Kiki Smith lecture in Philadelphia tomorrow
Artist talk by Kiki Smith (Art:21 Season 2) in Philadelphia
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
5:00–6:30 pm
Harrison Auditorium, Penn Museum
3260 South Street, Penn Campus
(accessible from 34th Street entrance)
“Basically, art is just a way to think,” says Smith in her Art:21 segment. “It’s like standing in the wind and letting it pull you in whatever direction it wants to go.”
Presented by the Penn Humanities Forum. Pre-registration is required or call 215.573.8280.
[via Drawing References and ICA Philadelphia]
The ICA Philadelphia’s Puppet Show
Opening tomorrow at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Philadelphia is The Puppet Show, a group exhibition that looks at the imagery of puppets in contemporary art. Bringing together 29 artists (many of whom have been featured in Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century) and several generations, the exhibition concentrates on sculpture, video and photography. Some of the works involve actual puppets (marionettes, shadow puppets, hand puppets) and artists performing as puppeteers. Other images evoke topics associated with puppetry (manipulation, miniaturization, agency, control). Collectively these works show puppets to be provocative and relevant imagery that moves deep into social, political and psychological terrains.
The Puppet Show takes as a historic point of departure one of the first episodes of avante-garde art history: Alfred Jarry’s 1896 play Ubu Roi that was conceived as a puppet show. Ubu’s reign continues with the work of the South African artist William Kentridge in collaboration with the Handspring Puppet Company. More recently, puppets have taken hold of pop consciousness by way of films, theater, computer games and animation. On a more political note, current events and national leadership raise questions of agency that cogently relate to puppets. Together with these collective points of reference, The Puppet Show poses a larger cultural question: why do puppets matter now?
Participating artists include: Guy Ben-Ner, Nayland Blake, Louise Bourgeois, Maurizio Cattelan, Anne Chu, Nathalie Djurberg, Terence Gower, Dan Graham and Japanther, Handspring Puppet Company, Pierre Huyghe, Christian Jankowski, Mike Kelley, William Kentridge, Cindy Loehr, Annette Messager, Paul McCarthy, Matt Mullican, Bruce Nauman, Dennis Oppenheim, Phillippe Parreno and Rirkrit Tiravanija, Laurie Simmons, Doug Skinner and Michael Smith, Kiki Smith, Survival Research Laboratory, Kara Walker and Charlie White.
A fully-illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibition. After the ICA premiere, the show will travel to the Santa Monica Museum of Art; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; and the Frye Art Museum, Seattle.
Related programs by Art21 artists:
Kiki Smith lecture
January 23, 5pm
Penn Museum,
“Basically, art is just a way to think,” says Smith in her Art:21 segment. “It’s like standing in the wild and letting it pull you in whatever direction it wants to go.” Presented by the Penn Humanities Forum. Pre-registration required at www.phf.upenn.edu or 215.573.8280.
Laurie Simmons‘ The Music of Regret
Tuesday, March 4, 7pm
International House,
Artist Laurie Simmons introduces The Music of Regret, a mini-musical in three acts. The film is inspired by distinct periods in Simmons’ work: vintage hand puppets, ventriloquist dummies and walking objects that enact tales of ambition, disappointment, love, loss and regret. Simmons’ puppets come to life in miniature domestic scenes, incorporating musicians, professional puppeteers, Alvin Ailey dancers, cinematographer Ed Lachman and actress Meryl Streep. Watch clips from the film and read interviews in which Simmons discusses the film on her Art:21 webpage here.
The Puppet Show is on view at the ICA through March 30.
Art21 Artists’ Talks Tonight, Coast to Coast
In a perhaps unprecedented twist in the history of Art21 public programs, three Season 4 featured artists will be speaking at various cultural institutions tonight in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New York City.
Painter Lari Pittman, profiled in Romance, will talk at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) at 7pm in the Bing Theater, following a screening of this episode. Mark Dion will participate in a panel at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University (in the Engineering and Architecture building’s Lecture Hall, Room 126) along with curator Sheryl Conkelton and artist/Tyler Professor Winifred Lutz, moderated by art historian Philip Glahn. Select artists’ segments will also be screened. Finally, Mark Bradford, featured in the Season 4 episode Paradox, will converse with Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem at 7pm.
All of these events are free. For more information on Lari Pittman’s talk, visit LACMA’s site here. Email Jennie Shanker, Tyler’s Foundation Dept Chair at shanker@temple.edu about the panel discussion featuring Mark Dion. And reservations are recommended for Mark Bradford’s screening at the Studio Museum. Call 212-864-3500 to reserve a space.
Don’t Miss: Mark Bradford’s Philadelphia Storefront
Season 4 featured artist Mark Bradford has an installation on view in the Fabric Workshop and Museum’s (FWM) storefront windows at 1222 Arch Street in Philadelphia. As the FWM’s artist-in-residence, Mark Bradford collaborated with fellow Los Angeles-based artist Juan Carlos Avendaño to create the work titled, simply, Storefront.
The installation consists of photographic images printed on static cling film-laminate stock and adhered to the finished windows of the space. These images create the illusion of an interior under construction with unfinished wooden beams and a roofless structure open to the sky.
According to the accompanying press release, the artists intend for Storefront “to create a faux reality… which bleeds into the reality of urban space” allowing the viewer to reflect on “the increasingly rapid ways in which public space is constantly being designed, defined, erased, and built again.”
Storefront is the fourth in a new exhibition series featuring site-specific works by contemporary artists created in collaboration with FWM. But there isn’t much time left to view the exhibition. It’s only on view through the end of this month.
Bradford is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2006 Bucksbaum Award, which culminates in a solo show, Neither New Nor Correct, at the Whitney Museum of Art in September 2007.
If you happen to be in New York City in October, come to the Studio Museum in Harlem on Thursday, October 4 to view a sneak preview of the new Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 4 episode Paradox. A talk with Mark Bradford follows the screening. Seating is limited, so call 212-864-4500 x 264 to reserve a space.
