Tri'phop Universe: March 2008

Saturday, March 29, 2008

California Video

I love it when museums put up an exhibition showcasing video. This is for the simple fact that they are few and far between. And you do not even have to get me started with the gallery circuit and how often they show videos. This is understandable since, though video has had a long history in contemporary art, the majority of the people involved in the market still have not been able to figure out how to sell these works. The same can be said for pure computer work as well.

That being said, I went over to the Getty Center yesterday to view their West Coast video survey, "California Video". While I appreciate the Getty putting on a show like this, they exhibition itself illustrate the problem of how to install this type of exhibition.

The Getty has attempted to eliminate the sound leakage problem by providing headphones for all adjacent installation. It works quite well and does create a certain intimacy the audience has with the video. Sort of their own personal video player of sort. But that type of installation also deny access to the other viewers who may not be able to fully enjoy the video should one of the headphones becomes unavailable.

But the main issue with the exhibition seems to be what I gripe about contemporary video in general: duration. A lot of the video on view are so long (around 30 minutes for some) that one simply cannot attempt to go through every single pieces within one visit to the museum. I was there for only a couple of hours and will definitely have to go back since I barely scratched the surface of the show.

The other problem I have with the collection is a bit personal. A lot of those early videos from the 70's seem pretty boring to me. A lot of the conceptual aspects simply fall apart after a couple minutes of viewing. I know they were trying to explore the possibility of the medium, but I can probably safely say that a lot of them are not very interesting visually or on a narrative level. Again I reiterate that this is my personal opinion.

There are several knock out from those earlier eras though, such as the Bruce Nauman video surveillance room installation, or Ant Farm and T. R. Uthco's collaboration "The Eternal Frame."

The show is up until the summer. June 8th. So there are plenty of time to still try and catch it.

Peter Sarkisian at Volta NY

Peter Sarkisian's "Extruded Video Engine" at Volta NY. March 2008.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Product Design: Intel Eco PC

I've said this before and I'll say it agian: If you know me, you know I'm into computers. And I like good product designs. The designs on the PC side have been an abomination for years. It's slowly getting better, with the big companies taking the lead. Here's Intel's entry into the sub-$400 notebook market.

Reportedly spotted at an undisclosed OEM facility, the so-called Netbook would weigh less than three pounds, arrive in June and feature a 900MHz Celeron processor, 512MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, 9-inch display, built-in WiFi / Ethernet and a convenient carry handle à la Eduwise.

via Engadget

The Graveyard

A Tale of Tales, the indie Belgian game developer, recently released a short game called The Graveyard. The experience is all of only ten or so minutes. You play a frail, old woman entering a graveyard. She walks slowly toward a bench at the other end, limping with her bad leg. Once she gets the bench, she sits down. At this point the game takes over and enters a cut scene. The old woman ruminates on the idea of death as a song plays. When it is all over, you walk her out of the graveyard, and the game ends.

To quote Wired: Science, the game could easily have been a short film released online. The difference here is that it is interactive. You control the old woman to progress the story. The game is a good example of when can be achieved with game design when developers go beyond the usual genres of video game.

(Designers) Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn are determined to explore the potential of interactive media. They believe that for the medium to grow (up), designers need to have the courage to abandon the game format and dare to explore other types of interaction, other types of emotions, stories, etc.," writes Tale of Tales in their press release for the game.

For $5, you can purchase the full version of the game. The difference between the trial and the full version? The possibility of the woman dying.

But then, one more twist. For $5, I could buy the "full version" of The Graveyard. It would be identical to the trial version, they promised, but with one more feature: The woman might die.

. . .
I played it again -- no death.

I played it again -- and was sitting there, listening to the song, wondering if I was maybe doing something wrong, or if perhaps despite all appearances this woman was actually in robust health and it was going to take a while.

Then, without warning, her head snapped forward and lolled lifelessly in front of her as her shoulders slumped. She sat on the bench, dead. The closeup of her face was still superimposed, but now it was a closeup of the back of her neck as it craned grotesquely forward

The song kept playing.

Once I was over the sudden shock of the death scene, and come to terms with the fact that nothing else was going to happen, it felt like the proper ending. She'd been traveling long enough, lost everyone dear to her, and had nothing left but to visit the graveyard and count all the headstones of those she had lost.

Death was a release. It was a release of five bucks from my Paypal account, too, but that's neither here nor there.

