DOWN LOW AND IN THE GARDEN

Jane's colors and Jane's Dog / gauche on paper / approx. 4'x4'

Jungle Beat Cha Cha / gauche on paper / approx 3'x4.5'

New work sneak peak.  Themes –

-softening pastel colors washes – very transparent/vivid / aggravating

-interchangeable sense of space / sense of volume / physically hollow / conceptually awkward

-jungle beat is based on a series of interlinked elephant drawings / linked by trunks / echoed through arm on foot beat / elephants create beats / slamming their trunks on the ground or trees

-janes dog was based solely on my friend’s color palette / was given the palette and decided to do a painting of her sweet sweet dog Arkoo.

-broad direct action / central visual plane / confronted with shape / graffiti characteristic

So I am curating a show at my professor’s art space –

DOWN LOW AND IN THE GARDEN

Featuring works by NIU alums/soon to be –

Adam Cox / Joanna Goss/ Jane Ryder / Ann Flowers/ Christian Campos

Oct. 22 / 7 – 10 pm

808 Garden st.

Dekalb, IL 60115

We are all good friends and we basically wanted to do a show together for at least 2 years.  I feel really psyched to approach the space with all these great pieces and just turn it into a beautiful show.  Been working alot on this sculpture collaboration for the show so come out and smell the grass.

naked as the artist before you

I have always been interested in seeing the artist naked within their work;  almost comparative to the physiognomy of a suicide victim (but thats another post).  Maybe its the voyeur within me but it also serves as a very interesting concept.  An artists work is extremely personal yet is made to be viewed at the same time.  These artists have no shame as they serve us up a double sided dildo front to back..

Jeff Koons - This is a series he did made up of portraits of him and his porn star wife Ilona fucking. Im slightly attracted to Jeff Koons wide alien face with doey eyes, plus he has a nice cock to boot. They pull off the cool look, the passion of a nice rough sex shoot and cum like porn stars. I was greetedwith two of these beauties at his stupid show at the MCA Chicago. I want to shatter that heart thing.

Carolee Schneemann - Most known for her silent video of altered film strips involving her and her boyfriend gettin down. Tight cropped penetration shots, slopped/tattered film, grungy effects/echoes, duotone shit. Almost the epitome of what I think a first year film student can produce in a months work. It still holds up if you enjoy muted porn with nude beach shots.

Gilbert and George - Very strange british folk. Birthed the concept of the singing sculpture. They are staring at you all jaundaced-like in every picture they produced. Everything is blaack and white. Creepy/hilarious/gimmicry/piss yellow/blood red.

Bob Flannigan - body mod artist. He was in a Nine Inch Nails video haha. Only ever saw him in early ninetys Art In America issues. Apparently at one of his exhibitions, he was hung from the ceiling from hooks during the opening, also exhibiting his hospital stays/IV in arm. I dont remember really.

Lynda Benglis - A response to Robert Mapplethorpe's overtly machismo photography show. I just watched Boys Dont Cry and she looks like a busty Brandon Teena (with length)! She need a gas station jumpsuit (navy blue). And look at that near plastic sheen to her bronzed skin!

Hermann Nitsch - German artist. Was involved in many a happening which bordered on impending human sacrifice. LOVES to be crucified.

Paul McCarthy - Video artist/sculptor/performance artist. Shows room full of projections filled with half naked bloody elves, cricket playing santa clauses and chocolate pirates excretion. Ketchup blood is rubbed all over a castrated kilbasa link penis as he continuously hacks at it. Strong sexual/violent actions paired with cheap food gags and perverted messy playfulness. Architecture of the body - seen as a room/compartment for indeterminate physical/mental corruption. The projections leave you cowering in the corner afraid, with a ketchup crust circle formed on your crotch. Very niiice.

Keith Haring - Portrait taken of him in a room in his squiggly line mind. He looks like baby einstein naked and white but I love his chalk pieces.

Catherine Opie - Photographer. She has Pervert carved into her chest, ant thats pretty fucking hard.

Vito Acconci - Body as architecture. Gets off to the clunking of shoes across the floor in a piece called seedbed. It is a resonation of himself as the vibration of the floor paired with masturbation mends the bond between floor/man.

Cant you just SMELL these pics?

Boris – Farewell

Snake Lady, 2008

acrylic, ink and gesso on paper

5’x5′

Boris – Farewell

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HARDCORE ART MAN

Parallel interpretations found within a pairing of fine art and hardcore punk songs.

Yves Klein – Leap into the Void / Monster X – Leap of Faith

Monster X is a straight edge grindcore band from the early nineties.  They pretty much sounded like Assuck covering Antidote songs and the like but for the most part had that great grind/powerviolence intensity.  The song Leap of Faith starts off with a very slow pounding guitar riff that are peaked with deep growls and high pitched screams, a perfect song to completely obliterate people to.

When I first saw this picture by Klein, I fell in love with it.  Everything is so undisturbed – the horizontal-vertical layout of the landscape is calming/nothing too interesting.  Then out of nowhere we are hit with this glitch in time and space as the eye is lead to a diagonal Klein swandiving off of an impossibly vertical roof.  I always saw the void as a displacement of reality; Klein’s body forever suspended within the air.  Where did he come from?  We certainly know where he is going to end up.  Breaking all conventional rules, he seems to be somewhere else entirely.

I think of Klein having a sense of faith within the look on his face, as if he was not bothered by the scientific conventions of physics.  He’s jumping for the sheer joy of it.  Faith and the void are parallel;  the strength of belief can act as a mental glitch, hurting us in the end as we take that giant leap into something we find so concrete within us.  If our faith crumbles, we end up in the void of isolation.  I sometimes wonder what kind of faith he would find swandiving into a pack of crazy hardcore kids.  Or would it be just another big void within his life?  Either way he would have something to break his fall.

Oh yea, go listen to the Faith/Void split and you will understand completely.

black metal is everything

Xasthur “Subliminal Genocide” Side B-

A low muttering of chants is found at the right volume on the record player.  It breaks with a high-pitched howl.  It is the very bottom layer/defines cavernous hideaways where it is ok to slip and fall.  The howl breaks layers and smooths out the melody and rhythm and everything resurfaces as one.  Things become one muddled color again.  I am not depressed.

Which is more pathetic?

I agree.