The Flog.

Separated at Birth comes back for May with fabulous fashion tips!

While browsing Preik for some sight delight, I found the image on the left, and smiled. Patrik Söderstam is a quirky designer based in Stockholm. I first saw his work in the last issue of the always spectacular Swedish magazine Livraison. While you are at it, check also this video from his past collaboration with SHOWstudio.

As for Brian Bress, his video work is still on view at The Getty until June 8th.

(Left image Patrik Söderstam. Right image Brian Bress, Untitled (collage suit), C-print, 31.5 x 24.5″, 2007)

(First three images from Patrick Söderstam’s Flickr. Last image on the right, cover of Livraison III Magazine.)

I received this delicious book while in New York for the fairs and didn’t take the time to feature it on the site yet.
Elsa Sahal is a french artist whose ceramic work I truly love. I have been quite enthusiast by the progression of her work and this catalogue features a great amount of works which have never been shown before, along with an interview with the artist (both in french & english).
Her recent body of work were created while in residency at the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres - the famous french porcelain manufactory.

The catalogue was published in the occasion of the exhibition Sculptures at the Fondation d’entreprise Ricard from March 10 to April 5, 2008. It features fabulous shots of her work along with an interview with the artist.

(All images from HEY HO Design Studio.)

While browsing the Fondation Ricard’s website, I stumbled upon this upcoming event in Paris. Le Lundi c’est théorie (Monday is Theory) will mark the closing conference and party with all of the authors who collaborated to Fresh Théorie, a compendium of essays on a variety of domains, from philosophy to cryptology, from the arts to pornography published by Léo Scheer.
I have only read the second opus - they have published three books so far - and have been craving for more since my last french trip. As the title denotes with its amusing use of french and english, this compilation is more playful than burdensome. The tone is light-hearted without turning vapid and some essays are truly creative.

(All images from Fresh Théorie.)

It’s been a while since my last separated at birth post! And here I receive the announcement for Arkitip’s upcoming issue, 45 featuring some of their favorite usual suspects Cody Hudson, Evan Hecox, and Todd St. John.
I was thinking about making some jokes about the whole magazine in an envelope thing because when I saw that bright red picture, it was screaming the thinest magazine is hiding in this envelope! Go get it!
I won’t say it though.
Jokes aside, once again this new issue looks fabulously crafted and promises to bring some delicious work. You can see/hear Evan Hecox talk about his own contribution here.

Update: I forgot to mention that Hecox is currently having a solo show at Kinsey/DesForges which closes this Saturday, the 22nd. My shots are in my drive, expect to see them appear around here soon.

(Let image, screen capture from the Apple commercial for the MacBook Air. Right images from Arkitip issue 45, from Kitsune Noir)

On January 25th, while artLA was working on its rebirth, TELIC launched The Public School on this busy night in Chinatown.

From the press release:
__The Public School is a school with no curriculum, located underneath TELIC Arts Exchange. It operates as follows: first, classes are proposed by the public (I want to learn this or I want to teach that); then, people have the opportunity to sign up for the classes (I also want to learn that); finally, when enough people have expressed interest, the school will find a teacher and offer the class to those who signed up.

Although I was there for the launch, musing around the proposed classes forms - sex applications, learning a new language or how to knit - it was at first difficult for me not to smile at all of this, I haven’t engaged in any classes yet. But, I am pretty excited about this proposed series, Walter Benjamin: The Arcades Project it doesn’t have a set date yet and still needs a teacher. If you are interested to help direct this reading, contact TELIC.

The next class, Ranciere: The Politics of Aesthetics (and/as an Ethics) will take place on Sunday March 16th from 11am to 1pm, for $25, and you can still sign up to participate.

(Image is a screen shot of the Public School website)

Just in!
Machine Project will grandiosely celebrate the birth and fall of the epic Roman Empire with a wicked marathon, starting tonight at midnight!

From the press release:

24 Hour Roman Reconstruction Project

In our most ambitious hosting of a marathon historical reconstruction in miniature ever, we’re rebuilding Rome in a day (specifically, Saturday January 19th) with the 24-Hour Roman Reconstruction Project. )

(Left image, from Machine Project, the mostly not to scale sketch for the event. Right image, from HBO: Rome.

On Monday, while driving with Matthew, we listened to the Urban Man’s essay, My Old Friend Marcus Martialis, on KCRW. In this billet d’humeur, Marc Porter Zasada adjust his references with the idea that the Empire of Rome and the USA bear some similarities.

