appropriation

i just wanted to say my 2 cents about appropriation. for me it is all about respect and ackowledgement. since i use other peoples designs and artwork in my collages i am always careful to alter the image enough so that it will not seem as though i am merely "stealing" the image and changing only the context. since the images i use are from published, public sources it is within my rights to appropriate them as an artist. however, if one of the artists of my source material were to approach me and say "hey, i don't like what you are doing with my work" i would gladly remove the piece from the web or whatever setting it was displayed in. of course i am not saying if marvel comics came to me and said "hey, you're making batman look bad", but if one of the painters who illustarted the marvel book i used images from did, then yes, i would hear them out. and i would hope other creative people would afford me the same courtesy. when we preach about stealing and how anarchistic it is, we forget that we ourselves are targets. and remeber, if you ever post images on myspace- or most other corporate sponsered web services- the site exercises the right to use the images in any way they see fit. newscorp owns myspace and theoretically, rupert murdoch could use your art to sell the ny post if he wanted to. that is if he has enough taste to appreciate what we do! hahaha

counter culture

i am just going to give advance warning that this entry is gonna be long, rambling and might not tie together until the end, if ever at all. first of all, ann powers is a douche bag. the reading pissed me off so bad that i had to google her to add fuel to my argument. she's on wikipedia and there was even a link to her blog! awesome. and the first entry was about the fucking tyra banks show. that's all i'm going to say about that and feel free to indulge yourself, here is the link
http://eensyweensy.blogspot.com/

to me the phrase "counter culture" is quite absurd. lets make a label for something that is anti-mainstream that's very existence is predicated by the "normal". there are so many levels on which i disagree with powers' ideas, but i am going to focus on stealing for the moment. unfortunately her idiotic views on theivery are embraced by many of the most popular "counter-culture" movements. ok, that sentence right there demonstrates how whack things have gotten in terms of what is counter and what is "popular" and what the hell those words even mean anymore. here's one great example- there is a grafitti crew in nyc called "irak". i assume lots of people know who they are, but if not, the name basically means "i steal" rak is some kinda slang for stealing. of course now the name has even more political significance, but it's inception was based on the fact that these kids stole everything they had and basically antaginized the public and the police with their shinanigins. of course once several of the members became visible in the public eye, the crew became famous. one of the most visable members is dash snow. he became famous for being in ryan mcginleys (who was himself "discovered" by non other than counter-cult. godfather larry clark and subsequently became the youngest person EVER to solo exhibit at the whitney- he was 25)photographs and then he decided he was not just a thief and a can hanger, but a legitimate artist. so dash started popping up in vice magazine which his pal mcginley edited and dan colon, another young inductee into the nyc art machine, and he became famous for making hamsters nests in hotel rooms with phone books after snorting ungodly amounts of cocaine. and in case you are wondering, yes, i fucking hate dash snow. but i digress, ultimately the robbing and stealing and overall anarchist slant of irak is completely undermined by the fact that it becomes public that dash is from a wealthy family. a VERY wealthy family, as in billions of oil dollars, as in the menil collection in texas, as in on the board of all the major museums, etc, etc. and on top of that he had gone legit and shown his work at...you guessed it- the whitney bienniel!!! his work in case you are wondering consists of polaroids he took when he was a teenager of his friends fucking and doing drugs. hmmmm, larry clark anyone!! so now, all the young, struggling graffers and punks who were into irak (myself included) were a bit peeved. sure, it's fun to steal and all when you have a goddamn trust fund!!! and it's also easy to buy tons of expensive drugs and get bailed out of jail when you get arrested. in short, up is down, black is white and fox news starts looking appealing to some of these kids. i don't think it's any coincidence that reactionary politics and thinking are en vouge now among
the hipster crowd in nyc. how can you live in the most expensive place on earth and claim to be "counter-culture"??? how can you pay $1500 a month in rent and turn around and complain that you are "broke"??? i suppose stealing can give these people a bit of a rush- a little taste of the dark side. but at the end of the day the reactionaries and the bohemian optimists generally retreat to the same neighborhood and plop down on the same ikea furniture. bought or stolen- does it really fucking matter????

gifts

i really liked joel and amy's presentation today- and not just because of the free food! it's interesting to watch how people respond to being given unexpected gifts and then once they are used to the idea of having the gift a sense of entitlement develops. and even the most stoic among us were moved to laughter and excitement at the prospect of presents!!! it was really fun and also a great way to involve everyone in the ideas from the reading without it being boring or putting anyone on the spot. my boyfriend's mom is constantly giving me unwanted gifts- the last time i saw her the gifts included: a pair of bright orange suede moccasins, a dream catcher, countless newspaper clippings from the NY Times arts section, a red satin purse and a silver claddah necklace. as anyone who knows me might guess, none of these gifts are in any way useful to me (maybe the clippings, but i read the times online). i can't even wear the moccasins (i'm probably spelling that wrong) because they are way too narrow. and i don't ever wear jewelry, i'm allergic to gold and silver. yet everytime i see her, she bestows on me more useless ephemera. it's really a horrible situation because she is so awesome and she really wants to give me what she considers to be cool stuff that she thinks i'll like. but the gifts often actually create resentment. i resent the fact that this woman who has known me for almost 4 years still gives me the same gifts that i have told her dozens of times i do not want or need in the most polite way possible. i eventually just resigned to the fact that the happiness she gets from giving me things is more important, so i just smile and say "i love the moccasins!!!" and then i re-gift them to whoever i can find who might want them. i used to feel guilty about the re-gifting. but i feel comfort in knowing that re-gifting is a part of that cycle of giving that hyde talks about. and my mom just happens to love dreamcatchers, so i have re-gifted about 4 to her and also several pairs of moccasins. which makes me and her happy, so i guess it all works out in the end

