Exhibition kits

I had a new idea for this project today, thought I'd try writing it down here, and think through it.

The idea would be to create "exhibition kits" for each of the projects, either before or after the actual exhibtion. Each kit would consist of A4 sized sheets in black and white, of images, text, etc to correspond to the project. For example, for Accumulation #1, there would be images of all the company logos, the quotes, the portraits, and other prints in the show here in Venice.

These kits would come with a statement, wall labels, and instructions and possibilities for hanging. The recevier of this kit would then photocopy the items, and curate the show as they see fit. (this also raises the possiblity of someone with access to free photocopying to make piles of photocopies...) So, that person could set up a show in their house, or paste them up around town- they could diplay it however them wish, with the only stipulation being that the person must send images of the works in situ.

Kits could be sent out in the mail, or sent as a series of pdf's. This project appeals to me in that the graphic nature of the work lends itself to a simple production value, and as a way to get work out there without relying too heavily on galleries, residencies, etc.

Other ideas to think about:

- breaking down images in a grid, so they can be displayed large
- using this before and after the "official" projects to rethink ideas
- including actions or found object sculptures (re: piles, collections) as part of and installation.
- should be done in a way that wouldn't destroy someone's house- using tape, etc

If anyone has suggestions, send them along. Also, if anyone thinks they would be interested in a kit, email me or post here on the blog.

La Biennale

Courtesy of Jerome Grand, I've been able to go to the openings for the Biennale here in Venice. I thought I'd get some pictures and post them, though maybe due to the possibility of the heat, there weren't that many arty people dressed to the nines. Oh well. Here's some of the highlights that I've been able to see.









These were from the Austrian pavilion in the Giardini. It's a pretty ugly building, so it seems the artists chose to engulf it in a mountain structure that you had to go around back to enter. The insides consisted of the scaffolding and walkways, along with small doors you could open and stick you heads out of.





A couple of installations in the old Italian pavilion, Giardini. The top one is a mirror ball hanging with no lights on it, the artist used a router to blow holes in the wall where the light would be. The bottom columns are wood lather cut telephone books, floor to ceiling. There was a lot of video at this venue, way too much to take in with the amount of people there.



Ed Rushcha enduring a press conference. I think the question here was "if you had the mandate, what would you remove from the United States and what would you replace that with? I know this is a bit of a hypothetical question, but..."









Some installation shots from the Arsenale. Again, a little too much to take in, but some more interesting uses of space. I was there today to see John Bock, he was there only for the openings giving performances. Pictures below.









It was facinating to watch the audience while this was going on- in particular parts involving flour, eggs, cereal, etc, rubbed in each others faces, and throw in the air. There was a large number of props, as well as video- the projections from performances run regularly, but stopped during the performace and used only to provide a different view on what was going on, like when a performer was climbing out of a pile of stuffed animals, there was an interior view of the pile.

Lots of things to take in, I'm glad I'll be here a few more months to go back and really look...

Collection images

Some images from a museum on San Lazzaro. Beginning to work more on the ideas with collection and archives, public display of objects, etc. More soon.

Copyright to work on site

Just to be clear for those of you wanting to use things on this blog...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Accumulation #1 (opening)

Last Thursday was the opening for the first Accumulation, I gave my camera to Dan, the print shop assistant, to get some pictures from the evening. Matilde Dolcetti (the Scuola's director) introduced me and I talked for ten minutes about the project, some of the ideas behind it, and where the project might be going, and then I answered questions. Along with the normal prosecco, acqua frizzante and snacks, there was also strawberries. Thank you Dan.

Aspects of Research

Art Forum, May 2005 (p.255):

"We live in the informations age, and that explains the growing and probably excessive eagerness of some artists to accumulate data (images, recordings, graphics, and texts) in the course of analyzing a given problematic. Supposedly, gathering such materials will provide a more complete understanding of the intricacies of the topic at hand. This socioligically informed approach has become characteristic of a large number of contemporary art practices, as witnesses in the last two Documentas. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between a TV documentary and an artist's work. Indeed, some art producers, to use Catherine David's term, do not differentiate between political activism and art." - Juan Vicente Aliaga

Part of what was interesting about this was that this was the intro to a short review of work by Pep Dardanya, and Aliaga never gets around to explaining how this paragraph really connects to the artist's work. I am curious about the "supposedly" he throws in there; I would assume that research could only aid an artist in making work. Perhaps he is hinting at the artist who would hide behind the research in a project, or try to justify a half-assed project by the amount of research put into it. At Documenta 11 (in 2002) I was struck by the amount of the kind of work he's talking about, specifically in that most of it was really, really boring. It seemed like that work needed the art context to justify it, because on strict documentary terms, most failed miserably. It will be interesting to see what is in this Venice Biennale, if there is a recent shift away from the kind of work or not.

Which brings me to the Biennale: I will most likely be slowing down my studio production a bit in the next week or two to see what is going on in town. I will try to get some images of work from the Biennale to post for those of you who can't make it out here, with some writing.

Accumulation #1 (exhibiton and comments)

Well, the first Accumulation project is up, at the Galleria il Sotoportego in Venice. Seems good to have it done, though the project itself still feels unfinished. I didn't really get it to a point where I feel I have a solid message, which might not be a bad thing, but a failure on my part as that was a goal with this project; I'm still adverse to creating work that is too didactic.

I think this exhibition shows a work in progress, as the Koch brothers and their company are hard to but a finger on, which is completely what they want. So perhaps this is one that would be better served as another kind of project (book, web, etc.) Though I still like the idea of making huge protraits of them...

So here are some of the images with some captions.







The squares around this end of the gallery are collagraphs of the logos of all the companies Koch Industries owns. The stacks on the bottom of the third image are silkscreen protraits of the brothers, intended as a giveaway. The reverse has a quote from each brother.

The black case contains dyed cyanotype portaits of the brothers, and the book on top contains most of the online research I did in the past 8 months on this project.





These are the 36 quotes taken from the website, they are silkscreened in different shades of red on paper, and stacked 12-16 high on the walls and nailed at the top. (They've since curled up each day it's been up, due to the humidity.)





This wall has the Failed Alterpieces and the large potraits. The smokestacks flanking the alterpieces were a last minute decision. I am still not very happy with the alterpieces, again fearing being too didactic or sarcastic. I thought they would provide a counterpoint to the dry silkscreen quotes, in their painterliness and materials (acetone trandsfers, oil paint, ferric chloride and shellac.) Still thinking of working on them this weekend, to push them further, either completely detroying them or attempting to clean them up.



On the left is a collagraph of the white house-esque Koch headquarters, on the right a view of a Koch plant, a carborundum print in three parts.

I think that might be the next step with this project, something being clear about the things Koch has definitely done (stealing oil from tribal and federal lands, bankrolling several conservative think tanks, giving money to republican candidates, environmental laws broken, etc) and try to be a clear as possible, combining that with strong imagery to make something memorable, something people who have written about Koch have failed to do, and something Koch themselves encourages.

Newer stuff

pile03a
Originally uploaded by Lou Joseph.

I was working with Illustrator today to try some different ways of rendering piles, but without the sketchiness I usually resort to. I'll probably keep working on this for the next week or too, to see if I can work this back into some drawings or whatever-

Also, check out www.piles.com. Not the piles I've been working with, but worth a look...

Exhibition images to be posted soon.