What’s Better Than “Mother” by Danzig?
It’s “Mother” with dancing by Plastic Rats.
It’s “Mother” with dancing by Plastic Rats.
Art video by Katherine Sweetman
|
|||||
Tango With Colette2650 Truxton Road, Studio 106, San Diego 92106(in Point Loma’s scenic Liberty Station) Instructor: Colette Hebert, 514-726-5567 
D-Fab Recording Studio San Diego, CAAn independent full-service recording, mixing and beat composition studio catering to local bands, musicians, hip-hop artists and singer-songwritersdfab020@yahoo.com | (714) 604-6993 | dfabstudios.com [Click for larger image.] 
Big City Tattoo The Samoan Tap-Tattoo Headquarters San Diego's ONLY Qualified Samoan Tap tattoos. 
 ::: |
What’s Better Than “Mother” by Danzig?
Heavy Handed: Art Fist, Your MomBy Katherine Sweetman
THE ART FIST COLLECTIVE — a curatorial team that’s breaking the rules and making shit happen…YOUR MOM is up now through May 25th. Closing reception on Friday, May 25th, 6-10pm at Zepf Alt. I got to ask one of the members, Enrique Limón, a little about the show and a little about the collective. Included here are image from the opening of YOUR MOM.  A Family Friendly -ish Show Interview with Enrique Limón E.L interviewer K.S. K.S. Enrique, tell me about Art Fist Collective. What’s the real mission behind this collective? E. L. Art Fist is a curatorial experiment with three people at its core whose mission, as stated in our website, is to give the local art scene a much needed enema.  Brandon Roth, Whispring Nuns K.S. You have a show that’s up now at Zepf Alt, that went up the Friday before Mother’s Day, a show Friday, titled, “Your Mom.” How did this idea come about, and what are some highlights of the show? E. L. It was my fellow Collective member Leanne Garry’s idea. It started with the name and the general concept, and soon evolved to a group show almost forty strong. The idea behind our exhibits is to allow up-and-commers to show alongside established local legends—like say master muralists Mario Torero or Victor Ochoa, and also to give attendees a different, memorable experience that hopefully encourages them to start their own personal art collection.  Neko, My Mom Thinks I'm a Great Catch K.S. You have had 5, so far that were curated by Art Fist Collective, right? Which was your favorite? E. L. It’s going to sound so cliché, but being that we’ve never half-assed a show, they all have a special place in the pedestal. We started with “B-Side” which featured visual art by musical tastemakers; had a great coup with our B.Y.O.A. (Bring Your Own Art) show, broke new ground with our all Latino/all Virgin of Guadalupe show, and of course, our Pony show that helped the Save Our Heritage Organisation’s efforts to save downtown’s historic Caliente racetrack mural.  Granny Pearl -- who performed later at the event K.S. Alright, tell me about the name, “Art Fist Collective”, it’s revolutionary in tone, but you have a few slogans that reference or allude to fisting (“…a sexual activity that involves inserting a hand into the rectum” — as Wikipedia informs me). Please explain, does the art world or San Diego art world in particular need this rectal awakening? And why do we need it? E. L. Leave it to Wikipedia to get my juices flowing! The name, along with our slogans have a clear tongue-in-cheek connotation, but to the best of my knowledge no actual fisting has ever occurred in any of our shows. Heavy petting sure, just no fisting. Historically, the clenched fist image is also a sign of protest, and in us forming Art Fist, we were protesting an array of boring, stale shows that were taking over and becoming the norm in our oh so conservative town. San Diego has a great edge to it, and a strong emerging art scene that not everybody is aware of. One thing you’ll never see in one of our shows is a generic Shamu watercolor; unless, of course, someone wants to get fisted atop of it, then we can kill two birds with one stone by calling it performance art and finally living up to our namesake.  Bd Dombrowsky, with his work  Rum-Spiked Horchata, from a baby bottle -- an Art Fist Collective original  Andrew Estrada, with his work  Jason Gould, with his work  Sean Brannan, with his work  Granny Pearl -- performing  The beautiful Erin Zepf Estrada -- posing — * I (Katherine Sweetman) should mention that I am in this group show. But I won’t mention it until the end of the interview with a little asterisk.  