Magdalena Abakanowicz, Abakan Red (1969)
- Following MAN’s lead, I note Leslie Camhi’s piece at the Village Voice on P.S.1′s WACK! exhibition. She hits a few good points, but misses many others. Why for example, she chose to highlight a film program that would take several days to view as proof of “curatorial running-on” is beyond me. The problems of exhibiting film in museums aren’t new or unique to museum shows on feminism, and these curators, unlike many at least took the time to set up a viewing schedule. Also contrary to Camhi, I felt the exhibition was exceptionally well organized, and that the work made sense viewed thematically as opposed to chronologically. I understand her point of course — typically I too prefer a more narrative viewing experience from such survey shows — but since the point of this exhibition really seemed to be about showing the breadth of practice it really seemed a more logical means of communicating that idea.With that said, Camhi also wisely observed a “rickety case” made in the field of feminist abstraction, and wins the quote of the day, closing her piece with, “…But some things almost never change: It’s nearly impossible, for example, to imagine this show being staged across the river, at P.S. 1′s Manhattan affiliate, the Museum of Modern Art. Instead, the artists of “Wack!” remain in the schoolhouse. But their contemporaries might well take a lesson from them.”
- Dear Leader hosts a mildly grating two part interview with blogger Jörg Colberg of Conscientious. Sycophantic questions include speculation as to whether the blogger is “tight” with photographer Alec Soth (who cares), how much a posting on Conscientious can help your career (possibly good to know, but why not cite the anonymous photographer who was placed at the unnamed blue chip gallery), and how it feels to be so powerful (a question possibly asked in jest, but still annoying). Part two of the interview improves, even if it runs on.
- Greg.org observes that the Associated Press erroneously reported Bush’s resignation over plagiarism. The first screen shot features the headline Bulletin Kill, and text describing the story to be removed. Two minutes later Greg Allen captures a more urgent sounding text Bulletin Kill: White House Plagerism, with the below text reading “A kill is mandatory. Make certain the short headline is not published.” It couldn’t have been a good day at the AP last Friday.
- Edward Winkleman has temporarily changed the name of his blog to Edward_Hussein Winkleman in solidarity with democratic nominee Barack Obama. He also does a great job of parsing through Allen Strouse’s article on ArtInfo about Barack Obama’s comments on the support of arts funding. Strouse does indeed sound paranoid writing, “Linking political interests with artists, aestheticians, bohemians, and subversives in general could unleash a monstrous arts-industrial complex comparable to Eisenhower’s feared military-industrial complex.”
