I know, I know, you're sitting there at your little desk, drumming your fingers impatiently, wondering why I haven't posted anything since last Wednesday. Man, I need a staff, or an intern, or a paycheck, or a stiff drink, or something.
I have been a little busy: I'm wrapping up a piece for the City Paper (yes, they still exist!) on the Christo and Jeanne Claude show at the Phillips Collection, Over the River, A Work in Progress. Now, I don't want to let the cat out of the bag or anything, but I can safely say that I won't be agreeing with Blake's assessment that ran in the WaPo last Wednesday: That, since Over the River hasn't actually been installed yet, and won't be until the summer of 2012 at the earliest, the current exhibition is pointless.
Since the pair has been doing "current projects" shows--where they put up drawings, models, and photos for ideas that are in the works, but not yet green-lighted--for decades, I'm not sure exactly what to say about this conclusion. Were all of those shows pointless, too? Or did they become retroactively OK once the projects to which they were attached eventually reached completion?
Besides which: While they might not be conceptual artists per se, their work certainly falls in line with the anti-commercial elements of conceptual art from the 1970s. So all the preparatory drawings and photos of meetings in high schools are essential to their work, and are how their career and their work will be experienced for posterity, anyway. Right?
Blake does make some other interesting points, though, particularly about the show's resemblance to a marketing campaign (of course, what art show at this point isn't just that?), and about exactly how environmentally friendly the SUV-attracting project actually will end up being.
Lots going on at the AAC. At some point, all of my Arlington content will migrate over to a spiffy new AAC blog, with guest contributors and tasty goodness all around. When that day finally arrives, I will undoubtedly experience full blown panic, since I have no idea what I'll fill my weeks with here. Actual reporting? A return to some honest-to-goodness criticism? Or twice as many posts lifted from C-Monster or Modern Art Notes as I offer now?
I'll post about our Thursday performance art event sometime today. Short version: You need to be here on the night before Halloween.
I have been a little busy: I'm wrapping up a piece for the City Paper (yes, they still exist!) on the Christo and Jeanne Claude show at the Phillips Collection, Over the River, A Work in Progress. Now, I don't want to let the cat out of the bag or anything, but I can safely say that I won't be agreeing with Blake's assessment that ran in the WaPo last Wednesday: That, since Over the River hasn't actually been installed yet, and won't be until the summer of 2012 at the earliest, the current exhibition is pointless.
Since the pair has been doing "current projects" shows--where they put up drawings, models, and photos for ideas that are in the works, but not yet green-lighted--for decades, I'm not sure exactly what to say about this conclusion. Were all of those shows pointless, too? Or did they become retroactively OK once the projects to which they were attached eventually reached completion?
Besides which: While they might not be conceptual artists per se, their work certainly falls in line with the anti-commercial elements of conceptual art from the 1970s. So all the preparatory drawings and photos of meetings in high schools are essential to their work, and are how their career and their work will be experienced for posterity, anyway. Right?
Blake does make some other interesting points, though, particularly about the show's resemblance to a marketing campaign (of course, what art show at this point isn't just that?), and about exactly how environmentally friendly the SUV-attracting project actually will end up being.
Lots going on at the AAC. At some point, all of my Arlington content will migrate over to a spiffy new AAC blog, with guest contributors and tasty goodness all around. When that day finally arrives, I will undoubtedly experience full blown panic, since I have no idea what I'll fill my weeks with here. Actual reporting? A return to some honest-to-goodness criticism? Or twice as many posts lifted from C-Monster or Modern Art Notes as I offer now?
I'll post about our Thursday performance art event sometime today. Short version: You need to be here on the night before Halloween.
posted by jhcudlin at 8:34 PM
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