Mel Chin's Safehouse

Natalie Sciortino on ArtForum wrote:

New Orleans is one of the most lead-polluted cities in the US. Nearly eighty-six thousand regional properties don't meet EPA lead standards. Addressing this environmental hazard is Mel Chin's Safehouse, 2008, a residence painted completely white, on a once-abandoned lot in the neighborhood of St. Roch. An enormous, circular portion of this tabula rasa-cum-house facade has been cut out and mounted on a massive hinge, to form a mammoth bank-vault-like door that opens onto a mostly barren front yard sprinkled with jagged green shrubbery. In an elaborate performance piece enacted during the opening weekend of the Prospect.1 biennial, five participants dressed as security guards pulled up to the front of the house and ordered the audience to stand back as they ceremoniously opened the vault to reveal Chin and his team sitting amid thousands of fake hundred-dollar bills created by locals.

As part of Operation Paydirt, 2008, viewers are invited to contribute to the growing stash of "fundreds" in the Safehouse, until it attains a symbolic three hundred million dollars--the estimated cost of treating New Orleans's soil for lead contamination. For the next stage of the project, an armored truck will collect these bills on a cross-country tour, arriving at the steps of Congress with a request for an even exchange with valid US currency. This type of work is a natural progression from Chin's environmentally remedial projects such as S.P.A.W.N., 2001-2003, in Detroit, and Revival Field, 1990-1993, in Minnesota. By gathering work from individuals nationwide, Chin metaphorically reverses the post-Katrina diaspora, while fighting to provide suitable land--eventually encouraging residents to return home. Safehouse becomes a sculptural signifier for far-reaching and monumental political engagement that has the potential to truly transform a polluted land, while immediately calling attention to what is most valuable in our society. Among some of the most dynamic work found within the biennial, Chin's venture creates an effective synergy between aesthetics and activism.

[via Art21 Blog and NEWSgrist]

Subway kinetics

The details about this sculpture aren't available... It appears to be by Mudlevel and to take place in a German-speaking country. I love how it uses the transportation systems for power and its organ-grinder look.

[via Make]

Susan Robb's "Warmth Giant Black Toobs"

Susan Robb is a Seattle-based artist whose work includes these 50' long, air-filled, sun-powered sculptures made out of garbage-can liners:

Warmth Giant Black Toobs, 2007
Susan Robb

At first the tubes seem to be moving in slow motion, but when humans enter the frame it becomes clear that the video's speed isn't manipulated.

Robb has also done some work where she creates a face out of landscape using image mirroring:

I Am A Land Animal, 2008
Susan Robb
Epson archival inkjet print, paper, glass, powder coated steel shelf
22 x 28 x 6 inches

It reminded me a bit of Anthroptic, a project I did with author Benjamin Rosenbaum in which we used facial recognition software to find faces where none exist (and tied them together using short stories):

"Citizens" from Anthroptic, 2006
Ethan Ham & Benjamin Rosenbaum
Photograph & audio

The story which goes with Citizens is one of my favorites from the series (I also particularly like The Gardeners of Rhododendrons). Click here to hear the audio read by the wonderful Vanessa Hart (or here to read the text).

Telemegaphone

Telemegaphone is a 23-foot loudspeaker of a Norwegian mountain. The loadspeaker receives phone calls and projects them out over the lovely and remote village of Dale.

The project (which just ended due to deer hunting season) powered the speakers using the wind--on calm days no calls received!

From the FAQ:

Some people complained that the volume was too loud for sleeping with open windows during calm, warm summer nights. After adjusting the volume slightly, others complained that the volume was now too weak.

One woman said: "This is great. I will sit on my porch with a cup of tea and listen to the world."

Another woman said: "We like things a little bit crazy here in Dale."

Expect many more opinions from Dale-ites to be published here in September.

Everything That Happens & Bicycle Racks

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is not a new Miranda July project (it does have that ring, though, doesn't it?)... it's the new album by David Byrne and Brian Eno.