Katherine Sweetman, Rat Dance "Mother" [Press Release] Still, The Teaparty Wants Taxes Lowered On The RichPosted today at the website for the Office of The Governor, Jerry BrownGovernor Brown Releases Revised State Budget 5-14-2012 Protecting Education and Public Safety “Priority #1” in Revised State Budget SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. released a revised state budget today that protects funding for education and public safety while slashing $8.3 billion from government to close a $15.7 billion deficit and get California back on track. “This budget reflects the fact that the nation’s economic recovery is proceeding more slowly than anticipated,” said Governor Brown. “Lower tax revenues, coupled with federal government obstructions that blocked billions in necessary cuts, have created a deeper budget hole. More painful reductions will be necessary as a result, but education and public safety must be protected.” The revised May budget slashes spending in almost every part of government, but proposes a 16 percent increase in funding for K-12 education, subject to voter approval. It also continues funding to local governments that are implementing public safety realignment, and proposes legislation to create a permanent funding structure so that local governments will have a reliable funding source into the future. “We can’t balance the budget with cuts alone; that would just further undermine our public schools,” said Governor Brown. “The budget I am proposing will boost funding for education, protect public safety and prevent an even deeper round of trigger cuts.” To achieve this goal, Governor Brown has placed an initiative on the November ballot that will increase money for schools and provide constitutional protection for public safety funding. The measure will enact temporary income tax increases on high-income earners. It will raise income taxes by up to three percent on the wealthiest Californians for seven years and will also increase the state sales tax by one quarter of one percent for four years. Governor Brown’s measure works with the framework of the state budget, so it will increase funding for schools and protect public safety funding while also stemming cuts to other critical safety net programs. “My proposal is modest, fair and temporary,” said Governor Brown. “It won’t solve all of the state’s problems, but it will help dig us out of a deep hole and protect our schools until the recovery is complete.” The May Revision proposes cuts far deeper than those in the January budget. It increases cuts by $4.1 billion, bringing total cuts to state employee compensation, welfare, health care, higher education, courts, and other critical government programs to $8.3 billion. If the Governor’s tax initiative does not pass in November, $6 billion in additional cuts will go into effect on January 1. “I don’t like making additional cuts, and I recognize the impact they have on Californians. They are difficult – but necessary – in order to get us back on firm fiscal footing until California fully recovers from the global economic recession,” said Governor Brown. The revised May budget builds on the progress that has been made in tackling the $26.6 billion deficit inherited from the previous administration. Last year, Governor Brown signed an on-time budget that slashed $16 billion from the budget and shifted California’s credit outlook from negative to positive. The 2011-2012 budget cut funds for state programs, made state government more efficient through consolidation and reorganization and moved government closer to the people through realignment. Through the budget and executive actions, Governor Brown has already slashed billions from state prison costs and banned costly government perks like cell phones, travel, vehicles and freebies. He also permanently shrank state government through the elimination of 30,000 positions. Significant details of the revised 2012-2013 budget: Increases Funding for K-12 Education Keeps Higher Education Affordable for Low-Income Students Protects Public Safety Cuts State Employee Compensation Costs Provides Funding for Existing Homeowner and Consumer Assistance Programs Funding court budgets from alternative sources Reduces Corrections Spending ### New Music From Austin
Austin, Texas’s El Pathos have broken through in 2012 to rave reviews and platitudes that run the gamut from the subtle to the sublime. The one blurb that caught my attention was one from Rank & Review, which gushed that El Pathos “…May have nailed their very own Exile on Main Street on the first try…” Their very own Exile on Main Street “on their first try”? Well, I must say that is certainly a heap of praise but I’d also say that the reviewer who wrote that may have been a little overawed by Hate & Love, El Pathos’s “first try”. Not to take away anything from El Pathos, but, I mean, c’mon, let’s get real here. No debut can be honestly compared to a seminal album that has been used as a yardstick of sorts in measuring how great a certain rock ‘n’ roll album is. In fact, using Exile… as a standard, especially 40 years after its release has become somewhat of a cliché. While El Pathos is comprised of musicians who are in no way neophytes – their line-up consists of ex-members of such indie powerhouses as The Dicks, Catbutt, Offenders and a few others – Hate & Love marks their first release as a