2013 Exhibitions

Living so close to a cultural mecca, it seems only logical to venture downstate and take advantage of the myriad of galleries and art exhibitions tucked away in the city. After a few minutes of Google searching and link-hopping, I found two galleries that caught my attention: the Luhring Augustine and the Matthew Marks gallery.

LUHRING AUGUSTINE

This gallery actually offers two locations, one in Chelsea, the other in Bushwick, Brooklyn NY. From February 22 to June 16, both locations will be debuting a group exhibition composed of the talents of Charles Atlas, Johannes Kahrs, Reinhard Mucha, and Rachel Whiteread.

Charles Atlas

Collectively, the exhibition's description states, the pieces are reflective of the various artists' concerns and interpretations regarding the nature of memory and the construction of collective and individual histories. 

Both locations are open from 10am to 6pm on Friday; 12pm to 6pm Saturday and Sunday.

Boasting free admission and a short train ride from New Paltz, this exhibition seems like an interesting, risk-free experience. 

MATHEW MARKS GALLERY

Founded in 1991, the Mathew Marks Gallery represents the collective efforts of more than 20 European and American artists spanning several generations. Located at 523 West 24 Street, New York, this gallery incorporate works in a variety of mediums including painting, sculpture, film, drawing, and printmaking.

 

 
Nayland Blake: What Wont Wreng from Matthew Marks Gallery on Vimeo

From February 2 to April 20, 2013, artist Nayland Blake will be putting on an exhibition entitled "What Went Wreng". In collecting and combing various objects he created and accumulated throughout his daily meanderings, Blake has constructed a series of sculptures intended to explore certain socially complex themes ranging from personal and gender identities to the notion of community.  

The installation will be open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. 

Remixing and Mash-ups

Appropriation, Remixing, and Mash-ups

Cultural appropriation refers to the act of borrowing, changing, and manipulating the meanings of various cultural products, slogans, popular images, musical pieces, and/or elements of fashion. [83 source] Producers of all kinds may use this technique to make a statement, typically one that opposes a particular dominant ideology. That is, certain media/artistic elements that exist within the collective body of public knowledge, experience, or culture, elements that often  elicit a distinct, predefined interpretation, may be reimagined or recontextualized in order to achieve a different effect. Similar to the way in which our use of metaphor facilitates rich, complex, novel perspectives on relatively simple concepts (think of the multi-faceted, bi-directional system of shared qualities the metaphor "Juliet is the sun" implies to exist between the two subjects), cultural appropriation plays with the viewers' preconceived notion of some cultural artifact as it is transplanted into a new medium or setting. To that effect, the viewer is encouraged to reconsider his/her interpretation of the original piece, as well as analyze the similarities, disparities, intertextualization, hypocrisy, etc. the appropriation appears to acknowledge as existing between the pieces.

For example, the members of Ray John, a self-proclaimed collective leading the campaign for partying, appropriated the iconic "change" campaign poster cherished by Obama supporters in the first election. In its various forms, the Ray John poster flouts the faces of an unnamed business executive, cultural icon Ken Kesey, and the twisted, singing face of Trey Anastasio, the lead singer of the jam band Phish, all implanted on top of the classic red, white, and blue color scheme.
                                                                                                                                                                             
Maintaining the same basic font and simple display, the Ray John poster seeks to tap into the iconic atmosphere of the image. Just as Obama may be likened to the voice of our generation, the various artists of Ray John offer a less political, more accessible message to viewers; they need not be aware of recent elections, global crises, or reform initiatives in order to for the piece to resonate with them. Rather, simply by saying the words aloud ("Rage on") is the lighthearted message revealed in its entirety.

The campaign is playing with the tension and emotions embedded in the image, all the arguments, eye-rolls, and controversy the image, and simultaneously, the man and political era it has come to represent, have sparked. That is, the image's effect is achieved through its manipulation of this contrast. Rather than being an image that sparks political debate, an image that carries with it a distinct, potentially disagreeable political perspective, the Ray John images require a far simpler form of ideological dedication - the love to party.

 

Ray John @ North Coast Music Festival -- photo by James Richards IV

 

Billions Dead: The Fuzzy Killers Among Us

America's most effective killers, skilled chasers of lasers.               Source:CNN

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Charles Sanders Pierce published several works discussing the nature, relation, and utilization of signs. To clarify, he writes:

      

        I define a sign as anything which is so determined by something else, called its Object,         

        and so determines an effect upon a person, which effect I call its interpretant, that the   

        later is thereby mediately determined by the former. [citation]

The key component to the definition is the inclusion of an interpretant. Similar to certain ideas that would later be put forth by British philosopher Paul Grice, this emphasis on interpretation strays away from the various "two-level" theories of meaning (connecting simply a sign to an object with no consideration of intention or interpretation) that were prevalent at the time.

