Structural Patterns

“Montecore’s” 2013, Multi-media assemblage with museum crate, 91.5″ x 69″ x 41″

I saw Alex Hubbard’s exhibition at Maccarone back in May, buy only now in mid-June do I have the time to consider what I saw. Hubbard took advantage of Maccarone’s size and multiple galleries to present two separate sets of work “Magical Ramón” and “The Five Bar Blues.”

I didn’t care for the work making up “Magical Ramón” and I particularly disliked the “bent paintings.” The bent paintings are solid colors of polyurethane hanging off the wall or laying on the ground. I could consider the formal qualities of these things… the colors, shapes and the fact that they are likely work intensive, but I consider them toxic and boring.

“The Five Bar Blues” on the other hand are brilliant! Meticulously constructed sections of life-size dive bars installed into shipping crates! The bars were filled with liquor. I asked the attendant of the sculptures were interactive, she said yes, and the friend I was with dived right into the Hennessy. Besides the brilliance of drinking stations fitted into art crates, each bar can only fit one person and is modeled after dive bars with iconic elements such as the steel black gate and blue neon or alternately the wooden saloon half doors with wood paneling interior and Budweiser sign and both with drop ceilings.

“Siegreid’s” 2013, Multi-media assemblage with museum crate, 91.5″ x 69″ x 41″

The fact that there is only space for one person evokes Hopper’s Nighthawks and a host of other impressions – bars that open at 6am where lonely people might spend the day and afternoon…

Over the years, I’ve known any number of artists who wish they owned a bar or hope to one day open up their own bar, Alex Hubbard has found a great alternative… build a little bar into a crate, stock it with liquor and place it in a gallery!

“Latimore’s” 2013, Multi-media assemblage with museum crate, 91.5″ x 69″ x 41″

“Siegfrid’s” 2013, Multi-media assemblage with museum crate, 91.5″ x 69″ x 41″

Long standing Argentine rock artist comes out with a strong new album – Ritual Reversible:

http://planzmedia.bandcamp.com/album/ritual-reversible

If you enjoy 80s alternative rock with a dark tinge, in Spanish with thought provoking lyrics… listen to this album!

As part of Upgrade! San Francisco, I will be doing an artist talk this Thursday, May 30th from 7-9pm at ATA, 992 Valencia St, http://www.atasite.org/
And a two-day rotoscoping workshop Saturday, June 1, 2013 at 11AM – 4PM and Sunday, June 2, 11AM – 4PM. To sign up go to:
http://physicaltraces.eventbrite.com/

I just watched Star Trek Into Darkness and I’m sooo angry. It was boring and everything antithetical to the Trekkie code and I’ve never been a Trekkie, but I do respect them for their pseudoscience. J.J. Abrams is boring, has no imagination and should have never been hired to do this. It was nothing more than a chatty action flick. It lacked any sense of mystery. It’s like NASA reduced to out of atmosphere trips for the very rich.

Worst of all it’s a Khan redo. And even worse Ricardo Montalban isn’t around to do a decent Khan, instead we get the very pale and boring Benedict Cumberbatch, whom I don’t understand why he’s hired to be a scary villain when he lacks any consequence. He’s boring and like Abrams, has no depth. It’s shallow bullshit and for most Hollywood flick, it’s expected, but this is Star Trek and it’s sad, upsetting.

The 80’s movies are so much more interesting. The 60’s was farther ahead of time, this current movie extracts all the innovative qualities of the TV series and the following movies. Whatever you do, don’t waste your money on this movie. It lacks imagination.

Last Saturday, I met with Keith Estiler and Edgar De La Vega of OBTRUSIV MAG to discuss art. They’ve put the interview on their Art & Culture column, the article is titled – Pricking the Public. Here’s the video:

I’m a big fan of Ward Shelley, particularly his performances, but equally love his brain maps. One example I just came across is “The History of Science Fiction, ver. 1:

Sonja Sharp of DNAinfo.com was excited to discover to whom the compost and food rescue bike at the Sterling lot belonged. She got in touch with Brooke and I and ran a story on the project – Bodega Bicycle the Vehicle of Choice for Crown Heights Food Waste Crusaders. It’s perfect timing as we’ve completed our first two weeks of picking up coffee grounds from Lincoln Station.

sean godsey | Tumblr – Fun GIF!

When visiting Brooke Singer’s prints at the Hudson Valley
Center for Contemporary Art (HVCAA) as part of the ambitious Peekskill Project V, I documented Thomas Hirschhorn’s Laundrette installation that is part of the HVCCA’s permanent collection. I was immediately enthralled by Hirschhorn’s installation as I found it much more approachable than more recent sprawling installations with little way in to the tumultuous sea of media.

Laundrette of course presents a ton of appropriated media from video to magazine, newspaper, audio, book excerpts, stickers, but it is all framed in a laundromat. I spent countless hours of my childhood at a laundromat near the corner of Mission and Kingston or Eugenia Avenue, right near 30th and Mission in San Francisco and Hirschhorn’s Laundrette immediately felt familiar from the variable sized washer and driers to the soap dispensing machine.

I love the framing of this critical content – that immediately alludes to having to wash all our dirty laundry generated by the Capitalism’s insatiable desire for capital. And to inform the audience beyond the video news snippets, day time television excerpts and a gluttony of disturbing media that is being cycled in the washing and drying machines, Laundrette is fortified with quotes and texts from Nietzsche, Spinoza, Klein, Popper, Deleuze and Guatarri. And as usual with this sort of work, I love it, but walk away wondering what the point is. The people viewing it are left leaning artists or collectors that may feel guilt at their wealth, but are comforted by the labor of the artists that they support.

I can’t be at today’s March for Full Citizenship, Rights for All Immigrants in Washington DC. However after receiving an email from Dream Activists, I took virtual and phone action. If you wish to be heard today as others march go to the Dream Activist’s page and form to help Everilda and keep her from deportation an action that could result in her death. Read her story below:

Everilda has been living in the U.S. since 1998; she was placed into deportation proceedings in 2005 after she went to the border to pick up her 8 and 10 year old kids. Everilda’s family fled Guatemala after Everilda’s sister, father and three nephews were assassinated by a gunman. They were all out-spoken activist and because of that they were killed. If deported, Everilda’s life has already been threatened and she will most likely be killed.

Because of our broken immigration system people like Everilda are being deported left and right. Let’s put a stop to that. Let’s bring Everilda home and show that we are serious in demanding reform.

And if you have time to make a phone call to ICE Director John Morton 202-732-3000 use this sample script:
“I am calling to ask for the immediate release of Everilda Sanchez (A#200-070-769), currently being held at the Calhoun County Jail in Michigan. In 2005 Everilda’s sister, an activist in Guatemala, was murdered. In 2011 Everilda’s son was deported and targeted by the same people who killed her sister. If deported Everilda will be killed. Grant discretion; let her stay!”