Cai Guo-Qiang media explosion
Art21 artist (Season 3) Cai Guo-Qiang’s exhibition I Want to Believe at the Guggenheim Museum may go down as the most-documented show on video of 2008 in New York. However, Cai faces some serious competition: we’ll have to wait and see if the ongoing Olafur Eliasson exhibition at MoMA, Takashi Murakami at the Brooklyn Museum, or the upcoming Louise Bourgeois (Season 1) retrospective at the Guggenheim will out-spectacle the current Manhattan media blitz.
With only 7 days left until Cai’s Guggenheim exhibition closes, who knows how many more videos are in the works, but in the meantime enjoy the following sampling. And for those planning a visit this final weekend, get your tickets early (and hide those camera phones)!
New York aside…if you include Cai Guo-Qiang’s role as director of visual and special effects for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games in August, he will undoubtedly hold the record as the contemporary artist whose work has been seen by the most people on television, ever. (Who previously held the record? Mel Chin and the GALA Committee’s little-known subversive project with Melrose Place?)
Do you have a video of Cai’s Guggenheim show? Leave a link in the comments below!
VIDEO | Channel Thirteen (PBS) SundayArts
Spacey! Guggenheim curator Alexandra Munroe is “literally” beamed onto Frank Lloyd Wright’s ramp. (Fun fact: the Guggenheim is 2 years younger than Sputnik & Cai, and 7 years older than Star Trek)
VIDEO | Guggenheim Museum
Working at the Guggenheim must induce some serious déjà vu—here riggers install Inopportune: Stage One in a way reminiscent of Matthew Barney’s climbing escapades in CREMASTER 3 (2002).
VIDEO | VernissageTV
A non-narrated, comprehensive tour of the exhibition’s major works.
VIDEO | NewArtTV
Some comments from Cai Guo-Qiang on the day of the press preview.
VIDEO | Museum TV
Hello! Enthusiastic host Mel Merio does a “profoundly postmodern” interview with Guggenheim curator Alexandra Munroe.
And…last but not least……..
VIDEO | Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century
Watch an excerpt of the Art:21 episode Power featuring Cai Guo-Qiang, with the artist reflecting on Inopportune: Stage Two (2004) when it was first installed at MASS MoCA.
Bantamweight Flickr Battle!
After the gorgeously gargantuan show at MoMA that held New Yorkers spellbound in its midtown courtyard, the whole country of France is now making a fuss this week over Richard Serra. The New York Times slideshow revealing his latest steel monoliths at the Grand Palais is surprisingly vertical. Plus, who can resist Richard Serra’s craggly mug, above.
Meanwhile, the blogosphere is a-twitter about whether Serra could be gathering steam as the most popular artist captured on Flickr. A recent Flickr search has revealed that at time of posting, there are 6,192 Flickr photos that match the search terms ‘Richard Serra.’ A new bantamweight contender, ‘Olafur Eliasson‘ is up to 4,256 and averaging about 30 adds per day, presumably fed by visitors to his current show at MoMA and PS1. Surprising names in the flyweight division are ‘Matthew Barney‘ at 1,139, ‘Marcel Duchamp‘ at 1,408, and the white canvas master ‘Robert Ryman‘ trailing with just 107 Flickr posts. Please note that photographing museum paintings by Robert Ryman is not encouraged.
In the heavyweight division, readers have suggested that Henry Moore, at 14,563, and Alexander Calder at 17,471 (by last name only), are positioned to defeat the overall reigning champion Andy Warhol, who currently has 18,900 Flickr photos tagged with his name. Further investigation has revealed that not all works tagged with Andy Warhol actually are by Andy Warhol, but include some creative appropriation.
Sikander and Barney in concurrent shows at MIT’s List Center
Matthew Barney and Shahzia Sikander, both Season 1 artists, currently have exhibitions at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center in Boston. Barney is best known for his work in sculpture and video, but his printmaking practice is an interesting and unexplored part of his body of work. As a result Photogravure Prints from Drawing Restraint 9 will have a lot to offer those attempting to keep up with the ever-expansive Barney mythology. Drawing Restraint 9, the latest in Barney’s ongoing metaphorical investigation of creativity, takes place on a Japanese whaling ship, and shows Barney, his life partner Bj√∂rk, and the ship’s crew ritualistically recreating his field emblem image with petroleum jelly. The prints in this exhibit are from production stills showing this sequence.
Shahzia Sikander’s Pursuit Curve is a digital animation with accompanying music by composer David Abir. Sikander uses the pursuit curve, a mathematical function which describes the progress of a chase, as a visual starting point from which to investigate the way culture, identity, and iconography interact. These brightly colored sequences, which contain suggestions of bomb blasts, fireworks, and turbans, resist easy interpretation, and challenge viewers to name what they’re seeing. The animation is currently playing continuously throughout the day at the Media Test Wall. You can find more information about the exhibition here.
Matthew Barney: Drawings from Guardian of the Veil
Opening this Saturday at Los Angeles’ Regen Projects is an exhibition by Season 1 artist Matthew Barney, featuring drawings from his latest work, Guardian of the Veil, as well as photographs from his earlier work Cremaster 3, establishing a point of departure from his Cremaster Cycle.
