The things you learn when you read the paper: The Minneapolis Star Tribune recently profiled Walker curator Doryun Chong (above) on the occasion of the opening Ordinary Culture: Heikes/Helms/McMillian. What I learned: Doryun is quad-lingual and trained “extensively in traditional Asian art and studied everything from Greek and Roman art to Medieval Christian to modern art.” For the voice of Doryun, don’t miss a blog classic, “High and Dry in the Mojave,” or his recent conversation on Rirkrit Tiravanija. (The Strib also profiled longtime Walker board member Ralph Burnet in the same issue.)
Lawrence Weiner on political art: Thanks to Lawrence Weiner, the original Walker was known to some as the “Bits & Pieces building” for his text work mounted on the facade, but the wall art he referenced in an ArtInfo interview is of a different variety: “All graffiti has a right to exist anyplace as long as it says, ‘My children are hungry,’ or ‘The sky is blue,’ and not just ‘Me! Jose!’ As long as it’s not just an existential plea, it has a right to exist. It’s the same with public art.”
Making headlines: When we were concepting ad campaigns for our show ANDY WARHOL/SUPERNOVA: Stars, Deaths, and Disasters, 1962-1964 (now on view at the Art Gallery of Ontario), we toyed with a tabloid approach that would fit the sensational topics of his work–car wrecks, electric chairs, celebrities, race riots. While we opted for a more tame approach, the Getty has come up with a headline-based campaign to promote its art. Created by M&C Saatchi, the campaign includes screamers that reference works on view: “RAMPAGING PIG TRAMPLES MAN AS CAPED HERO DELIVERS DEATH BLOW!”
Forever Yoko: When Yoko Ono was here in 2000, I was moved and surprised by her chill-inducing vocalizations, described by The Guardian today as “fully amplified heart-and-soul hollering, with sharp overtones of ruptured yak, damaged fan belt and rusty pneumatic drill.” Nice to hear she’s still at it at 73, “making people nervous” at this year’s ya festival in Oslo.
A-List: Do check out Kevin Kelly’s Street Use, a blog that chronicles “folk innovations, street customization, ad hoc alterations, wear-patterns, home-made versions and indigenous ingenuity,” and the book Blackstock’s Collections: The Drawings of an Artistic Savant, which features the work of an autistic Seattle dishwasher/accordionist/artist who makes visual lists of everything from shears to emergency vehicles to Irish castles–all in exacting detail. (I blogged on it here.)
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