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02/15/2005: "NYC Blogs: First two weeks" by Walter King
Jan. 31st 2 pm
Arrived in New York La Guardia at about 12 noon. Hopped a cab to Williamsburg to stash my stuff at Steve's loft as usual but to my chagrin there was no key for me. Dumped my big duffle behind some bikes locked up behind the trash container area and hiked up the street to Teddy's for a burger. After about an hour I decided to walk back down to see if maybe someone would let me put my stuff in the hall by Steve's door. Glen and Sue, some of Steve's neighbors, recognized me and let me in. So instead of having to lug my stuff around for 6 more hours until I could get the keys to my space I could now sit comfortably at the Ale House and talk with Christa the bartender and anyone else who happened in.
Feb. 1st
Locked myself out of my studio already-- Twice! Once last night after Zach, who had the space before me, got home from work to give me the keys to my new space. I found I had no key for my interior studio door which of course I locked upon leaving as I always do. There were 3 keys for four doors. We called him and he said there were no door keys for any of the studios and he'd done the same thing and that I'd have to take the door off the hinges. Well so much for security. No point in locking the door at all then. Next morning after going across the street for breakfast and a pack of smokes I couldn't get the key to work in the inner hall door that opens into our group space. I remembered someone telling me that the landlord had a furniture store next door and I walked over wondering how I'd convince him that I was who I said I was and wasn't just breaking into the studios. Actually he was ready for me, already seemed to know who I was and walked me over and let me in. Seems I just had my key upside down. Felt like an idiot.
Feb. 3rd 6:15
Took a train into the City up to Chelsea to see the Stanley Lewis exhibition at the Bowery Gallery. Lewis was my brother's painting professor at Kansas City Art Institute back in the late 70's ealry 80's. I'd written a review of Lewis's work at Wright State University in Dayton Ohio for Dialogue Magazine some years ago and kinda wanted to see what he was up to.
Stanley is a more or less 'old school' landscape painter in most peoples eyes. But I think his work is actually more about how he perceives rather than about what he perceives. Landscape or figure interior settings are just an excuse to look at the visual world. And I don't mean how we understand the world psychologically or spiritually but how we actually see it and make sense of it visually. Stanley is a purely visual painter. And he's really good at it. I understand he's not a bad jazz musician either. I think these two have a similar mind set. It is a good show. I overheard Stanley talking about the fact that he wants to spend more time working or conceptualizing from memory and/or invention. I'm coming back for that show. I got a nice shot of Stanley with several of his former students at the opening.
Feb. 7 10:40 pm
Worked on sketches for the McCormick-Tribune Free Speech Museum contest today. I've been developing an idea based on the 'house' images I've been doing for about a year and a half now. So I have basic sketches laid out in four views waiting for details to be dropped in. Spent the better part of the day doing technical drawings to scale so I and the jury have a clear sense of what we are looking at in the final design which will be around 10' tall by 3' square. I'll use these same drawings in various sizes on the final proposal sketch. The subject matter is the 1st Amendment rights: Religious Freedom, freedom of speech and press, freedom to assemble and to petition the Government for redress of
grievances. I have about 10 more days to resolve these and package and ship.
Feb. 9. 12:30
Locked myself out of the studio again. This time after popping the hinge pins I taped the lock on the inside so I couldn't accidentally lock it again.
Feb. 10 around 4:10 pm
I took a quick walk over to Central Park to see the Gates by Christo before meeting Janine Brinck today at the Whitney Museum to take a look at the Cy Twombly Show. Afterwards we got the Tim Hawkinson show as an extra!
Christo's bright golden, almost flourescent, post and lintel orange gates were interesting against the mostly gray leafless trees and the cold leaden sky over the park. Apparently they had not yet begun to fly the saffron flags or banners (or whatever they are) so I only got a short sense of it all. There was an interesting rhythm in the pattern that basically follows the path through the park. Altho the temptation is to see these as high hurdles. But I suppose that is unfair as the drapes (maybe they are drapes or curtains not flags) are not down yet. There was a homeless guy bedded down on one of the benches in the thick of it who seemed quite pleased with himself being in the middle of a work of art.
After grabbing a quick sandwich I met Janine and we went up to the Twombly show. I think I enjoyed seeing Twombly with someone who appreciates his work more than on my own since I've never been a big fan. Well and it is always great to get to meet someone in person whom you've spoken with on
the net from time to time. I always find it a surprising adventure. Janine certainly brought her own insights to the work. And my take away view was much larger for it.
