Sunday, September 27, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
So overnight I have become the 6th most popular director from NewZealand on youtube and the 26th most viewed in general from NewZealand.
I believe it has something to do with the Keywords solitary, rope, tying... or maybe Bondage.
I think these pictures speak for themselves really...
oh and just click to make them bigger.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Romantic era music
Main article: Romantic music
See also: List of Romantic composers
The music of the Romantic era, from 1820 to 1910, was characterized by increased attention to melody and rhythm, as well as expressive and emotional elements, paralleling romanticism in other art forms. Musical forms began to break from the Classical era forms (even as those were being codified), with free-form pieces like nocturnes, fantasias, and preludes being written where accepted ideas about the exposition and development of themes were ignored or minimized.[24] The music became more chromatic, dissonant, and tonally colorful, with tensions (with respect to accepted norms of the older forms) about key signatures increasing.[25]
from the classical music page of wikipedia.
The Music in the background of my videos are a selection of Nocturnes by Chopin.
Main article: Romantic music
See also: List of Romantic composers
The music of the Romantic era, from 1820 to 1910, was characterized by increased attention to melody and rhythm, as well as expressive and emotional elements, paralleling romanticism in other art forms. Musical forms began to break from the Classical era forms (even as those were being codified), with free-form pieces like nocturnes, fantasias, and preludes being written where accepted ideas about the exposition and development of themes were ignored or minimized.[24] The music became more chromatic, dissonant, and tonally colorful, with tensions (with respect to accepted norms of the older forms) about key signatures increasing.[25]
from the classical music page of wikipedia.
The Music in the background of my videos are a selection of Nocturnes by Chopin.
Second Session, I tried for an hour-or-so to bind myself in a way I could not escape.
The first video is the initial trial.
This next video is essentially the same binding, just with a slightly tighter neck-sling.
The tighter neck-sling kept me bound for about 15 minutes, during which time the temperature in the room raised this meant I was able to slip out of the knots because of being able to stretch a little more than earlier.
The first video is the initial trial.
This next video is essentially the same binding, just with a slightly tighter neck-sling.
The tighter neck-sling kept me bound for about 15 minutes, during which time the temperature in the room raised this meant I was able to slip out of the knots because of being able to stretch a little more than earlier.
Monday, August 31, 2009
This is the unedited version of a video I found on youtube right near the start of this year, the other was removed.
I find it quite strange watching this. While I feel sorry for the kids and what they are forced to do, I go to training four or five days a week and ask people to do these same things to me. Last night we were doing partner stretches and the person I was working with was too scared they would hurt me and so hardly helped with the stretch at all.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
So i've been researching kinbaku, Shibari and the general area within western style bondage that deals with similar types of binding and tying(this research is not part of this blog as I want to keep my workbook rated 'G').
I've taught myself different techniques and as an initial experiment I tied myself into an asymmetrical 'hog tie'(Hands and feet bound and connected). My left foot was tied to my right knee, my right foot was tied to my right thigh and my hands were tied to my right big toe.
This kept me in a back bend when my hands were behind my head, cut off the circulation to my toes when my hands were in front of my face, and numbed my left hand when I got the rope joining my toes to my hands wrapped around my chest/back.
When I lost the feeling in my hand I panicked and tried to untie myself as quickly as I could(this proved difficult at first because of my hand being out of action, and until the blood was running through there again properly I couldn't get any knots untied).
As I was doing this to myself I figured everything that I tied I would be able to untie just as easily, this has proven to not be the case.
I like the unexpected dynamic of not just making it look like you have been tied into a prone position, but doing it to yourself and managing to tie yourself so well that you are actually stuck in that position(I did manage to untie myself but it could be a challenge for next time, to actually get stuck tied up in the ropes).
I feel good about this. the thought that I might have actually been forced to ask my flatmates for help, or even better, to have had to wait for my girlfriend to turn up looking for me makes me chuckle.
admittedly, my rope-work is nowhere near the standard of some of the people I have been looking at, but seeing as it is my first time, and I was tying myself I am pleased with the results.
I think I need more rope.
Either another length like the one I have, or an individual piece that is really long.
Video and stills coming soon.
I've taught myself different techniques and as an initial experiment I tied myself into an asymmetrical 'hog tie'(Hands and feet bound and connected). My left foot was tied to my right knee, my right foot was tied to my right thigh and my hands were tied to my right big toe.
This kept me in a back bend when my hands were behind my head, cut off the circulation to my toes when my hands were in front of my face, and numbed my left hand when I got the rope joining my toes to my hands wrapped around my chest/back.
When I lost the feeling in my hand I panicked and tried to untie myself as quickly as I could(this proved difficult at first because of my hand being out of action, and until the blood was running through there again properly I couldn't get any knots untied).
As I was doing this to myself I figured everything that I tied I would be able to untie just as easily, this has proven to not be the case.
I like the unexpected dynamic of not just making it look like you have been tied into a prone position, but doing it to yourself and managing to tie yourself so well that you are actually stuck in that position(I did manage to untie myself but it could be a challenge for next time, to actually get stuck tied up in the ropes).
I feel good about this. the thought that I might have actually been forced to ask my flatmates for help, or even better, to have had to wait for my girlfriend to turn up looking for me makes me chuckle.
admittedly, my rope-work is nowhere near the standard of some of the people I have been looking at, but seeing as it is my first time, and I was tying myself I am pleased with the results.
