May 30, 2011

Sometimes to make progress, you have to start over again.

May 25, 2011

Paul Gellman qtd. in Chris Krause, Where Art Belongs (Semiotext[e], 2011), 36.

"Being a good collage/assemblage artist requires being a good scavenger. As you walk down the filthy streets outside your hovel you are probably feeling depressed because for one you live in a hovel, or you are affecting an air of the disaffected, or you are experiencing a fall out from some drug you've been binging on for the past weekend, week, month ... Use your downward gaze as an opportunity to see the beautiful detritus that our polluted city offers ... Begin to see recurring themes, colors, shapes in the pieces of trash your eye is drawn to. If you are attracted to something, it is because in some way it represents you and the more you learn about yourself the more freedom you have from said hovel."
_______
And she shows you where to look
among the garbage and the flowers
--Leonard Cohen

May 25, 2011

Started reading Chris Kraus', Where Art Belongs (Semiotext[e], 2011) on the train to work today and was thinking that what she did to document the importance of the Tiny Creatures gallery in LA (9-43) really needs to be done for 21 Grand in Oakland.

May 18, 2011

"I will win this battle if I have to kill every last white bitch in high heels around here."

Roseanne Barr spins a very interesting tale of sexism and classism about the making of her show, and how nada has changed since.

At the time of its peak, I didn't recognize the importance of Roseanne. Being working class, I've never thought about it. You see a family similar to you on TV, and why not, that's your life?

But for the life of me tonight, I can't think of any other mainstream prime time American TV show EVER that deals/dealt with the working class (unless you count crime shows, which I don't).

Being in China, there may be new shows that champion the working class, the hardest hit in the financial downturn. If these shows exist, lemme know.
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(Amy King on Facebook clued me in to the Barr interview)

May 15, 2011

In case you didn't see it on the Harriet blog, the Fluxus Reader is now a free pdf.

May 14, 2011

For the first time in my three seasons of fantasy baseball, my team not only has cracked the top five, but has also somehow managed to take the top position. It's dubious how long Chaoyang Tigers can hold on to this, but it's nice to have seen these heady heights.

May 11, 2011

Where Chinese women float in space: The mural at Jianguomen subway station in Beijing.

May 12, 2011

Picked up my SPD package from the post office annex this morning. I am reading-material wealthy for the near future.

Alan Bernheimer, The Spoonlight Institute (Adventures in Poetry, 2009)
Julian T. Brolaski, Gowanus Atropolis (Ugly Duckling, 2011)
MacGregor Card, Duties of an English Foreign Secretary (Fence, 2009)
John Clarke, From Feathers to Iron (Tombouctou/Convivio, 1987)
Norma Cole, To Be at Music: Essays & Talks (Omnidawn, 2010)
Sandra Doller, Chora (Ahsahta, 2010)
Noah Eli Gordon, The Source (Futurepoem, 2011)
Fanny Howe, Tis of Thee (CD)
David Lespiau, Four Cut-Ups: or the Case of the Restored Volume (Burning Deck, 2006)
Rachel Levitsky, Neighbor (Ugly Duckling, 2009)
Charles Olson, The Principle of Measure in Composition by Field: Projective Verse II (Chax, 2010)
Sina Queyras, Unleashed (BookThug, 2009)
Joan Retallack, Procedural Elegies: Western Civ Cont'd (Roof, 2010)
Peter Richards, Helsinki (Action, 2011)
William Corbett, Albert York (Pressed Wafer, 2010)

May 9, 2011

I'm waiting for a girl.

I'm waiting for a night train that'll roll in around 7 am.

I'm waiting for a turn in the tide.

I'm waiting for myself to get everything together.

I'm waiting for any form of contact from Mr. King.

I'm waiting for Mr. Lusk to finish the project and turn the deal.

I'm waiting for someone to be nice to me on the streets of Beijing for no good reason.

I'm waiting for the Detroit Tigers to win the World Series.

May 7, 2011

The $25 computer

May 5, 2011

Horse carts in West Beijing

May 3, 2011

Victor Segalen, Essay on Exoticism: An Aesthetics of Diversity, trans. Tael Rachel Schlick (Duke, 2002).

"Clear the field first of all. Throw overboard everything misused or rancid contained in the word exoticism. Strip it of all its cheap finery: palm tree and camel; tropical helmet; black skins and yellow sun; and, at the same time, get rid of all those who used it with an inane loquaciousness [. . . .]

Then, strip the word exoticism of exclusively tropical, exclusively geographical meaning. Exoticism does not only exist in space, but is equally dependent on time.

From there, move rapidly to the task of defining and laying out the sensation of Exoticism, which is nothing other than the notion of difference, the perception of Diversity, the knowledge that something is other than one's self; and Exoticism's power is nothing other than the ability to conceive otherwise" (18-9).

May 2, 2011

Su Xiaobai, Great Square

Spent yesterday at Art Beijing. Some notables were Su Xiaobai, who was represented by 3 galleries, the most extensive exhibit being at Tina Keng. I also liked Wang Hauiqing's "Curve and Straight" at Shanghai Hosan Auction.

Wang Huaiqing, Curve and Straight (1998)

I kept thinking that the art fair as format amounts to little more than an anthology for those not actively engaged in the commerce.