We walked through the Twombly exhibit talking about the rhythms and patterns that seem to emerge from what otherwise seem marks made by chance or a child. There is a certain amount of John Cage and the automatic writing of that time period that seems involved in Twombly's early works. A sense of chance at work and all that. Also he seems to want to know how many rules he can break, how badly or unconsciously can he make a mark, glue down a piece of paper tatter, dribble some paint and still have it feel like art. The result though is not quite the same as if you'd actually done it according to this agenda. There is a measure to these marks and other office and studio left overs that forms
a kind of jazz... they ultimately are composed if only started by an accident or laziness... they are finished on purpose. And if I don't often care for much of the work of this artist I must admit that by the end of the show I had a different sense of his life practice as an artist. He was prolific to say the least. And what began as chance scratches, scribbles, dribbles, tatterings and scattered writings ends in the last room with a series of colored works (with all the above kinds of markings) that are as beautiful and organized as an expensive Japanese kimono-rhythmic, floating patterns of plum and cherry reds and lush black colors that opened up like flowers. That last room floored me.
Tim Hawkinson's constructions on the other hand are smart, humorous, tremendously visual, metaphorically strange and enchanting and obsessive in their attention to detail and construction. You could see a visible change in the energy as folks wandered up from the Twombly show into a room full of wooden figures in a kind of tree network or community. Each figure perched in the tree or on the floor in different parts of the room had a small electrical switch (at least I think it was electric-or maybe something else? Dunno-didn't seem to make a difference if I knew or not) that made a little drumming noise as if to answer the drumming from one of the figures on the other side of the room. Don't know if this was triggered by audience distance from some light or movement sensitive switch or maybe just a random computer program...I didn't really care cause it was the effect it had on the crowd that was the more interesting.
I only had time to take a quick look in the next room. Long enough to see a kind of digital photo/collage piece (another kind of tree image in a way) in which a photo of a figure pieced together by enlarging the photo digitally and printing it out in pieces (then resizing and duplicating I assume) right out to the hands the fingers of which are replaced with arms and more hands the fingers of which in turn are
replaced with more arms and hands then more arms and hands etc., etc., etc. I haven't used the etc. abbreviation for some time but it feels perfectly appropriate describing this piece as these hands and finger arms became a kind of fractal anatomical ganglia that seemed like it might go on and on no matter how small it became. This hand ganglia suggested a kind of tree with its branch or root like frillies creating a most moving metaphor for sensing, reaching and grasping at the same time. Kind of a strange yin yang of the best and worst of our ability to feel our way through and manipulate the world at hand ( or more appropriately 'at hands' in this case.)
I left the show thinking that this was the kind of art that America wants right now. Something that is inventive, diverting (we still seem largely dazed by or in denial of world events swirling around us) and though somewhat strange and surreal Hawkinson's mindset seems to be quite upbeat and most usually positive. Oh yes-- and quite obsessive.
Tim Hawkinson
Whitney Museum of American Art 75th and Madison Ave. And of course you can see the Twombly show at the same time. I would have passed on the Hawkinson show had Janine not suggested it
was worth a look. If you're in New York between now and early May I strongly suggest this show.
Here is a photo of Janine in front of the Whitney looking like she's going horseback riding after the exhibition. You can see her work on wwar.com by the way. Very interesting images of watery surfaces alive with a sense of rhythm (almost mathematical) and light that I find entrancing. It was a real pleasure meeting her.
http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/j/janineebean/
I dropped by the Society of Illustrators at 63rd and Lexington to see what might be up. If you're into serial and sequential art they have some great stuff up including some animation clips. Always interesting to see what's going on there. The editorial show should be up sometime soon. I'll head back for that opening as well.
Feb. 11, 12:30 a.m.
Spent the better part of the evening reading. Why is it I have taken so long to find the poetry of Pablo Neruda? Thanks for letting me borrow the book Giovanni.
Feb. 12, 7:20
I was planning on going back to Central Park for the unfurling of the flags/drapes, whatever, but started stretching a canvas. Next thing I knew I'd spent all day painting. After all that's what I came here for. So I felt pretty good about it. Around 4 I went out for a sandwich then walked over to Steve's house to check e-mail. Tomorrow I promised to help Steve write some material for his upcoming exhibition in Florida and to photograph some of the work for the show. He's been great about giving me keys and letting me use his phone and computer during the day while he's out.
