Ryan Trecartin, I Be-Area, Installation view, Image copyright Elizabeth Dee Gallery
Why is every critic in the city giving Ryan Trecartin’s I Be-Area a positive review? “I Be-Area is worth the [1 hour and 40 minute] investment” Martha Schwendener tells us at the New Yorker, “Its the best thing that could have happened to New York this fall” writes the New York Times Holland Cotter, and Barbara Pollock at Time Out New York goes so far to say “he’s poised to become the next Matthew Barney.”
Sufficed to say I don’t agree. Don’t get me wrong, Trecartin’s newest work isn’t so bad — his quintessential look; carnival like characters and oddball scenes — remain in tact, but the work simply doesn’t live up his previous A Family Finds Entertainment (available on youtube here here here and here.) Of course, you’d think nobody had seen this video given the derth of verbiage on the subject. Of the I Be-Area reviews I’ve read only Flavorpill references his previous work, and you really can’t expect too much critical comparison from a filter publication promising positive reviews in a 100 word format — it’s simply outside of their mandate. (Disclosure: I write for Flavorpill.)
As for the rest, Holland Cotter offers the largest write-up, failing to ask the most basic questions about the new video. How has Trecartin’s work evolved since A Family Finds Entertainment? Does the improved production value of the videos benefit the piece? Are the videos more effective at a 40 minute length or the latest 1 hour 40 minutes. Will I Be-Area be posted on youtube or distributed by EAI now that it is an editioned piece?
These are fairly obvious questions that should come up if the reviewer is aware of the artists earlier work. I can’t imagine Cotter hasn’t seen his earlier videos — he clearly read Dennis Cooper’s Trecartin write-up in January of 2006 last year, or at least it would seem that way since he cites the same artists as influences, Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith, and early John Waters, in the same order. Notably, neither critic mentions Tom Rubnitz, the artist with the most affinities to the video pieces (and one Trecartin himself has listed on his youtube favorites,) or Paper Rad, a collective working in Providence, home also to Trecartin when attending art school. Nobodies perfect of course, but these influences seem so obvious it’s difficult to understand how they were missed.
Had such influenced been discussed, it’s possible we might have read less about how the 1 hour and 40 minute video holds the viewers attention, and more on why the shorter Trecartin pictures do this more successfully. For one thing, I suspect the length of the film influenced the scarcity of animation in I Be-Area, an element that referenced Internet culture in a much more specific way than any other visual attributes in the film. In addition, I’ve always thought that a point of strength in A Family Finds Entertainment lay in its ability to push a viewers attention span for loud aggressive video to its absolute maximum. I had to return three times to view I Be-Area in its entirety, and I still have holes in my viewing. This can’t speak well of the piece.
One final observation: No critic has discussed the sculptural installation in the front room of Elizabeth Dee Gallery, probably because there isn’t much point. A mess of props from the film consisting primarily of broken furniture, the work is indistinguishable from any other clusterfuck artist showing in New York.
{ 20 comments }
I thought I was the only one confused by the superlatives! In all fairness to the artist – I don’t care to sit in a gallery and watch movies – I just can’t do it. So I wind up having to shut my mouth about the quality of a lot of video art. But I did see the mess of props. I totally agree with your clusterfuck assessment. Great!
I thought I was the only one confused by the superlatives! In all fairness to the artist – I don’t care to sit in a gallery and watch movies – I just can’t do it. So I wind up having to shut my mouth about the quality of a lot of video art. But I did see the mess of props. I totally agree with your clusterfuck assessment. Great!
While I don’t agree with your preference of A Family Finds Entertainment over I-Be Area (the latter, to me, is a far more devastating vision of context collapse) I’m right with you on the critical response. H. Cotter’s review is all exclamation points and no research. One gets the feeling that he’s trying desperately to get in on the ground floor of Trecartin’s probably inevitable hugeness. I also noted his rattling off of antecedents in the same order as D. Cooper’s and thought phooey. But the icing on your take is citing the mostly forgotten brilliance of T. Rubnitz. Verily, Trecartin has the heart of Pickle Surprise beating in his multi-colored breast.
