So close

Over at stimulusresponse is a response to the exhibition Wolfgang Tillmans on display at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles between 17 September 2006 and 7 January 2007. The response takes the form of a personal mapping of the exhibition space. The show was hung by the artist and largely consists of photography.

Fond farewell

Sadly Christmas has come to be connected with the deaths of good friends. Les Paris, Giovanni Intra and now Denis Cohn. Denis rang us earlier in December to tell us some hot news: a group of Webbs’ auction staff were leaving to form their own company. Like the best hot tips this one was confirmed three or four days later. During our conversation, Denis also mentioned in passing that he was dying and we talked over some of the funny and not so funny things that had happened over the time we had all known one another. Denis was always good for art talk and with his own delicious spin on events. He opened the gallery in 1979 and achieved what seemed impossible: exhibiting three very demanding artists (Clairmont, Fomison and Maddox) and come out of all the drama and raised temperatures with a grin on his face. Of course it was often Bill’s constancy that allowed Denis to step out further than was always safe and know it would all make for a great story later. Great memories. Thanks Denis. Cheers, Jim and Mary

Scatter brain

This arrangement of camera parts displayed in an LA camera store reminded us of Giovanni Intra. One of his installations (shown at the Auckland Art Gallery Chartwell exhibition Nine lives in 2003) called for the parts of a camera to be scattered on the floor. This witty deconstruction of photography is also reflected in a paragraph he wrote as part of a report for artnet in 1997. ‘Princess Diana's "untimely death" is certainly a major event in the history of photography, as the "most photographed woman in the world" is suddenly lost as a photographic subject. What's more, photography -- or rather, the euphoniously named paparazzi -- stand accused of murder. But it's not photography's fault! Photography is behaving just like it has always behaved.’

Multiplication

At the exhibition The treachery of images at LACMA, Jeff Koons’s sculpture Rabbit is part of an exploration of Magritte and his influence on American and European artists. Rabbit, like many of Koons’s works, is a multiple and the one in this exhibition is an artist proof lent by the Los Angeles collector Eli Broad. This sculpture has a personal connection for us as we have recently purchased a work by Hany Armanious of a chromed inflatable alien that obviously references the Koons. A clue to this is its title – Rabbit! Koons said of his own Rabbit “I used an inflatable rabbit as my model…and then I cast it into stainless steel.…so when you look at it, it looks like it’s still a light inflatable rabbit, a bunny, but actually, you know it has quite a density to it.” The same can be said for Armanious’s Rabbit created 20 years later, which plays with lightness of touch against density of material. Hany has foregone the perfect surface so important to Koons, however, for a more tarnished surface that seems to offer specific references to the process of its making. The Armanious Rabbit is a multiple and a great companion for Michael Parekowhai’s Cosmo, a large inflated rabbit. Cosmo is also a multiple of course – how could rabbit sculptures be anything else?
Left: Hany Armanious Rabbit 2006. Right: Jeff Koons Rabbit 1986

Form follows functions

A visit to the Palm Springs Art Museum brought us head to head with the end game many art institutions are playing. The Museum was setting up for the opening of the Palm Springs Film Festival (Brad Pitt was on the guest list) so we were unable to see most of the permanent collection - and this at 11 am. Sure art institutions are obliged to raise funds, but they need work on priorities. Are they museums or venues? Count on them putting down the former on their strategic planning documents, but a well paying or prestigious event can easily blow that out of the water. You can also see the demands of running a floorspace-hungry function venue driving the popularity of painting and photography shows in an age dominated by installation and floor based sculpture.

L.A. Santa

Anyone looking for insight into Paul McCarthy’s work has got to visit Clifton’s Cafeteria on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.

Quid pro quo

One of our readers has sent us a report (rumour?) from The Australian that Robert Storr has selected three Australians: Shaun Gladwell, Christian Caparra and Rosemary Laing to participate in his Venice Biennale exhibitions. This will be in addition to the three artists already being sent by Australia, Daniel von Sturmer, Callum Morton and Susan Norrie. Who knows whether Storr, who was in New Zealand to judge the Walters Prize a couple of years ago, selected any New Zealanders? Anyone? If he has, it would be a great act of generosity given that Creative New Zealand has decided not to support Storr’s Biennale with any artists.