David Byrne wrote about the project on his blog:

In a nutshell, Brian wrote most of the music, and I composed most of the vocal melodies and lyrics, and then sang them. Other musicians play on the album too. It's not Bush of Ghosts II: this is a record of sung songs, and the result really surprises me. Despite a sinister inflection to both the lyrics and the music, many songs feel fairly uplifting and the overall tone is hopeful. From where does this quality derive?

Eno and I hadn't worked together for many years, but since the Nonesuch reissue of Bush Of Ghosts in 2006, we'd kept in contact fairly regularly. In spite of a slow start, we began to collaborate, still with no plans to make a whole record (or whatever a collection of songs might be called now). After a while though, it became obvious that we were indeed making a record. As it neared completion, we decided to try releasing it ourselves -- so far there is no record label involved -- though various independent distributors will handle the physical CDs. Those who follow the music industry will know this idea is not entirely new; but every experiment in this area turns out a little different, as no model is right for everyone.

The artist and designer Stefan Sagmeister is busy creating the packaging and graphics. We've worked together before and it always results in something new and surprising; I have no doubt it will happen again here too. Do I sound like a salesman? Am I too enthusiastic?

Other recent David Byrne projects include Playing the Building and these bicycle racks:

See more of his bicycle racks here. The racks were inspired by David Byrnes's love of bicycling. Unfortunately they're only up (in Manhattan and Brooklyn) for a year, then they will be sold by Pace/MacGill Gallery. Byrne wrote about a bicycling mishap on his blog last May:

"You drank too much and fell off your bike" could be the title of a drawing by David Shrigley. But in this case, it actually happened to me after meeting Shrigley for dinner and drinks. While riding home, C and I were briefly separated. Upon reuniting, my tire slipped on the cobblestones of West 14th St., and I remember lying in the street, looking at oncoming headlights and rolling towards the curb so they wouldn't run me over. Two cops approached and looked down at me. "Have you been drinking?" they asked. Probably a typical question in that neighborhood at that time of night. "Yes, I've had a few drinks," I replied. "But I'm hurt." I managed to get up by myself and retrieve my bike (no help from the NYPD, though one of them asked if I was David Byrne) and it wasn't until later, when I was in bed, that the pain made itself truly known. I wondered how I would ever even get out of bed. The next day I went to the hospital and x-rays revealed two broken ribs -- numbers 3 and 5, way up high. They're healing now, little by little, and I was told that in 3 weeks I should be OK.

Fake living statue

Living statues (where street performers pretend to be statues for tips) are hugely popular in Barcelona. A few weeks ago artist/prankster Mark Jenkins set up a real, non-kinetic sculpture that appears to be a "living sculpture."




[via BoingBoing]

Hydraulophones

A hydraulophones are musical instruments that uses pressurized hydraulic fluid, such as water, to make sound. They were invented by Steve Mann ( who is perhaps best known for his work in wearable computing). I particularly like the instrument's public art incarnation:


Pachelbel's Canon being played on the hydraulophone:


Overview of the instrument including early prototypes:


A variety of hydraulophone-related videos, photos, & links can be found at Steve Mann's wearcam website.

What My Dad Gave Me

This summer looks to be shaping up as a good one for temporary installations in NYC. David Byrne's Playing the Building (see earlier post) opened at the beginning of the month, Olafur Eliasson's Waterfalls opens in a couple of weeks, and Chris Burden's What My Dad Gave Me opened yesterday in Rockefeller Center (a place that Burden's dad once worked as an engineer).

Chris Burden is best known for his 1970's body-art performances which included being shot in the arm (he only intended the bullet to graze) and being crucified to a Volkswagen Beetle. But he's long since left that oeuvre behind for installations usually involving toys & vehicles.

What My Dad Gave Me is a 65 foot, stainless-steel Erector set skyscraper. Sixty-five feet is equivalent to a 6.5 story building--a pretty decent size in most towns, but just a scale a model of a building in mid-town New York.

Controversial fence in Baltimore

A busy week, so let me just point you to this article from the Baltimore Sun. It's about a Maryland Institute College of Art student who (with city permission) blocked access to a park as a temporary art installation.

There has also a number of letters to the editor regarding the matter.