While I don’t agree with your preference of A Family Finds Entertainment over I-Be Area (the latter, to me, is a far more devastating vision of context collapse) I’m right with you on the critical response. H. Cotter’s review is all exclamation points and no research. One gets the feeling that he’s trying desperately to get in on the ground floor of Trecartin’s probably inevitable hugeness. I also noted his rattling off of antecedents in the same order as D. Cooper’s and thought phooey. But the icing on your take is citing the mostly forgotten brilliance of T. Rubnitz. Verily, Trecartin has the heart of Pickle Surprise beating in his multi-colored breast.
While I don’t agree with your preference of A Family Finds Entertainment over I-Be Area (the latter, to me, is a far more devastating vision of context collapse) I’m right with you on the critical response. H. Cotter’s review is all exclamation points and no research. One gets the feeling that he’s trying desperately to get in on the ground floor of Trecartin’s probably inevitable hugeness. I also noted his rattling off of antecedents in the same order as D. Cooper’s and thought phooey. But the icing on your take is citing the mostly forgotten brilliance of T. Rubnitz. Verily, Trecartin has the heart of Pickle Surprise beating in his multi-colored breast.
While I don’t agree with your preference of A Family Finds Entertainment over I-Be Area (the latter, to me, is a far more devastating vision of context collapse) I’m right with you on the critical response. H. Cotter’s review is all exclamation points and no research. One gets the feeling that he’s trying desperately to get in on the ground floor of Trecartin’s probably inevitable hugeness. I also noted his rattling off of antecedents in the same order as D. Cooper’s and thought phooey. But the icing on your take is citing the mostly forgotten brilliance of T. Rubnitz. Verily, Trecartin has the heart of Pickle Surprise beating in his multi-colored breast.
Ryan Trecartin in an instant made me and my ism’s irrelevant. He proved anything I ever thought I could because what I find fascinating he takes for granted. He starts where I hope to end, and I don’t want to get any more specific because it just shows what a fuddy-duddy I am. Make an easy metaphor for a life style and it speaks to the world? Shit, it even works! His influence on language will rival that of Valley Girls, if we are lucky. Context collapse is right, Steve! And I am done for.
Ryan Trecartin in an instant made me and my ism’s irrelevant. He proved anything I ever thought I could because what I find fascinating he takes for granted. He starts where I hope to end, and I don’t want to get any more specific because it just shows what a fuddy-duddy I am. Make an easy metaphor for a life style and it speaks to the world? Shit, it even works! His influence on language will rival that of Valley Girls, if we are lucky. Context collapse is right, Steve! And I am done for.
Ryan Trecartin in an instant made me and my ism’s irrelevant. He proved anything I ever thought I could because what I find fascinating he takes for granted. He starts where I hope to end, and I don’t want to get any more specific because it just shows what a fuddy-duddy I am. Make an easy metaphor for a life style and it speaks to the world? Shit, it even works! His influence on language will rival that of Valley Girls, if we are lucky. Context collapse is right, Steve! And I am done for.
has anyone mentioned/checkD out the early films of Mike and George Kuchar? I feel like those have a similar feel to trecartin’s aesthetic.
has anyone mentioned/checkD out the early films of Mike and George Kuchar? I feel like those have a similar feel to trecartin’s aesthetic.
oh, balls, I guess Cotter does mention the Kuchars. WOOOOPSIE DOODLE!!~!~!~!
oh, balls, I guess Cotter does mention the Kuchars. WOOOOPSIE DOODLE!!~!~!~!
oh, balls, I guess Cotter does mention the Kuchars. WOOOOPSIE DOODLE!!~!~!~!
Also check out Lucas Cruikshank aka Fred, who’s been doing SUSPICIOUSLY SIMILAR videos for years!
Maybe this kid should be the gold medal art star… hes quite younger than Jesus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1CIXjFMrQM
Also check out Lucas Cruikshank aka Fred, who’s been doing SUSPICIOUSLY SIMILAR videos for years!