I think I need more rope.
Either another length like the one I have, or an individual piece that is really long.
Video and stills coming soon.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
'When something different or unusual is presented before you -whether it's living or inanimate- you're intrigued, amazed, or maybe even disgusted. But you want to see it.'
pg1
'Throughout history, those who have been born somehow different from the rest of us have had the opportunity to profit from human curiosity, the sense of wonder at their difference.'
pg2
'To complicate matters further, the new attitude of political correctness made it wrong to stare at and profit from human oddities. This was relevant, for example, in the 1960s and early 1970s in cases in North Carolina and Florida, where two girls were offended after attending sideshows. One of these was fifteen-year-old Carol Grant, who had deformed arms and legs. "Handicapped people are seeking more in life than being stared at in a sideshow," she wrote in a 1968 letter to the North Carolina agriculture commissioner, and a copy of her letter was sent to the governor's wife, sparking controversy in the press. Grant's concern may have been justified for certain people, some said, but why take away the option of appearing in a sideshow if someone wanted to? Those who did want to fought back. They had a right to earn a living, and the sideshow was a place to do it.'
pg4
from American Sideshow by Marc Hartzman
pg1
'Throughout history, those who have been born somehow different from the rest of us have had the opportunity to profit from human curiosity, the sense of wonder at their difference.'
pg2
'To complicate matters further, the new attitude of political correctness made it wrong to stare at and profit from human oddities. This was relevant, for example, in the 1960s and early 1970s in cases in North Carolina and Florida, where two girls were offended after attending sideshows. One of these was fifteen-year-old Carol Grant, who had deformed arms and legs. "Handicapped people are seeking more in life than being stared at in a sideshow," she wrote in a 1968 letter to the North Carolina agriculture commissioner, and a copy of her letter was sent to the governor's wife, sparking controversy in the press. Grant's concern may have been justified for certain people, some said, but why take away the option of appearing in a sideshow if someone wanted to? Those who did want to fought back. They had a right to earn a living, and the sideshow was a place to do it.'
pg4
from American Sideshow by Marc Hartzman
Saturday, July 18, 2009
After a Tissue performance I did I was approached by William and Miki and one of the main critiques was about my not being completely present during the performance. Since the event I have been watching others as they perform and have started noticing them doing what I interpreted this comment to mean.
I think this is very important in my performance practice, not necessarily because it is necessary to constantly be 'present' but more so that I can control this(possibly change from present to vacant conciously). In terms of my performance practice for this paper I think that it would really add something if I was either fluctuating between vacant and present or consistantly present. I expect that being consistantly present would help emphasise the difficulty of the acts, if someone is doing something painful but is in a form of meditative conciousness it removes some of the effect because of the knowledge of how this is used to remove the pain.
Like in the book/movie Fight Club:
it's something very different conciously taking pain rather than zoning out.
when I did the six and a half hours under my desk I spent most of the time in a meditative state in which I couldn't really tell what was going on around me.
William and Miki suggested I come to some of their Butoh training sessions to help gain this presentness.
>Hi Arron
>Finally getting that email to you about our friday night butoh workshops.
>We are at ***, ***, Wellington. It's an orange building.
>We are around back at the bottom floor of the building room *** I've attached a couple of pics and our contact info to help you find us.
>
>Hope to see you soon
***=removed word(for privacy)
Sankai Juku(Butoh Group)
I think this is very important in my performance practice, not necessarily because it is necessary to constantly be 'present' but more so that I can control this(possibly change from present to vacant conciously). In terms of my performance practice for this paper I think that it would really add something if I was either fluctuating between vacant and present or consistantly present. I expect that being consistantly present would help emphasise the difficulty of the acts, if someone is doing something painful but is in a form of meditative conciousness it removes some of the effect because of the knowledge of how this is used to remove the pain.
Like in the book/movie Fight Club:
Tyler licks his lips until they're gleaming wet. He takes
Jack's hands and KISSES the back of it.
TYLER
The first soap was made from the
ashes of heroes. Like the first
monkeys shot into space.
The saliva shines in the shape of the kiss. Tyler pours a
bit of the flaked lye onto Jack's hand.
TYLER
Without sacrifice, without death, we
would have nothing.
Jack's whole body JERKS. Tyler holds tight to Jack's hand
and arm. Tears well in Jack's eyes; his face tightens.
TYLER
This is a chemical burn. It will
hurt more than you've ever been
burned and you will have a scar.
Jack looks -- the burn is swollen, glossy, in the shape of
Tyler's kiss. Jack's face spasms.
JACK (V.O.)
Tyler's kiss was a bonfire on the
back of my hand.
TYLER
Look at your hand.
JACK (V.O.)
Guided meditation worked for cancer,
it could work for this.
SHOT OF A GREEN MAPLE LEAF, GLISTENING WITH DEW. RESUME:
Tyler looks at Jack's glazed and detached eyes.
TYLER
Come back to the pain. Don't shut
this out.
Jack, snapping back, tries to jerk his hand away. Tyler
keeps hold of it and their arms KNOCK UTENSILS off the table.
JACK (V.O.)
I tried not to think of the words
"searing" or "flesh." I imagined my
pain as a ball of healing white light.