art

i just got back from nyc and i am supercharged with energy and optimism. i saw so much great work and i wanted to share some of the stuff i saw with you guys. if anyone is going to be in nyc in the coming weeks i highly recommend checking out the greater new york MFA exhibition at hunter college in midtown. it includes work from 20+ MFA programs ranging from montclair & rutgers to yale & brooklyn college. it was great to see what is happening in other programs. some of the work was great, some sucked- but it was just nice to have a bit of context for what we are doing and how other people are handling the grad experience. one of my best friends just started the program at hunter and it was great to have some insight from outside of our little pod city. i also went to PS1 and they have several great shows up. there's a vik muniz show that was so awesome i almost peed my pants. it had the toy soldier portraits, the peanut butter and jelly mona lisas and a bunch of my other favs along with a lot of stuff i had never seen. it was wonderful to be reminded that there are still people out there pushing the boundaries of photography. it seems like academia is trying to talk us out of the craft as if it "isn't enough". like when in one of daeshas critiques people kept saying she should intervene in the environments or stage some sort of public sculpture. why can't the photographs be enough??? when will we have to stop defending what we do? anyway, i just forgot how awesome vik muniz is and if you like him, get your ass down there. there was also a tom sandberg show at PS1 that was almost all gelatin silver prints. for those of us who know the significance- "the cult of silver" is alive and well- wink, wink. these photos also made me feel better about my own respect for craft and the process of photography- the respect that i was worried had been methodically brow beaten out of me, but it is still alive! and lastly, there was also a show at ps1 called "not for sale". an amazing group show that relates directly to the class. all the work was literally "not for sale". there was a broad range of stuff- richard prince, matthew richie, jeff koons, sharin neshat, robert rauschenberg, just a ton of stuff. most of the work had short explainations from the artists for why the piece was not available for purchase. the explainations were all over the place and given the status of many of the contributors, they were pretty funny to consider. especially the koons. (here's a link to the press release if you want more info: http://www.ps1.org/ps1_site/content/view/229/102/) it's well worth the trek to check these two shows out if you have time. here's some pics from the hunter show and the last one is from this funny interactive installation at ps1 that was supposed to be emulating iceland. i wanted to take more pics at PS1 but the security was on high alert or something...

funding

i have pretty strong feelings about this subject. i do think art is very important for society and that more people of diverse economic backgrounds should have access to art. that being said, i do not think it is the governments responsibility to fund individual artists. community arts programs, museums and other venues that are open to and benefit the general public should receive a certain amount of support, the same way health care and other social programs should, but as for individual artists, I don't think we should strive to rely on the government for money. There are many other professions that benefit the public- doctors, health care workers, day care workers, teachers- the list goes on- and none of these people are given individual support from the government for their efforts, so why should we as artists expect it? for me the choice of becoming an artist was not predicated on an assumption that i was owed a debt from society or the government for my noble efforts. there is so much private funding out there not only for artists, but for non-profit spaces- you just have to find it. like most careers, that of an artist takes a lot of administrative work. that anyone would expect to work in their studio 24/7 and just get handed money without lifting a finger to facilitate is just outrageous. yes, we will all probably have to work jobs that may or may not be related to art to get by at first, if not for the rest of our lives. and we will most likely bust our asses without a great deal of recognition. i believe that struggle is what makes life worth living and it is also what keeps you connected to humanity. living in an ivory tower where you make art that has no relevance to the general public is useless anyway. i'd much rather start a community arts center and impact the lives of young people than to exist in a bubble and receive accolades from an academic or other institutional structure that benifits only those with access to it.

dylan

overall i found the meredith tax writing to be on the mark in terms of how our criticism of different forms of expression become compartmentalized. and that the very categories people work within tend to weigh heavily on how the work is judged and interpreted. i did think her example of bob dylan was very funny though. of course dylan wrote from the heart and commented on the political climate, but to assume that everyone listening to his music was informed by it is absurd. he is largely regarded as a pop singer, not just a poet or even activist. and he distanced himself from many of the protest movements he had originally been a part of because he felt they were not really successful and that he was being exploited. his divergence from the folk scene was also a symptom of his own desire to change with the times and remain viable in american popular culture. which brings us back to the question of who his work was/is for? is it for young revolutionaries? maybe once it was. but now it is pop music that has about as much to do with revolution as the backstreet boys. i don't neccessarily think this deminishes the initial impact of his writing, but to hold him up as a pilar of "art as process" seems a little convoluted. i would posit ani difranco as a much better example of someone who never took the dangling carrot, always kept her artistic integrity and maintains popularity with her origianl fans because she has never waivered in her militant protests against civil injustice. and her work reaches far outside her music in her support of the arts locally and her personal involvement within the community. she will never be as mainstream as dylan, and that to me is a sign of her success as an activist. subversion can only go so far, sometimes you have to just say what you mean.

1st year opening

hey guys, i think our show looked pretty damn good! yeay us! here are some pics....