Maybe this kid should be the gold medal art star… hes quite younger than Jesus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1CIXjFMrQM
I’m not entirely sure if anyone will read this, being some time since the discussion ended, but I wanted to make one comment. Mr trecartin just recently won the innaugural Jack Wolgin prize for fine arts. It’s a $150,000 prize – the largest fine art prize in the world. May I note that the Pritzker Prize for architecture (given to only the most notable architects) is a $100,000 prize. The exhibition was fairly similar to the one described above, however I was privileged as a Tyler Student (architecture) to see him speak at the Tyler School where the award and subsequent lecture were given. Trecartin is not the most articulate man. He is very pop culture himself, and dresses in funny shirts like most artists. I have to say that he at least spoke with some assurance as to knowing what his videos were about. But I kept getting the sense that he sticks to the same motifs, same style, because he is young, successful, and getting attention. I see some development in the work, but not enough over the amount of time that he has been doing work to see any significant evolution or mastery of even his own art. I’m personally not his biggest fan, but regardless of my critique of his videos, I think it much more interesting to see how or if his work develops as he gets older.
I’m not entirely sure if anyone will read this, being some time since the discussion ended, but I wanted to make one comment. Mr trecartin just recently won the innaugural Jack Wolgin prize for fine arts. It’s a $150,000 prize – the largest fine art prize in the world. May I note that the Pritzker Prize for architecture (given to only the most notable architects) is a $100,000 prize. The exhibition was fairly similar to the one described above, however I was privileged as a Tyler Student (architecture) to see him speak at the Tyler School where the award and subsequent lecture were given. Trecartin is not the most articulate man. He is very pop culture himself, and dresses in funny shirts like most artists. I have to say that he at least spoke with some assurance as to knowing what his videos were about. But I kept getting the sense that he sticks to the same motifs, same style, because he is young, successful, and getting attention. I see some development in the work, but not enough over the amount of time that he has been doing work to see any significant evolution or mastery of even his own art. I’m personally not his biggest fan, but regardless of my critique of his videos, I think it much more interesting to see how or if his work develops as he gets older.
I’m not entirely sure if anyone will read this, being some time since the discussion ended, but I wanted to make one comment. Mr trecartin just recently won the innaugural Jack Wolgin prize for fine arts. It’s a $150,000 prize – the largest fine art prize in the world. May I note that the Pritzker Prize for architecture (given to only the most notable architects) is a $100,000 prize. The exhibition was fairly similar to the one described above, however I was privileged as a Tyler Student (architecture) to see him speak at the Tyler School where the award and subsequent lecture were given. Trecartin is not the most articulate man. He is very pop culture himself, and dresses in funny shirts like most artists. I have to say that he at least spoke with some assurance as to knowing what his videos were about. But I kept getting the sense that he sticks to the same motifs, same style, because he is young, successful, and getting attention. I see some development in the work, but not enough over the amount of time that he has been doing work to see any significant evolution or mastery of even his own art. I’m personally not his biggest fan, but regardless of my critique of his videos, I think it much more interesting to see how or if his work develops as he gets older.
I’m not entirely sure if anyone will read this, being some time since the discussion ended, but I wanted to make one comment. Mr trecartin just recently won the innaugural Jack Wolgin prize for fine arts. It’s a $150,000 prize – the largest fine art prize in the world. May I note that the Pritzker Prize for architecture (given to only the most notable architects) is a $100,000 prize. The exhibition was fairly similar to the one described above, however I was privileged as a Tyler Student (architecture) to see him speak at the Tyler School where the award and subsequent lecture were given. Trecartin is not the most articulate man. He is very pop culture himself, and dresses in funny shirts like most artists. I have to say that he at least spoke with some assurance as to knowing what his videos were about. But I kept getting the sense that he sticks to the same motifs, same style, because he is young, successful, and getting attention. I see some development in the work, but not enough over the amount of time that he has been doing work to see any significant evolution or mastery of even his own art. I’m personally not his biggest fan, but regardless of my critique of his videos, I think it much more interesting to see how or if his work develops as he gets older.
Comments on this entry are closed.