These two events might come together at an odd time, yet they make sense in regard to what this year represents in terms of new beginnings and long overdue falls… America is looking at itself, anything new here, yet the perspective is wider, the urge to understand is greater.

__ “Don’t worry, we aren’t becoming Rome anytime soon. We have far to go before we treat enemies or undocumented aliens in such a brutal manner. Our disparity in wealth has not become so great. We are not so very uncareful of our democracy. Not so driven by our desires. Not so wasteful of our wealth. And surely, we will never be so unwise as to spend our life’s blood trying to control the resources of far-off lands.
Still, when I get home and return Marcus Valerius Martialis to his shelf, I say, “Dear ancient Urban Man: Let’s stay in touch. In fact, let me check back…soon.”
Marc Porter Zasada

Next January will bring a new president to this country, and I can’t wait to see who will be on the throne, to hopefully demolish it. The king is (almost) dead, hail to the people!

A few days ago, Monsieur Winkleman made a little post about online art medias offering a “TV” feature. I wanted to follow up and add a few websites to his list.

(Left image, screen capture from Cool Hunting, Brooklyn based artist Michael DeLucia in Rivington Arms for his show. Right image, screen capture from artreview, Yves Klein’s symphony “Monoton-Silence“.)

- Artivi
French site started in 2006 by Marc Gusils (the honorable Pierre Bergé is also a partner in the venture)
- watched: French Kissin in the U.S.A, 06:12.
Direct links to videos, comments, RSS and podcasts available.
The resolution is pretty good and I like the aspect ratio of their videos. I found the background music disturbing at times.
Since there are no tags, keywords or whatnot, their search button doesn’t fully function. I typed the name of an artist from the video French Kissin in the USA and the engine didn’t point to the piece.
So far the coverage is mostly of Europe and NY.

- VBS.TV
Vice on TV.
They have a newish program entitled “Art Talk!” where artists discuss their work (from Richard Prince to Misaki Kawai) in their studios. I liked to glimpse at these. The emphasis is clearly on the work itself and the process of making it.
- watched: Art Talk! - Aurel Schmidt Part 1 of 2, 02:50.
Direct links to videos, full screen feature. No RSS feed but each program is linked to a particular blog one can receive announcements from.
The low points come with the short yet loud ads at the beginning of each piece, and yes, the overly NY centric program.

- VernissageTV
One of the first I found. Since the coverage is pretty wide, yet pretty concentrated in Europe, it’s always a good way to see/hear about what is going on, let’s say, in Zurich, or Madrid. I often find the documentaries pretty dull. The editing is at times clearly a disaster, but I would browse a video on mute and get a feel for a show I was intrigued by.
- watched: Allie Bogle, Shana Lutker, Justin Beal and Mateo Tannatt at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, 04.51.
What pleasantly differentiate vtv from the other sites, are the tags, which allow you to see everything from, one artist, one city or one fair (LA hasn’t been talked about since last August though.. ouch - vs. NY with 4 entries since the beginning of the year). The videos can be downloaded in quicktime format (nice) and you can subscribe onto your iphones or other apple devices.
Oh and they have a new HD feature (!) with the full lenght version of the documentary film Paul McCarthy Head Shop/Shop Head at SMAK/Gent Belgium by Thom de Bock.

- Cool Hunting Video
Cool Hunting is one of those pop-culture induced website I check regularly as to get a grip on the “mainstream avant-guarde“. Their videos convey the same flair, but they are also one of the best executed ones, with great editing, great camera moves, light and such. Yet, as with often documentaries, the music takes too much space for my liking.
- watched: Michael DeLucia by Ami Kealoha, 03:25
Can download video in QT and can link to it. The search engine combined with a few keywords make the browsing pretty easy.

With these two next sites, we enter the realm of user-generated websites. These provide a great platform for people to post their own art-related documentaries, therefore one can find underrepresented topics or edgy points on view on a more popular issue. Yet, the quality - I am talking technicality here - is often of the YouTube admitted aesthetic.

Videos - artreview.com.
The British magazine evolved from a regular paper-based publication to offering its full content online. With this next step, they opened their doors to the hordes of web browsers slash critics, slash artists, slash art lovers to freely absorb and generate content to their new publishing platform. Think myspace/facebook for the art community, without the hassle of a bad code/design job. (Yes, we are talking to you Saatchi Gallery.)
- watched: Matthew Barney press briefing at the Serpentine, 02:07.
- watched: Yves Klein, Symphonie “Monoton-Silence” (1947-61), 10:00.
I picked 2 videos. One uploaded by artreview, one uploaded by one of its users. The press briefing of Matthew Barney’s show at Serpentine was quite terrible: shaky camera, ugly sound, and overall, boring video. It raises the question as to whether or not, all content should be available on a video format. (I vote for not) If I was curious to know about the curator’s view on the show, I’d rather read the full press release than go through these 2 min.
As for the second video, the appeal is greatly different. Here we watch, without a movement the performance of Yves Klein infamous piece of “silence-après” [afterwards silence]. Although the sound isn’t at its finest, the video plays the role of a lucky witness, recording a special and isolated occurrence.