SHOT OF A FOREST, IN GENTLE SPRING RAINFALL. RESUME:
Tyler JERKS Jack's hand, getting Jack's attention...
TYLER
Stop it. This is your pain -- your
burning hand. It's right here. Look
at it.
JACK (V.O.)
I was going to my cave to find my
power animal.
SHOT OF THE INSIDE OF JACK'S FROZEN ICE CAVE. RESUME:
Tyler JERKS Jack's hand again. Jack re-focuses on Tyler...
TYLER
Don't deal with this the way those
dead people do. Deal with it the way
a living person does.
SHOT OF INSIDE THE ICE CAVE - ON MARLA, LYING NAKED UNDER A
FUR COAT, TURNING HER HEAD TO LOOK TOWARDS US. RESUME:
Jack tries to pull his hand free. Tyler won't let go.
Jack's eyes glaze over again. Jack speaks, whiny from pain:
JACK
I... I think I understand. I think
I get it...
TYLER
No, what you're feeling is premature
enlightenment.
SHOT OF A GREEN FOREST WITHOUT RAIN. RESUME:
Tyler SLAPS Jack's face, regaining his attention...
TYLER
This is the greatest moment of your
life and you're off somewhere,
missing it.
JACK
No, I'm not...
SHOT OF TREES ENGULFED BY A FOREST FIRE. RESUME:
TYLER
Shut up. Our fathers were our models
for God. And, if our fathers bailed,
what does that tell us about God?
JACK
I don't know...
SHOT OF EMBERS POURING FROM THE HELLISH FOREST FIRE. RESUME:
Tyler SLAPS Jack's face again...
TYLER
Listen to me. You have to consider
the possibility that God doesn't like
you, he never wanted you. In all
probability, He hates you. This is
not the worst thing that can happen...
JACK
It isn't... ?
TYLER
We don't need him...
JACK
We don't... ?
SHOT OF INSIDE ICE CAVE - NAKED MARLA PULLS JACK DOWN ON TOP
OF HER - JACK KISSES HER - CIGARETTE SMOKE COMES FROM HER
MOUTH - JACK COUGHS. RESUME:
Jack is a wide-eyed zombie...
JACK
... Marla ... ?
TYLER
Fuck damnation. Fuck redemption. We
are God's unwanted children, with no
special place and no special
attention, and so be it.
Jack looks at Tyler -- they lock eyes. Jack does his best
to stifle his spasms of pain, his body a quivering, coiled
knot. He bolts toward the sink, but Tyler holds on.
TYLER
You can go to the sink and run water
over your hand. Look at me. Or you
can use vinegar to neutralize the
burn, but first you have to give up.
First, you have to know that someday,
you are going to die. Until you know
that, you will be useless.
Jack spasms with a shiver of pain...
JACK
You ... you don't know what this
feels like, Tyler.
Tyler shows Jack a LYE-BURNED KISS SCAR on his own hand.
Tears begin to drip from Jack's eyes. Tyler grabs a bottle
of VINEGAR -- pours it over Jack's wound.
Jack closes his eyes, holds his hand... slumps to the floor.
TYLER
Congratulations. You're a step
closer to hitting bottom.
it's something very different conciously taking pain rather than zoning out.
when I did the six and a half hours under my desk I spent most of the time in a meditative state in which I couldn't really tell what was going on around me.
William and Miki suggested I come to some of their Butoh training sessions to help gain this presentness.
>Hi Arron
>Finally getting that email to you about our friday night butoh workshops.
>We are at ***, ***, Wellington. It's an orange building.
>We are around back at the bottom floor of the building room *** I've attached a couple of pics and our contact info to help you find us.
>
>Hope to see you soon
***=removed word(for privacy)
Sankai Juku(Butoh Group)
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
In these ways, rather than offer itself as "a work" to be "read", Morris' unitary form presents a kind of visual and physical obstruction. Yet it is precisely in this event that this form demands that the viewer negotiate bodily with its placement and dimensions. Thus, for Morris:
It was a confrontation with the body. It was the notion that the object recedes in it's self-importance. It participates in a complex experience that includes the object, your body, the space, and the time of your experience. It's locked together in these things.
(Morris 1997)
p.27
'Our position in society is structured through bodily experience with architecture'
p.38
I complete the body(the architectural form) after I learn what that body can do, what the ability of the body to speak is. This is a kind of phenomenological investigation[...]I need to assign speech to each part of a particular building so that it will be able to speak in my terms, to speak in a more specific way than it already does.
p.39
In Two Jumps for Dead Dog Creek Oppenheim's performance presents itself not only in relation to a specific site but in its place: here, in fact, not only is the body engaged in a mapping of the site, but this performance of the dimensions of a specific place maps out the physical tolerances of the body.
p.157
Site specific art:Performance, place and documentation-Nick Kaye
the bruce high quality foundation and the public art tackle
The Bruce High Quality Foundation, the official arbiter of the estate of Bruce High Quality, is dedicated to the preservation of the legacy of the late social sculptor, Bruce High Quality. In the spirit of the life and work of Bruce High Quality, we aspire to invest the experience of public space with wonder, to resurrect art history from the bowels of despair, and to impregnate the institutions of art with the joy of man’s desiring.
