Art shows, warmer weather, and Coachella bands making me think about music from the 90s again- here’s what went up on the website last week-
Music Monday’s selection was Tin Man from feeble little horse’s 2023 album, Girl with Fish. The Pittsburgh band played Coachella and a show in Los Angeles.
Faith Ringgold sadly passed away at age 93. The artist and activist had an incredible career. One of her most memorable works, American People Series #20: Die, currently at MoMA, never failed to stop me in my tracks whenever I visited.
She also became famous for her narrative quilts. One of them, Tar Beach, inspired her first illustrated children’s book of the same name. That book was the first of many and won several awards.
This article from ARTnews in 2016 provides a lot more information on her life and art career.
It was the last week to see Garry Winogrand: Beautiful Women at Tampa Museum of Art. I had covered (and loved) the exhibition of his color photographs at Brooklyn Museum in 2019. This series, however, was a bit more challenging. Although interesting from a historical perspective, and certainly good images, it’s hard not to feel at certain times that he’s invading these women’s spaces. The museum acknowledges this as well.
Consent is tricky when it comes to street photography and respect for the subjects being photographed. It’s especially true now, with the ubiquity of camera phones.
It seemed like a good week to post Mel Chin’s sculptural installation, Spirit, on view at Columbus Museum of Art. There’s a strong sense of unease when you walk into the room, especially as you get closer to the barrel. According to the museum’s documentation, it “suggests the precarious status of nature in a world of outsized human development”.
I managed to catch one of the last days of Life Out of Balance at the Emily Davis Gallery at The University of Akron. The show, which focuses on art related to nature, included lots of great work by artists Maria Uhase, Meryl Engler, Lori Kella, Benjamin Lambert, Michael Loderstedt, Eve Polzer, Ron Shelton, Ariel Bowman, and Corrie Slawson.
While leaving the gallery, I spotted a flyer for The Art of Subversive Mimicry in the Post Truth Era, a lecture being given by Dr. Gediminas Gasparavicius in the same building and managed to see most of it. He referenced Stephen Colbert, The Yes Men, Hank Willis Thomas, Samuel Fosso, the iconography of the avant-garde Slovenian group Laibach, and Brad Troemel. It does feel like we are in an era of “truthiness” now more than ever. But maybe that’s just what my gut says.
I hadn’t seen anything by Troemel in a bit, and there was a lot to catch up on. His video takedown of NFTs was great, I discovered his 2020 viral fake Biden ad, and then ended up watching several of his Instagram compilations of social media nonsense. I found myself wondering what it would be like if none of what he chose was familiar. Or what it would feel like to have just arrived here, from another planet or time period.
Which brings me to the 90s, the days before memes, and Orbital’s stop motion video for The Box. The song is from their 1996 album, In Sides. They are currently on tour and playing Coachella.
The video features Tilda Swinton as the eco-conscious Traveller who mysteriously appears in London and begins to observe this strange new world. It was directed by Jes Benstock and Luke Losey and was influenced by the Nicolas Roeg film, The Man Who Fell To Earth, starring David Bowie. Benstock did an interview with 909originals for the 25th anniversary of its release in 2021.
Continuing with the 90s theme and Coachella, Damon Albarn of Blur became annoyed during their set because the crowd wasn’t participating.
Although it must be hard to perform to a sea of disinterested faces, what do audiences owe artists/performers at a show? Also, in this instance, a lot of the attendees probably weren’t even born when Blur’s songs were hits. Hopefully this weekend went better.
At least he wasn’t upset by the TikTok of Song 2 being performed by a vacuum cleaner.
Woo-hoo! On to next week- don’t forget to touch some grass for Earth Day!