Thank You, Love

I love hearing about Chicago, and it warms my soul that there was a transpacific reunion on Valentine's Day. Hooray for Amy and Amanda!

Thank You, Chicago (4.0)

For the Yousuf Karsh photography exhibit at The Art Institute of Chicago. His portraits are absolutely stunning.

Churchill

Hemingway

Giacometti

Einstein

Okeeffe

Warhol

Thank You, Chicago (3.0)

For the bean.





(When you stand beneath the sculpture and gaze up into what I call the belly of the bean, your reflection becomes distorted in all kinds of crazy cool ways:)

koala bear & H20

This video may singlehandedly save the world:

Thank You, Chicago (2.0)

For your public library & cultural center, especially for the following quote by Victor Hugo that appears in mosaic on the walls:

"A library implies an act of faith which generations still in darkness hid sign in their night in witness of the dawn."

Thank You, Chicago (1.0)

For the snow sculpture competition across the street from where the conference was held.

Third place:

Second place:

First place:

a bit of truth.

"Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say."

- Sojourner Truth, 1851 at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio

i was reawakened to this insanely inspiring and beautiful speech after seeing the documentary "great speeches from a dying world" last night at anthology film archives in the east village. the documentary was stunning. it followed 9 homeless people in seattle, didn't valorize them, didn't pity them, didn't idealize them - simply asked the seemingly overly simple question "why are you homeless", with no judgement really - it was such a small film, made by one guy who simply got to know these individuals over 2 years. he asked each of them to memorize a great speech and then recite it. one woman, deborah, recited "ain't i a woman" and it was beautiful.

feeling extremely good about...

chicago.

& a reunion with fellow transpacificist amanda!!!

oh, emily...

the last few days an early spring has settled over this fair state of iowa. there is now no snow on the lawns, scads of blue sky, and the faintest of breezes. across from me on a playground are birds. what sort of winter is this? but it somehow reminded me of this emily dickinson poem. which is beautiful. so is this painting by guo xi, "early spring."

These are the days when Birds come back --
A very few -- a Bird or two --
To take a backward look.

These are the days when skies resume
The old -- old sophistries of June --
A blue and gold mistake.

Oh fraud that cannot cheat the Bee --
Almost thy plausibility
Induces my belief.

Till ranks of seeds their witness bear --
And softly thro' the altered air
Hurries a timid leaf.

Oh Sacrament of summer days,
Oh Last Communion in the Haze --
Permit a child to join.

Thy sacred emblems to partake --
They consecrated bread to take
And thine immortal wine!

so much to catch up on (i.e. lengthy post)

i have been so behind in blogging of late. and there is so so so so so so much i have wanted to share with you all, but have let lame time get away from me.

so let me return to berlin if you will indulge me. because i went to around 40 private contemporary art galleries while there, and needless to say i was stunned overwhelmed submerged inundated engulfed and flooded with beauty and ideas. in short i fell in love.

and here are just 3 reasons why:

1. ik-joong kang. i saw his exhibit "mountain & wind" and was overly inspired by the way he was able to resurrect traditional korean forms (the imperfectly-crafted ceramic jar and the simple rolling mountain-hill) into contemporary masterpieces. they pieces were so calming. that is the best word i can think of - the gallery was accessible through a secluded alleyway between old east german apartment blocks all squished together - but this fabulous alleyway extended the entire length of these buildings, with cafes, offices, apartments, and even a small grassy area off of it. i loved the space, and walking into this gallery and seeing kang's work fill the white rectangular room was so comfortable. my favorite piece of his (which i cannot find an image of online - in fact most of the online works are not representative of what i saw in berlin... sad face) was a series of 3 panels, each composed of a hundred or so small 2 inch by 2 inch blocks of wood, all of different heights/depths, and each painted with the simple shape of a mountain. none of the squares corresponded to the one next to them - they didn't create a coherent "landscape" necessarily, but rested in this gorgeous abstraction, an abstraction that was so comprehensible in its use of the classic korean-mountain form. it was so simple and stunning and i wanted it in my home.

2. ilias papailiakis. i love video/performance/installation art. i really do. but after 30 galleries with such repetitive pseudo-political reactionary pieces it was so relieving to see good painting once more... i saw this greek artist's work on one of my last days in berlin, and i was simply so pleased by the curation of this small, narrow gallery space on the 4th floor of this dingy kreuzberg building... ever since yves klein's "le vide", there has been a legitimate uber-consciousness of the "white box" that is the gallery space. i felt confronted by this conundrum in going from gallery to gallery in which the white space seemed insurmountable for many curators - they simply didn't know what to do with it, in many cases it overwhelmed the art which was supposed to be the object of attention. in the case of papiliakis, whose work rested in the gallery "upstairs berlin", the artist's small square canvases were so perfectly placed in the void that i was enraptured immediately upon being admitted into the exhibition. his paintings are quite baroque, really - he even directly copies fragments of the paintings of velazquez, zurbaran, van dyck et al... but this is the entire point: this often-bizarre fragmentation of famously recognizable artworks makes them so relevant... there is so much about papailiakis that is about return - return to heavy chiaroscuro, to the baroque, to painting itself! all in the midst of the postmodern obsession with video, instaneity, shock-and-awe... it was this that i appreciated. nothing felt stuffy in papailiakis' art, nothing felt unoriginal or tired - it was all new, invigorating, emotionally sublime, and absolutely beautiful.