Professional Challenges. Amateur Solutions.
{less}
The Bruce High Quality Foundation was created to foster an alternative to everything.
from:http://www.thebrucehighqualityfoundation.com/Site/home.html
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
http://www.papergirl-berlin.de/
In our over-juried, overexposed, over-hyped land of art and design it's refreshing to see an art event that not only has no jury, but also gives away the pieces in an "unprejudiced" way to anyone near the bike path. Born out of a reaction to recent changes regarding Berlin's vandalism laws, Papergirl rallies artists and cyclists to distribute rolls of paper art (posters, prints, etc.) to unsuspecting Berliners.
From: http://www.sezio.org/feature/Papergirl.aspx
Also contains an interview.
In our over-juried, overexposed, over-hyped land of art and design it's refreshing to see an art event that not only has no jury, but also gives away the pieces in an "unprejudiced" way to anyone near the bike path. Born out of a reaction to recent changes regarding Berlin's vandalism laws, Papergirl rallies artists and cyclists to distribute rolls of paper art (posters, prints, etc.) to unsuspecting Berliners.
From: http://www.sezio.org/feature/Papergirl.aspx
Also contains an interview.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/f/fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas-script.html
[ Voice Extremely Slowed Down ]
Does anybody want some LSD ?
I got all the makin's...
right here !
[ Echoing ]
All I need is a place to cook.
I decided to eat only
half of the acid at first...
but I spilled the rest on the sleeve
of my red woolen shirt.
[ Voice Slowed Down, Echoing ]
What's the trouble ?
[ Voice Slowed Down, Echoing ]
Well, all this white stuff...
on my sleeve...
is LSD.
[ Duke Narrating ]
With a bit of luck...
his life
was ruined forever...
always thinking that just behind some
narrow door in all his favorite bars...
men in red woolen shirts...
are getting incredible kicks
from things he'll never know.
Also, some of the training I do somedays.
American Parkour send out a workout of the day (uh daily...)
http://www.americanparkour.com/content/category/12/37/385/
they send things like this:
WOD 5-4-09
Monday, 04 May 2009
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
--Bill Cosby-- (1937 - )
APK Warmup
Workout- Two classic bodyweight benchmarks from Crossfit ....
"Cindy"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats
OR
"Mary"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Handstand Push-ups
10 One legged squats, alternating
15 Pull-ups
Post your choice of girls and rounds completed to comments. Compare to 2-23-09
This guy sends me emails every so often, sometimes they are useful.
http://www.lostartofhandbalancing.com/home.html
there's also the good ol' Hood Workouts RSS to get yourself looking big and buff even if you're in prison(not sure that side of it will come in too handy for me but the exercises are still good)
and a range of Yoga, pilates, Swiss Ball, Aerial Circus and Acrobalance, sometimes capoeira and sometimes gymnastics.
These are my quotidian events.
These are the things determining how my performances turn out.
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/f/fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas-script.html
[ Voice Extremely Slowed Down ]
Does anybody want some LSD ?
I got all the makin's...
right here !
[ Echoing ]
All I need is a place to cook.
I decided to eat only
half of the acid at first...
but I spilled the rest on the sleeve
of my red woolen shirt.
[ Voice Slowed Down, Echoing ]
What's the trouble ?
[ Voice Slowed Down, Echoing ]
Well, all this white stuff...
on my sleeve...
is LSD.
[ Duke Narrating ]
With a bit of luck...
his life
was ruined forever...
always thinking that just behind some
narrow door in all his favorite bars...
men in red woolen shirts...
are getting incredible kicks
from things he'll never know.
Also, some of the training I do somedays.
American Parkour send out a workout of the day (uh daily...)
http://www.americanparkour.com/content/category/12/37/385/
they send things like this:
WOD 5-4-09
Monday, 04 May 2009
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
--Bill Cosby-- (1937 - )
APK Warmup
Workout- Two classic bodyweight benchmarks from Crossfit ....
"Cindy"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats
OR
"Mary"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Handstand Push-ups
10 One legged squats, alternating
15 Pull-ups
Post your choice of girls and rounds completed to comments. Compare to 2-23-09
This guy sends me emails every so often, sometimes they are useful.
http://www.lostartofhandbalancing.com/home.html
there's also the good ol' Hood Workouts RSS to get yourself looking big and buff even if you're in prison(not sure that side of it will come in too handy for me but the exercises are still good)
and a range of Yoga, pilates, Swiss Ball, Aerial Circus and Acrobalance, sometimes capoeira and sometimes gymnastics.
These are my quotidian events.
These are the things determining how my performances turn out.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Zhang Huan
From: http://www.zhanghuan.com/index.asp
Leopold Kessler
From: http://www.secession.at/art/2007_kessler_e.html
Leopold Kessler’s works focus on public space, exploring the topography of cities – from the traffic signs that structure urban life to the modes of behavior influenced by it. The artist’s interventions aim at squares, paths, street signs or street barriers, which serve as material for his sculptures. Moreover he has repeatedly pointed out the gaps that can be found in the systematic organization of social space.
