Ulay (Frank Uwe Laysiepen) - Action in 14 predetermined Sequences: There is a Criminal Touch to Art (1975)
Saturday, February 23, 2008
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Program 2. Action in 14 predetermined sequences by Ulay
30 min, b&w, sound.
There is A Criminal Touch to Art
A document of an event by Ulay, in which he stole a painting from the Nationalgalerie in Berlin and hung it in the home of a Turkish "guest worker." News reports of the event are intercut with Ulay's description (in German) and surveillance-like documentation of the performance Action.
«There is a Criminal Contact in Art»
Description of the action:
1. In front of the main entrance to the Hochschule der Bildende Künste (School of Fine Arts, Berlin) I hang a photographic banner measuring 2.50m by 2m. Motif: a reproduction of the Spitzweg painting 'Der Arme Poet' ('The Poor Poet').
2. I drive my car to the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery, Berlin).
3. I park behind the Neue Nationalgalerie.
4. I enter the Neue Nationalgalerie.
5. I remove from the Neue Nationalgalerie the painting 'Der arme Poet' by Carl Spitzweg.
6. I walk back to my car from the Neue Nationalgalerie.
7. I drive towards Berlin-Kreuzberg.
8. I park the car – 800m away from the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
9. I walk to the Künstlerhaus Bethanien with the stolen Spitzweg painting.
10. I hang in front of the main entrance to the Künstlerhaus Bethanien a colour reproduction of Spitzweg's 'Der arme Poet'.
11. From the Künstlerhaus Bethanien I walk on 150 m to the Muskauerstrasse, still holding the stolen Spitzweg painting.
12. I enter a house with apartments rented by immigrant families.
13. I enter the apartment of a family of Turkish immigrants.
14. I hang up on the Turkish immigrant family's wall the stolen Spitzweg painting 'Der arme Poet'.
Ulay
In 1976, Ulay (F. Uwe Laysiepen) embarked on a risky, precisely engineered and politically motivated art action. His 'Dadaesque irritation of the Berlin art world' was a more than merely symbolic violation of the boundaries of places of art such as the academies, museums and galleries. After the bogus art theft had been executed, journalists were summoned to Mike Steiner's 'Studiogalerie' and informed of this attack on the established art world; the indignant press response was presumably part of the concept. Taken to court for his action, Ulay was given the choice of paying a fine or going to prison. He opted to leave Germany instead, but was arrested two years later during a stop-over in Munich Airport, and had to be 'bailed out' by a friend.
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at 12:52 AM
Harun Farocki - Nicht ohne Risiko (2004)
Thursday, February 21, 2008
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The films follows the negotiations between a mid-sized company and a venture capital firm. The company is looking for capital to start production on its invention. Farocki limits himself to observing events without comment. He has edited together documentary footage of the two meetings that resulted in a contract. It´s a microscopic look at one cell of today's economy; an ethnographic portrait of a commonplace business dealing.
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at 9:04 PM
Hollis Frampton - Zorn's Lemma (1970)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
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Zorn's Lemma stands for - Every non-empty partially ordered set in which every chain (i.e. totally ordered subset) has an upper bound contains at least one maximal element.
It is named after the mathematician Max Zorn.
The terms are defined as follows. Suppose (P,≤) is the partially ordered set. A subset T is totally ordered if for any s, t ∈ T we have either s ≤ t or t ≤ s. Such a set T has an upper bound u ∈ P if t ≤ u for all t ∈ T. Note that u is an element of P but need not be an element of T. A maximal element of P is an element m ∈ P such that the only element x ∈ P with m ≥ x is x = m itself.
Like the well-ordering theorem, Zorn's lemma is equivalent to the axiom of choice, in the sense that either one together with the Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms of set theory is sufficient to prove the other. It occurs in the proofs of several theorems of crucial importance, for instance the Hahn-Banach theorem in functional analysis, the theorem that every vector space has a basis, Tychonoff's theorem in topology stating that every product of compact spaces is compact, and the theorems in abstract algebra that every ring has a maximal ideal and that every field has an algebraic closure.
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Zorn's Lemma stands for - Every non-empty partially ordered set in which every chain (i.e. totally ordered subset) has an upper bound contains at least one maximal element.
It is named after the mathematician Max Zorn.
The terms are defined as follows. Suppose (P,≤) is the partially ordered set. A subset T is totally ordered if for any s, t ∈ T we have either s ≤ t or t ≤ s. Such a set T has an upper bound u ∈ P if t ≤ u for all t ∈ T. Note that u is an element of P but need not be an element of T. A maximal element of P is an element m ∈ P such that the only element x ∈ P with m ≥ x is x = m itself.
