feedback [ barry r. jones ]

There is a live web cam feed of the installations here.

The other day, I read an article in the NY Times about the Art Basel festival ( I like to keep my finger on the pulse of the art market) and stumbled on the recent sale of two Cindy Sherman prints.  Each went for $150,000, that’s $300,000 total.  I’m just saying …

Last friday night, Robb (my partner in [ fladry + jones ] ) and I had a very successful night at Studio 1403 in Nashville.  We worked with various dj’s, the most famous of which was Justin Long from Chicago. I had an incredibly good time and have spent some time thinking about being a vj and what it means for my “art” practice.

There has been quite a bit of discussion / murmuring amongst artist as to whether or not vjing in a dance club counts as “art”.  I have wondered quite a bit about that myself.  After my experiences friday, I am convinced that being a vj (even a club vj) is an important and valid part of my artistic production.  I am even much more comfortable with the title vj now.  

The on the fly aesthetic decisions, the process, and the immediate audience response of being a vj is unlike anything else I have experienced as an artist.  It’s process art for the new century; Pollock as he should have been.  It is easily more pertinent and certainly more entertaining than performance art, and it comes with a beat you can dance to.  The non-art venue and the non-art audience does not stop the work from being art. It probably makes it more important.

I believe that live video performance is the perfect medium for our times and the vj is the perfect artist.  We process, manipulate, comment, and conceptualize the world we live in in real time. Our response to a world full of image and sound may be the only logical one

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Stealing camera feeds, yikes!

I’ve come back to this post after thinking about this “work in progress” all day. Here is a link to Delk’s site, by the way: http://www.johndelk.com. It seems that a lot of new media work gets a little overly involved in the how and not the why. It’s clever and impressive technically that Delk can tap into people’s nanny cams, but why would he want to do it? I’m sure the piece will be about the loss of privacy in a our lives, but invading peoples privacy in this way may not be the best way to explore this idea. I’ve seen many works on this topics that limit the artist’s and the viewer’s “snooping” to public spaces. Is Delk going to far by “invading” people’s homes? Is that ok for an artist to do?

I have more questions than answers. i hope to see the finished piece one day.

from the art 21 blog

I stumbled upon this video still from “Whose Utopia” by Cao Fei at the current Carnegie International website.   I have not seen the video myself, but I am extremely taken by this image.  Here is what the Carnegie site says about the piece:

“Set in a lightbulb factory in Foshan (and originally commissioned by electronics giant Siemens), the film Whose Utopia (2006-2007) might be read as a eulogy to China’s recent economic and manufacturing boom. Amid scenes dominated by almost hypnotic “mechanical ballets” of assembly-line processes and movements—neon tubes being soldered or tested, for example—there are sequences in which individual workers from the facility perform literal dances of their own. Dressed in decidedly non-company-issue clothing, these men and women are seen moving gracefully between the machines, like sprites consumed by an entirely personal, whimsical, and perhaps defiant choreography. Their escapist “purposeless” performances effect a stark contrast with seemingly relentless progress as the production of consumer goods continues unabated around them. The dances seem to bring a more spiritual dimension into the regular and no doubt less emotionally illuminating activities in the bulb factory.”

What a beautiful concept.  If anyone finds the video on-line, please let me know. 

I’ve been going over the works and artists in this year’s whitney biennial and I was pleased to discover that one of my favorite djs, DJ Olive, is included (this is his second biennial).

“Using a room sized white tent furnished with cots, DJ Olive (Gregor Asch) creates an environment of deep ambient sounds with his most recent composition from the Sleeping Pill series, Triage.  The artist encourages visitors to quietly listen to his work, providing a respite from the external chaos of the city. “(taken  from the Whitney Biennial Site)

I’m really intrigued by the importance that sound now has in contemporary art.  It would have been hard to imagine the whitney biennial including the work of a “dj” with only a minimal art background just a few years ago (DJ Olive has collaborated with sound art pioneer Christian Marclay in the past).   I own DJ Olive’s ambient cd releases, buoy and sleep, so I have a sense of what Triage might sound like.  

I can’t help but wonder about the “installation” aspect of the piece.  I have a hard time imagining the average visitor to the whitney actually laying down and enjoying the sound.  The tent and the cots become more about the idea of rest and healing than to be actually used for such.  DJ Olive’s sleeping pill events seem to more effective in achieving his goals.

The Whitney Biennial is always an incredibly controversial exhibition.  One of the goals of the show is to showcase the most important American art being made now.  There is no way to put together an exhibition with this mission without rubbing a lot of people the wrong way.  I know that my feelings are hurt every two years when I am not included.

This year’s installment comes with video podcasts available through iTunes. (subscribe here).  I’ve watched a couple of them so far and they seem to be interesting.  I wish I could go to NYC this year and see the show, but since I can’t, these podcast help.

The New Museum of Contemporary Art is currently presenting an exhibition by Paul Chan called “The 7 Lights”.  On the exhibition’s site, Chan has made the source files for his animations available for download.