Visual Art Aug 27, 2009 at 4:00 am

On Malicious Erection, Everlasting Fights, and Fire's Power

Aaron Young’s ‘Tumbleweed,’ 2009. Courtesy the artists and Lawrimore Project

Comments

1
SO SO IMPORTANT.

EVERYTING. SO IMPORTANT.
2
it seems like a lot of the artists in seattle that have been receiving press have been getting louder and more ridiculous. all-night exhibits in the backs of trucks, dance offs, break ins, shows in curators (too modern) sheds, performances involving yoko ono's work, and possible, and likely, arson. forgive me if i don't understand, but it all feels a bit disingenuous. also, it depresses me to see the levels of attachment and dedication to medium disappearing so quickly.

medium: fog machine in jeep.
medium: pizza and nails
medium: spraypaint and bush

it's a joke that we have already heard.
3
Ok cujo, give us the kind of art YOU want us to make and we will all happily oblige.
4
Dear All Seattle Artists Everywhere, how about making something with some soul, something that nourishes the humanity in all off us. The standard Seattle conceptual nihilism, or strategic art objects offer a zero calorie feast and I am starving.

I know you really like the idea of "strategic art objects" well pull out your moleskin and write it down, hop on your fixie and ride to your apartment/studio and start devising the next empty, ironic, conceptual & emotionally hollow work and you might be the next rising star in Seattle. Good Luck!
5
i wouldn't say that there is a type of art that you should make, but i confidently believe that this new "stunt" thing will be regarded poorly in the future. i don't 100% align with the steven pinker "decline of art" argument, but he raises some good questions about academia and public interest. i definitely think that the public increasingly views artists as lazy and that our stock is losing value quickly.

one thing that i have noticed about a good deal of conceptual art is that often times it is not necessary to see the actual shows or objects. the ideas are based in language and critics can describe what the show looks like too easily:

it's a gold plated chain link fence.
it's a bunch of strategically placed blue tape.
it's a blocked entrance.
it's flowers dying in a vase full of dye.

after reading this show description above, i don't have to go and see these things. the description is suffice. i get it. quickly and easily made objects that correlate to a curator's/interior designer's grand vision about some obscure idea called a spite house. i find that it would be harder to describe the work of a more traditional artist, therefore making it more complex. lets use someone like akio takamori as an example. how can you describe his work in a definitive way? everyone will perceive it differently and therefore the show/critic invites the viewer to come and see for him or herself. a few weeks ago i went to the andrew wyeth show at SAM and felt completely gypped. i wanted more work. i haven't seen a show that made me feel like that in a long time. there was even a little anger about it. how could they do this big advertising thing and then give me seven pieces? i just got a bite and i want a meal so badly now.

anyways, who knows? this is the visual art page, just wishing that artists around here would do something that was a bit more visual. would love to feel like i needed to see more shows. would love to feel like i needed art.

also, could musicians get away with this?

6
CUJO U SO AWWWWWWWWW

MAKEING THE SCENE TOO HARD 4 U N SHIT SO I DESCRIBED SUM ART ESPECIAL 4 U::

ITS A PIGMENT ON A BOARD
ITS A COMBINATION OF PIGMENTS ON CANVAS
ITS SHEET METAL CUT INTO A SHAPE
ITS WOOD THAT HAS BEEN PARTIALLY REMOVED
ITS BRONZE PLATED STEEL
ITS A VIDEO
ITS A SONG
ITS MARBLE!
ITS A PIGMENTZ ON A WALLZ
ITS ME WIF A NOBBY STICK AND U WIF HURTIES
ITS CALLED ASSAULT WIF STEADY WEPON
ITS CALLED LUV?
HEY VISUAL ARTS, Y U SO LAM'E!>!>! CUJO CALLS YA OUT
ITS A BLOCKED ENTRANCE
ITS ARSON
ITS SHIT IN A BLANKET
ITS VOMIT OF PSYCHADELIC AND NON-PSYCHADELIC VARIETIES
ITS DASH SNOW!:

“Isn’t this amazing?” asked McGinley. “I mean, isn’t this, like, the most beautiful thing?” He started walking the short distance to his loft. “The thing is, it’s fun to be an outlaw and everything, but if I were a cop? And I had to chase some kid across the 101? I’d fucking beat the shit out of him, too.”