However, Pierce went further to describe the different types of relationships that exist between signs and the objects they're associated with in the real world. He categorized these relationships into three man types: indexical signs, iconic signs, and symbolic signs. 

Pierce explains that indexical signs, or indices, refer to situations where the sign and the object existed together or were physically connected to some extent. In that respect, he acknowledges that photography (barring the creative powers of Adobe Photoshop), for the most part, belongs to this class, as:

          [the] resemblance is due to the photographs having been produced under such 

        circumstances that they were physically forced to correspond point by point to nature. 

          [citation]

Moreover, indices can be understood as reflecting a relationship that consists as a matter of facts. Hence, this photo of a kitten presented in today's online edition of The New York Times is an example of an indexical sign. That is, regardless of any color correction or filters that may have been applied to edit the photograph, it holds that that cat, in particular, was present in front of the camera, and it was, in fact, that specific cat that is documented in the image. The photo does not inherently represent additional cats, as it is merely a sign that corresponds to exactly one kitten in the real world, however, given the context and the article it was coupled with, the photo may have been chosen to represent the notion of "cute cats" in general (placed strategically in a warm meadow of wildflowers, obviously).

image source

                                                                                                                     

Similarly, a popular image like Hello Kitty may be understood as an iconic sign. That is, the cat (or sign of a cat) imitates the likeness of an actual feline, but does not denote a particular animal in the real world. In other words, the sign resembles the object, but they are not physically or tangibly related--the sign is merely a representation, or an icon.

Meow.

Nan and Brian in Bed

"Nan and Brian in Bed," Nan Goldin (American, born 1953), NYC, 1983, Silver dye bleach print.

The photo depicts a relatively young, shirtless male smoking a cigarette in the foreground. The man's expression is hidden by the shadows and his cigarette, although he appears to be staring distractedly out the bedroom window. A warm orange glow permeates the room, the light casting a shadow that divides the image and its subjects. While the man's rustled hair and bare chest imply he has only recently left the bed, there are no indications of time of day or whether the light is natural or artificial. The warm lighting in the foreground is contrasted by the clothed female figure lying on the bed.  Dressed in all black, the woman appears deep in thought, a stark contrast to the appathetic expression worn by the man we can presume to be her partner. The woman appears to be distraught, almost clutching her pillow as she gazes longingly at the man in the foreground. Her eyes betray a sense of desperation, dependency, and weariness, emotions that are lost on the man's averted gaze.

The walls in the background are painted lighly, seemingly off-white colored by the glow of the morning sun, and mostly blank except for three visible photos or posters. The two pieces hung on the left-most wall are indiscernable, however, the photo on the front wall (of a young, shirtless male smoking a cigarette) bares a striking resemblance to the man in the foreground. The relatively blank walls convey a sense of emptiness that may reflect some of the tension the woman's concerned look suggests exists between the two subjects. Additionally, the rigid, vertical, metal bars of the bedframe serve to further express the perceived lack of comfort and security in the room. Moreover, the blank walls and bed frame  suggest that the couple is not of particularly high socio-economic status. The tension represented in the photo - between light and dark, naked and clothed, and overt and covert displays of emotion - may reflect the inevitable power fluctuations and feelings of vulnerabiltity associated with intimacy.

As was characteristic of many of her photos, "Nan and Brian in Bed" serves as a sensationalized snapshot of the human experience. In combining the warm lighting, the exaggerated, painful expression on the woman's face, and the convenient framing and location of the camera, the photograph comes to resembles a scene from a movie. In portraying such personal, intimate moments in a fashioned, cinematic manner, Goldin may have been making a statement about the universality of such emotions and experiences, which in her case, were ones that were often repressed or considered taboo.

The truth behind the photo is that, the relationship it depicted, between artist Nan Goldin and her partner Brian, ended violently three monthes later. The piece was part of the now famous 800 image, multimedia installation entitled The Ballad of Sexual Dependency which debuted in the mid 1980s. In the 1970s and 1980s, Goldin used her art to blur the distinction between public and private moments by documenting women looking in mirrors, girls in bathrooms and bedrooms, drag queens, and the general culture of obsession and dependency that plagues some modern relationships. As a result of its raw, uncensored nature, her work has been said by some to have a type of pornograpghic appeal. Much of Goldin's work can be seen to incorporate themes such as domestic abuse, drug abuse, and other unhealthy aspects of relationships that, all too often, remain undiscussed. The photo below makes painfully clear the consequences of domestic abuse - a photo of a battered Goldin taken after the violent break-up.

Nan after being battered, 1984

In this video, Leslie Morgan speaks about domestic abuse and the complex, twisted relationship shared by the abusers and their victims.

But most of all, let's give it up for being single.

TODAY IS THE DAY

So, today we started this blog.