drawing conclusions: July 2008

27 July 2008

galway and london

london july 23 - 26 saw a head wrecking show at the white cube. Ernesto Caivano. tiny reproductions do not do them justice. enjoyed cy twombly at tate modern. tanya saw tom friedman at gagosian

http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/ernesto_caivano/vi/

was in galway for a day july 21, for the art fest. i was impressed the city's commitment to art.

20 July 2008

what i'm really missing in new york

i'm sure you're still eating 'the usual'

19 July 2008

what i'm missing in new york

http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/399/after_nature

18 July 2008

the first thing I read this morning- bad news EU passport holders

Chertoff: European terrorists trying to enter US
"The terrorists are deliberately focusing on people who have legitimate Western European passports, who don't appear to have records as terrorists," Chertoff told lawmakers. "I have a good degree of confidence we can catch people coming in. But I have to tell you ... there's no guarantee. And they are working very hard to slip by us."
Chertoff and other intelligence officials have delivered similar warnings before, and he offered no new information about specific threats or an imminent attack.

15 July 2008

Dignity

'Asked about reports that she was beaten and may have suffered yet worse physical abuse, she pauses for a long moment. She speaks in a low but steady voice: “There are things I’ve lived through which are very hard for me to get out. And when I was freed I told myself that I would never talk about them because if I did it would be even more painful than living them. That way they will stay in my head, no one will know so I can forget them. But once they’re out I will be dirtied even more.”
Doesn’t she plan to denounce the crimes committed by her guards? “If I do bear witness one day it will have to be to teach people something. I want people to understand that we all, deep down inside us, can be monsters.”
Even herself? “Yes, of course. You can find someone nice and kind and fun to talk to and then, because of an order or an ideology, they become an executioner. There are lots of ways of crushing others in everyday life. When someone speaks to you and you don’t answer them, that’s aggressive, you are humiliating them. When someone asks for help and you lie to get out of it, you’re denying their right to ask you for help.” '
'Ingrid Betancourt's homecoming,' The Sunday Times, 13 July, 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4321326.ece

13 July 2008

corned beef hash

I often regale my Irish friends with tales of the canned meat, American cheese or better still cheese from cans (cheez-whiz, beware of food that uses alternate spellings). No matter how poor they were, I don't think Irish people ever ate canned meat, such as Spam, as part of their daily diet like we did in Hawaii. Correct me if I'm wrong. This is one of the issues of hybridity I want to explore. Mytholgizing food. How we ate things that were incredibily bad for us (and not food as such) because it was the American thing to do. Cultural associations, and marketing. Try as I might to revile what I ate in Hawaii (mostly because my arteries are still trying to unclog), I still remember corned beef hash fondly, in all its salty, potatoey goodness.

12 July 2008

Public Art

Harry always said that painting is a dialog between viewer and artist. But is it ? I suppose a good painting can keep giving...No, Yoko Ono's 'Cut Piece' is more of a dialog. Although her response is silence as people cut off pieces of her clothes. Silence not violence. Yesterday I submitted a proposal for a project which includes people drawing on my work. People are used being able to comment on everything on the internet so why not art -- I'm sure its done, if anyone knows of a project like this I'd be happy to hear it.