Jenny Holzer is just great and she has some stuff at the Chicago MCA right now – the displays I found were a bit out of context but nonetheless satisfying. I get closer with the cam after a few seconds…

I saw one of the best expos in a while at the MoMA in NYC two days ago, the special exhibition featuring Leon Ferrari and Mira Schendel called Tangled Alphabest. They are both South American, and their work speak a lot about language and its representation. The work of Ferrari touched me more than Schendel’s, but the whole thing was great nonetheless.

I very much like this one, it’s so weird and out of place – yet luminescent and big.
Definitively very reminiscent of Jenny Holzer, but I can’t find the artist behind this one.

I’ve been interested lately in making artwork in the form of illusions or simulations, but wasn’t quite sure why. I made many prints and even physical objects that fall under this category of art, trying to tell some kind of truth by revealing a big lie. I think I might of found out why. 

Striving for things that are “real” is common to everyone. In all cases, this very “reality” will be different, even opposite in some cases. The same way everybody aspires to look good – that is, be satisfied with the way they look. When people purposely go against the grain and make an effort to look like something that is not conceived as pretty, they do it because they feel there is something beautiful in its ugliness. It’s like being attracted to something a bit nasty, liking an old tilted apartment or choosing to write a letter instead of sending an email. There is certain “realness” to it, apparently. Being and knowing the real is seen as having an acute understanding of the world. 

But obviously, how do we know that things are indeed real? Well, I’d say that we accumulate the knowledge to identify most of the things that are not real, mostly imitations and simulations, making the real stand out by difference. Parménide thought of the world as being made up of opposites (heavy VS light, etc.) and you can clearly tell that your whiskey bottle is merely trying to be the real thing because you were sick all night. Because we rely heavily on perception to construct our view of reality, there in an inherent unreliable quality to each human’s version of what is the truth. I am not inventing anything here; this is a mainly a cultural phenomenon. Different groups of people have common goals, aspirations and values. The structure what we believe is true solidifies itself with the accumulation of knowledge we come to understand with time, we can construct truth simply using lies. An easy example of this would be myths for children (Santa, Tooth fairy, etc.). 

In this particular sense, I like art. I can build things and make prints and objects and applications and installations that are not true, and inform people about what I think truth is, or maybe should be. I can also make things that are real, but make them look as if they were not, deconstructing a previous assumption on reality. I think this is why I like making optical illusions and simulations that hide most of their message, but reveal just enough to make the viewer doubt they ever saw anything at all. 

I’ve worked hard on my new CART project this weekend, which consists mainly to get small plants, grass, veggies and other stuff growing from emptied keyboard and mouse cases. While running around town to find some old hardware, I realized that even stores had a hard time getting rid of their obsolete stuff – even getting everything reshipped to China seemed pretty expensive, and there aren’t tons of organizations that take them in for recycling. I’m going to try to make this a central concern in the project, hopefully I can draw some inspiration from Manufactured Landscapes…

Other small thing, I DONT KNOW what people do with their keyboards or where they put them, but taking them apart was very disgusting, in many cases. Hopefully this will transform into a positive element that will be reflected in the plants that arise from them! Pictures…

Just finished building a simple website for my sister – she’s a Montreal-based artist doing mostly intaglio and lithography.

Here’s an excerpt from her artist statement.

My focus as an artist lies in exploring landscapes, particularly those revealing nature in grandiose, idealized and mysterious forms. This romanticized interpretation compels my efforts to go beyond a purely visual representation of place. Such an approach—both more traditional and poetic—is inevitably altered by our relationship to our environment. It brings me to reflect on the constant changes in our surroundings, and how these changes affect our understanding of them. 

SimoneRochon.com

Taken from BoingBoing

A Swedish artist uses dividends from an “unethical” investment fund (money used to buy shares in an arms dealer, a tobacco company, an alcohol company, a pornography company, and a gambling company) to fund scholarships for artists. He calls the fund, “The Pål Hollender Foundation for Ethically or Aesthetically Offended Consumers of Culture.”

“Hollender’s foundation is itself the work of art, which is owned by the Malmö museum. Physically it consists of 13 boxes, where visitors can post their applications for a scholarship. A text on the wall outlines the foundation’s constitution. The money the scholarship holders receive is intended “to promote insight or further education among cultural consumers with respect to what is commonly thought of as respectable culture”. Applicants must sign a declaration stating that they feel or have felt offended either ethically or aesthetically by culture.”

Check it out