BIRKENSTOCK_SAMPLE ARRIVED . 07:12 / 29-12-2008 . tota
Birkenstock sandal sample has arrived. this product will be out in spring 2009.
(only be available at daikanyama-tokyo birkenstock shop.)
UNDERWORLD - BOOK(S) OF JAM NO.7, 8 & 9 . 03:12 / 15-12-2008 . john
The latest Book(s) of Jam can now be downloaded from Underworldlive.com.
No.7 is a record of the Beautiful Burnout ArtJam in New York and contains
not only the work and the process making of that installation but work that
was made just before and just after the show by Underworld, tomato and our
combined ‘extended’ family. No’s 8&9 are photographic documents of dérives.
No.8 taken by karl and myself and No.9 a cab journey downtown.
DON & SI… . 03:12 / 03-12-2008 . kedge
spent some time with local artist d. ramos… good use of an hour and eighty notes i feel…
BIRKENSTOCK-MATHMATICA . 02:12 / 02-12-2008 . tota
working with magical grid for Birkenstock sandal. the product will come out spring 2009 Japan.
MIKE PARR, CARTESIAN CORPSE. . 06:11 / 27-11-2008 . john
There are moments, unforeseen and inexplicable, when a work of art transports
you somewhere else. When the form and the materials of the work dissolve and
one is in the presence of a nameless thing. The space between you and the work
evaporates and the work occupies your sense of presence and the order of your
senses. Cartesian Corpse, a performance by Mike Parr, was one such moment.
–
I travelled to Hobart, Tasmania to see the performance and the show of his work
(The Tilted Stage) because I’m going to be designing the catalogue and I am working
with the new cultural organisation, Detached who in association with the Tasmanian
Museum and Art Gallery has organised this event. More on Detached and what else is
happening in Tasmania in a later post. And i will be posting a more detailed description
on phofa.net later this weekend.
–
Cartesian Corpse is staged on the top Floor of the 19th century Bond Store at TMAG.
The walls still bear the names of those that worked or were incarcerated there.
The aged dust sits on and is embedded within every surface. The substantial timbers
supporting roof make the roof more like an upturned keel of a late 18th century trader,
albeit one designed by Anselm Kiefer.
–
The lower floors that contain videos, sculptures and graphic work spanning over
30 years of relentless process and investigation prepare one for what lies in the
attic. Climbing the dimly-lit, uneven and steep staircases that lead up to the ‘attic’
serves as preparation, of entering another realm. The serpentine ascent takes one final
turn as you reach the top floor. Between you and Mike is the expanse of the darkened
floor. The line across from the staircase to the opposite wall forms an invisible and
psychological boundary. Behind it and you are in the territory of an exhibition safe
from confronting, and being involved in, the performance. Beyond this line and you are
‘elsewhere’ in a different space, with different rules.
–
And there is Mike, or more accurately his head, in the middle of a wooden plane angled
from floor to ceiling. From a distance the light above and the gloom surround creates an
unsettling ‘chiaroscuro’ reminiscent of a painting by Caravaggio. Is the head real?
or is it ‘realistic’? and a sculpture? Only with close inspection, when you can see the
occasional tic of the head, mouth or eyes, does this ambiguity finally fade. And then what?
The reaction is complex and profound.
–
The plane of angled wood is large, so large that Mike’s head seems small, vulnerable and
without ego. And by the end of the performance (the subtitle or instruction of the work is
‘for as long as possible’) Mike has been there for 36 hours. With little sleep, surviving
the plummeting cold of evening and being visited throughout the day, and surprisingly all
hours of the night, by a constant stream of visitors, many of whom slowly and silently
cross over the boundary line. However, few venture to the edge of where the angled plane
of smooth wood meets the rough and uneven floor, most are held, through fear or respect
or in confusion mid-territory, Some drift towards the walls, for safety, keeping their
distance and not committing themselves to direct confrontation.
–
In the shadows, to left, and sitting on a simple wooden chair. his head and shoulders
framed by a veiled, square window (reminiscent of Malevich via Robert Irwin) is
Anthony Bond, who has curated this show/event and in his capacity as Curator of the
International collection at the Gallery of New South Wales, is a long-time supporter of Mike’s.
Throughout the 36 hours of this performance Tony keeps a notebook of his thoughts.
1 page per hour. Which I am now scanning for the catalogue. For this performance Tony
has transgressed. He has put himself into a different space and a different cultural
position by becoming part of the performance and a catalyst of its alchemic resonance
rather than an agent and observer of its being. And recording all of this, throughout
its entire duration is Paul Green, who has provide photographic documentation of Mike’s
performances over recent years. In the catalogue is photographs will occupy the page
opposite to Tony’s hour by hour transcription of his experience.
–
There are artworks that are subsumed and constrained by the theory and philosophy.
There are other artworks that lead you to the philosophical. In both of these conditions
the work is firmly rooted in the world. However, there are some artworks, the great ones,
where the intention, philosophy and means of expression are entirely irrelevant.
These works transcend conventional theorising and material appreciation and just exist,
one their own terms, in their own space, beyond words, and are indisputably ‘there’ but
you cannot locate ‘where’ as they collapse any sense of being separate, an object to
regard, and suffuse every sense of your being. I have felt this in the presence of the
paintings of Mark Rothko in the Menil chapel in Houston, I have felt it in the presence of work
by James Turrell in the Hayward Gallery in London and I have felt it in front of the
Massacio frescos in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. And I felt it here,
on the top floor of an 19th century bond store in Hobart, Tasmania.
Images © MIke Parr. Photography by Paul Green.
Courtesy the artist & Anna Schwartz Gallery, Sydney & Melbourne, Australia.
DOMUS INTERSECTION, THE WRITER & BOOKS. DECEMBER 08 . 04:11 / 26-11-2008 . john
DOMUS INTERSECTION, MILANO. NOVEMBER 08 . . john
THE MONTHLY; NOV & DEC-JAN . . john
ODDLY… . 03:11 / 19-11-2008 . kedge