For an exhibition at the Neue Galerie in Graz in 2006 Kessler increased the water pressure of the Erzherzog-Johann fountain on the city’s main square, with the effect that for a certain time the water spilled onto the ground around the fountain. Along with this intervention he created a video that displayed the square with the fountain in the middle from a tourist’s point of view. The tourist’s view on the city is covetous and presuming, with the intention to make urban complexity and impermeable mobility legible and more manageable. Although working with public space, Kessler does not see this as a public mission. His unsolicited actions or interventions go almost unnoticed, since they are hidden or appear as authorized acts or construction-related measures.
For the Secession Leopold Kessler has created the high-definition video Perforation Kal. 10 mm, which shows a series of interventions at various locations in Vienna. A man, dressed like a street worker (Kessler), is strolling through the quiet early morning streets in a completely self-evident manner. He punches holes in street signs using an oversized hole-puncher, which he has designed especially for this purpose. Perforating the signs seems to involve a lot of effort, requiring considerable strength while making a great deal of racket. Kessler displays an amazing nonchalance in his work and even makes himself liable to an administrative fine. Visiting various locations on one given stroll, he hardly leaves any traces behind. The meaning of these interventions cannot be immediately grasped.
Kessler directs the viewer’s attention towards the inversion of visibility and invisibility, since it is precisely the brightly visible neon-orange vest that makes him invisible for most people. Within the exhibition setting Kessler’s interventions even draw international attention.
Is Leopold Kessler interested in the holes he has punched or the signs? Do the perforated signs still function as traffic signs or have they already become sought-after collector’s items? At what point do the irregularly arranged holes result in a pattern? Can the perforation form a line, a surface as Kessler strolls through the city? Thomas Bernhard describes strolling as an act that motivates and articulates thoughts, reflecting the relation between movement and standstill. Or do these holes simply allude to the use of firearms? Street signs with bullet holes are not an uncommon sight in the outlying areas of large cities. Furthermore the choice of bullet holes is again referring to the tourist's perspective, which seeks out the potential danger as an urban attraction. In this case however, the artist's work is being shown at the Secession, one of Vienna's most photographed buildings and a major tourist sight.
Leopold Kessler: The next generation
From: http://www.kopenhagen.dk/interviews/interviews/interview_leopold_kessler/
Roman Ondak
The stray man,2006
A man is asked to wander near the windows of a gallery, situated adjacent to the street. He occasionally gazes through the windows into the gallery, but never enters.
Cezary Bodzianowski
"Bodzianowski's absurd theatre makes salutary alterations into the fabric of everyday life, casting a wry eye over Camus' Myth of Sisyphus in the process. Domestic détournements are composed of a ribald wit and verve whose impact is alternately nebulous or robust -- the minutiae of life elevated to centre stage. Magically realist performances, documents and objects make up a prolific practice informed by droll pathos and an eye for incongruity. Bodzianowski's insouciant flanerie recalls the chess career of Marcel Duchamp, or Arthur Cravan's forays into boxing, forever blurring the boundaries between art and life, poetry and gaucherie."
Susannah Thompson
From: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/blogon/2006/11/cezary_bodzianowski_at_sorcha.php
The Kingpins
From: http://thekingpins.joshraymond.com/
From: http://www.zhanghuan.com/index.asp
Leopold Kessler
From: http://www.secession.at/art/2007_kessler_e.html
Leopold Kessler’s works focus on public space, exploring the topography of cities – from the traffic signs that structure urban life to the modes of behavior influenced by it. The artist’s interventions aim at squares, paths, street signs or street barriers, which serve as material for his sculptures. Moreover he has repeatedly pointed out the gaps that can be found in the systematic organization of social space.
For an exhibition at the Neue Galerie in Graz in 2006 Kessler increased the water pressure of the Erzherzog-Johann fountain on the city’s main square, with the effect that for a certain time the water spilled onto the ground around the fountain. Along with this intervention he created a video that displayed the square with the fountain in the middle from a tourist’s point of view. The tourist’s view on the city is covetous and presuming, with the intention to make urban complexity and impermeable mobility legible and more manageable. Although working with public space, Kessler does not see this as a public mission. His unsolicited actions or interventions go almost unnoticed, since they are hidden or appear as authorized acts or construction-related measures.
For the Secession Leopold Kessler has created the high-definition video Perforation Kal. 10 mm, which shows a series of interventions at various locations in Vienna. A man, dressed like a street worker (Kessler), is strolling through the quiet early morning streets in a completely self-evident manner. He punches holes in street signs using an oversized hole-puncher, which he has designed especially for this purpose. Perforating the signs seems to involve a lot of effort, requiring considerable strength while making a great deal of racket. Kessler displays an amazing nonchalance in his work and even makes himself liable to an administrative fine. Visiting various locations on one given stroll, he hardly leaves any traces behind. The meaning of these interventions cannot be immediately grasped.
Kessler directs the viewer’s attention towards the inversion of visibility and invisibility, since it is precisely the brightly visible neon-orange vest that makes him invisible for most people. Within the exhibition setting Kessler’s interventions even draw international attention.
Is Leopold Kessler interested in the holes he has punched or the signs? Do the perforated signs still function as traffic signs or have they already become sought-after collector’s items? At what point do the irregularly arranged holes result in a pattern? Can the perforation form a line, a surface as Kessler strolls through the city? Thomas Bernhard describes strolling as an act that motivates and articulates thoughts, reflecting the relation between movement and standstill. Or do these holes simply allude to the use of firearms? Street signs with bullet holes are not an uncommon sight in the outlying areas of large cities. Furthermore the choice of bullet holes is again referring to the tourist's perspective, which seeks out the potential danger as an urban attraction. In this case however, the artist's work is being shown at the Secession, one of Vienna's most photographed buildings and a major tourist sight.