EW, SO LAME. U A POLICE GUY?
ITS FUCK THA POLICE
ITS A XEROX OF ELVIS
ITS A XEROX OF SOUP
ITS A XEROX OF MARILYN
ITS DEAD ANDY WARHOL!!
7
MEDIUM: STICK
MEDIUM: MURDER
MEDIUM: GUN
MEDIUM: REDRUM
MEDIUM: CRANKSHAFT
MEDIUM: FUN
MEDIUM: ROCK
MEDIUM: MURDER
MEDIUM: KOMPUTRR
MEDIUM: TEDIUM
TEDIUM: LISTENING TO STUPES WIT THA ART TALK.
8
Sometimes I come here to comment but then the other comments leave me speechless.

What I was going to say was: really excellent piece all around, Jen. Spot on.
9
#8

Do you seriously believe that shamelessly brown-nosing an art reviewer will advance your art career? Why don't you compliment Jen's "Rubenesque" figure while you're at it.
10
No, really, that was one of my favorite pieces that Ms. Graves has written as well, bringing out as it does a richness in that particular exhibition, especially complicated as it was by this fire incident. And Yoko Ott's curations have been really interesting - I'm glad to see this latest addition. I still wish that both Ms. Ott and Eric Fredericksen would do visiting artist gigs at the curatorial program at Columbia. Can't someone email or get on the goddamn phone?

I write reviews myself, couldn't care less about brown-nosing, and continue to work from a point of enthusiasm. It's just that I don't care for whining: There's really crisp, effective work and a very strong art scene here in Seattle, and I'm always thrilled every time I come to town.
11
I love all the well things.
12
AND WHEN U WRITE GUT OR CURATE HARD THEY WILL REWARD U. WISH I GUT THAT KINDA GR8 DOPE PUB. YOKO IZ GR-HATE CUZ SHE CUN TEACH UR DUMB KIDZ HOW 2 READ N WRITE. DAVE EGGERS TM.
13
i make conventional paintings and usually don't like art that only speaks to the initiated through artworld tropes. John Baldessari said something along these lines: we (artists) can't wander around in a poetic trance all the time brushing your teeth and paying the bills has to be part of it to. But it's a field of infinite variety ...you can't make lazy generalizations about what conceptual does or doesnt do. it works when both sides (artist/viewer)take the right time and it helps to have an inquisitive mind, imagination.

white kitty, i recommend thorazine. stop snacking on the local mushrooms
14
JON WHO BALDESSARI HIRED OTHA PEEPS TO DO HIZ ARRT AND PAINTED SOME ROOM OR SOMETHING I SAW AT MOOZ.

THERE'S MILLIONS IN THA FIELDS ROUND HERE YOU KNOW. ENUFF FOR A WHOLE ARMY. JUST NEED THE TEST SUBJEKT.SWEET SOAPY, I'M CLEANING PIPES WIF U!!!
15
wow, comments like these make me glad i made the choice to leave Seattle for Chicago and LA to study art. I'm sure you'll all think to yourself "good riddance you pretentious asshole", but seriously, this discussion is embarrassing .....
so, the review was perfectly good, aaron young is shit, you always have to see a work of art no matter how "conceptual" it is, artists have been regarded as lazy freeloaders for going on 500 years now, visual art was never about "nourishing humanity" (Medici, Guggenheim, Broad, and Saatchi would like to have a word with you...), and i'm leaving now to spend 12 hours in my studio working my ass off like all the other serious artists i know in this city.
but i do miss the food, the literate people, and the mountains of Seattle. You guess got that us, for sure.
16
Love the article! Great info about a fascinating topic!
-- Mychal Flemming (Sammamish, WA)

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