Download The Graveyard

via Wired: Science

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Shock and Awe

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

KINKY @ The House of Blues

Presidente

I went to see KINKY performed at the House of Blues in Anaheim last night. This was the first I have seen them live. And they definitely sealed the deal for me. Did not disappoint. Boy, did they rocked the house! And even though I was still doing my post-surgery recovery, I could not help but rocked out along with them.

A lot of times good electronic music does not always translate well into a live set. Mostly you always have a couple of guys behind a synthesizer and sampler, or worse their Macbook Pro, pushing some buttons. KINKY is also a rock band, so you know you will definitely see a performance at a live show.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

SXSW 2008 "Nullsleep"

One of my favorite Gameboy musicians, Nullsleep, is performing at SXSW this year as part of the 8bitspeoples label showcase. Here's a video of him doing a street performance in New York.

SXSW 2008 "Johnathan Coulton"

Johnathan Coulton interviewed at SXSW 2008

Code Monkey

SXSW Interactive

Battledecks

If you know me at all, you know that I am a total geek. I should be at this thing. I am very sad. Enough said.

via Rocketboom

SXSW 2008

Octopus Project

South By Southwest is going on as we speak. My friend Stewart and I talked about going this year, but everything sort of fell through. But what with our busy lives and my recent surgery, I would not have been able to make it to Austin anyway. Maybe next year.

But thank god for the age of YouTube. There are tons of videos up. And Directv: The 101 is broadcasting the festival.

So I will be glued to my TV and computer screen for the next couple of days as the festival winds down, thank you very much.

Is Your Child A Tagger?

Apparently O.C. art world's favorite hangout, Santa Ana, wants you to find out if your child is a tagger. Does your little one fit the profile?

Via Wooster Collective

CHANGE

It was bound to happen. The original Shepard Fairey run of the CHANGE poster sold out within a day. Now the Obama campaign is doing a 5000 edition of the poster. It sells for $70 each, with the money going toward your $2300 contribution limit.

“I wanted to make an art piece of Barack Obama because I thought an iconic portrait of him could symbolize and amplify the importance of his mission. I believe Obama will guide this country to a future where everyone can thrive and I should support him vigorously for the sake of my two young daughters. I have made art opposing the Iraq war for several years, and making art of Obama, who opposed the war from the start, is like making art for peace. I know I have an audience of young art fans and I’m delighted if I can encourage them to see the merits of Barack Obama.”

CHANGE by the artist Shepard Fairey

Sam3

via Wooster Collective

INTERSECTIONS @ Cypress College Art Gallery

The opening for INTERSECTIONS was last night. It was my first curatorial project, in collaboration with Paul Paiement.

When we put together the show, we wanted to survey the current trend in painting and drawing. We saw that there is a definite shift among younger artists toward the infusing of elements from illustration, graphic design, and popular culture imagery within their work. We made sure not to call it the Illustration Show, however, because it becomes clear to any observers that these artists are not merely illustrators but fine artists in their own right.

Another objective we were reaching toward was the accessibility of the show. The Cypress College Art Gallery exists as a service of sort to the student body of the college. It firstly serves as an exhibition space, but secondly as an educational institution for the fine art department. It is a place on campus where students can go to get exposures to the current contemporary art scene. However, sometimes the work in the exhibitions are not necessary accessible the students. What I mean by this is that, though the students may say they like certain work within a show, some of the time they cannot easily grasp the context of the work or the theme of the show. A show like this can be easily understood by the student body. These are the work that they connect with.

Whether or not the attempt to curate a show within these premises equals success, or make for a good exhibition, remains with the critics and the audience. I personally believe the show came out very nicely. The opening was the first chance I was able to see the entire show up myself since I was out of commission for a couple of days due to the surgery I had this weekend. I had to let Paul run the show (as he usually does) and trust that it will come out well. And it did. The Gallery & Portfolio students worked up to the wire to make sure that the show indeed looks good.