Leopold Kessler: The next generation
From: http://www.kopenhagen.dk/interviews/interviews/interview_leopold_kessler/
Roman Ondak
The stray man,2006
A man is asked to wander near the windows of a gallery, situated adjacent to the street. He occasionally gazes through the windows into the gallery, but never enters.
Cezary Bodzianowski
"Bodzianowski's absurd theatre makes salutary alterations into the fabric of everyday life, casting a wry eye over Camus' Myth of Sisyphus in the process. Domestic détournements are composed of a ribald wit and verve whose impact is alternately nebulous or robust -- the minutiae of life elevated to centre stage. Magically realist performances, documents and objects make up a prolific practice informed by droll pathos and an eye for incongruity. Bodzianowski's insouciant flanerie recalls the chess career of Marcel Duchamp, or Arthur Cravan's forays into boxing, forever blurring the boundaries between art and life, poetry and gaucherie."
Susannah Thompson
From: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/blogon/2006/11/cezary_bodzianowski_at_sorcha.php
The Kingpins
From: http://thekingpins.joshraymond.com/
Monday, April 20, 2009
Janine Antoni
Janine Antoni's work blurs the distinction between performance art and sculpture. Antoni transforms everyday activities such as eating, bathing, and sleeping into ways of making art, such as painting and sculpting. Themes in her work include mortality, desire and the body.
http://artforum.com/video/mode=large&id=20081&page_id=0
this sounds way to familiar...
Bruce Nauman
Walking in an exaggerated manner around the perimeter of a square
Martin Creed
Work 850
Bas Jan Ader
fall II
after Bas Jan Ader
Janine Antoni's work blurs the distinction between performance art and sculpture. Antoni transforms everyday activities such as eating, bathing, and sleeping into ways of making art, such as painting and sculpting. Themes in her work include mortality, desire and the body.
http://artforum.com/video/mode=large&id=20081&page_id=0
this sounds way to familiar...
Bruce Nauman
Walking in an exaggerated manner around the perimeter of a square
Martin Creed
Work 850
Bas Jan Ader
fall II
after Bas Jan Ader
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Nina Beier-Marie Lund
The Difference between Humans and Walls
A group of uniformed employees of a museum are asked to stand,
blocking different passages in the exhibition. When a visitor asks
to pass, they disperse and regroup somewhere else.
Event, various durations, Tate Britain, November 2007
taken from http://www.ninajanbeier-mariejanlund.com/
The Play Me Series (Look in the Window Until Someone Looks Back at You) (2006) © the artists 2007
from http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art53562
"This book (Plans for other days) suggests, it doesn't dictate. It is a list of proposals on how to relate to our surroundings. A manual of moments. It is a life we are living. Being at home, going out, feeling on our own and being together. We look at the simple things that don't get that much attention and seek alternatives to routines. We alter and take over what we can touch and feel. With everyday interventions and intuition we try to reclaime our lives. We try to come closer, closer to our own lives and to others."
Janfamily:
The Difference between Humans and Walls
A group of uniformed employees of a museum are asked to stand,
blocking different passages in the exhibition. When a visitor asks
to pass, they disperse and regroup somewhere else.
Event, various durations, Tate Britain, November 2007
taken from http://www.ninajanbeier-mariejanlund.com/
The Play Me Series (Look in the Window Until Someone Looks Back at You) (2006) © the artists 2007
from http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art53562
"This book (Plans for other days) suggests, it doesn't dictate. It is a list of proposals on how to relate to our surroundings. A manual of moments. It is a life we are living. Being at home, going out, feeling on our own and being together. We look at the simple things that don't get that much attention and seek alternatives to routines. We alter and take over what we can touch and feel. With everyday interventions and intuition we try to reclaime our lives. We try to come closer, closer to our own lives and to others."
Janfamily:
Friday, April 3, 2009
MEANINGLESS WORK
Meaningless work is obviously the most important and significant art form today. The aesthetic feeling given by meaningless work can not be described exactly because it varies with each individual doing the work. Meaningless work is honest. Meaningless work will be enjoyed and hated by intellectuals - though they should understand it. Meaningless work can not be sold in art galleries or win prizes in museums - though old fasion records of meaningless work (most all paintings) do partake in these indignities. Like ordinary work, meaningless work can make you sweat if you do it long enough. By meaningless work I simply mean work which does not make money or accomplish a conventional purpose. For instance putting wooden blocks from one box to another, then putting them back to the original box, back and forth, back and forth etc., is a fine example of meaningless work. Or digging a hole, then covering it is another example. Filing letters in a filing cabinet could be considered meaningless work, only if one were not considered a secretary, and if one scattered the file on the floor periodically so that one didn't get any feeling of accomplishment. Digging in the garden is not meaningless work. Weight lifting, though monotonous, is not meaningless work in its aesthetic since because it will give you muscles and you know it. Caution should be taken that the work chosen should not be too pleasurable, lest pleasure becomes the purpose of the work. Hence, sex, though rhythmix, can not stictly be called meaningless - though I'm sure many people consider it so.
