Poem: "Prone"

Prone

Why do we write in bed
(as I do now)
brushing drowsy thoughts
one hundred times until static
weighs one hundred tons
and images shape
to pages braiding
black lines together?

Video: Videogame tribute to Barney's Cremaster 1

In March 2010, user fluxlasers created a level using Little Big Planet on a PlayStation 3 based on the film Cremaster 1 by Matthew Barney. It's a perfect tangential tribute to Barney's never-ending, never-winning video game world.

Via Meg Onili at Bad at Sports.

Video: Mexican Boots

This is fantastic. Modern times!

Chicago's Top Creative 30 Under 30

Culture and fashion website Refinery29 recently named me as one of Chicago's top "30 Under 30" creative people. I'm humbled to be in the mix with a lot of talented folks. It's quite an honor.

When they contacted me, I didn't have any head shots on hand, so photographer Maureen Sill generously did a photo shoot with me. Here are a handful of the awesome shots she took, while we ambled through the alleys of Chicago. Check out more of her beautiful work, both analog and digital, on Flickr.

 

 All photographs (c) Maureen Sill, 2011.

Video: John Marin's Watercolors at AIC

This is a little dry, but remarkably interesting look at how the Art Institute (and the department of Prints & Drawings!) went about historically re-framing the John Marin modernist works on paper.

Below is a more general overview of Marin's watercolors, with curator Martha Tedeschi. Both incredibly interesting!

Song: Ray Charles' "Lonely Avenue" (1956)

Check out that pulse.

Events: Two Great Things Tonight!

Tonight at 6pm the School of the Art Institute (280 S. Columbus Drive)is hosting Wangechi Mutu, who was born in Nairobi, Kenya, educated in Britain and America, and has been a resident in New York since the mid-nineties. You can see her work here.

A chance visit to the MCA to hear Lorna Simpson give an artist talk last weekend alerted me to Mutu's work; Simpson showed a film called "Corridors" (2003) in which Mutu plays two women going about their days, one from the 1860s, one from the 1960s. It is a beautiful, layered composition, with a strange and disjointed soundtrack.

Later tonight at 9pm, hosted by Homeroom at the Hungry Brain (2319 W. Belmont), Lumpen comics editor Joe Tallarico interviews 1970s Chicago Comix artist George Hansen, along with the erstwhile contemporary comics creator, Edie Fake. Should be a nerderific good ole time.

Film: "I Am the Queen"

Marwen Territories contributor, Josué Pellot, with Henrique Cirne Lima, directed this Chicago-based documentary on the Puerto Rican transgender community and the Cacique Pageant, the first annual transgender pageant held in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood.

The film screens this Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 8:00 at the Instituto Cervantes, as part of the Chicago Latino Film Festival.

Video: Buttons

Miranda July makes buttons.

Film: Some Girls Never Learn

Some Girls Never Learn TRAILER from Jerzy Rose on Vimeo.

Some friends of mine made this film in Chicago. This is the deal:


A university has found the leg bone of Amelia Earhart. The diver responsible for the discovery is receiving prophetic messages from the famous, long-dead pilot.

Elsewhere, a high school science teacher travels to the underworld to bring back his girlfriend, who was lured there by the ghostly cotillions of a surprisingly pink and bubbly circle of the inferno.

Animals are arranging themselves into concentric circles and helium has escaped into the luminiferous aether. Assumptions are made and hearts are broken.

(It looks AMAZING).

Artist: Pete Cuba

This evening I had the pleasure of a studio visit with Pete Cuba, a Chicago graphic designer-by-day, painter-extraordinaire-by-night. I've been a fan of his work for years, and I am excited about working with him again on a few new upcoming projects. A hand-picked selection of his paintings on wood will be hung very soon in Dusty Groove Records (1120 N. Ashland), which is below Corbett vs. Dempsey. When I say they are on wood, they are, in fact, drawn and painted on scraps of board. Furthermore, these paintings pertain quite often to nature and the very pleasant qualities of trees. And the very unpleasant qualities of people. Please come to see them in person, they are quite lovely.

You can see much more of Pete's work on his website, Two Horse Town, as well as on Flickr.

 

 

Opening: Territories

 

OPENING TONIGHT! 

April 1–May 14, 2011

5:00-7:00pm. 

The Untitled Gallery at Marwen

833 North Orleans Street, 2nd floor

Chicago, Illinois 60610

This catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition Territories, organized by Arielle Bielak for Marwen, curated by Julia V. Hendrickson, and designed by Scott Reinhard.

The exhibition's artists include Jessica Taylor Caponigro, Suzanne Caporael, Ryan Travis Christian, Austin Eddy, Maria Gaspar, Erika Hess, Ryan Ingebritson, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Matt Nichols, B. Ingrid Olson, Josué Pellot, Kevin Reiswig, Aurora Tabar, Russell Weiss, and Sara Zalek.

Catalogue writing contributors include: Arielle Bielak, Kate Blair, Jack Shelton Boyle, Beth Feldman Brandt, Evan Burrows, Danny Caine, Paula Clark, Carlos Colmenares, Alana Cuéllar, Zach Dodson, Jonathan Eliot, Victor Estrada, Chris Eves, Jason Foumberg, Fred Frederick, Maria Gaspar, J.M. Harper, Julia V. Hendrickson, Charlie Hogle,, Lindsey Huster, Andrew Gregory Krzak, Peterson Kuyk-White, Christopher M. Lee, Timothy Lehmann, Nate Long, Landon Manucci, Julianne Mentzer, Megha Ralapati, David Reale, Izabella Redzisz, Miguel Renée, Susannah Ribstein, Andrew B. Sartorius, Maureen Sill, Peter Stevens, Aurora Tabar, Bryn Tulip, Ina Weise, Russell Weiss, Justin Williams, Meredith Wilson, David Yontz, and Sara Zalek.

A discussion with guest artists Maria Gaspar, Theaster Gates, and David Schalliol concludes the exhibition on May 14, 2011.

[N.B. The first 40 copies of the catalogue will be made available for sale at Marwen starting in mid-April. After the first 40 have sold, it will be made available for sale online].

B. Ingrid Olson, Untitled (2011), grease pencil on paper

 

Josué Pellot, Aggressively Happy (2011), Acrylic on wood, baked polymer clay, found object.

 

Ryan Travis Christian, New Bikini Jam, 2010, graphite on paper.

 

Austin Eddy, Night time seat, 2011, oil on muslin.

 

Matt Nichols & Jessica Taylor Caponigro, The Feeling is Mutual, 2011

Plywood, primer, and magic marker.

...AND SO MUCH MORE...