PROJECT SPACE
Alvin Gregorio

INTERSECTIONS
March 12 - April 10, 2008

Cypress College Art Gallery
9200 Valley View Street
Cypress, CA 90630
714.484.7134

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

A Recollection of Dreams for a Red Letter Day @ SCA Project Gallery

This exhibition brings together a group of artists that ask us to reexamine the familiar and contribute to the meaning of the works with our own memories, dreams and associations. The works play with the associations that we sometimes make in dreams or in memory when we somehow find that familiar territory is suddenly strange and unfamiliar. Animals, dolls, toys, domestic objects and the figure find themselves in strange relationships and contexts that coax the viewer to make connections between the everyday and how that interacts with the subconscious. The artists employ strategies that range from realism to the sweet simplification of children's cartoons and toys, yet they all share an interest in exploring how the subconscious and memory interact with the concrete world of daylight.

A Recollection of Dreams for a Red Letter Day
March 8 - April 5, 2008

SCA Project Gallery
281 South Thomas Street
Pomona, California 91766
909.620.5481

George Comer @ Bunny Gunner

I have become a regular of sort at Bunny Gunner in Pomona. Susie Eaton and Juan Thorp are genuinely nice people. If it was not for Ed Giardina sending me over there for framing, I would never have met these two lovely individuals.

Aside from a frame shop, Susie and Juan also manage a small space that consistently show very good work. They are collectors as well so they know what they like.

Currently they have a show of the painter George Comer. Head out there to say hello. Tell them I sent you.

Alchemy
George Comer
March 8 - April 1, 2008

Bunny Gunner
266 W. Second St.
Pomona, CA 91766
909.868.2808

H&M

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Justice DVNO

I love Justice, the French electronic DJ duo. Their videos are always interesting. The video for their first single D.A.N.C.E. was made up of moving t-shirt graphics, directed by Jonas & Francois of Irène 75. The video for their current single, DVNO, is directed by SO-ME, with motion graphics by Machine Molle. The video is an homage to vintage TV productions bumpers. I particularly like the reference to the Stephen J. Cannell Productions at the end of the video.

15 Years | 15 Artists @ Peter Blake Gallery

I get off the plane from San Francisco for no more than half an hour when I get a telephone call from Ed Giardina letting me know that Peter Blake was having a reception for a 15th anniversary show. I do not have to say much about Peter. He's been around for a very long time, as this show is a testament. And he certainly has a good stable of artists. All I really have to say are all the well wishes to Peter. Here to many more years to come.

Bear Hunting @ Marx & Zavattero

I went up to San Francisco this weekend with a couple friends. It was pleasure for me, though for my friend, Peter Perez, it was more of a business trip. You see, Peter just applied to the Graphic Design program at the California College of the Arts. He wanted to go up there to check out the school. And we already have a couple of friends who are currently going there in the same program.

Needless to say, we were up there for a short period of time. I had originally wanted to explore some of the smaller galleries that have been popping up around the City. But, of course, as it turns out, we did not have the time to even go and look around.

I was able, however, to take a moment before I leave for the airport to swing by the newly renamed Marx & Zavattero to say hello to owners Heather Marx and Steve Zavattero. They currently have a show of brand new work by the San Francisco artist James Gobel.

San Francisco artist James Gobel creates a colorful, mysterious world of portly men in Baroque décor playing a lonely game of hide and seek. Gobel’s trademark bold color, intelligent detail, and verbose figures, some holding lit candelabras in search of something or someone, are set within decadent architectural settings that act as a maze for his subjects to navigate. This new series of acrylic felt, wool felt, yarn, & acrylic on canvas paintings will be on view February 14 – March 29, 2008.

Gobel’s work suggests a frolicking yet compassionate farce, painted in a cinematic storyboard fashion, featuring single figures desperately looking for one another and finding various levels of success. Clad in rock t-shirts or plaid flannels, a few of his Bears have given up; they are depicted slumped in a chair, candle wax dripping, signifying that the light will soon be snuffed out and their desires will not be met. Gobel brilliantly intimates an overriding sense of fear and desire juxtaposed with a witty opulence that sheds hope on these games of love. The mix of contemporary hipster garb, the sly nods to the “dandy” (as seen in the tight-fitting calf-high police boots and tights in the grand piece I Love You and I Always Will), the opulent décor of flocked wallpaper, the gilded framed mirrors, and the velvet curtains all add a tantalizing aura to the works.

The great potential of Gobel’s figures may never be realized, though -- if the bears move too quickly, the candles will blow out -- but if they move too slowly, the wick will succumb to ash. Their efforts, however desperate, may come to a bittersweet end, but his figures’ longing gazes also suggest that one may have spotted another. A sense of urgency, desire, and possible failure permeates the works and leaves the viewer rooting for his characters to connect.