- CultureTV
The interface is pretty bad for streaming the videos and the quality of each piece also varies greatly. RSS feed available. Link to each video.
Finding videos is a real hassle, no info, no tags, no dates.

(Left image, screen capture from artivi, view of the installation of Jean-François Moriceau and Petra Mrzyk. Right image, screen capture from VBS, Brooklyn based artist Aurel Schmidt in her studio.)

Finally, here is a list of brilliant web platforms for video works and films, as opposed to art documentaries.

- tank.tv (One need to subscribe, which is free, to access their archives.)
- UBUWEB (check for example the works available from Gordon Matta-Clark.)
- Perpetual Art Machine
- Video Pool (A real treasure. As with UBU, one can easily get lost in the hours spent watching all the gems available)

Following up on the announcement from the New York Times (via C-Monster) that LACMA isn’t getting Eli Broad’s collection, may I suggest this fur life jacket (via Lux Lotus) to be distributed to the museum committee. Nothing says “I am not embarrassed, I am only fabulously sinking” better than this Meret Oppenheim-inspired piece of surrealism.

(Left image from the NYT, photo by Monica Almeida. Right image Fur Life Jacket for Lady Astor from Ouno Design, Etsy.)

Katie Herzog: Soft Philosophy @PawnShop Gallery (September 28 - November 4, 2007)

The weekend before I left for London I went to the opening of PawnShop’s second show. Having missed both their grand opening and their first evening of performances entitled DRIP EVENT (for George Brecht), I made a point of finding the joint.
The small and independent Westwood gallery (located a few blocks down from the Hammer) was opened in September by UK artist Graham Hudson - whose monumental installation at Rokeby’s booth during the Zoo Art Fair created quite the talk - and Hilary Crisp to host projects for artists and curators.

It felt as if a sweet secret was discovered when I entered this unreal, slightly humid yet crowded little space. Sort of like finding the door to the 7 1/2 floor of LesterCorp. The ceilings were low yet everyone seemed curiously unaware of the fact, joyously chatting and sharing drinks.

Herzog’s paintings currently on view didn’t blow my mind yet they were oddly at ease irreverently facing each other, so closely. I liked the little stories in the paintings from the back room though. Creepy yet funny.

PawnShop’s upcoming show, SCULPTRUE (typo intended) is an exhibition featuring artists and curators who do not normally consider sculpture their primary medium. The exhibition opens November 9th and will run through December 17th.
Among the artists listed include Italy’s representative for the 2007 Venice Biennale, Nico Vascellari.
(Thanks Christina for the tip!)

Yes, I am back. Apologies for the lack of updates but you will think that internet connections would be made available on site for the art fairs goers, and yet, you would be wrong. Where I was, at the Zoo Art Fair, in the fabulous building of the Royal Academy of Arts, the gold key to access the wireless internet connection was sporadically given away, to Ô just a few lucky souls, and by that I mean, well, the press. Server issues so I have heard…

Now that I am back, of course I am busy preparing for the upcoming show at the space and compiling shots I took before leaving Los Angeles and the few I took while in London.

I promise, Monday will be a new start.

LA based artist and activist Linda Pollack sent me the announcement for the launch of the Habeas Lounge, located in the 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica.

Sunday, October 7th, from 4 to 6 pm, come inaugurate this new Salon with a Bill of Rights Read Aloud (and other at risk portions of the United States Constitution) with Professor Allan Ides of Loyola Law School and others on hand, to answer questions live, in real time.
Concluding the read aloud will be a short improvised reflection in movement and spoken word on the material generated, by dancer - choreographer - writer Simone Forti.

Patriot Acts is a six-months series of events and began last June “to support civic processes, that brings together artists, lawyers, activists, scholars and other civilians.” The program marked the 18th Street Arts Center’s theme for the year, entitled The Future of Nations which is intentionally tied to the Presidential election in November 2008, and many of the issues which will determine the direction and future of our nation will be raised and examined in our exhibitions.

A Patriot Acts group arts exhibition will open at the gallery of the Arts Center in January 2008.