In the performance Guardian of the Veil (from “Il Tempo del Postino,” reported here back in July), Barney used remnants from the Cremaster Cycle combined with a new narrative based on elements from Norman Mailer’s novel, Ancient Evenings. In the Guardian of the Veil, the narrative follows a protagonist who died in a fire and begins his journey through the seven stages of death toward eternal afterlife. This examination of eternal life is in opposition to the trajectory of the Cremaster Cycle. The latter examines and follows a developing life from its inception to its inevitable end and the conflict presented in Guardian of the Veil is thereby set.
Drawn on black paper using graphite and petroleum jelly, the drawings from Guardian of the Veil convey Barney’s inimitable, almost surrealistic hand. As a vehicle for the narrative, the fantastical and exuberant drawings function as a story-telling device. In one drawing, a decorated bull is seen mounting a Chrysler Imperial car buried in an Egyptian pyramid, seemingly its final resting place. Pictorially conflicting imagery of eternal life after death and the creation of life leading to its ultimate demise is apparent and at odds.
An opening reception for Matthew Barney will take place this Saturday, December 15th, from 6 to 8pm. The exhibition is on view until January 20, 2008.
MASK: Barney, Tuttle, and Hancock at James Cohan Gallery
On Wednesday, three artists previously featured in Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century take part in a group exhibition at James Cohan Gallery in New York. Entitled MASK, the exhibition explores the forms and uses of masks throughout history and further examines how contemporary artists are influenced by them.
MASK is comprised of a collection of over 40 masks, dating from 700 BC through the 20th century and representative of all continents and many cultural traditions. These masks will be shown alongside works by 30 contemporary artists, including Art21 featured artists Richard Tuttle, Matthew Barney and Trenton Doyle Hancock.
MASK will be on view from December 13 through January 26, 2008.
James Cohan Gallery
533 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001
View more images from the exhibition here.
Matthew Barney exhibiting at Serpentine Gallery
Matthew Barney, a featured artist in Season Two of Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century, is one of the most celebrated artists of his generation. His practice encompasses a diverse selection of media including drawing, sculpture, photography, performance, film and installation, which are presented in exhibitions that are conceived by the artist as a Gesamtkunstwerk or total work.
Barney’s current exhibition, which is entitled Matthew Barney: DRAWING RESTRAINT, is on view at the Serpentine Gallery, London. The exhibition explores the sculptural cycle related to his recent feature film, Drawing Restraint 9. On display are works from the film, which he began in 1987 while still in art school. Inspired by the idea of resistance training, he applied restraints to his body while drawing, exhibiting the resulting drawings, props and video documentation of the performances in the spaces where the actions had taken place. The Drawing Restraint series investigates the relationship between resistance and creativity and artistic and athletic bodies working at the threshold of physical limitations.
More recent works in the series continue to explore ways in which the body can be transformed, incorporating scripted narratives and diverse references ranging from Greek mythology to Japanese tea ceremonies and whaling.
Barney has also made a new work; Drawing Restraint 16, for the Serpentine. Drawings and other residue of this performance fill the Gallery’s large central space.
Serpentine Gallery
Kensington Gardens
London W2 3XA
20 September – 11 November 2007 whereafter it will be presented at Kunsthalle Wien 7 March – 8 June, 2008.
Drawing Restraint 9 is being screened at the Gate Picturehouse cinema during the course of the exhibition.
Three Art21 artists exchange roles at Sean Kelly
Art21 featured artists Laurie Anderson (Season 1), Janine Antoni (Season 2) and Matthew Barney (Season 3) are all taking part in Role Exchange, a group show of twenty-seven artists at Sean Kelly Gallery through August 3, 2007.
These artists address the process through which identity is constructed by exploring different roles and characters. Though disparate in formal resolution, the artists in this exhibition share an impulse to transform traditional social roles. They require us to redefine our perceived categorizations of gender and identity, allowing for more nuanced systems of classification and a greater understanding of their abiding interest in role exchange.
Other artists in Role Exchange include: Marina Abramovic, Sophie Calle, Samuel Fosso, Robert Gober, Anthony Goicolea, Douglas Gordon, Fergus Greer / Leigh Bowery, Johan Grimonprez, Lyle Ashton Harris, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Michel Journiac, Nikki S. Lee, Kalup Linzy, Urs Lüthi, Robert Mapplethorpe, Duane Michals, Yasumasa Morimura, Robert Morris, Adrian Piper, Cindy Sherman, Yinka Shonibare, Gavin Turk, Andy Warhol, and Gillian Wearing.
Matthew Barney and Pierre Huyghe in Il Tempo del Postino
On July 12, Season 1 featured artist Matthew Barney and Season 4 artist Pierre Huyghe premiered new work in Il Tempo del Postino, a group show of performance presented at the Manchester Opera House as part of the Manchester International Festival. Curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno, the event was premised on the question “what if an exhibition was not about occupying space but about occupying time?”
Huyghe’s comical contribution, Hello Zombie, featured aliens playing tennis. Barney’s, on the other hand, was much more baroque and comprised the entire second half of the show. Entitled Guardian of the Veil and produced in collaboration with composer Jonathan Bepler, this work involved, to varying degrees, a woman’s corpse (not real, of course), a contortionist, a live bull, a dog strapped to Barney’s head, paramilitary antics, and a Cadillac, among other notables.
Il Tempo del Postino will travel to Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet in February 2008.
Read the Artforum.com diary’s full account here.
