Massive Links: Monday Edition!

by Art Fag City on March 10, 2008 · 8 comments

fia-backstrom.jpg
Fia Backstrom at the Biennial, Let’s Decorate and Let’s Do It Professionally!

  • Holland Cotter’s piece in the New York Times is generating quite a bit of response, both in conversations I’ve had offline and amongst online bloggers. I haven’t said too much on the show, since my review will go up at the L Magazine shortly, though I will say much of Holland Cotter’s review doesn’t match up with what I saw. “Art’s Economic Indicator” reads the title of a piece which puts forth the idea of a Biennial reflecting a recession-bound time. Cotter cites fewer participating artists and the use of humble materials as proof, though if anything I thought this year’s Biennial looked more like an art fair than any other. It’s particularly hard not to draw those connections at the Park Armory, each artist being assigned their own ill-suited room, the same way you’d experience art hung around a bunch of light fixtures in a hotel suite. Needless to say, I don’t think this is a good direction for the Whitney, even though it’s clearly modeled after the more successful Venice Bienniale which also has a separate space for the larger works.
  • I know I’m more interested in Robert Smithson in light of the recent flurry of discussion about Spiral Jetty and proposed drilling nearby, so perhaps Behind the Enantiomorph: A Biographical Key to Robert Smithson’s References to Doubling-and to Death, a lecture given by Suzaan Boettger at Nurtureart. The talk will take place Saturday March 22nd at 4 pm. Link tip: Christopher Howard
  • I suppose this is old news, but I went to the eyebeam reblog to see if there might be anything worth linking, and realized I had entirely stopped reading the site. Also, I got to the reblog by clicking on one of the four quadrants on their splash page, which reminded me how badly the site needs a redesign. I really do hope the organization addresses their web presence because new media artists really need to have effective organizations working on their behalf. After all, how many net artists did we see at this year’s Biennial? Zero. That’s how many.

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  • http://www.ethanham.com/blog Ethan

    I think the problem with reblog is a lack of consistency. The guest reblogging is cool in theory, but it means that the focus of the blog swings around wildly.

    Right now the reblog is focusing on environmental sustainability issues… while I find that somewhat interesting, it’s not going to draw me back daily (or even weekly).

    Perhaps the reblog would work better if its content was 50% art&technology and 50% guest blogger’s interests.

  • http://www.ethanham.com/blog Ethan

    I think the problem with reblog is a lack of consistency. The guest reblogging is cool in theory, but it means that the focus of the blog swings around wildly.

    Right now the reblog is focusing on environmental sustainability issues… while I find that somewhat interesting, it’s not going to draw me back daily (or even weekly).

    Perhaps the reblog would work better if its content was 50% art&technology and 50% guest blogger’s interests.

  • http://tommoody.us tom moody

    It’s been environmental sustainability issues for about a year now, hasn’t it?

    Paddy, you and I were both reBloggers and unless I’m missing something both of our feeds have been dropped from the reBlog list.

    The lack of loyalty is disheartening. I worked hard for them!

    As for the Whitney, good call by Ed Winkelman that the “failure” theme had been in the works for a couple of years before the current stock market downturn, so there goes Holland Cotter’s thesis.

    As for the failure/slacker theme it’s weird that seems to be the curatorial zeitgeist, as reflected in this show and “Unmonumental.” (Truly, this is Rachel Harrison’s moment; the art world has nothing left it can give her.) If anything it’s curators trying to balance a go-go market with some hair shirt abjection rather than evidence of an art world slide.

    As for “no internet,” the lines have been drawn. The Whitney curators are holding the line for powerful, venerable, extremely old collectors who can accept slacker art but get all flummoxed by a mouse and keyboard.

  • http://tommoody.us tom moody

    It’s been environmental sustainability issues for about a year now, hasn’t it?

    Paddy, you and I were both reBloggers and unless I’m missing something both of our feeds have been dropped from the reBlog list.

    The lack of loyalty is disheartening. I worked hard for them!

    As for the Whitney, good call by Ed Winkelman that the “failure” theme had been in the works for a couple of years before the current stock market downturn, so there goes Holland Cotter’s thesis.

    As for the failure/slacker theme it’s weird that seems to be the curatorial zeitgeist, as reflected in this show and “Unmonumental.” (Truly, this is Rachel Harrison’s moment; the art world has nothing left it can give her.) If anything it’s curators trying to balance a go-go market with some hair shirt abjection rather than evidence of an art world slide.

    As for “no internet,” the lines have been drawn. The Whitney curators are holding the line for powerful, venerable, extremely old collectors who can accept slacker art but get all flummoxed by a mouse and keyboard.

  • http://www.eyebeam.org Amanda McDonald Crowley

    Hi Tom,

    The Eyebeam reBlog has had an environment and sustainability focus for three months now. That has been part of an ongoing series of programming at Eyebeam under the umbrella “Beyond Light Bulbs” resulting from a Sustainability research group we have that has been meeting for almost 2 years now. We’re pretty excited about it still. The Feedback exhibition, opening this Thursday March 13, 6 – 8pm, is the culmination of this programming series. Come along and check out the results at Eyebeam’s physical space. http://www.eyebeam.org/engage/engage.php?page=exhibitions&id=157

    We are always happy to hear from people who are keen to be reBloggers. I am unaware that yours and Paddy’s feeds have been removed. But happy to look into that for you.

    cheers

    Amanda

  • http://www.eyebeam.org Amanda McDonald Crowley

    Hi Tom,

    The Eyebeam reBlog has had an environment and sustainability focus for three months now. That has been part of an ongoing series of programming at Eyebeam under the umbrella “Beyond Light Bulbs” resulting from a Sustainability research group we have that has been meeting for almost 2 years now. We’re pretty excited about it still. The Feedback exhibition, opening this Thursday March 13, 6 – 8pm, is the culmination of this programming series. Come along and check out the results at Eyebeam’s physical space. http://www.eyebeam.org/engage/engage.php?page=exhibitions&id=157

    We are always happy to hear from people who are keen to be reBloggers. I am unaware that yours and Paddy’s feeds have been removed. But happy to look into that for you.

    cheers

    Amanda

  • http://tommoody.us tom moody

    Thanks for looking into it. As I recall each reBlogger could edit the list so it could have been anybody who made the call. Possibly, when I stopped posting at digitalmediatree.com/tommoody and started posting at tommoody.us, it was dropped by a reBlogger who hates the Word Press “classic” skin.

  • http://tommoody.us tom moody

    Thanks for looking into it. As I recall each reBlogger could edit the list so it could have been anybody who made the call. Possibly, when I stopped posting at digitalmediatree.com/tommoody and started posting at tommoody.us, it was dropped by a reBlogger who hates the Word Press “classic” skin.

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