Like the well-ordering theorem, Zorn's lemma is equivalent to the axiom of choice, in the sense that either one together with the Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms of set theory is sufficient to prove the other. It occurs in the proofs of several theorems of crucial importance, for instance the Hahn-Banach theorem in functional analysis, the theorem that every vector space has a basis, Tychonoff's theorem in topology stating that every product of compact spaces is compact, and the theorems in abstract algebra that every ring has a maximal ideal and that every field has an algebraic closure.
"Zorns Lemma is a major poetic work. Created and put together by a very clear eye head, this original and complex abstract work moves beyond the letters of the alphabet, beyond words and beyond Freud. If you don't understand it the first time you see it, don't despair, see it again! When you finally 'get it,' a small light, possibly a candle, will light itself inside your forehead."
-- Ernie Gehr.
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at 6:42 PM
Hollis Frampton - Gloria! (1979)
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"In GLORIA! Frampton juxtaposes nineteenth-century concerns with contemporary forms through the interfacing of a work of early cinema with a videographic display of textual material. These two formal components (the film and the texts) in turn relate to a nineteenth-century figure, Frampton's maternal grandmother, and to a twentieth-century one, her grandson (filmmaker Frampton himself). In attempting to recapture their relationship, GLORIA! becomes a somewhat comic, often touching meditation on death, on memory and on the power of image, music and text to resurrect the past."
"In Gloria! (1979), human mortality meets cinema's apotheosis. A tribute to Frampton's deceased grandmother, Gloria! starts with early-20th-century footage of a Finnegans Wake gag scenario (a not-dead-yet body dances at its own funeral), and ends with scrolling green-screen computer-generated text—going from photographic body to digital ghost."
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at 6:40 PM
Hollis Frampton - Nostalgia (1971)
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"In his 1971 short film, (nostalgia) , American artist and writer Hollis Frampton oveturned the conventional narrative roles of words and images. In his account of an artists's transformation from photographer to filmmaker, Frampton burns photographs he had taken and selected from his past along with one found photograph. A calm voice tells a story about an image, but the story is about the following image, not the one shown. Confounding comprehension still further, the narration begins and ends during the photograph's combustion; smoke and ashes get in our eyes while we are trying to make sense of the image and the narration--trying to remember the story that fits the image, trying to remember the image that fits the story..."
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at 6:36 PM
Charles Harrison - Art In Theory, 1900-1990: An Anthology Of Changing Ideas (1993)
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Since it was first published in 1992, this book has become one of the leading anthologies of art theoretical texts in the English-speaking world. This expanded edition includes the fruits of recent research, involving a considerable amount of newly translated material from the entire period, together with additional texts from the last decades of the twentieth century. The features that made the first edition so successful have been retained: The volume provides comprehensive representation of the theories, which underpinned developments in the visual arts during the twentieth century. As well as writings by artists, the anthology includes texts by critics, philosophers, politicians and literary figures. The content is clearly structured into eight broadly chronological sections, starting with the legacy of symbolism and concluding with contemporary debates about the postmodern. The editors provide individual introductions to each of the 340 anthologized texts. Material new to this expanded edition includes texts on African art, on the Bauhaus and on the re-emergent avant-gardes of the period after the Second World War. Post-modernist debates are amplified by texts on gender, on installation and performance art, and on the increasing globalization of culture.
About the Author
Charles Harrison is the author of a number of books on modern art criticism and art theory. He has been continuously involved in modern art as an exhibitor, critic, historian and theorist. Paul Wood has published widely in exhibition catalogues and journals including Art History, Artscribe and Arts Magazine. He is a consulting editor for the Oxford Arts Journal.
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at 10:26 PM
Ben Lewis - Art Safari: Matthew Barney (2005)
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Ben Lewis continues his series of programmes looking at a new generation of contemporary international artists.
Matthew Barney makes art on a Hollywood scale with videos, sculptures, photographs and drawings. His Cremaster Cycle - the art world's answer to Star Wars - generated queues at the Guggenheim in New York. At its core are five feature length videos, made over an eight-year period.
Among the extraordinary scenes in Barney's films, a fleet of Chevvies demolish an old saloon car in the foyer of the Chrysler building, Busby Berkeley dancers sketch out the outlines of the human reproductive system in a stadium and fairies try to fit a pink wheel with testicles onto a motorbike on the Isle of Wight.
These surreal, visual story fragments are like modern versions of Renaissance frescoes. Every element carries a specific meaning and they all combine to present a revelation of the meaning of life. They are scenes from a new bible, written by Barney himself, but only the initiated understand the contents of that book. Novice monk, Ben Lewis embarks on a journey to discover the secret inner truths of the Cremaster Cycle.
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at 10:55 AM
Michael Blackwood - A Conversation With Matthew Barney (2003)
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For his five Cremaster films Matthew Barney's created a multitude of sculptural forms and structures. Recently both the sculptures and the films traveled to museums in Cologne, Paris and New York's Guggenheim.
