An Afternoon at the Carnegie International
Today Myles and I had planned to go to the library for a puppet show, but traffic was bad, the parking lot was overflowing, and we would have missed it once we got our parking spot. So we decided to go to the Carnegie Museum's Carnegie International, an every so many years event, not unlike the Whitney Bienniel. I said not unlike, not like.
Myles had a fantastic time, and before I go into detail about that in a separate post, I would like to note a few observations. I did not have a timed ticket, but I wouldn't need one because Myles only has patience enough for like an hour to an hour and a half, so I only got about two thirds the way through the show.
Lee Bontecou was among the artists featured. She is a sculptor who made quite a splash in the 60s, and then quietly disappeared, withdrawing from public art exhibition. She continued to work all these last 30+ years, but she has had little interaction with the Art World. What has emerged from her exile is simply amazing. The sculptures and mobils of ceramic shapes and wire are intricate and beautiful and full of desparate life.
The curatorial notes on these describes them as resembling either "macrocosmic systems, such as constellations, or microcosmic ones, such as insects." These are striking for sure, but moreso because she created them nearly in an art vacuum.
I also want you if you go to be sure to watch Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook's video. She is reading Thai prayers for the dead to a corpse of a person that died alone with no one to read them. This ritual is necessary to comfort the deceased as they transition from this world to the next, so she has taken to performing them for people who die with no one. She of course feels that is her art, as art frees the sou. For her the video is merely a record of it.
There is a mural which is so cool by Chiho Aoshima. It is like 40 feet long. You can see it from inside the building, up close, to appreciate all the little details in it, like the Art Elephant.
But I have been looking at this mural for weeks from behind the museum when we go to the library for an evening program. If you go, make sure you check out the mural from way back behind the museum at night. So cool.
Harun Farocki is a Czech video artist whose contribution to the International are installations of actual survaillance video called Eye/Machine. The curatorial notes focus on his one installation of a smart bomb assault from the first Gulf War, but I focused on one that came from a more mundane source. One one of two tv screens he showed actual feed from four survaillance cameras on some sort of steel sheet rolling factory. On the other one he showed video of the manufacturing process with explanation of the process steps with brief descriptions. I've always been interested in why many European artists are so fascinated with industrial processes. They have painted, and photographed, and videotaped, and recorded all kinds of machines and factories. I've been in so many factories and watched the monitors that some process engineer somewhere uses to assure the line is running properly. I've listened to the rhythm and hum of a hydraulic press and know that the timing and pitch mean everything is working. The clatterings of a mechanical presses are likewise indicative that the operation does not require attention. Sound and motion are as important a guage to anticipate end-product quality as the actual gages. But to some, these visuals and sounds can be artistically divorced from their practical settings. I think if I could wield curatorial power I would love to construct an exhibit of industrial inspired art and take it to sites. I think the folks that wear ear protection and heat-resistant gloves all day would be amused to see these things so glorified.
Myles had a fantastic time, and before I go into detail about that in a separate post, I would like to note a few observations. I did not have a timed ticket, but I wouldn't need one because Myles only has patience enough for like an hour to an hour and a half, so I only got about two thirds the way through the show.
Lee Bontecou was among the artists featured. She is a sculptor who made quite a splash in the 60s, and then quietly disappeared, withdrawing from public art exhibition. She continued to work all these last 30+ years, but she has had little interaction with the Art World. What has emerged from her exile is simply amazing. The sculptures and mobils of ceramic shapes and wire are intricate and beautiful and full of desparate life.
The curatorial notes on these describes them as resembling either "macrocosmic systems, such as constellations, or microcosmic ones, such as insects." These are striking for sure, but moreso because she created them nearly in an art vacuum.
I also want you if you go to be sure to watch Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook's video. She is reading Thai prayers for the dead to a corpse of a person that died alone with no one to read them. This ritual is necessary to comfort the deceased as they transition from this world to the next, so she has taken to performing them for people who die with no one. She of course feels that is her art, as art frees the sou. For her the video is merely a record of it.
There is a mural which is so cool by Chiho Aoshima. It is like 40 feet long. You can see it from inside the building, up close, to appreciate all the little details in it, like the Art Elephant.
But I have been looking at this mural for weeks from behind the museum when we go to the library for an evening program. If you go, make sure you check out the mural from way back behind the museum at night. So cool.
Harun Farocki is a Czech video artist whose contribution to the International are installations of actual survaillance video called Eye/Machine. The curatorial notes focus on his one installation of a smart bomb assault from the first Gulf War, but I focused on one that came from a more mundane source. One one of two tv screens he showed actual feed from four survaillance cameras on some sort of steel sheet rolling factory. On the other one he showed video of the manufacturing process with explanation of the process steps with brief descriptions. I've always been interested in why many European artists are so fascinated with industrial processes. They have painted, and photographed, and videotaped, and recorded all kinds of machines and factories. I've been in so many factories and watched the monitors that some process engineer somewhere uses to assure the line is running properly. I've listened to the rhythm and hum of a hydraulic press and know that the timing and pitch mean everything is working. The clatterings of a mechanical presses are likewise indicative that the operation does not require attention. Sound and motion are as important a guage to anticipate end-product quality as the actual gages. But to some, these visuals and sounds can be artistically divorced from their practical settings. I think if I could wield curatorial power I would love to construct an exhibit of industrial inspired art and take it to sites. I think the folks that wear ear protection and heat-resistant gloves all day would be amused to see these things so glorified.
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