"If someone puts a bullet through your brain, I'll complain." -- Cole Porter (thanks to Mark Steyn)
by Jerome du Bois
As part of "The Burgeoning" -- I notice Richard Nilsen used the term again today, in the first sentence (on page 34 of The Rep) of his new yawner on "pioneers of downtown art" -- anyway, as part of our series, we would like to add this little survey and two examples to show how proud these downtown artists are of their country, and so therefore why we should continue to financially support their alma-mater-sucking activities.
It was only after we cruised both sections of the Evans-Churchill / Grand Avenue art spaces a couple of times that we twigged to what was strange: not a single American flag, in proud flapping reality or in decal replica, anywhere. But some person or group did manage to finance a big anti-Bush billboard right across from Beatrice Moore's place, with the whole Bush-lied line, now demonstrably proven false. Preaching to the converted and wasting money -- partly your money -- besides.
Examining various art venues, looking for commemorations of the Third Anniversary of the terrorist attacks on US soil on September 11, 2001, this is what we found:
Phoenix Art Museum: 0
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art: 0
Heard Museum: 0
Chandler Center for The Arts: 0
ASU / Nelson Fine Arts: 0
Need I go on?
What about local downtown art galleries? Well, what do you think? I'll only use two examples.
eyelounge: Jennifer Urso -- "thinking too much" Exhibition -- blurb from the website:
Networking and connecting in our minds, actions, nature and man-made systems is the basis for Jen Urso's installation "thinking too much" at eye lounge this September 2004. Using materials such as thread, wire, plastic, mud, hair and text, Jen creates layered structures revealing a complicated interior of fibrous connections. These connections then extend outside of the objects to involve the surrounding space and viewer. These pieces are a continuation of Jen's previous work involving development and breakdown of systems and the connective force of meaning.
Blurb from Phoenix New Times:
If conceptual tree branches were as deep as Jennifer Urso's art, they'd be mistaken for roots. Huh? Yeah, let's explain. Urso's latest work -- using gnarled plastic, mud, hair, text, wire and threads -- can be seen through Sept. 25 . . . Drawing from research into what unifies weather, literature, neuroscience, Buddhism and quantum mechanics, Urso's "installed study of fractal branching" explores artistically natural systems and patterns. "By letting the chaos of the material do its own thing, energy is dispersed into a branching network," Urso says. "It creates an environment that shows a broader view of how things are connected. History is too often presented as linear. The truth is that there is never just one cause and effect. In reality, certain events occur because of network connections." Does your brain hurt yet?
No, but my heart does. We've been following this woman's work for four years, and it's as if 9/11 never happened to her; not even a speed bump. Just the usual scientific dabbling and droning (though she leaves out, inexplicably, string theory).
History is too often presented as linear. The truth is that there is never just one cause and effect. In reality, certain events occur because of network connections.
Mohammed Atta put the pedal to the metal, in a linear way, causing the jet to accelerate to over 600 miles per hour, at the structural limits of the aircraft. If he had not crashed into the Tower, the airplane would have flown apart.
As far as I know, and what I see, there is nothing in her installation, and nothing -- no corner, no moment, no memorial anywhere -- for 9/11 within the walls of eyelounge this month.
But the Paper Heart scrapes true bottom, on the very day. Read it all -- Booty Call, by Benjamin Leatherman -- with a bucket nearby:
Avast ye landlubbers, just a week in advance of "International Talk Like A Pirate Day," those bilge-sucking sons-of-biscuit-eaters at The Paper Heart, 750 Grand Avenue, will be busting out like Blackbeard at "Mermaids and Martinis" on Saturday, September 11. This "undersea fantasy fund raiser" for iTheatre Collaborative is a call for lingo straight from Davy Jones' locker while "splicing the mainbrace" (having a drink) or showing a saucy wench your Jolly Roger. Just don't end up in the brig, bucko. Nautical-themed dress -- from mermen to deep-sea divers -- is encouraged, but if your interests are more Captain Morgan than Captain Jack Sparrow, there'll be appetizers, and martinis will be served (plus the olives might help ward off scurvy). The scalawags of Soaking Fused and DJs will perform, as will exotic dancers, and the "H2O" art exhibition will also shiver your timbers.
No, nothing will ward off this scurvy crew, Scott Sanders and Jen Sanders first among those who would, if given the chance, run out to the battlefield after the battle is over to gleefully bayonet the wounded.
Dance, you ghouls, dance away. The dead will bear witnesss. So will we.
Posted by Jerome at September 9, 2004 01:44 PM | TrackBack