Kara Walker and I are best friends

Xiaoze Xie

Xiaoze Xie originally studied architecture in Southern China, where he was born, but after his studies, he wanted to “break out from straight lines” and pursue a career in fine art. In his earlier work, he painted stacks of books in libraries. In this series, he was interested in capturing these “sleeping” books, sitting unread in libraries. He sees books as containers of the abstract, artifacts of loss, memory: they pursue permanence. They are not simply about knowledge. He paints the books as if they are portraits, honoring the valuable work they have done for the world. In a later series of books from MOMA, he chooses modernist compositions to echo the modernist subject matter. whereas his first series was not at all interested in the content of the books.

In his next series, “The Silent Flow of Daily Life,” he began painting newspaper piles, showing fragments of headlines of old, archived papers. By this time in his career, he has come to the realization that he is a still-life painter, but his subjects aren’t necessarily still. Rather, the news, the content of the publications are alive, actively working to preserve the memory of the events it speaks of. He argues that the way we interact with papers is what is still. All these awful things happen around the world (most of his paintings focus on papers with headlines chronicling wars, political uprisings, etc.) but we receive these events as still images, as stagnant text. They come to us, and within a day, become just one in a pile of other old, now useless papers. But somehow they create a beautiful order. Their contents are chaos, but their archiving calms the chaos. Xie related this idea to Communism and Mao’s “Little Red Book,” inspiring Xie to use his paintings as parts of installations, this time focusing on how books are not just the record keepers, but can be the reason for uprisings, book burnings, etc.

In a video project, he follows the lifespan of a newspaper in the New York City subway system. The camera follows a newspaper being read, accentuating the aesthetic qualities of the paper, how it can be folded/manipulated, then zooming in on the images from the paper, focusing on the miserable occurrences that happen daily in our world, and once the emotion peaks, the paper is seen abandoned on the ground, forming a simple geometric line on the pavement. While this video was by no means his strongest work, it did seem to encapsulate his feelings about newspapers, while chronicling his own art-history with the subject.

He spoke at the end of his talk as to the importance of following your artistic impulse – to find what interests you and explore it, catalogue it, deconstruct it, and put it back together. And, indeed, Xiaoze Xie’s work is evidence of this, his work serving as an all-encompassing survey of the subject of archived texts.

kelly strikes again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q62pOio7PaY

Josef Strau

I will be reviewing Josef Strau's work.

Top 5! Woohoo!!!

You know 'em, you love 'em, they're in the top 5...

5. Grass
Let’s face it. It’s everywhere.
It’s nice to lie on, to make whistles with, to play games on, and perfect for golf.
But really, grass fills the mind of suburbanites. Families fertilize, aerate, install sprinkler systems, mow, trim, and de-weed, all to make their houses look better. Your life could be falling apart inside the walls, but outside, if your lawn is well-kept, you are in the running for the PTA.

4. Nytimes.com
It’s like grass, but for the city folk.
Want to keep updated on the world’s goings-on? No need to smudge your fingers or bust out your wallet. You can read all of the news from your computer. The New York Times' online edition is a great way to scholarly procrastinate while at work. Want an easy source for a paper that isn’t wikipedia? Well, nytimes.com is it. This site’s legit.
And you don’t have to live in New York! It’s a national paper with a misleading title! Being from the Midwest, I was always confused growing up seeing people read news from another part of the country and wondered why they couldn’t get the news from the Indianapolis Star? Why did they pay to get a newspaper from New York shipped to Indiana? They must be snobs. Alas, I was wrong, and now with nytimes.com, snobbery is at an all-time minimum. Simply register for free and read to your heart’s (and mind’s) content. Don’t know a word? Simply double click on a word you don’t know and they will link you to a window that defines it for you! Nytimes.com allows anyone with a couple minutes of free time to be cultured and informed in just a few clicks.

3. Diet Coke
Zero calories, millions of addicts.
It’s like crack. I need it always. I usually drink around 70 fl.oz. a day, usually in varying forms of fountain, bottle, and can. Usually associated with middle-aged women, Diet Coke (DC) ensures weight conscious moms don’t fall asleep in the carpool line. But DC is for everyone. It does not discriminate.
For me, DC is so incredible because it has transcended its form. While it is an artificially sweetened, brown carbonated beverage, it is my water. I crave it. I need it. Other parts of my body stop working normally when I don’t have it. Now, I know what you’re thinking. That’s just the definition of an addiction. But, for me, DC transcends that classification. It makes my day better, more bearable, peppier, nourishes my body, and invigorates my senses… it pretty much runs my life. Who needs a Blackberry when you have DC?
DC has also been at the heart of many of my social interactions over the years. I can meet a friend for a cold DC, bond over our mutual craving of a fizzy one with a lemon, and officially unite at the outrage of Panera only serving Pepsi products.
And while I might die in ten years due to an overdose of aspartame, I will know I died having lived a fulfilled, caramel-flavored, zero calorie life.

2. The Oscars
Politics meets art meets entertainment meets commerce meets Dakota Fanning.
Ah yes, the Academy Awards. Its an incredible thing. A bunch of people, comprising “the Academy” decide what films are best, who is the subtlest actor, and what random 3-minute animated shorts are the coolest…. And then we go see them! Who is the Academy? Why wasn’t Enchanted nominated for Best Picture? And Snakes on a Plane should have won all kinds of awards!
But for real, the Academy exposes all of America to great and important films. Think about how many people were exposed to gay political issues this year because Milk was nominated for best picture. And what great social dialogue was started because the Academy told everyone to see Crash.
Ok. And let’s not forget the ceremony. Hey pretty dresses! Hey George Clooney! Hey Bjork wearing a swan!
The Oscars are great. They’re fun and exciting while they are undercover agents in encouraging socio-political thought and understanding.

1. Heidi Klum
Bangs, no bangs, H. Klum is always in style.
A German-born, non-native English speaker supermodel is now the host (someone who needs to talk a lot) of one of America’s most popular television shows. How awesome is that?! She IS the pop culture American Dream. Made famous for wearing high heels and lingerie, Heidi worked it down the runway until she made millions and invaded the hearts of America and the covers of every top fashion mag.
And while you might say, “Big deal. She won German’s equivalent of ANTM and now she’s famous for being hot.” I will rebuke, “Yes, but she is married to Seal.” Trump card.