Marina Ambromavic

I was unable to find the time to visit the MOMA to see the Ambromavic retrospective.
I was told by many that it was something not to be missed. According to a NY Times and a Washington Post review I didn't miss anything. The articles suggested that without the presence of the artist and the change of venue the work which originally had been intense and radical in its form and content was diluted with the use of professional hard bodied actors and dancers who had been trained to perform the work. In the piece "Imponderabillia" a naked man and woman face each other with enough space between them for a person to pass through originally it was Marina and Ulay and the only way to enter the adjoining room was to pass through the naked figures, at the MOMA there was an alternate escape route further diluting her work.


NY Times article by Holland Cotter "Maybe it couldn’t have been otherwise. The work and the sense of energizing newness it once radiated were, as Kaprow knew, the product of a particular time and culture. The recreated performances in MoMA’s show are similarly products of a milieu that once made them transgressive, poetic or simply gave them heat, but is now gone. And, through no fault of the performers, the pieces feel like leftover things: flat, dutiful; artifacts."

Maybe great works of art can not be recreated. Maybe time place and social climate have more to do with the way we view work than the work itself. I know when I watch a film or hear a song that has been redone by another performer and re shot with a new director cast and crew it looses much of its intensity and originality. How would we feel if great painters or sculptors had there work reproduced by amatures and displayed in a museum.

Interactive video sketch

I wanted to trigger a video IED with a cell phone. I thought I could do so using Isadora. I wanted a electronic cell phone to computer trigger, there was none. I decided to use a sound trigger instead. This did not work well it diluted the interaction and function of the cell phone.
I thought about having the Boe-Bot draw a picture by having the robot drive through ink or paint and use the wheels as a brush. I thought this to be an obvious use of the Boe-Bot and one that had probably been used a million times so I abandoned the idea.

Physical video sketches

I have been working on a performance with two boats hinged to each other where the two performers are in a struggle with one another. I decided to record the performance. I wasn't sure how to show the video when t was complete. I decided to display the video on two monitors in a pedestal between the two boats and have the viewers sit in the boats and watch the video.

boe bot

boebot tests photosensors

Whitney Review

The Whitney Biennial 2010 curated by Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari took up the torch of mediocrity and carried it proudly through the sparsely adorned halls of the Whitney. If one was looking for a theme they looked in vain for there was none as proclaimed by the chief curator. The only residue of cohesion could be the stench of apathy. The galleries were ripe with it. The displays of carelessly crafted objects were terribly disappointing. It felt as if the artists represented had given up all hope of accomplishing anything and in one last ditch attempt to get noticed decided that work without the evidence of work was their savior. If carelessness and apathy were the themes of the day how could one expect the viewer to spend any time with this work.
Of course if one is not as apathetic as the majority of the artists exhibiting and bravely waded through the labyrinth of shit on display one may find a gem or two hiding in a smaller gallery on the upper floors. There were two such gems Nina Berman's series “Marine Wedding” 2006 capture the realities of loss in a format which is both shocking and sullen. Ty Ziegel, a twenty four year old marine at the time fell victim to a road side bomb leaving him terribly disfigured.
One of the most carefully observed pieces was Kelly Tribe's “H.M.” . Viewers sat and watched the eighteen plus minute dual analog projection in its entirety a phenomenon at a time when most work is viewed for less than thirty seconds. The subject of this documentary styled film is H.M. A victim of an bicycle accident resulting in severe head trauma and epilepsy. The narrator follows H.M.'s life as his seizures get progressively worse leading to experimental brain surgery. The outcome of the procedure is mixed the seizures are under control but H.M. Is left with the inability to remember anything after the surgery for more than twenty to thirty seconds. This is the amount of time that spaces the two identical loops of film apart when they are projected side by side. This gap is challenging us to remember the events displayed on screen. Asking us if our empathy for the H.M. is temporary or genuine.
It is amazing to me that a survey of the best and brightest american artists didn't include anyone working with robotics, interactivity or kinetics. Shouldn't the Whitney be displaying the work of contemporary artists experimenting with new technologies and forms of visual communication as it once did?

storyboards