Bear Hunting
James Gobel
February 14 - March 29, 2008

Marx & Zavattero
77 Geary Street, Second Floor
San Francisco, CA 94108
415.627.9111

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Paul Lee @ Peres Projects

Peres Projects in Chinatown currently has up the first Los Angeles solo show of Paul Lee. Titled Arms Length, the show presents works that uses the everyday objects in a playful way to create sculptures and paintings.

Known for his considered use of what are often forgettable materials of the everyday, Lee here expands his range into what appears to be playful territory; towels, light bulbs and soda cans are joined by tambourines, record players, tennis and squash balls. But, where the viewer might imagine a good old-fashioned kinetic romp, these objects of recreation are instead completely suspended. The texture and color of an inert squash ball in Lee's sculpture render it flat, weightless, neither ascending nor descending.

Simple manipulations code the works: a patterned towel acts as metonymic proxy for a tiled fountain just as the blue bulb at its center identifies itself as water – these are not substitutions for Lee so much as contiguous points along a thought's trajectory.

Similarly, the drumhead of a silent tambourine on the wall is painted over with simple geometric color blocks; the construction literally equates art object and instrument, and beyond this the paint itself visually signifies sound – existing where we would expect noise to exist. Lee's treatment of the senses calls to mind familiar riddles and Buddhist kôans ("If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"), but he delves further, suggesting that the possibility of unperceived existence relates directly to unfulfilled desire.

Paul Lee
Arm's Length
March 1 - March 29, 2008

Peres Projects
969 Chung King Road
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213.617.1100

Raffi Kalenderian @ Black Dragon Society

Black Dragon Society in Chinatown currently has a show up of paintings by the Los Angeles artist Raffi Kalenderian. Kalenderian is a graduate of UCLA. He was recently included in the Doug Harvey-curated Some Paintings that was on view at Track 16 Gallery.

Raffi Kalenderian
March 1 - April 5, 2008

Black Dragon Society
971 Chung King Road
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213.620.0030

Blue Morph @ Fringe Exhibitions

Fringe Exhibitions presents some of the most interesting shows. I am not saying that because Susan and John are ardent supporters of Finishing School, but because Fringe, along with Machine Project, TELIC, and the Beall Center for Art + Technology, is one of the few places in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas where you can go to view New Media and technology-based art.

Currently, they have the show up by media artist Victoria Vesnaand nanoscientist James Gimzewski. Blue Morph is an interactive installation "that uses nanoscale images and sounds derived from the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly."

Nanotechnology explorations are changing our perceptions of life in the world around us and this is symbolized by the newfound reality of the Blue Morpho butterfly. With the use of advanced optics it is recognized that the beautiful blue color of this butterfly is not pigment at all but rather patterns formed by nano. Blue Morpho has intrigued scientists for generations because of its subtle optical engineering that manipulate photons in amazing ways. The lamellate structure of their wing scales has been studied as a nanoscale model for the development of fabrics, dye-free paints, and anti-counterfeit technology such as that used in currency.

The optics are no doubt fascinating but the real surprise is in the discovery of the way cellular change takes place in a butterfly. The amplified sounds reveal the process both to be halting and violent contradicting our imagination of a gradual peaceful metamorphosis. In reality the cellular transformation happens in sudden surges of activity interspersed with stillness and silence. There are eight pumps or "hearts" that maintain a constant beat throughout the metamorphosis creating a pumping rhythm in the background. During the transformation through emergence each flattened cell of the wing becomes a nanophotonic structure of black protein and free space leading to iridescence.

Nano is not only making the invisible visible but also changing our way of relating to "silence" or making the in-audible audible. With all the noise of chattering technologies and minds, Vesna and Gimzewski propose the interactivity to be stillness. In this empty space of nano we can get in touch with the magic of continuous change.

MEDIA PROJECT

AILEEN COWIN
Neither Here Nor There

My father died on June 18, 2006. For the life of me I can't figure out what happened to him. I search his apartment- the living room, his office, his closet. I go online and lookup expressions people use when someone dies. I find several I had never heard before like - "definitely done dancing" and "a race well run". I also read a magazine article about immortality and the afterlife. But I still continue to wonder where he went. This short piece is about how you hold on to what is lost.

