LOOK INTO MY OWL

Banksy has gone big for his first solo exhibit in NYC. The “Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill” is a bizarre menagerie of the consumed and the consumables. Guests to the installation are treated to animatronics designed to disturb and delight. From cavorting fish sticks to a stunned looking primate enjoying discovery channel monkey porn, it’s all going on in the village.

There are several videos up at the website for the show. This encounter with a leopard is my favorite.

Banksy
The Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill
Open 10am - 12am daily through 31 October 2008
89 Seventh Avenue
NYC

Packard Jennings produced this amazing pamphlet. There are eight pages depicting the imagined downfall of a shopping mall. I first became enchanted with his “Business Reply” illustrations via orphaned images on a discussion board a couple of years back. After an exhaustive search I still could not find the identity of the artist… until now. Packard Jennings, see his site, enjoy the anarchy.

Jennings spent a day at the mall leaving his pamphlets in odd places for the unsuspecting shopper. His actions led to a 24 hour banishment from the mall. Here’s the video.

The projection of video has so much impact when compared to witnessing the same work on a monitor. The scale forces the eye to move, this in turn activates the mind. Jennifer Steinkamp has placed her latest projections at Lehmann Maupin in an effort to rouse the cerebellum.

“Daisy Bell” is comprised of a cataract of poisonous flowers descending the gallery walls. In the natural world outside of the human condition bright colors are feared and certainly avoided. It is the juxtaposition of beauty and danger that lends power to this work.

“Left Clavicle” is also included in the exhibit. Head over to the website of Lehmann Maupin to see this piece in motion.

Jennifer Steinkamp
Daisy Bell
7 September - 1 November 2008
Lehmann Maupin
NYC

The Fine Art Society in London has opened a two week viewing of the installations of Doug Foster. “Only Human” delves into human need and desire to be needed. Often calling attention to the other, these pieces evoke a whole arrived at through the power of duality.

In “Breather”, the audience is invited to look through two sets of peep holes set in a rusty steel cabinet. The upper view port shows a breathless woman in water up to the neck. She fills her lungs and dips below the surface calling attention to the lower set of optics that offer a scene in which the woman now completely submerged shares her breath with a man in the form of a kiss. It’s the kind of work that shows some of the possibilities of video installation.

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Just in from BLU. This is a piece for the FAME Festival in Italy. More on the festival soon. Enjoy this short time lapse video of the creation below.

It’s quite an experience to travel at 270mph on the ground. They do it all the time in China. Thanks to Winding Road Magazine for posting this video to give us all an approximation of the experience.

Two videos from Miguel Angel Rios are being shown at the Galerie Thomas Schulte in Berlin. “A Moirr (Til Death)” is a video documenting a game of tops. The video is projected as three channels that show the action from different viewpoints simultaneously. The scale of the tops caught on video lend a human quality to this tragic ballet. Collisions are felt with the aid of heightened audio giving each clack a sense of importance.

Also on view at the gallery is the intense video “White Suit” in which an Argentine cowboy incorporates raw meat into a traditional dance. Throw in some wild dogs and the drama begins.

Miguel Angel Rios
15 July - 3 September 2008
Galerie Thomas Schulte
Berlin

Tony Oursler has conceived some marvelous new video installations for his upcoming show at Lisson Gallery. Throughout the 1990’s it was popular to work with video projected over forms. The vast majority of these experiments were clear failures with one obvious exception being Tony Oursler. This exhibit focuses on the obsessive need and irrational desires of the human condition. “Liquid” (above) is a video loop of a woman attempting to take in an impossible amount of fluid. The loop is played in reverse objectifying the action into the form of a fountain.

In “Cherry Nokia”, a cellphone is projected onto a large resin sculpture of the same. A finger repeatedly dials up homemade, found soft core images.

“Winston, Camel, Salem, Marlboro” presents slowly burning cigarettes projected onto large resin cylinders. The soundtrack is a smoker inhaling and exhaling.

The show is taking over both gallery spaces at Lisson. These new works will be exhibited alongside earlier pieces giving the whole a feeling of retrospect.

Tony Oursler
3 September - 3 October 2008
Lisson Gallery
London

Very pleased to find this video. Graffiti-Post Graffiti is an episode from “ART/new york” the long lived video series on contemporary art. The excerpt below has rare interviews with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Crash, Futura 2000 and Keith Haring. To order the full episode head over to ART/new york, be sure to look through the program guide for other titles.

The Elizabeth Dee Gallery is currently screening 4 videos from Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn. “Masters of None” (above) along with “All Together Now” (below) mark a departure from narrative and dialogue driven work for the duo.
The stress of Dodge and Kahn’s endeavors often involve exploration into a post civilized society. In showing the viewer how to start over, they hope to expose problems with our current structure.
The gallery has also made available “I See You Man” and “Nature Demo” for examination.

Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn
14 June - 2 August 2008
Elizabeth Dee Gallery
NYC

The experimental video “games” of William Lamson are definitely worth a l00k. These videos I’ve classified as games because most of the trials involve rules and a field of play. In “Vital Capacity” (above) more permutations occur than would seem possible. Head over to William Lamson’s website and have a look for yourself.

The puppet has never been the straight man. The burden of responsibility is lost between the brain and the hand leaving the page blank for a new persona. This unrestricted glimpse into the subconscious has been a rich source of entertainment and in some cases altered public opinion to the point of revolution.
The Santa Monica Museum of Art is investigating the man on the hand with a series of events that run in conjunction with “The Puppet Show”. The exhibit has works from 28 contemporary artists including Dennis Oppenheim (above) and Christian Jankowski (below). Go have a l00k.

The Puppet Show
24 May - 9 August 2008
Santa Monica Museum of Art