Uri Aran’s contemporary still lifes.

 

 

Go see the Phil Collins show at Tonya Bonakdar in New York. You will 1) listen to recordings of conversations from a free payphone set up by the artist at the GULLIVER survival station for the homeless (re-mixed by a Berlin-based band) and it is heartbreaking; 2) watch a pornographic play in a trailer with other strangers, and it is humiliating and uncomfortable but also brilliant for those very reasons.

Gordon Matta -Clark

My book Avoid Dying will be at the NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 from Sept 19-22, 2013. At the Printed Matter table. Come by!

Tauba Auerbach, RGB Colorspace Atlas

Camille Henrot for the Venice Biennale. Grosse Fatigue.

Camille Henrot Is it possible to be a revolutionary and like flowers?

The description on her website says it all: “This project is a translation of an entire library into ikebana. According to Japanese tradition, ikebana was originally created to “console the soul”. The form of a piece of ikebana, its colours and the choice of flowers used constitutes a form of language. The function of consoling and language – two aspects shared by books and flowers – are the starting point. So each piece of ikebana represents the works chosen by the artist following a principle of translation the rules of which have been reinvented, using the evocative power of the Latin and common names of the flowers, the names designed for their commercial exploitation, their pharmacological power or even the history of their travels. Hence the ikebana piece that pays homage to the Discours sur le colonialism [Essay on Colonialism] is made up of a palm tree branch (alma armata) and an upturned tulip (Tulip retroflexa), while the one paying homage to the Caractère fétiche de la merchandise [The fetishistic nature of consumer goods] is made up of a rose named “freedom” and three carnations.”

Max Springer

Roman Toys. 2nd century BCE.