3. (speaking once more of the power of exhibition space, and the power of painting...) dirk stewen. the gallery c/o alte gerhardsen which housed stewen's work was just unabashedly fabulous: beneath a metrorail bridge in a hollowed out, domed white space flanked by large windows which opened directly to the river with ice sheets floating by. i was in love the moment i opened the massive gray metal factory door into this re-invented brick locale. stewen's work displayed a complete and utter understanding of medium and material. he worked with watercolor, and manipulated the gorgeous ways watercolors blend and move into one another in simple spherical shapes, all painted on antique paper from french exhibition catalogs. he ripped off the plates, leaving just one glued-down edge to remind you of what this paper actually was, or is - and with the small french text at the bottom labelling the now-missing plate (e.g. "jeune femme en rose [55 x 33 cm]"), he places a simple and fabulous circular exploration of watercolors' potential. i love artists that understand the physicality of their medium, even the paper itself.

so sorry i couldn't find good online resources for the last 2 artists, but i suppose you must take my word on it :) i could write more, so so much more about berlin. so many more stunning gallery experiences that i left the city absolutely over-brimming. i feel such an over-stimulation as of late, i don't even know what to do with myself. i hope i was able ot convey some of the ideas i was exposed to in germany, and i hope to write some more soon about things i've experienced since moving to new york as well.

love you all dearly for this community we are trying to create of aristic exchange :) it means so much to me to be able to simply write and share with everyone :)

surface tension

I just read this really amazing interview with Maggie Johnson. She basically says that our fractured attention spans--induced by the constant distractions through digital communication--might have a potentially crippling effect on the way our brain functions. Towards the end she makes a particularly interesting statement, where she foreshadows a new sort of Dark Ages, one where our digital memory/archive basically dooms us to forgetting: "If we forget how to use our powers of deep focus, we'll depend more on black-and-white thinking, on surface ideas, on surface relationships. That breeds a tremendous potential for tyranny and misunderstanding. The possibility of an attention-deficient future society is very sobering."

I have had no less than five conversations with writers here in which they admitted at one point that they no longer have the attention span to read books. I am in the same boat, in that I read far, far, far less than I used to. And when I do read, it's in short bits. I think that my ability to deep focus is eroding and I'm not too sure I like where this could lead. What do you think about this?

Art:21

One more reason to love PBS. I can't believe I did not know about this show. But thanks to the ever resplendent My Love For You... all is remedied!

Glory is Savannah, Georgia

Exhibit A:

This is a view of Savannah from above. All those green things are city squares. Though Oglethorpe originally arranged them like this for military purposes, they have grown into these lush retreats that you run into literally every few blocks. I can get behind any city that supports public space, especially greenery in public spaces, but Savannah is ahead of the curve on this one. Fountains, greenery, tree canopies lining streets and squares alike...absolutely stunning.

Michael Dudok de Wit

I always suspected I'd fall in love with a Dutchman, and I believe I just did.

Father and Daughter

The simple animation of this short film surprises me in its evocation of the Dutch countryside's potential for loveliness even in its dreariness.

My soul will not be obliterated!

I remember years ago finding this Goethe quote and writing it down in a little book I had gotten in Young Womens - I remembered it recently while enjoying the MET's artwork of the day email. With constant meetings and work lately I fully embrace the necessity of this idea.

"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul."

So here are two "fine pictures" that have filled me with the sense of beautiful

[to the right: Marvin E. Newman (American, born 1927)
Title: Windy Day]

Also last night, after the last participants in our regional strategy planning meeting left in the van to head to Bangkok, I took a hot shower and curled up in my hotel room and watched "Sense and Sensibility" (with the audio commentary of Emma Thompson). She spoke a lot of Ang Lee's focus on the use of landscape in the film, that in China landscape is not a mediocre art form but an important means of explaining narrative.

"Between 900 and 1100, Chinese painters created landscapes that "depicted the vastness and multiplicity" of creation itself. Viewers of these works are meant to identify with a human figure in the painting, allowing them to "walk through, ramble, or dwell" in the landscape. In this landscape, lush forests suffused with mist identify the time as a midsummer evening. Moving from right to left, travelers make their way toward a temple retreat, where vacationers are seated together enjoying the view. Above the temple roofs the central mountain sits majestically, the climax to man's universe. The advanced use of texture strokes and ink wash suggest that Summer Mountains, formerly attributed to Yan Wengui (active ca. 970–1030), is by a master working in the Yan idiom around 1050"