unit. They are on one of Austin’s premier indie labels: Saustex Media, run by the hip Jeff Saustex who himself is no failed or wannabe musician – Mr. Saustex is in his own band – The Hickoids, who, of course, are on his label (see my reviews of the first couple Hickoids CDs for a rundown of them). So, there’s a local connection here, which is Austin, TX – a very hip part of Texas. In fact, y’all can keep Dallas and Houston, etc, but give me Austin. But then what do I know about Texas? I’ve never been to the state. I’ve been all over the Southwest and the West, but never been to the South or the Pacific Northwest (i.e., OR, WA). But believe me, I have no desire to go to Idaho. I have been through Montana, though, once and I thought it was beautiful. Songs: “Eyes” is a slow-burning gem – it starts out like kindling and builds up to a whirling flame of a wicked guitar solo , courtesy of guitarist Rob Buford. The next song in line is “Ghost”, which also has some balls-to-the-wall guitar wailing. “Ghost” starts off sounding a little like Social Distortion; that same kind of fire engine intensity; it has a fast candle-burning quality to it, the crux of it being an outsider’s view of the dead-end, nighttime happenings in town, but with a fist-in-the-air aura to it which shows a sense of pride in being that “outsider” – “I walk those dead end streets of the town/like some inhuman ghost…” and “Talk about the darkest place/You’re the darkest place in the world/Somewhere on the other side of midnight/Somewhere on the other side…” From beginning to end, there is nonstop energy just bursting at the seams. Next, things slow down a notch with the bluesy but introspective/personal song, “No Blood of Mine” – “Well there’s a man that I-I once knew/I even called him “father” too/He told me that he’d love me blind/But he ain’t no blood of mine…” Obviously a song about a father that did him (the songwriter) wrong – another poignant lyric: “I swear I could kill that man/And you know someday I just might”. This is certainly no paean to one’s nice daddy, but an angry polemic that, in no uncertain terms, screams “J’accuse” – in other words, that guy my mama married was a bastard! I can’t lie – not every cut is as good as “Eyes”, but the next one that pricked up my ears was “Sundown” a guitar-cum-chainsaw screw-in-the-head. Then, probably my favorite cut on Hate & Love: “Little Black Drops”. It was kind of hard, to tell the truth, to understand what they were exactly singing. But I must say I was blown away by the “wah-wah” infected guitar solo, which more than that, just really screamed like a banshee, pushing its heavy dose straight into your arms. Yeah, that’s what I figured it was about too – dope. What else could those “Little Black Drops” be referring to? Besides, one line I did understand was something akin to “That little sliver ain’t gonna hold me” and “I got lots of drugs!” Ironically, “Suffering Kind” sounds a little like the other side of the hell-bent for kicks mayhem of “Little Black Drops” – a song that seems to be reflecting on the not-so-great parts of addiction, i.e., getting dope sick, needing that fix to be well and feeling like punching you in the face as soon as talk to you (unless you’re the man). Of course, that’s just one interpretation of a couple songs; there wasn’t all that much flat-out un-metaphorical lyrical confession to figure it out. “Rockets Red Glare”, I found out, is actually not about the late, great and overweight character actor who played as many diverse characters in about 1000 small roles in many indie cult-status films, for instance, he pops in at the end of Talk Radio as the guy who kills actor Eric Bogosian’s “shock jock” radio host character. He’s been in just about every Jim Jarmusch film in some small part, had a little scene in David Lynch’s Fire Walk With Me – the film version of his Twin Peaks TV show (Whoa –now THERE is a story I could do a whole book about – Redglare’s real name was Michael Morra and one of the more notorious parts of his life is the fact that he, being a huge dope fiend and heavy drinker, supplied Sid Vicious with a stockpile of Dilaudid that Sid used to overdose on after killing girlfriend, Nancy Spungen in the notorious Chelsea Hotel in NYC. In a book, author Phil Strongman implies that he thinks it was Redglare (Morra) who actually murdered Nancy. But that’s way beyond speculation. But I digress. Anyway, this is a great album. Indeed it is one of the better debuts of a band – especially a debut that wasn’t an “arranged debut” – from a band that had been working for a while and suddenly gets found by some slick pimp from a major label and gets signed to a Time Warner-owned label, etc (e.g, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, etc). No, these guys, while they do have history in other bands so they’ve “been around”, got together not too long ago and decided “what the hell” and