Monday Links! Kara Walker’s Neighborhood Watch Off to a Strong Start

• Ken Johnson on Francesca Woodman at the Guggenheim: “You might think of it as a girl's visual equivalent of “Catcher in the Rye.” It may be sentimental, overwrought, precious and narcissistic, but for all that, it remains a poignant record of adolescent joy, fear, ambition and angst.” Yup. [NY Times]
• We completely missed the storyline last week wherein Kara Walker decided to be an art chaperone at Cliff Owens’s P.S.1 performance because she was afraid he might rape someone. Walker had written a score directing the artist to “Force [an audience member] against a wall and demand Sex”, and had given Owens permission to perform the piece; she then wrote him to withdraw the piece, stating that “I refuse to have this idea of mine cause anyone physical harm.” This, I’m sure, came as a great shock to Owens, who must have seen the occasion as a perfect opportunity to commit a heinous felony in full view of an audience at an event publicized using his name and face. Apparently the artists struck a compromise wherein Walker followed Owens around during the performance, just to make sure. That he didn’t rape anyone. [GalleristNY]
• The town of Catskill, in upstate New York, is hosting a project titled “Wall Street to Main Street” that aims to bring Occupy artists and local artists together for an arts festival. What caught our eye was the idea that this could be an economic boon to the area; could political art be a tourist draw?  [Hudson Valley Almanac, hat-tip ArtINFO]
• What we’ve been playing with: this handy little script that pulls images from imgur at random, 50 at a time. Be warned: there’s plenty of porn.

Tagged as: Cliff Owens, Francesca Woodman, Kara Walker, Ken Johnson, Occupy Wall Street