“vases and the case of vases in cases” gel pen on paper, 2011
Glad to see an extraordinarily talented artist [and friend], Timothy Hull, has joined the Tumblr fold to share his work. Particularly love these gel pen pieces.
“He takes it seriously, I think it’s interesting. If you are amused, you may laugh. If you like it, you may buy the recording.”
John Cage on a 1960s variety show performing “Water Walk”
(Source: blog.wfmu.org)
A work Esther Stocker in Fünf Räume at the Austrian Cultural Forum NY up through September 5th!
Some days—namely, research-intensive days wherein I’m left trolling the Web—simply demand an art historical GIF.
[David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash (1967), GIF’d up by Stephanie Davidson, file maker to the Internet and art world alike.]
“No more coats and no more home” (Tumblr syntax: This via this).
Wool is often reviled, but these stencil paintings in particular I find compelling. The text and form is adept (some might say overwrought): a détournement of a quote you recognize-but-not, in a stencil which you’ve seen produced yet haven’t. Even if you find his paintings overly and emptily referential, there’s something to be said for the sense of the uncanny that he can construct out of so little visual material.
(I accidentally saw this piece a few years ago in the same show, on two separate trips in two different museums, Valencia then Strasbourg.)
portrait of ross by felix gonzalez-torres
As I’ve gone on and on about this guy today, it’s easy to see why he’s one of my favorite conceptual artists.
At first glance it would appear to be the perfect parody of contemporary art. “Why, it’s only a pile of candy!” Those more inclined to actually interrogate it as a work of art might be more charitable. They might interpret the color, the texture. They might realize how the haphazard nature of the candy’s piling makes it’s final form mutable. And if they were bold enough, they might take a piece of the candy and eat it and enjoy it, and realize that this work of art gave the viewer some sort of tactile reaction and sense manipulation that a Monet or Martini or Mondrian couldn’t.
Ross was Gonzalez-Torres’s lover, who died of AIDS. When Ross was first diagnosed, his doctor told him his ideal weight was 155 pounds. Every day, the candy is weighed and 155 pounds is placed out. Here the candy IS love/happiness/sweetness/togetherness. Visitors to the museum are encouraged to enjoy a piece. It’s a giving, generous work of art; but with a dark edge; for as the candy gradually diminishes it symbolizes Ross’s weight loss due to AIDS. However, each morning the candy is weighed out and replenished,so that in this artwork (unlike life) Ross may live on forever.
via keeptheballrolling, absurdlakefront, shapeandcolour:
Two years ago, I went as this piece for Halloween. I wore all white and tied a piece of Gatorboard to my stomach, on which I piled candy and rubber cement. Needless to say, I left a trail of crushed candy and pretension across at least two boroughs.