damn

damn, dennis hopper died today. I would see him a lot at this gallery I worked at in Santa Monica. I went to his Venice home once to hang a piece of art. He had this amazing collection including blue chippers of the 80's NY art scene and then the Helter Skelter crowd of 90's LA. In the middle of it all, a Waterworld pinball machine. Badass.

collecting debris

Today, I present some random debris. Think of it like the miscellaneous pieces of paper and receipts from a night out or the unknowing collection of objects on a kitchen counter. You don't mean to treat them as special, but then you start cleaning around them or filing the paper away. I guess I am asking, if this collection of links is an edit or just a group of debris looking to be signified like that ticket stub in a CD case?
link 1
link 2
link 3
link 4
link 5
link 6

Running

Silent Running (1972) is an over the top environmentalist movie set in space. Bruce Dern is an ecologist in outer space growing forest and plant life to re-populate the earth. He hates on the fraternity boy spacemen, has an eagle land on his arm and feeds bunnies, all while being friends with technology (suitcase sized drones, robotic arms for pool and poker)... typical outer space ecologist activity.

I think it is worth 10 or 20 minutes to see these views from micro to macro scale as shots pull back from dewey flowers to trees to lights to geodesic dome to space freighter to space. Again, another movie with an individual fighting against the confines of "man" and searching for "another" way. In this movie, Vanishing Point and The Electric Horseman; the protagonist is also the antagonist. They search for individuality while being reminiscent of a time that has past, which makes them heroically cause trouble. Also, they are all connected to technology even though they are running from the current infra-structure... selected history. Plus, Bruce Dern gave me marathon training advice once at the Rose Bowl, so I always watch his movies.
trailer here
part 1 here

location

"I am the painter of space...to paint space, I must be in position. I must be in space." -Yves Klein

The Hirshhorn Museum on DC is having a Yves Klein retrospective. They are using twitter, facebook and flickr to promote his process and projects. His work already had an ephemeral transient nature, so I guess the random posts and links are a good way to introduce his work to a different generation. Conceptual work is tough to retrospect in space. Here is a guy who jumped out of a window or didn't, my history is fuzzy, but the museum will show the artifact. A picture, or a picture with a long description. I am not sure if this method of social media will work, but as a way to roll out content for a static museum show, it is very promising to locate work in a contemporary format without changing the work.

I am really intrigued by location. It is physical, mental, conceptual and relational. What city fits you or do you fit into a city? Is your palm a road map to your next pre-determined space? How do you relate to the next person, can you get close or is there distance? Can you locate your practice of making so you make your work as oppose to being told what to make? Can space control you?
I leave you with a quote from Damien Hirst during an interview with William Furlong (NY Times article). "The reason I got to the top, because the top wasn't very high." Yes, a very one-liner statement. Location is attainable from the space you create ...and that is my May affirmation to Tickles.