Antony Gormley and Event Horizon

I can't wait to see Antony Gormley's installation of nude figures around the Madison Square Park vicinity. This is one of the contemporary art/installation pieces that really excite me at this day and age. The concept and execution (even though I have yet to see them) sound very successful to me.

This is what installation art is about. I know what I'll be doing on Friday and Saturday!

Here's the article/write up in Art in America and there's also a great article explaining more about Event Horizon in the New York Times.

The first time I heard about it, it made sense to me that a passerby would interpret figures on a building as a possible suicide attempter (is that a word). Gormley hadn't considered this association, and though I question that. Really? Especially in the post-9/11 trauma state New Yorkers will always be in to some degree.

“I never wanted to freak anyone out. If people think of death and suicide, it’s a sad reflection on evolution. This is meant to be an amazing celebration of New York.”

I am sure he meant it to be a celebration of the city (London in 2007, New York 2010), but how can you not associate suicide with figure on the edge of a rooftop? Is it a sad reflection on evolution or is it simply human? Any way, if you're in the area take a look and you decide.

NaPoWriMo

This year, I'll be attempting the Napowrimo challenge. A writing prompt every day for the entire month of April.

The only other time that I really challenged myself in this way was when I participated in the Squaw Valley Writers poetry workshop week. 7 days, 7 poems. Each day our poems were critiqued by a random rotation of poets and writers who were also accepted into the program. The "workshop" crit was led by one of the following: Robert Hass, Sharon Olds, Dean Young, Cornelius Eady and C.D. Wright. We also had a one-to-one session and crit with Galway Kinnell.

The poems we turned in the next morning had to be newly written from the day before (or that week). The point was, that with this much pressure, a break through can happen. It was a wonderful experience and the best thing was that there was no turning back. You didn't have a back door. Not when you had one of these prominent poets giving you a crit the next day. The worse you could do was show up without a poem.

In return, they too, had to write a new poem every day. We listened to their first drafts!

It was based on an honor system though I suspect there were 1 or 2 people who turned in a previously written poem. You could tell who they were. Their poems were too refined, and clumsy in all the wrong places. They weren't chain smoking from their cabin's balcony, or locking themselves in their rooms when dusk triggered panic with the fact of having no poem after 10 hours of trying to do nothing else but write.

This challenge will not be the same because you can cheat, skip a day and make it up another day, make excuses. Blogging about it won't help either. The added pressure to blog a response to a writing prompt can help, but I suppose one could recycle an old piece. It is too easy to give up because no one is really watching. Life can get in the way and "save us".

You don't have the luxury of peace and quiet. Food is not made for you; work and chores won't do themselves. The phone will continue to ring, deadlines will loom and the bill collectors will continue to hassle you. Even if you do write every day, the idea of writing for a prompt seems like you are setting yourself up for failure. It reminds me of New Year's resolutions. We'll see how it goes starting April 1st. After all, I'd only be cheating myself. So I'll hope for a break-through and plan, at the very least, to fullfil the writing prompt on a daily basis.

Damien Hirst Opening, "End of an Era"

The exhibit is basically a retrospective of sorts featuring his most iconic pieces since he hit it big with Sensation. Of course the artist, formerly and still currently known as, Damien Hirst was present at the opening (1/30/2010) which was at the Gagosian Gallery along with a few other icons.




Other icons and A-listers included John McEnroe, Mick Jagger, Takashi Murakami, Jeffrey Dietch and others. I'll say this, Hirst definitely has a playful sense of humor and didn't seem to take anything too seriously as he played the role. He walked in with a Diet Coke and let the paparazzi snap away while he doodled images of sharks and butterflies as his autograph.

I know many people who love to hate, and hate to love this guy but he just doesn't take himself too seriously. The joke is on them because he doesn't seem to care about the critics. It's about having fun and putting innovative work out there to test the non-existent boundaries of this thing called art that we are incessantly trying to pin down and (re)define.

Something Funny and Conan

There's a book titled, Stuff White People Like which I ran into at Urban Outfitters (which should be in the book's list by the way). I found it very entertaining, and Lo and Behold there's a blog dedicated to the premise of the book! Oh Joy. (really, I mean it this time.)

Looking through the list, I find many things on there that I like. I wonder what the threshold of items you have to have checked off on the list before you are considered a twinkie, chocolate twinkie or oreo? Is there a sociological paper on this?

Here's their post on Conan O'Brien.

Banksy

This image is by Banksy, a the well-known street artist who's last gallery show just took place in London this past summer. I wish I could have seen his paintings in person. Great stuff.

Check out the Tim Burton Exhibit

The catalog does no justice, and I really couldn't sneak a (good) picture in but I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend the Tim Burton exhibit at the MOMA. It includes over 700 drawings, paintings and sketches. For this alone, the show is worth the crowd. The drawings are wonderful to see in person.

Hirst strikes again - artists/instigator

The artist's ego is perhaps larger than the size of the sun itself, at least when it comes to Damien Hirst. Artists need to develop a thick skin in order not to let all the negative criticism from their own colleagues, community, audience and the art critics get to them, but many artist rivalries have escalated throughout time and history all because of the artist's ego. Sometimes the rivalries are between a group of artists. Here's a more revealing article about Hirst and his latest show in which he drops another controversial and shocking soundbite, "Anyone can be Rembrandt". He claims he can paint like Rembrandt if he wanted to, but there's no use in working toward that since there's no point to that kind of art today. I can hear the realist painters' forums as I type this. Read the article here.