wrote up a bunch of songs, recorded them and got Jeff to put the output of their creativity – Hate & Love on his Saustex label. Now, I still can’t say this is like making a debut as influential and with the classicity of Exile on Main Street, El Pathos, who have been compared to quite a different crowd of people – and an eclectic list at that: everyone from The Zombies (no, not at all, I don’t know who could’ve connected one to the other), Nick Cave (yes, his spirit is felt in there somewhere), The Stooges, 13th Floor Elevators, AC/DC (maybe, when they still had Bon Scott and weren’t a bad joke) as well as Townes van Zandt. As I mentioned earlier, there is one other comparison that just can’t be overlooked and that is Social Distortion. The fiery jamming and no-holds-barred, beer-soaked riffs show that quite well. Check this one out! You may not find it at your local rip-off chain store (like Virgin Megastore, which is the most overpriced, crappiest place on earth to buy music or books). But Amazon has it and, of course, you can go to the source – saustexmedia.com to buy it straight from Jeff. I just hope that El Pathos stay true to this verve and keep the beers comin’. Cheers! -KM New Vinyl from Saustex
Churchwood are back. After a much-heralded self-titled debut CD, they’re back with this special edition 7 inch vinyl record, Just the Two of Us. But, don’t worry if you don’t have a turntable: when you buy the 7 inch, it comes with a card that you can use to download all four cuts on the vinyl edition to your PC, thereby making it accessible to those who lack a turntable (funny how 30-40 years ago things would be the other way around – everyone would have a turntable and the bonus downloadings would’ve been seen as a real novelty. On this release, entitled Just the Two of Us, Churchwood comes at you with their brand of full-tilt punk-rock/psychobilly. If you want a comparison, well, think of a cross between The Cramps and The Blasters. Lone Star Music calls Just the Two of Us “Dangerous, foreboding, in-your-face…” and this Austin, TX-based band is expanding its reach, slowly but surely. The tracks on this EP are infectious, mutations of Southern white-boy blues; in fact, I’d say that it is even rawer and more savage than their eponymous, full-length debut CD, in that vein, another blurb is worth mentioning: the Santa Fe, New Mexican writes, in regard to this EP that “[Churchwood] take the essence of primitive blues and mutate[s] it into something new…” and also, Punk Globe calls Churchwood the “Crazy, thinking man’s blues band”. Churchwood’s music is an olio of sounds, rich in influences and traits. You can hear some of their crawling out of the Mississippi Delta blues sounds and infusing it with psychobilly, sludgy rock ‘n’ roll (Melvins, Mudhoney, etc), even Captain Beefheart seems to be an influence as well. 20 years ago Bill Anderson and Joe Doerr had played together in a couple legendary Texas bands, Ballad Shambles and Hand of Glory. So, what’s been going on in between for all these years? Well, as was mentioned, Doerr got his poetry thing finessed and is now published and takes delight in penning more and more when he can. As for Bill Anderson, he rambled back and forth, jamming in such diverse-sounding bands as The Horsies, The Meat Purveyors and Cat Scientist. And – he also sat in on some sessions with the legendary Daniel Johnston. So, these guys are no youngsters and no Johnny-come-latelies either. As for Just the Two of Us, it’s got four tracks on it: four mean, lean raw, bones: “Message From Firmin Desloge”, “Metanoia”, “Weedeye” and “Rickshaw Rattletrap”. From the get-go, Churchwood let loose and play like there’s no tomorrow, with reckless abandon and fueled-up fervor. But don’t let that belie the fact that these cats are intelligent. They are not just some dumb hicks from down South, no they’ve got a good handle on the bohemian, hip literary references and the like, e.g., “Rimbaud Didley” and “Ulysses”, both from their debut. So, let’s hear it for these Austin dudes who not only can bring the house down, but get pleasure from less destructive means as well. –KM
Besides my receiving a rarity – an EP of sorts on good old fashioned vinyl – from Austin, TX-based Churchwood I received at the same time, another 7-inch vinyl EP (four songs) from another Texas band, Chief Fuzzer. This one is entitled Transcendental Road Blues. It’s also being released from Austin’s great indie label: Saustex Media. Just as with the Churchwood 7-incher – Just the Two of Us – Chief Fuzzer’s 7-inch EP contains a card inside the package with the URL to go to and a code one puts in that allows one to download the entire 5-song EP onto one’s PC. Cody Richardson, who both sings and plays guitar, does an excellent job on the axe. He may not have the most operatic voice in the world – but hey, it’s only rock ‘n’ roll, right? He really shines, though, on