Meaningless work is potentially the most abstract, concrete, individual, foolish, indeterminate, exactly determined, varied, important art-action-experience one can undertake today. This concept is not a joke. Try some meaningless work in the privacy of your own room. In fact, to be fully understood, meaningless work should be done alone or else it becomes entertainment for others and the reaction or lack of reaction of the art lover to the meaningless work can not honestly be felt.
Meaningless work can contan all of the best qualities of old art forms such as painting, writing, etc. It can make you feel and think about yourself, the outside world, morality, reality, unconsciousness, nature, history, time, philosophy, nothing at all, politics, etc. without the limitations of the old art forms.
Meaningless work is individual in nature and it can be done in any form and over any span of time - from one second up to the limits of exhaustion. It can be done fast or slow or both. Rhythmically or not. It can be done anywhere in any weather conditions. Clothing, if any, is left to the individual. Whether the meaningless work, as an art form, is meaningless, in the ordinary sense of that term, is of course up to the individual. Meaningless work is the new way to tell who is square.
Grunt
Get to work
by Walter De Maria, March 1960
Meaningless work is obviously the most important and significant art form today. The aesthetic feeling given by meaningless work can not be described exactly because it varies with each individual doing the work. Meaningless work is honest. Meaningless work will be enjoyed and hated by intellectuals - though they should understand it. Meaningless work can not be sold in art galleries or win prizes in museums - though old fasion records of meaningless work (most all paintings) do partake in these indignities. Like ordinary work, meaningless work can make you sweat if you do it long enough. By meaningless work I simply mean work which does not make money or accomplish a conventional purpose. For instance putting wooden blocks from one box to another, then putting them back to the original box, back and forth, back and forth etc., is a fine example of meaningless work. Or digging a hole, then covering it is another example. Filing letters in a filing cabinet could be considered meaningless work, only if one were not considered a secretary, and if one scattered the file on the floor periodically so that one didn't get any feeling of accomplishment. Digging in the garden is not meaningless work. Weight lifting, though monotonous, is not meaningless work in its aesthetic since because it will give you muscles and you know it. Caution should be taken that the work chosen should not be too pleasurable, lest pleasure becomes the purpose of the work. Hence, sex, though rhythmix, can not stictly be called meaningless - though I'm sure many people consider it so.
Meaningless work is potentially the most abstract, concrete, individual, foolish, indeterminate, exactly determined, varied, important art-action-experience one can undertake today. This concept is not a joke. Try some meaningless work in the privacy of your own room. In fact, to be fully understood, meaningless work should be done alone or else it becomes entertainment for others and the reaction or lack of reaction of the art lover to the meaningless work can not honestly be felt.
Meaningless work can contan all of the best qualities of old art forms such as painting, writing, etc. It can make you feel and think about yourself, the outside world, morality, reality, unconsciousness, nature, history, time, philosophy, nothing at all, politics, etc. without the limitations of the old art forms.
Meaningless work is individual in nature and it can be done in any form and over any span of time - from one second up to the limits of exhaustion. It can be done fast or slow or both. Rhythmically or not. It can be done anywhere in any weather conditions. Clothing, if any, is left to the individual. Whether the meaningless work, as an art form, is meaningless, in the ordinary sense of that term, is of course up to the individual. Meaningless work is the new way to tell who is square.
Grunt
Get to work
by Walter De Maria, March 1960
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Part one
Wearing white(cream) I sit on the floor and lean into a straddled front stretch. Someone dressed in black pushes on my back with their foot for three or four minutes and walks away.
Performed in semi-public space(studio transitional space)
Part two
Wearing white(cream) I bend into a standing front stretch. Someone dressed in black binds me with belts in five places down my body and walk away(wrists to ankles, forearms to shins, neck to knees, upper back to thigh, lower back to thigh). I exit, still bound.
Performed in semi-public space(studio transitional space)
Part three
Wearing white(cream) I bend into a standing front stretch. I ask a bystander 'can you help me?', then 'I need to put these belts on tightly'. They bind me with belts in five places down my body(wrists to ankles, forearms to shins, neck to knees, upper back to thigh, lower back to thigh). I attempt to sit on the ground, bound, and shuffle into the corner under my desk. I stay like this for 6 and a half hours only speaking when I need help(can you help me? I need to tighten my belts. I need to know the time.) or when someone directly asks me a question, I only eat if someone offers to feed me, if someone offers to help me with something I either decline or ask them to rub tiger balm on me where I am sore.
Part four
Wearing black I raise into a handstand in-between two 'T'-walls. The walls are pushed together and I am pressed in-between them, upside-down. I stay like this until I cannot hold myself any longer.
Part five
Wearing black I hang upside down from a bar by my feet. I stay suspended like this until I cannot hold myself any longer.
Wearing white(cream) I sit on the floor and lean into a straddled front stretch. Someone dressed in black pushes on my back with their foot for three or four minutes and walks away.
Performed in semi-public space(studio transitional space)
Part two
Wearing white(cream) I bend into a standing front stretch. Someone dressed in black binds me with belts in five places down my body and walk away(wrists to ankles, forearms to shins, neck to knees, upper back to thigh, lower back to thigh). I exit, still bound.