Blue Morph
VICTORIA VESNA and JAMES GIMZEWSKI
March 1 - April 12, 2008

Fringe Exhibitions
504 Chung King Court
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213.613.0160

Gallery Hours:
Thursday - Saturday 12 - 6
or by appointment

Monday, March 03, 2008

White Cube

Form and Content

Two Lines Align: Drawing & Graphic Design by Ed Fella & Geoff McFetridge @ REDCAT

If you ever ask me who are some of my favorite graphic designers, once I stop telling you about the work that David Carson did in the nineties, I would then go on about Ed Fella.

Fella is a graduate of Cranbrook and teaches at CalArts. His typogrphic work are some of the most imaginative thing to have happened in graphic design in the last two decades. The current show at Roy and Edna Disney/ CalArts Theater at the Disney Concert Hall pairs Fella's work with that of his former student Geoff McFetridge. You will probably be most familiar with McFetridge's work from the cartoon Napster campaign from a year or so back.

Looking at both artists, one can see where they share a similar approach to design. Yet their styles are very much different and quite distinctive from one another.

The show at REDCAT is curated by Michael Worthington and runs up until April 6.

Fella received his MFA in Design from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1987 and since then has devoted his time to teaching and producing his own unique work, which has appeared in many design publications and anthologies. In 1997 he received the Chrysler Design Award and in 1999 an honorary doctorate from CCS in Detroit. His work is in the collections of the National Design Museum, New York and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Fella is the recipient of the 2007 AIGA Medal. He is currently on faculty at CalArts where he has been teaching since 1987.
Originally from Canada, McFetridge received his MFA in Graphic Design at CalArts. His thesis project, Chinatown, won a distinctive merit award from ID magazine. While working as art director for Grand Royal Magazine (1995-1997), McFetridge founded his own design studio, Champion Graphics. He has had solo shows at galleries around the world including Parco Gallery, Tokyo; MU, Eindhoven; and Colette, Paris. His work is in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Ed Fella

Geoff McFetridge

Frank Gehry

Collecting Collections: Highlights From The Permanent Collection @ MOCA

There have been a lot of talk lately about MOCA vs. LACMA. Christopher Knight did an article in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section last week. And Caryn Coleman of Sixspace also did a review. I won't be talking about BCAM here for the obvious reason that I have yet to visit there. My membership is still pending with LACMA. I have had a real beef with them in the past several years, particularly about how they have been selling their exhibition programs to the public. But I think with the opening of BCAM, there is reason again to support them on that level.

Collecting Collections, as the name implies, highlights the contemporary art holdings of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The exhibition features works from post-1939. It is a nice selection, particularly the more contemporary work. It is nice to know that the Los Angeles area has at least one contemporary art collection to be proud of.

From what I understand, all the works at BCAM are on loan. It is too bad that LACMA has not been as proactive in building a contemporary art collection, particularly with BCAM opening. But hopefully now that they have added a contemporary wing, they will begin to fill that slot.

Christopher Wool at the end of the hall

Frank Stella peeking out

On Kawara

Robert Irwin

Ed Ruscha

Mel Ramos

Neo Rauch

Rineke Dijkstra

Luc Tuymans

Jeff Koons

Stephan Balkenhol

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Your Alimony Check Won’t Buy a Bigger Room @ Found Gallery

Sparrow Love Crew

Found Gallery is seriously becoming the space to keep your eyes on in Silverlake. Last month they showed the multi-talent Stephen Tompkins. Now this month opens with photos and screenprints from Matt Maust (bassist for the Cold War Kids) and Matt Wignall.

I went to the show sort of late in the night. But the party was still going on. Jonny, the gallery director, had, on his lot, the hip-hop impresario the Sparrow Love Crew there to rock the joint.

Matt Maust will return to show at Found in 2008, but this time he’s bringing more friends. Photographer and longtime friend Matt Wignall will provide the prints onto which Maust will adorn his ever-so-striking words [sometimes relevant, often a seductive, foreign lorum ipsum]. Maust, bassist for the little band Cold War Kids [whose devotees cease to grow], wants this new body of work to be much more about his family of creative friends than only himself. The pieces will be rather large, and, Sparrow Love Crew is going to be performing. Free. Of course, we will kindly tell you more as soon as these tireless kids pause to divulge.

Your Allimony Check Won't Buy A Bigger Room
Matt Maust + Matt Wignall
Found Gallery
1903 Hyperion Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027