the guitar and the undertones he lays down as well as the solo piercings and crying sure do shine. Being a trio, Chief Fuzzer rely on just Cody to get the job done on guitar and he comes through with flying colors. But as far as the other two – the rhythm section, you certainly can’t complain – drummer Paul Adams plays a mean set of skins, keeping time with a bombastic, rock-oriented (as opposed to the all-over-the-place jazz styles), seemingly simple fashion but when you see that he’s got to be the anchor then you appreciate his edgy, not flashy way of keeping things glued together. Bassist Shane Herring is also a great leg of this three-legged stool – he complements Cody’s more simmering, hot & spicy solos, by keeping things grounded and when Cody’s just trying to keep a riff flowing, when he’s singing, for example, then Shane is there as a double-threat, a deeper, thundering bass to accompany the taxiing guitar. You’re going to really want to check this out – whether or not you’re a fan of Texas-style “psychobilly”, psychedelic-tinged rockabilly, or fire & brimstone, liquor-fueled rants that can seem over the top, but have a hell of a fun time doing it, you’ll see that Chief Fuzzer transcends (no pun intended) all those stereotypes, while still managing to stay in the same realm somehow. Listening to Transcendental Road Blues, it’s easy to hear how these guys would be welcomed wherever a crowd that wants to rock is – whether it’s at the Continental Club in Austin, First Avenue in Minneapolis, Café Metro in Chicago or CBGB/OMFUG in NYC, Chief Fuzzer will fit in anywhere. -KM Art Fist Collective presents “Your Mom,” a group art show with a Freudian twist, May 11th Art Fist Collective presents “Your Mom,” a group art show with a Freudian twist. Friday May 11th, 6-11pm, Zepf Alt Gallery, 1150 7th Ave. Downtown San Diego with live performance by Granny Pearl Featuring High Art in and institution of Higher EducationReported by Katherine Sweetman Date: May 11th, 2012 to May 12th, 0000 *Guest Speakers: Sheldon Brown, Ricardo Dominguez and Jordan Crandall, Co-Curators DESCRIPTION/ABSTRACT: The conference consists of a series of panels, screenings, and open sessions that explore issues related to the domestication of drones — whether in the context of warfare, science fiction, design, cultural studies, regulatory policy, or distributed and embedded intelligence. These various events, mobilizing conversations among artists, engineers, and other scientific and creative researchers, are geared toward the development of new research initiatives, analytical concepts, and experimental forms. All gallery events are FREE and open to the public. more including schedule here New Music from PolyvinylTweet Antibodies is such a beautiful album, you can tell that Nate went through a lot work in the studio, making everything sound so perfect; it’s an album that will both mesmerize you and make you think at the same time. The ethereal, sedate music is juxtaposed by melancholy lyrics written by a man who “isn’t comfortable in his own skin”. The opening track, “Stuck”, starts out with a mélange of sounds – vibraphone, baritone sax (or bassoon?), oboe, etc – that reminded me of the eclectic orchestrations of Frank Zappa – but then straightens out into a more harmonious and soft song that is quiet, laid back but at the same time there’s a perkiness to it, an upbeat tempo with catchy hooks and that is what makes it work so well – while the lyrics may be introspective, coming from a perspective and the person doesn’t like what he sees in the mirror, it, at least, has the catchy tune which backs it up; in other words, the songs are not all dirge-like. For example, “Stuck” is a song that I, for one, can relate to, being somewhat stuck myself – in different ways: stuck in geographical terms as well as metaphorically. To quote a line from the song that caught my ear, “…I’m stuck/to the ones I love/I’m stuck/with the occasional suicidal thought…” When I heard that, I thought “now THERE’s a song that is for me”. I too, sometimes, “Wish I didn’t have a name” and I “Wish I could get lost” – so that is definitely one cut that will stick in my head. The things Nate expresses on Antibodies probably touch many people out there. Not everyone is a carefree, independently wealthy, constantly happy person. One thing I read that he said was that he tries to present himself as a “positive person in normal, everyday life” but underneath that façade there lurk thoughts of death, regret, guilt, remorse “and everything in between”. I mentioned that the songs are (or mostly) played in an “uptempo” way. Well, yes, that is true, but what makes Antibodies so unique is the eclectic musical arrangements: for instance, it’s not your average rock ‘n’ roll album – meaning: guitar, bass, drums (and sometimes keyboards). This isn’t like that – Antibodies has a full range of instrumentation – vibraphones, violins, cellos and clarinets – all played by Kinsella. He had a little help from some session musicians – maybe to help out on bass, drums, guitar and keyboards (?) But, in the end, it’s basically Nate’s album – he is the songwriter and the one who arranged it all. If he played all the aforementioned instruments, then he must’ve had a hand in the more traditional things, like guitar, bass & drums, etc. The title of the album: Antibodies, after one listens to the album, takes on a whole different meaning. As opposed to the real meaning of the word – what develops when the human body gets a virus or infection: the immune system fights it off and at the same time makes “copies” of the pathogen so as to be able to more easily fight it if it comes back in the future (that’s why we keep getting the flu or a cold every year or two: influenza and the various variants of cold viruses mutate every year or so, not much, but just enough for the body to not be completely resistant to it, although the similarities that are there makes the antibodies work to help kill it off – “Antibodies” comes across (at least to me) as a pun of sorts, in that Nate’s use of the word reflects the fact that he’s often not comfortable in his own skin, in other words, the title’s meaning changes in a way that’s meant to come off as trying to convey the message of Anti-body: a self-loathing that brings desperation to the fore and for a poet or songwriter, these feelings can be used effectively to fancifully write them down and use metaphors, etc , to express one’s pain and suffering. This doesn’t mean the artist is being insincere, au contraire, he is being very sincere and, as a songwriter in this case, using his talents in a therapeutic way, getting the message out that “this is how I feel” and hoping that there will be people out there who not only appreciate the music but can identify with the underlying feelings of hopelessness and melancholia. On “Shake Hands” the “backwards” string section was perfected and composed by Kinsella and to make it even more glorious, he brought in a real string quartet to aid in the recording. The result is a blissful tune. “Pacifist Manifesto” is another one that features strings and is very brilliant and soothing. The next tune, “Please Go Away” changes tempo a little – it picks things up a little: there’s a heavier beat on it, more guitar and bass on it. The song is very good. It’s as if he is just fed up with whomever it is he is singing to – he just wants them to “please go away”. No apologies, no French fried explanation, just get out of here, leave me alone. But it’s back to the melancholia again with “You Lighten Me Up”: “I get so tired of hearing my own voice…” Then, on “Your Imperfections”, Kinsella tries to put his wife up on a pedestal of sorts, when he compares her “imperfections” to his, more major faults, which may or may not be true, but is a true expression of love. The final track is “Big Man”. This is one of the most brilliant tracks on Antibodies – it is expressive, a bit of anger seeps out. A good example of his fiery lyrics on here would be “There is no god/And the only thing real to me/is that you’re the man”. It sounds as if he’s trying to cut down to size someone who would otherwise be a self-important megalomaniac. But, the music stays quiet, it’s a quiet, low-key song with just a couple instruments, a guitar and his plaintive voice, with a chorus of “OOHS” toward the end. In the final analysis, I must say that I am very impressed with Birthmark, Nate and his new album, Antibodies. It is only 34 minutes long, with 8 tracks on it, but it still, somehow, feels complete, as if this is all he needed to say on this CD at this time. If you’re a fan of his cousin Tim Kinsella’s band, Joan of Arc or other cousin Mike, who is a sometime member of JOA and has his own thing going with Owen, then you’ll be happy to know that Birthmark is not unlike the others in that Nate too, goes his own way and doesn’t follow any trend or path. He just follows his muse and writes down what comes into his mind. Bravo! -KM Music From San DiegoReported by Katherine Sweetman
San Diego artist/ musician, Tristan Shone, is the man behind the madness. He will be flying solo, tearing through California, Washington, and Oregon in support of his forthcoming Seventh Rule Recordings debut, “Ursus Americanus” (due out in digital and digipak CD on April 24th, 2012). He’ll be desecrating stages with the likes of Helms Alee, Kowloon Walled City, and plenty more along the way.
Dates are as follows:
A simple subjective experienceBy Katherine Sweetman “The Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego encourages experimentation, innovation and risk-taking in scholarly and artistic production. We provide a unique environment for learning and research that crosses the boundaries between history, theory, and practice in the visual arts.”