Performed in semi-public space(studio transitional space)
Part three
Wearing white(cream) I bend into a standing front stretch. I ask a bystander 'can you help me?', then 'I need to put these belts on tightly'. They bind me with belts in five places down my body(wrists to ankles, forearms to shins, neck to knees, upper back to thigh, lower back to thigh). I attempt to sit on the ground, bound, and shuffle into the corner under my desk. I stay like this for 6 and a half hours only speaking when I need help(can you help me? I need to tighten my belts. I need to know the time.) or when someone directly asks me a question, I only eat if someone offers to feed me, if someone offers to help me with something I either decline or ask them to rub tiger balm on me where I am sore.
Part four
Wearing black I raise into a handstand in-between two 'T'-walls. The walls are pushed together and I am pressed in-between them, upside-down. I stay like this until I cannot hold myself any longer.
Part five
Wearing black I hang upside down from a bar by my feet. I stay suspended like this until I cannot hold myself any longer.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
http://www.yingmei-art.com/en/works/corner
http://www.yingmei-art.com/en/works/patience
http://www.yingmei-art.com/en/works/observer
http://www.yingmei-art.com/en/works/inbetween
I like the whole of corner, the other three seem to not fit with the ideas she talks about, or fit in a very obvious way.
I like the aesthetic though.
http://www.yingmei-art.com/en/works/patience
http://www.yingmei-art.com/en/works/observer
http://www.yingmei-art.com/en/works/inbetween
I like the whole of corner, the other three seem to not fit with the ideas she talks about, or fit in a very obvious way.
I like the aesthetic though.
Friday, March 27, 2009
It gives a grim new meaning to the term body art. A leading contemporary Russian artist says he has perfected a technique to boil human corpses into crude oil from which he will create permanent sculptures, and he has already signed up willing volunteers.
Andrei Molodkin, who will represent Russia at this year's Venice Biennale, claims that after spending three to six months in a high-pressure machine, a corpse becomes oil that can be used to power cars or be moulded into a permanent memorial statue to sit on the mantelpiece.
His work is the ultimate extension of a growing trend for artists to use human bodies as art materials. The sculptor Marc Quinn made a study of his head from his frozen blood; Gilbert and George regularly use bodily fluids in their art, and Günther von Hagens's Body Worlds exhibition of preserved corpses is on at London's O2.
from: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/till-death-do-us-sculpt-russian-to-render-human-bodies-into-art-materials-1645363.html
also
http://www.frieze.com/issue/print_article/private_lives_public_gestures_2/
by Jan Verwoert
and
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/triangle/
Sanja Ivekovic
and
http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue5/privateview5.htm
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/ondak/default.shtm
Roman Ondak
Andrei Molodkin, who will represent Russia at this year's Venice Biennale, claims that after spending three to six months in a high-pressure machine, a corpse becomes oil that can be used to power cars or be moulded into a permanent memorial statue to sit on the mantelpiece.
His work is the ultimate extension of a growing trend for artists to use human bodies as art materials. The sculptor Marc Quinn made a study of his head from his frozen blood; Gilbert and George regularly use bodily fluids in their art, and Günther von Hagens's Body Worlds exhibition of preserved corpses is on at London's O2.
from: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/till-death-do-us-sculpt-russian-to-render-human-bodies-into-art-materials-1645363.html
also
http://www.frieze.com/issue/print_article/private_lives_public_gestures_2/
by Jan Verwoert
and
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/triangle/
Sanja Ivekovic
and
http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue5/privateview5.htm
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/ondak/default.shtm
Roman Ondak
From urbancamouflage.de
Anton Lopo and Marina Abramovic
Q: Do you feel any level of cruelty in your workshops?
A: I don't think so, but I think it's possible that a student, upon reflection, realises that what may be called cruelty is just another necessary step in the learning experience.
Marina Abramovic
...Artists are generally very attached to their egos and they can pretend to be the centre of the world.
...The creative act is like giving birth, and this birth is in many cases very painful and sometimes even destructive.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Masochism
The urge to derive pleasure, esp. sexual gratification, from one's own pain or humiliation; the pursuit of such pleasure. Also in weakened sense: deliberate pursuit of or enthusiasm for an activity that appears to be painful, frustrating, or tedious. Cf. SADISM n., SADOMASOCHISM n.
Masochist
A person who exhibits or is given to masochism. Also in weakened sense: a person who enjoys doing something that appears painful or frustrating.
Masochistic
Of, relating to, resembling, or characterized by masochism; deriving enjoyment from one's own pain or humiliation.
and one thats not digging..
Charlie Chaplins' grandaughter
Olga Arafieva
Nadam Guerra
The urge to derive pleasure, esp. sexual gratification, from one's own pain or humiliation; the pursuit of such pleasure. Also in weakened sense: deliberate pursuit of or enthusiasm for an activity that appears to be painful, frustrating, or tedious. Cf. SADISM n., SADOMASOCHISM n.
Masochist
A person who exhibits or is given to masochism. Also in weakened sense: a person who enjoys doing something that appears painful or frustrating.
Masochistic
Of, relating to, resembling, or characterized by masochism; deriving enjoyment from one's own pain or humiliation.
and one thats not digging..
Charlie Chaplins' grandaughter
Olga Arafieva
Nadam Guerra
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