Guest writing: Bad at Sports

Gallery shots from the current Peter Saul show, Stupid Arguments, at Corbett vs. Dempsey (Photo by Julia V. Hendrickson)

I'm still recovering from the whirlwind writing gig over at Bad at Sports last week. I was so happy to have the forum to share interesting stories about some amazing friends of mine in the Chicago art scene. I'm pretty sure I wrote, typed, and transcribed over 40 pages in five days (while working full-time, too!). Who knew that an hour-long recorded conversation covers about eight pages? It was a great experience in terms of pushing myself as a writer: I'd never formally interviewed anyone before, nor had I tried to write from recorded interviews. I hope that those conversations continue to evolve over the rest of the year, and that they will be of interest in the future.

Take a glimpse into the worlds of some of the people that are part of my daily life here in Chicago, and let me know what you think!

February 25th, 2011        Notes on a Conversation: Arielle Bielak (Marwen)
February 24th, 2011        Notes on a Conversation: John Corbett & Jim Dempsey (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
February 23rd, 2011        Notes on a Conversation: Nadine Nakanishi & Nick Butcher (Sonnenzimmer)
February 22nd, 2011        Notes on a Conversation: Angee Lennard (Spudnik Press)
February 21st, 2011        Notes on a Conversation: Mark Pascale (Prints & Drawings, The Art Institute of Chicago)

Bad at Sports: Notes on a Conversation with Mark Pascale

I was invited to be a guest blogger this week over at the Chicago "contemporary art talk" website Bad at Sports. Take a look at my first post, an interview with a curator in the department of Prints & Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, Mark Pascale. We look through some fantastic Edward Gorey illustrated envelopes and letters that are a recent addition to the Art Institute's collection (more photographs of those here).

Poem: "Left / Right"

Left / right

My grandmother mends the seam
between Atlantic and Pacific,
one half silk, the other linen.
But, as quickly as family
they pull apart,
the threaded waves unraveling.

Where do they begin to be themselves,
those two halves, water bodies whorling,
meeting, like hair, in crests?

I picture
a woman's spine
alone on a white bed,
twist cork cracking,
or a raphae, the ridge
that seared
your two competing
minds together.


                         – JVH

Video: A trailer for Marcel Dzama's new film

Such a strange, strange fellow. A lot of Lynch embedded in this one.

Film: "Hiroshima, Mon Amour" (1959) & Duras

A dark, lovely film from Alan Resnais in 1959.

Marguerite Duras wrote the screenplay, and I recently finished reading her 1984 novel The Lover for the feminist book club this month. It's distant and haunting: a strange, autobiographical perspective on Lolita.

Artist: José Lerma

I've been aware of José Lerma's work for the last few years, my interest sparked by a print of his that I saw while working at Tandem Press in Madison, WI.

José Lerma, Untitled 2, 2006
Lithography, woodcut, ed. 20. 32" x 30 1/4". Printed at Tandem Press.

His globby, paint and fabric-stacked portraits are hilarious and heavy, yet delicately intricate. Lerma has been quite busy lately, showing at Andrea Rosen in New York and Gallery Loock Berlin. He also curated a huge group show called A PERSON OF COLOR: a mostly orange exhibition recently (including some of my favorites: Matt Nichols and Josué Pellot) in Milwaukee at Green Gallery. And, excitingly enough, opening April 8th, he's on the docket for gallery 2 at Chicago's Western Exhibitions.

José Lerma, I am sorry I am perry, at Andrea Rosen 2010

 

José Lerma, OLL KORRECT, 2010

José Lerma, Untitled, 2010

Quoted: Anne Elizabeth Moore

 Here are some thoughts that have been sticking with me, from Anne Elizabeth Moore, a writer, artist, activist, and zine enthusiast based in Chicago. The statements are taken from a recent January 10th, 2011 PBS Art:21 interview she did with Caroline Picard (of the Green Lantern). The interview is continued here on Bad at Sports. (Emphasis added in bold).

Image credit: Anne Elizabeth Moore, cover for "Unmarketable," pub. The New Press, Fall 2007
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I think, too, I’ve not only gotten extremely depressed by the heteronormative and tiny independent publishing scene in the US, but I’ve gotten bored with how media operates. A stressed out country does not read, and they certainly do not react to what they read about with action. Don’t get me wrong: the destruction of the independent publishing scene goes against the founding principles of this country. The loss of sustained independent bodies of reporting has directly contributed to the tracking and cessation of further violations of civil and human rights in the US, not to mention allowed for unchecked limits to freedoms in academia and elsewhere. But I’ve also really enjoyed moving away from the idea that journalism is the only solution. Smart people can get the same information from different sources.

- AEM 

Because copyright doesn’t actually cover all matters of intellectual property rights: there are a ton of things that we do, make, use, and create that we don’t bother to assign copyright to. Cooking, for example, and quilting and knitting and sewing. Traditionally known as women’s work. Most of this isn’t eligible for copyright because, in the theory that went into creating the law, they worked from the accrued common knowledge of a group of people and result in products that are intended for private consumption. So: the law is publicly acknowledging that some work traditionally identified as feminine doesn’t matter in terms of this law, which after all is about the right to have ownership over, but also profit from, your own work. This is therefore a law that is fundamentally flawed, in several different arenas. Fighting it on its own terms isn’t going to change the basis of our understanding about the kinds of work that matters and the kinds of work that don’t.

- AEM

 

                                                                  

Video: Cinthia Marcelle's "Cruzada"

CRUZADA from cinthia marcelle on Vimeo.

Cinthia Marcelle (b. 1974) is a Brazilian artist in film, installation, and photography who recently won the 2010 Future Generations Prize (with an international jury, including Robert Storr). Her video work evokes a hypnotic and mysterious narrative, a duel and a dance that interacts directly with the Brazilian landscape.

View the other construction films here, and see more photographs of her work at Galeria Vermelho and Sprovieri.

Interview: FANTASTIC STANZAS at the Post Family

I am so thrilled about this recent interview from Chad Kouri of the Post Family here in Chicago. His enthusiasm is contagious! Many thanks.