In THE CREMASTER CYCLE: A Conversation with Matthew Barney, the artist guides the camera through this remarkable creation at the Guggenheim Museum while being questioned by Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic of the New York Times, who has called Barney "the most important artist of his generation". The ramps of Frank Lloyd Wright's museum are filled with Barney's sculptures complemented by plasma screens showing the Cremaster films. The sculptures - constructed from the artist's signature materials, including plastic, metal, and Vaseline - are three-dimensional incarnations of the characters and settings. They exist independently from the films, but embody the same content, now expressed in space rather than time.
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at 10:53 AM
Alison Chernick - Matthew Barney: No Restraint (2006)
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With his acclaimed Cremaster Cycle and 2005 feature Drawing Restraint 9, avant-garde artist Matthew Barney established himself as a bold experimentalist who wasn't afraid to take a few risks for the sake of his art. Set into motion in the late '80s, Barney's Drawing Restraint series consists of works in which the artist attempts to create works while hindered by physical weights and barriers. The result, claims Barney are creations that are much more rewarding due to the difficulty it takes to render them. With Drawing Restraint 9, the artist teamed with his wife, Björk, to tell the tale of a couple who boards a Japanese whaling ship to partake in a series of obscure rituals -- including a ceremony that took place in a tank filled with 45,000 pounds of petroleum jelly. For fans longing to see how the innovative artist achieves his unique vision, this documentary by filmmaker Alison Chernick mixes clips from Drawing Restraint 9 with interviews and footage of Barney playing high-school football to create a comprehensive look at her subject's entire career. Additional conversations with Guggenheim curator Nancy Spector, New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art chief curator Yuko Hasegawa, and more, this portrait of Barney transcends the trappings of your typical making-of documentary. Björk and Mayumi Miyata collaborate to create the musical score.
Jason Buchanan
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at 10:51 AM
Matthew Barney - Drawing Restraint 9 (2005)
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Drawing Restraint 9
REVIEW By LESLIE FELPERIN
A Restraint LLC production. (International sales: Celluoid Dreams, Paris.) Produced by Matthew Barney, Barbara Gladstone. Directed, written by Matthew Barney.
With: Matthew Barney, Bjork, Susil Osoma.
A tapestry of sensuous, striking and sometimes disturbing imagery, "Drawing Restraint 9" marks the latest cinematic visit to the wacky world of experimental artist Matthew Barney, whose five-film "Cremaster" cycle recently globetrotted the fest and rep circuit. Barney's key collaborator this time round is his wife, popstar Bjork, who co-wrote and performs most of pic's music and stars opposite Barney as a visitor to a Japanese whaling ship. The Icelandic siren's involvement may lure extra viewers to the rocky shores of "Restraint," but Barney's defiantly recondite aesthetic will hold the pic in the same kind of restricted distribution pattern as "Cremaster."
Easy enough to describe but almost impossible to decipher, the core idea of "Drawing Restraint 9" is, according to the pic's press notes, "the relationship between self-imposed resistance and creativity." Probably only Barney, his circle and most loyal followers will be able to explain how that notion relates to what's seen on screen, although it still makes for frequently mesmerizing viewing.
Action takes place primarily aboard real Japanese whaling ship the Nisshin Maru, whose crew comprise the film's extras. In the pic's first major sequence, workers assemble a roughly 15-foot-long mold on the top deck in the shape of a lozenge with a horizontal slash through it. Icon appeared throughout the "Cremaster" series and has become Barney's de facto logo.
Into the mold, the workers pump hundreds of gallons of hot liquid petroleum jelly that slowly cools and coagulates to form a white, vanilla-pudding-like mass (called "The Field," per press notes, although the name is never mentioned onscreen). Later, it's carved, sliced and left to disintegrate into an icky, gloopy mess.
Meanwhile, while "The Field" is being filled, two unnamed Westerners, played by helmer Barney himself and Bjork, separately make their way to the boat. Once aboard, servants help them dress in strange variants of Japanese wedding costumes. The guests then enter a cabin for a tea ceremony with a Japanese host (Susil Osoma). In pic's only spoken interlude, the host explains the history of the ship in Japanese.
During a storm, the surrealistic detritus provide a melting pot for Western and Asian cultures to collide, matched by a parallel blurring between humans and whales. A melancholy song sung by Will Oldham at the film's beginning, its lyrics derived from a Japanese whaler's letter to General MacArthur, ties together the whaling and East-meets-West themes. The process of making art seems to be more the point than delivering a tidy author's message to the audience.
Bjork's sometimes pretty, sometimes discordant noodlings show off her unique vocal stylings to fine effect, and are accompanied often by harps and an ancient Japanese instrument called the sho (like pan pipes, but more intricate). Additional original compositions are based on the traditional growling musical performances in Noh theater.
Top-quality prosthetics and make-up devised Gabe Bartalos, and seamless visual effects work by Matthew Wallin complete a polished technical package.
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at 10:50 AM
