James Turrell: Meeting (Skyspace) at MoMA PS1

As Turrell describes it: “There’s this four-square seating that’s inside, seating toward each other, having a space that created some silence, allowing something to develop slowly over time, particularly at sunset. Also, this Meeting has to do with the meeting of space that you’re in with the meeting of the space of the sky.”
Go visit.
MoMA PS1
Long Island City, NY


*Some say James Turrell's Roden Crater Project is the culmination of the artist's lifelong quest for spiritual light. In response to rumors of the crater opening to the public in 2011, we wait....

London’s National Gallery

GE and London’s National Gallery just unveiled an ecomaginative collaboration – an installation of Van Gogh’s famous A Wheatfield with Cypresses, made from over 8,000 living plants and on display on the western side of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The green doesn’t stop there: GE also contributed Jencacher cogeneration heat and power engines that will help reduce the Gallery’s carbon footprint. Check out the photos below to see how Van Gogh’s vision bloomed again. The first photo is the actual painting:

http://www.gereports.com/van-gogh-ecomagination-style/

Abandoned Yugoslavia Monuments

These structures were commissioned by former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito in the 1960s and 70s to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place (like Tjentište, Kozara and Kadinjača), or where concentration camps stood (like Jasenovac and Niš). They were designed by different sculptors (Dušan Džamonja, Vojin Bakić, Miodrag Živković, Jordan and Iskra Grabul, to name a few) and architects (Bogdan Bogdanović, Gradimir Medaković...), conveying powerful visual impact to show the confidence and strength of the Socialist Republic. In the 1980s, these monuments attracted millions of visitors per year, especially young pioneers for their "patriotic education." After the Republic dissolved in early 1990s, they were completely abandoned, and their symbolic meanings were forever lost.

From 2006 to 2009, Kempenaers toured around the ex-Yugoslavia region (now Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.) with the help of a 1975 map of memorials, bringing before our eyes a series of melancholy yet striking images. His photos raise a question: can these former monuments continue to exist as pure sculptures? On one hand, their physical dilapidated condition and institutional neglect reflect a more general social historical fracturing. And on the other hand, they are still of stunning beauty without any symbolic significances.

http://www.cracktwo.com/2011/04/25-abandoned-soviet-monuments-that-look.html

Meat - Too Much?

Through much of British history or Western history in general, human subjugation of the “wild” natural world has been a central theme - almost a religious imperative. We define meat as the flesh of animals destined for our consumption. Until the fourteenth century, “meat” could mean any form of nourishment. Over time, usage of the term reduced in scope to mean animal food or so-called red meats. At times “meat” has been thought to be the only “real” food. Bourdieu (1977) describes meat eating as “habitus” - it is a behavior unquestioned by most people. 

Any study of food habits must recognize that food selection is imbued with social rules and meaning, and it is clear from the extent of its association with cultural rituals, both religious and secular, that it is a medium rich in social meaning reflecting among other things, significant power relationships.”

Excerpted from, “Meat, a natural symbol” by Nick Fiddes (1991)

Artists inspired by Meat.

Meat has long been an inspiration for many artists, for some it has become the medium.

 

Armchair, Simone Rachell.

Water Closet, Simone Rachell.

Hair Dryer, Simone Rachell.

 Reindeer in the Snow, Victoria Reynolds, oil paint (meat as inspiration)

21 Chops, David Raymond. Photograph

Animatronic Flesh Shoe, Adam Brandejs. Photograph

Untitled , photograph, Pinar Yolacan,

Uses meat and poultry to accessorize her sitters.

Hommage a Meret Oppenheim, Betty Hirst

Meat Dress, Jana Sterbak

Helga Petrau-Heinzel

Helga turns marzipan into edible pieces of the human anatomy, this series focuses on vital organs.

Art

Food Inspired Art - The Banana

From still life to Surrealism, Arcimboldo to Warhol, food has inspired great art. 

Artists today are no less inspired by the food on their plate. For instance, the banana.

  

 

Doug Fishburne a London-based artist got the publics attention when his 300,000 bananas were exhibited outside the National Gallery in central London. The pile of fruit was eight feet high and fifteen feet wide. The installation was dismantled by giving each passerby a free banana.

“Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far”, was an exhibition by Stefan Sagmeister at Deitch Porjects in New York. Sagmeister glued 7200 bananas to spell out “Self-confidence produces fine results.” The project looked oddly like needlepoint, the fruit ripened over time, changing color and beginning to smell.

Burning Man Temple - John DeVenezia

The annual event now known as Burning Man began as a bonfire ritual on the summer solstice in 1986 when a few friends met on Baker Beach in San Francisco. The small group burned a 9-foot wooden man as well as a smaller wooden dog. The inspiration for burning these effigies was a spontaneous act of "radical self-expression." Burning Man is now an annual event in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. The "burning man" in this case has been replaced by a burning temple built by John DeVenezia and his team.

Want the Burning Man experience? What will it cost you? 
$320.00 per person.

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