Tiki tour

Two recent contacts with Pacific culture. The first is in the de Young Art Museum, San Francisco where a number of Maori carvings are on display as part of the permanent collection. The label includes the acknowledgement that “taonga are inalienably attached to the Maori community,” adding “even though a taonga may be separated from the tribal group it is always closely attached to it spiritually.” The fact that the carvings remain as part of the museum’s collection probably suggests these curatorial musings are more rational than emotional. The second, is the tiki carvings that decorate the Caliente Tropics, our Palm Springs motel. A dash of Easter Island with Maori flourishes.
Left: Gable figure. Central North Island Maori people. twentieth century, wood. Museum purchase M H de Young Art Trust Fund 71.19.1 (museum label). Right: Tiki c.1964 manufactured by Oceanic Arts, Whittier, California who are also global suppliers for Disney worldwide. The carving pictured was most likely carved by the fabulously named Leroy Schmalz. You can check out his carving style and influences in Douglas A Nason’s book Night of the tiki.

I am using the index finger and thumb at right angles on both hands to get some kind of perspective

Over at stimulusresponse there is a set of drawings relating to the exhibition Personal Views: Regarding Private Collections in San Diego, which was on at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. Included in the package (of going to the show) was a great view of hummingbirds feeding on baubles filled with coloured sugar water. Also spotted one in the "wild" beside the swimming pool at the Caliente Tropics where we're staying.

Fundamental

Fifty miles out of Palm Springs, on the margins of the Salton Sea, half a mile from the Polo Wash, in a deserted factory blown apart by wind - a room full of APU’s. In the middle of the desert, no one around for miles, and echoes of p mule and et al.

Space race

Inspired by Ronnie Van Hout’s work on UFO’s and the paranormal, we never miss an opportunity to check up on local organizations optimistic about topics such as “expanding our awareness and connection with galactic intelligence.” And so we visited the Unarius Academy of Science at 145 South Magnolia Ave in El Cajon a small town just out of San Diego. Unfortunately the Academy was closed, but you can get the rest of the picture from their informative web site here. Many of you will already know that Unarius is an acronym for Universal Articulate Interdimensional Understanding of Science.

Concrete poetry

We saw the documentary My architect at a Wellington Film Festival. The film was made by Louis Kahn’s illegitimate son Nathaniel. Along with being a great architect, Kahn also ran three separate families. In the documentary Nathaniel Kahn related how he and his mother would wait at Christmas hoping that Louis would turn up to spend the holiday with them. In one of the more poignant moments, Nathaniel talked to an associate of Kahn’s who had worked on the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The exchange was about how much he and his family had enjoyed having Louis for many Christmases, and how well he got on with their kids. Living with (or in this case without) artistic genius is not fun. The Salk Institute in La Jolla just north of San Diego looked astonishing in the movie and is just as wonderful in real life. The My Architect site has a link to a very good interview with Nathaniel Kahn published in Metropolis.

White Christmas

On the right the new multiple by Peter Robinson offered by Artspace. On the left an unsuspected twin: a Christmas gift we received of a vinyl figure called Treeson. The Treeson family was designed by Hong Kong artist Bubi Au Yeung For Treeson’s backstory go here. To get one of Peter’s multiples rush an email to Artspace now.

Am I being overly glib?

Over at stimulusresponse is a textual response to the exhibition TRANSactions: Contemporary Latin American & Latino Art. The show was on at the La Jolla branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

This is not a pipe

We knew there was an Orosco in the gardens of the San Diego Museum of Modern Art at La Jolla but took a while to agree it was the long length of garden hose that wound around the paths and plant beds. So, award for the hardest to find and best art work we saw in La Jolla goes to Gabriel Orosco’s Long Yellow Hose made in 1996. There is another version of this work in the Miami Art Museum.