Last Saturday the top graduate art program in San Diego opened its doors and gave the public a glimpse into the world of the MFA Visual Arts’ program. Coinciding with the Open Studios event was the department’s annual PhD conference, this year titled New Institutions, and a gallery exhibition with the same name curated by Lara Bullock, Sascha Crasnow and Elmira Mohebaali. From roughly 1-7pm a steady stream of (mainly) “arts insiders” mingled through the Visual Arts Facility on the UCSD Campus that houses the individual studios of the graduate students. Brave guests also ventured into the conference, held in the very-black Black Box theater next to the gallery, where panels and keynote speakers discuss topics like contemporary art and the constructs of Art Institutions. By the Marcuse gallery’s entrance, the first piece to catch the public off guard was this one by Joe Yorty and John Brady:  Untitled Trailer pieces for San Diego (That's a top heavy boat there) Joe Yorty and John Brady The concept, explained on the interior gallery wall along with a video projection, spoke of the performative and labor intensive collection of the objects. The mattresses, couches and pillows piled onto this trailer were collected, one by one, from streets and alleyways of San Diego, and the overloaded trailer is imitates the familiar (to this region) over-stuffed trailers traveling from San Diego to Tijuana. This trailer however, ended up traveling to La Jolla (in some respects an antithesis of Tijuana), to be put on display as a single art object. While pausing to take a few photographs, I overheard viewers discussing subjects such as American wastefulness, bed bugs, and “Is This Art?”.  Untitled Trailer pieces for San Diego (That's a top heavy boat there) Joe Yorty and John Brady
Another attention-grabbing project in the Marcuse Gallery was a video segment by artist Frankie Martin. The project became more appealing, to me, as I learned the piece in the gallery was a smaller segment of a larger video project titled: WE ARE WILD DOGS WITH TURQUOISE FUR LAUGHING AT FULL MOONS (vimeo trailer here). From website: “This movie is an exploration of the meaning of/desire for context while at the same time creating a context for fellow artists and musicians by including their work in the video. In this way, the project is largely a curated exhibition. Participating artists include; Frankie Martin, Brianna Rigg, Berglind Tomasdottir, Aquapuke, Emily Sevier, Adrienne Garbini, S4E, Extreme Animals, Narwhalz, MEN, Bob Pierzack and Juiceboxxx.”  Installation in Marcuse Gallery, Frankie Martin  Installation in Marcuse Gallery, Frankie Martin The Artist’s studio was dressed up for scenes of her in-progress video. Pictured below is Tattoo Parlor backdrop. 
Another artist worth mentioning is Emily Grenader. During Open Studios she exhibited the creation of a very interesting participatory project (similar to one that can be seen here) in which she invited the viewers to pose in front of a green screen for a few moments of video-capturing. She then layered the video into a video crowd portrait– part of her Crowd Painting series.
 Emily Grenader's (digital) Crowd Painting in progress Her practice showed a methodical visual progression from actual crowd paintings, which were also on view in her studio, to this new digital crowd portrait video. From statement on work: “Her “crowd portraits” bring people together based on unusual circumstances or common details in order to shed new light on different relationships and show comparisons on a single plane.” -http://ucsdopenstudios.com/2012/artists/emily-grenader/  Emily Grenader, example of Crowd Painting (with paint) The studio to draw the largest crowd was probably one belonging to artist J Noland where an hourly (I believe) performance took place with two members of a marching band and a soft-serve ice cream machine (see below).  Interior of J Nolan's studio, UCSD Open Studios 2012  Interior of J Nolan's studio, UCSD Open Studios 2012  Interior of J Nolan's studio, UCSD Open Studios 2012
And then of course there was this:  Blake Stimson, keynote speaker for New Institutions conference
By all accounts (that I heard… or created myself) the UCSD MFA Visual Arts program kept up its appearance as an institution that is encouraging “experimentation, innovation and risk-taking in scholarly and artistic production”. By employing artist/students running the gamut in production techniques, the department will certainly never leave a visitor bored. I’ll close with a few more images:  by Adrienne Garbini A small, beautiful video piece by Adrienne Garbini (pictured above) where small ceramic, smiling faces were dropped and shattered, one after another.  Ela Boyd Artist Ela Boyd standing in front of one of her many intricate projection pieces (pictured above)  Blake Stimson's keynote discussion Blake Stimson, from UC Davis, pointing out some of the inclusionary memes this photograph has created. |
Send a message.
Ask, advise, comment, volunteer, inform, gripe, complain, threaten or pester... Send us at REVIEWER MAGAZINE your tender love note. Want to be heard? You can!  Click for a FREE ALL CLUB PASS and Superstore discount cupon.
 ::: 
|
|||
|
Copyright © 2012 Reviewer Magazine - All Rights Reserved - any reprinting is forbidden without permission from the editor. |
|||||
