipedia Heart (2009, 36MB, 3:12 min)
Wikipedia Art (2009, 15.3MB, 1:32 min)
Being two songs by David Kent Watson inspired by the Scott Kildall/Nathaniel Stern
Wikipedia Art project, which has engendered some huffing & puffing amongst the humourless & imaginatively challenged.
The songs are neat – skillfully made, performed and recorded, & beneath the surface whimsy
there’s some depth ( in particular “Heart” seems to found a whole new hybrid discipline of
epistemological meditation through popular song).
This is in keeping with the whole WA project which unlike so many art projects which claim
to investigate something ( & usually my heart sinks when I see the word) actually does
and very effectively too.
Not only that (and I would expect this from anything involving Stern, whose work in whatever medium
or genre, is always touched with poetry) there’s a wonderfully twisted lyricism* to the WA project, which is very difficult to sum up in the usually one line required for much second rate conceptualism -the Duchamp epigone crew- which is possibly why it seems to have mostly drawn responses ranging from surly to mystified and back to grumpy in discussion in places like Art Fag City and Rhizome.
Now, generously & mischievously, Kildall & Stern have thrown the whole thing open for remixing, which is where these songs appear**.
The remixes in turn form an ongoing contribution to the padiglione internet of the current Venice Biennale -here’s the open call for contributions so what are you waiting for?!
And of course, coming back full circle to David Kent Watson, clearly one to watch. Bravo.
* & I use the term precisely & advisedly, not simply as a term of general approbation.
What I mean is this: it’s the very not-rightness, surface clumsiness
of the WA project that makes it resonate so much. This is what those who want their
art laid out like the ABC or like wonder pills, miss. It’s the failure, or refusal, of glibness,
the stimulus to real thought, that spawns the poetry of it.
Even the language the Wikipedia serf-bureaucrats use as they flounder blindly, hilariously and painfully
seems to have been dusted with a kind of magic satire brush.
** D.o.I – I have a couple of things in there also.
A video from my blog “My Year in Art”
documenting my interactions with artists and their work.
Paul Wirhun speaks about his work The Skull Project.
By Mica Scalin.
Isabelle Dinoire (2006, 8MB, 2:30 min)
Feb. 6, 2006
“Made this video tonight about order generic viagra Isabelle Dinoire, the french woman that had
a face transplant and made her first public appearance yesterday.”
– Abe Linkoln.
Read the discussion about the controversial video on Rhizome.
Reach – A Lecture Musical (2005, 15.3MB, 3 min.)
This video gives me chills, it is simply hilarious.
Performing a musical number to such a captive
and unsuspecting audience is wicked.
Takes a lot of guts to pull a stunt like this.
Prangstgr
By Mica Scalin.
Light Criticism (2007, 14MB, 2:21 min.)
Light Criticism is a project by Steve Lambert (the Anti-Advertising Agency)
with Graffiti Research Lab.
From Eyebeam R&D Open Lab.
I know we featured the folks at Sporkworld only recently
but they just posted this and it’s wonderful
– & somewhat topical…
Watch it all – it’s deadly serious but Millie Niss
makes her points with the kind of comic timing
many would kill for.
Touch My Body (Oliver Laric version) (2008, 40.9MB, 4:18 min)
No Mariah (Caspar Stracke version) (2008, 52MB, 4:03 min)
OK, pay attention! This is complicated.
Ms Carey (or her corporate minders) release a video, which if she did have
a significant part to play in it shows such a staggering lack of self esteem
that a kind of dark despair begins to envelop me.
Artist Oliver Laric remixes it, removing all the backgrounds and replacing it with
green, for ease of a certain species of remixing.
There follows what is actually an interesting and nuanced exchange of views.
Then Caspar Stracke posts the second of our videos & MTAA make a
very funny joke.
House of Cosbys (2005, 10MB, 5 min.)
from Channel 101.
This video should recieve lots of attention because it is really really
funny. Instead, it made the papers because Bill Cosby’s lawyers
threatened Channel 101 and their video hosting service with
cease and desist letters.
By Mica Scalin.
borat response (2004, 1.9MB, 54 sec.)
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat provided
lots of Controversy and created Conflicts
with the Kazakh Government.
