Janet Cardiff

SF Bay Area folks, I shoulda said something about this earlier, because you only have through the 8th of February to check out Janet Cardiff’s cool video walk, The Telephone Call at SFMOMA. It’s easy to miss because you have to know to ask for it at the information desk. So I’m telling you: go ask for it at the information desk!

I’ve only ever experienced one other of Cardiff’s walks, her 1999 MOMA walk, but it made a huge impression upon me. Wonderful to experience another museum walk ten years later! The Telephone Call was commissioned in 2001 by SFMOMA & has actually been “on display” there twice before already, but I didn’t know about it the first time, & the second time… well… my dog ate it. Don’t let the same thing happen to you; who knows when there may be a fourth chance?

Heather Johnson

Heather Johnson is up to another one of her excellent projects. You can participate if you’ve ever been to New York City. Actually, at this point, I’d be pretty interested in meeting someone who has never been there.

that hand thing

Why I Love Artists: at Swimming Gal's birthday party, I was introduced to someone named Laetitia, who looked vaguely familiar. It took me a while to figure it out, but eventually it came to me: "Oh, you're the one who does that hand thing, aren't you?", I asked, as I wiggled a hand in the air. She smiled, "Yes, except it's the other hand", putting her left hand up & wiggling it the way I was wiggling my right (wrong) hand. Oh!

Wes Mills

I've been paging slowly through the hot-off-the-press Wes Mills book (from Printed Matter) & pondering the concept of the sublime. Donna asked me what I meant by sublime. In my first feeble attempt to answer this question, I caught myself sounding like those tired old discussions of what defines erotica vs. porn: "I can't explain it, but I know it when I see it!" Fortunately, this explanation is a lot more articulate. A lot.

perfection

Alison Bechdel is a genius. Always has been, as far as I remember. There is a perfection in her work, kind of like that Room Service short film I was raving about recently. I've been thinking a lot about perfection lately. Agnes Martin speaks of the "awareness of perfection" that we have in our minds. Not perfection as an external thing but the sense of perfection that we all know internally. Good stuff to ponder.

expanding

Oh, man... my little geek world keeps expanding. I don't even know where to begin. I'm overwhelmed by possibility!

At the same time, I've been looking a lot at the sublime work of Agnes Martin, who can safely be categorized as not just low-tech but no-tech.

A bit o' yin & yang for ya there.

Paul Chan

Oh! At one of the blurred weddings last month I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen in, what, over ten years? She subsequently sent me a link to a friend of hers' website, saying I might like his work. Just now I went & sort of stumbled around in there, not quite getting it until lo! I came upon this brilliance, which made lightbulbs flash above my head & I got all excited, had to start blogging with Oh!, &c.

I know. "A friend of hers' website" isn't exactly proper writing, but you wouldn't blink if you heard someone say it. Would you now. I guess I could have said "Paul Chan's website" instead, since that's who & what it is. Coherence diminishing, blame it on the crabapple blossoms... I'm addled by beauty today.